Little Miss Gotham

Chapter Twenty Three

There was some ends I needed to tie up today. Last night I released all of the tension from the past few months with an "I love you" and probably the best sex I've ever had in my life. But those details were in the books and never to be spoken of again.
I changed into a long sleeve and jeans and slipped on last night's boots and threw another sweater on before I put my winter coat on. The weather wasn't nearly as brutal as last night but I still needed to bundle up.
After Joker threatened the families of his men, I got a safety guaranteed ride to the Wayne building.

Bruce would give me a ride home but we both agreed that we needed to talk without any violence or dramatics.

I stepped out of the car after thanking my driver and was thrown into a tight crowd of typical business people. But I had to gently to  push my way through the crowd if I even wanted to make it to the glass doors of the lobby. Light made it through the glass walls and the wide but quiet lobby was filled with a receptionist in the front of the wall of elevators and a set of black leather couches and seats on each side. One of those couches sat Bruce Wayne and it wasn't until I saw him that all the shame and guilt crawled out from the deepest depths of my heart.

Looking at him just reminded me of my the horrible things I've done and what I almost did to myself just last night.

There was sign of joy at seeing me in his eyes. But he gave me a firm smile and nodded as he extended a hand to the seat across from him.
"Hey, Bruce." I said, smiling faintly.
"Sophia."
I took a deep breath and couldn't ease the tension so I knew I just had to be straightforward.
"There's nothing I can say. I explained my story last night and he had changed my mind. But I'll still give you that option to take me now if it's what you think is right." A lump in my throat formed and I feared that I couldn't take those words back. "I'm not ready to leave my family but I can't just leave him."
Bruce heavily sighed and leaned back in his seat but couldn't look directly at me. My hands felt clammy and I could feel my palms sticking to the leather armrest more.

"Sophia, you'll end up regretting making this decision to keep this going."

"I'm not going to explain myself. You know why I'm doing this."

Bruce shook his head and still couldn't look at me. I could only hope that he'd give me some kind of way out of this. But this was Batman and I was a criminal. Maybe not in this moment but we still had our other sides.

"I know why you're doing this, Sophia. It's my fault you're in this situation..." Bruce trailed off, his voice going queit. I raised my eyebrows slightly, almost forgetting about the very accident that started it all. But what could I say? Yeah, it was his fault. It was the Joker's fault. It was my fault. It was the limo drivers fault.  Regardless of whether or not a certain factor had been changed, Joker had this plan for a while. It would have happened sooner or later.

"I'll drive you home." Bruce said, standing up and finally looking at me.
I followed him as he quickly walked towards the exit to the garage off to the side.
"Am I supposed to believe that you're  not going to drive me straight to Arkham?" I asked.

I stopped and he looked back at me.

"When you're Sophia and I'm Bruce, we have a clean slate. But if I'm Batman and you're her, I'm not holding back." Bruce said.

I guess I had my answer.

---

Walking into my apartment gave me a strange feeling. Home didn't even feel like home anymore.
It's been going on for four months and yet I still could never adjust to walking from one like to another.
The apartment was quiet. The white skies started to spill snow onto the city and their shadows lightly appeared on the my sleek, wooden floors. I slipped off my boots and cut through the empty but neat living room and went towards the dining room table that was a step off the ground. I looked over into the kitchen yet I saw no one. There was mail on the kitchen table though.