Hey, everyone! This chapter is a bit short, but I just felt that this was the perfect place to end. (:

The ride to Wayne Manor was silent. Well, except for the sounds of car horns blaring at us whenever Bruce ran a red light. When we finally parked in the long drive of the manor, I had to force my hand to let go of the door handle, my knuckles were white. I grabbed the case with my new work supplies in it firmly in my free hand.

Bruce smirked at me while mumbling an apology about his driving to which I lightly rolled my eyes and stepped out of the Lamborghini.

"Bruce…" I started, but Bruce silenced me and placed his hand in the small of my back and ushered me inside the manor. Alfred met us at the door and opened it for us.

"Welcome back, Master Wayne, and it's a pleasure to see you again, Miss Price."

I smiled to Alfred.

"Thanks, Alfred. Nice to see you, too."

Bruce and I silently entered the manor, and I watched as he immediately began to walk toward the staircase in front of me, leaving me awkwardly with Alfred. The elder man and I shared a glance before he nodded his head in Bruce's direction.

"Bruce?" I started once again, to his still retreating back.

I clenched my jaw slightly, knowing that he was ignoring me.

"Bruce," I tried again. My agitation was creeping into my voice and he was still walking away, but he slowed his pace. I rolled my eyes. "That man. That was the same man that attacked me after the Joker kidnapped me."

Bruce stopped altogether now, but his back was to me.

"Bruce… It was Ra's."

I hear Alfred suck in a breath over my shoulder, and I turn back slightly toward him to see him sending a look of concern and plea toward Bruce's back.

"Bruce, I know something happened. Please… Tell me."

He finally turned around to face me, and I was breathless at the sight of his determined and fire-driven look in his eye. He took one foot and descended one stair, balancing his weight between the two.

"Ra's al Ghul…" he began. "He's the leader of the League of Shadows."

"The… what?" I asked, confused.

"He was the man behind the attack in the Narrows. Worked with Scarecrow. Now he's back. And I need to find out why."

"He knows you, Bruce."

"He does. He knows… everything," Bruce struggled with his words slightly.

"He told me to trust my instincts. That I was right about you," I started walking toward him on the stairs, slowly descending the first two. "Bruce… I don't care that you're Batman. In fact, I admire it."

Bruce's lips parted slightly in surprise.

"Really?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah. You took down Falcone, Scarecrow, you stopped the League of Shadows in the Narrows. You stopped the Joker two years ago. And you've saved countless people from the threats that are in the streets."

I gently took one of Bruce's hands in my own, waiting for him to say something. But he said nothing. Just turned around and resumed walking up the stairs.

"Bruce?"

I turned over my shoulder and saw Alfred with a sad look in his eye.

"Was it something I said?"

Alfred shook his head slightly, sighing quietly.

"No, miss. Master Wayne… he's lost important people in his life. As a result of being Batman."

I stood silently on the stair for a moment before making up my mind. There was no way I was going to let Bruce go and brood. I sprinted up the stairs, kicking my sandals off in the process. I jogged through the halls, looking for Bruce in every open door, before finding him in the study of the manor. He was near a piano.

"Bruce?" I called out to him softly before entering the room.

"Do you want to know why I became Batman?" he turned toward me, his arms folded in front of his chest.

I could only nod, and Bruce gestured to the chaise lounge in the room. And so, Bruce delved into the story of just how deeply his parents' death affected him. How he dropped out of Princeton. How he left Gotham for seven years and became a thief and a smuggler and how he wound up in a solitary confinement section in Asia. And how Henri Ducard found him, promised him that he could be something more. Something legendary. He told me about his training with the League of Shadows, how he turned against them once he was commanded to kill a man and subsequently killed the man he had believed to be Ra's al Ghul. He smirked a bit recalling how he took down Falcone and his men once he returned to Gotham. The rest was history, except for one question that I had for him.

"But why bats, Bruce?" I asked, fidgeting with some strands of my hair.

"I wanted Gotham to fear what I did," Bruce smirked, leaning forward. "What about you? What brought you to Gotham?"

I had told him before that I when my parents were still alive that we used to live on the outskirts of Metropolis, but I didn't have the heart to tell him how my parents had died, and he respected that. But I was ready. He poured out his heart to me, and I want to do the same in return.

"I was fifteen when my mom and I were driving home from Metropolis. It was a late Friday night, we were chatting and were coming home from shopping and having dinner while my dad was at work," I began. "A drunk driver struck the car, T-boning us. He ran the stop sign."

I cringed, remembering every detail.

"Mom… She died right there, right in front of me. There was so much blood…" I choked out. "The last thing she ever said to me was 'I love you, 'line.' I just sat there in numb shock before I started screaming. The pain hit me all at once. The airbag had given me a black eye, and the windshield shattered. The impact sent glass into my stomach."

Bruce's eyes wandered over me, and I felt his fingers gently massage the spaces between my knuckles.

"Did they find him?"

"Yeah, what was left of him. He didn't wear a seatbelt and was ejected through the windshield," I grimaced. "I still hate that man. He took her away from me…" my free hand roamed to the pendant around my neck.

"What about your father?" Bruce gently asked me.

I sighed. "Dad… He was torn apart over Mom's death. He didn't leave my side in this hospital for the four days that I was there, but I could tell that mentally and emotionally he just wasn't there anymore. When we got home, he moped and brooded around the house, waiting and looking for Mom and … he just sobbed for hours."

I sighed, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Dad completed suicide a week after Mom died. He chose to leave me, Bruce," I whispered but my voice grew as I continued to talk.

"I'm sorry."

My eyes met Bruce's and I felt a few tears slip unconsciously.

"I am, too. I lived with my grandmother, but Metropolis just held too many painful memories. So, once I turned 18, I left. I came here. Struggled, working job to job before I wound up at Station 17. Walked in as a volunteer, and stuck around and well, you know the rest."

Kind of.

"You mentioned becoming a thief… I didn't exactly become the best person, either, Bruce. I got into drugs. Pain killers, really. I needed them to take the edge off. That was the reason I met Devyn, actually. She literally brought me back when I OD'd and nearly killed myself. I'm not too proud of that…But if I recall correctly, someone once told me that it's not you let it bring you down, it's how it's you rise from it," I perfectly recited Bruce's own words to him. "And you… you rose by becoming something greater. You're Batman… I seriously cannot tell you how proud I am of you for that. You're not different than me, Bruce. You're helping people, just as someone in a mask. Bruce, I became a paramedic so that no one would lose a parent or a child. You became Batman to get justice and to put some damn justice back in the streets of this city… This doesn't change the way I feel about you, Bruce."

Bruce's hand gently cupped my cheek at that point.

"Hey… it's okay," he wiped away a tear. "It's all okay now. But… Batman isn't what Gotham wants."

"But you're what Gotham needs, Bruce. We sure as hell don't deserve you, but we need you."

"Eve… I took the blame for Harvey's death and for those cops."

I knew it!

"Why?"

"I couldn't have everything that Harvey did as the DA undone… He put away nearly 500 criminals in one trial, for God's sake."

"And if the public learned of that… Even after he changed…" I put the pieces together.

"Exactly. The city's criminals and lawyers would be crying for re-trials and God knows what else."

Bruce ran a hand through his hair, sweeping it lightly.

"You really don't mind me being Batman?"

I quietly laughed. "Honest."

"Eve… I… I think I love you."

My heart stopped and I know I felt my eyes widen slightly. But my heart leapt for joy, and butterflies went wild in my stomach. I knew my response.

"I love you, Bruce."

Bruce's eyes brightened a bit, and a smile graced his features. Bruce brought his face nearer to mine, and I mimicked the action, our lips were enticingly close to each other… He teased me a bit, gently brushing his lips on my own.

"Just kiss me dammit," I mumbled, earning a huge smirk and a laugh from Bruce before our lips melded together.

Huh? Huuh? Right place to stop, right? *fangirling so hard right now*