NOTE:

This is basically a scene in which Gordon explains in greater detail the story he came up with to explain Bruce Wayne getting shot. I might be more proud of it than is strictly warranted by its quality, but I'm quite kicked had no idea I would be capable of orchestrating anything resembling a grand cover-up. Maybe it's because we were doing Dario Fo's The Accidental Death of an Anarchist in class when I wrote this, I don't know. If there are any holes in it do let me know, so I'll know better next time.

I'm posting it because on this site people tend to be a little obsessive about the tiny details, so I thought it best that I put this in here for both the curious and the sceptical. Enjoy!

"I don't understand," Bruce said finally. "How did you explain your being there if the Batman was kidnapping me?"

Gordon shifted, looking a little uncomfortable, and Bruce wondered why. And then he realised that as strange as it was for him to hear Gordon mention both his identities in the same sentence, it must be even stranger for Gordon to hear Bruce Wayne talking about the Gordon. "I said that you- Bruce Wayne- had my number and that you somehow managed to keep your phone hidden from the Batman. You called me and told me the Batman had kidnapped you and wanted access to your bank account. But you refused to cooperate, so the Batman shot you and dragged you to the roof of an abandoned building. It was a long time before he got a chance to call me. Obviously the delay meant you'd lost a lot of blood."

It was a good story, but... "What about the phone?" Bruce asked. His phone wouldn't have any record of a call made to Gordon.

Gordon gave an exaggerated shrugged. "I have no idea. But when the cops question you, you'll probably tell them that the Batman found the phone on you and was furious. He threw it off the side of the building. We found the pieces on the ground below the building." Gordon hadn't been sure what kind of incriminating evidence might be on the high-tech gadget vaguely resembling a phone that he'd found in a pocket inside the Batman's armour, so he had chucked it off the side of the building. "I called myself from your phone before I got rid of it, so there'll be a record of a thirty-second call from your phone to mine if anyone bothers to check, though they have no reason to doubt the story. I told them the last thing I heard before the line went dead was the Batman growling furiously and you yelling out in pain. I called for paramedics and police backup and rushed to your location immediately. I got there a few minutes before they did because I live nearby."

Bruce scrutinized the story, and was reluctantly impressed. It seemed pretty water-tight. The only thing that made no sense was why the Batman would drag Bruce Wayne across the city to the abandoned warehouse, but they could just chalk that up to his being a psychotic nutjob. A thought struck him, and he asked in alarm, "What about my armour?" His blood was all over it, and if the police tried a DNA match-

"It's in the boot of my car," said Gordon.

The last place anyone would think to look for it, Bruce thought, relieved. Gordon had done well for a story he'd had to come up with in the space of half a minute.