Chapter 16

Kate

It was warm. She rolled over to her left side and pulled at the blanket, she felt more than one blanket. It wasn't in her normal sleeping bag on a cold floor somewhere out in one of the city's abandon homes. That's when she opened her eyes.

It was dark; she looked around and saw a lantern on a table no far from her. It was burning low. She remained laying there, it was comfortable. She pulled again at the blankets. Then she saw Jim Gordon.

"You're alive." She whispered with a smile. Jim smiled back at her and helped her with the blankets. He gently rubbed her forehead; she smiled again then closed her eyes.

Kate shot up from nightmare that was wiped clean from her memory as soon she saw the room around her. Jim was there again. "You're ok Kate, shhh you're ok." He said holding her shoulder as she tried to get up from the couch. Kate was breathing heavily and she was covered in sweat head to toe. Her cloths stuck to her skin. She felt like she couldn't breathe for a moment. Her heart was racing.

"Take a long deep inhale." Another voice said from behind Jim. Kate saw him; he was young, dark hair. He had his hands out to show that he wasn't a threat. Kate inhaled then held it for a while. "Ok. Now Exhale." He said again. Kate nodded then slowly exhaled. Her heart stopped racing and was slowly down again, everything was falling into place now.

Then she remembered what happened. "How long was I out?" she asked looking at Jim.

"Two days." Said the young man, Kate looked at him then to Jim. "This is Detective John Blake. He was recently promoted." Jim informed Kate. Blake waved to Kate. She nodded then sat down on the couch rubbing the back of her neck. Jim pulled the stool to sit directly in front of Kate.

"How you feeling?" he asked. Kate stared at the floor. Then looked up at Jim, "I'm starving." She said plainly. Jim grinned then turned around to the table. "It's a simple sandwich, no mayo. Here's a bag Cheetos and some water." He said offering the food to Kate. She laughed then opened the bag of Cheetos first.

"I know they're your favorite." Jim said with a warm smile. Kate ate the small bag with loud crunches. She continued to eat after the bag of Cheetos; she went started on sandwich, that first bite was bliss. Jim and Barbara were great when it came to making sandwiches. She kept herself from giggling. Her first few days in captivity were God awful. She hated those shitty sandwiches. Jim watched with amusement as she downed the bottle of water. Blake offered her another bottle. She thanked him then finished the bottle as soon as she opened it.

She checked out her surroundings and knew it was a basement. There were three couches, shitty looking ones. Probably form the 70's. Two tables put together at the center of the room, couple chairs. On the table she saw a map of the city. Jim had been busy, she wasn't sure what he was doing but she knew that he would tell her soon. As for the young Detective she was surprised at young he looked, she caught his eye a few times. He sure was handsome she had to admit. From she saw he was polite, she tried to compare him to the men in her life. But everything went back to Barsad. They were nothing alike.

Everything was quiet for a few minutes. For once she was uncomfortable in Jim's presence. She couldn't look him in the eye, it was another strange feeling. She was happy to see that he was alive and well. But another part of her thought about the family of five that was being held somewhere. She was more afraid of what Bane and Barsad would think. She didn't escape, she want to. That's what bothered the most.

"Are you ok?" Jim asked breaking the awkward silence. Kate cleared her throat, "Yea, I'm fine. I feel great." She said. Even that response didn't out right she thought to herself. None of this seemed right.

She could feel Jim's eyes burning right through her; even the new Detective Blake seemed to have a clear view. "That's not what I asked you." Jim Said. Kate ran her hands over her face and through her hair. She could feel the cold sweat against her skin and dampening her hair. She sighed then stared at the floor, for the first time she noticed it was carpet.

"I don't know." She said. Blake sat down at the table and folded his arms. Jim nodded his head. "What happened? With Miles Miller." Jim asked. Kate knew that question was coming. She smiled and for some reason she laughed out loud. She looked up and saw the looks of concern in both men.

"I killed him." She said. That rolled off the tongue a lot easier than she wanted. But it was true. Jim looked at Blake.

"Why?" Jim asked leaning back in his chair. Kate bit her lip then smiled again. She couldn't understand why she couldn't stop smiling.

"He told me about his rat business with Falcone. Then he filled me in on my father's investigation on him and six other men. He admitted about setting up the hit on my father. I had to put him down." Kate explained. Jim stared back at her.

"So executed the man in the streets before Bane and his men?" Blake asked. Kate nodded her head then looked up at Blake sitting behind Jim. "It was something like that. But Bane didn't put the gun in my hand, nor did he pull the trigger." Kate said.

"I decided I wanted to finish the business my father started." Kate said with another smile. She saw Jim shaking his head, "Gerry would never have gun them down in the streets like dogs." He said in anger.

Kate leaned back on the couch. There was a time when she would have gotten very angry at this but she didn't. Instead she just smiled. "If he had that choice, he would have." Kate said looking up at the ceiling.

"No he wouldn't. He was a cop who upheld the law." Jim said as he held a strong gaze on Kate. She could the tension boiling over, but she didn't care. She was a long way from that now. She kept staring at the ceiling then she ran her hands through her pocket. She dug through the cargo pockets until she found the pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"There's no smoking down here." Blake warned. Kate looked down and glanced at him. "Then let's take it outside." She said. Jim and Blake exchanged looks. Kate looked on and watched as they carried on in an unspoken language, just by looks. Jim nodded. Blake stepped forward and offered his hand. Kate eye balled him head to toe then took his hand.

She followed Blake up the stairs and through a door. She looked around and knew they were in hallway. Blake led the way out to what she guessed was a back door. She looked behind her but the door in the hallway was closed. Then she saw the exit sign. Could be another business owned by another ex-cop. She saw the sign on the left hand side before the door. 'Employees Only'

Blake held open the door for her. She shielded her eyes from the bright sun outside. She walked outside and breathed in the winter air. It felt good. She saw that they were in an alley standing on a dock for delivery trucks. Blake stayed close. Kate glared at him as she took out a cigarette. "You think I'm gonna run?" she asked flicking on the lighter. Blake turned his head in the other direction from the smoke.

"I have to. Commissioner Gordon wouldn't want to lose you again." Blake said. Kate eyed him curiously, "Commissioner Gordon. Has a name and its Jim." Kate mumbled. Blake turned his head around and glared back. Kate smiled back, she thought of Barsad again. It made her laugh, and wondered if this is what he enjoyed seeing whenever she had nothing to say but glare back at him and all he would do was smile.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked turning around again and making eye contact. Kate blew out the smoke from her lungs, "I just see things clearly now. To not really care anymore about the bullshit you've heard. It's a piece of freedom." She replied staring back to see his expression.

"What bullshit is that?" he asked. Kate smiled then then sat down on the dock letting her legs dangle off the edge. Blake took a few steps toward her and sat down. Kate could feel his eyes on her.

"The badge blinds you from what is really happening around you." Kate said staring straight ahead. She paused then took another drag. "Everything you thought you knew about justice, it's all a lie." She said.

"It's a lie if you believe in the lies." Blake mumbled. Kate turned to look him and smiled again she heard his annoyance in his voice. "I was like you once. Nothing could turn me against the Bureau. I too felt that I was doing the right thing, protecting the people. Catching the bad guy and making the world a better place. But it was all bullshit." She said again.

Blake kept quiet. She knew that he didn't like what she was saying but that didn't bother her. He was thinking about her words. She smiled when she thought about her first years. She would get up in the morning, grab her gun and badge off the dresser and placing them on her belt. She looked the look on the faces of suspects when she flashed them the Badge and in all caps F.B.I stopped them in their tracks. Others ran from it. Those feelings were long gone now. She inhaled the smoke from the filter.

"When everything comes crumbling down. I hope you land on the right side of it Detective Blake. I didn't." said Kate. Blake only glared back. Then stood up and turn away from her. Kate stood and laughed out loud following him. She tossed the filter, "You've already seen the truth of that badge haven't you?" she asked.

Blake kept his back turned to her. Kate chuckled at him, "Oh yes you have." Kate said and folded her arms. Blake turned around, "I'm not like you." He snapped. "No you're not. You're different aren't you? So tell me did you shield the Batman like Jim did?" she asked. Blake shook his head and put his hands in his jacket pocket. "What do you know about him?" he asked. Kate shrugged her shoulder, "Jim kept that to himself, The Batman is a wanted fugitive by the F.B.I." she said watching Blake's expression. He knew something.

"So? Detective Blake, do you know who? And where the Batman is?" she asked him. Blake looked back her with a grin, "They didn't tell you anything did they?" Blake asked. Kate shook her head, "I was kept in the dark, I was given a team to do my work. But other than that, I wasn't privy to Bane's plan." She admitted.

"Apparently so." He replied and started to walk away with a grin. Kate grabbed him by the arm, "What do you know that I don't?" she hissed. Blake yanked his arm her grasp. "A lot more than you do." He snapped. Kate glared back him. Then he opened the door again and motioned for her to go ahead of him. Kate eyed him as she walked past him.

Jim was still in the basement when she returned. "What aren't you telling me?" she yelled at Jim. He looked at Kate then glance to Blake behind her. "Bane never told her a thing." He said and sat himself down at the table. Kate grabbed a chair then sat down across from Blake. Jim sighed then pulled a chair and sat down between the both.

Kate glared at Jim. "What do you know?" he asked Kate. Kate put her hands on the table, "Like I told your rookie here. Bane kept me in the dark. I never saw a thing, I hardly ever saw him. He kept to himself while I was out in the streets trying to find you." She hissed tapping her fingers on the table. She hated this; she was being questioned like a suspect in a crime. Nothing about being here was right, for once she felt as if she didn't belong.

Jim sighed then pulled his chair closer to the table and rested his hands making himself more comfortable before he began. "What do you know about the bomb?" he asked, Kate bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders. "Just as much as everyone else in Gotham." She replied looking him in the eye. Jim turned to Blake.

"It's a time bomb. Our contact in the Wayne Enterprise explained to us. It will go off in three months." Blake explained. Kate laughed and lifted her head back with her arms folded.

"So, that family that Bane has against me. They never really had a chance to begin with." She said in low voice that it was almost a whisper. She should've been surprised by the news but it didn't bother at all. She wasn't angry at all just annoyed. Is this what it felt like to Bane? To care about nothing?

"We're all going to die, unless we stop him." Jim said. Kate laughed again, "Stop him? He can't be stopped." She snapped slamming her fist on the table. She chuckled again and leaned forward with her elbows on the table.

"You don't know him. He has everything planned; he is prepared for whatever happens next. He thinks of both Prey and Predator." She explained and pulled out another cigarette.

"You can't"

"I can and I will." She snapped and glared at Blake who rolled his eyes and turned away. "I told you Commissioner. Bane has her mind twisted." He said looking at Jim. Kate grinned then lite up her cigarette. "No. Not twisted, what was the word he used… Liberated." She said.

Jim looked at Kate. "That is what he wants you to think!" hissed Jim suddenly.

Blake

Kate was far from gone. Blake could see that now better than anyone. Whoever Kate once was, she didn't exist anymore. He could see that disappointment in Jim's eyes. He was never one to say I say told you so. Right now, he didn't want to even think about the words.

There was silence between them for the last twenty minutes. Kate sat across from him smoking and filling the air with smoke. He never did like smoking and now he was breathing it all in. She didn't seem to care what so ever. He had shot glances to Commissioner Gordon who sat there in silence staring at the table top.

"Does anyone in this merry band of bandits have anything forming a plan?" she suddenly asked. Blake looked back at Kate who was glancing to Jim then back him. He let out a sigh then leaned his elbows on the table to get down to business.

"Only one." He answered tapping his fingers on the table. He kept his gaze on Kate who nodded with a smile.

"Well? What is it?" she asked with a hint of impatience.

"We try to track down the bomb." He said plainly

Kate rolled her eyes at him then leaned back in her chair. Blake wanted to annoy her as she had done him. He leaned back again then shifted himself to the side of his chair right elbow resting on the table. Commissioner Gordon folded his arms the leaned back as well in his chair.

"Has anyone here narrowed that down?" she asked again.

"Yes and no." he replied. He watched Kate's expression; she turned her attention to Commissioner Gordon.

"Did I miss something? If I'm not wanted here then say so. Am I being held here for questioning?" she asked.

"That isn't the case. I would not keep you here against your Will." Jim replied not looking at her. Blake could see that he was angry. Kate tilted her head at Commissioner Gordon and reached out with her hand to his arm on the table.

"If it's my help you want. You have to let me in. Or you might as well let go back and finish my job." She said at a whisper. Blake shook his head.

"I figured you ask as much." He snapped. Kate glared at him.

"I understand you don't want me here, and I sure as hell don't want to be here." She hissed. At that Commissioner Gordon turned around and looked at Kate. Blake knew that touched a nerve.

"Blake please excuse us." He said not looking at Blake.

He took his time walking up the basement steps. He knew at that moment that Commissioner Gordon had been wounded by Kate's words. From the very beginning of the siege Jim Gordon worried about Kate Messner. He was afraid of what Bane would do; Blake now knew that Bane's agenda wasn't about physically harming her. But destroying the very person she once was. From what he had seen, Bane had done what he intended to do.

Nothing of what he heard about Kate was in her. He had heard great stories of an ambitious Federal Agent with only a passion to serve justice. He had heard that she was humorous, kind but also a fighter. None of that was in that woman downstairs. In place her, he saw a woman not afraid of death, blood thirsty and full of anger. This person seemed as though she had nothing to lose. Someone like that was not to be trusted.

Jim

He had looked into her eyes and saw nothing. That's what frightened him the most; there was no trace of the old Kate in her. Everyone had been right about her. Foley, Blake and Izzo had warned him. He didn't believe them then and now that she was sitting before a different person. He was angry but he knew that anger would get him nowhere.

"What happened while you were with them?" Jim asked in a calm and steady voice. He shifted his chair in her direction to see her face a lot better. Kate folded her arms and stared back at him.

"Nothing horrific of that nature." She said keeping eye contact. Jim had his hands folded on the table.

"No one laid a hand on me." She said again, this time holding her hand to him. Jim reached out and held her hands in his.

"I'm glad for that." He said still holding on.

"What happened?" he asked again. Kate leaned forward so her chin rested on her out stretched arm.

"From the first time I laid eyes on Bane. I was terrified of him." She said squeezing his hand. Jim sighed and held on. He kept his eyes on her brown ones; he knew she was telling the truth.

"He was frightening and strong. I had seen what he could do. Sometimes it seemed as if his power had no limits. Even back at the border town, they had all heard of the masked man and his army of mercenaries. I felt as though I could never escape him." She explained. Jim sat there and listened. For years she had kept her business to herself as she was supposed to. He knew this was a time to listen and not judge.

"Three times he could've killed me. He could have taken my life as easily as he had taken this City. But he never did, he always let me walk away. Only once he came to me, while I was in a clinic. He came to share with me what had happened and why he killed Daniel. He didn't do it to hurt me, but to save me. I have thought about that night ever since. I know now that every meeting to the last was to prepare me for what was coming." She said and paused. There were tears in her eyes.

Jim had gotten a call from Barbara a few years back. She was in a panic; Kate had been omitted to a hospital in a small village in Africa. The mission was classified but they shared that she was in recovery and would be fine in due time. Long after Kate had returned she never shared the details of that mission until now.

"Over the years I learned that the Bureau was no different from any other agency. The painful truth of that was in Mexico. We had learned that the Cartel had strong influences in the agency; everyone was making money like clock-work. All they had to do was turn the other way. I had begun to question my purpose. Then when he came here, he showed me that I didn't have to be afraid anymore. I have the strength now, to do what must be done." She said and smiled back.

Jim looked away for a second. These were Bane's words that were coming out her. He understood that now. He was too late.

"No. That isn't how it's done." Jim said reaching for Kate's hand with his other.

"This isn't you. He used Gerry's death to his advantage. He wants to see you do terrible things. This isn't you." Jim said holding on. Kate stared back at him in a lost gaze.

"This is me. I am going to finish the job. It was Miles' who set up everything that night, the others collaborated a statement. That's why you couldn't finish the investigation. They made sure that you couldn't. With the help of the law they got away with it. But now, I'm going to finish it. There is nothing stopping me now." Kate said holding tightly to Jim's hands.

Looking into her eyes he saw nothing.

Barsad

"She's gone?" Bane asked again as he paced his office floor. Barsad nodded before answering the question. "Yea, the way everything went down in that apartment. It was a trap and a rescue mission." Barsad said he had explained everything to Bane. Every single detail that he could remember, he reported it all. He was surprised that Bane wasn't angry as he expected.

"Hmmm. No need to fear, she'll come back to us." He said. Barsad was surprised by that, he looked up and stared at Bane. "What makes you think that?" he asked. That felt strange coming out, he never questioned Bane before but this was something else. Bane didn't bother to look at him he just turned his back to the window and seemed to stare at his own reflection. "She's had a taste of what it's like to serve her own justice. She won't let that go now." Said Bane still turned away and looking at the window.

Barsad looked ahead and saw himself in the background. That was uncomfortable so he looked away from the window. Everything lately was uncomfortable. He had never felt like this before. Nothing was right.

He shook the thoughts from his mind and looked back at Bane. Another thought came to his mind, how could he be so sure? "You sure about that?" he asked without thinking. He mentally kicked himself. Bane turned around. "Do you doubt her? It isn't me she'll be coming back to." He said.

Barsad looked away. Maybe it was so. But there was no part of her that loved him in the way that he felt about her. She had made that clear. She never had a reason to stay to begin with. His mind seemed to running in different directions. It had been that way since the day before. He just wanted to leave, have a cigarette and maybe even a drink to calm his nerves. Right now this was one place he didn't want to be.

"She will be back. Until then I want you and the others to continue her work. Round up the others as planned, when she gets back I want her to continue with her executions. If there are any doubts when the time comes, I want you to kill her." Bane said looking Barsad in the eye. He didn't know what to say to that. That ordered had come as a surprise.

"I will." He replied. Bane didn't say another word. Barsad took that as his sign to excuse himself. He grabbed his rifle and walked to the door. None this was making sense to him at all. Why would Bane go through the trouble of keeping her close to see what she would do then decide to kill her? He already knew that he would never have it in him to raise a gun to her. He couldn't pull that trigger.

He wanted her back then again he wanted her to stay away for her own good. This was the one time he wanted Bane to be wrong. He just hoped that she didn't want to come back. Not even for him. If she did come back by any chance, he had to think of something to get her out of the city. The longer he thought about their plans, the more he was thinking that Kate didn't deserve to go down with them.

Now he really needed that drink. He avoided the elevator and took the stairs. There was no sign of life, just the echo of his boots on the steps.