The Dark Saint.
Volume 1: The Shadow of the Bat.
Chapter 4: Homecoming.
The streetlights whisk by, the highway before us lit up yellow. The dark ink of the clouds spreads through the world's sky. My eyes swivel over to my fidgeting boyfriend. His light green eyes filled with worry, anxiety ripping at the edges of him. I don't want to do this. I don't want to take him back to where he was hurt so badly. Then I see him shift. No more fidgeting, stone cold with an unreadable expression on his face. Slicking back his hair and looking at me.
A mile marker flashes by. Gotham City, sixty miles away.
"Sixty miles away! Isn't it exciting?" a smile tugs at my lips and a big fat raindrop hammers my windshield, "Oop!" I flick on the wipers.
Silence, the rain coming down, five minutes later he speaks. His tone chilling and his eyes narrow slits of pure ferocity. His voice becomes growling and resonant, as if he changed into someone else.
"I called ahead."
Dread sinks in as he glances at me, I flinch at that and sputter out like a fool, "Is that bad?"
He looks away, "No."
I know what this is. He's not Grayson Wayne. He's not my goofy little boyfriend. He's not the same one who'd feed Shelley and her boys. He's someone else. Guarded, cold, the only thing missing is a cowl and a cape and he'd be the spitting image of him.
Batman.
He pulls out his phone, checks, "Dick, Barbara, and Harvey should come help. They're my older brother, friend, and best friend."
"You trust them."
"Totally."
"And not me?"
Grayson looks at me, his cold face still unreadable, "It's not that I don't. It's just…"
I pull over, the rain blurring everything and my gaze locking onto his. He still stares as I unbuckle and clamber over my side and into his lap, his cheeks have a little red to them. I wrap my arms around his neck.
"Shut up."
His lips are warm, soft. His arms are well muscled and strong. I wrap myself around him as much as I can. Like ivy. Like some strangling vines. I want him to know I love him. I want him to know that some half-assed effort at pushing me away won't work.
He's mine.
Body and soul.
So I give myself to him, taking off my shirt and bra, exposing myself to his rough, warm hands. He's mine. All mine. No one else. No other soul can have him. Not even Gotham's. The way he pounces on me, the way he softly takes me into his arms, and we're one. He exhilarates me. His body and mine, cramped and squeezed together. There's no way back. There's no way out. I need him. I want him. There's little difference between the need and the want. I just want his love.
"Just be open with me. Be honest with me, please." I grab his hands and he clenches them into fists.
"If you wanted me to be honest, why pull over and strip down?" his voice is warmer, less of the cold tactician. There's that smile again and he makes a mess of my neck and shoulder. A pulsing shudder floods through me and I fall against him.
"What are you… ha! Doing to me?" I gasp, closing my eyes and his mouth is on mine. My mind explodes with all the need, the want, the lust and love. All of it here and new, raw with the feeling of just him being mine.
He's all mine.
Gotham City is old. My car's headlights barely pierce the gloom of the city's shadows, the old city breathes out its acrid smoke, the ancient lungs heaving and grinding. The rivers choked with garbage of residents and industry alike. Roads ribbons of rough pavement. Buildings shoved together, haphazardly stacked like God's personal building blocks.
An almost anticipation hangs in the air here, the welcoming darkness finally gleeful that she could call her son home. The son sitting right in my passenger seat. The blank face is back, the green eyes searching out for something that isn't even there. Ice cold, not my boyfriend. He gets out a coin and does a few tricks, flicking it back and forth and back again. Rolling it between his fingers, saying something to himself.
"It's been a while." A flick, a catch between his fingers, flip and a catch, "How've you… been?"
Flip. Catch.
Flip. Roll. Catch.
Flick, roll, and…
Dropped.
Pick it back up, start again.
"It's been a while." He tests again, "How've you been, Harv?"
He does that a lot. He was tidying himself when we went to visit my parents a couple weeks back. He hasn't done this before so I guess he hasn't seen his friend in a while? He switches the coin for a small toy police car, he likes to buy toy cars and spin the wheels.
Spin spin spin…
"Hey Barbara. Been a while!"
Spin spin spin…
"How's it been as commissioner? Tough right?"
Spin spin spin…
Drrr. Drrrr. He's spinning it really fast and practically flicking it to hear the plastic and the axel grind harder. I lay my hand on his knee and he switches to a gyroscope, flipping it around and practicing for his older brother. I let his soft, nervous voice carry me on. I almost want to turn around and head back home. My sweet boyfriend's practically white as a sheet, shaking so badly from panic attacks and just pure fear that I pull over again and turn to him.
"Keep driving." he snaps, "Please Pammy, it's not safe."
I drive back onto the road, he looks over his shoulder, digging into a bag and pulling out rough looking blades of some kind, "Just… just keep driving, please." his voice quivers.
I hit a u-turn. What am I doing? Why am I torturing him? Why am I doing this to the man I love? Why am I putting my needs above his own? I speed, I don't care. I want to go home. I want to see him smile, see him laugh. See him live again. Because I love him. Fuck Woodrue, fuck the blackmail, fuck it all. I don't want to cause him any more pain. But he touches my shoulder.
"Pamela… we're going the wrong way."
"I don't care." Flat, cold. That's the way. Just keep driving.
"You'll lose everything though." He states and I look at him with the rage going through me like a lightning bolt.
"God dammit, Grayson! The minute we hit that street to that shitty tower, to those shitty people who broke you, you'll never come back!" I can't stop the tears from coming, "You're not ready. You just started getting better, baby…"
Don't give in, don't roll over and take this. Don't let this stop us. Just drive back. Get a hotel for the night, drive some more, bit by bit, leg by leg.
Then we see something move. Something… God, I can't even believe it. Out from the shadows, landing in front of my car is something looming on metal talons, white unblinking eyes staring at us as it kicks into the front of my car, denting it with a heavy stabbing shriek. The engine sputters out as the weird Owl… thing stalks around the side.
From its feathered dark cloak it knocks with a gray steeled hand on my window. Grayson grips my shoulder. It stares unblinking as thunder rumbles.
"Don't." he hisses.
The Owlman cocks his head, "Open up. You were in violation of the speed limit posted approximately a block that way." his voice runs through the glass like paper, like it wasn't even there to begin with.
He leans in, his white eyes widening and zooming in. Soft beeping and clicking going through the helmet, "On whose authority?" I ask.
"Mine." Owlman says, suddenly leaping over the roof and bursting through the other window, grabbing Grayson by the neck and yanking him out through it but not before he yelled at me.
"OLD WAYNE TOWER!" he gets yanked through and I fly into a panic, jamming my foot onto the gas and riding away, seeing the old spire through the front window. I floor it and speed away through the traffic, what the hell was that thing?!
I eat pavement, skidding onto it like it was an old lover kissing me after not seeing me for years. The Owlman looms above me, his talons clicking and his suit state of the art. He leans down to me.
"Grayson Matthias Wayne, you are found guilty." he stares as I slide to my feet.
"Of what? Just supporting my girlfriend?" I smile, "Man, you must be lone-"
He surges forward and grabs my shirt, lifting me face to cold, unfeeling mask, "You know, I wanted so badly to get rid of Batman…" his steel fist crashes into my face, "But the old man had contingency after contingency." his talons close around my throat, crashing me into the wall and knocking the breath out of my lungs.
"Roughing you up is-"
Suddenly headlights bathe us in sepia tones, revving engine and anger in the eyes of my girlfriend, Pamela speeds right for us and Owlman tosses me onto the trash, my body aching as she gets out and he flies off, melting into the shadows.
Pamela runs towards me, "Grayson?!" she kneels, "Oh my god, your neck… your nose…" she helps me into the car and pulls out into the night. A massive gothic looking building looms above us in the old Gotham. Pamela watches me sit, closer and closer to the home of my youth. I flash her a smile, but I wish I could say I was fine. She reaches over and grabs my knee, squeezing as we park in front of the old tower with a bunch of familiar cars in front of it, the moving van already emptying out.
Pamela gets out first, grabbing my hand and leading me into the lobby. The familiar smell of the old tower settles into my lungs, my nose breathing in the old lumber and the mothballs. It was normal, but now it's fresher, and the mothballs are gone. I take the lead and head up to the elevator. The once rickety cab was polished and shining. A glitzy but still old elevator I used to ride in no matter what. Everyone came out of the woodwork to see the Prodigal Son's return.
The higher we go, the more I want to run. Hit the down and close door button, get in the car, and burn rubber. I dig around in my suit jacket pocket for an old friend. A lucky coin an even older friend gave me. One side has heads, and the other does but it's slightly cut up. Pamela watches as I study it. I smile and decide to give it a flip.
"A good luck charm, Gray." he told me, "Never goes wrong."
I flip the coin, it somersaults into the air and lands on heads. I let go of Pamela's hand and gently flick it from hand to hand, flipping it over my fingers, and as I try to flip it over my head and catch it with my hand the doors open. It flips the wrong way and clatters to the floor outside, rolling to the polished dress shoes of a familiar face. With a soft chuff the man bends down and picks it up, his blue eyes shining with an almost cocky grin on his face.
His brow furrows at my wounds but I bat his hand away.
"Coin tricks again, Grayson?" he chides with the grin never fading, flipping it back to me and noticing Pamela.
"Oh! And you have to be the famous Pamela Isley!" he whisks over and gently takes her hand, kissing it, "I'm Richard, Grayson's older brother."
"Yeah, I figured." Pamela withdraws her hand and her tone is frosty. He shivers and grins.
"Harsh! Is she usually like this with everybody?" he asks.
"No," I state with him taking point. He opens the doors and the room isn't too bad near the top of the tower. It's a nice, albeit old apartment. It's out of the way and quiet over here anyway. But the people here…
Rolling up to us is an old friend, red hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing glasses. I grin and meet her. I lean down and Barbara hugs me. She's been a family friend for as long as I could remember. Her and Jim.
"How are you?" she asks.
"Driving here was a nightmare. Jet lag is killer…" I groan, with Pamela looking shocked. I smile at her and she steps forward.
"Barbara, this is Pamela Isley, my girlfriend." I see a little bit of suspicion in Babs' eyes as she shakes Pamela's hand.
"Isley? Like Elizabeth?" she questions, going full cop mode before Dick and I could steer the conversation away from the whole past with her mother and my father. Before Pamela could answer, a hearty laugh came from the kitchen.
"Oh come on, Barbara! Leave ol' Grayson alone!" my friend, Harvey Dent comes out with a big smile, flicking a coin across his fingers. He swaggers in with an almost herculean confidence. He goes to Harvard, but must've made the trip back once he heard we were coming. I can't stop myself from grinning.
"Harvey!" I exclaim, practically dashing over to him and hugging him tightly.
"Whoa! Hey, easy…" he plucks me off him, "You missed me that much?"
"Well yeah! You're my best friend!" I guide him over to Pamela, who still looks pretty shell shocked about how different I was compared to how I was with her. She looks at Harvey.
"Hello." she says.
"Hey, my name's Harvey Dent. Word is that you're dating my friend Grayson." he holds out his hand, "Enchante."
"Tch…" Pamela tsks, with that she wanders over to our room. Harvey doesn't laugh but he watches her go.
"Social battery's dead I bet…" he sighs, "Anyway, how was Seattle?"
"Not bad." I state with a grin, "Met Pamela, did my classes, transferred to online 'cause Pam's got work with Woodrue." Dick brightens at that.
"Oh yeah! She's working under a top botanist! I was really impressed with her work." he rubs the back of his neck, "Still, the final decision must've been hard for you two,"
I nod and think bitterly of my father, probably hunched in the dark castle lording over all he sees alone with his thoughts and what once was. Trying so desperately to mean something to someone. Of course my thoughts are jolted out by the cooling sensation of a drink in my hands.
"I think we should leave Mr. Wayne alone…" Harvey says, "He's had a long drive and all that."
Barbara and Dick both agree, with Dick hugging me with one arm, "Glad to have you back,"
Barbara pauses, setting her hand on my arm, "If you need anything, just ask."
They leave with Harvey. I look down at the city below, the lights shining up towards me. The night is unsafe and the citizens are all crying out for a release. I take a big swig of the drink and glare at the New Gotham section. Then I see it in the sky, gleaming against it like an angel, or rather a demon. The Bat Signal. Instead of going to bed I go to the elevator, flipping down a slat in the panel. Pamela will rest easy tonight.
Eventually, even I have to face my past. I take out a tiny key from my pocket and turn it right and left three or four times. Then punch in a code on the slat near the keyhole. With a tiny clicking hiss a button flicks out. I press it and it slides all back into place, the elevator goes down past the lobby and down a bit deeper before stopping. I get out of the elevator and the lights click on, halting and buzzing. Flickering softly, casting shadows as the hollow dripping sounds echo through my ears. I dust off the tables and workbenches, the car I was working on before the move to Seattle still waiting patiently.
I smile and pat it, "I'm back." I state, turning on the computer monitors. The familiar interface comes up and I type in my password. My original plan was to just bum parts off the black market, maybe make my own suit. All around me parts sit gathering dust anyway.
I hesitate, "No, no no… stop. No more." I murmur, "No more Batman. No more. Pamela needs me to be Grayson, not the Bat. Not him."
I sigh and roll the chair back, turning off my computer and the lights, going back up to her. Back to safety. Back to her warmth and her love and her light. I step out of the elevator and get to our room, seeing Pamela sleeping soundly in the bed.
I take off my shirt and wriggle into her arms, hearing a soft groan.
"Babe?" she mews, "You're cold…" she covers me with the blankets, holding me close, "Mm… there…"
She snuggles into my chest, "Better…"
I smile and kiss her goodnight as the brightness of Gotham swallows the dark below. I fall asleep in her warm embrace, finally happy for the first time since coming. The flight and drive here was nothing less than tense.
I open my eyes.
Going to bed with her was usually the highlight of my day. But tonight I have a lot to think about. I'm home in Gotham, staring up at the ceiling with a soft as silk rumble of thunder breaking the quiet. I watch Pamela's sleeping body, chest rising and falling. Her beautiful face settled into a peaceful expression. Her red hair covering my chest, her arms wrapped around me. God, she was so beautiful. I used to think that I'd never have someone like her. Someone so determined to hold onto me, someone strong enough to support me.
Someone willing to let me move on, someone who didn't care. Pamela snoozes next to me and I find myself smiling. I just surrender to her. Just let it all go. Rain begins to fall and I don't know… I don't know what's coming.
All I know is that she'll be okay.
Just remember the promise you made to her folks, Grayson…