Disclaimer: Little known fact – I don't own the Batman franchise.
Author's note(s): Now with lemony fresh new title! It only took me 'til chapter 8 to name it something with a little more zest. What a bum, huh folks?
To fanfiction dot net readers: The scene removed from the previous chapter is posted on adultfanfiction dot net. Just sayin'.
The holidays sucked my soul and my time. I wanted to update sooner, I swear.
----
"What are you doing in here?" a grizzly voice spat in Katie's ear.
She grunted into his hand until he removed it. "How can I tell you when you're covering my mouth?"
He grabbed Katie's hair and pulled her head back. "Answer me!"
"I was just leaving, so let me go."
"Oh no, no, no. Nobody trespasses on my property and leaves the way they came." The man ran his hand across Katie's stomach. "Especially pretty trespassers like you."
"Oh, gross!" Katie yelled, elbowing him hard in the stomach. "Tacky pervert," she muttered, getting the other elbow under his ribs. He swore at her as she twisted out of his grasp and ran for the door. Crane stood in the doorway.
"Get in that truck," Crane ordered, pointing to the nearby idling vehicle.
"There's a guy in here, and he-"
"I'm aware," Crane said, pulling her out with one hand, the other behind his back. "Stay out there!" he called to her.
Katie was alone for only a few seconds before she heard terrified screams. Crane ran out before she could run in. "I told you to get in there!" he yelled, panting. He pushed her towards the truck and ran for the driver's side, throwing the duffle bag into the narrow space behind the seat.
"What did you do?" she yelled as Crane climbed into the cab.
"Katie, now!"
The screams escalated, tearing through her despite the rain and distance. "I was defending myself!" she shrieked, cringing. "You didn't need to do…whatever you did. What did you do?"
"Don't get hysterical," Crane sighed. He looked down at her from the driver's seat. "We can't have someone calling the police about two trespassers, now can we?"
Katie backed away from the truck. "I won't be part of this."
"Once again, Katie, you demonstrate exactly how foolish you are. If you stay here, you will have to explain how you got here, and what you were doing here, why you didn't call for help when you had the chance, so on and so on. Plus there's the matter of the screaming, writhing gentleman who probably won't make it to see daybreak. You're better off if you come with me. Terrible thought, I know."
Katie wiped her nose on her sleeve. "What did you do to him?"
"Are we still on this? All that matters is that he got what was coming to him."
"For what? He's just some jerk who wanted us off his property."
"Trust me. That jerk has done plenty to deserve this pain." Crane remembered working summers with his sister mucking barns around the area, including this one. He also remembered observing the man standing a little too close to his sister, letting his hands linger on her a little too long, and ultimately, not taking them off despite her objections. She begged Crane not to tell anyone, and he regretted listening to her.
"You know him?"
"Well I knew where this barn was, didn't I?" Crane asked sarcastically, his hands gesturing erratically towards the building.
"So?"
Crane jumped down from the cab. "So? Didn't you think, gee, maybe he's been here before?"
"Don't come near me," Katie whispered with disgust, almost tripping as she backed away. "I don't want any part of this sort of thing."
"Oh, please. You knew what I was capable of when you jumped on this roller coaster. Surely you didn't think you cured me."
"You forced me along."
"Well," he said, his tongue flicking at the end of the word, eyebrows raised, "After what we just did in there, I'd say you've buckled yourself in for the ride. You're here by your own will now, Katie. And you'll have plenty of time to absorb that fact, 'cause baby," he taunted, whispering, "we ain't slowing down anytime soon."
"Jesus fucking Christ, Crane."
"No use for prayer now, Katie, even when you do it so eloquently."
Katie ran past Crane to the truck and jumped in, reaching for the bag. She unzipped it hastily and probed for some evidence of what he had done. Crane wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to pull her out. She clung onto the headrest with one hand and kicked at him, still sifting through the bag with the other hand.
Katie's hand landed on something that stopped her cold. Crane let go as her kicking ceased. She hopped down and used the truck as support to back away from him, sliding her hand along it's cool, wet metal.
"What did you find, Katie?"
Katie continued stepping away slowly, keeping her eyes on him. Even her breath was shaking.
"You shouldn't have looked in that bag. Snooping often leads you to the very last thing you'd want to find," Crane said, taking a step towards her.
Katie couldn't catch her breath. She didn't notice when she reached the back of the truck and fell into the mud. She failed twice to stand up and finally crawled backwards, never breaking his gaze.
"Don't act so surprised."
Katie coughed, her breath caught in her chest.
Crane walked slowly to her, her anxiety rising with each footfall. By the time he stood over her she was gasping for air as if she had just been saved from drowning.
"What are you doing? Stop that."
Katie squeezed her eyes shut, tears rolling into her hair. Her attempt to crawl away from him only succeeded in getting her muddier. She kicked and punched the ground and looked up at him once last time before passing out.
Crane froze. Katie's chest didn't rise or fall, and he stared at her until his brain reminded him of CPR. He fell to his knees and automatically performed the drill he'd been forced to practice yearly at Arkham. He slapped her face and called her name, screaming at her through his teeth. He finally sat back on his heels and tried to think of something else.
He looked at her unmoving face and would have felt ill if there was anything in his stomach. He reached out for her cheek but retracted his hand. He reached out again and brushed it with his fingertips.
Katie's eyelids flew open. Crane would have breathed a sigh of relief, but the look in her eyes was unsettling. She stared at him for several seconds, wide-eyed, unblinking, and still not breathing.
Crane put his thumb to her lips and parted them. She slowly opened her mouth and he took his hand back. She took a deep breath until her lungs could take no more and held it, looking at him the same way, her mouth still open. He hesitantly touched her face again. The moment his skin touched hers, she screamed.
It was a scream unlike Crane had ever heard, even in all his years working with the criminally insane. It was as if all the pain in the world were channeling through her, deafeningly loud. Its length outlasted the breath she took in, and she kept screaming, kept staring, until he clamped his hand over her mouth.
She stopped screaming and panted into his hand, finally blinking.
"Tell me that was all just an act for my benefit."
Katie lifted a heavy hand and pointed at the truck. "I need a pill."
"You need a wagon load," he said, still shaken. He retrieved the pill and helped her sit up.
Katie forced it down her throat. She let him hold her up and stared at the ground.
"So, is this something I get to look forward to on a regular basis?"
Katie shook her head. "Nothing like this has happened in years."
"When does it usually happen?"
"When people in my life are fucking assholes to me," she said, weakly punching his thigh.
Crane pushed Katie's hair away from her face. "I didn't tell you to look through that bag."
Katie grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it, then placed his palm against her cheek. "How can you be so nice to me one second, then so terribly mean the next?" she said, her voice raspy.
Crane kissed each of her eyebrows, then the tip of her nose. "You ask too many questions. Hasn't this little incident taught you not to pry?"
Katie lay down in the mud and pulled Crane on top of her. He rubbed his face against hers and listened to her breathing.
"Did that upset you?"
"What do you think?"
"So you care about my well-being?"
Crane nibbled her bottom lip. "Too many questions."
Katie grabbed his face with newfound energy and held it nose to nose against hers. She looked into his eyes, another tear falling into her hair. "I love you, Crane," she whispered, smiling.
Crane breathed deeply through his nose, smelling the wet earth beneath them. The sun was just waking up and lit Katie's face enough for Crane to see her clearly. He wiped the mud from the cut in her forehead, thinking she looked so pale in the early morning light.
"I'm sorry you're here with me," he said, pulling a dead leaf from her hair. He climbed off her and helped her to her feet. She stumbled to the truck and climbed inside. Crane shut her door and went around to his side.
He zipped the bag and put it back behind his seat. "I'm sorry you saw that, too."
"Where are we going now?" Katie asked as Crane buckled her in.
"There's somewhere I want to stop on the way."
"On the way to where?"
Crane shook his head, "I guess I should get used to your incessant questioning if I'm going to keep you around."
"One good question, though. Why was that guy on the roof before he came into the barn? That doesn't make sense. He could have just waltzed right in from the start."
Crane looked in the review mirror as the barn fell out of view. "That is a good question, but I'm not going back to ask him."
"Do you think someone else was with him?"
"You'd think they would have intervened."
Katie watched the narrow road open to a sprawling field. "I guess you're right. Maybe we were both just being paranoid and no one was even on the roof."
"Me? Paranoid? Please."
Katie smiled and turned the heat on in the truck. "I don't suppose you packed some extra clothes for me. Mine are kind of soaked and muddy."
"No, sorry. You'll have to do without."
"Yes, being naked is the perfect alternative."
"Precisely."
"But seriously, will there be an opportunity for me to change soon? I'm shivering here."
"Yes."
Katie nodded and looked out of her window. "The sunrises are less impressive out here without the Gotham pollution. I forgot how different they looked."
"What do you mean you forgot?"
"Oh. Yeah, I grew up a town over from here."
Crane smiled. "When were you going to share that tidbit of information?"
"I wasn't until I just opened my big mouth."
"That mouth seems to get you into all kinds of trouble."
Katie took his hand from the wheel. "You don't always seem to mind," she said, licking his index finger.
"Don't start that now."
"Start what?" she asked innocently. She closed her mouth around his finger and pulled it slowly from her lips.
"No, Katie. Bad, Katie."
"I thought you wanted me to be bad," she said, repeating the act even slower.
"You already stalled us once with this. We'll pick up again later." Crane pulled his hand away and wrapped his fingers around the wheel.
"You're boring," she said. She opened the glove compartment and poked around.
"You are so nosey."
Katie discovered a pair of outdated men's sunglasses and slipped them on. She smiled at Crane, her petite nose dwarfed by the large, dark frames.
"Sometimes I feel like your babysitter. And if you're this bad now, I can imagine the trouble you caused."
Katie closed the glove compartment and slid the glasses to the end of her nose. She looked over them at him. "My babysitter adored me. Actually, she's buried around here."
"That's a pleasant thought."
Katie took the glasses off and folded the arms. "Crane?"
"I'm right here. You can start talking and I'll assume it's to me. You don't have to address me first."
"Do you have a sister?"
Crane's slight smile faded. "I did, yes."
Katie unfolded and folded the arms of the glasses. "June?"
Crane looked over at her.
"Weird," she said, shaking her head. "June was my babysitter. You know, you think a situation can't get much weirder, and then, bam. Weirder."
Crane watched the road again. "She talked about the kids she watched all the time. I never heard a Katie Saunders mentioned."
"That's because we switched to my mother's maiden name after my father died. I was Katie Folan."
Crane clenched his jaw. June's favorite family was the Folans. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Ok. Sorry."
Katie continued playing with the glasses, thinking of June. Of course, she thought. June Crane. He and June even looked alike. She wondered how she could have missed it.
Crane remembered going along with June once to the Folans'. His parents were on vacation. He was eleven and too young, June thought, to be left home alone, so she took him along, gushing about how fun the kids were as they drove over. He recalled occupying the little girl and boy while his sister made dinner for the four of them.
"Very odd," Crane said several minutes later.
"She was coming home from my house when, you know," Katie said. "It took me years to stop blaming myself."
Crane remembered an inconsolable little girl at the wake. It took both her mother and brother to pry her fingers from the casket and carry her from the room.
"Anyway, I'm sorry to open old wounds."
Crane tapped his fingers against the steering wheel.
"You look absolutely ridiculous driving a pickup," Katie told him.
"You look ridiculous in these glasses," he said, taking them from her hands and tossing them behind the seat.
"So where are we stopping?"
"I don't want to stop anymore. We'll just drive through."
Katie looked down at her dirty clothes. "Then I have no choice but to get naked."
"No choice at all."
----
Amanda pulled into the parking lot of Katie's building. She hoped to catch Katie before her morning run so they might go together. She was disappointed when Katie's car was already missing from its spot.
She decided to wait in the apartment for Katie, which she had to do so often Katie finally had a key made for her. As Amanda reached the front door she heard Katie's alarm clock beeping. The door was ajar.
"Katie, honey?" she called.
The bathroom light and fan were on. Amanda became weak as she spotted the blood smudges on the sink and bathtub. She turned to the bedroom and turned away just as quickly to find the phone. The broken glass and opened and pillaged closet confirmed her fears.
She dialed the phone with unsteady fingers and waited impatiently for someone to answer.
"911, what's your emergency?"
Amanda described the situation more calmly than she thought she could. She looked at the picture of Katie and her brother on the living room wall and lost her calm.
----
The bag rang.
"Can I answer that?"
"Yes. Brilliant idea. Then let's drive by the police, honk the horn, and wave."
"I've told you, I always answer. No one would suspect something was up unless I let it ring."
Katie found her phone and saw her home number displayed on the screen.
"Yes?"
"Katie! Where are you? Are you ok?" Amanda paced around Katie's living room, looking out of the window for a police cruiser.
Katie picked at the dried mud on her thigh. "I'm fine, why? Why are you in my apartment?"
Crane looked over at her.
"I told you I was coming over. What's this blood and glass and mess all about? What's going on?"
"I got a little tipsy, dropped a bulb, and made a mess while I cleaned up. No worries. I'm fine."
"Stop bullshitting me."
"I'm not bullshitting you!"
Crane looked at Katie more than the road.
"Did someone hurt you?"
"I said I'm fine, Amanda. I'm fine." Katie heard a siren on Amanda's end. "What's that?"
"Well I got worried."
"You-" Katie caught herself before she alarmed Crane. "You didn't call me first?"
"I walked into blood on your stuff and you were nowhere to be found. Yes. I panicked."
"Well tell them I'm fine."
"Who's them?" Crane mouthed to Katie.
"Come back and prove you are."
"I don't have to prove anything, Amanda Lynn. I won't be home all day. Pass that on and lock my apartment on your way out."
"I still don't buy it, Katie. Something is really wrong. I'm not stupid." Amanda pointed the officers to the bathroom and bedroom. "Come home if you want me to leave your apartment."
Katie hung up and squeezed the phone.
"What's going on?"
Katie sighed and gestured with the phone. "I wasn't lying yesterday when I told you my friend was coming over."
"And who's 'them'?"
Katie sighed and closed her eyes.
"Call back! Tell her you're fine!"
"I did! You heard me!"
Crane scowled and parked the car. He took Katie's phone. "Stay here, I'll be back."
"What are you doing?"
"Just making sure your friend's tip-off doesn't foul things up." Crane shut the heavy door and walked away from the truck. He thought for a moment to recall the number, then dialed. "That phone number I gave you," he said dully, "Amanda. Visit her." Crane hung up. The phone rang, Katie's home number on the screen again. He removed the phone's battery and pitched it into the woods.
TBC