As soon as Batman entered into the cockpit of the Batwing, he immediately set a course for the tracking beacons of Nightwing and Batgirl. At top speed, he would arrive there within ten minutes. On the flight there, he kept in contact with Batgirl, pumping her for any useful information that would help end the confrontation quickly. The priority was to clear the scene so that they could get Dick out of there as quickly as possible. He'd need some immediate medical attention. Alfred would need to be made aware of the situation so that if necessary, Dr. Leslie Thompkins could be contacted.
Batman slowed the Batwing as he approached his destination. Nightwing was still conscious and Batgirl had resorted to using Nightwing's weapons as she had long ago run out of her own. When the Batwing was slowed enough, Batman engaged the lower ejection panel where he slid out through the bottom of the Batwing. He stayed in a freefall for some time before finally triggering the sensors on his cape and began hang gliding down. When he was close enough, he could see where Nightwing and Batgirl should be according to the tracking devices. He landed on the nearest rooftop and engaged his communicator. "Batgirl. I'm onsite. What's the status?"
"Still the same." Batgirl answered. "I think Deadshot is to the north of us, but there's been so many shots fired from different angles I can't be sure."
"I need to draw Deadshot out." Batman responded. "Once he fires, I'll know where he is specifically from the flash of his muzzle when he fires."
"Got it, just a second." Batgirl replied. She left Dick for a moment to step out into view and entice some gunshots to be fired. Sure enough as soon as she took one step, the gunshots began again. She quickly retreated back to her cover with Nightwing and waited for Batman to intervene.
Batman watched for the muzzle fires that surrounded his beloved Batclan members. It only took seconds to find the muzzle fire that would be from Deadshot's weapon of choice. Batman sized up the number of guns firing, and indeed Batgirl and Nightwing had gotten themselves pinned down. All the gunfire was coming from a higher position than their location. Luckily, Batman was at an even higher position. He quickly decided on a plan of attack before leaping off the roof top and gliding into the fray. He threw some smoke pellets with anesthetic gas at two locations as he glided over top of them unnoticed. There were just three other locations left to clear before he could help Batgirl with Nightwing. As he approached the next location, the gun shots ceased, and then a single shot was fired. It stuck Batman in the chest plate on the right side. The bullet was an armor piercing round. So much for not having a collapsed lung to deal with he thought.
Batman stopped gliding after being hit and plummeted to a roof top. He tumbled and rolled as his form of a landing. As he got back up to his hands and knees, Batman checked the gunshot wound more closely. The Batsuit armor did as much as it could to offer protection, but the bullet did still penetrate it. He was starting to struggle with breathing regularly and some blood began to drip out from his mouth as he slowly got up on his feet. "You weren't supposed to be here tonight Batman." Came the eerily calm voice of Deadshot as he walked forward out of the shadows towards Batman with his wrist gun fixated on his target. "I was just supposed to clip your old protégé's wings off. Looks like I got luck on my side tonight."
"Who are you working for now Lawton?" Batman demanded.
"I'm sure you'd love to know, but my employer enjoys his anonymity." Deadshot panned as he stopped a few feet in front of the now standing tall Batman. "Any last words Batman?"
"Yes." Batman responded. "NOW!"
On his prompting, a disc flew through the air and exploded when it came into contact with Deadshot's wrist. He screamed in pain as the explosion caused some serious damage. Nightwing and Batgirl had gotten free thanks to the distraction of Batman's arrival and had swiftly taken out the other stronghold locations that Batman hadn't gotten to yet. He'd seen the two of them approach from behind Deadshot, and knew that they would be ready to act when it was necessary.
Deadshot started to flee but his feet were tangled together by a bola thrown at him by Batgirl. He struggled to free himself, and had just untied his legs when he looked up to see a fist flying directly at his face. The punch from Batman was strong and instantly knocked Deadshot unconscious. Batman turned to face his two protégés. "Are you two alright?" He asked.
"We need to get Nightwing some help." Batgirl responded. "He's lost a lot of blood already." She then noticed Batman walking weakly towards them. "Oh my lord, you're hit Batman!" She practically yelled.
"I'll be fine." Batman responded as he contacted the Batwing for transport. "Get them tied up and let the police deal with them. I'll take Nightwing to the cave for treatment."
By the time that Batwing arrived, Batgirl had already left Deadshot and his goons restrained and hanging off the edge of the building for the police. Batman was too weak to enter the Batwing using his normal method with his grapple, so he had to have it land on the rooftop to climb in. As soon as they flew off Batgirl took Nightwing's motorcycle and headed off to meet them at the cave. Bruce set up the autopilot to take them and land in the cave. Normally he would manually fly into the cave, but his vision occasionally became blurry as he was fighting to keep enough oxygen in his body on basically one lung. Had they been anywhere other than Gotham or Bludhaven, Batman would have had to resort to using the transporter and taking Nightwing up to the Watchtower. Neither Nightwing nor Batgirl had ever been on the Watchtower, and Batman wanted to keep it that way for now. He didn't believe they were ready yet for the world's stage, and he wanted to protect them from harm as much as possible. While on the flight back, he contacted Alfred to allow him the time to prepare for their medical needs. There was a refrigeration system in the cave that had spare blood from all members of the Batclan available. He'd also requested that Dr. Leslie be contacted due to the both of them being shot. That would allow Alfred to focus on one person instead of having to attempt to handle both injured men at the same time. While Alfred was an amazing medic for the Batclan, he was still only one man. Dick was already floating in and out of consciousness as they approached the cave, and Batman calculated that he would soon be in the same situation as Dick was from his own blood loss and lack of oxygen.
The Batwing performed as the program instructed and blasted in through the waterfall before landing at its designated launch pad. Sure enough as Bruce helped Dick climb out of the Batwing, Alfred was there with Dr. Thompkins waiting and ready to go. Bruce sat Dick down in front of Leslie as she was the more experienced physician. Within moments, Dick's arm had an IV inserted and blood was being pumped back into his body while Leslie worked on the leg wound.
Bruce removed his cape and cowl, letting them fall to the ground as Alfred helped him remove the top portion of his suit. As soon as that was off, Bruce almost collapsed onto the medical table. Alfred hooked up an IV for Bruce to begin receiving blood again as well as an anesthetic to dull the pain. He went to work on analyzing the wound, investigating as to if the bullet was still inside. He was able to locate the object still in Bruce's lung, and pulled out all the tools he'd need to remove the bullet.
As Alfred continued to work on Bruce, Leslie finished patching up Dick's leg. The shot he was hit with went completely through his leg, and just missed the main artery in his thigh. Had that been hit, Dick would already have been dead. Instead, Leslie was able to stop the bleeding and bandage him up. When she was satisfied that Dick was taken care of, she went over to Bruce and helped Alfred deal with the punctured lung.
It was a tense couple of hours for her and Alfred as they worked. Barbara had arrived during that time and helped Dick up to the manor to rest. Leslie had elected to put Bruce completely under as they dealt with his lung. They ran into some minor issues throughout the process, but eventually they were able to work everything out, and Bruce once again had two functioning lungs. He laid on the table resting comfortably. Leslie knew better by this point that Bruce would never listen to advice about allowing his body to heal, so she left him under longer than necessary to at least give his body some time to rest. They were going to let Bruce come out naturally, which would anger him, but both Leslie and Alfred cared for Bruce's wellbeing too much to allow his anger towards them to alter their decisions. Alfred worked with Leslie and Barbara to get Bruce up to the master bedroom where they placed him in his comfortable bed to rest.
~~ Watchtower meeting 3 nights later ~~
Diana was the sixth member to enter the conference room. She was certain that she would be the last member to arrive having been dealing with an issue on monitor duty. There was a potential crisis with a volcano that had been showing signs of an imminent eruption, but for the moment things had settled, and there were no people in the potential path of destruction as evacuations had been completed before she made to leave for the meeting. She took her seat noticing that Batman was the only member absent. It was uncharacteristic of him to be late for the meetings since he'd gotten the League to push them to once every other week. As soon as Diana took her seat, Superman began the meeting without hesitation. He obviously knew that Batman was going to be a no show. The question was why.
As the meeting progressed, Diana took in everyone's demeanor around the table. She was curious as to who could possibly know about Batman's absence. Flash as usual was fidgeting about his seat and occasionally mumbling a complaint about needing some food. He wasn't concerned about anything aside from the meeting ending and getting food. She then glanced over at John and Shayera. As usual they were bickering quietly with one another. Nothing to indicate they were aware of anything out of the ordinary either. J'onn was his typical stoic self. He glanced back over at Diana as he obviously sensed her thoughts as she was glancing around the room. He quickly established a telepathic link with her as he could clearly see the question on her mind. No one has heard from Batman yet, Diana. Superman believes though that he is recuperating from an injury, and that is his reasoning for missing today's meeting.
How did Kal come to this conclusion if he hasn't heard from Batman? She asked.
He informed me that he'd been made aware from word being spread around Gotham and Bludhaven that had eventually reached Metropolis. J'onn explained. He believes his sources are reputable enough to believe in their accuracy.
Thank you J'onn. Diana responded before changing her focus back to the Man of Steel as he was putting the final touches on the meeting. She listened intently to his ending topic.
"Finally before we adjourn the meeting, I'd like to vote on a continuation of attending charitable events." Superman said. "With the success of the recent gala in Gotham City, I think we can lend more than just our strength to help better the world. Just that event provided the entire goal that the police department was hoping to raise in upgrading their buildings and equipment to protect the people. Why not try and help some other causes as well with our presence to help raise the necessary funding for benefits that interest us."
"I think that's a wonderful idea Kal." Diana responded. She had been wanting to offer more help to her fellow sisters of man's world, and if she selected carefully she could add yet another means to doing so for the less fortunate. In her past research of Bruce, she'd seen all the good he had done through charitable works. Albeit he had gone to many charities and supplied some of his fortune for them, the presence of a Justice League member seemingly caused the wealthy to open their wallets a bit more than just a typical charity. Perhaps she could work with some charities to come up with an idea on how she could increase the results even further.
Most of the League members held the same mindset as Diana, and Superman produced a listing of some of the different charitable functions available at the moment. Diana eagerly read through the listing, and it took only moments before she'd found a handful of charities that she was interested in. She returned to her quarters and realized that she had no clue who she should contact to offer her services for these charity functions. Her thoughts again went to her friend Bruce. He was in charge of some charities like the Thomas and Martha Wayne Foundation, and was always seemingly around the others to donate. Surely he had to know the proper contacts. She looked at the clock to check and see if it was an appropriate time of day to make a phone call and saw that it was almost 7:45. She reached for her phone as she sat down on the edge of her bed and dialed his number. She waited as the phone rang four times before someone picked up on the other end. "Wayne residence." Came the voice of someone she'd not recognized. It was a man's voice, but not the voice of Bruce or Alfred. It sounded like a younger man's voice.
"Hello." She started. "This is Diana. Is Bruce available?"
"Actually he is." The young man said. "Just a second." Diana could hear some ruffling in the background as well as some muffled words being said. Some more ruffling noises were heard for another moment until there was nothing but silence.
Diana waited for a few moments before she began to wonder if she'd been disconnected. "Hello?" She called out.
"He…..Hello Diana." Bruce said on the other end. He sounded a little different than at any time during their other phone conversations.
"Hello Bruce." Diana said. "Is this a bad time?"
"Uh no, no Diana." Bruce responded. "How are you doing?"
Diana still wasn't convinced that she hadn't called at a bad time, but since Bruce said otherwise, she decided to continue. "I'm fine Bruce. I was actually calling to ask you some questions about how I could get more involved with some charities that I'm interested in."
There was a moment of silence again before Bruce responded. "Sure, I could help you out." He said. "Why don't you come down to the Manor and we can look through the paperwork for each charity your interested in, and we can find out how you'd like to be involved before we make the necessary contacts."
"That sounds wonderful Bruce, thank you." Diana replied smiling.
"When are you available to come down Di?" Bruce asked.
"Actually Bruce, I'm available right now." She suggested. She knew from the way the phone conversation began that he was most likely busy at the moment, but she wanted to see how far Bruce was willing to go. "If that's alright with you. We have teleporters now thanks to Batman and J'onn, and I could be down in just a couple of minutes if you are available too."
"Right now?" Bruce asked. Diana could hear some more ruffling around in the background. "If you can give me about fifteen minutes Diana, I'll be free by then."
Diana was actually giddy with anticipation. She took a calming breath before responding. "Alright Bruce. I'll see you in fifteen minutes."
Bruce waited for a few moments after Diana had hung up before he turned in his chair to face Dick. "Damn it Dick. I told you not to interfere."
Dick was all smiles as he put on his mask. "Looks like I'm going out on patrol on my own after all." He said. "I'll have to thank this Diana of yours when I get to meet her. Her timing was perfect to prevent your grumpy stubborn ass from going out before you should."
"I am more than ready to take on patrol Dick. Don't interfere like that again." Bruce demanded.
Dick wasn't having any of it. "Don't you think you should get changed?" He responded. "I doubt you want to have Diana see you in a Batsuit so early in the relationship."
Bruce growled and was sneering at his adopted son, but Dick didn't give him the chance to respond as he went for his bike and immediately sped out of the cave. Bruce stood from his chair. He refused to admit it, but three days after taking a gunshot wound to the chest was not nearly enough time for a normal man to have healed, but Batman was no ordinary man. He could just rely more on his gadgets if needs be until he had healed more before returning to his more hands on approach. He looked up at the clock and realized that he was quickly running out of time, and ran over to the locker area as he began stripping off the Batsuit piece by piece. He hadn't given himself the time to put everything away and would have to deal with that later. He climbed into the shower without even adjusting the temperature, and dealt with it as he quickly washed himself before hopping back out of the shower. Within four minutes he had gotten out of the suit, showered, dressed, and was exiting the Batcave with three minutes to spare.
Diana arrived off in the front lawn of Wayne Manor right on time, giving Bruce the fifteen minutes he'd requested. She went up to the main door and just as she was about to knock, the door was opened and Alfred appeared from behind it to greet her. "Good evening Miss Diana." He stated as he placed his hands behind his back. "I hope that you are doing well."
"I am well Alfred, thank you." Diana responded as she entered. "And how are you doing?"
"Splendidly Miss Diana." Alfred answered. "Master Bruce should be here momentarily. If you wouldn't mind waiting in the library Miss, I will go and inform Master Bruce of your arrival."
Diana followed Alfred to the library where he left her to go and fetch the master of the Manor. She didn't become fixated on the books within the room this time as she had the first time she'd visited, but rather the details of the room itself. The furniture all looked comfortable as there were two couches as well as some reclining chairs to choose from. Each couch had a coffee table in front of it, and the chairs had nightstands placed between them. The couches faced towards a fireplace that was not lit at the moment. Above it there was a portrait of a couple. The couple looked happy together. The man looked very much like Bruce, but with different eyes and a mustache. Diana then looked at the woman and there she could spot Bruce's eyes. The portrait had to be of his parents. She recalled reading through some news clips and stories about the deaths of his parents. Looking at the portrait, she wondered if Bruce would have turned out differently had someone been able to save his parents. She was saddened for Bruce as she felt no one deserved to see their loved ones killed in such a manner.
Bruce walked into the doorway of the library and halted as soon as he saw Diana standing in front of the portrait of his parents. He just stood there taking in the scene before him. She was standing there with her hands placed behind her back, staring intently at the portrait. He wondered just what thoughts were going through her mind. He was surprised to find a single tear that escaped and traveled down her cheek. He found that he was captivated by her presence in that room. Without even thinking about it, Bruce's body almost took over his control as he walked up just behind her. She never noticed him as he approached and was startled as she heard him speak. "You would have liked them." He said quietly.
Diana jumped slightly and took a hand to wipe away the tear that had run down her cheek. How had Bruce snuck up on her like that? There was only one other person that had the ability to get so close to her without drawing her attention. When she regained her composure, she responded to him. "Oh, hello Bruce." She said. "From what I've read, your parents did seem to be very good people as man's world's representatives. I can only imagine how much you must miss them."
Bruce looked up over Diana's shoulders towards the portrait. "There's not a day that goes by where I don't wish that they were here today." He said solemnly.
Diana could hear the emotion dripping through Bruce's words. Without even looking at him she could sense his presence behind instantly becoming more sullen. Diana's heart broke for her friend. She wished there was something she could do, and instinctively turned opening her arms before wrapping Bruce up into a hug meant to offer comfort. He stood there in Diana's arms stunned for a moment. Showing such affection with regard to his parents was quite a foreign thought to him. A hug from her was something he'd definitely not expected. He actually found however that it wasn't entirely unwanted at the moment so he slowly and awkwardly placed his arms around her. They stood that way for almost a minute until Alfred came into the room with refreshments. He had started talking to Bruce and Diana before he walked into the room, and immediately regretted the unintended interruption.
Diana instantly let go of Bruce and took a step back. She stood with one arm at her side while the other was across her abdomen holding onto the straight arm just above the elbow. Her cheeks took on a pink hue as she had never before shown any intimate interaction towards a man whatsoever. Bruce turned towards his butler with a smirk on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck. He almost felt like a teenager getting caught in a compromising position by their parents. He wasn't sure why though. Nothing inappropriate had been happening between Diana and himself before Alfred walked in. Perhaps it was because she was in her uniform, which covered about as much skin as a one piece bathing suit.
Bruce and Diana took the drinks that Alfred had provided and sat together on a couch. Along with the drinks, Alfred also pulled together some information about charities that Bruce Wayne had been affiliated with in one form or another. Diana listened intently as Bruce went through any possibilities that might be beneficial for Diana to utilize. Bruce wasn't surprised to find that Diana was settling on mostly women's shelters as her main area of interest. He was able to provide her with a listing of contacts so that she could reach out and set up some time to discuss how she could help out the most.
They were both enjoying the evening. It wasn't every night where Diana could just let loose and relax, but being in the Manor with Bruce, she felt that it was actually a very easy task to accomplish. There was something that was very comforting about being around him. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was something familiar about him. He seemed so confident in himself at all times. The only instance where he'd not seemed confident was when Alfred had walked into the library earlier. She wanted to see if she could figure out what it was about that moment, and decided to change subjects. "So Bruce, how often is it that Alfred walks in while you are entertaining?" She asked.
Bruce had a sheepish grin on his face. "Well Diana, I'm not known as a playboy for nothing." Bruce joked before seriously answering her. "It's happened a couple of times, but never here at the Manor before. What about you? Have you had any other times where you've been caught in a compromising position?"
"Until I came to man's world with the pilot Steve Trevor that crashed on Themyscria, I'd never had any contact with a man before." Diana explained. "Mother and my fellow sisters all stayed on the island so there wasn't any need to worry about compromising positions."
Bruce placed both hands behind his head as he leaned back on the couch and smiled. "So, I was your first compromising position. Fascinating." He said.
"It seems I've fallen for your playboy charms Mr. Wayne." Diana smiled and gently nudged him in the stomach with an elbow. Bruce shot up abruptly upon that contact being made before he tried to cover up the pain from his still bruised ribs. "Hera Bruce, I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't know my own strength."
"No Diana, it wasn't you." Bruce said as Diana was trying to check for injuries. He had to think of an acceptable excuse quickly. "I took a bad fall while riding horseback a few days ago. Its just still a little tender there on my ribs is all." He said that just in time as Diana then felt a wrap around his ribcage. Hopefully she wouldn't try to investigate further, or she would find that still healing bullet wound on his chest.
Diana did stop checking on Bruce after hearing his explanation. She looked at him almost longingly. "You ride horses?" She asked. "Where?"
"Around the Manor grounds." He answered. "Why do you ask?"
"I haven't been able to ride since I left Themyscria." She explained.
"That's it then." Bruce said snapping his fingers as he adjusted how he was seated in an attempt to get more comfortable.
Diana looked at him questioningly now. "What is it?" She asked.
"Our next get together." He answered. "Horseback riding followed by a picnic. Plus if we do it here on the Manor grounds, then we wouldn't have to worry about the paparazzi bothering us looking for their next big scoop."
"That sounds like a wonderful idea Bruce." Diana said smiling. "Avoiding the media attention would be nice as well. They seem intent on making you and I out to be more than just friends even though I specifically have told them otherwise."
The grandfather clock began to chime, and Diana looked over to see that it had just passed midnight. "I should probably be going Bruce. It's getting late."
Bruce nodded and stood before leading Diana out to the main door. He opened the door for her and followed her outside before handing her the list of names and contact information they had gathered. "Let me know when you want to make our little horseback trip Diana." He suggested.
"I will Bruce." She responded before leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. "Thank you for your help tonight and sorry for staying here so late."
"No apologies Princess." Bruce replied. "I had a wonderful evening with you, elbows aside."
Diana chuckled at Bruce's gentle jab, and reached up to enable her communicator, where she requested transport back to the Watchtower. Her smiling face changed to confused however just before she disappeared in the bright lights. When she reappeared aboard the Watchtower, her mind was processing something that he'd just said. He'd called her princess.