AFTER her, quite risky, encounter with the Batman, the Kent woman was on edge the next morning at the office.
Lois seemed to notice. Jessica sat at her computer and frivolously typed away creating a new column on Manami's story. Of course, she ran her idea by Perry, he declined the idea of it but when Jessica kept swinging on the pros on the Batman, well, he still declined. She hadn't told Clark about it because she knew about his Batman crush frenzy.
She could not focus on anything, but the dark knight pressed up against her with the wall to hold her there. She knew she should have said something. She could have avoided the emotional storm raging inside her head as she tried to figure out what the hell she was feeling.
Jess knew she couldn't tell Clark; he would crucify him and then her. She was nervous to tell Lois because telephone, telecom, tele-Lane. There was one person she could tell and that would be another close friend, Sheilah.
The beautiful black-haired 28-year-old is nothing but a sassy sweetheart. Today she was wearing a long black sleeve shirt with a white and black striped vest that brought out her curves a lot more.
Black slacks that had two buttons on each side of her hip and sporting her famous black boot heels. On the top of her head, she was wearing the black beanie Jessica gave her for her birthday a couple of years ago.
The woman kept it in good shape this whole damn time. How she does it is beyond Jessica; the girl wears it all the time. Normally to work, Sheilah would keep the beanie home and have her hair up in a messy bun which shows off the little semicolon tattoo she has. Jessica and Lois still, to this day, have no idea what it means.
Jessica felt Lois spin her around with a raised brow. She squished Jessica's cheeks together and started searching for something in her eyes. Jessica swatted her hands away in annoyance. "What are you doing? I'm trying to work Lo."
"Wondering what you were doing last night."
"I was in Kansas!"
"Yeah right," Lois scoffed. "you start to get overconfident when you're lying, trust me you and Clark are the same person."
Jessica leaned back more into her seat and messed with her pencil. "I was in Gotham last night, I almost got kidnapped, and he saved me." Lois's face still did not buy into it. "And we kind of... might have... made out against a brick wall on the roof of some apartment building."
Lois's mouth dropped open while Sheilah pulled up her office chair. "This should be good."
"Are you freaking serious?" Lois muttered quietly, bending down when she saw Clark walking into the office.
Jessica nodded her head, looking down at her pencil. Sheilah punched her in the arm catching her attention again. "You wanted it to happen!"
"I guess...-"
"Don't 'I guess' me, say you did."
"I did okay! He is mysterious and sweet at times when he wants to be. Then, other times, he's a total douche bag with a spine." Jessica grumbled. "I don't know, maybe I just have a thing for men with big arms and bigger...-"
"Woah, calm down." Lois interrupted with her hand over Jessica's mouth.
She removed her hand and rolled her eyes. "I was going to say bigger hearts."
Sheilah chuckled. "So, you two didn't..." She made a circle with her thumb and index finger, using her other pointer finger to go through the whole.
"No!"
"It was a question!" Sheilah gasped. She looked up to see Perry standing above her. "Jesus!"
Perry looked down at three females and crossed his arms. They were always huddled up in Jessica's cubical. "I didn't know there was a girl scouts meeting going on." Perry spoke.
"For your information, I was never in girl scouts." Jessica said with her finger pointed up to the air. Perry shot her a look. "Or I was, you believe what you want." She recoiled with a nervous smile.
Perry looked at all of them again. "Is this what you do all day? All of you?"
"Basically..." Sheilah chuckled with a smile across her face. Perry rolled his eyes and purposely knocked a pigtail from her hair. "Perry!" She groaned, crossing her arms causing a chuckle to escape from Perry.
He pointed to Jessica catching her attention. "What did I do this time?" She asked with a raised brow.
"You have a visitor."
Jessica looked at the girls then back to Perry, who would want to see her on a Monday? "But I wasn't expecting anyone today."
Perry moved out of the way to reveal Bruce Wayne himself. "Hello?" Sheilah and Lois said at the same time.
Jessica crossed her arms, remembering exactly what happened at the Gala. "Hello, Mr. Wayne, what can I do for you?" She asked politely with a slight sass in her tone. Sheilah and Lois obviously picked up on it.
"Well, no need for formalities. You two already know each other." Lois chuckled turning around, slapping the back of Sheilah's head to follow.
"I wanted to apologize for my behavior at the event." He sighed, pushing his hands into his jacket pockets. Lois and Sheilah both looked at each other in deep interest. Sheilah yelped and turned back to pretending to do whatever she was doing before.
"It took you a couple months, hm?" Jessica asked.
"Well, I had to figure out who you were and what floor you worked on. Your friend," He motioned to Sheilah. "helped me, Ms. Buckholz I presume?" Sheilah froze from drinking her Starbucks latte she got earlier that morning.
Jess crossed her arms, glaring at Sheilah's head, and looked back at Bruce. "Look, Mr. Wayne, I'm a little busy at the moment...-"
"If you were to go out to lunch with me, I'll let you ask me any questions you like." He interrupted, catching Jessica's attention.
"Any question?"
"Yes."
"One second, Mr. Wayne." Perry jumped in before she declined. Perry dragged her chair off.
Jessica held onto the bottom of her seat with a gasp. "Perry!"
"Okay, Kent, I know you don't like Gotham city elitist over there, but that would be a great interview for the Planet." Perry explained, eyes darting over to Bruce who was being interrogated by Lois now. "No one has been able to get a complete interview on Bruce Wayne besides Vicki Vale."
Jess rolled her eyes with a scoff. "That's because she sleeps with him." Perry raised a brow at her. "Okay, so I listen to reporter gossip, sue me."
"Jessica." Perry sighed.
"You want me to sacrifice my dignity for an interview?" She gasped quietly.
Perry rolled his eyes. "Actually, it's just your pride."
"No," She declined, crossing her arms over her chest. "No way in hell."
"You're under contract." Perry brought up, using his many tactics that always never work.
Jessica smirked at him. "My contract also states I can decline any story I am given."
Perry sucked his teeth. "I'll let you do that Batman article you've been nagging me about."
Jess smirked at his offer. "Ho, ho, extortion?" She covered her smirk with her hand. "You're that desperate?" When Perry glared at her, she groaned. "Fine! I'll take him out to lunch. Just stop staring at me like Othello." Perry dragged Jessica right back, patting her on her shoulder when they returned. Jessica looked to Lois and Sheilah one last time for confirmation.
Without speaking, Jessica nodded her head. "Fine, I'll go to lunch with you." She glared at Perry. "Since I obviously have no choice." Jessica stood up, seeing it was five minutes past her lunch break. "I'm picking." She snatched her jacket off the back of her office chair and walked straight past Bruce.
Sheilah laughed in amusement. "Good luck with her."
Jess and Bruce walked into the office, eyes all over the two. "So... do you always randomly ask women out to lunch or am I the first?" Jessica asked, looking down at her nails. They were both waiting in the elevator for it to descend to the first floor.
Bruce cleared his throat and stuffed his hands into his pockets nervously. "I, um, don't think that matters." He mumbled. Jessica looked at him, licking her bottom lip.
She was going to give a snappy remark when the elevator stopped. "Oh, not again." Jess sighed starting to press the help button on the elevator.
"What's the emergency?" The voice from the speaker spoke through.
"The elevator stopped working again, Charles." A loud sigh escaped through the other side.
"Stupid piece of junk." He grumbled. "Anyone else in there with you?"
"Yes."
"Alright, just sit and relax, you're going to be there a while." Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose; she is stuck in an elevator with the biggest playboy on the planet. "I could always keep you company, ya know, maybe finally ask you for that dat... -"
"No thanks." She declined immediately, making Bruce chuckle under his breath. She slowly sat onto the floor and got comfortable with a gentle huff through her nose. Bruce watched her for a moment then followed.
An awkward silence fell between them, that is until Bruce spoke up. "I like those shoes..."
Jess looked at her 40's inspired heels. "Thank you." She nodded.
"Do you like Metropolis?" He asked, looking over to the annoyed reporter.
"Metropolis is... home, I guess you can say, there's no other place like it." She looked at Bruce. "How's Gotham?"
Bruce snickered and looked down at his watch. "Gotham is just as dangerous as it was yesterday. It gets better with time. I'm just glad Batman is helping the city as much as he can." Jessica felt herself smile at that. Batman, the mysterious man in the mask. "Did I say something?" Bruce asked with a raised brow.
"What? No, it's just, nothing to worry about." She mumbled in embarrassment. She began to scold herself mentally.
"Did you grow up in the city?" Bruce asked.
Jessica leaned her head back against the elevator wall. "No, I grew up in a town called Smallville in Kansas. Everything is so small, and everyone knows everyone, but that will and forever be my home." Jessica explained with a smile, she missed her mom and, most of all, she missed her father.
"I bet your parents are proud."
"Oh, trust me, when I won the Pulitzer Prize for my article, my mom threw a party." Jessica chuckled at the memory. Her mother was so excited that Jess could tell her mother was hiding something.
When Jessica and her mother reached the house, the upcoming hero could have sworn someone was breaking into her house. She burst through the door, ready to take on the attackers, only to be stunned with red and blue confetti and streamers. "My dad always told me I was going to be something, I just wished he was here to see it." She mumbled the last part. Those last couple of words seemed to catch his interest.
"Your dad?" Jessica froze at those words, her father, the man of wise words and generosity. She could not help but feel the throb of pain in her heart. Bruce noticed the way her demeanor changed and recoiled back from his question. "You don't have to answer that, I know how touchy parent questions could be." He explained with a shift of his legs. "You know, when I was younger, I kept count of how many times someone asked me about how my parents died or how they were completely heartbroken at the loss. By the time I was sixteen, I lost count." He chuckled at himself.
The faintest chuckle was heard from Jessica. He could not help but feel almost proud. Almost. "I couldn't begin to imagine what that must be like... seeing your parents shot in front of you." She said gently.
Bruce looked away from her piercing blue eyes, suddenly interested in the loose thread on his jacket sleeve. "It traumatized me, that's, to say the least."
"Maybe that's why you spend your time with so many women because you long for the hole in your heart to be filled." Jess hinted but quickly covered her mouth, realizing how rude that must have sounded. "I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me."
Bruce shook his head and waved her off, he wasn't mad or offended nor did he see her as any less of a person, it was because it was true. For so long, Bruce went through so many women in his lifetime from Selina to Rachel, all because he wanted to feel that love that was ripped away from him oh so long ago.
"No, you're absolutely right." He nodded. "I say this because you look like you've been through the same thing I have." He added, catching Jessica's attention.
She crossed her arms over her chest with a smirk. How could this rich fancy boy know anything about an alien commoner like herself? It would for sure be awestruck if he were able to understand her. Like anyone can. "Hmm."
"You've lost someone, most likely your father from the way your attitude changed when you mentioned him." Bruce deducted with almost a straight face, for a few seconds he saw the look of nothing cross over her face.
Maybe he was wrong? Usually, he never was when it came to these things because he has seen it in so many villains in Gotham. The loss of someone close to them, it happened with Harvey when he lost Rachel and when Victor Fries lost his wife Nora. The doubt suddenly all went away when he noticed the hesitant sadness cross over her face, he was right.
"The way my father died is a tough subject for me to talk about, always has, always will be. A couple of weeks after his funeral, the school counselor redirected me to a psychologist here in Metropolis. I always felt like I was a patient at Arkham, they would ask me questions on how I felt, if I was feeling suicidal. Everything and anything they could think of, they asked. It annoyed me to no end because they couldn't understand what I was going through." Jessica vented to a complete and total stranger but at the same time, she could not help but feel like she's known him from somewhere.
She talks to Batman the same way she can with him, Jessica thought for a moment if they could be the same person, but she only laughed at herself. Please, a rich playboy like himself being the big bad Batman is ridiculous.
"Look, I have a proposition for you." Bruce announced, catching Jessica's attention.
"I'm listening."
"Since our lunch was a total bust, I'd like to invite you to my home in Gotham for dinner." Jessica raised her eyebrow. "Business-wise of course." Jessica sucked her bottom lip between her pearly white teeth in thought.
This was a great opportunity for an article, but then she had to think about the repercussions of it. What about her and the Batman? What were things between them anyway? Jessica felt dizzy at the number of times she thought about the bat. Maybe she should get to know people who she sees every day instead of only at night.