"Jackie." Alfred muttered.

Jackie turned in her bed as she pulled the covers over her gently, going back to bed.

Alfred sighed "Jackie!" he said, shaking her gently.

Jackie groaned as she opened her eyes to Alfred who was looking less than amused.

"Get up, you're going to be late to work!" he said, pulling the covers away from her body before walking out of Jackie's room.

She shuddered as she slowly got out of bed and rushed to her bag to grab her work clothes; Jackie looked in the bag when she found a surprise in the bottom of her bag.

"I don't remember packing my ballet gear." Jackie muttered to herself, pulling it from the bottom of her bag to examine it.

Jackie looked over her ballet gear that she hadn't used since Jonathan's death, her hands solemnly dropped the gear onto the floor.

She felt a fight knot in her stomach as she glared down at the items, not sure what to think when she felt it moving up her chest and towards her throat.

Jackie darted to the bathroom only to make it to the sink as she vomited, beginning to spit out saliva in the process; she grabbed the mouth wash and wasted no time chugging a mouth full and rinsing her mouth out of the sour taste.

She looked herself over in the mirror "Get yourself together, and lets go." She said, walking out of the bathroom to get ready for work.

Jackie walked back to her bag and grabbed her work clothes, attempting to ignore the mess on her floor, but her conscious couldn't stop nagging her.

She glared at the clothes on the floor for a second before she rolled her eyes at herself "Fuck!" Jackie muttered to herself, walking towards the mess to get her ballet gear together.


It had been her first ballet practice in nearly two months as she walked down the empty and depressing hall towards the dance studio where she could already hear the music playing.

Jackie opened the door gently to see a girl doing a chaînés tournes while looking herself over the mirror while other girls got ready by stretching.

She walked into the room and softly closed the door behind her, but it was loud enough to get all the attention in the room.

Jackie swallowed hard as the dancers glared at her, watching Jackie's every room as she walked towards the back wall to place her bag down and stretch on the bar.

"Hey!" Mary said, beginning to stretch next to Jackie.

Jackie smiled "Hey." She got out, beginning to stretch on the bar.

"I'm glad you're here! I was hoping you wouldn't will auditions!" Mary said with a huge smile on her face.

"Auditions?" Jackie asked, her leg sticking up high in the air.

Mary nodded "Yeah, auditions for the companies annual performance!" she said, giggling at Jackie.

Jackie nodded as she switched legs "What are we performing?" she asked.

"Swan Lake." Mary said.

"Swan Lake!" Jackie asked, losing her balance as she fell to the floor.

The room went silent again as they all looked at Jackie, the 29-year old could feel excitement building up as she picked herself up off the floor and smiled at Mary.

"I don't mean to alarm you but…" Jackie took Mary by her shoulders and jumped for joy.

Mary giggled as she embarrassingly looked around the room as the other dancers glared in disproving ways.

Jackie let go of the girl and put herself together, she sighed as she went back to stretching on the bar, smiling to herself as she imagined her audition.


"Jackie." Mrs. Lenore said, looking up from her list of names.

Jackie calmly walked to the center of the dance studio and made eye contact with her instructor; her 14-year old self couldn't contain her excitement as she waited to begin.

"It's been awhile, Mrs. Crane." Mrs. Lenore said.

Jackie nodded "Yeah, but I've been practicing at home." She said, her breathing almost becoming shallow.

Mrs. Lenore smiled as she nodded to the pianist "Begin." She said softly.

Jackie positioned herself as she waited for the notes to begin playing on the piano, she looked herself down in the mirror for a second as she reevaluated everything.

"This is just like last time, remember?" Jackie told herself as she began to move to the music, letting her body move and departing from her mind as she let go for the first time in two months.

Jackie closed her eyes as she embraced her inner Swan Queen, she told herself that she wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer; not this time.

She wasn't going to let this opportunity slip from her fingers like the last time; she wasn't going to lose the chance to be Swan Queen ever again.

"Alright, ladies. The list will be up tomorrow at 5." Mrs. Lenore said, getting up from her chair and leaving the dance studio.

It had been nearly 3 hours before Jackie finally left the studio to return back to Wayne Manor, she held her sweater close to her body as she made her way down the hallway and out into the cold city of Gotham.


"Where have you been? That was one long ballet practice!" Alfred remarked, cleaning the kitchen up for the night.

Jackie smiled "Yeah, sorry; we had an audition." Jackie said, dropping her heavy bag onto the kitchen floor.

Alfred smiled "An audition, huh?"

"Yeah."

"For what?" Alfred asked, taking another clean plate and drying it off before placing it back in the cupboard.

"Swan Lake." Jackie said.

Alfred dropped the plate as he turned to Jackie, a smile plastered on his face as he covered his mouth with joy.

"Swan Lake?" he asked, walking towards her to give her a big hug.

"Oh, love! I can't believe it, how'd it go?" he asked her.

Jackie shrugged her shoulders "A lot has changed since I was 14." She admitted.

"Yes, but you've gotten better! You pointe is perfect!" Alfred said, smiling brightly as he looked at her "When do you find out?" he asked.

"Tomorrow at 5. I'll probably head there after work to see…" Jackie said, looking at her watch.

"Well, I'm gonna go to bed now." She said, stretching as she picked up her bag and began walking out of the kitchen.

Alfred kept his smile on his face as he turned back to the now broken plate "Oh, bullocks!" he proclaimed.