I understand that the story is kinda slow and nobody really knows what's going on at the moment, but you have to trust me when I tell you that it will pick up. I just have to get the plot line straight in my head and memorise the map. Hope you enjoy.

Searching For An Appropriate Question

I took several deep breaths, deliberately not looking at him at all because I knew that was the way that he would kill me. All I had to do was show signs of weakness. Wait… he already knew my weaknesses and knew that they were many! I was a goner!

"Please don't kill me! I'm too young to die! I have a family!" I do? well that's news to me…

Ranger once again held up his hand. He was probably going to tell me that he wasn't going to kill me. "I'm not going to kill you," he assured me. "I fully understand you were under a lot of stress and me sneaking in like that was like asking you to shoot me. I wasn't thinking."

I scoffed at this remark. "Batman, you're always thinking. Why did you bring me here? To your home?" When I uttered the words he rolled his eyes at the ceiling, damn all these inconsistencies. "Ranger, I just-."

"Babe, can this wait until later?"

I stared at him in shock. "Ranger, you asked for me to come here. You brought me to this stupid place. And now you don't want to continue the conversation? What are you?"

"Only human," he replied solemnly, rubbing at he nose for a moment. "I meant can leave the discussion of why until later and start from the very beginning." He moved toward me and sat down on the couch at my side, turning my shoulders so I was looking him in the eye. "When did you first notice you had a stalker?"

I almost let a laugh slip pass my lips. "Hmm, let me see. Maybe, just maybe, it was when he called my cell phone and told me he was stalking me. I think it was then, but I may not be sure."

Ranger let out a bark of laughter that made me jump so high he then had to scrape me off the high ceiling. "Do you know who it is?" he asked once my heart had slowed a little.

Now it was my turn to laugh. I laughed whole heartedly right in his face as if I was trying to prove a point. When I had recovered I merely shook my head in response to the question long since asked. He gazed at me for a long moment in silence and I began to feel awful uncomfortable until there was a soft knock on the door. "Sorry for interrupting," Rowena apologised as she inched the door open once she was given permission to enter. "But Tank is on the phone, he wishes to speak with you urgently."

Taking a long look at me Ranger said, "We'll continue this later okay? Don't go too far."

"Like I'm allowed," I muttered as he left the room.

"This is good!" I managed around a mouthful of whatever she was feeding me at dinner that night. "What is it?"

With a curious look toward her fellow staff members she replied, "Spaghetti Bolognaise. Have you never had it before?"

"Never this good. Where's Ranger? Why isn't he eating with us?" I hadn't seen Ranger since our 'discussion' earlier that afternoon. IT was nice not to be haunted by his presence though. If I had to spend too much time with him the way he was in this house, I swear I would spontaneously combust!

"He left," said Iggy simply, taking a sip of his red wine.

I waited for an explanation, but none came so I busied myself with easting my food as quickly as possible so I could rid my body of their scrutinizing gaze. So he'd up and left without telling me anything. Well I suppose it wasn't like we had made any commitment, it wasn't even like we were in any sort of relationship. It was just a bit weird that he had dumped me at his house for three days, then showed up for the course of what… twelve hours and then disappeared without a trace yet again. ARGH!

After dinner I decided to continue my exploration of the mansion starting with the upper most floor. I realised that there were a lot of steps in this house and that to get to the upper most floor took too much effort, so I started with the middle floor, promising myself that I would explore more another day. Great, I was already thinking like I was going to be here for a while. Well he did say the Batcave was forever.

I am so not ready for forever here.

I sat back in a small chair just inside the doorway, admiring the room. It was unlike any room in the house. It was full of pinks and purples with lacey curtains and frilly bed covers. This must have been a room set out for Julie, I thought sadly. Knowing that Ranger loved his daughter, but that he had no right to her anymore brought a lump to my throat and all I could do for several minutes was gaze around the room in awe. My thoughts soon turned to my own childhood room and what it had looked like. I had never had such lavish frilly covers or pretty pink laces. My room had been filled with hand-me-downs. Mum had never seen the point in going out and buying me new stuff when she had already bought the same things for Valerie, just another sign of her favouritism I guess. Valerie was always the apple of my mother's eye and I was stuck being the stupid cast off girl.

Julie would have been so lucky to have a father like Ranger, if he had ever had time to devote to her. I wondered if Julie ever got to spend any time with her father or if she ever wanted to spend any time with him. These troubling thoughts had me sitting there for what must have been hours because the next thing I knew it was morning and I had not slept. Oops, this seems familiar… oh well.

Getting up from the chair I walked over to the bed and run my hand over it as if assuring myself that it was not an illusion. It was so pretty and so what I had always wanted when I was a child. Poor Ranger.

Wait, did I just express sympathy for Batman? I was going crazy, there's no doubt about that.

I walked slowly down the hall to the next room, wondering what discrepancy I would find there; whether it would be more to do with the daughter he wasn't allowed, or if it would be to do with him. There was so much I don't know about Ranger, I realised, and for once this did not inspire the curiosity that usually came, but left an inkling of fear seeping through my skin towards my heart.

When I came to the next room it was empty, which further increased the fear coursing through me. Why would he leave an entire room empty… unless it wasn't always empty? I entered the room and sat down in the middle of the floor, facing the window, telling myself I was trying to work out the mystery of the house, but really my thoughts drifted to the events leading to this house. Why am I here? Why are any of us here?

There may be some validity to the question, I thought after many hours of pondering that simple statement. The house was too far out of the way for him to actually live in, especially with the hours he spent in Trenton. This brought to the flow of thoughts to where I was in the world. Yes, I knew I was at Ranger's "Home", but where was Ranger's "Home"? It's a secret, my inner self told me, reviewing all the Batman movies I had ever seen. Nobody knows where the Batcave is. "Except Batman and Robin," I countered aloud. "Ranger is Batman, so who is Robin?" Isn't it obvious? "Well of course it's obvious, Tank would be the safest bet as Robin." But it didn't quite seem to fit for some reason.

Pushing these futile thoughts to the back of my mind I returned to more pressing matters; the events that had brought me to this house. To the Batcave. To Ranger's home. I had to find the reason for everything that had happened. Locate the facts.

The simple facts of the matter were that at any other time I was able to sense Ranger's presence near me. The tingle of my spine; the standing of the hairs on the back of my neck. Why at that fateful moment was I unable to identify him for who he was? Why had my instincts told me that he was an enemy? What use is asking yourself questions you have no answer for going to do? My brain asked me. It's obvious you're never going to solve this case by sitting here wondering. Get up and find out where that man is. I sighed and rolled my eyes, getting up from the dusty floor.

Dusty, that was odd. It was the first sign of mess anywhere in the house. Why had this room been forgotten?

As I made my way back down to the kitchen, where I knew I would find Rowena, working hard at her duties. I wasn't sure what drew me to her for the information I needed, she just seemed to be the know all see all of the house… Kind of like my mother. In a moment of sheer humour I wondered if she would go for the liquor and start ironing if I told her I'd blown up a car the previous week. It was so funny that I began to chuckle as I way down the ground floor hall.

"What's so funny?" Iggy asked, coming to the door of the music room.

I looked around at the walls and ceiling that surrounded me as if the answer were written there plain as day. "This house," I replied after a moment, "But it's not really a funny-haha, it's more of a funny-peculiar."

"Really?" he asked, taking my arm as we made our way down to the kitchen. "Why is that?"

I thought for the longest moment before shrugging. "Not sure." How was I supposed to explain to this man about the Ranger I knew? From the beginning? My brain suggested as if mocking me. "It's a long and boring story, actually," I amended.

He turned me into a room that was filled with books… wait I know this one… A LIBRARY… and sat me down on a sofa. "I have plenty of time, why don't you enlighten me?"

Looking up at his face I found genuine interest, something I hadn't thought was possible in a male's features. Taking a deep breath I thought back to the very beginning. "Right," I started, "I suppose it all started… five years ago? When I lost my job…"