“You don’t have a choice, Mrs. Seferton,” Jim Gordon said. He was nearly sick with frustration and fostering an ulcer. “Batman is your daughter’s only chance.”

“No!” she screamed. “I refuse to believe that! I won’t have him touching my child! I don’t even want the police involved!”

“Don’t you give a damn that some maniac has your daughter, woman?!” Gordon snapped. He didn’t mean to do it. His patience with this radical was wearing thin.

“How dare you?!”

“If you want to see your daughter alive again, it’s going to take the Batman to get her.”

“No! God wouldn’t have taken her if it wasn’t His will!”

Doug Seferton shook his head. He was a wreck. His wife, who had always been a bit of an extremist when it came to religion, had gone off the deep end since the man from his work - Joe Taylor - had taken Amanda. He wanted to scream and rage as well, at her. Maybe if Batman found their little girl he would also save their marriage. He couldn’t stay with someone like this. Not anymore.

“You need to be sedated,” Gordon said, trying to stay calm. “Don’t you realize that your tearing that man apart?” he asked as he pointed toward Doug.

“It--” Doug stopped. He had been going to say it was okay but it really wasn’t. No way in hell was this okay. “I need to talk to my wife in private.”

“Fine,” Gordon sighed. “Get her out of here.”

Doug Seferton frowned, his face had become a barren desert of lines since Amanda had been stolen from their front yard, the creases there had been cemented when Joy lost her mind.

“Look,” Doug said as he shut the door of Gordon’s office. “She’s my little girl. Our little girl. God isn’t going to help us. He never has.”

Joy looked shocked. “Blasphemer.”

“Maybe so but I’m putting my stock in Batman. He gets things done.”

“He’s of the Devil!”

“Then I’ll see you in hell.”

Joy stared at him, wanting to say something but knowing that it would fall on deaf ears as Doug opened the door to Gordon’s office and left her standing in the vacated police station.

“Commissioner,” Doug said as he came back in, alone this time. “I’m sorry… about all of this.”

“We’ve done everything we could, Mr. Seferton.”

“I know. And I understand that. I just want my little girl back.”

Gordon crossed his arms and nodded at him. He could understand that. He couldn’t begin to imagine how much it would hurt to have Barbara taken from him.

“Should I call him?”

“Yes,” Doug nodded. He was glad to be doing this but exuberance wasn’t something he was experienced with lately. “Please.”

Gordon picked up his telephone and rang up a number. “Montoya? Gordon. The signal.”

“You be good now, Ralphie,” the guard said.

“How’s your wife, Gladstone?”

The guard glared at him for a moment.

“She was real good before they put me in here. She still a little dynamite? Huh? Or did you knock her up?”

“Shut up, you trash.”

“You don’t please her, Gladstone. You know you don’t.”

“Go to hell,” Gladstone sneered. He took off. Mackey would only make his ulcer worse.

“Whatcha doin’ queer?” Mackey said as he popped Garfield on the back.

Lynnes hissed at the impact of the big man’s hand. “I was trying to read.”

“Playing it nice for your hearing tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Lynnes said. He was getting out on good behavior and he was damn well not going to blow it now. Arson was a high crime. They didn’t understand the beauty of the fire.

“What’s the book?” Mackey said, as he ripped the volume out of Lynne’s hands.

“Hey!” Lynnes said, coming off of his bed then being slammed back down by the massive man’s hand.

“Sit down, queer. Dan Tay huh? Some kind gay porno?”

“No,” Lynnes said coolly.

“Huh. Well, reading never did nobody no good anyway,” Mackey said, tossing the book out the window and into the Gotham bay outside.

“Hey!”

“Take your pants off, squirt.”

“What?”

“You heard me. You’re leavin’ tomorrow and I want to give you a goin’ away present.”

“That’s really not necessary.”

“Look,” Mackey said as he began to unfasten his belt. “I ain’t exactly askin’ you.”

“I don’t want--” Lynnes began then was stopped short again as Mackey overpowered him down onto the bed.

“Time to go, bitch.”

No, Lynnes thought. This couldn’t happen. He was a good man. He wasn’t supposed to have this happen. His breath was coming in harsh rasps as Mackey went about his business. Lynne’s eyes dilated then filled with tears. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Let me go!” he cried. Why weren’t the guards coming? Didn’t anyone care?

“Shut up your mouth!” Mackey heaved then punched him in the back of the head. Lynnes’ skull bounced off the broken springs of his bed. That was it. That was it, damn him. He felt around behind the bed. He knew he put them there, somewhere. He just had to find them. He had to hurry. Where were they? His mind was racing as he desperately fingered around the backside of the bed. They were gone. No, they couldn’t be. He had to find them. They were his only chance. Where the hell were they?!

Ah-ha.

“Let me go, Mackey,” Lynnes whispered. “Last chance.”

Mackey didn’t respond beyond a throw of passion. That was fine, Lynnes didn’t really expect him to. Didn’t particularly want him to either. He ran his hand up the side of the gray black wall of their shared cell then reached back behind him and grabbed. Mackey screamed and lurched backward across the room.

“AAAH!” Mackey cried. “Jesus it burns!”

Yes. Yes it does, Lynnes smiled.

“My wife didn’t want you involved. She didn’t really want the police involved.”

“I don’t understand,” Robin said. “I thought you said your daughter was kidnapped.”

“You’re not the only one, kid,” Doug Seferton said.

“Amanda Seferton,” Gordon said as he handed Batman a folder of pictures Doug had provided. “Eight years old, Caucasian. She attends Scott Elementary.”

“Isn’t that kind of arrogant?” Robin asked. “He’s been in power for what? A year?”

“He’s an ass,” Batman said. “But that’s not important right now. Tell me what you know, Jim. You too, Seferton.”

Doug Seferton laid his head in his hands half out of exhaustion from dealing with the last three days and half out of misery. “It was all so fast, Batman.”

“Just tell me what you know.”

“There was a guy at my work -- I work for Miller Construction -- name of Joe Taylor. He always seemed a little strange, I don’t know - weird - but nice kind of. I invited him over for dinner since he said he didn’t have any place to go. The next day I looked outside where Mandy was supposed to be playing with her friends and she was gone. Nobody’s heard from Joe since.”

“Pretty obvious who did it,” Robin said.

“Yes but where did he go? What has he done with her?”

“Oh, God…” Doug moaned. “What am I gonna do?”

“He’s here now,” Gordon said, putting his hand on Seferton’s shoulder as he nodded towards Batman. “Everything will be okay.”

“Hr. Anything else, Jim?”

“That’s about the extent of it Batman.”

“What about contacts?” Robin suggested. “Do you have any background on Joe Taylor? Who he might talk to, where he might go?”

“No,” Gordon said, his face downcast. “He’s a blank.”

“It’s an alias,” Batman said. “Not many people have such ambiguous names.”

“If you need any help--”

“If I need any help it’s time I retire.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said with a smile.

“Kind of a bad part of town. Hell, the whole place is a bad part of town. No place for a pretty woman like you.”

“You should know Italian women are tough,” she said with a smile. “I can handle myself.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes,” she said as she stepped out onto the street and leaned her dark head back into the cab of his car. “I’m sure. Thank you for the lift and for caring about my well being.”

“You’re welcome. Hey, if you’re ever in Pittsburgh give me a call. Maybe we can get a coffee or something?”

“Sure,” she said silkily.

He smiled as she closed the door then looked at the woman he wished he had a chance with and drove on. He had places to be, just like she did. Things didn’t always work out the way you would like.

“Well,” she said as she took a deep breath and surveyed the city she hadn’t seen since thirty was still half a decade away. “I’m back.”

No one was going to save her. No one was going to help. She wanted to grow up and marry her boyfriend Tommy then be a ballerina, a figure skater, and an astronaut. She wanted to have a little baby and tell her stories the way her mother had. They were childish dreams, not yet mature enough to dream any others, but they were hers and now they were over. The minutes ticked into days as she realized that all of the things her mother told her were a lie. She was never going to see Tommy or her parents or her little dog Penelope ever again. She cried a lot now. Crying was better than thinking. It hurt less.

Joe came in early tonight. Right after the news. “Hey, little girl,” he purred. “You still awake? It’s past your bedtime.”

Amanda began to tear up again as he took off his shirt and tried to beg him once again through the tape over her mouth. There was no negotiating with him. That was why she was bound.

“The newsman says they’re trying to find me,” Joe said. “The cops.” He laughed a dark, bitter laugh. “Load a’ crap that is.”

They were trying. It was little relief. They wouldn’t be here soon enough to stop him. They hadn’t been here for what seemed like years. In that time Amanda’s world had changed completely. It didn’t matter if they did find her, the little girl they were looking for was dead and buried in Joe Taylor’s bedroom.

“You ready for some action?” Joe said as he came towards her unbuckling his belt. She shook her head and moaned against the duct tape that she wasn’t, that she never would be. Why didn’t he stop?

“That’s about what I figured,” Joe said as he kissed his on the forehead. “Such a pretty girl.”

There was a crash from the living room.

“What the hell was that?” Joe said, stopping short from crawling on top of her as he picked up his gun and ran towards the noise. He was well prepared to shoot any pig stupid enough to step through that door.

He leaned up against a door facing and checked his gun. Locked and loaded. How many of them were there? he wondered. There was no way to tell. He would just have to jump into them shooting and let God sort ‘em out. What right did they have to come into his home like this? He took a deep breath, let his righteous rage flow through his veins giving him courage then leaped out of the door. A fist hit him in the face and he was down.

“That was quick,” Robin said. “I didn’t even get a chance to do anything. I could have been at home studying for Ms. Bertenelli’s exam tomorrow!”

“Hr.” Batman growled as he picked up Taylor’s body and slammed him against the wall, breaking the boards there with his back, until he regained consciousness.

“Wh-What the hell?” Taylor murmured as he came around. He saw Batman’s face sneering at him with a burning hatred and his manhood ran down his leg to a puddle on the floor.

“Yes,” Batman said simply. Robin had been trying to lighten the mood since Taylor had gone all over himself in the hallway but so far it had come to nothing. “You’re okay now,” he told the little girl. “No one is ever going to hurt you again. I promise.”

Amanda gazed up at them with tear stained eyes. She was amazed. Her mother had been right after all. There really were angels.

“Shilo go home?” Bruce asked as he rubbed his wet hair with a towel. Alfred looked at him and thought he resembled a barbarian without a shirt and with his wet, bedraggled hair.

“Yes, Master Bruce,” he said, rolling his eyes at Bruce’s appearance. “He said he had to study for an examination.”

“Hm. Yeah, he told me about that. One day I’m going to have a partner who doesn’t have spelling tests or mid-terms.”

Alfred chuckled. “Yes, sir.”

The sound of the doorbell chimed through the otherwise silent house. Bruce combed his hair with his hands and headed towards the door. “I’ll get it Alfred,” he said.

“I can get it, sir.”

“Yeah, but you’re busy folding those clothes. Don’t worry about it. I’m not helpless.”

“No, sir.”

Bruce checked his hair in TV screen as he crossed the living room and hoped it wasn’t anything important or some sort of new problem waiting for him on the other side. He wiped his face with his towel then sighed and opened the door.

“Oh,” the woman standing there said, covering her smile with her hand as she looked at him. “Um… Hi, Bruce.”

“Selina…”