Part Seven

When Jeff got home from his last afternoon at Wayne Manor he opened the envelope the old butler had handed him. Inside was a check for five thousand dollars and a hand written note on personalized stationary; 'Thank you for all your help. Regards, Bruce Wayne.'

Nice. Unnecessary, but very nice.

He was scheduled to start at Woods Hole in two weeks as an assistant to the head of the siphonophores department or team or whatever that group called themselves and he was still pinching himself about how he'd lucked into the job—figuratively, of course. He also hadn't the slightest clue why Aquaman, King Orin f'chrissake, would recommend him for city dog catcher, let alone a highly competitive position at one of the most highly respected oceanographic institutes on the planet.

Unless, of course, Robin put in a call and pulled some strings.

God, what to do, what to do...

* * *

"I want to find out which one of Dent's men worked me."

"I know you do and we will, it just isn't going to be easy." And Bruce didn't want Dick going off and turning a crime into something personal, even if it was personal.

"Of course it will. All we have to do is find one member of the crew and scare the crap out of them."

Dick was right, of course. They both knew this would be just another day at the office for them—as soon as Dick was back to full strength and that would be soon enough. But... "How sure are you about Tabor knowing about us?"

"Ninety-five percent. He never said anything but I'm about as sure as I can be."

"And he'll do what with this?"

Dick shrugged. "'No idea but I think that if he was going to do something we'd have caught wind of it by now."

"Not necessarily."

"I know, but probably. It doesn't gain him anything to sit on it."

We'll be watching him." Bruce turned back to his newspaper.

"Of course we will."

* * *

A month later Jeff was somewhere in the mid-Atlantic studying the specimens that other scientists brought up, he was one of a crew of thirty-five and as happy as he'd been in his life. He still believed with everything in him that Bruce Wayne had spoken to his friend King Orin to pull the stings needed to get him a berth and he was fine with that. In fact, he was fine with whatever it took to get his butt working beside the people he was and the bonus was that he found that they even liked him personally, There were days when he felt like Sally Field winning her second Oscar—They really liked him!

Okay, the money sucked but who cared? That money he'd earned tutoring Dick would see him through enough for him to finish the dissertation in a couple of months and then, with any luck he'd be appointed to permanent staff with with Wood's Hole or one of the other top places—dear God let it happen.

Then he overheard the conversation at a far table in the mess. Two of the other interns were chatting, probably thought he was asleep with his head down on the table. He wasn't.

"So who did he screw to get on board?"

"I heard he's here through the direct intervention of Aquaman himself."

"'You shitting me? How the hell did that happen?"

"Like I know? Whatever he did, I wish I knew his secret—Ballard was saying that the man called him and said that he'd take it as a personal favor to have the kid given a position."

"'A personal favor'? Holy crap."

"Yeah."

The voices faded as the two interns got up and walked out. Shit, it had to be Batman calling in a favor from Aquaman. It had to. What else could it be? There was no other explanation. And the only way that would happen would be to have Bruce call King Orin and...crap.

It worked and he was here.

Now he had to make sure that he held the job—and he was on his own as far as that was concerned.

Professional jealousy be damned.

* * *

"You thought I was dead? You thought you'd get the reward on my head?...Wrong."

"Robin, that's enough, you'll kill him."

"And this is a problem because...?"

The Batvoice. "Stop. Now." And the Batglare.

"And here I was just getting warmed up."

"I called Police Headquarters and 911 for him."

Robin smiled, "You're a nicer person than I am."

Batman said nothing, knowing that he'd only stopped Dick for his own good; the boy didn't need an internal investigation for excessive force after everything he'd been through the past few months. The boy had done what he'd wanted; the man who was on the other end of the knife was finished as a threat.

* * *

"...And so I want to thank you again for your generosity and kindness and let you know how much I appreciate everything you've done. With gratitude, Jeff Tabor."

Dick glanced at the body of the letter Jeff wrote Bruce one more time. There wasn't anything in it that would even begin to indicate that he suspected anything they didn't want him to suspect but that didn't mean that it wasn't out there.

"Looks okay, I guess but still..."

"I know, I have the usual tags on him and I'll be getting a report if anything is said or implied."

Dick still wasn't happy about this. "I still believe he..." He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "He may not have proof, but he suspects, he thinks he knows."

"I know that, I'm just not as worried about it as you are."

"Why the hell not?"

Because this has happened before and we've always been able to contain it. Tabor isn't an international criminal, he has what he wants with that appointment to Wood's Hole and from everything we've learned about him, he's a decent and honest man. Let it go."

"But..."

"Come on, back to work; what do you have about that jewel theft last night?"

Dick refocused to the subject at hand bit he wasn't happy. He had a strong feeling that this could still come back to bite them in the ass, in fact, he'd just about stake the ranch on it.

* * *

Two years went by without direct word from Jeff though they received reports through their channels that the young man was doing fine, making a name for himself and acquitting himself well with his peers. His doctorate came through about six months after he left the tutoring position with Dick and he was well on his way.

Meanwhile Dick was now a senior in high school and looking at colleges. Robin was completely back to full strength, leading the Titans, working with the JLA and acknowledged as one of the top all around athletes in the country if not the world.

Everything seemed fine until that phone call five years later.

TBC