Disclaimer: All the characters are owned by DC Comics and Time/Warner; this is an original story that does not intend to infringe on their copyright
The Signal
By
Peggie
Leslie was sat next to a tearful little boy who kept looking reproachfully at the man driving the car. The two of them where sat in the back with the partition through to the driver closed. That in itself was unusual, normally even thought the driver insisted on proper seating arrangements there would be chatting, joking and laughter taking place between them all.
"Have you and Alfred had a row?" Leslie asked concerned.
The boy shook his head and sniffed.
"So whatever is wrong, come on Bruce it can't be that bad. Tell me and I'll speak to Alfred."
"He won't take his jacket off. Since Mr. Prescott came he won't take his jacket off." The little boy started crying again. "Even when he read me my story last night he had it on."
Although it sounded a silly reason for a little boy to be so upset over, Leslie understood.
The Jacket was a secret signal, a code devised by Thomas and Martha Wayne so their son would not harass their dedicated butler while he was working. She remembered the day she had first learned about the signal.
"If we were ever to lose Alfred I think Bruce would probably pack his bag and go with him." Thomas had said as he watched his five-year-old son following the rather stiff looking butler around the garden, as he served cool drinks to the guests.
The boy was avidly watching the man's every movement.
"It must be the hottest day of the year." Martha had said, stripping off her light jacket.
Although this was one of the society events of the year, everyone had stripped down to shirtsleeves. The only formally dressed person in the whole of Wayne manor was the butler.
Leslie had watched the man with some concern, he looked very hot, it was a wonder he didn't passed out dressed up in full butlers uniform including, winged collar, bow tie, waist coat and tailed jacket.
"Martha couldn't Alfred just take his jacket off. I know it's probably not the done thing with servants but I think he's going to pass out if he carries on as he is."
Martha had gone over to speak to her butler. He had nodded his head and set off to the kitchen. Leslie spied Bruce following close behind.
"I've sent him to get more ice," Martha said. "He will be out of the sun for a while, it's certainly a job that will let him cool off and he will need to take his jacket off to do it."
Thomas laughed. "Come on Leslie this will be worth watching."
Perplexed Leslie had followed her friend into the house. They were stood peeking through the kitchen door. The man stood in front of the icebox filling the ice buckets was still wearing his jacket; but it obviously was impeding his movements. He glanced furtively around the room. Then with his usual dignity he removed his jacket and with a sigh of relief hung it up. Suddenly a small figure dived from under the table on to the man's back.
"Come on Alfred lets go swimming! You promised we could go to the beach after you finished work today. So lets go."
"Master Bruce I am still working!" the man had gently explained to the boy.
"Ho no you're not, you've taken your jacket off so we can play now."
"But master Bruce I only took my jacket off so it didn't get dirty."
The boy was looking at the butler reproachfully. "You said when you took your jacket off we could play." The boy was becoming upset; the man was trying as gently as possible to explain.
Leslie looked at Thomas. He winked then walked in to the room "Pennyworth get your jacket on I am not paying you to do nothing you know."
"Yes Sir;" the butler replied "sorry sir. I'll do it straight away." With that he'd put is jacket on and slipped past the master and his friend giving them a grateful smile.
Bruce had looked at his father wide-eyed he'd never heard him talk to Alfred like that. Alfred must be in a lot of trouble. "He only took his jacket off to keep it clean Dad," the boy had said in a small scared voice. "He wouldn't go swimming," I asked. "He was still working honest."
"Well if you say so son," Thomas had replied. "I'll try to remember that Alfred is always working when he's got his jacket on and sometimes working when he's got it off, is that right son?"
The boy nodded. "I'll remember that, then Alfred won't get into trouble." Thomas had said in a serious voice.
The boy had nodded "Me too" he'd said.
Leslie had smiled at her friend's tactics. "So the jackets a signal" Leslie said.
"Yes it's the only way Alfred can get any work done. Bruce would monopolies his time all day otherwise. It only breaks down when the weather is like this and the poor man has to swelter, but I think we may just have sorted that out."
Now nearly four years later the pair still used the jacket to signal when Alfred was the butler and when he was the boy's best friend.
Leslie understood the need for this. If Bruce Wayne had been any other child then after the death of his parents the authorities would have gladly granted custody to Alfred. He had more than demonstrated his love for Bruce and his ability to care for the boy. But Bruce Wayne was from a society family and had a very large trust fund, so the authorities deemed Alfred only fit to give the boy day to day care. They also stressed that Alfred should not be viewed as anything other than an employee.
Leslie in her roles as Children's Doctor, Bruce's Physician and family friend of the Wayne's had argued that this arrangement wouldn't be fair to either Bruce or Alfred. She truly believed that Alfred should be allowed to adopt Bruce, or at the very least be made his official guardian. But the powers that be had disagreed.
She and Alfred had even discussed what the chances of adopting Bruce would be if they were to get married. Although their main reason for the marriage would be Bruce's welfare, the prospect of spending the rest of their lives together was not unappealing to either of them. But even the best lawyer Leslie knew could not see them succeeding. So the wedding plans were shelved. In the end the trustees had won and Bruce's wealth had come before his welfare.
She knew that despite his mask of indifference Alfred was hurt. The inference that he wanted to adopt the boy for his money hurt the man's pride.
As they pulled up in front of the house Alfred opened the car door and helped Leslie then Bruce out. Normally he would lift the boy out and they would exchange hugs. But today had been very formal. The boy had looked up at the man very hurt. But he had just turned away and unlocked the front door.
Leslie couldn't understand what had happened to cause such a change in Alfred behaviour. She was getting pretty angry with the man.
"I am going to do my homework now Alfred," the boy had said in a quiet, unhappy voice.
"Very good sir, I shall call you when dinner is ready." Alfred had walked off to the kitchen totally indifferent to the boy's pain.
The small figure walked up the stairs totally dejected. Leslie's heart felt like it would break watching him.
Full of anger she headed for the kitchen. She intended to give Alfred a large piece of her mind. She slammed the door open to find Alfred sat at the table with his head in his hands.
"Ho Leslie," he exclaimed, "I can't do this how they want. It's not natural, who going to give him a hug when he comes home if it's not me. There's no one else here to do it! I love the lad; I wouldn't steal from him. It was a mistake, a simple mistake. I just forgot to put the money back in the petty cash."
Leslie stood looking open mouthed at the man.
"Honestly Leslie it was a mistake!" he said despair in his voice.
She sat next to him and took his hand. "I know you wouldn't steal Alfred, why don't you explain what happened."
"Well Wednesday is my night off, so I take Master Bruce out with me. We normally go to Mason's Drugstore on West Street for ice cream then we go for a drive and finish off with either pizza or hotdogs depending on what Master Bruce feels like. Well normally before I pick him up from school I go to the bank, but three weeks ago there was an accident on the freeway so I was late. I didn't get chance to go to the bank before collecting Master Bruce. We went to Mason's and I asked if I could pay by cheque, Mr. Mason suggested I charge the ice-cream to the Wayne account to save writing out a cheque, it seemed sensible so I agreed."
"Well I forgot all about it, and when Mr. Prescott came to do the quarterly audit of the accounts he found the bill for the ice-creams. Although he considered that Bruce's ice-cream could be charge to the estate mine should have been paid for by me."
"Hang on a minute Alfred, how much are we talking about here?"
"$1.20 is the exact figure. "
"You're telling me.. ! Alfred how much money do you have to account for in an average quarter?"
"Including bills, repair and maintenance fund for the mansion, Master Bruce's fund, staff wages and house keeping about $10,000."
"So out of $10,000 you cannot account for $1.20."
"Yes Madam."
"So worrying about that is what's making you treat that little boy so badly? Alfred I expected better from you."
"Leslie I wish that was the problem. Things got much worse when Master Bruce came in from doing his homework, I had my jacket off. So he got up on my knee and gave me a hug. Mr. Prescott didn't like it. Then when he questioned Master Bruce about the ice-cream money he said it didn't matter because he would pay for it out of his pocket money. Master Bruce then said I was his best friend and he would buy me anything I wanted I only had to ask."
"After I sent Master Bruce to watch the TV I got a lecture about my place at Wayne Manor, about my obvious over familiarity with the young Master and warned that unless I stopped 'unduly influencing the boy to coheres monetary gain' I would be sacked."
Leslie looked at the man horrified. "Alfred who normally pays for Bruce's share of the pizza and ice-cream, do you charge it to the estate?"
"Of course not, it's not worth the bother, it comes to less than $5."
"So you pay right."
The man nodded.
"What about when you go out at the weekend, I know you take him with you when it's your day off. Bruce tells me about visiting the zoo, Fun Park, museum and the beach. Do you always take Bruce with you."
"Of course, what else could I do, there's no one here to look after him.
Alfred why don't you take your day off in the week while Bruce is at school?
The man looked surprised by the question.
"I enjoy taking the lad out," he said smiling, "and who else would take him out if I didn't?"
"Do you pay for Bruce to go on your outings or does that come from Bruce's Fund."
"I pay."
"So Mr. Prescott is threatening you with the sack for a miserable $1.20 unaccounted for in a three month period. Yet you spend what..about $15 of your money a week on Bruce."
"About that yes. But Leslie I enjoy treating the lad. It makes it feels right, like I am more than just an employee more like a..."
"Father!" Leslie finished.
The man nodded, "Not that I am trying to take Dr Wayne place no one could. But a boy Master Bruce's age should have a someone to give him treats not just a butler doling out trust funds."
"Of course he should Alfred." She looked at the man and smiled. Suddenly she wished that they had gone through with the planned wedding. Then even if they couldn't adopt Bruce they could have been a proper family for the boy.
She thought about the unhappy little boy and the desperately sad man. Leslie loved them both dearly. She knew exactly what to do "Alfred get The Car."
"The Car, you mean the Rolls?" he asked looking at her curiously.
"Yes, I expect it out front in ten minutes."
He'd nodded, "Yes Madam." he said somewhat hesitantly.
She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry Alfred I am going to sort this out."
Ten minutes later Leslie helped a tearful Bruce in to the back of the car.
Alfred was sat in the driver's seat.
"Where to Madam?" he asked.
"Mr. Prescott's residence please Alfred." The man turned around a look of horror on his face.
"Get a move on man, I haven't got all day."
Bruce looked at Leslie then into Alfred's shocked eyes.
"Yes Madam."
"Leslie and Bruce what a lovely!" surprise gushed the large woman who came up from the garden to greet them. Seeing the boys tear stained face and slumped shoulders she gathered him in her arms. "Ho Bruce darling, whatever's the matter young man." Sylvia Prescott was with every inch off her being a mother; and a child in distress brought out the best in her.
Stood next to the car Alfred watched as the two ladies and the young Master walked down to the summerhouse.
After about twenty minutes Stevens the Prescott's butler came up to him. "Madam wants you in the summer house Alfred. Whatever's happened, she's hopping mad?"
Alfred had just shook his head and followed the man down the path.
"Alfred take you Jacket off!" Sylvia ordered. Alfred was about to object. "DO YOU HEAR ME MAN!"
Alfred nodded and took off his jacket, then carefully handed it to Leslie who was holding her hand out to receive it. Bruce looked at the man hopefully. "Now you hug this boy like you should otherwise you will have me to deal with." Sylvia stated.
In a daze Alfred put out his arms and Bruce jumped into them. They hugged each other tightly. The little boy crying, while Alfred was having difficulty holding back his own tears.
Sylvia smiled at Leslie. "Only an employee indeed! Unduly influencing the boy to coheres monetary gain," she shook her head. "That husband of mine is a fool. Anyone seeing those two together can see they're a family!"
"Alfred sit down." Sylvia Prescott said. The man still had a little boy hanging on to him like a limpet. He looked at the chair, then at Sylvia Prescott, then at Leslie who nodded. He sat down still holding the little boy close to him.
"Leslie has explained about the money and my foolish husband's reaction. She's also told me about your days out together." Sylvia lent over and squeezed Alfred's hand. "Martha was a great friend of mine. She only ever had good things to say about you Alfred. I know she would approve of how you are looking after her son."
"Leslie tells me you would like to be the boys legal guardian."
"Yes madam."
"I will speak to my husband, I see no reason why you shouldn't be granted guardianship."
"Thank you madam!"
Holding the boy's hand as they walked out of the Families' Court two weeks later, Alfred felt like he was walking on air. "They made me sole guardian!" he said to Leslie for the sixth time. She smiled at the man. "Leslie how can I ever thank you."
"Well, I like ice-cream, pizza, hot dogs, the zoo, fun parks and the beach, you could try inviting me along on your outings."
He smiled at her "That would be a pleasure." He lent over to kiss her cheek.
"A bit more commitment on the kissing front would also be appreciated she added."
Alfred put his arm around her waist pulled her close and kissed her with more commitment.
"Yuck," said Bruce "you're getting all sloppy. Come on lets go to Masons, I am having a Double Chocolate Fudge Surprise."