Legend's Apprentice

Summertime

I was grateful for my routine. Work felt very stabilizing and reliable, and it was easy to work late on the days I came in late because of therapy. Dr Reynaud was his usual kind self, which made work a refuge. Normally.

A couple weeks after the incident, I was getting ready to go to lunch when my extension rang. I was really surprised; in the time I'd been working at Wayne Enterprises, I'd never received a call. It was Mr Wayne's personal assistant, and she informed me that he would like me to come up to the office. It immediately pissed me off, but I went.

The PA showed me right in, and Mr Wayne stood as I entered his office. "Alex," he said, and gestured to the chairs in front of the desk. I sat, and the door closed behind me. Mr Wayne looked awkward, so I seized the opportunity to get the upper hand.

"I wasn't aware that there was any problem with my work," I said crisply. "Dr Reynaud talks to me if he has any questions or concerns."

"It's not that," he said, clearing his throat. "I wanted to apologize for what happened with the Joker." My new buddy rage boiled up, and I cut him off before he could say anything more.

"First of all, this conversation is inappropriate in the workplace," I said icily, eyes shooting daggers. "However, I have some comments that I would like to make, and after that I have nothing else to say. First, the Joker is to blame for his own actions. You are not responsible for him. Regardless of what you may feel, he is not your personal liability. Second, you should be sorry for dismissing my concerns. I was there, I saw what I saw, you did not. But you probably thought I was overreacting, or you just didn't want to hear about it. You should have listened. If I'd been with anybody else at the party, I think the Joker would have dismissed me. He knew right away that I wasn't in his target class. He was only initially interested in me because of Damian. That put me on his radar, and that led directly to the latest events. Whatever the reason, those actions were your choice, and after that I felt abandoned. I had no allies. So having few options, I did the best I could using a store-bought tracker and a smartphone app. However, I was able to free myself before anybody realized I was missing, so it didn't do much good." He flinched a lot as I spoke.

"Detective MacIver--"

"Has no business discussing what happened with you," I snapped hotly. "You were not even tangentially involved in the incident that led to the capture of the Joker. You have no right to any of that information."

"--has been uninformative," he said. "But the media reported that he had kidnapped a woman and was captured after being incapacitated. I put two and two together."

I couldn't help the tiny smirk. I was proud that I'd beaten him up. Maybe it was not nice and indicated a laxity in my morality, but I was ok with that. The important thing to me was that I hadn't just let him carry out his plans. "I'll tell you this much," I said briskly. "Yes, the Joker kidnapped me. He used a paralyzing agent to do so, he said it was created by Ivy, whom I presume to be Poison Ivy. You know her, I believe. It wore off faster than he'd anticipated, and I was able to beat the liver out of him before calling the cops. I've been checked out and I'm going to be fine. The reason I was able to escape was because of two years of intensive personal defense training from my uncle. If I'd waited for any help to come, I'd probably be the Joker's muppet by now." My hand clenched the pendant the Asgardians had given me and I focused on calming down. In the space of two breaths, my heartbeat slowed, my breathing calmed, and my anger fled. I was so startled that I almost let go.

Mr Wayne flushed. "I can't make it up to you. I did what I could, after. I figured Barnes would take you to the tower clinic, so I sent over the newest accelerator model in case it could benefit you." I'd figured, after the nurse practitioner had talked. He looked down at his desk. "MacIver did show me the recording the Joker made of his...session with Damian in the cave. He said your first name--"