"You two make me laugh." was her opening statement. Despite herself, she could hear the tears in her voice, and mentally cursed herself for being weak.
"Are you alright?" Gordon questioned.
"What did you do?" she laughed again at the worried tone of Gordon's voice and the exasperated one of Bruce's.
"I was doing my job." she pouted, still holding back tears.
"Can you make it back to the station?" Gordon questioned. Audrey pushed herself off the hood and rested weight on the ankle. Sharp pain shot up her leg and her knee buckled. She caught herself on the car behind her, suddenly very glad that neither of them could hear her.
"Not if you want me back in a timely fashion. I can try and get a ride."
"Ten minutes." Bruce responded.
"I may not make it in time." she responded, glancing at the distance she had to cover. There were no more voices on the radio, so she pocketed it, then began using cars as crutches. In twenty minutes she was only a fourth of the way there, whilst Bruce had been waiting. He looked at her, then began making his way through the cars and lifted her up.
"Sorry." She muttered.
"I'm not sure you could take longer if you tried." he responded. She vaguely wondered how slapping him would go over, but decided against it. He carried her the rest of the way to the Tumbler, then set her down carefully in the passenger seat. He climbed over her as gracefully as he could and shut the hatch.
"Keep your ankle up on the dashboard." she reclined in the seat and propped her ankle up. He took off and she gripped the seat hard, nails digging into the cushion. They arrived at the station scarcely five minutes later, and Bruce simply carried Audrey inside again. He set her down on a desk and rolled up her jeans.
"You dislocated your ankle." he braced one hand on the platform of her foot, then locked eyes with her. She smirked and he pushed the bones back into place. Her teeth bit sharply into her tongue, cheek, and lip at the same time, drawing blood from all three. She spat off to the side, then let the pain resonate through her leg for a minute, quickly dulled by her pain meds. Bruce watched her silently while she assessed the pain. In dismissal of said pain, she looked to Gordon on her right.
"Why are we here?"
"It's three in the morning. Fawkes hasn't made a peep in two hours. I have to assume she's either working up to something behind the scenes or is dormant for the rest of the night. None of my officers have reported anything in the apa-" a loud blast that made Audrey's ears ring and the entire building shake broke through Gotham like a ripple in a pond, disturbing everything. Car alarms started blaring outside, and Audrey wasted no time in leaping to her feet, pain forgotten, and racing to the roof. Bruce caught her around the waist and pulled her back hard against the building just after she set foot on the roof. Gordon wasn't long after them. Smoke and fire rose high in the sky, accompanied by the glittering sight of objects falling from the sky in pieces, raining down like sharp ice. The longer she watched the flames and the falling pieces, the more the horror in her gut grew. A piece of a porcelain lamp she recognized hit the rooftop and shattered into little bits. The lamp had belonged to an elderly woman four floors above Audrey. Audrey had carried the lamp upstairs for the woman two years ago. Another familiar piece of something fluttered down, and Audrey pushed out of Bruce's arms and grabbed it out of the air. In her hand lay a still smoldering piece of wood with a flaming piece of cloth that Audrey recognized as coming off the couch in her apartment. Bruce had her quickly in his arms again, face hidden in his chest as he held her. The flaming cloth burned her hand slightly, but she paid next to no attention to it as shock took hold of her system.
"What's going on?" Gordon questioned. Bruce took off his mask and dropped it to the ground, then took Audrey's face in his gloved hands. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, seeming to stare out behind him, yet stare at a speck on his armor. The tan had disappeared from her skin, and the beginnings of a tremor were working there way through her body.
"Audrey. Look at me." after a few seconds, her eyes slid to Bruce's face and focused, pupils dilated to the point of swallowing her icy irises.
"You cannot lose it. I need you to stay together." the tremors in her chest grew to full out shaking as he watched, but her eyes remained clear and focused on his face. Gordon silently sidled up behind Bruce and looked at the two.
"I never wanted to have to ask this of you, but I need you to be me for now until we can get rest. I need you to quiet and sit on your emotions. Your shock, your fear, your anger, your terror. Sit on them until dawn. When we go back to the Manor, you can cry all day. Right now, I need the Audrey that has always had my back in rough situations. Who kept her cool when being mugged in an alley. Who willingly and knowingly traveled into a warehouse when she knew it was deadly. Who turned back to save her best friend while in danger of dying of a bomb. I need Audrey Habicht, newfound White Knight of Gotham." the shaking died back down to tremors, then disappeared as Audrey bottled her emotions and held onto the raw anger she felt. The anger that would keep her up and running for the next three hours instead of curling into a ball and crying. Closing her eyes, she nodded slowly. Bruce released her slowly, and she rubbed her biceps, eyes still closed.
"She's done for the night." was all she said. Gordon's brows furrowed, and he looked from the masked crusader to Audrey and back. Audrey's eyes opened as she looked at Gordon.
"That was my apartment building." Gordon's eyes widened in realization and he looked back at the inferno and flying pieces of debris in the air. Pieces of people's lives, of lives that were now almost all over.
Gordon looked back to Audrey, who was watching him with battle hardened eyes.
"Why is she done?" he questioned softly. Audrey looked at him blankly for a minute, reverting back to ditzy Audrey Habicht who forgot what she said as soon as she said it.
"Oh. That. She's done because that was her finale for the night. She's made the hard blow to weaken our side, and she wants us to digest, to grieve, and to regroup. She wants us to come back and fight hard. It makes it more fun for her." Gordon nodded, still watching her with worried eyes.
"Both of you go home. I'll call Audrey when I need you." Bruce nodded and pulled on the cowl before gently taking Audrey's hand and leading her back downstairs. Her silence and emotions were fragile, that much he could tell. If she snapped before they got back to the manor, he was going to have a hell of a time getting her inside.
The Tumbler took off with a roar and Bruce made it back to the Batcave in record time, lifting Audrey out carefully and sending her to the elevator.
"Grab a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt out of my drawer. Leave your clothes by the door. I'll be up in a minute." she nodded and disappeared into the elevator. She managed to get changed and nearly to the bed before Bruce came in and she began the break down process. The two simply looked at eachother, and then she could feel the tears running down her face before her breath became ragged and turned into painful sobs. She could taste the saltiness before her body was too wracked with the sobs to register much else. Bruce crossed the room quickly and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her hard against his bare chest. The first hitched breath came, her chest jumping as the breath turned into a sob and her tears finally made their way to her chin. Bruce's warm skin against her freezing skin didn't help at all as her body relaxed and more tears flowed. He picked her up carefully, then laid her on the bed and began to leave.
"No! No." he looked back, and through squinted eyes, Audrey watched his stony face waver slightly as he struggled to keep together.
"I need to-"
"Please." his mask cracked, and he made his way back to the bed while Audrey tried to hold in the sobs that threatened to tear her apart. Audrey rarely ever experienced this true crying, being particularly emotionally hardened by the age of ten. When it did appear, it always took hours to leave, and hours to recuperate. Bruce crossed the bed on his hands and knees and pulled Audrey to him again, cocooning her in his arms. Her sobs quieted slightly from their natural loudness whenever they did manage to break through.
Some three hours later, Audrey managed to quiet and fall asleep. Bruce pulled away slightly and looked at her, running his thumb across her cheek before he rose and disappeared from the room. He sat at the top of the staircase with Fawke's tracker in his hands and watched the little dot more for more than six hours before Alfred discovered him and forced him back to his room.
"You may not feel you need the sleep, but you do sir. And what would Audrey feel if she woke up and you weren't there?"
"She's a big girl, Alfred."
"She may be a big girl, but beneath her facade she's still human. Still has a heart, which has the ability to be disappointed, broken, and left to hang. Her heart is like an open book right now. Her walls are gone and she allowed herself to cry before you." Alfred seemed to be struggling for words that usually came so easily to him. However, his master got what he meant to say. Bruce nodded slowly, then turned and headed back to the bedroom, shutting the door behind him and joining Audrey again in bed. He wrapped his arms around her, and cursed at the chilly temperature of her body against the very warm temperature of his. She jumped slightly, and her eyes snapped open. She looked at Bruce, and he smirked.
"You're freezing."
"That's not new." she responded, relishing in the heat rolling off his body in waves. He pulled her back against him, spooning her, and released a breath.
"What's on your mind?" she questioned. She seemed to sense that he hadn't been in the bed for quite some time now, but said nothing about it.
"Things I don't need to be thinking about right now." she frowned slightly out into the blackness, then pushed her hips backward so her entire body lined up with his.
"There is no set time for you to think about anything."
"I'm not Batman right now." He protested quietly.
"And? For the past two and a half months, it seems you think like Batman while you're Bruce and like Bruce while you're Batman. It doesn't bother anybody else but you." Bruce rested his cheek on her hair, feeling his stubble catch against her soft curls.
"When I'm with you, I'm an entirely new man. I don't want to think like Batman, I want to think about you. I want to be able to keep my mind here so I can comfort you, and so I can be who you seem to think I am." she coughed in an attempt to stop a bubble of laughter, and he could feel her diaphragm jump with the sound and sudden rush of air.
"You are the man I think you are. Either I know your dirty secrets, or you're not as different as you thought you were." she flipped over to look at him, and he laid his hand on her neck, thumb rubbing circles on her jaw.
"I love you." she gave him a quirky, cat like smile.
"I know. Stop digressing." she paused and forced him to look at her, "I love you the way you are. I understand and accept that you will never be completely here, unless you retire. I don't expect that to happen any time soon, and it doesn't bother me. Accept that you have like, three different sides to you, and this will all be better." he captured her lips softly, and her arms wound around his neck, pulling herself closer to him. His hands found their way under the hem of the t-shirt and traveled up her spine, locking onto her shoulders.
A loud buzzing woke Audrey up around nine that night, and she groped for her phone on the bedside table. Once her fingers closed around the cold object, she opened it and brought it to her ear.
"Hello?"
"This is your wake up call. I need you both down here in an hour." she nodded, then remembered he couldn't see her nod.
"Alright." she hung up, and turned to wake Bruce up. After a few shakings, she groaned and kissed him lightly. He grabbed her and rolled on top, pinning her to the bed. She laughed against his lips, then pushed at him lightly.
"Get off, we've only got an hour and I need to shower." she pushed at him again and he reluctantly rolled off. She got up and stepped into the bathroom before turning on the water and jumping in.
Twenty minutes later, she stepped out, towel wrapped around herself, and Bruce stepped in. Once back in his room, she quickly located clothes that would fit her, consisting of large sweatpants and a t-shirt of his, then her tennis shoes and jacket. Bruce stepped out of the shower, towel riding low on his hips again, and the duo looked at eachother before Audrey cracked up and Bruce gave her a confused look. She calmed down after a minute or two, then giggled sporadically as she looked at him again.
"I will make you stay here if you're suddenly going into hysterics." he threatened. She giggled again, then scooted over to him and walked her fingers up his bare chest.
"You look like a sex god right now, and I look fairly unattractive. We make quite the duo." his hand swallowed hers, stopping the upward motion.
"I like it when you wear my clothes." he decided. She cocked her head to the side, looking at him.
"They're too big so it hides you from the world." she laughed, then bounced onto her toes and pressed a light kiss to his lips. Where she had an intention of pulling away, Bruce had no intention of letting her go that easily as his arms caught around her waist and pulled her against his chest. This was not the heated kiss from earlier, but a sweet, tender display of emotion. Her chilled fingers rested on his chest, and then he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. Without a doubt in her mind, she knew something horrible was going to happen tonight. Both her and Bruce knew it, apparently. However, she wasn't sure how horrible, to whom it would be horrible, or when the horrid would occur.
"Master Wayne, you have twenty minutes to get to the city." Alfred called softly. Bruce pressed his lips to Audrey's forehead, lingering longer than normal before pulling away.
"I'll meet you downstairs." he released her, and she ducked out of the room, following Alfred and rolling the sweatpants about five times. Then she pulled the elastic bottoms up just below her knees.
"Much better." he led her down into the Batcave after handing her a few fruit filled bars.
"Eat up. Don't want you getting weak while in the field of play." Alfred informed her. She looked at him with an amused rise of her eyebrow.
"Thank you, Alfred." she gave him a hug, then slipped into Bruce's side of the Tumbler and looked at all the controls above her head. All of the hundred buttons were lit up and each had a little word below it, describing what it did. She shook her head.
"How does he remember these?" she murmured, then gripped the wheel and let her mind wander. She wondered about what would happen tonight. She wondered about the feeling of dread in her belly. She wondered about Gordon and how he dealt with all of this shit for so long. She wondered about how he felt knowing that Batman was Bruce Wayne. She wondered if he would tell anyone. She wondered if the city knew, then what would become of Bruce?
"Can you get out for a minute?" Bruce's voice shattered her thoughts and she glanced up at him, realizing his mask was off, then climbed out and flattened the clothes.
"How do you remember all those buttons?" he glanced inside.
"Did you miss the labels?" she frowned.
"No, but I was hoping that you could remember them." he shook his head.
"So, before we go unwittingly to our deaths in a few minutes, I've a question for you." she looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. He seemed puzzled a moment, then sunk down on one knee. Audrey's heart nearly stopped beating as her eyes went wide and she turned bright red.
"I've known you for two and a half months, but the crap I have put you through makes it feel like forever. You hated me, you liked me, you loved me, despite me being Batman, despite my overbearingness and despite the danger. I've almost lost you a few times, due to injury and due to my own pigheadedness. I don't want to feel that again, ever. I want you by my side until the day I die. I'm hoping you want the same." she looked at him.
"What would you do if I said no?" he glared at her and she laughed nervously.
"I wouldn't rather be anywhere else." she sniffled, smiling so hard her cheeks hurt. He took her left hand and slid on her mother's engagement ring, causing her to laugh while covering her mouth with her other hand. The ring, of course, fit much better now, fitting onto her finger like she'd been born with it. He stood up and embraced her, holding her tight against him.
"That means you can't die on me today."