7. Heartbroken
Even after it keeps on beating

Patience looked over the art display for the new magazine cover. It was of a popular model lied out on a bed of scattered roses on a whiteout floor. She was dressed finely in a polka dot dress with a heart-shaped opening in her chest. Her arms were outstretched towards the camera where she held out a clockwork heart with both hands. Hearts and glitters had been cropped in around the clock and model. Patience had created most of it on an art program using a picture she'd received from one of the photographers.

After two hours working on it, she at last deemed it finished and printed it on poster board.

She hoped her boss would find it attractive enough. She'd really used all her skill in creating the work of art for the February issue.

Patience grabbed the copy on the poster board and headed to Ms. Sharidine's office to give her the sample. She was just reaching for the door when it opened suddenly. If she hadn't been blessed with cat-like reflexes, it would have slammed into her face.

She jumped back quickly and stared at the person who'd nearly impaled her head. Patience looked at Bruce Wayne in stunned silence. It'd been two weeks since she'd seen him last; two long weeks since their first and last date.

There was hardly a day that went by that Patience didn't think about him. She'd even been tempted several times to call him, just to hear that rich masculine voice. Every time she thought about it, shivers went up and down her spine. The more time past, the stronger the desire became. But she would never let herself cross that line. There were just too many uncertainties about him. For example the tide of emotions that rampaged through her while she had been with him: fear, hunger, lust, anger, sorrow, desire, and regret.

There were no memories of him to explain these emotions; they were just there. As if she'd known him for years and years and he'd been there break her heart so many times.

Why on earth was Bruce here?

"Hello Ms. Philips." That richness in his voice; her memory hadn't done it justice. If coffee had a voice, it would've been his. She realized then that he was being formal towards her.

From his tone one could definitely tell he was still a bit upset from the ending of their last encounter. So she had broken his heart.

I would hardly say I broke his heart. She told her other half angrily. We barely knew each other then and that's no different now.

"Hello Mr. Wayne," She said with equal formality, "it's nice to see you again."

"Likewise."

Ms. Saridine came out at that moment and hooked her hand in his arm like a lover off an old romance movie.

She looked at her employee and laughed delightfully. "Patience darling, Mr. Wayne was just in the middle of telling me the most hilarious story about a ah… very big fish." Her eyes moved down him to his pants and it didn't take heightened senses to know what exactly she was thinking. The little pervert!

Patience barely had time to process what the woman had said before she found herself lunging at the woman, eye splitting in sharp pupils as she clawed the throat out of the meddling little witch.

Patience blinked quickly, realizing she'd envisioned the whole scene in a single second. In reality she was standing in front of Bruce while her boss hung from his arm like a bloodsucking little leech. Patience forced a very convincing smile as she promptly turned her attention to the woman.

"Hello, ma'am. I've just finished the cover for the February issue. I could leave it in your office if you have plans to go out."

The woman's laugh made Patience more eager to rip her face off. "Oh nonsense, Patience Dear. I can look at it now. It will only take me a moment. Bruce and I were just going out for lunch."

Bruce? She was already calling him by his first name.

The woman continued in a voice filed with delight. "We scheduled for an interview today and we should have plenty to talk about." She glanced sideways and inspected him up and down as if undressing him with her eyes. "We'll probably be a while, so who knows how long it will be before I get back."

Oh why you dirty, rotten, piece of…

Patience proceeded to call the woman every name in the book, but on the outside she smiled and handed the woman the art piece.

The woman studied it carefully. "There is just one word to describe this… fabulous." Ms. Sharidine handed it back, but Patience felt nothing with her compliment. She would only feel fine once she'd torn the grin off of that repellent, insulting, pompous, little…

"It was nice to see you again, Ms. Phillips." Bruce said before the woman took him by the arm and led him swiftly away to the elevator.

"Good bye." Those words hurt like a knife in the throat.

Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Patience returned to her cubicle and attempted to return to work but the effort was useless. Every thought she had turned to Bruce. Out of desperation her thoughts turned to the Batman.

Somewhere inside her, Catwoman purred. She'd been fidgety all week. Every time she went out, she targeted felons in the middle of their own heists in the hopes of meeting Batman again. But she never saw him. Sometimes she would look up into the sky and see his skylight summoning the Dark Knight by Commissioner Gordon's request. She was even tempted to go so far as to meet there as well, but she didn't know how they would react to her appearance. She wasn't a hero… not really at least. She still had that theft from the jewelry store on her record, and since she still neglected to give the Egyptian cat claw necklace back, it was doubtable that they'd forgotten about it.

He was a hero and she was a thief. And yet he'd also been deemed a criminal as well. He'd murdered that lawyer, Harvey Dent. Yet when she'd looked into his bright eyes, she found no murderer to speak of. Somehow she knew, deep within her gut, that those accusations had been false. Yet even still, he was a man who abided by the law, and she was one who tried to ignore it. So it could never work anyways.

His honor, his self righteous code was something she didn't want.

But she couldn't stop thinking about him, just like she couldn't stop thinking about Bruce.

She scowled at her keyboard when a curious thought entered her mind. Was Batman and Bruce one and the same. She certainly had strong feelings for both of them. Was it possible? The answer seemed so obvious.

Bruce despised this meeting. He despised this woman as she babbled endlessly about nothing he cared about. His eyes were on her rotating mouth but his mind was on another planet all together.

It shouldn't have surprised him that he would see Patience at Sadie's Script, but the timing had been shocking. The very minute he'd opened the door she'd been there as if he'd wished for her from a genie. Now he couldn't push her from his mind. Or in all honesty, he didn't want to push her from his mind. This woman was that annoying!

It'd been two weeks since he'd seen her last; two long weeks since their first and last date.

He couldn't count the number of times he wanted to call her. There was hardly a day that went by when his thoughts didn't find their way back to her one way or another. Seeing her standing in front of him then, he realized that his memory of her hadn't done it justice. And when she spoke, something lit up within him like he'd been waiting to hear it like a good song on the radio. If chocolate had a voice it would've been hers.

And now he was sitting here with this… absurd woman who was absolutely nothing like Patience. In fact she was trash. He really didn't need to be associating with someone as meaningless as this. He knew perfectly well that this woman was after only one thing from him, and that wasn't an interview. He knew that even before he came to lunch with her, and yet somewhere deep inside him he secretly hoped that if he ran into Patience she would see them. He didn't know why he wished to hurt her.

Because she hurt me, that voice of Batman said inside him.

What on earth did that even mean? Why did these thoughts and feelings arise every time he thought of her. It was like his demon was getting more restless with each and every thought of her.

Batman had been acting strangely over the past two weeks, that was for certain. He'd been purposefully avoiding places where Catwoman was likely to show up. From his studies of her, she worked mostly on taking out heists that could possibly take place in jewelry stores or the like. Batman did his best to avoid those areas, preferring to handle drug deals or smuggling. Yet at the same time he longed to meet her again, but something inside him kept from doing so.

What the hell was up with that?

"Mr. Wayne."

His thoughts suddenly snapped back to earth when the woman's voice broke through his preoccupied mind. He stared at her bright red lipstick for a moment, baffled completely about what it was she had been prattling on about a moment ago.

"Yes?"

She looked stunned and a little angry that he'd allowed his mind to wonder away from the topic at hand. She continued where she left off and Bruce endeared her speech once more yet still managing to process none of it.

Surreptitiously, he glanced at his watch. How on earth had they'd been here for only ten minutes? Bruce was almost certain it'd been far more than that.

Oh what a long luncheon this was going to be.

Dre lugged his book bag up to the apartment, dreading the night of homework fated for him. For junior high, his teacher's were merciless. Two reports, three worksheets, and a quiz to study for. These people were out to ruin his youth he was certain of it. Before he knew it, he'd have spent the duration of what was left of his childhood for school, and before anything he'd be out and obligated to get a job and his own apartment.

He sighed at those depressing thoughts while he maneuvered his bag over so he could reach his key. He looked up when he heard footsteps coming upstairs and smiled when he recognized who it was.

"Hey, TNT." He said cheerfully to his neighbor who lived upstairs.

The man was tall and finely built with Latino descent but spoke with a distinctive Brooklin accent from the area he grew up in.

"Hey, Dre. Lot a homework tonight?"

"Oh you have no idea." Dre groaned, getting his door opened.

"Listen," He stepped closer to Dre, speaking low while casting curious glances at the opposite door from his. "Has Patience come home yet?"

Dre had heard that the two were now going out. The morning after Patience's date with the billionaire playboy, the woman had announced to him and his mother that it wasn't going to work out and had instead began dating their neighbor upstairs two days later. Dre had been rather disappointed at the news but his mother had insisted that he not talk about it around her.

BUT IT WAS A BILLIONAIRE! Dre wanted to shout out. Shallow he knew but hey he was only fourteen. After some thought he eventually decided that the chemistry just must not have been there from the get go. Yet at the same time there didn't really seem to be much chemistry with her and TNT either so far as he could tell.

Dre shook his head at the man's question. "Nope haven't seen her today, but I'll let you know."

The man was clearly disappointed by such news. "Okay. Well thanks anyways, kid."

Dre watched him climbed the rest of the way to his apartment wondering how their relationship was really fairing. Somehow he sensed it wasn't destined to last, though from his body language TNT was really into Patience. She on the other hand most definitely didn't seem to be interested that well in him, and was merely tolerating the relationship out of loss of something else.

Dre shrugged and pushed through his apartment. In any case what business was it of his? They were the ones who had to figure all that stuff out for themselves.

After all, he was only fourteen.

The happy voice of Joker broke through the warehouse, causing several of his hired gunmen to jump with surprise and pause their game of cards instantly.

"Good news, gentlemen. I've planned our next move and we're acting tonight."

"We're finally moving?" One of the newer ones asked hopefully.

Joker nodded. "Yup. Get the stuff ready."

The reaction was immediate. Everyone instantly gathered together the supplies they'd had together for a few weeks. Joker had insisted waiting without moving at all for far too long and his men were getting anxious for their next move.

"Finally," a few of them expressed together. "I'm sick of laying low."

"Where are we going to hit first, boss." One of the older gunmen asked.

Joker stared answering in his demented wheeze of a voice. "Well first I thought we would crash a little party." He held up a Sadie's Script magazine where a picture of a well known member of high society was smiling in a picture followed by big red words, Ronnie V. Turning Thirty. "After all what's a birthday without clowns, am I right? And after that I thought we might make a quick stop to one of my good friends, who owe me a little favor."

I know it's kind of cliche' that I make the Joker crash some big fancy party of the high class, but hey it's almost mandatory in any Batman story for some super villain to be the main focus at one of these events. I mean even in Batman Begins, Bruce couldn't even have a birthday party without Ra's crashing and burning down his house.

For those of you who have been waiting ever so patiently, here is the end of the seventh chapter. I hoped you liked it and I will try harder to get more chapters in. I would like to say thank you to you all for sticking with my story and for the many amazing reviews and support. You guys have no idea how encouraging those are. You guys make me so happy.

Again, I hoped you liked it and I would love to hear more reviews from you guys they really help continue the story.