Hello all! I hope everyone's weekend went well. I had intended to get this chapter to everyone last week, but I kept rereading what I wrote, and essentially came to hate it. So I had to rewrite the entire thing. This one may be a little less in length, but it will get me over this hump of having to produce a stage for the real story. (Yes, I promise, there is a real story for this, one that will, without a doubt, involve Batman.) It won't be long before a plot decides to reveal itself...but in the mean time, I hope you enjoy!

The ensuing week flew by, and Eva actually had a ball. Annette was so easy going and had a great sense of humor. Of course, she was in a state of progressive moodiness, as Eva had noticed, but Annette was gone now and Eva was left to man the desk herself.

It was 7:45, Eva had been in the office for precisely one hour and forty-eight minutes, and was bored out of her mind. There was nothing to do. When she had arrived, she checked everything, the email, the fax, the phone, and there was nothing. So she immediately made a pot of coffee in the little "break room" that was exclusive to Bruce Wayne's office.

By now, she was on her third cup of coffee, and realized that the caffeine wasn't helping anything. It only made her more antsy for something to do. She looked at the clock on the computer. 7:46. Annette had warned her that when Mr. Wayne was out of the office, there wasn't a whole lot to do. It wasn't always like that, but most of the time. Eva hadn't seen him since their meeting in the office that first day. Annette also assured her that he wouldn't always come into the office, that he would work a lot from his home or would have business else where in the building that wouldn't require him to step inside his office. She wondered if she would indeed see him today. She turned in the swivel chair to face the window. That sheet of glass (or maybe plexiglass? She didn't know the architectural details) was still found to be captivating. Eva walked over to it and started to people watch. When she had first arrived that morning, Gotham was just starting to wake-up. Now it would appear that all of Gotham's business district was wide awake and ready for action. In the building across the street, she could see the busy activity of several offices. People answering telephones, walking around, typing. Her eyes darted downward to the street. It would appear that an accident had occurred a couple of blocks down and was holding up traffic. It didn't look to be serious, but then again, she couldn't really tell from being so high in air. She scooted closer to the glass and looked down. Dots were going everywhere. Some were crossing the street, some were walking into Wayne Tower, and most were just walking straight on to their destination. She gave a mild laugh, dots, and turned to face the glass doors at the front of the office. She could see the employed workers around the floor. A young woman turned to look into the office and was caught by Eva's eye. The two smiled at each other and then the one went back to work. Then she caught sight of another human being, except this one was coming straight into the office.

"Morning paper, ma'am," the man said as he approached her desk and lifted out a newspaper from the satchel that was strapped around his torso.

She smiled at him, gave him a "thanks," as he tipped his hat and turned to be on his way. Well, at least she now had something to do, so she made her way to the desk and plopped down in the chair. The time was now 8:25. She was delighted to have wasted thirty-minutes; she figured reading the paper would waste about an hour, maybe more. Glancing at the front page, a certain headline caught her eye. Sprawled across the page in big bold letters was the heading :

The Bat-Man Captures Major Crime-Boss

and then right below that:

Dangerous Drug Cartel Begins to Crater

This was obviously the reason her father was so late in getting home last night and so early in leaving this morning. She skimmed the article to find out more information, but overall the article was useless in giving any information on the arrest other than the crime-boss that was captured was none other than Robert Legotti, prominent member of Gotham's high rise society and active "philanthropist." The District Attorney's office had no comment other than their immense gratitude for whomever had handed the slick willy over to them. She found that one statement strange. Whomever? Wasn't that obvious? Of course, she supposed just exactly who that whom really was, was the question in the back (and probably the front) of most people's minds.

Eva decided to call her dad. The police department was probably in utter chaos, but she wanted to find out what he had to say about this. She picked up the phone and placed it to her ear when, much to her surprise, it rang, causing her to jump and drop the phone. Rolling her eyes, Eva quickly picked back up the receiver and pushed the button that was next to the red light on the telephone.

"Bruce Wayne's office."

"Is Bruce in?" A rich, sultry female voice demanded.

"No, I'm sorry. Mr. Wayne hasn't arrived this morning. Would you care to leave a message?"

Rudely, the woman answered, "No, I'll try again." And then abruptly hung up.

Eva rolled her eyes...again. It was too early to start up Bruce Wayne's Dating Answering Service. Couldn't these woman wait until after lunch?

She decided to pick up the phone and try her call again.

"Gotham City Police Department."

"Lt. Gordon please." Without warning, the phone went silent before ringing ensued. Eva let the phone ring but to no avail, she was left with his voice mail.

"This is James Gordon. I stepped out of my office, but leave me a message." BEEP.

"Hey dad, it's me, your favorite daughter. Call me back if you get this. I know you're probably swamped, but maybe we can meet up for lunch." She hung up the phone and rapped her fingers on the desk. Annette was right about one thing, she was so bored. The clock on the computer screen read 8:37. At least time seemed to be going by relatively fast.

Eva started a search on the internet into who this Robert Legotti was; she had never heard of him. Of course being away for six years kind of halted her knowledge on Gotham's uptown society. What she found on the guy didn't really surprise her. It was the typical information one would find when reading about an extremely dangerous criminal: Mildly attractive (she didn't think so, but obviously someone from the Gotham Times did), loves beautiful women (shocking!), and kills anyone (or maybe that should be past tense) who defies him. None of the stuff she read about Robert Legotti, ballistic criminal, surprised her–it was atypical. What did surprise her was the fact that amidst all the horrible things he did and all the dark discrepancies that made up his persona, the man was on the city's Board of Trustees. He was a "prominent" business man who had apparently made it to high status with the city's elite infrastructure. Why would people be so afferent to someone like him?

The phone rang and Eva answered.

"Good morning, Bruce Wayne's office."

"Good morning," the voice spoke in a very quick, business tone. "I'm calling for Mr. Aaron Adams. He wishes to speak with Mr. Wayne."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne isn't in his office , would he care to leave a message?"

"Mr. Adams would like to confirm an appointment to meet with Mr. Wayne. If he could just get in touch."

"Yes, of course."

"Thank-You." The phone went dead and Eva hung up the receiver. Mr. Aaron Adams. The name sounded familiar, but rang no bells. She really needed to get with it; All these new names and she had no clue who anybody was. Eva bypassed the important news in the newspaper and went straight for the society column. She figured she's catch herself up.

It was a little after ten when Eva received a call from Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler apparently, informing her that Mr. Wayne would be arriving at his office.

And, of course the moment she got the call, things started to get busy. The phone rang, faxes started coming in, and even a visitor arrived. An older man, maybe sixtyish in a tan suit who said his name was Mr. Sawyer. He came to speak with Mr. Wayne.

"I'm sorry sir, he's not in at the moment."

The man shook his head then asked, "When can I expect him to be in? I called last week and he wasn't in then, either."

Eva smiled as politely as she could. "Actually, I'm expecting him to be in any minute." She gestured for him to take a seat in the waiting area off to his left. "If you would like to wait?"

The man seemed pleased with her answer and thus decided to wait. Eva continued to get the office ready. She refolded the newspaper, trying to make it look as nice as she possibly could, laid it on Wayne's desk, then walked into the break room and started a fresh pot of coffee. She rushed back to her desk just in time to catch a glimpse of Bruce Wayne walking down the corridor and into the office. He glanced at Eva then stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her again.

"Annette's on leave?"

Eva nodded her head.

"Eva?" he asked as if it were a secret that only the two of them shared.

Again she nodded.

It wasn't that he had forgotten, it just wasn't at the forefront of his thoughts as he walked through the door. It was strange to see someone other than Annette sitting at Annette's desk. He returned back to his normal demeanor and smiled at her.

"Good, glad to have you here," he said as he started to walk into his office, taking no notice of Mr. Sawyer tucked away into the corner of the room. Eva quickly jumped up and followed him into his office.

"Mr. Wayne, Mr. Sawyer is here to see you." Bruce threw the name around in his head for a few seconds. It wasn't a name he recognized and thus served him no interest. Probably just a small business owner looking to pitch some sort of deal, Bruce thought.

"Tell him I'll be right with him."

She nodded her head then turned and walked out of his office.

"He will be right with you."

Eva made it back to her desk with just enough time to answer the ringing phone.

"Bruce Wayne's office."

"Eva? It's your dad."

"Oh, hey what's up?"

"I can't meet you for lunch. I just wanted to call you and let you know. Sorry sweetheart, we're just too busy over here at the moment."

Eva shook her head involuntarily. "No worries, I just read the article in the morning paper."

"Yeah, it's really something. I'll tell you about it when I get home. Tell your mom I shouldn't be too late if you talk to her, okay?"

"Yeah dad, see you tonight."

The phone went dead and Eva replaced the receiver. Bruce came out of his office and greeted Mr. Sawyer. Both of them walked into his office and he shut the door behind them. The phone rang again and immediately she regretted answering it.

"Is Bruce in?" It was another call for the Bruce Wayne Dating Agency. He didn't seem like the type of guy to know so many women.

But she had been wrong before.

"Let me patch you through." She sent the call straight to his voice mail.

"This fax just came through for you, sir."

Bruce looked up from his desk at the gentle knock that had been placed upon his open door.

"It's from the Singapore warehouse. I believe it details the incoming shipment of military AEDs." Eva handed the fax over to him.

"Did it include any of the preliminaries?" he asked while skimming over the sheet of paper.

"I don't think so. I can send a fax over with the request if you like."

Bruce looked up at her and smiled. "That would be great, thanks."

"Are these to be filed away?"

He glanced at the files her finger rested on.

"Yes."

She hefted them off the desk and into her arms, and then turned to walk out of his office.

He looked at his watch. 1:15. He'd been there since ten and hadn't seen Eva go for lunch. He hadn't gone either, and was admittedly very hungry. There was no telling what time she had gotten here at; she must have been starving, he assumed.

"Eva, hang on a minute." She stopped then turned to face him.

"Yes, sir?"

He grimaced and the word she used.

"First of all," he started, while getting up from his desk and walking around to her, "between you and me, I hate being called 'sir.' I've been trying to get Annette to stop calling me that since she started and my pleas tend to fall on def ears. It would be nice if just one person would heed my request."

She stared at him blankly. "Yes, sir." Then, realizing her mistake, "Sorry." It was going to be a tough habit to break. Eva smiled at him then turned back around. Bruce felt vaguely weird.

"You haven't by any chance eaten lunch yet?"

She turned around once more. Those files were beginning to get really heavy.

"No, sir." Wrinkling her brow, she quickly apologized. "Sorry, I'll get used to it." They both quietly chuckled.

"You wouldn't maybe want to go grab something to eat?"

Admittedly, she was hungry, but to eat with her boss, was that a good idea? Eva hesitated in her answer.

"Are you sure that is such a good idea?"

Bruce laughed at her answer, causing her to frown, unsure of how to read his response.

"It'll be fine," he said after realizing he was hurting his chances of acquiring an eating mate. "Nothing implied, I swear."

Well, she couldn't deny that she really wouldn't mind it. Okay, she really wouldn't mind at all, but alarm bells were ringing. Not against Bruce himself, but she could already hear the sound of gossip being spread throughout Wayne Tower.

And it was only her first day.

"You know, I really wouldn't mind it, but I just don't think that is such a great idea."

He nodded at her. "You're sure?"

She nodded in response.

"Oh. Well," he paused to walk back around his desk and grab his jacket. "In that case, I'll ask again tomorrow."

They both smiled at his light-hearted response then turned to go there separate ways.

Excuse any errors that this chapter may have...just really tired and if I proof read through this thing one more time...my eyes may bugger out of their sockets!! Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Personally, I can't wait until the plot has been set. I'm seeing Mr. Batman himself making an appearance soon.

Oh yeah, best you not forget to review before you click out of the story. Please:( Thanks:D Until next time...