Disclaimer: Batman is the property of DC Comics, movie rights is the property of Warner Brothers. In short; I do not own Batman. The only characters that belong to me are the original characters I've created, including Connie Tate, her family and some of her colleagues in research.
Author's Notes: My second venture into the realm of the bat, and (hopefully) my first longer story in the fandom. Reviews are, as always, greatly appreciated. Read and enjoy.

With the push of a button, he had the whole world at his fingertips. That was the case for most people with access to a computer and an internet connection, but none knew how to use this power the way he did. If he wanted to, he could change the balance of the western world. He was that good, and he knew it. But that wasn't his goal today, and had never been so far. After watching countless news reports over the past few months, a city in the US had captured his interest. He was fascinated by the chaos created by one man. True, it had been crude and unusual, but never the less, very effective. He had given himself a challenge to see if he could accomplish something similar. He needed a new project to put his mind into. And this was day one…

It had been about five months since Gotham City had been ravaged by the escapades of the psychotic madman known as The Joker. Now it was early December, and the city and its inhabitants were slowly recovering from the deaths of Police Commissioner Loeb and District Attorney Harvey Dent, two men who had devoted their lives to the fight against crime. Along with the scandal created when the city's silent protector, the Batman, turned out to have taken his crusade one step too far and made himself a murderer, the people of Gotham had seen and heard enough to last them months, and most seemed to view the approaching Christmas as a welcome change of pace.

The employees of Wayne Enterprises were no different from the rest of the working force of the city, and the mood in one of the smaller conference rooms of the Wayne Tower this clear December morning was relaxed for once. There were no deadlines that needed to be kept, and the only things on the agenda were a summary of the year that had almost gone by and a cursory look at a couple of deals that might become reality in the New Year.

Lucius Fox sat at the end of the table, watching as all the department heads from the departments based in Wayne Tower milled into the room. Next to him sat the company owner, Bruce Wayne, who had decided to sit in on the meeting, despite Lucius' assurance that there was really no need for him to be there. Both of them sat in silence, listening to the snippets of idle conversation that floated around as people found their seats.

Bruce had spent the past ten minutes studying the people in the room. He counted eight, excluding himself and Lucius, six male and two female. All were dressed in appropriate business attire, but one of the women had taken a somewhat unconventional approach and wore an underbust corset over her white shirt. He noticed that she also her bright red streaks in her dark brown hair. It was nothing very extraordinary, but still more than enough to set her apart from the crowd in a place like the upper floors of Wayne Enterprises.

He turned to Lucius and asked in a whisper;

"Who's that?"

Bruce nodded towards the woman, who was now taking her place mid-length down the table. Lucius raised an eyebrow, but answered in the same calm drawl he always used.

"That would be Connie Tate. Current head of the R&D department. I met her back when she was in college, sorta worked with her…unofficially, when I was down in Applied Sciences. When I switched jobs, I hired her. Put her in charge of Research…I know some people weren't happy about it, but she's good, she deserved it. Besides, I trust her…"

"It wasn't criticism, Mr. Fox, merely curiosity on my part."

"I appreciate that, Mr. Wayne, but if I were you I might think twice about who I'd trust."

"I do, Mr. Fox, I do…and you have more than proved yourself. If you trust her, that's good enough for me."

"I trusted Coleman Reese…"

Bruce noticed Lucius throwing him a sideways glance, and the embarrassed look that was in his eyes as he spoke the words. Bruce merely smiled.

"You're not infallible, Lucius. No one is."

Lucius turned his head and looked Bruce straight into the eyes, as if to see if his employer meant what he was saying. Then he returned the smile, shrugged and said;

"I guess not."

Lucius stood and cleared his throat, a move that made the room fall silent. He began the meeting, radiating a sense of security and style that Bruce would have thought ever present, if not for the previous whispered conversation.

Bruce sat silent, dividing his attention between the ongoing meeting and watching the city outside. For once he had a night of uninterrupted sleep behind him, so he wasn't tired, but the subjects being discussed around the table were subjects that did not require his participation. In fact, he really wasn't needed in attendance at this meeting, but attending it anyway was a welcome distraction from the activities Bruce Wayne normally engaged in during the days, and it gave the impression that he cared about the state of his company, which he did, even though the media portrayed him as a billionaire playboy who didn't give a damn. But that was the image he had created for himself upon his return to Gotham City, and he had to admit that there were certain advantages to being perceived as a rich idiot. One was, of course, that no one would suspect him, Bruce Wayne, of leading a double life. Rich playboy by day and masked vigilante by night, balancing those two polar opposites had both been his life for over a year now.

But Batman was a dangerous topic to approach these days, after what had happened on the last night of the Joker's rampage. In one night Batman had gone from vigilante to fully fledged outlaw, and to the man behind the mask it had been a conscious choice. The city needed to keep its faith in Harvey Dent. It needed to keep the faith in the existence of a hero, of a white knight that would come to its rescue. But his decision to shoulder the blame for the murders committed by a deranged District Attorney had, to say the least, complicated his own mission to save Gotham. Still, he could still be seen on a rare occasion, when the Gotham nights seemed darker than usual, perched on some high ledge, hiding in the shadows, watching, waiting to bring fear into the hearts of those who thought they had nothing to fear.

The glass and metal that created the city's skyline sparkled in the winter sunlight as Bruce Wayne let his gaze rest on the horizon. In his mind he was not sitting in a conference room in Wayne Tower, but soaring through the darkness of a city at night. He was no longer Bruce Wayne, but someone, something else entirely. He was strong, powerful, fearless…free. And secretly he longed for that feeling.

"So, Connie, what have you been working on lately?"

The question came not from Lucius, but from a middle aged man in a grey suit, sitting near the other end of the table. He had blond hair and somewhat hollow eyes, giving him the look of a man who never in his life got enough sleep. His voice was a drawl, but as opposed to Lucius', there was nothing even remotely pleasant about it. The question sounded more like an accusation, like he was questioning Connie's ability to do something like work.

Bruce threw a look in Lucius' direction, and saw his eyes narrowing as they moved and fixed on the man. Bruce's eyes moved to Connie Tate, to see how she reacted. She seemed untouched, though she had undoubtedly caught the underlying meaning in the question.

"You surprise me, Charles. I thought you knew everything."

It was a statement, but it was neither humorous nor aggressive. If anything, it was dismissive, and everything about her body language said clearly that she wasn't going to bother beginning an argument with this guy, because she turned towards Lucius and addressed him and the rest of the people in attendance.

"I'm still working on completing the inventory of all the patents and equipment we have down in Research. I've got Abigail, Ethan, Charlotte and Damien with me on that, and we're hoping to get it done by Christmas…we've been working on it for a while now. Kevin and Susan are working on an Audio/Visual project that might get us a deal with a major company sometime after New Year's. Mark, Allan and Daniel decided to take their holiday early this year, so lucky them…"

Lucius smiled, and nodded in approval.

"Seems like you've got everything under control, Connie."

Connie Tate shrugged.

"I do. So unless you throw me some kind of curveball in the next couple of weeks, I've got things covered for Christmas and New Year's…"

Lucius' smile turned into a grin as he nodded.

"Good to hear."

The meeting carried on for another hour, in which Bruce learned that the blonde man in the grey suit was called Charles Levine, and that he was in charge of several financial aspects of Wayne Enterprises. Later he learned from Lucius that Mr. Levine had been in the company since the days of William Earle, Lucius' predecessor as CEO. Lucius was obviously not very fond of the man, understandable perhaps since Mr. Levine seemed to try very hard to undermine the authority of Connie Tate, Lucius' protégé if he could be said to have one. But, as Lucius had explained it to Bruce, it seemed that Mr. Levine was quite talented at what he was doing, so there was no logical reason to let him go, and as long as Ms. Tate could deal with Levine's skepticism Lucius did not want to risk his own integrity with his employees by beginning to fire people simply because he did not like them.

As they all stood to leave, Bruce whispered to Lucius;

"Could you introduce me to Ms. Tate, Lucius?"

Lucius turned and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"You looking for a date, Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce hesitated for a moment, then said;

"Not exactly…I'm just curious about what kind of person you see fit to replace you in Research & Development."

Lucius shrugged.

"Fair enough."

Outside the conference room, in the bustle of people leaving, Lucius managed to find Connie Tate and lead her over to where Bruce stood, waiting.

"Connie, there's someone I'd like to introduce you to. This is Bruce Wayne. Mr. Wayne, this is Connie Tate."

She took a step towards him and the two of them shook hands.

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Wayne."

She smiled at him, and Bruce noted that the smile seemed genuine, a welcome change from shaking hands with business people who seemed to have a pearly white grin constantly plastered to their face, making them all look like people in commercials.

"You done working for the day, Connie?" Asked Lucius, who had taken a step aside to introduce Bruce to Connie, but now stepped forward again to join them.

Connie smiled sadly and shook her head.

"Nope. You remember that nice little inventory you've had me do for the past months…it's not quite done yet, I'm afraid, and I'm also afraid I'll have an uprising on my hands if it's not done by Christmas. Abigail, Ethan, Charlotte and Damien are all just as sick of it as I am, so you go and have fun…I'm doing inventory."

Lucius put a hand on her shoulders in what clearly was a comforting manner.

"You're doing good, Connie. Just don't wear yourself down to the bone, ok kid?"

Connie smiled and shook her head, brushing a strand of hair away from her face.

"I'll be alright, Lucius. It's either inventory or unpacking some of the vast array of boxes that now is stacked up in my new apartment. And frankly I think that's just a choice between plague and cholera."

The three of them walked for a while until they reached an elevator, where Connie left them, nodding a silent 'goodbye' to Bruce and waving a casual hand in Lucius' direction before she headed left, through a glass door that read "Research and Development - Offices". Lucius Fox and Bruce Wayne got into the elevator and disappeared from sight.