A/N - Thank you for the reviews and alerts. It makes me happy to know that someone is enjoying reading this as much as I am having a good time writing it. OH, and I really appreciate the PM's too...even if I didn't get a chance to respond to them.

Bruce walked in the room, carrying the last box that had been shoved inside the small Matrix and he put it down. He looked around the room, seeing the pile of boxes, a large garbage bag of clothing and the extra suitcase sitting on the floor. He was about to sit down on his bed when he remembered that he was still soaked from head to toe.

He looked towards the bathroom, hearing the shower running. He smiled, and pushed the door open. Steam quickly escaped the room and he shut the door behind him.

Emily heard the click of the door. She quickly rubbed her hand across the glass door, erasing the fog that was obscuring her view. She saw Bruce's back as he pulled the wet shirt over his head.

"What are you doing?"

Hearing her voice, he turned, placing the shirt on the counter. He smiled.

"Joining you," he said. "Because, I just finished bringing all of your things and I'm cold and wet."

Emily chuckled, turning around to allow the shampoo to run from her hair. She turned back around just as Bruce opened the door and stepped in.

"This is much better," he commented with a smile, feeling the water hit him from the faucet on the opposite wall. The beads of water dripped over his shoulders and down his chest.

Why did he have to come in the shower with me?

"Warmer?"

"Much."

Emily smirked, turning around in an effort to keep her mind on anything but the naked man behind her. She eyed the container of shampoo and poured some into her hand before running it through her hair. Finally, she turned around, allowing the falling water to wash it away.

Bruce was staring at her.

"What?"

"I was certain that I saw you washing shampoo out of your hair when I walked into the room."

Emily thought for a moment until she realized that he was right. She laughed and shook her head.

"See," she said, holding out a finger. "This is what happens when you come in the shower with me."

Bruce smirked, taking a step forward.

"What happens?"

Emily smiled coyly. "I forget things. You're distracting."

"Am I distracting you?"

He was standing right in front of her. She nodded.

"It's quite annoying actually," Emily admitted, with a smile.

"I'll get out then, if I'm interrupting your shower," he said, as Emily reached forward and took him by his head and placed her lips over his.

Bruce wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling him close to her before pressing her body against the back wall of the shower. The water cascaded over their faces for a moment and Bruce reached out, turning off the showers.

Emily chuckled into his kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck, until she suddenly gasped and pinched her eyes tightly.

"Damn it!" she exclaimed.

Bruce looked at her then he realized the problem. Shampoo.

He reached around her and turned the faucet back on. Emily quickly put her face under the falling water, feeling much better although the sting was still there. She ran her hair under the water to ensure that this time, all the shampoo was gone.

She turned around and opened her eyes.

Bruce could see the redness in the left one.

"I'm sorry for ruining the mood," she said, sympathetically.

Bruce reached past her, and turned off the faucet again, once again coming near her. He gently kissed her shoulder, her neck and then went up to her ear.

"I don't think you could," he whispered, before kissing her neck once again.

Bruce smiled, hearing her sigh.

Emily's leg was tangled up in the sheet and she was cold. That much she knew.

The heavier comforter was no longer on the bed and the chill in the room made her beg for it. Holding the thin sheet to her chest, she sat up. The mid-day light peeked through the closed, heavy curtains and she winced at the brightness when it caught her eye.

She glanced back at Bruce, seeing his bare back facing towards her as he had a good portion of the sheet tucked under himself. It was then that she saw the large blanket. It was on the floor beside Bruce and she suddenly remembered him pushing it off the bed at some point that morning. Slowly, she leaned in towards Bruce, and carefully reached overtop of him. She glanced down at his face. His eyes were closed.

"If you were wanting the blanket, all you had to do was ask."

Emily looked down and saw Bruce turn his head towards her and open his eyes. She pushed her hair behind her ears and smiled.

"I thought you were sleeping. I didn't want to wake you," she explained, as he reached up and brushed her cheek as she rested her chin on his shoulder.

"I was already awake," he said with a smile, before he reached over and grabbed the blanket on the floor and pulled it up onto the bed. With a quick motion, he spread it out over them.

When he looked over at Emily, she was on her stomach, looking at him.

"I'd love to stay here all day," Bruce said, pushing her hair away from her face with a finger. "But I have a late afternoon meeting that I should get ready for."

Emily smirked, pushing her head up.

"And then I thought that I'd take you out to dinner and afterwards, you and I would have a date in the gym," he said, watching her mind try to figure out what she was meaning. "I gave some thought into what you said last night. It's not going to be pleasant. If I'm going to teach you anything, I'm not going to make it easy for you."

Emily leaned forward and kissed him briefly on his lips.

"I wouldn't want you to sugarcoat it for me," she said.

Bruce smiled, leaned in to her just as they heard a knock at the door.

"Is that Alfred?" Emily asked, lightly pushing against Bruce.

"Ignore it," Bruce said, leaning back in to kiss her.

"Master Bruce, you had requested that I wake you by 3 in order for you to get to Wayne Tower for today's meeting."

Emily pushed on Bruce's chest once again, and he dropped his head to the pillow.

"I'm up!" he called out, with more than a hint of frustration. "I'll be down shortly."

Emily smiled weakly before moving away so that Bruce could sit up. He got up and gathered his clothes from the closet. Meanwhile, Emily laid back down, enjoying the warmth that remained beneath the blankets.

Bruce paused as he pulled his dress shirt over his arms. He turned to Emily as he began to do up the buttons.

"Why don't you come along? I can't see the meeting lasting that long and we can go directly out to dinner following it."

Emily sat up, holding the warm blankets against herself.

"You could wait in my office," Bruce further suggested.

She shrugged. "And that would be all right?"

He shrugged.

"It's my office and my building," he said, playfully with a wink.

Emily smiled, sliding out from between the sheets.

"I'd better get moving then," she said, smirking at Bruce as she walked by and into the bathroom. "I wouldn't want to make you late for that meeting."

Emily looked out from the 67th storey office window. Gotham looked completely different from height. One would never guess the amount of crime that plagued the cities arteries. It was beautiful with the newly green buds decorating the trees in the parks around the city.

She turned and sat down in Bruce's chair at his desk.

They had gained a lot of attention when they were spotted walking into Wayne Tower side by side. Emily could see the security officers stand up from their desk in the lobby, almost anticipating their assistance to get through the busy foot-traffic outside of the building. Bruce had taken her hand as they made their way through the lobby, to the elevator and then up to his office on the 67th floor where he reluctantly left her 45 minutes earlier.

Emily spun around in his chair and faced the desk. She noted that the man barely had anything sitting on top. Curiously, she pulled open a drawer beside her finding it filled with a few pens, and other essential office stationary. She tugged on the lower drawer as it stuck a bit more and pulled hard. The drawer suddenly opened and a large metal box slid forward.

She looked up towards the closed door, wondering if anyone would have heard the crash and came to investigate. Curiously, she gently picked up the box and noticed that the lid was locked.

The sound of a knock on the door startled her. Quickly, she placed the box back into the drawer and closed it before walking over to the door.

When she opened the door, Mr. Fox was surprised to see her. His arms were full of rolls of paper and files. She helped him by taking the rolls of paper from under his arms. Lucius turned and closed the door behind him.

"Dr. Tucker, Mr. Wayne told me that you were in here," Fox said, with a smile. "I'm just wanting to drop these off for him to look over."

"Is the meeting over?"

Lucius nodded. "Unfortunately, once the investors realized that Bruce was fluent in Mandarin, they insisted on speaking further with him. I doubt that any of it has to do with business."

Emily smiled weakly, glancing up at the clock on the wall. It was well after 4.

"I'm about to head down to applied sciences, if you're wanting to join me," Lucius said, with a twinkling in his eye.

"I'd love to," Emily said, joining him by the bookcase as it slid open to reveal a hidden elevator, much like the one that was in Fox's office.

"Have you been busy down here?" she asked as the door opened to the large restricted level of Wayne Tower.

Fox chuckled. "Just you wait and see."

She walked alongside him as they walked up to a large illuminated table. He took the rolls of paper from her and placed them near the edge of the table.

"Mr Wayne and I have been working on this," he said. "Actually, it's been more of just myself but Bruce has given me a lot of suggestions on design."

Emily looked down at the large scaled blueprint of an odd-shaped airplane.

"What is it called?"

Fox shrugged as he crossed his arms, looking down at the blueprint.

"We haven't come up with anything official yet. It has a long Wayne Enterprises designation right now," he replied. "But when it's complete, it'll be able to make quick maneuvers around buildings and be small enough that it would be able to just barely fit inside the Battery tunnel."

Emily smiled, turning to Fox.

"I wouldn't even want to drive a car down there, let alone this!"

Fox nodded. "Agreed, but they were part of Mr. Wayne's designs."

The sound of the elevator opening caught Fox's attention and he turned as Bruce walked up to them. He noticed them standing around the large blueprint on the table.

"Did Mr. Fox show you your Christmas present?"

Emily turned, and smirked. "Aw, you shouldn't have."

Bruce leaned in and briefly kissed her lips. "I'm sorry that I was longer than I thought."

"No problem," Emily said, with a smile. "Are you ready to go?"

He winced. "Actually, we've had some change in plans." Bruce looked over at Lucius.

"Mr. Fox, would you be free for dinner tonight?"

Lucius looked from Bruce to Emily.

"I'm not wanting to intrude."

"Our foreign investors are insisting on taking us out for dinner before they leave the country. I mentioned that my girlfriend was waiting for me and they suggested that they take all three of us out," Bruce explained.

"Can you just say that you're unavailable for the evening?"

Once again, he winced. "Emily, I can't. They are investors into the company and in their custom, to refuse their generosity is like a slap in the face. I can't do that."

Although she nodded, he could see the disappointment on her face. This was the second time that their plans for dinner had been changed. She was still hungry and decided to make the most of it.

"Do they speak any English?" Emily asked as they rode the elevator back up to his office.

"A little," Bruce replied. "Mr. Choi, one of the investors, his wife came along with him to Gotham and he told me that she speaks a little bit of English."

Emily felt her cell phone suddenly vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out, indicating that she had a new voice mail.

"I didn't even hear it ring," she commented.

"There is a communications grid set up around Applied Sciences," he said, as they stepped out of the elevator. "No signals in or out."

She nodded as she picked up her purse off a chair in Bruce's office.

"It's probably a machine asking if I've been satisfied with my cell service." She tossed the cell phone into her purse. "I'll check the message later."

Emily figured that she might as well had been sitting in the middle of a foreign film. She couldn't understand a word of the conversations that went on around her. Bruce sat beside her at the table and she watched as he spoke, almost eloquently in the strange language. Lucius sat across from her as he attempted to speak with one of the investors who seemed to know the most English as he sought assistance from their hired translator.

Emily smiled at Mrs. Choi as she sat across from her husband. After meeting the woman, it was obvious that they wouldn't have much in common. She barely spoke English. Mrs. Choi was in her mid-twenties. She was a very petite and slender woman and barely ate more than a quarter of the size of what Emily had eaten off her plate. Her skin appeared flawless and her hair was perfect. The woman made Emily feel extremely self-conscious.

For a moment, Emily caught Lucius' eye. He smiled politely before Bruce suddenly turned to her. The oriental man sitting beside him seemed to be very insistent for Bruce to say something to her.

"Emily, Mr. Choi is asking if you have ever travelled to China?"

She shook her head, looking over to the man sitting on the other side of Bruce. "I've never been out of this country."

Emily watched as Bruce quickly translated her answer to the man sitting beside him. The man nodded and began speaking, looking to Emily.

"He says that if we ever come to his country, that we would have a place to stay with him," Bruce said.

Emily smiled and thanked him. The man seemed to understand her words and went on to continue to speak. She watched as Bruce quickly and suddenly put down his glass of water and shook his head before he spoke to the man with a smile on his face.

"What is he saying?"

Bruce chuckled and shook his head.

"He wants us to have a honeymoon in China and visit his family," Bruce said. "I tried to explain that we weren't getting married."

Emily let out a light, nervous laugh and took a drink of water from her glass.

The oriental man spoke quickly as he gestured to his wife across from him before placing his hand on Bruce's shoulder. Bruce replied to the man's words in the foreign language. Emily glanced at Lucius as she realized the man could understand a portion of the words that were exchanged. Lucius looked over at Emily and smiled.

"What's going on?" she asked him, softly.

Lucius cleared his throat, before wiping his mouth with the cloth napkin.

"Perhaps you should ask Mr. Wayne."

Emily turned back to Bruce as he continued to speak. She watched the investors look at Bruce intently as he gestured to Emily beside him. Not knowing what was being told or why he was including her into the topic of conversation was very unsettling.

Finally he ended his words with a toast to Mr. Choi who nodded fervently as he looked over to Emily. Bruce turned in his seat and placed his wine glass back in front of his plate.

"What was I just oblivious to?" she whispered.

Bruce smiled, as a waitress placed a plate of food in front of him. He glanced up at her, putting on his customary Bruce Wayne charm.

"Just business stuff," he replied, with a smirk. Emily scoffed.

"Business stuff, my ass," she quickly retorted softly. "What the hell was that about a honeymoon?"

"Oh that."

She wasn't impressed with his avoidance of the topic..

"Yes, that."

Bruce sighed, as he turned to her to speak softly and out of the ear of any nearby waitress.

"Mr. Choi was under the impression that we were getting married. The words must have gotten mixed up in the translation."

Emily coughed and chuckled.

"No kidding. What did you tell him then?"

Bruce pulled out the napkin from beside him and placed it over his lap.

"The truth."

Emily wanted to strangle him because of the numerous cryptic statements he had been giving her all evening.

"Which is what exactly?"

He paused and looked over at Lucius who merely glanced at Bruce for a brief moment before engaging in a conversation with the investors around him once again. Bruce turned in his seat towards Emily and lowered his voice.

"I told him that we're both busy people and to get involved in a life-long relationship with each other wouldn't be the best thing for us. He was trying to convince me that being busy wasn't a valid reason to forgo spending your life with someone whom you love."

Bruce paused for a moment as he shrugged, somewhat nervously.

"And then he went on and on about his marriage with his wife and a lot of other things that I wish that I didn't have the ability to overhear."

Emily smirked as Bruce reached for his glass to take a drink.

"We are busy people," Emily reaffirmed aloud for both of them.

Bruce nodded in agreement. "That we are. With lots of responsibilities."

This time Emily nodded. "Lots."

She paused. "So, is there ever a good reason?"

As though it answered her, her cell phone began to ring. The sound caught the attention of the other people at the table. With an apologetic smile, Emily stood up, excusing herself from the table and went towards the wash rooms before answering the call.

"Hello?"

"Emily," the voice said. She instantly recognized it as Bill, but he sounded different.

"Bill? Half of Gotham has been looking for you! Where the hell are you?"

The sound of a laughter coming from a nearby table made it nearly impossible to hear Bill's voice.

"I can't say," he replied.

Emily plugged her other ear with her finger, as she ducked into the ladies washroom in order to hear him better.

"Bill, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he replied. She could hear his voice wavering. The otherwise confident doctor was sounding as though he was near his breaking point. It certainly wasn't him.

"I know you, Bill and you don't sound fine," she said. "Let me know where you are and I can get help to you."

"That's quite a big promise you're making, Doctor."

Emily paused with the new voice she heard on the phone. Jonathan Crane.

"Who is this?"

"I think you already know who I am," he said. "We met a few times at the clinic. While searching the good Doctor's computer, it became apparent to me that you and him are quite good friends and have had a relationship in the past. You've exchanged some personal emails before and I'm guessing that by what I've read, that you're the one that broke it off. I find that interesting. Do you have some sort of commitment issue? It makes me wonder how your current relationship with Mr. Wayne is going."

"What do you want?"

She heard Crane chuckle.

"What makes you think that I want something?"

"Why else would you call?"

"Why do you answer every single one of my questions with another question?"

"You're being evasive," she countered, not even skipping a beat.

"Touché."

She heard him sigh.

"Now, since you and Bruce Wayne are very close and Wayne isn't hurting for money, I have a favour to ask. If you want to keep him safe as well as Doctor Dravis here, you will deliver 3 million in cash to me. No cops and no word about this to Wayne."

"How do you suppose that I'll be able to get 3 million dollars from Bruce Wayne without him knowing?"

"You snagged the billionaire. You must be a resourceful woman," he said. "Figure it out, or people will die and their blood will be on your hands."

"Fine," she seethed softly. "I'll get you the money."

"Good girl. I'll call you at a later time to discuss location."

Crane suddenly hung up. Emily looked down at the phone, seeing the number was unknown, the same as the call she received earlier. She quickly checked her voice mail and heard a click after a brief pause.

She felt tears come to her eyes when she realized that her hand was shaking as she held onto the phone. Emily looked up at the mirror and saw her pale reflection looking back at her. With a deep sigh and a look of determination put on her face, she pocketed the cell phone before pulling the door open.

She walked out into the large dining room and bumped into Bruce.

"I was just coming to check on you," he said, with a smile that quickly faded as he looked at her face. It must have changed. "What's wrong?"

Emily looked past him at the busy table where they had been sitting minutes prior.

"Bill called. We need to go," she said softly.

Emily watched as a mask fell over Bruce's face.

"Okay," he said. He looked over his shoulder to the busy restaurant and their table behind him. Bruce turned back to Emily. "I want you to slap me on the face."

"I'm not going to slap you, Bruce!" she exclaimed softly.

"If we're going to get out of here without having to give a reason, you're going to have to slap me".

"I can't just slap you for no reason."

He gestured towards one of the waitresses.

"Imagine me saying this to her," he said as he leaned forward to whisper in Emily's ear. Although the words he said nearly made her weak in the knees, but she simply imagined if he ever said them to anyone else. In shock, she slapped Bruce across the face. A deafening crack echoed throughout the restaurant as eyes fell upon Bruce and Emily. She quickly walked past him and grabbed her coat from her chair, giving an apologetic smile to Mr. Fox before turning to leave.

Bruce walked slowly up to the table, a hand against his face.

"I need to go, Mr. Fox," Bruce said.

Lucius nodded, seeing a look in the younger man's face. He had come to know Bruce Wayne well enough to know that the slap was a facade. "Of course."

They both glanced towards the doorway as flashes of light shone through the window, indicating that the media outside had caught notice of the exchange as well.

He quickly turned to the investors at the table, explaining the situation in Mandarin to which they understood. Bruce turned to Lucius and shook his hand.

"Give my regards to Dr. Tucker," Lucius said softly, as Bruce nodded before following the woman out the door and into the crowd of photographers.

Bruce shook his head as he drove them through the city in the early evening. Emily had explained the details of the phone call to him. The pain he felt on his face was no longer felt. He pulled the car up to a red light and glanced over at Emily.

"I don't want you meeting with Crane."

"We don't have any other choice," she countered. "If I don't do it, he may end up killing Bill and who knows what he'd do to you if he had the chance."

"He just wants money and he knows that getting it through you would be easy," Bruce said. He paused for a moment. "He wont get to me."

"Can you guarantee that?"

"I am always careful, Emily," Bruce said. "You must know that."

"I do," she replied, softly, trying to convince herself.

She felt his hand rest on top of hers. Emily turned her hand and entwined her fingers with his.

"And I worry about you, so you know why I don't want you do this."

"Right now, your best shot at taking Crane down is this deal," Emily said. "Bill, unfortunately is involved and even though we've had issues in the past, I don't want anything to happen to him. He's a good man."

Bruce sighed, as the light changed back to green and he drove the car forward down the street.

"Did Crane say anything about when or where to meet?"

Emily shook her head. "No. He just said that he'd call back. I don't know when that'll be."

He glanced over at her as he continued to drive down the road. "If you're adamant about doing this, we have some work to do."