Knight of Gotham: Origins

Chapter 2

Bruce was running across the garden, happy as could be. He felt like anything could happen with Rachel with him. Rachel felt similar about Bruce, that anything she dreamed could be possible.

Bruce couldn't remember what he had been crying about mere hours ago, he was carefree. The world was brighter and everything seemed to be smiling. His world was right as long as Rachel was here.

For hours they ran around doing random things, neither of them knowing how long they were playing. Eventually the two grew tired as they finally noticed the sun was setting.

They settled down in the greenhouse near the back of the manor, watching the flowers and keeping an eye on the sun to watch it set. Bruce's eye raced across the flowers until he came to the flowers at the end of the room.

They were long-stemmed red roses, packed by the dozen. The thorns were trimmed by the gardeners so they were safe for picking. The flower had yet to bloom but it was close to. Something gnawed at the back of his mind about those flowers, something important.

"Should we get back to the manor?" Rachel asked suddenly.

"No, Mother will-" Bruce caught himself.

He collapsed to his knees as the memory of his parents' deaths came rushing back. There was no mommy to tell him and Rachel to come back inside for the night, there was no daddy to save them if they got hurt. There was only Alfred and Mr Dawes in the Manor.

The memory of the roses came rushing back, a feeling he didn't want. He saw his mother picking the roses when Bruce was maybe five years old. His father was carrying Bruce in his arms, him not wanting to be in the greenhouse. Martha handed the rose to Thomas who smiled at the scent of it.

"Never forget this Bruce, roses are the flower that makes everyone smile, no matter what..." Thomas said.

His father was wrong. The roses didn't make him smile. They were what was the cause of his crying. His father had lied to him.

Rachel went to her knees to see what was wrong. This was a side of Bruce she had never seen, even when he twisted his ankle running through the woods and tripping over a root he didn't cry like this. She called for Alfred and her father, asking for help desperately.

Alfred was the first in the greenhouse, out of breath from the run. He saw Bruce curled in Rachel's arms, tears streaming from his face. Rachel looked concerned and on the brink of tears herself. Her biggest friend and the one she looked up to had just collapsed on the floor crying. If he couldn't stand tall then who could?

Alfred slowly took Bruce out of her arms, picking him up and began carrying him off to the Manor. Rachel warily got to her feet as her father came in after Alfred left. She ran to him and started crying into his cashmere jacket.

Mr Dawes wrapped his arms around her and patted her back, "Everything's alright, Rachel."

"No it's not!" she exclaimed, "Bruce is in pain! I have to do something!"

"Bruce's pain isn't something you can heal, it's something internal."

"I need to do something...." Rachel said shyly.

"Being there for Bruce when he did break down was all you could do..."

Rachel slowly stopped crying in her father's arms, and realized how Bruce must feel. No one's arms will comfort him as he cries, at least no one super close. She remembered what Bruce had been about to say before he broke down and understood as much as she could for a 10 year old.

Bruce was a broken boy, and nothing she did could fix him.

Due to me just now realizing how long this book alone will be, and how much time this book has to cover, I'm splitting it up into parts by Bruce's age about. This is the official end to the 10 year old age, or the end of Bruce's initial shock. The next few chapters will be him at age 14, then part 3 will be him at 18, the final part at age 21. I hope this causes no confusion and I will announce the part at the beginning of each part.