AN : I think you guys should know that Rachel and Babs stay at Bruce's penthouse for the night...Barbara basically just stays unconscious for awhile before waking up at a very convenient time.

PS. Terra Earth; that was intentionally my idea, that the Joker kidnaps Barbara in plain sight. The officer who restrains her was supposed to be him, but then I thought that was too predictable, and if the Joker saw Gordon get shot which I assumed he did then Babs would be useless to him, so kidnapping her would be pointless. So I decided otherwise.

Chapter Ten

The Press Conference

When Barbara woke up the first thing she noticed was that she was definitely not back home. She was lying in a big soft bed, much softer and bigger than her own bed. The room was enormous and lavish, with big windows and state of the art technology. As she stood up from the bed she inspected the room further and tried to remember the events prior to her blacking out.

Her father's death, she gulped as her eyes began to water quickly…

What else had happened?

Rachel…She had been with Rachel and they had been at Mayor Crimes, then Rachel received a call from Harvey. And they left MCU and headed for Bruce Wayne's penthouse…

Bruce Wayne's penthouse, of course that's where I'm at. This must be his room., she thought as she looked around the room.

She decided to let herself out of the bedroom. She walked into what she assumed was the dining room. An old man was standing near the big rectangular table in the middle of the room. The man looked familiar to Babs; like she had seen him before…Then she remembered she had seen the man at the fundraiser that Bruce held for Harvey in this same penthouse.

He was Bruce's trusty butler, Alfred…

She approached Alfred silently. "Excuse me, Alfred, is it?", she asked the English man gently.

Alfred who had yet to notice the young public defender standing there, looked up almost shocked to see her up and about.

"Miss Gordon…Are you alright?", he hesitated as he directed himself towards the young woman.

She nodded and smiled sweetly, grateful for his genuine concern even though he barely knew her.

"Um… I was wondering if Rachel is still here."

"Oh yes; she's in the living room."

Barbara hummed pleased that her friend hadn't left her alone.

"Where would that be?", she asked puzzled, how was she suppose to know where the living room was. Not only was the place unknown to her, but the penthouse was huge. There was no way she could find it on her own.

Alfred chuckled quietly shaking his head before conducting her to the living room, where her friend Rachel was standing.

Rachel stood stiff, her arms crossed as she stared intently at the plasma screen in front of her.

"Rachel?" Babs spoke as she approached the assistant DA.

Rachel looked at her, her eyes widening partially. "Babs, you're awake."

"So it would seem.", she said slowly.

"What are you watching?", she asked curiously while looking at the TV screen in front of them.

Harvey Dent, friend, and Gotham City District Attorney was standing in front of a podium as he was directing himself to a crowd of reporters.

"Harvey's holding a press conference down at County." Rachel simply told her before looking back at the screen, her face once again becoming stern and serious.

Barbara looked back at the screen as well and began paying attention to what Dent was saying.

"…the Batman will one day have to answer us for the laws he has broken, but to us…Not to this madman." Harvey spoke, staying true to his faith in the Batman.

"No more dead cops!" Some dumb cop spoke up, and everyone else followed suit, applauding like monkeys in a zoo.

Barbara shook her head, were these people so stupid to think that once Batman turned himself in, the Joker would stop killing people. If anything, things would get worse…

Dent looked defeated, no one was listening to reason, and instead they were giving in to the whims of a terrorist.

"So be it…Take the Batman into custody.", he stated before stepping away from the podium.

The reporters and cops started murmuring to themselves quietly…

Take the Batman into custody, which could only mean one thing, the Batman was there at the press conference. Barbara's eyes widened as she realized that the identity of Batman was about to be revealed before her very eyes.

"I am the Batman." Dent confessed much to everyone's surprise.

Everyone looked shocked…Harvey Dent, DA…was the vigilante known as the Batman?

Harvey extended his wrists to be cuffed before being taken into custody by a police officer who escorted him out of the podium.

Barbara's eyes widened even further at the fake revelation…

Harvey isn't Batman. I was there with him when he met him…Why is he lying?, she thought confused.

The only reason why Harvey was lying was because he wanted to protect the Batman; because Dent was one of the few people who believe that Batman was doing something good for Gotham.

Barbara smiled faintly as she realized what her friend was doing, what he was sacrificing to keep the Caped Crusader safe.

Barbara glanced at Rachel to see how she was taking the news.

Rachel looked shocked, her shock quickly turned to anger as she walked out of the living room without even saying goodbye, grabbing her purse and her coat before going into the dining room. Babs just stood there for a few minutes before following the direction her friend had taken.

Alfred was standing there alone, holding an envelope. He was frowning slightly. He looked at it one last time before putting it in his inner jacket pocket.

Barbara approached him, this time she didn't try to be stealth and quiet, and he acknowledged her presence quickly, a gentle smile replacing the frown.

"Good evening, Miss Gordon. Would you like me to get you something?"

Barbara returned the smile before shaking her head.

"No it's alright, Alfred. I'm good. I take it Rachel left."

Alfred frowned once again and stared at her sadly. "Yes, I'm afraid so…She's gone to see Mr. Dent. She was very unhappy with his revelation."

I could tell, she thought as she remembered had stormed out of the room in anger.

"Can I ask you something, Alfred?"

Alfred gave her a bewildered look before nodding, "Of course."

"Do you really think Harvey Dent is Batman?"

Alfred gave her a meaningful look, before grinning.

"No, Miss. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who jumps off roof tops."

Barbara looked up at the butler with a befuddled expression before speaking once again.

"Alright, I'm going to head out."

Alfred didn't look too happy about her decision to leave.

"But Miss, you're in danger. The Joker…"

Barbara interrupted the butler as she began speaking, "Look Alfred, I appreciate you're concern, but I don't really think the Joker cares too much about me right now."

Of course not, not when he had bigger fish to fry like Harvey.

"Well alright then. Be careful."

He gave her one last smile before leaving the room. Barbara let herself out of the penthouse. As much as she worried about her life, she knew she was no longer useful to the Joker, and now that Harvey had claimed to be the Batman, Babs was sure the Joker would try to attack the DA.

--

"I can't believe you're doing this." That was the first thing Barbara said to Harvey when she saw him sitting in his cell.

Despite leaving after Rachel, she actually arrived at the County Jail House before her.

Babs stood outside of Harvey's cell looking at him.

Harvey stood up, he looked shocked to see her there, but otherwise glad as he smiled at his friend.

"Barbara...I'm sorry.", he whispered softly giving her a sympathetic look.

Barbara looked away; she knew he was referring to her father's untimely death. She didn't want to talk about that. It was still a sensitive subject for her. She could only imagine what the rest of her family was going through. Babs was sure Stephens or Ramirez had already told her mother about the news.

Barbara felt horrible, she had yet to visit her mom and her young siblings. And she knew they needed her now more than ever.

"You don't have to be sorry. You had nothing to do with it."

Harvey approached her; he stopped when he was directly in front of her. Taking her hand in his through the bars.

"It's going to be okay, Babs."

She looked up at him again, and felt herself blush as his piercing blue eyes met her own green ones. His fingers intertwined with hers, and she felt her heart flutter. She had denied it for a long time, but she did have feelings for Harvey, feelings that were far beyond friendship.

She took her hand away from his; she couldn't let herself have these feelings. He was her best friend's boyfriend, and deep down Babs knew that like Bruce, Harvey could only have feelings for one woman and that was Rachel.

"Thanks, Harv. You're a good friend."

He frowned as she moved away from him.

Just then Rachel stormed in, her stride quick and furious.

"What are you thinking?!", she yelled at Harvey before noticing Barbara standing right outside of Harvey's cell.

"Babs, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see Harvey."

Rachel simply nodded before turning back to Dent. She motioned towards one of the officers, who opened the cell. Rachel stepped inside quickly as she tried to talk sense into Harvey. But he wouldn't listen; he was determined to go through with his plan.

And his plan was to pretend to be the Batman, so the Joker would make his move, and then the real Batman would catch the sociopath.

Babs thought it sounded like a good plan. Rachel though it was stupid and reckless, which was exactly why Dent and Barbara thought it was a good idea. To catch the Joker they would have to do something dangerous and careless. That was the only way they could catch the psychotic clown off guard.

When it came time to escort Harvey out of the premises, Barbara and Rachel followed him.

"You don't know if this plan of yours could work. Even he doesn't know if he can catch the Joker." Rachel said with certainty and Babs gave her friend a strange look.

How did Rachel know so much about Batman? She spoke like she knew who the Batman really was, and Barbara wondered faintly if her best friend knew the identity of the masked vigilante.

They passed a couple of cops, some clapped at the sight of Dent and others just shook their heads in disapproval. Never the less Babs smiled; it was good to know that not everyone in the police department hated Batman.

They stopped by the SWAT car that would be leading Harvey to a safer location. Rachel was still trying to convince her boyfriend to desist from his foolish, if not brilliant plan to catch the Joker.

"Please Harvey, don't do this. Let the police take care of it, you could get hurt…"

Harvey interrupted Rachel as he leaned down and kissed her passionately. Barbara felt strange witnessing such a private moment, she felt like a voyeur. She also felt envy creep up on her; secretly she wished Harvey had kissed her like that.

Harvey broke the kiss as he went into the truck.

"Please Harvey, don't do this." Rachel said breathless.

"Heads, I go through with it.", he said grinning down at both women.

"You can't leave some thing like this up to chance, this is your life we're talking about."

"I'm not.", he told her before throwing her his "lucky" coin.

He sat in the truck and gave them one last smile before the door closed and the truck speeded off towards its destination.

Rachel turned the coin around only to see it was a two headed coin. She smiled slightly before whispering to herself, "You make your own luck."

Barbara smiled to herself as she saw the coin, and then stared off at the direction the truck had taken. She knew Harvey would be alright. She knew that the Batman would let nothing bad happen to him.

--