Chapter nineteen: Batman

Chapter nineteen: Batman


Harmony's POV:


After I left the homeless soup kitchen, serving all the sandwiches me and Bruce made, I walked the streets alone back to my dirty small apartment. I didn't see Ruth outside her door which I found strange since it was around her time to have a smoking break, but I didn't worry myself about it too much.


Instead I found my landlord waiting at my door squinting at me.


"I have a reputation to uphold in my building miss Jackson, I don't care if your dating some fancy shmancy billionaire."


"What is it now," I groaned, not in any particular mood to deal with him right now.


"The police commissioner himself showed up here this morning asking me where you were, I haven't had an incident with the police for a whole year until now, it scared away a potential tenant"


"Boohoo."


His nose curled up in anger "not boohoo, if this happens again I'm going to be kicking you out of here."


My eyes widened "you what? You can't do that, I work for the commissioner. I've been here for over five years?"


"You'd better tell the commissioner that if he shows up he again, your going to be out."


He walked past me coming within inches of knocking me with his shoulder. I grit my teeth and stumbled onward to the door, shaking with rage. What do I get for being nice to the community and having a job to support myself? I get abused, physically, emotionally, and financially.


"Prick," I whispered under my breath, as I looked in the direction of my landlord waddling down the stairs.


Inside my apartment I fell down on the couch and lifted my feet onto my coffee table. I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and read that I had not one, not two, but thirty missed calls from my new boss. I wasted no time pressing the callback button.


"For God sakes what will it take for you to answer the phone?"


"I'm so sorry, I was with Bruce, I forgot to look at it."


A heard Gordon whisper something inaudible on the other end of the line "we'll at least your on now, there's something I need you to do, I have to talk in person."


"Where do you want to meet?"


"My office, as soon as possible."


I wasted no time changing out of my clothes and putting my hair in a firm ponytail to try and control it's messiness. Downstairs I jumped into my boring silver car, which paled in comparison to the one I drove last night.


Within a time of about forty five minutes of the call I got, I was rushing through the police station, past the woman at the desk- who I neglected to smile back at- and quickly shut the door to the Commissioner's office.


Gordon was pacing the room even before I got there, and had is eyes on his wrist watch prior to seeing me. When he did acknowledged my presence, he waved me over closer to his desk. Behind his chair was a widow out into the station, which he shut and peeked through nervously.


"What's going on?" I asked, honestly not wanting to be the receiver of such urgent information.


"Bad stuff, I needed to trust someone who I know isn't spitting word out to the Joker or even any other sort of crime lord."


"So you picked me? A former news photographer, and someone employed to you for just over a period of 36 hours, actually I'm not even sure I really work here?"


"The fact that you have worked here for such a short time is precisely the reason I'm trusting you right now, because there is no way you could have planned and carried out what I have been dealing with the past couple of hours."


"I resent whatever it is your dealing with, but I don't have a badge or a gun, just some film."


"I'm getting to that okay."


"Okay, please do so, the curiosity is eating me here."


"Of course you know about the Joker's new drug and his very public scheme to do something very psychotic and bad with the stuff, which leads to my very pressured job to make sure this chemical is either distinguishable or treatable."


"This all isn't new to me."


Gordon gave me an unamused glare "like I was saying, I had to make sure that the sample you picked up in the tent for me wasn't tampered with or stolen, another reason I wanted you to retrieve it, but when I sent it to a undisclosed laboratory which only I and a few others knew the location of, the place was blown to bits along with the only sample I had. There is no possible way you could have been involved because I never told you anything about the transfer or location of the lab, of course to make sure I checked your phone records and whereabouts during the times in question, and unless Bruce Wayne is somehow involved in this, your innocent."


I sat silently, still very confused and concerned. How could I, even if being the only person he trusts, in any way help him. Did he call me here just for an opinion? Or am I expected to go on some crazy spy mission to find out who is behind this?


"Well this is all very sudden but, I'm still unclear to exactly what you want me to do about it?"


"I need you to get me another sample," he said anticlimactically, which was a very understated tone compared to what he was actually asking me to do.


"You want me to what!"


"I need you to get me another sample of the stuff, I can't go pick it up because I will draw too much attention to what I'm doing, people will be watching me."


"Just how do you expect me to get you a sample of the stuff? Last time I checked I didn't work with the Joker, isn't someone you know a little more suited for this kind of job."


"I have a sample hidden at the warehouse where you got the first one, I though it would be nice to keep a back up in case something like this happened, I've had two uniforms watching the place, but they don't know why they are there."


"That's all I have to do? Go pick up another sample?"


Gordon shook his head "I'm sorry kid, it still isn't that simple, your going to have to go late, around 11:30, that's when the boys will have left the sight, I don't want to just pull them off right away because it will look suspicious, and I don't want them to see you there either, just in case they are a part of all this."


"This all sounds suspiciously dangerous to me, which I wasn't expecting from a job as a person who takes pictures, in fact I though my job would be less dangerous than the neighborhood I live in."


"If you follow my instructions I promise nothing will happen to you, but I won't blame you if you feel like you can't do it."


"I'll do it," I said boldly, still subconsciously regretting what I said.


"You will?"


"I will, now give me the hiding spot and let me go."


-----------------------------


I had waited anxiously all day for this moment, and I was here. When I got to the warehouse there was not a person in sight, which was both a relief and a disappointment seeing as that would have been my best excuse not to do what I'm about to.


I snuck as quietly as I could back into the building I was in yesterday, and followed Gordon's instructions on how to find the vile holding the poison. He had hid it well, seeing as I could barely find it with basically a map to get to it. Gordon had put the vile into a perfectly round hole where a screw used to be in one of the metal rafters holding up the walls of the warehouse. It fit so perfectly into the hole that I broke a nail trying to pull it out.


Finally I had the happy juice free and firmly gripped it inside the safety of my pocket. I fast walked to the warehouse door, only to find after pulling on it that it was suddenly locked. My heart began to race, the same feeling I felt when Harold would come home angry.


With my hands trembling in fear, I slowly scanned the area around me. I saw nothing. The warehouse was almost entirely pitch black though, it was easy for someone to hide. Only it was someone I had never expected to see.


Down from the ceiling, and giving me a substantial heart attack was none other than Batman. At first I had to hold my hand on my mouth so I wouldn't scream, but as soon as I figured out who it was I was quickly relaxed. It was strange how we had met so often lately, was it pure coincidence or was it that my suspicions that Batman could possibly be following me be true.


"Hand over the poison," he got straight to the point.


I tightened my grip around the vile and stared daggers at the vigilante "I don't know if I should do that," I spoke honestly.


"Gordon told me you would be here, I know you want to do the right thing, so just give it to me, it will be in much better hands than it will if don't."


"Gordon never said anything to me about you coming to pick up this, how can I even know you're the real Batman?"


"I saved your life, the other day when three men tried to attack you, and you accused me of following you," he said in a slightly even deeper voice.


"You know, your really not helping the whole I'm not following you vibe, since yet again you are following me."


Batman paused dramatically "everyone in this city is of concern to me, I don't selfishly follow one person unless that person is carrying the answer to one of the scariest city wide threats we have faced in years."


"Well you feel that way but I have felt pretty independent lately and I assure you that I am not just going to give this to you, for just that same reason you gave me."


I could feel his eyes glaring into me as I stood frozen next to the locked door and stared seriously back at him. Gordon gave me explicit instructions on what to do, and for the sake of every person in this city I will not just give Batman this sample.


"If you don't give it to me willingly I will have to take it forcefully," he spoke slowly and with a more hesitant tone, something you wouldn't usually hear from a dark knight.


"You wouldn't do that, I know you."


"You don't know me, if I can save your life, I can also take it, easier than you think, I am simply choosing to be polite here, so I will ask you one more time, give me that vile, or I will take it from you."


I had two options now, submit to the caped crusader or call his bluff.


If I had to trust anyone with this stuff it would have to be Batman. Though I still couldn't be sure it was the right choice. Since when is Batman a chemist, how could he possibly find an antidote to this stuff. How can I possibly trust either one of them. Personally I have been saved by Batman on two previous occasions, and Gordon, I've only known on a personal level for about a few days.


I made my decision, but right as I did Batman had waited long enough, so he stepped forward and grabbed the wrist which I held the vile in. The liquid swished around violently, and my heart beat raised in sync with the motion of the poison. I looked into the black covered eyes of the hero and a strange feeling waved over me. At first I thought it might have been fear, but as we stood frozen in the same position, I realized it felt more like sex. My brain was gravitated toward him, just as I felt with Bruce, I thought we were going to kiss but he pulled away with the vile in hand.


"Wait!" I called out for no reason. My mind trying to make sense of how I felt.


Batman stopped in his tracks at my words and looked at me "what."


I said the first thing that came to mind "I love Bruce Wayne." I didn't know why I said what I'd said, maybe I was trying to convince myself that I wasn't experiencing and connection with a man who's face I haven't seen and who I've only exchanged a few words with.


Batman was still. Waiting for some sort of explanation I guess, so to not look like an idiot I said something else.


"I love Bruce Wayne, so would it be too much for you to make sure he's alright once and a while?"


Batman simple nodded and then left into the shadows, not a sound heard.

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