Frowning, Bruce went over the recording of the police interrogation once more. The thief that Commissioner Gordon's men had caught was notorious for escaping arrest time and again. But now, not only had he turned himself in at police headquarters, but the man had babbled nonstop for almost an hour and a half about his crimes and scores.

This in itself wasn't entirely unusual - there were plenty of small time crooks now in prison who'd been terrified by the Batman into confessing their crimes, sometimes in police custody, though more often when he was dangling them from a skyscraper with a recorder close at hand.

But this man had never been targeted by the Bat.

Oh, he'd been on Bruce's list of crooks to go after whenever he had the free time (which had been extremely limited as of late, what with solidifying Wayne Enterprises' new partnership with Queen International, keeping the League running and the growing assortment of young partners out of trouble). It would have been nice to see that someone else was helping with his workload at tad, were it not for the way the thief spilled his guts like there was a gun being held to the back of his head. The fear, bordering on insane terror, that defined his features was... disconcerting.

Perhaps he'd have to do some digging on where the crook had been hiding lately-

"Ahem." Wincing at Alfred's disapproving expression, Bruce turned off the computer's screens and stood. Dick's twelfth birthday was coming up soon, and the aging butler was adamant that Bruce go and find something for his foster son, rather than merely ordering a gift online as he'd planned.

It always seemed quite ridiculous whenever some ignorant person assumed Alfred was merely a servant of the Wayne household - more often than not, it was the middle aged man who acted in charge and delivered the orders, rather than the other way around.

-C-

"When are you guys gonna have the party?" Holding the phone up with his shoulder, Dick concentrated on putting the final touches onto his school project.

"Saturday after next. Bruce wants to make sure he has time to get all of the big name loonies secured in Arkham so none of them can interrupt."

"Cool. Though, since all of the League members are coming, I think it would be kind of stupid for some crook to try and crash it!"

"Well, yeah, but remember the secret identities, Wally."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Suuure you do. So, does that mean you and your aunt and uncle can come? I'm looking forward to meeting Iris." The boy smiled as he set down the marker he'd been meticulously coloring his project with. It was a detailed poster of the entire Justice League, complete with their partners, for his presentation next week on modern heroes. Dick's artistic skills left a lot to be desired, but he'd worked hard on this - especially considering that at one point he'd snuck down into the Cave and printed off profile pictures of all the heroes from Bruce's files to make sure he got everything accurate.

"Of course we're coming! Already got a birthday present and everything. But don't try and get me to tell, 'cause I want it to be a surprise." Hearing the determination in his friend's voice, Dick promised he wouldn't attempt to trick the young speedster into revealing the incoming gift.

Besides, Dick liked surprises. If he really wanted to know what it was, he could probably hack into Mr. and Mrs. Allen's credit card records and see what their recent purchases were (he knew for a fact Wally was pretty much incapable of saving money, even before getting his attention span further shortened by the super speed).

"Whoops. Hey Dick, I've got to go - Uncle Barry's gonna get off of work in a few minutes, and I still need to finish my chores before he gets home."

"Alright, bye Wally."

"Bye!"

-C-

"I am most impressed, Master Richard." Alfred complimenting him, looking over the finished poster. "Your rendering of these heroes is impeccable."

"Ah, thanks Alfie." Dick's cheeks flamed red at the Englishman's praise. "I know it's not that good, and there's still some things I got wrong, but I don't think most of my classmates know the difference between Hawkman's mace and GA's bow anyway, so..."

"Nonsense. They would have to be highly acclaimed art critics to find fault with this masterpiece. Once your school project is graded and returned to your possession, may I suggest finding a place of pride for this piece in the upper hallway?"

"Really? Sure! Thanks, Alfred!" Despite still blushing deeply, Dick was also smiling. His head snapped around at the sound of the study door opening, and then the boy was calling Bruce over to see the poster as well. Alfred shot him a warning glance as the man approached, which Bruce correctly took to mean he had better be appreciative of the piece.

Prepared for some of the interestingly colored blobs that Dick usually produced when he set pencil to paper, he was pleasantly surprised to see a fairly well-done image of the League and younger crimefighters. The facial features were, as to be expected, nearly unrecognizable from the real people (though he did spot the matching grins on Robin and Kid Flash's faces, as well as the carefully done scowl on the rendition of Batman), but the costumes had been done with an incredible attention to detail. The fletching visible over Green Arrow and Speedy's shoulders, as well as the utility belts on the trio of Gotham heroes, and especially the feathers on Hawkman's wings were all done very meticulously.

"This is some of your best work yet, Dick." He could honestly say, before a sneaking suspicion found its way into his mind. "Tell me, did you do all this from memory of did you use a reference?" The boy's sheepish expression was all too telling.

"Regardless, I have already determined a suitable resting place for this masterpiece on the second story," Alfred shot him a warning glance. "After Master Dick has received it back from his teacher, of course."

"Teacher? Wait, this is for your class project?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Dick, don't you think it's a bad idea to have such a detailed image of the League for that? I mean, you've done a great job with this - but it might present an extra clue for someone to connect enough dots to determine our secret identities."

Opening his mouth to protest, Dick stalled as he realized Bruce was right. "I... I guess I can do something else then..."

"I don't want to rain on your parade, but it might be safest." Taking in his foster son's crestfallen expression, Bruce sighed. "Tell you what. Instead of redoing another picture of the League, I'll help get you some snapshots of Commissioner Gordon, and you can make a picture of one of my conversations with him. Include lots of shadows, you won't even need to bother putting in details."

"...Okay." The kid still sounded upset, so Bruce resolved to find another way of making it up to him. He knew Dick had been working on this project for a while now, and hated that he'd had to put down the boy's efforts.

It was also rather obvious Alfred was annoyed at him as well. Bruce figured he'd have to resign himself to the fact that the butler wouldn't be as helpful as he usually was for a while after this.