*trigger warning; physical abuse, murder, borderline sexual abuse*
Blair sat across from Harley on her small bed, a large cupcake in between them. It had been two days since her huge fight with her uncle and Dick and she had yet to answer either one of their calls, though she did argue with Dick through text an hour before she got to Arkham. She was exhausted. It was like the minute she thought she had everything under control and everything figured out, some force came in to wreck it all. She was lucky that she still had Jason at all at this point.
"I heard about what happened at the nightclub. Harley looked up from the red velvet cupcake in between them, giving her one of the rare, kind looks only reserved for her. "You good?"
Blair sighed, wishing that was the biggest issue with her life. When Bruce had asked for the story to be pulled, the newspaper had already sent the story to be printed. It was pushed to the back, but it was still there.
"That wasn't even the worst thing to happen on my birthday." She ripped the cupcake in half, handing a piece to Harley with a napkin. "I'm not on speaking terms with my uncle or his best friend, so that's saying something."
Harley raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Shit, what did they do? Forget or something?"
"I wish." Blair scoffed.
Harley licked some frosting off her finger, her eyes waiting for Blair to explain herself. When she didn't, Harley set the cupcake back down on the bed in front of her lap, "Well damn BW, are you going to just sit there or are you going to tell me what the hell happened?"
Blair ripped off a piece of her half of the cupcake, "They ran a background check on my best friend then dropped it all while he sat there next to me."
That brought a sparkle into Harley's eyes as she sat up straight, giving Blair her full and undivided attention, "Was it bad? What he do? Murder someone? Because I'd have some questions about your friends if he did."
"God no. Just theft and assault." Blair fixed her with a knowing look. "Besides, Harley, you can't judge."
"Fair point." She agreed, cocking her head to the side as she studied Blair's eyes. "You don't seem all that upset though. Actually, you look kinda different."
"Different?" Blair repeated in confusion, not following what Harley was saying.
"Yeah, like your eyes seem brighter, you smile more..." Harley's eyes widened as she gasped loudly. "BLAIR WILDE, ARE YOU IN LOVE?!?"
Blair had just taken a bite out of the cupcake in her hands and started to choke. Harley immediately reached over to pat her hard on the back, trying to help her get oxygen back into her lungs. "Don't die in here, they'll think I killed ya and we already have more security because someone got out."
"What?" Blair coughed out when she was finally able to breathe again. "Someone got out? Who? Why didn't I hear about this?"
"I don't know, but you know how it is here. They keep everything quiet unless it's a big thing." Harley shrugged. "Anyway, as I asked—"
"Who got out?" Blair repeated, a sinking feeling in her chest as she spoke. When Johnny had led her to Harley's room, she had noticed that security seemed tighter, but she was so absorbed in her own mind that she didn't think much of it. She just thought that Nygma and Tetch had gotten into another fight in the cafeteria.
"I don't know!" Harley exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "Now shut your pretty mouth while I talk will ya?" Blair raised her eyebrows in silent shock as Harley's lips turned up in a smirk. "Now, come on BW, you know I'm right don't you? You can feel the change and that's why you won't answer the question."
"I'm not in love with Jason Todd." Blair said immediately, though her stomach did the annoying fluttery thing that it had been doing way too often for her liking.
Harley smirked, licking the rest of the icing off her half of the cupcake, "I never said you were in love with him."
Blair's jaw dropped, leaving her looking like a gaping fish as she struggled to find her voice. When she did, all that came out was, "I'm not!", making her sound like a stubborn child.
"Oh sure, I get it." Harley threw her hands up, waving them around. "You don't love him, whatever."
"Harley, I'm serious." Blair insisted, her voice still coming out in a childish whine.
"I am too." Harley laughed. "Now, Ivy owes me half her dessert at dinner."
A knock sounded on the other side of the door, notifying Blair of her time with Harley being at its end. Standing up, she brushed some of the crumbs left over from the cupcake off of her jeans before she moved to walk to the door.
Harley caught her hand before she got too far, causing her to look over at the blonde sitting cross-legged on the bed. "Hey, don't run from it. It looks good on you, it looks good for you. I know a little something about these things."
Blair was tempted to argue with her again, but pursed her lips together as she nodded. Finally she brought a kind smile to her face, "Thanks Harley."
"Happy birthday BW." Harley smiled back. "Thanks for wanting me to celebrate it with you, despite everything."
"Don't mention it."
********
Blair and Johnny walked through the hallways, passing up a few guards as they went. Every guard she passed wore a similar look of stress and determination, their bodies alert like they were ready to leap into battle at a moment's notice. When she looked over at the man walking next to her, she saw that when he wasn't looking directly at her his face was the exact same as the guards around her.
"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Blair stopped walking, crossing her arms as Johnny turned to face her with a confused expression. "I thought something was up when I got here, then Harley said someone got out?"
"Yeah, everyone's on high alert. Happened a few days ago, you didn't hear?" He nodded, studying her confused expression closely, leaning back in surprise when he realized she wasn't acting. "You're usually the first to know about these things with your family and all. You sure you didn't hear anything?"
"No, I didn't hear anything. At least, no one has told me anything." She was going to kill Bruce when she got home. She was supposed to know these things, she was his partner. "Who was it?"
"Harvey Dent, Two-Face." Johnny said a matter-of-factly.
Blair's face paled as her heart thundered in her chest. There was no way that Two-Face had escaped and Bruce had neglected to tell her. He would never do that. "I'm sorry, did you just say—"
"Yeah, Two-Face." Johnny repeated, making her stomach start to churn. He took a step back from her, studying her shaking hands in concern. "Blair, are you okay?"
"I need to get out of here, I need to go home, now." The walls seemed to be getting closer together as she looked around, her breaths coming to her in short quips.
"Yeah, yeah, sure I'll walk you to your car." Johnny stepped forward slowly, laying a hand on her arm that she shrugged off. She felt like she was going to be sick.
"No, I just, I need to think." She stammered, pushing past him. She needed to get home, she needed answers.
Johnny jogged to catch up with her, catching her by the arm, "I don't think I should leave you alone like this. What's going on?"
Blair twisted her arm out of his grip, "Johnny, please. I need to be alone, trust me. Just let me go."
Johnny let go of her, watching her run down the hallway in concern. She didn't bother to look back over her shoulder, not stopping until she had run out into the cold parking lot. She opened her car door, slamming it shut as she closed her eyes to take a deep breath.
How long had Bruce known about Two-Face's escape? How long had he kept it a secret from her? She was supposed to know immediately if and when Harvey Dent escaped custody, that way she wouldn't be caught off guard like she was. That way she could get her emotions in check before she was sent out to find him, to find out his plans. He had plenty of time to tell her, especially when she went back on patrol with Jason the night before.
Taking a deep breath, Blair reached into her jacket to get her phone. She wasn't sure who she was planning on calling, but when she unlocked the screen, arms enveloped her, holding her to her seat. She was ready to scream when the unknown person held a rag to her face that reeked of chloroform.
Struggling against the arms of her captor, she screamed into the rag, hoping that Johnny had followed her out and would hear her struggling. The world around her started to get blurry as her eyelids grew heavier by the second. Within just a few minutes, she let the darkness take her.
********
Blair woke up with a start, finding her arms and legs tied to a wooden chair like the ones in Gotham's library. She struggled against her restraints as she looked around, finding she was not at all in the library, but on one of the empty floors above Gotham National Bank.
"Well, good morning princess." A familiar voice cut through the empty space. Blair felt her stomach drop as Two-Face walked out of the shadows, a twisted grin on his face. She struggled harder against the ropes on her wrists, refusing to show any fear. "Nice nap?"
"What do you want with me?" She snapped, using all of her willpower to keep the fear out of her voice when she spoke.
Two-Face got down on his knees to where they were face-to-face. Blair resisted the urge to lean back as she glared at the man in front of her, studying her like she was a steak. Standing up, he nodded to himself, "You're the little girl that I almost killed, what, you just turned 20 a few days ago right? So 12 years ago."
Blair locked her jaw at the mention of her parents' murder, "Congratulations, you can do simple math, can I go now?"
The twisted smile on his face dropped immediately at her words, his lips turning up into a sneer, "You're going to watch your pretty little mouth if you plan on getting out of this in one piece."
"Here's the thing, I don't follow orders, especially coming from an indecisive prick who needs a quarter to help decide between pepperoni and meat lovers pizza." Blair rolled her eyes, despite the fear brewing in her stomach. Before she even realized what was happening, she felt the back of Two-Face's hand sting her cheek. She looked up at him with eyes filled with fire. "That all you got?"
At that moment, a man dressed in a guard's uniform from Arkham walked through the door, wheeling an old TV cart through the empty space, a tripod and a laptop laying on the top. "Where do you want this boss?"
Two-Face stood up straight, looking over at the guard Blair recognized as Erik Kargaroff. He usually stood outside the cafeteria when the inmates went to lunch, then watched the security cameras when shifts changed. Knowing he was the one that had attacked her in her car sparked a feeling of betrayal that burned at her very core. Two-Face pointed to a spot that was just a few feet away from her cursed chair, "Set it up right there."
"What the hell do you want?" Blair asked, her voice ringing out through the cool and empty floor. Erik looked up from his setup and she saw that he at least had the decency to look ashamed of himself when his eyes landed on her fiery glare.
Two-Face turned to face her, digging his hand into his jacket and pulling out a small handgun. Blair froze as he turned it over, inspecting it, before he fixed his eyes on her. "I want an audience with your rich god-daddy and commissioner uncle. I think taking their prized little girl will gain their attention, don't you?"
"You want money." Blair shook her head in disbelief. She almost laughed. Here they were above a bank, a bank in which he murdered her parents for the exact same reason as he was keeping her hostage, and that's the best thing he could come up with?
"Yes, and I want the commissioner to suffer." He snapped, pacing the floor in front of her. "Because of him, I lost everything. It's because of him that I look the way I do. But I wouldn't expect you to know anything about that."
But she did. Her uncle and Bruce were given the choice to choose between Harvey Dent and his girlfriend and while Bruce had chose to save Harvey, her uncle was too slow to get to his girlfriend. She died in an explosion caused by the Joker, the same explosion that had gone off where Harvey was, burning off half of his face. Bruce had told Blair the story as a precautionary tale of sorts.
Her hands clenched into fists, though she held her head high, "Hate to break it to you, you fucking psychopath, but me and my uncle? We aren't on good terms, haven't talked to him in days."
"You underestimate family, don't you?"
"If you knew half the shit I've been through, you wouldn't have such high hopes either." She muttered bitterly. All the people she had considered family had been known to let her down consistently as of late, especially the ones that swore they never would.
She felt the barrel of the gun slide under her chin, forcing her face up to meet Two-Face's eyes. She forced herself to swallow her fear as she stared at him with defiant eyes. What was the phrase she learned to repeat in her head, scrawled underneath the same phrase in her book? She was Blair Wilde and she would not be afraid.
Two-Face leaned forward to where his face was just inches from hers as he whispered, "Poor little rich girl."
Gathering up all her rage and frustration, she reared back before spitting directly in his eye. He stumbled back, wiping the spit from his face before he fixed her with a murderous glare. Before she could snap back, he used the gun in his hand to smack her, this time drawing blood from the side of her face as he growled, "I said, WATCH IT!"
"Fuck you!" Blair yelled, earning her another hard hit, this time splitting her lip open, blood dripping down her face. "Roughing me up isn't going to get you anywhere you dumb bitch. You do your worst, it ain't nothing compared to what I've been through."
Seeing that he wasn't going to get anything out of her, Two-Face stood up, turning his back on her as she spat blood out on the ground next to her. Her head was spinning from the hard hit with the gun, but she refused to let him see her in pain. She had been through worse.
"Is it set up?" His question drew her attention to the camera set up in front of her as she took a deep breath.
Erik messed with something on his laptop, not looking up at the man questioning him, "Yeah, about to patch through to every news station and website in Gotham City."
"How much longer?"
"Two minutes."
"You're going to address the city?" Blair knew she should probably be quiet, but it turned out she was a bitch when she got kidnapped. What a defense mechanism. "No offense, but you're ripping off the Joker's whole bit."
"Shut her up." Two-Face ordered, keeping an eye on the timer as Erik stepped forward towards her, digging an old bandanna out of his pocket.
Blair rolled her eyes, "I see I struck a nerve."
Erik tied his bandanna around her mouth while she glared at him. She used to talk to him before Johnny had started to work at Arkham. He had always seemed to be friendly and kind, not that she had trusted him completely like she did Johnny. She always knew there was something darker there. Here it was.
The bandanna rubbed against the corners of her lips uncomfortably, though she ignored it. Erik knelt down in front of her, making sure the ropes around her wrists and ankles were secure. Blair was tempted to head-butt him when he looked at her again, but decided against it. Her head was still spinning from the side of the gun meeting the corner of her eye.
"Right, just need to get rid of some dead weight before the lights come on." Two-Face sighed, like he was ready to scold a disobedient puppy.
Blair stared at him, her eyes darting between him and Erik who had moved to her side as she realized what he meant. Erik however, looked up in confusion, "What?"
Two-Face quickly lifted the gun in his hands, taking aim before shooting Erik in the head, his blood splattering in Blair's face as she screamed behind her gag. She struggled hard against her restraints as his body fell to her feet. She knew it was coming, but she still couldn't hold back the scream that erupted from inside of her. He was a person, alive one minute and dead the next. She had seen death before, but never that instant.
Two-Face walked forward, placing his hands on her shoulders as he leaned forward, "Ah, there we go, just you and me and the rest of Gotham." He grinned maniacally at the camera, his lips brushing her ear. "Say hi."
********
Jason dodged a hit that Bruce threw his way, flipping back when the older man swung a staff in his direction. The change of tactics brought Blair to his mind, remembering that she was supposed to be training with them that afternoon.
She had fallen asleep in his bed the night before after patrol, a book on her face. When he had woken up the next morning, she was gone, leaving Popchik in her place. According to Alfred, she had left to go volunteer at one of her secret places she had yet to tell him about.
"Isn't Blair supposed to be here by now?" Jason asked, a weird feeling settling in his chest. "She said she wanted to fence. Was pretty excited about it too, the weirdo."
Bruce stood up straight, the staff hanging low by his side as he thought about Jason's words, "You're right, what time is it?"
"She was supposed to be here like an hour ago." Jason replied, the weird feeling turning into one of a darker origin. "Bruce, I don't know about this. Blair's never late."
"I'll check her tracker." Bruce decided, ready to walk over to the computer.
Jason's eyes widened as he looked at the screen behind Bruce's head, "Bruce, I think you don't have to worry about that."
"What?" He arched an eyebrow. He was starting to wonder why he even put the trackers in the two to begin with, they always seemed to know where the other was.
Jason pointed to the screen, his heart pounding loudly in his ears. Bruce whirled around to see what Jason was staring at, dropping the staff at his feet when he saw the image on the screen.
Blair was sitting bound and gagged to a chair, blood covering half of her face, bruises forming along the sides of her face. Next to her, Two-Face stood with an evil grin on his face, "Good afternoon Gotham."
"Blair." Jason's voice came out in a strangled plea as he looked at the girl on the screen.
Bruce ran over to the computer, inputting her name in the system to find where she was being held. Jason couldn't move, he just stayed frozen to the spot as he took in the battered girl on the screen. Just a few hours before, she was asleep next to him and now she was tied up against her will by the man who murdered her parents. He didn't know whether he was more terrified or angry.
"So I have Gotham's Daughter in my possession, the girl who's parents I killed 12 years ago. If you don't want her to end up the same way, I expect her rich godfather pays two million by the end of the hour." Two-Face explained calmly, the gun in his hand brushing Blair's cheek. "But here comes my favorite part, let's watch her beg for her life to make Commissioner Gordon squirm."
Jason watched as Two-Face took a tactical knife out of his pocket, cutting across Blair's chest, not enough to kill her, but enough to draw blood. Blair squirmed against the knife, the blood dripping down and staining her shirt. He clenched his fists together, fighting the urge to run it through the computer screen.
Bruce's cell phone started to ring off the hook, Commissioner Gordon's name flashing up at him. Bruce picked the phone up off the desk before glancing over his shoulder at Jason, "Jason, call Kate."
"Don't bother, I'm already here." Kate's voice rang out through the Cave. Jason turned around to see her ripping her suit off of the mannequin next to Blair's.
Behind him, Jason heard Bruce arguing with Gordon over money. Why, he had no idea. They had no time for this. Blair's life was in danger, someone had to do something. Within seconds, he followed Kate's footsteps, ripping his suit of its mannequin.
He wasn't sure how fast he was moving, but he was pretty sure he could rival the Flash himself. Surely if Blair was here now, she would be making a comment about it. But she wasn't. She was in the hands of the one man in Gotham she feared more than death.
He rounded the corner, fixing his mask to find that both Bruce and Kate were already in their suits as well. How Bruce managed to change so quickly, he had no idea and no time to ask. He needed to get Blair.
"You should stay here and monitor her status." Bruce said suddenly, throwing an arm out to stop him from walking past him.
"Like hell I am!" Jason yelled. "That's Blair! There is no fucking way I'm staying home when she's out there!"
Bruce opened his mouth to argue when Kate cut in, "He's coming. Blair is going to need him way more than she'll need us."
"I'll handle the coms and monitor her status Master Wayne." Alfred's voice came from behind them.
At that very moment, Blair's scream of pain filled the Cave followed by a string of curses, shaking Jason to his very core. The last time he had heard that, she was dying. While it filled him with terror, it also filled him with anger. He was going to kill Harvey Dent. When he was finished with him, there would be nothing left.
"We don't have time for this, MOVE!" Jason shoved past Bruce, Blair's screams fueling him forward.
"You don't call the shots Jason." Bruce called behind him, though it fell on deaf ears.
"Bruce, no offense, but shut the hell up." Kate snapped, just as stressed as the rest of them at the thought of her best friend in danger. "Listen to the kid and get moving."
A/N: Welcome to the longest chapter ever to be written for this book.