Chapter 2: Demands

I don't know how much I like this chapter. It just seems a bit fillerish? More interesting things will happen in the next chapter I promise :)

And I've sort of altered the timeline a bit.

Bagheera held her head high as she looked at the large wall. Pictures of the Joker's painted face looked back at her while news footage that he had personally directed played on the computer screen on mute. She eyed the wall carefully. Multicolored thumbtacks held the photographs up. Murder victims with faces cut across their faces like a Cheshire cat grin while other victims had been burned to the bone from the various explosions looked back at her as if the victims were mocking her new status as lead detective. The walls around her were walls that she would spend glaring at endlessly until the Joker was caught and convicted. Her new office held nothing personal to her as she looked around the shabby little room.

"So," she heard Jim Gordon announce his presence from outside her opened door, "what are you thinking?"

She turned away from the gruesome photographs and looked over to him with a cunning grin, "Oh just things that my books have told me."

"And what is that," he asked intrigued. Jim Gordon watched the young woman in plain black pants and a button up white shirt pace around the small office as the victims stared back at them both. He tried to ignore the photographs and instead looked to the large Smith & Wesson that sat perfectly in the holster upon her well defined hips.

"Love is lust and lupus is hives," she informed him with that same cunning smile. She turned away from him and walked to a photograph of the Joker, "Has he made any demands? Any leads yet?"

Gordon smiled at the woman and answered, "Prints don't match to anyone in the databases?"

"You checked them all? FBI? CIA," she asked as she pulled the photograph of the Joker leaving a mob bank and moved it to another side of the wall. She was spacing things out in a certain order so her mind could work more freely.

"All of them."

"He was a nobody," she stated and her brows furrowed. Her eyes locked onto his scars that crossed his lips, "This his trademark? Slitting people ear to ear?"

"Yes."

She nodded and replied, "Instead of taking trophies, he leaves reminders," she lightly allowed her hands to move over a Joker card that was tacked into the bulletin board, "There's been no survivors?"

"None yet," Gordon answered honestly.

"He's been hitting mob buildings right? Banks" Bagheera asked to make sure that she had caught up on all things Joker that the news had left out.

"The last target was Gotham National Bank," Gordon informed her. "He robbed it then killed his cohorts. Stole a school bus and left with the cash."

She smiled at the information and asked, "You have footage?"

"Over here," he said as he waved her over to the computer on her new desk, "We uploaded it to your desktop yesterday. Everything concerning the Joker is on here. The audio doesn't work, but you can see everything just fine."

Bagheera sat in front of her new desk and clicked on the file labelled for the Joker case. She waited patiently as the bank's footage took over her screen. She watched as a man in a clown mask mowed down his accomplices along with the mobster on duty at the bank.

"He's not a part of the mob," she said aloud, "That would be suicide. I wouldn't doubt the mob had a bounty on his head right now. He's just up and come out of the dark. Do you have anyone else on this that can infiltrate the mob?"

"We have a certain agent helping along with us that operates outside of the law," Gordon answered.

"Ahh," Bagheera whispered with a knowing smile, "So we are in league with the Batman now?"

"Standard procedure is for him to be arrested on sight," Gordon answered in an emotionless tone, "But he has yet to be seen by any of us."

"The news," Bagheera said, "They cover a lot on the Batman. I've heard that I am now somewhat of a celebrity."

"That was the mayor's idea," he answered, "I wanted it to be kept quiet until everything was sorted."

"Why," she asked, her eyes looked at him with suspicion as she took in his stressed demeanor. Grey hair had already started its assault against the poor man's auburn hair. She had seen many men in law enforcement turn grey before their time; it was a part of the stress of trying to keep a town safe. Keeping a town like Gotham safe was the greyest inducing responsibility that Gotham PD had on their shoulders.

"You think that he'll come after me," she asked. She shrugged her shoulders as she watched Gordon turn away from her and look over to the photographs of the Joker.

"He's been known to have murdered a few officers."

"How many," she asked, her voice lacked emotion as her bright, unnaturally blue eyes looked into his solemn eyes.

"Six."

She turned back to the photographs and shook her head.

"He doesn't have an agenda," she stated, "All of these people," she pointed to every photograph of the clown's victims, "they've all been incidental," she shook her head, "He's not after anything. He's not a cop killer. He's just having," she paused and rolled her eyes as a small dark chuckle escaped her, "He's just having a good laugh. I think that he is trying to get someone's-"

"Is that what you call great detective skills," a new voice interrupted.

Bagheera and Jim Gordon turned together to see a man with blonde hair and a cleft chin. Her blues eyes deemed in slight anger at the man's sudden rude comment. Bagheera couldn't help but thinking of him as some Prince Charming wannabe in a child's fairy tale as she took in his physical details and his expensive suit.

"Gordon," he acknowledged as he walked in deeper into Bagheera's office, "Am I correct in assuming that this young woman is Bagheera Lewis?"

Bagheera looked over to her new boss and awaited his reply. She did not want to be on bad terms with anyone on her first day on the job.

"Yes," Gordon answered, "Detective Lewis this is Gotham's D.A Harvey Dent."

"Nice to meet you Lewis," Harvey said informally as he held his hand out for her to shake. She did politely, "That's a strange first name you have there."

Bagheera shrugged her shoulders and replied with a polite smile, "My parents loved The Jungle Book a little too much."

Harvey Dent chuckled at her answer and then nodded before returning back to his all business personality. Bagheera looked away from the smug district attorney and back to the pictures of the victims. She felt a sense of foreboding fill the air as the two men exchanged pleasantries before getting down to the business that she was most likely included in.

"I just came down to ask you a few questions Detective Lewis," Harvey informed her as he watched the young detective turn away from the photographs.

"By all means," she answered, "fire away."

"First thing is," Harvey stated in a straightforward tone, "there's been a lot of Internal Affairs investi-"

A knock came at the door and Harvey sighed audibly at the disruption. The door opened to reveal a petite woman with dark hair standing in the door frame. Detective Ramirez waved for Jim Gordon to come to her.

"There's a call for you," she informed him and hurried out of their view. Gordon silently excused himself from the two and followed his young detective out of the office.

"That was convenient," Bagheera announced as she looked over to Gotham's district attorney with raised brows. Her eyes sparkled with questions as she waited for his reply.

"I swear it wasn't me," he answered with a chuckle, in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere in which surrounded the two. Dent smiled as she gifted him with a nod, "Now as I was saying, there have been a lot of investigations from Internal Affairs in this station. I," he pointed at himself as his voice became slightly hardened, "was a part of those investigations. I don't like that Gordon has his own little group of ragtag detectives, especially detectives that I investigated personally. They even have a little name for me down there," he smiled at her as he watched one of her brows lift ever so slightly higher than the other, "They called me Two-Face."

"And why are you telling me this," Bagheera asked.

"I looked into you," he informed her, "You've had several IA investigations."

"I'm not a dirty cop," she answered quickly, her voice hardened at the insult that was being thrown at her.

"I wasn't saying you were."

"Then why bring it up Counselor," she asked quickly.

"What were the investigations over," he answered her question with another question. He smiled as he watched her cross her arms across her chest in growing annoyance at him.

"I shot a few people," Bagheera answered honestly, "I killed one man. It's a little different when a woman shoots and kills a man than when a man does it."

"There was another one that didn't cover any shootings that you were involved in," he informed her as he eyed her suspiciously.

"Well," she shrugged her shoulders, "I wouldn't know about that one."

He looked to the floor as her blue eyes seemed to brighten in anger from his probing questions and stated flatly, "It was about your parents."

Bagheera shook her head and said, "They were murdered when I was six."

"In front of you," he asked simply.

"Yes. Would you like to know where they had me hide too? I mean since you're asking already," her voice was laced with venom as she glared at him.

"Just two more," he informed her with a smile, "How'd you get it removed from your record that you were born and raised in Gotham?"

Her eyes widened at his straightforward question as she asked in defense, "How did you-"

"I was good at my job in Internal Affairs," he informed her with a smug smile, "What I couldn't find out was if you have anyone that connects you to Gotham?"

"No," Bagheera informed harshly as she bit at her inner cheek and glared at the arrogant attorney in front of her, "Anything else?"

Harvey Dent gave her a toothy grin and moved towards her door just as Gordon was coming back in. Gordon looked over to his new detective to see a look of distress upon her facial features.

"Is everything alright in here," he asked as he looked from his detective to the district attorney.

"Everything is just peachy," Bagheera answered with a cheery town as she allowed a smile to move across her face, "Mr. Dent and I were just introducing ourselves and exchanging pleasantries is all."

Harvey Dent smiled as he walked through the door frame, "I'll be seeing you Gordon, Detective Lewis."

"You have your first lead," Gordon informed her as Dent shut the door on them both.

Bagheera looked at him with a slightly confused look upon her face, "Already?"

"We're tracking your phone," he informed her as he pointed to the landline on her desk, "He wants to talk to you."

She turned away from Gordon and walked to her phone slowly. A chill moved through her body as she made picked the phone up and quickly place it to her ear. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves that were beginning to come unraveled.

"Is this Bagheeeeerraa," the Joker's voice asked in a sing song tone on the other end of the line.

"Yes," she answered softly, she hadn't expected his voice to be so deep and threatening.

"You don't miiinnd if I call you by your first name," he asked with a chuckle. A scream echoed in the background causing Bagheera to move the phone away from her ear momentarily.

"Oh I'm soorrrryyy," he sang aloud, "He was supposed to be dead," he screamed darkly but chuckles escaped him nonetheless.

"Where are you," Bagheera asked as she looked out the office window to the buildings around the police station.

The Joker chuckled loudly at her question.

"You contacted me," she informed him, her eyes moved over to Gordon who was nodding to her to continue the conversation.

"You know what is sssssoooooooo attractive about the tango," the Joker asked.

Bagheera's brows furrowed at his strange question, but she allowed a soft chuckle escape her that she knew the clown would be able to hear on the other end of the line, "I've never been big on dancing. Why don't you enlighten me?"

"Stalking," the Joker announced loudly into the phone as an uproarious laugh escaped his lungs, "it's a dance about stalking!"

"Are you stalking me Joker?"

His laugh echoed loudly through the phone. Bagheera pulled the phone away from her ear as his laughter boomed throughout the end of the line.

"No Baggyyy," he informed her between chuckles, "we are hunting!"

"So who is hunting who," she heard herself ask with a defiance tone in her voice.

"Well," the Joker's voice was dangerous, "we will soon find out."

"What do you-"

The phone clicked dead on the other side. Bagheera looked to her new boss. She took a deep breath. She had never expected to be thrown into the job this quickly.

"The trace," Bagheera asked as she looked towards the door.

"We got it," Detective Ramirez announced in a hurry.

"Where," Gordon asked.

"Gotham Heights Apartments," Ramirez informed them, "Apartment 207."

A look of confusion quickly crossed Bagheera's face as Gordon hurried towards the door. Cold fear rushed through her momentarily and a shiver ran down her spine as if the sharp winter wind had rushed over her body. The blood rushed out of her face as she stared down at the phone that she had held in her hands only in moments ago.

"Gordon," Bagheera said as she stayed in her place, fear evident in her voice. She watched as Gordon turned to her with a questioning look, her head was shaking in disbelief, "That's my apartment."

In all the time that she had been chasing violent criminals, not one had ever found out where she resided. The Joker had found where she lived in the few hours that she had been back in Gotham.

He was something that she had never faced before.

...

Bagheera watched as uniformed officers hurried to surround her apartment door. Her hands moved over her pocket to grace the keys that hid inside the dark folds of her pants. The land lord looked at the police with a look of horror at the upcoming mess that they would make of his apartment.

"What is going on," the landlord asked as he looked over to his new tenant.

"Nothing," Bagheera whispered as she moved to his side, "Just go back to your office Mr. Hudson. I can't promise that you'll be-"

"Drop your weapons," an officer yelled out as he busted down the door and was followed by several other officers into her apartment. She instinctively reached for her gun and followed suit into her apartment while leaving her land lord to run to the safety of his warm office.

Bagheera entered into her new apartment and the metallic smell of blood overwhelmed her senses. As she walked deeper into her new home, she could see bloody smeared on smiley faces painted upon her once clean walls. Red "HAHAHAHA"s painted over the bloody smiling faces. She felt her stomach sink to the lowest inch of her midsection as impending fear, a fear that she had never felt before on previous cases, bubbled inside of her. She had to control her nervous shaking as she looked at her once unsoiled home.

"On the ground," she heard an officer scream to a survivor. She turned to see a man in a cheap Halloween clown mask hurrying to fall on his knees. He dropped the gun to the floor and quickly placed his shaking hands above his head.

"Please," the masked man begged as the officers surrounded him with their guns aimed at his chest. Bagheera could hear the fearful quiver in the man's voice as she neared closer to him

"He made me come," the man cried as the officer pulled off of his mask to reveal the sandy blonde hair that belonged to that of a young college student.

Bagheera shook her head as she looked at the young man and said, "That's the electrician's son."

Gordon and Ramirez turned to the new detective with questioning looks.

"I saw him helping him this morning," she informed them as she moved away from the rest of the officers to investigate the rest of her ruined home.

"Where's your father," she heard Gordon ask of the frightened young man.

"He, he, he," the boy stammered, "He had the keys to get in. The Joker-"

"Are you sure it was him, son," a uniformed officer asked.

"Look around," Ramirez replied in an irritated manner, "Of course it was the Joker."

"Lieutenant," a uniformed officer announced from deeper within the apartment, "We have a situation in here."

Bagheera moved quickly with the sound of his voice that had come from her bedroom. She made her way inside the bedroom to see the bathroom light on. The smell of fresh blood tainted her senses. She could see the edges of a growing blood puddle moving towards the bathroom door.

"In here," the voice called out to her just as Gordon and Ramirez caught up to her.

Bagheera walked into the fluorescent light of her bathroom and felt her breath escape her at the ghastly scene that had been wrapped in blood just for her. Two men had been violently murdered in her own bathroom, blood seeped the grout of the tile and stained the white squares red. One man lay with his head against the bath tub, blood from under his cheap clown mask; a bloody happy face looked back up at her from the floor. Her fear-filled eyes moved to the next body that was closest to her that sat limp on her toilet seat. His cheap Halloween mask was covered in blood. A single hole in the middle of the mask's forehead was the kill shot that had ended the man's life. Blood ran down the man's body and dripped to the white tiled floor below his hand.

Her hand went to her lips as she looked to the mirror in the middle of the bathroom. Words looked back at her written in blood.

JOIN THE PARTY?

Gordon looked to his new detective and watched as a fearful shiver moved through her. He looked away from the bloody mess that the criminal mastermind had created in the small apartment. He observed the way that her eyes moved inside of their sockets at the bloodied words on the mirror.

"We'll get this cleaned up," he informed Bagheera, "Until then we'll get you a temp-"

"No," she said as she turned her attention back to Gordon, "He wants to dance, I'll dance," her voice cracked, revealing just how unnerved the Joker had made her by invading her privacy, "I'm not going to let this man win."

"He's not your run of the mill criminals," Gordon informed her quickly, his voice was filled with concern. He watched as she looked back down at the men that had been murdered by the man that was paying their salary. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Has he ever done anything like this to any of you," she asked softly as she turned to Ramirez and Gordon.

Gordon looked away from her and sighed.

"No," Ramirez answered honestly, "Nothing like this. Now," she took Bagheera by her upper arm and escorted her out of the bathroom, "we're going to take you back to the precinct and straighten everything up here."

"I don't want to hide," Bagheera informed Ramirez, her voice was hard but ready to crack from the sense of overwhelming dread and fear that swam inside of her. She held in the fear, she wasn't going to allow her new partners to see her crack under new pressures. She had never been placed in a situation where the criminal had the upper hand. She had been given dumb criminals, lower level Dixie Mafia affiliates, and the occasional serial killer that had been begging to be captured. She had never chased after someone that seemed to be as cunning at the clown that she was after now.

"You won't be hiding," Ramirez informed her as they exited the apartment. "You'll be under watch, but not hiding."

The detective's words landed on deaf ears as Bagheera's mind raced to the message that had been left on her bathroom mirror. He had asked her to join the party. Her heart pounded in her chest from the unknown. This was her first big case and she had gone at the Joker in the wrong way. She had been dismissive and had doubted how far he would go and he went through her front door and into her bathroom without a moment's hesitation.

A loud ringing interrupted her thoughts and brought her back to reality. Bagheera turned back to Gordon who was answering his phone.

"Gordon," she heard him say.

"What?"

Bagheera and Ramirez looked at him with concern as his face seemed to lose its fleshy pink color in front of them.

"The son of a bitch got him," Gordon informed them, "I have to get to the mayor's office," he hurried past the two detectives and rushed towards his car, his coat tail flailed in the Gotham wind as he ran.

He turned quickly before entering his car and yelled, "Ramirez, you get back to the station. I need someone there in my place."

...

Bagheera sat at her desk as she delved into the Joker files that had been given to her. Her mind was on a race to find connections and key points that could lead her to his next plan of attack on the city of Gotham. His pictures glared back at her from every wall in her new office.

"Come join the party," she whispered to herself.

She pushed herself away from the desk and attempted to brush the stress off of her shoulders as she walked around her small office. Wayne Tower loomed over her like a ruling king as she looked out the window. She recalled looking out at small buildings in the smaller cities that she had been commissioned to work in before being sent to Gotham City in an attempt to be rid of her in her last assignment.

"Detective Lewis," Ramirez's voice broke into her silence.

Bagheera turned quickly to see the young woman standing in her door way.

"You need to see this," Ramirez informed her, "Now."

Bagheera allowed a brow to move slightly as she watched the woman walk away from her without explanation. She followed the woman carefully and noticed as the many men and women that worked in the office gathered around the television set. She made her way to the forefront of the group and watched the news anchor reveal that they would soon be seeing disturbing footage.

"Are you the real Batman," the Joker asked as his camera jiggled in his hands as a bound man dressed as Batman sat in front of him on the floor in a meat locker.

"No," the man answered quickly.

"No," the Joker said with a tone of a child disappointed that he couldn't ride his favorite ride for the sixth time.

"No."

"No," the Joker said again just as a fit of giggles over took him.

Bagheera shook her head, familiar dread moved through her bones as she watched the trapped man's reactions.

"Then why do you dress like him," the Joker screamed, his voice was ferocious and monstrous in Bagheera's ears as he yanked the flimsy Batman mask off of the captured victim. She shook her head and looked to the ground, her hands sat on her hips. Her posture screamed defeat as she continued listening to the video.

"He's a symbol," the man informed the clown over the fit of giggles, "He's a symbol that we don't have to be afraid of scum like you."

Bagheera looked back up at the television. Deep inside of her, she hoped that this was a different man and not the man that had been flung from the roof of the mayor's office.

"Yeah Brian, you do," the Joker answered as he placed his gloved hands on the man's shoulders and heads, "You really do! Yeah," his voice was almost animalistic in that moment as Bagheera listened to the clown go from brutal to childlike in an instant by brushing the sides of Brian's cheeks, all the while knowing it was a terror trick, "So you think Batman has made Gotham a better place?"

Joker playfully slapped Brian's cheeks as the man sobbed on the camera. Bagheera shook her head at the brutality that she was witnessing.

"Look at me," the Joker demanded, but the man refused.

Bagheera jumped as the Joker's deep voice billowed out the demand again in an almost demonic tone. The shaking camera made her feel sick in her stomach as she forced herself to continue watching. The camera panned back to the Joker and he gave the audience a small smile.

"You see," the Joker announced to his viewing audience, "this is how craazzzzyy Batman has made Gotham! You want order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask and turn himself in to that new detective sent to bring me in," she shook her head at the Joker's demand and she felt eyes fall on her at the mad man's sudden demand, " Oh! And every day he doesn't, people will die starting tonight. I'm a man of my word."

Bagheera watched as the camera panned away from the smiling Joker who had suddenly dropped the camera to the floor. She could hear the man's frightened screams and the Joker's manic laughter.

"You better get to work, Baggy," she heard him say through his laughter and over Brian's blood curdling screams.

The party that the Joker had invited her to was one where she was supposed to bring the Batman as the VIP.

Kind of short and sweet little chapter to delve into Bagheera and what will unfold in her future.

What do you think? I can't exactly remember how I went from point A to point B with my original story so it may take me a little while to write these chapters because my original story was horribly written!

Reviews are the greatest! :)