Always…

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye or Batman Begins!

Chapter Sixteen

"Lisa, let's go home for a while and let them do their work." Jonathan suggested knowing he could not afford for Lisa to have a breakdown in front of Gordon.

"Okay," she agreed numbly, allowing Jonathan to lead her out to the silver car. He helped her into the passenger's seat and closed the door carefully once she was settled inside.

"Dr. Crane?" Sergeant Gordon called from the front of Arkham, jogging briskly to where the dark-haired man stood waiting with an attitude of trepidation.

"Yes?" Jonathan responded with a forced smile. He only wanted to get Lisa back to his place and have a session before she became either uncooperative or worsened by her delusions.

"Are you headed to your home?"

"Just for a few hours. I'm leaving Arkham to you, Sergeant Gordon. I trust when I will return, it will still be in one piece."

"How will I be able to reach you, should anything happen?" asked Gordon. He was not enthusiastic about letting Jonathan Crane leave. A few people in town were suspicious about the psychiatrist's seemingly shady dealings supposedly with Carmine Falcone and now a murder was committed under his very nose. However instead of guarding his precious asylum, he was leaving with his very pregnant assistant. Since when does Crane even have an assistant? Gordon wondered. Something was very wrong with Dr. Crane and Lisa Rippner, and Gordon knew it.

"The nurses will know how to get in touch with me. Now, if you will excuse me, it's been an exceptionally long night and we would both like a chance to freshen up."

"Oh, of course. Sorry to have bothered you, Dr. Crane."

"Don't worry about it." Jonathan said coolly before climbing into the car. Gordon watched him fasten his seatbelt and speak to Lisa for a moment before driving away.

Once Dr. Crane was safely headed away from Arkham and into the Narrows, Gordon ducked inside his patrol car. He radioed in to Gotham PD's Headquarters.

After his call was answered, he said, "Can someone dig up whatever information can be found on a Lisa Rippner? R-I-P-P-N-E-R." Gordon spelled. "Also run a check on her husband. His first name is unknown. I've been informed that she is Dr. Crane's new assistant."

Gordon was determined to get to the bottom of this case even if it meant going up against the powerful director of Arkham Asylum and potentially, the drug overload of Gotham. He would do whatever it took to figure out what was going on behind the scenes of the dismal mental institution.

"Welcome home, Lisa." Jonathan announced a short while later, after pulling up in front of his modest two-story house located in a decent section of town.

"This is really nice of you, Jonathan." Lisa said, taking a deep breath in amazement. He really did not have to take care of her. Jackson had seen to her well-being and a part of her felt that she did not need his help yet she did. He held the key to her sanity. Jonathan was the answer to her freedom from Jackson.

"Not at all, Lisa. You're perfectly welcome here." he said with a wide smile.

Despite his friendly exterior, Lisa could not help but be slightly guarded by his kind actions. It was eerily similar, this bringing her to his home, to what she had endured with Jackson. She had sworn to never let that happen again. She would not become anyone's pawn.

But Jonathan was nothing like Jackson, was he?

"This is Gordon," Sergeant Gordon answered as his cell phone rang a while later. "Miami, you said? A murder case? Can you pull the files…? I'll be right there."

He hung up the cell phone. His hunch had been right. There was something buried in Lisa's past that did not fit. Her husband had not died by accident. He had been murdered…by her.

Gordon sped to the police station and barely parked before racing inside the building. Lying on his neat and orderly desk was a stack of file folders. 'Rippner, Lisa' was scrawled on the top of one folder and 'Rippner, Jackson' on the other. He sank down into his desk chair and flipped through Jackson Rippner's folder first.

He nearly had a heart attack when his eyes were greeted by a set of icy blue eyes paired with dark brown hair. For a moment he thought that he was staring at a picture of Jonathan Crane, and then he slowly realized that there were a few differences between the two men.

Yet the similarities were so close, they could easily pass for one another. Did Dr. Crane have an alias and another life away from Arkham? If so, why end his alias and implicate Lisa in the so-called murder?

Jim pored over the file. Jackson Rippner had died several months earlier, while Jonathan Crane had been away on one of his frequent business trips. If Crane was really Jackson Rippner, then why leave Lisa Rippner in Miami for such a long period of time? Why just now bring her to Gotham?

Why did he get this gut feeling that everything that was happening was somehow connected to Lisa and her unborn child?

"How are you feeling today, Lisa?" asked Jonathan after they had begun their session. He had shown Lisa around the house and she had insisted upon a therapy session, which he was only too willing to oblige.

"Anxious… I have this terrible feeling… and Jackson's gone. He's gone. I feel empty inside, Jonathan," she whispered to him.

"The emptiness is normal. It only signifies that you are beginning to let go of him. This is a good sign."

"I miss him… I loved him."

Jonathan only nodded. He still could not understand how anyone could have loved his mentally deranged twin. Jackson had antisocial tendencies and was almost completely devoid of human emotion. In Jonathan's experience, Jackson had no capacity for love, and therefore it stood to reason that no one could love him in return.

"Jonathan, I don't want to forget him. He may have a monster at times, but he was still a good person. I know he was."

"I'm not here to make you forget him. I'm here to help you. How do you think I can help you?"

Lisa let out a quavering sigh and swallowed hard. How to say it?

"Help me…help me raise the baby. I don't want to risk hurting Jackson's baby," Lisa blurted, her words coming out in a rush as she felt her stomach clench in panic at the thought of solely bringing her child up in this world without anyone to lean on.

Author's Notes:

A cliffie! I'm sorry that it took me a while to get this up. It was finished, but I wasn't sure if I needed to change anything before I updated. Anyways, big thanks to emptyvoices and thanks to everyone who has reviewed!