Disclaimer: DC Comics and Time/Warner own All the characters; this is an original story that does not intend to infringe on their copyright.
Between Friends
By
Peggie
Leslie knew Metropolitan hotel was not quite first class but it was exactly the right setting for the person she was going to meet. It was dignified and proper, just like her friend.
She spotted him as soon as she entered the lobby. He was seated near the fire, reading the Gotham Globe. As she approached he stood up and smiled. "I've taken the liberty of ordered tea, and fruit cake, I hope that will be alright." He said helping her off with her coat.
Leslie smiled and kissed him. "That's perfect Alfred, though I doubt the cake will be as good as yours." He smiled rather sadly she thought.
"Keeping up with news on Bruce?" she asked nodding towards the paper.
"There's less news about Bruce than I would like to see. Batman seems to dominate everything as always!"
"I still don't see why you quit Alfred, after all you and Bruce have been through, why quit now?"
Alfred smiled grimly at his friend, "Leslie, I had to quit, I thought you would understand better than anyone. Bruce Wayne needed me to quit, because with me there Batman had control of him. With me gone Bruce has to work at being Bruce. It's my fault that Batman took over Bruce's life, I made it too easy for him to be Bruce Wayne, that side of his life could exist without the need for him to work at it. He's now living so much in his seedy world of crime that the real man cannot find time to live in the world that the rest of us occupy."
"He misses you Alfred. He's been to the clinic daily asking if I've heard from you, if I know where you are." At her friends worried look she said. "Don't worry I haven't told him. But why you don't just put his mind at rest and let him know where you are I don't know."
"Leslie, who came to see you Bruce or Batman?"
Leslie looked down at he shoes. "I thought so!" he said sighing resigned to the answer.
A young waitress served their tea and smiled shyly at Alfred. When he smiled at her correct way of presenting the tray she beamed back at him.
Leslie laughed, "I see you're still teaching waiting staff the correct way to serve."
"Well, there's very little else to do with my time." he said rather sadly.
"Why not come back to Gotham then, I could always use your help in the clinic. I've missed you, perhaps as much as Bruce has."
"I had hoped you'd missed me more than that."
"I think you're under estimating how much Bruce cares for you, and needs you." Leslie said sadly.
"Bruce or Batman?"
"They are one and the same Alfred. You may not like it, but underneath the costume is the little boy you raised."
She saw him close his eyes and a look of pain shoot across his face. "It wasn't your fault how things turned out. Have you ever considered what he may have become without you being there to temper his rage? Without you to guide him and help him keep his humanity. I have, and it scares me to think about it. Despite what you think, you did a good job, under difficult circumstances. It wasn't easy to raise a child so scarred by trauma. The trustees didn't help and Bruce made it almost impossible for you to be the father you wanted to be to him. Alfred, you didn't create Batman all you did was keep Bruce Wayne alive. Bruce created his alto ego!"
"And I helped him!" Alfred said his pain evident for her to see.
"Yes, but if you hadn't he would have been dead years ago in some stinking alleyway. Neither one of us wanted that. Or do you think he would be better off dead?"
He looked at her surprised. "Leslie, how could you believe that!" he asked shocked at her words. "I love him like my own, I'd gladly die to protect him."
"I know that Alfred, that's why I don't understand why you left. He's so alone now I fear for him. Dick's not speaking to him, Tim has gone off in a huff and you walked out on him. I hope you know what you're doing because I am worried he'll go off the deep end. I think you could be forcing him more toward Batman, I think he's becoming less the Bruce Wayne you want him to be, not more."
"Leslie, I am doing this because he has to become Bruce Wayne. There has to be a Bruce Wayne because he cannot always be Batman. There will come a time when he will not physically be able to be Batman. I hope to God that the day will come when he hangs up his cape for good. When that happens there has to be something for him to retire to, a life outside the costume. If not what will he do?"
"Couldn't you just wait for it to happen and help him through it?" Leslie asked.
"What if I am not around when it happens? I am not getting any younger!"
Leslie looked at him, worried by his words. "It's all right Leslie, apart from old age there's nothing ailing me. But let's face it, there's no guarantee that I will be there to help him when Batman has to end. He needs to be able to be in control of both his lives. They need to be equally important to him. I cannot stop him being Batman, but I can make him face up to being Bruce Wayne, before it's too late and there's no Bruce Wayne left. Because I think he's almost forgotten what it is to be himself!"
She smiled at him, "I do see what you're trying to do, but it seems rather drastic. Why give up your job, home and friends? Couldn't you have tried to make him see sense?"
"When did Bruce ever see sense?"
Leslie smiled sadly at her friend.
"It has to be this way, Bruce has to want to change."
"Will you ever come back to Gotham?"
"Where else have I got to go Leslie. I've spent most of my life there. Any way I miss my friends. Well one friend in particular." he said taking her hand.
She blushed and smiled almost shyly at him. "What about Bruce? Will you go back to the Manor?"
"That depends on Bruce!" He said. "So what's the other news from home, I didn't ask you here just to talk about Bruce!"