Lucy Quinzel- A Short Story

Part 3

The next morning I woke up in Ivy's arms still on the sofa. We'd evidently fallen asleep there last night.

To my surprise, Lucy wasn't yet awake and running circles round the house, like she usually would. Naturally I began to worry, as I frantically got up and went to check on her in her room. She was fine, still fast asleep, as I guessed she would be, but I still get very protective of her. I don't know why, it's just I hate to think what could happen if the Joker actually found out that she existed. He would definitely take her away from me, just to torture me, just to use me for some plan or scheme. I had done so well to get away from him, even moved with Ivy halfway across the country, just so he wouldn't find us and more importantly, wouldn't find Lucy. But when something didn't happen as should do with Lucy, I automatically panic.

Ivy must have woken up and sensed my distress as she appeared next to me, giving me a hug and telling me not to worry before walking to our room to get dressed.

I was hoping that Lucy would ask again about her father at a suitable time, like not whilst i'm driving or in the middle of the Walmart queue, but you know i'm not exactly sure she will. She was a spontaneous child, when she thought something she'd say it out loud wherever we were, which most of the time ended in embarrassment for me and Ivy and second hand embarrassment for the people witnessing the scene. 

Luckily for me, she asked at breakfast, which although I wasn't ready to have this conversation that early in the morning, at least she hadn't asked whilst we were going into the school gates, or in the dance class she'd go to after school.

"Well Lucy," I started sitting her down on the sofa with both me and Ivy.

"Back when Mummy was in Gotham, she was a psychiatrist. They help people who are poorly." I continued slowly. I decided to start at the beginning, and tell her the whole story, trying to tell her in a way she would understand.

"Like a doctor in a hospital?" Lucy asked, her eyes lighting up with wonder. I shook my head.

"Not people who are physically poorly, I used to help people who had a poorly brain which would sometimes make them do bad things. And I worked at a special hospital, the same hospital that both me and Ivy were in when we were poorly."

Lucy nodded carefully, but didn't say anything, so I continued.

"And well at this hospital, I fell in love with your daddy, who was my patient. His name was Jack Napier. Your daddy was a bad man, and he would do bad things and bad things to me. So when I found out I was going to be your mommy, I ran away from him. I ran away because I knew that I could never let him do bad things to you too Lucy." I told her, tears were escaping my eyes now, softly staining my cheeks.

"Don't cry Mommy!" Lucy said dramatically, hugging me as tight as her little body would let her. I stroked her blonde locks and looked down at her, grateful she was here with me, the living proof that I could do something good with my life.

I always knew Lucy would eventually want to meet him, it was inevitable. Or at least see a picture, but she didn't understand how dangerous it might be, she was 5, to her the world is full of rainbows and unicorns or whatever. She didn't mention him again, at least not to me anyway. But i knew she was always wondering. I only had to see her school books to explain it all.

She had drawn a picture of herself in the middle of the page, labelled by her teacher as 'Lucy' and another stick figure with blonde hair labelled 'Mommy' and on the other side another stick figure this time with red hair as 'Mommy Ivy' but then slightly away from us all was another stick figure, clearly separated, but she'd still drawn it, labelled 'My Daddy.' Lucy had not captured Mister J's likeness AT ALL, but it just showed she was imagining what he looked like, which honestly scared me.