Lucius Fox stood by the window in his private office. He watched the people down below; thankful he couldn't exactly hear them. Too often sirens could be seen racing down the road to whatever human-caused tragedy the day brought. It was only a small comfort that he supplied Batman with the tools and gadgets he needed. Small because he didn't exactly approve of the vigilante himself, but merely respected Batman's cause, to a point. He sighed and thought back on a recent conversation between himself and Mr. Wayne in this very spot.

"Long night?"

Lucius turned to see Bruce Wayne standing behind him. "Normally, I'd be the one asking you that."

Bruce chuckled, "Yes well, the nights have not been long for many days. Crime has gone into hiding."

"Hiding? Is that why I haven't had to commission anything new?"

"Would there be any other reason?"

This time, it was Lucius who chuckled.

How he wished crime had stayed hid. Lucius knew it wouldn't have lasted for long, but this new batch of murders left a sour taste in his mouth, too familiar for his liking.

His phone rang and he answered it.

"Mr. Fox, Ms. White is waiting for you downstairs. She insisted on waiting in the lobby."

He sighed and responded, "That's quite alright Jean, I'll go ahead and head down there. Thank you for letting me know." Hanging up the phone, he stood and went to meet his friend downstairs.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne was just arriving at Wayne Enterprises after yet another night on the town with, what was her name? Brittney? Bailey? Something common like that, when a curious sight caught his eyes. A woman was pacing leisurely in the front hall. He sipped his coffee as he paused to watch her.

Her hair was pulled into a tight, yet messy bun, as if done in haste and out of annoyance. The color of her hair was a shiny pale color of some sort, but it looked white from where he stood.

Her boots thumped lightly with each step and her jeans also swished. The turtleneck confused him though. Surely it was too hot for such clothing? As if hearing his thoughts, she paused and pulled at her sweater around her neck. Wayne sipped his coffee again and decided to approach her.

There was one problem though, as she suddenly changed the direction of her pacing unpredictably to one directly in the path of his.

She squeaked as she collided with him, and his coffee exploded. Truly it must have been a magnificent sight as the cup itself seemed to pop before the lid went flying along with the contents it was covering. As it turned out, the woman was also holding papers and they too took flight. Of course what goes up must come down.

Nia stared at the mess in shock. "I'm so sorry!" She sputtered out to the man whose suit she just ruined. "I'm so, so sorry!" Bending down, she began to attempt to clean the mess and get her papers back in order.

The man didn't get angry though. "It's okay," and motioned to the receptionist to call the janitor, and then he also bent down in front of her and began to collect the papers he hadn't seen her holding.

"I'm so sorry!" Nia muttered again.

"It's not a problem. Just hm-" How was he supposed to tell her what her hair looked like and that it was currently a shade of brown? As it was he could barely keep from laughing. He motioned vaguely to the stands of hair that were loose around her face.

She frowned at him, then looked at her bangs and the tiny brown droplets currently clinging to them. She sighed. "Well at least brown is a natural color. Better than orange." At his look, she explained, "I had similar problems with the orange juice this morning."

His lips twitched, and she cracked an embarrassed grin.

They'd finished collecting her papers and he passed them to her. Today was not her day and Lord help her if it got any worse. It was just her luck to bump into someone, even more so if this man turned out to be Bruce Wayne, her friend's boss then-

"As you probably know, I'm Bruce Wayne." He announced, and held out his hand.

Aww, fiddle sticks. Where's a rock to hide under when you needed it?

"Nia White," she replied and shook his hand. "Again, I'm really sorry about bumping into you."

"Nia!" a voice called from behind her, and both turned to see Lucius Fox approaching them.

He paused when he got a good look at the mess, and chuckled at the scene before him. Not only was there coffee spread in every direction, but Nia's hair was… not its normal shade, and Mr. Wayne's suit would never be the same. He placed a hand over his mouth and crossed an arm across his chest in an attempt to muffle his laughter.

Glaring at him, she snapped, "Don't you dare! I know you're laughing at me," but she couldn't maintain her anger and soon Lucius wasn't the only one laughing.

"Leave it to you to make a mess!" Lucius said as he reached out and gave Nia a hug.

She looked around and sighed. Neither the janitor nor the receptionist would look her in the eye and several other people were hiding their giggles behind hands and papers. Speaking of papers, she looked down at hers and was surprised to see the mess they were in. For once, the disorganization of her papers wasn't the result of her laziness.

"I hope they aren't too damaged." Nia jumped. Wayne had snuck up on her and was standing directly behind her. "Were they important?"

Clutching her papers to her chest, she shook her head as she turned around, "Not that important. Even if they were, I've got copies." She took a good look at his – ahem – "coffee-logged" suit. "Oh my," she put her hand to her mouth, much like Lucius just had.

Bruce looked down. He looked back up. "Good thing I've got another one."

"Thank you Lucius, really" Nia began after they'd seated themselves.

Lucius shook his head. "It's not a problem. Why wouldn't I make time for an old friend?" he asked, peeking over the top of his menu at his clearly young companion.

Smiling ruefully, she avoided his eyes by looking at her own menu. "I apologize for falling off the map the way that I did. I just had to-"

"Take care of things. Yes I know," Lucius interrupted her. "So was there a reason you so rudely declined my boss's offer of lunch, or was his designer suit merely too much to handle?"

Nia scoffed, "I wasn't rude!"

He leveled her with another look, "You acted as if he had a contagious disease."

"He snuck up on me! Twice!"

"I fail to see how he did that, unless spilling coffee is highly sneaky."

"Oh forget it!" she snapped, smacking her menu down.

Setting his menu down a bit gentler than she had, he decided it was time to cut to the chase. "So what's the real reason we're doing this? As much as I'd like to think this is a chat between old friends, I know from experience this isn't the case."

Suddenly, she couldn't look at him. How was she to tell him his world was about to flip again? She picked up her stack of papers that she had set on the seat next to her. "During my time under, I spent a large amount of my time on research." She spread the newspaper clippings in front of him first. All were of unexplained deaths, ranging from mass killings to single homicides. Explaining further she gestured at the articles, "They're all of bodies that have been arranged ritually, brutally, and in some cases they've been branded."

Lucius frowned, "So he'd been killing for a while? This date is ten years old." The paper in his hand was of an entire family's death.

Nia nodded, "And notice the killings weren't in singles until seven years ago." She pulled out another sheet of paper, "This city in Maine was hit pretty hard, but then the killings suddenly stopped."

"Five years ago?" He asked.

"Yep."

Lucius sat back and watched her. All this information was interesting, but it was old news, things that didn't matter anymore. Why was she bringing this up now?

"How long have you been in town?" He suddenly asked.

She sighed; he wasn't going to like the answer.

"About three months."

"Three months." Leaning forward, he was about to speak when the waitress interrupted him.

"What can I get y'all?" the girl asked. She wrote down their orders, then quickly headed off to get the drinks.

After she left, Lucius leaned forward again, "I think it's time you told me what's really going on." He gestured to the papers, "All this information is interesting, but it still doesn't explain what you are doing here. You haven't spoken to me in six months, and now you're in the same city as me and for half of the damn time."

Nia sighed. "I moved here on instinct three months ago, just after the Joker was arrested. I own a vet clinic downtown, just outside the 'Narrows'. And yes, I knew you lived here." She hesitated with this next part, "I had a dream three days ago. You, Lucius, have heavy connections in this town."

Lucius's jaw locked as he realized what she was implicating. "What did you have a dream about, exactly?"

"I lived in Illinois for three years, but all of a sudden I couldn't stay there anymore. A murder happened just down the street from me, and I thought it was because of that." She took a deep breath. "I won't tell you what I dreamed exactly, just that I know who you're helping. And that I'm worried." She waved a hand at the old articles. "Hence the unnecessary paperwork," she told him.

The waitress came back with their drinks and set them at the table. When she did, Nia appeared to relax as she hid most of her tension. She nodded her thanks at the girl, and took a big gulp of her drink as soon as it hit the coaster. Her hands weren't even shaking as she held her glass.

"What do you need me to do?" Lucius asked when they were alone again.

"Talk to your man, give him a heads up. I'd like to stay out of it, but you know how good I am at that." She smirked, and then hesitated. "Just keep an eye on things. I don't want anything creeping up on me in the dark."