Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Knight trilogy. Just writing for fun.

A/n: Here's another update! Thank you all for the follows, favorites, and reviews! They mean a lot to me! Enjoy!

Chapter 29: As an accomplice

Rachel Dawes came to stay at the penthouse. I didn't mind her staying here while the Joker was after her, but what concerned me is if the Joker would find out anyway. He already came to the penthouse once, and nearly killed her by throwing her off the building. What made Bruce think he wouldn't do that again or something worse to her?

Alfred set down a silver tray of coffee and cookies for us while we sat awkwardly in the living room, in silence. Bruce was out as Batman, collecting evidence and working with the police, trying to get as much as he can on the Joker.

The Joker left no traces of any sort of evidence, not even a fingerprint. It was hard to justify who he was in this town.

Night after night it was like this till finally the phone rang. Alfred picked it up and handed it to Rachel. It was Harvey Dent.

"What?" she asked, standing up and walking away from me. I turned curtly towards her. She didn't say much, just nodding her head and shaking her head until she hung up and handed the phone to Alfred. She walked back over to me and I looked up at her.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Batman's turning himself in," she whispered.

I frowned. "Really?"

"Yeah. He said that no one was going to die because of him. But it's because of him that our streets are finally being cleaned up!"

"I know, but Rachel…" I said slowly. "Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe the Joker will reason with us, cut a deal."

"The Joker threw me off a goddamn roof, Melanie, there is no dealing with this guy."

I sighed, and looked down. Rachel was right about that.

"Sorry, I…it's been a long and intense night," she said. "Week, I guess I'm just tired. I'm going to bed. Good night."

"Night," I said, watching after her as she left her half cup of decaf coffee and barely eaten cookie on the plate. I helped Alfred clean it up and decided to head to bed as well.

Tomorrow was going to be interesting for sure. Part of me wanted to ask Rachel if she still loved Bruce, but then another part of me didn't. For I wasn't sure myself if I was into Bruce, but I still couldn't stop thinking about that kiss, even if it were fake for the presses, and for Rachel's sake. I wanted to ask her if she liked Harvey the way I think she did. I'm pretty sure she did, but I also believed she liked Bruce too.

Bruce walked into the room. I looked up at him and swallowed hard.

"You're really going to do it, aren't you?" I asked in a small whisper.

He nodded. "I can't let anyone else die for me. Gordon was the last straw."

I nodded. "I get it."

"Thank you for your help in keeping my secret," Bruce said.

"Any time," I smiled at him. "It was fun while it lasted."

"Yeah…" he said. "Is uh," he cleared his throat. "Rachel around, I want to talk to her."

"Sure. I'll go get her for you," I said, and turned around to go get her from her room.

"Oh, and Alfred wanted me to give you this," he said, holding out a manila folder of clipped papers inside. "This has everything about the Blake family."

"Really?" I asked in awe.

He nodded. "Yes, really. I hoped that you'd go find them."

"Are you sure? What about you?"

"What about me? I'll be in lock up," he said. "There's no way they'd let me out. This is something you have to do on your own."

"I guess." I said.

"You guess?"

"Well, I just always thought….never mind," I shook my head. "Thank you. I really appreciate it. This must've taken some time to find. Thank you. I'll um, I'll find Rachel for you…" I said tentatively, now my feelings growing even more for him. I shoved them down and headed to Rachel's room, telling her that he was in the living room for her. I smiled softly at her and nodded for her to go talk to him.

~*TDK*~

Today we were burning it all.

Bruce held one of the batarangs in his hand, while I held one as well. These were pretty sharp, and I knew I wouldn't want to cross the Batman at all.

"Logs as well?" Alfred asked.

"Everything. Anything that can lead us back to Lucius, Rachel, Mel…people are dying Alfred, what would you have me do?"

I looked up from the batarang when he called my name. He winked at me. I smiled a little.

"Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They'll hate you for it, but that's the point of Batman. He can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make. The right choice."

"No, today I found out what Batman can't do. He can't endure this. Today you get to say "I told you so."

"Today, I don't want to," Alfred said fondly,

"It's so empty," I said with a frown.

"Good," Bruce said.

"But I did bloody tell you," Aflred said jokingly.

We chuckled.

"I suppose they're gonna lock me up as well, as your accomplice!"

"As my accomplice? I'm gonna tell them the whole thing was your idea."

I grinned as we walked out of the empty batcave.

~*TDK*~