Perfect Dark pt. 16 (not so dark this time)

[The_NewCatwoman]

Selina groaned annoyedly and opened her eyes, she's spent the entire car ride home in nice quiet silence, but now she had the bother of having to get out the car and find a way to the peaceful solitude of the master bedroom upstairs.

She thanked Alfred as he opened the car, and then the front doors for her, and quickly considered stopping to get something decent to eat out of the refrigerator. That hospital food had been less than appetizing to say the least.

As she stepped forward, Alfred too stepped in unison. Selina took another step, watching frustratedly as Alfred followed suit. "Alfred, what are you doing?!" she asked angrily.

"You'll have to excuse me Madame, I've been given strict orders by Master Bruce not to let you out of my sight. He's horribly concerned for your safety, and doesn't want anything to happen to you." Alfred said, his eyes shining in sincerity.

Selina sighed, shrugged, and walked to the kitchen. A nice fruit salad would be just about right... "Wait a minute... What's the television doing on Alfred, its only 10:00am?"

"As it were Madame, Master Bruce gave me strict instructions not to tell you, he didn't want you worrying." Alfred said apologetically.

"Didn't want me worrying about what?" Selina asked, not bothering to wait for an answer. Stalking into the great room, she found A.J. laying on the couch, in baggy gray sweatpants, bandages covering most of his stomach and left shoulder. The t.v. lay on infront of him, but he was hardly paying attention, instead opting to stare at the ceiling in deep thought.

"What happened to my baby?" Selina asked through gritted teeth, "No, the hell with that, get that... Man... here, right now!"

A.J. snapped out of his trance, and began to rise up from the couch. "Mom." he started, grinding his teeth back and forth, "Don't worry, I'm... fine." he said, collapsing back onto the cushions, in a fury of pain.

"Don't move a muscle." Selina said in a 'don't test me' tone. "Alfred, get my husband on the phone, and tell him he has exactly twenty minutes to get here, or else I'm going to be making life very hard for him during the next nine months!"

"Right away Ma'am." Alfred said, obliging quickly, both he and Bruce knew that Selina was an expert "button-pusher".

--#--

Dick sat in the kitchen of the renovated loft he shared with his wife of four-and-a-half years. Drumming his fingers back and forth across the kitchen table; just passing time before he had to go pick up his twin sons Dennis and Dallas from morning Pre-K. Man, time sure flies when your immobile. Yeah it just whizzes on by. he remarked with a sad smile.

How long, had he been in this death sentence anyway? It seemed like so long ago, when he'd miscalculated a falll, and twisted his spine in ways that couldn't be repaired.

The boy who learned to walk on a tight-rope by the age of three, and who was performing quadruple-somersaults by the time he was eight, had managed to transform himself through tradgedy, and other unfortunates, into the first Robin. The Boy Wonder. Now all he had to show for it was dead legs.

Dead.

*****ing.

Legs.

Sighing, he pushed himself away from the table, refusing to let fate get him angry. Bashing the table to pieces wouldn't make his legs work again, but it would have been a good time-waster, what could he do to pass time for the next hour?

Gripping the wheels sticking out at his sides, he pushed himself quickly into the living room. He'd already had good strong arms, and hadn't needed to go through the muscle-toning excercises of other parapheligics, he'd even joked about getting into the special olympics.

All he just had to get used to was his legs not responding when his brain told them to move.

Easy for the rest of the world, especially when their names weren't Dick Grayson, former aerialist for the Haley Bros. circus. His name had become, in his opinion, synonomus with charity case, and Richie-Rich.

'-Dick Grayson? Wasn't he that boy who's parents made that "big finish" at the end of their act about twenty-five years back?

-Yeah,... Hey, wasn't he also the one that got adopted by Uncle Money-Bag's Wayne? Man, he must've gotten pretty lonely up there in that mansion all day long, what with nothing to play with but a butler.

-Hard to feel sorry for the guy when he's got all that money from that trust-fund.

-Yeah, but let's not forget he's in a wheelchair now, some kinda freak accident.

-Maybe he tripped over a spare stack of hundreds." He remarked cruelly.

Dick growled angrily, before reaching out to grab the nearest object, a cordless telephone.

Winding back, he suddenly dropped the phone onto the floor, as tears began to well in his eyes.

Grabbing it back off the floor, he quickly turned it on and punched in 'memory 6', the direct line to Bruce's office, knowing that his mentor and father figure would be "hard at work" at his job right now.

He just needed someone to talk to.
--#--

Bruce sat back in his leather office chair, another shallow glass of gin resting in his fingertips, eyes looking out over his city, contemplating its citizens movements right now.

Some were just getting to bed, while others were rising. Mothers took their children for strolls in park, while still, fathers waited a few feet away, ready to catch their baby's first steps, and inevitable first falls.

He was a million miles away from that life, even when it had been his own with Selina and A.J.. He'd endured that kind of peaceful bliss with his own family, and now only sought to make sure it wasn't taken away from those other families, so like his had once been.

A small beeped echoed throughout the expansive room. Sarah Stan, his secretary, politely told him that he had two calls waiting for him on line 5, and 7. Line 5 was Selina, who issued a clear warning to him through Sarah. He didn't bother to waste time answering that one, but instead chose to finish off his gin, and gather his things.

Today was going to be a short day after-all.

Line 7 was Dick, he said he needed to talk about the circus. Bruce knew exactly what this meant, and chose to take the call in the relative safety of his car.

"Tell Dick to call me on my cell phone, postpone the rest of my meetings, and schedule the press conference for tomorrow." he told Sarah without stopping.

"The circus" was what Dick used to refer to the irony of his accident, he'd spent that entire first year calling to talk 'circus' everynight from the hospital, then home. Plagued by everything from nightmares, to bizarre falls from his bed after getting up to go to the bathroom and forgetting about his condition altogether. Bruce savored those calls, not in a sadistic way, but more so as an opportunity to be a father without having to put on airs.

It was his chance to feel like everything was as it should be.

[Panther]

You certianly have shown you don't need graphic sex and violence to twist our hearts. That was very powerful. I'd totally fogotten about Dick, so engrossed was I in the gothic soap opera of Angel and Co. Boy, was his mom ripsh*t when she saw the bandages.

keep on postin' !

[The_NewCatwoman]

**Two minutes later on the same day, St. Francis Academy (forgive if this isn't the original name, it's been so long...), third hour, Advanced Placement French**

Mila sat drumming a chewed-up pencil on it's eraser, her eyes roaming uncontrolably to the seat two rows from her's, right next to the window. Normally a desk wouldn't have so much power over her, but it just so happened to be the seat of Alexander James Wayne.

Gorgeous.

Brilliant. (Atleast he was when he was in school.)

Mysterious.

And dangerous.

One might also reason that he normally was the perfect combination in a date potential, but normal was also as far from A.J. as you could get walking. It was as if A.J. had chose the road less taken since birth. He had in that genius combination two fatal flaws (however sexy they were) to be 1.) Dark Angel, that freak, well actually freak was a little strong, that psychotic miscreant, heh heh, on the news that left people with barely a tooth to their crushed jaw. 2.)He was forbidden completely from their household in name, reference, and appearance.

Mila was quite the risk-taker when she wanted to be, but she more than knew better than to mess with her father. Caprio Raleigh, son of Donatello Raleigh, the crime boss who'd put the squeeze on both Luigi Maroni, and Vincent Falcone's operations (see The Long Halloween by Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb) and then turned 'legitimite" just in time for his first son to be born. Opening a five-star restaurant, and starting a company. A faceless-one at that. It was run by a marionette board of directors, paid to pretend that were a real business. Caprio himself was a force to be reckoned with, one who was secretly a sales holder in a drug cartel that ran from Hong Kong, to London, back through Beijing, and finally into Rio de Janiero. He was also training Mila's younger brother Wes to take over once he was dead or retired, whichever came first. Mila had no real emotions towards her father, and hadn't since she was little, except for fear of course. She had no emotions whatsoever for her mother, a mindless puppet was what she could best be described as. A puppet who'd given up a life as a masterful concert pianist to pursue a now-loveless relationship with an underground drug-lord.

Her life was a tabloid-writer field day, at best. At least A.J. knew what he was doing, where he was going, and that most of all his family was truly legitimite.

She didn't even want to think about why their paths had crossed in the first place. The part about the vampires atleast. She shuddered, and quickly forced the thought out of her head.

Sighing, her eyes met his seat once more, before she decided to give the thinking a rest, and answer one of Sister Odena's questions before she found out Mila wasn't listening.

--#--

Bruce leaned his heavy but cut frame back into the italian leather seats of the car. He never bothered with checking the make and year of his car's anymore, a car was a car, unless it was the Batmobile of course.

Feeling a headache coming on Bruce remembered unconciously his studies in Shorinji Kempo. He gently rubbed his keikotsu pressure point under his ear. Practicing the technique had become a common ritual for him, so much so that he barely noticed anymore.

The shrill tone of his cell phone, he meant to change the ringer, interrupted his therapy session. Quickly he reached over onto the passenger side and retreived his cell phone from his briefcase.

Pressing "talk", he put it to his ear, and calculated just the right way to say, "Dick?"

--#--

Dick smiled weakly, Bruce always knew the right way to address him when he was like this. Just the right balance between 'what do you want?' and 'take all the time you need son'. Dick tried to think of something to say, something to stop the worthlessness welling up in his empty stomach; which was a bad combination on its own. Couple it with the fact that he probably wouldn't reach the toilet in time, and he felt like a two-year-old with a stomach virus.

"Dick, you are going to speak to me aren't you?" Bruce said, the sound of a car's engine starting up played in the background.

"Yeah, its... its just that I... I... Oh, I don't know!" Dick said, his voice rising from meek and defenseless to harsh and angry. "What the hell am I supposed to say to describe this Bruce?! It was my fault after all. This was all my parents left me, their one gift to me, and what do I do? I act like an over-confidant jackass, who ends up with his tailbone sticking out of his a**! I roll around in this safety seat from sunrise to whenever I feel like dragging my dead weight into the bed. The same stupid crap all day long! Yeah I'm going to speak to you alright, now are you going to speak to me?!" Dick asked as his voice cracked and he broke down into tears again.

--#--

Bruce paused as he decided what to say. Finally feeling he had nothing to lose, he decided to try his luck with Dick's pride. "Get a grip! Afterall, this couldn't be Dick Grayson talking, this couldn't be the same man who wanted to show me how everything was supposed to be done. Who spent four entire hours breaking down the physics of a decent somersault to Tim because he wasn't landing on his feet! This whiner couldn't possibly be Nightwing!" Bruce paused, Dick was incredibly sensitive about not getting to be his alter-ego anymore. "Maybe little Dickie decided that life was getting to tough for him, and that he needed a time-out. Is that it?"

Dick was silent on the other end, but atleast he hadn't hung-up, that was a good sign. "There's no little Dickie here, Bruce." Dick quietly responded.

Bruce silently let out a sigh of relief, he'd been playing a bad hand with that one, but the bet had paid off.

"Look Dick, there's no reason why you should blame yourself, although no one likes to admit it, everyone makes mistakes. Even me."

--#--
"Everyone except A.J.," Dick said with small laugh, "Does that kid ever mess up?"

"He's too much of a perfectionist for that." Bruce said, with unusually light voice.

"There's also the fact that most people don't end up paralyzed when they make mistakes. Nothing will change the fact that I through my parents gift to me into the ground, right into the ground."

**A long pause from Bruce's end.**

"Is that how you really feel?" Bruce asked finally.

"I don't really even know." Dick answered quietly.

[The_NewCatwoman]

**At the house, ten minutes later**

Selina stood just outside of the back entrance. Staring at the expansive japanese garden that Bruce had had built for her as a wedding present. As expected Alfred watched dutifully from just outside the doorway.

Her thoughts flashed back to all the moonlight strolls they'd taken A.J. on as a baby, up to when he turned five. Bruce teaching him all the japanese, american, and latin names of the various plants.

When they'd first started fighting, she'd come out here to remind herself of what a wonderful man Bruce was, and often found A.J. out here by himself. Staring down into the Koi Pond.

She began to recite the various plant and tree names to herself as she passed them:

Akamatsu, or Japanese red pine, also called Pinus densiflora in latin.

Arakashi, or Blue Japanese oak, also called Querca glauca.

Hinoki, or white cedar, in latin Chamaecyparis obtusa.

She barely noticed as Bruce came to stand beside her.

But she did notice the cool wind that swept through her, as he reached for her hand.

Why couldn't it always be like this? Them together peacefully, in the garden.

[Panther]

That was so sad! :( I can't really put it into any other wods, except maybe 'still'. Yeah, sad and still, that's how I think of Selina in garden. Right next to Bruce - but so far away!

I like how you described Mila and AJ. other than a few million major hurdles, i bet they'd be such a cute couple.

must go,

[The_NewCatwoman]

**Thanks, I noticed you just replied. I just wanted one post where they weren't fighting, or anything.**

Selina stared up at the sky, it was only 10:23, but it felt like hours had gone by since she'd arrived home to find A.J. scrawled out on the couch in traction. But being out in this peaceful place, she found she didn't have the energy needed to get angry again. She hoped Bruce didn't ruin it by talking, he never quite managed to say the right thing anymore.

--#--

Bruce's mind fumbled for something constructive to say. It was well known among his charges that he was lousy with women. Dick and Tim regularily teased him about it, The suave playboy indeed! He sometimes wondered how he'd ever pulled it off, all those women. They were beautiful yeah, but they weren't intellectually stimulating in anyway, and all they wanted was money, sex, and Wayne for a last name. Trophy wives to say the least.

That's why he'd gotten so strung over Selina in the first place. She was that almost nonexistent combination, stunningly beautiful (an understatement), brilliant (she had to be to have outsmarted him so many times), and real. She didn't mindlessly agree with everything he said. If she disagreed, she voiced her opinion. And last but not least, she was an independent. She voted for the green party in the infamous 2000 elections, and when she'd lived alone, she often walked around naked after she got out the shower. She didn't carry around shame, and self-doubt. She didn't care about what other people thought. If other's didn't agree, who really cared? They weren't living her life.

Which reminded him, they'd never really finished their conversation yesterday. "Why'd you do it Selina?" he thought aloud.

--#--

You heard it here folks, Bruce Wayne, in typical fashion, just couldn't keep his mouth shut to save a marriage. Not that their marriage was really at risk, both of them respected the boundaries that marriage set.

"Dammit Bruce, you just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?" Selina asked quietly. She turned to face the asagao, and crouched down low.

Bruce stepped infront of her and followed suit. "We're never going to get anything solved if you don't contribute any infromation Selina, how am I supposed to help you, if you don't want to be helped?"

Selina bit her fingernail, and continued to stare ahead in silence.

"Selina, there's something wrong, something very wrong, it's obviously hurting you very much, why..." Bruce started angrily, then stood and walked a few feet away. Sitting down on a wrought-iron bench, he resumed his trademark thinking stance, obviously trying to contain his temper.

Selina tried hard not to smile, Bruce was gorgeous when he was angry, his eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes glared. The way his tanned face reddened like he had sunburn. But she was too angry with him to ever let herself slip, she still hadn't said a word to him. She just wanted to make sure she got her point across when he was willing to listen.

"Dr. Thompkins is coming over at 3' Selina, it's state law that we get to the bottom of this, I just thought you should know."

Selina sighed, So much for sanctuary. Now even my Eden is spoiled.

[Panther]

It's like watching a Gothic soap opera!

Seriously, excellent writing here. It's amazing how well you got inside Bruce and Selina's head's, it really shows with the characterization.

gotta go,

[The_NewCatwoman]

**two minutes later**

Selina stood still, her eyes closed, trying to shut out the rest of the world for atleast a minute or two. Not even reacting when Bruce came behind her, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

He whispered gently in her ear, asking her to let him help her, but it was so far away, she could barely hear him. His voice sounded small, and childish compared to his normal tones.

She accepted his arms, and turned to him, trying to forget their fight, to forget their troubles for once. He buried his face in her neck, kissing her, as if he was trying to make the hurt go away. For someone who had such a conflicting personality, he went to great lengths to ease the pain of his surrounding family.

Selina raised her head, and ran her hand up his neck, his short, fine hair bristling between her fingers. Using her index finger, she slowly traced the v-shape his hair grew into at the base of his neck. Smiling as he flinched, he was still horribly ticklish.

**Gotta go, and there'll never be too many thank-you's panther.**

[Panther]

Batman's ticklish!?!? :eek: It works! :D

But, really, talk about doomed romance. Seems like noone can get close to the Waynes, father or son, no matter how hard they try. And people were mad at me for what happened to Eleanor and Oliver -- !

PLease post more!

later,

[The_NewCatwoman]

My concience is holding me hostage, I swear. Today as I shuffled through the door, and Denny and Dallas wrapped their tiny little hands around my kness. And Dick.

He rolled up to me in that, what does he call it again,... oh yeah, 'the safety seat' of his. He was sporting his normal cocky grin, and I couldn't help but smile like I always do when he looks at me just the right way. He pulled me down onto his lap, and let Dennis and Dallas push us around the living room a few times.

I was so tired, I felt like falling asleep right there, and I would've if my concience hadn't been nagging me. I'd spent the whole day trudging from the library to the police stations, to just about anywhere, digging up information on the serial killer that's been murdering strategically all around the United States. I wasn't really interested until it came to Bludhaven.

But Dick didn't want to hear a word of it, and I don't blame him, there's nothing he can really do. He's never been one for sitting at a computer all day just staring at the screen, no, Bruce does tha... Oh, God! Stop that, you can't think about him! What did you gather today?

Ahhh, yes, it's always the same way, he slits them, (In a variety of styles ranging from the crucifix, to just the throat, to just about anywhere.) while raping them, and finally he manages to drain every drop of the victims blood from their veins, leaving only enough to dry around the wound. It's freaking brilliant! That is it would be if he was riding someone else's schtick. This same murder has been commited several thousand times throughout history, always to women ages 14-38, and always getting away with it. The only time it differed was the first reported case in 1507, over five-hundred years ago. It was a man, name Abel. He was found dead in his bed, unraped, blood and everything.
It happened over and over and over, but was never solved, not a single case. People just eventually put it out of their minds, and kept their teenage daughter's locked up at night. It didn't help of course, and eventually a young girl about seventeen was kidnapped. She lived through the encounter somehow, but was too pychologically unstable to even tell the police what happened, and who it was. Three days later she threw herself out of a fifth story window. To witnesses it looked like she was running from something, they even saw a figure look out after her. But nothing could be proven. The case went cold.

Now things are heating up in Gotham. I went there to see what was going on, maybe there was a break in the case. But of course, only one death, a prostitute even. Batman made sure I knew he wasn't comfortable with me in the city. Damn, I thought about him again. Quickly, I told Dick I was going to change, and locked myself up in here. This is nuts. I wish I could tell him.

[hellraiser765]

Mmm.. plot thickens, I see. Kinda like reading a really engrossing soap opera! I LIKE it! :)

Plz continue, Ms Kitty!

[The_NewCatwoman]

A.J. lay in near-perfect stillness, only the small trembling motions of his extremities being fueled with fresh blood constituted any kind of work.

His eyes stared at the grayish-white ceiling two-stories above him. He cautiously touched the guaze that stuck to the bullet hole in his stomach, memories flashing back to the night before.

He'd left Mila in her bedroom, satisfied that she was strong enough not to let herself become enthralled by the vampiress that lived inside of her. And he hadn't heard anything on the news.

What happened after that? Yes, he went on patrol, then what? Oh, God. The fight. Yes, that fight, he'd gotten ahead of himself, he'd been too concerned with things that weren't even that prevelant at the time. Like his kicking Caine's a**, and that girl.... A.J. wreched painfully, as he felt bile rise in his throat. Was he such a bastard that he'd forgotten about the girl? The child? No doubt she was dead now, and he hadn't even thought of her. Reflecting in that church, they were praying for him, and his proudness had undoubtfully killed that poor little girl.

It was then that he felt like slitting himself from neck to navel. But he squashed the thought quickly. Have to prevent more, have to find out if she's even dead in the first place. Yeah, she should be but, was he told old for a little niave hope?

Rising slowly and painfully from the couch, he crept towards the backdoor, and snuck a glimpse of Alfred, and his preoccupied parents. They were holding each other, and there was peace between them for the moment, or there was a semblance of it anyway. They'd be furious, but this was a matter of life and death for thousands.

Turning, he walked as fast as his gut would allow him towards the library. It'd be easier to transform downstairs.

[Panther]

Ok, I'd really like some more info on AJ. For instance, what IS he? Is he even human? He's so much like his father, BUT he is clealry not relying on just training and wits. (BTW, sighty off topic but the fact that Batman is the only superhero w/out powers is what makes me think of him as the coolest). But AJ is definitly not as straight forward. Heck, he's anything but. And yet he IS a teenager, as we just saw with that reflection on egocentrisim. Perhaps he's human after all.

later,

[The_NewCatwoman]

**Panther, and hellraiser, thanks for all the praise, it makes my day to see some postive, and sometimes not so positive, feedback. Truly, thanks.**

Name: Alexander James Wayne
Height: 5'1'' (heh heh heh)
Weight: 110 Ilbs.
Eyes: Baby blue
Hair: Midnight black
Age: turned 16 on November 14th
Base of Operations: Gotham City, and wherever else his services are needed.
Bloodtype: O positive, (yes, he's a universal donor)
GPA: 4.0, or 3.9 respectively
Hobbies: Writing, Reading, playing Tony Hawke Pro Skater 1. 2.
and 3.

Randoms: Is colorblind (red), which is the reason he wears only black, white, and red. Because he can't really differentiate between any other colors. (The lenses in his mask were designed to do for him what his cones [the things in your eyes that make you able to see colors] can't.) Is practically addicted to Oreos, with peanut butter although he'd never admit such barbaric eating habits. ;)

Life altering event: A.J.'s had two life-changing experiences. The first being when he was seven, he was visited in a dream by the angel Gabriel, and told his life's mission. The second at eleven, when his father broke his heart and his trust by cheating on his mother.

Strengths: Patience, near-perfect (although not photographic) memory, advanced hearing, the ability to adapt to different time zones, excellent immune system, high pain tolerance, obsessive compulsive disorder (He's very determined to meet his goals), rational mind-set, IQ of 162, (the exact match of his father's), and hypnotizingly good looks.

Weaknesses: Obsessive compulsive disorder (it has a tendency to consume him), bad temper, he's still only human!, only 5'1'', and 110 Ilbs, can't stand the sound of paper scraping together, (think when you turn a page in a book and it sticks, this bothers me to no end as well), Memory tends to plague him when he is visited by memories of horrible and embarrasing mistakes of his past, down attitude resembling depression. Because of his age, some don't take him seriously and they have to learn the hard way.

Appearances: This whole freakin' story.

**I hope this helps Panther, and if I left anything out, just let me know.**

[Daughterof_Evil]

Great story, and thanks for A.J's bio...that helped a lot.

No, I am not angry with you. Why would I need to be? I've just been under a lot of pressure so far, and my Internet access has decreased dramatically in the last year, making it very hard for me to reply to everyone with the scope I want. Trust me, I would go on and on about the implications of this story til you retched with boredom if I could.

As long as I'm here, I wanted to maybe recommend an anime to watch. It is surprisingly like this story, which led me to at first assume you'd already seen it. It's called Nightwalker:Midnight Detective, and it's about an amnesiac vampire named Shido who becomes a private detective and fights supernatural demons. It also contains a sire-vampire named Cain, which I thought was very appropriate.

Again, great story! You can just feel A.J.'s angst. Very dark and dramatic.