Murder at Wayne Manor

Chapter 22

Gotham; September 25th, 04:11 EST

I finish cuffing a couple of guys who were trying to sell Ash to two college girls, anger and adrenaline still pumping hotly through my veins. My attention shifts to the pair of girls staring at me in wide-eyed horror, one crying and the other one on the verge as they huddle close to one another.

"Never again," I angrily growl in warning, hoping the deep grate of my voice and my glower will impress upon them the full weight of what could have happened to them tonight had I not intervened.

I look down at the two drug dealers unconscious at my feet and tied to a light pole. The police will be here soon to pick them up. It's about the only thing that keeps me from beating them senseless for selling the drug that's killing off my city.

I glare at the two girls still cowering before me before firing my grappling gun towards the building across the street. I allow it to carry me up and away, my black cape billowing like a sail as I soar above their heads just as a police car comes flying around the corner.

I decide to its time to call it a night. It's been relatively quiet for the most part. Besides, I have one more stop I need to make tonight before I can go home. It's a visit that I've wanted to make for a couple of weeks, but haven't had the time up until now.

I keep trying to sort through everything in my mind, trying to reconcile what my heart and body keeps telling me with the warnings going off in my head. One moment I'm resolved to make her mine and the next I'm worried that I'm making a huge mistake by getting involved with a teammate.

If this doesn't work out with her, then I'll have ruined a very special friendship, potentially even beyond repair. On the other hand, everything seems so perfect when she's around, my life and heart finally complete...whole for the first time since I was eight years old.

Driving through the streets of Gotham, I can't stop thinking about her, can't stop the way my mouth wants to curve into a smile or my heart beats just a little harder. She has changed me over these last six months, changed my life for the better and in ways I'd never anticipated or accounted for. That's neither something I can so easily ignore nor want to turn a blind eye to anymore.

Arriving at my destination, I park the Batmobile and make my way to them, Wayne Manor visible on the distant horizon like a sentinel. They're always here waiting for me, silent monuments to bright beacons of light that had been snuffed out far too soon. My uniform creaks as I crouch in the darkness before the tombstones, pushing my cowl back for reasons that I cannot give words to.

It's not like they can see or hear me, but, for some reason, it makes me feel more like their son and less like the personification of vengeance that their deaths gave birth to. Besides, I'm here tonight as the man...the son, not the vigilante demon of the night that I've become in their honor.

Removing my gauntlets, I reach out to touch the names on the headstones, the smooth marble cool beneath my fingers, the curving grooves of their names rough against my skin. My throat instantly grows painfully tight, unwanted tears beginning to build behind my eyes. A strangled breath escapes and pierces the silent shroud of anguish that blankets the family cemetery as that horrifying night roars to the surface of my mind once more.

I swallow hard as I try to find the words that I want to say to them, words that had come to mind so effortlessly earlier tonight now choked with anguish and doubts. I fall to my knees before them, my head hanging with the heaviness that I carry in my heart and in my mind.

I draw a deep breath, anxious to talk to them and share with them my reason for being here. "Mom...Dad," I begin, pausing to gather my emotions before I can continue. "I wanted to tell you that I've met someone...someone that I've really come to care for over the last two years."