Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews! Whoo! It makes me happy and it makes the little plot bunnies happy too. So here's the next chapter and it was a monster to write!

The Space Between

Chapter Four: Reunion

Amy woke up when someone unlocked her cell door and it took her a minute to realize where she was. With a groan, she sat up and ran her fingers through her tousled hair, having them catch on a couple knots. She hoped whoever was standing there had a brush and some coffee.

"Good morning, Ms. Crane."

"It's Dr. Crane, actually." She blinked a few times and the psychiatrist came into view. He was an older man, tall and thin with salt and pepper colored hair. His tag showed him to be Dr. Alan Caldwell.

"Ah, yes, my apologies, Dr. Crane. However, since we now have two Dr. Crane's here, perhaps you wouldn't mind if I refer to you as Miss?"

Amy ducked her head and dismissively waved her hand as the image of Jon in the straight jacket rose in her mind's eye again. "That's fine."

"Wonderful," he said, scribbling something down on his notepad. "I am Dr. Caldwell and I'll be your therapist," he looked up at her with a sharp stare, "for your short stay with us."

Ah, good, Amy thought to herself, Gordon already told them.

"If you would be so kind to follow me," Dr. Caldwell said, holding the cell door open for her.

Amy nodded and stood up, stretching her back muscles from a rough night's sleep on the cot. "Where are we going?"

"For your, uh, evaluation."

She supposed they had to keep up appearances though there were no guards or orderlies to escort her. She silently counted the doors as she followed the doctor and tried to peek in the fifth one but didn't see anyone in it. She stopped dead and peered in unabashedly. The room was completely empty.

"Ms. Crane-"

"Where's my brother?"

"Another time, perhaps."

Amy felt the familiar flow of anger start to rise. This Caldwell guy knew why she was there. "No, now. Where is he?"

"If you would just follow me, please."

Amy thought about being mutinous but they were stretching the rules for her here. Maybe if she followed their regime they would allow her some time with Jon. Swallowing a huff of indignation, she left the door and continued to follow the doctor. They passed through more sterile looking hallways and Amy was beginning to understand just what may have pushed her brother over the edge. The building itself played mind games with you.

"Here we are," Dr. Caldwell said, once more holding the door open for her. Amy walked into what looked like an interrogation room, complete with two-way mirror, table and chairs. But there was a person already seated one of the two chairs. Amy choked back a sob at finally seeing her brother, thankfully without the straight jacket this time. He made a move to stand up but the clang of metal on metal echoed through the room and he fell back into the hard plastic chair with an apologetic look.

"Are the handcuffs necessary?" Amy pleaded.

Dr. Caldwell looked rueful. "If we take off the handcuffs you'll have to be observed," he pointed at the mirror.

"That's alright," Jon spoke up. "I don't mind them."

Caldwell gave Amy a brief nod before closing the door. Now that Amy was facing her brother one on one she wasn't sure if she was going to hug him, weeping with joy or throttle him senseless for getting into a mess like this.

"Hello, Amy. You look well." His tone made it sound as if they were meeting for lunch, not both inmates in an insane asylum.

So that was it…she would throttle him. "What have you done?"

His mouth opened but she started to advance and cut him off before any words came out.

"I'm so happy they left those cuffs on you because it's going to make beating some sense back into you easier on me." She took sadistic pleasure in seeing his eyes widen in surprise and then to start looking for some sort of escape. However, the pleasure faded quickly when she got closer to him and the surprise quickly turned to panic. Instinctively, Amy held her hands up in a placating movement and stopped where she was. She had vented her anger and frustration at him before but he had never responded with anything but cool sarcasm. The frantic look in his eyes and trembling in the chair scared her more than anything else in this whole ordeal.

"Jon, I'm sorry. It's just…well…" she sighed and took a deep breath, "you scared the hell out of me. Not returning my phone calls or emails. I didn't know what happened to you and I got really worried. Then all of sudden you show up on National News and they're reporting that you attacked a city with some toxic gas."

The panic in his eyes slowly dissipated and the shaking stopped. There was no humor in his face or body language. He looked sadly and oddly defeated.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Amy stood there and waited for an explanation. After a few seconds it was obvious that was all Jon was going to say. "That's it? I'm sorry? I came all the way across the country, held a news conference," she held up her bandaged wrist, "ran into the Batman-"

"You saw him?"

The look of terror had taken over his face again at the mention of the Batman. If she was going to figure out what happened, she would have to find a more gentle way to get it out him. Swallowing down tears and pride both, she slowly approached him and knelt down on the concrete floor.

"Jon?"

His eyes turned back to her and quickly came back into focus. "Amy? When did you get here?" Before she could respond, he closed his hazy eyes and a look of serious concentration came across his face. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and they were clear, the way she had always remembered them being. "I'm sorry. It's a long story."

"We've got plenty of time."

He shook his head and lowered his voice to a whisper. "No, I'm afraid we don't." With a quick glance over to the mirror, he said a little louder, "How about a hug?"

Playing along with his game, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. It was the first thing that felt familiar to her since she had stepped on the plane in California. She could almost convince herself things were normal again. That is until Jon whispered in her ear.

"I know how we can get out of here."

"No, Jon-"

"You don't know what they'll do to you."

"I'm only here-" she tried to pull back but even with handcuffs his grip was too strong for her to break. She didn't remember him being quite that strong.

"I ran this Asylum in a way many people frowned upon. They will not hesitate to exact their pound of flesh from me. That I could deal with but not with watching you pay for my sins. Just be ready."

When he finally did release her, the door to the room opened and Dr. Caldwell stepped inside. "I hope you two had enough time to catch up."

"We did, thank you, Dr. Caldwell," Jon answered in his smooth, clipped voice.

"Very well," Caldwell took Amy's elbow, "Ms. Crane, I will see you back your room. Breakfast should be there waiting for you."

Amy found she couldn't break eye contact with her brother. His words, attitude and quick changing mood swings left the hair standing up on the back of her neck. The Batman had been right…this wasn't her brother anymore. She had heard of "twin telepathy" before but never believed it until this moment. The message in Jon's eyes was perfectly clear: Be ready. But ready for what?

Jonathan waited patiently under the careful watch of two large guards. He fought the impulse to talk to them, play on what he knew to be their fears. They were looking at him as if they were expecting it anyway so what would it hurt? But no, he had to get Amy out of this place as quickly as possible. He had turned a blind eye to many an unsavory incident feeling as if he had no ground to stand on considering what he was doing himself with the toxin experiments. Instead, he plastered on a sedate smile, folded his handcuffed hands and waited for Caldwell, the fool, to show up again.

He didn't have to wait too terribly long. Caldwell came back in, dismissed the guards and shut the door. "Your sister seemed to be in a state of shock as I was taking her back to her cell. Care to discuss what you two talked about?"

Jonathan lifted his shoulders slightly. "There wasn't much time to explain things to her. I imagine it was quite a shock for her to be here and to see me like…" he held up his still shackled hands, "this."

Caldwell looked down at his clipboard, most likely to see if Jonathan had been given any sedatives. The truth of the matter was yes, they had been given to him but he hadn't taken them. They should have known he was all too familiar with the tricks of the trade, so to speak. Most all of the sedatives that they gave him were most likely in the public sewer system. The idiocy floored him but he was hoping it would work in his advantage now.

"Well," Caldwell finally spoke up, "I suppose the handcuffs are a little overkill for today's sessions. Especially now that you have something to work towards."

Oh, if he only knew but Jonathan forced a grateful smile on his face and held his breath as his left hand was released followed by the right. Waiting until the good ole doctor turned his back to him, Jonathan snapped the right handcuff back on and jumped up. Making a loop out of the chain that connected the cuffs, he slipped it over the doctor's head and pulled it tight. By the time the guards had come through the door, Jonathan had the cuff-noose in his right hand and a gold plated fountain pen in the left, pressed into the neck of the doctor.

"Crane," Caldwell rasped the warning.

"Okay," he responded, "here's how we're going to do this."

Amy knew that when the guards came back to her cell, it was due to whatever Jon had concocted in his deluded mind. The guard looked slightly shaken as he motioned her out of the cell and when she exited, she realized why. Jon had Caldwell in a metal noose with a fountain pen practically jammed in the guy's neck. A small bead of blood had trailed down the Doctor's neck.

"Give her your keys, Caldwell."

"There's no way to get out Crane, you know that."

"Jon-"

"Take his keys, Amy."

She was unaccustomed to hearing orders come from him but the wild look on his face and the cold calmness in his eyes disturbed her too much to argue at the moment. She unclipped the key ring from the doctor's belt and Jon motioned his head to the guards standing behind her.

"Get in the room," he ordered.

Amy was surprised to see both men file into her cell.

"Lock it!" Jon shouted and Amy jumped forward and twisted the enormous deadbolt into place. Jon chuckled darkly, "You have to love a hostage situation."

"Jon, this is crazy," Amy pleaded with him but he only regarded her with those cold eyes.

"Well, I suppose that makes this the perfect place for it to happen. Let's get out here."

Amy followed him down the hallway as he pushed Caldwell in front of them, who was still trying to reason with her brother.

"The entire place will be in lock down, Crane. You know that."

"What you don't know is I programmed a master code into the system that was never changed after I was no longer under employment."

It seemed to take forever for them to get towards the front of the building but finally the four gate system to get to the lobby came into view. Jon turned his head slightly back in her direction.

"I'll go first," he said, "once they see I have a hostage, you can go up and unlock the doors, alright? We shouldn't need the master code so don't worry about that."

Amy felt a knot twist in her stomach. She wanted to say, no, this is not alright but couldn't afford to at the moment. She wasn't sure what Jon was capable of now and she didn't want Caldwell to suffer if she failed to obey Jon's orders. She choked out a "yeah" as they neared the first gate. She waited for Jon's "alright" before moving forward and unlocking the first gate with shaking hands. The process was repeated for the next two gates and when they reached the last gate that stood between them and the outside world, Amy hesitated.

"Amy, the gate."

"Let Caldwell go, Jon."

He looked at her with surprise but seemed to think about it for a second before he nodded. "Fine but break the key off in the lock."

Amy breathed a sigh of relief that was almost as loud as Caldwell's. Jon unloosed the handcuff chain from Caldwell's neck but kept the pen against his throat. She had the gate unlocked and open by the time Jon turned and slipped out. Both of them slammed the gate shut and Amy reached through the bars and did exactly what Jon told her to do and broke the key off in the lock. Before she could turn towards the door, gunshots rang out in the lobby.

Instinctively, she dropped and curled into a ball next to the gate thinking the guards had blocked the entrance to the Asylum. But her brother yanked her up from the floor and she saw it was him with the gun. He must have lifted it from one of the guards that were now occupying her cell. Everyone gave them a wide berth, including the guards, as they barreled through the front door and out into the harsh sunlight.

It took everything she had in her to keep up with her brother as he sprinted across the main yard and ducked into a back alley. They were still on the Asylum grounds and she wondered if he was so crazy now that he didn't realize that. But when he stopped, it was to lift a large piece of metal to reveal a metal ladder that led down into the ground. Amy didn't even ask but started down the ladder. When she reached the bottom she saw they were in some sort of water line that led into the Asylum.

"This way," he said after the metal cover was placed back over the hole. She followed him silently through the dark, wet tunnels all the while feeling an odd sense of numbness. She didn't know this person, with his flippant attitude towards hurting someone and sure footedness through the underground labyrinth of pipes that ran under the Narrows. This was not the brother that left her in California, all smiles and full of excitement about going to Gotham City to do some societal clean up.

After an hour of walking through water pipes, Amy finally couldn't keep quiet anymore. "Where are we going, Jon?"

He stopped under the light that filtered down from a man hole and stared up through it. "We're going to have to wait until night to leave here."

"Where's here?"

He finally turned to look at her. "Where I used to live. I need a few things."

"For what?"

A strange smile played over his face and Amy couldn't tell if it was due to the strange sunlight filtered down through the man hole or if her brother's face had changed as well. "What else," he said, "revenge." He said the last word with such emotion it caused her to shiver.

Amy tried to look horrified but her mind was refusing to process anything. "Jon…"

The strange look that had been on his face the entire escape from the Asylum slowly faded. His face seemed to relax and his eyes lost their fevered look, cooled and finally warmed again. Amy felt some of the coldness that had gripped her heart melt somewhat as the familiar face of her twin finally became recognizable again. Before she could say or do anything, he had her in a crushing hug.

"It's so good to see you again, Amy."

She tried to return the hug but the handcuff that was still around his right wrist dug into her neck and she knew she couldn't return his sentiment. Not yet, at least. "Jon, you have some explaining to do."

He sighed wearily and released her. "You're right." He looked up through the grate one more time. "Judging from the light, we have enough time now for explanations."