Since James' shirt was in tatters, he cleaned it and ripped it up into strips for Ms. Langstrom to use to cover herself. She was no longer completely nude, though she was still showing a great deal of skin. She was also incredibly weak after the transformation, so he had no choice but to carry her. 

“Are you ready to go Ms. Langstrom?” James asked.

“Please call me Francine. You came here to save me. It doesn’t make sense to be so formal.” 

“Okay?” James said, carefully picking up the woman who wrapped her arms around James' neck. Taking it slow he got into the water keeping her lifted out of the filth.

“It smells like sewage.” Francine wrinkled her nose. 

“That’s for sure.”

When he was a few bends away from the entrance, he heard some footsteps. Stopping, he put his hearing out to see what it was. Francine sense him tense up, and she whispered into his ear. “What is it?”

“I heard something. Keep silent, I will let you know when it’s safe to talk.”

Continuing forward silently he heard two people having a discussion. “Are you certain you heard something happening there?”

“Yeah, it sounded like something was being thrown around in there. Do you think we should check it out?”

“Fuck that! I saw Mike take a shit in that water last night. I’m not going to catch some fucking disease mucking around in that water. Plus what if it’s some kind of monster? I’m not getting paid enough to get eaten.”

“Wait, you're getting paid?”

“Well no… at least not yet. Big J says the payout will be soon.”

“Should we tell him?”

“Shit no! He is in a foul mood tonight. I’m not going in there until he calms down. Batman fucked his plans up, so he’s looking for something to cheer him up.”

“Fine, so we will just ignore it.”

“Yeah, as long as it ain’t the Batman, it’s not like Joker will even care.”

The two men began to walk away from the tunnel, and James felt it was safe to continue. But something came to him at that moment. If Rebecca had come along either on her own or with James, she would have been waiting outside the tunnel. James would have been distracted fighting She-Bat, so he wouldn’t have noticed he was getting caught by Joker's men. He wasn’t sure what her eventual fate would have been, but she would have likely been brought to Joker.

He had felt this kind of feeling before in his gut, but was he really able to sense the future? James probed his gut, but it didn’t respond to his question. Not having any answers and feeling a bit more confused, he continued out of the tunnel after he was certain that they were in the clear. It was just a hop over the fence and then he was jogging back towards the apartment.

“Alright it’s safe to speak now.” James said.

“So what was going on back there?”

“I heard a couple of Jokers men. Apparently he’s hiding out in the Amusement Park. It’s definitely not someone I want to meet.”

“Me neither. I don’t know how that psychopath hasn’t been put to death already.”

“Yeah.” James shook his head and continued jogging. With it nearing dawn, more people were starting to move about, so James had to take more alleys on the way back. While Francine was technically decent, he didn’t think that she would appreciate him carrying her back letting people gawk at her.

Though he got the feeling that she was actually enjoying being carried like this. A few times he caught her running her eyes down his chest, or giving one of his biceps a squeeze. He finally made it to the apartments. Hearing people in the stairwell, he decided to take the elevator. Seeing that she was nearing her daughter's apartment she said “I have to thank you for saving me. Are you one of those heroes?”

He shook his head and said “You don’t have to thank me, and no I’m not a hero. I’m just a man who wanted to help his friend.”

“Well, you're still a hero to me.” 

A second later the elevator doors opened and Adeline in a jogging suit stepped out. She gave Francine a look in his arms and then raised her eyebrow at him. “Good Morning Adeline.”

“Good Morning Manager.” Adeline said then headed out.

Stepping onto the Elevator, James hit the button for Rebecca’s floor. “Who was that woman?” Francine asked.

“She’s the maid of the owner of the building.”

“I see.”

Soon they were back in front of Rebecca’s apartment. Inside he could hear that Rebecca had awoken, and she was currently in an argument with Elizabeth. Setting down Francine, she leaned on him while James knocked on the door. In a flash Rebecca tore open the door and hugged Francine. “Mom, your back.”

Embracing her daughter Francine teared up and said “Yes I’m back. Can you help me in. I’m still feeling weak.”

“Of course.” Rebecca helped take her mother in. 

Following behind he made sure to close the door and saw Rebecca laying her mother down onto the bed. “Are you okay?” Rebecca asked.

“I’m just tired. I’ll be alright after a rest.”

“It’s good to see you're okay Mrs. Langstrom.” Elizabeth said. “Rebecca here was just about to head out to see if she could find you.”

“Then it’s good that James got me here before that.” Francine said.

“Yes it was Francine.” James said.

Rebecca looked at James and said “Francine?”

“Oh I told him he could use my first name. Mrs. Langstrom makes me feel old. Plus the man saved my life.”

Elizabeth coughed and said “Before we start any celebrations, maybe it would be a good idea to figure out why you suddenly changed? Could the antidote have weakened?”

“To be totally sure I would need to run some tests on myself. But I have a guess at what happened. The first two vials are just stabilization agents. While they helped me stabilize myself in human form, they do not prevent transformation. Especially when my body encounters a large hormonal trigger. That created a surge that transformed me totally to She-Bat.”

“Hormonal trigger?” James asked.

“Yes, according to my menstrual cycle, I believe I recently started ovulating. I was unaware that this would cause an effect on the antidote, but I believe that it did so because it was originally designed to work on my husband and didn’t take into account hormonal changes. When I watched the movie, I felt a change occur in me after viewing the sex scene. I believe it effectively activated the Estrus cycle of She-Bat.” Francine said this as if it was simply a matter of fact.

Rebecca looked a bit squeamish at that and said “So you basically changed because you were horny?”

Francine nodded “To put it bluntly, yes.”

“Are you completely cured now? Or will She-Bat be coming out once a month?” Elizabeth asked.

Francine frowned and shook her head. “Sadly no. The antidote should hopefully prevent me from changing for a few years, but it’s not a permanent solution. What it does give me is time to find another solution. I was already afflicted heavily when my husband disappeared so I couldn’t think properly. Now that I can, I can use my husband's notes to hopefully come up with a solution.”

James nodded and said “If you need any help please let me know. I may not have a degree in biology, but I’m confident around a lab.”

“I will have to take you up on that offer sometime. But for now I need to get some rest.”

“Of course. I’ll take James and head out to leave the two of you to have some time alone.” Elizabeth said standing with a pair of crutches that she had duck taped together. 

“Before you go, I forgot to ask your name.” Francine looked at him.

“James, James Mistfield. Please make sure you take care of yourself Francine.”

She nodded giving him a smile and said “Well James, I’ll see you around.”

He nodded, and Rebecca guided the two of them to her door. After Elizabeth stepped out Rebecca took James aside and glared at him. “So asshole you thought it was okay to put me to sleep while you went off by yourself? Thinking that I couldn’t do anything to help my mom?”

James looked into her eyes and could see that she was hurt by what he did. “I know how much you have done to help your mom, you would do anything to save her. It wasn’t okay for me to put you to sleep. While I had my reasons, I still took that choice from you. For that I am sorry, and I hope you can forgive me. But if I had to do it again, I would, though I would explain my concerns to you.”

With a loud smack she brought her palm against his face. He turned his head to not harm her, and while it didn’t physically hurt it did hurt his heart. “That was for what you did. Do you know how I felt when I woke up, and I found out that you went and risked your life to save my mom?”

“No. All I know is that it would’ve hurt your mom and me if you had gotten hurt.”

She frowned up at him and then sighed. She reached up and pulled his head down into a deep kiss until Elizabeth let out a whistle. Breaking the kiss Rebecca said “That was saving my mom. I’m still annoyed at you so shoo. I’ll talk with you later. Oh and here is the rent for the next few days.” She slipped a wad of bills into his pocket.

James nodded and watched as she closed the door and locked it. He headed to the Elevator and entered it with Elizabeth. “Basement?” He asked, glancing at her.

“Yeah. I’m wiped, I’m too tired to head home, so I’ll sleep in the base.” She said.

“Got it.” He pressed the B button and said “Liz I’m really glad you are alright. When I got that call from you I was so scared that you had been hurt. I know that we have only known each other a short time; you are my closest friend.”

She looked at him for a long moment then closed her eyes. “You know, I froze up there on the roof. Fear consumed me. It… reminded me about the night my father beat me. It hurt so bad that night, but the pain wasn’t the worst of it. It was the cold that came after, a cold so deep that I felt like I had frozen.”

“Up there on that roof, I felt that way again when my crutches were broken and I was laying on that roof. That sick cold began to creep up my spine and all I could think about was I didn’t want to die.” She blinked then and he could see that she was holding back tears.

The doors opened on the basement hallway and she propelled herself forward using the broken crutches that he could see were breaking. “I don’t want to pry, but it must be hard moving around on those crutches even when they weren’t broken. Can I ask why you haven’t got a prosthetic?”

She froze and was quiet. Then she let out a sigh “No. It’s alright. To be honest I have thought about it, I even bought a cheap one. I couldn’t bring myself to wear it. I looked in the mirror and all I can see is what my father saw a dumb teen who was a fuckup who deserved to get beaten and broken.” 

She whirled around and gestured down at herself “This was the punishment I deserved.”

A flash of rage crossed her face, and she slammed her crutches down in anger and it snapped in two. Before she could fall James caught her wrapping his arms around her. She wrapped her own arms around him, and he began to feel something wet on his chest and he realized that she was crying.

At a loss for a moment, he found the words he felt that she needed to hear. Holding her close he said “What your father thought about you doesn’t matter. He is an utter fool because he looked at you and could only see himself, rather than seeing what you truly are.”

Muffled against his chest she said “What I truly am?”

“Yes. You are a sublime and incredibly smart woman. Not only that, you are a strong woman who lived through hell and came out a better person. Not many can do what you did, and you are far from a fuckup as can be possible. Listen to me Liz, you did not deserve to be beaten no matter what you think. The only failure here is your father, because he hit you. Don’t ever blame yourself for what he did.”

Liz sniffed a bit, and they stood there in silence for a long time before she looked up at him with her one good eye all puffed up. “So what do you see when you look at me?”

Wiping away her tears, he said “A beautiful young woman whom I am glad knocked on my door one day to blackmail me.”

She smacked his chest and said “I didn’t blackmail you. I deleted those photos anyway.” She smiled at him and said “God you are incorrigible. Do you flirt with every woman you meet? I saw you kiss Rebecca and don’t think I didn’t see how Mrs. Langstrom was looking at you with your bare chest all muscled and ripped.” 

Liz glanced down at his chest as she did that and made an audible gulp as he slightly flexed his chest. He smiled and said “I admit I am friendly to beautiful women, yes. Do I flirt?” James leaned down to her ear and said “You will know when I flirt.” 

She shuddered as his breath caressed her ear. Meeting his gaze she said “James you are trouble.”

Smirking he said “Liz, you don’t even know the half of it.”