The little boy in Adriana's dream smiled as he walked away with his bowl of ice cream. Harri smiled as she watched him walk over to a table. She then took a spoonful of the strawberry ice cream and fed it to Adriana. Adriana felt herself smile before she woke from the dream.
She stretched her arms and sat up in the bed, looking at the line of sunlight on the wall that came in between the curtains. Wondering if she was imagining it, she stuck her index finger into her mouth. It was cold.
.
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"How did things go with Madame Twyla?" Aymara whispered to Adriana.
"Other than her being a complete extortionist with unreasonable prices," Adriana whispered back. "Pretty amazing. I'm going to see here after I leave here with these watches for her."
"Oh wow," Aymara said as Adriana removed one of the watches from her purse. "She's given you potions?"
"Yes," Adriana said quietly. "Well just one." Adriana neglected mentioning the red potion that she had stolen which she was sure was still in her trench coat pocket.
"Be careful with anything you use from her," Aymara insisted, still keeping her voice quiet. "Make sure you follow the dosage exactly."
"I can't..." Adriana said. "I need to use more than what her dosage recommendation says."
"You need to?"
"Yes...for various reasons. But it seems to be working well."
"Okay, sis, if you say so," Aymara said. "No side effects?"
"Well..maybe."
"What happened?"
"I woke up this morning and the inside of my mouth was cold."
"Cold?"
"Yes..I had just had a dream...or premonition I guess..that I had a spoonful of ice cream and then when I woke up it was like my mouth really had just had ice cream in it-"
"Are you serious child?" Sidi had entered the dining room carrying three small plates. Aymara immediately took the plate Sidi was balancing on her wrist. "Physical manifestations of your visions."
"Yes..." Adriana said, scanning Sidi's thoughts to make sure that she hadn't heard them talking about Madame Twyla.
"Well, now we will have to keep a very close eye on you. This is sign that we are getting much closer to having to remove your gift," Sidi said and sat a plate, which contained a chocolate croissant, in front of Adriana.
"Maybe not," Adriana said. "I mean my mouth being cold for two or three minutes isn't exactly dangerous, Sidi."
"Next time it may not be your mouth being cold. Maybe it will be a heart attack, or inflammation from a wound someone has in their memories, bruising, organ failure-" Sidi went on before sitting.
"No, Sidi," Adriana said. "I don't think that's what's going to happen. I mean this is very mild."
"For now," Sidi said. "And you were sleeping?"
"Yes, and I always have a similar dream every time. Every single time. It's quite pleasant...a little boy, either me giving him a bath or me and my sister in a kitchen and she gives him some ice cream. It's nothing dangerous."
"For now."
.
.
.
Bruce held Adriana's wrist gently and smiled looking down at the watch, which he thought was the one that he had given her.
"I'm glad you could make it," he said.
Adriana had joined him for a late lunch at an Italian restaurant. It was after 3 p.m. The restaurant was nearly empty giving them a lot of privacy.
"Of course," Adriana said to him. She could tell that he had Shade on his mind. "I see what happened."
"I mean..." Adriana started to say not, attempting to sound neutral, trying to sound like she was not siding with Shade. "I guess there is no guarantee that if you both went together that you would have been successful. Things could have turned out even worse."
"That is true," he said." I suppose I feel a bit badly sending her to go and locate to the weapons shipment. She did find them somehow, but mostly I sent her to get her out of my way so that I could go after Joker."
"You don't need to feel badly about that."
"Why not?" he laughed and lifted his wine glass.
"I don't know. You don't owe anyone anything. She made her own decision follow your order and go to find a shipment."
"You're trying to make me feel better. And it is working."
"Good," Adriana smiled.
"So how have you been?" he asked.
"Great, just a bit busy," she answered. "I really hope you don't feel bad about the Joker getting away. I mean..that's usually how it happens."
" I need to clear my head," he said. " I was thinking I would go away for a day. Maybe two. I feel like I'm running on empty. I really need a reset... So that I can come back with my head clear. Possibly the Cayman Islands."
"Oh, that sounds nice," Adriana said.
"Would you like to come with me?" he asked. " I know we talked about going away after everything is settled here with the Joker, but I think that could take a while."
"Oh..." Adriana said as her voice drifted off. She truly wanted to go, but more than that she felt determined. Determined to stop the Joker, and she did not want to take any days off.
"You don't sound too excited," Bruce observed.
"I really am excited," she said. "But I don't think I can get away right now I mean things are a little bit hectic for me and I can't get away."
"I see," Bruce said. "No worries."
"You're not worried about leaving Gotham all on its own for 24 to 48 hours?" she asked him.
"Well.." he said and began to cut into his steak. "It seems like Shade will have it covered when it comes to most of the crimes here."
"And the Joker?"
"Well, when she wanted to join me with trying to trap him when he was buying the weapons," Bruce said thoughtfully. "That was probably the first time that I've seen her show any true interest and initiative in actively going after him. I don't think she wants anything to do with him actually and she's right for staying away. He'll keep for two days. I'll deal with him when I come back."
"When are you leaving for the Caymans?" she asked him.
"Tomorrow night," he answered.
.
.
.
"I have this covered, you don't have to be here," Shade told the Batman.
They were on the 14th level of a parking structure and several yards away from where the Batman was standing he could see a white van turned over on its side. There was over half-a-million dollars worth of cocaine in the back, spilling out onto the ground.
He looked back at Shade who was tying up a man, binding his wrist to a pole.
" I can see that," he said. "You're quite early."
"They changed the time of the meet at the last minute," she said, unenthusiastically.
He didn't bother asking her how she knew such a thing. That had both received information about a massive movement of drugs this evening.
"The police will be here in a few minutes," she told the Batman.
"I smell gasoline," he observed.
"Yeah well the van went over pretty hard," she said dismissively.
"Shade," the Batman said and followed her as she walked closer to the van.
"There's another unconscious I need to tie up before I go."
"Shade," he said while following quickly behind her and taking her left arm with his right hand.
She immediately bent her elbow a bit forcefully as she turned and looked at him.
"I'm sorry," he said and immediately released her arm. She kept walking quickly.
"What do you want?" she asked without turning around.
"To apologize," she said and she stopped walking.
"Okay," she said and finally looked at him.
She could see the black surrounding his eyes as he looked at her through his mask. His lips were pressed together tightly as if he was not used to apologizing.
"Perhaps I could have used your help," he said. " I also apologize for asking you to go to the shipping yard."
"Well, you didn't exactly ask," she said.
" I apologize," he said very slowly. "For ordering you to go the shipping yard."
"Okay," she said. "Fine,"
"You're obviously very good at what you do," he said. "But you have never dealt with the Joker. No one can be prepared for it, not even me. It takes instinct."
"You think I don't have instinct?" she smiled. His thoughts told her that he felt like everything he did or said around her was wrong.
"It takes a certain type of instinct to deal with the Joker. One you can only develop from being around him, hearing and seeing his mind games enough times."
"Right," she said. "Well, I forgive you. For being bossy and domineering and rude."
"I appreciate it," he said calmly while looking into her eyes.
"So do I."
"Do you hear that?" the Batman asked. The direction of the van that was turned over and saw one of the dealers trying to crawl away. He was making a shuffling sound on the ground.
"Right," Shade said and kept walking. "Him."
"Is he the last one?" the Batman asked.
"Yes," she answered. "His leg is broken-" She froze in place.
The man's thoughts came in loud and clear. He was terminal ill but not very far along with ALS. He had pride. He would not suffer deteriorating with a broken leg. He was reaching into his pocket where he had a set of matches.
"What the hell is he doing?" the Batman asked. "He's going to blow the truck-"
"Yeah," Shade said as she and the Batman began to turn and run in the other direction.
"There's no time," she heard him say beside her, and then one quick movement he wrapped his arm around her waist, lept up into the air, and jumped out of the opening in the wall of the parking structure.
It happened so fast that Adriana could barely understand what was happening. One minute they were under the fluorescent lights in the parking structure and the next the darkness and fog outside. They were falling and the pull of gravity, and the sound of the explosion, so suddenly made her feel like she was on a dream. Then in the following moment she felt the force of them crashing down. Once she gathered herself, she saw that the Batman had landed on top of a gray truck. He was on his back, using his body to break the fall so that she barely felt any impact.
She was beside him looking down at his face. One of her arms under his and the other on his chest. She looked up and saw the sky filled with smoke. Slowly, she tilted her head back down.
He was very quiet while has his hand reached up and touched the side of her face. She did not resist or pull away, and for that he was glad. He could not feel her skin through the armor over his hands, and he felt himself rising up a bit to press his lips against hers.
She pulled out of the kiss after a moment, seeing his thoughts, seeing that he was having a moment of deja vu. He was remembering jumping after Rachel after the Joker had pushed her from a window.
"It's okay," Shade said before he could apologize. "It's totally fine. I just can't though."
For some reason she was a bit confused with both the Batman and herself. There was no reason for her to be upset with him for kissing her. Because he was kissing her..Adriana... But he didn't know that. He thought he was kissing someone else. And he was thinking of Rachel.
"It's just.." she said. "I'm sort of, seeing someone."
"Right," he said, his husky disguised growling voice sounding more quiet than she had ever heard it before. "Of course you are. So am I."
"Yeah," she said. "Well...I have to go. The work in Gotham...you know..it never stops."
"I know," he said and nodded as she walked away.
