Chapter Text
It was just another night in Gotham. Car lights illuminated the streets, citizens were up late partying and in the financial district, bells were ringing. Alarm bells specifically, as one of the city’s largest banks was in the process of being robbed.
“Get moving ya ingrates!” Harvey Dent growled. Now that there were two Bats prowling in the night, criminals found they had to operate significantly faster. Penguin had already found that out the hard way, and Dent was gonna make damn sure he didn’t follow suit.
“If you dolts don’t speed this up, I’m gonna put a hole in ya for each second of my time you’ve wasted!” he berated.
And then the lights in the building went out.
“Oh god fucking damn it,” the crime boss grumbled to himself. He instinctively started looking up at the ceiling, trying to make out something in the darkness.
“Where are you!” he screamed into the darkness. Gunshots began to sound off all around him, and he already knew what was happening. Picking them off one by one. Or two by two in this case.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” ran through his addled mind as it got more and more quiet.
“Harveyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy,” a taunting voice rang out through the dark. He let loose a stream of bullets in the direction of it, but only got silence in response. He then felt something zip around his legs, and his body was pulled into the air, hanging upside-down.
The lights went back on. Harvey, in his tilted world, could see the members of his crew were also all incapacitated. He spat on the floor in front of the pair of caped individuals standing before him.
“Not nice to take things that ain’t yours, Harv,” Batwoman said with a grin.
“Bite me,” he responded angrily.
“Tempting, but we ain’t that kind of bat,” she said, the pair walking out the exit. A number of police cars were waiting for them outside, Gordon standing at the forefront.
“We’re good?” the commissioner asked. Batman remained silent, leaving his partner to speak.
“Yep, Harv and his boys are all nice and cozy. Discussing economics and how damn hard it is to open a bank account these days,” the lady hero humorously said.
Gordon had to give that a little chuckle, then signaled for the rest of the force to move in. The boys in blue swept past the duo to enter the building, leaving the three alone.
“So how-,” Gordon started to say, before Batman shot his grapple gun up above, zipping out of sight.
Batwoman sighed. “Sorry Jim. He’s uhh...not in a good mood,” she explained.
“Seems like that’s been happening a while now. You do something to piss him off?” he inquired.
“Ain’t me. It’s something...personal,” she answered. On that note, a cable fired from her hip and she disappeared from his sight as well.
__________
The pair returned home in silence, not sharing a word. Batwoman knew the reason. He’d been doing the same thing for months now. As they entered the cave and parked, Batman quickly jumped out of the Batmobile, discarded his cowl on the floor like it meant nothing, and immediately went upstairs into the manor.
She sighed as she got off the Batcycle, removed her cowl and suit entirely, and then changed into more casual clothing. Once she was upstairs, she walked through the halls of...her home. She was going to call it Bruce’s, but he and Al had insisted it was every bit as hers as it was theirs.
“Good evening Harleen.” She looked up, seeing Lucius Fox before her.
“Hey Foxy,” she said. Normally she said it cheerfully, but recent events had kinda dulled her mood.
Still, Lucius gave her a chuckle before responding. “Appreciate you still bringing an air of levity to the place. Have a good night,” he said, passing her to leave.
“Night,” she said, proceeding to where she knew Bruce would be.
Beep...beep...beep…
The sound of the EKG monitor was the only audible sound in the room. Bruce stood over Alfred, watching him like a hawk. Harley’s expression turned sad as she approached.
“Bruce...he’s not gonna get any better if you stare at him long enough,” she said.
“He’s not getting better at all,” Bruce replied coldly.
“You know what the doctors said. All we can do is make him comfortable. That’s the best-,”
“The best we can do, I know. It isn’t enough,” he barked at her, before stomping away in anger.
She tried not to feel hurt, she knew he was in pain, but still his words stung.
How did things get so fucked up?