WARNING: This is the adult fanfic thread, but just in case I need to warn you, this chapter contains some grotesque material (at least to me it was in writing it, but felt it was necessary to understand certain actions.) This is a strong story, I don't think it wil even get to be NC-17, but at least a very strong R.

Here's the promised update!

Gotham streets

The confrontation came quickly, before she knew it she was free and pushed to the side. She looked up and saw the crowd closing in on them. She decided to make a run for it in the opposite direction, if she was lucky she might be able to get away from them all. The street ahead of her was empty, not offering her a lot of places to hide, she looked across the street and saw the entrance of an alley, looking both ways she ran towards it.

"Oh fk, she's getting away!" One of Lex's men shouted before a large fist connected with his face. The large man that had hit him looked up across the street to see her disappear between two buildings.

"She could have some money too, after her." He order and three men from the crowd hurried after her.

Chloe ran in what seemed like a maze, making turns left and right, completely lost. She hoped her attacker would be as well, but taking into consideration that a group of them lived here she didn't have much hope. Well, maybe she did, she could give them whatever money she had left and hope they might leave her alone, that seemed like a better choice than going back to Lex. Because no matter how many times she had excused him in the past, had forgiven him for his outbursts she had decided that enough was enough. He was a madman she realized that now and there was no telling what he would do to her if he ever found her. She had to make sure that would never happen, but for now, she just had to get to a safe place.

She rested for a second against a wall, taking deep breaths. She grimaced as a sharp pain tore through her abdomen and continued to her thigh. She sighed and forced herself to calm down. Gabrielle had calmed down as well and was searching her breast, she was hungry. Chloe had to stop herself from cursing.

"No honey, not now, okay?" She put the baby to her shoulder and looked down at her ripped blouse, revealing her maternity bra, her wet maternity bra. Gabrielle started fussing. "Yeah honey, I need to feed you to, I'm going to look like the Niagara Falls in a while." She took a deep breath and looked around her, there was no place to go.

"What if she doesn't have any money on her, it looked like those other guys had already taken care of her." A dark voice filtered through the alley maze.

"Sht!" She didn't stop herself this time.

"So we have some fun with her and that baby could be worth a lot around these parts." Her bones chilled at his tone, their footsteps and voices coming closer.

She looked frantically around and saw a large dumpster near the end of the alley. She crouched besides it, and then cursed again. She had to get Gabrielle safe first. A small trashcan was cornered against the dumpster. She opened it carefully and found it empty. She thanked whoever could be up there and carefully placed her inside.

"Shh, honey, I'll be back okay? Just please, be quiet." The child stared up at her with wide eyes, then smiled. Chloe smiled back. "Yeah, be a good baby, okay?" Tears stung at her eyes. She brushed them away, and then placed the lid back on crookedly, leaving space for air. She breathed in another silent prayer and ran towards the voices. Once out on the street She looked behind her and saw three men a good number of feet away. If her body would allow her, she might be able to outrun them. She was thinking on how to get their attention when one of them shouted.

"There she is!" And all three of them broke into a run. She ran straightforward; keeping her arms to her chest, hoping they wouldn't realize she didn't have the baby anymore.

"Agh!" She cried out in pain and put her hand hard against her groin hoping it would help subside the pain, it didn't. Her body was not willing to take too much more damage. The pain reached her legs quickly and she fell flat on her face. Hands were suddenly turning her around.

"Pretty little thing, ain't she?"

"Let me at her first."

"Hey where's the baby?"

Their voices floated around, a haze beginning to cover her senses. She groaned as she felt her blouse and bra ripped away from her, she raised her arms to try to cover herself, but it was useless. As she felt rough hands cover her breast and thighs she wished for the darkness that her pain taunted her with to finally overcome her, but that solace didn't come soon enough. They pulled her up against the wall and one continued to play with her breast, making a leering remark when he realized they were leaking milk. She opened her eyes to see him come at her with his mouth open, ready to take her in. She screamed and looked away.

Suddenly she was on the floor again, her attackers had released her. She covered herself with her arms and watched in mid haze as her attackers fought a black clad figure. The haze around her became thicker until darkness engulfed her.

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All his life he had fought to find meaning to living, to find some justification for having survived. For so long he questioned as to why he was still alive, why his parents had died and he hadn't, why they had ceased to exist and he was still breathing. He had found some solace in his alter ego, but it didn't last long. He spent most of his time saving people's lives, rescuing them from evil or from themselves as the case may be. Night after night, day in and day out he lived for others and he lost himself. Then one lonely night when everything had seemed to lose meaning forever he was rescued in more ways than one.

It had been a night like all others, prowling the streets, as Dick liked to call it, for anything suspicious. It had been a calm week, having just imprisoned one lunatic that had been his headache for over a year. It was in those tranquil moments when life seemed to lose meaning. He realized then that he needed to feel the adrenaline of going after a bad guy or the satisfaction of having saved yet another innocent bystander in the whole mess that was life to feel that living was worthwhile. He had had these depressions before, some bouts longer and stronger than others, and it had been years since his last one. The nightmares came back, the memories haunted him every morning when he woke up or took over his thoughts in the middle of a reading or while he was listening to a client. No wonder he couldn't keep one girlfriend long enough to commit. To his eyes his way of life was his cross, his burden, one he felt the need to carry for as long as he lived.

His thoughts were dwelling upon these things when in one dark alley he heard loud noises. He immediately recognized the figures that belonged to one of the many gangs that took over the city once the sun fell in the sky. They were running out of the alley, he only caught a glimpse of the last couple of troublesomes before the group disappeared. Their behaviour seemed suspicious enough, so he deftly placed himself in one of the rooftops to oversee their destination. There, high above the alley, looking also into the street he saw the reason of their run. Several police cars had the street surrounded on both sides. He watched as the now working police department made their capture and was somehow belittled at the fact that he had nothing to do with it. He didn't realize how long he stood there, until all was silent, said silence breaking him out of his reverie.

That's when he heard it, first very faintly and due to the volume he wasn't able to identify what it was. He dropped to the floor in one smooth movement, aided, as always by his handy gadgets, his feet touched the floor and he waited until the silence reigned again.

There it was again, now a bit louder and most definitely recognizable, for someone who had heard such a noise before, so he took several steps closer towards the noise. It was a cry, high and loud, he identified where it came from and went straight towards it. In one of the trashcans, the lid was on, so he quickly took it off.

A red-faced baby lay at the bottom of the empty trashcan. Its small mouth opened widely and its eyes shut tightly, long angry tears ran down the plump cheeks. He quickly looked around as to any sign that would give him the whereabouts of this child, as if waiting for the alley to tell him the story of how this child had ended up in a trashcan. No story came, no answers appeared. He awkwardly picked the child up, not sure of how to deal with such a loud creature. He quickly realized one of his hands had to hold the head, seeing it wobbled alarmingly so. As soon as the abandoned child felt his strong hands it opened its eyes and stared at him straight in the face, the cries subsided and the stare of the child held his eyes strongly, so much he felt as if in a trance, his masked face mismatched almost comically against the round red, tear-stricken face of the child, but any funniness he might have seen in that moment was erased as he felt as if the child was assessing him, determining whether to trust him or not. Not being to stand such a strong look from such a small human being he brought the child against his shoulder and left the alley, leaving it silent and peaceful.

It had been almost two weeks since that had happened. He was now sitting at his office in his manor reliving those moments one more time. He had taken the child to the best hospital in Gotham, where they told him it was a very healthy baby girl and that she had been born no more than a week or two ago. He used his contacts to check on any possible lead for parents, in jail, in hospitals or in the streets. But no news came. The hospital had told him not to worry, that she would be placed in an orphanage and that he would be notified if anything came up.

He had said no, especially after the fact that she only seemed content around him. The connection he had felt that first night grew stronger as the days passed. To his surprise the next time he had seen the baby he had done so without the mask, and she recognized him, she stopped crying from the tortures the nurses where putting her through as soon as his face was visible to her sea blue eyes and his hand reached down to touch hers. This was one special little person, he realized with a small chuckle.

Two strong knocks were heard on the other side of the great wooden doors.

"Come in Alfred." He said as he got up to meet the butler, for he was almost certain this was about their new guest.

Alfred made his way in, his straight, long features not changing, his eyes dancing with some slight amusement his face did not reveal.

"She is crying, again sir. The nurse is trying to feed her but I am afraid that just won't do for her." This whole situation had seemed quite amusing for the old butler. Never had he seen the presence of someone affect his master so.

"Thanks Alfred, I'll be right up. Tell the nurse to hold the fort for a while." He smiled at him and sat back down at his desk.

"You are welcome sir." And with practiced elegance and silence he left the room.

Bruce fetched the bag the hospital had given him that held everything the child had had on her. It was the typical baby attire, but one caught his attention. It was an expensive looking blanket, small in size, just big enough for a newborn. On the tag was something written, but he couldn't tell very well for it had been written over sloppily with a pen, as if trying to scratch what was written. He then carefully inspected the soft pink fabric. There, on the other side, was something written, apparently in permanent marker, close to the edge.

GABRIELLE S.

He stared at the name, rolling it in his mind. Strong, full of purpose, he decided it suited it her, that's when another thought entered his mind. Definitely this was a child born into a high crib, were her parents looking for her? If so, why hadn't anything come up on the news? Was she kidnapped?

Many questions filtered his mind concentrating mainly on the parents of such a beautiful and special child that was now in his care. He didn't know why fate had sent her here, with him, with such a monster, as he sometimes considered himself.

He did not know where this would lead, but for now he knew a child was waiting for him upstairs, wanting his presence, depending on him for security and life. He had never had that before and he wasn't sure how he was going to deal with