The steam was pouring out the bathroom door as Adrienn walked to her bedroom to grab some clean clothes. She had already laid out an outfit that would be comfortable enough for whatever important Bruce would toss at her. She sighed pulling the large V-neck sweater over her head. A frown appeared on her features as she realized how far the sweater went down…

"Bruce!" The young girl, no older than thirteen, whined looking up at the tall man. "I am going to fail this test!"

"No you won't Adri…" Bruce replied, flipping through her papers jotting down various notes on them. Bruce frowned, tilting his head a bit looking at one of the equations.

"See!" Adrienn cried, her voice going shrill as panic began to take over her. "I am not going to make it anywhere!"

"Adrienn Mercer!" Bruce said raising his voice a bit. The young girl stopped panicking and looked up at the man, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Calm. Down." Bruce returned to his normal tone, "You won't fail. You got most of the answers right but there are still some problems here…" and with that he walked around the picnic bench and sat down beside her, explaining the complicated numbers to her.

She listened intently, turning her brain to a sponge state, trying to register everything that Bruce was saying. After a good hour, she was getting all her equations right and acing every practice test that Bruce gave her. He smiled down at the young girl, thinking he would see someone confident about themselves in tomorrow's exam. Instead, the girl beside him looked upset and very nervous.

"What's wrong?" Bruce asked sincerely, standing up and gently pulling the teen up with him. "I didn't yell at you again did I?" He asked quickly, knowing that the young girl always got intimidated by him raising his voice. She shook her head and began to place her notes and papers into a small book bag that she carried with her. "What is it then?" Bruce asked, taking the bag from Adrienn and strapping it to his shoulder. "Come on, you can tell me. Let's take a walk."

"It is the others…" She said sheepishly. "They make fun of me!"

"Why do you let them?" Bruce asked not knowing the true reason behind why his friend was always being picked on. "You are only ahead of your age by a few years…"

"That is already a few years too many." She grumbled, kicking pebble. "And it is hard to ignore when they point out my many flaws…"

"What flaws?" Bruce snorted not understanding what a young girl like her could complain about.

"Glasses, braces, pimple problems." She replied looking down making sure to hide her face from Bruce. She was intimidated by him, there was no denying that. He was tall, well built and handsome. Just to compliment his flawless appearance, Bruce was the nicest person once he lets you in that is. Adrienn never had to go through with that phase since the two knew each other since they were kids.

"Adri… what else aren't you telling me?" Bruce suddenly asked, looking at Adrienn with a questioning look.

"They also say stuff about you. How I am only this ahead because of your money…" Adrienn replied after some hesitation. She knew that Bruce had a way with getting things out from her. She gave up trying to lie to him a long time ago.

"Who said that?"

"That boy Jake in my math class." She was nervously picking at the hem of her thin t-shirt.

"Jake?" Bruce looked ahead, trying to remember when he heard that name, "Isn't that the boy you have a crush on?" Bruce asked, a frown appearing on his features as he looked down at the brunette.

"What?!" her voice was shrill again, her face turning to a new shade of scarlet. "How in hell did you know about that?! You know how I feel with discussing boys with you!"

"Rachel told me…" Bruce shrugged as they turned and decided to head back to the manor, "And why exactly don't you discuss boys with me Adri?"

"Because you will beat them up if they do anything mean to me." the thirteen year old replied in a matter of fact tone. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Rachel told Bruce. She trusted her with the secret! Rachel swore not to tell anyone, not even Bruce, especially not Bruce and yet she still did it. Adrienn tried to hide her disappointment by focusing mainly on Bruce willing to beat up teenagers for her.

"Of course I will!" Bruce snapped defensively, "I don't want anyone hurting people that are important to me!"

"Bruce… you would need to beat up a lot of people then." Adrienn shrugged, laughing a little.

"Why is that?"

"Because not many people say nice things about the little one with the weird looks." She explained not being able to resist the smile. Her best friend was so obnoxious when it came down to teen drama and her flaws. He really didn't care about looks. It was actually quite funny.

"Adri…" Bruce dragged out the word, stopping to face Adri. "You are beautiful inside and out… don't let anyone tell you otherwise." He squeezed her shoulders reassuringly and smiled warmly at the teen.

"I know, I know. It just gets fucking tiring." She said with a small shrug.

"Don't let Alfred hear that." Bruce chuckled lightly as they made their way back to the mansion. As they reached the steps thunder cracked above them and the sky suddenly turned a very dark shade of grey.

"Shit!" Adrienn yelled as the rain started pouring like there was no tomorrow. Bruce laughed taking Adrienn's hand and pulling her up the endless amount of stairs to the mansion. They were both panting for breath as they reached the mansion.

"Don't you even think about it." Alfred said, holding out two towels for the soaked individuals. "We just mopped the floors."

The young ones laughed at the butler, but took the towels none the less and took great precaution to keep the house clean.

A smile was evident on Adrienn's face as she looked down at the soft cashmere material. It was that certain day that Bruce gave her a clean set of clothes. She never realized that she still had them but now she was happy to find it.

The sweater was too baggy on her small frame. It did hide all her curves which she wasn't a fan of. Adrienn quickly rummaged through her closet trying to find a brown colored belt that would go around her waist. She quickly found a thick brown one with gold buckles on it. Putting it around her waist, she smiled at her appearance. The belt matched the shade of her shoes so she was pleased.

After a light dusting of make-up and a quick hairstyle of a messy bun, Adrienn was getting in her car and driving off to meet Bruce. With her driving it only took a few minutes to get to Wayne Manor.

She drove in, her car kicking up gravel and smiled seeing Alfred already waiting for her by the door.

"Hey Alfie!" She called as she began to climb up the steps, "How is everything?" Adrienn asked as she hugged Alfred.

"Same old, same old Miss. It is good to have Mr Bruce back though." Alfred smiled. "Makes you come around more often as well!"

"You just couldn't resist right?" Adrienn chuckled, walking into the house after Alfred. She knew that he was just joking, but it did make her feel like she was a horrible person that neglected and ignored her friends. That wasn't the case and the both of them knew it. Alfred told where Adrienn would be able to find Bruce and hurried off to the kitchen to get the young ones some refreshments.

"Any idea what he is up to?" Adrienn called back at Alfred. All she got in reply was a chuckle from the butler. Adrienn smiled, bounding up the stairs heading straight for Bruce's room. Once she was by his door, she didn't knock just walked in.

She found Bruce sitting on the floor, bent over a large pile of news papers and notepads. He was deep in thought and seemed to be writing down some notes for himself. She smiled wider as she saw his messy writing.

"Hi Adri," He said not looking up from his work.

"Bruce, do you remember this?" She asked, pinching the fabric of the cashmere sweater she was wearing. Bruce glanced up for a brief second before turning back to his work.

"Yes I do indeed. That was the day I helped you with your math revision. Also the day where you got soaked and wanted to walk home in your wet clothes, so I gave you that sweater and took you home." Bruce said a small smile on his lips as he remembered the day.

"Yeah that was it…" She smiled softly, walking closer to Bruce and taking a seat opposite him. "What are you doing anyway?"

"I was just looking through some newspapers and data. We need to figure out who we can trust." Bruce summed up what he spent his afternoon with.

"Do you mind if I take a look?" Adrienn asked, already flipping through the notes that he had written up.

He studied his friend as she looked at the notes. She had a small frown on her face as she concentrated on his messy handwriting. Her eyes were scanning the information at a fast pace. Bruce smiled, knowing that she would be of great help to him. She pushed her palm out to Bruce not taking her eyes of the text. Bruce looked at her hand with a questioning look on his face.

"Pen Bruce, pen!" She snapped, not wanting to break her train of thought. Bruce chuckled putting the pen in her hand. She leaned forward and began to writ at a rapid pace. Bruce squinted his eyes, trying to see what she was writing. She straightened, looking down at the notepad and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Gordon is definitely a man you can trust. Jacob on the other hand not so much. I've met him a couple of time which caused me to look into his accounts. I had to pull some strings, since he mainly had foreign account… and boy that man gave money laundering a whole new meaning." I mumbled, looking at Bruce.

"Well… that is not good."

"No. But. I spoke to two of Rachel's colleagues yesterday. They are good as far as I can tell, but your safest bet would be to talk to Rachel."

"I know I am already planning on it." Bruce said. "I haven't met her as Bruce yet either…"

"Yeah…" Adrienn said with a nod of her head. She decided to not really talk about Rachel any further. She knew that it would only end up with her getting in a bad mood, "So what was it that you needed me here for? Apart from my undeniable epic awesomness of course."

"Well apart from that I need to show you something… and I also need your help…" Bruce said, chugging down his orange juice and standing up. Adrienn took his hand and hoisted herself up.

"I am all yours Brucie." She smiled up at her best friend, who linked arms with her and led the way out of the mansion to the gardens…

-Thank you so so so much fr the reviews! Really means a lot! I am on very unstable internet connections, but i will continue rambling! THANK YOU AGAIN REALLY MEANS A LOT! 3