Okay like the past couple chapters, it will be mostly about Bruce and the girls, but don't worry, I will put Joker in soon. If you haven't read my second story, The Bet, the Regret and the Speedo, please read it. Any who on with the show!

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Chapter 13

Nicole and Mara woke up at around 11:30 am, and as soon as they got dressed and all that good stuff, they went downstairs. They figured it would be a fairly regular boring day, besides staying at Batman's mansion with a psycho trying to find them. What they didn't figure was seeing Bruce Wayne at the table reading a newspaper and having a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Hello girls, glad to see you are awake finally." He smiled as he looked up from his paper.

"Uhh, hi Bruce. One question: why are you home? I mean don't you have Wayne Ind. Business or Batman patrol or something?" Mara asked.

"Yeah, I mean you are usually gone for the day like yesterday." Nicole said.

Bruce put down his newspaper as the girls sat down next to him. "I took the day off. I figured I said I would watch over you while you stay here, so I intend to keep my promise."

"But what about finding the Joker and patrolling and stuff?"

Bruce tensed a bit at the mention of the mad clown. "Don't worry I intend to find him as soon as you two are in bed tonight."

"Ok." Both the girls said.

Alfred then walked in the room holding two trays. "Good morning young misses, I hope you don't mind that I already made you two pancakes."

"PANCAKES!" Mara exclaimed.

"Sweet!" Nicole said happily. As soon as Alfred laid down the trays of pancakes in front of the teenagers, they immediately started eating. Rather quickly to add. Bruce had a look of amusement and wonder. I guess these kids like their pancakes. Bruce chuckled. Well at least they are not shy. As soon as the apparently ravenous girls were done with their pancakes (under two minutes I must add), they sat contently in their chairs, leaning in which made them look like they were going to slip down from the seat.

"Man those pancakes were good." Mara sighed.

"Alfred can really cook. Would you mind after this whole situation that we kidnap him so he can cook for us?" Nicole said.

Bruce laughed. "No I need him here to take care of this mansion when I am busy."

"Oh come on, we can trade; Alfred for our……moms." Mara said.

Both the girls then looked on the ground and frowned. Even though they haven't been gone very long, they still miss home, especially their parents. Bruce sympathized for the 14 year olds; they have been through a lot and they can't even be with their parents because it is too dangerous.

"You both will be able to go home soon, I promise. You will see your parents in no time." Bruce smiled hopefully at the down teenagers.

"Yeah I guess." Nicole looked up and showed a small smile on her face.

Mara then smiled. "Yeah I mean we are protecting them by doing this. And in no time we are gonna beg to come back here cause they will be the same old annoying parents again."

Nicole laughed, Mara soon following. Bruce wondered how two teenagers could be so down before then cheer each other right back up. These girls are just very close friends, Bruce figured. After all, they stuck together through this whole ordeal. Bruce thought this was pretty admirable, to be this close of friends when something that could hurt them to the point of death is occurring in their lives. That or it was hormones.

"Well, while it is still early, maybe you two should start your homework." Bruce suggested while smirking.

"AWWWWW!!" The girls groaned. "Come on, do we have to?" Mara whined.

"Yeah Bruce, can't t wait?"

"Now now. If you procrastinate too long, it will just make it harder. Don't you think it would be easier to do your homework a day at a time instead of doing it all at once?"

"Yeah, but….." Nicole started.

"No buts. Now your homework is in the study room, so you can do it there."

The girls groaned but they didn't complain. Honestly it was sort of pointless to argue with the Batman. You could be the best lawyer ever and still lose to the mighty bat glare; they never experienced it personally but heard it was supposed to be very scary. So they got up and miserably walked to the study room to do homework. Bruce grinned at the teenagers while they left.

Teenagers.

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A couple hours later……

"Nicole, help me with this problem!" Mara yelled to her friend, even though she was only a few feet away from her.

"What?" Nicole asked not looking up from her worksheet.

"What is the formula for finding the volume for cylinders again?"

They were currently working on math homework. They may not have the same math class hour, but they had the same teacher, Mr. Zolo. They were working on volumes for shapes currently. Ughh.

"I think it is V= 3.14 times the radius squared times the height." Nicole replied.

"Okay, thanks."

About two minutes later, Mara said, "Nicole?"

"Mmhmm?" she mumbled still working on a problem.

"I'm bored."

"That's good for you, Mara. Just do your homework so we can be done with this."

"Whatever." Mara then returned to her math.

Bruce Wayne stood in the doorway and spied on the girls. He had been every now and then for the past two or so hours. He remembered doing this with Dick when he was younger; checking to see if he was doing his homework while at the same time watching how he learned and grew up. Of course it is a little different with two 14 year old girls, but it felt somewhat the same nonetheless.

Finally Bruce came in and walked towards Mara and Nicole. "How's the homework going, girls?"

Nicole started writing faster. "Just a min….DONE! Finally." Nicole sighed as she put her worksheet in her math book, setting it aside.

"What?! You are done? How did you get finished so fast?"

"Because I am smarticle."

Mara muttered something and started working faster on her math homework.

"So," Bruce started, "what kind of homework did you two have to do?" He didn't know why he asked that; he was just trying to make conversation.

"Oh the usual: English, history, exploratory language, life skills…"

"Yuck." Mara interrupted.

"Science and math." Nicole finished

"I see, are any of them hard?" Bruce questioned.

"Not really, but life skills is very boring. Especially the teacher."

"I know! Mrs. Fram talks like she is a thousand years old, and drones on about stuff that is common sense." Mara interjected again.

"Exactly."

"Done!" Mara exclaimed. She put away her stuff and lay lazily across the floor, where she was sitting.

"That took forever." Mara sighed.

"Do you complain about everything?"

"No………"

"I got an idea! Let's show Bruce what Chelsea can do."

"Okay." Mara got up and ran up the stairs, A few minutes later, she came back down with the hamster cage breathing hard. "Too….many….stairs." she breathed out. Both Bruce and Nicole had to hide their smiles, but Nicole still laughed at her friend's exhaustion.

Mara set down the cage on the floor and took out Chelsea the hamster. She also took out a big blue rubber ball and put it on a nearby table. Nicole motioned Bruce to come closer to the table, which he did. Mara put Chelsea on the ball, and as soon as she let go, the tan hamster started to balance on the ball. The hamster rolled left, then right, balancing like a pro.

"Wow." Bruce said.

"I know, we found out she could do that this morning before we came downstairs." Said Nicole.

"My hamster is just that awesome." Mara smiled. She then started to hum circus music, making Nicole giggle and Bruce grin.

Alfred then walked in. "Dinner is served, everyone." He said then walked out.

"Dinner? Already?" Mara asked.

"Yes, it is about 5 now, "Bruce said. Damn time does go by fast. "but I wanted us to have dinner a little early tonight."

"Oh, okay." Nicole said.

Mara put Chelsea in her cage and the three walked out of the study and towards the dining room.

"Hey Bruce?" Mara asked.

"Yes?"

"We need to get you a computer here ASAP."

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The Joker paced in his office, his henchmen in front of him standing straight like army recruits. He has had his men searching for those two little brats the whole time, and every time they said they were not found. It was getting more frustrating by the minute. He may have been willing to wait until they eventually came out of hiding, but the Clown Prince of Crime was NOT a patient man.

"Are you sure you saw no sign of them?" He stopped pacing and asked his men with anger coating it.

"No sir, we haven't found them." The shortest one, Moe, replied.

The Joker scowled and returned back to his pacing. Where could those two little twerps be?!

Finally he couldn't take it anymore, and the Joker started to yell furiously and threw a random cup at the wall, shattering it.

"WHERE COULD THOSE BRATS BE?! We have been searching for DAYS! Batman could not have hid them that good! We have searched every part of this stupid city! Probably the only place we hadn't searched was……..Wayne Manor" He said as realization started to dawn on him. He then ran to the other side of his desk and grabbed the files he had on Nicole and Mara from a drawer. He searched through Nicole's and stopped at a page. "Of course! How could I have been so naïve? One of those runt's father works at Wayne Industries, owned by ole Brucey. That mansion also had very high tech security systems."

The Joker then smiled and huge, insane grin. "They're there; at Wayne Manor. I'm sure of it."

The henchmen looked at each other. "Then do you want us to go snatch the girls now, boss?" the one called Curly asked.

The Joker thought about going with that, but he wanted to mess with the girls first. "No Cur." The Joker turned around and faced his henchmen. "What fun would that be if we just went in and grabbed them?"

Cur swallowed nervously while the other two tensed. You never know how things went with the Joker when it came to his temper and all. "No. I have a much, better, funner idea."

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What does the Joker have planned for Nicole and Mara? Will Batman be able to save them from him, or will the Joker's plot go through, whatever it may be.

Tune in next time. Same bat-time, same bat-channel!

*Sighs* yeah I know, that was totally lame

Please R&R