Chapter 3

The next night was my weekly dinner with the Gordons. I usually head over at four, just in time to watch the late game. I had to admit, I was a huge football fan.

Barbara admitted to me once that this is the one night a week that she allows the TV to be on during dinner. "Heaven forbid I make him turn off his game."

So it was while we were sitting at the table eating beef stew that Barbara asked me how my weekend was going. I informed them of my late night work call and included my run in with Bruce Wayne.

"I had heard about him, on the news. He seems like he's pretty important, like he's a local celebrity."

"He pretty much is," said Jim. "He's the richest man in town and just so happens to be a bachelor. All the women are crazy about him and all the men want to be his friend."

"He's rich, so he's powerful," I inferred.

"Not only that. His company, Wayne Industries, does a lot of contract work for the government."

"Is it the family business?"

"Technically. He inherited it when his parents died, but when he was declared dead the company went public. I heard he bought most of the shares, so he still kind of owns it."

"Wait, he was declared dead?" I immediately stopped eating when I heard this.

Jim and Barbara shared a look, and then turned back to me. It was Barbara who spoke. "Bruce Wayne has a long, complicated story."

"He was declared dead, yet he's alive. I think this might be a pretty interesting story." Even the kids were looking up from their meals.

Jim and Barbara shared another look. "Well," Jim started. "The first thing you have to know is that he watched his parents get gunned down in a robbery."

Jim then proceeded to tell me the sad story of Bruce Wayne, all the way through his reappearance.

"It seems these days he's embracing the full billionaire lifestyle," added Barbara. "Models and drunken nights included. He even burned down his centuries-old family estate. He had a little remorse at least because he rebuilt it exactly as it was."

"So basically his parents' deaths screwed up his life."

"Wouldn't it screw up yours if you had watched your parents die in front of you?"

I nearly flinched. "Maybe four years ago."

Jim shifted. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," I reassured him. "Water under the bridge."

He gave me a look. I returned it. We both knew that I wasn't completely over what happened, but we also knew that I really didn't want to talk about it.

It was twilight when I started driving home. Normally first darkness wasn't that bad crime wise, or so I had heard. All the same, I had to stomp on my brakes when the car in front of me decided to stop suddenly. I was looking at him and cussing, wondering why on Earth he had done that, when I noticed every other car was stopped. When I looked on ahead to see what was going on, I nearly stopped breathing.

All the stories I had heard, all the warnings I had been given finally hit home as I saw a sight not many Gothamites get to but all want.

Ahead of me in the intersection I saw a car speed up, racing to get away because behind it, having nearly stopped when the car did after it accidentally hit someone a few cars in front of me, was the batpod.

It was my first sighting of the mysterious Batman.

I barely concentrated on the rest of my drive. A superhero, a real life superhero had crossed my path.

When I got home I turned on the news, eager to see if they would report the sighting, or even the cause. The report that was on showed a theft of a major ruby set to be displayed in a gallery the following week. I thought this was the robbery causing my sighting of Batman, but at the end the reporter stated that the theft happened last night.

For the rest of the newscast I looked on with excitement, hoping for them to report on something that I actually had a connection to. Sadly, they never once mentioned a sighting, nevertheless a car chase.

I pulled out my cell and called Emily. She worked in the finance department at work, and had quickly become my best friend in the past month.

"Hey, you'll never believe what happened to me tonight."

"Oh my god, you're okay, aren't you?" she asked panicked.

I rolled my eyes. "If I wasn't do you think I would be talking to you now?"

There was a pause. "No, I guess not."

"Anyway, I saw Batman on my way home tonight." I got up to make myself a cup of hot chocolate.

"You're kidding! How did he act?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I don't know whether to believe the rumors about him killing all those people are true or not."

"He was actually chasing another car when I saw him."

"Hm. Interesting. I'll just have to wait impatiently for more updates."

I smiled. "I was a bit curious though, because I was watching the news and they didn't mention it."

I heard her scoff on the other end of the line. "They wouldn't. They're so anti-Batman they wouldn't give him the time of day unless there was something bad to say about him."

"Hm. I guess I'll just have to live with my own memories."

Emily laughed. "And hopefully we'll have more soon. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

Though Emily had said that the news wouldn't cover the story on Batman, I still had my hopes up that I would hear what had happened.

It was that reason that I was walking back to work from a nearby café looking at my phone. I was so caught up in getting the page to load and looking at the headlines that I didn't notice where I was going and suddenly ran into someone. The shock and power of it forced me to fall flat on my ass.

"I am so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going," I said as I started to pick up my things.

"No-I wasn't watching either."

A hand was held out and I took it.

Standing up and brushing myself off I looked at the person I had run into. Good God, it was Bruce Wayne.

He looked surprised as well. "Hello again. You're the woman from the Palmer Center, right?"

I gave him an awkward smile. "I am, yes."

He shifted into a relaxed position and put his hands in his pockets. "I'm afraid I'm the one without the name now."

"It's Kiley. Kiley Hiljoy."

A look came to his eyes, but as soon as it was there it was gone, and he was smiling his charming smile. "It's nice to meet you Kiley, officially," he said offering his hand. I shook it.

"Sorry again for bumping into you."

He chuckled. "Again, I wasn't paying attention either."

He may be used to wearing a charming smile, but there was something behind it, something that made me smile in return.

"I really need to get back to work. It was good, you know, bumping into you," I finished lamely.

The chuckle this time was nearly a laugh. "Until the next time we bump into each other."

I smiled again to him, and we both went our separate ways.

At work I still had a few minutes, so I took a detour to Emily's office.

"So you know how I told you that I met Bruce Wayne."

She quickly stopped what she was doing and turned her full attention to me, eager for gossip on Gotham's most eligible bachelor. "Yes."

"I bumped into him on my way back from lunch."

She sat up straight. "No you didn't!"

"Yeah, and I mean bumped literally. As in I fell to the ground."

"Did he help you up?" she asked eagerly.

"Yeah," I said slowing, not understanding.

She clasped her hands on her chest and said, "Oh, that's so romantic!" I loved Emily, but maybe she wasn't the right person to talk to.

"Yeah, I better get back to work."

I turned but she stopped me by speaking aloud her daydreams. "Maybe now he'll realize what a wonderful person you are and he'll take you out and you'll fall madly in love and get married!" She was practically squealing.

"Emily! We just talked twice about hardly anything. I don't think it's going to amount to much, if at all."

"It's still nice to think about!" she called as I turned to walk about of her office.

"Mm hmm."