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

A/n: Hey all. Here's another update. Thank you guys so much for being my readers, followers, favorites, and the reviews. They mean a lot and continued to be welcomed. :) Enjoy!

Chapter 47: Three Months Later

"Look, you don't understand. The Joker had me at a choke hold, what was I supposed to do? I wasn't strong in my fighting skills. Clowns terrify me. Bruce helped me try to get over my irrational fear, but they stuck with me. They wouldn't fall off. I was terrified of the streets of Gotham when Harvey died. It was a shock to all of us who knew what happened that night."

"And then you became a recluse," John said. "Not the sister I pictured myself having."

I looked at him crossly. "I'm sorry. I don't do tights, or pleather for that matter. I'm more of an indoor girl."

"Maybe it's time to get some fresh air for you too," he said.

I looked at him bashfully. "How? How can I make it all go away?"

"I remember you on his arm that day. Pretty, smiling, happy. Be that girl. The heart of Gotham. Gotham needs it now more than ever."

"But John….Bruce is…he's…." I struggled with it. I couldn't imagine him dead at all. He had to be out there somewhere. I wish he'd answer my calls.

"There are many sides to a heart, Melanie. Choose one. Whatever you have to do." He said. "Look, I'm going to go to the Boy's Club. I'll be back in a few hours."

"What are you going to do there?" I asked.

"Make sure they're okay," he said.

I nodded. "I'll keep an eye on Gordon."

"You do that." He nodded.

I sighed. I really hoped we were going to get passed this.

"You think I should find away to talk to Bane?"

John laughed.

"What?"

"And say what? What is Bane going to do? He's not going to listen to some low-life, has-been, no offense," he said.

"A little taken. John!"

"I'm sorry. It's the truth. You could have been your own vigilante did you ever think about that?"

"Once or twice, but I'm really not that strong. Look, I offered to be a damsel, I just didn't think it through," I said. "Okay maybe not a damsel, but bait. I offered to bait. I was just trying to help capture him."

John nodded. "I think a vigilante might've sufficed." He gave me a small smile and I smiled back at him.

"Be careful. They kill cops now."

He nodded. "I'll be alright. You stay out of trouble."

I laughed. "You know I will. I'll be here waiting for Bruce's call."

And I did wait. I waited. No call from Bruce.

~*TDKR*~

Special Forces came down in the storeroom of a supermarket. I was decked out in a pea coat and layers since it'd started to get cold and snow covered the buildings, standing next to my brother in the back room. I could''t just sit and wait for Bruce's call anymore. I had to help and do something for this city before it crumbled beneath my feet, set out to do what I was going to do in the first place. John was right.

"You have ID?" I heard Foley ask the man.

"Of course not."

"But can we trust you?" Foley asked.

"They don't have a choice," Gordon said as we stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the maps that were displayed on the table that I had gotten for.

"Commissioner Gordon? Captain Jones, Special Forces," he introduced himself.

"Captain, glad to have you here," he said then he looked at me and I smiled, giving him a small wave.

"Just the archivist."

"My assistant actually. She gathered these for us," Gordon said, noting the maps and things I'd found. It was no easy feat, but luckily I knew where I could get them thanks to an old friend of mine. Liz who had her sights set on working with the police and cleaning up this city.

"Well, thank you, very big help from an old movie star," he said. I wrinkled my nose at him but smiled just the same.

"You've heard of me?"

"Melanie Blake. Your in a couple rom-com's my wife likes to watch."

"Ah, well, I'm not much of a movie star, sir," I said humbly. "Just your average citizen doing her civic duties."

He chuckled at that.

"How many of you are there?" he asked, turning to Gordon.

"Dozens. I'd rather not say exactly. But the men trapped down there numbered almost three thousand," Gordon said. My eyes went wide and I turned to John who looked serious at the serious situation we were in right now.

It's been three months since the Bane take over. Three whole months and no word from Bruce. I was getting worried about him, wondering if maybe he needed saving himself. I always thought of him as a hero, my hero.

"What kind of shape are they in?" Jones asked.

"They're getting food and water," he noted over to me. I've been trying to help the homeless and the folks trapped underneath get food and water too, trying to do my part in an ugly situation we were all in.

"Can we break them out?" Jones asked.

"Yes, sir. Take out the mercenaries, guarding the outflow, south of Ackerman Park, blown to rubble," my brother said. "You've got a hole big enough for a ten at a time. I'm in contact with my partner. They're waiting for the day."

"Men who haven't seen daylight in three months?" A Special Forces' officer asked.

"Men with automatic weapons who haven't seen daylight in three months," John corrected.

"What about the Bomb?" Jones asked. "The satellites can't see any radiation hotspots…"

"They keep it on a truck," Gordon replied. "It must have a lead-lined roof. They move it constantly. They've got three of them. They don't do routes very much."

"What about the triggerman?" Jones asked.

"No leads," Gordon shook his head. "It's a bluff. Bane wouldn't give control of it to someone else."

"We can't take that chance," Jones said. "Until we have the triggerman, we just track the device, smuggle men over-"

"While Gotham lives under a warlord in a failed state?" John asked hotly.

I furrowed my brows in concern too.

"Dial it back, officer," Jones turned to John. "This situation is unprecedented. We can't do anything to risk millions of lives."

"Aren't you going to tell him?" John asked Gordon.

"Captain, things are more complicated than you think," Gordon said. "There's somebody you need to meet. Blake?"

I wanted to follow. "No. You're staying here."

"But John…I was the one that mentioned-"

"Ugh fine, just stay close to me, okay?"

"Of course." I smiled. I had to see Fox again and ask him where Bruce was.

John took us upstairs and downtown to the bank and through the empty offices and the elevators and stairs.

"I was up here looking for a vantage point. Found the people who run the corporation who owns it living here," John said.

"Which corperation?" Jones asked.

"Wayne Enterprises," Fox said.

"And that's where I first started," I added.

Jones looked at me impressed. I smiled proudly and went to hug Mr. Fox. He hugged me back. "Miss you back at the office."

"Miss you too," I said. "Is he?"

"No not yet," he said. Miranda noticed our little moment and I got an air of jealousy that surrounded her that suddenly surrounded me as well. I couldn't help but wonder about her. I'd seen her at the party.

"Captain, meet Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox, I'd like you to brief the Captain," Blake said.

"Miss Tate is fully aware of the situation," Fox said.

Of course she was, I frowned.

"And as CEO of Wayne Enterprises I have to take full responsibility for it," she said, stepping in.

I almost chocked up a bit. What?! CEO!?

"Why?" Captain Jones asked.

"Because we built it," she said.

"It was built as a fusion reactor," Fox said. "The first of its kind. Bane turned the core into a bomb, then disconnected it from the reactor."

"And here's the important part," my brother said, sensing my discomfort with Miranda around.

"As the fusion's fuel cells decay, it's becoming increasingly unstable, until the point of detonation."

"The bomb's a time bomb," John couldn't stress it enough.

"And it will go off," Fox said. "In twenty-three days."

"Bane's revolution is a sham," John continued. "He's watching Gotham rearrange it's deckchairs while the whole ship's going down. Your appeasement plan might not be as practical as you thought."

"Could you disarm it?" Captain Jones asked.

"I don't know. But I could reconnect it to the reactor. Stabilize it," Fox replied.

"They'll be monitoring our frequencies," An officer said.

"We have no choice," Jones said. "Let's move away from this location, then call it in."

"By the way, I hope there's no hard feelings between us," Miranda came up beside me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Bruce and I, we…."

"Oh, um," I wasn't sure what to say. "No. It's fine. I broke it off with him…." I said swallowing hard, painfully. I shouldn't have. "You'd make a great CEO."

"Thank you," she said. "Would you like to come back and work for me? I could use an archivist once things get back to normal of course."

"Oh, uh, I kind of already work for Commissioner Gordon now. But thank you."

"Oh, no problem," she smiled at me.

"What made you ask?"

"Bruce told me about you. Said it's how you two met. You worked down at the archives near the Applied Sciences Division with Fox."

"Yep, I remember," my heart broke now. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. I remained silent in my own doing.

"He also said you were the best,"

"He did?" I asked.

"Right before he kis-"

Suddenly mercenaries appeared in front of us. Instinctively I jumped in front of Miranda and hid behind my brother and Jones.

"Fox! Somebody sold us out!"

"Take Miranda and Mel-" he stopped when they attacked Fox. Blake took a hold of us as he started to try and take us away from the fight happening at this very moment.

"John!" I yelled at him, trying to get him to get off of me because I can handle myself. Sounded like a good idea until one mercenary stopped me and held me back.

"Down on the floor!" The mercenary cried to Fox and then me.

Bullets surrounded us and Captain Jones got on the floor with the mercenaries and Bane surrounding him.

"I'll die before I talk…." Jones said.

"I'm on your schedule, Captain…" Bane said and then pressed his foot over his mouth to keep him from talking and breathing, killing him in the process.

"There were people living upstairs." A mercenary said to Bane.

"Give them over for judgment," Bane said.

I looked to Fox. It looked like he and I were on our own as I looked around for my brother and Miss Tate.

~*TDKR*~