The tremor in Bruce's hand as he reached for the doorknob to his bedroom was not something he could control. He turned the knob with his slippery sweaty palm and pushed the door open.
She was on the bed , one of her feet elevated on a pillow, her ankle wrapped. Her phone was on her stomach and her eyes were closed. The back of her right hand was resting on her forehead. Bruce stepped into the room and walked over to her, his arms hanging limply at his sides. She heard his footsteps and moved her hand, her eyes opening and looking straight into his.
As soon as the eye contact was made, he fell to his knees at the bed beside her.
She sat up quickly. "Bruce are you alright-" she asked as she watched him fall.
He began to nod quickly, feeling as though he could not utter a word. Her voice filling the room was something he had never fully appreciated before, and now it was overwhelmingly beautiful.
"Adriana," he said and crawled the last few steps over to the bedside. "I'm fine."
Forcibly composed, he took her hands. The warmth of her skin almost made him break down into tears but he held it together with every fiber of his being.
"Oh..okay.." she said, holding her forehead again and laying back onto the pillows. "What are you doing down there."
"Just..." he was unable to think coherently.
Bruce released her hands and gave her a firm squeeze on the thigh, the calf, forearm. His hands roamed her limbs, squeezing everywhere he could. He took one of her hands and looked at each finger, his lips moving quietly whispering.
"Bruce.." she asked, looking at him confused. "Are you counting my fingers?"
"No," he answered, immediately lying. "Just..making sure.."
"Making sure what?" she asked as he began to lightly press on and squeeze her abdomen and then her breasts.
"You're here...you're real..." he asked, squeezing her chest again. "Real.."
"Real?" she asked, touching his wrists as he kept squeezing with a breast in each hand. "What? You think I have implants or something?"
He looked into her eyes.
"Bruce?" she asked.
"Adriana.." he murmured weakly.
"Yes?" she asked as his hands moved to her face.
"Can I..." he began to ask nervously. "Can I kiss you? Please?"
Adriana began to laugh and placed her hands over his on the sides of her cheeks.
"Bruce," she laughed. "Of course, why are you asking permission?"
He looked at her in a way she had never seen him look at her before. An aching desperation, an incredible appreciation, a deep longing.
"Kiss me," she said to him and gently grabbed the lapel of his suit to pull him down.
She noticed that he was moving slowly, cautiously, and hesitantly. His lips approached hers and it made her feel like he was moving to kiss her in a way that man that had never been kissed would. His lips touched hers softly and delicately. After a single kiss, he dropped his face onto her chest. She held him with one arm around his shoulders and one in his hair.
"Sweetheart," she whispered into the dark silky locks of hair against her lips. "You're acting really weird."
He let out a single unintelligible sound and she continued to hold him until he was ready to lift his head again. Once he looked into her eyes again he needed another kiss. They began to kiss deeply and Bruce wrapped his arms under her torso and pulled her to him tightly. Then he pushed his face into her neck and she wrapped both arms around his shoulders to avoid falling off of the bed.
"I'm sorry.." he murmured weakly into her hair. "I'm so sorry..Please forgive me."
"For what, love?" she asked.
"Everything...I've messed up so terribly," he said. "For forcing you to use your gift..using you..neglecting you.."
"Bruce," she said and pulled out of the hug and held his face. "You didn't force me to..I did it because I felt it was something we needed to do. And you haven't neglected me-"
"I have," he said to her and looked over at her foot. "I never asked you about this injury-"
"I just twisted my ankle a few days ago," she said. "It's nothing."
"Does it hurt?" he asked.
"Well, yeah," she shrugged.
"Then it's not nothing," he said.
"Oh, Bruce," she said. "Don't worry about it..I'm going to be fine."
He nodded over and over again.
"You forgive me then?" he asked in desperation.
"Sure," she said as though it was all not big deal.
"You're..." he asked very hesitantly. "Are you still in love with me?"
Adriana moved her hand to his forehead, feeling it with her palm to fever and then gliding her fingers through his hair.
"Sweetie.." she said. "What's going on?"
He took both of her hands, obviously the question was serious.
"Bruce," she said. "I love you..you know that."
"I love you too Adriana," he said. "More than you could ever possibly know. I would die for you in a heartbeat."
She smiled and kissed him. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes," he nodded. "Everything...everything is more perfect than I ever thought imaginable."
"Okay.." she said and stroked his cheek. "It's just...well your eyes are so big..you look like you've seen a ghost or something.."
"Not a ghost," he said. "An angel."
"Awww..." she said and kissed him again.
"I missed you so much," his emotions threatening to come to the surface as he spoke. "I never want to be without you again."
"While you were at work?" she asked.
He began to laugh and nodded, and in the laughter a few tears escaped his eyes.
"You're crying..." she noticed.
"No..no these are tears of joy my dear," he said. "Because you're here...you're really here."
She furrowed her brows but continued to smile, wondering what was wrong with him. He looked like he was afraid that she would vanish any second.
"How..how are you?" he asked. "Do you have a headache?"
"Yeah," she said and touched the center of her forehead between her eyebrows. "Right here..its pretty bad."
"Okay," he said, looking determined. "I'll go downstairs really quick and I'll get something for it. just stay right her-"
"No!" she said surprisingly loudly and grabbed his arm before he could get up. "Uh..I mean..no, you don't have to go down to the medical facility-"
"If your headache is that bad-" he began to say with concern.
"No..it's uh..nothing a little Bayer won't fix," she lied as her head throbbed. The Joker was still living in the medical facility and she could not risk them encountering each other. "Just two pills and some water would be fine."
"Are you sure?" Bruce asked.
"Yes," she told him. "That's all I need."
Bruce left and came back quickly with the pills and water and watched her swallow them before reclining on the pillows again.
"What's my baby doing?" Adriana asked.
"He's sleeping at the moment," Bruce responded, thinking again of how small Arsenio was.
"Okay," Adriana nodded. "I'll get up in thirty minutes to wake him..I don't want him to be up all night-"
"No," Bruce said. "Sidi said you need to rest...Alfred and I will take care of it. And you need to stay off your ankle."
"Well.." Adriana said, and looked at Bruce who looked like he wouldn' t take no for an answer. "Okay..I'll just rest then."
She smiled at him slowly.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing just.." she said through the smile. "I was really surprised when you told me to come back here...to get Sidi to..take care of things. It just came out of nowhere. I guess I'm happy that it's finally done..even though we still don't know who's trying to get you thrown in prison."
Bruce had seen the future. Whoever these people were, they didn't want him thrown in prison as far as he could see. They wanted the Batman broken. They knew his identity but didn't expose it, but they exposed Dent's killing to get the city to turn on him.
"It doesn't matter," he said.
"You're sure?" she asked.
"Yes," he said. "I'm sure."
She tilted her head. "You know what's great for headaches?" she asked and reached over with one arm while laying flat on her back, her index finger finding one of the loops surrounding his belt.
Bruce felt a bit stunned, and looked at her for a few seconds with his jaw dropped. Then suddenly he tore off his business jacket and shirt and kicked off his shoes before climbing onto the bed above her. She wrapped her arms around him as they kissed. He undressed her and kissed every inch of her body, his nose lingering on the surface of her skin, inhaling every area deeply.
When he entered her, he was not expecting it, but he felt her gift overwhelming him. Whether her gift was gone or not was not on his mind at all until he felt it swallowing him and pulling him in to other worlds.
"Bruce.." she whispered against his lips, and he became aware of himself again. He was frozen in place, unable to move.
He looked into her eyes and realized he wanted nothing else but her. He didn't want to be taken away by her gift. It was stealing this most precious moment where he wanted to be fully aware. He wanted to escape the psychic awareness that he felt seeping into him and surrounding him. He rejected it and pulled himself mentally out of it. For the first time, he was aware of nothing but her physical body and the tangible sensations.
The simple sensation of her fingertips sliding up his arm to his shoulder, the gentle touch, almost sent him over the edge. She looked at him, wondering why he wasn't moving.
"Is it okay?" she asked, and he realized that perhaps she was self conscious.
She had assumed her gift would be unavailable to him and perhaps that was the reason for his lack of movement. Perhaps he was not enjoying her.
He couldn't think of any words to answer her question with. This was the most chillingly sensational moment of his life. Instead of speaking he began to kiss her again, a deep groan of pleasure escaping his mouth and moving into hers.
.
.
.
"How's your headache?" Bruce asked as they lay quietly beside each other.
"Much better," she smiled and touched his cheek.
"How...was everything?" she asked him.
Bruce blinked a few times, careful with his answer. "You're gift...it's still there," he said. "I guess whatever Sidi did..just protects you. Shields your mind."
"Okay," Adriana nodded with relief. "I'm glad then..you can enjoy it."
"I didn't," he said, and she raised her eyebrows. "I...sort of...I don't know.."
Adriana wanted to know what he was thinking but her gift was completely shut down.
"I blocked it out," he said. "I didn't know I could do that... I didn't know it was an option.."
"Oh.." Adriana said. She though of her past lovers, none had ever come close to doing such a thing, except she knew that the Joker had rejected the gift at every single encounter. He wasn't even consciously aware of what he was doing and it had become easy for him. He never knew about her gift and never knew what was overtaking him when they were together, but he was mentally strong enough to resist and block it out with ease.
"It was amazing," Bruce said.
"Really?" Adriana gave him a small smile.
"Oh yes..." he told her sincerely.
"Well..." she said and moved her chest up to his as they faced each other. "If you're up for it..I could use a...round two...maybe three."
Bruce's smile beamed.