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Reconciled Moments
Chapter Nine
written by destinyawakened
Gordon had gone into talk with Mayor Garcia about the week off he was going to have to take. Garcia, a man who thought Gordon had deserved a vacation long before now, told him to take two weeks, and that he would have Stephens step up to the plate as acting commissioner until Gordon returned. Two weeks was not what Gordon had in mind at all. Two weeks was too much, too long. He only needed the week; what was he to do with the rest?
The three of them – Gordon, Babs, and Bruce – were sitting in a small café inside the airport. awaiting their flight. Bruce was dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt, had his hair parted differently and wore a pair of Gordon's old sunglasses to keep people from noticing him; the news of the billionaire going on a “vacation” with Gordon and his niece would seem a little suspicious after his antics at the funeral. People had bought the “drunk playboy” story for now, and they didn't need people to start suspecting otherwise. At least not right now. Gordon had every intention that once his brother's case was solved and he knew for sure if Babs was his or not, then he would build up his nerves and let people know. Well, maybe not straight-up – he'd just stop hiding it.
“You could take the extra week and spend it with your kids, Jim. And actually, I happen to have the perfect thing...” Bruce trailed off as he slipped his hand into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it and pulled out six of tickets, splaying them out on the table. Babs had a big grin on her face and gave Bruce one of those cute little “thank you” smiles, but she didn't say anything until her uncle agreed to go.
Gordon reached over the table and took the tickets into his hands, reading the small print on them. “The Flying Graysons?” he asked as he looked at Bruce. Babs looked up from her phone, to Bruce and then to Gordon, and then right back down to her phone. Gordon had bought her the phone yesterday so she could keep in contact with friends in Chicago, since she wouldn't be living there anymore. At this point, Gordon was willing to give the girl anything as long as she kept showing signs that she was moving past her parents' death. Bruce had warned him that this was not the way to go about it, yet look who was calling the kettle black now? Tickets to a high-rated act that was always sold out.
“She asked me last week when she and I went to breakfast.” Bruce took a sip of his coffee and caught the accusing glare that Gordon was giving him. Babs noticed the stare down and decided she should probably be somewhere else.
“Uh, I need to use the restroom.” She bolted from her seat took off down the walkway towards the bathrooms.
“Really, Bruce? The Flying Graysons?” Gordon said as he handed the tickets back to the younger man. Bruce put the tickets back into his wallet. “Men running around in tights, doing flips and stuff?”
Bruce sighed. “It's not just men, Jim. It's a family act made for families. I hear its quite wonderful with a spectacular display of lights and music as well. I think you might enjoy yourself.”
Gordon grumbled under his breath; this was not his idea of fun. But Susan had been asking for a little over six months now to go see the show. “I'll have to call Barbara and see if the kids are available next week.”
“I've already talked to her.”
Gordon furrowed his eyebrows in a bit of frustration. “You what?”
“Saturday evening. I had that conversation I said I needed to have with her a while back concerning you and I. We're on slightly better terms now.” Bruce made a so-so gesture with his hand. “But I told her about the tickets and she said if I could convince you to take the time off then Jimmy and Susan could stay the week and go see the show.”
Gordon sighed. “And if I hadn't have been told to take two weeks off, how would you have convinced me to ask for more vacation time?”
Bruce placed his right elbow on the table and leaned on it, smiling slyly at Gordon. “Don't you know I have ways of breaking you?
“Breaking me? So that's what you kids are calling it these days,” Gordon teased as he sipped at his coffee. Bruce glared at him, obviously not the answer he was expecting. “Fine. We can go.”
Bruce smiled triumphantly. “You weren't really going to be given a choice in the matter. One way or another you would have gone.”
“If that's what you want to believe.” Gordon knew that Bruce was very convincing, especially when he had that twinkle of mischief in his eyes. Bruce was definitely going to be the end of him, one way or another.
-----
Bruce and Gordon sat together in the cramped space of economy class seating, Bruce complaining all the while that he wished they had just taken his private jet, and Gordon asking him with how it would look if they did that, which in the end led to Bruce rolling his eyes and grumbling something about Gordon being a big stick in the mud. Babs laughed at him at least five times before the plane even took off. She ended up sitting by the window, Gordon in the middle and Bruce on the aisle.
They weren't even in the air twenty minutes when Bruce excused himself to the bathroom. Gordon had warned him not to drink three cups of coffee before boarding the plane. Babs had a book that Bruce had given her from his personal collection of classics – something by John Steinbeck, Gordon wasn't sure what it was. And Gordon was just about to doze off; plane rides always made him tired, and they had been up extra early to be sure to they had gotten everything packed.
Gordon had finally dozed off when Bruce returned, sliding into the seat next to him. Gordon opened his eyes a bit, noticed Babs had put her book down and fallen asleep, too. He then glanced over at Bruce, who was staring at him with one of those wanton gazes. Gordon sighed heavily and closed his eyes again, folding his arms over his chest. Maybe if he pretended he didn't see Bruce he could ignore the way the billionaire was looking at him.
A hand slipped onto his thigh and Gordon felt hot breath against his ear. “Jim. The bathroom is just big enough for two...”
“No.” Gordon said plainly, trying to ignore the sudden twinge in his groin.
“Jim...” Bruce drawled out the commissioner's name and Gordon felt the younger man's tongue sweep across his ear slowly. “I'm nervous, Jim. I need some comfort.”
Gordon peaked open one eye. Bruce didn't look nervous, if anything he looked flustered and hot under the collar. “Nervous?”
“Plane rides. They make me very nervous, Jim.” Bruce ran his hand up Gordon's inner thigh, his fingers caressing the soft fabric of his pants.
“You're a terrible liar,” Gordon managed to choke out over an irrepressible moan from deep in his throat.
“Come on, James.” Bruce growled Gordon's name low into his ear, and drug his fingernails deep into Gordon's sensitive flesh. Gordon wanted to contain himself, to prove that he had the self control a man over the age of fifty should have, but his groin twinged again and he could hear the smirk in Bruce's voice. “You know you want to.”
And with that Bruce stood and walked towards the end of the cabin to where one set of bathrooms were. Gordon knew Bruce was going to be relentless about the matter and if there was going to be a stop put to this, Gordon was going to have to go put his foot down. So he waited a few minutes and then stood, following the trail Bruce had taken towards the bathroom. He tapped lightly on it and the door opened, Bruce reaching out to pull Gordon inside by the shirt collar. The bathroom was not made for two people, despite what Bruce had claimed. Bruce reached behind Gordon, locked the door and began kissing Gordon's neck.
“Whoa. Bruce. Stop,” Gordon said. He placed his palms flat onto Bruce's chest and pushed him away enough to stop what he was doing. Bruce's lips were red, his face flushed, and Gordon could almost smell the mix of testosterone and cologne in the air; it was enough that Gordon almost gave in – almost. Bruce didn't answer him, but he kept his distance, softly caressing Gordon's clavicle, up his neck, around to his nape and finally dragging the commissioner's head towardshis for a long, needy kiss.
Gordon didn't protest; he merely returned the kiss with great enthusiasm. Bruce's hand slipped down the front of Gordon's jeans and rubbed his crotch – that was when Gordon pushed the billionaire away, and watched as Bruce fell backwards on to the toilet. There was definitely not enough room for what Bruce wanted to do.
“I am not going to do this,” Gordon said sternly, reaching his hand behind him to unlock the door. Bruce looked up at him with a pleading gaze. Gordon rolled his eyes. “No. No. Bruce, I am not going to have sex with you in the bathroom of an airplane.” It sounded ridiculous coming out of his mouth, and it felt even more ridiculous to think that Bruce would even consider it. But this was Bruce Wayne, a thrill seeker if Gordon ever knew one. And it didn't help that the younger man had a relentless libido.
Bruce simply narrowed his eyes at the commissioner, keeping his mouth shut. He didn't need to say anything for Gordon to get the idea that this wasn't over and he'd be paying for the rest of the week; this meant teasing, obnoxious flirting, public affectionate advances... Gordon could go on to list the possibilities. There was no doubt in Gordon's mind that Bruce was finally returning to normal, if not then some.
“Okay then... now that we're both on the same page...” Gordon pushed the bathroom door open, slipped out and walked back to his seat.
------
Bruce suggested a hotel. Babs suggested staying at her parent's house, as it would be easier and faster to get things packed this way. Gordon didn't care one way or the other, but the idea of getting this done quickly made a lot of sense, and would mean getting out of there just a little faster. So they rented a small moving truck and drove it over to Roger and Thelma's old house, just on the outskirts of Chicago.
They started right away on packing the things that Babs would need. Later Gordon would have someone donate the rest of the stuff, as per Babs' request. She didn't want to keep much of it; she said that the memories weren't ones she wanted to keep and she wanted to move forwards, not backwards. Gordon was highly impressed at how well she had been dealing with the whole situation. Sure, he knew she cried now and then, but he had really expected her to be more depressed over it. Bruce told him that she just hadn't been hit with it yet – that it would either come at her in a blast one day or she would never feel it at all. Repressed feelings, Gordon knew, couldn't be good for her.
They were sitting in the living room going through the bookshelves when the topic of Batman somehow came up and Babs immediately asked Gordon if he knew who the masked vigilante really was. Gordon sighed and Bruce laughed.
“I've been asking him that for months,” Bruce said with a snort. “He swears he doesn't know.”
Babs looked over at her uncle eagerly. “You won't even tell Bruce? Must be some secret.”
“I don't know who he is,” Gordon answered, his tone growing slightly annoyed, more so with Bruce for playing the stupidity game. Gordon feared that the day Babs did find out about Bruce she would be angry with them for keeping it from her. Hopefully she just never found out, as unlikely as that was.
He caught Bruce's wink at Babs. “It's okay, Jim. I know you're secretly in love with him and thats why you don't want to tell us who he is. I don't mind though, I can share you.” Babs started to giggle, obviously catching the teasing tone that Bruce was using.
“That's not funny.” Gordon grumbled. He turned his attention back to Babs. “Look, kiddo. I just work with Batman. I don't know who he is, and I don't know where he came from. We're partners, that's it.”
Babs had stopped giggling when she saw the seriousness in Gordon's face. She put a few books into the box, avoiding his gaze. “How do you trust him if you don't really know him?” It was a fair question, and one Gordon had asked himself numerous times before he knew Bruce was Batman. The answer was simple and yet quite possibly the most complex thing in the world.
“Sometimes you just have to. There are a lot of people in the world that seem very trustworthy, and your first reaction is to trust them, right?” Gordon asked his niece, who had given her full attention back to him. She nodded slowly. “We all do. It's human nature to trust someone who looks nice, opens doors for us, is polite. But Batman, you just never know what he's really thinking. He's mysterious, he disappears when I'm talking to him, and somehow he knows things about me I don't want anyone to know. How could I trust someone like that?”
Babs shrugged.
“That's the point. He isn't trying to make me trust him, he isn't putting up that front that says I should. To me, that's the most honest and trustworthy anyone can be with me. I don't need to know who he is to know that when something gets too deep and out of my control – he'll be there.” Gordon watched Babs' face to see if she understood, and slowly the confusion she had in her eyes faded into an understanding, and she nodded just slightly. She was smart, and Gordon knew he didn't need to dumb things down for her, that eventually she would have figured out what he meant. She didn't say anything to him though, just picked up another stack of books and went back to sorting them.
Gordon felt a different pair of eyes on him and turned his head to the left to see Bruce gazing at him intently. There was a look in his eyes that showed more emotions than Gordon could actually place, and he seemed a lot more open than Gordon had seen him in a long time. Gordon would admit, he'd never told Bruce exactly how he felt about Batman, what his thoughts were about him before finding out Bruce's secret. Truth was, Gordon probably fell for Batman around the time his marriage started to falter – right when Batman had come on the scene and proved himself a far better ally than half the detectives at the precinct. Gordon, at the time, had chalked it up to a dumb crush on someone he was hero worshiping from a far.
Little did he know that those feelings would turn into what he had now, with the man behind the cape and cowl. Bruce was, next to his kids of course, the best thing to have happened to him. Sure, the constant teasing and flirting could get old quick, but he much preferred that over the unpredictable and emotionally unstable Bruce he had dealt with for over six months. And if Gordon was going to be honest with himself today, then he could admit it – he didn't really mind the flirting so much.
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