I do apologize for the long wait on this, any my other fics. It seems that everything I have is a WIP, not sure if that will ever not be the case, but I'll see what I can do. I'm hoping to get out another chapter for this fic by the end of the week; but first I will be updating another of my fics, The Witness. Again, I'm sorry for the wait; please enjoy the new chapter :-)

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The distant echo of a feminine voice exclaiming 'No Way!' was basically lost on the young man. Xander could literally feel his brain shutting down, had it not been turned off all ready. Just coming up with basic responses seemed to be a problem.

He was barely aware there were others present. Time had no meaning to him. How long had he been standing in front of Bruce, his father, no…Mr. Wayne? How was he to address the man? Was he even supposed to? This man was basically royalty. The 'Prince of Gotham' he had heard that title in passing. He had never really given it any thought, but now that title almost threw him for a loop.

Was he supposed to address the tall, prominent figure in front of him? The same figure that may in fact be, no, the man certainly is, his father?

The sensation of moving was the first thing to come to the forefront. He was walking. When did he start walking? How long had he been standing in front of Mr. Wayne? Had either man said anything? Oh god, had he said something stupid?

He tried as hard as he could to concentrate, but in the end, the only sensation, or memory, he could pull up was the gentle, reassuring touch of Willow's hand on his shoulder, giving him an affectionate squeeze as she excused herself and the rest of his group to give Xander some private time with his father.

'His Father'. That simple statement shouldn't have such an affect on him, should it? He's had a father his entire life. Well, sort of. No, on the other hand Tony Harris was nothing more than a Bastard. Never a father would that man make. And Xander knew he was in trouble, when talk like Yoda he thinks.

No, Tony Harris was never a father. Even before Xander found out that, thank the lord, no Harris blood flowed through his veins, Tony Harris could never be considered a father. But, what about the man standing next to him? He knew what it was about the man standing next to him.

Tony Harris had no redeeming qualities to shed a ray of hope for the future. This man was his opposite. While Tony couldn't get a spark, Bruce Wayne was a veritable super nova. And perhaps the hope for the future, but that dark voice telling him everything would go wrong, that such a man couldn't truly want anything to do with a lowly kid like him; those conflicting emotions were perhaps what was trying to cause the mental shutdown that Xander was almost welcoming.

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Bruce had an overwhelming feeling of concern when his son when non-responsive. To be completely honest, some of the encounter seemed to blur together. Who was trying to talk to whom, who was trying to answer whose question? The lost look in his son's eyes just took over everything else.

He was grateful for his son's red headed friend; she had quietly introduced herself as Willow. Just by placing one hand, gently on his shoulder, had pulled him from whatever trance like state he had been in. He wasn't out of the water. But truly, what did he think would happen?

This was somewhat overwhelming for him too. It was only his many years of training himself, and his own willpower, that allowed him to keep himself as relatively calm as he displayed.

Willow had told him, in a soft, soothing, and caring voice, that she was going to give the two of them some time together, but if Xander, his son, needed her, she wouldn't be, none of them would be, too far away.

So, here he found himself. Slowly walking amidst the stares of the others around here. There were some around here, Lex Luthor being one, that he had wished would pay him no mind. A few of tonight's patrons returned to their normal conversation, but there were still a few eyes following them. He spared a glance at his son, who was simply walking along side of him. To be honest, Bruce wasn't sure if Xander was even aware of his actions. All he could do was to continue to talk to the kid; hopefully he would breakthrough whatever wall was blocking him from the outside world.

Bruce had to suppress a smile as he saw the life slowly returning to his son's eyes. Bruce couldn't help but to suppress a chuckle at his son's confused expression and eloquently questioned 'Huh?' to some question. There was something in his son's eyes that told him that he thought the question asked of him was something profound.

Bruce couldn't suppress his smile, and in a light tone, he asked his question once again.

"Are you thirsty?"

"Ah, what?"

Bruce had to chuckle again. 'He's becoming more lucid. Let's try that again.'

Directing him to the corner of the room, Bruce tried it once again. "There's a bar in the corner. Would you like a coke, or something?"

"Ah, yes sure. My throat suddenly feels a little dry."

This time Bruce did smile, and brightly. His son's voice was barely a whisper, but it was there. And if Xander wanted a coke, hell, perhaps he should buy the company.

'Don't start stupid things like that. Let's start with a glass first. We can talk about acquiring the company later.'

Bruce was directing Alexander towards the corner bar when a slender, elder lady with white hair intercepted his arm. Bruce tried to hide his grimace in a smile.

"Mrs. Lavington, it is always a pleasure to see you. May I introduce you to Alexander? He,"

The old woman cradled his outstretched arm in hers as she interrupted him. She shot a quick glance at Xander as she replied, "A pleasure to meet you Alexander, I am sure." She quickly brought her attention to the multi billionaire. "There is a guest you simply must meet, Bruce." Before Bruce could reply with his obvious dissent, she pressed further. "I assure you, Mr. Wayne, this won't take but a moment."

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Xander was finally back among the land of the living. Well, at least he had a solid foothold among the living. There was still a part of his mind that refused to come back fully to the reality of the situation.

He was vaguely aware that Mr. Wayne was leading him somewhere. But now, there was a lady who was requesting his attention to be presented towards some other people. Xander had already felt somewhat out of place here before this night began, there was no way he was going to be responsible for creating any sort of disturbance.

He lightly tugged on the arm that was gently guiding him to wherever their destination had been. This small gesture quickly gained Mr. Wayne's attention before the man could voice any sort of response.

"It's ok, Mr. Wayne." He glanced to his right where a cool breeze caressed his face. There was an open-faced courtyard just beyond the doors no more than a few feet away from him. It looked nice out there. Cool, calm and peaceful. He glanced back at the rich man. "I'll be just out there." He nodded towards the open doors. This was a good idea. It was beginning to feel warm in here, and it was definitely getting hard to breathe. And when you factored in the different sets of eyes that seemed plastered on both himself and the billionaire, going outside seemed like the best idea he had ever thought of.

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Bruce suppressed a sigh and nodded his consent. Allowing the elderly lady to guide him away, he couldn't help but to watch as Xander aimlessly made his way outside, sans a drink, and wander to a bench in the moonlit courtyard.

He could barely pay attention to whomever it was that he was speaking too. He was pretty sure that they knew his attention was elsewhere, but they were polite enough to simply ignore it.

When he apologized for his apparent lack of interest; they were understanding about the situation that they knew nothing about. He quickly made his excuses, and left them to their own conversation. When this was all done, he was going to have to find out who he had been talking to. Perhaps he owed them an apology, but one good turn definitely deserved another.

He began to head towards his son's position, when a stray though stopped him mid-step. With a chuckle in his throat, he headed towards the bar, intent on getting both himself, and his son, a coke.

As he was approaching the bar, he became acutely aware of a set of eyes that had never left either his son or his own person since the first encounter. He couldn't suppress a smile, one that was quickly returned. As he made his way up to Tony Stark, a plan slowly formed in his mind.

Once the quick plan was placed out, Stark signaled over a large black man to the bar they were at.

"Bruce, I would like you to meet Jim Rhodes. He's one of my top body guards." He glanced over at Rhodes, who nodded his head respectfully. Bruce gave the man a lopsided smile while shaking the other man's hand. Tony waited for Bruce to order his two sodas before continuing. "Rhodey, Bruce was asking if we'd be willing to help with a little problem he was having."

Tony's smile grew as he outlined what he wanted his friend and bodyguard to do. Rhodes simply shrugged and walked over to the other few security detail workers on Stark's payroll. In short order they had the courtyard clear and no one was getting in there without Tony's consent.

With two sodas in his hand, Bruce nodded his thanks to Tony, who simply nodded back. With that done he slowly made his way towards the almost empty courtyard, where his son sat on a bench, seemingly lost in thought, and contemplating the world.

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A torrent of thoughts and emotions were being spent, focused on this new development in Xander's life. He was jostled out of his trance-like state when he felt something position itself next to him.

Glancing to his right, he realized it was the focus of those emotions, none other than Bruce Wayne, multi billionaire, The Prince of Gotham, humanitarian, a whole host of other titles, and the one that was currently throwing Xander for a loop, his father.

It was next to impossible to think as the stranger sitting next to him as anything other than Mr. Wayne. It seemed almost disrespectful to do otherwise.

The man shifted slightly, prompting Xander to notice that he was trying to give him something. Upon closer inspection, it was a glass of soda. That was a good thing; Xander couldn't remember his throat being so dry. Then, another thought hit him. 'When was the last time Tony ever gave me anything? Well, other than the usual abuse.'

Numbly reaching for the glass, Xander took it and gave a slight nod of thanks. He began to reflect on the life he had; the life he had to live at home with an abusive imposter as his father. None of it seemed fair, and he was quickly becoming depressed and quite angry at life for having let him live the lie for so long. Thankfully, he was drawn out of those thoughts by Bruce's voice.

"So?"

It wasn't much, but it did bring him out of his reverie. Xander gave a slight smile before responding.

"So."

There was a brief moment of silence before Bruce spoke up again.

"It's a beautiful night out tonight." It was nothing important, but anything to start off a conversation had to be tried.

Xander nodded, "Yeah, its quiet." Oh God, how he hated the quiet.

Glancing around the courtyard, Xander noticed the lack of people out there. In fact, if he wasn't mistaken, he and Mr. Wayne were the only two out there. And beyond that, he could swear that there were people guarding the entrance.

That had almost made him laugh; until he caught sight of the eyes staring at both Mr. Wayne and himself, through the window. Even if they were alone in this courtyard, they weren't truly alone.

Bruce glanced at the young man next to him. He wasn't quite sure what to say. Sure, he had semi-rehearsed a 'talk' between the two of them. But that didn't seem likely to happen anymore.

Noticing that Xander's vision was focused off to one side, Bruce looked to the window his son was staring at. He had to stifle a sigh at what he saw. He had figured that someone would notice the two of them tonight. But he had been hoping to keep that number to a minimum. And even without Clark warning him some time ago, he would not want to have Lex Luthor staring unflinchingly at the both of them from within the main lobby.

He glanced back at the boy, who was now staring at his empty soda glass.

"Would you like to get away from prying eyes?"

Xander glanced up at him. "What about my friends?"

Bruce reached into his coat pocket and discretely withdrew a plastic hotel key card.

"This goes to the penthouse in the hotel across the way. Give it to your friends; they can use it whenever they get tired of this party."

Xander accepted the card and looked at it warily. "Is that where we'll be?"

Bruce thought to himself for a moment. It would be a good place to go. It would be quiet, and they wouldn't have to worry about prying eyes. However, something told him that the young man next to him was nervous enough. Perhaps discussing this in a secluded place, yet still somewhere public would be the best idea. Finally he shook his head.

"No, I was thinking that we could just leave here. Perhaps go to a restaurant, or coffee shop."

Finally getting back all of his faculties, Xander shot him an incredulous look. "Won't people recognize you? I don't know how private you can get when you're a celebrity."

Bruce just smiled slightly. "Trust me; I can appear just as ordinary as anyone else."

Xander just shrugged. He wasn't really worried about going somewhere with Mr. Wayne. It wasn't like the guy was going to abduct him or something. Finally they decided that the current 'restaurant plan' was the best one to go with.

While Xander went to give the hotel key card to his friends, Bruce went over to talk to, and thank, Tony Stark.

"Are things not going well with your son?" Tony had to suppress a chuckle as Bruce stopped short and shot him a surprised look. "Oh, come on. It wasn't too hard to come to that conclusion." Bruce just shook his head in utter dismay. "If you're worried that I'm going to inform people of this new development, you needn't worry." Bruce shot him a thankful nod, while inwardly the man was trying to calculate likely scenarios. Tony, on the other hand, simply continued either unaware or simply ignoring Bruce's inner thoughts. "Is there something more I can help you with?"

Once Bruce told him about what he wanted to do, and where he wanted to take his son, Tony pulled over one of the guards who lived in the general area. A place was quickly chosen, and Tony even offered the use of one of his standard vehicles that came with a standard GPS system.

Rhodey had to suppress an eye-roll since it was his car being offered. After a few handshakes, Bruce made his way to his son, who was standing by his friends, and the two of them made their way out of the building and into the sub-level parking garage.

Had they looked behind them, they would have seen the contemplative look on the face of none other than Lex Luthor. Before the bald man was able to take more than one step, a hand wrapped around his shoulder, and Tony Stark could be seen talking animatedly with one of the richest men in the US.

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Xander and Bruce first stopped off at Bruce's limo. After relieving himself of his tuxedo jacket, he put on the jacket to a jogging suit. He pulled an old baseball cap from the trunk and placed it on his head. Xander had to admit, unless you were actively looking for Bruce Wayne, you weren't likely to recognize him.

Both men left their ties and suit jackets in the limo, and quickly made their way over to the unassuming car that was supposed to be used by Jim Rhodes.

As Bruce began putting in co-ordinates into the GPS unit on the dash, Xander finally spoke up.

"So, ah, where are we going?"

Bruce gave a quick smile as he started up the car. "One of Mr. Stark's men made a good suggestion. You'll see it when we get there; I have no doubt that you'll like it."

Xander just shrugged as the scenery began to fly by. After an uncertain period of time, the car pulled to a stop outside of a medium sized ice-cream parlor.

Xander shot Bruce an amused look. "You wanted to go for ice cream?"

Bruce just smiled back at him. "Yeah, I figured if we both got one of those mega Sundae belly-buster deals that would give us enough time to talk." He looked over at his son, and shot him a look. "Besides, it looks like you could use some food."

Xander, for his part, just snorted. "According to my friends, I have the appetite of many men." While feeling quite a bit better than earlier he shot another amused look at the older man. "And how do you know that this place even serves those types of Sundaes?"

Bruce just shot him a mock serious look. "If I have to buy the place, they will make us those sundaes." Noticing the wide-eyed look his son was sending him, he chuckled in response. "I'm just kidding, Alexander."

Xander let out a small breath and shook his head. "Well then, let's see about that sundae." He glanced back at the other man. "And please, call me Xander."

Bruce sent a pleased smile in his direction. "And, for now, why don't you simply call me Bruce." Something told him that he hadn't earned the right to be called Dad, or Father yet. Especially since the person his son had been calling 'Dad' since he had been able to speak was such a 'bastard.'

Bruce, in a malicious way, was actually looking forward to having his first 'actual' meet with this 'Anthony Harris.' He was brought out of his musings by Xander's somewhat amused response.

"Sure thing, Mr. Wayne."

Had it not been for the lopsided smile Xander was sending in his direction, Bruce would have stopped short. Instead, he just chuckled at the joke that it was while escorting the young man into the parlor. Once inside they were quickly seated.

They were both shot amused looks as two of the largest ice-cream sundaes were carried over to the table. And soon, between mouthfuls of ice-cream, the conversation began in earnest.