Chapter 14
Bruce and Damian had taken night monitoring duty in the BatCave with promises to wake Bane and Tim if something urgent came up so that Bane could get to bed early, for once, since starting his new night schedule, so that he and Jason could leave first thing in the morning. Good-bye's had been said after meditating, since Bruce definitely wouldn't be waking up to see the travelers off at eight a.m..
"Take care of Harley for me this week," Jason had surprised Bruce by saying as they hugged it out before he went to bed. Bruce had blinked.
"I think Harley could take care of all of Arkham and probably most of Gotham," he said, meaning it as a compliment, but Jason had tightened his lips and shaken his head a little bit.
"She's fragile sometimes, underneath all that," he said seriously. "You'll watch out for her for me, Pops?" he asked him again and Bruce had nodded.
"I will," he said, noticing that his assurance did indeed seem to ease some of Jason's tension as his son nodded back to him.
"Why do you have to leave again when you just got here?" Damian had asked Jason with a frown when he hugged him.
"We'll come back, kiddo," Jason had said to him gently, reaching out to rub his hair but, Bruce noticed, not answering the question. Which, come to think of it, Bruce didn't really know the answer to either. Bane had only said that Jason needed to take care of something out of town and that Harley had asked him to go as well so that she wouldn't worry about Jason traveling alone.
Bane had said it in such a matter of fact manner that Bruce hadn't even thought to question what the business was, as apathetic as he still was most days. He trusted Bane and he figured he didn't care what Jason was up to. But ... the lack of full disclosure was troubling, when he began to think about it.
"We'll only be gone about a week," Jason had been saying to Damian when Bruce had tuned back in to the conversation, "and you can call me and Bane to talk to us while we're gone, ok?"
"Ok," Damian muttered.
"I promise, I'm coming back this time," Jason had repeated to him, surprising Bruce with his fatherly concern towards Damian. "And you know I'm coming back because I'm leaving Harley here with you," Jason had added with a grin.
Damian had looked over at Harley's smiling eyes and slowly relaxed a little bit. "Ok," he had sighed begrudgingly.
"Ok," Jason said with a smile, giving Damian one last hug and a kiss in his hair.
"Take care of yourself while I am gone, Bruce," Bane said when he had approached him to say good-bye. Bruce had nodded, meeting Bane's softly concerned eyes.
"I will," he said. "I'm doing better," he had added, feeling the need to reassure his friend.
"You are," Bane said. "Keep up with the pillows, you and Harley will make the Batbabies do it with you each night, yes?"
"Yes," Bruce had promised, wondering what it was about Bane's gaze that was making him feel so confused tonight.
Despite their daily practice, Bruce had never managed to completely lose his tension when Bane hugged him, but tonight as Bane pulled him into a hug, Bruce felt himself melting into it, thinking while he relaxed into Bane's arms about how much he was going to miss his friend, and how much he appreciated him, and how nice it was to have him around, and how good Bane's arms around him felt. But he definitely wasn't thinking about why he'd wanted to wrap his arm around Bane's waist earlier.
"I'll call you this week," Bruce said to him as they slowly pulled apart.
"Please do," Bane said, with a tender look in his eye that pulled a warm, albeit small, smile onto Bruce's face.
Bruce rarely had trouble sleeping, but he found himself tossing and turning long after he had tucked Damian in after a relatively peaceful night in Gotham that hadn't required the Batman to suit up. He felt… empty… when he thought of the week ahead without Bane's presence in the manor. And anxious, too, he had to admit, at the thought of being the only parent in charge again. And the only Batman in town.
Fuck, he suddenly realized. He was going to have to suit up and do patrols this week. Bane had benched Tim while he was absent, but Bruce, in his mental sluggishness, hadn't really pieced together the consequences of leaving Gotham unprotected during the week ahead. That was something that Bane, with only a week's worth of experience as Batman, hadn't even thought to consider and something that he, Batman 1.0, should have been on the ball about covering.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, he thought with frustration. Normally he might ask Dick to come patrol at least every other night if Bruce Wayne had to be out of town, so that Gotham still saw the Bat's presence, but him and Dick right now - well, Bruce couldn't exactly call him up and ask him to cover patrols in Gotham because he didn't feel like doing it. And even on the rare occasions that Dick did patrol as Batman, he always had either Robin or Batgirl with him. The city was too big and too stuffed with violence for one person to cover alone.
So, he was going to have to take Tim out with him? Oh, Harley was going to flip her lid about that. And, to be honest, Bruce had an uneasy feeling in his gut about taking his Robin out. What if he froze? What if he couldn't protect him? What if he was too slow, too broken, to do his job and his son got killed? Bruce shuddered, thinking back to finding Jason's dead body in the warehouse, and he pulled the covers up around him tighter.
He'd leave Tim at home, he decided. He was the Batman once upon a time without backup, years ago before he'd adopted Dick; he'd be just fine. Better to keep the kid safe, he thought. But making that decision didn't help Bruce find sleep any faster.
He was grumpier than usual when his alarm went off at one p.m. the next day and he thought about staying in bed, but he'd promised Bane that he was doing better, and his family needed him, so… Bruce reluctantly got up and got showered. As he exited his room, he noticed something dangling around the doorknob. Raising an eyebrow, Bruce lifted off one of the leftover BFF bracelets from last night.
It was half of a flower. As he curiously turned it over in his hand, he noticed that something was scratched onto the back of it: NFHF. The goofiest smile lit up his face as the happiest warmth filled his chest. Bane, he thought to himself, sliding the bracelet on. His New Friend Hopefully Forever.
Damian was hard at work cooking pancakes when Bruce walked into the kitchen, with Alfred on eggs and bacon duty, and Harley struggling to cut up fresh fruit at the counter, looking ridiculously inept. Bruce raised an eyebrow at her as he poured himself a cup of coffee after kissing the back of Damian's head and giving Alfred's shoulders a little squeeze.
"Do you need some help?" he asked Harley. She glowered at him.
"I neveh, evuh, cut fruit up before. What'sa point? When you could just bite it?" she looked as miserable as Damian had looked the day that Bane had imposed cooking lessons on him, to be honest.
"You never learned to cook, Harley?" Bruce asked her, thinking that surely she must have had some rudimentary kitchen skills before her descent into madness. But she shook her head aggressively.
"We mostly ate fast food, growin' up," she said. "Or packaged. Didn't have money for fresh fruit and vegetables," she said, making another awkward chop into a mango. "An' in college I ate in the cafeteria. Or got frozen food to cook at home. Didn't really have time or money to cook back then, either. An' I just ate out a lot when I was workin' at Arkham 'cause why bother cookin' after all that time not?"
"Oh," Bruce said, feeling guilty at how easily he took fresh food for granted, not to mention Alfred's cooking. "I guess you really like having Jason to cook for you, then," he said as he moved to get another knife and cutting board.
"Yeah," Harley said with a big smile as Bruce took the mango from her and pushed the carton of strawberries her way instead. "Jay-Jay's the best, Brucie. Not just for the cookin', either. But that part's really nice, not gonna lie." Bruce gave her a small but warm smile.
"You two seem really happy together," he said. She nodded, her face beaming.
"We are. We kinda had a little fight last night," she admitted out of the blue, "but we worked it out and made up. I wish he wasn't gonna be gone for a week," she pouted. "I ain't neveh had to live without him like this before." Bruce was surprised to see Harley looking so vulnerable, and he thought back to Jason's words from the night before.
"What did you fight about?" he asked her. "If you don't mind me asking," he said. "I'm surprised you two ever fight about anything."
"Oh, everybody fights," Harley said, slipping suddenly into more of a psychologist's voice. "Well, every healthy couple, that is," she amended. "If you ain't never fightin' I'm worried about what you're stuffin' under the rug. You know?" she asked him and Bruce slowly nodded.
"You just gotta resolve what you were fightin' about in a fair way and make up really good to stay a strong couple," Harley said, cutting up the strawberries with a little more ease than the mango.
"I guess that makes sense," Bruce said, thinking back to his and Talia's relationship. He actually grinned at the memories. "Me and Talia used to have some crazy fights," he reminisced, "but, you know, she was Talia," he said with a little laugh. "I thought we were kind of abnormal as a couple, to be honest, that healthier people wouldn't be fighting like that."
"Nah," Harley said, shaking her head. "You always made up, right? And worked it out?"
"Yeah," Bruce said, fondly remembering some of the great make-up sex. "We did. And we were pretty good at figuring out solutions once we both calmed down. We were just two stubborn, strong-willed people," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "So we got into it sometimes."
"Of course," Harley said. "But you loved each other enough to solve each situation, in the end. I bet you miss her," she said empathetically, and Bruce nodded.
"I do," he said honestly. "I'd give anything to have her back, the way she was. But since I can't…" he sighed. "I miss having a relationship," he admitted. "Seeing you and Jason yesterday showed me how much," he said.
"Well, maybe you'll find someone else now that you're ready," Harley said encouragingly. "I never thought I ever wanted another relationship after what Mistah J did to me. I didn't even have condoms in my safe houses!" she laughed and Bruce had to chuckle.
"But then Jay came along, and he was just so right." Harley said with a bashful smile. "I didn't want to admit it at first, but he fit me so perfectly, Bruce. And I've never been happier," she said, sighing with relief as she dumped the cut strawberries into the fruit salad bowl.
"Maybe I'll get that lucky, too," Bruce said, and even he could see that his depression must be improving if he could make such a hopeful statement and actually halfway believe it.
"I hope that you will," Harley said, smiling up at him. "You try real hard to be better, Bruce. Me and Jay both see that. You deserve to be happy, too," she said, reaching out and squeezing his hand.
"Thanks," Bruce said, marveling at how nice it was to have a conversation with Harley Quinn and realizing that he kind of liked her, now that she wasn't hellbent on killing him. Huh. The oddities of life, he thought. "So, your fight?" he asked her. "You gonna share?" he teased.
"Oh," Harley said, laughing a little bit. "It was about the Replacement. You know," she said, sighing and rolling her eyes a little bit. "I didn't like Jay going after him like that. And he didn't exactly like me not liking it. So." She shrugged. "We worked it out before we went to bed," she said matter-of-factly.
"Thanks for talking to him about that," Bruce said to her with genuine appreciation. "I was going to ask you to."
"He'll come around," Harley said. "But he's been through a lot, Bruce. There will always be some scars." Bruce nodded, thinking that Jason wasn't the only one scarred.
"Breakfast is ready, Father," Damian said, interrupting Bruce's reverie.
"Good work," Bruce told him, smiling as Damian carried the platter of pancakes to the table, followed by Alfred with the eggs and bacon. Bruce gave the fruit salad a final mix after adding the mango that he had finished cutting and he and Harley joined them at the table.
"I'm going to have to patrol tonight," Bruce said with a slight grimace to Damian. "I'll need you and either Tim or Steph on monitor duty in the BatCave." Damian nodded at once but Harley frowned and Alfred's eyes looked worried.
"You're not fit to be out there, Bruce," Harley said. He sighed.
"Maybe not," he admitted, "but I didn't think about Bane being gone all week. We can't leave Gotham unpatrolled; everyone will notice if none of the Bats are out for that long. And I can't call Dick in at the moment. Nightwing," he added, even though he figured that Harley probably already knew Dick's identity.
"Why can't you call Dick?" she asked.
"He and my Father had a vicious argument," Damian said calmly. "Dick thinks Father favors Jason. Father thinks Dick is jealous. They nearly came to blows." Bruce groaned and dropped his face into his hands but Alfred chuckled a tiny bit.
"A very accurate assessment of the events, Master Damian," he said, but then he sighed. "This is unfortunately not the first time that Master Dick and Master Bruce have had words."
"You two need to talk," Harley said seriously.
"I know," Bruce said, raising his head. "I was going to pick Bane's brain for some ideas on how to do that this week." Harley nodded.
"Good," she said. "But you still can't go out patrolling, Bruce. You're going to get yourself hurt when your mind's not fully focused." He sighed.
"Do you have any other suggestions?" he said. "I'm not sending Tim out. And I'm not suggesting taking him out with me, either. I won't risk him like that. But…" he trailed off. Harley bit her lip.
"I can do it," she said. Bruce looked at her. "Just tell me what to do," she shrugged, "and I'll do your Batstuff. I'm more than capable of handling criminals," she said with a grin when Bruce gave her a skeptical look.
"You'd have to suit up as Batgirl," he said. "We need the Bats' presence, not the Queen of Gotham's."
"That's fine," Harley said. "I should be able to fit into Steph's suit. I'll spar you and Damian in it this afternoon to get used to it." Damian's eyes lit up at the opportunity to fight Harley and she grinned at him, ruffling his hair.
"You'll need a partner," Bruce said, though. "I can't send you out there alone." Harley made a pffft noise with her mouth.
"I'll be totally fine," she said without the slightest ounce of ego, just the truth of experience giving her voice weight. "I ran Arkham and Gotham for seven years after killing Mistah J without anyone backing me up. I got this, Bruce."
"I know," Bruce said, "but I promised Jason I'd take care of you. He will kill me if I let you go out there by yourself." Harley hesitated. "Look, you made him take Bane with him for a damn road trip," Bruce pointed out. "You think he's gonna like you going out as Batgirl, not as Harley Quinn, by yourself?"
"I guess not," she conceded, chewing her lip. "But I'm not taking the kid out," she said, referring to Tim. "He don't belong out there anyway, no matter what you and Bane and him say. I ain't gonna put his life on the line like that with me."
"So where does that leave us," Bruce muttered, rubbing his face. Harley's face brightened.
"Say!" she said. "I got a really great idea, but you'll probably hate it, Batsy." Bruce sighed. Deeply.
"Let's hear it," he growled reluctantly.
"I been wantin' to get the Suicide Squad outta Arkham for awhile now," Harley said. "They can be my backup."
"What the fuck is a Suicide Squad?" Bruce said, staring at her.
"Oh, you ain't heard about it yet," Harley said, remembering that she and Jay had only talked about it with Tim and Stephanie. "Your girl Waller's been runnin' an illegal merc squad with some of her inmates, blackmailin' everyone into suicide missions, threatenin' their families on the outside if they don't participate."
"'Course we ain't never gotten ourselves killed yet," Harley said, "'cause I been makin' sure that we're a tight unit and we cover each other's backs. And they've been doin' ok without me so far, I trained 'em good. But I need to get them outta there and this is as good a time as any to do it."
Bruce's eyes had gotten huge, but they almost as quickly narrowed into anger and the hard lines of Batman's face showed up in his clenched jaw. Damian had stopped chewing and he looked absolutely intrigued and Alfred looked most disturbed.
"That fuckin' bitch," Bruce said in a low voice. "I supported her placement as warden because I thought she'd be better for the inmates," he growled. Harley gave him an assessing look.
"That's what happens when you trust the Man," she said. "You oughtta know better by now, Bats." He shook his head angrily.
"We need to get her removed," he growled.
"Now, now," Harley said, patting his arm. "Let's not be hasty, Brucie. Waller's got her uses. We just need to pull her strings a little more to make her work for us instead of against us." Bruce looked at her questioningly. "Her missions ain't half bad," Harley said. "They need doin'. She's just goin' about it the wrong way, forcin' people into it and not providin' us with adequate backup and exit plans sometimes." Harley smiled ruefully.
"Honestly, a lot of the Squad members don't mind bein' useful, they just don't want their families threatened and their lives bein' treated as worthless. Well, except for Deadshot," Harley laughed. "That stupid sonofabitch tries to get himself killed every mission we pull. Good thing he's too skilled for his own damn good," she chuckled. "Keeps comin' out alive no matter what crazy stunt he pulls."
The Batman glared at her with full intensity. "You cannot be thinking of freeing Deadshot," he said to her flatly. "No way. He is off the table." Harley raised her eyebrow.
"Whoever I say is on the table, is on the table," she said with some steel in her voice. "He's got a daughter he never gets to see."
"So we'll get him visiting hours," Bruce said. "Deadshot will take any assassination contract offered to him. He's uncontrollable. He'd kill me. Or Robin. Or you," Bruce said. "Or Jason. It doesn't matter to him," Bruce insisted. "He's a total loose cannon and he is too dangerous to let out."
"Like I haven't considered that," Harley said, rolling her eyes with as much attitude as Steph was in the habit of dishing out. "I wouldn't spring him without him agreeing to certain terms. I'm not an idiot, Bruce, sheesh," she groused. "I have a plan for all of this. Have had one for quite some time, in fact. Was just waitin' for the right time to make my move."
"I would very much like to meet Deadshot, Father," Damian said brightly.
Bruce growled a little bit but it was mixed with a resigned sigh. "You're not meeting Deadshot," he said to Damian before looking to Harley. "I'm not agreeing to this," he said, "Yet. But… I'll hear you out," he grumbled.
"Good," Harley said, leaning forward eagerly on her elbows as she prepared to brief the Bat on her failproof plan to free her Suicide Squad.