Sorry if this chapter and the last one was horrible...my head's not in it today...

Disclaimer: don't own TT

This is the long story. To be honest, it's not gonna be that much longer, maybe one or two chapters.

It had been thirty six hours, not even, and Richard was a wreck. His normally clean shaven face was...well, obviously, not so clean shaven anymore. Dark circles made themselves at home under his eyes, and not even his sunglasses could hide them. He'd taken a sick day for the first time ever. Bruce was so ashamed.

He hadn't slept since Kori had left, and hadn't eaten anything either. If she got hurt, he'd never forgive himself. He just wanted her back, was that too much to ask? He'd never let this get out of hand again. He'd never yell, never insult, never argue with her again, if only she'd come back to him. Richard had never meant for this to happen. She promised me she wouldn't leave me! But then again, he hadn't really kept his promise either. What with everything that he'd done to her, he knew he shouldn't have been shocked. There was only so much she could take. Still, it hit him like a hammer blow every time he thought about it. Kori was gone.

Flashback

Richard's cell phone rang, and he grabbed it, hoping it would be Kori, but remembering the fragments of her phone that he'd found in her room. Picking it up, he answered dully. "Hello?"

"You! You sick, horrible animal! How DARE you hit my daughter? What had she done to you?" roared Galfore. This conversation, funnily enough, was not helping his mood.

"Hello to you too. Where's Kori?"

"What do you mean, where is Kori? How could you LOSE her?"

"Shut up! I need to find her, and I don't need to hear your deranged rants. Where is she? Did she go back to your island?" Bruce came up and snatched the phone out of his hands.

"I apologize, Galfore. Dick is more than a little worried by your daughter's disappearance...Yes, Kori is gone, and we have no idea where she went...She called you?...Oh. That business deal...That is something we have to talk about face to face. Do you have any idea where Kori is?...Please, Galfore, I know Dick's made a few mistakes, but...Yes, they were! He never hit her, Galfore, he might have yelled a few times, but Kori was aggravating him...I'm sorry, I did not mean to insult her...Galfore, please, where is she?" Bruce paused for a minute, listening, and then hung up.

"Galfore says he told her to stay in a hotel until he could get her a plane ticket back to Tamaran. Apparently, they had this big fight before she left, and that's what happened with the cell phone."

"But there've got to be a million hotels in Gotham! And who knows, she could be in Jump City, or Steel City, or Metropolis by now!"

"Dick, it's only been eight hours. She couldn't have gotten to Metropolis by car, and obviously didn't get a plane, or she'd be back in Tamaran by now. Search Gotham's hotels, and then Jump's, it's the closest city. Don't you dare tell a soul. If this gets into the presses, Kori'll know where we are and hide out even farther."

"Breakfast is ready," said a voice from the door. In came Alfred, looking much older. He must have missed Kori as much as Richard did.

"Alfred, it's..." Bruce was trying to find a compliment for his caretaker's cooking, but it was disgusting.

"I apologize. Usually I would have Miss Anders to help me." Richard stared at his feet in shame. Alfred didn't know the whole story, but he knew enough. Kori was sick of Richard, so she had left. He didn't know that Kori was under the impression he was cheating on her.

"Alfred, I have something for you." He pulled out the note Kori had left the first time she tried to run away, and set it into Alfred's waiting hands. The butler opened it, and as he read down the page, Richard could have sworn his eyes were glistening.

"Thank you. I'll leave you to..." The butler walked away, the note in hand. Richard felt as if Alfred was pulling along a piece of his heart along with that note. It was Kori's. Anything of Kori's was a sacred object, now. What if she was hurt? Or worse? It had been eight hours, and still, no sign of her. What if he never saw her again?

What if he never got to apologize?

End Flashback

Richard groaned over the phone. Another hotel, gone. He'd been calling random ones, all four or five stars, but none of them had Kori currently residing in them. His eyes dropped to the G's. Gala Galfore. He would have chuckled at the name, but under the circumstances, it was understandable that he didn't.

It fit the description, though. It was a five star hotel. It was in Gotham. It was also a thirty minute drive from Wayne Manor. Perfect. "Hello?" someone answered.

"Hello, this is Richard Grayson, I was wondering, do you have a Kori Anders on your guest list?" he asked. The man laughed.

"Lost your wife, sir?" Richard gave a manufactured chuckle, though he couldn't have been less happy.

"I wish. Just kidding. No actually, she rented a hotel suite for us somewhere on the other side of Gotham, because I'd be doing business there for a while, and you know me, too lazy to get up an extra thirty minutes in the morning. She forgot which one it was." He'd produced a different story for every person who'd answered his phone calls, and managed to be a pretty good liar.

"Oh, I feel your pain, Mr. Grayson. Yes, in fact, we have Kori Anders listed here. Her suite number is 1131. No, sorry, sir...she checked out this morning. She asked our cab service for a drive to the airport."

Richard just about fainted. The airport. She was flying back to Tamaran. He closed his eyes for a second as the shock washed over him. "Okay. Thank you. I have to go." He hung up the phone before anything else was said.

Thinking for a second, he picked up the phone again and called Bruce. "I need a plane."

"Hello."

"Bruce! This is important! Kori went back! I need to go after her!"

"Fine. Come over here. Don't bring any food, I don't want any stains on the seats of the jet. And obviously no--" Richard hung up and climbed into his car.

Paris. Kori had always wanted to go there. Something about the moon, she remembered. And she loved the music of France.

Of course, everyone had expected her to go back to Tamaran. Like that would ever happen. Hopefully once they realized she wasn't there, they'd give up on her. Hopefully they'd go bankrupt, too.

After a fifteen hour flight, they touched down in Paris's international airport. An hour later, with passports checked, lunch eaten, and her suitcase retrieved, Kori exited the airport.

Time to start a new life.

"What do you mean, she's not here?" exclaimed Richard frantically. Galfore stared him down, which wasn't exactly that hard.

"I mean, she is not here. She did not come. What have you done with her?" he roared. Richard flinched.

"I...I was horrible, okay? I get that now, I just need to find her! At least to apologize. Please," he begged, surprised at the sound of his pleading voice. He'd never, ever had to beg before. Even Galfore's expression softened.

"She is not here, but she took a flight. I do not know where to. Can you find out from the airport?"

Richard shook his head miserably. "Confidential." Galfore sighed, but nodded. "We don't know where she is, she doesn't have a cell phone, or anything else we could track her with, and she's obviously not coming back," Richard continued bitterly. "We could alert the media, but she'd know we were after her and probably move, or change her hair color or something. She could have died for all we know."

"That leaves us no choice."

"Yeah." There was a huge lump in Richard's throat, but he refused to let it get the best of him. Richard Grayson did not cry.

"She is lost."

Hmm...Paris...I don't know why Kori would go there, but, you know, since Galfore fought in France's war or what ever in the first chapter...I figured it'd be better not to bring another country in here...I don't own France, by the way, or any part of it.

Review please!