Author's Note: I should warn you that not all the chapters are going to be as big as the first one—that one was bigger than I normal let them get for one

chapter.

Let's See Here . . . It's freezing cold, but you left comments and made me happy!

Broken Antler in Winter: No worries really, I'm a happily-ever-after kind of gal.

soccernin19: Glad you said 'interesting' and not 'odd'. I can work with interesting. :)

3 Nightwing 3: Glad I brought you permanently to the Dick/Babs team. (Let's be honest, how can you not

ship them?) I love my multi-chapter fics but they can take me awhile to write so you will probably have to read more of my one shots in the future. (sorry)

Thanks for all the nice things you said. Hope to keep you happy with this one!

SkyMyst: I am like the queen of AU stories so I glad that you like!

blacktarget: Good. I hope to keep it that way. Thanks!

Guest: Thank you very much!

Sue L: Forgive my ignorance of your language. Muito obrigado!

jdcocoagirl: Thanks for reading again!

Dibsshipper: Thanks, I will!

Batgirlfornightwing: Awesome! Love your name!

Disclaimer: Nothing has changed in the past week to make the chance of me owning Batman and its related characters any closer to a reality.

Chapter 2

"Barb? Barb?"

Barbara felt someone shaking her shoulder. She immediately sat straight up in bed.

"Is something wrong?" She asked her father.

"No, I'm just heading off to work. Don't make a fuss!" He said quieting her. "You have to get used to the time difference."

Barbara pouted. She wanted to eat breakfast with her father before he left for work.

"You should have woken me up." She said chastising.

"It will be all right. I left you some coffee. How about on my lunch-break we can go out to eat and then you can come back to the station with me?"

She couldn't say no. She probably had spent more hours down at the station than anywhere else in Gotham with the exception of Wayne Manor—neither of

which made her mother too happy. She shook the thought from her head.

"Okay Dad. That sounds great."

"You remember where the park is right? That little café that sits on the corner? Do you want to eat there?" He offered.

"That sounds perfect." She agreed.

"It's a date then. Off I go."

She gave him a final hug and watched him leave her room. She hated to admit it, but she was still tired. Looking out the window however gave her the energy

to get up and get ready for her first full day in Gotham.

Barbara sat idly on a bench in the park as she waited for her father to get off work for lunch. She had shown up early just to be able to sit back and watch

Gotham go past. It was a perfect warm summer day and she was rewarded with plenty of to watch.

She sat back happily in the warm sun recounting the hours that she had spent here herself. She had first learned how to ride a bike down these paved paths.

Suddenly, she felt someone bump the bench that she was on. Turning her head around, she saw no one.

Refocusing on the group of kids playing Frisbee, she watched their antics until she felt something knock her feet. Leaning over, she spotted a young boy who

had squished himself under the bench.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"I'm fine. Now don't stare. I'm playing hide and go seek." He instructed her.

Barbara snapped her head back up with a smile.

"Sorry." She whispered.

She scanned the area looking for other children playing the game. She came up empty.

"Where are the other kids that you are playing with?"

"I'm not playing with other kids." The voice under the bench said. "I'm playing with my brother."

She smiled at his tone.

"What does he look like? I'll keep an eye out for you." She offered.

"He's uh, not too tall. He has black hair and is wearing a blue shirt."

Barbara took in the information and once again scanned the park.

"No sign of him yet." She reported.

"Ha. That means I'm winning."

Barbara smiled. Being a kid was the best.

Looking back around, she saw no one new enter the park area.

"Did you hide too far?" She asked him, now worried that his brother wouldn't find him.

"I'm not a little kid." The voice said irritatingly.

Barbara bit her lip and turned her head to glance behind her. No one on that side matched the description either.

She wanted to make sure that this kid got home, no matter how old he was.

Out of nowhere she saw Dick.

She stood up and waved, but he didn't notice her. He kept glancing around.

Barbara froze.

He was wearing a blue shirt. She turned back and crouched to look under the bench at the boy.

"Oh my word, you're Tim." She said with a whisper.

"What?" The kid asked trying to look at her from his position.

"You're Tim."

The boy stared at her wide eyed.

"How did you know my name?" He asked her sounding serious.

"I . . ."

"Barbara!"

She stood back up and turned around as Dick got close.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked her with a smile.

"Waiting for my dad." She explained.

"Oh, I'm . . ." Dick trailed off as he seemed to glance closely at her.

Barbara tried to look casual, but Dick gave her a wink and carefully walked around the backside of the bench.

"Got you!" He announced giving the boy a push.

Tim popped out from under the bench in a hurry.

"No fair. You can't have help." The young boy said severely.

"I didn't." Dick argued.

"And you can't tell random girls my name."

At the absurdity of this statement, Dick just started laughing.

Tim did not look amused.

Barbara leaned a bit over to stare at the boy.

"Hi, there. I'm Barbara Gordon." She said.

"Timothy Drake." The boy said looking at her carefully.

"It's so nice to meet you!" Barbara said happily. The boy looked unconvinced. He turned to stare at Dick.

"So are you and your dad supposed to spend the day together?" Dick asked, intentionally not looking at his brother.

Barbara nodded.

"We are supposed to meet for lunch and then we are going to head back to the station. It's going to be a great day."

"Do you mind if we wait with you then?" Dick asked. He didn't want to pass up any time that he could have with her. Her face lit up.

"Sure."

Dick plopped back down on the bench next to her. Tim, after staring at them both, continued to sit on the grass.

"So Tim, tell me about yourself. What do you like to do?"

Tim paused at her question.

"Ah, normal kid stuff I guess." He settled on.

"Do you go to Gotham Academy? How do you like it?"

"It's fine." He said with a shrug.

"Is study hall still that awful green color?"

"Yeah."

Barbara smiled. Whoever had chosen that color had not been thinking. Kids were more likely to feel nauseous in that room than to feel like studying.

"Do you have any hobbies?" She inquired.

Tim shot Dick a look. Why was this becoming the Spanish Inquisition?

"I like playing with computers." He said hoping to satisfy her.

"That sounds smart." Barbara said with a smile. "How is . . ."

"Maybe you should ask Dick a question." Tim said, trying not to sound testy.

Barbara waved her hand.

"Eh, I already know everything about Dick." She said dismissive grin.

Dick pretended to be offended.

"No you don't." He argued.

"Sure I do."

Dick narrowed his eyes.

"You have broken your right arm twice, refuse to eat brown M&Ms, and can fit twelve grapes in your mouth."

"Thirteen. I tried last week." He said shot back.

Barbara rolled her eyes.

"Why won't you eat brown M&Ms?" Tim asked curiously. He had never heard this before.

"They just don't taste as good as the ones with color."

"They do not!" Barbara exclaimed. She could not believe that he had not given this up—but in a strange way she loved that he hadn't.

"That's just weird." Tim decided.

"That's just Dick." Barbara informed him.

They both shook their heads at him.

"At least I wore socks that matched to school."

"That's not fair." Barbara told Dick. "I don't have an Alfred to double check my appearance. Besides you were the only person who noticed."

Dick and Barbara kept talking about all sorts of odd topic as Tim started beheading weeds.

"We should probably get going." Tim said abruptly standing up.

Dick looked at him oddly and turned back to Barbara.

"Ah, yeah. We should. We will see you later, okay Babs?"

"You really let him call you that?" Tim asked not understanding.

Barbara gave a huge smile.

"Don't ask me when it started, but it can't be helped now." She said looking at Dick who returned her smile.

With a few more parting words, the boys walked off with Tim in the lead.

"What was that about?" Dick asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

"You don't need to hound her every free second." Tim said as he kept walking. Dick stopped short.

"I am not." He objected.

"Ah, yeah you are. She's kind of nosy."

Dick rolled his eyes.

"She was just interested in you. She likes to know all the facts, like her dad."

Tim looked unsure.

"Come on I get to hide again."

"You do not. I found you." Dick said ignoring the change of topic.

"You cheated."

"Let's call it a draw and then you can hide again." Dick settled on.

Tim conceded.

The next day, Dick popped his head out of various rooms until he found Tim.

"Hey Tim. I'm supposed to meet Barbara at the park. Do you want to come?"

A look of surprise crossed his brother's face.

"Do you want me to?"

"Sure." Dick said with a shrug. He didn't understand why Tim was being so weird about this.

They drove to the park, and walked down the well-worn path to the pre-destined meeting place.

Barbara was already sitting there, book in hand.

"Hey, you two!" She greeted them as she shut her book.

"Hey Babs." Dick said. He could still not believe that she was here.

Tim gave a smile and a nod.

"I brought something for you." Dick said teasing.

"Oh, yeah?" Barbara sat up straighter as she wondered what it was.

Dick pulled a notebook from out behind his back and laid it in front of her on the table. Barbara took in a swift breath.

"It's not . . ." She trailed off as her fingers brushed the tattered cover. She looked up at him and he gave her a nod to open it.

Carefully turning a few pages, she came to a list that had a heading of simply 'Summer Fun List'. The writing was faint and some words were misspelled, but

their list was still there.

She bit her lip as she read down the list.

"What is it?" Tim's voice broke in. He looked between Dick and Barbara waiting for one of them to answer.

After a moment, Barbara spoke.

"This is a list that Dick and I made one school year." Barbara said. She slid the notebook down as Tim took a step forward and stared at the list.

"Eat every flavor at Spooner's Ice Cream Parlor." He read off.

"Okay, that one was a little optimistic. There were a lot of flavors." Dick said sitting across from both of them.

"Were?" Barbara said catching his use of verb.

Dick grimaced.

"Yeah, it's not around anymore. There are other ice cream places in the area." He explained trying to cheer her up.

"Do they have double bubble?" Barbara asked fearing the answer. Dick's face said everything.

She gave a sigh.

"Was that a good flavor?" Tim spoke up curiously.

"It was blue ice cream." Barbara explained. "It had pieces of pink bubble gum. It was the best. You could eat ice cream while chewing gum."

Dick nodded in agreement.

Tim scanned down there list again.

"Stay out in the park past sunset."

"Alfred would never let us." Dick said with a soft smile. "That was going to be our big summer project. Finding a way to stay out late enough to watch the stars

come out."

"Wow. You two sound like rebels." Tim said clearly not impressed. Despite this, Dick and Barbara exchanged a grin. "Can I go walk around?" He asked.

"Don't go too far." Dick instructed in a brother-like tone.

"I'm not a kid." Tim said standing up.

"Just be careful. Alfred wouldn't forgive me if . . ."

"I'll be fine." Tim said over his shoulder.

Shaking his head, Dick sat back down and stared at Barbara. She slid the list over to her side and looked at it.

"Did you do any of them?" She asked while not looking at him.

"Of course not." Dick said honestly.

His answer made her happy, and a bit sad. She was glad that he didn't, but she wished that he would have done something.

"I was planning on waiting for you." He said softly. "Guess it took longer than I thought." His finger ran across the grain of the wood bench.

"Well, then we will just have to try our best now." Barbara said chasing away the gloom of the moment.

"Master Timothy, are you doing okay? You seem to be off." Alfred commented as the boy sat in the living room playing on his phone.

"I do?" Tim asked sounding surprised.

Alfred nodded.

Tim sighed.

"Alfred, does Dick really not eat brown M&Ms?"

Alfred smiled.

"My, I haven't thought about that for a long time. Did Miss Gordon bring that up?"

Tim nodded.

He wasn't sure why, but the fact that she knew almost more about Dick then he did . . . bugged him.

"They were talking about all sorts of well, goofy sounding stuff."

"They always were rambunctious. There was not anything that they weren't willing to try." Alfred recalled fondly.

Tim crossed his arms.

"Master Dick would you stop pacing?" Alfred begged as Dick made his twelfth trip around the room.

"I can't help it Alfred; I'm just excited." Dick said in a way of an excuse.

He couldn't remember the last time that he had actually wanted a party to happen. He looked over at Alfred who was meticulously straightening

everything—even though everything was already straightened.

"I'm rather excited myself." Alfred admitted to him. "It seems like . . ." Alfred's eyes drifted towards the clock.

"I'm gonna wait by the door." Dick said walking quickly out of the room as soon as he thought up the idea.

Alfred shook his head as he watched the young master leave.

"Everyone seems to be in a remarkably good mood." Bruce commented as he passed Dick.

"Yes, well, I like to believe that Master Dick and I are always in a good mood." Alfred said with a smile.

"Well if I would have known that importing Barbara Gordon in from . . ."

"San Francisco." Alfred inserted in the gap.

"Yes, I would have done it sometime." Bruce finished.

"I wish you would have." Alfred said, pausing from straightening.

"I won't deny that I thought about it once or twice, but the cost outweighed the benefits."

Alfred raised an eyebrow.

Bruce noticed.

"I mean, making Dick happy by bringing her here, wasn't worth the cost of making him sad when she left." He explained.

Alfred gave a tentative glance to the open door.

"I won't deny that I am worried about that. I've tried not to mention anything about it, you know how Master Dick is."

"Hey Dick, what are you doing here?" Tim asked walking down the hall towards the front door.

"Waiting for Babs." He answered with a smile. He was leaned up against the wall tapping his fingers against the paneling.

Tim looked at the door and then back to his older brother.

"We are going to play a game tonight, right?"

Dick nodded.

"We always play a game. We have to do something to pass the time."

Tim smiled at the assurance of the promise. The weather was perfect to play something outside, which was the best place to play since Alfred could not glare

at you for goofing off in public.

"So can we do something now?" Tim said as Dick glanced back out the window. Dick seemed reluctant to leave his position.

"Well, I guess." He answered after a moment.

Barbara smiled at her father as they walked up to the front door of Wayne Manor.

"Seems like yesterday, huh?" He asked her.

Barbara nodded thoughtfully.

The last party she went to was in the late winter.

When she found out that she and her mother were leaving, she realized that it had been her last one. Like every other emotion that day—the thought had

been terrible.

Last this, last that—she hated that everything had to be thought of in those terms.

"Barb, you okay?"

"Just spacing out." Barbara explained quickly as they reached the door.

"Do you what to ring the doorbell?"

Barbara smiled.

She had always loved to ring the doorbell. Her father usually had to lift her up so that she could reach it. Walking over, she found that she didn't need any help

to ring it. The bell gave out the familiar old chime that she suddenly remembered perfectly and realized that she missed terribly.

A familiar face answered the door. She had missed that face too.

"Miss Gordon . . ." Alfred said tenderly.

She engulfed him into a hug before he could get another word out. How on earth did she bear leaving this place all those years ago?

Gordon gave Alfred a smile and a nod as he watched.

"Look how tall you are now, and such a lady." Alfred commented looking her over. "I do say, where does all this time go Commissioner?"

Gordon shrugged.

"I have no idea. It doesn't feel like it is going that fast, does it?" He asked.

"It never does." Alfred agreed. "But little by little, it slips by. I'm sorry come in, come in!" Alfred said ushering them inside.

It was just as Barbara remembered. Everything in Wayne Manor was huge and even the fact that she was taller now didn't change any of it.

The doorbell rang again and Alfred paused mid-step.

"Well, I trust that both of you can find your way. I will catch up with you later." He added as he headed back to get the door.

Barbara watched him go.

"You ready?" Her father asked her.

"It will weird since I probably won't know too many people anymore." She mentioned as she ran a hand down her dress. It was going to be an odd feeling. She

knew this place better than most and yet everyone else would think that she was the new one there.

"Been a long time, huh?" Her father asked watching her.

"It's nice to be back." She said, although it was really an understatement.

She was right. There was no one there that she really recognized. A few faces here and there. Some people even remembered her which was a nice discovery.

They stopped by long enough to say hello to Bruce. It brought back memories of the first time that she had met Mr. Wayne. Too be honest, she had always

been a bit nervous around him. Not because he wasn't friendly, but there was always something about him that made her . . . feel like she was missing

something.

Mr. Wayne however, was his usual charming self as he inquired about her life in San Francisco.

She explained a few things and gave a brief description of the part of town that she lived in. After that, her father picked up the conversation and Barbara let

her mind drift as she looked around the room.

She had not seen Dick anywhere, and was hoping that he would pop up soon. She felt like she was more at home when he was around.

"He should be in the backyard with Tim."

Barbara snapped her head back around at Mr. Wayne's words.

"Oh, thanks." She said after she registered what he had just said.

Maybe that was it, he was always seemed very perceptive. His eyes seemed to catch everything, which was odd she thought for a philanthropist, playboy . . .

whatever else you wanted to through into the mix.

She felt her father give her a nudge.

"Go ahead," He told her. "But don't be out too long. I still want to spend time with you too."

Barbara gave a smile and excused herself.

She started off through the ballroom at a rather quick pace, but then caught herself and slowed down.

She wasn't a kid anymore. She couldn't run through Wayne Manor—at least not in public.

Random End Notes: I seriously had a friend who thought that she could taste the difference in the M&M colors. I thought it would be a funny quirk to give Dick.

Please leave encouragement, advice, or whatever you feel like—you know I love to hear (read) it! I'm not sure if I entirely like how I wrote Tim, so if you have

any thoughts on that let me know.

{Dick/Babs because, HELLO! They are perfect for each other!}

Alright you know the drill. Advice, and (gentle) [be nice please! :}] criticism, would be appreciated. Or a haiku if you feel like one.