"Now I suppose you are going to try to convince me to trust your judgment," Cedric said the moment they had moved out of hearing.

"Since when have you been using a cane," Elle asked, changing the subject.

He shrugged. "A couple of weeks. The doctor recommended it."

Elle frowned. "Are you still having problems with dizziness and weakness?"

Cedric murmured a non-response. "I am here to discuss you, young lady."

Elle blew at her breathe and wandered close to one of the windows overlooking the pool. She knew it would drive her father nuts. "There is nothing to discuss. I'm afraid you made this trip unnecessarily. You really should have called first."

"Would you have answered?"

Elle thought about it for a moment. "I don't know," she replied honestly. "When I got home tomorrow for sure, but here? I didn't realize that you would see that interview. Had I known, I would have called you first."

"And when were you planning on telling me that you were dating the son of Bruce Wayne?"

Elle looked at her father and scoffed. "Don't pretend you didn't know about him within minutes of my meeting him. You've had Edward and Hugh following me around for months."

"Mm," Cedric's response what non-committal.

"And pretending you thought I was dating Mr. Wayne was really just too bad of you."

Cedric snorted with repressed laughter. "His face was truly a sight, was it not?"

"I'm surprised he was willing to shake your hand later," Elle scolded. "This habit of yours of putting everyone in the room off-balance is annoying outside of the boardroom, Poppa."

She turned to watch Damian do a back flip off of the middle diving board. The boy was having so much fun he hadn't even noticed or cared about the drama happening out here. She couldn't help feeling a momentary pang of jealousy as he bobbed back to the surface and swam toward the ladder.

"You could have that again if you would just come home, Bella," her father said, quietly. "You could swim every day without worry."

"That's not fair, Poppa," she sighed. "To give up everything just to be able to swim? That is exactly why I have spent so many years yearning to get out on my own. My life isn't up for negotiation!"

"Of course it is," Cedric disagreed. "Everything you do in life is a negotiation!"

"It shouldn't be," she replied, hotly. "Not with family!"

"But you do miss it, don't you . . . Swimming?"

"You know I do," she glared at him. "It was why I am down here in a bathing suit, after all."

Cedric tsked at her. "You would risk your life for this, but refuse to come home where you had unlimited access?"

Angry, Elle turned back to the window. Damian attempted a double somersault from the middle board. His form is off, she thought. He needs to get more height, tuck tighter for more speed. His entry was too large because he hadn't quite made it out of his last turn before he met the water.

"I wasn't risking anything. I took an antihistamine earlier and I have my epi-pen of adrenaline in my pocket," she patted the robe where the pen was tucked. "Which I will remind you, I have never needed before. I thought this through, Poppa. It has been seven years since I last had a reaction, and that one only happened after continuous repeated exposures during the championship meet. I figured that I could manage an hour without a problem, and maybe, at most, have a little bit of itchiness later on."

Cedric shook his head. "The doctors told you that each reaction would be worse than the last; that there wasn't the possibility of building up a tolerance. The amount of time between exposures doesn't matter."

"I know all that," she argued. "But doctors are not infallible!"

"And yet look at you," he pointed at her. "You are still dry, and yet you are pale and breathless. You aren't even in the same room, and you can't even breathe!"

"That's not true," she told him. "I went into the pool area before I had any problem. As soon as I recognized that I might be having a bit of trouble, I immediately left the area."

Cedric narrowed his eyes at his daughter. "So, I am right. You didn't even have to touch the chlorine before it began affecting you, did you? The chlorine in the air alone did this to you!"

Elle watched as Damian started pulling himself up the tallest dive's ladder. "I'll admit it was scary fast this time. I was just about to tell Dick about the allergy when Edward, Hugh, and Lazlo barged in."

Cedric scowled. "You didn't bother to tell him about your allergy to chlorine beforehand? What if you had dived in and became unconscious? He wouldn't have known what to do for you! Did you even tell him about the epi-pen in your pocket?"

"My reaction wasn't all that bad the last time," she defended. "How was I to know it would be this bad? It's been seven years . . ."

"Yes, so you keep saying," Cedric grumbled. "Bella, you are all that's left of my Esmeralda. I could not bear to lose you, too."

Elle's eyes followed Damian as he made his way to the end of the board. Maybe the extra height would give him time to complete both somersaults . . . She wanted to be out there with him. She could tell him what he was doing wrong, and teach him numerous other tricks. Maybe how to add a twist to his somersaults . . .

"You aren't going to lose me, Poppa," she told him. "But another stunt like this, and you might just succeed in driving me away permanently. You're actions are unacceptable to me!"

Bruce was furious with the intrusion, but then, Dick was, too. Alfred was upset because he had allowed the men entry, only to have three of them run off on him without an escort.

Dick glanced over his shoulder at Elle and her father having a semi-heated discussion. He couldn't hear anything, however, which drove him a little crazy. Surely the man wouldn't convince her to return to Chicago . . .

His worry about that scenario was tempered by the warmth that Elle's vigorous defense of him had created. She didn't even know about his other life as Nightwing, and yet she called him a 'hero'! She saw qualities in his character that weren't as obvious to one who was not also familiar with his alter-ego. Dick had had the feeling that standing up to her father was a problem, and yet she had demanded that the man treat not only Dick, but the rest of his family with respect. He had been almost as surprised that Cedric Hamilton had given in to her without argument as he had been with her description of his character.

Well, she had just an hour ago told him she would fight for him, hadn't she? Who knew she would get that opportunity so soon?

But what had really gotten to him the most was the sincerity he and everyone present had heard in her voice. She had meant every word . . . His heart seemed to beat a little harder, a little faster, because of it.

He turned his attention onto the three bodyguards. Two he had seen before. Elle had pointed them out to him the first night they had gone out for coffee. He managed to ignore them for the most part, and didn't begrudge her the extra protection. He remembered the man who had attacked her previously, and the actions of those three men in the club. What might have happened had he and Bruce not been there?

"You are Hamilton's guard, Lazlo," Hugh was snarling. "You do not have the right to lay hands on Miss Arabella! You protect Hamilton and leave his daughter to Edward and me."

Lazlo scoffed. "If you two were doing your jobs correctly, then Miss Arabella would still be home in Chicago instead of worrying her father."

"Gentlemen, enough!" Bruce glared at the four men. "Neither needs your protection while in my house. I think it would be better for all concerned if you would remove yourselves to your vehicle post haste."

"I disagree, Mr. Wayne," Edward replied. "Just the fact that Miss Arabella was planning to go swimming here is concern enough. And you," he pointed a finger at Dick. "You were just going to let her?"

Taken aback by the accusation, Dick argued. "She likes to swim. It was the only reason we offered! You keep talking like swimming is a bad thing for her, but I've seen her swim in a lake and in the Gotham River already."

Hugh waved his argument away. "That's different."

Tim frowned, speaking up for the first time. "How so?"

The two men glanced at each other and frowned at the boy.

"Wait," Hugh held up a hand. "You don't know, do you?"

Dick shook his head, confused. "Know what?"

Edward looked at Hugh. "She didn't tell him."

"Tell me what?" Dick's voice was rising with his frustration.

Hugh blew out a frustrated breath of his own. "Arabella is allergic to chlorine," he stated. "Severely allergic . . ."

Dick blinked. "What?"

Bruce moved closer. "Why would she not tell us this?"

Edward shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she wanted to impress you? Maybe she was embarrassed? Maybe she just wanted to swim, you know? It has been many years since the last incident. Maybe she thought it wouldn't be a problem if she didn't stay in water long."

Hugh explained a little bit more. "The first and last time it became an issue was during the championship swim meet at the end of the competitive season when she was sixteen. Her father had paid to replace the school's pool with a specialized salt water pool. When he learned that she had wanted to join the swim team, he had volunteered to replace the pools at all the schools that she would be competing at."

Edward took over the explanation. "Mrs. Hamilton, Arabella's mother, also had an allergy to chlorine. It had been hoped that Arabella hadn't inherited the allergy, but it was never really tested because all of the changes Mr. Hamilton had made to accommodate his wife benefited their daughter as well. The pool renovations were done just in case. No one, however, expected Arabella to do quite so well."

"I don't know why since the girl and her mother both swam like fish. Perhaps because there had never been any competition to compare them to . . . No one realized how good they actually were," Hugh said.

Edward continued the story. "She basically blew all the competition out of the water." Hugh groaned at the pun, but Edward went on, ignoring him. "It was at the championship meet that the problem emerged. It was held at a different location. At first, Arabella did great with no noticeable problems, but with each consecutive event, she grew paler, weaker, slower. Amazingly enough, however, she still won, but upon exiting the pool that final time, her lips had turned blue and her skin blotchy. She began hyperventilating, and finally collapsed. She spent a week in the hospital."

Hugh nodded. "She was better in just a few hours, but no one knew what had caused the problem, so she remained while the doctors ran test after test."

"Turns out that, like her mother, Arabella is allergic to chlorine. Not just allergic, however . . . Chlorine is like a poison to her. It affects everything! And worse, the doctors told her that she cannot build an immunity to it. Each exposure has the potential to be worse than the last, with devastating results if not prepared. She carries an epi-pen of adrenaline with her everywhere." Edward looked at Dick. "She didn't show you the pen?"

Dick shook his head.

"But there is chlorine in the drinking water," Tim said.

Dick slapped his head. "She only drinks bottled water."

Hendricks spoke up. "Made by Hamilton Industries. Also, I was with Mr. Hamilton when he ordered the work done on her apartment. There are specialized filters that reduce the chlorine in all the water there to almost non-existent levels, just in case. No one really knows exactly how much chlorine it takes to cause a reaction."

Dick looked devastated himself. He had no idea . . . Remembering her reaction to just the chlorine in the air, the idea of what might have happened had she actually dove into the pool was frightening.

A terrified cry went up behind him. All of the men spun around, looking for the threat.

"Stop her," Cedric Hamilton yelled.

More questions . . . Soon. The answers will come soon! More excitement coming up!