Author's Note: Please, don't look into the backstory I gave Tim Drake; a lot of it is completely made up, seeing as the somewhat plausible origin story from the DCAU is actually Jason Todd's (a character that I'm reserving the right to include in this story), and the fact that Tim Drake's is pretty strange. Especially considering the fact that he was not Bruce Wayne's ward for a lot of his tenure as Robin. How he kept that from his parents, I'll never understand. So I took some details from his comic origin story played a little mix-and-match, and there you have it. But like I said, it won't matter. Just a small, basically irrelevant detail. A lot like the slightly modified secret identity I created for Diana, and then never mentioned again. It kind of needs to be said, but it won't matter much.

Bruce stayed true to his promise to ensure that Tim received the most brutal and rigorous training sessions possible. They sparred for hours at a time, not stopping until Tim collapsed from exhaustion. Then, Bruce would wait for him to wake up, and they would resume.

In spite of it all, Tim continued to show some impressive spunk. Now matter how hard he was hit, he never stayed down for down. He always jumped up quickly, ready to go again. As he grew used to Bruce's cold cynicism, his timidness began to dissipate. He slowly revealed himself to be much more confident than Bruce had been led to believe; sometimes, his attitude bordered on cocky. He regularly attempted to taunt Bruce, despite being at an incredibly severe disadvantage.

"Can't catch me!" He shouted as he backflipped across the floor of the Batcave. Bruce easily recognized the boy's attempts to fluster him into making a mistake, but the taunts still frustrated him a little bit. He leapt forward to catch up with Tim, launching a punch. Having learned a lot from hard experience that the Batman's punches were nothing to joke about, Tim dodged, and launched a flurry of punches of his own. Bruce easily absorbed the blows with his arms. He was about to retaliate, when he heard a cough from the entrance to the cave. He grabbed Tim's arm, lifting him and gently placing him on the ground. He then turned to face Alfred, who was standing in the doorway. "What is it, Alfred?"

"Ms. Gordon is hear to see you. She's waiting at the door."

"Thank you Alfred." He looked back at Tim. Tim stared back, with a pleading look in his eyes. Bruce sighed. "Fine, I guess we're done for today."

"ALRIGHT!" Tim shouted as he bolted towards the cave's exit, nearly knocking Alfred down the stairs in his rush to get to the television.

"HOLD IT." Bruce shouted after him. Tim froze in his tracks. "You're done training for now... But we have a guest. Come on, let's go."

Tim lowered his head in disappointment. Most of Bruce's friends were the either boring executives, or just spoiled rich people. Reluctantly, he followed Bruce to the front door.

He was surprised to see that Bruce's visitor was not a balding man in a suit, but rather an attractive red haired young woman in a wheel chair. She saw him, and rolled towards him with an intrigued look on her face. "So... This is the new kid?"

"That's him." Bruce answered.

"Hm... He's a bit small... He is cute, though!" She reached out to ruffle his hair.

"Hey!" Tim shouted, indignantly pushing her hand away. "Who are you anyway?" He demanded.

"Sorry, I'm Barbara Gordon... But you might know me as Batgirl."

His jaw dropped in shock. "You're... Batgirl? But she could... You know... Walk, and stuff..." He stopped suddenly, wondering if he'd said too much. She laughed at his blunt statement.

"Well... That was quite a while ago. But... I'm a bit curious. You don't look like much... At least Dick and Jason had some muscle..." she teased.

"Hey! I can fight!"

"Well then... Why don't you prove it?"

He looked at her in confusion, wondering if this was some kind of test. He looked at Bruce, who simply shrugged and stepped out of the way.

"Come get me, tough guy." Barbara taunted, wagging a finger at him. He approached her, and halfheartedly threw a punch towards her shoulder. To his surprise, she caught him by the forearm, pulled him in closer, and threw him to the ground. He looked up in shock, before jumping to his feet.

"Yikes... Well that won't happen again." He jumped in the air, launching a kick at her face. She moved her head to the side, pulling her arms up to protect herself. She managed to hit his leg with the side of her arm, sending him off balance. He crashed to the floor again.

"You're good kid... but too predictable. You hit hard, but that won't do you any good if you can't get a hit in."

Tim stood up to go on the offensive again, but Bruce stopped him. "That's enough... You're going to destroy my house. I think that you can go now."

Tim cautiously looked at Barbara as he left, apparently having learned his lesson about being vigilant. Once he was gone, Barbara spoke.

"That was pretty impressive... How long have you been working on him?"

"About a month."

She whistled in amazement. "Wow. So... Have you put any thought into giving him some field experience?"

"Not yet. He's too reckless."

"Trust me, Bruce. A kid like that will never stop being reckless. Just look at Dick. Come to think of it, he really does remind me of Dick.. But anyway, I think that you'd best get him out there before it's too late."

"Before it's too late?"

"You know. When you need him. You don't want to desperately need his help, but have him to green to do anything. It's a lot to deal with, going out there in costume for the first time."

"A challenge that you rose to rather marvelously." He said sarcastically.

"Like I said, it takes a lot of getting used to." She narrowed her eyes. "Speaking of which... How are you and Diana handling things?"

"Who told you?"

"Dick."

Bruce cursed; it seemed that Zatanna had confided in some other sources, who in turn passed the information along. It was only a matter of time until all of Gotham knew.

"We're doing fine."

"You sure? Dick said that you were pretty worked up about it..."

"I'll get through it. How have you been lately?" He said, eager to change the subject from his looming fatherhood.

Her face brightened. "Great. I was actually accepted to do some testing for spinal tissue regeneration. They took a look at the damage, and they seem hopeful. The tech is pretty advanced."

"That's great news." He said, a genuine smile crossing his face as he leaned down to hug her.

"Bruce... Are you okay? It's not like you to get emotional."

"I want you up and walking as much as anybody. I really hope it works out for you."

"Me too... But remember, if I get my legs back, I'll be back in the saddle as Batgirl again before you know it!"

"Really?" His eyes widened. "I would think that you would want to avoid that after what happened with the Joker."

"Not really. He was after Barbara Gordon, not Batgirl, remember? It just goes to show that nobody's safe from people like him, and I might as well do what I can to protect the innocent, right?"

Bruce nodded absentmindedly as he became lost in thought, her words ominously echoing around his head. 'Nobody's safe... Nobody's safe...

Author's Note: I think that I covered most of what I wanted to say before the chapter... But I just want to take a moment to talk about the next few weeks. I go back to school tomorrow, and I'm not sure how that could affect my updating schedule. I hope that the effects will be minimal, but I'm going to make a conservative prediction saying that I could have to slow my updates to once every two days, at least until I get into the swing of things. The upside to school is that I don't have to work during the school week, so that makes things a bit easier. I'll try to keep up, but we'll see how things go. Keep your fingers crossed!