Anna's Beginning

The girls were sitting around the kitchen table as Alfred told embarrassing baby stories about Anna, they’d finished their dinner but weren’t quite yet ready to head back up to Anna’s room. Anna was having the time of her life, having a good friend like Jennifer and being able to let her know the real Anna.

“Anna, you never told me how fun Alfred was,” Jennifer laughed as Alfred beamed from ear to ear. Anna’s cheeks burned with embarrassment, but she didn’t mind.

“Well, I wanted you to find out for yourself how fun he is,” Anna said, grabbing her plate and Jennifer’s, and for the first time that Anna could remember, Alfred didn’t try to stop her. “So Alfred, where do you think Bruce has gone to, I haven’t seen him all day?”

“Oh, probably busy at the industry,” Alfred said calmly, “are you girls stuffed or would you like for me to whip you up some dessert?” Even though they were both full, the thought of dessert was just too irresistible. “Alright, how does hot fudge sundaes sound?”

“Yumm!!!” Jennifer exclaimed, and Anna laughed at her friends giddiness.

“Hey, Alfred, why don’t we have that on the balcony of the master bedroom, Bruce isn’t home yet,” Anna suggested, thinking about the swing chair up there and of the splendid view of the stars you could get up there.

“A balcony!?” Jennifer said, “Oh, please Alfred!”

“As you wish,” Alfred laughed, “I’ll bring the sundaes up to you.” If Jennifer hadn’t jumped up and down in her seat from excitement, Anna might have waited for Alfred, but she agreed and showed her friend up to the balcony. The stars were bright, the moon half full, the night air slightly cold, but pleasant. Anna sat down in a swing chair nearest the railing, looking up at the stars. Today was going by so wonderfully, and for the first time in Anna’s life, she was the one hosting the sleep over, even though she did live in this huge mansion. Anna looked over at her best friend, who was sitting in the swinging love seat, giggling delightedly. Anna just shook her head and laughed.

When Anna looked away from her friend, a movement down in front of the mansion caught her eye. Squinting down at the dim lighted grounds, Anna saw Alfred running for the garage. I wonder what he’s up to?, she thought curiously. A couple seconds later Alfred drove off in one of their vehicles.

“That’s odd,” Anna thought a loud.

“What was that Anna?” Jennifer asked, Anna was unsure if she asking about Alfred or what she’d just said.

“Umm, I wonder why Alfred would drive off like that and not tell us,” Anna spoke her thought out loud for her friend to hear. Jennifer jumped off of the swing seat, and walked over to the railing next to Anna, looking off in the direction Alfred had just left.

“Maybe he needed to get something for the hot fudge sundaes,” Jennifer suggested.

“No, he would have let us know, even asked us if we needed anything special. It’s not like him to rush off like that without letting me know where he’s going,” Anna said worriedly, “Let’s go down to the kitchen to see if we can find any clue as to why he left.” Anna said, already walking through the bedroom, Jennifer, with a perplexed look on her face, followed Anna back to the kitchen.

When they got there, it looked just as they’d left it, except for the boiling milk on the stove, ready for coco powder to be add. Alfred never left the house with something cooking. Anna went over to the stove and decided to make the hot fudge for Alfred. Jennifer sat down at the table, where Alfred had set three sundae glasses out.

“What do you wanting me to do?” Jennifer asked, looking around the kitchen for any hint as to why Alfred had left.

“Go stand out by the main entrance, when this is done cooking, I’ll come meet you there,” Anna said, stirring the coco powder and sugar together into the boiling milk. Jennifer did as she was told, leaving Anna in the kitchen by herself

Alfred’s POV

Alfred drove to where the locator showed Bruce to be. When he found him, he was mumbling something about bats, and wouldn’t respond to anything he said, this worried Alfred deeply. Hoisting Bruce's right arm over his neck, he half dragged half supported Bruce to the back seat of the car. Closing the door, Alfred was worried and not sure what to do, he’d never seen anything like this before.

About two miles from the mansion, he remembered that Anna and her friend were most likely waiting there for him, he couldn’t let them see that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Pulling off to the side of the road, he got out, got Bruce out of the Batman armor, and, luckily for him, there was a change of clothes to put him in.

Anna’s POV

Anna put the now cooked fudge into a jar then placed it into the fridge. After this she went to meet her friend at the main entrance. Alfred still hadn’t shown up, it’d been at least half an hour now, the fudge took a while to cook. Anna had been half hoping for Alfred to come into the kitchen while she was cooking thee fudge, just to prove to him that she really could make her own food. But knowing Alfred that still wouldn’t stop him from cooking, and not allowing her to.

“Has there been any sign of him yet?” Anna asked, now really getting nervous. Had Alfred hurt himself cooking, or had something happened to Bruce? She really hoped that there was some other reason for Alfred had left like that, but she couldn’t think of any.

“No, wait, I think I see headlights in the distance,” Jennifer said pointing toward the front gate. Anna looked in the direction her friend was pointing, and saw that she was right. Alfred came driving up, and instead of stopping at the main entrance, he when to the garage. “Come on Anna, let’s go.” Jennifer was about to go out the front door, but Anna grabbed her arm.

“Not that way, I know a short cut,” and with that they both ran off towards the inside door for the garage. When they got to the garage, Anna saw what she’d been praying she wouldn’t see. Alfred had Bruce's right arm over his head, and Bruce seemed to have been drugged, as he mumbling incoherently.

“Oh my God, Alfred what’s wrong,” Anna exclaimed running over and grabbing Bruce's free arm and slinging it over her own head. She may not be Bruce's biggest fan, or act the best to him, but he was her family.

“He was at a party, I think someone might have slipped something into his drink,” Alfred said, trying to mask his own worry, but Anna could still hear it.

“Umm, what should I do, should I call 911?” Jennifer asked, standing over at the door looking like a third wheel.

“No,” Alfred said, a bit hastily, “he just needs to sleep it off I'm sure.”

“Alfred, are you really sure, he just might need medical attention,” Anna disagreed.

“Well, how about this, if he’s not better by tomorrow afternoon, I will call Lucius,” Alfred offered. Anna knew Lucius, he’d been to one of Anna’s few birthday parties that consisted of more than her and Alfred. Lucius was a good friend of Alfred’s and Anna really liked him, also, he was a genius.

“Alright,” Anna agreed, after all, Alfred probably knew what he was talking about. Jennifer followed Anna and Alfred up the stairs back to the master bedroom. They laid Bruce down in his bed, and the girls left the room so Alfred could get him into some pajamas. A few minutes later Alfred came out of the room and walked the girls back down to the kitchen. He finished making the girls sundaes as they sat there in shocked silence.

“You two enjoy you sundaes, I have a mess in the back of the car to clean out,” Alfred said and walked out of the room.

“Sorry about that Jennifer, I didn’t mean for you to have to see something like that,” Anna apologized to her friend who was playing with her sundae. They were both too shaken up to eat their dessert.

“Does this happen often?” Jennifer asked.

“No, actually, this is the first time,” Anna said, “do you want to just put these in the freezer and go up to my room, I'm kinda tired.”

“Yeah, I'm not really hungry for dessert anymore,” Jennifer handed Anna her sundae. Anna gave her an apologetic smile before putting the sundaes in the freezer, then they went upstairs to go to sleep.

The next morning, Jennifer decided that with Anna’s dad the way he was, it would be best to postpone their weekend slumber party to some other time. Just after breakfast Jennifer’s parents came and got her, still breath taken from the enormity of the estate. Anna waved to her friend as she drove off, then she went up to Bruce's room, where he was still out of it.

Anna pulled up a chair next to Bruce, grabbed the glass of water that Alfred had left there, and put the glass up to his lips. Try as she might, she was only able to get Bruce to take a couple sips. She was really worried, if she didn’t know better, she would have guessed that Bruce's symptoms had gotten worse. Alfred came into the room as she set the glass back on the table.

“If you wish me to mistress, I will go and fetch Lucius, he’ll probably know what to do,” Alfred said, trying to comfort her.

“If you would please, Alfred,” Anna said, holding back tears as Bruce's eye rolled back in his head, but he kept breathing, which was a good sign. Alfred left Anna alone in the room with Bruce, and went to fetch Lucius. “What type of drugs did those people slip in your drink?” After sitting there for about an hour, Alfred finally arrived with Lucius.

“Hey kiddo, you look older every time I see you,” Lucius said patting her on the shoulder, then he focused on Bruce, “what are his symptoms Alfred?”

“Just as I told you, he keeps muttering about bats, it’s like his worst fear is surfacing,” Alfred informed Lucius. Bending over Bruce, Lucius checked Bruce's arm for a blood sample.

“Well, I’ll run a blood test, and hopefully I’ll be able to make an antidote,” he said, then walked off with Alfred. Anna decided that now was a good time to leave the room and take some personal time in her room. She had homework to finish before school tomorrow, and she also had to take a look at the newspaper, to see if there were any more articles about Batman. Unfortunately, today, the newspaper had nothing on him, even though for the past couple weeks, the newspaper hadn’t had anything else to talk about.

The next day at school was a normal school day, except for the fact that everybody at school seemed to know about what had happened to Bruce. Even Jennifer didn’t seem to know how they knew, but Anna didn’t really care.

After school Anna had to go and watch Jimmy and Jane. Even though the kids were just as well behaved as they were the first time, Anna couldn’t wait to get home, she was really worried about Bruce. When she got home Bruce was still in his bed, but Alfred informed Anna that Lucius had made an antidote, but that it would take a little to kick in, and that Lucius would be back tomorrow to make sure it worked. But in the time being, Alfred asked Anna a favor, and that was to help give out invitation for Bruce’s birthday party, which was supposed to be held the next day.

Anna didn’t understand why Alfred would still want to through a birthday party, seeing what condition Bruce was in, and also how Alfred knew that he was going to pull through. Anna had every bit of faith in Lucius, but she was still scarred. After spending what little time she had with Bruce, Anna now realized just how much he meant to her. The thought of losing him know seemed to cause such a large hole to form in her heart that Anna knew that she no longer truly hated Bruce; in fact, she loved Bruce.

After delivering a few more invitations, Anna decided that maybe Alfred had just done this to help get her thinking of other things, and also make things look less dyer than they seemed.
Just as Alfred had said, the following day, Bruce finally came around. His face was beaded in sweat as his eye slow flickered open. Alfred sat in a chair in front of him, stirring some Alka-Seltzer with some water. Anna stood behind him, a swarm of emotions flooding through her all at once.

“How long was I out?” Bruce asked.

“Two days. It’s your birthday. Many happy returns,” Alfred informed Bruce and then handed him the glass of fizzing water for him to drink.

After taking a sip Bruce said, “I’ve felt these affects before. But this was so much more potent. Some kind of, hallucinogen, weaponized, in aerosol form.” Anna had no idea what all this meant, but decided to stay around to find out what had happened to Bruce. Then Lucius stepped forward from the shadows, Anna had almost forgotten that he had been standing behind her.

“You have been hanging out in the wrong clubs, Mr. Wayne,” Lucius said. Anna saw a look of surprise fall across Bruce’s face as he laid eyes in Lucius and for the first time realized that Anna was in the room as well.

“I called Mr. Fox when your condition worsened after the first day,” Alfred explained, “Miss Wayne was getting worried.”

“I analyzed your blood, isolated the receptor compounds and the protein-based catalyst,” Lucius explained to Bruce.

In the Bruce Wayne fashion Anna was so used to, Bruce said, “Am I meant to understand any of that?” Even though normally this would have annoyed her, right now she was just too happy at the fact that he was back in the land of the live, as it would be said. Anna tried to stifle a smile.

“Not at all. I just wanted you to know how hard it was,” Lucius said, causing Anna’s smile to finally break through, “Bottom line, I synthesized an antidote.”

“Could you make more?” Bruce asked.

“You planning on gassing yourself again Mr. Wayne?” Lucius asked with a frown.

“Well you know how it is. You’re out at night looking for kicks…” Bruce said with a slight smile, “someone’s passing around the weaponized hallucinogens...” Anna couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but to her relief, she was hoping that she caught a slight hint of sarcasm in Bruce’s voice. Surely he wasn’t planning on putting Anna and Alfred through this hell again.

“I’ll bring what I have. The antidote should inoculate you for now,” Lucius said with the hint of a smile.

“That means he immune right?” Anna asked.

“Yes,” Lucius said to her, “Alfred, always a pleasure. Good day Dianna.” With a slight pat on her shoulder, Lucius exited the room and left.

“Lucius,” Alfred said in turn. Bruce remained there in his bed, looking as if he were thinking something over. Moving over to the bed Anna looked down at Bruce. She was so over joyed that he was fine a tear trickled from her face. Just as Brice looked up at her, Anna sat down on the edge of the bed and hugged her dad, tears now flowing from her eyes.

“I love you daddy,” she whispered loud enough for Bruce to hear.