A/N: So I've seen TDKR a total of 3 times already, and this story randomly popped into my mind after the last time, so I figured I'd see where it took me! I'm going to be updating this story AND "The Joker's Mind" every week like usual, so if you read my other story, don't fret :) Anywho, I've taken a little liberty with Barbara Gordon's age, but that's about it. Everything else about her is pretty much based on what I know about her from Arkham Asylum/City, "The Killing Joke", and just background knowledge from the animated series. So enjoy! (Also this goes without saying that there WILL BE SPOILERS for TDKR!)

"Mom, you can't do this to him! He'll be all alone. And after everything he's done for this family-"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that! You don't know what he's put this family through!"

"I was there that night! In case you forgot! I was there when Harvey Dent tried to kill Jimmy. It's not something I could forget, even if I wanted to."

"I'm not leaving for Cleveland without you."

"Well you're going to have to. I have a job here. A life. And I'm not leaving Dad alone. I'm twenty-one now, I can make my own choices."

...

"Barbara-"

"Dad, since when have you called me that?"

"Since now. I just talked to your Mom-"

"No! I'm not leaving. And nothing you say can convince me otherwise."

...

The angry red head stormed out of her family's quaint house and into the bitter street. It was the end of August, and the leaves were just starting to change colors. She was no longer even remotely nervous about walking the streets of Gotham alone since her father, Commissioner Gordon had locked away most of the criminals in Blackgate Prison. Thanks to the Harvey Dent Act, Gotham was thriving. But unlike all of the citizens in this flourishing city, Barbara Elise Gordon knew that this Act was founded on a terrible lie.

"Eli," someone shouted behind her, breaking her train of thought and making her stop in her tracks. She immediately recognized the voice to be her younger brother.

"Jimmy, what are you doing out here? You need to help Mom pack." Jimmy's unruly blonde hair fell into his eyes as he ran over to his older sister and wrapped his arms around her waist. Both siblings were tall for their ages, but Eli still had a few feet on her brother.

"Why aren't you coming with us?" He looked like he was going to burst into tears any second. Eli always knew that her brother was fragile, especially after that night eight years ago. The night that changed her life forever.

"Jimmy, I already told you. I have a job here, I just graduated college. I belong here, in Gotham, with Dad." Her voice was barely a whisper as she embraced her brother. She knew that she had to be strong for him, like she had been for the past few years. "Come on, let's get you back inside. You don't even have a coat on."

"I don't want to go without you Eli," he whimpered into her trench coat.

"I know you don't. But you have to. Cleveland isn't that far away, and we'll talk on the phone every week. You can't get rid of me that easily buddy!" She laughed through the pain and ruffled his shaggy blonde hair.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

...

A few days later, Eli still couldn't get used to the silence in her family's house. Nobody was ever home; her mom and brother had left and her dad was always working. She was just thankful that she had her job and volunteer work to keep her from going crazy. Today was her first day off in weeks, and she was already tired of the silence.

As if by coincidence, her cell phone's shrill ringtone snapped her out of her boredom.

"Dad?" she answered, after seeing the caller ID.

"Hey Eli, are you busy?" She could tell that her father was having a hard day. His voice seemed both stressed and exhausted. She knew that being Police Commissioner and having a huge secret was a burden that was taking its toll on his health.

"I'm never too busy for you, Dad. What do you need?"

"We're having some trouble with our computers down at the station, and IT is a little busy. Would you mind coming over and looking at them?"

"I don't know where I got all my computer skills from Dad, because clearly you're helpless," Eli laughed into the phone at her Dad's request. This always seemed to be happening. "I don't know what you would do without me!"

"I don't know what I would do either."

...

The sight of the newly rebuilt MCU was always awe-inspiring. After the Joker blew half of it up eight years ago, her dad decided to make it more impressive, meaning for it to be a symbol of hope for the citizens of Gotham. Eli made the trip to the MCU often to see her father, especially when he had technological issues. She was his go-to person for help. Always was, and always will be.

"Hey Eli, how's it going?" Lisa, one of the receptionists, said enthusiastically as she walked through the main hall. When she was little, Eli took every chance she could get to spend time with her father at the police station. Now most of the older employees considered her to be like family.

"I'm good Lisa, how's the family? I haven't seen them in ages!" The receptionist's eyes lit up as she brought out a new photo to show her.

"They're beautiful Lisa, you're a lucky woman. Speaking of family, is my dad in his office?" She nodded quickly as Eli turned and said goodbye.

Her dad's office was a mess like usual, but that was a lot less concerning than the stressed expression that seemed plastered on her father's face as he scoured over a stack of papers in his hand.

"Hey Dad, I brought you coffee. I figured you would need it," she exclaimed as she walked into his office without knocking.

Her dad let out a soft chuckle as she handed him the piping hot cup of black coffee. "You know me so well."

"So what's going on. You look like death," she said concerned. Growing up with a police officer as a father made her used to these extreme moods, but she never liked them. Her dad endured too much stress for her liking.

"The computer system has been acting up again. The usual," he sighed.

"Dad. A simple computer malfunction wouldn't get you this worked up. What's going on?"

"The usual stuff, Harvey Dent Day, you know." Eli did know. Every year he got more and more anxious around Harvey Dent Day, and every year it takes a toll on his health. She couldn't believe it snuck up on them so quickly this year.

"Forget I mentioned it, can you let me into the computer lab so I can run some diagnostic tests?" He nodded as he took a long swig of the coffee. He reached into his desk and fished out an electric pass key and led her to the very familiar room across the hall.

"So how's your new job? Working for the world's top software design company must be more exciting than helping your old man. Is everyone treating you well?" One of Gordon's biggest concerns was that people wouldn't take his daughter seriously because of her age. But she had one of the brightest minds of her generation, so he knew she would find her place in the world.

"Oh you know, sitting in meetings and writing code is extremely glamorous, but I manage somehow," she said sarcastically. She actually loved her job, and most of her coworkers respected her intellect, so there hadn't been any problems yet.

"If you ever have any trouble with people, you just send them to me," he said smiling at his only daughter.

Eli laughed as she pulled up a chair and started to type into one of the main monitors in the room. "Thanks for the offer Dad, but I think I can take care of myself."

"I know, I know. I did raise you after all." When Gordon said that he raised Eli to take care of herself, he meant it. At an early age, he tried to instill the same unrelenting sense of right and wrong that he lived by. He even urged her to take self defense and martial arts classes, which she excelled in. When raising a daughter like Eli, Gordon learned to never be surprised. She was extremely smart and incredibly talented in everything she put her mind to.

"You sure did."

Once Eli seemed to settle in, Gordon felt useless. He never really understood any of the technological techniques that Eli seemed to have up her sleeve, and he learned early on not to question her. "Hey, let me bring you some coffee, it's only fair. You'll have to settle for whatever we have in the break room though."

"That'd be great Dad. I'll just take it black."

Gordon laughed as he stood up slowly to exit the room. "That's my girl," he said as he walked out, leaving her to do her work.

Nobody else was in the room with Eli once her father left, and that's how she liked it. She always worked best in the quiet. She quickly searched through her purse and found the software she had designed herself, and plugged it into the hard drive. The program immediately started to do its job and search for viruses that could have infected the system. As it loaded, she checked her phone to see if anyone had tried to reach her when she was busy, but she didn't have any messages.

The door swung open behind her, and Eli assumed it was just her dad coming back with the coffee so she didn't turn around.

"Excuse me, you're not supposed to be in here." Eli spun around in her chair to see who it was, because it was definitely not her dad.

"You're Robin Blake," she said like it was a matter-of-fact.

Confusion crossed the young police officer's face before he could say anything else. "I go by John now. How do you know that? I haven't used that name in years."

"We met a few years ago. Seven years actually." John's confused expression was unrelenting, still not recognizing the woman in front of him. "Sorry, I'm being rude aren't I? I do that a lot. My name's Barbara, but you can call me Eli. Most people do."

He shook her hand politely, "It's nice to meet you and all, but that doesn't explain why you're here and how you know me."

Eli kicked herself internally for making this so awkward. She always forgot that people didn't really think like her.

"Let me start over. Hi, my name's Eli Gordon. I'm just helping my Dad out with some computer problems he's having. My Dad took me to a fundraiser at an all Boys Orphanage seven years ago, and I must have met you there. I have an eidetic memory, so I don't really forget people I meet. It makes situations like these . . . generally awkward. Sorry for confusing you . . . And now I'm rambling aren't I?" She let out a nervous laugh, hoping that she didn't scare the young police officer away. Damn it Eli, get ahold of yourself.

"Well that's a first . . . Don't worry about it, sorry I didn't recognize you as my boss's daughter. How's the system running?" He asked gesturing toward the computer in front of them. Lines of code were running down the screen as her software was uploading onto the hard drive.

"I don't know, I just started looking into it. I should know in an hour or so." John nodded his head, but she could tell he wasn't much of a computer person either. "So, you must be new here, did you just graduate?"

He laughed and nodded, "How can you tell?"

"I guess I'm just good at reading people," both smiled at each other. Eli could tell that he really wanted to do well in his job, and that he Dad was lucky to have him on his team.

A soft ding broke their eye contact as Eli spun her chair around to look at the computer once again.

"That's weird . . ." she thought out loud. John walked over to get a closer look and put his hand on her chair to lean over. Though, nothing on the screen seemed to make any sense to him.

"What's weird?" Her father's voice came from behind John. Both young adults spun around to face the him.

"Sir," Blake nodded toward his boss in respect, straightened his shoulders, and walked to leave the room. "It was good to meet you Eli . . . again, I guess."

Eli gave him a small wave before turning back toward the computer screen. "I got into the system."

"Well that's not weird. But it has to be a record time! Nice job."

"No, it's not good. Someone was in here before me. I think you've been hacked. And they're good." Eli immediately started to type furiously, bringing up different windows, searching for how the hacker got into their system. Eli had written their firewall herself, and it was almost impenetrable.

"Not as good as you though, right?" Gordon's face flashed with concern. If someone had hacked into their system, they would have a lot of information at their fingertips.

"Nobody's as good as me," she said truthfully. "I think I'll be able to kick them out and see what they tried to access, but it's going to take a while." Gordon knew better than to bother her when she was working, so he set her coffee down next to her and went back to his office. She always liked to work better on her own. Even as a child, she was extremely independent. She would sit in the library for hours at a time, just learning anything she could. He and his wife realized that she was more advanced than most children her age when she was just a toddler and was already reading. They brought her to a child psychologist and learned that she would probably grow up with a genius-level IQ. It came as a shock to them both, but they were proud of her no matter what. Gordon was especially proud of the woman she had grown up to be. Eli graduated high school early and was on the fast track at Gotham University. Both times she graduated the top of her class, thus earning her a high ranking job at Daggett Industries as a Software Development Manager. She always tried to explain what her job entailed, but it always went over his head. All he knew was that he couldn't be more proud.

...

"Dad, you need to follow me," Eli said, barging into her father's office. She looked considerably more tired after only an hour of programming.

"What did you find?" he asked once they were alone in the room with the computers once again.

"This guy was good, but sloppy. Whoever it was successfully accessed everything from infrastructure blueprints, to construction manifestoes, to white collar criminal records. But he knew what he was searching for, and it looks like he got it. I fixed everything up and updated the firewall. Nobody else will be getting into your records anytime soon, but there's nothing I can do about what's already been taken."

"Can you trace whoever it was?"

"I tried, but the IP address was encrypted. It turned out to be a public domain: a dead end."

Gordon put his hand on his daughter's shoulder gratefully. "Thanks Eli, good work. You should go home though, you look tired."

"I will, but you've got to promise that you'll take care of yourself. You're wearing yourself too thin. And I just want to help, so keep me in the loop." Eli embraced her father to try to give him some sort of comfort, knowing that Harvey Dent Day was looming over his conscience.

...

Meanwhile:

"Someone's got to tell him."

"He's not going to be happy."

"When is he ever happy?"

Two men were leaning over a heavy duty looking military grade computer in an alcove surrounded by crumbling walls in the sewer. Print outs of infrastructure blueprints scattered the work space along with the names of construction workers.

"Is something wrong?" An inhumanly deep voice with an unplaceable accent came from behind them. As soon as the voice echoed through the alcove, the two men's whole bodies tensed with physical fear.

Both stood up and faced their leader with military-like respect. Bane's terrifying presence seemed to fill the whole room. His enormous hands held onto the collar of his thick leather vest as he stood there, like an imposing statue.

Both men looked at each other before one answered his question. Both were too scared of what he would do if neither of them answered. "Our connection with the Gotham Police force was just . . . cut off."

"Did we get what we needed?" Bane's eyes seemed to widen as he got more angry. He didn't particularly like it when his plans didn't execute perfectly.

The second man spoke up this time. "Most of it. We, uh, didn't get Bruce Wayne's prints."

"Get Daggett on the phone. Tell him everything." The man scrambled to do exactly what he was told, too loyal not to do as he was told and too scared to disappoint him. Bane stood completely still as he waited for a response. The man quickly told Daggett what had happened, and grunted a few times in affirmation.

"He says he has the prints handled. And that he works with another woman who can handle everything else; someone who can hack into the Stock Exchange."

A/N: So what did you guys think? Did I butcher anything?