Life Unexpected

Chapter 16

Wayne Manor

A busy Elissa hurried down the grand staircase of the estate on a lovely Saturday morning. Her legs carried her as she held a laundry basket in her arms.

It was her time at Bruce's place and needed a little space from Diana's place. Hippolyta was doing better now and returned to her hotel room, much to Diana's protests. Hippolyta was healed enough to move about and perform tasks. The blonde woman needed Diana to stop coddling her and desired her own space as she was aware her daughter was dating Bruce and was certain they needed privacy.

The woman was still in town as she needed to meet with her doctor to make sure all the cancer had been removed.

Meanwhile, Elissa went about her life.

She learned to be self-sufficient when in foster care. She knew how to do her laundry, something both Diana and Bruce were thrilled by the idea, besides neither adult had much time to do the laundry, the latter had no idea how to use a washer machine, while the former only did laundry, maybe, twice a week when she could.

As the raven-haired teen raced to the laundry room in a hurry as she had plans with Natalie later, she unknowingly dropped some of her clothes.

Dick, hair tousled and heavy eyes from sleep, walked down the stairs aiming for breakfast. Unsuspectingly, his foot stepped on something resting on the stairs that made him wobble in place, panic consuming him as he struggled to balance himself.

When he gained a foothold, he looked to see what he almost tripped on. Instantly, his face turned beet red as he found Elissa's bra lying on the stairs. With his fore finger and thumb he picked up the lace garment.

Holding it as if it were diseased, he went to the dining room to find Bruce drinking coffee. He looked up from his newspaper, a curious eyebrow raised as the teenaged boy came into the room with a brassiere in his hand.

"Dick, breathing is going to be difficult in that thing?" the man made a joke.

"Ha. Ha." The teen gave a sarcastic morose laugh. "It's not mine. It's Elissa's," he pointed out, flinging the undergarment onto the man's newspaper.

The billionaire grunted in displeasure as the object fell into his lap.

"Why are you so surly this morning?" the man inquired as his charge was acting peculiar.

"It's…" he trailed off as he sat down with a sigh. "It's weird having a girl here, you know. I mean before it was just the three of us and that was cool. We had our dynamic duo thing going on and believe me, I like having Elissa around. She's great. But it's kind of getting odd with her living here and all. Especially, with her clothes laying around," he awkwardly expressed.

Bruce sat in silence as he gave the teen's words some thought.

"Oh," he suddenly realized how volatile having two teenagers under one roof some of the time could be. Especially, since both are going through puberty. He realized the teen was embarrassed by the garment. His sister was around more as she sometimes stayed over at the manor when Diana was busy at work.

"Do you want to talk about what you've been going through?"

"No," Dick furiously shook his head feeling mortified.

"Okay," the older man accepted. The boy could figure things out for himself. "Dick," he started after a pregnant pause. "Elissa's not going anywhere. I understand things are weird, but I can't abandon her. Not again," he said undoubtedly.

"I don't want her to leave, Bruce." The acrobat explained aghast. "I like Elissa. I was just getting used to it being the three of us. Now it's five," he expressed softly.

The man instantly understood that the teen was putting up a brave front up till now. He was confused on where he was in the family. Elissa having consumed most of any spare time the billionaire had. Leaving Dick feeling like the odd man out. As patrol and training were the only things where he saw Bruce or did anything with him.

The acrobat was feeling neglected.

Bruce sympathizing with the teen vided into some options. "We'll do something," he suddenly said, starling the teen.

"Some time soon the two of us will do something," he assured. "Maybe a basketball game or something," he suggested. He got up from his chair taking the garment with him.

"That all right?" he asked the teen as he stopped walking away from the table.

"Uh, yeah, that's cool," Dick answered, a little stunned by what the man told him. Bruce left him dumbfounded as he went to the laundry room.

He found his daughter bobbing her head back and forth as she listened to music on her phone as she tossed her clothes into the washing machine.

Silently, the man walked up to the teenager and tapped her on the shoulder making her jump. "Don't do that!" she chided her father, pulling her ear buds out.

"You're the one blasting music into your ears," he pointed out neutrally. He suddenly revealed her forgotten garment. "You dropped something."

"Oh, thanks," the teen took the cloth back and dropped it into the machine. With a slam of the door, she started it up.

She turned back to her father, "Hey, can you give me and Nat a ride to the movies later?"

"Sure. What time?"

"Um, couple hours," she explained.

"Alright," he agreed. Suddenly, a thought struck him. "I thought you and Diana had movie plans tonight?"

"Nah, she has this drinking event at some bar tonight. I thought she told you?"

Bruce thought back it the last time he spoke to his girlfriend and couldn't remember if she told him her weekend plans. He shrugged it off and returned his focus to Elissa.

"I don't remember her mentioning anything," he voiced. "Oh, well, I will talk with her later."

Both dark-haired individuals left the laundry room as Bruce pondered the case against Wesker. The man and his crew went to ground following the bank job. It was taking some time to track them down, but he would find them, the dead demanded justice.

The Gotham Cinema

Bruce had just dropped Elissa and Natalie off at the movie theater. The girls went inside and selected the movie they wanted to see. When they got snacks, they went into the theater and sat down. As the commercials were blaring, Nat disclosed something to her best friend.

"The Greens asked if they could adopt me," she sounded deep perturbed by the thought. While Elissa was ecstatic for her friend. Only for her to contain it and ask, "Is that what you want?" She sounded cautious as she recalled Nat didn't have the same relationship with her foster parents as Elissa did with hers. Especially, considering Nat blew up at the raven-haired girl previously when it came to the Greens.

"I guess," the Latina shrugged. She sounded on the fence about all of it. Sure, she would like to be adopted but she wasn't about to drop her guard just yet. Things could change at the drop of a hat. Poor girl was too young to be so cynical.

"Well, if they asked you then they want you, right?" Elissa pointed out. "Maybe they love you enough to have you the rest of their lives."

Natalie's lips pursed as she considered her friend's words. Suddenly, the movie started, and the girls hushed up.

Later that night, Diana and Steve were hosting a drink-a-date night. Speed dating with alcohol. Steve and Diana would be speed dating with patrons at the local bar. Supervised with Etta and some security to make sure everyone behaved themselves. Anyone interested in the candidates the radio hosts would call for a dinner date.

Diana wore a sparkling black dress and silver high heels, while Steve wore a suit without a tie. Diana did not say anything to Bruce about this. Not due to her doubts about them being together again, instead it was harmless drinking and some mild conversation with a few people for less than ten minutes. Although, guilt gnawed at her as she had yet to say anything to Steve that she was back together with Bruce. She did not want him to find out from someone else or see them together. She felt he deserved that.

As they were still setting up, Etta walked up to the raven-haired woman. "Sooo, your new beau know about tonight?" she asked impishly.

The woman rolled her eyes at the blonde's behavior. "No. I didn't tell him."

"Why?"

"Because it's not like I'm going home with someone tonight," she stated matter-of-factly.

Etta shook her head, earrings dangling, clicking her tongue in disappointment. "Secrets aren't good for a relationship."

Diana scoffed. "Relax. It's nothing. Besides, he has Elissa this weekend, he'll be busy with her," she dismissed.

"Uh huh," the blonde woman answered sounding unconvinced.

The raven-haired woman rolled her eyes and went over to check how things were going with Steve.

"Hey," she greeted, "we all set?"

The man turned his head from what he was doing at the table, "Yeah, crowd's building up outside," he noted.

Seeing that they had a moment, Diana attempted to inform her ex that she was seeing Bruce again. "Steve, you got a minute?"

"Sure. What's up?" he replied casually. Since their breakup they had been trying to get back to where they were before they started dating. It took a while but recently they managed to be in a good place.

The Greek woman only hated that she was about to set them back a ways. Before the woman could get the words out, Etta interrupted her.

"Alright everyone places!" she called out as the doors to the bar were opened and everything got rolling. Patrons entered some just drinkers' others who specially came to the bar for the event.

"Everyone," Etta called attention to the patrons. "If you are here for the Drink-a-Date please move over to the right side and fill out a name tag and take a number. We'll be starting in a couple minutes. So, get your drinks and get ready to date," she said cheerfully.

When Diana and Steve sat down at their respective tables' things were… awkward for both radio hosts.

For Steve, he had several men and women hitting on him.

"You are so going to get it, big boy." One man commented which left the blonde-haired man pale.

"You are like so hot!" A blonde woman commented, somehow drunk already.

"What's the situation on the big blonde lady over there?" Another man asked Steve as he pointed to Etta talking to the bartender.

For Diana it was a similar interaction.

"Damn, girl!" A man marveled at the Greek woman.

"I love your show!" A woman gushed.

"Would you be interested in a threesome with me and my girlfriend?"

Diana merely smiled and sipped her wine.

"Have you ever been to Cancun? It's gorgeous."

Turns out a lot of people came for the booze. They got a couple of numbers from people that were worth going on a date with.

Uptown

"Hey, did you hear me?" Robin's voice broke through Batman's absent mind. His head turned to the teen.

"What?"

"The guy we were following just went in there," the red and green clad teen pointed to a rundown nightclub.

Due to chance the duo managed to find one of the bank robbers through traffic cameras. Frederick Rhino, a large man and strong looking, with a history of assault and robbery. When he was spotted, the duo went out tailing him in the hopes of leading to the others.

As they waited for Rhino to lead them to the Ventriloquist, as the media was calling him, Batman's thoughts were elsewhere.

His thoughts were of Diana. He wondered what she was doing at the moment. Where she was? If she wanted him to come over later?

His mind was filled with Diana until Robin disrupted his thoughts.

He saw Rhino enter a rundown nightclub that looked like it had not been a hot spot since the nineties. They took to the skies as their grapples carried them to the roof of the nightclub.

They landed, hanging over the skylight of the club seeing several people including Rhino loitering around the bar. The caped men decided to wait until they had eyes on the Ventriloquist before they burst into the building.

Again, his mind drifted to Diana. Even though he was on patrol. He knew he had to get his head in the game or something disastrous would happen.

The second his mind resurfaced into the here and now, it was a second too late. He picked something up in time to notice one of the Ventriloquist's crew get the jump on them and a bat to the back of the head disoriented Batman and surprised Robin before he was knocked out. With Batman following him shortly after from another blow to the head.

Batman didn't know how much time had passed but he awoke to find himself and Robin strapped back-to-back in chairs by duct tape.

"Well, well, well, Gatman and Rogin," an archaic gangster voice stirred the duo from their impromptu slumber.

Batman turned his head and saw the mousy looking man and a gangster dressed puppet on his hand.

"I figured we would ge meeting," the puppet continued.

"Holy marionette's, Batman!" the red and green acrobat exclaimed at the puppet.

"Hmm," Batman took Robin's exclamation in stride.

"What should we do with them, Scarface?" Rhino asked the boss.

"Kill them, what else," the puppet said. "We get rid of them and we're the giggest name in Gotham. We'll have it made!"

"I don't know, Mr. Scarface," the mousey looking man finally spoke with out the puppet. The white-haired man sounded meek. "Killing them sounds bad. The police would be after us," he uttered concerningly.

"Shadup, ya dummy!" The puppet slapped Wesker across the face.

"Ow!" the white-haired man whimpered.

While the crew watched unaffected by the confrontation, Batman found it curious. He couldn't even see Wesker's throat muscle's move. He also noted a speech impediment replacing 'b's' with 'g's'. From what Batman could see the thugs took orders from Scarface, the puppet. Wesker was just the legs. One was a dominant personality, while the other was submissive.

Multiple Identity Disorder? Multiple personalities in one mind. He continued to observe as the dummy beat the man. One was the archaic gangster Scarface, while Wesker was the gentler personality. Some sort of trauma caused Wesker to become the way he was.

Loss of his job, maybe?

"No good, dummy," Scarface berated the man smacking him with his hand. The older man continued to whimper further and resumed apologizing and self-deprecating on how pitiful a man he was.

"What the hell?" Robin whispered to his partner bewildered by the bizarre scene. "We doing this or what?" he whispered to Batman on whether they should begin escaping their restraints.

"Get ready," Batman uttered to his partner lowly, his eyes still trained on the scene.

"We're killing them now!" Scarface commanded angrily. Tired of the louse he was trapped to for eternity. "Rhino!" he commanded the large man to do the honors.

"Of course, Mr. Scarface," he obediently obeyed. An unnamed thug handed the large man a tommy gun.

"You know if you kill us no one will believe you," Robin goaded.

"Huh?" Rhino exhaled. "What are you talking about, punk?" He loomed over the teen, whom had a cocky smirk on his face.

"I mean no one's going to believe some no named wannabe gangster is going to be responsible for the deaths of Batman and Robin. Everyone's going to be taking credit for it. From the drug pushers to the psychos," he continued to goad as Scarface and everyone else in the room were sharing uncertain whispers to each other.

"'Course they will be believe us we'll have your bodies," he stated confidently.

Robin's smirk deepened, while Batman inconspicuously started on the duct tape the was confining them. His obscured hand pulled a miniaturized laser from his belt.

"Our costumes are rigged to explode if our hearts stop," the teen smugly retorted.

"The hell they are," Rhino challenged.

"You wanna call my bluff, be careful. You're in the blast zone."

Suddenly, the large man got a little nervous as did many of the other hired hands of Scarface. Batman used the distraction as he activated the mini laser set at low power to avoid detection and applied it to the tape holding his arm in place. He was counting on Robin to buy some more time as he was certain Robin was already working on his restraints as well.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Scarface screamed at Rhino.

"But boss…" he stammered. "What if it's true?"

"So what," the puppet shrugged. "I'll still have respect when they're dead. Do it!" he commanded intently.

The man gulped as he knew if he didn't do it Scarface would get rid of him, too. He pointed his weapon at the teen, ignoring Batman altogether, just as well as Batman inconspicuously turned his head away from everyone hiding his mouth.

The large man gulped again steeling himself as his finger rested against the trigger.

"Why are you listening to the dummy? I'm the brains behind the operations." Wesker's voice went through Rhino's ears as he whipped his head back towards the boss, surprise on his face. Everyone was shocked by Wesker's boldness.

Except one.

"What. Did. You. Say?" Scarface displeased by hearing the dummy speak out in such a way. He turned his head towards the mousey man.

"Mr. Scarface, it wasn't me, sir?" The man stammered as the wooden object glowered at him.

Suddenly, Batman's arm was free and started working on the tape holding his torso. Thanks to a little trick he picked up from John Zatara back when Bruce was traveling, he learned how to mimic and throw his voice. He never thought he would get the chance to use it. Until now.

He noted Robin's arm was free and was working on the torso as well.

"I swear, Mr. Scarface. I never said any of that," the man pleaded. However, the dummy was not hearing any of it.

"You no good, dummy," Scarface smacked the mousey looking man. The goons observing the spectacle chuckled at the scene. Others, newer to the gang shared bizarre looks. Uncertain if they should have signed up with the freaks in this town.

"I should throw you into a fireplace," Wesker's voice made aware of the contempt towards the puppet.

"I didn't say that Mr. Scarface. You are looking right at me!"

Finally, the time to strike was now as Batman and Robin tore through the restraints freeing them. Both threw the chairs they previously sat in at Rhino, one colliding with his head, the other disarming him of his weapon.

Immediately, they both pressed the attack. Robin taking out the large man's legs while Batman soles smashed into the man's face, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.

Robin instantly tossed out smoke pellets blinding the gunmen. Wordlessly, the duo went to work activating thermal imaging enabling them to navigate through the smoke cloud.

Startled, Scarface ordered his men to shoot.

"But boss, what about our guys?" a lone goon inquired, worried about hitting one of his buddies. The goon's answer was him being torn apart by Scarface's tommy gun.

"Fuck 'em!"

Leading by example, the puppet shot a hail of bullets through the cloud, hearing yelps and cries as some of his men were hit. Unbothered, Scarface continued uninterrupted as others soon joined him.

From the rafters, Batman took down several of the thugs whose backs were to the entrance of the nightclub. Robin, unusually quiet performed silent takedowns as they picked them off one by one until it was down to the Ventriloquist and Scarface.

Slowly, the smoke cloud dissipated revealing all the downed thugs. Some were unconscious, others were groaning and bleeding. Luckily, Batman and Robin had downed the goons before they were shot too terribly from their own guys.

A black batarang cut through the air disarming Scarface, Wesker yelped from the action. Robin tore the puppet from the man and Batman grabbed the balding man by the throat.

Robin gave the lifeless object a quizzical look as it seemed like nothing but a hunk of wood. Wesker, on the other hand, was a sobbing mess.

"Please give him back to me!" he pleaded on the brink of tears. "Give him back! Give him back."

His weeping caught the duo off guard as the older man seemed to be having some sort of panic attack. The vigilante released his hold as the older man curled up into a ball onto the floor.

The following morning the papers exploded with the capture of the bank robbers. Multiple speculations that it was Batman and Robin that captured them.

Bane sat in a chair reading the story, eyes narrowed as he concluded the insane were somehow attracted to Batman or the city. One or the other he concluded.

More research was required before he made a move.

Bruce's Penthouse

Bruce and Diana managed to meet up during the afternoon as one cut out of the office early and the other was done for the day.

"I need to see you more," Bruce suddenly told the beautiful woman as they took a break from their carnal desires.

She released a scoffing laugh, as she was caught off guard from his statement. "As much as I enjoy being with you, Bruce. I do still need to work and have some sort of life without being glued to you," she responded. "You exhaust me sometimes," she chuckled rolling over onto her stomach a twinkle in her eyes.

He stared at her, quietly observing her. His face expressionless, slowly the twinkle faded from the raven-haired woman's eyes as did her smile.

"I need to see you more. And not just in a sexual way. I can't focus when we're apart. I'm looking forward to the next time I see you that I can't concentrate on anything else," he explained to her, his eyes not meeting hers.

Slowly, Diana processed what he had heard. Honestly, she was surprised by his disclosure. He was not like this when they were in high school. She was glad to see he had matured when it came to their relationship. While she was delighted that he wanted to see her more, they needed their own personal time.

The fact that Bruce was yearning to see her again made her happy. But she also had her career to think about as well as raising a teenaged daughter, whom did not need to see her parents in an intimate position.

"I… like being with you, Bruce," she admitted. "But we do have lives that need to be lived."

"I know," he haggardly stated. "I just…" he trailed off unsure on how to verbalize what he was feeling.

The woman stared at him for a moment before rising and sitting on his thighs. He was confused on what she was up to, although he was enjoying the view of her bare body in front of him.

She held his head in her hands and pulled him to her chest. His eyes widened in surprise before slowly closing them as she wrapped her arms around him holding him close.

Slowly, he started to reciprocate. Strong arms wrapped around her waist, a warm feeling welling up inside both of them as they merely hold one another. When she started to stroke his hair, his hands wandered slowly moving along her back. His fingertips running along her spine as he heard a moan escape her, enjoying the pleasurable feeling from his action.

"It's okay to need someone, Bruce. It's okay to want to be with someone," she whispered to him as reassurances calmed him.

He realized he needed space from her as well. Their relationship was going strong but they both had lives to live that did not involve the other. And he needed to find out where he needed to draw the line. There was a time and a place to be with Diana, but his work was not for her. So, he had to make the most of when he was with Diana and then leave it where it was when he carried out his duties.

Later, they both laid back resting once more as the children should be getting out of school soon.

Abruptly, Bruce uttered, "How's your mother doing?"

"Ugh, and that just killed any hopes of having sex again today," she sardonically explained. She rolled out of bed and searched for her underwear before dressing and hopping back in. "She's doing better. She got sick of my hovering and went back to her hotel. She should be getting looked at next week to see how she is healing up," she answered.

"Good," the man replied. He was glad to hear Hippolyta was doing better.

"Thank you for asking. I will let my mother know you were asking about her," Diana responded, running her hand through her hair.

He silently nodded pleased.

Silence awkwardly formed between them until…

"So, what's this I hear about you speed dating?"

The raven-haired woman's eyes widened as she whipped her head to him. Startled by hearing those particular words from her boyfriend. Anxiety and fear washed over her as she was feeling confronted. Immediately, she regretted not telling him about the damn speed dating event for her show.

Bruce raised a curious eyebrow at her as he awaited an explanation.

"How did you…?

"Elissa told me," he answered simply.

"Oh," tension faded from her.

"Bruce, I—"

"I'm not upset," he interjected cautiously. "I was just curious on why you didn't mention it."

"Because it didn't matter. There was no chance of anything happening from it. Mostly it was a bunch of odd people asking about Steve's status or some inviting me in for a threesome," she elaborated.

She got a raised eyebrow out of her man upon hearing the word 'threesome'.

"Oh, grow up," she scoffed.

She earned a smirk from him.

"Dinner tomorrow?"

"Sure," she accepted nonchalantly.

Gotham City High School

Elissa and Natalie were just leaving their lockers as the final bell rang ending school for the day. The whole school was lit up about the summer formal. The final dance of the school year before summer ended the school year and everyone went about their summer plans.

The two girls were walking down the hallway when someone accosted them. Dean Chase, the gorgeous blond who was a sophomore at the school. He was tall and athletic. According to Nat, he was the junior varsity's quarterback on the football team.

He had never once spoke to or even looked at Elissa since she started high school.

"Yes?" Elissa inquired curiously upon the abrupt appearance of the athlete.

"Uh, you're Elissa, right?" Dean started awkwardly.

"Yeah," Elissa replied cautiously. Nat stood behind her bestie watching the scene unfold.

"Uh," he began, scratching the back of his head, "you… would you go the summer formal with me?" he asked quickly.

The teen's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing the words. She had never been asked to a dance before. She had never even gone to one. She had always put out that aura of 'keep away' to anyone she didn't trust.

Swallowing, Elissa skeptically responded, "Why? You don't even know me," she pointed out.

Nat quickly shoved Elissa aside, "What are you doing?" she pressed softly. "The hottest guy in the sophomore class is asking you to the dance and you are going to sabotage it. What's wrong with you? Accept already and go to the dance with him."

Thanks to Nat's forceful encouragement, Elissa stepped back toward the patiently waiting Dean. "Okay, Dean," the dark-haired teen said casually, "I will go to the dance with you," she accepted.

She even went as far as giving him a smile, that made his heart skip a beat as he exhaled in relief.

"Sweet," he cheered. Instantly, he composed himself. "So, I'll pick you up at seven?"

"Sure," Elissa accepted with a cool smile.

"Thanks!" Dean exclaimed before heading out of the school. Once he was gone, the cool and smiling Elissa vanished as she turned to Natalie in panic.

"What the hell did I just do?!

Smugly, Natalie crossed her arms across her chest. "Girl, you got a date for the dance!

A whine escaped the raven-haired teen as she already regretted accepting the invitation. Panicking as she had never gone to a dance before and had no idea how to act there.

This was why she rarely spent any time with other kids.

NEXT: The Dance

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