VIII.

My Broken Chest

Relief filled Lily's throat and chest as she swallowed down some water that was in the bag which Bane had given her. Screwing the cap back on, she fished around the bag some more and found half a dozen boxes of Ibuprofen and paracetamol. She frowned then; the doctors at Gotham General had prohibited her from taking cough medicine, insisting that she cough so she could clear all the phlegm from her throat. They'd put her on an IV for fluids; in Bane's bag was three big bottles of water and also some heat pads – she assumed, for the 'smart' in her bones. She wondered then if Bane had any medical experience...It didn't surprise her; he seemed like a pretty learned guy in all honesty.

Choking down the stronger of the two painkillers, Lily popped three Ibuprofen and sat back, leaning against the gigantean walls that stretched up for miles and watched the workers, mercenaries and general vagrants mill around the massive chamber quite idly ignoring them, closing her waxy eyelids she pushed her lips against the tall collar of her jacket, snuggled up and fell asleep there.

She was awoken a few hours later from a dreamless sleep by Barsad's kicking her foot. With a scowl she looked up at the tanned man and raised an eyebrow,

"Up." He commanded shortly.

Lily sighed and ungracefully heaved herself half up and with a grimace fell back against the wall. Her bones were sore, protesting to their movements, her joints grinding like rusty cogs. With a tut, Barsad clasped her hand and hefted her up and grabbed her little bag.

"What's going on?" She managed after a yawn.

Barsad threw a quick glance at her and seemed to be eyeing her as if he would work out her value. Appraising her as though she were some appliance or tool which had been broken and he would not bother fixing. With a terse shrug, he answered her dryly,

"Bane says you need warmth. I'm taking you somewhere warm to rest up."

"Really?" She piped with a frown, "That's very...generous of him."

Barsad inclined his head and scoffed incredulously,

"Yeah, I thought so. You're worse than useless down here."

Lily ignored his rudeness and allowed him to lead her further down into the sewers. It felt like they had been traversing deeper and deeper into the depths of the sewers for hours when Barsad finally halted abruptly. So abruptly, Lily felt her nose bang into his shoulder softly. Blinking furiously, she peeped round his shoulder and beheld a poky little room which was filled with nothing but a bed, a heater, a table with a chair on top of it. Next to the chair were some books, Lily cocked an eyebrow.

"What is this?" She mumbled stepping inside.

"You're to make your home down here for the time being, until it's time to go outside."

Lily turned, her expression confused.

"A home? How long am I to be down here? Why's Bane keeping me here?"

Still holding her bag, Barsad shrugged and shook his head. He placed the bag on the table and lifted the chair down off the table and sat on it. Lily followed his lead and sank down on the bed; enjoying the warmth of the heater before she felt a cough tickle her throat. Barsad let her cough and when she looked at him he was holding out a bottle of water to her. After a sip of water, she motioned for him to pass her some painkillers and when he offered her a paracetamol, she shook her head curtly and nodded for the Ibuprofen.

After she had swallowed the pink tablets, she sighed and sat back on the bed, her feet dangled about two inches from the ground. Barsad leaned his elbows on his knees and shook his head again at her;

"Honestly," He started with a flick of his dark eyes over her,

"I've been Bane's man for a number of years. His reasoning behind things is always shrouded in mystery. Why he saved you and brought you here, I don't know. Like I said, you can't work. I doubt you can fire a gun..."

"You've known him long, then?" Lily asked curiously.

Barsad nodded, leaning back in his seat,

"He's been my General now for three years. We staged a coup in West Africa not too long ago; Bane's strategies never fault. They are always reinforced and have yet to be broken."

He watched her and heard her breath rattle a little as she inhaled and nodded for her to drink. She did, quickly like a child enthralled by a fairytale, so she could return her keen eyes to him and hear some more.

"Although, as to his rationale and why he does things; why he is the way he is – I wouldn't know."

"The mask-" Lily pressed before Barsad cut her off,

"Is his business." He stipulated, getting up from his seat. "And you shouldn't ask him about it, either."

"Not if you value that skinny neck."

He added darkly and Lily watched him as he strode over to the door and linger there a moment.

"You should consider yourself very lucky to be spared the flames of Gotham's reckoning. You're shielded down here with your brothers and sisters of the gutters."

Lily's brow twitched as Barsad said menacingly, nearly prophetically, which made her skin crawl.

"Soon, the people of Gotham will have their revenge. Bane will give you all what you want, although not what most think you deserve."

"You don't agree with Bane's liberation then?" Lily asked and he laughed,

"I agree with everything the General does. But weakness is not something I agree with; you people should have pulled yourselves free of the poverty you all now live in. Have you never wondered why you live your...'life' the way that you do?"

"Every day," Lily growled,

"And it isn't so easy to pull yourself free when cops block your actions at every turn. Lumping you in with the serious criminals when all you did was steal to stay alive and everyone's telling you that you're living the way you do because you're simply a failure who never tried. It isn't that black and white, not everyone's downfall story is the same, just ask anybody up there."

She spat at him, her tone was indignant towards him. Her anger only heating as he smiled lazily and said smoothly,

"Oh, we did. And it always came up trumps; the police and the elite. If you weren't one of so many – I'd be interested in your story. As it happens, I have work to do."

At that, Lily's brow was quirked. Slowly getting to her feet, Barsad watched as she did with one eyebrow raised grandly; wondering what she was doing. With a tentative step, Lily's pale drawn face was shadowed in the dim light, her eyes looked sad Barsad thought as she whispered,

"Do I have to stay down here by myself?"

Barsad shrugged, jerking his head, he said grandly,

"It's more than what anyone else's got. What's your problem?"

"I..." Lily's small voice trailed off and she sat back down defeated,

"I just don't want to be buried down here all alone,"

She coughed, her grey face looked gaunt and Barsad exhaled loudly, looking away from her; he fiddled with the door handle before peering back at her;

"I'll come down again in a while to make sure you're alright." He promised grudgingly.

Lily glanced up at the mercenary and he averted his eyes, unwilling to look at her,

"I have it figured Bane'll want to know you're not dead...Yet."

He added with a bob of his head and left Lily alone in the dingy room. She wondered what she'd managed to find herself caught up in since she'd been salvaged from the cold alleyways of Gotham and brought below to dwell with her brothers and sisters of the gutters as Barsad put it.

Her heart raced as she thought of John and hoped he wasn't worrying too much about her. He would be. She knew him well enough to know that he'd be climbing the walls looking for her. She really wished he wouldn't.

The last thing she wanted was for him to come down here and cross paths with Bane and get the same treatment as Gordon. The more she thought about John, the more she began to miss the surface. She didn't miss the starvation, the hardness that was Gotham, but she was missing fresh air. She hoped Bane would deliver his promise soon and allow her to go outside when it was 'safe'. Lily scoffed at that choice of word; the last adjective she'd use to describe Bane was 'safe'. After a moment Lily felt her lips tremble as a sob burst out of her and she leaned her head against her knees and wept bitterly in the semi darkness.

Oh, how lucky she was; copped up, down below, just as she'd always wanted. She'd found it; Bane had given her what she coveted; a hole in the earth, far below anything that could interfere, a place where she could be forgotten. A place for her bones to turn to dust. A place for her to die in. Lily felt sick as she cried into her knees; more from her own foolishness to so wish for a quiet and unobtrusive death, not realising how much she may have had to live for.