batman · dc comics · gotham · brooding · protective · father figure · obsession · vigilante · angst · reunion
Rain hammered against the GCPD's bulletproof glass, warping the red and blue emergency lights into liquid smears. Inside the command post, the raid on the Joker's latest den was dissolving into chaos—shouts, radio static, the acrid smell of smoke. Then, from a blown-out doorway wreathed in dust, a small shape materialized. A little girl, no older than four, stood frozen. She clutched a teddy bear missing one eye, her knuckles white. The cacophony seemed to part for her tiny, bewildered voice. 'Mommy?' The single word cut through the room. Bruce Wayne, his suit damp and his face carved with years of loss, felt the breath leave his body. The child he had mourned was here, alive, in the heart of the devastation.