Chapter eleven: girls night out

Harmony's POV:

All I'd gotten from Bruce was a single text message, saying that he didn't want to talk to me about it. After that I stopped trying to communicate with him, and instead moved back into my shell of discomfort and depression. I can't believe it was over already, it was like a dream. He was the most amazing man I'd ever met, and though I knew it was impossible for him to be with me I still was expecting to be.

As for work I have yet to show my face. What that asshole did was unforgettable. To beileve that he would do this to me! I was the one who asked him if he was alright and if I could help him. Does he have any conscience, to ruin the life of a recently damaged coworker. How was I even supposed to pay for my apartment anymore.

The phone rang, it was Daisy again. I knew she had absolutely nothing to do with the whole ordeal but hearing her happy go lucky, obnoxious voice made me cringe.

"One new message," my phone announced after it finished ringing. I watched the cell out the corner of my eye, until I convinced myself to listen to it. It was the first time out of the last eight calls that had a message.

"Harmony oh my god please talk to me, I'm worried about you, and I'm coming to your house right now, I swear on my life if your hanging from the ceiling fan I will bring you back from the dead and kill you again myself," the message played. I had to think about what she said before it registered in my brain. She was coming over here. Fantastic.

I looked down at my soft bathrobe that I'd been wearing for the past two days while doing nothing but watching tv and shoving popcorn down my throat. If I looked this bad already I forbid myself to look at my hair and mascara streaked face in the mirror.

Before Daisy showed up I managed to put on some jeans and a sweater, and collect all of my tangled hair into a ponytail.

No less than three seconds after I finished a rapid chain of fistful knocking noises began at the door. If I didn't know it was Daisy I wouldn't have overlooked the thought of a woodpecker.

When I opened it, imeadiantly I was yanked outwards and suffocated in a tight hug.

"You're a bitch Harmony, I really hate you for scaring me like that," she spoke still squeezing me.

"Your killing me," I said quickly. She gave one last deathly squeeze and then let me go.

"What have you been doing for the past three days!" She looked behind me at the apartment.

"On a short note, absolutely nothing."

"So you couldn't have just texted me then?"

"I don't really want to be reminded of work right now Daisy, I sort of want to be alone."

"Do you not like me?" She asked honestly. I wanted to say she got on my nerves and more often then not I'd prefer not to hang out with her, but Daisy was still a friend, one of my only friends and I couldn't be mean to her.

"No I don't hate you."

"Really because you continue to avoid me and not tell me important things about your life, for instance how you were doing Bruce Wayne of all people."

"That's over now, and I didn't want to avoid you I've just had so much on my plate lately and I just need to get away."

Daisy was silent for a moment and then her face lit up the thought of something, "let's go clubbing!"

"What, now!"

"Relax it's only seven, we need to get you looking good before we go, I also I bought a dress recently that would look so cute on you."

"No way."

Clubbing, I hadn't gone clubbing in years, not since my party days with Harold. I wouldn't enjoy it, I'm just dead weight.

"The answer is yes, it's the perfect getaway, now let's see if we can curl these locks of yours."

Dispite my constant protest Daisy eventually convinced me to go with her. Maybe I could get drunk enough to forget about Bruce, that's what Harold did. I guess if a bunch of ass wipes can get away with forgetting their problems in a bottle, why can't I?

After a few hours of hair curling and caking on heavy make up, Daisy dragged me to a nearby club in the middle of the night. It was a shitty looking place, neon green lights and crude language tagged on the side of the brick building. The noise and music inside could be heard throught the walls, perfect.

"What are you waiting for let's get in there!" Daisy pulled me up to the emphasis on very, very large security bouncer.

"Wait, wait, don't we need to wait in line to get in or something?"

"Not if I got this," Daisy dangled the press pass in front of me. She waved it in front of the bouncer holding a serious face. He nodded her in and opened up the chain barier to let us in.

As I expected the club was insanely loud, lights flashing, and music blaring. I could hardly hear Daisy asking me to head to the bar. I got myself three shots of scotch, heavy enough to hopefully start dancing or something, and knocked all of them back.

"Hey do you mind if I try to hit on that guy over there, he's cute," Daisy pointed out a lonely looking man across the bar.

"Go for it."

"You sure becuase I feel kinda rude leaving you."

"No really it's fine," no it wasn't but did it matter, maybe I could sneak away and go back home.

I wandered the club admiring the different colors and strange architecture, I guess you never really knowtice how weird a club looked unless your sober as I happened to be. Who ever knew you could be too depressed to get drunk no matter how much alcohol I consumed. I looked over the club at the doorway where Daisy was kissing a man out of the club, basically all she wanted was a clubbing buddy to get laid. I had no intention of staying any longer.

As I made my way out and into a back alley I dropped my purse, causing my phone to slip out of my clutch. The stupid phone had clicked onto the contact Bruce automatically, and it was calling him. I quicky scrambled to stop the call from going through but as soon as I picked up the phone I decided to let it ring.

"This is Bruce Wayne, sorry I couldn't get to the phone, you know what to do," his amazing recorded voice said. There was a high pitched beep and I found myself a loss for words.

"Uh, hey it's me, uh look I might just be saying this because I'm partially drunk or maybe becuase I'm literaly at my wits end, but I didn't mean to hurt you, it wasn't my fault and if I could only explain how much you really mean to me, I just, if I could take it all back and make it so you didn't feel betrayed even if I never met you, I would," I hit the end button, satisfied with myself.

Little did I knowtice the ever so loudening cat calls from the alleyways dark depts. out emerged three loser-like guys, all admiring me. I tried to remember what Bruce said about walking like you own the place, so I ignored them and walked straight ahead.

"Whoa there baby doll, where are you going?" One of them grabbed my arm and pushed me against a wall. Guess I'm just too vunrable to look like I own the mini dress I'm wearing let alone the streets of Gotham.

Was a higher power so insistent on punishing me that I had to constantly endure these random events of torture. Outside of the nightclub, slutty and vunrable, emotionally torn by my past lovers, I was about to be attack by three thuggish men. They had already cornered me against the wall of the nightclub, and now one of them had a knife ready to strike.

"I've been waiting for one of those little bitches in there to come back to my place, can't seem to get anyone pretty like you," he touched my cheek.

"I wonder why that is," I slapped his hand away, still hoping I had some sort of dominance.

"Ha, this girl thinks she's tough boys, let's see how long we can get her to last," he grabbed my arm roughly, using a knife to poke me along.

I didn't even want to go to this stupid club, now I'm most likely going to die, and all because my friend couldn't handle getting laid alone. Oh my god I'm going to die. Not only will I die but it will probably also get raped. This is just completely fucking wonderful.

The men pushed me to a car, in the dead of night with no one around. It didn't even matter if any one was around because they were all too scared to help, even me. There was no use, this is my fate. To die a terrible death just like my late husband. Maybe it wouldn't take too long and I could join him in hell.

"Were going to have a fun night babe," the man whispered in my ear.

He opened the door to the car and was about to shove me in when the sound of cloth hitting the wind collected behind us. We all turned our heads slowly around. I changed my mind, I had a different fate, it was to be saved in the nick of time by batman, constantly.

"Shit bro, it's Batman!" one of the guys said in fear.

"We aren't pussies boys, we can take him," the man with the knife spoke up.

Batman, as usual, stood angrily and silent posed in a fighting stance. The man who I presumed to be the leader, also the one weilding a knife, went straight over to attack batman. He swun his knife blinding outwards at the bat, who quite easily dodged the swipes. Then batman did a few unrecognizable moves and the man landed on his ass, unconscious.

The two other men warily encountered the bat, but when batman took a step forward and made a deep rolling growl they both backed off and ran away. I was now left alone again with batman, who I found staring directly at me. He walked over to me slowly, half expecting me to flinch away, more than anything I wished to embrace him.

"Are you alright?" he said in a deep raspy voice.

"Yes, thank you, again."

"Again?" He looked confused. He probably didn't remember me from the robbery, it had almost been two weeks and he probably saved hundreds of people a day.

"Yeah, you helped me out at a robbery at Macys, it's fine if you don't remember."

Batman nodded awkwardly, deciding what to do next.

"Will you be alright on your own," he grumbled sternly. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and waved it at him, "yes I'll be fine".

He said nothing else and turned to leave quickly, almost gone into the shadows, when my vocal cords broke into tune.

"Are you following me?" I asked him. Half consumed by the night sky he turned back to face me, the only part of him visible was the glint in his eyes.

"I saw you at the Christmas tree lighting, and I swore once I saw you outside my window."

"I was at the lighting, but I don't recall being outside your window," he answered, then like a piece of paper in a gust of wind, he flew away. I'm sure he couldn't have been following me. Sure he saved my life twice in the same month but it didn't mean anything, did it? Batman was just doing his job and I've just accused him of stalking. If I were to ever get in trouble again then Batman most certainly wasn't going to save me.

Bruce's POV:

Quicker than the speed of light I changed out of my suit and into another more casual one, much more casual. Before I left the house to go find Harmony, I noticed my phone had a missed call out the corner of my eye. It was from the devil herself, the girl who played with my heart like a cat with a ball of yarn. I was continuously torn between believing her or the evidence that suggested she was using me. Either way I had to go make sure she was alright, and I couldn't do it in a batsuit, she was starting to notice the coincidental appearances of my alter-ego.

I played the message she left in my ear. "Uh, hey it's me, uh look I might just be saying this because I'm partially drunk or maybe becuase I'm literaly at my wits end, but I didn't mean to hurt you, it wasn't my fault and if I could only explain how much you really mean to me, I just, if I could take it all back and made it so you didn't feel betrayed even if I never met you, I would".

After hearing it I wanted to trust her, more than anything, but after the whole media stunt I couldn't be too sure. Still I had to see her, I had to give her a chance. Besides I didn't want to leave her alone right after she'd been attacked. It wasn't just dumb luck that I was nearby when she was in trouble, I'd been following her. Recently she'd mostly stayed indoors doing who knows what, but tonight she came out with her friend Daisy, so I tagged along secretly.

I didn't know why I was obsessed with her, making sure she didn't die. Maybe it was because for a minute I thought I might be falling in love with her, and if I was there is no way there could be a repeat of past events.

As Bruce Wayne, I took a limo to the club, running around the edge of it looking for Harmony. Then I spotted her sitting on a street corner with her hands buried in her knees.

I approached her slowly, lightly resting my hand on her shoulder. Her body egnighted, as if my touch was a jolt of electricity.

"My good lord, you scared me!" She pushed away from me staggering into the street. Her face was streaked with light black stripes, she was crying.

"What are you doing here Bruce!"

"I got your message," I held up my cell phone.

"I mean how did you get here, like how did you know where to find me?"

"Your friend posted a twitter thing and tagged you in it, yes I'm a stalker," I admitted. She couldn't know about batman ever, I made that mistake already.

"What about you Harmony, your sitting on a street corner crying with a cocktail dress on?" She looked down at her clothes and sighed. I wasn't trying to be offensive, in fact she looked great in the dress, but she was clearly in discomfort.

"Look Bruce, I'm just a little stressed out is all, the thing that would definitely make me feel better is if you trusted me again, like you did a few days ago."

"A few days ago I wasn't the headline."

"It was my boss alright, the celebrity department was going to get closed down to cover crime, so at a last attempt to try and keep the department going he took the photo files of us together and made something up, I swear I had nothing to do with it," she explained.

"I want to believe you so bad, I really do but if you came to me about it before I would have understood"

"I did try to tell you, I came by your house and everything, your butler even said to me that'd he'd give you the message."

Afred, he never wanted this relationship to last in the first place, he was trying to make it seem like Harmony betrayed me.

"Believe me, Bruce, please." The emotional tie I felt with her was being strengthened in this moment. I felt like we truely had to try again. I slowly walked up to her and grasped her hands in my own.

"I do believe you," I whispered into her ear seductively. She wrapped her arms tightly around me, as well as pulling her head back to look me in the eyes. I swear that I could just stare at her for hours, what was this feeling inside me that was awakened for the first time in my life. Was this true love, my knight in shining armor, or should I say lipstick.

"Bruce Wayne!" A new voice appeared. I didn't take well to surprises, so I pushed Harmony off of me and looked around confused. To my dismay a man with a professional video camera was staring at me.

"Is that the photographer that you've been seeing in secret, or a new lover?" the rude fellow asked. If there was anything I hated more than the paparazzi, it was seeing my face all over the teen weekly magazines you could find in your local drug store. I'd already had enough of that lately.

"Who do you think you are?" Harmony asked him with a touch of fire on her tongue. Which I had to admit was a bit sexy.

"I'm the guy trying to give the people what a they want," He further shoved the camera into her face. Swiftly I took the equipment out of his hands and threw it on the floor, watching it crumble into several pieces.

"You son of a bitch!" The guy swung at me. His punch was easy to dodge, simply by moving to my right. I'd seen strained out drug dealers fight better. Fustraited he charged at me full force slamming me to the floor. Most defensive movements I make are involuntary, training with the league perminantly marked the movements into my brain. Before I knew it I'd preformed a series of movements, and the asshole paparazzi pig, was laying in wimper next to his broken camera.

"Oh my god, where'd you learn to do that?" Harmony said, after we causually left the scene.

"Self defense training, it's a sort of spare time thing," I lied.

"Do you think maybe, you could teach me a few things?"