Thanks for the reviews.

Madelineex3—Well, you got a point. After I read it again, it really wasn't that much of a spoiler. Was I really that obvious? Oh well. Hope that you don't check too much.

Blpaul—That was one of my favorite scenes too! My all time fave is the very last one though. It's awesome, and I can't wait to write it. Thanks for the compliment.

Fairy Skull—I really enjoyed doing the flirting thing. I thought it would be fitting! Haha. I'm glad that you liked it. The crash was definitely a good part, and I'm glad that I improved it. I always try to keep up the good work. =)

SerenityMoonlight—I'm really glad that you like it, especially how she's been put in. It's always a little iffy for it turn out well, since there are parts that make it hard for Alex to squeeze in. I totally agree with about the crashed Lamborghini. It's such an amazing car, and it's completely destroyed. So horrible. I'm really looking forward to doing the ending because I all ready have that part planned out. ;)

Kris Knight—I'm really glad that you liked it, and I've never heard "Oh my damn" before. I'm glad that I had you cracking up since I was cracking up writing it too. I know. I was so surprised that there are only 30 pages left! I totally get what your saying. Like I can't wait to be done writing it, accomplishment and all, but I'll be really sad, which is why there's totally gonna be a sequel. =)

Sabre—I love that part. Always gets me laughing. Glad that I could make your day! It means a lot that you like it that much.

Hannah—Glad you liked it, and people can totally fall in love more than once. I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen there, but there will definitely be more of it at the end. I hope that it's fitting. ;)

Well, here's more. Obviously. Hope that it's just as amazing as the rest.

Also big announcement ****I know that I said Abigail Spencer is what Alex looks like, but I changed my mind and found the perfect person. I think that Evangeline Lilly, who plays Kate in Lost is the perfect Alex.**** What do you think?

We were still gawking at Bruce when there was a low rumble through the asphalt and a boom. I looked up at the sky. There was a tower of black smoke with fire throughout. I looked at my watch. Our sixty minutes were up; I have no idea how an hour passed by so quickly, but it did. Dad and I locked eyes. "Southeast," I mumbled.

"That's—" Dad began, and we finished it together, "Gotham General."

I looked at Bruce, who had question written all over his face. "Harvey Dent."

Dad pulled out his radio. "Did you clear the building?"

"Yeah," some officer said.

Dad clipped the radio back on his belt. "He's out."

I tilted my head to the side, wondering why Dad didn't all ready figure this out. "Dad, the Joker was probably there. What do you honestly think that the chances of him getting out safe really are?"

Dad pondered it for a second before jogging back to the car.

I smiled at Bruce. "Duty calls." I followed after Dad and hopped in the passenger seat as he pulled out and peeled away back to Gotham General. I heard the radio crackling again, and picked it up. "This is Sergeant Gordon," I announced. "Is Harvey Dent safe?" The static came over, but no one answered. "Repeat: Is Harvey Dent safe?" Again, no answer. The car accelerated as we sped towards the hospital.

When we finally pulled up to the hospital, it was nothing more than a skeleton. The Joker obviously used a bigger bomb here than he did at MCU. Most of both buildings were collapsed and still on fire. Fire crews were spraying water on the flames. Glass was everywhere. If anyone was still in there when the bomb went off, they were surely dead now.

Dad stopped car, nearly giving us both whiplash. He jumped out of the car and ran to one of the other detectives there. I followed suit and fell into step with them. "You must know how they were inside," I accused. "You've got patient lists, roll call."

"Sir, Ma'am," the detective pleaded, "right now we're showing 50 people missing. Just one bus." He gestured to the other buses. "All the other buses are being sent out to other hospitals. My guess is we missed one." He put his hand on Dad's arm, but Dad quickly turned around, shaking it free.

"Yeah?" Dad asked. "Well, what's your guess about where Harvey Dent is?"

"Keep looking," I added. "And keep it to yourselves. Anybody asks, we got him out." I looked hard at the guy. "Got that?"

He nodded.

"Al, what are you doing?" Dad demanded.

"Trying to keep the panic down, and us in control," I reasoned.

He turned to Ramirez. "Get the Mayor's office on the line." He turned back to me as he began pacing. "We're gonna need the National Guard."

I nodded. "Yeah, we are," I sighed. "This is bigger than we thought."

"Way bigger," Dad mumbled.

"Gordon! Commissioner!" Johnson called from inside the tent. "Get a load of this! Joker's got Engel." Served that guy right, but more casualties was certainly not what we needed.

Dad and I walked into the shade of the tent and joined the crowd of people in the tent gathered around the TV. The picture wasn't reassuring. It was dark, probably the missing bus. There was a white sheet covering the windows with "Breaking News" written on it in black. A really crappy skyline of Gotham was also painted on the sheet. Engel was sitting there with terror filling his eyes, the Joker's trademark smile across his face. I tensed up a little bit; not enough to be noticed by anyone, but I still felt a hand on shoulder. I looked over at Dad who smiled tensely at me. I nodded and watched what was on the screen.

"This is Mike Engel for Gotham Tonight," he introduced himself. "What does it take to make you people want to join in? You failed to kill the lawyer. I've got to get you off the bench and into the game." Cue cards flew away as he read them out loud to the people watching. "Come nightfall this city is mine."

"Mine," I heard the Joker mumble, and shivers made their way down my spine. This was going to end very, very badly.

"And anyone left here plays by my rules. If you don't wanna be in the game, get out now."

The Joker's mindless mumbling became clearer the more that Engel read.

"But the bridge and tunnel crowd are in for a surprise. Ha ha ha ha ha."

The Joker's cackling began to fill up the airwaves, causing anger to fill the pit of my stomach. Enough fear had taken over my work and life. I was going to get over this, and I was going to make sure that his rules were broken because we were going to catch him. There was no way around that. We weren't going to make it if we didn't.

"Dad," I said under my breath.

"I know," he said. "We'll get him. I don't know how yet, but we will."

I sighed. "We're gonna need a lot of help."

Dad looked at me and motioned for a somewhat secluded spot and walked over there. I followed him. "You're talking about Batman?"

I nodded. "He's got the technology to find him." I shrugged. "What else can we do?"

Dad shook his head and placed his hands back on his hips. "Pray. We can pray."

Johnson came over. "How many men you gonna need tonight, guys?"

"Dunno yet," I answered honestly.

He looked over his shoulder at the city. "Do you mind if I get my ma out?"

I looked over at Dad, who shook his head. "I don't care. Just stick around once she's out."

Johnson nodded and left.

"We can't do this for everybody, Dad."

He glared at me. "Don't you think I don't know that, Sergeant?!"

I backed up with my hands up. "Woah. Easy, Dad." I smiled for a second. "Just chill. We'll figure something out."

Dad didn't respond, but his hands dropped to his sides. He looked out over the city with the orange sun reflecting off the skyscraper windows. Night was coming, but with the night, came Batman, or so we both hoped.

"Sir, the Guard is here, but we're gonna need more men out there," Ramirez said.

Dad looked over at her, pulling his hands back up to hips. "Get riot cops out there."

"How many are you gonna need, Sir?"

Dad looked a little lost at the moment so I took over. "Take all of the riot cops and about twenty officers. That should cover it," I assumed. "Radio if you need more. I'll let ya know how much we can spare."

She nodded and rushed off.

"Alex?" Dad asked, wondering what my thoughts were.

"If we can get a location on the Joker, we're gonna need as many men as we can get. Mostly SWAT or Tact teams," I explained.

"You're really thinking that Batman is gonna get a location on the bastard," Dad realized.

I folded my arms. "It's our only hope."

Dad nodded silently for a while. Gotham General looked like a bombsite, which it was. More like a bombsite void of life. Dad and I were the only ones left because most people were either frantically trying to save family members or protecting the streets. The only sound was of the metal shards falling or shifting in the wreckage. We couldn't stay here. Gotham needed us, and we weren't helping them. I walked slowly across the parking lot to an unused black police sedan. I opened the driver side door and leaned on the roof. "Dad! C'mon! Let's go."

He slowly turned and got in the car. He rested his head in his hands as I turned the motor on. I slowly pulled out and made my way back into the city. We needed to get back to the Mayor's office, but the scene once we entered the city was not a pleasant one. Everyone that owned a car was on the street in it; everyone that didn't was walking on the sidewalks and in the street. Police officers were scattered about helping to guide traffic and keep people from killing one another. Members of the National Guard were also helping out. I found the nearest spot to park, knowing that we weren't going to be driving anywhere.

I shut off the motor. "C'mon, Dad. We're walking."

Something must've snapped while we were driving because the loss of hope that he had was gone and his drive was back. "Then let's go." He took off at a fast pace. I had to jog to catch up before falling into stride next to him. "We'll get him with or without Batman," he announced. He unclipped the radio. "Get every available officer searching the bridges and tunnels. Something's gotta be down there, and let's hope that it's the damned Joker."

I smiled, knowing that Dad wasn't going to let the Joker's threat weigh him down anymore. We made it to the Mayor's office and were immediately let in. Dad and I took seats across the desk from the Mayor. He glared at me a little bit, which was totally uncalled for, but I sighed and redid my ponytail.

"So Gotham General is gone?" the Mayor began.

"Yes, sir," I confirmed.

"And the threat?"

Dad took the lead. "My officers are going over every inch of the tunnels and bridges, but with the Joker's threat, they're not an option."

"And land routes East?" The Mayor folded his arms and leaned on them over his desk.

I shook my head. "Backed up for hours, which leaves the ferries… with 30,000 ready to board. Plus, we were gonna use some of those ferries to get the prisoners off the island."

"The men you and Dent put away?" The Mayor shook his head, "Those aren't the people I'm worried about."

"You should be," I warned. "Whatever the Joker's planning, it's a good bet that Dent's prisoners are involved."

"How would you know?" the Mayor accused.

"It was her case from the beginning," Dad put in. "I wanna get them outta here."

"So where is Harvey?" the Mayor inquired.

"We haven't found him," Dad confessed.

The Mayor lowered his head. He swore under his breath. "How long can you keep this quiet?"

Dad and I looked at each other before answering. "I don't know," I answered honestly.

"You were in charge of the Joker case since the beginning?"

"Yes, sir." My dad just said that, you idiot.

"What do you think the surprise is?"

I shrugged. "He's always different, so it's hard to say." I sighed. "My guess is something to do with explosives. He tends to like those."

"That should be easy enough to find," Mayor Garcia guessed.

"You would think," Dad mused.

My phone rang. I looked at it. It was Wilson. "Sorry, Mayor, I gotta take this." I walked across the room. "Hey, man. What's up?"

"What do you want us to do with the prisoners?"

"Get 'em out of there. ASAP."

"On it, Al." There was a click as he hung up.

I looked out the window as the sun sunk below the horizon and darkness covered Gotham once again. "We should get out there, Dad."

He nodded. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Mayor." He got up and walked out the door. As soon as we walked into the elevator, Dad's phone rang. "Gordon." There was a pause and a look of panic swept across his face. "Understood. We'll be at the docks shortly. Wait for us to get there before you do anything." He hung up.

I looked at him waiting for an answer.

"The ferries lost their engines," he fumed. "Apparently, Joker rigged the place with explosives. He used the prisoners after all!" He ran his hands through his hair.

I felt anger swell inside my stomach. "Damn!" I didn't have anything else to say.

The elevator dinged, and Dad and I sprinted outside into the car we picked up at the hospital. Dad drove down the back way towards the dock with the pedal to the metal, almost literally. About half way there, my phone rang again. "Gordon."

"I have the Joker's location," Batman growled.

I sighed in relief and closed my eyes just for a few seconds. "Where?"

"Prewitt Building. Assemble on the building opposite." There was a distinct click as he hung up.

I slid the phone back into my jeans. "We got him, Dad, or almost anyway."

"Where we headed?" he asked as he slammed on the breaks.

"Prewitt Building, but we're supposed to assemble on the building opposite." I pulled the radio off of Dad's belt, getting a strange glance from him. I shrugged. "Harry, this is Al. Come in." There was a crackle as I let go of the call button.

After a few seconds, Harry answered the call. "Hey, Al. What's up?"

"Meet me at the building across from Prewitt with as many SWAT members as you can get."

"Why?"

"We got the Joker there," I answered triumphantly. "This is it."

Well, I guess I'll stop there. I have to admit I'm having so much fun writing this. I hope that you're having just as much fun reading it.I totally can't believe that this is end of chapter 34. It doesn't seem like it should be, but WOW what d'ya know? It is. Please review. I might have another chapter up sometime tomorrow, but until then. Peace. Clicky the button.