"Ladies and Gentlemen. The mayor of New Gotham: Ryan Foley"
A soft wind had braced the city. It tousled the hair of those who stood with their attention directed towards a small wooden lecturn. A tall, haggard man stepped up and scanned the crowd. Ever since all this had started that morning, he hadn't had an ounce of free time, no time for a breather, and only had a few seconds to find out if his wife was all right. He felt worn down.
He'd never expected to face something like this, not anything at this scale. What was he to tell them? Oh sorry, we thought New Gotham was safe, our bad. Was he to tell them that those structures that had collapsed were, if one had to simplify it, houses made of sand? Where was he to begin? And was it going to end? If he vowed the safety of each surviving citizen, was he going to be able to be true to his word? How many other buildings built by that bastard would collapse? Was he competent for something like this?
Someone next to him cleared their throat. Ryan blinked and then nodded, he took a deep breath in and started: "Citizens of New Gotham…"
She felt wetter than wet, more water logged than she had ever been. Then again, cats always hated water.
Helena groaned softly as she opened her eyes. If this was hell, she sure wasn't impressed. Where were the flames? The little devils with horns and pitchforks? She wasn't suffering as much as she thought she should. One thing was for sure, they must have a lot of fish in this weird hell, it smelt really fishy.
Her head hit a stone and she opened her eyes wider, "Ow," she groaned softly. As her senses cleared she realized she was not dead, but still very much alive and hurting like hell, and that someone or something was dragging her through a tunnel. It dragged her by her leg, pulling her along with it over the slimy floor.
She lifted her head and looked down towards her legs at whatever it was. It was huge, well over 6 feet tall. It hunched as the tunnel wasn't big enough for it to stand up straight. Its skin was green and brown, a scaly. The hand that had her leg in a firm grip sported talon like claws. She tried to pull free and kick him, but she had no strength, she still felt disorientated.
Talk about a freak-a-zoid, Helena thought.
Cris stood on the balcony quietly sipping her coffee, her mind mulling over the recent events.
A pair of hands slipped over each side of her hips, she was pulled softly back into Matthew's body, he held her tight.
"I was
scared," he said softly in her ear, "Scared I might loose
you."
She turned around and looked into his eyes. She
smiled.
"You wont loose me, I wont back down that easily," she kissed him on the chin and then buried her head in his chest. They stood there in silence, keeping each other close. Cris admitted she was scared too. She always got scared. Fate had an ugly side, it always seemed to strike where no one would have expected it. Cris couldn't help but feel each time she said good-bye to her loved ones and friends, that it would be the last. She had always been scared of never letting anyone know how much she appreciated them and then it being left unsaid when fate stepped in. She had learned that lesson, painfully long ago.
"Matthew…" she whispered.
"Hmmm?"
"I love you," she whispered even softly.
Matthew closed his eyes, "I love you too."
Someone behind them cleared their throat. Cris looked up and smiled, "Shaun!"
"Sorry to interrupt, I thought you might want to know the latest on the baby," he said slightly embarrassed.
She broke the embrace and walked up Shaun, "How's he doing?"
Matthew excused himself and walked back inside. Shaun sighed and leaned on the balcony, "He's doing fine, the doc says he's quite a feisty baby," he said smiling.
Cris chuckled.
"They got hold of the baby's father," he said, "He's on the way. They didn't tell him about the mother though."
"Uh oh, who's going to break the news?" Cris asked.
He closed his eyes and sighed, "They want one of us to tell him, since we were the last to be with her."
Cris stood quiet staring at an imaginary point on the horizon. Then she breathed in deep and said, "Oh boy."
"Yeah."
Barbara opened her eyes slowly, her face felt numb. Breathing in deep she lifted her head and looked groggily around. She had fallen asleep next to Dinah, with her head resting on her arms. She smiled slightly, At least I didn't drool.
"Welcome back to waking world," a voice said behind her. She turned around and looked at Justin.
"How long have I been out?" she asked sheepishly.
"Not too long, I didn't want to wake you, you needed the nap," he said smiling, he took a sip of coffee, "How are you doing?"
Barbara knew exactly what he meant, but choose to not to acknowledge it, "I'm ok, still a little woozy from the meds."
"That's not what I mean," he said taking a seat next to her. She looked up at him surprised. She only met him that same day and already it felt like he knew her. There was something about him that made Barbara not want to elude, he made her want to break out, admit everything she felt, how scared she was for Dinah, how scared she was of losing the young girl.
"Scared," she finally answered.
Reese ran so fast through the tunnels, he ended up slipping arse over head a couple of times. Ignoring the pain in his back he carried on, following the marks in the sludge. Finally he saw a shadow move ahead, he quickened his pace and rounded the corner, spotting Killer Croc holding one of Helena's legs and dragging her down the tunnel.
"Let her go Waylon!" Reese shouted. He slid his hand slowly into his bag, looking for his gun, he found nothing.
Killer croc stopped and turned around. He had a smirk on his face, "What if I don't want to?"
"You'd be making a very serious mistake," Reese replied.
Killer Croc laugh, "Ohh I'm sacred," he bared his teeth and grinned menacingly at Reese.
"Well, you should be," came a voice below him. He looked down just in time to see Helena place a well aimed kick to his groin.
Cris breathed in deeply a then slowly breathed out, she didn't want to do this. She didn't know what to say.
She watched as a nurse guided him into a private room. Cris turned to look at Shaun and nodded. They both walked slowly into the room. They introduced themselves and then sat down. Shaun cleared his throat,
"Mr Torres, what I have to say is going to be hard to say, but, Cris and myself were with your wife during the delivery. Her ambulance was stuck under some rubble. We did all we could but, she didn't survive it."
Damien Torres stared blankly at Shaun.
Cris moved forward slightly, "Mr Torres," he turned his head slowly to face her, "The doctors tell us there was a complication during the delivery, an artery ruptured, causing internal bleeding."
He started shaking his head, "I shouldn't have left her alone, I shouldn't have gone to the store."
"Mr Torres, it's not your fault," Cris said placing a hand on his arm, "You couldn't have stopped it."
He looked up at her, "You did it, you killed her."
Cris frowned, "Wha…"
Damien stood up abruptly and pulled Cris up to him, he wrapped an arm around her throat and pointed a gun to her head, "YOU KILLED HER!"
