First off, thank you so much for the reviews, alerts, favourites..etc.
Thank you for the suggestions that were made within the comments. Even before they were made, I had those ideas in mind. I don't see Emily becoming a crime-fighter alongside Batman in the physical sense per-say, but certainly in other respects. She'll find her place...that is, if Bruce allows her. ;) Anyways, I have yet to see The Dark Knight Rises and I'm trying so hard to not spoil it for myself by reading reviews, commentaries...etc. With four kids, I'm not certain when I'll be able to see it. I never did see The Dark Knight until I got it for Christmas on DVD from my brother...sad, eh? I'm really hoping that it's not like that again...
Just a warning here...this is a fluff chapter. I think every story has their bit of fluff added to it and in order to get this story where I'd like it to go, we need this fluff. It'll come in handy later. :)
Alfred stood at the highest point of the yacht, holding onto the small wheel in front of him as he navigated the 30 foot boat through the bay and into the gulf. The wind picked up as they made their way into the open water. He held onto his straw sun hat as he turned them into the wind and towards their destination. A few minutes later, he heard the sound of someone climbing the steps up to the deck where he stood, Alfred glanced behind him to see Emily with two glasses in her hand.
"I thought that you might need something to drink up here," she said, setting the glass of ice and lemonade into the cupholder beside the wheel.
"Thank you very much," Alfred said with a smile on his face. He noted that Emily had changed since they had stepped onto the large boat. No longer was her hair up in the tight bun and her body forced into the attire of a woman in Bruce's employ. She was barefoot with a white beach coverup wrapped around her torso. Two blue straps from the bathingsuit hidden beneath were tied at her neck. Her hair was lightly pulled back, yet the wind was able to catch the few strands that rebelled.
"I've never been this far south before," Emily commented. "The furthest down into Florida that I've been was Disney World and that was when I was 8. I had no idea that the Keys looked like this."
Alfred smiled, taking a drink of lemonade.
"Just wait until you see where I'm taking us," Alfred said, with a wink.
Emily grinned. She had to admit that she was excited.
"I may need your help with the anchor when we arrive."
"Where is Bruce?"
"He's on a business call," Alfred replied. "He said it would only take a few minutes, but he's been below deck since we left the dock."
Emily saw the chairs lined up on the deck in front of them.
"I'm going to get some sun in the meantime," she told him, as she made her way out to the lounge chairs.
Alfred nodded. "Of course."
He watched her pull the cover up over her head and lay it out on top of the plastic chair before laying down on it. Alfred noticed the clear bandage overtop of the few stitches that sat just below her right shoulder. He had to admit that they were healing well and that the fresh air would help. Just as Emily laid down on her stomach, Alfred heard heavier footsteps coming up the stairs.
"That took longer than I thought it would," Bruce said, as he stood beside Alfred. Alfred looked over at the younger man and noticed that he was still in his suit, although the shirt was untucked and his tie had been abandonned somewhere in the yacht. He looked up to Bruce's face and followed his gaze to find his eyes resting on Emily as she laid out on the deck outside.
"I'm taking us out that outer Key you were talking about," Alfred told him, noticing that Bruce's attention was still elsewhere and most likely didn't hear him.
It had been a long time since he had seen Bruce Wayne look at a woman the way he was looking at Emily. Alfred couldn't help but smile and was glad to see that although Bruce wasn't ready to move on from the memory of Rachel, subconsciously, he already was. It was only a matter of time until he'd realized it for himself.
"I believe Emily made lemonade downstairs," Alfred said, gaining Bruce's attention once again.
Alfred could see that Bruce was confused for a moment, trying to piece together Alfred's last statement.
"Lemonade, sir."
"Yeah, I could probably use a cold drink right now anyways," Bruce said softly.
Alfred nodded and smirked just as Bruce turned to walk back down below deck.
Nearly an hour later, and Bruce made his way above deck. The sun was bright and warm. Bruce put on his sunglasses. He noticed that they were no longer out in the open water and were anchored alongside a heavily tree'd island. Numourous birds flew overhead and he could hear them singing over in the trees. He glanced down into the clear water as he walked along the side of the boat and could see the reefs far below the light waves that hit up against the boat.
He went to the chairs where Emily had once been to find Alfred relaxing in one with his eyes closed. He walked into Alfred's sun, casting a shadow over the older man and gaining his attention. Alfred put his hand up to his face.
"Master Bruce," Alfred said. "We were wondering when you would be coming back up. Emily was able to give me a hand with the anchoring." The man noticed that Bruce had changed into swim horts and a white t-shirt.
Bruce sat down beside Alfred and sighed. "I was on the phone again with Lucius."
Alfred said up, sensing that the man was troubled. "Is something wrong?"
"I gave him the blood sample from the man that had attacked Emily," Bruce said. "He hasn't been able to isolate the compounds used but he has been able to figure out that this Carlos guy was being affected by some drug that in high doses affects the frontal lobe of the brain. Although it is probably a good feeling type of drug, the person experiences aggression, loss of inhibition and memory."
"Where would somoene get a drug like that?"
"My guess is as good as yours," Bruce said, glancing around the yacht.
He realized that he couldn't see Emily anywhere.
"She's snorkling off the lower dock," Alfred told him with a smile, realizing that the billionaire was silently looking for her.
Bruce smiled his thanks and left towards the back of the boat. As he made his way down, he looked out at the water finding her snorkling a few meters off the side of the yacht. Bruce waited, knowing that she wouldn't hear him if he spoke. Finally, she he saw her put her head up.
"Find anything interesting?"
Emily turned towards the voice and smiled, pushing the mask off her face and to the top of her head.
"It's beautiful here! There are fish everywhere!"
She turned around to see a colourful fish pass far below her feet.
"I'll join you!" Bruce called out before he pulled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it to the side of the platform.
Emily turned back just as Bruce dove into the water, seeing the splash. She didn't see him come up to the surface right away but she could see his body slowly coming up the surface behind her.
"I think you might have scared all the fish away," Emily teased with a grin.
Bruce let out a mock laugh and looked below where she was treading water. Far below their feet lay dozens of colourful mushrooms and polyps. A few fish had made their home between the coral rocks and would swim around them. Bruce turned and looked towards the beach a good 50 feet away. Emily followed his gaze and smirked.
"I'll race you," she challenged him.
"It wouldn't be a fair race," he countered. "You have flippers on."
"Stop whinning. You literally bench press the criminals of Gotham. I think it's a pretty even match."
"Okay then," Bruce said, with a hint of playfulness in his eye. He swam up beside Emily so they were shoulder to shoulder. "On your mark, get set..."
Emily waited for the 'go' but Bruce had already took off.
"Hey!" she cried out as she swam after him, trying to avoid the splash that he was purposely making behind him. Suddenly, he dove under the water. Emily used that opportunity to get ahead of him. Unfortunately, she looked under the water to find that he had gotten quite a distance ahead of her. Within a minute, she watched him make his way out of the water and onto the beach as she was still approaching the island, out of breath. Rather than climbing all the way out of the water, she sat down in the ankle deep water, allowing the small waves to wash past her.
"Fine, you win," she said, catching her breath. She heard splashing footsteps behind her before she saw Bruce sit down in the water beside her. "But for the record, you did cheat."
"Sounds like you need some exercise," Bruce commented, hearing her trying to catch her breath.
"Running home through the rain doesn't count?"
She heard him chuckle as she pulled the flippers off her feet and took the mask that still sat on the top of her head and tossed them all behind her onto the sandy beach. Emily let out a breath and laid back onto the water and rested her head against the wet sand. She closed her eyes, feeling the warm sun on her skin. She peeked open an eye to see Bruce lay in the water beside her, letting out a sigh.
"I could stay here all day," he said, contently.
"I wouldn't mind that," Emily added. She sat up on her elbows and nudged him in the arm. "But you'd be on food patrol."
Bruce pushed up on his elbows and smiled. "And while I'm out scavenging for food on this island, what would you be doing?"
She shrugged. "Ordering pizza."
Bruce laughed. He looked back out towards the yacht sitting peacefully off the island when another boat slowly passed behind it. Bruce's smile faded.
"Emily," he said, with a hint of urgency. He was already walking out of the water. "You need to get your mask on."
Emily sat up and turned towards him, confused.
"There are photographers out there," he grumbled as he quickly walked to get her mask and tossed it back towards her. Emily quickly pulled it on and stood up in the water, making her way onto the beach towards Bruce.
He averted his eyes from her form, reminding himself that his concern at the moment were the photographers that most likely were continuing to take photo's of them. Quickly, he took Emily's hand and led her further up the beach and towards the tree line. Once they were within the cover of the bush, Emily pulled the mask off her face and looked back as the boat slowly went past the beach.
"We can't stay here all day," she said, swatting at a mosquito that decided she looked pretty tasty.
Bruce smacked a bug that landed on his skin and agreed with her.
"The sun should be setting in about an hour or so," he said, looking up at the sky. "We'll swim back out when it's dusk. They wouldn't be able to make out an image of us by then."
"What are we going to do until then?"
Bruce put his hands on his hips.
"We could explore the island," he suggested as he watched her swat another mosquito on her arm.
"While being attacked by the local bugs?"
Bruce let out a sigh. "Well, if you have any other ideas, I'm listening."
She shrugged before hitting another bug. He smirked. He could tell that she wasn't enjoying their current situation as she seemed to have bugs swarm her.
"The bugs seem to like you more than they like me," he remarked.
Emily looked up at him and scowled with a hint of a smile. "Maybe it's because I'm sweeter than you."
"Ouch," Bruce said with mocked hurt.
Bruce turned and led her through the bush, carefully stepping on a path that some other prior visitors to the island had cleared. They continued down the path until it came to a stop beside a small pond being fed by a extremely narrow creek. The water barely moved and appeared to have a thick muddy bottom.
"You found us a nice pond, Bruce. Good job," Emily commented sarcastically.
Bruce didn't answer but instead crouched down beside the edge of the pond and dug his hands into the muddy bottom. Emily watched as he pulled out a giant fistful of mud and proceeded to rub it on his arms.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked, incredulously. "That stinks!"
"I remembered from travelling through Asia that some people use mud when they were out in the bush to protect themselves from bugs," he said, smiling as he placed a handful into her palm.
"When were you in Asia?"
Bruce paused for a moment and smiled, realizing that she had no idea of his past in that part of the world.
"I'll tell you about it later," he said, gesturing down to the mud dripping from her palm. "Trust me though. It'll work."
Emily grimaced as she slowly rubbed it over her arm, feeling the cool stickyness on her skin. Bruce tried not to laugh at her discomfort.
"This is so nasty," she commented in obvious disgust, as she covered her other arm before being handed another handful of mud. She leaned over and ran it over her legs before proceeding to cover her stomach and chest. She stood back upright as Bruce was walking towards her.
"Turn around and I'll get your back," he told her.
Emily complied and felt the cold mud being caked over her back. She grimaced.
"Alfred would probably think that we're insane if he saw us now," she said aloud as Bruce finished on her back.
She turned back around and found Bruce handing her another handful of mud. He gestured to his own back and Emily pressed it onto his skin, trying to cover as much as she could.
"He'd probably just shake his head at us and wonder if the fresh, clean air has finally gotten to us," Bruce replied.
"Speaking of Alfred, wouldn't he be concerned that we haven't returned?"
Emily finished covering his back and Bruce turned back around to face her.
"He most likely saw the boat and knows that we're out here waiting."
Emily carefully covered her cheeks and forehead with the mud that Bruce offerred her as he covered his own face.
"Alfred told me what he was planning for supper," she said, with a smile. "It's making my stomach growl just thinking about it."
Bruce looked up at the sky, realizing that the sun was nearly setting and that the bush had gotten darker.
"We shouldn't have to wait much longer," he told her. "It should be dark enough when we get back to the beach."
Emily nodded and followed Bruce back down the trail. She had to admit that although it was the worst time of day to be in a bush, the bugs didn't seem to bother her as much anymore.
Bruce stopped just inside the tree line along the sandy beach.
"I think they gave up," Bruce said, looking out towards the yacht. They could see the lights along the deck.
Emily and Bruce walked out to the water and began to swim towards the yacht. Emily ducked beneath the water a few times in an effort to wash off the mud that had dried to their skin. They could no longer see the beautiful colours below them. Bruce made sure to keep Emily right at his side. The sky was getting darker, much quicker than he thought it would and the last thing he wanted was to lose her in a current in the night.
Suddenly, Emily stopped and let out a scream.
"Something touched my leg!" she exclaimed as she clammoured over to him in the water and wrapped her arms and legs around his body in a feeble attempt to get as far away from whatever was in the water with them.
Bruce quickly reacted when he felt her weight being added to his body and worked harder to keep both of them afloat.
"Em, it's probably just a fish," he said softly into her ear. He could hear her breathing unsteadily, and her grip didn't loosen with his attempt at reassuring her.
She let out a few deep breaths when a thought came to her.
"What did you call me?"
Bruce tried to think back to what he had just said. Her arms and legs were still wrapped tightly around him. He could feel the warmth of her breath against his face.
"Emily?"
Slowly, she loosened her arms around his neck and lowered her legs from around his torso. She looked at him, inches in front of her. She shook her head.
"You called me Em," she said softly.
"Do you mind?"
Once again she shook her head, keeping her eyes on his.
"It's just that you've never called me that before," she said.
Her heartrate wasn't slowing down and in fact was getting louder as they just quietly floated in the middle of the dark gulf. Emily almost wondered if Bruce could hear it. She noticed Bruce glance down at her mouth and then back to her eyes. Bruce was feeling a tug o'war going on in his head. As much as he wanted to kiss her, he knew that he couldn't. He shouldn't.
As uncertain as Emily was at that very moment, she took the initiative and placed her hands on the back of Bruce's neck before leaning in, gently pressing her lips against his. Neither one of them moved for that moment, until Emily slowly backed away, breaking the kiss.
Bruce seemed to have been caught by surprise. He had to mentally remind himself to tread water to keep himself afloat. The kiss was still so fresh in his mind that he couldn't think past it. As though he was made of hot coal, she quickly let go of him.
"Bruce, oh my God, I'm sorry," she said, suddenly feeling very embarrassed and wishing she could be somewhere else at that very moment. "I don't know why I did that."
She watched Bruce open his mouth, about to speak when they suddenly heard Alfred's voice call out.
"Is everything all right out there?"
Bruce turned towards the yacht when he heard Alfred voice. It even took a few beats for the question to register.
"We're fine," Bruce replied, not even a hint in his voice betraying the moment that just occurred seconds prior. "We're heading back in."
"Very good, sir."
Emily could feel the wall that Bruce had broken down get built back up again. She turned and began to swim back towards the yacht.
"Emily, wait!" Bruce called out, swimming to catch up with her. She didn't stop and instead picked up her pace. "We need to talk about this."
"Don't worry about it Bruce. It was a mistake."
Quickly, he reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her backward in the water so that he could get to the ladder first. He quickly turned and sat down on the bottom rung, blocking her only way onto the yacht.
"Get out of the way," she told him, forcefully.
"No," he replied smugly. "Not until we talk about this."
Emily rolled her eyes as she continued to tread water in front of him.
"Are you kidding me? You're going to make me tread water until I drown unless I talk to you?"
Bruce smirked. "I won't let you drown, but I do want you to talk to me."
Emily let out a scoff as she angrily splashed water at him. She could make out his smug expression in the darkness as he sat on the ladder.
"Bruce Wayne! You're impossible!"
"No, I'm determined, just as you are. I know that if I let you get on this boat, you will disappear and not talk to me about this and will even go on to ignore me."
He paused, watching her look away from him, defiantly.
"I'll let you on the boat if you answer me one question. Why did you kiss me?"
Her eyes turned back to him as he sat on the lowest rung of the ladder in the water. There was no evidence of mocking on his face and he was asking in all sincerity.
She sighed and even rolled her eyes.
"I don't know. Maybe I wanted to know what it's like to kiss Bruce Wayne," she replied to him sarcastically. But then she continued on.
"Or perhaps the craziness of Gotham has finally gotten to me and I thought that there was something going on between us." She let out a sigh of frustration while she continued to tread water before she spoke again. "Or maybe I'm starting to actually fall in love with you, but then again my image of love is so screwed up due to growing up in a broken home and I haven't had a decent relationship in my life."
She shook her head and paused for a very brief moment.
"Maybe we should just forget that I kissed you and go on living like nothing happened. You've become such a good friend that I wouldn't want to ..."
She didn't even notice when Bruce leaned forward and wrapped an arm around her waist before he pulled her towards the ladder where he sat. In a quick movement, his lips met hers in a passionate ferocity. Every sense seemed to be in tune with each other at that moment. His mind couldn't get over the softness of her lips, the sweetness of them and the light sound of her moan as he pulled her closer to him. Bruce could feel the water dripping from her hair onto his chest and even the coolness of her skin against his.
Emily held onto his shoulders and could feel his muscles flex beneath her fingers as he pulled her closer to him. Every part of her didn't want him to stop when he finally broke the kiss, leaving her breathless and speachless.
Bruce smiled.
"You seem satisfied with yourself," Emily commented, her lips still a mere inch from his.
"I had to get you to stop talking somehow," he said softly.
He watched her smile fade as he lightly touched her face, brushing a piece of dried mud from below her ear with his fingers.
What was he doing? What was she doing? As though she broke through a thick fog and was suddenly hit with hard dose of reality, the excitement of the situation turned to concern.
Emily let go of Bruce and demanded that he got out of the way. Her sudden change of behaviour concerned him and Bruce complied, turning on the ladder and climbing up himself before Emily pulled herself out of the water. Without giving him a glance, she climbed up onto the deck and grabbed her towel, and wrapped it around herself. She didn't have to look to realize that Bruce was not to far from her, watching her. He wrapped a towel around his shoulders.
"What's going on with us?" she finally asked aloud and turned towards him. "I consider you my friend, but as far as I know, friends don't kiss each other the way we just did."
Bruce nodded lightly, agreeing with her. He knew it too. Something was going on but he found it hard to define exactly what it was. He watched her sit down in on the length of a lounge chair along the deck as they heard the roar of the engine starting up. Alfred no doubt had seen them come on board and started the ignition to begin their trip back to the marina.
He sat down beside her, and looked out into the gulf as they pulled away from the small island and headed back to port. The wind began to pick up, pulling at Emily's towel that she held tightly around herself. Bruce looked at her beside him and watched her duck her wet head slightly at the cool wind that picked up. He slid slightly closer to her and gently wrapped part of his large towel around her shoulders, a gesture hoping that she'd accept.
Emily grabbed ahold of the edge of the towel and leaned her head into him, resting it against his shoulder. She looked down at her hand resting on her lap. Slowly, she moved her hand over to Bruce's beside her and placed it over his. Bruce felt the touch and instantly turned his hand over, entwining her fingers between his, giving it a soft squeeze.
"Feeling warmer?" Bruce asked softly.
Emily nodded.
She wasn't wanting to change the subject but the confusion of what was going on between them weighed heavily on her mind. She was the type of person who needed all the details and until she did, it would bother her. It was something that made her a good doctor, but it also drove her crazy.
"We should talk about this," Emily suggested, as she looked at the lights of Key West as they approached the marina.
"Yeah. On the way to Miami we will."
Satisfied with the answer, she sighed, taking in the city lights as they reflected off the water.
Alfred not only was watching the waters around the yacht as he approached the marina, but also the couple sitting on the deck just below him. He couldn't help but smile at the sudden closeness of the two. He realized that something must have happened that he wasn't aware of. He looked down at the man whom he considered a son and thought back to the parents who raised him for the first handful of years of his life. They would have loved to have met Emily; the woman who seemed to be stealing Bruce's heart. He looked up momentarily up at the night sky, finding that the stars were beginning to come out.
"I think he's finally found her," Alfred whispered.