Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight Trilogy. Just writing for fun.

A/n: Here's a new chapter. Enjoy! Follows, favorites, and reviews are always welcomed and loved.

Chapter 42: The Blake's

I packed the rest of my things and zipped up my duffle bag. I looked around my guest room where I still had most of my things, now packed in this bag, ready to go.

"Still leaving, me, huh?" He asked.

"Well, I'm not going to sit there and help you catch a cat burgler, and potentially fall in love with her."

"What? Oh come on, that's not what I was going to do."

"Right," I said.

"I had no idea you felt this way about me," Bruce said. "I was just there to console you as a friend, the way you'd consoled me as a friend. I didn't know you had such deep feelings for me…"

I gulped, and swallowed them hard deep beneath my heart. "Well, I do. I don't think I should be working with you anymore because of my feelings for you. I'm sorry."

Bruce nodded. "If that's how you feel…"

"It is," I turned around, stringing my bag over my shoulder until I saw Alfred right beside Bruce.

"Uh, I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but there's an Officer Blake downstairs for the both of you."

Bruce raised an eyebrow at Alfred.

"I'm sorry, sir, he threatened with a warrant on Dent's death," he said.

We glanced at each other, before I sighed. "Just this one time," I said. I followed them out of the room, taking my bag with me. I set it down by the stairs and walked into the oval room with chairs where Blake sat.

We stared at each other for a brief moment.

"As I live and breathe. Melanie Blake," he said.

"Officer John Blake, right?"

"Right. We've met before," he said. "Actually, I've met both of you before."

I cast my eyes low and then over to Bruce.

"What can I do for you, officer?" Bruce asked.

"Commissioner Gordon's been shot. He chased a gunman down into the sewers. When I pulled him out he was babbling about an underground army and a masked man called Bane;" Blake replied.

"Well, shouldn't you be telling your superior officers about this?" Bruce asked.

"They asked me if he saw any giant alligators. He needs you. He needs the Batman."

I looked at Bruce and he looked at me before he talked again.

"If Commissioner Gordon thinks…"

"Oh, he doesn't know or care who you are. But we have met before. It was a long time ago, I was a kid. Uh…St. Swithin's, it used to be funded by the Wayne Foundation, it's an orphanage. My mom died when I was small, it was a car accident, I don't really remember it. But uh…my dad got shot a couple of years later over a gambling debt. And I remember that one just fine. Not a lot of people know what it feels like, do they?"

He turned to stare at the window, listening to the officer. I listened to him too. That's what I read in my file of what happened to my parents, my real parents.

Blake continued, "To be angry. In your bones. I mean, they understand. Foster parents, everybody, understands, for a while. But then they want the angry little kid to do something he knows he can't do. To move on. So after a while they stop understanding and they send the angry kid to a boys home. I figured it out too late. You gotta learn to hide the anger, and practice smiling in the mirror. It's like putting on a mask. So you showed up this one day in a cool car," he motioned a chin nod over to me. "Pretty girl on your arm. We were so excited. Bruce Wayne, billionaire orphan! We used to make up stories about you, man. Legends. And you know, to the other kids that's all it was, just stories. But, right when I saw you I knew who you really were."

Bruce turned to look back at me and then Officer Blake again.

"I'd seen that look on your face before. It's the same one I taught myself."

He stood up from his seat. "I don't know why you took the fall for Dent's murder, but I'm still a believer in the Batman. Even if you're not."

"Why did you say that your boys home used to be funded by the Wayne Foundation?" Bruce asked before he left.

"Because the money stopped. Might be time to get some fresh air and start paying attention to the details. Some of those details might need your help."

"Wait…" I called out to him. I walked over towards him as he headed for the door. I went to my bag and unzipped it to take out the manila folder.

"I think we need to talk. Can you give me a ride to Officer Gordon? I just want to make sure he's alright."

"I think he'd like that," Blake nodded. "And I'd like to see what you got in that folder of yours, Miss Blake."

I smiled and looked over to Bruce before I took my things with me and walked out of the manor with Officer Blake that could potentially be related to me after all this time.

~*TKDR*~