This Gray Weather Will Fade

Who’s side was he really on?

Nora sat back, staring into the blackness of her television screen. She had watched each and every video Gordon handed her back at his office and had now finally finished them, keeping her up late into the early morning hours.

Nora’s mind went into overdrive, breaking down every scrap of information, whether useless or misleading , about the Batman. It was something about the guy that didn’t make sense. He was clearly the city hero, saving the citizens of Gotham on every level, and out of nowhere, he kills five people?

Batman was a vigilante to the city, and that spark of news that he killed innocent civilians had the whole city on an uproar and finally got rid of the floodlight on top of the police building. Additionally, any report of sighting the Batman was required to be recorded and immediately given to a detective squad for deep investigation. Just as this went underway, Batman disappeared. No one had any sign of his whereabouts since, and no one has even made the attempt to look for him.

In Nora’s mind, they hadn’t searched hard enough. No one just vanishes like that. Especially someone who has been, or who was, a hero in the people of Gotham’s eyes.

That was it, that’s what she was going to do. Nora turned off the television and walked over to her desk, flipping through her file folders and searching for still photo shots of the Batman. Nora was going to personally investigate the Batman. She was going to find out who he was, and what his exact intentions were. Was he really a hero? Or was he another manipulative being?

Nora had to know what the Batman was really about. There were so many things about him that put him right on the border line of skeptical and unsure.

Nora found the file and turned on the overhead lamp for extra lighting. In her hands was the perfect shot of Batman, cape and all in his interrogation with the Joker. Nora smirked, she knew exactly where to start.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, there was a light shining brightly outside Nora’s window. She rolled her eyes at the distraction, tearing herself away from her work and over to the window. Nora couldn’t work until she found out what was going on.

She got up for a moment, pulling back the edge of the curtains and peering out onto the city streets. The traffic was busy, something Nora could never get used to, even in Portland. She searched for the source of the light, and just as she was about to turn away from the window, there it was, something in the midnight sky that caught her eye. She peered intensely, trying to make out the figure inside the spot light.

A bat. I thought it was taken down..

Nora acted quickly and threw her black zip up hoodie on as she turned off the desk light and made her way to the door, pulling up her hood and letting her dark brown hair fall and tangle outlining her face, her green eyes glowing.

She grabbed her keys, and disappeared behind the closing door.

-

Nora turned off her lights in the dark alley and tried to peer through her windshield being pounded on by the rain. She had been driving for awhile and had finally stumbled upon some kind of disturbance that looked rather peculiar.

She parked as quietly as she could and watched carefully. It seemed nothing out of the ordinary, just a group of men separated by the road leading into the alley. No doubt it was a drug dealing, Nora thought.

All Nora could do was watch, she couldn’t very well go out there and take them all out with her umbrella. She wasn’t certified yet to carry a gun, and even though she didn’t really care, she didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot.

She tapped her fingers along her steering wheel, causing her to rethink her decision. No, not her decision of coming out here in the thunderstorm, but sitting in her car and watching whatever this was go down.

Nora rolled her eyes once more and opened the door, getting out as swiftly and quietly as she could, already getting drenched by the rain pouring down on her head and shoulders.

She wiped her wet bangs out of her face and bent over and tip-toed her way over to the security of the building a few feet away from the occurrence. Nora kept low and peered her eyes on over to the group. It seemed pretty calm, no guns that she could see, and no hostages...

Oh wait, there’s one. Nora caught glimpse of someone in the back of a van with a brown bag over their head with their hands tied. Her mind instantly thought back to Portland and the incident that Winters sent her packing over.

Nora needed to get closer, to see if there was any serious injury of the poor soul who was caught up in this mess. She looked across the alley and saw a dumpster along side the brick wall of a building. She could only get one shot at it, since it was only a few feet away from the group and one wrong move she would get noticed.

Nora closed her eyes and readied herself, just as she was about to take a step a loud shout was heard from the group. Nora opened her eyes, and could just make out the figure in the darkness moving around swiftly and unnoticeably.

The mask was unforgettable, and Nora could only watch in awe as he took down each man one by one, before they were all knocked unconscious and their hands tied tightly behind their backs.

Finally, there he was, Nora could see him now as a flash of lighting outlined his features, his black armor shining against the drops of rain falling against it. He stood towering over the bodies, and Nora could see him breathing heavily from the rise and fall of his chest, and his breath blowing about in the cold night air.

He started to turn slowly towards Nora’s direction, and she gasped quietly as she hid herself in the darkness of the building once more. She held her breath, scared he would see the cloud of air escaping from her mouth.

Nora could see his shadow growing closer and closer towards her with painstaking slowness. She inched her footing deeper and deeper into the separate alley next to her, until she finally turned around and started to walk away, thinking she was undetectable.

Nora jumped at the sight of him suddenly in front of her, towering over her just as she saw him with the others, and from what she could see and what she remembered from the videos, he hadn’t changed. The armor, the mask, and of course, the cape.

“You shouldn’t be here.” His voice growled against the harsh wind of the storm, and Nora’s fingers twitched at the sound.

“And you should?” She snapped back.

“I can handle it.” He assured her. Nora crossed her arms, not giving any sign of walking away. “Don’t try and be a hero, it’ll only get you killed.” His voice softened, and this made Nora ease up on her hold.

“I’d rather try than sit around and do nothing, something that’s popular in the police force in this city.”

“You can’t stop what’s coming. If you get mixed up into things with the Joker, you won’t be able to handle it.”

“How do you know?” Nora asked, getting information about him that he didn’t know he was giving her.

“I went through it.” Batman turned away to leave but tilted his head back towards her, “Don’t follow me. It won’t lead you anywhere.” And he was gone into the darkness.

-

Nora stormed through the wooden doors of the office and made her way over to the only familiar man she knew. Eyes followed her as she approached Commissioner Gordon’s office, not even bothering to knock but throwing the door wide open before it recoiled and slammed itself shut.

Nora stood with arms crossed, and clothes still soaked from the downpour still on a rampage outside. Gordon looked surprised, and who wouldn’t be? Nora was soaking wet with her hair disheveled and in her face, Gordon didn’t call her in to meet with him, and it was three in the morning.

“Miss Gray?” Gordon asked, still wide-eyed with not knowing what was wrong.

“What the hell is going on?” Nora asked, staring hard at the man who was now standing to face her.

“What are you talking about?” He shook his head and shrugged, clearly oblivious.

Nora leaned over and put her hands on the desk, “Is the Batman secretly working for you?”

Gordon’s mouth was now ajar slightly and he adjusted his glasses while he cleared his throat. “Where did you hear this?” He tried to sound amused but Nora saw right through it.

“I saw him.” She raised her voice suddenly.

“You saw him?” Gordon was even more shocked, Batman was never one to show himself to people, especially a new transfer police officer no one really knew anything about.

“Yes, I saw him!”

The Commissioner sat back down to try and act natural. “Well that will be the first spotting in ages.” He smiled until he saw Nora’s features tense. “Nora, I don’t know what to tell you, we’ve been ordered to arrest the Batman on sight. Why you would think...”

Nora shook her head and whispered in her infamous clever tone, “If you knew anything about me Commissioner, you’d know I’ve already figured out more than what your leading me to believe.”

The Commissioner was suddenly very quiet, and Nora knew he was contemplating what to do next. Gordon’s gaze shifted towards the window and he got up to close the blinds and make sure the door was completely closed behind Nora.

Gordon rubbed the back of his neck and held out an arm gesturing to the chair in front of his desk, telling her to sit down. Nora did hesitantly, and she watched Gordon stand at his desk, the tension and confidentiality of the story he was about to tell was weighing heavily on his shoulders.

“The Joker, I’m sure you know already, tried to..” He waived his hands around trying to find the right phrase, “Show Gotham there was no such thing as a right person in the world. He focused on the man who had finally brought some light to the city, and who we all respected, looked up to.”

“Harvey Dent.” Nora cut in. Gordon nodded and pointed at her telling her she was on the right track.

“The Joker killed the people closest to Harvey, who turned out to be his fiance, Rachel Dawes. Harvey lost it after she was killed. He threatened to kill my family, and he ended up killing five other people, two of them cops that had turned against us and worked for Joker.” Gordon leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the desk.

“Harvey’s death was an accident. He fell from an unstable building when Batman tried to save my son from Harvey. The only ones who actually know what happened is myself and my family, and of course, Batman. We could only make the decision to blame the deaths on Batman, so the people of Gotham wouldn’t know what Harvey did, and therefore, the Joker wouldn’t win.” Gordon sighed heavily and looked over at you for the first time as he spoke.

“But the Joker’s escaped. And I’m confident he knows what really happened. And I’m confident, he’ll try and do the same thing again. We haven’t had any sign from him yet, but we know it’s coming.”

“Do you trust him?” Nora asked.

“Batman? With my life.” Gordon nodded.

Nora nodded and got up and opened the door, turning around to face Gordon, “We’ll stop him.” She whispered, a strong tone that reassured the Commissioner. Gordon nodded once and Nora left his office.

Nora walked out of the building feeling the greatest feeling of trust between her and the Commissioner, and more importantly, a confident feeling in Batman.

Speaking of... Nora looked up where she parked her car, of course, in the alley next to the police building.

“What did Gordon say?”

“Are you following me?” Nora had her hands in her pockets and her hood up, she tilted her head and smirked slightly.

“I don’t know if I can trust you.” He said.

“Read my file.” Nora got into her car but a hand stopped her door from shutting.

“Do you trust me?” His voice softened, but it’s real voice was still hidden.

“I’m getting there."