Miriam

I don’t understand Crane. I don’t think I ever will, not truly. I’m good at reading people, and I….love…him, in my way. But I won’t ever know him fully, won’t know how to keep Scarecrow from coming out, why he wakes up sometimes with screams of birds on his lips. I won’t ever know why he chose to go after Bane, of all people.
It’s a few weeks after I had the fear toxin, and his wounds are mostly healed. He doesn’t talk of Joker. I sleep in his bed every night, though we don’t talk of that either. I wake up one night with him pressed above me, holding my arms over my head, the yellow gleam of Scarecrow in his eyes. I don’t struggle, just whisper, “Jon,” and wait as he relaxes and rolls back over, presses his face into my shoulder. I stroke his hair and smile in the dark, confident that I’ve soothed the monster. Of course, I’m wrong.

I never knew the Catwoman. I rather liked Poison Ivy, and I have met Joker, but Catwoman was a mystery. I didn’t know that she had something going on with Bane. I would’ve hidden Crane if I knew. Crane could handle one villain, but two was too much. I would’ve hidden him.

I wake up alone, reaching blindly for Crane. He isn’t there, and all is silent. I feel the first instinct of panic, something badwrongnasty. “Crane?” Of course, there’s no answer. I dress quickly, search the rooms and realize his mask and toxins are gone. He’s left without me, I know already, to do something stupid.

He had no real reason to attack Bane. They weren’t enemies. But Crane has this nasty, vicious streak inside him. He likes to snap out and bite and hurt. So he attacked Bane. Bane was left kneeling on the ground filled with fear toxin, by all accounts taking it better than most people, just staring into space. There was no way Crane would’ve gotten away with it. It was his M.O. I would’ve stopped him, if I had the chance.

Crane comes back eventually, tears the mask off to grin at me. I sit on the sofa, legs crossed, tapping my fingers angrily against a book I can’t focus on. I hate when he goes out without me. “Hello, Miriam.” I try to ignore the pleased look on his face. I finally sag and put the book down.
“What did you just do?” He sprawls himself next to me, uncharacteristically loose. He turns his smile on me, and once again I’m surprised by the surge of affection I feel for him.
“I got Bane.” I stiffen, thinking of Bane’s cold, black eyes, the sheer size of him. I know he’s going to come for Crane, and he’s going to break him. And I realize, clearly, that I can’t do that. I can’t go through that. I’m standing up, feeling the anger build, rage my response to everything.
“Do…do you have any idea of what you’ve done? What’ll he’ll do to you?” I hiss as the grin fades from his face. “He’ll fucking snap you in half, just…You got lucky with the Joker, Crane. If he didn’t need you, you’d be dead. And Bane doesn’t need you. He…You can’t antagonize people like that, Crane. They’re not human, they never stop, they don’t know how to!” His lips are pressed together, but Scarecrow hasn’t come out yet. “Why did you do this?” I ask, voice cracking.
“I…” He goes silent, looking at his hands. “I don’t know. I just wanted to.”
I huff and sit next to him. “I’ll do my best to protect you from this.” He looks sideways at me.
“You’re not really my bodyguard anymore.”
“You’d better pay me anyway.”
He smiles. “Of course.”