Bad, I'm better [Bruce Wayne]

Chapter 7.

The guest cheered once again and then turned around to talk to their acquaintances again. Bruce turned to us and finally let go of my waist.

"I'm glad all of you could make it. How do you like it so far?" He asked us, charming as always.

"It's wonderful, Mr. Wayne. Whoever decorated did a fantastic job." Mary raved over the ballroom we were in and I nodded in agreement.

"Oh, yeah they did. I didn't really have a say in all of that. Alfred usually talks to the planers of these events." He admitted and looked around the room himself.

"But I do know that they will serve dinner later on, so look forward to that." He added, pointing to the other side of room where a lot of round tables were placed.

"Great, I could use some food." Said Dean and Bruce agreed.

"I'll leave for now then, I need to keep the guests entertained." Bruce told us and left with a smile to talk to another group of guests.

A while after he had left a somehow familiar woman approached us. I was wondering why she was so familiar to me and before she reached us, it hit me: She was Rachel Dawes, our city's assistant district attorney. She had been on the news a lot lately, mostly for her work on Salvatore Maroni's case and her assumed relationship with Harvey Dent and I looked up to her for her courage.

When she finally reached us, she smiled at us and extended her hand towards me first.

"Hello, I'm Rachel. I'm Bruce's friend and you all seem to be a little lost, so I thought I'd come over." She told us like she already knew us for ages and continued to shake all of our hands.

"It's so nice to meet you, Rachel. I'm Jane Benton." I introduced myself, followed by Mary and Dean.

"I didn't know our assistant district attorney was friends with Bruce Wayne." Dean said surprised and she simply shrugged it off.

"We grew up together, my mother worked for his parents and I got to spent a lot of time with him. We had had our ups and downs..." She zoned out and took a sip of her drink.

"Then these events must be nothing extraordinary for you?" I questioned her and she chuckeled and shook her head.

"Not really. Although Bruce only started all of these events like three years ago when came back to Gotham and started influencing Wayne Enterprises, so I'm not a professional either." Rachel told us grinning, but we all knew that her social skills were better than ours.

"But I've seen a lot of people talking to you guys, so it shouldn't be too bad?" She inquired to know and Mary sighed.

"They do talk to us, but since we don't know anybody we're still outsiders. It's like being in high school all over again and we are the nerds obviously." Mary seemed a little annoyed with the fact that we were treated that way, but I was optimistic.

"I mean, it's our first time attending such an event after all, Mary. Things will get better eventually." I tried to cheer her up, but she seemed unsure.

"It definitely will. Once people start remembering you they'll always come over to chat. These people love hearing themselves talk and at least you have interesting things to talk about." Rachel told us and we laughed.

"Speaking of interesting things: I heard that Maroni's hearing is next week? " Dean asked her and she sighed.

"Yes, it is. It's not going to be easy, although we have sufficient proof that he is the new head of the Falcone family. But I believe Harvey will be able to handle it and hopefully get a good result. But you know how things are, you never know who might stab you in the back next, although Harvey did a pretty good job cleaning up the streets." She explained and we all nodded.