Happy Birthday Bruce

"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! JUST BECAUSE I TOLD YOU WHY I'M MAD AT HIM DOESN'T MEAN I AM GOING TO TALK TO HIM!" Jenna shouted at Rachel the next morning.

"Jenna, no shouting! You'll wake up the neighbors!" Jeannie yelled from the other room. Jenna slumped back into her seat, frowning.

"Come on Jenna! You two haven't see each other in years−"

"Not my fault he left," Jenna muttered but was silenced by a look from her aunt.

"And he told me he would like to see you again."

"Well then tell him I would like nothing more than for him to crawl back into whatever hole he's been hiding in for the past seven years and to never have to hear from him again."

Rachel glowered at her niece before saying, "His birthday is in two days."

"Well good for him."

"I am taking you to see him then."

"WHAT! NO! NOT NOW, NOT EVER! NOT IN A MILLION YEARS! NOT IN A BILLION YEARS! THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT YOU ARE EVER GOING TO GET ME TO TALK TO HIM!"

"I hate you," Jenna told her aunt, sitting in the passenger's seat of Rachel's car, outside Wayne Manor.

"Love you too," Rachel said teasingly. "Come on, we're not going to spend too much time here, I'm just dropping off his present, saying hi, and then we're out of there."

"Good. The sooner we get out of here, the better," Jenna told her, fiddling with her charm bracelet. Rachel rolled her eyes at her niece before getting out of the car. Jenna soon followed.

"I remember this place being a lot bigger," Jenna said. Rachel chuckled.

"Well, you were eight and a good deal shorter the last time we were here," Rachel pointed out. "Do you remember that day?"

Flashback:

"Uncle Bruce!" an eight-year-old Jenna cried, running up to the young billionaire and giving him a flying hug.

"Hey Jenny!" Bruce said, hugging her back tightly.

"Uncle Bruce, it's Jenna now. Only mommy calls me Jenny. I'm all grown up."

"Of course you are Jenna," Bruce smiled. "You've grown at least a foot since I last saw you."

"Yep. I'm almost tall enough to reach the condensed milk now!" the energetic eight year old grinned. Bruce looked at Rachel, who stood back observing the two.

"Alfred still keeps the condensed milk on the top shelf," Bruce stated.

"Hasn't noticed you're tall enough to reach now?" Rachel inquired.

"Old habits die hard, I guess," Bruce shrugged.

"Never used to stop us anyway," Rachel reminisced.

"No, it didn't. I also doubt that it stops little Jenna here either," Bruce said, tickling Jenna's stomach. Jenna laughed and tried to slap her surrogate uncle's hands away. "How's your mom? Both of you."

"Mommy wished she could come and say hi but she's really busy with her work protecting people. But she promises she'll see you later," Jenna recited.

Rachel smiled and nodded in agreement. "They both miss this place," Rachel said. "So do I."

"Yeah," Bruce replied. "But it's nothing without the people who made it what it was. Now there's only Alfred."

"And you," Rachel said.

"I'm not staying, Rachel," Bruce told her.

"What!" Jenna cried. "What do you mean you're not staying?"

"Jenna−" Bruce began but was cut off by Jenna throwing her arms around him.

"Don't go! Please, I don't want you to go again!" Jenna screamed.

Bruce hugged the eight year old to his chest before saying, "Maybe you could come and visit me." Jenna let go of Bruce and looked at him.

"Really?" The billionaire nodded. Jenna squealed and threw her arms around him once more, oblivious to her uncle's guilty expression.

"You're just back for the hearing," Rachel stated. Bruce nodded slightly.

"Bruce I don't suppose there's any way to convince you not to come?" Rachel questioned.

"Someone at this proceeding should stand for my parents."

"We all loved your parents, Bruce. What Chill did is unforgivable."

"Then why is your boss letting him go?"

"In prison, he shared a cell with Carmine Falcone. He learned things, and he will testify in exchange for early parole."

"Rachel, this man killed my parents. I cannot let that pass. And I need you to understand that please."

"Okay," Rachel muttered.

There was a slight pause before Jenna said, "So did you get me anything Uncle Bruce?"

"Jenna!" Rachel exclaimed.

"What?"

Bruce smiled and put Jenna down saying, "Let's see. What do we have here," he said, pulling a small box out of his coat pocket. Jenna gasped with delight while Rachel rolled her eyes. Bruce opened it and inside was a–

"A charm bracelet!" Jenna squealed. Bruce smiled and helped her put it on. Jenna admired it before hugging Bruce yet again.

"You really do spoil her Bruce," Rachel said, shaking her head.

"Well someone has to," was the billionaire's reply.

Jenna waited outside the courtroom for Rachel to come and take her off of her mother's hands. Her mother was one of the policemen in charge of protecting Joe Chill, the murderer of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

"I'm here," Rachel said.

"Thank you so much for doing this, Rachel," Jeannie said, as Rachel took Jenna. "I'll see you both later."

"Come on Jenna, we have to find Bruce," Rachel told her niece. Suddenly the reporters began to swarm as Joe Chill came out of the building. Jenna and Rachel made their way through the crowd to see Bruce slowly making his way toward Chill.

"Joe! Hey, Joe!" shouted one blonde reporter over the din. "Falcone says hi!" she told him and Rachel knew what was about to happen the moment it did. She shielded Jenna's eyes as the woman pulled out a gun and shot Chill in the chest. Jeannie immediately grabbed the woman and handcuffed her, before dropping down to try and help Chill. Rachel quickly made her way over to Bruce and tried to get Bruce to come with her, saying "Come on Bruce. We don't need to see this."

Bruce continued to stare at Chill's body and merely replied, "I do."

Jenna merely buried her face in her aunt's coat, trying to block out all the screaming pounding in her ears. "Bruce, think about Jenna," Rachel told him. The billionaire glanced at the eight year old, back at Chill, before following Rachel to her car. One the way back to Wayne Manor, Rachel vented her frustration out loud. "The DA couldn't understand why Judge Faden insisted on making the hearing public. Falcone paid him off to get Chill out in the open."

"Maybe I should thank them," Bruce muttered, shocking Rachel and Jenna.

"You don't mean that."

"What if I do, Rachel? My parents deserved justice."

"You're not talking about justice. You're talking about revenge."

"Sometimes they're the same."

"No, they're never the same. Justice is about harmony, revenge is about making yourself feel better, which is why we have an impartial system."

"Your system is broken." That was the last straw for Rachel, who made an immediate left turn into the lower levels of Gotham City.

"You care about justice? Look beyond your own pain, Bruce. This city is rotting. They talk about the depression as if it's history and it's not! Things are worse than ever down here. Falcone floods our streets with crime and drugs, preying on the desperate, creating new Joe Chills every day. Falcone may not have killed your parents, Bruce, but he's destroying everything they stood for," Rachel told him, the two of them oblivious to Jenna's attempts to melt into the back seat. She was scared of this part of town; this was the place where you never went unless you were high up in the criminal world or truly desperate. Kids her age were beating up each other for money, women far younger than her aunt and mother looked so beaten down and lifeless they might as well be dead, and yet the dozens if not hundreds of wealthy people of Gotham couldn't be bothered to help them. Rachel pulled up to a grimy building with huge goons guarding the door. "You want to thank him for that? Here you go. We all know where to find him but as long as he keeps the bad people rich and the good people scared, no one can touch him. Good people like you parents who'll stand against injustice, they're gone. What chance does Gotham have if the good people do nothing?"

"I'm not one of your good people Rachel," Bruce said after a moment of silence.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked, confused. Jenna finally gave up on trying to evaporate and leaned forward to listen to what her uncle meant.

"All these years, I wanted to kill him. Now I can't," Bruce told them, taking his gun out. Jenna stared in between him and the gun, as though she had never seen him before. Rachel did the same and after as moment of silence she slapped him. He didn't even seem to flinch, so she slapped him again.

"Uncle Bruce?" Jenna whispered. Bruce glanced at her before looking away, and then Rachel delivered the final blow.

"Your father would be ashamed of you."

Bruce looked at her, wounded, before getting out of the car and slamming it behind him.

'Bruce!" Jenna cried and tried to get out after him, but Rachel locked the door.

"Jenna, honey, leave him!"

"No! Why are you letting him go like that? He's our family!"

Rachel paused, choosing her words carefully. "He needs time to cool off. He'll come back when he's ready."

Jenna rubbed tears out of her eyes. "How long will that be?"

Again, Rachel paused. "As long as it takes for him to realize what justice really is and for him to take responsibility for his actions."

That was the last time Jennifer Rachel Dawes heard from Bruce Wayne for seven years.

"How can I forget it?" Jenna asked.

They walked up the steps for the manor and were greeted by the sight of Alfred Pennyworth. "Miss Dawes! Jenna!" Jenna and Rachel both hugged their friend.

"Hi Alfred. It's good to you."

"It's good to see you too Jenna. You really should come down more often." Jenna merely grimaced. "I suppose not then."

"I'd like to Alfred but there are some… things I have to get over before I can." Alfred nodded understanding what she meant. "How have you been?"

"Well, far busier than usual, Jenna."

"I hope that's a good thing."

"Better than sitting around all day. Now, you sure you two don't want to come in?"

"I have to get back. I just wanted to leave this and bring Jenna over to say hi," Rachel said, handing him the small box.

"Against my will, might I add," Jenna interjected. "She threatened to disconnect the cable and Internet if I didn't." Alfred laughed at this and thanked Rachel before Jenna heard a voice that she had prayed to every deity she knew to avoid.

"Rachel?" came Bruce Wayne's voice. In he walked as Alfred handing him Rachel's gift as he passed.

"Looks like someone's been burning the candle at both ends," Rachel said, Jenna trying to back away and stay out of sight. "Must've been quite an occasion."

"It is my birthday."

"I know. I'm sorry I can't come tonight. I was just dropping off you present and bringing Jenna over to say hi," Rachel said, scooting out of the way so Bruce could see Jenna.

"Jenna?" Bruce asked, finally seeing her. "Oh my god, you've grown. You look just like your mother did at you age."

"Yeah, seven years can do a lot to a person, Bruce," Jenna shot back, looking less than pleased to see him. Bruce got the picture and quickly tried to change his approach.

"So why can't you two stay? You've got better plans?"

"My boss has been missing for two days, which in this town means I should start looking at the bottom of the river."

"Rachel –" Bruce started but was cut off by Rachel's phone ringing.

"Excuse me," she said answering her phone. "Rachel Dawes… who authorized that? Get Crane down there now. Don't take no for an answer. Call Dr. Lehmann, tell him we need our own assessment on the judge's desk by morning."

"What's wrong?"

"It's Falcone. Dr. Crane moved him to Arkham Asylum on insanity watch."

"What! Ok, the Looney Tunes make more sense than that! The mob wouldn't let someone mentally unstable run their family, it's too risky, besides, Falcone loves himself far too much to strike me as the type to kill himself. He's probably just trying to get the insanity plea like Crane's given to all of his thugs!" Jenna cried, indignant.

"I'll drop you off back at–"

"No, Rachel. I want to get Falcone as much as you do. We're going straight there." Rachel considered this and nodded in agreement.

"You're going to Arkham now? It's in the Narrows, Rachel," Bruce interrupted.

"You enjoy your party, Bruce. Some of us have work to do."

"You be careful."

Rachel smiled. "Happy birthday." Then she and Jenna walked back to her car and got in. "You sure you want to come with me?"

"Rachel, have you seen this Crane guy? He's probably 110 pounds soaking wet. If need be, I can take him down easily." Rachel smiled and rolled her eyes at her niece, but started the car and began driving for the Narrows.