The Batman's Daughter (except she doesn't know it)

Rachel and Bruce

Sorry about the delay - I've been working on school stuff, and my novel (which always comes first), but a certain fan (who knows who they are) inspired me to write what's going to be the final section - unless I get bugged for more. Feel free to submit ideas. It's kind of like a mini-contest.

(Oh, & ps - one of the characters I made up has the name of one of my fans - last, not first. Her I thank.)

In March, after the Joker almost killed me at the Iceberg Lounge, an official-looking letter arrived for me forwarded from Mom. I was suprised she hadn't opened it, but then, it was too fancy to be anything from one of my friends. (Cody had accidentally sent one of his love letters to me to our house, and she'd opened it and read it and now she wouldn't let it go when he was around.)

Dear Miss Hennessy, the Gotham Committee For Higher Education has selected you to be this year's recepient of the Rachel Dawes Scholarship Award...."  The formal font blurred in front of me as tears of joy filled my eyes. "Rachel's Award" as my dormmates jokingly called it (they all said I was destined to win because Gotham's best D,A and I shared the same name) was the biggest scholarship a girl in Gotham City could ever want, super-exclusive because only females were eligible and usable on any school in the nation. It was basically a free ride to your choice college; a lot of the underprivilaged, not-so-rich girls in the city who didn't want to be destined to a life in the Narrows with no husband, stretch marks and baby spit-up on your dilapidated blouse with missing buttons became workaholics when they hit high school purely because of it. It had always been Mom's dream, but it had transformed into mine when I read up on past winners: famed Arkham pyschiatrist Joan Leland, Gotham Times Editor-in-Chief, Pamela Lindsey, former Narrows resident and now Vogue model Kiki Clarke...confident, intelligent, empowering and beautiful, there was no room for bubble-brains among this bunch. I'd always intended to become one of them, and now I had my chance.

"Mom!" I shrieked into the phone....

Everyone was either happy for me or jealous, but the envious ones eventually got over it, since I'm not one of those people who brag and brag and brag nonstop. It's a Gotham Girls' Academy traditon to go to the ceremony and support our sister - we all wear her favorite color and scream like maniacs, clapping like madwomen worthy of Arkham's Complete and Total Incurable Insanity wing. I laughed out loud, imagining everyone there, a giant mass of giggling, well-made up (for the handsome, young businessmen, of course), purple. Maybe they'd even convince Cody to wear a purple tie....

It took place outdoors on a nice April day - my schoolmates took up a good chunk of the seating, all clad in purple and holding up big signs with my name on them (which made them look like an obsessed cult, but I appreciated the gesture so much I cried off my mascara. Then I saw him - Bruce Wayne - looking sophisticated and handsome in a dark blue suit and striped tie. Mom was probably having heart palpitations, though she hid it well. Apparently her Bruce-crush was way more severe than previously known.

The president of the Gotham Committee For Higher Education gave a lengthly, and admittedly, boring speech (we all gritted our teeth and yawned behind our smiles), it was time for me to get up there and be presented the award. I was glad to stretch my legs (though my feet hurt in my new heels), and seeing my family (Mom) and friends out there made me feel confident enough to take on the Joker again.

"Miss Hennessy." Mr. Willison shook my hand, the eyes in his craggy face serious. "You make our city proud."

"Thank you, sir," I replied.

I was walking offstage when Bruce Wayne came over.

"She would have liked you, I think. Then, she would have liked all these girls." I felt sad for him- we'd all heard the story of Rachel Dawes twenty times over: how she was Bruce's real love and he'd been upset when she took up with Harvey Dent, and then when she died in the explosion..... Her grave was one of the most-visited in the city, aside from Bruce's parents'.

"I'm named for her," I added.

"I figured. She'd say she wasn't good enough for that."

"Well, I always looked up to her."

He smiled, and I was just about to ask the most important question of the day when he started speaking.

"Do you want me to sign that program? A friend said you're collecting autographs."

"You know the Batman?" I goggled, shocked and then realized - of course. He's BRUCE WAYNE. He knows everyone...except....

"Mom!"

She came running over in her new white sundress with cherries that made her look fresh-faced and young, like a perfume ad model.

"Mr. Wayne, this is my mom. Mom, this is...well, obviously."

"Nice to finally meet you. I'm a big fan," she blushed. Luckily I had my camera so I could take a picture of them together. Another addition to the scrapbook!

I pasted the autographs and picture in on the last day of term, after I was tired from partying with my friends. It was exciting to know I'd see some of them again at Gotham U. The taxi driver recognized my picture from the newspaper (Pamela Lindsey had actually interviewed me!!!!), so he took special care to rush me home.

"Hi, Mom," I called, and she ran and hugged me.

"I can't believe you're a college girl now!!!!!!!"

"Yeah, me neither. I have a present for you."

We spent a good two hours flipping through those scrapbooks, and when we got to the newest additions, she went crazy.

"Rachel!!!! I can't believe....This means so much to me, sweetheart."

"It does to me, too, Mom. Promise you'll visit me at college."

"Oh, I will...I love you, Rachel."

"I love you, too, Mom," I answered.

"

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