If this was a dream, I never wanted to wake up. I mean, I was literally living the dream. This was everything any fangirl could ever ask for. I was now a part of my favorite movies, I was living with Bruce Wayne, and I was now working under Lucius Fox.

However, deep in the back of my mind, I knew that while everything was great now, it wouldn't last forever. After all, Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul still had to make their appearance in Bruce's life. And I would most likely be caught right in the middle of all of it. I knew Bruce was going to attempt to hide his whole Batman life from me, which I honestly found kind of funny since I already knew ALL about it, but maybe eventually I would either find out or he'd tell me. Not sure which would come first.

Bruce drove me to my first official day of work at Wayne Enterprises. I scanned my ID badge I had been given and headed down to the basement. I knew very well that every day I spent at work, Bruce would be home putting together his equipment and readying the Batcave.

"Good morning, Miss Jacobson!" Mr. Fox said to me as he shook my hand once more.

"Good morning, Mr. Fox! I must insist that you call me Kris. Miss Jacobson is much too formal."

"Very well, Kris. Let's get you started."

He proceeded to give me a tour of the whole Applied Sciences department, which was a lot bigger than it seemed in the movie. And that's saying something. For the first day, I mostly organized a ton of paperwork while Mr. Fox worked on making some new equipment. I turned on some music on my phone and it didn't seem to bother him. In fact, I think he liked it.

As I was in the middle of putting away some files, I looked over to find him laughing to himself. "Is there something funny?" I asked with a smile on my face.

"It's just that your song selections are really something else. First, I'm listening to a beautiful slow song sung by a lovely chorus of young boys, and the next thing I hear is some hard rock song."

I laughed along with him because I knew that he was fully right. It wasn't the first time someone had teased me about my song choices. "What can I say? I'm a very diverse person!"

I worked on the paperwork all day and when it was time for me to clock out, I felt like I hadn't even made a dent.

"Good work on your first day," Mr. Fox said to me.

"If you say so. I feel like I haven't made any progress at all," I answered as I surveyed the mountain of work I had left.

"You've gotta start somewhere. You'll find that the whole stack will quickly begin to go down and before you know it, you'll be finished."

I thanked him again for hiring me and went up to the ground level of Wayne Enterprises. Once outside, I called a cab and it took me back to the Manor. Not bad for a fangirl living in her fantasy city.

When I got back to the Manor, Bruce was dressed in a tan shirt that excellently showed off his amazing arm muscles. For a second, I'll admit that I kind of forgot how to breathe.

"How was your first day at work?" he asked me.

I smiled at him as I tried to find my voice. "It was wonderful. Mr. Fox is a great person to work for. He's very kind and he doesn't mind me listening to music while I work."

"I'm glad everything's working out for you. Listen, I have to take care of some business tonight, so I'll be gone for a little while. Alfred should have some food ready for you."

"Alright." Business, my butt. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was going to go to Gordon and find out how to bring Falcone down…and pick up a couple of injuries when he rammed into the fire escape.

The next day, I could tell that Bruce had an injury on his side because he was walking kind of funny. However, if I hadn't known about his injury, I might've thought nothing was wrong.

He once again drove me to work, insisting that it was no trouble because he had to speak to Mr. Fox. Of course, because he needed to get his Bat wings!

We walked in to find him sitting at his desk waiting for me. "Hello again, Kris, Mr. Wayne."

"Hello, Mr. Fox," Bruce said with a smile.

"Kris, could you get us both a couple of coffees from upstairs in the employee lounge?" Mr. Fox asked me. "It looks like it's going to be a long day because I just got sent a lot more paperwork…"

I playfully groaned, but he knew I was joking. I went back to the elevator, and though I needed help to find the lounge, I eventually managed to grab him a cup of coffee and I made myself some tea. I hated coffee. I smiled to myself as I stirred our cups. It was just hilarious to me that they were trying to keep me in the dark when I knew every little thing that was going to happen and I knew exactly what they were saying downstairs in my absence. And then of course, Bruce tried out the Tumbler and then said one of my favorite lines in the movie, "Does it come in black?" Too bad I had to miss that.

I waited a few more minutes in the lounge until I was sure that the two men had finished their conversation and their little "test drive."

Then I headed back down to the basement and began my work once again.

Things stayed that way for the next few weeks. I would go to Wayne Enterprises, organize paperwork for the most part, then go back to the Manor where I hardly ever saw Bruce. I was fully aware that he was down in the Batcave, readying it and his other tools and costumes.

Bruce was really, really nice to me. He occasionally took me out to eat for dinner, not often but sometimes, and allowed me free reign of the Manor…for the most part. As soon as I received my first paycheck, I went out and bought myself some new clothes and I was finally able to stop wearing the ones Bruce owned. I managed to set some aside and gave it to Bruce as payment. Actually, he didn't accept it so I had to just leave it somewhere so he couldn't give it back to me.

It didn't take long at all for the media to catch on that someone was living in Bruce Wayne's manor. Whenever I stepped out of the car to go into Wayne Enterprises, I could nearly always expect someone to snap a picture of me. It was annoying, but I forced myself to get over it. A small price to pay for living out my fantasy.

As time went on, I started feeling little twinges of jealousy whenever Bruce went out in public with some model latched onto him. I tried to pass them off, but they kept peering their faces into my life.

I know it's bad to form a crush too fast, but I couldn't help it. The longer I spent with Bruce, the more I had a crush on him. I felt silly for feeling like a little schoolgirl with a crush on the "popular guy", but here we were. I just couldn't help myself. He was so kind to me and helped me out in so many ways, from giving me a home to getting me a job.

Whenever I passed by the piano, I always was really, really tempted to go push the note combination and see the Batcave. But that wouldn't go over well if Bruce caught me. However, the piano was really nice and I had to admit that I wanted to play it. I knew Bruce wouldn't mind, but I still found myself wary to touch things that weren't mine. Eventually, I got over it and went to sit on the piano bench. I'd taken piano lessons for ten years, so I'd gotten pretty good, but I hadn't played in a really long time. To my surprise, I found that this old song I had played hundreds of times came naturally to my fingers, as if they never forgot it themselves.

The music echoed throughout the room and flowed around me. When I wrapped up the song, I heard clapping behind me and nearly jumped out of my skin.

I turned to face Bruce. "You know, maybe you should start announcing your presence," I breathed trying to slow my heart rate.

"That was impressive. What song was that?"

"Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi. I took lessons for a while, and my dad used to critique all the songs I played. This one was always his favorite."

"It was very beautiful. Nice to see someone is actually making good use of that piano."

Yeah, right, like he wasn't making good use of it. It was just the door to his secret lair where he hid all the stuff that proved he was Batman. No big deal.

I was in the screening room watching the silent version of Phantom of the Opera some time later. So, whenever I watch silent films, I always say every single line that appears on the screen out loud in different voices, depending on who said it, and reenact the film while I say the lines. I was just doing it to pass the time when I heard, "I never knew you were interested in this kind of thing."

I turned to find Bruce leaning against the doorframe. My face turned bright red as I wondered just how long he had been watching me. "It's just something me and my dad used to do together."

We looked at the screen as Raoul came onto the screen and Christine jumped on him and hugged him.

"'At last, you have realized your ambition, my darling, and now we shall be married!'" Bruce said, reading the intertitle.

I smiled, realizing what he was doing. "'I can never leave the Opera, Raoul. You must forget our love!'" I read in a good-old airy 20th century woman voice.

Raoul looked at her disappointedly, kissed her, then left.

"Harsh," Bruce commented.

Another interitle came on screen. "'From hidden places beyond the walls, a melodious voice, like the voice of an angel, spoke to her'," I read in a narrator's voice.

A shadow appeared the on the wall.

"'Christine,'" Bruce read in the Phantom's voice, "'tonight I placed the world at your feet!'"

I laughed as he took on a different voice. We continued watching the film for a few minutes longer until we got to the infamous unmasking scene.

"Little fun fact," I said. "When this movie came out, they warned the men to bring smelling salts because the sight of the Phantom would cause a lot of women to faint!"

"How did women in the 20's ever survive if they were fainting all the time?"

"My thoughts exactly!"

Towards the end of the film, Christine was growing increasingly desperate to rid herself of the Phantom.

"'I have heard his voice once more, Raoul,'" I read in my weak woman's voice as I put my hand to my forehead. "'He knows our plans—everything! Believe in my love, Raoul. Save me from that monster—oh, save me!" At that moment, I chose to swoon and fall over. I didn't plan on Bruce actually catching me…but he did. We were in the kind of position where a man dips a woman during a ballroom dance. My face got very, very warm as I felt his strong biceps on my back.

When he lifted me back up, we laughed it off, but for some reason, I couldn't get the feeling out of my head that…well, he hadn't really been acting.

"Kris?"

"Yes?" I asked, realizing that Bruce was standing by the door to the guest room.

"I hope I'm not getting too personal, but I couldn't help but notice that you mention all these things your dad used to do."

Bruce Wayne was asking for my back story? I felt kind of guilty to tell him because he had been through so much and as much as I hated some of my rough spots, his had been so much worse. "It's nothing," I insisted. "My dad and I just don't spend much time together anymore."

"Well, what about your mother?"

"You really wanna know about my family?"

"Only if you're comfortable sharing about them with me."

I motioned for him to take a seat. "I, uh, I never knew my mom. She left when I was a baby. I guess she couldn't handle the pressures of being a mother. But I had my dad and for me, that was enough. He was my best friend. He taught me so much, and though there were times that I wished for a mother, I reminded myself that I had been blessed with the best father I could ever ask for. He was always there for me and looking out for me, and I loved him with everything I had. We would stay up late at night for hours just talking about anything and everything. We were so much alike in so many ways. But…good things never last." I began to get a little choked up, but I tried to hide it. I hated crying in front of people, much less someone like Bruce Wayne. I hadn't cried in front of someone in over seven years. I did not want to start now. "I was a sophomore in college when I got the call that he had been a car accident…and died on impact."

"Oh, Kris, I'm so sorry," Bruce said as he stood up.

"No," I said, forcing back the tears pooling in my eyes. "I don't want your sympathy. Not after everything you've been through in your own life."

"Kris, just because you believe I've had it worse, that doesn't mean what has happened to you is any less important."

"Bruce, you watched your parents, both of your parents, die right in front of you when you were only eight years old. I can't think of anything worse than that. And there was the whole hearing incident where Joe Chill was supposed to be released. I can't even wrap my mind around how you felt during that time. I mean, I wanted to basically torture and kill the person who rammed my father's car. So…I can't imagine how you must've felt about Chill." Not to mention everything that happened during your seven-year trip, I added in my mind.

Bruce was silent for a little while, and I began to regret having brought up so many painful memories for him.

"Kris," he said finally. "You're right. I have been through a lot of bad things. But you have too, and it's okay to admit that you've been through some rough times. It's okay to admit that you miss him."

More tears threatened to spill from my eyes, but I held them back even more. Bruce must've noticed because he added, "It's okay to cry."

That was my breaking point. Just the way he said that was enough to make me want to fall apart. Two fat tears made their way down my cheeks. I refused to look over at Bruce. But then I felt a hand lightly on my arm and he gently pulled me into a loose hug.

And then I did something I never thought I would do in a million years. I began sobbing on his shoulder. I had been holding in so many tears for such a long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure I hadn't shed a single tear since Dad's funeral.

But in that moment, I could feel the pressure I had built up just explode and as hard as I tried, I just could not make the tears stop. They continued their strides down my cheeks and to my chin. I really, really missed my Dad and I hadn't mourned for him nearly as long as I should've. Now, all those rejected tears found their way to my face. And I finally let them come.

Bruce held me tightly, silently letting me know that everything was going to be okay.