"Kris, I'm going out for dinner tonight, and I was wondering—"

"Let me stop you right there," I interrupted. "Don't you remember the last time I went with you to a fancy dinner? If I recall correctly, you did not do a very good job of keeping me in with a bunch of strangers." I tried to think of what dinner he was referring to, and I almost immediately remembered that he was going out with Natascha, some Russian ballerina. "And I will not be paraded around like one of your little models. I'd rather sit alone watching Nicholas Sparks movies, which I can't stand mind you, than spend a night with those airheads."

"Point taken," Bruce laughed. "It's nice to see that after a year, you still haven't lost your sarcasm."

I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. "What can I say?"

"I just thought you might like to see Rachel again. You haven't seen her since you've been back."

"Bruce Wayne, have you been stalking Rachel along with Mr. Dent?"

"I am not stalking Dent, I'm just making sure that he can be trusted. And it was just one of those conversations that happened to come across the feed."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure it was. Alright, fine. I'll go see Rachel, but I'm only staying there for a few minutes. I'm not a huge fan of social gatherings like that ever since the last one."

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Of course not!"

That night, I found myself outside the restaurant where Bruce realized what a good person Harvey really is. As for me, I knew exactly what was going to happen to Harvey in the end. Maybe I could just ignore that for now…

I was just eager to get back to the penthouse and watch some more old movies. My heart twinged as I remembered me and Bruce reading the intertitles to The Phantom of the Opera. No one had ever done that with me except my dad. It was nice to be able to relive that memory from when he was alive.

Bruce had driven me and Natascha together, and she was even worse than she was in the movie. Since she was the most important part of the ballet, she thought she was also the most important part of the world. She acted like a huge diva, forcing me to sit in the back of the car because the back was too close together for her and she got "claustrophobic". Yeah, right. She just wanted all of Bruce's attention.

"Rachel! Fancy that," Bruce said as he walked up to her. As if he was surprised to see her…

"Yes, Bruce," Rachel said with hidden annoyance in her tone. "Fancy—" She stopped talking as soon as she saw me. "Kris?"

"Hey, Rachel."

Rachel bolted out of her seat and enveloped me into a tight hug. I guess we had bonded a lot more in the last movie than I realized. "Where have you been? I thought you dropped off the face of the earth!"

"It's uh…kinda hard to explain exactly…"

"So you're Kristina Jacobson," Harvey said to me. "Oh, excuse me. Kris. Rachel's talked quite a lot about you."

I smiled at him. Okay, I had to admit that he was a lot more good-looking in person. And he had a really pretty voice. But of course, he was taken, and as far as me and Bruce went, I was still confused on that. "And you're Harvey Dent. It's nice to meet you," I said as I shook his hand. Nice to meet him now anyway. Not so much later.

Rachel sat back down and Bruce introduced his lady friend. "Rachel, Natascha. Natascha, Rachel."

"Natascha," Rachel said. "Are you the prima…"

"Prima ballerina for the Moscow Ballet."

And a total jerk who thinks she's better than everyone else, I added in my mind.

"Wow. Harvey's taking me next week."

"Really? So, you're into ballet?"

"Bruce, this is Harvey Dent."

"The famous Bruce Wayne," Harvey said as he shook Bruce's hand. "Rachel's told me everything about you."

"I certainly hope not," Bruce said. "So, let's put a couple tables together."

"I'm not sure that they'll let us…"

"Oh, they should. I own the place."

Despite the fact that I hated the playboy image Bruce put on, I always really liked that line. He motioned for someone to get another table.

"Well, this seems like the best time for me to bow out," I said to everyone. I couldn't help but notice Natascha look at me almost happily. I'm sure she was glad I was leaving. What a diva.

"You're not eating here?" Rachel asked.

"I'm not exactly cut out for the whole fancy thing. Besides, I've got a TCM movie marathon and a nice dinner Alfred made waiting for me back at the penthouse."

"Oh, you like old movies?" Harvey asked.

"Die-hard fan," I smiled.

"Which one's your favorite?"

"Oh, goodness, how can I pick? Um, I really enjoyed House on Haunted Hill. And I've seen the 1932 version of Tarzan more than once. But honestly, I really, really like Singin' in the Rain more than anything."

"All amazing films."

"Harvey," Rachel said. "I had no idea you were into that stuff."

"You can never go wrong with Gene Kelly," he answered.

I turned to Rachel. "You, my friend, have picked a winner."

She and Harvey laughed together and I noticed an almost jealous look cross Bruce's face. He'd get over it. I said my good-byes and grabbed a taxi to take me back to the penthouse. Alfred set me up with a really nice meal and I plopped myself in front of the TV. I was very pleased to see that one of my favorite old musicals, West Side Story, was on. After that one of the best old horror movies of all time directed by my favorite classic director, Alfred Hitchcock, was scheduled to play. I loved the suspense that came with Psycho, even though I had to watch the ending seven times to finally understand it. I would be perfectly happy here for the next few hours. Bruce could spend time with that ditz all he wanted to. She'd be a thing of the past within days.

Once Psycho came on, I had long since finished my meal and I knew that Bruce had to be coming back soon enough.

I got really into the movie, even though I'd seen this more than a few times, and I was just at the very end when the real killer, rather than what Hitchcock had led the audience to believe, was revealed. Just as Lila Crane turned Mrs. Bates around to show us a huge and very scary plot twist, Bruce decided to choose that time to touch my shoulder and say my name. I let out a huge scream and turned to find him laughing.

"Bruce Wayne!" I exclaimed as I bolted from the chair. "I can't believe you did that!"

"I'm sorry!" he said, still laughing. "I guess I didn't have the best timing."

"You can say that again! You couldn't have waited a couple more minutes?"

"I didn't know you were going to react like that!"

I rolled my eyes and laughed with him. "So what'd I miss?" I asked him. As if I didn't already know the majority of what happened.

"Well, Natascha started believing that Harvey was Batman, and later when I went to drop her off at the hotel she's staying at, she tried to flirt with me and because I had to keep up my playboy image, I was forced to flirt back. It was horrible. She was practically plunging her hands into my wallet."

"Your life is so difficult," I said sarcastically.

"I've also decided to throw Harvey a fundraiser. He believes in Batman and I've seen what he can do in a courtroom. It's time for me to start trusting him. Or rather it's time for Batman to start trusting him. What did I miss here?"

"Nothing interesting, except my amazing commentary I provided by yelling at the characters on the screen for doing something that was obviously very stupid. The detective in this movie for one."

"I almost wish I'd been able to see that."

"Yeah, very funny. Well, now that I've had my heart attack for the day, I'm going to crash."

"Good night." He gave me another beautiful smile that carried me on air to the place where I slept.

I had really missed being here.

"Do you think you can do me a favor?" Bruce asked me the next day.

"Anything to repay you for letting me stay."

"You're still on that?"

"I don't get this kind of hospitality often."

Bruce smiled. "I could use an extra pair of eyes and ears when I'm out at night."

"Wait a minute, are you asking me to help you on your little Batman outings?"

"Exactly. It would be really helpful if I had you in the lair to look up any information I might need and alert me if I don't see anything."

"I can try, but I don't know if I'll actually be any help. What if I make a mistake and you end up getting injured?"

"Well then you'll be able to know immediately that you need to alert Alfred for help."

I took a deep breath. "Fill me in."

"You'll be needing this." He handed me a key ring with a lone key attached to it. "It's for the storage container to the temporary Batcave."

The both of us went down to the rail yards and then to the special storage container. He showed me where everything was and how to use all the computer equipment. I'm kind of a computer nerd, so I didn't have to start completely from the beginning, but this was still new technology that I would have to get used to. He then showed me a headset that connected to the earpiece in his suit so I could listen to everything around him and he would be able to hear me nice and clearly. Bruce left me with the computers to familiarize myself with them.

After all, who am I to deny helping none other than Batman?

That night, after I had spent hours on his computers learning all the tricks and tips I would need to be decent help, Bruce came back down to suit up. He said he was going to the roof of the MCU building for a meeting with Harvey and Gordon. It would be good practice for me to start with.

As soon as he left, I put on my headset and followed his path. There was one computer that had a map on it that showed where Batman was. He had put a tracker on the suit in order for me to find him fast if something serious occurred.

"Harvey's waiting for you on the roof. Gordon's not there yet," I told Bruce. There was no response, but I hadn't really been expecting one.

"You're a hard man to reach," I eventually heard Dent say over to the speaker. There was the sound of a door opening before he continued, "Lau's halfway to Hong Kong. If you'd have asked, I could have taken his passport. I told you to keep me in the loop."

"All that was left in the vaults were marked bills!" I heard Gordon say angrily. "They knew we were coming! As soon as your office got involved—"

"My office?! You're sitting down here with scum like Wuertz and Ramirez, and you're talking…Oh, yeah, Gordon. I almost had your rookie cold on a racketeering beef."

"Don't try to cloud the fact that clearly Maroni's got people in your office, Dent!"

There was a long pause, and I couldn't help but smile as I pictured Batman just standing there listening to those two men argue, before Harvey continued, "We need Lau back, but the Chinese won't extradite a national under any circumstances."

"If I get him to you, can you get him to talk?" Batman asked.

"I'll get him to sing."

"We're going after the mob's life savings," Gordon said. "Things will get ugly."

"I knew the risks when I took this job, lieutenant."

That was the last I heard of the conversation because he had evidently disappeared before their conversation ended.

"Kris, I need you to see if you can track down Lau," Bruce said. "Find out what flight he's on and where's he staying once he gets there."

"You got it." I went on his computers and my fingers flew over the keys as I tried to access the information Bruce wanted. Remember how I said I'm a computer nerd? I've managed to teach myself some pretty sweet skills, which include master hacking. I was able to figure out which plane route Lau was taking and through some quick calls to his company, L.S.I. Holdings, I figured out what his usual routine was on a normal day in little old Hong Kong.

"What did you find?" Bruce asked as he came into the room, cowl off. I forced myself to stop staring, since I still thought he looked hot without the cowl on, and turned back to the computers.

"Lau will arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon. Once there, he's going to spend all his time at L.S.I. Holdings. Literally. All his time. I think he sleeps there."

Not bad for my first "outing".