One year later
Chapter 3
One year later
"Good morning, Mr. Wayne. You have two meetings today, one in the D-section at 2:30 for security reports, and another following that at 3:30 in the E-section for stats." Felicia greets her boss as he walks in the door with a cup of black coffee (two sugars with a dash of cream).
The family of bats ended up recovering the stolen diamond, but the perpetrator was never caught and punished. Wayne Industries, being the generous company they are, helped pay back the diamond. Little did the bats know, the Black Cat doesn’t exist—in this world at least. It wasn’t like she left much to find anyways; she had some tech on her suit that minimized motion detection, and she didn’t physically grab the diamond with her hands (not that they would find anything), but there's nothing the world's greatest detective can’t solve... except Black Cat. And Gods! He was ready to tear apart Gotham because he was Bruce Wayne, the Batman! But how could you find something that didn’t exist?
Felicia, two months into her stay, decided that maybe getting an apartment in the upper-class district was not the best idea when her fifty-five thousand dollars was steadily decreasing. It most definitely was not because she was an impulsive shopper (the dresses here were literally stunning, OK?). However, she was faced with a problem: to get a good paying job, you had to have an identity (gods, she hated having her identity stolen away again). She already went against Spidey’s wishes of being a "hero" by stealing a very popular and expensive diamond; she doesn’t need to add "possibly illegal job" to that list.
So she thought of a logical solution: learn to code, to hack. She never had an interest in it but ended up having a talent for it; she left all the tech nerd stuff to Peter and Ned. One thing about Felicia is that if she wants to do something, she will become the best she can at it (with the exception of physics). It wasn’t easy, that's for sure. She ordered books online about it (and ones that suspiciously looked like they came from the dark web)—she was too afraid of going outside in case there was some facial recognition that detected suspicious behavior about a girl going to the Gotham library with very similar blonde hair to research "how to hack yourself an identity". It wasn’t until she was absolutely confident in her abilities that she went outside. So Black Cat, a now-famous thief, didn’t show up publicly for months. Her file, you ask?
Name: Felicia Hardy (was it dumb to use her real name? No one she knew existed in this world so she didn't worry about it).
Age: 23
Education background: Graduated from Metropolis Academy in 19–
Relations: Orphaned
Yada, yada, basic information There was nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary for a Metropolis citizen. She specifically set the dates to say that the file has been in the system before. She made one fatal mistake though—her boss was Batman (not that she knew that)—and he was bound to dig into her file the second she showed suspicious activity. For now, though? She was his assistant and took a deep look at criminal activity.
"Thank you, Felicia. Will you go check on Tim for me? It's his day off, but he's been busy recently, and I don’t doubt that he’s here." Bruce speaks while pinching the space between his brows. The woman in question just smiles and nods. Tim Drake, his adopted son, was notorious for never sleeping (and a coffee order with one too many shots of espresso). She got along well with him, but they have never interacted one on one; she just fetched him when Bruce needed him.
Making her way to the B-section, she was greeted by many with smiles on their faces. Being at such a high rank, she was rewarded with access to all sections, and that put her in a position of respect. However, society hates a powerful and competent woman, with rumors in the shadows of her sleeping her way to the top. They wondered how Felicia Hardy, who was basically new (she's only been working there for a few months), could be in such a position. The answer was really simple; she made her file in a way that specifically targeted this position. She was quite literally perfect for the job.
The elevator dinged, signaling that she had reached B-section. Lucius Fox noticed her right away and approached her with his usual friendly smile. He was wearing a simple white 3-piece suit with a gray undershirt; the jacket of the suit was discarded somewhere.
"Miss Hardy, what brings you to this floor?" with a nod of respect.
"Mr. Wayne has sent me to check on Mr.Drake, who shouldn’t be here on his day off, but his dad instincts must be going off." She responded all lighthearted and open. As usual, she had an easy smile on her face.
Speaking of outfits, you already know she has a good one on. She’s wearing a gray sheath dress (she prefers to stay away from black in case there was even a slight connection between her and Black Cat, opting to wear neutral tones and shades of black) with sleeves that go from above the elbow and down, leaving her shoulders exposed.
"Ah yes, I was under the impression that today was a work day; someone must have changed the schedule." He trails off almost knowingly before bringing his attention back with a snap "This way!".
He weaves her through cubicles, telling some people off along the way. It wasn’t uncommon to see Felicia in B-section, as she has her own office on this floor anyway. So the looks are brief; some stare a little longer, others don’t look up.
He comes to a stop at a door and knocks firmly; she doesn’t dare fidget. She's noticed that she's grown to hate silences (despite her own silence being the only thing that never expected anything from her). Peter was always filling up the air with his stupid pop culture references and quips that he thought too long and hard about.
The door opens, and there stands a 17-year-old with dark eyebags almost as dark as his hair and dull blue eyes that almost look gray (that could also be because his eyes are halfway closed). a coffee mug in one hand, a blank expression on his face.
He seems to brighten up when he sees Lucius, half gesturing to the mug in his hand, and begins to speak until he makes eye contact with me. He freezes.
"Miss Hardy is here to take you to your father; he has something to speak to you about."
She smiles, trying to ease the pure terror he’s facing. This has happened before, with his dad telling Felicia to check on Tim, which only leads to a scolding and a call to Alfred to pick him up and drive him home.
The sleep-deprived kid just sighs and pouts. He was almost finished looking through the recent reports (if you call 123/205 reports almost finished). He followed Felicia out, already knowing the drill.
They make it to the elevator, say goodbye to Lucius (which didn’t mean much to Felicia considering she was probably going to see him five different times today at least), and head up to section A, the highest floor.
If the silence bothered the kid, he didn’t show it, taking a sip from his mug and immediately frowning afterward when he had nothing left. She asked basic questions out of respect, like "How are you?" and was met with simple answers like "good" (the boy practically spoke in lowercase).
The elevator dinged, and she couldn’t have been happier. Waiting until he stepped onto the floor, they made a brisk walk to his door. Knocking before entering, they stepped in and were greeted by Bruce Wayne standing in the middle of the room, tapping his foot. Felicia almost laughed.
From there, arguments got thrown at each other, all light-hearted and full of care.
"I swear I'm onto something with Bla-!" He abruptly pauses. The way they both slowly turned their heads to her was almost comical, and she took that as her cue to step out, unable to hide the smile that was on her face.
A few hours later
Felicia was ready to leave; she was so done with today. Her day was filled with answering calls, filling out schedules, going back and forth between floors, collecting reports, etc. She was fully prepared to lie on her couch with a cup of hot cocoa and binge-watch her favorite television series. Her plans were crushed when Lucius asked her to drop off some sort of file at the Wayne estate. She should’ve said no—say she was busy (sleeping), but maybe, just maybe, she wanted to see what the CEO's house looked like.
So now she stood, in front of the gates of the estate and was sincerely beginning to regret the past decision she had made (literally her 35 mins ago).