Chapter 20 – Shadow and the Soul

She cried for longer than he’d expected and blamed herself. Poor Anna was still traumatized and exhausted by her experience but refused to go back to bed. First she became angry when Bruce stood in front of her and told her as he attempted to prepare himself for whatever reaction he might receive from her.
Anna swatted at his arms though she wasn’t angry with him. They both knew it. She was angry with herself. It was because of her Luke had died and Alfred had been hurt. But Bruce took a few of the hits before they became a little painful, stinging at his skin, and pinned her arms to her sides.

He explained that Luke had died doing what he was meant to do. “He was doing his job. He was protecting you just as Alfred or I would have done,” Bruce said.
She broke down then. Her hands didn’t raise against him again but stayed at her sides as she seemed to dissolve into tears. Luke had only been part of her life for such a short time but she’d loved him in that time. Nothing had ever expressed such loyalty and devotion to her in her entire life.

Bruce released her arms and made no move for a moment as he watched her stand in front of him and cry. It seemed that was all she could think to do. He took her by her shoulders and pulled her to him, allowing her to cry, her tears staining her cheeks and his shirt as she sobbed.
It crashed harder upon her as he wrapped his arms around her and held her, allowing her to cry it out. Bruce was surprised at how her reactions had affected his feelings as well. A sharp pain and sinking feeling in his stomach took him over as he held her. It was a hollow, unexpectedly empty feeling that was familiar to him but he’d trained himself to ignore until now.

Anna calmed down after a little while as Bruce handed her the box of tissues that was on his dresser so she could wipe her face. She put a hand to his chest, feeling the damp spot on his shirt and began to dab at it with a clean tissue until he chuckled.
“I’m just – I can’t believe he’s gone but I’m just so glad it didn’t happen to you or Alfred – that you’re both still here with me.” She said sloppily.

Bruce took her by the hand and led her out to the grounds. She was happy to breathe the fresh air again. The wind was cold and bit a little at them. Autumn was definitely evident in the air now. It smelled like rain, damp and sweet. He brought her around to the back gardens on the path they normally walked together and to the mound of freshly dug soil that lay in front of the dozens of now dormant rose bushes by one of the stone walls.

He guided her to the ground and placed her hands on the earth, telling her what it was. Anna’s shoulders hunched and her head bowed. She clasped her dirty hands in her lap and closed her eyes as though she were saying a silent prayer.
A minute passed by in silence until she lifted her head again and got back to her feet.

“Thank you so much, Bruce. You and Alfred both have been so good, taking care of me and protecting me. I owe you my life. You once and Batman three times over I guess.” She said with a laugh.
That’s four lives she owes me, Bruce thought amusedly to himself.

“But,” she said hesitantly. “There’s no danger anymore so there’s no reason for my being here.”
“Are you sure?” Bruce cut himself off, snipping his voice on the last word but the question was already out. One thing he knew she was solely responsible for was for him losing control like that at times. He’d noticed it before but it didn’t start happening until they’d gotten better acquainted with each other.

Anna nodded, not taking notice of his strange tone of voice, “I’m pretty sure. I’ve more than overstayed my welcome.”
Another thing was about to burst from Bruce’s mouth but he held it back and reorganized his thoughts, “I don’t think you should be alone, Anna.”
“I won’t be. I’m going to stay with my cousin for a while. She and I are pretty good friends and I’m thinking her husband won’t mind…very much.” She said uncertainly as they walked back to the house. “He’s very nice but he’s kind of the possessive type.”

Bruce felt an overwhelming sense of confusion come over him that made him miss the humor in her voice. She was absolutely right of course. His job was done. He said he’d protect her and he did just that. Now it was time that Anna Kingston went back to her life – without him. It didn’t seem right and he couldn’t get a handle on why that was.
“Well, I’m glad she’ll be there for you.” Was all he could say to express himself.

Anna slept more that afternoon. Alfred went up to check on her and to see if she wanted anything for lunch, but seeing that she was asleep, he let her be and decided to prepare something for his master.
It had been two days since Master Wayne had brought her back home. The relief he felt was unimaginable and was closer to nearly killing him than the anxiety that had come over him when he’d realized she’d been taken.

At any rate, things had returned to normal – well, as normal as they could be considering who lived in the Wayne household. Normal. It was just that as far as Alfred was concerned. Anna wasn’t a guest to him anymore apparently, which made it that much harder when he learned that she would be leaving soon.

Alfred brought Bruce’s lunch down, down, down to him in the sublevel of the house. The lights were on in the equipment room and he found his young master sitting at a make shift work table, his back towards him as he tinkered on something when Alfred approached him.
He set the tray down and stood next to Bruce who didn’t look up to acknowledge his presence at all. He continued working on what looked like another experimental gadget of some sort. The purpose of which baffled Alfred for the moment.
Bruce refused to speak with a surprising will which left the two men staring at the odd piece of black equipment as Bruce seemed to be attempting to reassemble it.

“Miss Anna is resting again but she’s doing well,” Alfred finally spoke up.
“Good,” said Bruce shortly, nodding his head.
“She asked me to help her contact that cousin of hers who lives about thirty five miles north of the city. Is that acceptable to you, sir?”
“Whatever she wants is okay, Alfred,” Bruce said gruffly, still without a glance anywhere but the work table.

“Do you think that’s wise?” Alfred pressed on.
“She has a right to go, Alfred. This isn’t a prison,” Bruce said with a hint of impatience in his voice.
“I’m aware of that sir. I was only curious if there was anything else to keep her here,” Alfred spoke cautiously and slowly but made his point.

Bruce stopped his tinkering and lifted his head, turning to his friend. His fingers were dark and greasy up to the middle knuckles but he didn’t take notice as he folded them in his lap, giving Alfred a tight lipped smile. “You can’t be subtle with me anymore, Alfred. I’ve known you too long and I can guess what you’re implying. But I’ve let her get too close already. This isn’t a fairy tale. This isn’t a castle and she’s not some princess that needs rescuing. She’ll be grateful then she’ll move on. It’s just as well.”
“It may not be a perfect or even preferable situation, but forgive me sir if I say that you are mistaken,” Alfred said certainly.

“I’m willing to live with that, Alfred,” Bruce said, turning back to his work.
“You already live with too much you know,” he replied, looking down at his hands. “It may be a good change if you allow someone to help you live with all of that.” He sighed and patted his young friend on the shoulder. “Don’t let your soup get cold, sir,” he said gently as he stepped away from the work table and out of the room.

--

The day of Anna’s departure from Wayne manor was as any other day. The sky was a cloudy grey that seemed keep all of the cold air close to the ground, frosting the damp grass and the leaves on the trees.
Alfred had helped Anna with her arrangements in contacting her cousin, Corrine, and scheduling a taxi to pick her up at the Wayne house.

Bruce was nowhere to be found that morning after breakfast and after Alfred had rechecked Anna’s suit case at her request to make certain nothing was forgotten. He was still such a difficult man to decipher and this not showing up when she was supposed to leave was even more frustrating.

Anna decided that she’d hate him forever if he didn’t say goodbye. That’s all she wanted, one last word from his voice; one last feeling that he was close to her. It was typical, extremely typical – like one of those cheap paperback romance stories: Poor blind girl falls in love with handsome billionaire playboy. But she didn’t believe the playboy part of his story. Not anymore.
It was difficult to believe when she would hear about him and his social escapades on the news and now that she knew him on a more personal level it was impossible to believe. He definitely wasn’t the type most certainly and a lot of those stories Anna had heard about wouldn’t have fit in a schedule like Bruce Wayne’s.

Thunder rumbled outside in the early afternoon as Alfred helped Anna downstairs with her suit case. Her trusty wooden cane tapped gently down the steps as she moved it back and forth in front of her until the reached the landing.
“It should be here in a few minutes,” Alfred said, checking his watch. “I’ve made you a little lunch for the trip but if you’re hungry now I could – “
Anna smiled as she chuckled, “What will I do without you?”

Alfred stopped and saw the moisture in her eyes as she smiled. “I had the very same question.” He leaned her suitcase up against the base of the stair case and took her hand. “I’m not looking forward to how dull this house will be without you in it,” he said wistfully. “Just a large museum as it always was, I suppose.”
“I thought you loved this house, Alfred,” Anna laughed. “All of the Wayne history and everything.”
“I do, of course but you’ve added a lot more to it over this short time, my dear, more than you realize.”
A small tear rolled down her cheek and Alfred brushed it away, “None of that now or you’ll get me started.”

A car horn honked from the outside. The cab had arrived for her.
Alfred held her hand and carried her suitcase outside and down the stone steps to the drive where the taxi waited. They walked slowly together, reluctantly as Anna breathed in the air and made a memory of all of the smells she associated with this secretive palace she’d stayed in for such a short time.

Foot falls echoed down the steps from the front door of the house. Alfred glanced over his shoulder and quit his silent mental bashing of Bruce’s personality when he saw none other than Master Wayne himself rushing down the steps after them.
Anna heard the noise as well and stopped with Alfred, her expression puzzled.

“I can take that Alfred,” Bruce said as he caught his breath and took Anna’s suitcase out of Alfred’s hand. “Don’t you have something in the kitchen…that’s um…on fire or something?” he said lamely as Alfred smiled and nodded.
“Yes, of course, sir,” he placed Anna’s hand on Bruce’s arm and made his way back up the steps.

Anna’s smile could not be contained even though moments before she’d been thinking about killing this very same man who had finally decided to show up. “It’s about time,” she tried to sound annoyed but her smile made it difficult.
“I know it,” Bruce said as they walked the rest of the way to the drive.
“I didn’t think you were going to show up at all,” she said, still sounding happier than she wanted to.
“I wasn’t sure myself,” he confessed.
“Why?” the smile was nearly gone from the tone of his voice.

Bruce paid the driver who took the one suitcase and tossed it into the trunk and sauntered his way back into the driver’s seat.
Bruce looked down at Anna whose expression he couldn’t read at the moment. But he pursed his lips and focused his eyes on her in a way that if she’d seen his expression it would’ve made her feel extremely self conscious. But her face remained calm though still slightly confused.

“I’ve decided that I don’t want to say goodbye to you,” he said deeply in his throat.
“Alright,” Anna said slowly. “So what’s the plan?”

“I don’t want to say goodbye to you without –“ he paused as he tried to organize what he wanted to say in his head. There were too many bits and pieces he was trying to pull together all at once. “Anna, I just wanted to say before you go that I’m really glad you came here no matter what the circumstances,”
Anna let out a loud laugh, “Yeah, we had fun didn’t we? What with the attempted kidnapping and then the actual kidnapping and – “

Bruce put his fingers over her lips, “That’s not exactly what I meant. I wanted to tell you some things before but I didn’t believe I had the right or the ability to say them. I know you have to leave. It’s probably better for you if you do. But…I’m going to miss you, so much, Anna. You have to believe that.” He leaned down and kissed her softly with no resistance this time. “I hope can understand what I’m trying to say. I’m not the best at expressing myself.” He said after they broke apart.

“I know,” she said with a smile and flushed cheeks. “I know and I do understand, Bruce.” she said quietly so only he could hear. “You are more important to me than you know.” She reached up, finding his neck and cheek. She cupped his face with the palm of her hand and stood on her toes, “You will always be my Knight,” she whispered in his ear and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“I left you a little parting gift on your dresser. Alfred helped me put it together,” she held his hand in her own and squeezed it as Bruce opened the car door for her. She sat down in the back seat but didn’t let go of his hand. “I hope he knows that I’m so grateful to him though he doesn’t ask for any thanks,” her eyes sparkled a little as she spoke and Bruce frowned a little.
“I’m sure he does,” Bruce said oddly.
Anna nodded satisfactorily as Bruce shut the door. He stood on the first step of the house as he watched the taxi drive out of sight carrying one of the most remarkable women he’d ever met sitting in the back seat. After the cab had disappeared he ran back up the stairs and into the house, up the next flight up stairs and onto the second floor.

The lights came on in his bedroom and on the dresser was a small leather bound book. Bruce looked at the spine which read Timeless Poems. His brow knitted as he opened it and the book fell open to a marked page. A sonnet by Pablo Neruda.

Bruce’s eyes skimmed over the page. In the first stanza a portion of the poem was underlined by what looked like a shaky hand. There was no note, no writing in the margins or anything else. Bruce’s frown became more pronounced until he read the first stanza.
I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

“Certain dark things,” he muttered. Bruce’s expression remained unchanged as he read over the lines again and then the entire poem. It took a few seconds longer for his brain to come to any conclusion.
He looked up from the old book and breathed sharply, his lips parting in realization. “My Knight,” he whispered as Anna had done when she spoke the words to him just a few minutes before hand. A grin crept across his puzzled expression. He closed the book and set it down again on the wooden dresser as the rain began pattering on the glass in the window.

The End

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Author's Note:
First off, thank you to everyone who took the time to read and post reviews! It is much appreciated :)
I admit I'm not the most familiar with the Batman universe though he is my favorite of the Super Heroes that are around now. I wrote this because the concept of Bruce Wayne and Batman as two seperate people in one physical human being always has intrigued me. The concept of Anna, a blind woman accidentally getting involved in such a messy situation was irresistable when I thought of it and I had to start writing it down.
No, I have no ideas for a sequel in mind - please don't cheer too loud - and I like kind of the open ending anyway along with the subtle statement of "I know who you really are now.". It makes it fun.