Sleeping Soundly

DC AU by Scriviner

All rights belong to the owners. This is done purely for fun and not profit.

I sat back in my easy chair. Not brooding. Just... thinking. I did that a lot these days, I realized.

Too much on my mind.

Too many things going on.

The TV in front of me blared away some inane reality show that I wasn't even paying attention to. Just background noise. Necessary background noise. Otherwise I'd be hearing the sounds of the rest of the city. The gunshots. The sirens. Small children crying in the apartments across the street.

My wife rose to her feet awkwardly. Her belly, swelling with new life. I smiled at her and she smiled back, leaning over to kiss me on the brow. "I think that's it for me," She said cheerfully. "I need to go lie down."

I half-rise to join her but she puts a hand to my shoulder and pushes me back down. "I know you're not sleepy yet, Jack. Just watch your show and relax for a bit. Just come to bed when you're ready, okay?"

I nodded and watched her sway herself into our bedroom, a smile playing at my lips. Some women somehow managed to look even better when they were pregnant. My wife was one of those.

Unfortunately, she also got tired a lot more easily. I wouldn't be surprised if she were already asleep by the time I came to bed.

The show was not holding my attention. I didn't even want to watch this drivel. Too many things to think about.

Too many bills to pay. Not enough money. Not enough of anything. She was supportive, but all the support in the world didn't help when I couldn't do what I was supposed to do.

The news kept saying that the job market had been improving. Maybe in other parts of the country. Gotham was its own little special snowflake. Things had actually gotten worse here as businesses pulled out to move on to greener pastures. Amateur comedy clubs didn't really pay anything if you didn't keep people laughing.

It had turned out that I wasn't even good for a laugh.

This city did things to people. Terrible things.

The job situation was bad. Then more bad things kept happening right outside our window. People driven to desperation.

And the rent was already overdue.

Maybe the businesses had the right idea. Maybe it was best to just... go.

I got up, turned the TV off, the remote having been lost for weeks now and walked over to our bedroom door. She was already asleep. Snoring softly beneath the covers.

I really wasn't ready for bed yet.

I stepped out and locked the door behind me. A walk to clear my head. Then bed.

I put on a coat, drawing the hood over my head against the cold and wrapping up in a scarf.

The neighborhood wasn't absolutely awful.

It was a terrible place. I didn't really want to raise a child here.

It wasn't like the really bad neighborhoods, but it paid to walk with a certain amount of caution.

It could have been so much better.

There were a handful of men and women just coming back from the swing shifts of their jobs.

I passed an alley and heard something that started off as a scream, but bit off into a whimper.

No one else had heard it.

No one else was quite in the right spot.

I glanced down the alley. Two men. Looming over someone on the ground. One had a bat. The other held a knife.

One glanced at me.

Then seemed to dismiss me and turn his full attention back to whoever they had on the ground.

Just like that.

They didn't care.

They didn't really expect anyone to do anything in this town.

So maybe the neighborhood was that awful.

Awful enough that a couple of assholes didn't even consider that someone catching them doing something was anything to worry about.

That... just wasn't right.

I wasn't even thinking straight when I found myself plowing into the first guy, slamming him into the alley's wall. His head fetched up hard against the brick and I could see the dazed look in his eyes. The slackness on his grip on the bat.

I wasn't a big guy. But I was wiry. Strong. I liked to think so.

The other guy got over his surprise and wheeled on me. He brandished the knife.

I now had his friend's bat.

He seemed like he knew what he was doing with the knife... but my own misspent youth meant that I knew how to use a bat.

He lunged at me, thinking he'd get in close before I could get the bat into a good position.

It might have worked. Except he was so focused on it that I was able to slam my first into the side of his face.

That dazed him long enough for me to bring the bat around in an arc and smacking into the side of his head with a meaty, satisfying thump.

The other man, the one whose bat I now held in my hands had recovered enough to try to make his own play.

I didn't give him the chance.

I drove the end of the bat hard into his solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs. Then another sharp jab, lower down. Driving the bat into his crotch. He doubled over with an agonized squeal.

I brought a knee up slamming into his nose and I could feel it break.

The other man. The one who'd had the knife was trying to get back to his feet. I brought the bat down on his hand. I'm sure I broke fingers.

He screamed and I gave him another blow to the head, knocking him back down.

Neither of them moved save for a vague, harsh breathing.

Oh wait. That was me. I was breathing hard.

My knuckles were going white on the bat gripped in my hand.

Beneath my scarf I realized I was smiling. I was smiling so hard.

This was it. This really was what I was meant to do.

I glanced to the side to see the woman... the girl they had been looming over. Her skirt was torn. Buttons had popped off her blouse. She had the beginnings of a black eye.

"Are you okay?" I asked. My voice harsh to my own hears. The scarf and hoodie muffling my voice and causing it to echo stangely in the alley.

She nodded. Frantic.

"Call 911." I said and started walking out. Not really wanting to talk to the police... but knowing she'd need it. I... didn't want to be brought up on assault charges. I already knew how this sort of thing could play out.

The sleezebags on the ground trying to sue me for giving them what they deserved.

My grip on the bat tightened even more. The fingers pressing into the smooth aluminum. I could hear my knuckles creaking.

It would be easy to just deal with those two on the ground. A couple of extra whacks of the bat.

Problem solved.

So tempting.

The girl's voice called to me. Plaintive and questioning. "W-who are you?"

I was still smiling. I couldn't help it. I glanced back at her, jauntily putting the bat that I had appropriated over my shoulder. "I'm just a Bat-man."

I walked away. I walked home.

My smile just wouldn't leave as I came in to the apartment.

The bat was easy enough to stow in the front hall closet.

I slipped into bed then and for the first time in months. I slept soundly.