Chapter 4
He caught her eyes for a fleeting moment before she ripped away her gaze. Behind her cloaked irises was something she wasn't telling him. She had been secretive before, but it didn't seem to be the same. He couldn't place it. She'd seemed fine before. But with his preoccupation of seeing her again and Joker on the loose, he supposed he just hadn't noticed.
The night cast deep shadows on Bruce's face. The angularity of the blackness caught Andrea's attention, and she glanced over at him.
A concerned Bruce stared back, his foot balanced against the roof edge.
"Are you okay?" His eyes glimmered; despite the lack of light. Her eyes glinted back at him, her expression indecipherable.
"You know Bruce, I do love you. You'll know that, even after I'm gone…" Her tears streamed down her masked face and pooled into the leather at her collarbone. He longed to brush them away but he wasn't about to release his grip and let her get away again.
"Andrea, what are you saying?"
"The reason I came cannot be unfulfilled. It's for my father. For me and my selfish reasons. You know all about self-fulfilling missions, don't you?" she smiled sadly, wishing she hadn't seen the hurt in his eyes.
He stepped aside, taken aback by her sudden change. She said she was leaving.. Again. But that she loved him?
Was it all a façade?
She grappled the warehouse ledge that towered above the Joker, and flipped off the rooftop.
Bruce, invisible in the shadows, stood bleeding again. He'd let her in… Time hadn't taught him a thing. He let down the walls he erected for everyone else… Except her. His eyes narrowed slightly in the cast of his cowl.
Batman flung out his grapple with unneeded force, extending it to the other side of the warehouse entrance. He sprang into action, and swung towards unknown territory on it's line.