Italics are third person POV.
Bruce took his cowl off and looked at the sleeping girl on the metal table. That had been way too close. He could never live with himself if something happened to her. Especially after she stayed up for over 48 hours straight taking care of him after he himself had been gassed. When had she even gone to the Narrows? First he was suiting up to go after Rachel and make sure she stayed safe, and the next thing he knew, he was watching Kris along with Rachel. It had been really admirable that Kris allowed herself to get gassed so Rachel could get away. He still couldn't understand why she had done that when he wasn't even sure they had met before. That was another thing. Why had Kris gone after Rachel in the first place?
He forced himself to ask questions later because at that moment, he had a birthday party to get to. As he went to go take his suit off, he heard Kris mumble, "Bruce…"
His head snapped over in her direction as his heart began pounding. Had the sedative not worked and she had seen him? Upon further examination, he saw with relief she was still unconscious. He left her once more, hearing more words come from her lips.
"Bruce…Don't…Party…Fire…"
He passed off the words to the lingering effects of the fear gas. He was gone before he heard the last word she mumbled, but if he had, he would've had a thousand more questions.
"Ra's…"
I woke up in the bed in the guest room to the suffocating smell of smoke. Of course. Bruce's mansion was on fire. Oh crap, and I was stuck here. The fire was raging quickly and I knew I had to move fast if I wanted to live. Oh wouldn't that be ironic? I live through the whole fear gas thing and then die by Bruce's mansion burning down.
So first my head was on fire, now it was my lungs. I just could not win.
I flopped out of bed and tried to crawl to the door, but the sedative still hadn't completely worn off yet. I began coughing furiously as I tried to get somewhere where I could breathe. I couldn't see or think straight thanks to that stupid sedative Bruce had given me. I knew that hadn't been a good idea.
"Miss Jacobson!" I heard.
"Alfred?" I said weakly.
He appeared at the door and looked thankful that at least I was awake-ish. He quickly grabbed my arm and wrapped it around his neck. I forced my jelly legs to walk as fast as they could down to where Bruce was lying.
"Bruce?" I said, the images still fuzzy. Alfred released me and I leaned on the wall for support.
Bruce was under a support beam that he had fallen under thanks to Ra's Al Ghul. Alfred got him conscious again and tried to lift it up to no avail.
"What is the point of all those pushups if you can't even lift a bloody log?"
At those words, Bruce lifted the log with all his might and pushed it off him. Alfred supported him and Bruce supported me. Together, all three of us went to the piano where Alfred played the secret combination and the bookcase opened. We all piled in the lift and Alfred sent it down. Just in time too. A huge wave of fire ran straight for us and missed us by two seconds. Bruce and I were sitting down, both of us a little beyond haggard.
"What have I done?" Bruce asked as he looked up at the inferno blazing above us. "Everything my family, my father built…"
Alfred moved part of Bruce's tux and I saw with horror that he had a huge gash on his side that had tainted his white undershirt a very dark red.
"The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir," he said.
"I wanted to save Gotham. I failed."
"Why do we fall, sir?"
Bruce looked at Alfred with a face that made my heart want to melt into a little puddle. It was so much cuter in person. He looked near tears and I just wanted to take him up into my arms.
"So that we can learn to pick ourselves up."
"You still haven't given up on me?"
"Never."
The sedative had finally worn off enough so that my brain didn't feel like mush. "We need to get this wound taken care of," I said.
Alfred opened the door to the lift and we climbed out. I guess now would be when I "find out" Bruce's secret identity. How else was he going to explain himself?
Bruce opened the door to his suit and looked to me for my reaction. I played along and pretended this was the biggest shock of my life.
"This isn't exactly how I wanted you to find out," he admitted.
"You're the Batman? You mean, it was you saving me today?"
"Yes, and I want an explanation later, but right now, I've got bigger problems."
"Okay, well, you're not going to be of any use with a gaping hole in your side. Do you have a first aid kit somewhere?"
He led me to the Batcave and showed me where he kept his tools. I worked quickly, knowing full well that time was short. Really short. I cleaned his wound first with alcohol and was pretty surprised that he didn't even flinch. Then I put a large bandage over top of it and left him to get his suit on.
He quickly put on all his pieces along with his equipment and left to get in the Tumbler.
"Bruce!" I called. "I'm coming with you!"
"Don't even think about it! It's much too dangerous."
"Bruce Wayne, that freaking fear gas is everywhere and I've had the antidote so I won't be affected. I can help!"
"You'll be killed." He dropped his Batman voice. "And I can't let that happen."
Bruce never used his regular voice when he was suited up. Not with Rachel or even Selina Kyle in the third movie…
No. There was no time to think about that now.
"Listen to me. If Rachel can help, so can I. Besides, I deserve a ride in the Tumbler when I'm not fighting for my life."
I guess he decided he had wasted enough time arguing because he let me get myself strapped into the passenger seat.
We raced through the city streets and then flew over the water and landed on the island where all the gas had sprung up through the pipelines. We landed right next to Gordon…right as he finished asking if he was on his own. Not a chance.
Batman and I got out of the Tumbler. Gordon wasted no time asking why the heck I was with him, and for that, I think we were both grateful.
"The Narrows is tearing itself to pieces," Gordon said.
"This is just the beginning," Batman told him. "If they hit the whole city, there's nothing to stop Gotham tearing itself apart from mass panic."
"How are they gonna do that?"
"They're gonna be using the train. The monorail follows the water mains to the central hub beneath Wayne Tower. If the machine gets to the station, it'll cause a chain reaction that'll vaporize the entire city's water supply."
"Covering Gotham in this poison!"
"I'm gonna stop him from loading that train, but I may need your help."
"What do you need?"
"Can you drive stick?"
Batman quickly gave him the key to the Tumbler and took off.
"Rachel's somewhere on this island," I said to Batman. "We need to find her."
"Stay close to me."
No problem there. He shot his grappling hook up to the roof of a nearby building. Then he wrapped his arm around my waist and up we went. We scoured the island looking for Bruce's friend. The gas had cleared significantly so luckily we could actually see. It didn't take long for us to find her and we did so just in time. Batman swung down, grabbed her and the boy she was hanging onto (the one he had given his night vision thing to coincidently), and swung back up.
"Kris!" Rachel screamed at the sight of me. "Oh my gosh, you're okay!" She pulled me into such a tight hug, I think most of my oxygen got cut off. "Why did you do that today at Arkham? You don't even know me. You could've been killed."
"You're right. But I wasn't. Because a certain someone was there for me."
We both looked at Batman and he gave us a small nod. He turned around and prepared to jump off the roof.
"Wait," Rachel called. "You could die. At least tell me your name."
"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."
Bruce always had a knack for repeating the things people said to him.
"Bruce?"
Batman dived off the roof (which looked really hot if I may add), and glided over the island to get to the train.
"Did you know?" Rachel asked me.
"I did as of thirty minutes ago," I lied.
"Kris…why did you help me today? How did you know all of that was going to happen?"
"It's…really complicated."
"Why did you let me get away? Why put yourself in that position if you knew what would happen to you?"
"Because…you're important. You're an assistant District Attorney and a good one too, and Bruce has feelings for you. When it comes to me, I'm just the charity case in his life. I knew only one of us could make it out, and you deserved it more than I did."
"Don't think like that anymore. You are just as important as I am. I promise you that. I'm just glad you're okay. I couldn't live with myself if something had happened to you."
I smiled. Maybe Rachel wasn't as bad as I initially thought. "Well, how did you get out?"
"Thanks to your diversion, I was able to get past the main doors without anyone tailing me. I actually crashed right into Batman and that gave me a heart attack. I started panicking and told him that you were trapped in there and what Crane was doing, but he stopped me and gave me the antidote so I could inoculate myself and Gordon and put another into mass production. Then he told me to get away and he went inside the building to get you."
I took a deep breath. "I'm glad you made it out safely. It would've really stunk if I had gone through all that for nothing."
"I watched the news as Batman's car weaved all throughout the city. It's because you were in there, weren't you?"
I nodded. "I couldn't begin to explain what happened though. I was kind of out of it."
There was a loud noise and we looked over to find the gas exploding through the pipes on the mainland.
"Oh, hurry, Bruce," I whispered.
We stood there on the roof watching in anticipation. I kept biting my nails as I waited for any kind of sign at all that would tell me where they were in the huge fight. Suddenly, I heard a small explosion and figured it was Gordon taking out the rail. After a little longer, there was a much bigger explosion and I knew the train had derailed and Ra's Al Ghul was dead.
"He did it," I said.
"How do you know?"
"Just trust me."
The gas over the entire city dissipated and people ever so slowly began to calm down enough to the point where they weren't trying to kill each other.
"I guess it's safe for me to head back to the Manor," I said. "Will the both of you be okay?"
"Yes. Come on," she said to the boy. "Let's find your mother."
We got off the roof and I booked it back to the Batcave. The house was in ruins, but at least we were all alive. I climbed through the waterfall entrance, completely drenching myself, and saw that Bruce had returned. His cowl was off as were most of his weapons, but the rest of the suit was still there. I always thought that he looked really hot with just the suit on.
"Hey," I said quietly.
He turned to face me. "You're okay."
"Of course I am. You left me on a roof. And didn't come back if I may say so."
"I thought you would be with Rachel."
"Rachel can take care of herself. Besides, she needed to help the boy find his mother. I, on the other hand, have a lot to say."
"Same here."
"Me first. I couldn't care less about your whole double-life thing. After all, you did save me from Crane's toxin in what was probably the scariest car ride I have ever had or will have in my entire life." Bruce let out a small laugh, a sound that was bliss to my ears. "Not to mention you just saved an entire city from killing each other. I just wanted you to know that this doesn't change anything."
"My turn. Let's go back to earlier today, shall we? What were you doing with Rachel in the Narrows?"
"I was trying to talk her out of going to Arkham, but I didn't get to and before I knew it, we were looking into a cell at a crazed Falcone. From there, it kind of just went downhill."
"You don't even know her."
"I met her at the restaurant where we had that horrendous business dinner. She was nice enough, and I'm smart enough to know that someone like her shouldn't be going to Arkham. Especially alone."
"Okay, well what about when I caught you at the docks? Why were you there?"
I gave him a dry laugh. "That one…that one's a bit hard to explain."
"Try your best."
"Not this time. What's life without a little mystery?"
One more chapter to go!