Batman was out early tonight, he had been to the crime scene and for once forensics hadn't missed any evidence. Usually they missed one or two things that he could find but tonight they swept it clean. At the very last minute he decided to stop by Gordon's house. Apparently it was his lucky night because Jim was taking out the trash as he landed lightly on the rail of the porch.

Jim gasped.

"god, don't do that you scared me" Jim said his hand momentarily over his heart as if to slow its beating.

"forensics didn't miss anything for once" batman said in his harsh voice. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the upstairs window slide open a little. The face of a woman in her twenties came into view. Her hair was a shade of flaming orange. He guessed that she thought she was being sneaky and he hadn't seen her so he allowed her to believe that. He turned back to Gordon.

"another murder, carved up like the last ones" she Gordon said quietly

"what about the card?" said batman questioned. He knew there was a card, there was always a card with these murders. He couldn't figure it out though, these murders were predictable in the sense that someone was killing to get Jim and his attention but there was no pattern, no evidence left behind.

"my daughter seems to think it's a woman murdering these people and working for the joker"

"your daughter?" batman rasped

"back from college she's going to join up with the police soon" her dad said looking to the batman.

His daughter. The woman in the window. Batman glanced up at the window. She jumped back from the window and he smirked slightly. He looked at Gordon again but knew she was watching still.

"here" Gordon reached into his pocket and pulled out an evidence bag containing a joker card and handed it to him

"ill see what I can find and get back to you" batman said and disappeared before Gordon could turn and notice.

Barbara woke to an obnoxious beeping sound coming from her clock. She took out her frustration at how tired she was on her clock and hit the snooze button a little too hard. She rolled over and looked at the clock 7:00 am, early, but could be worse. She stood and walked towards the bathroom, a nice warm shower should wake her up.

As Barbara got dressed the smell of bagels in the toaster met her nose. Her dad was up.

She didn't know if she should confront him. She knew that batman was innocent and her dad was covering for him. But why would he lie to her, his own daughter, and not to mention the entire city. What were they hiding together? She needed to figure this out before she confronted him about it. For now she should just leave it be.

She grabbed her purse and the apartment listings and headed down the stairs for the kitchen. Her dad was indeed inside the kitchen making bagels.

"did you make me one?" Barbara teased her dad kissing his cheek and putting some bagels in the toaster.

"I didn't know that you were awake" Gordon said turning around to face her while eating his bagel.

"I'm going apartment hunting today, after I stop by the mcu that is" Barbara said as she reached around him to grab her toasted bagels and put cream cheese on them.

"your moving out?" Jim asked setting his bagel down and looking straight at her "you just got here" he stated in defense, attempting to get her to stay.

"dad, I'm twenty two years old, I need to get my own place, start my own life." Babs said taking a bite from her bagel. "Surely you didn't expect I was going to spend my adult life living at home" she stated with a smirk.

"well I thought you could stay here for a while until you got a job and got to know Gotham a little better." He reasoned

"dad I'm getting a job today, at the mcu. And what happens when I start meeting guys, you want me to bring them back here?" Barbara said threatening him lightly

"Babs to much information, and you need to be careful, this isn't England. Girls like you get raped, murdered or go missing all the time here" he said the color draining from his face realizing the truth in his own words

"dad, I'll be fine, I know like six different kinds of martial arts, what's the worst they can do to me?" Barbara said walking for the door. "I'll see you later, if not at the MCU"

….

Mid morning light flooded into a room as an Alfred opened the curtains. There was a groan from the bed and then a very haggard looking Bruce Wayne emerged from the covers as he rolled off the side of the bed onto the floor to start his morning routine.

Alfred, who had been standing by the windows walked over to the nightstand and set a rather grotesque looking drink on it.

"Master Wayne, Mr. Fox called earlier and wanted me to remind you about your meeting today with the board at 10:30" Alfred said looking down at his employer who was still doing his push-ups

Bruce got up and downed his morning drink within a few gulps. He walked over to his closet and disappeared into it. Moments later he emerged in an Armani suit putting on a tie

"I'm not getting any closer in this murder case. There's no evidence left behind, the murders are at random, it leads nowhere" Bruce said frustrated and sat on his bed to put his shoes on

Alfred watched as Bruce took his anger out on his shoe laces.

"the contractors called and told me that the mansion should be done soon, most likely sometime this month." Alfred said changing the topic in attempt to get Bruce in a better mood.

"that's good, at least ill be able to use the cave soon, its getting annoying to have to go all the way over to the docks." Bruce said standing and walking towards the door

"medium regular coffee please, one cream, two sugars" Babs said to the guy across the counter.

He called out her order and then turned to the register punching in a few things and then asking for four dollars. Jeez coffee was expensive Barbara thought. He handed her the change and then handed her a steaming cup of coffee.

"thank you" she said to the man

"have a nice day" he said with a smile and turned to the next customer

"you too" she said walking for the door. Applying at the mcu had been easy, just an application and Stephens said he would see her on Monday. So she had two days to find an apartment. She exited the cafe and walked to the curb. Now the tricky part, getting a taxi. Frankly she sucked at hailing taxis.

"taxi!" Barbara shouted raising her hand out at the cars

No one stopped. No one even slowed down or looked at her. Okay maybe they hadn't heard her.

"Taxi!" she tried again to no avail

She turned around frustrated and ran right into a man. Her purse fell and her coffee spilled.

"great, just great" she sighed. "I am so sorry" she said looking at the man who was now bending over picking up her stuff.

"oh god you don't have to do that I'm the one who ran into you" she said bending over helping him pick up the contents of her purse and put them back in it. Her coffee was spilled. They both stood back up her with an empty cup and him with her purse newly refilled.

"I am so sorry" she tried again. She looked to her coffee cup "great" she sighed. Barbara then looked at the man across from her. He was tall maybe around 6'2, his hair was a deep chocolate color it was slicked back to look professional, and he was in a nice rather expensive looking suit. Truthfully he was one of the most attractive men she had ever seen.

"here, I think you dropped this" he said with a smirk as he handed the purse back to her

"thank you" she said taking the purse from him

"would you like me to buy you another coffee to replace that one" he said nodding towards the empty cup she still had in her hands

"no I'm fine I couldn't ask that of you, I ran into you so its my fault that I spilled it." Barbara reasoned with him

"well then take mine" he said handing her his cup of coffee

"thank you" she said with a smile "but I honestly can't accept this"

"it's a cup of coffee take it. But I did see that you were having a little trouble hailing a cab, would you like some help?" he offered

"sure, if you don't mind, its just that I just got in yesterday and I'm not really used to the city life yet"

"well then ill hail you a cab, its only fair" he said. He stepped towards the curb and raised his hands towards the cars

"Taxi!" he shouted

Three stopped.

"well you choose and have a nice day" he said with that same smirk as he turned and walked down the street.

"thank you" Barbara shouted after him and got into a taxi with a smile on her face

…..

"Thank you" he heard her shout after him. She had seemed frustrated and slightly flustered. But what puzzled Bruce most was the fact that she hadn't recognized him. Surely she knew who Bruce Wayne was. Who didn't know who he was? This was Gotham and he was considered the prince of Gotham.

He couldn't get that smile out of his head though. She was beautiful and she was Gordon's daughter. She was Gordon's daughter. Bruce stopped walking for a second. In a way wasn't she off limits? He started walking again, towards Wayne enterprises.

As he walked into the building he was greeted respectfully by the security guards. Now here was the trouble, getting past the secretaries.

"good morning Mr. Wayne" the blonde one behind the desk said with a huge smile.

"morning" he said tersely making his way to the elevator quickly. Too late.

"is there anything I can get you Mr. Wayne" the brunette one cut him off walking right next to him towards the elevator.

"nope, I'm fine" he said quickly looking around for an escape.

"Mr. Wayne" he heard a voice behind him that made him relax.

"if you'll excuse me" he said to the brunette turning away from her to face Fox. She walked away put out.

"Lucius, thank you for saving me" Bruce said with a relieved expression as they both stepped onto the elevator.

"if I may say so, it was you who came up with the billionaire playboy image, so the fault is your own" fox said with a smile as the doors closed.

"it was Alfred's idea" Bruce said with a smile towards fox.

They rode the elevator in silence for a few minutes as they slowly moved up past floors.

"so this board meeting, anything interesting? Or would it be a good time for a nap?" Bruce asked.

"actually Mr. Wayne you may be interested in this meeting for once. Were merging a small science corporation with Wayne tech" fox said shuffling through the papers in his hands, removing one and placing it on the top of his pile so he could look at it.

"really? Anyone in particular I should meet?" Bruce asked as the elevator doors opened on the top floor where the board room was located as well as fox's office.

"yes actually" fox said handing Bruce the paper he had removed from his stack "Pamela isley, shes been working on agricultural and environmental sciences. Her main focus is lowering pollution in cities through biogenetically engineered plants. Its rather fascinating research"

"Isley, I'll keep an eye out for her then" Bruce said as they walked into the board room. To his surprise the room was already full and its occupants had apparently been waiting on the two of them.

Fox headed straight towards a red headed woman near the head of the board table

"Ms. Isley if I might say, it is a pleasure to finally meet you" fox said extending his hand, Pamela shook his hand and then turned to Bruce

"Pamela" Bruce said extending his own hand

"pleasure to meet you" she said with a small smile

"the pleasure is all mine" he said in his playboy persona. Bruce saw fox send him a look out of the corner of his eye

"well lets begin" fox announced to everyone as they all took their seats.

For once Bruce actually payed attention at the meeting and didn't fall asleep. It was actually rather fascinating as fox had said it would be. Pamela and her team were working on genetically modifying plants so that they can take in harmful pollutants in the air of cities and change them into organic compounds that are used by everyday organisms.

Hopefully Pamela's science and plants would come to the benefit of Gotham.

…..

Barbara handed the taxi driver his money and got out of the cab.

She had found an apartment. It had taken her a few tries but she found a decent sized apartment near the center of the city. She had wanted to stay in the center of the city where it was heavily populated because as her father said it was a dangerous city for a girl her age to be alone. So it would be better for her to be living in an area where people were constantly and where crime rates were lower than other parts of the city. And the fact that it was near Wayne enterprises also helped. That building seemed to be one of the safest in Gotham.

She walked up the steps to the mcu with a little of a bounce in her step. Not counting the spilling of her coffee earlier this morning her day had been good. She had even had a run in with a rather attractive man. She should've asked his name or something he had been fairly generous giving her his coffee when she had been clearly at fault for the entire incident.

She walked through the door and Stephens was the first one she saw.

"Barbara I thought I said see you Monday" he said with a smile

"I know" she said back walking past him slowly "I'm actually here to talk with my dad, is he in?" she asked walking towards her dads office

"he is in his office, though I think he's headed to city hall in a few minutes, meeting with the mayor or something like that" Stephens responded walking in the other direction

"see you later Stephens" she said in a slight shout as he exited the building. She approached her fathers office door and knocked.

"come in" she heard through the glass of the door

Opening it slowly she peeked her head in and saw he was alone. She opened the door all the way walked through and closed it behind her.

"Babs what are you doing here?" he asked

"oh just wanted to stop by and say that I got a job and a new apartment, so sorry to say it dad but I'm moving out" Babs told her father with a wide smile. His smile disappeared and turned into a slight frown.

"Babs you just got home yesterday, I haven't seen you since you left for college and you are already moving out?" Gordon asked a little upset at the fact that Barbara was already eager to get out of his house.

"dad I'm moving into inner city, actually near Wayne enterprises. I looked it up and it has the lowest crime rates in the entire city and it's the business district so its one of the safer areas. Plus I already bought the place so ill be moving over there this evening" Babs said trying to get the smile to return to her father's face, and feeling a little guilty for upsetting him.

She stood there waiting for his reaction. He didn't say anything for a minute so she set her coffee cup down on the desk and pulled the apartment listings out of her purse.

"look this is the one I bought" she said pointing to a circled apartment listing as she handed it towards him. He reached over the desk for it but stopped and picked up her cup.

"who's Bruce?" he asked

"who?" she said confused, she pulled the paper back and looked at the listing. Nowhere on the paper did it say Bruce.

"right here on your cup it says 'Bruce call me'" he said handing her the coffee cup.

She reached for the cup and took it from her father. Sure enough on the side of the cup it said 'Bruce call me' with a heart next to it and a phone number. So that was his name, Bruce.

"oh he's a guy that I ran into this morning, I spilled my coffee so he gave me his" Babs explained and put the cup back down.

"you took some random guys coffee?" her dad asked completely forgetting about the apartment

"dad he wasn't a criminal he didn't even look sketchy" Babs argued seeing the fault in her own actions finally, this was Gotham. Trust no one.

"Babs, and you wonder why I don't want you living on your own in this city, what if he had drugged it or something?" her dad asked putting his hand over his eyes as he rubbed them.

"dad, nothing happened I'm here and I'm fine so let's drop it, I shouldn't have accepted let alone drank the coffee. I came in here to let you know that I was moving out this evening I didn't come here to get into an argument." Babs said picking up her things

"honey I didn't mean it like that, but I've seen what living in this city can do, especially to girls your age. I just don't want to see you get hurt, or have you disappear" Gordon said rounding his desk and putting his hands on his daughter's shoulders.

"I know" Babs sighed and then hugged her father.

"so this apartment…" Jim started