-1Bruce called Meara. Every doubt he had had, the seventy two hours of banging his head against the wall and calling himself weak, it was dispelled the second he heard her voice on the other end. He was very glad he had decided to call her, even though he stuttered in the beginning awkwardly, and wished he could see her face to see if she was laughing at him. He sank with relief against a wall however, when she shyly said that she was glad he had called. That was a good sign. He asked if she was going to be a permanent writer for the society section. She said she hoped not, she could only interview her one willing candidate so many times. He said he would be glad to let her interview him again. It was in this roundabout fashion that Bruce set up another date. This was the tricky part.

"I was wondering if you were free Friday night?"

"I am."

He wanted something with a little more substance than meeting for coffee this time. He asked her to dinner, and afterwards he could escort her to one of the society balls, held at Mr. James Grey's residence.

"That way, you kill two birds with one stone. I'll have somebody to talk to at this wretched thing, and if you get sick of me, you can go attempt to find somebody new to interview."

"I wouldn't worry about me getting sick of you. I'm sure it's not in vogue right now to escort seedy reporters to parties in mansions."

"You look nothing like 'seedy' and you know it."

She laughed, thanked him, and said she would be very pleased to go with him, dinner included.

When they hung up, Meara did a little victory dance hopping up and down, and Bruce allowed himself one triumphant punch in the air before striding back down the hall toward his study.

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The next day, Wednesday, when Meara went into the office, she saw a small group of people standing together talking and Eileen a little ways away leaning against the water cooler looking bored. When she saw Meara her eyes lit.

"Hey! You have no idea how great it is to see somebody under forty around this joint."

"We youngsters gotta stick together El. Listen, I need a favor."

"Sure."

"I'm going to another ball thing this Friday night and I need another dress."

Eileen's eyes widened.

"Stanton is sending you again?"

"Well not exactly, I kind of got invited."

"By who?"

"Bruce Wayne."

Eileen's reaction was hilarious. Her jaw slowly dropped and eyebrows practically disappeared into the stratosphere, and then she very slowly shook her head in sheer disbelief. Meara only had to nod once, and Eileen was actually jumping up and down right next to the water cooler. Meara decided not to tell her that that had been her own reaction to the invitation.

"How did you get invited by Bruce Wayne you are going to tell me exactly what happened when you got to that party and anything that happened afterward and you are not going to leave anything out!" she stopped to breathe.

Meara told everything. The party, the café, the phone call.

"So you wanna go shopping with me tonight? Do you mind? I hate shopping by myself."

"No of course I don't mind. You're gonna need me to find you another smashing dress like that red number. And now that we know you have an interested billionaire looking your way, it's going to be sexy."

"Not too sexy Eileen." said Meara seeing the direction this was taking.

"No no you're going to look classy but we can also show off you body to your best advantage too honey because" she glanced down at Meara's business like skirt and blouse "if doesn't look like your wardrobe is having a lot of fun."

"Will Stanton mind if we charge it to the company? This isn't totally work related…"

"No, that's what the account is there for. Two gowns isn't gonna hurt anybody."

So that night they went shopping. It was harder this time, now that they knew they were dressing for somebody and not just as a part of the job. They settled on a seafoam green gauzy dress, that contrasted nicely with her hair and white skin.

"You look just like a…mermaid princess or something." said Eileen appreciatively.

Meara laughed.

"I feel good."

"You can tell sweetie. You're glowing."

It felt nice to spend money on something frivolous. She hadn't done that in a while. What with student loans and now rent for the apartment, and she had just bought a bunch of furniture.

The next day, Meara and Eileen went out to lunch together and talked and laughed the whole time. Neither had realized just how lonely they were until they had somebody to eat a meal with again.

Meara discovered that Eileen was twenty-eight, married her high school sweetheart at nineteen, and was divorced by twenty-three. The divorce had left her with very little money, but she was not a woman to be easily beaten. She had gone to college on her own ticket, earned a BA in Journalism, and accepted the first job offer that came her way which happened to be in Gotham City. She bought her own things, paid her own rent, and got along just fine by herself thank you very much. She cried a little recounting the story to Meara, and they toasted to being young, single and independent.

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Bruce Wayne and Alfred had been talking about the party the entire day. Or more specifically, the host of the party. And how Bruce was going to be sneaky and search the house without the host knowing.

They had long suspected Grey of illicit activities, but it was never anything to get extremely worked up about. Most inhabitants of Gotham dabble in petty crime a little bit. But then documents in a high profile court case seemed to vanish into thin air. Nobody had any idea what had happened to them. Documents that nobody was supposed to know about, documents locked up in a safe at a lawyer's daughter's house, in a closet. Well, those things don't just turn into vapor. The only possible thing that could have happened what that the man under investigation knew the documents were a liability to his status as a free man. Maybe that man knew the prosecution had the documents. And maybe he had a friend that was extremely good at breaking and entering. Maybe.

It just so happened that in this particular case, the man in the hot seat was good friends with James Grey. It also happened that Grey had a vested interest in seeing his friend stay out of prison for his own financial reasons.

Bruce had a hunch. Tonight was going to be more than just a social call.

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That night, Bruce picked Meara up at her house. He insisted. His logic was that she didn't have a car, she couldn't walk in an evening gown, she certainly couldn't take the bus, and under no circumstances would she call a taxi. She was a little embarrassed about where she lived. The apartment complex was no Wayne Manor. But she gave him the address anyway. He trekked up to her floor, rang the doorbell, and when she opened the door, drew in a breath.

"You look stunning." he said simply

"Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself."

"Thank you."

He offered her an arm and smiling a little, she took it. She vaguely thought that they would look quite ridiculous to anybody coming up the stairs right now, but at the same time she didn't care.

She kept feeling his eyes on her for a few seconds at a time as he tried to descend the old stairs without falling, make sure she didn't fall, and steal surreptitious glances at the same time. He would look ahead at the stairs, look at her feet to make sure her dress wasn't going to trip her, and then look at her profile. But every time she went to look back at him, his eyes were straight ahead.

"I've been trying to think of what you look like and I've figured it out." he announced as he opened the door to the limo for her and climbed in after.

"Mermaid royalty."

He got a little confused when she started laughing.

Dinner was fun. Bruce asked for a discreet booth and they got to it pretty easily. Meara wasn't used to this sort of attention. People were openly staring at them. She was nervous with Bruce suddenly, which was new. She felt awkward, like a poseur. A poor girl masquerading as a rich girl. She was very quiet throughout dinner, and he seemed tense. But just when she was starting to regret coming, he looked up at her and said sincerely

"I'm very glad that you're coming to this thing with me."

Which made it all better for some reason. They finished eating, and made their way back out to the limo in companionable silence. Making their way out through the throng of people in the front, he put his hand protectively on the small of her back. It was a little gesture, but she appreciated it.

Upon reaching the mansion of James Grey, Bruce jumped out and went around to get her door. She climbed out as gracefully as could be managed and straightened up next to him.

Neither was aware of how interesting the evening was going to be.