A/N This is the start of a two chapter Chloe/Bruce but you know it's not going to last so just let it be and enjoy the story. I know you're all itching for some Chlollie and trust me it'll happen.
"Chloe." Rose grabbed her arm and pulled her through the crowded garden. "There is someone here who is dying to meet you."
Finally Chloe thought Oliver. Only when Rose stopped abruptly the familiar blonde head and bright smile was not what greeted her. "Ah so this is the infamous Chloe Sullivan."
"Chloe, I'd like you to meet tonight's host. Bruce Wayne."
"Nice to meet you." Chloe said recovering her disappointment and reaching out a hand to shake Bruce's.
"Thanks." He smiled. "Rose you're looking lovely as ever. And where is your sister tonight?"
"She's here somewhere." Rose waved a hand and practically shoved Chloe closer to Bruce. "Tell you what I'll go find her." Rose walked away and Chloe turned around confused.
"Well she's about as subtle as an elephant doing yoga." Bruce laughed and offered Chloe his arm.
"We're working on that." Chloe smiled and slipped her hand through his elbow, allowing him to take her where ever it was he was planning on taking her.
"I hear that you've relocated to the states." Bruce said.
"Sir Edward isn't as young as he used to be and the trips back and forth were taking a lot out of him. So I'm going to move to the home office here, try to help him out a little." Chloe said.
"That's in Star City right?" Bruce grabbed two glasses of champagne and handed one to Chloe. "So what are you doing in Gotham?" He smiled. "Unless you just stopped in for my party?"
"As much as I'm sure your poor ego needs another boost that is not the case." Bruce laughed a real throaty laugh and Chloe smiled. "I'm actually visiting a couple of our problem papers before I get settled in at Star City."
"I forgot Sir Edward owned the Gazette." Bruce said. "My parents were very involved with the paper." He told her. "Back when it was still locally owned."
Chloe nodded. Edward had come in a saved the Gazette from complete ruin about ten years ago but hadn't been able to put the time or the effort into fixing it up so it had been hanging on by a thread for a while now. "Yeah well according to my figures, people have forgotten the Gazette even exists." Chloe shrugged. "I'm probably looking at a complete overhaul."
"So you'll be here for a while then?" Bruce smiled. "Great, I was hoping I'd have the chance to get to know you better."
Chloe noticed a group of people staring at her and Bruce in a none to friendly way. She smiled and bowed away from him. "Well I've taken up enough of your time; there are so many more people here who you need to attend to."
"I have a feeling we'll be talking again real soon." Bruce smiled at her. "It was my pleasure Miss Sullivan." Bruce grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles.
Chloe smiled and felt sure for some reason herself that this would not be the last she saw of Bruce Wayne. The party died down, Oliver never showed, and Chloe's anger was rising by the minute. She said her goodbyes to Bruce and her friends and walked to her car, trying to calm herself down enough to call Oliver and yell at him, in a reasonable way. Before she had the chance to dial his number her phone beeped with a text message. "I'm sorry." It said. Chloe glared at the phone, he could apologize all he wanted, it wasn't going to stop her from being angry. Her phone beeped again. "If I call will you answer?"
"No." She said out loud as she climbed in her car and the driver headed out to bring her home. She sighed and typed back yes and her phone rang as soon as she'd finished sending.
"Chloe I'm…" Oliver said before she said hello and she interrupted him.
"Don't apologize, just explain." She snapped.
He paused, gathering his thoughts, and reworking the speech he had planned. "There was a military coup in the Philippines."
"Don't give me that one, there was a coup, you think I'm going to fall for that." Chloe groaned.
"Seriously there was a coup." Oliver protested.
"Explain how a coup in the Philippines prevents you from coming to Bruce's party?" She asked impatiently.
"You know we've got that government contract for electronic mobile shield." He asked. She vaguely remembered him telling her about it, something Queen Industries was developing that would allow an area to be shielded from the effects of an EMP.
Yes." Chloe said still waiting for the explanation.
"We've got to present the finished prototype to the government next week and half of our components are imported from the Philippines."
"So the coup is going to halt all imports and exports for a while and you're going to be screwed." Chloe sighed. "Damn it. That's a really good excuse."
"I know." Oliver said.
"I can't be mad with an excuse like that." Chloe whined.
"You really can't." He laughed.
"I hate you." She sighed.
"No you don't." He reminded her.
"No I don't." She thought for a second. "So then when are we going to do this? The official meet?"
"I'm going to be swamped with this thing for a while so I guess we'll just wing it." Oliver said. "Look I am really sorry, but I have to go…"
"It's ok." Chloe yawned. "Go deal with the Philippines."
"Night." Oliver hung up and Chloe groaned at the amount of work she knew awaited her at the Gazette in the morning.
"Mister Wayne." Janet's voice came over the intercom system a few days later. "There is a Chloe Sullivan here to see you. She doesn't have an appointment…" Bruce stopped his golf swing in mid stroke and picked the golf stuff up and tossed it behind his desk.
"It's ok." Bruce said quickly punching the intercom button. "Send her in."
He leaned back in his seat and smiled then quickly grabbed whatever file was on his desk and opened it, pretending to be reading as she walked in the door. "Chloe." He stood up and dropped the file then grabbed her hand across the desk smiling at her. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"
"Actually." She motioned to the chair and Bruce nodded as she sat down and he followed. "I was hoping we could talk business."
"Business?" Bruce's smile faltered a little but he recovered quickly.
"Yes I have a proposition for you." Chloe said smiling.
"Well." Bruce stood up. "I think that can be arranged. Do you like Italian?"
"I'm sorry?" Chloe said as Bruce slipped his jacket on.
"Italian food." He said. "Or are you more for French Cuisine?"
"Food?" Chloe asked again standing up.
"I thought." Bruce grabbed her hand and steered her toward the door. "I'd take you out to lunch, show you some of Gotham, talk a little business, what do you say?"
"Italian sounds fine." Chloe smiled at him.
"Janet, hold my calls, I might be out for the rest of the day." Bruce smiled.
"God you're just so sure of yourself aren't you?" Chloe laughed.
"Always." Bruce said.
"Janet, he'll be back by two at the latest." Chloe said over her shoulder and Janet stifled a laugh as Bruce led her to the elevator. When they got to the lobby Chloe turned to move in the direction of the parking garage and Bruce grabbed her arm.
"It's not far, we'll walk." He smiled at her. She slipped her arm in the crook of his elbow and allowed him to lead her yet again down the street. They walked for a minute or so, Bruce pointing out different buildings and giving her a short history of them until he stopped abruptly at a street vendor.
"Two slices." He said reaching in his pocket for money. "And two bottled waters."
Chloe looked up smiling at the cart, pizza and Bruce stole a glance at her from the corner of his eye. "Italian?"
"What's more Italian than pizza?" He asked smiling at the vendor. "I'll take a sausage and the lady will have…he looked Chloe up and down and smirked. "Vegetarian?"
"Double meat." Chloe said to the vendor. "And slap some hot peppers on three." Chloe smiled taking the two bottled waters held out to her. Bruce looked over at her and smiled.
"You know what; I'll have what she's having." He passed over a twenty and grabbed the slices telling the man to keep the change and nodded for Chloe to follow him. He led her into a park and they found a bench, Chloe swapping one of the waters for one of the slices and they ate for a while in silence.
"This is beautiful." Chloe looked around the park, it was like a small city, and it reminded her of the plazas in Central America. There were street vendors and entertainers but at the same time it was clean and quiet and if you looked at the trees and the flowers it reminded Chloe of her secret clearing back home in London.
"I thought you'd like it." Bruce smiled. "So tell me about this business proposal." He took a sip of water and Chloe smiled grabbing a napkin and cleaning the sauce off of his chin. He smiled back at her and she set her slice of pizza down and swallowed.
"I want you to buy the paper." Chloe said.
This Bruce was not ready for he stared at her for a minute and then shook his head laughing. "Come again?"
"I want you to buy the paper." She wiped her mouth and took a sip of water staring at him, waiting for him to say something.
"You want me to buy a dying paper?" Bruce asked.
"No I want you to buy a highly distinguished, very profitable paper." Chloe said.
"Oh." Bruce smiled at her. "That's completely different. Where can I get one of those?"
Chloe glared at him and sighed. "I'm talking about the Gazette."
"You can't be." Bruce said. "Because from what I hear you are a very smart business woman with a good head on her shoulders and this…is bad business."
"Just hear me out." Chloe said and Bruce nodded.
"I am revamping the whole paper. Half of my staff is on mob payroll the other half is to incompetent to work a copy machine much less investigate anything. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks going through the issues from the past couple of years and we aren't reporting anything. There are no corrupt politicians, no dirty deals; no organized crime as far as the Gazette is concerned. But this is Gotham."
"We've got all that and more." Bruce nodded.
"Gotham is a great town." Chloe said. "A melting pot of culture and diversity and once it gets back on its feet it will most likely be one of the greatest Metropolitan cities in history." Bruce smiled at her because that's the way he'd always felt about Gotham. "But let's be honest here Bruce. You've got problems now, a lot of problems. This city is a reporters dream. You can't throw a cat without hitting some kind of story here." Bruce smiled. "And part of the problem is the people don't care. They don't care because they don't know. They don't know that more than half of the money allotted to school district to repair and improve inner city schools has been lining pockets for more than two years now. If they knew, maybe they'd do something about it." Bruce smiled at the look on her face, she seemed to get more and more animated as she talked. "And the people don't know that city planning commission is using ten different dummy companies to allocate city jobs to, but it's all going to one place, one company that happens to be owned by five members of the city planning commission. And no one knows about…"
"I get the picture Chloe." Bruce put a hand on her shoulder. She blushed a little and took a sip of water. "How did you find all this out? You said it yourself you've only been here two weeks?" He seemed impressed and Chloe blushed more.
"It wasn't hard; they aren't even trying to cover anything up because they know they don't have to. But if the people knew, they wouldn't just sit around and let it happen to them." Chloe said. "And I'm going to tell them about it. The Gazette is going to tell them about it."
"You're going to clean up Gotham City with a newspaper?" Bruce asked.
"No." Chloe said. "I'm going to clean up my newspaper and the people are going to clean up Gotham City." She said with such conviction that Bruce couldn't help but get swept up in the whole thing.
"Gotham's very own Bob Woodward." Bruce smiled at her. "I like what you're saying but how are you going to do all that?" He asked. "You said yourself half your people are mob payroll and the other half…"
"I might be here a little while longer than I thought." She said. "I'm taking over as temporary Editor and I'm cleaning house."
Bruce whistled. "Chloe that paper employs more than five hundred people. I'm not sure how you're going to clean up Gotham by raising the unemployment rate."
"I can't help that Bruce." Chloe said. "I need my people on this staff, not someone else's." She shook her head. "I'm going to keep as many people as I can, even the incompetent ones because some things can be taught. But I'm not going to let the mob control my paper anymore."
"You're going to piss off a lot of people Chloe." Bruce said suddenly realizing what she was doing. "You do realize that."
"Bruce I've been pissing people off since I was ten years old. Plus I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself." Chloe said.
"Ok, so what does any of that have to do with me buying the paper?" He asked.
"I need this paper to be local." She said. "If someone local owns it, someone local will care about it and from what I can tell you've got more love for Gotham City than anyone else."
"This is true." Bruce said. "I want this city to be what it was when my parents were here, what I know it can be."
"Give me six months." Chloe said. "Buy in now at a quarter, I'll be taking on all costs, you won't be responsible for anything. I'll be working on a skeleton staff for a while but I have faith that within six months I can have the paper running independently and in the black. That's when you buy me out."
"You going to spend millions of dollars to save the paper only to sell it to me once it's better." Bruce said. "I still don't see the sound business in that."
Chloe smiled at him. "Sometimes things are more important than business." Chloe said. "Besides it's not like I'm going to let it go for cheap."
"I'll give you six months." Bruce said. "If the paper's not running at full capacity, completely in the black at the end of six months, you buy my quarter back and I walk away."
"And if it is?" Chloe asked raising an eyebrow.
"I'd better get out my checkbook then." Bruce said standing up. "It was…interesting talking to you Miss Sullivan."
"I look forward to doing business with you Mr. Wayne." Chloe shook his hand and smiled. "I'll be in touch."
"So you're cleaning up Gotham City one expose at a time?" Oliver asked as Chloe went through another file box.
"Something like that." Chloe smiled into the phone. "I know this throws our timeline off a bit but…"
"Chloe." Oliver interrupted her. "I didn't expect you to abandon your entire life when I asked you take this job." Oliver reminded her. "I mean I asked you to give up a lot already. If this is something you have to do, this is something you have to do."
"I really appreciate that Oliver." Chloe sighed, glad the he understood her.
"I just…I want you to be careful." He said. "You're in effect taking down the mob here you know that?" He pointed out.
"Oliver, you're talking to the girl who took on Lionel Luther at the age of sixteen." Chloe scoffed. "I think I can handle a Scarface wanna be." Chloe laughed.
"Just…for me." Oliver said.
"Promise." Chloe smiled. "I've got to go though; I've got a ton of work to do."
"Night." Oliver hung up the phone and Chloe went back to her boxes. She never would have admitted it to Oliver but she was a little worried about what it is she was doing here. She'd noticed very large and stoic men following her for the past couple of days since she fired everyone and as soon as the paper hit the newsstands tomorrow they might be following her a little bit closer. The last thing she needed on top of all of this however was Oliver hovering over her like a mother hen. She checked her watch, the presses had been running for three hours now, there was no turning back. Her head ached from going over all the old files in the editor's office and she was dead on her feet, it was time to call it a night.
She cursed herself when she reached the street door, just then remembering that she'd walked to work that morning, not counting on the fact that she'd be at the office so late. She checked the street both ways; a few couples were out walking, coming home from late diners or possibly a movie. She was too busy paying attention to them to see the car that pulled up beside her before it was too late.
"Miss Sullivan." Chloe turned her head and looked at the man who climbed out of the backseat. "May I offer you a ride home?"
"No thanks." Chloe said, her strong voice betraying the way her insides fell when she realized who he was, Salvatore "The Boss" Maroni. He'd taken over organized crime in the city when Marcone was captured, some say he'd always been the head of organized crime in Gotham; he just didn't like to advertise. He was old school, nearing 65 if you believed the rumors; he certainly didn't look it in person. He'd always been in the background, silently sculpting his empire, keeping a tight rein on things, working under Marcone but not for Marcone, letting him be the one in the limelight, the big shot. Maroni worked more secretly, which if Chloe was honest; it made him a little scarier. "It's really a nice night. I think I'll walk." Chloe tried to turn around and walk in the other direction but was stopped by a large man, one of the men she suspected that had been following her.
"I insist Miss Sullivan." Salvatore moved out of the way and the thug grabbed Chloe's arm and led her to the car. She shook him off, glaring as she walked to the car herself and got inside, if he wanted to kill her, she'd be dead all ready so obviously he wanted to talk. "That's a good girl." Salvatore said before climbing inside and closing the door behind him.
Chloe opened her mouth to tell him where to take her, not where she was staying, she wasn't that stupid but Salvatore leaned forward to the driver before she could say anything. "Gotham Tower Apartments." He said and the driver nodded. Chloe swallowed hard because that's exactly where she was staying. "How do you like the Penthouse Miss Sullivan?"
"It's very nice." Chloe said through clenched teeth. "What exactly is it that I can do for you Mr. Maroni?"
"So polite and to the point." Salvatore said to his thug. "I like that. I do what I don't like Miss Sullivan is what's happening to my city…to my paper."
"Your paper?" Chloe smiled at him. "I was under the impression that my Uncle owned the Gazette." She smiled.
"I think it's cute, poor girl makes good. She wants to prove herself, show everyone she's not just a nice piece of ass and a gold card." He leaned closer. "But you're really going to want to do that somewhere else."
Chloe leaned closer herself and looked Salvatore straight in the eye. "Why would I want to do that?" She asked then leaned back. "This city is a fountain of news. Hell I didn't even have to try that hard to fill up the paper and I'm nowhere near finished."
"I hold a lot of weight in this town." Salvatore said trying a different tactic. "From one concerned citizen to another, how are you going to put out your little paper…?" He shrugged at her. "If I decide no one should work at it? And if I decide no one should work at it…" He let the threat hang in the air. Chloe sighed.
"Mr. Maroni." Chloe said crossing her legs. "Let's get one thing straight here. You want to scare off all my reporters, fine, I'm not scared, I ran a paper single handedly for three years in high school and while the scale's a little bit different here the principles the same. Gotham Gazette will come out on time every day, with whatever story I want to print in it despite what I think it might do to you and your…business ventures. You can threaten me, have your people follow me, oh yeah, I spotted them, you can do whatever you think it'll take to get me out of this city but I won't budge, you have my promise on that." The car came to a stop in front of Gotham Tower and Chloe opened her door and stepped out. She reached in her purse and handed Maroni a twenty. "Tip the driver would you, he made really good time."
"Miss Sullivan." Maroni called out the window after her and she stopped and turned around. "That smart mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble one of these days."
"Yeah yeah." Chloe said waving him off. "You're just saying that. Just a heads up Maroni, from one concerned citizen to another. When the Gazette hits the streets in about…" She checked her watch. "Four hours, you might want to have your lawyer handy." She smiled at him. "Commissioner Gordon might have a few questions for you." She waved at Maroni one more time and nodded as the doorman let her into the building. She could hear Maroni yelling at his thug as the car drove off down the road, what she couldn't hear was the deep chuckle coming from the man on the rooftop, dressed in black leather as he watched the scene unfold below.
Chloe wasn't lying. Commissioner Gordon did have a few questions for Maroni the next day and for a few weeks it seemed like some house cleaning was actually going on in the Gotham City infrastructure. It seemed that the people of Gotham were actually pressing for house cleaning. Committee members from ever branch of the government were resigning or being fired. There were several independent enquiries at multiple levels and Chloe was feeling good about herself. Her staff was still skeletal, she had two good reporters, well reporters she thought were good anyway, and she'd have a hard time getting anyone outside the Gazette office to see them that way. Randall Majors was a Gotham City legend; he was taking down organized crime before it became organized crime. In his heyday he was responsible for starting the first gang task force after an expose on juvenile crime, back when people still looked at teenagers as harmless pranksters. Now a days, if Chloe could keep him sober for thirty minutes a day she was guaranteed a good story, if she could keep him sober for an hour, she was looking at front page news.
Miles Wentworth was the other reporter, fresh out of school she'd promoted him from intern to head writer after the dust settled and she realized she had not reporters left. He was keen and anxious to please, and he had a good head and a good eye for stories. He was gung ho and willing to do whatever it takes to get the story, if she could just teach him to write she'd feel much better about him.
Chloe approved the final layout and sent it to the printers sighing in her chair. She hadn't gotten out of the office before ten since her first issue went out. She looked at the clock and debated on whether or not to call a cab. Again she'd been fooled by the nice weather in the morning and decided to walk. Which truthfully she'd been doing all week but, the rest of the week she'd had someone here with her when she was leaving. Miles was always good company to walk home with but he was off with Chloe's only good photographer on the trail of a story that would win him a Pulitzer, or at least that's how he explained it to Chloe. Randall had left earlier that day as soon as his story was turned in and the rest of the staff had long since left the building. There was Andrew in the copy room and a security guard somewhere in the building but Chloe wasn't going to let Maroni get to her.
The day that he was arrested he sent her a bouquet of dead roses but he hadn't done anything since. She took a deep breath and grabbed her bag; she wasn't going to let a man who was sitting behind bars rattle her anymore. She walked out of the newspaper office and hadn't gone two feet when hands pulled at her waist. "Hang on." A gravelly voice said to her at the same time she heard gun shots, tons of them, then came the breaking glass, the screeching tires. She gripped the mystery man tight and she was lifted off the ground. She kept her eyes closed as she soared through the air and remembered the few times Oliver had done something like this, only then it had been fun, now it was terrifying. Her feet touched solid ground and she backed away, catching her breath as she opened her eyes.
She was on top of the Gotham Gazette building and standing in front of her was the legendary Batman. She looked at him for a second and decided that she would deal with him later. She walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. The car was long gone now but the devastation could be seen, even from up there. Glass littered the sidewalk and cars unlucky enough to be parked on the street were riddled with bullet holes. "Crap." She said sighing.
Batman laughed low in his throat and she turned on him anger and adrenaline coursing through her veins. "What exactly is so funny?" She asked with her hands on her hips. He stopped laughing and looked at her a smile visible underneath his mask. "What are you supposed to be anyway?"
"Batman." He said in the same gravelly voice. "You really should pay more attention to your surroundings."
"Please, I'm taking down every dirty citizen of Gotham you think paying closer attention is going to help me?" She glared at him. "And what are you doing?" Chloe asked him.
"Me?" He looked at her confused.
"Yes you." She started pacing back and forth. "I thought this was your town, your territory. Batman was going to clean up the streets. Well it seems to me that I'm the one doing all the work here so what exactly is it that you're doing?" She glared at him and he couldn't help but smile again.
"I'm saving you." He said. She glared even harder and he laughed. "Watching you has become a twenty four seven job lady."
"My name is Chloe, Miss Sullivan if you're in any way polite, but not lady." She said. "And I never asked you to save me."
"And I never asked you to clean up Gotham." He pointed out.
"Someone had to do it." She countered and they were both quiet for a second. "So you've been following me?"
"Ever since your first paper hit the stands." He informed her.
"Why hasn't Maroni pulled anything until now?" She asked him.
"He has, you just haven't seen it." He smiled at her.
"Because you've been taking care of it." She asked and he nodded. "Well thank you I guess." She shuffled her feet on the ground. "And I'm sorry for yelling at you."
"You were just shot at." He shrugged. "It happens."
He turned to leave and Chloe called out to him. "Wait." He turned around and tilted his head to indicate the sirens. "Just a second. You aren't going to tell me to back off?" She asked. "To let you handle it, to stay at home where I belong?"
"Why would I do that?" He asked.
"That's like in the super hero handbook, right after saving the damsel at the last possible second." She shrugged. "They're always telling me to back off."
"You come into contact with many superheros?" Batman chuckled.
"Well the Green Arrow, a few others." She shrugged.
Batman looked at her for a second. "One man can change things, I know that to be true, but it doesn't hurt to have someone else in your corner." He smiled and jumped to the next roof top.
"Hey." Chloe screamed at him. "How the hell am I supposed to get down from here?" He looked at her then at the fire escape that looked as if it would fall in a heap from a light wind. "You're kidding me." She said and gripped her bag tighter as she swung her feet over the side of the building. "Why do they always bring you to a roof top and then leave. I mean you had no intention of coming to the roof top, how the hell are you supposed to get down from the roof top. Least they could do is give you a lift back to the bottom where you were before they butted in. Stupid heroes and their stupid leather and their stupid toys." Chloe grumbled as she climbed her way down the fire escape. This time she could hear the laughs from Batman as he made his way back into the city shadows and she waited on the sidewalk for the police to show up.
Chloe went back to work the very next day with renewed vigor. Workers were removing the plywood that had covered the window openings last night to install the new glass. Miles met her at the door with a cup of coffee and an excited look on her face. "Is it true?" He asked handing her a file folder. She took the coffee and the folder without looking up at him. "About the shooting?"
"No." Chloe said winding her way through the news room to get to her office. "I just felt like wasting money to get perfectly good windows replaced." She sipped the coffee and sighed in delight.
"Right, don't ask stupid questions, you'll get stupid answers." Miles said and Chloe nodded at him. "Ok then what happened? They say Batman showed up."
"Yep." Chloe looked up from the file and passed it off to another worker after signing a few pages. "Just in the nick of time."
"So you met him then?" Miles asked so excited Chloe had to look up at him and smile. "What's he like?"
"Well." Randall said from the doorway. "He's a guy who dresses in a giant bat suit, what do you think he's like kid?" He nodded to Chloe. "Bruce Wayne's here to see you."
Miles looked between Chloe and Randall and his eyes got even larger if that's possible. "Oh man, really? Bruce Wayne here?"
"Don't you have work to do?" Chloe asked him. "What's going on with that story you said was going to get you a Pulitzer?"
"Right." Miles nodded and Chloe turned to see Randall still standing there.
"You…ok?" He asked checking her over in a very subtle way, checking for cuts she guessed from the flying glass.
"Fine." She said. "Where's that piece on the Chamber of Commerce you promised me?"
"Yeah, yeah, why you gotta bust my balls." He moaned and walked out of her office as Bruce started to come in.
"Randall." Chloe called after him.
"Yeah?" He barked turning around.
"Since when are you my secretary?" She smiled at him.
"A lady with a sexy accent asks me to relay a message, I relay a message." Randall said smirking; he'd been hitting on Elizabeth since they got here. Randall nodded at Bruce on his way out.
"Nice going Woodward." He tossed the previous day's paper on her desk, the front page article indicting half of the Gotham government for corruption in various forms.
"Hey." Chloe said. "It's a little busy around here this morning."
"Yeah." Bruce closed the door. "I heard about the shooting."
"They are replacing the windows as we speak and I called the insurance company this morning. They said we are no way liable for the cars that were damaged so we're in the clear." Chloe told him.
"No we aren't in the clear." Bruce said. "I'm not worried about insurance or the windows." He looked at her. "Are you ok?"
"Fine." She brushed him off. "Batman saved the day."
"Batman really?" Bruce put his hands in his pockets and Chloe looked over at him.
"Yeah." Chloe said. "Swooped in all…swoopy like." Chloe said lamely and Bruce chuckled. "What's with the superheros and swooping? I mean is that the only cool way to save someone? You can't just saunter or even stylishly run?"
"You're one of a kind Chloe Sullivan." Bruce said. "Anyone ever tell you that?"
"I wish people would stop telling me that." She sighed. "So as you can see I'm fine, so…"
"Right." Bruce coughed and stood up straighter. "You're not going to stop going after Maroni are you?"
"If he bothered to do his homework, he'd know that the little stunt he pulled last night just got me more fired up."
"That's what I was counting on." Bruce smiled at her and headed for the door.
"Circulations up twenty percent." Chloe said. He stopped, turned and looked at her. "And I'm just getting started."
"I can't wait to see your big finish." Bruce smiled again and walked out of the office.
A week later she was grabbed leaving the planet and shoved in the back of a car only to have the car stop a few seconds later and Batman pull her out, shaking his head at her as he left her to wait for the police among the now unconscious would be kidnappers. The next day Bruce hired private security to follow her around. Annoyed and unable to work with them hovering she waited until she was walking home one night, sure she was being followed by the security and called the police to have him arrested for stalking. Bruce didn't find it amusing and she told him that she could take care of herself and if he sent any more security after her, she'd have them arrested too.
The next night, while staying late at the Gazette she was attacked in her office and barely escaped a gunshot wound before Batman rushed in and fought off her attacker. She glared as he told her to be more careful before flying off into the night and she called the police. The day after she came to the office to find a set of metal detectors and a buzzer system being installed by the front door and a security guard sitting by as if on duty. She called Bruce and complained and he said that his quarter share in the paper entitled him to make whatever changes he deemed necessary for the safety of his staff. They bartered for a while and Chloe got him to agree to take off the buzzer if the security guard and the metal detectors stayed.
Then came the car bomb that wasn't thanks to the timely intervention by Batman which led to Bruce's unwelcome hiring of a driver to take her everywhere. She snuck out of the Gazette while he was distracted and let the air out of all the tires and informed Bruce if he sent her another car, she was going to slash the tires and maybe put sugar in the gas tank.
The next week she came out of her shower to find someone in her house and managed to make it out of the front door and to her neighbors where she stayed as the police showed up to investigate, doing more ogling of Chloe in a bath towel than actual investigating and she figured she wouldn't be able to rely on them to help her out of this mess. The next day there was a patrol car outside her building and it followed her to the Gazette where it sat all day. When she left a new car took over, following her home and sitting outside of her apartment all night, only to be replaced in the morning by the day shift.
She tried to ignore it at first but then it became a problem and she grabbed a cup of coffee and walked outside, knocking on the window. "Deputy." She smiled and handed him the coffee.
"Thank you ma'am." He smiled back at her and took a sip.
"What's it going to take to get you to drive away and worry about the rest of Gotham City?" She asked.
"All due respect ma'am, I take my orders from the Commissioner." He smiled sheepishly.
"Then, I'll just have to talk to him." Chloe said and turned down the street in the direction of Police Headquarters. After the underwhelming investigation she'd seen at her house she wasn't expecting to walk into a den of high intelligence at Police Headquarters, but she also didn't expect to step into 1979, smack dab in the middle of Hazzard County, surrounded by a bunch of good old boys. "Well you must be lost." The first detective she saw talked down to her as if she was ten.
"I need to see the Commissioner." Chloe stood her ground.
"Well he's busy, real important business." The guys crossed his arms over his chest and blatantly checked her out from head to toe.
"Busy with what?" Chloe asked through clenched teeth.
"Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about." He smiled at her.
"Will you tell him that Chloe Sullivan Editor of the Gazette is here?" She asked.
"Oh, sorry I didn't realize you were with the press." The guy raised his hands in the air and took a step back.
"Is there a problem here?" Another guy walked up and set a file on the counter.
"Yes, I need to see the Commissioner."
"Well." He leaned over. "I'm sure that's not necessary, possibly we can help you?" He moved his eyes from her face to her chest without trying to be discreet.
"I am absolutely positive there is nothing you can do for my breasts, Detective…" She squinted at his badge. "Becker. I would like to see the chief."
He straightened up and stopped smiling. "He's busy so you just run along now."
"Yeah ok." Chloe said and then did one of Bart's classic escape moves, she faked like she was going left, spun around to the right and slipped right past them. She was only a foot from the Commissioner's office when they grabbed her.
"This one is feisty." Detective Becker said.
"You really want to let me go." Chloe said glaring at him and Gordon came out of his office.
"What's going on here let her go." He scolded them. "Miss Sullivan, is everything ok?"
She straightened her shirt and glared at the cops before walking into Gordon's office. "I don't know what he's using on you, what he promised you or threatened you with but I want them gone, from my house, from my building."
"If you're referring to the patrol cars, I'm sorry but that's not possible." Gordon sat down. "You've got a price on your head Sullivan and I won't have it collected on my watch. I'm just doing my job here."
"Well it's stopping me from doing my job." Chloe said. "My sources have all gone into hiding because of the patrol car. They think we're just turning people over." She shook her head. "I need them gone to do my job."
"And I need to keep you alive." Gordon stressed to her. "That to me is more important than your paper."
"Really?" Chloe stood up. "The reason that Maroni is behind bars now is because of my paper, in fact the reason that quite a few of those cells are full is because of my paper."
"Be that as it may." Gordon said. "It's not going to stop me from protecting you."
Chloe sat back down and let out a long breath. "You know, if I kill Bruce Wayne, I think I could get my lawyer to argue for Justifiable Homicide."
Gordon laughed. "Why would you want to kill Bruce Wayne?"
"For forcing you guys on me."
"Bruce Wayne?" Gordon looked at her as if she was stupid. "It was Batman who suggested the patrol cars."
"Batman?" Chloe looked up confused. That didn't sound right. The patrol cars stunk of Bruce and all the other things he'd been doing lately.
"If there is nothing else?" He raised his eyebrows and Chloe shook her head and walked to the door before turning.
"Wait a minute; did you say there was a price on my head?" She smiled slightly. "Like a real one, like an actually dollar amount?"
"Yeah." Gordon said uneasily.
Chloe just nodded and then couldn't take it anymore. "How much?"
"$50,000. $50,000 that's it, that's all I'm worth to Maroni. I could go shopping and drop more than that on shoes." She put the finishing touches on the layout.
"You can spend $50,000 on shoes?" He laughed.
"Well, I've been known to indulge." She groaned. "Stupid cheapskate criminals, stupid Bruce Wayne, stupid Batman. They're all on my shit list."
"Well I'm glad that without me there at least someone is taking responsibility for keeping you alive, since you don't seem to want the job." Oliver pointed out.
"You're on my shit list now too." She growled.
"Call me tomorrow." He laughed before hanging up.
Chloe finished her work and sent the paper off to the printers. "I'm gone Elizabeth." She said.
"You just got a call from Mister Wayne, requesting you join him for dinner." Elizabeth stood up.
"When?" Chloe asked.
"Tonight." Elizabeth said. "I've already called you a cab."
"You just accepted for me?" Chloe asked. "What if I had other plans?"
"Did you?" She raised her eyebrows and Chloe frowned.
"No." She sighed. "I don't want to have dinner with Bruce Wayne, I'm mad at him."
"He owns part of this paper; he's the most powerful man in town." Elizabeth pointed out as they walked to the door, nodding to the Security guard on the way out. "And you haven't had a date since Spencer broke up with you."
"This is not a date." Chloe turned to Elizabeth. "This is probably a business meeting, or something."
"He's cooking for you." Elizabeth said opening the door to her cab. "The man employs three full time chefs and he's cooking you dinner personally. It's a date." She closed the door and the cab sped off as Chloe's pulled closer to the curb.
"Where to lady?" The driver asked.
"Wayne Manor." Chloe said and they pulled onto the street. "Oh and there is a cop car following us, don't worry about it." The cab driver gave her a look in the rearview mirror and then just kept on driving.
Chloe pulled herself up onto the countertop in Bruce's kitchen as he stirred away at the stove. "$50,000 Bruce, that's like chump change." Chloe groaned.
"Woodward, did you come here to complain to me about the lack of money the mob is shelling out to have you killed?" He smiled.
"No." Chloe said. "I just think it seems kind of low you know. Honestly I don't know why I'm here."
"Because I invited you to diner." Bruce held out a spoon and she tasted the marinara sauce. "And you agreed."
"More salt and a little acid." She picked up the lemon next to her and he caught it. "No, my assistant agreed and then convinced me, I'm just not sure how she convinced me because I'm still mad at you." She picked up a slice of green pepper and took a bite.
"Why are you mad at me?" Bruce asked adding the lemon juice to the sauce.
"Oh I don't know the intrusion into my personal space with your bodyguards, the unauthorized renovations on my building." Chloe pointed out. "Pick one; I can't go to the bathroom without someone knowing. Now Gordon's got a patrol car following me everywhere, the night shift is sitting outside your driveway as we speak." He handed her a glass of wine and she smiled. "Between you and Batman I can't breathe."
"Well watching you has become a twenty four seven job lady." Bruce smiled and poured himself a glass of wine and turned back to his sauce. He didn't notice that Chloe had frozen with the glass halfway to her mouth.
"My name is Chloe." She said softly, remembering in vivid detail the phrase Bruce just said to her having been said by someone else on the roof of the Gazette, being said by Batman. She looked over at Bruce and he was the right build and the right height. "Holy Crap." Chloe said and Bruce turned around.
"What?" He smiled at her.
She thought of something quickly to save face. "You get extra points for cooking yourself you know that right?" She jumped off the counter and turned around quickly so he couldn't see her face. "I'll check on the bread." She grabbed the pot holders and pulled the bread out of the oven as Bruce served up the plates and brought them to the table.
Chloe got out another plate and piled it high. "Wow, you're really hungry." Bruce joked bringing the wine to the table.
"This isn't for me." She glared at him and turned to the small room off the kitchen knocking on the door before opening it. "Alfred?"
"Yes ma'am." He scrambled to get out of his chair and block the television that he'd been watching.
She smiled. "Who's winning?"
"Liverpool's up by one ma'am." Alfred smiled sheepishly and Chloe watched the game for a second before shaking her head.
"I knew it; they should never have traded Mizer." Chloe groaned.
"You're a United fan?" Alfred smiled big.
"You know it." Chloe pulled up her sweater to revel a tank top underneath with Manchester United Logo on it.
"I like this one Master Bruce."
"I'm sure you do Alfred." Bruce rolled his eyes.
"Was there something I could do for you miss?" He bowed slightly to her.
"Yes, sorry." She took her attention away from the game and turned to Alfred. "Could you take this down to the nice deputy in the patrol car out front?"
"You're feeding him?" Bruce asked.
"It's not my fault he's got to follow me around all night." Chloe glared at Bruce and turned back to Alfred. "I'd really appreciate it."
"No problem miss." He said walking out of the kitchen toward the front door.
Diner with Bruce wasn't a complete disaster, they talked about the paper for a while then just stuff, nothing to thought provoking or deep which was fine with Chloe because the whole time she was eating the words "Bruce Wayne is Batman" rolled through her head on a loop and it was all she could do not to spit them out.
She checked on the score of the game, Manchester 2 Liverpool 1 which caused and impromptu dance in the kitchen between Chloe and Alfred and then walked down to the end of the driveway and knocked on the patrol car window. "Deputy Rollins." She smiled. "Enjoy your dinner?"
"Yes ma'am." He handed her the plate and she nodded.
"Bruce called me a cab but I'm going to run this back up to the house, if it comes don't let it leave would you?"
"Sure." He nodded and Chloe smiled and made her way back up to the house with the plate. She was only halfway up the drive way before she heard a car and then felt herself being shoved to the ground.
"Stay down." Rollins screamed from his position on top of her as gunshots rang out. "Back up requested at Wayne Manor, shooting in progress." He called into his radio and the wheels squeaked and the car drove away.
"Chloe!" Bruce called from the front door as he ran down the driveway.
"You ok?" Rollins got off of her and checked her over for damage.
"I'm fine." Chloe said shakily.
"You're bleeding." Bruce grabbed her hand as he reached her side.
"Just from the driveway." She assured him. "I scraped them on the concrete." She stared behind him as he tried to wipe the gravel out of her palms. "Oh no." She said tears coming to her eyes.
"What?" Bruce asked looking around.
'I broke your plate." She pointed the million little pieces of glass that were lying on the ground.
"It's ok." Bruce laughed in relief. "It's just a plate."
"But it was so pretty." Chloe cried.
"But it was just a plate." He hugged her. "You're ok, that's all that matters."
"I know." Chloe sniffled. "So why am I crying?" She looked up at him.
"Probably just shock." Rollins said and Bruce nodded.
It took her a minute but she pulled herself together and wiped her tears just as the police and ambulance showed up. She gave her statement of events, got her hands wrapped up and Bruce offered to make up the guest room for her.
"I'd really rather just go home." She said to him and Rollins offered to take her back. The other officers on the scene tried to step in but Rollins insisted that it was his job and he would do it.
When they got to Gotham Tower Apartments she looked over at Rollins surprised when he parked the car, got out and came around to her side to get her. She must have looked more shaken up than she felt. She was even more surprised when he walked her up to her apartment, made her wait in the hall while he checked it out and then when he let her in he sat down at the kitchen table and faced the door, his gun out on the counter. "What's going on?" Chloe asked.
"Commissioner thought it was a joke." Rollins said staring at the door and not looking at Chloe. "He didn't think people were really trying to kill you, so we thought it was a joke too, we signed up for it, kind of like a sick day where you get paid to do nothing. I wasn't paying attention. I should have seen it, that's a remote street; I should have at least been suspicious."
"You saved my life." Chloe said confused. "If you hadn't pushed me down…"
"I should have noticed sooner." He said turning to look at her.
"Are you…staying here? All night?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am." He turned his attention back to the door and Chloe took a deep breath.
"I'm going to make some coffee." Chloe shrugged off the blanket the EMT had given her and walked over to the coffee pot she emptied the sludge from the morning's pot and tried to rinse out the carafe, only her hand was shaking so bad she couldn't get any water in.
"Here" Rollins came up behind her and grabbed the pot from her hands and finished the coffee.
"I don't know why I can't stop shaking." She laughed nervously.
"Shock." He said.
"No, see I've almost died a lot." Chloe looked up at him. "I mean you wouldn't believe me if I told you how many times I've almost died. I'm talking in the hospital, weeklong coma's, emergency surgeries…this was nothing compared to that."
"You lead quite an adventurous life for an heiress." Rollins laughed.
"I wasn't always and heiress." Chloe smiled faintly.
"Sometimes things hit you in strange ways." Rollins shrugged as he waited for the coffee to brew. "I've been on this job for ten years now and every now and then, for a random reason there will be one crime scene that just gets to me."
"I guess." Chloe sighed and leaned against the counter. "You're married?" She asked nodding to the ring on his hand.
"Yes, for five years now." He smiled.
"Any kids?" She asked.
"One, Conner he's two." Rollins smiled brighter.
"You got a pretty wife, a kid, why do you do this?" Chloe looked at him critically.
"Because someone's got to do it. It's my job, to protect people, to keep them safe." He shrugged and Chloe just smiled at him. "What?"
"Nothing, I'm just…you made me remember that ordinary people can be hero's too."
"Yeah well you gotta put a kid through college don't you?" He asked.
Chloe kissed his cheek and walked to the hall. "I think I'm going to go to sleep. Thank you."
"Anytime." Rollins smiled and then poured himself a cup of coffee and resumed his position by the door.