Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait, I'm opening up my very own studio and it's taking a lot of my time, here's a extra juicy and long chapter just for you!

I just want to thank again everybody who favorited and followed this story, it means the world to me. I'd just like to ask you guys for some criticism, good or bad, via a review. You may know how much work writing a story is, but then having to translate it it's a lot of work, reviews fuel my will and my creativity so you know what to do ;)

Also, I haven't even had time to check for any errors or typos (I'm so tired and I need my sleep...), so bear with me until I find a kind beta reader who feels sorry for me...

This chapter was written with Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran on the background for the most part, and the one before this was inspired by Ghost by Ella Henderson.

:: REVISED :: 07.03.15

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you may recognize.

CHAPTER 4

To say Ann was nervous was an understatement when talking about her state of mind fifteen minutes before her date. It was ridiculous, why was she so nervous? It wasn't even a real date, she wasn't interested. Well, maybe just a little bit. She could still remember how gorgeous he looked when he left the hospital conference room, with that suit that suggested an athletic and muscled body…

Well that wasn't helping her relax at all. Susie and Pam had left a half hour ago. They'd been in charge of making sure she was ready in time (and that she didn't run away), and Pam had also done her make-up because apparently they both considered she was hopeless in that regard. Which wasn't even true, for the last few months she'd found way more appealing sleeping five more minutes than putting stuff on her face. Anyway, she looked at herself in the mirror and she saw herself like she hadn't for months, like when things were good with Jeremy. She liked what she saw.

Susie had given her all kinds of advice but she couldn't remember a single one when her buzzer rung. She looked at her watch; it was exactly seven-thirty. He was just on time.

She approached the intercom and pressed the button.

"Who is it?" she asked, knowing perfectly well who it was.

"It's Bruce… Although I'm not sure if I'm allowed to speak directly to you yet." She heard from the street. That stupid comment made her smile and she hated it, she hated it when Susie was right.

"I'll be right down." She took her bag and a pashmina since it wasn't so cold yet, and went down the stairs.

She could hear the noise of those stupid heels against the stairs. Each click was a reminder of her inner fight, whether to let herself go and enjoy the night or trying to behave like an icicle. The truth was her heart skipped a beat for each step she took and she couldn't figure out why.

When she opened the door she found a smiling and nonchalant Bruce Wayne resting against a beautiful black car that was probably worth more than her entire apartment, but he was alone. She had been expecting him to bring a limousine or a chauffeur to impress her, but she was pleasantly surprised that it was way more intimate.

"You came!" he said with a smile. "I wasn't really sure you would."

She laughed. "I'm a woman of my word."

They both looked at each other while she went down the last steps to the street. Bruce was breathtaking; he was wearing a suit but no tie, and his blue blazer matched his white shirt perfectly. Ann had to admit he looked really handsome.

"You look beautiful." He said with that voice that made her shiver.

She tried to look calm. "Thank you." She whispered. She couldn't remember being so tense, not even on her very first date during her high school years.

"Shall we?" he asked gallantly, opening the door of the car for her.

She nodded and sat on the car, which seemed as luxurious as the exterior. She had no idea about car brands, but she was sure that one was very expensive.

Bruce opened the door and sat next to her, on the wheel. He started the car looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"You're very quiet. Is something wrong?" asked Bruce as he started driving towards the restaurant.

"No." She answered, trying to find the words. "It's just that I was expecting a bit more of paraphernalia, you know, a driver a limo…"

He smiled. "You don't seem like the kind of woman to be impressed by paraphernalia."

"I'm not." She was feeling more comfortable by the minute.

"Then it's a good start, don't you think?"

Ann looked through the glass in front of her with a little smile on her face. "I guess so." She could feel Bruce's gaze, but instead of returning it, she closed her eyes and sighed. The night would go on one way or another and she decided resisting it was stupid, so she'd try to enjoy and make the best of the evening.

The rest of the route to the restaurant was made in a comfortable silence, during which they both started to accustom to each other's company. In fifteen minutes they arrived at the restaurant, a maître showed them to their table, in a very cozy private booth.

"Did you know this place?" asked Bruce.

"I've been here before, but never to this part." She confessed, admiring the booth. It was small but very classy.

The waiter moved Ann's chair to help her sit and afterwards they faced each other. They kept staring, Ann smiled nervously but Bruce seemed calm and in his element.

A waiter broke the magic spell when he took their orders, but they were left alone soon after.

"I know I said it before, but you look amazing." He said, even sounding sincere.

"Susie picked practically everything." answered Ann, still a bit nervous.

"Susie is your friend from yesterday? I should send her flowers or something now that I think about it."

Ann laughed quietly but she didn't know what else to say. Her reservations were still there in spite of her best intentions; they were something she just couldn't dismiss so easily.

The waiters served dinner diligently. Ann thought it was delicious; it had been a long time since she'd tasted something so good at a restaurant. During dinner they both conversed, made jokes and laughed together. The girl had almost forgotten her doubts and was truly enjoying the evening.

He almost looked like a different man, nothing to do with the frivolous and carefree personality he showed on the media. Bruce even joked with the chef that had left the kitchen when they were served dessert to ask how they had liked their dinner. Ann couldn't help but wonder which Bruce Wayne was the real one, the kind and attentive man she had in front of her or the womanizing flirt from the first part of the night they had met.

She mentally kicked herself, she said she would try to enjoy his company and he seemed really nice. He hadn't taken any liberties, he hadn't offended her and his behavior hadn't been obscene, scandalous or ostentatious. In fact, the conversation had been pleasant, she had laughed and had fun. When she let herself go with the conversation, she stopped feeling nervous. She'd just heard some hilarious anecdotes about Bruce and a bunch of international executives who didn't speak English when the conversation turned to her again.

"Are you from Gotham?" he asked, taking a piece of his homemade cheesecake.

"Born and raised. My parents thought I'd leave when I finished college but it didn't feel right"

"Why not? I'm sure you had plenty of interesting opportunities."

"I had some options, but I wanted to do something good for the people of this town, I wanted to help make this city a better place." She laughed a little bit. "I'm sorry, I know it sounds terribly idealistic and stupid, but…"

"It's not stupid." He interrupted, without letting her say anything else and in a very serious tone. If only she knew who she was having dinner with. "I think it's worth admiring."

"I think you're the first person ever to tell me that." She laughed again, with a bigger smile this time. "After the hospital was destroyed… Well I must admit I was tempted to leave and never come back, but a part of me told me I had to stay and help rebuild that place and keep helping the good people of this town."

Bruce stared at her, she almost felt naked before his gaze. It showed intimacy and understanding. Even though she couldn't figure out why, it made her feel relaxed and sure of what she was saying.

"I generally don't make speeches like this, especially not on a first date." She laughed, trying to relax the atmosphere.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of" he smiled and briefly brushed her hand, sending a bolt of pure electricity to every pore of Ann's skin. Had he meant to do that? Or had it just been accidental?

"You don't know what you're saying, my father keeps telling me someday I'll end up in jail for now knowing when to shut up."

Bruce laughed. "He sounds like and interesting man."

"He is, although he just set up a little garden on his rooftop terrace and has become kind of a grouch."

He opened his eyes widely and laughed a bit more. "A garden? You have to tell me more."

"Oh yes, all of us told him it was crazy, but he insisted he had to do something with the seeds a friend of his had given him. There was just no getting it out of his head, so he now has a ridiculously small garden on his rooftop." She laughed. "In fact, he has a problem with a pigeon. Well, with a lot of them because they eat his seeds, but apparently there's something personal with a particular one. He's named it Nibbler and he spends his time trying to figure out a way to trap her, but he hasn't succeeded yet."

Bruce laughed like he hadn't in a long time while he imagined Ann's poor father with a helmet and hiding behind a wall trying to catch the pigeon with a bug net or something like that.

"I can't believe you."

"I assure you, it's true! He is now building a so called 'death trap', I just know it has a spring and some baseball bats, I didn't want to know more."

"I'm going to have to see that for myself." said Bruce, genuinely interested. Suddenly he stopped laughing and his face turned a bit serious but without abandoning that degree of slyness that had been there for the whole night. "There's dancing now in the restaurant… Would it be too much to ask you to dance with me?"

She bit her lip and decided to go with her gut. "I think I can handle that." She joked, getting up from her chair at the same time he did. "Although I'm not sure if I'll remember how to do it after all this time."

"I promise I won't tell anyone if you step on my feet." Bruce chuckled and put his hand on her hip, slowly swaying her to the outside of the booth, where the music was starting again.

Ann let herself be taken to another part of the restaurant, where a band was beginning to play a song. There were many couples already dancing in the floor when they approached it. The first chords of Love Hurts by Nazareth echoed through the walls while Bruce took her almost by the hand to the center of the dancefloor. The electricity she had felt before was growing by the second and she felt terribly close to Bruce, especially when he grabbed her hip with one of his hands, without letting go of her other one.

He pulled her towards him a little bit but not too much, just enough for their heads to stand practically next to each other while they moved with the rhythm of the music. Words weren't even necessary anymore. They both just let themselves be invaded by the special magic of the first dance, the first date, the first approach. Ann couldn't help but closing her eyes and got lost in the moment, in the emotions she felt and in her instincts, that told her to hold on to that. For some reason her initial wishes to flee were replaced with very different ones.

She could hear the powerful voice of the singer, who sung with a lot of emotion. She just knew it would be hard to forget that guitar chords, that voice and that moment. Her heart was beating fast and strong as she tried to catch her breath. Now that was unexpected. She could feel the heat from his hand, through the fabric of her dress in her hip. She could almost feel every breath, every movement. Each gesture and each smile.

Too soon for her liking, the song ended and a more upbeat one followed it. The couple separated almost automatically, they smiled and kept dancing for the rest of the night but it didn't even come close to the intimacy of that first dance. But she was fully aware that he was looking for those 'accidental' touches and she realized she was looking for them too. The little doses of adrenaline she felt every time he touched her were starting to become an addiction and she was enjoying it too much for her own liking. That's how the rest of the evening went, between laughter, dancing, complicity and accidental touching.

After enjoying the music and each other's company, Bruce offered to take Ann home if she wished to. Knowing that she had to work the next day, she accepted but felt strangely disappointed when they got on the car and he started driving towards her house. The way back was very different from the previous journey, they kept talking to each other until Bruce stopped his car in front of Ann's apartment and she got off the car followed by Bruce.

"Admit it, you had fun tonight." he said, now in front of her, on the foot of the stairs.

Ann faked a sigh, like admitting it was costing her a great deal. "Okay, I'll admit I had fun, but I will deny it even under torture."

He laughed and looked at her green eyes who were also smiling, as were her lips, full and red. They stood silently next to each other, not knowing what to say, but with smiles on their faces.

"I should go, I have to work tomorrow. And so do you." said Ann, breaking the silence.

"Yes, I have a lot of naps to take in tomorrow's meetings." He answered, making her laugh again. "Do you…? Do you think this date deserves a kiss? Because I do, but I don't know what you think." He joked.

Ann laughed even more, she got slowly closer to him and kissed his right cheek. "Good night, Bruce." And then she started going up the stairs and trying to find her keys in her purse to open the front door.

"Can I call you again?" he asked while she climbed the stairs.

"You can." She turned to look at him.

"And will you answer?" he asked again, without losing his smile.

"Maybe." She said, opening the door and waving goodbye to him. She climbed the rest of the stairs quickly and entered her apartment.

When she closed the door, she leaned on it and let out a big breath that seemed to have been waiting to be released since she'd left her home a few hours ago. She bit her lip and asked herself if she'd ever felt like that after a first date. She couldn't even remember feeling that way with Jeremy, but maybe the bad memories had clouded the good ones. She couldn't tell anymore.

She just knew she was amazingly close to letting herself go with her emotions. But the truth was she'd liked that night, and she liked Bruce Wayne. A lot. And maybe that was what scared her the most.

When she arrived at the hospital the next day, Susie was waiting for her in the locker room and opened her eyes wide when she saw her appear.

"You didn't call me!" she screamed.

Ann stared at her like she was crazy. "I didn't know I had to call you when I arrived home every night."

"Not EVERY night, but last night? Yeah!" Susie replied with the same demanding tone as before. "How'd it go?"

The two women began to walk towards Ann's small office, where Dorothy had probably left her the charts of the patient's she'd have to check on that day.

"It was good." She said, nonchalant, knowing that not knowing was killing Susie. She found it hard not to laugh at her frustrated expression.

"Oh come on! Why are you doing this? I'm a good person!"

"Alright, alright! I'll tell you." said Ann like she was doing her a huge favor. "He picked me up, we went to dinner, then danced a little and then he drove me home again."

"You went dancing?" asked Susie, very excited. "How romantic! And then what happened? Did you kiss? Because I don't think you're the kind to sleep with a guy on a first date… You're not that kind of girl, or are you? Huh?"

Ann laughed loudly, Susie looked like she was about to have a stroke. "Of course not, but it was good. I had a good time."

"That's good, having a good time is good, I like how good sounds." Said Susie like a maniac. "Are you seeing him again?"

"I don't know, he said he'd call me again so I guess I will." She answered, opening the door to her office.

When she did, she found an enormous bouquet of red roses on her table. Her heart stopped for a moment until she heard Susie shriek like a mad woman.

She god closer to take the small envelope she saw between the beautiful flowers. She opened it a found a little note: "Thursday at eight? —B". She couldn't help but feel like a teenager when she had her first crush. It was ridiculous but no other man had ever done such a thing for her.

Susie hugged her and snatched the note from her hands but she just couldn't stop smiling.

"A delivery guy brought them a while ago." said Dorothy leaning out of the office door after witnessing Susie's scandalous behavior.

Ann just got even closer to the flowers and stuck her nose between them, inhaling the amazing perfume.

"Who sent them?" asked the nurse influenced by Susie's enthusiasm. She was still jumping and shaking the card.

"Ann's new boyfriend!" Susie said, immersed in what seemed her particular nirvana. Dorothy, knowing she wouldn't get anything else out of her, smiled and left the office.

"He's not my boyfriend." Ann quickly said, unsuccessfully trying to get the card from Susie's hands.

"Who's not your boyfriend?" asked a new voice, adding to the commotion of the little office.

Ann suppressed a glance of disgust when she realized it was Jeremy, who had appeared there without an invitation.

"Definitely not you, asshole." Said Susie, with a big smile on her face.

Ann, surprised by her answer, looked at her and tried not to laugh.

Jeremy didn't respond to the pediatrician and just looked at his ex-girlfriend. "Are you dating someone? I'm so happy for you." Ann almost threw up because of the condescendence of that comment.

"Did you want something Jeremy?" she said sharply and ignoring what he had just said.

He cleared his throat, very aware of Susie's evil look. "I need a consultation, one of my patient has suffered two arrhythmias in the last 24 hours, I was wondering if you could take a look." He said, passing her a chart with the patient's medical history.

"I'll check on the patient today." She answered, opening the chart and taking a look.

"Thank you." He said, making his way out. "Nice flowers…" He mentioned before he closed the door behind him.

"Asshole…" Susie said.

Ann smiled a little. "You have to stop treating him like that."

"Why? What did I do? He's an asshole, isn't he? I just stated a fact."

"Whatever." Ann said, sitting on her chair to read the medical record.

"Well, I'm off to my rounds, but tonight is a mandatory girls night to discuss last night's events."

Ann rolled her eyes. "Is it really necessary?"

"Yes! See you tonight! Love you!" and she left like she used to do: like a hurricane.

She snorted, knowing there was nothing she could do about it, so she looked at the papers in front of her: "Katherine Armstrong, 43 years old…"

A/N: Please! Take a few seconds to leave a review, it means the world to me :) I hope you enjoyed the chapter!