A/N Woot! I did it! I posted a new chapter before leaving to see Dark Knight! And I have almost a whole hour to spare! This setting small goals is a good idea. My new goal is to post the next chapter by next Friday. (Also to get review responses for the last two chapters sent in the next couple of days.)

Well, I guess that's all I have to say, except that due to the speed with which this chapter was written, I dispensed with the luxury of proofreading, so please excuse my typos! And if there's anything absolutely nonsensical, please let me know so I can fix it.

I'm not sure that this chapter's quote is as relevant as it should be, but I couldn't pass it up.

Chapter 11

To live in Australia permanently is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with one's mother.

- Barry Humphries

As Mr. Davis droned on about the pros and cons of investing in real estate Thursday afternoon, Rick knocked his pencil to the ground and leaned over to pick it up. As he fumbled around on the floor, his hand brushed against Barbara's book bag. It took him only a second to slip the tiny tracking pin into the thick canvas, and then he recovered his pencil and sat up. It wasn't much, but it was the best he could do for the moment—if there was ever an emergency at school, he would be able to locate her on the plan of the school he'd downloaded into his cell (phone calls, of course, were the least of its functions). Later that afternoon, after the final bell had rung, he leaned casually against his locker and watched the tiny dot move out the school doors into the parking lot. It was much easier than trying to stalk her through the hallways.

Something else that had grown much easier was leaving the school building unharassed. The paparazzi had at last grown tired of waiting for him en masse, and while there might a lone photographer on a slow news day, he no longer felt attacked when he walked out the door. Amanda was also avoiding him, ever since he'd announced he was taking someone else to the dance, and for the first time since the semester had started, Rick felt like things were going smoothly. He'd even solved the mystery of David Stern's bizarre room, or at least, he thought he had. A little research had informed him that frightening masks were used in many cultures to scare away evil spirits, while candles were often connected with keeping vigil for the dead. It seemed likely that David had concocted his own religious ritual to help him deal with the murders of his mother and grandfather, and while Rick felt sorry for him, he was pleased that aspect of Bailey's puzzles had been explained.

Ignoring the school bus, Rick headed for the train station, made his usual station locker clothing switch, and boarded another train. Settling into an empty seat, he slumped down and thought seriously about what he was doing. He had pulled out the old file on the pawnshop robbery after his last encounter with Niko, and a single glance at the grainy newspaper photo had been enough to convince him that Ariadne was the same girl Batman had rescued that night.

The discovery, however, hadn't deterred Rick in the least from keeping his promise to attend her birthday party. The thought of spending even a few hours in a place where he was no one of any importance at all would have been enough to lure him even if he had more obstacles than his conscience to overcome. Bruce had been in a reclusive mood for nearly a week, talking little and spending even longer hours than usual sequestered in the batcave. Alfred had been unusually silent, although he shut himself in the conservatory rather than under the Manor. Rick wished that one of them would simply tell him what the problem was, but neither Bruce nor Alfred would admit anything was wrong. Between tension at the Manor and the constant front he had maintain at school, Rick felt exhausted. More than anything, he wanted to be with people who weren't secret crime fighters or murder suspects. He hadn't realized how much he appreciated that about Alex.

Ari flung open the door before Rick had finished knocking and smiled widely. "Rick, you came!" Before he could wonder how she knew who he was, she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the apartment. "this is my friend Marissa," she introduced, waving in the direction of another girl. They were both dressed in plaid skirts and white blouses, obviously their school uniform, but Marissa wore her top button open with the tie fashionably askew and had her hair tumbling over shoulders, while Ariadne was almost painfully neat. The reason why was apparent a moment later as her mother emerged from the bedroom and smoothed Ari's hair and straightened her tie before turning to Rick.

"Mama, this is Rick."

"Hello, Mrs. Pappas," Rick said politely, shaking hands.

She beamed at him. "Such a nice boy. Then she reached out and turned his face toward the light, clucking in concern. "This is what you did in the lot? I tell Niko it's too dangerous in the winter, but you boys will never listen." Her smile changed to a frown, and she shook her finger warningly. "Be more careful." Patting his shoulder, she hurried inot the kitchen where a number of pots were bubbling on the stove.

The door to the apartment swung open, and Niko came in, pulling off his ski cap. "Rick, man, I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to come."

"Niko!" his mother snapped.

Niko rolled his eyes and offered a hand slap in greeting.

"Rick happens to be a nice boy, unlike certain other people in this room," Ariadne informed him. "He does what he says he's going to do."

Niko groaned. "Lay off, will you? I told you I've been busy. I'm here for your stu …" He caught himself and glanced toward the kitchen. "… your party, aren't I?" He glanced over to the couch where Marissa sat, casually examining her nails.

"Hey, Niko," she said, not looking up.

"Hey," he returned, looking quickly away. "Who else are we waiting for?"

"No on, Elena is meeting us at the theater," Ari said calmly, pulling on her coat. "Mama, we're ready to go!"

Athena came around the bar that divided the tiny kitchen from the living room and pulled out a worn coin purse that hung on a cord around her neck. She removed a folded twenty and handed it to Niko. "No popcorn, just tickets," she ordered. "You eat when you come home."

"Yes, mama," he promised, and the four of them left the apartment. They had walked two blocks when Ari stopped abruptly, holding up her white cane like a baton. "I forgot my earmuffs."

Niko stared at her in disbelief. "Forget it, we're halfway there."

"I'll get an earache," she threatened.

"Put your scarf over your head. No way I'm going back."

"I'll go by myself."

"You're not allowed."

Ari crossed her arms, narrowly missing Marissa's head with her cane. "Fine. Rick, will you go back with me?"

"Uh …" He glanced back and forth between the quarreling siblings. "I don't mind," he ventured, half apologetically.

Ari issued one of her glowing smiles. "We'll catch up with you guys at the theater." Grabbing Rick's arm, she pulled him back the way they had come.

But the moment they rounded the corner, she stopped. "Look back and see if Niko's gone."

"Why?"

She sighed impatiently. "Because we're not going home, of course. Can you see him anymore?"

Feeling more uneasy by the second, Rick peered around the corner. "I can't see him. Where are we going?"

"Just a quick errand." She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a pair of earmuffs. "I knew he wouldn't take me back, and I knew you would," she explained as she put them on. "I am a very good judge of character. Come on, it's only a few blocks."

They walked briskly for a few minutes, Rick watching warily as the neighborhood went from shabby to decrepit. "I really don't think we should be down here …" he began, as a group of guys across the street gave them unfriendly stares.

"Here we are!" she exclaimed, ignoring him. "This is 1610, right?"

Rick looked up at the crumbling tenement. "What are we doing here?"

Ari crossed her arms. "It's a secret. Swear not to tell anyone?"

Rick regarded her in alarm. "Tell me it's not illegal."

"Do I seem like a dope pusher to you?" she demanded. "It's not wrong, it's just a secret. Do you promise?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"Ok." She pulled a lumpy package wrapped in newspaper from her pocket, along with a black marker. "First write 'Ethel Purcell' on it. That's P-U-R-C-E-L-L."

Rick scribbled the name, keeping one eye on the group across the street. "Now what?"

"Beneath it write 'From a friend of Batman.'"

"What?" he demanded, shocked.

"Just do it. I'll explain later."

"No way, not until you tell me what's in here."

"It's a flea collar, ok? Her neighbor's going to kill her cat if she doesn't put a flea collar on it, but she's old and crazy and can't afford one."

"That's nice of you, but … Batman?"

"I'll explain on the way to the theater. Just go stuff it through her mail slot, apartment 1A. I'll wait out here."

"Oh no. I'm not leaving you out here by yourself." He tugged her arm in the direction of the door, but she stayed stubbornly still. "There's more chance of getting caught if both of us go. Besides, I'm kind of recognizable. She waved her cane and hit him lightly on the arm. "Go already!"

Deciding that the faster he delivered the package, the faster they could leave, Rick ran inside and shoved the package through the tarnished mail slot. He shot back out the door to find the menacing group halfway across the street. Swearing under his breath, he grabbed Ari's arm and started marching her up the block. "We gotta go."

"Slow down," she protested, stumbling over a rough spot in the pavement.

"Hey, Ari," a voice behind them called.

Rick tried to keep walking, but Ari stopped short and jerked her arm free. "Skatz?" she asked turning around.

Rick automatically moved to put himself between Ariadne and the six teenagers that had followed them. Their shaved and tattooed heads, along with the stripes of color on their coat sleeves, proclaimed them a gang, and he frantically wondered how he was going to escape them, blind girl in tow, without making a spectacle of himself. The leader ignored him, but the rest of the pack pinned him with glares.

"You okay with this guy?" Skatz asked. "Looked like you two were fighting back there."

"Yeah, we're just going to the movies," she said cheerfully. "I haven't talked to you in a long time."

"Tell your brother to bring you around."

She heaved a disgusted sigh. "He won't. He's an idiot."

Skatz grinned. "I'll talk to him."

There was a slight pause, and then Ari said, sounding slightly uncomfortable, "We'd better go or we'll miss our show."

Skatz transferred his gaze to Rick. "You take good care of her." The unspoken threat was clear.

"Don't worry," Rick muttered, and gratefully hurried Ari off down the street. "Do you know all the gangs in Gotham?" he demanded when they were safely away.

"No. Just Skatz's," she said cheerfully. "And it's Niko's fault I met them because he goes to their club, so he shouldn't get mad at me. Anyway, I did them a favor, so they like me."

"A favor?"

She shrugged. "Another gang was going to ambush them, so I let them know. You wouldn't believe the stuff people say around me because I'm blind. I mean, hello! I'm not Helen Keller!"

He had to laugh. "I guess people are stupid sometimes."

"You're telling me."

They walked for a block in silence, and then he asked, "Are you going to tell me what that whole Friend of Batman thing was about?"

"Only if you promise not to laugh."

"I promise," he said quickly.

"Well, the Batman does good things and nobody knows who he is, right?"

"Right."

"So I do good things and sign it A Friend of Batman, so nobody knows it's me. And don't even try to tell me giving a flea collar isn't the same thing as stopping a criminal. A good deed is a good deed." She said it fiercely, as though she expected him to argue, but when he said nothing, she went on more softly, "I can't do it by myself of course, so I have to get Niko to help me, but sometimes he won't. He doesn't understand. He thinks if I want to do stuff for people I should just do it and forget the Batman part."

Rick thought about that for a moment. "Why don't you?"

"Because the Batman's important! I mean, if I gave the flea collar to Mrs. Purcell myself, she would think I was a nice, sweet girl. But if she thinks someone connected to Batman gave it to her, it will make her feel … special." She gestured vaguely with her cane. "So that's why you can't tell anyone. It would ruin it if it wasn't a secret. Niko's the only other one who knows." She waited, but when he didn't respond asked, "What are you thinking?"

"I just … never thought about it that way. And I'm wondering why you told me."

She shrugged. "I need someone to help me when Niko won't, and I thought you probably would. I'm a …"

"… very good judge of character, I know," he interrupted, feeling inexplicably annoyed.

"Besides, it's my birthday. You should be nice to me!"

Jumping at the chance to change the subject, Rick asked, "How old are you, anyway?"

"Fifteen today," she said proudly.

"Fifteen?" he asked doubtfully. Privately, he thought she looked about ten.

Ariadne stomped her foot. "Yes! Fifteen! Just because I don't have boobs, nobody will believe how old I am! It's seriously annoying."

There was no good response to that, and Rick was immensely relieved to see the discount theater up ahead. "Look, we're almost there!"

Niko and Marissa were waiting inside, the tickets already bought. "Elena's not here," Marissa informed them. "I bet her mother wouldn't let her come. You know how she is."

Ari suddenly looked sad and Niko angry. "Come on," he muttered, "we've already missed the trailers. What took you two so long?"

"We ran into Skatz," Ari trilled, her usual cheerfulness back in place.

"I told you not to talk to that guy!" Niko exploded.

"He talked to me first. I couldn't help it."

Niko glowered and backed up so that he wouldn't have to sit next to his sister in the row, leaving Marissa on one end of the group and himself on the other. As the credits rolled, Rick heard the two girls whispering, and a minute later Marissa got up and hurried out of the theater. Ari poked his arm and whispered, "Whenever I poke you, tell me what's happening on the screen."

Fortunately, the opening scenes of the movie were full of dialogue, and Rick's comments were mostly limited to "They're riding in the elevator" or "She's making a sandwich."

Marissa reappeared after five minutes, but slipped into the opposite of the row, next to Niko. Ari heard her return and snickered. "I knew she was going to do that. She has a huge crush on Niko. I think she's crazy."

Having to narrate the silent parts of the movie to Ari proved to be much more interesting than just watching it. She was full of commentary on the characters, and the only problematic moment came during the pivotal love scene. "What's happening?" Ari hissed, when Rick didn't respond to her poke.

He glanced embarrassedly from the screen where the heroine was ripping off the hero's t-shirt, to Ari, to her big brother sitting on his other side. "Uh … they're … you know …"

The hero began delivering a series of noisy kisses, and Ari wrinkled her nose. "Never mind, I get it." She folded her arms impatiently. "Sex scenes are so boring for blind people. There's nothing to listen to but gasping. And smacking. And goopy music."

"I guess I never really thought about it," Rick muttered, sinking down as far as his seat would let him, and refusing to look at Niko, who was eyeing them suspiciously.

"You and the director both," she muttered back, and he had to choke down a laugh.

"Bruce, over here!"

Bruce waved in the direction of the voice but made no effort to cross over to the roulette table it had come from. It was two hours into the first party of the Deep Harbor Hotel and Casino pre-opening weekend, and he was already bored out of his mind. Inwardly, he chafed at the time he was wasting, drifting around the floor of the casino, while a murderer and a thief wreaked havoc on Gotham. He should be working, he wanted to be working. He wanted to stop plastering on the wide smile and go somewhere where everything he detested about his life didn't glare in his face quite so brightly.

And, a quiet corner of his mind admitted, the fact that Selina Kyle had not appeared all evening had not soothed his excessive irritation. He looked forward to bantering words with her a lot more than he looked forward to most things about this glittering, artificial part of his existence, and her absence made harder to fight off the mild depression that often descended when he had to don the role of the playboy.

Deciding that no one on the floor was going to miss him, he decided to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the hotel and get an idea of the security arrangements. Tonight, he would be trapped here—the omnipresent electric eyes made it impossible to leave unseen—and being seen sneaking on the first night of the party would be sure to rouse comment.

For tomorrow night, he had a convenient previous engagement that would let him return unremarked to the hotel as late as he wanted. He could don his cowl and prowl the streets without raising suspicions by his absence, but … but it was a Friday night, and Richard would want to go with him.

Bruce's stomach clenched. He'd gone over and over Robin's disastrous last outing, trying to decide which of the possible answers to the attack was the right one. Either the shot had come from a trigger happy gunman who just happened to see them up on the roof, or the shot had been intended for Catwoman by someone who had known she would be there. Or it was possible that the shot had come from a friend of Catwoman's who had sought to protect her. Or, and these were the possibilities he liked least of all, someone had figured out where they would be and laid a trap. If that was true, it meant someone knew far to much about Batman and his methods.

It was possible that Catwoman had led them into that trap, if a trap it was, but if so, why had she gone after Robin as he fell over the edge? And why had she suggested a truce during their last encounter? She was, he had to admit, by far the most intriguing villain he'd pursued. Maybe it was because she was not, as she had said, one of the really bad guys. She wasn't out dressing up dead bodies to make them fit old riddles, so he could afford to be intrigued by her.

But no matter what kind of threat she was, he didn't want Richard running across the rooftops until he had proved where that shot had come from and made certain it wouldn't happen again. Which might be impossible. And there would be other shooters—that was a guarantee.

He had gone as high as the elevator would permit on his room key, one floor above his own room. Wondering who merited the extremely VIP suites, he wandered down the corridor, but like the other floors, there was absolutely no indication of who stayed behind the closed doors. He was nearly to the far end of the hall, when a door unexpectedly swung open and Lex Luthor appeared. "Bruce! What are you doing up here so far from the party?"

"Being nosy." Bruce grinned. "It's a nice hotel. I own a couple myself, you know."

"I know. I tried to buy one and your people turned me down."

"Did they?"

Luthor raised one pale brow. "Didn't you know?"

"There's so much … it's hard to keep track of …" Bruce trailed off and shrugged.

"Do you want to complete your inspection and come up to the penthouse for a drink?" the other man invited. "I've got just one phone call I have to make." He inserted a key card into the pad by the elevator, and a second later the door slid silently back.

"Sure." Bruce followed him into the car and felt the sudden pressure as they zoomed upward. "Phone calls at midnight? Must be important."

"International business is no respecter of time zones, as I'm sure you know."

The elevator doors opened straight into a large room, softly lit and decorated in muted colors. It seemed to be a kind of showroom, because the perimeter was decorated with shelves and display stands, while the walls were covered with art that was probably worth, at a rough estimate, a fourth of the value of the entire hotel.

"My collection room," Lex explained. "I try to keep one in every major business venture. Gives me something to talk about when the conversation runs out. Look around while I take care of that call, and help yourself to the bar."

Bruce poured a scotch and strolled slowly around, giving the items in the collection only a cursory examination. Most of them looked old, centuries at least, and he had no interest in ancient relics. He paused before a display that was different from the rest. Rough rocks were nestled against black velvet, and from the depths of each one green or red or black crystals seemed to gleam in their own light.

Lex reentered the room and poured himself a drink before walking over. "What do you think?"

Bruce lifted his glass in a mock toast. "It's good scotch."

"Naturally. I meant my collection."

"Ah." Bruce glanced around the room. "I'm not really into old art. Or … new art."

"Of course not. You're the consummate cultural dunce, aren't you? You care only about your cars and your models … in public at least. But I suspect there is more to you than meets the eye."

Bruce smiled. "Me? No, not really."

"Really?" Lex regarded him thoughtfully. "I don't think so at all. I find you rather enigmatic, as a matter of fact. Take your company—everyone says it's run by Lucius Fox, or possibly that old butler of yours. But I'm not so sure. I've heard some very interesting rumors about that time you miraculously reappeared and kept the company from going public."

"There's a lot of rumors out there, Lex. And it's absolutely true that I leave the running of the company to … more interested men." Bruce pointed to the case he'd been examining. "Not to change the subject or anything, but what are these? I've never seen anything like them."

Lex suddenly smiled, as if at some private joke. "Meteor rocks. There was a devastating shower that I actually witnessed as a boy, and these are part of that."

"Space rocks. Cool. What do they do?"

"Do?" Lex's smile deepened. "They're rocks. They sit there."

"So … they're just ordinary rocks?"

"Well, not ordinary precisely. And someday they may relay valuable information about other bodies in space, perhaps even the beginnings of the universe. But I have to admit my scientists haven't come up with anything striking."

"Too bad."

"Yes."

They stared at the rocks in silence for a moment, and then Lex abruptly asked, "So what do you think? Is Gotham big enough for Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp?"

"Gotham's a big place," Bruce replied carefully. "But I bet you used to get in trouble for not playing nice with the other kids."

Lex smiled humorlessly. "If it's in my best interests, I'll crush you, humiliate you, and make you wish you'd never heard your own name."

Bruce smiled back. "I could tell you that would be hard to do, but heck, I hope you'll try. Nothing that interesting has happened in this city since that bat guy started flying around."

"In that case …" Lex lifted his glass in a toast, "… to business. May the game be good."

To Be Continued

A/N Enjoy The Dark Knight, everyone! And if Rachel Dawes is about to break Bruce's heart again, I'm going to murder her! Or at least mutter very uncomplimentary things under my breath.

Review? Please? Since I was so good as to write this in only four days?