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2. Kevlar suit and puppy-printed scrubs
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Batman doesn't come the following night. Nor the following week. It's not really a surprise, all things considered. Julia didn't actually expect him to come back because, hey, it's Batman. Seeing his reaction when she told him to get it checked was enough of a clue for her to know that she'd never see him again. The fact that he had been standing there in the first place was a miracle in itself.
Honestly, it was for the better. She really didn't need to add the Batman to the list of things that have her freaked. Well. More than he already does. Or has. Who just picks up a knife stabbed into their shoulder? She'd had to scrub his blood off of her sink. Truly a hazard considering his whole secret identity shtick. Why he'd decided to risk it, well, she didn't know. Why she had, well...
Julia isn't easily spooked, contrary to popular beliefs. Twitchy, at all times anxious, sure. But she's a veterinarian, she has to be the one with the heart of steel in that room, whether she's helping birthing puppies, or putting an elderly cat down.
She thinks there was a sort of poetry to her work, seeing life and death so closely. Something that has to do with that Lion King quote that's hanging on her poster in her office. She also knows she couldn't have been a doctor. Seeing it with animals is sometimes enough for her to go home and cry for hours, so in humans – she would've been eaten alive. Which might be why the worst thing that came out of helping the Batman that night is the constant worry that follows her.
Julia hopes Batman isn't getting septic shock somewhere in the city.
After another evening of ignoring the snickers when she walks in the room, wearing puppy-printed scrubs this time, she gets herself ready to walk home. Those scrubs made a kid laugh as she was putting his best friend to sleep. She thinks there are worse things she can get through for wearing funny scrubs than the odd comment, if it makes someone smile.
She has barely a few blocks to walk. Cold air hits her cheeks, reddens her nose. She forgot to bring a jacket, because that's what happens when you move back and forth between one place and another. Escaping means you sometimes forget the most basic things. Or that you leave pieces of yourself behind.
