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landboundstar · 9 months

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Trade Secrets Part 8

This section was a beast to write! Took a while, but hopefully you enjoy it. I had a few characters make their first stop in my AU version of Gotham City.

Trade Secrets

Part 8

I fidgeted nervously, pulling at the skirt of my dress.

It certainly was not my first time in a crowd. But normally, when I was at a large event, I was trying to draw attention to myself. Since I was normally acting as Dad's assistant and not just a guest.

My father looked down, smiled, and squeezed my hand.

"Quite a crowd. Good thing it is a party and you can talk to one or two people at a time."

I blushed, and he knelt down.

"Z, look at me." Dad's use of the familiar nickname he had called me since babyhood was meant to soothe me, as was his calm, even voice. But my face felt even warmer as I kept blushing, and I was embarrassed to feel tears pricking my eyes. "Really, just talk to a few people at a time. If you don't want to talk to someone, you can always walk away. And if you still want to leave in half an hour, we'll go."

He meant it. Looking around the Waynes' ballroom, with more people in it than I had ever seen before, I knew my father would leave a chance to visit with his friends if I was still upset.

I nodded, and wiped my eyes.

"Nice to know I'm not the only one feeling overwhelmed."

Dad stood up slowly, giving me another second to pull myself together.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe that we've met."

The lady smiled and extended her hand. "Dr. Leslie Thompkins. I work with Thomas. I have to assume you're his friend, Gio?"

Dad nodded and shook her hand. "Giovanni Zatarra. Nice to meet you, doctor."

She chuckled. "Stick with Leslie. Doctor is going to be confusing with Thomas, Matthew, and me all in the same room. Not to mention, whoever else Thomas has invited from the hospital that I have not run into yet. I take it that the young lady I am feeling entirely in sympathy with would be Zatanna?"

I wiped my eyes again, and nervously dropped a stage bow before remembering I should shake hands, but Leslie Thompkins apparently had decided to ignore my faux pas.

I expected her to ignore me, and just talk to Dad then, the way most adults do with kids.

Except, she didn't.

"The conservatory, dear."

I blinked up at her.

"What?"

With a smile, she patted my shoulder. "I'm probably too old to be your co-conspirator at escaping, but you aren't the only person I saw feeling overwhelmed. I haven't seen your other friends or their families yet, and Heaven only knows where Rachel has gotten to, but Bruce slipped into the conservatory a few minutes ago. I think he was waiting to see one of his friends here. And I know I always like meeting one of Thomas' friends that I don't run into in the hospital or my practice."

Dad looked at me, and chuckled. "Take D -, I mean Leslie's, chance to escape."

I still felt embarrassed, maybe even more so than before, but I did not feel quite as panicked as I moved through the crowd, headed towards the conservatory.

Bruce stood, half hidden behind a poinsettia, his fingers touching the stem of a paperwhite.

"You're almost as good at that as Selina." His hand traced up and down the forced bloom. "Sleight of hand?"

"The door was unlocked." I told him, looking at the flower. Sometimes in the winter, Dad would have narcissus bloom using the old-fashioned way to do it rather than magic. I always thought they looked pretty, but Bruce looked sad looking at the flower.

"I don't know how Dad does it."

I knew he didn't mean the flower.

"Well, I imagine he hired people. And Alfred and your mom had to help him get it together."

"Not just the party. I mean, you're right. But Dad can talk to everyone here, whether he knows them from being a doctor, or from a society gala, or the family company. That's a lot of things. And even more people. I - well, I can talk, but not with everyone. Not like that." Bruce had started sounding resigned, but the longer he spoke, the more anxious he sounded, until he sounded just as scared and uncertain as I did. Which was not how Bruce, who was used to being so sure of himself, normally sounded.

"I freaked out too. And Dad told me to talk to one person at a time."

"Focusing on one person at a time might help, but right now, there are hundreds of people in my house.It's not like I can leave. I live here."

I patted Bruce on the arm. "Come on. Maybe we can find Selina and Harvey, that way we don't feel alone. If we're lucky, we'll get you in trouble and your father will send you to your room."

We both knew that Bruce wouldn't want to embarrass his parents or cause a scene. But having friends so that he did not have to face it alone made him smile. Or the potential of escape. It was hard to tell which.

Once we were back in the ballroom, we were surrounded by voices and music and it was hard to not be pushed or jostled as we moved through the crowd. I nearly tripped into Bruce as a big man with graying hair pushed past, and that stumble would have had me fall if I had not been grabbed with an arm that snaked around and pulled back across my shoulders. Pulled me back towards someone much taller than me.

I knew that I was in a crowded ballroom. I knew Bruce's parents had never let me get hurt. I still panicked and tried to kick, but that only made my feet slide so that my fall would have worsened if it was not for the man's arm. I felt my breath speed up and years of my father's advice any time we traveled for a show kicked in.

I started to wriggle, rocking both left and right. I might have screamed. If I hadn't bitten down on the man's arm - or rather, I had bitten down on his sports coat.

I heard a chuckle, and felt the man move behind me. There was a lot of swearing and bumping and even more jostling. But, rather than move closer or tightening his grip, he had moved to kneel by me, careful to not push further into my bite.

"I appreciate that someone taught you how not to get grabbed. I would appreciate it more if it wasn't my arm because I didn't want you to fall. But, it's a good skill. Now, can you let go of my coat? I have one good jacket and I don't feel like buying another one."

I let go of the coat and accepted a hand up. It did not make me feel less sick as I felt even more eyes turning on me.

"There she is."

Hands picked me up, but I did not fight this time. I knew it was Dad. And I couldn't stop myself from crying on his shoulder.

"A misunderstanding." Bruce's words started to come through the ringing in my ears. I could tell that he had been talking for a while, but I had no idea what he had been saying.

"It sounds like it." Dad looked at me. "Do you want to leave, Z?"

I shook my head. I wanted to stay and hang out with my friends. I wanted to find Selina and Harvey, talk with Bruce, and meet new people. I felt stupid and small for feeling so overwhelmed in spite of dealing with crowds and audiences with Dad, performing as his stage assistant, waiting in subways and train stations, and weaving through streets and sidewalks around different cities.

"I think that I saw some tables between the foyer and dining room that had snacks and drinks on them. Maybe that would be better." The man who had grabbed my shoulders had taken a step back and was standing next to a young woman who had wrapped her arm around his waist.

"I would think moving somewhere away from you would make anyone more comfortable." I jerked, lifting my head suddenly at a voice I had only heard a handful of times. Selina's older half-brother. "I didn't think I'd find you somewhere like this."

"Jim's here with me as my date." The woman next to the man answered. "And it's hardly his fault, or the girl's, that Mr. Thorne nearly knocked her over."

"I'm so sorry, Miss Kean." Selina's brother drawled.

"Stop upsetting Zatanna." Even from my father's shoulder, it was hard to see Selina when she stepped forward until she was nearly shoulder to shoulder with Bruce, even though I could hear her voice. "Zatanna visits regularly without any problems. She would be drawing a rabbit out of a hat if she wanted attention, not ignoring social niceties, and she wouldn't be crying about it. I'm far more likely to cause a scene than she is."

Selina turned to my father. "Is it okay if Bruce and I take Zatanna to get some snacks, per favore?"

Dad set me back down. "Of course."

I walked in between them, still sniffling a little as we went to the tables where the snacks were laid out.

"It was very considerate of you to remember both Zatanna and her dad speak Italian." Bruce told Selina.

"Maybe, but it had the added bonus of reminding my brother that I speak Italian too."

Selina picked up a small sandwich from a tray. "Leave it to you to get to have all the fun, causing scenes, biting cops." Selina sighed theatrically and gestured to her dark curls and the blue green velvet of her dress sparkled under the lights of the chandelier. "And here I am stuck, actually acting as ladylike as my mother would wish."

We stood and snacked and talked and I actually started to feel almost normal, enjoying the time with my friends, the snow falling outside the windows, the carols playing in the background.

A clatter bumped the table next to us, and I heard a too loud laugh and turned to look.

A woman with blonde waves and a bright red dress stood, still laughing as she clumsily bumped into the table again.

"Mom, please."

Harvey's voice was pleading, barely above a whisper, and I wanted to grab his hand to have him come join us.

Before I could though, a man put his hand on Harvey's shoulder. I knew I had seen the man a few times before, but even if I hadn't, I would have known seeing him standing next to Harvey, that the dark haired man was Harvey's father.

"Don't embarrass your mother that way."

"Why shouldn't I have a few drinks? I just need to unwind a little. And I had a bad day." His mother whined, her voice slurring just a bit.

"And that doesn't give you a right to make your bad day your son's." Bruce's mother did not even reach Harvey's father's shoulder, but as she stepped forward in her black satin dress, Harvey's father let go, and she guided Harvey to sit with us, a delicate hand on his back, while his parents disappeared into the ballroom.

"You didn't need to do that." Harvey told her.

"And you don't need to feel embarrassed that you aren't your parents."

Pulling a chair over, she sat down, and slid her shoes off. "I love these shoes, but they pinch a little at the toes."

The clock in the hall struck nine just as Auld Lang Syne started playing and Bruce's mother started to hum along with the song, tapping her stocking foot in time.

"We'll take a cup of kindness yet, for the days of auld lang syne."

Smiling, she slid her shoes back on. "Once more into the breach. Make sure you get some of the fudge before it runs out."

And she went back into the ballroom, absently tracing the pearls of her necklace as she walked away.

#batman #au fic #harvey dent #selina kyle #zatanna #bruce wayne #living wayne parents #Character cameos #carmine falcone #jim gordon #My inner introvert might be showing #Leslie thompkins #Thorne brothers

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