Summary: After Lauren's family was killed by the Joker she tries to hide from the police to avoid abusive foster parents or group homes. But when batman finds her she is adopted by Bruce Wayne who feels duty to the young girl. Lauren is a little too observant and quickly figures out just who Bruce Wayne is. Now Lauren is trying to find her voice again in a world gone mad, learn her part in Bruce's charade, and preferably not get killed by a crazed clown. Post Batman Begins, Pre- and during the Dark Knight. First of a series.

Disclaimer: I do not own Batman, or Batman: Gotham Knight.

A.N.: this is completely un-Beta'ed, sorry. If you haven't seen Gotham Knight, part of this chapter is based off of the episode Working Through Pain.

Thoughts

∞time or place change∞

Sign language (not direct translation)

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Written stuff

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Gotham's Saddest Daughter

Chapter 10

Working Through Pain

Batman stole through the dark tunnels keeping close to the wall. "Do you see anything?" Gordon's voice came from the communicator in his mask.

"There are some people up ahead," he growled. "But nothing that points to Crane." Batman stopped and peered into one of the off shooting tunnels.

"You might want to try some of the lesser tunnels," Gordon's voice came again. "I doubt he is going to be in one of the ghost stations. They're too open."

Batman grinned, "I'd actually already thought of that." Silently he slipped into the tunnel and continued forward. "I'm heading into a minor one now. From the smell I'd say it leads to the sewage system."

"Is there a number on a grate anywhere?"

He looked at the metal fixtures on the walls. "I don't see any, but I'll tell you when I do." He continued forward until the tunnel joined a larger one. In front of him dark water rushed by leading away to the left. "Defiantly a sewer, but I'm not seeing any ladders."

Gordon made a rude noise into his end, "how are we suppose to help you when you find Crane if we don't know where you are?"

"Well, I guess you'll just have to trust me." From his ear-piece Batman heard Gordon muttering about improper sewer care and something about GPS tracking devices. Inside Bruce grinned. Over the past few months he and Gordon had developed a working relationship that spanned beyond just allies. They were partners now. Gordon would never really try to plant a GPS tracker on him, not that he could anyway, but after walking through tunnels for an hour with adrenalin pumping through your veins, banter was necessary and welcome. One could only take the sound of footsteps on wet stone and dripping for so long.

"…I said…no..ov..here…"suddenly echoes reverberated off the walls from somewhere catching Batman's attention.

"…honestly. Don't the inspectors ever make sure the signs are where they are supposed to be. There should be a number at each intersection. Can't anyone-"

"Gordon, be quite." The Lieutenant stopped talking immediately.

"No that's not acceptable. Call him back, and tell him either accepts the deal or take my stuff else where." The familiar voice of Jonathan Crane was hollow as Batman came closer to where there was apparently a turn in the tunnel.

Silently, he looked around the corner. In front of him was a yet another sewage tunnel, this one however was long out of use. The walls and floors were old stone, marking it as one of the original underground waterways. There was a think wall in place where the old trench would have connected to the new one, leaving the old like a empty swimming pool.

Crane was standing in his Scarecrow mask on a catwalk stretching over the trench and yelling down to were a group of his men were working at long tables. It appeared that he had set up a mini lab in the abandoned tunnel.

Quickly taking stock of the situation, Batman counted at least six armed men. That wasn't even counting the others that appeared unarmed and Crane himself. The anti-toxin Lucius had developed against Crane's hallucinogen only inoculated one for about a week.

Making his decision, Batman began to move.

∞Scarecrow's POV∞

Jonathan watched his men with a dispassionate sneer hidden by his mask. Truly, they were very near worthless, but that's what you get when you use escaped loonies as henchmen, he supposed.

He heard Scarecrow cackling at the thought. Loonies? Came the voice. Don't you think that is a little bit hypocritical?

No. I'm a doctor.

And that means you can't be crazy?

No. Jonathan smiled. It means I'm allowed to be crazy. It's a privilege that comes with intelligence.

Well, that explains why you are working from a sewer.

Geniuses are never appeared during their time.

The sound of gun shots pulled Jonathan from his musing. "It's the Bat-Man." Scarecrow cried as the dark shadow quickly disarmed two more of his men. Around him, the former Arkham imamates ran in every direction. Scarecrow, however, went for a more sensible approach: he turned and ran down the small tunnel behind him.

∞Batman's POV∞

Batman chased after Crane as he ducked into yet another tunnel. Most of Crane's men had disappeared into the tunnels, but three still followed the former doctor. He had lost count as to how many turns he had taken when he found himself standing at the junction of three tunnels.

The sound of feet smacking on wet stone echoed from both directions, but there was no way of knowing which tunnel Crane had ducked into. Swearing under his breath he glanced over at the ladder that lead to the street before taking the tunnel to the left. "Gordon, send your men to check line 4 65.9."

"Got it."

Reaching up Batman switched of his earpiece as he ran. He could hear the foot steps becoming closer as he gained on his target. The man ahead of him stopped and turned pulling out a gun. It was defiantly not Crane. This man's eyes were huge and bulging and his breaths were coming is gasps. He was dressed fairly normally, but Batman was fairly sure he was an Arkham escapee and it was becoming clear that he had been dosed with Crane's toxin.

Batman surged forward trying to disarm the man, but in a panic he started firing off wildly. The first two bullets were stopped by the Kevlar suit, but the third one fired at point-blank range made it through and into Batman's side. The pain stopped him in his tacks, allowing the man to get away.

Batman started after the man with his teeth gritted. He reached down and prodded the wound experimentally, resulting in a shooting pain through his gut. The bleeding was and if he didn't do something soon it was likely he wasn't going to make it home. Searching his belt, he pulled out a small disk and pressed the metal top layer, releasing the chemicals underneath that stared an exothermic reaction that quickly heated the metal to a bright red. Shifting his armor slightly, Batman grit his teeth and pressed the hot plate to his wound.

The tunnel was filled with a 'hiss' and the sickening smell of burning flesh. Batman bit back the whimper that tried to escape, but could do nothing about the water that ran out of his eyes at the agonizing pain. When the wound was fully cauterized he dropped the used and already cooling plate on the floor and began trading down the tunnel.

He felt lightheadedness setting in, a clear sign he had lost too much blood. Reaching up he switched on his communicator. "Alfred," he gasped out as he came to a ladder and began the long climb up the next level, he had forgotten how many levels he was under the city.

"Yes, Master Wayne?" the voice of his butler came through the ear piece bringing comfort.

"I'm injured, Alfred. I need you to pick me up."

"I'll follow your coordinates and meet you in a few minutes." Alfred's voice faded leaving Batman alone again.

Slowly he made his way up through the underground of the city until he saw a street grate overhead. All around him, trash was pilled in the opening that was under the street. Exhausted, he flopped down onto the small mountain of trash. Turning his head he noticed something that didn't belong.

∞Alfred's POV∞

Alfred speed through Gotham in one Bruce's many sport's cars. He didn't have time to go retrieve the Tumbler for this particular rescue mission. Following the small beeping dot on the handheld locator Alfred turned into a small alley in the Lower West Side. He pulled to stop and got out of the car.

Part of the grate that kept people from the tunnels under Gotham was missing in the road ahead. Alfred looked down into the hole it left, to find Batman with an arm load of guns. For a moment neither of them spoke, the guns setting cold rocks in their hearts. "Give me your hand, Master Wayne," Alfred's voice cracked at the lost look in his young master's eyes.

"I can't."

∞With Lauren∞

This time the dreamscape was bright. Lauren was sitting in center of a meadow of bright yellow flowers that seamed to stretch on for eternity. Warm winds were dancing across the grass tugging at the flowers and sending her hair dancing about her face. On her head, her bright blue hat bent in the wind and the ribbon flew like a flag, while her bushy blue dress tossed about in ripples.

She was sitting a small round table set for tea, Hatter propped up on in the chair to her right, Sasha sitting on the table to her left, and across from her the Clown Prince sat dressed regally in a tuxedo with tails and a monical.

One lump or two. She thought at him.

"One, and…um…Lemon."He said licking his lips. He looked around appreciatively, "I must say, you did pick a nice spot." Lauren handed him his tea has he popped at lemon bar in his mouth and chewed. "So… how's it coming with the whole," he waved his hand. "Princess of Gotham, thing. Having any fun, or are you just miserable?"

I'm not a princess. Lauren picked up a lemon square and began dropping crumbs into Sasha's bowl.

"No…you're not." The Clown removed his monical, and pointed it at her. "You…are…a freak…like me and your Bat," he emphasized the word. "Friend…I mean you don't talk, they think you're nuts, and I'm fairly certain…that… social worker of yours is afraid you're going to turn into the next Eric Harris, which is fine…you could always come work for me, but it's not exactly…conducive to the whole…'healing' process." The Clown reclined in his chair and took a sip of his tea. "So, are you…um…ready to cry yet?"

I can't cry.

"Oh, I'm sure you can if you try hard enough…maybe you need a little help?" the Clown shrugged. "Is this earl gray?"

Um…I don't know.

"Well, it's your dream." The Clown sat forward again and began rocking, "But then…I'm here…so clearly this isn't your…choice. Why am I here?" The clown looked around quizzically and leaded forward, "You know, I'm starting to think you have an…unnatural fascination with me. That's not normal….just so you know."

Why did you kill them? Lauren asked on a spur.

"Oh…that's why I'm here…" The clown replaced his monical and began to think. "Well…" but the golden dream began to fade away taking the clown and his voice with him. "It looks like our time is up," he called. "You'll have to ask me again…in person."

∞Wayne Penthouse, 1:45 a.m., Lauren's POV∞

Lauren opened her eyes and started at the ceiling. Inside, floating around the numb was an odd sense of confusion and want. She wanted to know why. Why. Why…was there a light on. Turning her head to the side she could see light coming from under her door.

Grabbing Hatter she slipped out of bed and padded across the room and out the door. The light was coming from down the hallway towards what she thought of as the living room. Looking around to make sure no one was going to jump out at her; she quickly shuffled down the hall and peaked around the corner.

Bruce was sitting in one of the chairs with his shirt off. He had an IV like the ones she had had at the hospital in his arm and it was dripping bright red blood into his arm. From where she was she could see the table in front of him had various bandaids and tubes on it. He looked tiredly at the boxes, as if unwilling to reach out and open one.

Lauren walked into the room cautiously and moved towards him. She hadn't made it far when his head jerked to look at her.

"Lauren, what are doing up?"

Lauren walked towards him quickly not meeting his eyes. As she came closer she saw that he was wearing his Batman pants and he had a bad burn on the side of his stomach. She sat Hatter down and picked up the box of gaze squares. Pulling one out, she sat it on the table and reached for the Neosporin which she squirted onto it. Smearing it around the gaze with her finger, she covered the front of the square.

She was aware of Bruce watching her as she pulled the cap off the bactine spray. But he didn't say anything, not even when she turned around and sprayed his burn before picking up the gaze and pressing it to the red circle. She grabbed his hand and pressed it to the gaze, forcing him to hold it there as tried to tear the white cloth tape only to get it stuck around her fingers.

"Perhaps, I should help you with that, Miss Lauren." Lauren turned at the sound of Alfred's voice. The older man smiled at her as he sat a tray of tea on the table. He pulled the tape off of Lauren's hand and pulled new strips, which he handed to her.

Following every rule her brother's had ever given her about taping, she placed the tape over the edges of the gaze until it stayed in place. Her work finished she looked up at Bruce's face. He was smiling softly at her. "Thank you, Lauren."