Been sick, still sort of sick, I'm fine, I'm back!

Nobody asked for it, but here it is; my The Dark Storm playlist, filled with the songs I have on repeat when writing.

playlist?list=PLzan7RNE0q0tOvk647ijI19okyHPn0yuH (youtube)

I also saw this challenge type thing that I'd love to try; pick a section of The Dark Storm, either ~500 words or a scene, and I'll give you a DVD extra-type breakdown of it, why I chose certain words, what the characters are feeling at the time, what song from the playlist I'd pair with it/was listening to at the time if I can remember, etc.

I'll try and do it in reviews but if there are enough responses I'll collate them!

Finally thank you so much to all the readers and the amazing comments and huge amount of love this story has received. It may only be a fanfiction, but it's one of my babies and I've fallen in love with these characters and this city even more through writing this, and I have grown to adore Evelyn, even looked to her in some tough times. I apologize for the feelings you may catch in the next chapter, hopefully it will be up before too long!

I pulled up into the Wayne Enterprises carpark at 10am. It felt odd being awake and out so early thanks to the night off.

As I locked the car, glancing around at the lot to see which cars where there, my phone rang with an unknown number.

'Hello?' I answered, starting for the lift.

Harvey Dent replied. 'Evelyn, hi.'

I blinked at the tone of Harvey's voice. 'Harvey. Is something wrong?'

He laughed. 'When is it not?'

I couldn't disagree.

'Gordon wanted me to ring you; he's a little busy right now. Lau's due to testify in court again today and get them down.'

'What can I do for you?' My boots kept clicking over the concrete toward the lift.

'He wants to know if he can put the forensic analysis of the poison that killed Loeb straight to you and your office.'

I felt honoured and turned on the spot. 'I'll come and pick it up myself, tell him to have it ready in twenty minutes.'

'Thank you, I will. Also, uh… are you okay? You had a bit of a scare at the fundraiser.'

I scrambled for a response, closing my focus further and further into the phone call. 'It turned out alright; I'm fine, thank you. It seems the Batman can catch. Was Rachel okay?'

'She was, yes.' He went silent for a moment; I could practically hear him swaying for a second indecisively. 'Can I ask you something less work related?'

I raised an eyebrow, pulling my key back out of my bag. 'Depends what it is.'

'Wayne.'

O~o~of course.

'Why does Rachel…' he changed his direction. 'Why did you become his friend?'

I gave him pretty much the same answer I'd given Rachel in the cafe. 'Well, if you remember me telling you about how I met Gordon as a kid…'

'I do.'

'… then that's really the reason. I can't relate too much to the insufferable cad, but we share enough of a sad story.'

'You must be his only true friend.'

Didn't I hate it. 'And Rachel. She knew him before everything happened.'

'I see. I asked Rachel to marry me yesterday…,'

Whoa…. That was… some timing, there.

'… and Wayne is her oldest friend. I wanted to know more about him.'

'Sorry to disappoint, but it's really what you see is what you get,' I said, nearly back at the car. 'Unfortunately, Bruce doesn't have any secret redemptive qua- ARGH! DON'T DO THAT!' I jumped as I felt a hand on my shoulder that I got off with an angry shrug and whirled around, expecting to see the one person who could sneak up on me, wearing an awful suit and a smirk.

My eyes dropped lower from where they'd automatically gone seething at Bruce's height, unable to process. Ryan had jumped back, startled, and I stared at him incredulously, blinking as I began to comprehend what happened.

'Everything alright?'

I stared at Ryan disbelievingly and then straightened my phone. 'Just my brother,' I managed to get out.

'I'll leave you to it, then, I'll tell Gordon you're on your way.'

'Thanks.'

The call ended and I looked back at Ryan, still slightly bent over and leaning away. I eyed him, equally startled and wary.

He blinked at me.

'Since when could you do that?' I asked finally, still frozen.

'Since… never…' he kept eyeing me from a safe-distance lean. 'I thought you knew I was there.'

'… No.' I shook my head slowly and carefully stood upright again. 'What are you doing down here?'

'I was going to ask if you wanted to get coffee, Jason said you'd be in around ten today. Who did you think I was?'

'Never mind that,' I shrilled, suddenly animate again, 'how the hell did you do that?!'

'I don't know, I just…' Ryan picked his feet up. 'Walked over. You were on the phone; you didn't hear me.'

…. … … … Hm. So my brother was sometimes as stealthy as the Batman. Good to know.

'Do that again,' I ordered, waving him away. 'Walk how you just did.'

He frowned, stepped back and once I'd closed my eyes he walked back toward me.

I could hear his steps, but the soles of his shoes cushioned the sound.

We walked the same way, too, so he had probably been in step with me.

'Guess you have some physical skills after all,' I deemed and continued back to the car. 'I've got to pick something up from Gordon; hop in.'

Now beginning to laugh, he walked around and got into the passenger's side. 'Still startled from yesterday?'

'No…' then I remembered, again, what happened "yesterday." The window. 'Oh. Maybe.'

'Evelyn,' he sighed, getting his legs comfortable, 'you were thrown out of a window and if the Batman hadn't caught you; you'd be dead.'

'Thanks for the reminder,' I said, clearly staging nonchalance.

Ryan studied me to make sure I was fine with talking about the subject, not scared or uneasy. Happy, he stared ahead as I reversed.

'While we're on the subject,' he continued as I drove out of the parking lot, 'how come you didn't fight those thugs properly?'

I sighed a little as we pulled up at the road. 'This is going to sound a little bad,' I warned, checking oncoming traffic and pulling out, 'but I don't want the entire rich elite class of Gotham knowing I'm trained to kill. Tends to put them off.'

Ryan laughed.

'Gordon had rung, remember, I knew the police were on their way. It was better to try and stall and let the professionals handle the Joker than try to fight him myself.'

Ryan nodded slowly. 'This is why you're the one with the fighting brain and I'm the one with the cute face.'

'Ha!' I barked. 'I don't see you complaining when you come running to me for help.'

He laughed again.

We stopped at the first set of lights.

'Also,' he said, getting more comfortable in the seat, 'can I ask you about Bruce Wayne?'

'I'm sure you will anyway,' I remarked in well-practiced older sibling fashion.

Ryan nodded his thanks at the permission. 'Well on the phone, you just told Harvey that he's not complicated. That what you see is what you get. I thought you liked Harvey.' What he meant, was if I liked Harvey, why would I not tell him more about Bruce?

'I do!' I insisted. 'But I like Bruce more, for whatever reason, god knows why,' I muttered the last part, making Ryan laugh, 'and if that's how he wants to look to people, then…' I shrugged my fingers off the wheel, as the light turned green. 'I'm not going to undo that.'

'Yeah, I really like him when he's not being a prick,' Ryan added with a nod and a comical expression.

I laughed. 'Just avoid him unless he's avoiding everyone else. The public eye is a weird thing.'

'I didn't get why he was so different to the news when I met him. Then I saw him at the party. It makes sense now.'

'Mm, a billionaire orphan with cameras in his face his entire childhood does make for a strange person.'

Ryan looked down sadly, wincing. 'I'd have a public persona, too. Why hide his intelligence?'

'You think the press cares about that? Really?'

He winced again sympathetically. 'What about all those models? Is he hiding his romantic life?'

Ha. Not anymore. 'He would if he had one,' I remarked, trying not to sound too sassy. 'Ask him yourself. I'm sure if you invited him for a beer and David Attenborough documentary evening he'd take the offer,' I said with a sly smirk, glancing at him.

'Yeah,' he countered sarcastically, 'I'll bear that in mind. "Hey, Bruce Wayne, richest man in Gotham and also sort of the world…"'

'Alright, alright, don't remind me. Just remember, Ryan, if every person thought like that, he'd have no decent friends.'

Ryan fell silent and I left him to think about it as we neared the MCU.

I pulled into the parking lot and turned the engine off. 'I won't be long, where are you?'

'I'll come with you.' He got himself out of the car before I locked it and followed me in as I walked straight past reception and into the elevator, the receptionist recognising me and clearing me.

The lift pulled upward and the familiar sight of Gordon's officers working through paperwork greeted us. I looked to the other end of the space to see Gordon in his office. Strange to be in the building instead of on the roof for a change.

'Doctor,' greeted Detective Ramirez.

'Morning,' I said.

Her eyes moved on to Ryan and I kept walking, Ryan not getting much of a chance to talk to her as he hastened after me.

I knocked on Gordon's door.

He looked up and his face flooded with relief, as if something was finally going right. I knew the feeling. I pushed the door open and he got up from his desk, opening a draw and I heard the usual sound of an evidence bag crinkling.

Ryan stepped in behind me and shut the door.

'Thank you for doing this,' Gordon said, handing the bag over. It wasn't the usual evidence bag; it was opaque and labelled only Loeb; WE For. There were several things in there.

'I'll get to you as soon as I can,' I promised.

'Thank you.' Gordon stopped his hectic pace for a moment and glanced between us. 'You do really look alike,' he remarked, studying our faces.

We laughed.

'I'm glad you're both safe after the attack last night.'

'Best of luck, Gordon,' I said, turning back to the door with a smile on my face, 'I'll be back later.'

I liked my floor at Wayne Enterprises. The forensics section of the Science Department and the executives of the finance department shared the second from the top floor of Wayne Enterprises' main building because Bruce "I don't do anything but party" Wayne didn't need half a floor to around taking naps in and Douglas and I got along well.

On our half of the floor, each of the scientists working under me had a private office, there were two small meeting rooms, a computer lab, a large and comfy common room and the large forensics lab. The forensics lab was a cosy place, it reminded me of Applied Sciences a year back. I had a large private lab separated from the rest of the area by smartglass. It was lunch hour, so only two others from my half were on the floor, in their offices.

I looked up from my workbench to see Bruce standing behind the currently clear sliding doors, waiting for me to finish my line of thought. 'What are you doing here?'

'Playboy schematics,' he replied and walked in, the doors opening for him.

I hadn't heard from him since he rang in the middle of the night. He definitely looked tired, slightly off, quite empty. I leant back from the table and with a press of a button turned the glass opaque. 'You're exhausted, take tonight off. Mental health leave before you become useless,' I said. 'Getting dumped can't be good for you.'

The Joker was becoming more dangerous, we needed all the energy we could get. Which meant a rested Bruce and Batman. He sighed at me but didn't disagree.

'Better make the most of the kidnap excuse for your injuries while you can,' I added.

He nodded. 'I'll go out for a while and sleep early. Have you started?'

I stepped to the side and he followed the motion, coming to stand where I had been. 'I'm about to. Haven't seen Ryan, have you? He's better at Toxicology than I am.'

'I'm sure we can still trust your abilities.'

'We can,' I agreed, 'but it's like you trusting me with stealth.'

He spared me a humble glance.

I sighed. 'First thing Gordon said to me was that the glass was smoking.'

'Acid,' Bruce nodded.

'Acid. And a GCPD officer got Loeb's fingerprint for the Joker. We still don't know who.'

Bruce folded his arms and stared at the glass, the bottle, and the container which held the remainder of the liquid. 'Maybe I should postpone the night off.'

'No, take it before anything gets worse.'

He helped me set out the equipment and a few minutes after I'd started the doors to the labs opened. We looked up and I turned the glass transparent to see it was Ryan crossing the floor toward his desk.

'Ryan!' I called.

The doors opened and he looked over at my enormous space, flicking from the different areas until he saw us. 'What is it? Hi,' he added to Bruce.

I indicated the evidence in front of me with an incline of my head. 'Come help us with this. This is your expertise.'

'I've got three tests to run,' he said, hesitating and pointing in the direction he was going.

'After this, that will have to wait.'

'Yes, boss.' He came over and we stepped back.

'Analyse the acid, we'll handle the bottle.'

'Gotcha…,' he said, shaking his arms and grabbing a pair of glasses.

I picked up the bag the bottle was in and we moved away from Ryan to the next table, turning the glass opaque again.

'This isn't our usual type of task; it's very simple,' Ryan frowned over the chinks and shuffles he made as he got himself organised.

'It's not,' I agreed, 'Gordon didn't want this going through GCPD forensics.'

'Even more "don't say a word" than usual, got it.'

Bruce watched Ryan, impressed, while I carefully removed the whisky bottle.

With two minutes and a camera Bruce had taken all the prints and moved on to the glass.

'Phwoar…' Ryan was holding a small test tube as far from his nose as he could. 'It can't have been in there long if someone drank it; the reaction didn't take long and it is awful.'

A second later the smell reached us and we grimaced at the feeling it hit our senses with, the horrible feeling not helped by knowing that was what killed Loeb.

I glanced at Bruce unhappily and kept working.

While we waited for a few computer results at around three, Ryan dragged us down to try the café at the entrance to Wayne Enterprises, insisting he needed a coffee that wasn't self-made from the common room.

Since Bruce and I were hungry we went along with very little convincing.

Despite it being Wayne Enterprises, Bruce still caused quite a stir when he appeared in the general floors and areas of the building. The smaller carpark in the basement that the board and their teams, now including Ryan, used wasn't accessible by staff, neither were the two lifts that stretched up into the building from them.

Seeing Bruce in the foyer wasn't a legendary occasion, but it wasn't common, either. Actually, it was incredibly rare.

Ryan awkwardly put me between himself and Bruce in an attempt to minimise the eyes on him as Bruce strolled through the foyer with suave and ease, looking pleasant but keeping his eyes ahead, his usual one hand in his pocket.

I stopped myself from pulling a face as murmurs and whispers and giggles went up around us in Bruce's wake.

There was a benefit, though. The entire café line nearly bowed out of Bruce's way and we reached the front before Ryan had decided what coffee he felt like.

To buy him time I ordered a chai and an iced Ceylon.

Ryan then hastily ordered a double-shot espresso, to my dismay. It was 3pm.

'Sure thing!' grinned the waiter. 'We'll bring it over.'

Ryan blinked, wallet already in hand. He paused, baffled.

I grinned a little. 'Full-time employees don't pay,' I explained.

'Oh!' Ryan reached into his other pocket. 'Do you need my employee ID?'

'No, it's fine,' said the waiter with a chuckle, a little awkwardly.

Ryan turned to me for an answer. I was watching him with a raised eyebrow. He looked over my shoulder and Bruce was grinning at him. 'Oh. Right.'

Ryan promptly escaped the situation by sending a hasty thanks to the waiter and went to pick a table. I took the number offered to me and followed after my disastrous brother.

Ryan had picked a table in the corner and had put himself in the corner seat. I titled my head at him but didn't say a word and sat beside him, opposite Bruce.

'It's three in the afternoon, stop ordering espressos this late,' I chastised.

'Never,' he winked.

Unsurprisingly, our order had almost ran after us as a different waiter appeared with a tray. 'The espresso?'

'The coffee addict in the corner,' I said with a sigh that implied I was wishing I could pretend not to know him.

She put it down. Ryan's claws immediately latched onto the mug.

'The iced Ceylon?'

'Bruce,' I said, occupied with frowning at Ryan's coffee.

Carefully, after blinking as she translated "Bruce Wayne, the famous multi-billionaire that owned Wayne Enterprises" to a distracted, trivializing "Bruce," she put the iced tea in front of him and handed me the final drink.

'Thank you,' Ryan grinned as she left.

I took a sip of my chai and looked out of the window for a moment.

Ryan also looked out of the window, eyes pausing on something. He shook his head. 'About that research team you said I could join,' he began, talking about the deal we'd finished in the early morning meeting with the call to Germany, 'Are you sure you don't need me in the forensic labs, with everything going on?'

'Hopefully,' I said with an unconvinced tilt of the head, 'by the time we start on that the forensic labs won't be so busy. Gordon and Harvey think they're closing in.'

'Okay, good, wouldn't want to leave if I was needed.'

'Thanks, Ryan.' I smiled at him lazily. Then he snickered, and my eyes fixed back on him immediately.

I knew that laugh.

'The best thing happened this morning,' he said to Bruce excitedly. 'I was in the carpark and -,'

In an angry and automatic flash I'd clamped my hand tightly over my brother's mouth. He leant back to try and escape but I followed him, squeezing my fingers into his face, glaring at him with my full attention.

I glared at Ryan until he got the message and carefully nodded. I released him with a warning threat in my pupils.

Bruce, meanwhile, wore a small smirk.

'Ignore him,' I sighed. Then I noticed a small scene at the main doors. 'Ryan… whatever you were looking at earlier didn't have to do with a drunk, pathetic-looking businessman that you almost thought you recognised, would it?'

'Almost exactly,' he replied, matter of fact, 'why?'

I sighed and stood up as Bruce and Ryan scanned the area, moving for the foyer.

I hadn't gone more than two steps out of earshot before Ryan leant in closer toward Bruce. 'You didn't hear this,' he said, getting Bruce's attention, 'but I accidentally snuck up on her in the parking lot. She jumped so high…' He said it proudly and highly entertained.

Bruce was very familiar with the reaction Ryan was describing, though he still found it very funny to know that of all the other people beside himself in the world to succeed in jump scaring me it was my younger brother. He nodded to signify he wouldn't ever say a word.

I sighed. Roth. Seemingly after spending his time day-drinking in the bar across the road and staring wistfully at the top floor of Wayne Enterprises, the alcohol in his system told him to boldly stagger in when he had seen Bruce and me.

Security had other ideas, though the guards were understandably a little hesitant about handling an ex-board member.

I stood behind the guards and looked down at him, folding my arms with a sigh. 'I thought I fired you.'

The small crowd of onlookers went up in gasps and murmurs.

The noise caught Brue and Ryan's attention and they watched from the table.

Roth was on the floor on his backside. He stopped glaring at the guards to glare at me. 'You're the bitch who threw me out 'cause you didn't like me.'

'You were fired for being a sexist idiot,' I replied blankly with a small frown, unable to see where he was trying to go.

More murmurs through the small crowd.

'Go on, out,' I sighed with a one-handed shooing motion, 'reflect where you went wrong elsewhere.'

Uneasily, the guards looked at me. I nodded that they were okay.

They pulled Roth to his feet and he stumbled backward, pointing at me as I began to leave. 'You kicked a chair at me!'

Over at the table, they couldn't hear what was being said, but they didn't like the look of Roth's rising aggression levels. Bruce stood up and walked to the edge of the café, watching from there with his hands in his pockets. Ryan followed him.

I stopped at Roth's yell. Really? I sighed yet again and rounded back to him, leaning toward him a little. 'You grabbed someone's leg,' I responded heatedly.

Most of the onlookers, the women especially, shied away from Roth, some taking several steps back. I hated seeing it.

Roth looked around under the sea of disgusted and shunning faces.

Scrutinising him, he was even drunker than he really appeared. I shook my head.

Roth glared at my back and stopped breathing for a moment. Then he charged.

I turned at the commotion. Roth was pelting toward me. I'd dipped one shoulder and raised the other, turning in toward him to knock him flat to the ground in one strike when the guards caught him one stride away from me and forced him back.

Bruce was moving and Ryan hadn't missed the very calm and very dangerous look cross his face as he did. Immediately he was next to me, and the slightest bit in front of me. He forced himself to put his hands in his pockets.

Ryan grinned smugly at Roth. I'd defended Bruce in the boardroom, Bruce was defending me now. He wasn't worried about either of us.

'There you are, Wayne-,' Roth began.

My jaw moved. He quietened at the sight of my expression and relapsed into silence as he was dragged out.

Bruce directed his attention to me. 'Don't smash any plates.'

A tickled huff left me and I smiled my thanks at him. We trailed Roth's exit with satisfied expressions and returned to Ryan and then our table.

'He's so gross,' Ryan commented as we sat back down, watching Roth make his clumsy way down the street. 'How did he even get hired?'

'Earle,' I grumbled, stirring my chai. 'He hung on for the last year, can't imagine how.'

'What a way to get fired.' Ryan was still watching him slinking his way down the road.

Bruce agreed. 'A chair kicked at him by Doctor Evelyn Pendragon. Certainly went out with a bang.'

I raised my gaze to give him a tired look at his joke as I removed the spoon.

'I think you should kick chairs at every single jerk you fire from now on,' Ryan declared, settling back to the table now that he was satisfied he'd watched Roth enough.

'Don't tempt me. But I can't be fired so it would be abuse of power.'

'That's your only excuse?' Ryan laughed.

He knew me well.

I sent Gordon the report and finished the rest of the day's work, leaving early with a wave to Ryan at about 4.

It was a long night ahead.

Alfred had rung to make sure I had everything I needed in the bunker in case Bruce had taken something and could not return it now that he no longer was going out as Batman. I told him I had everything and to take care of Bruce, got into the suit and went out into Gotham.

It was weird. There was no sign of the Joker. Nothing. I spent the time lurking around the Narrows and hunting through the mob's usual dealing places, leaving the occasional criminal tied up in my wake.

I didn't like the lack of the Joker, certainly by his design. He was hiding, telling us we couldn't find him until he decided to step out with whatever else he felt like doing.

I went in early and in blind optimism went through the CCTV from the attacks the night before, wincing when I saw the Joker's hidden knife heading for Batman as I protected Rachel in the background. It looked more chaotic than it had felt at the time.

I went home well before sunrise and woke up around nine. Heading for Wayne Manor to work in the cave, I slid into the Aston with a few files Gordon had sent through that I needed to sort.

As I thought about it in the car I decided it was a task I could train Ryan to do soon enough.

The drive to Wayne Manor was pleasant enough and I stretched my shoulders and legs when I got out, not used to being out and about so "early" in the morning.

I slid my key into the door and walked in, Alfred appearing as I started toward the stairs.

'Good morning, madam.'

I stopped to greet him. 'Morning, Alfred. Did you get some rest?'

'Once Master Wayne had returned from his evening out, yes.'

'Did he return at a reasonable hour?' I headed for the stairs.

'More reasonable than usual. He's got company,' Alfred added before I could go any further.

'Ah.' This again. I stifled an inconvenienced groan, though I needn't have bothered; Alfred still somehow heard it. I needed a prop. 'Oh. Uh…' I looked around, settled on a file sitting in a nearby chest of drawers and flipped it open. Some old trust fund report. That'd do. 'Tha~nk you.'

I walked through the manor to Bruce's room, paused to alter how I stood, and entered the room after a knock.

Wow. There were three bodies in the bed, one of which was Bruce, who, from what I could barely see of his face, looked like he'd just opened his eyes, staring at me through haze. 'Evelyn?'

'Morning. Lucius wanted you to see this as soon as possible.'

The bedsheets moved and a light brown head of hair appeared, followed by a pretty woman, who looked me up and down. 'I didn't know he cared about his company enough to read reports,' she giggled.

'It does when it involves helicopters,' I smiled. 'We run around for him like little elves.'

Bruce stopped rubbing his eyes, confused. 'What?'

'I've got the new electric motor ready for it, but I need to know where it's going to be and when you don't need it.'

The third head appeared, a stunning woman with stunning blonde hair. I tilted my head back and sent her a wave in greeting. She grinned at me and sat up, pulling the sheet over as she did.

It was getting quite hard not to laugh.

'Sorry,' said the blonde, 'what's your name?'

'Evelyn.'

'Oh! I know you! Nice to meet you!'

I smiled. 'You too.'

'Why didn't you send the butler up?' giggled the brunette.

Incredible. She was still even now slightly intoxicated. My eyebrow twitched and I fought my face, keeping my laugh away on sheer, faltering, willpower, trying not to study the woman in front of me. 'I figured you'd probably want me up here rather than the butler.'

She blinked, giggled, and slunk back under the sheets. The blonde nodded to me thankfully. I sent her a wink.

Bruce pushed himself up, sheet falling off his bare torso.

'Whoa…' I said, pulling a disgusted face and holding the file up to cover my eyes with a grossed grimace. 'It's not that urgent.'

'Wait, wait,' said the brunette as I made to leave, 'can you show me where the bathroom is?'

I faked a sigh and grabbed one of Bruce's dressing gowns that were hanging by the door, throwing it onto the bed, still keeping the file in front of my eyes, aware of the peeved stare from Bruce drilling holes through the paper.

The woman appeared in my vision; gown wrapped over her with a smile and her clothes in her hand. I led her out and down the hall.

'Quite the place,' she said, looking at the high ceiling as we went.

'How did you end up here?' I asked in bewilderment.

'Just a night out,' she chuckled.

'Sounds like quite the night.' I led her through a guest bedroom and stopped at the bathroom. 'Just in case,' I joked, 'the butler will notice if something goes missing.'

She grinned with a chuckle at the bad humour and disappeared through the door.

High spirited from my amusement, I went into the kitchen and sat at the bench.

Alfred turned around and put tea, bacon, toast and eggs in front of me. 'Gotham's underbelly not letting you have a good sleep, madam?'

'No,' I sighed. 'Gordon woke me up, ringing with another urgent case.'

Alfred let me eat and kept cooking.

Then Bruce entered, already dressed. I studied my prey.

'Handling rejection well, I see,' I grinned over the rim of my mug, wickedly.

Bruce groaned. 'Just because I thanked you for getting me somehow more loveless than I was before, it doesn't mean you can make fun of me.'

'Oh, it definitely does. Alfred?'

'I couldn't disagree with Madam Evelyn if I wanted to, sir.'

Bruce glowered at his traitorous butler for a moment or two. 'Thank you, Alfred.'

'Pleasure, sir.'

I snickered until I was under Bruce's glare. I sobered and put my mug down. 'Ahem. There was nothing last night.'

Bruce's brow twitched as a light frown crossed his face, his thoughts changing direction. 'It's only a matter of time. Did you find anything?'

'Nothing.' I put one hand in the other. 'Whatever scheme he has, it wasn't for yesterday. He's letting the city stew in its nervous state for a day or so before making his next move, so everyone has time to panic and stop thinking clearly.'

Bruce nodded, agreeing with me. 'So there won't be much we can do today?'

I shook my head. 'I've already been through any leads or information. They're setting up a memorial for Commissioner Loeb in two days' time. Looks like a work and playboy day.'

'Oh what a joy,' Alfred commented.

Bruce peered at him in surprise, not used to his butler displaying such dry humour. His eyes drifted suspiciously to me, the likely source.

I felt the twinkle in my eye as I grinned at Alfred. 'Start by taking those women back home, give Alfred a morning off,' I teased at Bruce, not moving my eyes from his butler.

Bruce's face made a badly hidden grimace that I could see even in the corner of my eye. 'That doesn't sound like a lot of fun.'

'Oh no, heaven forbid Bruce Wayne facing the consequences of his own actions.' I struggled to hide the smirk that was creeping into my muscles.

Alfred turned away to hide his own amusement.

'You know, of all the times for your merciless wit to resurface for a rare appearance, it had to be now, didn't it,' Bruce sighed, feeling very tired.

'I can't help it; it's too funny.' I was staring straight ahead, cowering behind my mug, still trying not to laugh.

Bruce glared at my head, then at the back of Alfred's. Then he let out a long sigh and nodded in surrender, going to get himself and his guests into a car.

Two minutes later the blonde woman appeared with a clean face and looking more sobered, in her dress from the night before as neatly as she could and carrying her heels. She winced at her appearance when she saw Alfred and me in the kitchen.

I smiled at her. 'Hey, there are worst places you could be doing the "walk of shame" from.'

She brightened at my reassurance and sat beside me at the bench at my invitation.

I smirked. 'Bruce is probably looking for you, have some breakfast.'

Alfred found my evilness amusing and jumped right on board. 'Can I get you anything, ma'am?'

'Oh, uh…' she chuckled a little, not used to having a butler around. 'Just… toast?'

I tilted my head a little back to survey her, deciding she was my kind of person. 'Evelyn.' I held out my hand.

She took it with a strong shake. 'Grace. You're at Wayne Enterprises, right?'

'Yes, I am. Infamous designer of helicopters and head of science.'

It clicked in her brain who I was. 'Oh! I've seen you on the news.'

'Mm-hm.'

'Is it true that Wayne bought you that penthouse?'

I chuckled. 'Yes. Boys and their toys, what can I say? Build a man a helicopter…'

She nodded slowly, still piecing everything together. 'I thought you seemed close earlier.'

I raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips as I nodded, implying it was the greatest misfortune of my life to be close to Bruce Wayne.

Alfred laughed at my expression, understanding it well.

'We love him dearly,' I said before Grace's puzzled eyes left Alfred. 'He's just a nightmare.'

'Well, I haven't known him long,' she agreed, 'but I can see that.'

A small, happy laugh left me.

Alfred privately rejoiced at the sound.

'So you don't seem like the normal "party girl" type,' I said conversationally.

'I'd hope not, I don't have the energy for that,' she laughed, waving her hand. 'Just at the same lounge, I guess. One too many and suddenly I was in a Lamborghini.'

I was glad Bruce wasn't in the room to make a quip about me the other week. 'It happens,' I agreed with a shrug.

Alfred put toast in front of Grace. She thanked him and began to eat hungrily. Without a word, he pulled two more slices of bread from the bag.

'Actually I'm in law,' she said after swallowing. 'I own a law firm, just a small one, but it's a branch of Fernsby.'

I squinted. 'That wouldn't be your surname, would it?'

She chuckled shamefacedly. 'Ah, I'm caught. Grace Fernsby.'

'Due to take over the family law firm, which is one of the best in Gotham, upon her father's retirement in two years,' I recited near robotically.

Her face lit up with a giggle. 'How…?'

I titled my head modestly. 'A lot of names go through my head these days. Were you… at one of Bruce's parties before? No; you would have known about my house…' I frowned as I thought. 'Oh. Gotham Academic Foundation network evening.'

'That was… four months ago!' she burst out, impressed.

'I don't go to many events,' I replied, 'especially not out of my own desiring. The Gotham Academic Foundation's events are always the exceptions.'

'Are you a member?'

I nodded, watching Alfred wash a few dishes.

'I wonder why I haven't run into you before,' Grace mused.

'I was sort of a hermit until just over a year ago,' I explained.

'Oh, what changed?'

A simple two words. 'Bruce Wayne,' I said, nearly matter of fact if it wasn't for the chagrin. 'I'm aware the foundation pushed my works around, though, you may have come across those…'

We talked for another ten minutes, in which time she'd finished four more pieces of toast and two glasses of juice when Bruce and the brunette woman appeared.

'Oh, there's my ride,' Grace grinned. I watched the way her hair moved as she turned and stood up, still shaped from yesterday. 'Nice to meet you, I'll get your number from the foundation?'

'Sure,' I agreed, 'take care!'

Bruce stood to the side to let her past and spent the time looking at me in disbelief.

'Is there anything you need doing, sir?' Alfred asked as only Bruce was left in the kitchen.

'No,' Bruce replied and then I caught his attention, pointing after Grace enthusiastically.

I gave him an urging thumbs up.

He sighed at me, cursing himself for having missed my teasing since they day I'd stopped after his conversation with Rachel at the lake. He'd forgotten how bad it was.

I nodded and put the other thumb up encouragingly with a grin that told him I found it funny but was also being serious. I held my hand beside my face like a phone.

He walked out without a word, though with a slight irked narrow of the eyes.

Alfred paused in his work to look between the door Bruce had left from and my very happy self.

I kept the grin and thumbs up until Bruce was out of sight, enjoying myself, still laughing after him after he was gone.

Bruce met me at the bunker with Alfred as we planned our night.

Once we'd agreed, Bruce played the Joker's recording from the news, studying it with his arms folded across his chest while I was busy.

He turned to Alfred and indicated the Joker, his voice being modified by the computer for any sort of recognition. 'Targeting me won't get their money back. I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They've crossed a line.'

I glanced over, not needing to know Alfred's response, but to keep track of the conversation.

'You crossed the line first, sir, you squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation.'

'I wouldn't say we crossed that particular line first,' I mumbled over at them, nodding at the Joker.

'That may be,' Alfred nodded, hands in his pockets, 'but in their desperation they've turned to a man they don't fully understand.'

With a thoughtful frown Bruce stopped the video and started toward his suit. 'Criminals aren't complicated, Alfred. We just have to figure out what he's after.'

'I'm not sure I'd call him "a criminal."' I said uncertainly.

'Quite,' Alfred agreed. 'With respect, Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man you don't fully understand, either.' He followed after Bruce.

Sensing there was more to Alfred's point, I put down everything in my hands and joined them, leaning on the cage of my suit beside Batman's and watching Alfred.

'A long time ago, I was in Burma, my friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders, bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit.'

Bruce had turned around to listen to Alfred, focused on his solemn and heavily delivered words.

I began to guess where the story was headed.

'So we went looking for the stones.' Alfred stopped in front of us, a hint of a grin on his face. 'But after six months, we never met anyone who had traded with him. One day,' he continued under the complete attention of Thunder and Batman, 'I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.'

Bruce's mouth twitched, agreeing with Alfred. 'So why steal them?' he nodded.

'Well, because he thought it was good sport, because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money...'

Bruce and I were staring at the Joker on the screen.

'They can't be bought,' Alfred said with a slight shake of his head, his tone that of one telling a child a scary bedtime story, and in a way he was, 'bullied, reasoned or negotiated with.' He leaned in to get Bruce's eyes back and spoke in a grave voice. 'Some men, just want to watch the world burn.'

I put my head down, digesting Alfred's story and applying it to what I knew of the Joker. Bruce was doing much the same but watching the screen again.

I reached for the suit. 'Alfred's right. Forget everything you know about criminals. He isn't that class. He's not after anything, it's all a game to him.'

'You understand him?' Bruce asked mildly, turning to me.

'I fought the people that pushed Jordan out of the window a week before it happened,' I reminded him simply. 'They were like that. For sport.'

Bruce nodded sadly, slowly.

'It wasn't a robbery, it wasn't revenge. They weren't even after a woman.'

Bruce didn't say anything the rest of the evening as we got into the suits and left the bunker. He was slower than usual and I was out first, so headed to the building further away.

I was cold, despite it being the middle of summer. I was at the top of one of Gotham's tallest skyscrapers, at the other side of the city as Batman, tuning my radio, jumping between receivers.

Batman's voice interrupted me as I listened calmly to conversations between officers on patrol. '8th at orchard.'

'Going now.' I leapt from the building and opened the cape, indulging in forgetting everything for a moment as I flew, looking at Gotham below, glancing in the direction of Ryan's house and at the water of the bay. It was beautiful, and though the air was biting and cold it was a fantastic feeling.

I tilted to the left around another skyscraper and angled toward the ground to where I'd left the tumbler.

I rolled as I landed in the alley beside it and got in, heading for the address.

'Caller said Harvey Dent could be found there.'

'I thought he was with Dawes.'

Batman didn't reply, just as confused as I was.

I looked at the map on the screen. 'I'm going near you on the overpass.'

'Thanks for the lift.'

I drove further on, nearing Batman. When I got closer I watched the map more attentively as I drove. 'Jump.'

Batman jumped from his perch high in the sky and extended his cape.

I slowed the tumbler a little and watched his tracker. He moved across the city toward the road, picking a good angle.

I reduced speed again to a smooth crawl and waited. His tracker matched the Tumbler's and a moment later there was a thud on the roof. I opened the roof with a distracted push of a button as I kept the speed level.

He got in and closed the roof.

'Thanks for dropping in,' I growled.

He sent me a half-glare as he settled and the tumbler sped up again. I urged it faster and faster over the road, loving the way it turned at bends in the road.

Some things had become more mundane as time in the suits had gone on, but both of us still adored the tumblers as much as the moment we first drove one. While still fond of it, I was the lesser fan of the bike; not because I didn't like it but because I had always been in love with cars.

I chose the darkest, creepiest alley near the address and we moved through the still air into an apartment.

We were there before the police. We scaled the building with ease and moved into the room through the balcony doors.

Two officers sat dead at chairs on a table, the room a mess.

Silently, we investigated the scene.

'Patrick Harvey and Richard Dent,' said Batman. I turned at the names and walked over, staring down at the officers' ID.

Sadly I turned back away and scanned the walls with my eyes. 'Bullet hole.'

Before we could do anything more, we heard sirens from the street and automatically slipped into the shadows.

Gordon appeared moments later, kicking the door in and faltering as he saw the scene, Ramirez right after him.

'Check the names,' Batman said, slipping out of the shadows.

Gordon relaxed at his presence and obliged.

'We need ten minutes with the scene before your men contaminate it.'

'Us contaminate it?!' Ramirez yelled. 'It's because of you that these guys are dead in the first place-!'

'Hey, detective!' Gordon ordered.

Ramirez stood down, stepping back. Near where I was. She turned at the shape behind her and jumped, lowering her gun with a hiss from where she'd instinctively put it up as she controlled her nerves.

I stayed as Batman moved through the room, pulling out a sawing device as he moved to the bullet hole in the wall.

Gordon looked up. 'That's brick underneath. You're gonna try and take ballistics off a shattered bullet?'

'No. Fingerprints.'

Gordon turned around in slight disbelief and glanced at me as I stood beside him, looking at the table. He moved a bottle and stopped for a second.

On the newspaper was a picture of the mayor. Someone had drawn Joker makeup over his portrait and scribbled "Ha ha ha" over and over. Gordon picked it up with a handkerchief. 'Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast. 'Cause we found his next target. He's put it in tomorrow's paper.'

The parade for Commissioner Loeb was tomorrow.

Batman handed me the brick he'd cut from the wall.

We stood until Gordon and Ramirez had both looked away and disappeared into the night.

Once in the tumbler, Batman drove back to the bunker as I carefully turned the brick over in my hands.

I pulled my cowl off and spoke in my normal voice. 'It's a clean enough shot; it shouldn't be too hard.'

Bruce pulled Batman's cowl off, too. 'What's the bet the Joker's thought of this?'

I half-glanced in his direction, impressed he was thinking along those lines. 'Not sure. Could be a clumsy mistake of his men, it could be deliberate.'

He grunted as he steered the tumbler through the lights.

I used the tumbler's controls to call Lucius.

'Evelyn?' he answered, slightly tentatively.

'It's me,' I confirmed. 'We're going to try and get fingerprints off a bullet.'

'And how can I help?'

'We'll have a control template for a computer match, but it'll need to go through the supercomputer.'

'I understand. I'll run it through as soon as you send it to me.'

'Thank you, Lucius.'

I watched the buildings fly by for a moment or two as Bruce drove the tumbler and then radioed Alfred.

'Alfred, where's the Gatling gun?'

It took Alfred a moment to register that I wasn't Thunder despite being in the tumbler. Then it took him another moment to register my request. 'Uh… it's in the bunker, madam.'

'Good.'

'Is there anything I can prepare?'

'Sandbags and a few bricks?' I suggested.

Alfred knew far better than to question. 'Very well.'

'Rifle bullets,' Bruce added, not taking his eyes off the road but moving his neck to speak in the direction of Alfred's voice.

'Hello, sir,' Alfred greeted. 'I'll be off to the far storage.'

Upon our arrival at the bunker, Alfred had set out piles of sandbags and had a box of bullets on a desk. He was wheeling a small crate of bricks when Bruce slowed the tumbler and we got out.

I handled the tumbler maintenance while Bruce, peering at the brick from the apartment, walked over to the computers.

'What else will we be needing, sir, madam?' Alfred questioned pleasantly. 'I've found the Gatling gun.'

'Tea,' I said, or rather pleaded.

Alfred, unsurprised, set off behind Bruce to the kitchen.

While Alfred made the tea, Bruce and I carried the heavy equipment out, setting it up as we went.

Finally, holding the heavy gun level between us, we hoisted it onto the platform on the railing. Alfred reached under my arms and locked it in place.

Steadily, Bruce and I stepped back.

I put the rifle bullets into the gun while Bruce set up the program.

At last, Alfred, ear protectors already on, stepped back and pressed the button.

As the machine whirred to life, Bruce and I put on our own ear covers and watched as the gun moved along the rail, firing into the bricks.

Alfred, impressively, didn't flinch at any of the bangs that rang through our heads. 'I'm not sure you made it loud enough, sir,' was his only comment at Bruce's back after the gun had stopped.

Bruce moved along the line of bricks, comparing it to the one we had.

He moved back to the third one and stopped in front of it, glancing behind him to see my agreeing nod before unscrewing it from its place.

'Now what?' Alfred asked, passing me my tea again.

'We scan it, pull it apart, send it to Lucius, do the same for the other one. The supercomputer will reconstruct it within a few hours.'

'I see,' Alfred remarked. 'And when will you be sleeping?'

'In about half an hour,' I replied for the both of us, 'There's work to be done tomorrow, Lucius will be in first thing as usual, we'll have the print then.'

Alfred said nothing further save for a goodnight as I got into my car to head home for a few hours' sleep.

It was eight in the morning and I was in my office working as quickly as I could through Loeb's report and a few others, reading anything that came through for the day. Ryan had appeared with a muffin and gone straight back down a couple of floors to the labs, still excited for his job.

On his way back from Applied Sciences Bruce came in, holding up a thumb drive from Lucius. Alfred had dropped him to Wayne Enterprises and driven off to the bunker to have food prepared for us by the time we got there. 'Got the print,' he said when I looked up.

'Good.'

'Fox asked about R&D.'

'Any special reason he asked?'

'He didn't say. I said I was playing it close to the chest.'

'I'm sure that didn't make him curious at all. It's a ton of money for a one-use thing,' I said thoughtfully.

'It'll be worth it,' Bruce said, nodding.

I drew in a breath and began to think about work again. 'I'll be finished in a few minutes then I can run the ID on the print.'

Bruce sat down and waited, since I was the one with a car, and I finished in impressive time, sent the reports to their respective places and stood, throwing my jacket over my arm.

I was wearing a dark t-shirt, with a thin dark jumper, sports shoes and loose jeans. The fancy jacket was for the few minutes I'd be at work.

We headed to the carpark.

'What do we do if we're wrong?' Bruce asked as we got into my car.

'It's the best lead we have, at least if we can't find an address we'll have a suspect to deal with tonight.'

'And we rely on Gordon to save the mayor from whatever the Joker has planned,' Bruce said sharply.

I didn't like it either.

With Alfred planting a small fruit salad each in our hands before we'd so much as gotten out of the car, we made our way to the computer and looked at the fingerprint result.

Alfred peered over our shoulders as we studied it. We ate with one hand and worked with the other, cross referencing the print with the police databases.

It came up with four highlighted results.

Immediately the food was put on the desk and we got up. Alfred took our position.

'We've checked all the databases, there are four possibles,' Bruce explained as we fetched two motorbikes. 'Cross-reference the addresses. Look for Parkside, overlooking the parade!'

I grabbed my motorbike.

'I got one!' Alfred shouted. 'Melvin White, 1502 Randolph Apartments.'

The lift began to move. We stilled on our bikes to listen to Alfred.

'Aggravated assault, moved to Arkham twice.'

'Brilliant,' I hissed as the bunker was shut out and the doors opened.

We sped toward the parade through the mingling Gotham traffic. Soon we heard the bagpipes over the motorbike engines and began to see people walking to the main road.

Randolph apartments came into view. Right on the parade.

Happy to leave the bikes I was first through the back door as Bruce shook his hair out from his helmet.

I disabled the security cameras around the lift before they had a chance to capture us with a flick of a small device I'd made at about 4 in the morning late the year before, and once on the right floor we walked carefully to 1502.

We glanced at each other before Bruce bent down and picked the lock. It was weird. Since we could both see each other I found myself thinking "Bruce" instead of "Batman," even if with what we were doing he was really currently Batman. I put it down to the fact that since I didn't feel completely like Thunder without the suit, I didn't think of Bruce completely as Batman.

He opened the door easily while I looked out and then I darted my head around it to see inside.

I nodded to say it was clear and we went inside. It was so quiet we could hear the mayor's address to the parade in the street below.

We crept a few paces down the hall and I stopped, pressed against the wall. I whipped my head around in a blink and saw the shapes of a group of men sitting around a pillar on the floor.

I winced and tilted my head, knowing I was going to have to look again. Bruce frowned a little and waited, able to tell from my expression something was there.

I went again, knowing where to look. I saw they were gagged and blindfolded, tied together around the post and at the ankles.

I moved forward quietly around the wall and Bruce followed, stopping a moment to assess what we were greeted with. Policemen… I checked the other corners of the room while Bruce went over to one of them, knelt down and pulled the tape off his mouth.

'Who's that?' he panted.

'What happened?' Bruce demanded in Batman's voice.

I moved closer to listen in, satisfied there was no one else in the apartment. The Joker's men wore masks when they robbed the bank, and when they came looking for Harvey Dent. So why bother blindfolding the police? If they were among the rest of the force, now, somewhere in the parade, then people were bound to see their faces. But the Joker had to be without makeup, otherwise he'd be noticed straight away. We had to look for the bare faced Joker running around in a police uniform.

'They took our guns…' panted the man. 'a… and…. Uniforms.'

Bruce turned to look out at the parade, trying to spot the Joker through a pair of binoculars set up by the window.

I stood at the next window back behind him, looking at the sea of people.

The first shot of bullets from the parade in honour of Loeb went off.

Say they were down there, trying to shoot at close range. I got a strange feeling in the back of my neck and let my thoughts form, feeling like I was in slow motion … If they were among the rest of the force, somewhere in the parade… they'd want the snipers' attention off the mayor for just a moment. Movement in the buildings around…

I was moving to urgently pull Bruce aside when I heard a ding from the other side of his window. I leapt at him and pulled him back, unopposed, toward me, sending us both crashing to the ground as the blind went up. A moment later the window exploded with gunshots as the police snipers fired at the open window.

Bruce looked at me, a little dazed.

Stunned silence rang for a moment in the air and then bullets fired again down in the street, screams erupting from the street.

We sprang up, pulling each other and looked at the window from a safe distance back. A timer. Tentatively, I swung a leg to kick the binoculars over into our reach, but I needn't have bothered; the snipers were now solely focused on the street.

I grabbed them off the stand and looked through the window with the blind still down. I looked at the frantically running crowd homing in on the podium, spotting Harvey helping Rachel to safety first as they ran on the closer side of the podium, through my vision. As they moved I saw behind them, a figure lying on their back, not moving. I didn't want to recognise it, but I did. And someone was above him, not bothering with first aid.

The binoculars slipped in my hand to the floor and I slumped to the floor as the gunshots died down and the police behind us whimpered.

Bruce, knowing that he was better off temporarily not knowing, pulled me up by my upper arm, hurrying quietly out of the apartment.

I tried to switch some parts of my brain off and others on and focused through the haze on Bruce as he pulled me running down the corridor by the forearm, leading us outside, still hearing screams and sirens.

Bruce pulled me down into a stairwell and went ahead, making sure I wasn't going to trip and then increased our speed again.

We were halfway down when I heard a door open below and heavy footsteps hurrying upward.

I started in another direction, pulling Bruce via his hold on my arm through a door on the next floor.

We burst through the door and Bruce ran right, taking me with him with a glance as he began to move, making sure I was moving and that he wouldn't just pull my arm.

I saw the next stairwell as I looked down a corridor to our right and grabbed his wrist above my forearm. He turned and we ran again, through the door.

Relying on each other's sense of direction we collaborated our way out and onto the bikes.

Helmets on we sped through the city, Bruce ahead so all I didn't have to navigate, weaving our way through traffic and all around in such an untraceable pattern anyone tracking us couldn't keep up once Alfred had wiped the few moments we appeared in.

We made it back to the bunker.

We were silent as the lift took us down. Making the most of the short time he was still unaware, Bruce took my helmet from me and wheeled my motorbike away.

Alfred didn't say anything, though by the look on his face, he knew.

I clamped my lips as water filled my eyes and nodded smally at him.

'The mayor is fine,' Alfred said gently.

It was a small relief, and barely pierced through the cold cloud I was in.

Once everything was done, Bruce drew in a long breath and looked between us. I was sat down on the couch, Alfred sitting down at the computers, facing us.

I glanced at Alfred. In the split second our eyes met, we decided.

I raised my head from its hang to look at Bruce squarely. 'Gordon's dead.'

He was still for just a moment, and then it hit. He held my gaze for a long time, then breathed in and out once, his eyes turning wet and red, and he sat down on the other end of the couch.

In the silence that followed I put my elbow on the couch arm to put my head in my hand, for a moment indulging in the feeling that I'd failed. Just a moment. Then I mourned. I cursed the Joker and I cursed the mob.

The man that had brought my kidnapped brother back… who had risked his career to work with Batman and Thunder for the greater good… who was witty and funny and kind… who'd become our friend over the last year…

Tears were pouring from my eyes.

He'd somehow still smiled at me despite being surrounded by stress two days ago when I'd picked up the bottle that killed Loeb. That smile he did when something went right.

We stayed on the couch for more than two hours; we had a set amount of time to process. It had to sink in, be accepted and under control by sundown. It was a stupid task, really, you couldn't ask anyone to do that, but there we were, asking it of ourselves. The suits were waiting.

It was horrible and gruelling and it was torture. I wasn't aware of anything around me, neither was Bruce.

Alfred pressed a warm cup of something into our hands at some point, that was all I had noticed from my tiny half of a couch in a hard basement, with Gotham in shambles above our heads.

I was finished before Bruce was, and set about getting ready for the night.

I went through the police reports, the national databases, more than enough witness statements, ballistics, everything. I was going through a pile of footage when Bruce stood from the couch and stood at the desk, watching.

I'd already seen Gordon laying there, but Bruce's eyes stayed on him when the footage ran.

I watched what I'd seen earlier, Harvey escort Rachel, then he came back, got into an ambulance and drove off. I wound a screen back and watched the ambulance. One of the Joker's men was taken inside.

That wasn't in the police report. Dent couldn't have known about Gordon at the time, but he had no doubt since learnt of it. And now he had one of the Joker's men. I had enough emotional energy to glare at him on the screen and then indicated him to Bruce with a nod. 'Dent sped off with an attacker. You're better at tracking than I am.'

Bruce nodded and sat down in the other chair. I went back to the footage.

Bruce spoke a while later. 'I found Dent.'

'Where do we find Maroni?' I asked, voice level, dangerous and murderous.