Thanks for all the reviews! I had a lot of time on my hands recently, so I was able to finish this chapter. It was a fun chapter to write too! I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Twelve:

Meeting the Dark Knight

I let the door swing shut behind me. "Good evening." I muttered, not sure what else to say.

"You're Sarah Valens, right?" He asked curtly.

I nodded uncertainly, "am I in trouble?" I asked, of course I am, or he wouldn't be here! I thought. He brought his left arm out from the folds of his cape, and held out a slashed yellow Jester's hat for me to see. I hope I didn't wince, of course I recognized it. "The Joker claimed another victim tonight." He said pointedly. "Oh" I muttered, "how…awful. Who was it?"

Batman shook his head, "he's a John Doe; he was wearing a yellow jester's costume, the Joker probably targeted him because he felt like he was being ripped off."

"He was" I muttered. I looked up at him, "So why are you talking to me?"

"I have some questions for you."

I nodded, "ask away."

"The first is about the Riddler."

My blood ran cold. I wasn't going to try to deny it; not anymore, but that didn't mean I would enjoy talking about it. "Yes." I said quickly, "Yes, my boss made a business deal with him, yes, I tailored a suit for him, yes, that's why he targeted me and tried to kill Roscoe Peabody, no, I did not know who I was making the suit for at the time. Thank you for saving my life by the way. Anything else?"

"Have you been contacted by him since?"

I shook my head vigorously, "no, why?" I gasped, "He hasn't escaped, has he?"

"No, but he often manages to get letters to victims he wasn't done with past the guards."

Among everything else. I thought sarcastically. "No, I haven't seen or heard anything about him since he was locked up, and I hope I never will." I looked up at him, "anything else?"

"Yes." He replied, "The costume the John Doe was wearing was custom made; no tags, no logos, not even a care label."

I nodded my head, clever. "Uh-huh."

"I don't think that an aspiring rogue with enough money to buy a custom tailored costume would go to just any tailor." He handed me the hat, "is this your work?"

I took it and nodded, "yes, I remember him well. He sent me a threatening note a little less than a week ago, along with measurements and a description. I have it somewhere, let me get it."

I ran back into the house and found it, sitting on the kitchen table where we had left it. I ran back to the balcony and handed it to him. He read it over for a few moments and looked back up at me. "He asked your boss where you lived?"

"I don't know if he was telling the truth when he said that, but he found out somehow."

"Then what happened?"

"Well, Vikki, my roommate, was terrified –and for good reason- so she suggested that we go stay at a hotel for a while and we would call the police there. It turned out one of the Jester's lackeys was staying there though and he called him. He bought me everything I needed, sewing machine and all, and I worked for three days straight. He picked it up after that and that was the last time I saw him. And now you show up."

"Hmm" he muttered, "that's all I needed to know Miss Valens, thank you for your cooperation."

"My pleasure" I replied. He walked over to the ledge of the balcony, he turned back and looked at me. "Don't tailor anymore suits for the rogues, these are dangerous men Sarah, and most of them won't be as friendly as the Jester. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"You're beginning to develop a reputation." He added, "Those don't normally end well in Gotham." He stood on the edge of the balcony, cast his grappling hook onto the next building, and was gone.

I walked back inside, Vikki was sitting on the couch clutching a throw pillow to her chest. "Well? What did he say?"

I took a deep breath, "we need to move out of this apartment building, ASAP."

…

The next few days were spent searching newspaper clippings and the internet for a new place to live; this was done mostly by me as I still didn't have a job. Well, not officially. I called Dahlia and rescheduled our outing together for Sunday dinner at the Rivera, out of politeness mostly, as I said, I wasn't particularly looking forward to spending time with her. I finally found an empty apartment that was in our price range; it came pre-furnished, as did the one we still lived in, but there were a few things we did want to take with us. Moving day was set for the following Tuesday.

Sunday evening finally came. The Rivera was a fairly nice restaurant, so I wore my only nice dress. It was a simple, little black dress that came just below my knees, I accompanied it with a pair of black flats and my usual, black purse. I walked inside, excited in spite of myself; I had never eaten at one of Gotham's fancy restaurants.

The restaurant was dark due to the dark, finished wood the walls were made of. A lamp sat at each table along with an orchid in a short, thin vase. The smell of barbecue wafted past me causing my mouth to water. I stood in the line in front of the Maître d's desk for a moment before Dahlia saw me. "Sarah!" She called from across the tables. I saw her and waved, I stepped out of line and walked over to the table. Surprisingly, she was not alone. I gasped, a brown haired, blue eyed, suit-wearing man sat at the table with her, it was Jermaine. He smiled broadly at me and waved, "nice to see you again Sarah!"

"You too Jermaine." I said, sitting down uncertainly.

Dahlia's formerly red hair had been bleached blonde and the tips dyed ruby red, she wore a short lilac dress with a scoop-neck, revealing acres of cleavage On her feet were the tallest white heels I'd ever seen, her nails must have been an inch-and-a-half long and were painted bubblegum pink; she smiled toothily at me. She was hardly the grieving ex-wife I'd spoken to on the phone. She passed me a menu and wine list, "you have to try their Manhattan, it's to die for."

I knew that a Manhattan was a way to serve whiskey, which I had never drank. "Why not?" I said good-naturedly. I looked at the wine list, "looks a little expensive-"I began but Jermaine cut me off.

"I'm paying Sarah, have whatever you want." He looked at me with concern, "Dahlia told me what happened to you, are you alright?"

"Oh, you mean the kidnapping." I muttered, "Yeah, I'm fine now."

"Did he hurt you?"

"No." I grunted, "not to be rude, but I really don't like talking about this-"

"Sorry" said Dahlia, "we won't talk about it anymore."

The waiter, a blonde man named "Todd" stopped by a few minutes later for our drink orders. I ordered a Manhattan-which seemed to make Dahlia happy- Dahlia ordered one as well and Jermaine ordered a glass of red wine. Once Todd had left, Dahlia immediately turned her attention to Jermaine. "So…" she said, arching her back and tapping a long fingernail on the table in front of her, "how're you doing, Jermaine?" My eyes widened, was she flirting with him? The corpse of her marriage hadn't even grown cold! Come to think of it, had she legally divorced her husband? And then I remembered; oh right, Dahlia said their relationship 'wasn't like that.' Things stayed like that for about ten minutes, me sitting there as Dahlia awkwardly flirted with Jermaine, Jermaine occasionally sneaking uncomfortable grimaces in my direction, until our drinks came. I sipped my drink; it was sweet in an herbal, oaky sort of way. Dahlia ran her fingers up Jermaine's arm, Jermaine politely pulled away, Dahlia didn't seem to take the hint. Jermaine glanced at me through his peripherals help me.

"…Well, that's nice!" I quickly said, cutting Dahlia's last flirtation off, Jermaine winked at me. "So…Dahlia, I see you've changed your hairstyle."

"Oh yeah," said Dahlia, playing with her hair, "do you like it?"

"Yeah, it suits you. That's a lovely dress." We spoke about each other's clothes and hairstyles for a long time while Jermaine took a much needed rest. Just when I had run out of things to say and it looked like Jermaine would have to endure Dahlia's flirtation again, Dahlia looked up and gasped. Her eyebrows narrowed into the mother of all glares. "You!" She said through clenched teeth.

I craned my neck to see who it was, and nearly jumped out of my chair! The bowler hat and domino mask were gone, but there was no mistaking who it was.

"Hello Dahlia, Jermaine" he raised an eyebrow as he looked at me, "Sarah."

"What are you doing here, Nigm-"Jermaine's hand clapped over my mouth. I glared at him through the corners of my eyes.

"Please, it's Edward when I'm not working." He laughed.

Jermaine removed the offending hand, "Alright then Edward, what are you doing here? Why aren't you in-"Jermaine placed a finger over his lips "shh!"

I growled, "Why aren't you still in the hospital?"

"Oh, I arranged an early release; and I thought I'd celebrate with a champagne toast!" He sat down in the chair in between Dahlia and I, "care to join me?"

"Sure, as long as I can punch you in the face afterwards." I muttered.

He seemed amused by that. "Riddle me this: we hurt without moving, we poison without touching, we bear the truth and the lies, we are not to be judged by our size; what are we?"

"Words" said Jermaine.

How are people not seeing this!? I thought, looking around the restaurant desperately. Of course, they were all absorbed in their own conversations and didn't notice one man in an oddly colored suit. So typical.

"What are you really doing here, Edward?" Asked Dahlia, "We all know that you don't crash parties just to say hello to one of your victims."

He sighed, his trademark smirk crawled up his face, "you're right Dahlia; lovely as it is to see you all, I'm not here to chat." He and Jermaine stood up at the same time, Edward pulled his domino mask out from within the folds of his coat along with his hat, and put them on. "In fact, you'll find out the real reason I'm here in…" he looked up at the restaurant's clock, "three, two, one…"

All of a sudden people from tables all across the restaurant stood up, wielding pistols, a shot was fired into the ground, and everyone looked in the direction it had come from. Several people screamed. Edward swiped the wedding ring off of Dahlia's finger, "you won't be needing this anyway." He said sneering. All of a sudden I heard the hiss of gas entering the room, Edward and his goons covered their faces with gas masks. I hacked and wheezed as the gas slowly entered the room. Dahlia passed out almost instantly, I on the other hand took a bit longer. I was conscious for just enough time to see the Riddler giving Jermaine his marching orders before the world faded around me.