Bruce watched Adriana sleeping for a few moments before deciding he couldn't help himself. He crawled over her and began to kiss the back of her shoulder. His kisses went down to her elbow and then back up to her shoulder, before he realized she was out cold. He kissed her back a few more times before lifting the comforter from under his body and folding it over to cover hers.
When he was done he heard her phone vibrate. He lifted it and looked at the message. A fine jewelry shop had it's quiet alarm tripped. Bruce looked at the name of the shop. He owned this small jewelry franchise. He could not afford for his business to be looted right now, especially since the franchise was in negotiations with a potential buyer. Bruce looked at Adriana sleeping, knowing that he couldn't make himself wake her. He needed to take care of this himself.
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His suit felt oversized, and moving through the city while avoiding being seen at all felt even more difficult because of it. The Batman had become a shadow.
He had barely entered the jewelry shop before he began fighting. He could hardly see his opponent in the dark and the swift movements made this person nearly invisible. After taking a few dodged swings, he realized that he was fighting a woman wearing all black, as well as a mask. He felt that if his suit was properly fitted, he would have been able to stop her easily. But since he and Lucius were not in touch, he was stuck with a suit that had not been altered with his weight loss.
The woman lept up impossibly high onto a tall jewelry case and stood with her feet apart, pressing her fists into both sides of her hips. She looked like she knew that she was invincible. Her gaze almost dared him to attack her. As the Batman looked closer, he could see that her mask was connected to a headpiece with pointed metal machinery on both sides of her head like cat ears.
She was enigmatic and beautiful, and she knew it. He couldn't look away or move.
"This.." she said and held up a diamond necklace. "I've had my eye on for a while. I think I will keep it."
He glanced at the necklace and back into her eyes.
"And I don't think you're going to stop me," she said, her voice sultry and heavy as she lept down and disappeared out of the open door behind her.
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When he returned home, Bruce found Adriana in the exact same position, still sound asleep. He got into the bed beside her and closed his eyes. The woman he had encountered left with one of the most expensive pieces of jewelry in the shop. She hadn't broken any windows or damaged any of the property inside the building. He would have to find a way around filing and insurance claim for the loss, because he wanted the sale of the business to continue without interruption. Employees would likely be investigated for theft, which he did not want. He would have to figure it out tomorrow.
He couldn't stop thinking about the striking woman, dressed like a cat. He wondered if Adriana had encountered her in her vigilantism..but then he decided that if she had, she would have mentioned it to him. This woman was too rare...to unique.
Although he didn't want to keep seeing it over and over, as he drifted off into sleep he revisited the scene of her figure taking just a few steps before disappearing from sight as she left the jewelry shop. She was lovely.
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"This is disappointing," Madame Twyla said as Bruce handed her a check.
"It's the best I could do given recent events," Bruce told her.
"I thought you were going to give me the profit from selling your hotel," Twyla said. "That is what you told me last week."
"That..deal fell through," Bruce lied.
"No," Twyla said. "You live in the hotel and you can't tell your wife that you're selling it."
"You will get the rest of your money in a few days," Bruce said. "I have a few franchise luxury shops that are currently being sold-"
"Excuses," Twyla said bitterly.
"I've paid you almost two billion," Bruce said between his clenched teeth.
"You've made it almost half way and my 30 day collection period is almost up," she said.
"I'll still pay you afterwards, regardless of the contract," Bruce said. "You have my word."
Twyla sighed.
'I'll give you the hotel," Bruce told her.
"Hmmm," Twyla said, now intrigued.
"If you'll allow us to continue living there," he said. "And if you don't alert my wife to any of this. All hotel profits will go to you-"
"Including your rent," Twyla said. "Which you will pay directly to me. I am your landlord now."
"Fine," Bruce agreed.
Twyla was now smiling. "So," she said. "Have you gotten to use your potion? Fly on the wall?"
"No," Bruce said, remembering the bottle she had given him.
"Ahh, well that's because you've been busy getting my money to me," she said. "Well done. But there's nothing you're curious to see? You can go back anywhere, to any time in history to be a fly on the wall."
Bruce thought of her words. He wanted to peer over Lucius' shoulder to see when and where he had moved the Joker, but he didn't know the exact date and time that he needed. Twyla told him he would only be able to see one hour, and he needed the exact time. He was intrigued by this Catwoman, and wanted to see more about her expertise. She had even erased security footage. He wanted to know how she had broken into the jewelry shop and had stolen from the safe without damaging it.
"There's many things I'd like to see," he told her.
"Then use it," she said with a dark smile. "Your worries and distractions are interfering with my money. See what you need to and clear your head."
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"Doesn't the boardwalk look fun?" Adriana said to Arsenio . "There's a circus there every year."
Arsenio pointed to the ferris wheel.
"Yes, that's the ferris wheel," Adriana said. "I can't wait for you to see it. Hey, sweetie."
Bruce had just come into the living room and was sitting his dripping umbrella down by the door. He smiled at them and walked over the couch and kissed them both.
"What are we looking at?" Bruce asked and looked at the magazine.
"Fawaa!" Arsenio said.
"Yes, ferris wheel," Adriana said slowly so he could hear all of the syllables.
"Ah..yes," Bruce said. "This time we'll go during the day when everything's let up and the fair is open."
"Hm?" Adriana asked confused.
"We went on his first birthday to walk," Bruce said. "But it was nighttime so-"
Adriana and Arsenio were both looking at Bruce with confusion as he stopped talking. He was speaking about the past that he had erased. Arsenio's first birthday was spent at home with a very depressed Bruce, who ended up feeling bad for keeping his son in all day and had taken him out for a drive and a walk at the empty dark boardwalk.
"What do you mean?" Adriana asked. "He hasn't turned one yet.."
"Oh uh," Bruce said. "I mean on my birthday, I went there. That's right..I took a walk there alone on my birthday."
"Oh...okay," Adriana said and shrugged it off. "So, I have something planned for us tonight. You and me."
"That sounds nice," Bruce smiled and kissed her. "What is it?"
"Alfred said he can watch this little one this evening, since Evelyn went to Cancun," Adriana said. "I want us to go to dinner."
"Of course," Bruce said. "That would be great."
"And actually.." Adriana said. "I invited Lucius. His wife can't make it so it will just be us three."
Bruce looked into her eyes, his expression not changing but she could see his eyebrows drop a bit.
"They say three's a crowd," Bruce said.
"We've been to dinner with him before," Adriana said.
Bruce nodded and kissed her, saying nothing more about it until that evening.
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"I'd prefer it if we just stay in tonight," Bruce said to Adriana.
They were in their walk in closet and Adriana was looking through her dressed for something to wear.
"What?" Adriana asked. "Are you not feeling well?"
"I'm just fine," he said.
"Bruce," Adriana said, placing a hand on her waist. "Is there something wrong? Are you upset with Lucius for some reason?"
"Yes," Bruce told her without hesitation.
"Well, why?" she asked, although she already knew.
Bruce wrapped a fist around the bar holding the clothing and leaned forward over her, his face very close to hers.
"I told him where I was holding the Joker underground. I gave him millions to make this problem go away. To move the Joker to somewhere where he could be incarcerated for the rest of his life, with a team to make sure he never escapes," Bruce said.
"I know all of this," Adriana said.
"And he refuses to give me any information about where that son of a bitch has been moved to," Bruce said. "Over $150 million, Adriana."
"So this is about money?" Adriana asked, again wondering if they were having money issues that he was neglecting to share with her.
"No," Bruce answered, although that money could put quite a dent in his debt to Twyla. "But it would be much more cost effective to just eliminate the bastard."
" And this is why you're not talking to Lucius," Adriana said. "Because of the Joker...for keeping his location from you."
"I know that you know," Bruce said, again being more honest than he had been for a long time. "You only lost your gift a few weeks ago. You and Lucius are close. I know that you know where he's relocated the Joker."
Adriana looked away.
"But I don't hold it against you for not telling me," Bruce said.
"But you hold it against Lucius," she said.
"Yes," he said firmly. "He is not the victim."
"You still see me as a victim?" Adriana said. "Because the Joker forced me to work for him? Stealing things and paying off mob bosses and...buying illegal weapons."
Bruce closed his eyes and tilted his head up, still gripping the clothing pole.
"Adriana," he said gently and looked into her eyes.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Is that all he made you do?" Bruce asked.
Adriana swallowed. He knew. She felt her body go cold.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"You know you can tell me anything," Bruce said. "I won't judge you. Not in the least. I love you no matter what."
"What are you asking?" her voice shaky as she spoke.
She watched his Adam's apple move as he swallowed before asking.
"Did he," Bruce began to speak again. "Did he rape you?"
Adriana felt herself become afraid. "No...no," she said. "That didn't happen."
"If he coerced you in any way, it is rape," Bruce said firmly. "You told me he threatened to kill children if you didn't cooperate with him-"
"He never hurt me," Adriana said, her voice weak and quiet now compared to Bruce's.
"I know that he's the reason you have Arsenio," Bruce said, completely incapable of referring to the Joker as Arsenio's father. The monster was not Arsenio's father. Arsenio was a Wayne and Bruce was his father.
"Who..." Adriana said, her lips quivering. "Who told you-"
"No one told me," Bruce said, lying. Damien had told him but Damien would have no recollection of it because the entire interaction had been erased when Bruce went back to the past. "I figured it out."
Adriana looked down, unable to believe what was happening.
"So I can understand why you wouldn't tell me where he is," Bruce said. "But Lucius...he knows too doesn't he? He knows that the Joker did to you and still he refuses to tell me where is so that I can end this."
"He didn't rape me Bruce," Adriana said.
Bruce looked her up and down quickly and Adriana could see sympathy in his eyes. He thought that she was confused.
"I'm not confused about this Bruce..." she said. "I know I.. messed up. It happened. But at the time I wanted it to happen, so it did. He never forced himself on me-"
"We'll deal with this," Bruce said, still looking sympathetic. He was looking at Adriana like she needed psychiatric help. She knew this look all too well, she had gotten it all her life. "But for now, I refuse to associate with Lucius. I'll never forgive him for this."
"Lucius believes me," Adriana said. "I wasn't coerced or forced. He knows that.."
Bruce looked away. "I never took Lucius for a fool," Bruce said. "He's the most intelligent man I know-"
"He is," Adriana said. "And he could see the truth..I wasn't harmed-"
"Anyone would feel this way, Adriana," Bruce said. "The Joker is..the worst of the worst. The scum of the earth. Anyone that would have been violated with him would have to adapt this way-"
"This isn't some psychological brainwashing I've done on myself Bruce-" Adriana said.
"I can't imagine what you've been through, but we'll get through this-" Bruce said again letting her know that he was thinking she needed therapy. "You don't need to blame yourself-"
"I'm going to dinner," Adriana said, grabbing a dress.
Bruce stood back. "We need to talk about this."
"We don't," Adriana said. "You're not hearing me. I'm going to dinner."