There was no other answer that Gordon- any Gordon- could give. Bruce knew that; knew this would be his answer. Yet at the same time he wanted to hear it from Gordon himself; to hear the weight of those words in his voice, in his tone. To hear the sincerity, and have it solidify in the City's air, instead of something unspoken.

He was done waiting. Gordon had a job to do, and it didn't matter that this was not the city that he signed up for. This wasn't Gotham, but it was still a City, and the people here weren't much different from Gotham.

And there was the fact that Gotham's trash was here, as well. Joker- and Bruce's eyes narrowed slightly, behind his lenses.

He had ignored the hints and clues so far, but now that he had the whole story, everything was- odd. The Joker being turned on Batman. He was planning, orchestrating something- and there was nothing at all funny about what he did. Of course, there might be humour in forcing an inhuman choice between Harvey and Rachel Dawes; there might be humour in forcing Harvey Dent insane- but there was no audience. There was no appreciative laughter.

There was nothing funny about anything that Jim had told him. Not even in the Joker's warped mind.

"The Joker," he said, and the moment of peace was gone. The had it, for a few moments- now back to business. "Tell me about him. All that you know."

The Joker from that world must be different. The problem was- how different?