Insanity - Gotham Fanfic

[8] The past is in the past

[A/N: I'm kind of making some things up in this with the whole assassin thing, I'm not sure who exactly she worked for in the show so I'm gonna change it up a bit.

||Ansley's POV||

Bruce and I have been begging our guardians to let us be homeschooled, but Alfred and Jim decided to let us study together and not exactly have us go to public school, more like a homebound thing.

It is now Friday. For the rest of the week of school that we went, Tommy ignored Bruce and I, thankfully. When Jim picked me up from school, and when we got home, we found the house empty. Cat and I looked all through the house. There was no sign of Barbara. Jim then called us into the living room, a note in his hands. He looks up at us. "Barbara's gone."

"Gone?" I ask, taking the paper from his hands. Cat looks at it over my shoulder.

"Dear Jim, Ansley, and Cat,

I thought I could be strong and brave for you. But I can't. Every place I go, I see Falcone and Zsasz. I'm nervous and needy. I don't know if I can always look after the girls. I know that this is piling a lot on you with me leaving, but you can take care of them better than I can. I'm going away for a while to put myself back together. Don't try and contact me. It's hard enough as it is. I'm sorry. You and the girls have been my whole life for the past few months.

Love, Barbara."

I read aloud. 

The three of us stand in silence until a knock on the door fills my ears. 

"That's the sketch artist." Jim says, going to open the door. 

-

At Wayne Manor, Bruce holds the sketch in his hands. I described the man as best as I could, trying to think of every little detail that I saw.

"Do you recognize him Bruce?" My uncle asks. Bruce doesn't remove his eyes from the piece of paper. "No. I don't."

Bruce hands Alfred the paper and then turns to us. "Was there something else you wanted to talk about, Detective?" He asks. My uncle nods. "Yeah actually. Since Barbara has left for a while, Cat's gonna stay with one of her friends for a couple days and I was wondering if Ansley could stay here with you. Alfred is totally okay with it, we just want to make sure it's alright with you." 

Bruce looks over at me and nods. "Yes of course. She's my best friend. She will always be allowed here." Bruce says and my uncle smiles. "Thank you. Ansley, behave." I nod and my uncle says his goodbyes and walks out.

"I'll leave you two to talk then." Alfred says and walks out. 

"I'm sorry to hear about Barbara." 

I shrug. "I understand how she feels. But thanks again for letting me crash here for a few days while my uncle sorts things out."

Bruce nods. "He's taken on a lot recently, raising two girls, trying to do his best at his job, it all must be very stressful." 

Alfred walks in a few seconds later with two pairs of boxing gloves. He holds them up at Bruce and Bruce takes a pair from him. "Ansley, I am going to teach Master Bruce about fighting, care to join us?" Alfred asks, slipping the blue pair of gloves on. "Uh, yeah sure." I tell him and follow them outside.

They stand away from me and put their arms up in defense. I sit down on one of the benches outside. The backyard is really pretty. Whoever takes care of it, or took care of it, did really well. 

Alfred holds his hands up and Bruce throws punches at him, accidentally hitting him in the stomach a couple of times.

They 'fight' a little longer until Alfred puts his hands down. He takes the gloves off and adjusts the collar of his shirt. "It's bloody hot out here. Do you two fancy some lemonade?" He asks looking at Bruce and I. Bruce turns to me. "You are our guest, do you want some?" He asks. "Sure. What kind do you have?" I ask, standing up.