Prince of Darkness ~ Gotham

~ Chapter Twenty Seven: Bombing Rocks Gotham ~

"Hey! I thought I was gonna have to work this case without you!" Harvey looked up as he saw Jim walk through the precinct doors. "Where the hell have you been? You know what? On second thought, never mind. I don't want to know," "What do we have?" Jim asked. "A biggie," Harvey showed him the file. "Blackgate prisoner escaped while in transit to St. Mark's for psychiatric care. His name's Ian Hargrove. Clinically insane, with a compulsion for blowing things up. He exploded a bunch of old buildings around Gotham. Last one, two janitors were killed,"

"Says here he was busted out by four gunmen?" Jim read with a questioning look. "Yeah, which is odd. Hargrove never used accomplices," Harvey responded. "All right, so who did Hargrove spend time with at Blackgate? Who did he communicate with on the outside?" Jim questioned. "His entire stretch, he was isolated from Gen Pop. Never made or received phone calls. Only one visitor in those two years: His brother John," Harvey spoke as he took off his glasses and cleaned them.

Jim asked Harvey if they managed to get the address of the brother. "We do," Harvey confirmed. "Unis are bringing him in right now for questioning. We're lucky you deigned to show up," "Yeah, sorry. Took longer than I expected it to be," Jim sighed. "Girl trouble again?" Harvey queried. While Jim didn't say it verbally, Harvey could tell just by the way his partner fidgeted in his seat that there was indeed continued trouble in paradise. "I told you. Those high society dames get you all twisted," He reminded.

Jim just nodded and continued flipping through the case, brushing off the comment.

~~~~~~~~~

The first night at Wayne Manor wasn't as bad as Holly thought it would be. While Selina didn't completely stop being grabby with the expensive jewels and décor, she was starting to behave herself and even joined in the conversations between Holly and Bruce. While most of their conversations were about school and what Bruce had been up to regarding his own investigation, Selina didn't hesitate to give her input and cracked a joke now and then. Turns out Selina did have a friendly side after all.

That next morning, Bruce and Alfred went outside in the garden for Bruce's first day of training. They both put on their slightly worn boxing gloves, and on Alfred's count, they started the match. "Keep your guard up. Knock lumps out of ya! Watch your feet. Right," Alfred instructed. As Holly reached the bottom of the steps, she followed the sounds and peered outside. Bruce stumbled a bit on his feet but did his best to fight back. He knew from the very moment he asked Alfred to teach him how to fight that the butler would not take it easy on him. But the first time caught him completely off guard.

"Jab, jab, right. Lead with the Jab, jab, right," Alfred demonstrated, and Bruce followed soon after, eventually getting the hang of it. Out of the corner of his eyes, Alfred saw Holly watching them, and Selina poked her head out of the side of the doorframe with a tiny smile. With this distraction, Bruce jabbed Alfred in the gut. "Oi! Bloody hell," Alfred warned. "Sorry, Alfred," Bruce apologized, gesturing for the girls to join them.

Before Bruce could react, Alfred returned a blow, punching the young boy in the shoulder. "Hey, that hurt!" Bruce remarked, grabbing his shoulder with a gloved hand. "Yeah, it's supposed to, isn't it? Taking a punch is just as important as throwing one, Master Bruce," Alfred explained. "What you doing?" Selina asked. "Alfred's teaching me to fight," Bruce answered. Selina quirked an eyebrow as she inquired as to why. "So I'll be prepared if something bad happens,"