Author's Note: As I'm sure you'll recall, when we left off Diana were just leaving to go paint the town red. Like I said last time, I'm going to leave that to your imagination. But if you need help, picture a montage of them driving around Gotham set to 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen. You're welcome. Also, I'm still interested in looking for beta readers if anybody wants to volunteer for a sneak peek of the odd chapter.

"Wow..." Diana said, kicking off her heels as she passed through the threshold into Wayne Manor, her arm draped over Bruce's shoulder. "Just... Wow. You know, I don't think that I'll ever be able to look at the Batman the same way again."

"You can't say that I didn't warn you." Bruce shrugged. "You held up pretty nicely, though."

"Speaking of which... How on Earth are you still standing? You must've had more to drink than Bacchus at one of his Saturnalia festivals. And believe me, that's no mean feat."

"I don't drink." He said shortly.

"But I saw-"

"I pretend to sip, and dump it off in a plant when nobody's looking. That way I can stay sharp if Batman's needed."

"I really should remember that..." Diana grumbled, her speech slightly slurred. "I'm beat. What time is it?"

"Around one in the morning."

"Hmm..." She yawned broadly. "Time for bed, I think."

"Bats are nocturnal."

"You're not a bat. Not tonight, anyway."

"Alright, alright then. The guest bedroom's up the stairs and-"

"Nuh-uh." Diana said, shaking her head. "I'm not falling for that one. I leave you alone, and you sneak out and do whatever it is you do. Do you think that I'm stupid? I'm not taking my eyes off of you for a minute."

"Even if it means-"

"Yes, Bruce. What's the matter? We're adults, we can share the same bed. Unless..." She narrowed her eyes cunningly, "you're intimidated?"

"Fine, as long as you keep your hands to yourself."

"No promises."

"I can't say that I didn't try." He shrugged again and led the way to the master bedroom.

Amanda Waller was awakened from a sound sleep by the sound of her perimeter security alarms wailing; she silently slid out of her bed, grabbing the pistol under her pillow with her left hand, and the shotgun under the bed with her right. She could hear loud crashing noises coming from her study on the floor below. She waited, holding stock still until the noise subsided; her heart racing slightly, she began to make her way downstairs. She stood outside the study for a moment, bracing herself for whatever waited on the other side before brutally kicking the door in and charging forward, both guns extended.

"Oh. It's you."

Batman stood in the center of the room, surrounded by the glass from the window he'd shattered on his way in and the unconscious bodies of Waller's personal security detail, casually massaging his knuckles. He was dressed differently from his unual attire; his new suit was almost entirely black, with a red bat insignia on the chest and a mask that covered his entire face. "Turn off the alarms. Unless you plan to shoot me?"

"I'm considering it. You and I both know that you could have just as easily snuck in without setting off a single alarm." Waller said, remotely deactivating the alarms nonetheless.

"I just wanted to remind you that I can get in either way."

"Trying to scare me, eh? I'm wise to your act, Rich Boy. I guess I can't say that I haven't been expecting you... Not that that means that I'm Ok with breaking and entering, but that's a whole different matter. Although my sources say that you're still on bedrest after your incident at the Asylum."

"I heal fast." Batman growled. "I want everything on Hugo Strange."

"All files pertaining to Professor Strange have already been sent to the Justice League Embassy, as per the Martian's request."

"Don't play dumb with me Waller. I want everything. I know Cadmus was into Black Ops, and, frankly, I don't give a damn. I want all notes on any research and development projects that he was involved in."

Waller pursed her lips. "You realize that the information that you're asking me to hand over, supposing that it even exists in the first place, could put me in jail for the rest of my life?"

"I do."

They exchanged mutual stoney glares for several moments until Waller let out a mildly amused grunt and turned to face her desk. "Some things never change..." She muttered as she shuffled through files. Finally, she pulled out several thick, sealed envolopes, all of which were marked 'Confidential- Top Secret' in large, red letters. She extended them for him to take, but withdrew them at the last second.

"Of course, you understand that I'm giving you these files with the understanding that the information that they contain will not leave your circle?" Waller asked suspiciously.

"And?"

"And you owe me. A lot."

"Deal."

Diana woke up in the middle of the Middle of the night with a rather severe headache. She groaned loudly and rolled over. "Bruce, wher-" But Bruce wasn't there. "Oh, for the love of... I swear that man has some kind of death wish..." She retrieved her Justice League Comms link from the nightstand, placing it in here ear and activating it. "J'onn, Bruce is gone."

"I suppose that a night of downtime was too much to ask for after all. He's deactivated his comms link's built in tracker. I cannot locate him."

"There must be a way to find him..." Diana said, rubbing her temples in thought. "I've got it! Patch me through Oracle's line directly into his cowl."

"One moment... There!"

Diana heard garbled static for a moment, before Bruce's voice came into focus. "And?" He was asking.

"And you owe me. A lot." Said a familiar voice that Diana recognized as belonging to Amanda Waller , the former director of Cadmus.

"Deal."

"BRUCE!" Diana shouted, causing Batman to nearly jump out of his skin. "WHERE. THE. HELL. ARE. YOU." She growled, loudly enough for Waller to hear.

"I'll be back soon. I'm just-"

"Stay where you are. I'm coming to get you." She abruptly cut the connection.

"Well," Waller chuckled. "it sounds like somebody's in trouble, doesn't it now?"

"Save it." Batman said hurriedly. "I want personal details on Strange."

"He was brilliant. Driven. In a word, obsessive. He's probably the world's greatest analytical psychologist. He figured out your secret identity through his own profiling methods that you and I couldn't even begin to understand. He told me about you and your weaknesses, and in return, Cadmus funded him."

"It sounds like you're a fan."

"Not particularly. The man's brilliant, but not a shred of empathy to speak of. I'll warn you before you read that file; some of his experiments were the most disturbing things that I've ever seen. The man dabbled in things that made the other department heads turn away in fear, and you know what they were involved in."

"Any idea of what he wants?"

"The obvious, of course." Waller said. "He's after you. Simple as that. He's shown an unhealthy obsession with you since as long as I've known him. You just seem to attract all the sick puppies, don't you?"

"And you weren't planning on telling me any of this?"

For the first time, Waller looked down in shame. "I'm not proud of what I did. I encouraged a mad dog. To be honest, I'd hoped that this had all been swept under the rug. I'd hoped that he'd settled for cleaning up your messes at Arkham. I guess that was just too much to hope for..."

"Anything else I should know?"

"Not really. Just that he's smart as all hell. He's copied your thought processes completely; trained himself to think three steps ahead."

"Great. And you have no idea what he wants?"

"The man was always a mystery. He kept to himself mostly, and to be honest, we preferred it that way."

"So basically, he's completely unreada- OOF." He was cut off in mid-sentence by a thick gold rope that appeared out of nowhere, constricting around his chest. Wonder Woman had appeared in the broken window and tossed her lasso, and was currently reeling in the momentarily stunned Bat.

"Come on, playtime's over." She said, pulling him up and grabbing him under the arm. "Sorry about the mess." She said, turning to Amanda Waller. "I'll keep a closer eye on him from now on." She said, sounding as though she were apologizing for a misbehaving child.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Waller said, sounding nothing short of ecstatic about the latest turn of events.

Without another word, Diana took off toward Wayne Manor, still keeping a tight grip on Bruce as though she suspected that he would try to escape in mid-flight. "Explain yourself."

"I needed to talk to Waller." Batman said calmly. "Strange was on the Cadmus board of directors."

"And it couldn't wait two days?"

"It's not like it was anything particularly strenuous.I just needed to get some information."

"You know, I probably wouldn't believe that even if I hadn't seen the pile of unconscious guards."

"That's how I get information."

"Which is, in turn, why you won't be leaving my sight for a second for the next few days." She sighed, realizing that it would be virtually useless to try and keep a leash on him. "Where'd you get that suit from anyway?"

"It's a prototype I've been working on. It's not fully functional, but it does the trick."

"I like it. It's slimming." Diana grinned

"Not the point. Not by a long shot."

"It's a nice touch, though." She said, gliding through an open window into Wayne Manor's Master Bedroom. They both peeled off their costumes, changing back into the clothes that they'd been sleeping in, and crawled back into the bed.

Bruce waited for a moment until he was sure that Diana was asleep, then grabbed the files he'd taken from Waller off his nightstand. He carefully crept out of the bed, intending to slip into the Batcave to begin processing the files. However, he'd barely made it to the edge of the bed when Diana's hand shot out, grabbing his wrist.

"Alright." She said wearily. "You're obviously not getting this, so I'm going to lay it out for you." She half opened her eyes. "It is four thirty in the morning. You may be used to these hours, but I'm not. You might not have noticed, but I'm getting tired. So here's how this is going to work. You are going to stay in this bed. All night. I am going to sleep for a few more hours. If I catch you out of bed before ten o'clock, I'll put you back to sleep myself. Permanently. Got it? Good." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and rolled over. "Good night..." She yawned, instantly falling asleep again.

"Hm. Women." Bruce mumbled, smiling despite himself as he too fell into a restful slumber.

Author's Note: This is the golden balance that I've been seeking; in my mind, this is the perfect mix of substance and mush. So this one should give you some food for thought while I work on the next one (my bet is that it'll be up Friday morning). The action should really be picking up then. Maybe.

Unleash the Shadow: That reminded me of The Joker's "There's no going back. You've changed things... Forever" Speech from The Dark Knight, and I'm not really sure why. But either way, glad you're enjoying the ride.

The Fiery Apprentice: Yeah, the way I write (meaning 'late at night,' typos are basically an inevitability. I should be able to go back and get the major ones when I go back and do edits after the stories finished, although I kind of count on people to point out the really important ones as they see them. If you're looking for twists, then I've got some major twistage coming up between now and the end of the story, so that's good. Glad you liked the characterization, because I was starting to worry about that. It gets tricky when a character's been written a hundred different ways by a hundred different people which is why I'm focusing on the DCAU Justice League pretty much exclusively. There are way too many different comic stories and universes to consider right now. Maybe after I brush up my writing a bit, but for now I'm keeping it simple. And about the Batman/ Bruce Wayne aspect, I've been drawing a lot of inspiration from the Christopher Nolan films, where they get treated basically as totally seperate characters. The way I like to think of it, he has the most perfectly controlled split personality disorder ever, basically being able to switch between the two at will. I find it a bit liberating to be able to have Bruce Wayne to do/say the things that Batman never would and vice versa, if that makes any sense. But That'll be elaborated on more later, because it's 6:30 in the morning.