A/N: As promised, here's the sneak peek! Here's a little background information so the scene makes sense to you: A few days before, Brynn's dad, George, threw a party and invited many doctors and nurses working in the city. Jonathan was one of those doctors to be invited (he had just landed the job of head psychiatrist at Arkham). Brynn left Gotham a few years ago and has been living in other countries. She's just returned to the city and it's at George's party that she and Jonathan meet for the first time in years. This scene is supposed to be them meeting for the first time (alone) and catching up. I hope you enjoy!

Jonathan walked down the busy sidewalk. It was around one o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. People hurried back to their offices after their lunch breaks. Some spoke on their cell phones while others tried to finish the sandwiches and yogurts they had purchased. Jonathan pushed past them. He was on his way to his first "session" with Brynn Kiley.

He supposed he couldn't refer to it as a session. Brynn assumed they were getting together for a late lunch to catch up. She had no idea her father had asked Jonathan to arrange this lunch and report back to him what was going on inside his daughter's head.

Jonathan still couldn't believe he had allowed George to talk him into it. He had better things to be doing than playing "friend" to some spoiled heiress who was making headlines left and right with her bad behavior. The picture from the Gotham Times he had seen earlier that morning came back to him. What was he getting himself into?

Then again, it was the least he could do. George had promised to sell the asylum drugs at a cheaper price and they needed the medicine.

How bad could it be? Jonathan would have lunch with her this one time and would be on his way, never having to think of the woman again.

The doorman held the door open for him and he walked into the Gotham Ritz-Carlton, taking the elevator to the eleventh floor. The doors slid open and spit him out and Jonathan walked down a long hallway with plush carpeting and gilded mirrors. Brynn's room was at the end of the hall. Bronze numbers hanging on the door marked her room. 1121.

Jonathan knocked twice and stepped back, inspecting the area around him. On the other side of the door, there was a loud clamor followed by a string of curses. The door swung open.

Jonathan fought the urge to step back in shock. Somehow, he managed to maintain his composure.

Only Brynn Kiley would answer the door in a bathrobe.

She casually leaned against the doorframe, inspecting the young doctor. Her hair had been piled on top of her head and accessorized with a red bandana. The black, silk robe loosely hung off her body and exposed her collar bones. Finally, her eyebrows quirked up and she said, "What's up, Doc?"

He cleared his throat once, twice, three times. His voice seemed to have hidden in the deep recesses of his esophagus. "Brynn," he managed to squeak out. He cleared his throat again. "I hadn't realized you weren't…um…dressed. I can just wait while you get ready—"

"I wasn't expecting you for another half hour," Brynn replied. There was a twinkle in her dark eyes. She knew she had broken his armor and made him uncomfortable.

Jonathan checked his watch again. It was exactly one o'clock. "I'm on time."

She shook her head. "No one ever shows up on time. It's unfashionable."

He stood there, dumbly, unsure of what to say. What was wrong with him? No one ever left him speechless and uncomfortable like this.

Brynn looked him up and down. "Are you planning on coming inside? Or are you going to stand in the hall all day?"

"I suppose I'll come inside," Jonathan replied through clenched teeth.

Brynn's lips pursed as she tried to suppress a smirk. "Wonderful."

She stood back and allowed him to enter, closing the door behind him. "I haven't ordered lunch yet so I'll call down. Make yourself comfortable."

She disappeared down a hallway. Jonathan walked through the foyer and into a large living room. Moving boxes occupied every corner of the room and clutter was spread out on the floor. Sunlight shone through the two windows on the far side of the wall; between the windows were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, already crammed with art, photography, and fiction books, candles, artifacts, and a stereo. Framed paintings and enlarged photographs were stashed under the glass coffee table waiting to be hung on the white walls. Two white couches faced one another in the middle of the room.

"I think the white was a mistake," Brynn announced as she came into the room. She stood next to Jonathan and stared at her couches. "I've already spilled wine on one of them. I should have gone with brown leather."

Jonathan looked down at her and was relieved to see she had changed out of her bathrobe and now wore a white V-neck and gray jeans. "Wine would stain leather as well. You might as well cover your couches with plastic."

"Or not have them at all. Enough about furniture. Sit, sit! I want to hear all about you."

Maybe not everything, Jonathan thought. Some things about his life were best unsaid…

"Do you want anything to drink?" she asked as he sat down on the couch. "I've got beer, wine, scotch—"

"Water would be fine."

She nodded and disappeared through a doorframe. "So," she called from the kitchen. "Georgie told me you snatched up the title of head psychiatrist over at Arkham. How's that going?"

Georgie. He remembered his call from George the previous night. "She doesn't refer to us as 'Mom' and 'Dad' anymore," the older man had informed him. "She simply calls us 'Georgie' and 'Maddy' as if we were her pet terriers."

"It's fine," he told her, not wanting to get into details. The last thing he wanted was to admit he was up to his eyeballs with paperwork trying to keep the asylum afloat. "And what are you doing?"

She came back to the room with a water bottle and handed it to him. "I'm working at a gallery down on Brown Street."

"You're still taking pictures?"

"Selling pictures," she corrected him. "But I get my camera out every now and then."

Her bare feet padded against the hardwood floor and she sat on the couch across from him. They inspected each other for a moment, noticing how much the other had changed since the last time they had seen one another. Jonathan noted that she was much more toned down than she had been the other night. No waiters had been knocked over yet.

She was staring at his face, the ghost of smile on her lips. "What?" Jonathan asked, not liking the intense way she was staring at him. Her black eyes made him feel exposed, like she could learn every one of his secrets just by looking at him.

Brynn shook her head. "It's just…I don't know, it's weird seeing you like this. Last time I saw you, you were eighteen and now you're a grown up. I guess it's strange to me because I didn't watch you age and transform. To me, it's as though you went from eighteen to twenty-three without being nineteen, twenty, and so on. You know what I mean?"

"I understand what you mean." Jonathan wouldn't admit it but he was experiencing the same thing. It was strange to see Brynn as a grown up. He had to keep reminding himself that she was no longer twenty.

A knock on the door interrupted them. "That must be the food," Brynn announced as she jumped off the couch.

A hotel employee rolled a cart loaded with food into the room. Jonathan stared wide-eyed. "You ordered all of this?"

"I wasn't sure what you wanted." She shrugged. "I'll send back whatever we don't eat."

"You can't send the food back, Brynn."

"Oh. More for me then." She thanked the employee and grabbed a plate of pasta salad and a bottle of white wine from the cart.

Jonathan snorted. "Isn't it a bit early to start drinking?"

"It's never too early," she replied and poured herself a glass. The image Jonathan had seen from the paper flashed back to him.

"I heard about your accident," Jonathan nonchalantly confessed as he sat down. He speared a leaf of lettuce. "Are you alright?"

Brynn groaned. "I was waiting for you to bring it up."

He patiently waited for an answer. Brynn took a long sip of wine and said, "To answer the first question on your mind, no, I was not drunk when I wrapped my car around that telephone pole. And yes, I'm okay. Just sore."

"What happened?" he pressed.

"Some stupid bird ran into my window and it scared the shit out of me. Of course the police didn't believe me when I told them my story. I seem to have acquired a 'bad reputation' ever since I got back in town. The first thing they did after cutting me out of my car was breathalyze me."

Jonathan knew all about her bad reputation. Everyone knew about it. That was part of the reason why George had pleaded with Jonathan to visit Brynn. He needed to know what was going on in her head and why she acted like such an idiot. Her reputation was making the family look bad.

"Bad reputation?" Jonathan pretended not to know all about her shenanigans.

"Oh, you know." Brynn rolled her eyes. "Late night partying. Excessive drinking. Having a new guy on my arm every week. I swear this town's being run by stuffy grandparents. They've outlawed fun."

"They need someone to bash and make them feel superior. Unfortunately, you seem to be the new target."

"Let them bitch," Brynn said. She shrugged. "I find the stories they come up with entertaining. At least they're keeping themselves busy with something."

"So their words don't hurt you?"

"They amuse me," she giggled.

Jonathan leaned forward. "You get a kick out of it?"

"Of course," she replied. "It just goes to show how pathetic they are to be so obsessed with the choices I make and not the choices they make."

She had changed in the last five years. The old Brynn he knew worried about what other people thought of her. Their opinions had always mattered to her. Now she brushed them off like bread crumbs on her shirt.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Brynn interrupted his thoughts, "about that woman you brought to the gala the other night."

He cocked his head to the side. "About her?"

"Yeah," Brynn said. "What was her name again? Janet? Jeanie?"

"Jane. Jane Pike." Jonathan had completely forgotten that Brynn had met Jane the other night. Come to think of it, they hadn't really met. Brynn had just spilled her drink all over her. They hadn't officially been introduced yet…

"Is she still upset about…?" Brynn trailed off.

"You spilling your champagne all over her? She was pretty upset about it," Jonathan confessed. "I think she's gotten over it."

"How long have you been together?"

Jonathan choked on his water. "Um, we're not really together."

"Friends?"

"No, not really—"

"Friends with benefits?"

Jonathan's face turned bright red. "We're on a…break, I guess you could say. We've been on and off for a while."

"Ah," was her reply.

Of all the awkward conversations one could have with their ex-girlfriend…

But then again, they had never officially declared their relationship. Brynn left before that could have occurred.

He pushed the memory from his mind. He wasn't there to reminisce on the past and things that could have been; he was there to help George and collect as much information as possible.

Brynn was nibbling on a pastry she had snatched from the cart. She had casually placed her feet on the coffee table, a habit she had done in college to annoy Jonathan. Something on the bottom of her foot caught his eye.

"Since when do you have a tattoo?" Jonathan asked. He squinted at the black symbol printed on the bottom of her foot. "Is that Chinese?"

"Uh, Japanese," she said. Brynn took her feet off the table, hiding the symbol from his sight. "I got it on one of my trips."

"What does it mean?" Jonathan inquired.

Brynn shrugged. "Beats me. I think love or something."

A shrill ringing interrupted their conversation. Brynn reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Immediately, her face darkened.

"It's my boss from the gallery. It might take a while," she apologized.

Jonathan stood. "No worries. I should be getting back to the asylum."

Brynn smiled. "It was great seeing you. We should have lunch again some other time."

Jonathan nodded in agreement and thanked her for the meal. As he walked out the door, he heard her answer the phone in a low, urgent voice.

Once outside the hotel, Jonathan dialed George's number. He answered on the second ring.

"All seems to be well with her," Jonathan informed the older man. "She has a drinking problem, that's pretty obvious."

"Anything else?" George sighed.

"She doesn't seem to care about morals or what others think of her."

"It's from spending all that time in Europe," he muttered.

Jonathan shrugged. "She's invited me to have lunch again. I can collect more information on her and see what she's up to."

George agreed that that would be a good idea. They hung up and Jonathan hailed a taxi to take him back to Arkham. Brynn was the least of his problems. George would deal with her, maybe send her off to rehab and that would be the end of it.

Or so he thought.

. . .

A/N: Yay for sneak peeks! Brynn and Jonathan are all grown up *tears up.* And Brynn has a bad reputation! And Jonathan has a girlfriend! I bet you're all dying to know what happens next ;) Don't worry, we'll be there soon!

This scene was kind of difficult to write because I had to be careful not to give away any huge spoilers. Some things I gave away (Brynn leaves for a while, they had a relationship in college, etc.) but all the big stuff has yet to be revealed. In the future, this scene will probably change a little (so I can mention things I couldn't) but for the most part, it will stay relatively similar. I'm so excited to get to this part of the story. I need to hurry up with freshman year! (I've decided I'm not going into as much detail sophomore year—I'm going to try to limit myself to ten chapters.)

Please leave a review and tell me what you think!