Book One: Fear

Chapter 4

Thanks for reading this story. Thanks to MollyBites, to Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967, to loveshona93, to DarkDust27, to Dattebasa1, to Zimmer12, to LennyBoy54 and to Summertimefun34 for their reviews. Thanks to all the followers and the one who favourited this story.

New Chapter, read, enjoy and review.

"Hey, you're okay?" Sue asked me as soon as I stepped through the door of my flat.

"Yeah, I am." I replied putting my helmet and my keys on the island of the kitchen. "I almost died."

"Wait! What?" Sue exclaimed moving into the kitchen. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alive, aren't I?" I opened the fridge and took a beer. "You heard of this masked man who goes around the city helping people?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Want one?" She nodded. I gave her a beer. "So, he saved my life tonight. He came out of nowhere and saved my life."

"How did he look like?"

"Tall, dark and handsome." I replied.

"Wait, you've seen his face?"

"Nope."

"Then how do you know he's handsome?"

"A feeling." I smirked sipping from my bottle.

"That guy is a lunatic and yet I can see that you like him." She said with a knowing smile.

"He's helping the city. He's giving hope to the people. He saved my life." I said walking into the living room. "If making good deeds in this town means you're a lunatic. Then, yeah he is."

"You know what I mean." Sue said following me. "Who would go around dress as a bat to stop criminals?"

"A brave and honest man." I countered. "A man who isn't scared to rattle the cages."

"Unacceptable." Commissioner Loeb has called up for a meeting. Batman's actions don't please all the people of Gotham. "Now, I don't care if it's rival gangs, Guardian Angels or the goddamn Salvation Army. Get them off the street and off the front page."

"They say it was just one guy. Or a creature." Spinelli joked.

"It was some asshole in a costume." Loeb answered.

Gordon raised his hand up next to me. "This guy did deliver us one of the city's biggest crime lords."

I should have probably started by this. Falcone is finally behind bars thanks to the Batman; and now, Loeb was invoking the no-one is above the law card. So typical.

"You know this is ridiculous, right?" I asked Gordon following him into his office. "He's caught Falcone and we thank him by making him public enemy."

"It's not like that." Gordon sighed. "They think he's dangerous."

"And I think that Loeb wanted the credits for putting Falcone behind bars." I countered.

"That too." Gordon chuckled lowly. He grabbed a paper on his desk and gave it to me.

"What is that?"

"Fill this in and you can attend the exams to become a detective next month."

"I never thought of being a detective." I stammered.

Gordon sat down. "You are a good cop, Emma. One the best and one of the few that is still honest around here." Gordon continued. "Gotham could use more detectives like you in its ranks."

"I don't know. I don't think I…" I said hesitantly.

"Emma, you can do more for this city as a detective than doing patrols." Gordon assured me. "Just think about it."

"Alright." I nodded. "Anything else, chief?"

"You can go." I nodded briefly before walking out of his office.

I tapped my pencil on the form that I have to fill up. Gordon wants me to become a detective but do I want to be one. I don't know. I mean I didn't really have a career plan in my head when I entered the law enforcement. I only did it as a way to pay my debt to Gordon. Sure, the pay would be better but life as a simple officer was already dangerous and as a detective, might be even more dangerous.

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind being one. Maybe I can really try and change things as a detective, working along the DA's office. Yeah, maybe I could do it. I talked with Sue about it. She wasn't too thrilled about it but she didn't discourage me. She said something like "everyone should take a little advancement in life. And you've already done it once." When I asked her when I did it. She answered that I did the day I moved out of the shelter home. And I did it again when I went from waitress to cop. If someone could do it, it would be me. That's what she said. She seems shallow at times but really she knows how to do pep talk. She has the hang for it.

Tonight, Sue was out with her new Toy-boy. She made a quick stop at my flat earlier.

"The mayor has been invited to Bruce Wayne's birthday. And guess what?" She beamed looking at herself in the mirror.

"What?"

"Since I'm his secretary. He got me an invite too." She continued excitedly. Yeah, from receptionist she went to secretary. The last one retired. So she tried out for the post and she got it. She jumped on my bed. "Would you be my plus one?"

I stared at her blankly. "I'm on duty that night."

"You don't even know when it would be."

"Alright, when?"

"It's this Friday." She replied.

"I'm on duty this Friday." I deadpanned.

"Come on. It's going to be fun. I mean don't you want to meet Bruce Wayne?" She whined.

I rolled my eyes at her antics. "I can't promise you anything. But I'll try."

She squealed. "You're the best."

"It's not a promise." I groaned burying my face in my pillow.

"I know. So, how do I look?"

"Gorgeous." I said raising my thumb in the air.

It was pouring rain outside and I was still thinking about that detective thing. It seemed like I made up my mind but I always found an excuse not to be one. So, I've decide to clear up my mind and went outside. I walked in a straight line not looking up once. Getting lost in my thoughts. I tend to do that sometimes. So much that I can actually walk for hours. But that night I didn't walk for hours. I walked for several minutes. I knew because when I finally look up, I was in the Narrows. The most dangerous place of Gotham. I was about to turn around when something black and on fire fell down on the street.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed completely caught off guard by the sight of Batman literally falling down at my feet. As he was getting up, I realized I had two options. I could either help him or leave him. I was about to leave him. I mean he got out there alright in the movie, so why wouldn't he now? Because I haven't made major changes in the plot of Batman. Things were going as they were supposed to. That's what one rational part of my brain was telling me. The not so rational was telling that I should help him. Whether or not I knew, he'll be fine anyway. Because things could simply go wrong. And he saved my life, so I owe him.

I rushed to his side as he was getting further into the dark alleyway. His eyes were wide and wild. He wasn't seeing me. You know like in the movie, he seemed to have been drugged by Crane's hallucinogen. I raised up my hands, stepping slowly towards him. He stumbled back when he saw me. Like I said, he wasn't seeing me or not really. I whispered some soothing words to him such as "I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm here to help." He just kept walking away from me. And turned into another alley. I followed him.

He fell down on the ground and I went to his aid. I moved to help him up but he just pushed me away and I fell down on my butt. He got up fumbling at his belt, pulled out a gun and fired. A wire came out of it, Batman zipped up to a low roof. I didn't hesitate before climbing on this low rooftop after him.

Smoke was coming from his suit. He was out of it, I mean that he was being incoherent. Babbling incoherent stuffs and partly conscious. "It's okay. It's okay. You're going to be alright." I whispered to him getting a hold of his face. He had some sort of phone in his hand which probably meant that he has called Alfred already. I moved to the edge trying to calculate the distance between the roof and the ground. Maybe I could get him down before Alfred arrived here.

"Dark Knight, give me a hand, would ya?" I groaned pulling him up with all my might. He batted my hands away and I released him. "Stop that! I'm trying to help you, you idiot." He started to slide down the low roof. "No, no, no, no." I said grabbing him and trying to pull him back to the middle of the room. But he was too heavy and he pulled me down with me as we fell down together. Thank heaven, the low roof was quite low.

The fall lasted a few seconds. We landed on top of the dumpsters before hitting the ground. "You were supposed to help him. Not kill him, Em!" I pushed him off of me and I heard tires squealed to a stop. I got up and got out of the alley to see if it was Alfred. And it was indeed the butler. He was still sitting into the car. I moved closer to the car. I knocked on his window and showed him my badge. "Officer Sanders, sir." I introduced myself quickly. "Move your car to this alleyway, please."

"I'm sorry, Miss Sanders but…" Alfred started.

"Just do it, Alfred." I snapped rushing back to the narrowed alley.

Alfred moved the car closer to the alley. He stopped the car at the entrance of the alley. I started to pull Batman up. I heard Alfred opened the door of the car before he came to help me. "I don't know exactly what happened but he isn't doing so hot." I rasped as we both put him in the back of the car. "You probably have a lot of questions, right now and I would be glad to answer. But first let's get him to safety." I closed the back door and get on the passenger seat.

Emma is heading to the Wayne Manor and get to finally meet Alfred. She took matters in her hand and helped Batman to make a not so smooth escape. What did you think about this chapter?