I'm not even going to begin to give an excuse or reason for why you haven't heard anything from me in so long... I don't have one. Please enjoy the new chapter and please check out the new homepage I have. It has sets for what Serena looked like in this chapter, as well as how she looked after her haircut during that first meeting with Bruce.

"Would you just-"

"No"

"But I think it might-"

"No!"

"Just look at-"

"Bruce, I'm not looking at those damn flash cards one more time and you can't make me!" I yelled out in what was perhaps my biggest show of emotion in the entire time I'd been here. Bruce looked at me in shock for a moment, the worry that he'd really upset me easy to see on his face. Looking to defuse the situation, I stuck my tongue out at him before I leaned back into what was now my chair in the library and folded my arms across my chest. His lips curled up in a familiar grin as he placed the cards down on the table and raised his arms in defeat.

"Alright, you win… but if you embarrass yourself tonight, it's your own fault."

"Oh please, I've embarrassed myself enough in my life that it doesn't even faze me anymore." I told him, waving my arm dismissively at the suggestion. I glanced over to the clock and noted that I should start getting ready for tonight's gala, but was reluctant to do so.

"Expecting something?" Bruce asked as he noticed my shift in sight.

"Besides Doomsday?" Bruce laughed as I gazed back at the clock, "Actually, I'm guess I need to start getting ready for tonight's delightful proceedings." My voice was heavy with sarcasm as I considered the trial ahead of me. Normally the idea of being decked out and attending such a glamorous event would have had me dancing with joy, but the new Serena only saw the many ways it could end terribly for her and Bruce.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm not looking forward to this either." He informed me as I got up from my chair.

"You know what? It really doesn't." I replied smirking as I stood next to his chair and smirked down. "It just makes me feel satisfied that you are going to be unhappy as I am." I leaned down towards him to place a kiss on his lips, but before I could, he had jolted up and swung me up into his arms. I started laughing as he looked at me.

"You're getting sassy now, huh?"

"Seems like I am." I muttered just before he kissed me. It was one of those kisses that made me realize just how much I would have missed if I had stayed back in Japan with the same people and the same boyfriend. Sure, Darien was a good kisser and a great boyfriend, but the relationship seemed doomed to remain at a childish level of devotion and adoration, never at a point where it would also become lustful and passionate. It was almost as if it was stuck in teenage status.

With Bruce, however, it seemed to be completely different. From the start, it has simply had more of a fire behind it, more passion. Kissing Bruce gave me the feeling of a fire starting within me, as well as making my heart flutter. I could see our relationship growing and maturing, like a fine wine.

Pulling away, I looked up at Bruce and smiled. "While that was very nice, I really do need to take a shower… so, do you mind putting me down?"

"Yes"

"Tough" I warned before I put my hands in his hair and ruffle it frantically. Very quickly, Bruce put me down and moved to fix the mess as I laughed. "Gee, do you use enough gel?" I joked as I faked wiping my hands on my jeans.

"Just go take a shower before I decide to retaliate, would ya'?" He glared at me, but I could tell he was joking by the look in his eyes. I saluted him half-heartedly before I made my way out of the library and up to my room.

The next few hours were incredibly hectic. Almost immediately after I stepped out of the shower, a woman named Greta who specialized in various forms of massage met me. Although I didn't really see the need for any type of treatment, I nonetheless, laid down on the equipment she had brought for what turned out to be an hour of heaven.

To say that I was ultra relaxed after the session would be an understatement. I quite literally had to be carried to the area set up in my bathroom for the hair and make-up people. I had to be instructed quite a few times not to fall asleep or keep moving my head, but by the time these two talents people were done, I looked like something that walked right out of a Vogue spread.

My blonde hair had been configured into a French twist with a few loose pieces hanging around my face, which happened to be accented by some fantastic make-up that made my blue-eyes seem more vibrant.

"I sure hope whoever is hosting this party you're going to is ready to be outshined!" The make-up woman, a twenty-something girl by the name of Ladonna joked as she and Erik, the hairstylist, smiled at me as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. We joked for a few minutes before the two of them helped me get into my dress.

The dress itself was amazing. A vintage piece, it was a strapless creation of tulle with appliquéd pink flowers and beads, rhinestones, and pearls. In it, I felt like someone straight out of a 50s movie, and worthy of being on Bruce's arm. I smiled as once again I was showered with compliment from the twosome as I slipped on my earrings, a pair I had found lying on my dresser with a note from Bruce to wear them. I fingered my neckline, feeling as if I should be wearing some sort of necklace, but seeing as there wasn't anything I had that went with the dress, and I shrugged it off.

Looking at the clock, I realized it was about time for me to be downstairs in order to head to the party. Once again thanking Erik and Ladonna, I quickly slipped into my gold shoes and put on the ring that had been with the earrings as well. Taking a step back, I looked myself over once again before I made my way out of my room.

Getting down the stairs proved to be one of the most nerve-racking moments of my life. I was confronted with numerous steps, heel-clad feet hidden by a dress, and a boyfriend waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs who I couldn't bear to have see me fall. Very slowly, I began making my way down with my hand securely on the banister.

I was focusing so hard on getting down the stairs safely, I almost didn't look to see how Bruce was reacting to my outfit. Looking up quickly, I met eyes with Bruce, who had an awestruck look on him face. Taking a chance on disaster, I turned around to look at what could be causing such an expression. When I didn't see anything, I looked back and saw that, as well as the look from before, he now had an amused smile on his face. It struck me then that I must be the reason for his awe, a fact that stunned me.

Reaching the final few steps, Bruce extended his hand to help me the rest of the way down. Once I was on the ground, I let go of Bruce's hand and did a spin to show off my outfit.

"Am I gala ready?" I asked, looking at Bruce for approval. The shining smile on his face and the way he pulled me in and kissed me gave me all the answer I needed. As I wrapped my arms around his neck, I could feel him place his hands on my shoulders and slowly slid them down to my chest.

"You know," He commented as he pulled away, "this neck seems awfully bare." Nervously, I moved my hand up to cover the area. Clever Bruce noticed my action and shooed my hand away, gesturing to Alfred behind him, and apparently being slipped something into his hands. "I think I have just the thing for it." Out from behind him came his hand, holding a black velvet case that he promptly opened.

I gasped.

For over a century, the necklace within the case had been a symbol of love and devotion the world over. Created with 18k gold and platinum, the necklace had five plaques of floral designs that alternated with a diamond and pearl between each one. The reason for the necklace's fame laid in the diamonds and pearls that featured so prominently in it. Originally, the jewels had been shipped to France by a French aristocrat that had commissioned a piece of jewelry to appease his wife who tolerated his numerous affairs with members of their household. Before the pearls and diamonds could be configured into anything, the French Revolution began and they were lost in the shuffle.

For almost a century these jewels floated around, changing hands numerous times and were never made into anything. It would have stayed that way too if the new wife of one Andrew Wayne back in 1887 hadn't been a member of the family that so many years ago lost the jewels. After hearing of her and her family's long-standing hope of finding the stones, Andrew had made it his mission to find them for her. At first, it had simply been a secret little undertaking, after all, as a Wayne, things had always come easily to Andrew. However, once the 1-year anniversary of the start had hit, he began to enlist other people, eventually causing the search to become a matter of public interest within Gotham. For almost a decade, updates on the case enthralled the Gotham people, and wives nagged their husbands to do something romantic like that for them. No one thought he would ever really find them, until one day Mrs. Rose Wayne was presented with a beautiful flower themed necklace that was made up from the once lost stones.

Now, staring at the necklace that hadn't been seen since the death of Martha Wayne, I was stunned by the very idea that I would now be wearing the necklace so many Wayne wives had worn before me. Looking at Bruce, I questioned if I really should be wearing this.

"Serena, I want you to wear it, therefore you should be wearing it. It's as simple as that." He told me as he went behind me and put the necklace around my neck. I felt him manipulating the clasp together to hold, and then place a kiss on my neck.

"Now, I believe we have a party to be getting too." He whispered in my ear.

Two hours later and I was ready to return to the Manor. Sure enough, the moment Alfred had pulled the limo into the driveway of the Delane home, the press focused all its attention on us. When I was able to get out of the car, holding the gift-wrapped box that contained the odd ivory & jewel figurine that Alfred had picked out for the Delanes, I could hear questions being thrown at us and flashbulbs going off. Bruce, the one used to all the attention, very easily took the lead and safely led me inside, which might have actually been worse than the outside. Immediately, people began to come up, starting with the Delanes themselves, asking questions and trying to get as many details as they could about the two of us. The necklace, as I expected, seemed to be the things that intrigued them most of all.

Right now, I was relaxing on the back balcony all by myself when I felt Bruce come up behind me. I knew it was him not only because of the cologne he was wearing, but also because I could just feel the atmosphere change as soon as he'd opened the door to come out.

"Well, almost done and nothing has gone wrong so far, has it?" He asked as he wrapped himself around me. Leaning back against him, I closed my eyes and rested them for just a moment.

"We've still got time to face disaster" I warned him, opening my eyes and smiling up at him.

"Serena, you have to stop worrying. Trust me, if anything goes wrong tonight, it isn't going to be because of you." Bruce told me, putting a reassuring kiss on my neck. "Now why don't we just go back into that party, say our good-byes, and go back home?"

Before I could get my words out, gunfire rang out from inside, along with screams and the voices of men ordering everyone down. I froze for just a moment, just enough time for Bruce to swing me up into his arms and race down the stairs that led from the balcony to the gardens below. My brain was running to slow to process what exactly was going on around me, but I very quickly found myself back in the limo, this time in the front seat with Alfred, speedily making our way back to the mansion, without Bruce anywhere in sight.

"Oh my God, where's Bruce?" I questioned as soon as my voice began to work. "Alfred, we have to do get Bruce!" I yelled at the man frantically, somehow noticing the strange black vehicle that zoomed past us towards the Delane home.

"Miss Serena, Master Wayne ordered me to take you home, and that is what I intend to do."

"But how can you leave Bruce behind! I thought you cared about him! How can you leave him there without any protection, and why would he even stay!" I was still frantic, but somehow my brain was slowly clearing up, allowing more of what had happened in the few minutes between the gunshots and finding myself in the limo to come to me. Just as Alfred assured me Bruce was very capable of handling himself, I remembered looking into the rear-view window of the limo as we had sped away, and seeing the figure of Batman running away from where we had just been, Bruce nowhere to be found.

Then it hit me.

Bruce was Batman.

Batman was Bruce.

The car I had just seen? Most likely the monstrous creation Batman was known to drive, somehow making its way to the party from somewhere on the estate.

The high-tech gear Batman always had? Things Bruce had "burrowed" from Wayne Industries, just like he had that frame.

More and more quickly, all the explanations, all the connection, began to rush into my head, overwhelming me to the point where I groaned aloud.

"Miss Serena? Are you ok?" Alfred asked, looking over at me briefly before turning his eyes back to the road.

"I just realized the two people I thought I could trust have been keeping one very big secret from me… so how do you think I am Alfred?" I challenged.

Alfred didn't say a word after that.