Angeline had waited until she was absolutely sure that he was asleep before she slipped out of the warehouse into the clear, Gotham night. She had grabbed a gun out of his coat and the keys before she had left, knowing that it was best not to go out in this area of Gotham without some kind of protection. She hated to go out, but knew that this was necessary. She had to talk to Bruce and, hey, a little fresh air never really hurt anyone.
It had been easy for her to get inside the building. As far as anyone, the guards included, knew she was still engaged to Bruce. He obviously hadn't been able to go through with telling the press or anyone that it was over. That and she knew he wasn't accepting it himself. But, she was here to change that. When the elevator door opened to his penthouse she was prepared to make him realize she wasn't coming back.
As the doors opened revealing a dark room, Angeline drew in a deep breath. She saw Bruce sitting on the couch, gazing out the windows. When she stepped into the room he turned sharply towards her. He stood up, one hand in his pocket and the other gesturing for her to sit.
"Angeline? I wasn't expecting you. Sit down. Please."
She remained quiet as she walked towards him. His sad brown eyes were fixed on hers. He was hurt. She knew that. But he had stepped over the line. He did things he never had the right to do and he needed to know how things were. He needed to know exactly what she thought of all this. Maybe then he would understand that it was over and there was no going back to what they used to have. There was no righting this wrong.
Instinctively when Angeline was in front of him, Bruce reached for her. As he did so, her hand collided hard with his cheek. He could feel the sting both on his face and in the pit of his stomach. He kept his head turned to the side for a moment, the shock of the slap wearing off, before he turned to face her. She glared at him furiously.
"You asshole! You fucking asshole! I don't believe you, Bruce. What gave you the right to do that? What the hell were you thinking?"
He narrowed his eyes on her. "What are you talking about?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. What'd you do? Did you track him down just so you could beat the shit out of him?"
Bruce sighed, shaking his head. "Jesus, Angeline. Listen to yourself. He's a criminal. A psychotic murdering criminal. Whatever he gets he deserves. He should be in jail!"
"I get that. I know who he is. But if that's what you truly believed then you would have taken him in. You didn't. You beat the shit out of him and let him go back to me. Why?"
Bruce turned away from her and walked towards the windows, both hands in his pockets. "I had to know you were ok. I had to know he hadn't hurt you. You know, he wasn't exactly innocent in all this either, Angeline. He knew what he was doing. Maybe he wanted me to do what I did."
Angeline laughed sarcastically as she walked towards him and stood behind him. "Well then you played right into his game didn't you, Bruce? You couldn't just trust me. You couldn't just let me go. You had to be stubborn."
He turned his head towards her. "What did you want me to do, Angeline? After what he did to you. After what he's done to so many people. How was I supposed to take being told you're willingly going back to a known murderer? How could I let you go back to that?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, Bruce. How could you lie to me? Hm? How could you lie to me for all that time about everything? How could you let me believe a fucking lie like that?"
He turned towards her, his lips pulled into a frown. "I did what I did to protect you. Because I loved you. I still love you and I don't want to see him hurt you or kill you. I can't let him do that. I can't have that resting on my shoulders."
"Listen to me. If you ever loved me at all you'd let me go. You'd trust me. He's not going to hurt me, Bruce. I know you're angry. I get that. This whole situation is a mess. But you need to realize who you're angry at. You're angry at me for leaving. You're allowed to be. And you know what? I'm prepared for that. But if you're going to be angry then be angry at me. Don't take what I did out on him."
He couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I am upset. I'm angry listening to you defend a criminal. He's psychotic! Any moment he can turn on you and hurt you or kill you!"
"You know you're not so different from him, Bruce. You're far from normal. You think you're justified in what you do, in being Batman, because you're trying to do good for Gotham. But you've done some bad things too. The truth is that you both hide behind some kind of mask. You become whatever you need to be to do whatever you need to do. I'm not defending his crimes or anything that he's done. What I'm doing is accepting that in this world, in this city, there is no such thing as normal. There is no clear line between good and bad. In this world I've come to realize you just have to accept things and hold onto what makes you happy before you lose yourself."
Bruce clenched his jaw and turned away from her again. "What do you want from me then?"
"Simple. Look me in the eye and tell me you know it's over. Let me walk out of that door and don't go out looking to use him as your punching bag again because of me. Because the thing is I don't want either of you hurt. It killed me to see him hurt like that. To know I was the reason you did that to him. To think that he could have hurt or killed you. I can't… I can't deal with that. It doesn't have to be this way."
He turned sharply and grabbed her tightly by the wrists. His eyes locked onto hers. "If I tell you that and you walk out that door then you walk out of here his accomplice in my eyes."
Angeline nodded. He was beginning to understand. She had to drive the point home. She had to make this as crystal clear as possible for him. "Fine. If that's how you need to see things then that's fine. Just know that… That when I walk out this door that means I'd rather be his accomplice than your fiancé."
Bruce let go of her wrists and stepped back. His eyes were void of all emotion as he stared back at her blankly. "Leave."
She nodded, feeling the tears fall from her eyes and down her cheeks. She hated to hurt him like that, back it had to be done. This had to be final for Bruce or he would never let her go. He had to understand that in order for things to be ok for all of them. She did what she did to protect herself, Bruce, and Jack.
Making her way back to the elevator, she called out to Bruce as he continued to stare at her blankly. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I'm sorry I had to say that. Just be careful out there. I promise I'll be ok. You will too. I know you will. Find what makes you happy before you lose yourself."
The doors to the elevator closed and she was gone. He stood staring at the doors for a few minutes before he turned back to the windows. He looked out at Gotham; the city he fought to protect. Maybe this is as good as it got for him. Maybe what made him happy was being Batman. Maybe the truth was that Bruce Wayne had disappeared long ago when he first became Batman; when he vowed to be whatever Gotham needed him to be.
Angeline had made it back to the warehouse as quickly as possible. All she wanted was to be back with Jack. He was the only thing that could make her feel like she wasn't a horrible monster. He was the one thing that kept her from losing herself. Plus, the night had grown foggy and she was a little worried about not being able to see if someone was out there.
When she got out of the car she noticed a figure to the side of the building. Shit. He must have woken up. She walked cautiously in the direction of the figure, calling out quietly. "Jack?"
The figure began walking towards her, a hiccup-like maniacal laugh following it. She could feel her skin crawl. Definitely not Jack. Fuck. She started backing up towards the door, fumbling in her purse for the gun she had taken out of Jack's coat. When she found it her fingers grasped it tightly and she point the gun out towards the figure.
"Aw, you wouldn't shoot me, would you? Not very nice. No. Not very nice at all."
Angeline's finger curled around the trigger. The fog was getting worse. You just had to pick a warehouse by the damn harbor, didn't you, Jack? "I will shoot. Who are you? What do you want?"
All she could hear was the water of the harbor and the usual noises of the city. The figure didn't reply and she could no longer see it. Her heart was hammering away. She couldn't shake the feeling that he was still there. She kept backing up towards the door of the warehouse, praying she could get inside and wake Jack up before the figure got to her.
Then she was being slammed against the building, the hand holding the gun being bent back at the wrist. The figure was now face to face with her. She remembered his face. Remembered his dark, crazy eyes and his greasy black hair. Oh god, no.
He pried the gun from her hand and before she could scream he clapped a hand tightly over her mouth. "Oh, no, no, no. You don't want to do that. No. Everything's fine. Don't be afraid."
He pulled out a knife and had it held up in front of her face, a smile spread across his lips. "I just want you to deliver a message for me. A message for The Joker. Or, uh, ha, what did you call him? Was it Jack? Yes. Just want you to tell him something. It's rather important."
Angeline stared at him, horrified as he eased his hand off her mouth. If she could just get through this then Jack would find him and kill him. "What? What do you want me to tell him?"
He held the knife closer to his face. His hiccup-like laughter unnerving. "T-tell him that… That I don't… Don't work for him anymore. No. He left me. Left me to die and that's not very nice, is it? No. Not very nice at all."
She was shaking, trying to move her head away from the knife as his sweaty hand gripped her tighter and he drew the knife against her cheek. He drug the knife across her skin, pressing just hard enough to lightly break the skin and draw blood. Still laughing, he cupped his hand at her mouth before she could scream from the pain and held the knife up to her face again, blood running along the cold steel blade.
"Shh, it's ok. I know it hurts. I know. Been there done that. Don't cry. Not worth it. No. Just… Just tell him that I know his weakness. Yes. I think know exactly where to hit him to make it hurt real bad."
AUTHOR'S NOTE -
So, after all the trouble I had with writing the previous chapter this one came out as smooth as can be. Fancy that, huh? : )
I apologize if any of you who are subscribed to alerts for this story aren't getting them as it appears the site is temporarily having problems with sending out alerts. I have only just now getting email alerts for SOME of the reviews that were received for the previous chapter. So if I have not responded to your review yet I promise I will do so ASAP.
Thank you again to all of you for reading. A special thanks to those of you who reviewed and continue to support this story. You guys are awesome and I can't thank you enough! Welcome to any new readers as well and thank you for all the favorites and story alerts! I write this for fun, but it's always so great and empowering to see that it's being enjoyed!
A very special thank you to Feels-Like-Paradise, shabbacabba, and Vaughn Tyler for the awesome advice. I really appreciate your help!
And to SoPhIeBuFfY4EvEr, kykyxstandler , sandradee27, emopygmepuff, what., ujemaima, Xxnikkigirl123xX, hollisterchick, and littlenerd for your continued amazing support of this story and of me. You guys are really a gift. An awesome gift that this author loves to death! : )
As always, thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as I was fairly pleased with the result this time. : ) I will try to post another one by next weekend if I can.
Yours Truly,
foxotr