Chapter 13

The night was as black as pitch, its silence broken only by the hum of a vehicle moving in and out of streets. "I can't believe I agreed to this," Blake muttered as Evy rode beside him in the Bat Mobile. She grinned at him, all innocence. "You know how dangerous this is?" He glanced over at her, brows furrowed in worry beneath his mask. "You know you could be killed?"

Her sigh was a warning. "John, you taught me enough, I can do it." She fixed her mantel onto her head. She turned toward him. "How's it sit?" She motioned to what she considered to be a female version of his mantle. "Pretty cunnin' don't cha think?"

Despite himself he smiled. "Just listen to me tonight, for once." He pulled the vehicle into an alley, parked and turned to her. She was fiddling with her belt. "I mean it Eve, listen to me tonight." She fixed her eyes on his, and sighed inwardly. "Please." He reached across, ran his knuckles across her jawline.

"Don't…" She all but whined it. "You can't go around all night worrying about me. I can take care of myself Blake."

"Don't I know it," Blake muttered as she climbed out of the bat mobile, agile in a full black leotard. He cocked his head as he watched her bend down to fix her boots zipper. "This may not be a bad night after all." He admitted to himself, and joined her.

0-0-0

"Let go!" A woman's shout echoed into the night; Ripley knew the tones well enough. She sprinted from the alley she had been perusing in and waited for the next scream. She located it even as she heard Blake in her ear. "I'm a ¼ mile away, I'll be there soon. Don't do anything."

"'Soon" is not fast enough." Was Evy's panted reply as she entered the alley. A woman, stripped of her clothes, was pinned against the wall, bleeding from her side where she had been nipped by a knife. "This ain't funny! I said no!" She struggled back from the other three men who were approaching.

"And I said you're a tasty looking treat," the black haired man's smile gleamed in the dark.

"Go to hell!" She shouted, but she knew without a doubt that this—this was danger. She cried out as his fist collided with her cheek, and his hand wrapped around her throat. "I said no." Her green eyes flash angrily, she wasn't finished.

"And I said—" He broke off as a force hit him hard enough from the side to lose his grip.

"You were saying you were done," Ripley stood, chest heaving from her sprint. The woman rose behind her, pulled on her clothes with slow shaking limbs. Ripley's gaze swung to the others who were already backing up. "You too slick," she said softly. She turned her back, only for a second to see that the woman was heading for safety. With a ferocious roar the man swung out an arm and tossed her to the side. She hit the gravel with a thud and immediately bounced up, fists raised, gray eyes glinting dangerously. Ripley caught sight of the blonde, waiting. "Go inside." Was the curt order. The second she heard the door swing shut she shook her head. "You made a bad decision." With those words she launched into an attack. It was foolish to fight four of them; even so she ducked, bobbed and weaved as she had been taught. With a cry she landed among trash cans and yelped as he hauled her out by her hair. She growled with fury as needles of pain shot down her scalp. With a swift jab to his gentiles she was released and back on her feet; on even ground. "Next." She said, only a little breathless.

"Go for it Phil," one of the men pushed his partner in crime forward.

Phil shrugged his shoulders and approached her, exuding cocky. "She's big enough, she can take it."

Evy's gray eyes flashed. "Are you calling me fat?" He grinned at her, she pursed her lips and nodded with a shrug. Her round house caught him square on the jaw. He landed in a heap with a groan. "Oh, fat girls got some moves, huh?" She ran her gaze over the two men who had given up and were leaning on the wall, waiting for their pals. "Are we done here?"

"Yeah," the man who spoke had his eyes on the approaching shadow behind her. "Yeah, we're done."

"Keep it that way," Blake said as he drew even to Evy. She glanced at him sideways and felt a little shiver of anticipation. Men in black leather, hot. End of story. He waited until they were gone before turning Evy toward him; his brown eyes took in the bloodied lip, and scrape on her jaw. The outfit she wore bore a rip in the leg, but no more than that. "See?" She said with a small smile. "Took care of it."

He let out a long breath before hauling her into a tight hug. She smiled into the hard leather and Kevlar of his chest and let herself have a moment. "You're gonna send me to an early grave, Eve."

"Maybe, but I'm worth it." She stood on tiptoe and pecked his lips. "Let's go hunt down a penguin."

0-0-0

They had been in the car for almost and hour and half. Evy fidgeted for the fourteenth time in the last thirty minutes. "Stop moving," Blake said with his eyes shut in the driver's seat. They were outside the back of city hall cloaked in the shadows, waiting. She grunted. His lips curved in a smile. "You would've sucked as a cop if you have this hard of a time sitting still."

"I'm tired, I need to pee and I'm hungry."

"Take a nap, cross your legs, we'll eat at home."

Her scowled directed toward him was one made to make men cower, but Blake grinned at her. "It's not funny." She whined.

"You wanted to come."

"I thought it'd be—y'know more action packed," she brought her hands up in a karate chop. "Not this." She let her hands drop. There was a lull in conversation before she looked slyly at him. "Can I pee in the alley?"

"Jesus Evy." Blake reached under his seat, hunted around until he came up with an empty soda can. He held it out to her.

She looked at him balefully. "What the hell am I supposed to do with that?"

"Pee in it," was the simple reply.

"In a twelve ounce can."

"How much could you possibly have to pee?"

"I drank damn near a gallon—" She broke off as his hand clapped over her mouth. Two shadows were exiting the city hall. His hand slipped away. "The short ones Penguin." She whispered.

"Come on." He slipped through the open window of the bat mobile to avoid noise. She followed and jogged lightly beside him. They hid in the shadows as the villians stopped by the road.

"We'll find out who your family was," the taller one said gruffly. "It'll make running for mayor easier."

"Mayors only the beginning," was the soft reply. They trailed the pair to the middle of the street and down a dingy looking side street. Blake stopped mid-step, and leashed Evy with an arm across her chest, before she could sputter an obscenity he spoke. "They're gone." He left her to check the dead end of the alley, a brick wall that went as high as the two buildings, at least fifty feet. He checked the dumpster, the trash cans and fire escapes.

Evy found her voice. "What do you mean they're gone? We just saw them!"

"I know!" Blake snapped. "But they're gone."

"This is fucking ridiculous." Evy tossed a leaking garbage bag away as she searched the walls for holes.

"No shit." Blake ran a hand over his stubble covered chin. She rejoined him with a shake of her head. "All right, let's pack it in for the night." She muttered her agreement.

0-0-0

At the manor freshly showered Blake found Evy pacing the study with a fried egg and cheese sandwich in one hand and a glass of water in the other. She had claimed the shower first and had won the sprinting race only for the fact that she had seduced him with a hot, heavy kiss at the base of the stairs in the bat cave. She smiled in passing and returned to the other side. "Where's my sandwich?" He asked teasingly.

"Make your own," she replied with a smirk. "Batwoman makes a sandwich for not man."

"You're not choosing a name are you?"

"Why not?"

Blake leaned against his desk, bare chested with his jeans hanging loosely around his hips undone. "One time deal."

Evy stomped a foot. "Parlay!"

"Excuse me?"

"Parlay, negotiations." She offered a bite from her sandwich and while his mouth was filled continued. "I invoke the right of parlay to finish this mission, sort to speak—" She held up a finger as he went to talk and gave him the rest of her dinner. He continued to eat. "You need help on this case, and not just because I'm awesome and kick ass or you know, hot—" He nodded with a slight grin. "But I can hack the system at city hall, I can find out what he was trying to do."

"He's trying to find family."

She rolled her eyes. "To run for mayor, Blake. Why does he wanna be mayor?"

Blake finished the sandwich and took her water. "Inferiority complex."

"Blue bloods run this town," she walked away from him and tapped her long fingers against her mouth. "He realizes that, people don't elect just anyone. I mean you or I could run for mayor and people would be like 'oh an orphan cop' which might pull a sympathy vote—"

"Or a hot, vigilante social worker," he caught her around the waist and pulled her into a warm, head spinning kiss. "Who looks very good in spandex, by the way." His teeth clamped over her ear. She sucked in a breath as her system tilted.

"We're still on parlay." She whispered even as her hands spread over his bare chest. The glint in his brown eyes told her he knew very well.

"Evy….shut up." His lips closed over hers and he shifted them so that her back was on the desk.

"I'm just saying," she began in a strangled voice as he tugged at the sleep shorts she had thrown on. "I can help-this-one—" Her voice broke off as his mouth closed over her. It could wait.

0-0-0-

Authors Notes:

To everyone who has PM'd me sorry if I haven't gotten back to you, a lot has been happening in my personal life and I've found it hard to sit down and write for this story. Long story short the events went as followed.

Break up-Move Home-College Acceptance-College Orientation- Financial Aid fell through- What do I do with my life?-Cat has cancer-Decide to join Navy-Begin process-Miss wanted job in navy by one point-Study to retake test-Date new person-New persons mom passes away from cancer-Stay with person until he says he doesn't support navy decision-break up with boyfriend-start redoing my room-put cat down-start "casual relationship"-continue studying-hate my job some more. And yes that is the short version. If you care about the total story you can always PM me. For now I believe I'm back, but as you all know I do have other fandoms and sometimes my life con-insides better with them so I write better for them. Much loves to you my chickies.