Authors Note: Bruce Wayne is the Christian Bale version of the character; post 'Batman Begins'. The movies 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' do not occur.
Felicity and Laurel 35
The door to Felicity's room opened without warning, causing the hacker's eyes to fly up from her ever-present tablet, wondering if Bruce wasn't what he'd seemed, only to see Laurel standing there looking flushed and sweaty.
"I wasn't sure if you were Bruce so I'm not sure to be relieved or disappointed, I mean the idea of a handsome billionaire sneaking into your room has a certain appeal…" She drifted off at the look in Laurel's eyes, she was all business. "What's up?"
"I need you to do some digging, serious digging into Bruce Wayne's background" At the hacker's raised eyebrow she shook her head. "Not the public side, I need you to dig into his background, find any skeleton's buried there"
"Why? What's set this off?"
"I went down to the gym to work out" Felicity nodded, keeping Laurel's fitness level maintained took constant work. "Bruce was down there and I was watching him work out" Felicity smiled.
"Lucky you, I'm a little disappointed you didn't call me in to enjoy the floor show" Laurel shook her head.
"Girl, you get enough at home, more than most, so no complaints" Laurel walked over to the bed, already pulling the singlet up and fanning it to try and cool down, giving an amused Felicity a good look at Laurel's abs, they weren't a six pack, but they were heading that way. "Bruce, under those suits, is hard and cut"
"Nice, did you get your hands on him"" Laurel frowned, Felicity wasn't getting it.
"His body is as hard as Oliver's, maybe even more so" Felicity's jaw dropped open, then closed with a sudden click.
"Wow"
"Yeah. He was running through a series of combat moves when I spotted him, he didn't know I was there. When he saw me, he immediately stopped" Felicity's brain was now running as fast as her friends.
"Interesting. What happened?"
"I asked him to spar with me, which, after some coaxing, he did" At her friend's inquisitive look she sighed. "I totally kicked his ass, which shouldn't have happened" Felicity sat back, thinking it through, her voice slow.
"Maybe he's just a fitness freak, you are pretty good in hand to hand" Laurel shook her head decisively.
"No, he was tanking. He had reach, speed and strength on me, but he was foxing. Every so often I'd do something he wasn't ready for and his muscle memory would react before he could slow it down, he should have had me at least as quick as Oliver, maybe faster" Felicity's eyes narrowed as she leaned forward.
"He's that good?" Laurel nodded.
"Better than John, maybe better than Oliver" Laurel saw Felicity's eyes widen in shock. "Like I said, he should have wiped the floor with me, but instead he tanked" She pulled a face. "There's another thing" Felicity looked up at her friend.
"Well don't keep me in suspense" Laurel grimaced.
"Scars, lots of scars, god knows I've seen the same on Oliver, not as many or as bad as his, but I recognised bullet and knife scars" Felicity sat back in shock, finally managing to speak.
"Oh shit" Laurel let her singlet fall and nodded once.
"Yeah" Felicity nodded slowly, then looked up at her friend.
"Go have a shower and get changed…" She indicated her own Tardis-emblazoned pyjama pants and the singlet top with the words 'Is there a Doctor in the House?' splashed across the Dr Who logo. "…and then come back to me and we'll see what I've dug up"
Three hours later they sat across the huge bed and stared at each other, each hoping the other would say what they were thinking first. Finally Felicity sighed and waved at the tablet lying on the bed.
"We have a billionaire whose parents were killed by a criminal when he was a kid then in his late teens he disappears for seven years. When he gets back he refuses to talk about where he's been or what he's done, simply saying he's been travelling" Laurel frowned.
"Of which there is absolutely no record whatsoever" Felicity nodded.
"The media portrayal of him changes totally when he gets back. He goes from tragic orphan to the epitome of the party playboy, in fact that's all the media ever has to say. It's like his life outside that stereotype completely dissappears, all anyone sees is the bad boy" Laurel nodded.
"Since he got back Wayne Enterprises has gone from strength to strength, so someone's making good decisions there" Felicity shrugged.
"That'd be Lucius Fox. I looked him up, the man's a genius, technically amazing, people didn't think he was the CEO type, that he'd be a lot happier building things than running a company but misjudged him, W.E. has been a major success story ever since" Laurel chewed her lip for a moment.
"So we have a man who's richer than most, but lives frugally outside the stunts that appear in the media, which appear to happen every three or four months, almost like they're scheduled to keep up appearances. He keeps up a level of fitness that's serious enough to require real commitment" Both exchanged a glance, remembering all the work Oliver did to stay as fit as he was. No matter what else was going on, Oliver always made time to train. Felicity nodded slowly and continued the thread.
"No serious girlfriend, or boyfriend for that matter, lives alone in a mansion aside from a butler who's apparently been with the family since before Bruce's parents were killed" They sighed, before Laurel explicitly laid it out.
"And not long after he arrived back in Gotham, guess who turned up?" Felicity shook her head, almost willing it to not be true.
"How come no one else has connected the dots?" Laurel shrugged.
"We have an advantage; we've seen it from the inside" Felicity was obviously still struggling with what they'd discovered.
"But the Gotham Gazette, the television networks, they can't have been this blind. They must have been chasing this story ever since Batman turned up. How did they miss it?" She shook her head again. "The amount of resources to support some of the things he does, the equipment, that car he uses, that must cost millions. It all points to him"
"I think everyone else sees the bad boy image, he's certainly pulled enough stunts to feed the tabloids an image, everyone's bought into that, missing what's actually there"
"But…" Laurel sighed tiredly.
"I sure as hell wouldn't believe it except we managed to pull all the threads together" Laurel's eyes unfocussed for a moment. "If I hadn't got to see him without the suit, to see the muscles and the scars and to spar with him, I wouldn't have thought twice about it" She frowned to herself. "It's only that we've seen someone else with very similar physique and scars that made me start thinking"
"So Bruce Wayne is the Batman" She frowned, as if saying it made it real, looking up at Laurel who nodded slowly.
"Yeah, seems almost certain" Felicity took her glasses off and massaged her eyes for a moment, before looking up at her friend who shrugged.
"So what do we do with this, the knowledge I mean" Felicity pushed her glasses back on and contemplated the wall for a few second.
"We could tell Oliver I suppose…" Felicity trailed off, causing Laurel to look up at her.
"I sense a but in there"
"How would Oliver react if the tables were turned and it was some of Batman's associates who figured it out and told Bruce" Laurel winced at the thought.
"Oh god, he'd be livid" Felicity nodded.
"That's what I thought too" Laurel rubbed her chin for a moment, considering it.
"So you're suggesting we don't tell anyone"
"Not anyone, one person" As Laurel opened her mouth to ask Felicity finished the sentence. "Bruce" Laurel shut her mouth with a snap, sitting there, obviously thinking it through. Felicity left her to think it over before Laurel eventually spoke.
"Let him know, but tell him his secret's safe with us?" Felicity bobbed her head.
"Kinda how I saw it playing out" Surprising Felicity, Laurel suddenly grinned.
"We already know the secret identity of five different heroes, what's one more?" Felicity matched her grin.
"You have a point"
The following morning saw the worst of the storm lifting so after a late, shared breakfast Bruce bid both women farewell and departed for the airport, he'd enjoyed their company and it was partly because of their faith in the man that he'd asked them to convey an invitation to meet up with Oliver Queen; to try and restart the relationship with him, neither was the person they'd once been and he felt he owed it to both of them to at least try and reach out to the man.
It wasn't until he was sitting in his jet, lifting off from Midway Airport bound for Gotham that Bruce opened his laptop to find a large post it note stuck to the screen in neat, feminine handwriting. Picking it off the screen he read it.
Bruce, if you should ever need our help, in any of your incarnations, you know where to find us. Don't worry; we're good at keeping secrets. Laurel & Felicity
He reread the message several times before letting it drop away. Finally he turned to stare out the window, seeing the storm clouds outside, matching his turbulent thoughts. He'd been right; those two had been far too dangerous to keep around. He didn't know exactly how they'd worked it out, though he realised he should have begged off sparring with Lance, she'd been far more effective a combatant than he'd expected, surprising him. As the jet broke out above the cloud cover and into brilliant sunshine he half smiled to himself.
That about summed them up, they were both surprising, remarkable women and his instincts were telling him that they'd keep their knowledge to themselves, not that there was anything he could do about it anyway, but he found to his surprise he trusted them. The thought that he could call upon them in the future made him smile, people that smart, capable and trustworthy were a rare commodity, one he rarely encountered.
For now he'd leave it be but he didn't think he'd seen the last of Laurel Lance and Felicity Smoak.