Set a short time after the JLU episode "Divided We Fall". DC owns Batman, Wonder Woman and Justice League, bless their hearts.

At the ungodly hour of eight in the morning, Bruce Wayne walked into the main boardroom of MedCom Enterprises and came to an abrupt halt. He looked to the Rolex that adorned his left wrist, and the frown that had appeared at finding the boardroom empty only deepened as he realized that he was right on time.

For a change.

He looked up and sighed. All twelve overly padded chairs surrounding the massive oak table were empty of MedCom's board of directors. Bruce had called the meeting to discuss some issues that had developed recently with some shared projects, problems that were on MedCom's side of the fence. Lucius had brought his concerns to him last week. Bruce, on the other hand, had started having his own misgivings two weeks ago.

"Excuse me," came a soft voice from behind him. "Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce turned to find a young woman looking at him much like a young student would as she was about to tell her teacher that she'd forgotten to do her homework: nervous as hell. Bruce smiled at the twenty-something year old and nodded.

The young woman shyly tucked her long blond hair behind her right ear and cleared her throat. Her blue eyes darted to his for an instant but then found his shoes and stayed there as she spoke. "Mrs. Fendergast, the chairman of the," she looked up at him wide-eyed at her mistake and exclaimed more loudly than necessary, "chairwoman!" Her eyes dropped back to Bruce's feet and she started nervously wringing her hands together in front of her as she went on. "The chairwoman of the board sends her regrets, and that she, well, some of the board members are running late, and they all wanted to be here, united front, and…"

She trailed off and Bruce genuinely felt sorry for her. "Miss?"

The woman looked back up to his eyes and said with a shy smile, "Carson. Joanne Carson."

"Well, Miss Carson, Joanne Carson," it worked like a charm and the young woman laughed at him, "first of all you need to relax. I'm not going to do or say anything to you." He held out his arms and said completely deadpan, "It's not like I'm Batman or anything." His arms lowered to his side and he gave her a smile. "Just tell me what Corrine said."

Joanne took a deep breath and nodded as she exhaled. "Yes, sir." When her eyes looked up this time they were a little brighter and remained focused on his as she spoke. "Some of the board members got caught in a robbery this morning at their country club. They're all fine but they're being detained by police for questioning. Mrs. Fendergast wanted the whole board to be present, so she would like to know if you can wait or if you would like to reschedule."

Bruce nodded as he contemplated what to do. After a moment he said, "I'll wait for a while I suppose."

"Very good, sir." She smiled as she slipped past him to pull out one the chairs for him. "Can I get you some tea or coffee?"

Bruce shook his head as he sat down.

"Anything at all, sir?"

Bruce gave her a smile and shook his head again. "No thanks, Miss Carson."

She nodded and turned to walk away. When she reached the door she stopped and turned to him again. "I'll be right outside if you need anything, Mr. Wayne."

She disappeared around the corner before he could say anything, leaving him alone in the enormous room. He looked at his watch again and sighed. He hated wasting time. There was always so much for him to do and never enough time to do it as it was. He took out his phone and started scrolling through the information he'd amassed concerning the irregularities in MedCom's reports for a few minutes, then put the phone to sleep and placed it on the table in front of him. He knew the information inside and out. He leaned back in the chair and started thinking about the League's recent encounter with Brainiac and Luthor instead. He went over the whole thing again, checking and rechecking to see if there was any way they could have missed anything. Before he knew it an hour had passed with no sign of the board. He reached for his phone and had just put it in his pocket with the intention of leaving when a voice called his name.

He looked up and found Corrine Fendergast rushing towards him, followed en masse by the rest of the board and three other men that his vast experience told him were lawyers.

Fendergast reached him before he could get up out of the chair and grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry for being late, Bruce," she said with a crocodile smile. She was a wily older woman, who had run several companies over the years in Gotham and Metropolis. She was famous- or infamous- for wearing a copious amount of jewelry, including glittery earrings, thick necklaces and gaudy bracelets. "I hope Joanne has taken good care of you."

"She has," replied Bruce as Fendergast released his hand and walked to her seat at the other end of the table.

"Good," she replied as she sat in her seat. She fixed him with a smile that reeked of fake innocence and said as she folded her hands together upon the table. "What's on your mind?"

Bruce opened his mouth to say something when the phone in his pocket started ringing. "Excuse me," he said as he reached into his pocket. He ignored the flash of irritation on the chairwoman's face and looked at his phone. His brow furrowed, for the number on the caller ID didn't look familiar at all. He pressed the screen to ignore the call and placed the phone on the table as he had before.

"Sorry," he said with a sheepish grin for good measure. He wasn't the least bit sorry at all, and if he'd recognized the number he'd have answered it in spite just to make them wait and sweat in their thousand dollar suits.

"I called this meeting to get some clarification on…" He stopped as his phone started ringing again. This time he didn't bother to look at any of them as he looked to the phone's screen. It was the same number and he still didn't recognize it. Hell, he couldn't even place the area code that was coming up. He hesitated, briefly considering answering it before reaching over and once again declining the call. "As I was saying," he said as he looked up and scanned the faces of the board members, noticing with a more than a little irritation that at least four of them wouldn't meet his gaze, "I wanted to get some answers about some irregularities in the budget reports for the…"

He stopped and glared at his phone as it rang once again, the same unfamiliar number showing up in luminescent numbers on the screen. He didn't even acknowledge the others in the room as in one fluid motion he picked up the phone and hit accept with his thumb as he brought the device up to his right ear. "Bruce Wayne."

'I was beginning to think maybe I didn't have your number after all,' said the amused voice on the other end.

Bruce's stomach fluttered and he had to work hard to keep from smiling. He stood up and moved the microphone end of the phone away from his mouth while keeping the earpiece against his ear. "I'm sorry," he said without any apology in his voice, "but I have to take this call." Fendergast opened her mouth to no doubt protest but Bruce beat her to the punch and added, "Excuse me," while turning away from the table and taking the necessary steps to the door. He walked back out into the outer office area and past Joanne who was sitting at her desk. She looked up and seemed startled to see him leave, so he took pity on her and pointed to the empty reception area and mouthed, "I'll be back."

Once he was in the reception area, Bruce situated the phone in the proper place and in a low enough voice as to not be heard by any prying ears, "How did you get this number, Princess?"

Like he didn't already know.

'Let's just say it pays to know people,' she said with a laugh that sounded as sweet to his ears as any symphony could.

In other words, Alfred. Duh.

"Fair enough," he replied as he leaned his left shoulder against the wall.

There was a slight pause before he heard her say, 'So, how are you?'

"How am I?" he repeated with a creased brow. Many replies floated through his mind at that moment, ranging from rude for interrupting him to angry for using his private number, but the one that made it to his mouth was, "Fine."

She must have caught something in his voice. 'Am I catching you at a bad time?'

Because no one was able to see him, Bruce actually smiled. She'd picked up a great deal of idioms in her time with the League. "Actually," he said, "I have to thank you." He could almost hear her brow rise in question on the other end so he explained. "I'm in a meeting where the people showed up an hour late to prove a point so..."

'So I'm helping you get even,' she finished for him.

"Something like that," he replied with a smirk that manifested itself in his voice as well.

There was a chuckle from the other end followed by, 'I'm always happy to help.'

There was an awkward pause that stretched on for a few moments until Bruce finally said, "What about you?"

Bruce nearly snickered as she replied with, 'What about me?'

"I told you what I'm doing, Princess," he said as he shifted slightly against the wall to get a little more comfortable. "So what about you?"

'Oh,' came her embarrassed reply. 'I'm getting ready to head out for breakfast. Clark had asked me to accompany him to somewhere in Metropolis but he had to cancel.'

"So where are you going?" he asked, a blob of jealousy causing a dangerous idea to start brewing in his mind.

'I haven't decided,' she replied. 'I was thinking about going to the place Clark suggested anyway...'

"I know a nice place in Gotham," he interrupted, ignoring all the warning bells in his mind loudly ringing out against the idea. "Little Joe's on 3rd street a couple of blocks north of Wayne Enterprises. They make the best pancakes." He remembered who he was talking to and her propensity for divulging the truth at unfortunate times so he added, "Except for Alfred, of course."

'Of course,' laughed Diana. 'Sounds good. Thanks for the advice.'

"I'll meet you there in half an hour," said Bruce, and he frowned when he was met with silence from the other end of the line.

'You'll meet me?' Diana finally said. 'I didn't think…I mean, I was hoping but I never expected…Hera.'

Bruce had to clamp down hard to keep from laughing at her. "Isn't that why you called, Princess?"

'Not really,' she replied, surprise bordering on astonishment lacing her voice. 'But I will definitely take it. Little Joe's on third, north of Wayne Enterprises in half an hour.'

"See you then, Princess," he replied as a confirmation of her facts. Something occurred to him as he was about to hang up so he quickly put the phone back to his ear and said, "Diana?"

'Bruce?'

"Why did you call?" he asked as he pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight.

'Well,' she said as though it should have been obvious, especially to the world's greatest detective. 'I just wanted to let you know that I have your number.'

Bruce smiled and shook his head in amusement. "Half an hour, Princess, and don't be late." He hung up the phone before she could say anything else. He needed to go and tell the board members that he was severing all ties with MedCom before their embezzlement could hurt Wayne Enterprises, but more importantly at that moment, he didn't want to be late for his appointment at Little Joe's.