It had been two nights since Kelsey's disappearance. Batman had searched all through the sewers last night and the night before when he wasn't busy trying to stop Penguin's lackeys from breaking into some warehouses at the docks. He had noted that the warehouses had all been property of both Wayne Enterprises and to the Falcone family and mainly steel had been stored there.

He would have been wondering what they had wanted from there, if it wasn't for the small package that one of the men had strapped to his chest. He had carefully opened it, though he had to admit, he wasn't expecting what was actually inside the wrapped up "gift" from Penguin.

It was a CD with the word "Batman" written on it with a black Sharpie. He and Oracle had been able to deduce that a woman, no doubt one of Penguin's women, wrote it. The man had wanted him to find this disk and he was wary about what might have been on it. And, honestly, he had thought about and hoped for anything but what was actually on the CD.

When he had seen Kelsey tied up to a chair with tape over her mouth, it was almost as if the world had dropped beneath his feet.

He was currently in the Batcave with Alfred and Barbara, watching the video again. Barbara couldn't help but to worry about Bruce. He was becoming obsessed with it. He hadn't stopped watching it since he had gotten it later that evening. While he said it was for clues as to where he exact location would be, Barbara knew better.

This was Kelsey, a woman Bruce had been in love with for years. Even though they were not a relationship, his feelings were genuine and his desire to protect her was just as strong as it was to protect all of his loved ones. She glanced at Alfred, who was keeping his eyes locked on the other man as he watched him intently. He was thinking the same thing as her – Bruce's mind had to have been flashing back to when he was a boy, to when he had been scared and frightened and helpless as his parents had been murdered right in front of him…

He rewound the tape before playing it one final time.

It started out with the Penguin standing in front of the camera, looking incredibly pleased with himself. He started off with a dark laugh and a shake of his head, swinging his umbrella clockwise in his hand.

"'Ello there, Batman," he sneered, grinning wildly as he stopped his umbrella mid-swing. "I knew you wouldn't be able to keep your twitchy little fingers out of my business, so I decided to send you a little message."

The man paused for a moment when he heard a door open. He let out a small laugh before looking back to the camera.

"You see, I need to work on my plans, but you, you little shitty bastard, are getting in my way… And I can't have that now, oh no… I got big plans and I ain't letting you ruin them for me."

Bruce's eyes narrowed, his hands balling into fists. He just watched as the Penguin ordered the person who had just come into through the door – Croc – to bring his "guest" over to sit on a chair next to him as he moved a bit out of the camera's center focus. Then came the sight that caused Bruce's blood to boil in his faces, his knuckles turning white with how hard he had his hands curled.

Croc came in front of the camera with a woman thrown over his shoulder. Her legs were tied together with her hands cuffed behind her back. Bruce watched as Croc moved to stand behind the chair, before he pulled her off of his shoulder and forced her to sit on the metal chair in front of the camera.

He gritted his teeth. Kelsey… Her eyes were wide with terror, her mouth was duck taped shut, and she couldn't move with Croc's hands on her shoulders, holding her down and forcing her to look into the camera. Christ, she looked so terrified and confused. When he had first seen the video, a thousand questions had raced through his mind. At first, he believed that this had had something to do with her job as Croc's doctor.

But no. To his horror, it was because of him.

He heard Penguin laugh, making him look back to the video. "I would'a thought you'd put two and two together, but I guess you're just not that clever."

Penguin moved over in front of Kelsey and seized her chin to make her look into the camera. She gave a muffled cry, twitching a bit when he leaned up against her face. "Now this is a cute little lass you got yourself. Probably should have kept your girl a secret though. Made it a little too easy to find her."

Bruce had to take a deep breath to calm himself down, realizing just how hard he was gripping his hands. Still, this was in the end his fault. He had gotten Kelsey wrapped up in this, though he didn't know why Penguin believed that he was in a relationship with him or how he had even gotten wind of Kelsey having any sort of relation to him. Whatever the reasons were, Kelsey was in danger and it was evidently his own fault.

The fact only made him angrier with himself. This entire time, he had said that her job was the most dangerous thing she could have gotten herself involved. He had told her to quit. Hell, he had even offered her a position at his company to get her out of Arkham! But as dangerous as being a doctor there was, it should have been more obvious to him that having her even associate with him was what was really endangering her life.

He glanced to Barbara. It was because she knew him that she was even in that chair in the first place. The Joker had found out that Barbara was important to him… and now she was paralyzed from the waist down.

And if he didn't do something, Kelsey would be dead because of him. Just like his parents.

When he looked back at the screen, Penguin had already pulled away from her and looked back to the camera. "Now, here's what you're gonna do now. You're gonna keep your bloody nose out'a my business and let me be and I won't put a bullet through your girlfriend's head. Or you know…" He looked up to Croc before smiling menacingly as he turned his attention to the camera. "Feed them to Croc here."

Kelsey paled at the threat, now starting to squeal and protest while shaking in her seat. It made Penguin laugh harder, who just snapped his fingers. Her screams and struggling only got worse as Croc lifted up out of her seat and threw her back over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Batman… You leave me alone for the next few days and you'll get your girl back. If not… What a shame. She's so pretty too."

Bruce didn't need to hear it anymore and shut it off, much to relief of his butler and friend. God only knew how many times he had watched that thing tonight alone. At least it seemed as if he had finally grown tired of watching the same video over and over again… But now what were they supposed to do?

Barbara spoke first. "Bruce–"

"We have to find her and take Penguin down."

As she should have figured… She was no longer talking to Bruce, but Batman. Not that she would argue with him now, considering that he would her help, Oracle's help, to find Kelsey and keep her from getting murdered.

Alfred had already guessed that was to be the man's next course of action. Still, hostage situations were always tricky to approach. There was a lot of stealth and sneaking around involving and in this case, if anyone found Batman attempting to interfere with Penguin's plans, he would give the word and Kelsey would be dead.

"And your next course of action?"

"Find out where Penguin's hiding her."

Oracle nodded, rolling up to the computer and beginning to look over the CD file, scanning it on her computer. As data started to download onto her own device, she analyzed it before nodding to herself and looking up at Bruce.

"It doesn't seem like this was filmed at the Iceberg Lounge… It had to have been one of his safe houses he had around Gotham. Most definitely one he doesn't use often, considering how much dust was in the background."

Batman nodded. Penguin wasn't stupid – there was no chance that he would actually film his little random video in the same location where he was keeping Kelsey. And while he had an accurate idea of where she might have been being held, he had to be absolutely certain before he started to break in anyway.

Besides, Croc was also involved, which meant that there was a slight possibility of Kelsey being forced to reside down in the sewers. But he ruled that as being unlikely, considering in the video she didn't look to be malnourished or in lack of good hygiene. And while he did factor in the idea that they could have bathed her prior to making this video, he ruled it out since there weren't any signs of her having taken a bath recently.

For now though, he ruled that she was either at the Iceberg Lounge or in one of Penguin's safe houses close by it. He would want to make sure that his hostage was close by him, just in case Kelsey had the chance to sneak out on her own. Not that she would be able to, the woman far too much of a klutz to walk in a straight line, let alone escape captivity.

"Oracle, I'm going to need a layout of the Iceberg Lounge and locations of any of Penguin's safe houses within a five mile radius of his nightclub."

"I'm on it."

Once he saw that she was looking into the data, he turned to the older man standing off to the side. "Alfred."

"Yes, Master Wayne?"

"Find out more about Croc's escape from Arkham. Penguin sent someone to help him and I'm going to find out who. Maybe they can tell us what exactly the Penguin is planning."

"Of course, sir. Anything else?"

Batman just shook his head and took off towards his car. If he wanted to find Kelsey before it was too late, he needed to go now and keep an incredibly low profile while doing so. He could only hope that he wouldn't be too late.

Kelsey was glaring daggers at Croc as he stood in front of her with a dark look on his face. Once again, he was in her bedroom, only this time he was holding up a pair of racy, form-fitting clothes that Kelsey knew was meant for Penguin's secretaries and not her. But since she was "his guest" and would be here for a while, as Penguin had put it, he wanted her to wash up. He wasn't going to have some filthy, smelly woman walking around.

But that would also mean she would have to bathe in the bathroom connected to her room. Not only were all the windows barred and locked up tight, but there were cameras inside the room, just like the bedroom was. She knew there were people monitoring the cameras and knowing Penguin's men, they were just waiting for her to strip down naked so they could look at her… Iyt was disgusting and an invasion of privacy. She would rather smell like sewer than get undressed why being spied on.

Unbeknownst to her, Croc felt the same. Somewhat. He didn't want anyone else seeing her, especially not any lowly moron the Penguin hired. Those pathetic bastards couldn't even handle a fight with the Batman. They didn't deserve to see his doctor naked. And yet, they still looked, as if they had a right to.

And fuck, did that piss him off. She had only been here for less than two days and whenever the Penguin dragged her out of her room to degrade her and mock the Bat in front of, his lowly thugs would look at her and whisper about her to each other. He heard the jokes they were making about her, disgusting and perverted. Usually one glare and a snarl from him got them to shut up, but that didn't stop him from getting pissed off.

He was getting more and more irritated with the fact that everyone else was watching her. Shit, with all the sexy and underdressed women Penguin had working for him, he would have thought that they would be more interested in them since there were a hell of a lot of them working at the nightclub.

Ah fuck, who the hell was he fooling? He knew why they were looking at her. They all believed her to be the Bat's bitch. They all had their own grudges against the Bat, so of course they would want a whack at her. Just to see what it was like. They were lowly little punks anyway, always taking orders and be subordinates to the real criminals of Gotham. Fucking a bitch by force was the only way they were going to feel dominant over anyone when they were fighting amongst themselves and trying to prove to each other who was the strongest in the bunch.

Croc wouldn't let them touch her though. No, she was his and his alone… because she was his doctor. His entertainment. That was it. Just that. That was the only reason why he didn't want anyone else looking at her.

"I'm not showering, so you can tell Penguin he can have his clothes back."

Kelsey's harsh voice snapped him out of his thoughts, causing him to look back down at the tiny woman. She was sitting down on the bed with her arms folded across her chest, hugging herself tightly as she glared at him.

She knew that she was safe for now, so she didn't have any trouble putting her foot down about this issue. If the cameras were removed from the bathroom, then she would shower without complaint. It was one thing to sleep in a room with cameras; it was an entirely different one to shower with them.

The clothes weren't even an issue at this point. While she had been irritated with the idea of having to wear such provocative clothes at first, she would rather have to wear those than be watched while trying to wash herself up.

"Penguin's orders."

"I don't care."

His eyes narrowed. While he understood why she didn't want to, orders were orders. Besides, if he didn't make her, the Penguin would just send someone else inside that would. Or worse, but he wasn't about to let that happen. He would make her clean up, one way or another.

"Get in the bathroom and take a fucking shower."

"I refuse."

"I'll make you if you don't do it."

She said nothing for a few moments, eyes narrowed at him as a bit of fear pooled into her chest. No, he wouldn't. Croc wasn't out to hurt her. Then again, Penguin was… But would he seriously threaten violence over whether or not she wanted to shower? That was completely ludicrous! Moreover, if she didn't smell like he wanted her to, he and his goons were more likely to stay away from her and she wouldn't have to deal with them as often.

Finally, she took a deep breath and looked Croc in the eyes, who was just glaring back at her with a dark expression.

"… No."

It only took Croc a second to respond and she had not been prepared for it. He suddenly grabbed her and yanked her off the ground, causing her to scream as she was taken over by fear completely. She kicked at him and beat her weak fists on the hand wrapped around him, but he just ignored her useless struggle as he dragged her into the bathroom, shutting the door behind them.

He tossed the clothes on the ground before moving over to the fancy shower that was on the other side of the room. Shit, he did not understand the rich and their hi-tech shit. Did they even need this sort of glass shower with all of its knobs and settings? He found it to be ridiculous, but then again, he grew up dirt-poor, so what the fuck did he know about being rich?

Kelsey cried out in pain when she was suddenly pushed back into the wall near the shower door. But the pain quickly turned to fear when she felt Croc take a rough hold of her shirt and jacket, giving it a hard yank and exposing her bra and bear skin to him.

It took her few moments to figure what was happening. She was too frozen in shock and fear to respond right away, even as Croc was ripping off more of her clothes. He was… stripping her down. She was starting to become exposed, naked…

Oh God. Was he going to-?!

Just as he ripped off the rest of her shirt and jacket and went for her pants, Kelsey screamed violently and ended up slipping down the wall, grunting hard when her bottom hit the floor. But she quickly got over the initial pain when she saw his hands stretch out to her again, causing her to kick up at him as she tried to shove his hands away.

"Stop it!" she screamed in terror. "Stop it! D-Don't touch me! Don't!"

"Would you just fucking hold still already?!" he shouted, finally being able to grab a hold of her pants and yanking it down hard.

It only made her more violent, screaming and struggling louder and harder than before as she feared what was to come. Her mind suddenly flashed back to the first victim Croc had told her about, the woman he had raped and beaten. Was that going to be her fate too? Was he going to do the same? Even though he had said he wouldn't kill her… Oh God, he was already pulling down her pants!

"D-DON'T! PLEASE, DON'T!"

He growled at her. She seriously thought that he was going to rape her? Just how fucking stupid was she?! And he had thought she had trusted him too, considering she would always say that he wasn't a monster…

Oh wait. His track record. She knew all about his past victims. And he had said that he would kill her if he ever got bored of her. All right, yeah, he could maybe see where the fear was coming from, but fucking seriously? He had just said before this that Penguin ordered her to shower and that he would make her if it came down to it.

Once she was stripped of her pants, she was left in only her underwear, much to Kelsey's horror. When she felt his hands pull away from her, she quickly curled up into a ball and hugged herself tightly, shaking violently as she stared at Croc with fearful eyes. But he just stepped back from her and stared at her for a few moments.

It was the first time he had seen so much skin from her. Whenever he had seen her in Arkham, she always so covered up, just like the other doctors. But now… Her smooth skin was exposed to him and he found himself staring at her small hourglass figure.

Wait, what the actual fuck was he doing? Checking her out?! Like some fucking brat in middle school?! He suddenly felt the urge to rip something in half, preferably one of the Penguin's men, before turning them into a stress relieving meal. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and grabbed the woman's arm, who shrieked in terror as she was suddenly brought to her feet.

"You get in that shower and wash up, you hear me?"

Fearing for her life, she could only nod her head wildly before she was forced to climb into the shower. The door was closed behind her and when she looked back at the man, she was shocked to see that he was standing fright in front of the door with his back turned to her. Wait, he wasn't coming in? She glanced up at the left corner of the room, surprised to see that there wasn't a camera there. In fact, the only camera that was facing the shower where anyone could see her… Croc was blocking its view.

Her eyes widened. Was he… protecting her? Or was it just a coincident that he was standing there, unknowingly keeping her covered from anyone monitoring the cameras from seeing her. Whatever the reason was, she found herself grateful, giving Croc one last glanced before she stripped out of her bra and underwear, quickly opening the door to toss them out of the shower before closing it again to turn on the water.

Croc glanced down at the underwear by his foot before he glanced up at the camera opposite of him. At least this way they wouldn't be able to see her naked… At least not while she was showering.

He didn't know why he kept his back to her. He didn't give a shit about her privacy or not. It wasn't his problem if she was uncomfortable or not. And even though he thought that, he couldn't bring himself to turn around and stare at her while she cleaned herself off after two days of not bathing.

His eyes fell to the clothes he had thrown off to the side. He glared at the articles of clothing, hating the fact that she was going to have to wear them. Fucking Penguin… Did he not have any normal clothes for women? That was a stupid question though, of course he didn't. He owned a fucking nightclub and all of his female workers dressed even sleazier than the dress given to him for Kelsey to wear.

Maybe he could get Kelsey some normal looking clothes the next time he went out. After all, the next bank he wanted him to break into was next to some clothing stores. Maybe he could snatch up a few and-

Croc had to stop himself in utter disgust. Had he actually just thought about doing something for Kelsey? Something nice for her? Something that he didn't need to do at all since it wouldn't benefit him in any way whatsoever?! He growled to himself, hands balling into fists. This fucking woman… He had been right. She had put him on some drugs in Arkham and now they were making him into a fucking lunatic.

Once the bitch was done with her shower, he was going to get some answers out of her about what the fuck she had put him on because this was just ridiculous.

Kelsey couldn't help but to worry when she heard the man growl. Had she done something wrong? Or was he just angry because he had to play the babysitter role? The latter seemed to be the most likely, considering he had been annoyed when he had first come into her bedroom earlier. It wasn't as if she had asked for this though. She was the victim.

The rest of her shower was in silence as she fretted over her situation. She could only hope that Batman would come for her… But she worried that perhaps he wouldn't. She wasn't his girlfriend like everyone else seemed to believe. It had been a horrid misunderstanding and Batman didn't have any real obligation to listen to their demands. She was just one woman… Yes, Bruce had feelings for her, but Gotham was more important to him than her life. Besides, his company was at stake. Penguin wanted to destroy the building and possibly kill so many Wayne Enterprises employees…

There was just no way Bruce would ever let that happen.

Once her shower was over with, she was surprised to see that Croc had handed her a towel. She was actually starting to believe that he was protecting her from the camera's view. It was actually rather… sweet, in a strange way. She didn't think Croc would ever do something like that, especially not for her. Still, she appreciated it and couldn't help but to feel incredibly grateful.

She quickly dried herself off before wrapping the towel around her. As much as she hated to admit it, she was glad that she had finally taken a shower. She hated feeling oiling and dirty, despite the situation given. Carefully stepping out of the shower, she moved to step off to the side as Croc turned around to face her, looking down at her.

Kelsey bit her bottom lip and looked away, suddenly feeling awkward by the staring. Not to mention a bit uncomfortable. Was Croc thinking about… doing that to her? Looking over him, it certainly didn't seem like it. He wasn't displaying any signs or mannerism that indicated he was observing her in a sexual or predatory way.

It was certainly relieving, allowing her to relax when he finally stepped away from her to grab her clothes.

But just as he handed her the skimpy attire, he demanded, "What the fuck kind of drugs did you put me on?"

She blinked as she looked up at the man, confused and startled by the sudden question. He had his eyes narrowed at her, causing her to realize that he wanted an answer and an answer now or else it seemed as if he would try to take off her head. She had no idea what had even brought the question on, but she wasn't in a position to ask. Only answer.

"I-I didn't put you on anything…" she stuttered, holding the clothes up tighter against her body. "I-I merely increased the blood pills Gretchen already had you on."

He was dumbfounded. She hadn't put him on any new medications or had some something to fuck with him. Then again, those blood pills fucked with his appetite sometimes, so that could explain his lack of desire to eat her. But that still explained nothing else with what could have been wrong with him. And it was pissing him off knowing that no one had an answer to give him, not even his damn doctor.

Giving a heavy huff, he shook his head and promptly stormed out of the bathroom. She blinked, flinching back when she heard the bedroom dorm slam shut. Oh great, now she had angered him… Not that she knew what she had done exactly to even make him as angry as he was to begin with. Of course, Croc was a moody man; she would know as she had worked with him for almost half a year now.

She glanced up at the camera again in the corner of the room. Biting her bottom lip, she took a deep breath and turned her back to it, allowing the towel to drop and letting herself be exposed to whoever was watching her. It was completely uncomfortable and she felt violated, but what could she do? Complain? Penguin would just laugh at her and make crude jokes about it.

Unbeknownst to her though as she was changing, Croc had gone into the security room where Penguins goons were and scared them out of the room while Kelsey had changed into that tight-fitting grey dress that hugged every inch of her body. She was clearly uncomfortable it in, pulling and tugging at it in order to cover up more of her body. It didn't work though, her breasts and backside remaining very apparent into the dress

Yes, it was sexy to look at her dressed like that, but it also pissed him off. No one should have been seeing her like this… She was his doctor, his belonging. He had seen her first, he had talked to her first, he had known about her before any of these pigs had – she belonged to him. No one else could look at her… Not even that fucking Batman.

He watched as she glanced up at the camera before walking back into her room. Grumbling to himself, he walked out of the room, giving the men waiting outside and dark look before heading out. He really needed to clear his head and get that aggravating woman out of his mind…

Fuck it. A quick meal would take care of that easily.

A/N: Ohmagawd the struggle with the block is so real right now, guys... Especially since there is so much shiz I'm changing from the original fic and trying to make this one not suck as much as his first one did.

That matter aside, I've also been hella busy with college and been getting stressed over some projects/assignments, so that's also killing my drive. The only think that's making this easier is my college's NANO/writing club and the fact I'm not trying to do anything too complicated/complex with Kelsey's role this time.

Still. Developing relationships. *weakflails* The challenge, man.

The next chapter may take a while longer to get up, I don't know, we shall see I guess. o3o