A/N: And I'm back!
Hope you all like that our favorite heroes are married. Decided they needed a bit of happiness after the barrel of laughs that was The Dark Knights.
In this chapter, we get an insight into the state of our heroes as well as a little investigative work regarding the mysterious burglar from last chapter. Also, we get to meet two new detectives that we all know and love. Just remember, it's Batman and Batgirl here, not just Batman.
Disclaimer: As you can tell, I won nothing no matter how incompetent the real owners are.
Review and enjoy!
Chapter 3: Fingerprints and Nightmares
The last party guest leaving ten minutes ago, Alfred walked into the study in the East Wing to find his wards kneeled in front of the safe in their bathrobes doing God knows what. "Miss Novak was wishing to see you Master Wayne. She was quite persistent."
"Well that's Casey for you Alfred," said Olivia, smiling up at her surrogate father. "How else do you explain how good of an attorney she is?"
"I agree, she is stubborn," stated Bruce, not looking up from his work.
"And quite lovely if I do say so myself." His curiosity got the better of him. "Nice to see you back from the Constabulary Miss Olivia. Master Bruce was quite despondent at your prolonged departure."
"The mighty Bruce Wayne despondent?" she teased. "Who would have expected it?" Watching him glare at Alfred, she smiled and kissed him on the cheek, secretly loving what she could do to him. "If it makes you feel any better, I was lost without you as well." With a major kidnapping case forcing her and Elliot to put in long hours at One PP as Gordon conducted sweeps of the city, the couple hadn't seen hide nor hair of each other in four days. Anyway, they had had their reunion once in the shower, and again on the bed as they got out of the shower.
Alfred smiled at the obvious love the two shared; he still kicked himself for denying it eight years before. However there was still a small mystery to clear up. "What could you possibly be doing down there? I haven't vacuumed the floors in nearly two weeks."
"I'm searching for fingerprints Alfred, with Olivia being my gorgeous assistant." She smiled and squeezed his hand. Her husband was such a charmer. "We were robbed just an hour ago."
The butler gave them a cheeky smirk. "And this is your idea of sounding the alarm?"
"Well," Bruce said as he lifted a perfect thumbprint off the handle. "Being married to a detective does teach you a few tricks which come in handy during situations like this." He placed the imprint carefully on a piece of paper and gave Olivia a kiss on the cheek. "One of the few perks I'm lucky to enjoy."
"Oh," replied Olivia, batting her eyelashes. "And what are the others Mr. Wayne?"
"I think you know by now Mrs. Wayne," he replied, leaning in for a kiss which she returned enthusiastically. Running her tongue over his lips, Olivia deepened it while Alfred waited, averting his eyes. "Oh by the way Alfred," said Bruce after breaking the kiss, "Next time don't let the maids out of your sight or into my quarters."
"Well then Master and Mrs. Wayne, if that is what you want then you should start making your own bed. Bloody hell, what could you possibly do to make it so rumpled in the mornings… never mind. I do not want to know."
Olivia blushed a deep red while Bruce grinned and kissed her nose. "Shall we be off to bed my dear?"
"That sounds good," she murmured, wrapping an arm around his waist.
They began to walk away when Alfred called out to them. "So I take it that you'll be running her prints through the system?"
"Yes Alfred, though there is something more complicated to all of this."
"And what could that be? You were dusting for prints Master Bruce?"
"Yes, and so was she."
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McGinnis's pub in the heart of Downtown Gotham was known as a hub for bookies, and if there was a sport somewhere in the world the sharks took bets on it. Right now, the main action was a football game brought in live from the West Coast, and the bartender was busy taking the bets for the main bookie. "What'll it be missy?" he asked the petite blonde with a no nonsense attitude.
"Put fifty on the Seahawks to cover the spread," replied Officer Amanda Rollins of the GPD, off duty and in plainclothes. She pulled two twenties and a ten out of her pocket and placed them on the table.
The bartender nodded and went to grab the ledger to mark down the bets. With the increasing popularity of sports gambling now that the illegal casinos Penguin's goons had operated were shut down, one could tend to lose track of who placed what and who owed what.
Striding into the bar, Officer Nicholas Amaro immediately spotted his partner and girlfriend sitting at the counter. Rolling his eyes, also plainclothes, he crept over quietly and flashed the bartender his badge. With the new laws being strict and the Commissioner cracking down on these illegal bookie establishments, the bartender closed the ledger. "I'm sorry ma'am, we don't allow sports gambling in this establishment."
The blonde policewoman began to get annoyed. "What do you mean no gambling? Take the damn bet!"
"This bar does not allow that kind of service, so order a drink or leave."
She was about to rip him a new one when she felt a very masculine hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry sir," said the menacing Latino, "She'll be leaving with me."
Amanda was shocked for a second, the shock soon morphing into anger. "Screw you Amaro!" she snarled at her boyfriend, grabbing her coat and storming out. Sighing, he followed hot on her heels. She could be quite the hothead (hell, that was one of the reasons he loved that woman), but he knew that if the situation presented itself again he'd do the exact same thing.
"Amanda wait!" he called out as they both entered the street. "Can we talk about this?"
"What's there to talk about nick," she said, turning to face him, face red with anger. "You had no right to do what you just did. I'm a grown woman so just stay out of my life!"
"That is something I will never do, so get used to it Rollins!" he yelled back. Grumbling, she quieted down though she was still mad at him. Amanda knew he was right about what he said and that she was a bitch for trying to kick him out of her life. Ever since losing their parents in the Narrows Riots eleven years before, the two had lived in a children's home for the city's orphans, watching each other's backs through thick and thin. They had studied together, had fun together, joined the police Academy together, and it wasn't long before the best friends realized they had fallen in love with each other. They had been through hell and back and Rollins knew that; she was too stubborn to admit it though.
Nick smirked; God she was sexy when she was both angry and guilty at the same time. "Come on, let me take you home." Reluctantly, she followed him to his beat up old Ford Taurus while refusing to hold his hand. 'This is going to take a while,' thought Nick.
As he drove through the streets of Gotham, Amanda stared at the buildings outside the window avoiding eye contact with her boyfriend, who she was still pissed at. "Amanda, come on. Are you going to give me the silent treatment all night?"
"Yes," she muttered, earning a frustrated sigh from him. He knew he did the right thing, but Nick never liked when she was upset. It hearkened back to their childhood in the orphanage when he used to rock her to sleep crying after they both had nightmares.
As they trudged into their shared apartment fifteen minutes later, the two officers trudged into their third-floor apartment in Franklin Heights, Amanda still not speaking to her boyfriend. The silent treatment was starting to get to him. "Christ Amanda, I was trying to help you!"
"I'm fine Nick," she retorted. "I didn't need your help because there was nothing wrong."
"Open your eyes; can't you see you have a problem?"
"What, cause I spread a little money here and there I have a problem? Get real Nick."
Running a hand through his course, black hair, Nick went for his last shot at convincing her. "It's not just a little money here and there. You once gambled away your entire paycheck. You have a serious problem with gambling Amanda. Let me help you. I love you and I don't want to see you hurt in the future."
She bit her lip, turning away. 'God what this man can do to me.' When he said he loved her she melted, not being able to stay mad in the face of his puppy-dog eyes. She knew he was right, she had known about her gambling addiction for a while now but refused to let him see her weak, even though that ensured that she would succumb to the weakness. Staring at the floor, Amanda didn't notice him approach until he snaked his arms around her and began placing feather light kisses on her neck. "Alright Nick," she whispered. "You're right. I do have a problem. Please help me."
"Always," he replied, the soft pecks turning into languid licks and sucks as he latched his lips onto her pale neck.
Amanda moaned at the feeling. "Damn you Amaro. How is it possible for you to make me feel this way?"
She felt him chuckle against her shoulder. "I could ask you the same thing."
Snarling, she turned in his arms and pulled his mouth to hers, kissing him hard. "Bed, now," she mumbled against his lips. Lifting her up into his arms, he legs wrapping around his waist, Nick carried Amanda into the bedroom, never breaking their kiss.
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"Help! Bruce help!" Clad in his suit minus the helmet, Bruce charged through the windowless corridor, the fluorescent lights blinking on and off above him. He slammed through door after door, looking for the source of the screams. Liv was in trouble; he had to save Liv.
Reaching a perpendicular hallway, he heard Olivia screaming to the right. "Bruce! Please help me!" He turned and charged down the hallway.
"Help Bruce! Please!" He stopped dead in his tracks. A second voice was calling him from the left side of the hallway, Alex's voice. God, they captured her too? "Please Bruce! They'll kill me!"
"Bruce! I need you! Hurry!" He was torn between who to save. Who merited life while the other merited death. Neither did, but it wasn't about worth but instead who mattered most to him. His mind in intense emotional pain, Bruce made his choice.
"I'm coming Liv!" Continuing his charge down the hallway, he burst into a warehouse room where the sound came from. Instead of Olivia sitting tied up on a chair there was nothing but a recording playing the screams on a loop.
Behind him, he heard explosives going off. "NOOOO!" he screamed as they enveloped him.
Waking an unknown time later, Bruce opened his eyes to see the malevolent faces of the Joker, Penguin, and Dr. George "Scarecrow" Huang staring down at him with grins on their faces. They were in the gutted warehouse where Harvey dent died. "Hello there my nocturnal friend," remarked the Joker, leaning in. "We wondered who'd you pick to save, and you didn't disappoint!"
"Where's Liv?" he seethed.
"We never had her," said Huang, his voice metallic yet dripping with scorn all the same. "One has no idea what modern sound equipment can do these days. Miss Cabot though, we had her."
"Where is she?" growled Bruce, trying to get up but some unknown force preventing him.
"Shall we show him gentlemen?" asked Penguin of his compatriots. At their nods, he whistled. "Bring her in!"
Two clown henchmen dragged a charred corpse into the room. "No," he breathed, not believing it.
"Oh yes Bruce," said don Cragen, appearing out of the shadows much to Bruce's horror. "Your compassion for your student has made you weak, unable to differentiate the real threat from a false one."
If that wasn't enough, a wispy specter appeared out of the body, taking the form of Alex. "Why Bruce? Why did you let me die?"
"Alex, I didn't mean to…"
"I loved you Bruce; I thought you did too. Obviously I was wrong. How could you do this to me?" She began to fade away.
"Alex!"
Bathed in sweat, Bruce suddenly woke up from the nightmare. Breathing hard, he noticed Olivia sleeping contently to the side undisturbed by his terror. Willing himself to calm down, he gave his sleeping wife a light kiss on the cheek, causing her to moan softly and shift in her sleep. Getting out of the bed, Bruce retreated to the windowsill, hoping the quiet night sky could ease the pain. It was the same nightmare, always the same nightmare.
Rolling over, Olivia woke due to the fact that instead of the warm body of her husband there was a cold expanse of bare mattress. "Bruce?" she called out a bit worried until she saw his outline by the window, his handsome face bathed in the moonlight. Slipping off the bed, she made her way to him. "Honey, are you alright? What happened?" Bruce looked at her with his green eyes bathed in sadness, telling her all she needed to know. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled his head down to rest on her chest as she softly rubbed the back of his neck. "Shh baby, it's ok. It wasn't real."
"I know it wasn't real Liv," he croaked out, "But Alex in the dream was right."
"Listen to me Bruce," she said softly, comforting her husband. "You weren't responsible for Alex's death, the joker and Penguin were. If she were alive today she'd be happy for you and me."
She felt him shake his head. "She was going to wait for me Liv. She was going to wait forever for us to be together even though it was you that I loved. She loved me and would have been destroyed by this. I betrayed her by not letting her be happy with Dent, for at least having some closure before her death."
Olivia didn't know what to say, for without proof otherwise none of them knew what Alex's final thoughts were in those final hours eight years before. She just kissed him on the forehead. "Come on baby, let's get back to bed." They fell asleep thirty minutes later, both still clinging tight to each other.
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Arriving at their precinct, the 1-6 MCU, five AM on the dot, Nick and Amanda were immediately called into Lt. Gordon's office. "Yes sir?" they both asked, wondering what the Lieutenant would want with lowly unis such as them.
Gordon looked at them through his black-framed glasses. "The wife of Congressman Munoz has been calling several times in the past hour. Apparently the congressman never made it home. I need you to give the dispatch report to the Commissioner."
"You want us to go all the way to One PP for this?" asked Amanda, who just wanted to get some coffee and sit down for a moment to prepare for the day.
The Lt. chuckled. "No need for that Rollins. He's on the roof like he always was back when he led MCU." Giving each other quizzical looks, Nick and Amanda shrugged and headed to the roof.
Sitting by himself in the early morning darkness, Elliot reflected on how alone he really was. Sure he had Dickie constantly by his side and managed to see the girls at least three times a week and Eli on weekends, but he lacked any real intimacy with anyone since he and Kathy split. While he was skeptical that a man his age would ever find love again, he would be a liar if he said he didn't want it.
"Commissioner?" Elliot looked up to see two rookie officers standing in front of him. "Please excuse us for bothering you, I'm Officer Nick Amaro, and this is my partner Officer Amanda…"
"Rollins yes. Trust me Amaro I never forget a name. What do you need?"
"The Lt. asked us to give you this report." He handed to sheet over to Elliot, who snatched it up and began reading.
After parsing through the document, he smirked and looked up at the rookies. "This is a job for the police? If I know Alex Munoz then he's probably gallivanting with some girl half his age."
"While I don't doubt that sir," said Amanda, "When you and Dent cleaned up the streets you did a thorough job. Soon, cops like us will be chasing down overdue library books." Elliot smirked, he liked these two. "With all due respect sir, you act like we're still at war."
"I like you two kids. You remind me of myself and Chief Benson back in the old days. When we wanted to know something we got to the point, so if you want to ask me something, don't beat around the bush."
Amanda looked at Nick and nodded her head. "It's about that night eight years ago," he began, "The night Dent died and the last confirmed sighting of the Batman and Batgirl. They murder those people, take down two SWAT teams, break Dent's neck, and then just vanish."
"I'm not hearing a question son."
"Don't you want to know who they were?" asked Rollins, just as curious as her boyfriend.
"I know exactly who they were," he replied, patting the destroyed bat signal fondly. "They were Batman and Batgirl. Now let's see about the Congressman's wife."
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Holding a tray with breakfast for his two wards, Alfred walked into the bedroom only to find the bed a mess and neither Bruce nor Olivia anywhere to be found. 'Those two are going to be the death of me.'
"Master Wayne! Miss Olivia!" he called out through the cavernous halls, searching everywhere for them. 'Could they be?' Not knowing where lese to look, he set the tray on the piano and punched out set keys, opening the secret door to the automatic elevator installed in the renovation.
Stoic as always, Alfred emerged in the batcave slightly annoyed. The entire setup had been modernized and equipped with everything the older setup lacked. However, the two hadn't been down here since it was declared usable, begging the question as to why now?
On a cube in the middle of the underground stream sat Bruce and Olivia snug in their robes, working diligently on the Cray supercomputer Bruce had installed. Waiting for the retractable walkway to rise from under the water's surface, Alfred walked over to the console. "You two haven't been here in a long time."
"Well Uncle Alfred," said Olivia, "I'm working."
"And how is playing around on the computer with your husband working Miss Olivia?" he asked with a small smile.
"I'm a cop aren't I, and there was a theft last night. We're trying to pinpoint who our mystery maid is."
"Any luck?"
"Well Alfred," answered Bruce. "I ran the print through every database in the country, and unless she gained a lot of weight and found a terrific plastic surgeon," he clicked an icon to reveal a 300lbs Russian mobster with several scars and a scraggly beard. "Or she used someone else's prints."
"Using my detective skills I'd have to conclude the latter honey," said Olivia with a smirk.
"Well we have a track on the neckless."
"Yes we do," replied Olivia, "And after cross-referencing the address she went back to with GPD files of similar B&Es, we found a match. Selina Kyle, three convictions for Second Degree Burglary in New York; served three years in Attica before getting released on good behavior."
"To add to what my lovely wife found, she fences the goods or sells them to foreigners with more money than sense. She's good but the ground is shrinking beneath her feet."
"We should call the police then, before she fences the diamonds."
"First of all, I already did call the police," he remarked, giving Olivia a quick peck on the lips. "And secondly, she won't fence them. She likes them too much. Besides, she wasn't after the diamonds."
"What was she after?"
"Our fingerprints," added Olivia, the conversation drifting into her area of expertise. "Copy toner, mixed with graphite. It's untraceable and lifts a good set of prints."
"Very interesting. Master Wayne, you could learn a lot from this woman. Perhaps you can chat about it over coffee."
"Are you trying to set me up with a jewel thief Alfred?" asked Bruce with a smirk. "It appears Alfred thinks you have competition Liv."
"Trust me, Uncle isn't that clueless," she replied.
"Maybe not set up with you Master Wayne," Alfred said smiling. "But maybe someone else? Miss Olivia, didn't you say Commissioner Stabler was still single after nearly four years since his divorce?"
"Ok," she said getting up. "Before this gets into find Elliot a blind date with a felon, I'm going to work. Bye Uncle Alfred," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Bye Bruce," she said huskily, giving him a slow, languid kiss. "We will continue that later."
Watching her walk off, Bruce sighed happily. "God I love that woman."
"I don't doubt you do sir, but may I ask what's stopping you two from actually leaving this mess behind and getting back into the world?"
"There's nothing out there for me and Olivia besides her job and our tight knit circle of friends."
"Exactly Master Wayne. You two hung up your cape and your cowl but you never moved on with your lives." Alfred wished he could tell Bruce about the letter Alex gave him, but his belief system prevented him from doing that. Master Wayne and Miss Olivia needed to find their own path to reality, for that was the only way it could really sink in. "Look at yourselves, you two mope around here in solitude and Olivia only leaves to bury herself in work. If it weren't for the Stablers and the occasional luncheon with Miss Novak you'd be complete hermits."
"Alfred," Bruce said, hanging his head. "I had someone, Olivia tried to find someone."
"I know sir, and it just wasn't meant to be, but that's all part of living. What you and Miss Olivia are doing isn't living, it's just surviving, waiting for things to go bad again." He took in a deep breath, ready to reveal one of his deepest dreams to his ward. "Remember when you left Gotham, before all this; before marrying Olivia, before Alex, before Batman and Batgirl, you were gone seven years Master Bruce, seven years. I hoped for every day of those seven years that you wouldn't come back."
Bruce looked up at Alfred with a puzzled expression, not at all expecting him to say that.
Knowing that he had to explain further, Alfred continued. "Once a year during that time, I took a holiday to Florence, and there was this little café that I was fond of. Every day there I'd sit at one particular table and order my meal. I had this fantasy, this dream that I'd look across the tables and see you there with a wife, maybe a couple of kids. We'd look each other in the eye, not saying a word, but both knowing that you'd made it. I realize now, that you had a reason to come back; you had Olivia here after all. But aside from that there was nothing here in Gotham for you. I wanted more for you Master Bruce."
"What are you saying Alfred?"
"What I'm saying is Master Bruce, you and Olivia have everything you need right in front of you to escape this hellish life; you just need to find the will and desire to do so." Alfred left the man he considered his son to ponder what he just told him, hoping for his sake and the sake of the woman he considered his daughter that he'd realize what he needed to do.
A/N: As I said in TDK, I would be changing the entire emotional dynamic to sit the crossover. Hope you like the result.
I simply had to put Amaro and Rollins in the story. I personally like both of them and would have loved to have them in an SVU with Elliot still there and with Olivia. Hope I did them justice.
Next up, Selena resurfaces, she makes contact with someone we all know and love, and our friendly neighborhood mercenaries Bane and Porter make their debuts again.
Please review!