Chapter twenty: mistake

I couldn't help thinking that what I did was a mistake. It kept me up all night long, making me toss and turn in my sleep. I even regret the feeling I felt toward Batman, it was so surreal. It was like a magnet.

It was embarrassing that I was bothered by how we left things. Which I really shouldn't be bother by because the conversations we had were all but made up of awkwardness. He just seemed so familiar, so strangely familiar.

So far in the last few weeks I'd been in close contact with Batman on multiple occasions, in fact it was happening more often than not. My news reporter calling was itching in the back of my head telling me to investigate further. Maybe Gordon would know something, Batman said he spoke to him. I'm not even sure I'm supposed to know that.

Has Gordon been in contact with Batman all this time, is that why the police stopped looking for him. Not that I would put much trust in the local police seeing as they hardly make an appearance in this city. At least not in my neighborhood.

I decided to get a notepad to jot down anything I could think of about Batman and if anything was truly worth pursuing. I though for a bit, chewing on my pen cap and scribbling until I came up with a list;

1. Possibly works with police commissioner

2. Had 3-4 encounters with me in the two weeks

3. Seen near my apartment

4. Is somewhat attractive

5. Familiar

After writing down what I knew I realized that I didn't know much about him besides the gut feeling I had. God I felt stupid. The answer was right in front of my face and I couldn't grasp it, like a riddle. I was never good at riddles.

Number one on my list seemed like the only real lead I had, it was also the only job I currently had so there was a thin line I could be walking here. I wanted to let it go and believe that this mystery of a hero would just go away, but like the memories of my ex he wouldn't leave my mind.

I looked at my phone out the corner of my eye and quickly grabbed it before I could change my mind. I pulled up Gordon's contact and called it.

"Hello?"

"Gordon it's Harmony, I need to talk, in private."

"What do you mean private, do you have more information on this Edward guy?"

I shook my head to myself, I forgot about him. He should have been more of a concern to me that Batman, what a shameful soul I am. So selfish.

"Listen, it's not about that, when can we speak?"

"at a crime scene not far from you, if you can handle taking a few pictures I'll talk to you in a ride back to the station."

I paused for a few seconds "I'll do it."

"good to hear, meet me at 5th and Rory Lane."

I slipped my coat on and grabbed my umbrella, a storm was rolling through for the next few days and since last night it had only gotten worse. Outside of my door Ruth was in her usual attire, smoking, and smiling at the sight of me.

"Well well well if it isn't Ms. Wayne."

"Hello Ruth, how are you?"

"I've been fine this past few days, happy to ya' bubbly and happy despite the weather, you going to see your rich boy toy."

"Actually no, I'm going to work."

"Work, mmhhmm, when ya got a guy as rich as ya'll do, there ain't a single reason to be working."

"Well I guess I just need to be a little independent."

She nodded and her smile faded "pardon me, I consider myself a feminist y'all can be as independent as ya wish."

"I intend to."

I left Ruth with a wave and left the building, passing by my crazy landlord on the way down, both of us giving the cold shoulder. I think if anything he was just jealous of me. Clearly he was at least aggravated. Whatever was up his ass would need to be removed because I've been living here for years and I wasn't moving anytime soon.

My the time I was outside the ground was covered in an unimaginable amount of water. It was close to an inch tall, and the cars passing by were submerged in the rain. Great I have to drive through this, and to a crime scene no less, to talk with my new boss and possibly incriminate him in speaking with a vigilante.

Just as I opened my car door my phone started ringing. Thinking it was Gordon again I didn't check the contact and pressed answer.

"Gordon, I'm on my way now."

"Gordon? Should I be concerned?" Bruce's sweet voice spoke, catching me off guard.

"Bruce, it's nice to hear your voice," I spoke honestly.

"Same to you as always Harmony, I was wondering if you could meet me for lunch at the Bungalow, but it sounds like your busy."

I cringed, why today "I'm sorry Bruce, duty calls, but I really would if I could, maybe I can stop by later tonight?"

There was a slight pause "I won't be in tonight, but it's fine, I'll just cancel the reservation and reschedule sometime next week."

"You can't just get a reservation to the Bungalow in a week!"

"I'm Bruce Wayne, I can do anything."

"To be honest I don't even know why I'm surprised."

Bruce chuckled on the other side of the line "well, I guess I'll call you later."

"Bye," I hung up, then jumped in my car.

By the time I was out on the road I was seriously afraid of my engine stalling due to the amount of water coming from above and below me. 5th street and Rory wasn't far from here, so I prayed that my old bucket would get there. If anything Gordon could take me in a cruiser.

I barely got to the street corner without a breakdown, and when I did get there, I wasn't too keen on what sort of crime scene I was photographing. It was a murder scene.

I got out of my car slowly and avoided as many puddles as I could to the small covers over the crime scene area. There was a clear plastic tarp over the body, but it was blurry so I couldn't make anything out, the only other thing numbered by a yellow mark was a knife.

"Harmony, you got here fast."Gordon was standing with his police windbreaker over his head. In his hands was a camera, which he gave to me.

"what do you want pics of?"

"The knife, and the body, all the rest of the evidence was washed away in the rain, but I don't doubt that I know who the person that did this is."

"Who?"

"Why else would I come down here unless it was something to do with the Joker."

I took a deep breath "the Joker did this?"

"You'll understand when you look at the body," he said turning away.

I did as he asked, first taking as many picture as I could of the knife in different angles and as instructed with a ruler. The body was next, and I was already having a hard time thinking about what I was going to see.

A flashback of when I pulled the sheet off Harold's body came to me as I did the same with the unidentified man on the ground. He looked like some average joe kind of guy, except a lot more dead, sort of like the person you see packing groceries.

That wasn't the disturbing part of course. The man had a traditionally cut and not chemically crafted smile on his face, and a sentence carved into his bare chest and stomach. The words read 'you see blue, I see red. I've poisoned all the bread. Tonight's the night, there will be no fight. For I have made my plan air tight.' The quote sent chills down my spine. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to eat any bread tonight.

When I finished taking pictures I found Gordon again, next to a car, talking frantically on the phone to someone. When he saw me he motioned for me to get in the passenger seat, after doing so, he hung up the phone.

Finally, when we pulled away from the scene Gordon turned on the radio and opened his mouth "just to make sure no one is recording anything."

"Do you think that's a possibility."

"I do so very much. Now don't be shy, you said you had something to talk about with me."

I sighed "you'd be correct."

"What is it?"

I took another deep breath to relax myself "well as you know, yesterday I was sort of supposed to get you that sample, but when I got there-"

"It was already gone, I know, I had a friend pick it up last minute."

"Yeah, about that friend, I sort of got the sample, but Batman showed up out of nowhere and took it back from me."

Gordon didn't even twitch at the sound of his name "Batman Huh? Look if your worried about the sample being safe, it's in the right hands."

"Yup, about that, it's just sort of like Batman mentioned he knew you, so is that true, is he really a friend or are you just feeding him Intel or something?"

Gordon was now the one taking the deep breaths "Harmony, I know how this looks but in all honesty Batman comes to me with stuff either something he needs or something he provides. I Get that he thinks he's above the law, but in this city I need all the help I can get, and right now Batman is one of those things."

"I don't mean to question your morals, it's just, I've met Batman now a few times myself and I don't know what's wrong with me, but I just felt I needed to investigate."

Gordon nodded "still got that press drive, the news reporters calling."

I couldn't ever be news reporter material, but I was flattered to think somebody I knew had that idea of ambition me.

"So what's up with the body anyways, should I be concerned, and has Batman gotten back to you in a cure or at least something to find the chemical?" I asked.

"No news on the sample, but I assure you we a talking part in a city wide food and liquids test as we speak, in fact a majority of my officers are at the GCPD now taking a course on finding contaminated foods."

"And what about the person on the phone, they seemed to be stressing you out?"

"That was the Chief of the national guard, telling me if I didn't get this under control soon enough he was going to send some serious manpower up here."

"wouldn't that be a good thing?"

Gordon shook his head "it's already hard enough dealing with the corruption inside the police force, along with the national guard coming in and creating a military law, it just wouldn't be good."

"I don't think it's got bad enough to the point where we would need military law, I thought maybe it was getting better?"

"It's just," he paused and looked straight ahead, his eyes widened at the sight and the car screeched to a stop.

We had just turned the corner onto the police station and it was a blood bath. People were running and screaming left and right. There were bodies, mostly police officers laying on the ground, dead, or dying.

Gordon looked at me "stay here," he said sternly. He got out of the car and pulled his gun out of its holster, and slowly weaved closer to view the station. I had no protest to having to stay in the car, I actually preferred it. Still a wave came over me, and my body started to shake with fear.

I pulled out my phone and didn't know what I was thinking but I called Bruce right away. I sunk deeper down into my seat so I wouldn't be seen as easily as the dial tone ended and the phone started ringing.

Right before I though I was going to get a voicemail I heard a faint and crackling "hello."

"Bruce it's me, I-" I didn't know what to say I was scared out of my mind. It wouldn't help for me to call the police and what was I kidding myself calling Bruce and putting him in harms way. Harm, Harmony, how close could the two things get.

"Harmony? What's up?"

"The police station-"

"what about the police station, are you there? Is that gunshots I hear!" He sounded drastically more concerned.

"I'm at the station, it's under attack, Gordon- he went in."

"I'm coming to get you, stay put."

"Bruce no!" I yelled into the phone but he was already gone.

I wanted him to come but I also did. I don't want him thinking I'm some damsel in distress, no doubt I am. It's already bad enough that Batman thinks I'm weak, not that I should care what he thinks. All of this was a mistake, accusing Gordon, going to the station, declining Bruce's lunch offer.

That's when it happened. A loud boom that made my ears ring and a ball of flame so bright that I made my vision to blur. My heart stopped and everything seemed to go in slow motion as I watched the GCPD headquarters tumble over in flames, as an explosion consumed it.

Gordon was the first thing on my mind. I jumped out of his car, calling his name while I couldn't very well even hear myself talk. I ran past the people screaming and shoving me out of the way, I didn't even take notice to the men with guns just shooting people down everywhere.

I found Gordon, laying down on his side facing away from me, and my eyes filled with tears, as I fell down to his side and turned him over on his back.....