I'm so sorry for the delay in this chapter. I was having a bit of writer's block, but I hope you all like this chapter :) I want to give a big thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/subscribed to alerts. Here's a list of the wonderful new readers: mccrocm, Selene is the Joker's Girl, Ellej55, darkxXxflames, ClassicalBrunette, Gemini6690, CamillaSerafina, MalfoyDebauchery, ordermask, Bat-Girl-1194, Jokersgirl595, Ebo94, amandathepanda, jenny oliver, EmlieCullen, HaileyHavoc, Pause For Suspense, zgirl21, Joon the Ninja, JoBellaRose, MadrigalPrincess, Nocturnal Rose, DarKnight1Fan, tinathemagicalmishap, Samwich520, KismetKAZE, Cupcake on a Mission, DanilnWonderland, MusicDeLovely, heatherven, SSDarkangel811, HeavenlyCondemned, le-vrai-visqueux, Mrs. Twilight, and the town's been talkin'. Thank you all for your support! Please remember to review and tell me what you think :D
Disclaimer: I do not own any "Batman Begins" or "The Dark Knight" characters, nor am I making any sort of profit off of this story. I do own all original characters and the plot. Now on with the story :)
The first thing I noticed about the room was the staggering atmosphere; an angry hostility filled every corner, causing me to feel the need to leave as quickly as I could and never look back. I stared in awe at the sleeping Harvey Dent, his head cocked to the left in what appeared to be a stiff manner. His expression was blank, innocent looking to an extent, but I could immediately feel the animosity pouring off of his body. My hand continued to clench the cold, metal doorknob as I studied this man who already seemed to be a complete stranger to me, even in his sleep.
Before I had time to backtrack my steps and leave, the blonde individual lying on the bed began to stir. There was still a chance for me to turn around and leave, pretend I'd never even stepped foot into the room. I sighed heavily, however, as I realized my decision had already been made for me. I couldn't leave him now. Not after all he'd been through. Not after all he'd done for me.
My hand dropped from the knob to lie limply at my side as I turned fully around and took a hesitant step towards the bed, not wanting to startle him. I waited with bated breath as the unknowing Harvey began to reveal his full face to me, his eyes still closed in grogginess. As I prepared myself for what I was about to see, Bruce's words reverberated through my mind.
"…He suffered from some horrific burns."
What I saw hit me like a ton of bricks, causing me to hold back a gasp. I could feel my eyes widen in both disbelief and horror as I tried to take it all in. The entire left side of Harvey's face, which was virtually nonexistent now, was enveloped by extensive burns and terribly scarred tissue. I was so taken aback that I failed to notice a pair of cold blue eyes gazing up at me in shock and anger.
"What are you doing in here?"
I jumped slightly as my eyes quickly flashed over to meet his, swallowing down the lump that was beginning to form in my throat. If I hadn't been looking right at him, I would have thought someone else in the room had spoken. It didn't seem possible that the livid sounding voice could have come from this man who was known for doing such good, heroic acts. Unfortunately, though, I could already tell that this wasn't the same man. In fact, it broke my heart as I realized I wasn't even sure if that man existed anymore.
I opened my mouth to speak, but words seemed unable to form. Trying best as I could to regain my composure, I cleared my throat and started again. "I'm staying in the room next door…I just wanted to see how you were doing," I stated timidly, feeling like a small child who had just been scolded by a parent.
He continued to stare at me condescendingly, as if I had some ulterior motive for coming in here. I was beginning to regret this decision more and more as each second of awkward silence passed, and I dared not break my gaze. For whatever reason, I felt like taking my eyes off of his would show disrespect, or even weakness, and he would demand me to leave immediately.
Breaking the deadly silence, he huffed as if he found something oddly amusing about the whole situation, though I couldn't even begin to figure out what. My heart pounded in my ears as I tried to decipher the meaning behind his demeanor and prepared for an attack that was surely to come.
"We're really in the same boat, aren't we?" he began, watching me with that same intent stare, though a bit of the coldness in his gaze seemed to have warmed up.
I slowly closed the remaining space between us and sat down in a chair beside his bed. Feeling somewhat safe again in his presence, I nodded slightly as if beckoning him to elaborate.
"We've both been wronged," he continued, "by the same antagonistic force. But it's not just that, is it? That's just not enough. We were good people, people who had never done anything to disrupt the cycle of humanity, and look what happened. We had everything ripped away from us in the blink of an eye. We're the ones who are forced to bear the scars of our wronging." Though his voice had barely risen in his anger, I could feel the venom emitting from his lips with every word he spoke. It was as if he was speaking each syllable individually to convey just how angry he was with the world, and how betrayed he felt by all of mankind.
I couldn't find anything to say in response, but I really didn't think he wanted me to speak. He was venting right now and I was the perfect person to take it, because what he said was right. We were virtually in the same situation. Two separate people from separate worlds who could never go back to the lives we'd once known. We were both changed – changed against our own will.
I watched Harvey glare up at the plain white ceiling, his eyes glazed over in thought. The two of us sat there in silence for a minute or so, though this time it wasn't so much an awkward silence as it was a thoughtful one.
"We can change it, though," I said absentmindedly. I looked back up at Harvey, watching him blink once before turning his head to look at me.
"Everything you said was true, but that doesn't mean we have to stay on the bottom. I sure as hell don't plan to, and I know you don't, either. Everyone has the power to make their own destiny. Whether they do so or not is completely up to them. Only the weak let the antagonist keep them down. We're not weak, Harvey…we're not weak," I stated confidently.
He continued to stare at me for a few moments, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, before nodding slightly. "You could be a politician someday," he stated with an unexpected hint of amusement in his voice.
I gave him a small smile, pretending to think about his statement for a moment, before shaking my head. "I don't like crowds."
For a split second, the old Harvey was back; the one whose smile traveled to his eyes, lighting them up like a bright star in the dark sky. However, he was gone as quickly as he came. Despite my speech and the look of hope that had come into his eyes, I found myself fighting back tears. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach as I realized that was the last time I'd ever see Harvey Dent again.
I quietly stepped out of the room, shutting the door softly behind me. The two police officers who allowed me entrance shot me quick smiles, which I couldn't find the heart to return. As I stepped back into my own quarters, I immediately registered the man sitting on my bed.
"How did it go?" Bruce asked, though I was sure my facial expression told the whole story.
Feeling helpless and weak, I sat down on the bed beside him and leaned my head on his shoulder for support. Pushing back the tears that were threatening to brim over was becoming increasingly harder, but I told myself I wasn't going to allow them to fall. As I felt Bruce's arms wrap around me, I immediately felt that sense of protection and comfort I didn't even know I'd been longing for since I'd arrived in Gotham.
Much to my dismay, that first drop of moisture slid down my cheek before I could try to hold it back. All of the pent up emotions I'd been harboring were now coming to the surface, and though I hated the idea, I knew I had to let them out.
I'm not sure how long we sat there on the edge of the bed, but I was more than thankful that Bruce was willing to sit there with me all the while. This was a completely new experience for the both of us. Neither of us were very dependant people. We tended to work through problems on our own, pushing feelings to the very back of our priority list. It wasn't that we were cold hearted – far from it, in fact – we just couldn't handle having to face our inner demons.
It was when I picked my head off of his shoulder and began to wipe my tears that Alfred stepped into the doorway. "I'm so sorry for intruding, but Mr. Wayne, could I see you out in the hallway for a moment?" the elderly man asked tentatively.
Bruce looked down at me to make sure I was okay, his eyes showing nothing but care and compassion. I nodded as I continued to wipe away my drying tears. "Go ahead, I'm fine," I said, my voice hoarse from crying.
He stared at me for a few more moments before standing up and following Alfred out of the room. I stood up and went into the bathroom located to the right of the entrance. I sighed as I looked into the mirror and saw my beat-red face staring back at me. Turning on the cold water, I splashed my face to cool myself down a bit. As the water ran down my face and onto my neck, I couldn't suppress a shiver as I remembered his fingers trailing down my cheeks and running over my jaw line. I closed my eyes as his malicious laughter echoed through my brain, the mere memory of him taking over my being.
I opened my eyes and, with one last look in the mirror, turned off the bathroom light and headed back into the room. When I saw that Bruce and Alfred had yet to return, I decided to go out in the hallway and see what was happening. The two police officers who had been guarding the doors were now replaced by two new men. I looked down the hallway to where one of the lobbies was located and saw a large group of people crowded together, looking up at a television set.
I noticed the officers eyeing me wearily and smiled slightly up at them. "Do you mind if I go down there for a second and see what's going on? My guardian's down there, too," I said, wondering if I was going to have as much luck with these officers as I did with the others.
They both glanced at each other before nodding once in unison. "I'll go down there with you," one of them stated. He was about six feet tall with dark hair and looked to be in his early thirties.
The two of us walked the fairly short distance side by side. As we got closer, the sound of the television was becoming clearer. I could tell it was a news program and there was a man being shown simply sitting in the guest chair. Approaching the screen, I could see there was a look of sheer terror on his face, and it didn't take me long to figure out why.
A feeling of cold dread rushed through my veins as soon as that voice reached my ears. My footing automatically faltered slightly, my body telling me to immediately run in the other direction.
"…I've had a change of heart. I don't want Mr. Reese spoiling everything, but why should I have all the fun? Let's give someone else a chance. If Coleman Reese isn't dead in sixty minutes, then I blow up a hospital."
My heart was pounding a mile a minute, my knees growing weaker and weaker as his words fully soaked in. It didn't take a brain sergeant to figure out which hospital he was most likely to target: Gotham General. The very building I was standing in at this moment. The very building hundreds of bed ridden patients were lying in, barely holding on to life.
The terrified silence that filled the room seconds before suddenly turned into mass chaos, the very thing the Joker loved most. I felt someone grab my arm and looked up to see Alfred staring down at me with a worried, yet strangely calm expression. "I need you to wait with these police officers, Jessica. It's imperative you do everything they say. They'll be buses coming any minute now and they'll make sure you get on one safely, do you understand?"
I nodded frantically. "Where's Bruce, though?"
Alfred looked into my eyes for a moment and I could tell he was contemplating whether or not to tell me the truth, whatever the truth was. "We'll discuss it later. Just go in your room and wait for them to tell you when to leave. Everything's going to be okay, I promise," he said as he guided me to my room and shut the door behind him.
I stood there in complete shock. It was quiet in here, except for the occasional beeping of machines signaling that they were still working. I could hear the muffled sound of the hoards of people running up and down the hallway, their frantic voices coming together as one loud roar. Rushing over to the window, I yanked open the shades and saw that buses were indeed beginning to pull into the parking lot.
Suddenly pulling me out of my thoughts, the door opened behind me and I whirled around expecting to see one of the police officers. Instead, I found myself facing a man who had to be in his mid to late twenties. He had dark hair, glasses and was wearing a white lab coat, giving off a very professional air. I stared at him in confusion wondering what exactly was going on.
"Are we leaving now?" I asked, trying my best to stop my voice from shaking.
A feeling of foreboding filled the room as the man closed the door securely before turning to me, now adorning a charming smile.
"Crazy times right now, huh?" he asked as if we were discussing something in the paper. He took a step forward, leading me to cautiously take one back.
He widened his smile encouragingly. "I'm terribly sorry; I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Dr. Jonathan Crane," he said as he continued to slowly walk up to me. This time I had no room to retreat, my back already up against the window frame. "And everyone knows you, of course. Miss Jessica Wayne, goddaughter of the billionaire bachelor, Mr. Bruce Wayne," he continued as he looked me up and down. Watching him do this made me feel dirty, violated in a way. I crossed my arms over my chest, which caused him to smirk. "But of course we both know what you're really known for, don't we?" he said, now only a foot away from me. "You're the object of the Joker's affection…and now I can see why."
My breaths became more ragged as I realized he was only four inches away from me now - way too close for comfort. "What do you want?" I asked coldly, glancing at the closed door behind him to judge the distance between me and the police officers waiting just beyond the threshold. Sadly, I didn't think I'd be able to make it past him if I made a run for it. The way his body was built told me he was probably quick and would catch me before I could even blink.
"Oh, don't worry, this is nothing personal. Some colleagues and I just have a little…business to handle with the Joker, and we figured you were the best ticket to get his attention if you will," he stated, still as calm as ever. He raised his eyebrows at me as he pulled a piece of folded paper out of his breast pocket and neatly propped it up on the nightstand. I glanced down at it from the corner of my eye and could make out the word "Joker" written in a nice, curvy handwriting.
Catching another movement, I turned my attention back to him and watched as he reached his hand into his larger pocket and pulled out a syringe filled with a clear liquid. My hands were visibly shaking now as both fear and anger took over. Realizing what was about to happen, my fight or flight instinct came into play and I kicked him as hard as I could in the shin. With the exit in clear view, I quickly ran around him. This plan was foiled, however, when I felt him grab hold of my ankle, causing me to fall to the ground. I began kicking with all my might as he got to his knees and crawled on top of me. I managed to punch him once in the jaw, but he quickly pinned both of my arms above my head with one hand, while his other held the syringe in a tight grip.
"You certainly are a feisty one," he said breathlessly as he towered over top of me, all of his weight being placed on my waist. His hair was now disheveled and hanging down in front of his face. "Maybe we'll be able to fix that."
I cringed as I wondered what he could possibly mean by that, though I didn't really want to think about it. Realizing I was now defenseless, I opened my mouth to scream, but was cut off by a stinging on the left side of my neck. I blinked a few times as the room started to get cloudy and my body began to feel weak. My breathing was leveling out as my system started to calm down. The last thing I saw was Crane's face hovering above mine before I fell into a dreamless sleep.