By the time Elle had found a bathing suit and changed, everyone was already downstairs. Dick was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs in a t-shirt, swimming trunks and a towel. Elle smirked at his choices.

"That's what you are wearing," she asked him, disbelief in her voice. "I thought you said something about wanting to race me."

Dick looked down at his trunks. They were red and loose and hung down to his knees. "What? This is the style, I'll have you know! I didn't think you expected a fashion show at the pool."

She grinned at him, stopping on the bottom tread so she could kiss him without having to stretch. "No, not a fashion show, but maybe some serious competition. You do realize that the drag from those trunks will only slow you down?"

"Mm," he murmured appreciatively against her lips. "Next time I'll wear my Speedos."

Elle snorted with laughter. "Yeah, do that," she giggled. "Wear your Speedos. At least I'll be entertained while I wait for you at the finish line."

Dick pulled playfully at the front of her robe. "So, what do you have under there? Fins?"

She slapped lightly at his hands. "Just the only suit available that I could wear that wouldn't give your little brother details about the female anatomy that he shouldn't get until his honeymoon. You know, Bruce should consider having a larger selection of one-pieces."

Dick was leading her toward the back of the house. There were two entrances to the indoor pool, but the closer one was through the gym. "I'll mention it to him. Eh," he looked back over his shoulder as the doorbell sounded. "I wonder who that could be? Not many people visit us unannounced on a Sunday afternoon."

Elle paused, but Dick tugged her arm.

"Alfred will get it. Whoever it is will want Bruce, not us," he assured her.

Dick opened the door to the gym for her. Elle entered and stared, clearly in awe.

"Wow! Do you guys really use all this stuff? It feels like an Olympic training facility." She stopped to look at the various gymnastic equipment. "Is this yours?"

Dick was grinning, draping an arm across the lower bar of the uneven parallel bars Bruce had given it to him at Christmas after he had first arrived at Wayne Manor. He had still been eight at the time, but Bruce hadn't wanted to wait another three months until his ninth birthday to give it to him. It was generally used by women gymnasts, but it helped him greatly on the trapeze when he was young, and even now it continued to help him improve his fighting style and line work.

"Yup," he said. "Although Bruce and my brothers will occasionally use them as well. They are mostly just mine."

Elle's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, touching the oiled leather of the pommel horse. "Will you show me some of your moves before we leave?"

Dick's smile faltered for a second, but Elle wasn't looking at him to notice. "Uh, sure," he told her. "But I'm kind of out of practice. I'm not as good as I used to be."

Elle looked back at him, knowingly. "You are better than I am, so that makes you pretty good. I always wanted to learn gymnastics."

"Why didn't you?"

She shrugged, trailing her hand across the balance beam next. "I don't know. I mean, I've done some tumbling and a few flips, but I'm not really a gymnast. Everything was always geared towards swimming. The little bit that I have done was only to improve my dives. But if you want to give me a few lessons, I might not fall out of the canoe the next time we go to the lake."

"Consider it done, my lady," Dick promised, laughing as he bowed low. "But now about the pool . . . Everyone is probably already in there."

Elle moved towards the wall of windows that separated the pool area from the gym. She could see three sets of diving boards at the far end through the great expanse of glass.

"It looks to be huge!"

"It is," Dick said. "The outdoor pool is Olympic size, but this one is a close second."

"How deep is it," she asked, getting excited. She loved diving and swimming along the bottom.

"Twenty feet. Bruce will sometimes use it or the outdoor pool to practice scuba diving."

"Do you dive?"

"We were all certified; here and in the ocean." He nodded.

"I was, too. I dive in the Lake as well," she said. Of course, she seldom dived deep enough that she needed scuba gear, although her father and brother often chose to use the gear when they would dive with her.

She credited her powerful lungs to both singing and diving. She still held the record for holding her breath the longest in her school. She never really pushed the envelope, however, and would surface before she actually needed to breathe.

Dick pulled the door to the pool open, and Elle stepped in. Everyone waved and called greetings to them, but Elle's attention was elsewhere as a wave of warm, chlorine-scented air washed over her.

She gasped, her eyes widening in shock. Her face grew noticeably paler. Dick grabbed her arm immediately, as he had been watching for her reaction to the pool as they entered. He just hadn't expected her to nearly faint.

"What's wrong? Here, sit down before you fall down," he said, leading her to a lounge chair.

"No! Not here," she wheezed. "Outside . . . the gym."

"What? Oh, okay, sure," Dick did a one-eighty, helping her back to the gym. He was alarmed by the sudden pallor, the sheen of sweat, and the trembling, but it was her breathing that frightened him most. She sounded like she was having a full-blown asthma attack.

Damian was climbing the ladder to the high dive, but Bruce and Tim had been watching, and were now rushing out of the pool to see what the matter was. Grabbing their towels, they followed the couple back out into the gym.

Elle's legs were wobbly, but she was determined to get as far from the pool as possible before collapsing. She could barely speak as it was.

"Elle, you need to sit down," Dick was telling her. He looked a little pale himself.

"There," she pointed to the mats against the wall. It wasn't far enough, but it was as far as she could manage. "Over . . . there," she panted.

They hadn't taken many steps when the doors to the gym were pushed open and three men barreled in. As soon as they spotted Elle, they bee-lined to her. Bruce scowled at the invasion and moved to intercept them, Tim right behind him.

"Who the hell are you," he growled. "What the hell are you doing in my home? Where's Alfred?"

One of the men stopped in front of him, but the other two merely circled around him. Tim jumped in front of one of the men, blocking his path.

"We're not here for trouble," the first man told Bruce.

"That's interesting, because you've managed to find it anyway!"

"We're here for Arabella," he finished.

The third man shoved Dick away, grabbing Elle's arm roughly. "It's time for you to go home, miss," he exclaimed.

Dick spun around, moving into a fighting stance. "Take your hands off of her – NOW!"

She gaped to discover her father's bodyguard attempting to drag her bodily towards the door. "Lazlo? . . . What are . . . you doing here?" She looked around her. "Where is . . . Poppa? He must be . . . here somewhere!"

Her breathing was improving, and some color was slowly returning to her face, but she still felt weakened by just that simple exposure. That had never happened to her before. Hours of exposure to chlorine in the air could make her hoarse, and give her a bit of a cough, but never had it affected her breathing – and so quickly!

Dick grabbed Lazlo's wrist, squeezing a pressure point in order to get him to release Elle's arm. He whipped it behind Lazlo's back and shoved him away from them both.

"You don't touch her," he snarled at the man.

Lazlo spun around, and took a threatening step in Dick's direction. "I'm about to teach you some manners, boy!"

"Lazlo!" The man speaking to Bruce yelled at Cedric Hamilton's personal bodyguard. "You're not allowed to touch Miss Bella," he growled.

Her wits returning and her breath caught, Elle stared at the other two men. "Hugh? Edward? What are you doing here? Where is Poppa?"

"I'm right here," Cedric Hamilton, cane in hand, came through the door to the gym with Alfred. His second bodyguard, Hendricks, trailed behind him. "And you, young lady, are going home to Chicago! No arguments!"

"No, Poppa, I'm not," Elle straightened. She could not show weakness to this man. Beloved daughter or not, weakness in front of him was much like blood in the water was for a shark.

"You will, whether you like it or not. Do you realize what it was like for me to see you on the evening news last night? A police shootout? Diving off of bridges after cars?" He paused a moment to take in the scene around him. Instead of calming down, his face reddened with anger. "And now what is this? You planned to swim," he sniffed the air. "In a chlorinated pool, no less?"

Dick glanced at Elle, confused and angry with this unwanted intrusion. Her face paled once more at her father's words. "Elle, you still need to sit down."

"This only proves that you are not ready to go out on your own if this is an example of the kind of decisions you make for yourself."

"Cedric Hamilton, I presume," Bruce moved to intercept the elder man, his hand extended.

Cedric looked Bruce up and down. "Wayne." He nodded, brusquely. "Keep your paws off of my daughter."

"Poppa," Elle gasped, as Bruce goggled. "Mr. Wayne is my host!"

"That's not what he looks like from here," Cedric harrumphed. "The man's standing in front of my daughter in his skivvies!"

Elle had had enough. Recovered sufficiently, she stormed forward. She always granted the man respect, never arguing with him in public, but she knew they were not going to have that kind of luxury here; not if she planned to stay. And the one thing that she knew absolutely would not happen this day was returning to Chicago.

Grabbing Dick's hand, she pulled him after her. Stopping in front of her father, she presented him. "Poppa, this is the man I am seeing: Richard Grayson. He's the adopted son of Mr. Wayne; his eldest son." She tossed that bit of info in because her ridiculously old-fashioned father would consider it important. "Dick, this is my father: Cedric Hamilton."

Cedric's eyes narrowed as he took Dick apart and put him back together again in a few seconds. "The cop?" He looked back at his daughter. "You are dating that cop on television; the one who was wearing that ludicrous bat suit."

Elle stepped in front of Dick, to better confront her father's rudeness. "Yes," she hissed, as angry at the man than she had ever been before. "I am dating that hero who saved a woman's life despite his own injuries. I am dating a man who has consistently put my feelings and needs in front of his own since we met. I am dating a man of strength, courage, and integrity; someone who puts himself on the line for the good of others. And you will treat him and his family with respect or the conversation is over. Do you understand me?"

There was a moment of stunned silence following that statement. Cedric stared at his daughter with an unreadable expression. If he were waiting for her to flinch or back down, he knew he would be waiting until the apocalypse. This was why he wanted her in the business. Damn, but she would be something to see glaring down her competition over a negotiation table!

He understood her perfectly also. Likely Wayne didn't, at least not yet. He wasn't certain about Grayson, however, but they probably didn't understand what she had meant by "over". He did. If he didn't do as she demanded, there would be no more conversations – ever. All conversations would be over as far as she was concerned, and he would lose her. His little girl never did anything by halves. She chose her fights with care, but when she did step into the ring, you could bet your bottom dollar that she would come out on top.

Cedric sighed, conceding defeat. The conversation was not over, however. But he wasn't a fool, either. He knew when to strategically retreat.

He pursed his lips, considering the couple in front of him. Grayson was eyeing him like a lion did a piece of steak. Cedric could tell he didn't often allow someone to fight his battles for him, but apparently his little Bella found a man who did indeed respect her enough to represent him. They appeared united in this. The edges of his lips quirked up at that idea.

He liked that, he decided; the two of them against the world. He stuck his hand out to the young man hovering protectively at Arabella's shoulder. "Grayson, it's a pleasure." Dick shook his hand cautiously. He didn't return Cedric's smile.

He turned around to face Wayne. "Forgive my intrusion, Wayne. I was wrong in my assumptions."

Bruce shook Cedric's hand, but his expression remained reserved as well. Fine, Cedric could respect that. He had just barged into the man's home without even a phone call, and then proceeded to insult both the man and his family.

"Now, then," he said, turning back to his daughter. "Since this conversation is far from over, can we complete it in some semblance of privacy?"

"You can use my study," Bruce offered, rather graciously, Cedric thought.

"No, we will have it here," Elle stated. "We can step over here," she indicated a spot near the windows overlooking the pool.

"Ever the defiant lass, aren't you," he asked, even as he used his cane to limp in the direction she indicated.

"You love that about me," she said. "Admit it."

He smiled. Yes, he did.