We were in Bruce's car the next day as Alfred drove us to a little restaurant for a bit of lunch to calm down from the events of last night.
"Batman may have made the front page, but Bruce Wayne got pushed to page eight," Alfred said, handing back a newspaper. Bruce and I laughed together as we read the headline, "Drunken Billionaire Burns Down Home."
"Oh, if they only knew!" I remarked.
The phone in the car rang, and Bruce answered it, allowing me to hear the whole conversation.
"Bruce Wayne."
"What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?" Earle's voice came across.
"Well, the fact that I'm the owner."
"What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago."
"And I bought most of the shares. Through various charitable foundations and trusts and so forth. Look, it's all a bit technical, but the important thing is that my company's future is secure. Right, Mr. Fox?"
"Right you are, Mr. Wayne," Fox's voice said. "Didn't you get the memo?"
I laughed as Bruce hung up. Earle just got his own words thrown right back at him twice in a row.
After lunch, I went with Bruce as he went to go buy a temporary living space until the Manor got rebuilt. He decided on a nice penthouse and I then helped him buy some stuff to put in it.
I later went to Wayne Enterprises and was directed to Fox's new office.
"Mr. Fox?" I said as I slowly opened the door.
"Kris? Come on in!"
I stepped through the opening and closed the door behind me. "I see you moved up in the world."
"Like it? How are you? I feel like it's been ages since you've come in to work."
"Yeah, I'm so sorry about that, but first Bruce was gassed and then I was gassed and then almost all of Gotham was gassed, so…it's been pretty busy as of late. Not to mention that I found out that a certain mutual friend of ours apparently goes out every night dressed in black, putting a stop to criminals."
"Oh, so he told you, did he?"
"He didn't really have much of a choice. It was either I find out his secret or die in the fire that burned down his home. Luckily, he wasn't worried about his secret THAT much."
Lucius laughed lightly. "Well, I may have been promoted, which as you can guess means I'll have a lot more on my hands. I'm still interested in having you as a personal assistant."
I sighed heavily. "Actually, I came to tell you that I'm taking a break from work for a little while. I have some other things to take care of elsewhere."
I couldn't help but notice that he looked a bit dejected which made me feel kind of guilty.
"Well, my door is always open if you ever decide you'd like to come back."
I smiled at his kindness towards me.
That evening, the sky was quite overcast, as if it was still coming to terms with the events that had transpired the night before. Bruce was at the Manor to see if there was absolutely anything salvageable and to close up the entrance to the Batcave, in case any wandering eyes decided to travel down.
"Bruce," I said as I came up to him. "Find anything?"
"Just ashes. Most of it can be replaced. Not everything, but mostly everything."
"I'm so sorry about all of this. I hope I haven't caused any additional trouble."
"Of course not. Your presence at the Manor was uplifting to say the least. Even if I wasn't there as much as I should've been."
"I think under the circumstances, I can forgive you."
He took my hand in his again, and butterflies flew all around my stomach. "Kris, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."
"No, don't apologize. You'd only known me for a matter of days. I wouldn't have trusted me either."
"But you've been an incredible help to me these last few days. From taking care of me when I was sick to helping me with Rachel to accepting who I am."
I felt a blush crawl up to my face. "I was just being a good guest."
"You were certainly doing more than that. I can't thank you enough. That's why I should've told you sooner."
"Really…I don't blame you."
There was a slight pause before Bruce continued. "When I was fighting off the gas, I was having nightmares. Horrible nightmares about when I was attacked by bats, when my parents died, and what happened to me while I was gone for all those years. But I also dreamt about something else. I dreamt about you."
My breath caught in my constricted throat. "What?"
"I had an awful nightmare about you getting tortured and killed because of me. So when you got gassed, I was terrified that that nightmare was going to come true."
"But it didn't. Because you were there to protect me."
When we looked at each other, all I wanted to do in that moment was kiss him. I wanted to feel his lips on mine, a sensation I had never experienced before with anyone. But I couldn't. I just had this feeling that I was going to be leaving this world within minutes. And I couldn't kiss Bruce and then just up and disappear. It would be cruel to both of us.
"I'd love to talk more, but I think you have a guest."
He turned around and saw Rachel walking up to him. I left to give them some privacy, but I did end up sneaking glances over at them.
I'll admit that a wave of jealousy crashed over me when I saw Rachel kiss Bruce. I wanted to be the one kissing him. But something caught my eye. I had seen the movie enough times to know that after the kiss, Bruce gave a little smile. But when I looked at him now, no smile came. Only a look of confusion. Okay, that kind of weirded me out a bit. Why was he looking confused? He should be happy that he was finally kissing Rachel, even if she did kind of reject him after that.
Speaking of which, even though I did view Rachel in a new light after everything that had happened, I would never get over her whole somewhere-you're-still-that-same-kid-you-used-to-be speech. No one grew up to be the same as they were as kids. The thing is life happens and we grow up to be different people. I certainly wasn't the same person I was when I was eight, and I knew Bruce wasn't, and even Rachel wasn't. But what else could I do?
They finished up their conversation and walked hand in hand across the remains of the Manor. Bruce had these two pieces of hair falling across his forehead which made him look really, really gorgeous…
I was leaving soon. I don't know how I knew it, but I just had this gut instinct that told me I only had mere minutes left.
"What will you do?" Rachel asked him.
"Rebuild it. Just the way it was, brick for brick."
Rachel gave him a small nod then came to me. "You're an incredible woman, you know."
"No, you are. I'm just…ordinary."
"It's ordinary people who can make the biggest difference."
I smiled at her and we shared a light hug.
"Just the way it was, sir?" Alfred asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"I thought this might be a good opportunity for improving the foundations."
"In the southeast corner."
"Precisely, sir."
This was it. After living in the best place in the world (and maybe catching Bruce's eye but I still wasn't too sure about that one), it was time for me to return. I didn't want to leave though. Not when we were just getting deeper into this really strange relationship we had going on.
But it was not my choice.
The next thing I remember, I was waking up and I felt pretty similar to when I had been on the fear gas. Okay, maybe not THAT bad. But I certainly didn't feel good.
"You're awake!" I heard someone exclaim. I looked beside me and saw one of my co-workers, Lucy…from home.
"What happened?" I asked groggily.
"You were in an awful car accident and suffered some massive damage. You've been in a coma for two weeks!"
I looked around me and saw that I was connected to all kinds of tubes and wires. "Two weeks?"
"Yes! We've all been so worried about you!"
I sighed and leaned back onto my pillow. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to be back in Gotham with Bruce and Rachel and Alfred and Lucius.
Lucy went to go get the nurses to tell them I was awake. They gave me some more medicine and some Jell-O to ease me into eating again.
As I fell back to sleep that night, a gut feeling hit me again. I knew I was going back at some point. After all, there were two more movies that chronicled Bruce's Batman adventure. It was all just going to be a matter of when.
And that's the end of this! Don't worry, the sequel will be posted in three days! :D
