It was quite awhile before Bruce finally willingly brought me home. The doctor had instructed that I was not to be moving around a lot, so I was given a wheelchair that I was expected to use at all times until my bones had completely healed. I resented this as much as I resented Bruce's Batman identity. He showed me the bat cave when we got home, showed me what he was up to, and told me about his plans to help rid Gotham City of it's criminals. And the more he told me, the angrier I became at the very thought of it.
"And have you considered," I said during one point in the conversation. "That if something should go wrong that you will die, and you'll leave me here on my own again?"
But any time I brought it up, a hard expression passed over his face and he would walk off with his hands behind his head. I felt no remorse for what I had said, and if he was going to continue this Batman idea, then he was going to feel the pain of what he had done to me. He already explained to me what had gone down with Rachel, and how she had also been posioned by Crane.
"This is why I have to stop it." Bruce said firmly after another argument. "If I don't, criminals like this are going to continue poisoining this city until every civilian is dead."
"But is has to be you Bruce, doesn't it?" I demanded angrily. "It just has to be you!"
"God damn it Jamie!" He pounded his fist on the table. "You aren't making this any easier!"
I pushed my wheelchair back against the wall and got to my feet, grabbing the counter for support. I slowly began to make my way out of the kitchen, keeping my back turned to Bruce.
"Come off it!" Bruce yelled from across the room. "Stop being stupid and get back in the wheelchair!"
"Do you have ANY idea as to what you put me through Bruce? Any?" I demanded, gripping the sides of the counter as though to tear it off.
"How can I not? You remind me every god damn day!"
"Then why the hell are you still intent on doing this?!"
Bruce picked up the plate he was using and threw it across the room. It whirled past me and smashed against the opposite wall, the pieces falling all over the floor that Alfred had recently cleaned. It was in that moment that Alfred came up from the bat cave and looked from me, to Bruce, to the smashed plate on the floor.
"Crane knows you're not dead." Bruce said, now quiet. "If I don't stop him soon, he will kill you, for good this time."
Hot tears flooded my face, but I brushed them away with the side of my hand. I opened my mouth to reply, then closed it again and looked away. I guided myself out of the kitchen and into the garage. My bones were feeling a lot better, so I tried carefully walking toward the garage door without support. It hurt some, but the pain was not unbearable. I slammed the door shut and got into the first car I could. After ramming the keys into the ignition, I slammed on the accelerator and was out onto the street in a matter of seconds. I could still feel the tears rolling down my cheeks as I drove in random directions, making any twists and turns that first appeared. It wasn't long before I pulled up beside Gotham City Cemetary and parked directly outside. I thought about what Bruce had said, about Crane knowing I wasn't dead.
Yet right now I didn't care. I stopped the car, leaning my head back agains the headrest. I exhaled heavily and tried not to let the tears overwhelm me. I got out of the car and started toward the cemetary gates, even though they were closed for the night. I pushed against the right one and carefully made my way into the cemetary, walking along the path until I found my parent's graves. It had been awhile since I had visited. The flowers I had last left had long since wilted, and now cluttered around the graves. I cautiously got down to my knees and brushed away the dead petals and sat back, reading over the inscriptions on the tombstones.
"I don't know what to do," I said quietly to the two graves. "I know he's trying to do something good, but how can I support something that would lead to his death? God...I promised myself I would look after him. Then he just...he snapped."
I looked at the graves as though my parents were going to just pop up and provide me with the answers.
"I must be crazy..." I murmured to myself. "You're dead. No matter how much praying or begging can bring the two of you back. You'd know what to do."
I heard footsteps from behind me and froze. My hands ran to the side of my pants where there was a can of pepper spray that Bruce demanded I carry with me at all times. I turned to look to see my hospital doctor walking up the walkway, a boquet of flowers clenched in his right hand. He walked right past me and continued along the path until he stopped in front of a grave. I stepped away from my parents graves and followed him, stopping beside him.
"Doctor Colvin?"
He looked up to acknowledge my presence, but said nothing. He crouched down and set the flowers on top of two graves, one with the name "Elizabeth Colvin" and the other "Mark Colvin".
"My wife and son." He said, his voice hard. "Car accident."
"I'm sorry." I replied.
He straightened up and turned to look at me, his eyes looking down at the canister clenched in my fingers still.
"Pepper spray?"
"Oh." I remembered, sticking it back in my pocket. "Yeah. My brother makes me carry it with me now whenever I got out. He thinks the man that did this will come back for me."
"I suppose that makes sense. Where is your brother anyway?"
"He's...at home. He pissed me off, so I left." I answered nonchalantly.
"I see."
There was an awkward silence between us, in which I looked down at the graves and saw on Mark's tombstone the year of his birth was only a year before his death.
"Your son was only a year old, huh?"
"He just turned a year that day. My wife went out to get a birthday cake and took him with. A car blew through a red light and hit them head on."
"That's horrible."
"Well, I can imagine how hard it probably was for you and your brother."
"Well, yeah. It was pretty horrible, but Bruce took it the worst out of both of us. He's never really been the same."
I couldn't take my eyes off of the child's grave. I thought of my own son, and how horrible it must be for him not to even know who his own mother and father were. Not like I would ever want him to know who his father was.
"Why don't you come with me?" I said. "I want to show you something."
We walked out of the graveyard together, and he got into my car and I drove us to the local pizza place and ordered seven cheese pizzas.
"Are you and your brother going to eat all of those?" Colvin asked, astounded.
"Of course not."
Once we were back in the car, I took off for the orphanage. Upon my arrival, Suzane opened the front door and a parade of children came running down the stairs to meet me and Colvin.
"MISS JAMIE MISS JAMIE!" They screamed and jumped as I entered with all the boxes of pizza.
Suzane took the boxes from me and I picked up to children into either of my arms. In my left was Tyler, and in my right was a little girl named Mary.
"Miss Jamie who's this?" Mary asked, pointing at the doctor.
"IS HE YOUR BOYFRIEND?!" Daniel demanded from on the floor.
I laughed as the doctor got down on his hands and knees and got level with Daniel, who now had his arms folded across his chest.
"I'm not her boyfriend." He said in all seriousness.
"Good." Daniel replied. "Because Miss Jamie is going to be MY wife! Right Miss Jamie?"
I laughed more as we hearded the children into the kitchen and Suzane and some of the other helpers dished out pizza to each of the children. I set Mary down on the floor and still held Tyler tightly in my arms.
"Who is this little guy?" Colvin asked as Tyler buried his head in my shoulder.
"This is Tyler." I replied. "Tyler can you say hi to the doctor?"
Tyler turned his head slightly sideways before reburying it in my shoulder. I finally set him down on the floor and he ran off into the kitchen with the other children.
"You own this place?" Colvin asked me.
"I own it, I fund it. I gave all of these children a temporary home."
"That's...incredibly wonderful Miss Wayne."
"Jamie, please." I told him for the second or third time.
"Well then you call me David."
"Alright then David. After seeing how many homeless children there were in Gotham, I decided to fund a place where I knew they would all be safe and could live comfortably until they each found their new homes. I have children here from the age of newborns to twelve year olds."
"What brought on this?" He asked. "It just seems kind of sudden."
"I was attacked a few years back." I began, walking through some of the hallways and stopped as I watched the kids fighting over pizza in the kitchen. "By this man...I couldn't see his face, but he had this terribly frightning laugh. Anyway, I got pregnant and gave birth to a baby I wasn't mentally prepared to take care of. Bruce had run away, and I had about lost my mind. I didn't think I was going to be able to take care of a kid. So, I funded this orphanage."
"So you're telling me that one of these kids here is yours?" David wondered in a quiet voice.
I nodded and leaned against the wall, resuming to watch the chaos.
"Well...which one?"
I half-smiled.
"Why don't you guess?"
David entered the mess of the kitchen and began to look among the children who were stuffing their faces with pizza and then lunging across the tables to try and get the last slice of the pizza in each box. He stared down at each of the children he passed, his eyes examining each and every one of them. He finally crouched down between two children, Mary and Tyler, both of whom were sitting next to each other. Tyler had confessed to me during one of my visits that he thought Mary was a babe, and when I told him he should not call her that and just tell her he thought she was pretty, he did exactly that. But he didn't want the other boys to know that he thought Mary was pretty, so he picked on her during the day. But now from my position in the hallway, I could see that Tyler was trying to hold her hand under the table. David looked from one to the other, then stood up. He put his hand above Tyler's head and I smiled. David walked back into the hallway and leaned against the wall.
"How'd you know?" I questioned, looking back at Tyler.
"He looks just like you. He's got your eyes."
I smiled in return and looked back at Tyler, realizing that he did look a lot like me, and how much I really loved him. I had always wanted to take him back, but now with Crane after me, I wouldn't dare put my son at any risk.
"It's safer for him not to know." I said quietly. "I don't want this crazed person coming after him."
"I understand. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
I nodded as Suzane came back out of the kitchen. I handed her the cash I had recollected for the emergency jar, and promised that I would be back in the morning with groceries. After that I drove David back to the graveyard where his car was still parked. He turned to look at me before he got out.
"Well...thank you for showing me that. I'll make sure to stop by and visit those kids more often. It's been a long time since I've held one."
I nodded once more and he climbed out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him. I sat there for a moment, mulling over an idea in my mind. Before I could act upon it, David was back, leaning in my window.
"Would you want to go to dinner tomorrow night?"
"No." I replied without thinking. "Err...tomorrow's my brother's birthday party. But you're welcome to come if you'd like."
"That sounds great. I'll...I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Yeah. Wear something nice."
I drove off the minute his face disappeared from the window, my chest heavy. What had I done? Why had I agreed to something so stupid? I shouldn't be trying to get myself into a relationship. What the hell was wrong with me?
A/N: That's it for now. We'll see how the rest of this goes ;) If all goes well, there will be a Dark Knight sequel.
-Jackie-