"Good morning Janice!" Ms. Barrington said merrily the following morning, heading towards Bruce Wayne's office.

"Good morning Allie." Janice replied curiously, never having seen the girl so bright before.

Inside his office, Bruce was just hanging up the phone when Allie walked in.

"Good morning Mr. Wayne." She said somewhat cheerier than usual.

"Good morning, Ms. Barrington." He replied.

She came up to his desk, holding out some papers, "I have the information you wanted on the Gotham Laboratory."

"Thank you Ms. Barrington," he said dully, not looking up at her while he took the papers.

After a few moments, he lifted his head up, seeing that she was still standing there.

"Is there something I can help you with?" he asked plainly.

Holding her hands tighter in front of her, she nodded, "Yes Mr. Wayne; I feel awful for the way I treated you yesterday. I had no right to insult you; I-I'm just not used to people paying attention to me, especially in this city. I guess you could say I don't exactly trust many people; once I get one idea about somebody that I don't like, I tend to excel on it and keep myself distanced."

After a brief moment of silence, Bruce comes from around his desk thinking, "You know, believe it or not, I know how you feel. I have a tendency to not be very trustworthy also. But yesterday, you weren't too far off on me. What I mean is, that whole issue about people labeling me as a 'playboy'. I mean, it's hard to explain, the way I go out with all those women and everything. It's just an image, that's not who I really am. You won't believe me but-"

"Actually, I think I know. Let me take a guess; you put that image of yourself out there so that the public doesn't find out about the actual important things in your life. Those things you cherish stay private and untouched by the rest of the city that so desperately wants a piece of you. So, how's my aim?"

Feeling surprised and confident, Bruce answered, "Right on target in fact."

Allie chuckled and looked down at her shoes, ignoring his gaze which she had grown to like. Completely intrigued, Bruce worked up the courage and asked, "Are you coming to my party tonight? The so-called 'Wayne Enterprise Extravaganza' the office has been mentioning."

"Oh, yes I was planning on it, if nothing else came up," she said honestly, "And of course, nothing else did come up so, yes, I'll be there."

"Good," Bruce said simply, controlling his smile only to form a small crack in the corner of his mouth, "You can save a dance for me then."

He began to walk her towards the door, and she laughed softly, "I don't think that's a great idea; I'm not a dancer."

"I'm sure you're wonderful," he said with a slightly bigger smile than the last time, "See you tonight then?"

Allie smiled with only her lips, slyly, "Yeah, see you tonight Bruce."

At that moment, she turned and walked out of the door. Once she was gone, he smiled much bigger. That was the first time she had called him Bruce.

The cork flew through the air as one of the many butlers at the Wayne Manor opened another bottle of wine for the many guests scattered all around the ballroom. Tons of people were there; most were coworkers at Wayne Enterprise, some the bosses and some the assistants. And with the orchestra playing cheerfully, there seemed to be no unhappy faces in sight.

Walking around the room causally, Bruce smiled politely as his guests. Many people glanced at him behind his back, curious of his 'playboy' reputation that had been commented on in many of the papers. Even still, Bruce was in a tux, looking quite sharp, even though he was totally nervous. He went over to the bar and took a scotch and downed it in a second. Allie hadn't shown up yet, and the party had been going for over an hour now. Just then, he saw Alfred come down the white marble staircase and come up to him, looking at him curiously.

"Is everything alright, Master Bruce?" he asked concerned.

"Oh, yes Alfred. Just waiting for this dull party to end, you know what I mean?" he laughed encouragingly towards himself.

"I see," Alfred said, unconvinced, "May I ask Master Bruce, if you were expecting someone in particular to come here tonight?"

Bruce looked at Alfred then, knowing that his loyal friend could see straight through him. But still, he lied, "Do you see anyone here that would be worth talking to?"

Smiling suddenly, Alfred replied, "Actually, I believe I do." As he said this, he turned and looked away from Bruce.

Confused, Bruce came up to Alfred's side, wondering why he looked away from him. But as he did, he realized what Alfred was staring at. Bruce glanced at the top of the staircase, and then took a second, long, hard look. Standing there, holding onto the marble railing , was Allie. However, she didn't look like the same Allie that Bruce had been working with the past few weeks. Allie stood there, confident, with a long, tight fitted red and black dress on, the sleeves drooping past her shoulders, and the bottom flowed out elegantly towards the floor. Her hair was down for the first time, in long, curly brown locks going past her shoulder. Also, she wasn't wearing any glasses.

She peacefully looked around the great ballroom, and then caught the eye of Bruce. With poise, she walked slowly down the grand staircase, Bruce meeting her at the bottom.

In awe, he barely could say, "You look stunning."

Allie smiled, and replied, "Not as stunning as this house! I mean, its so huge! I was lost for probably ten minutes trying to find the ballroom. But I wasn't minding too much; your house is incredible! It wasn't until your kind butler escorted me to the right wing!"

Bruce looked back over his shoulder at Alfred, who saw him stare, and immediately went to serve some drinks. Bruce rolled his eyes, and then turned back to Allie. She smiled and continued to talk, "You've really got to show me around this place sometime; it looks like there's a lot of history here!"

"There is, and I'd love to show it to you sometime," and he courteously extended his hand to her, "Would you care to dance?"

Allie looked over at the orchestra, which was playing next to the dance floor, full of people. For the first time that night, she shyly looked at him, "I don't know Bruce, I told you I'm not much of a dancer."

"The men lead, so there's no problem. I'm sure as soon as you get out there, you'll feel lighter than a feather!"

He held his hand out still, encouragingly. Finally, Allie sighed, and took his hand, "Alright. But, if my big red heels hit your foot, don't say I didn't warn you!"

They entered to the center of the dance floor, and the band struck up the tango. Allie trembled nervously as Bruce held her tight, but she didn't step on his feet. In fact, she was very easy to dance with, Bruce thought. Any time he moved suddenly or differently, she was right there with him. It was as though she was ready for anything; good reflexes. When the song finished on the last note, Bruce dipped her very low, and Allie accepted it, her hair almost touching the floor.

"You're extremely flexible!" Bruce complemented as he brought her back up.

"Thanks, I do yoga." She said as he led her outside onto the patio, "You know, you're quite strong; I felt like I was completely picked up when the music sped up in the middle of the song."

"What can I say? I'm a rich bachelor; I have to stay in shape!"

Allie laughed, and looked out as she held onto the railing, seeing the acres of his backyard extend for miles. She looked up at the stars, in awe, "You're so lucky to live out here, away from the city. You get to see all of this, and not have to feel so crowded when you're at home."

Curiously, Bruce replied, "You must live in downtown Gotham then. What's your house like?"

"My house? Oh, I'm in an apartment on 34th street. Besides my bathroom, it's all basically one whole room. Well, I also have a balcony, which is nice; but the view is nothing like this!"

Intrigued, he asked her, "How long have you been in Gotham? Where's your family?"

After a few moments, she turned to him, softly saying, "I've been in this state all my life, actually. I've always lived in the city. But, I don't have any family. My parents passed away a while ago…"

She turned back to the stars, Bruce seeing in her dreary green eyes that their passing felt like only yesterday, "I see," he answered, "I'm sorry about that happening. I know there's nothing I can say to make that pain die away, but I'm trying."

Allie looked back at him, studying him curiously, "Actually, it does help. I'm not used to people really trying to talk to me. In fact, I don't think I've told anyone about it. I haven't been close to anyone since I moved to Gotham."

"Well, I understand; big city, criminals around every corner. Who has time for friends?"

Allie chuckled for a second, and stared at him still, "Yeah, but I think it's getting better. We've got Batman protecting us."

"Batman! Ha, what a character."

Thinking of the other night, Allie asked him, "You know him don't you?"

Keeping cool, Bruce replied, "Why would you say that?"

"Well, the other night, I was being mugged. I'm alright, it's just, Batman came just in time. He saved me, and then he mentioned you."

"Really? And what did he say about me?" Bruce asked, curious to her response, even though he knew what he had said.

Blushing a little bit, Allie told him, "Well, the just of what he said was that you are a good guy, and that I shouldn't judge you as much as I have been. And I understand why he said that; the whole 'Bruce Wayne' image, I am finally able to see through that, and am now looking at you."

Coming closer, to her, Bruce looked at her with his brilliant blue eyes, "And what do you see?"

Not backing away from him, Allie let him come close enough to the point she could breathe in his light cologne, "I see a polite man who's simple, honest, handsome, and just down to earth. But there's one thing that you definitely have that's a very strong characteristic."

Slowly, Bruce put his hands on her arms, and then moved them to her back, drawing her in closer, "And what's that?"

Grinning out of the corner of her ruby lips, she spoke softly, "You're overconfident in yourself; it's as though you know you can have anything you want, when you really can't."

"That's not true. I've got you in my grasp, don't I?"

Grinning even bigger, Allie smoothly got out of his arms and turned away, saying, "No, I don't think so-"

But no sooner did she utter those words had Bruce turned her back around and held her even closer, and then leaned into her, kissing her lips softly. Allie quickly accepted the kiss, and placed her hands around his neck, kissing longer. After a few very long moments, their lips parted, and Allie said in but a whisper, "Okay, I stand corrected."