Chapter 2: Silver Pool Of Light

Her Face Is A Map Of The World,

You Can See She's A Beautiful Girl,

And Everything Around Her Is A

Silver Pool Of Light,

The People Who Surround Her

Feel The Benefit Of It,

It Makes You Calm,

She Holds You Captivated In Her Palm.

(KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See)

Imogen wouldn't exactly say that she lived far from Wayne Tower, nor would she say she lived close, but she never felt the need for catching a Taxi to work. Instead she found that she greatly enjoyed walking to work, especially in weather as nice as this, summer setting in with the heat just the right temperature, feeling a soft warm breeze touch her skin soothingly as she walked.

She would often give a friendly smile to those who passed her on their way, some would smile politely back while others would completely ignore her, set on getting to work as quick as possible. She never felt insulted by it though, she understood that some people didn't adjust to early mornings well and never would, thus starting of their day grumpily and cheerless.

She had spontaneously decided to go with the geek sheek look today, tucking in a white button up shirt into a black skirt that stopped just above her knee's and flowed out, and she matched with it a slim black tie and tights, finishing her look with plain black flats. She never would dress the same, often picking out things on a whim, and for work she would often pick things that didn't necessarily look correct together, yet managed to keep up the formal appearance.

Her long brown curls was tied up in a pony tail to prevent her from getting too hot, her bangs constantly present, her blue eyes held a constant glow to them, which never seemed to fade no matter the mood she was in. She walked along the street happily, with a Starbucks Coffee and Hot Chocolate in her hands that she collected every morning for herself and Mr. Fox.

Passing a homeless man on the street, she faltered in her steps to look sadly at his hunched over form, a hat perched in front of him with a few coins and dollar notes, walking over the old man she put her arm out to him, motioning for him to take her hot chocolate. The messy old man looked her briefly, with a slightly bewildered expression he took the cup from her, a smile forming on his wrinkled dirty face, it was whipped off quickly when he noticed her shoving her hand into her cardigan pocket, pulling out a crispy ten dollar note, throwing it into his hat.

"Thank you! You don't get people like you anymore miss," he smiled gratefully at her, scratching the skin beneath his beard, and took her hand she shake it when she extended it to him.

"I'm just doing my bit to help! See you around sir," She trotted off, waving to him as she went her even present smile on her face.

She reached Wayne Tower in no time, skipping up to the steps of the large glass door entrance, wrapped up in her own day dream and softly singing to herself, she failed to notice the smartly dressed shareholder of the company that stepped in to walk beside her.

"We're in a rather good mood this morning." Her head slowly turned to look beside her, Bruce holding one of the doors open to allow her in, smiling gratefully at him she continued on, walking beside him as she shrugged.

"If you start of the day positive then it's always a good day."

"Say that to people like me who aren't early birds." She giggled at his statement, giving him an accusatory look.

"Well not all of us go to big parties with beautiful models until the early hours of the morning Mr. Wayne, dancing until the cows come home and till ya feet hurt."

He hummed in agreement, before Imogen parted ways with him to head to the stairwell doors, Bruce stared at her back for a brief moment, the same look of amused bewilderment on his face from when he met her in the previous week.

"She's walking up forty flights of stairs, instead of taking an elevator."

The sound of a ping signalled that the elevator had arrived to the ground floor, Bruce shrugged his shoulders to his previous statement as he stepped into it, smirking at a very attractive blonde who had just exited the elevator, already making a note of asking her to dinner when he next saw her.

Imogen reached the top floor long after Bruce Wayne, but managed to reach the office just as Lucius came in, she waved at him from her desk, handing him his coffee as he walked past her and into his office with a small thank you.

Looking a his schedule for the day, and making notes of the e-mails for cancelled or moved forward meetings, sending a few e-mails herself to members of staff for deadline reminders, she playfully ignored the bald man who had walked into the office and perched himself on the end of her desk.

"You know, if we got you a few low cut tops to wear I'm sure we could bag you a guy!" Imogen laughed loudly, shaking her head at her friends comment.

Turning her chair slightly to face him she reached out and pulled his glasses off, putting them on herself to strike a few pout poses, he let out his own laugh at her.

"It's really sad to know that I would have to result to that just to get a guy, I'm not strange!"

"Well honey, if you continuously talk about Winnie The Poo and sunshine then you aren't exactly going to have men falling at your feet!" She gasped in mock horror at his statement, playfully pinching him in the arm for good measure.

"Stan that's a horrible thing to say! Winnie The Poo is full of years of magic and wonder, that was a big part of my childhood!"

"And apparently your adulthood too." She stuck out her tongue, earning the magic finger from him, which stunned her to silence. Imogen had never been one for any type of swearing, or vulgar words for that matter, she wasn't childish about it, but she just never could bring herself to come out with one.

"Leave Poo alone! But now that you mention it I do need to go shopping and buy some clothes, if you would like to join me after work?"

"Me? Miss out on an afternoon of shopping? Like that would happen sweetheart." he waved her away with his hand, before leaning forward to give her a kiss on her forehead.

"Yay! Then we can go get ice cream from that yummy store!" She clapped her hands together in excitement, while Stanley rolled his eyes at her.

"You really are such a child my dear, but I must dash back to advertising they can't last five minutes without me down there!"

She nodded, waving at him enthusiastically until he disappeared down the hall, releasing out a small sigh she got back to her work.

"You are my sunshine my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey,"

"Miss Hartley?"

"You'll never know dear how much I love you, so please don't take my sunshine away."

"Miss Hartley?" Imogen snapped out of her stupor, scrambling across her desk to press a button onto the receiver that connected her to Lucius Fox in the board meeting room.

"Sorry sir I was singing, how may I help?"

She heard a long sigh and sounds of laughter coming from the speaker, making her wonder what the other members of the boardroom could find so funny and waited patiently for Lucius's reply.

"I would very much appreciate it if my guests and I could have some coffee brought to the board room."

"Right away sir."

"Thank you."

She quickly stood, straightening out her shirt and walked around her desk to head to one of the staffs kitchen rooms, before abruptly turning around to head back to her desk, pressing her finger over the receiver once more.

"Sorry Mr. Fox but umm … how many coffees would that be?"

A moment of silence settled between then, and she guessed it was because Lucius was shaking his head in embarrassment at her, she reminded herself to apologize for her incompetence later.

"You will find a large coffee flask that you can fill, along with that you will find seven tea cups that will suffice, also in my office I left a folder of information on the technology department that I need you to bring with you."

"Yes sir." Nodding to no one in particular she practically ran down the hallway towards the kitchen.

Carrying a tray full of refreshments in one hand, while holding a folder in another, Imogen managed to look some what a state while pushing the glass door open when entering the board room. Smiling at no one in particular when she looked to the gentlemen sitting around the extremely long table, she walked towards Mr. Fox at the end, handing him his folder as he continued to listen to one of the men's speeches on why they should combine one of their products together.

He was a relatively tall looking man with a completely bald head and slightly chubby face, as he was sitting down while talking, with two men sitting on either side of him, both hanging on every word and ready to pass him a document if needed.

Imogen started from the bottom, placing a cup in front of each colleague, then continuing to pour coffee into each cup, she briefly looked at the group of men on the opposite side of the table to which Lucius sat, and had to back track a second when she noticed Bruce sitting to his right looking slightly bored. She wondered why he even took part in Wayne Enterprises deals if he didn't enjoy it; it wasn't as if Lucius couldn't handle this entire company on his own.

For a brief second he made eye contact with her, giving her a dazzling smile that would of made any woman in the building swoon, unfortunately for him Imogen was as oblivious as can be, and mouthed a small 'hello' to him before returning to her current task.

"I think if Wayne Enterprise and LexCorp combine both their findings on the technology on sonar phones that it would increase not only the quality onto a monumental level, but guarantee the increase of profit."

A small clap was heard as Lex Luthur finished his speech, Bruce giving one half heartedly while constantly looking at his watch in an exasperated manor. The whole room seemed to relax a little as Lucius, Lex and Bruce began to converse between them. Without trying to seem rude for interrupting, Imogen placed herself beside Lex as she held a plate of biscuits and cakes, he stopped mid sentence to look at her, before smirking and taking one with gratitude.

Lucius batted her hand away, muttering a no thank you as she went past him, moving forward she offered one to Bruce, who took the entire plate and set it in front of him, lifting his cup up to have some more coffee.

"Finished it already?" She had to whisper as she bent beside him, filling his cup up.

"Do you realise how insanely boring these meetings are, I've been fighting to stay awake for the past hour," He picked up a biscuit, examining it's décor as if it were a piece of art, before looking to Imogen and giving her a sceptical look, "Jammy Dodgers? Really?"

She shrugged, "Well I would have given cookies but the box for that was empty, it was either this or short bread biscuits, but those don't taste very nice because they're kind of bland, at least with Jammy Dodgers they're sweet and have jam in them, everyone enjoys eating those."

Bruce held a playful smirk on his face, again it barely passed through Imogen's mind on what it suggested, and snapped her head towards Lucius as he called out her name.

"I need you to fit Mr. Luther and his colleague's into the priority guest list to the Baker charity ball next week, also you must organise the times of their pick up from the hotel with Roy, and call Grenier to see if he is confirmed, if so I also need you to organise his pick up as well as his flight here. Speak to human resources and explain that we are in dire need of a new executive in Biotech by Monday as Mr. Streep was fired today."

Bruce watched as she expertly took notes of all that Mr. Fox was saying, with a small notepad and pen that she seemed to keep within one of her cardigan pockets, she nodded as she scribbled down notes, making sure to leave nothing out and keep up with what Lucius was saying. There was no doubt about the fact that Imogen was extremely good at her job, she seemed to be a fast learner and despite her first impressions on people she seemed to constantly surprise by exceeding expectations.

When working it was as if her entire demeanour changed, she would turn serious and make sure to stay on guard, clearly always prepared as she constantly took her notepad everywhere.

On finishing his list of necessities, Imogen looked up to smile brightly at Mr. Fox, her childlike stance returning, "anything else you need Mr. Fox?"

He shook his head, and she nodded in confirmation before pocketing her notepad and picking up the tray, leaving the flask of coffee on the table if any of them needed a refill. Smiling softly to Bruce as she walked past him, she left the board room humming her previous song to herself.

Imogen walked beside her friend Stanley in a department store, the man was slightly older than her, and while she had just past mid twenties he was into his thirties. Being fairly tall he wore a plain black V-neck sweater above a white button up shirt, along with plain black skinny trousers and shoes, Imogen always though he dressed extremely well for a man, before she found out he was a gay of course, answering all her curious questions when he would pass her in the hallways complimenting her choice of clothing, even if it was slightly controversial.

His head was bald, yet you could see hair beginning to grow back, insinuating that he chose to shave his head, unlike Lex Luther who didn't have a single strand of hair on his. Looping her arm through one of his, she listened intently as he complained about certain staff members and the highlights of his day, upon finishing his rant he turned to Imogen, asking her on what she needed his assistance for on shopping.

"That charity ball is next week and I knew you would be the person to come to on picking out a new dress, because I really don't know what to wear and I don't wanna turn up wearing something that everybody else hates and thinks is silly because this is really important to Mr. Fox and Wayne."

"A handsome Mr. Wayne is going to be there?" A suggestive look appeared on Stanley's face, and Imogen giggled at it before rolling her eyes.

"Don't worry, you're my plus one as always, and I'll make sure to introduce you … although I don't think he swings that way."

"What would make you think that my dear Imogen?" Stanley asked in sarcasm, though she didn't catch it, for someone who was smart she could be astoundingly oblivious to social etiquettes.

"Because he always has super models hanging off his arms?"

"Yes, well back to the reason of why we're here, I can see you wearing something … soft in colour … and I know just the place!"

Forcefully yanking on her arm, he pulled her in the direction of where he new a boutique sold wonderful dresses and gowns, already having a perfect image of what she could wear.

No more than half an hour later did he have her standing before him wearing a pale blue knee length dress, the texture was of silk and the facial expression that Imogen held was one of disgust. As soon as they had walked into the store Stanley had bombarded her with dresses that he would randomly pull of a rack, instructing her to try all of them on, none of them of course had been to her taste, and even Stanley had given a few disapproving looks to her attire at one point.

He would make off key comments on knowing just the right shoes to wear, or what type of jewellery would compliment her, proceeding with her trying to encourage him to work for a fashion magazine instead of being at Wayne Enterprise.

"There's only one left, and I hope it looks good because I'm getting tired."

"Stop being a whiney child and get back in there!"

He ushered her back into the small changing room, hearing her scuffle around and mutter a small 'ouch' as it sounded like she bumped her head, within a few minutes she remerged from the changing room, drawing the curtains back with a large smile on her face, walking out she done a little twirl for Stanley. The dress she wore was a faded coral color that was strapless, and the soft material gave a floral look to it, flowing out from her waist to stop a few inches above her knees. Stanley released a satisfied grin, walking towards her to feel the material himself, before ruffling her hair slightly.

"With the right hair style and shoes, you will make this work … it looks very pretty on you."

Imogen giggled in happiness, clasping her hands together as she twirled around it in once more, "It's so pretty! I feel like a fairy or something, I'm definitely wearing this!"

Stanley nodded, pushing his glasses up his nose and putting his hands on his hips, "now that you're dress is done, we need to find my outfit."

I didn't actually expect to be writing up another chapter ... but what do you know? I quite liked the feedback I got from the last chapter, Thank you to all four of you who did ^_^ it makes me very happy! And god I honestly don't know how I'll start a romance off, or action for that matter. .. it's really bad I'm writing this as I go along! But now that I've started it I'm inclined to finish it so don't worry I'll make sure its a damn good plot!