Chapter Sixteen: A Child
Livia's knees grew weak and she would've crumbled to the floor if not supported within Bane's formidable arms.
She rested her hands on his strong shoulders and leaned forward as they both remained in silent, raggedly breathing in tandem until their heart rates returned to normal.
Bane eventually rose to his feet and cupped her jaw before he dropped his lips to hers and kissed her urgently.
"Let's get you something extra to eat," he finally murmured when he lifted his lips and led her back to Jenifer's cozy kitchen.
Bane and Barsad settled in the living room as Jenifer made lunch for everyone.
Livia dipped some crisp carrot sticks into a spicy hummus before she spoke to Jenifer's back.
"How did you know?"
Jenifer smiled as she poured herself a mug of steaming French roast. "I worked in obstetrics early in my career, you're positively glowing. You look like you're filled with fireflies," she added as she spooned a few rounded teaspoons of granulated sugar into her coffee.
As the two women continued to discuss what Livia should expect, in the other room, Bane and Barsad were deep in conversation about the billionaire bat boy and feisty kitten holed up with Chucky Bronson and his renegade coworkers as well as the truly good at heart Jim Gordon.
Barsad got Bane's smoldering fury reignited when he revealed the cache of C4 explosives he had secured in a storage facility on the outskirts of Gotham City.
Barsad was in no condition to drive for a while, let alone operate artillery but he could operate a drone remotely as well as harness and manipulate with the power of wireless internet.
Bane steepled his fingertips under his chin, "they were willing to die with them, all of them without a perceived flaw in their armor. They shall."
Both men fell silent when Jenifer and Livia walked in with a few plates loaded with sandwiches, unevenly chopped veggies, and some store-bought cream-filled cookies.
As the quartet ate, hours away, Bruce and his friends in vengeance, watched the computer run a scan of recent security surveillance footage after tapping into the county's secure server.
They had no idea as they watched the computer program perform its search, that Bane and Barsad were actively planning a fiery attack.
Hours passed as each group discussed various plans of approach and attack.
Jenifer showed Livia the cramped spare room and narrow futon that would be a tight squeeze for her and Bane.
Livia didn't care where she slept as her fatigue grew nearly overwhelming and she succumbed to sleep minutes after laying down.
Jenifer left the door ajar and Livia slept dreamlessly as Bane and Barsad continued to discuss homicidal plans. Jenifer took a quick kitchen inventory and left the men to continue talking as she went to the grocery store.
As Livia heavily napped and Jenifer parked in the brightly lit big box retailer, Bane and Barsad continued freely planning the end all of the pursuers in glorious explosive fire.
Barsad set his tablet aside and took a few deep breaths, his body was still healing and he'd more than pushed his activity limit for the week. Barsad shook his head and chuckled. "I was more breakable than I realized."
Bane nodded in complete agreement as Barsad added. "This is the last job for me." He stopped short of sharing his domestic fantasy of folding linen with Jenifer until he ceased to live.
"This is the last for me also," Bane was quick to adamantly agree.
Barsad shook off Bane's offer to call it a night. "I've got five minutes to show you something I've been working on," he said with an excitable tone and tapped a few times on his tablet's smudged surface.
He turned the screen towards Bane and described the slideshow of a chemical compound and eventual pictures of the damage to the human body. The images showcased the stark, vulnerability of human flesh against chemical weapons and fire.
Barsad described the pyroclastic blast that would cause noxious fumes and third-degree burns. There'd be no room to run or even turn around without tripping in an acidic puddle, like being perched on the rim of a bathtub full of flesh-eating acetone.
Barsad wasn't too proud to wordlessly accept Bane's help to the other upstairs bedroom.
Barsad thanked him at the door and gestured down the hall and pointed out the bathroom and the room where Livia was asleep.
The two men turned away from each other, no need to voice their mutual respect.
Bane closed the door behind him and engaged the inexpensive lock, his eyes adjusting quickly to the darkness.
His eyes found Livia lying on her side away from him, he felt a sharp coil inside him at the newfound knowledge of her cradling a new life.
Bane undressed before slipping under the linen and molding himself behind her.
Livia stirred with the warm press of his body. The curve of her bottom brushed against his cock, making him grow rapidly hard against her.
She started to push her knit pants off before he paused her movement.
"Is it safe?"
He could feel her skin grow warm under his hands. "Yes, Jenifer and I talked for a while," she said noncommittally.
Bane smiled against the curve of her neck as she wriggled her pants down to her ankles and kicked them free.
He shifted until he could press her back against the mattress and push her knees back to her chest as he spit on his palm and stroked his hand along the length of his painfully hard cock.
Bane dropped his head and found her lips the moment he slid into her, their intimate flesh suddenly close and kissing. Livia cried out into his mouth as he settled into a smoother rhythm and lost himself in the small moans that escaped her lips as her intimacy stretched and pulsed around him as he filled her.
The entire household was asleep when Jenifer returned.
She peeked in on a medicated Barsad and heard nothing behind the other door. Jenifer shook her head as she finished unloading the trunk of groceries and put them away.
She poured herself a crisp white wine from the fridge and kicked off her shoes as she searched the channel guide for something mindless.
As Jenifer found a rerun of an east coast crime show unit that was a spinoff of a sequel, hours away, Blake and Bruce were the only two awake in the roomful of vigilante pursuers. They were deep in conversation about the latest license plate pings and Bane's sudden disappearance right outside Gotham City limits.
"He has to be there," Blake nearly spit as he tapped the tip of his index finger on the heart of Gotham. "He's going to want to get the job right this time, he's going to be headstrong with revenge and fuck up," he added.
"He hasn't yet," Bruce gently reminded him.
Blake sulked and crossed his arms. "Then where is he?"
"I think he's nearby," Bruce said and launched into an egotistical rant on how he understood Bane's mind. Bruce's chest puffed like a rooster in heat as he stated Bane could be as close as the distance an NFL quarterback could throw a pigskin.
Blake looked over at the door, expecting Bane to come crashing in, kill them all, truss them up and salvage them for parts.
Time passed as the earth orbited around the sun.
The next day, after Barsad and Bane finished breakfast, they went and sat in the small postage stamp backyard as Jenifer and Livia continued visiting in the warm kitchen with refilled coffee cups and the rest of the cinnamon rolls.
As the two women gossiped about reality television, Bane and Barsad sat just outside the sliding glass doors and discussed the violent death of their pursuers. As Bane and Barsad let the quiet morning fall around them for a while, hours away, Blake signed for a wheeled cart of room-service fresh coffee and breakfast spread for all the people who wouldn't stop hunting Bane.
Barsad heard his burner phone ring from inside the house. He hobbled as quickly as he could to the table where it was plugged in and charging.
Bane closed the sliding glass door and watched Barsad's unreadable expression as he spoke lowly to the person on the other line.
After he ended the call, Barsad limped to the living room and swiped and tapped his tablet's screen maniacally as Bane settled in the chair opposite him.
"Here they are," Barsad said with predatory salivation and practically dropped the tablet in his haste to show Bane the screen.
Bane smiled as the drone image stills showed everyone holed up in the hotel in the makeshift command center. A triage station for the untrained and uneducated.
Barsad and Bane spent the next few hours making calls to various contacts they knew who could acquire objects on an immediate cash-only/no name basis.
Bane stared down at an image of Blake, captured as he leaned against the stucco wall and chatted up a cleaning lady.
"You are a child, a baby. I shall consume you until there is nothing left."