"Alfred?"
He thought his eyes were fooling him. The soaked woman only resembled Rachel Dawes looks. It couldn't be her, she was dead! But when she spoke, it was Rachel's voice. Alfred grabbed his chest as his heart jumped painfully.
"Oh, what's going on Alfred? Alfred? You should sit down." She led him to a chair in the hall. "Do you need a glass of water?"
"I should be the one asking that." The butler retorted. "Forgive me for not-"
"Please, Alfred. Stop!" She rolled her eyes. "How's your heart?"
"It's fine now."
"You sure?"
"Of course! I wouldn't want to miss this!"
:::
"Tell me, Rachel, how did you manage to survive?"
"I was... well saved." She stared down in her glass. "It turned out my so called savior was a psychopath stalker... I was drugged and held in a room with unbreakable windows. He came to me twice a day and always tried to convince me that we were romantically involved. It was so strange, Alfred, this man knew everything about me. He had articles about me hanging on the wall and knew bits of my past."
"Sounds terrible, Miss Dawes."
"I tried to flee twice, but those attempts failed miserably. It wasn't until this day, when I found an escape route through the bathroom." She sighed. "I've ran across roofs and jumped between buildings today. The kind of things Bruce does nightly." She joked.
"Oh dear lord!" Alfred exclaimed when he saw she missed a tooth. "Is that from today?"
She nodded and showed a few bruises on her arms. "Those are from the roof jumping. Turns out I'm quite bad at judging distances."
"You have to tell us the whole story!"
"Us? Is Bruce here?" She asked. "I though he was out-"
"Pardon me for not bringing him here earlier. I was so caught up in your story and your utter appearance, forgive me, but you're supposed to be dead. Miss Dawes, I hope you are warm now."
"I am." She smiled. Her soaked clothes were replaced with dry ones. The exact clothes she had brought in her go-bag when she had stayed with Bruce because his place was the safest in Gotham. Before the Joker was put behind bars. Before this madness. Before Harvey died... She wondered why exactly Bruce had kept her clothes. Was he secretly hoping she would turn up on his doorsteps asking for her go-bag?
"I'm going to fetch him... on second thought, I think I must bring you with me. He's never going to believe me otherwise."
:::
"Master Wayne?" Alfred knocked on the door.
No response.
"Is he not there?"
"Oh, he is. He's just choosing to not answer."
Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Master Wayne. I'm going to tell you one thing, something amazing and you will most likely not believe it... Rachel is here."
Still no response.
"Is the door locked?" Rachel asked with a loud voice. She grinned when they heard fast footsteps coming for the door.
The door swung open with a bang! Bruce revealed himself. Rachel had never seen him so shocked and unruly. Gone was the Armani suit and perfect hair, replaced with a simple tee and sweat pants. He had dark circles under his eyes, messy hair and a growing beard.
"Are you kidding with me, Alfred?" He turned to the butler. "You brought a woman looking exactly like her, dressed her in her clothes to try to get me out of the room?"
"I thought you were out buying restaurants and hotels!" Rachel interjected.
When the voice and the face came together. All pieces fit together.
He reached out to touch her. "Am I dreaming?"
"Not more than me."
All went fast. He pulled her into a tight embrace. Rachel hissed in pain as his arms locked around her torso. She rested her head on his shoulder and felt something wet on her own. She hadn't seen him cry since his parents died.
:::
Bruce refused to remove the arm around her shoulders. As if she was going to disappear if he didn't pull her close.
She told both men her story of Terence and her breakout.
Bruce couldn't keep himself from grinning when she told them the story of the roof jump but immediately went serious when she told him about the missing tooth.
"Yeah, I've got it in my pant's pocket. The one drying right now. I can bring it if you like!"
"No, no. I believe you." He stared at the gap in her teeth. "Did you hurt yourself more?"
"Well, a few bruises here and there." She shrugged.
"Don't shrug like it's nothing!" Bruce snapped. He looked deep into her eyes.
Rachel started to grow a bit uncomfortable with his intense stare, it was exactly like Harvey used to look at her, with comforting eyes, care. She looked away. "But it's nothing."
"You sure?" He gently squeezed her left side of her ribcage.
She hissed in pain.
Bruce smirked. "I noticed something when I hugged you earlier." He stood up and reached out a hand. "We've got to check you up on that."
"How?" She demanded to know, ignoring his outstretched hand. "Do you have a x-ray?"
"As a matter of fact-"
"You're unbelievable!"
"Rachel." He stared into her eyes with the intense stare again. "It's for your own best. In case you've broken something."
She snorted, but willingly stood up, after she pushed his hand away. "I don't need your help!"
Bruce's smirk grew wider. He called over his shoulder; "Alfred, do you have dinner ready when we're returning?"
"Yes, Master Wayne."
His arm snaked around her waist once again.
:::
"You're just going to lie down here."
"Like this?"
"Yes."
"Wait for it..."
:::
"By the looks of it, you have no broken ribs. It's just a deep bruise."
"Phew! Now I'm just going to go to the dentist to get this fixed." She mentioned towards the gap in her row of teeth.
"Or don't. It actually de-ages you. You look like a ten year old again." He chuckled.
"You're horrible!" She exclaimed with a smirk and playfully slapped him on the shoulder. He smirked and both of them had a hard time controlling their laughs.
As the laughter died. She started to take a good look at the room they where in. "This place is amazing. You have everything here."
"Enough to provide for a minor invasion." Bruce said.
The rows of strange weapons and ammo were the most interesting part. Although, it was forgotten when she spotted 'the tumbler', commonly known as the batmobile.
"Is that really the-?"
"Tumbler, yes."
She almost ran towards it. "I've never got such a close look on it!"
"It has an acceleration on 0-60 in 5.6 seconds." Bruce said and proudly stroked the tumbler. "Got it rebuilt. I missed it."
"Wow!" She turned around to see the batsuit, illuminated behind glass. "You're keeping it like a museum's artifact." She noted. "Have you really hung up the cape forever, or just for a while?" She asked.
"The Batman is a symbol..." He started. "And that symbol was destroyed."
"Because of the deaths of the innocents?" She questioned and brought out her lawyer voice. "Bruce, did you-?"
He shook his head. "No." He picked his words carefully. "Not Harvey, but what he became, did that."
"You have to tell me the whole story!"
And so he did.