dark places | wayne

sixteen :: realize

unknown time
unknown place

She woke, breathing heavily in a pool of cold sweat. She looked to a ratchet ceiling light, swinging back and forth slowly. Her body was held down in restraints and she couldn't see past the circle of swinging light.

She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her mouth and pain wrapped her in a cold embrace.

"Don't move," Alfred entered into the light.

"Where?" she croaked. He check the time on his watch, to avoid eye contact.

"The Batcave," he said lightly. She fumed.

"You," she coughed and it hurt, "Lied."

"I didn't lie, Miss Winnie. You didn't ask if I worked for the Batman. And before you ask, yes, Bruce is the Batman," her chest felt weighted. As if an anvil was set on her ribs and breastbone.

"What happened?" she was beginning to be articulate again.

"Harley pushed you, you began to fall. Bruce, as Batman, jumped after you. But it was too late and the cape caught air. You hit the ground. By some miracle, as well as my amazing doctoring, you didn't die."

She closed her eyes tightly.

"He left shortly after he got you home. Joker has been taken to Arkham. No one knows where Harley is."

She tried to sit in the bed. But the leather restraints pushed into her body and pain seized her corpse.

She cursed under her breath.

"Lay down," she did, "You broke three ribs, Miss Winnie. Master Bruce caught you only a few feet of the ground and the landing was rough; he cut open his side on the cement."

"Oh, boo-hoo. The lying playboy got a little cut," she glared at the butler, whose face contorted, "Fuck him. He's an asshat. I hate him."

The butler threw needles into the trash can.

"Just tell me one thing," he looked at her as she uttered the next, heart-wrenching sentences:

"All this time, all the dates, did he just use me to get to Jack and Harley? Did he lie when he said he'd protect me?" She watched the light swing slowly, and looked at the butler again.

He looked down at his shoes.

"I know that was his original plan. But I do believe he does care about you, deep down. It's his greatest flaw: compassion."

She scoffed, "Flaw, that's what Jack used to call it. I wish I had that flaw."

He went into the dark places, where she could see. He flipped a large bar: a switch. Light battled the darkness and illuminated the room, the Batcave.

"His hell, his heaven," the butler mumbled, "His escape."

"Dark places?" she looked around that part of the cave. She couldn't see much other than file cabinets and a desk with a shut-down computer.

"So he can't see the ones he's hurt, the ones he's failed, the ones he's lost."

She frowned. Alfred flipped the switch off again and darkness reached and flooded everywhere the light once touched; he opened the elevator and disappeared behind the doors.

The elevator ascended and when the doors opened again, he found Bruce in the kitchen. He was cleaning his wound.

"She's angry," Alfred said simply.

"I know. She despises the Batman."

"I warned you not to get attached," Alfred said simply, "But you did and instead of letting her go, you've gotten yourself hurt too."

Alfred moved Bruce's arm so that the butler could fix the mess of a wound.

"How are her ribs?" the billionaire changed the subject.

"Paining her," he paused and tossed the gauze. Bruce pulled on his shirt carefully. "Maybe it'll be enough to cut off her alliance with the clown and the jester."

"She doesn't have an alliance with Harley, Harley pushed her into insanity. And it's not so much an alliance with Jack. She loves him like a father, but like an abusive and manipulative father."

"I see," Alfred paused, "If it's all the same to you, I'll go give her sleeping meds and head to bed myself."

Bruce nodded and waved him off.

Alfred entered the elevator and then the cave.

He turned the switch on to find the chair empty, the restraints broken in clean halves. He began to search for her frantically. He forgot his safety and she reached out from a shadow, covering his mouth from behind and hitting his head hard on the arm of the chair.

She entered the elevator and it climbed higher and higher. She looked in the doors' clean metal reflection. She pulled her black shirt high enough to see her purple ribs, wrapped in cling wrap for security.

The doors opened and she left cautiously. She had to make sure Bruce wasn't anywhere to overtake her. She went to the coat closet and took a black wrap. She hurried out the front door and down the driveway, finally breaking into the cold night.