Chapter Six: Sea of Despair

Talia stared down at her phone and immediately hit redial. The call went directly to the factory setting automatic message. She didn't know that he had powered off his phone the nanosecond he ended the call.

Talia slammed the dashboard. "Can you please hurry the fuck up?!"

She finally dialed Barsad and he answered in the middle of the third ring.

"Yes?"

Talia's tongue froze. "What do I say?" she thought.

"Are you okay?"

"I can't get ahold of him; I need you to remind him to not kill the whore yet. Make sure she can't hear and let him know her father died too."

Barsad nodded, "of course."

Talia ended the call and Barsad ascended the stairs slowly to the closed bedroom door. He pressed his ear do the door but didn't hear anything.

Barsad knocked a couple times, trying to space his knocks into a casual cadence.

Bane pulled open the door a few inches and looked out, "yes?"

"I got a call from Talia, she said she couldn't reach you."

"And?" Bane asked without much hesitation.

Barsad shifted nervously on his feet as he dropped his voice to a low whisper. "She wanted me to remind you not to kill her and that her father died."

Bane nodded thoughtfully.

Barsad tried to peek through the doorframe without luck around Bane's massive form.

"Go occupy yourself elsewhere brother."

Barsad was soon faced with the closed door and heard the click of the lock engage. He stood in the hallway briefly before making his way back downstairs.

Talia was soon calling before he reached the last step.

"Yes?"

"Well, did you talk to him? See her?"

Barsad didn't know what to say. He held his breath as his mind volleyed answers back and forth.

"Are you there?" came Talia's shrill tone.

"I'm here," Barsad said quickly and coughed to cover any sound of nervousness in his words. "He's watching her do laundry," he added lamely.

Talia smiled, "good, make sure he doesn't kill her."

Barsad agreed and ended the call.

Talia squeezed her hands into fists, she wanted to tell Barsad to make sure Bane kept his hands of her. She couldn't make herself sound jealous or speak of disloyal, baseborn acts like her father.

Talia shook her head and tried to push away intrusive thoughts of him handling Helena and using her body to make himself feel good.

As Talia stared out the window and watched the trees grow thicker as the population density thinned, back in the now deceased Professor Lang's home, Helena squared her shoulders and stepped back into her room.

Bane's back was to her as he stood out the window and stared down at the backyard.

Her window offered a view of the blooming iris and gladiola beds. The zinnias and dahlias had taken over the side of the shed and it looked like it was infected with deep purple, fiery red and burning orange blossoms.

He turned and looked at her a few heartbeats after he had heard the bathroom door open.

Bane wished he had his mask to hide behind. She had scrubbed and dried her face and brushed her hair into place. His eyes drank in her glossy lips, shining with a balm she had smeared on them.

"What do you want to talk about first?" she finally managed after he remained wordlessly staring at her. A silent god carved out of granite, a warrior pulsing with life.

"Would you be comfortable talking elsewhere?" he finally asked. He liked the idea of talking to her so close to where she slept. He was finding it hard to breathe being near sheets that had kissed her naked body.

"I could use some more coffee," Helena admitted. Her skull had begun to pound with each beat of her heart, and she was feeling nauseated. Hopefully, a deluge of French roast would waterboard her headache.

Helena couldn't fight a flinch as he moved suddenly. He crossed to the door and opened it before he held out his arm. She half-smiled as an image of him holding a top hat with the flourish of his gesture and small bow. Helena walked towards him, imagining he was holding open the door to a horse drawn carriage.

Bane noticed her smile and tucked it away for later as he followed her down the stairs and across the vast tiled kitchen.

He settled at the kitchen table as she dumped the scorched dregs of the previous pot and rinsed the carafe before starting a fresh pot.

"Would you like some?" she asked as she nervously kept her hands occupied fiddling with the coffee mugs, carton of half-and-half and pink packets of artificial sugar.

Bane nodded his thanks and pointed to a no-frills cup of black coffee before she joined him at the table.

Helena took three scalding mouthfuls of the heavily sweetened coffee before speaking. "What happens when she returns this afternoon?"

Bane stared down at the dark surface of his coffee before answering.

"Theatricality and deception."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you'll need to read from a script, play a role, follow it to the letter or it could mean the end of your life."

Helena nodded and tried to process his words. She swirled the last bit of her coffee before getting up for a refill and speaking with her back to him.

"A role? What script am I supposed to read from?"

Bane watched as she opened the cabinet above the stove, needing to stand on her tiptoes as she reached for a slender glass bottle behind a box of stale cereal.

He nearly choked on his mouthful of bitter coffee as her reaching motion, made the back of her thin sweater raise up and expose the line of smooth skin of the curve of her lower back.

Helena nearly dropped the bottle of scotch when he moved with inhuman speed, positively reptilian in his agility as he was suddenly behind her. He hastily pulled the bottle of booze from her left hand and set it aside before he wrapped her up in his formidable and nearly overwhelming embrace.

"We need to give her a reality to believe in. She needs to believe that I gave broken you and that you will be dutifully going to the bank and withdrawing anything she wants and signing anything she directs. She needs to think that she has prevailed."

Bane loosened his embrace when her breath began to come in gasps.

"What's the actual reality?" Helena managed as he smoothed his hands down her sides and massaged the outside of her hips, his fingers sure to leave bruises in their wake even through the designer denim.

"That you're mine in every way," he growled raggedly and tugged her hips back against him where she could feel him rapidly hardening against the curve of her bottom.

Helena moaned and started to struggle when he slid a large had to cup her femininity at the apex of her thighs. Bane groaned in frustration, wanting to rip open her pants and find her wet center. He slid his other hand from her hip up to grip her breast through her cashmere sweater, squeezing urgently as he fought his control to bend her over the table and fuck her until she was crying and writhing in wet pleasure.

"How can you say something like that, feel something like that?" she managed as he massaged the flesh of her breast harder, his strong fingers kneading her sensitive flesh.

Bane pressed his face the curve of her neck and inhaled deeply as he began to massage intimacy through her jeans. "How do I begin to answer that?" he thought as he moved his palm in circles over her denim covered femininity.

"Isn't that woman your … partner?" Helena managed breathlessly.

He slowed the circles on the outside of her pants, pressing his lips against her neck's racing pulse.

"I grew up in darkness and scrapped together a life, Talia was a reason to persevere for a while but there was always a toxic void that grew no matter what service I performed at her direction," he said before he pressed his lips in a line further up the side of her flushed neck.

"A different person hides inside Talia; she is a chameleon. I've broken my body in service to her but never felt anything other than the blood I spilled. You are the very sun, I felt a spark of life inside of me, lightning striking a desert devoid of even microbial life when I first laid eyes upon you."

Bane tried to focus on the warmth of her smooth skin under his scarred lips, the tip of his nose brushing the bottom of her ear lobe as he stopped the slow circles over her intimacy and began to tug at the top pewter button of her jeans.

He closed his eyes and let himself begin to drown in Helena's frantic moans, torn between fighting him or letting him find her naked flesh and tight, wet center.

"You gave me life," Bane murmured as he took a deep breath and murmured a string of soothing incoherent words against her as she began to tremble as he began to tug on her zipper. He felt foreign feelings of insecurity wash over him. He had faced down squads of armed men almost as dangerous as himself, stared down death, yet, being so close to her, felt like he was trying to scoop up a frightened bird without injuring it.

"Do you want me to stop?" he groaned and salivated as her panties were the only remaining barrier between his fingers and her bare intimacy.

"Would you?"

"Only if we can return to this moment," he growled and kept his hand still as he pressed his lips to her neck urgently, his five o'clock shadow scratching her soft skin.

"Can we mutually agree on when that moment will be?" she managed as she dropped her hand to his wrist and pushed.

"Yes," he grumbled and added with a groan. "As long as that moment does come."

Helena nodded and mumbled an agreeable sound as she tried to ignore the tingling that spilled from his touch on her breast.

"Do you promise?" Bane asked as he smoothed his hand from her jeans under her sweater and settle over her satin covered breast.

Helena stiffened and nodded rapidly.

Bane tugged at the fabric of her bra and teased her hyper-sensitive nipple until it grew hard under his touch. "Do you swear it?" he added as he brushed his thumb in slow circles around the soft flesh.

"Yes," Helena managed before he abruptly dropped his hands to her hips.

"Turn around," he ordered as he tugged at her supple flesh.

Helena turned around to face him.

"Swear it," he demanded.

"I swear," she murmured right before he made her give a sharp squeal as he lifted her off her feet and slid her onto the counter, knocking over a bowl of oranges.

Bane yanked her close to him, slipping his hands under her thighs and squeezing as he spoke.

"When Talia returns, you're going to have to cower in front of her and I might have to act as though I'm hurting you," he muttered as he smoothed his hands on the outside of her thighs.

"How are you going to create a false narrative around the bank, how do I act like I'm getting a large cash withdraw?" she asked as he pushed her thighs further apart and insinuated himself closer to her warm center.

Bane reached up a hand and cupped her jaw, brushing his thumb along her full lower lip.

"That's nothing you need to concern yourself with," he said easily.

"And what about my father? Has she called you with an update? Which hospital did they go to?" she stammered and began to stumble over her words.

"Shhhh," he murmured. "I'd rather hear you tell me again that we'll return to this moment."

"Yes, we will," she said and was frozen under the weight of his gaze as something flashed in her eyes that she couldn't decipher.

"An agreement of this magnitude requires more than a gentlemen's handshake," Bane said as traced his index finger along her cheekbones, down her nose and along the line of her jaw.

"How much money do you want?"

"I don't want money."

"Then what?"

"Kiss me."

Helena's eyes felt too wide and her throat too dry. "Will you let me go sit down, get to that bottle?" she managed to say without stuttering.

Bane nodded as he was able to keep his expression neutral, but his heartbeat was as rapid as a caged pterodactyl.

"Okay," she whispered and closed her eyes as he brought his lips close to hers.

He paused, his lips hovering centimeters over hers. "Open your eyes."

Helena opened her eyes and met his before he closed the minute space between them and met her lips with the lightest press as he held her locked in his gaze.

Bane held his breath as he waited for her reaction.

Helena was surprised that her desire for his touch outweighed pushing him away and he deepened his kiss when she lifted a hand to his face, carefully cupping his jaw, the coarse hairs tickling her palm as she hesitatingly returned the press of his lips.

"I'll do anything for you," Bane thought as he felt her other hand rest over his heart, feeling the strong pounding under his muscular chest.

He honored his word and pulled her gently off the counter and stepped away from her when her feet hit the ground.

"Thank you," she mumbled and grabbed the bottle and dumped a healthy amount into her cup before topping it off with fresh coffee. "Can we go sit outside?" she asked, feeling so strange asking to move around in her own home.

"Please," he said and stepped in front of her to open the sliding glass door.

They settled in brightly colored chaise lounges as the sun was bright overhead in the clear sky.

The wind and coastal pressure had kept the toxic fallout smoke from Gotham City to float in the direction of the Lang home.

Helena sipped her spiked coffee, the alcohol spreading fingers of warmth through her chest and belly.

She waited until he took a sip before she spoke.

"Tell me about Talia?"

Bane looked over at her, "what do you want to know?"

"What are you to each other?"

He drained his cup before setting it aside, feeling coffee grounds stuck in his teeth as he spoke.

"At what point she was nearly everything," he admitted.

"Nearly?" she asked as she drank the alcoholic coffee quickly, anxious for the soothing touch of the scotch.

"She's always been nearly everything. But she's holds warmth always just out of reach, I am just an animal to her that she keeps chained outside and checks its water bowl occasionally. She's kept me at her heel for decades for just a kind word from her lips," he said softly and looked out at the flowering yard.

"What would you like from me? Is there a way you can reverse your way of thinking?" Helena asked. She almost clapped her hand over her mouth as she realized what she had asked. "Talia is a terrible woman and that just reiterates it, but I feel like I want to help him navigate out of his pain, how can I?" her mind spun wildly.

Bane looked over at her, he wanted her to repeat what she asked but he also didn't want to find out if he'd heard her wrong.

He rose from his squeaky chaise lounge and closed the distance between them in two steps. Helena sat up straighter as he knelt in front of her and grabbed her left hand.

"I want you to lead me out of the darkness, save me from the sea of despair," he thought and pressed his lips to her bare ring finger.

"Give me a place for my heart," Bane murmured as he lifted his lips and locked her in is gaze as he added raggedly. "Trust me with yours."