"Hello Gotham, I'm Mike Engel and this is Gotham Tonight. This evening I will be talking about the latest alien invasion to hit earth and the heroes that stopped the invasion and sent the aforementioned aliens, The Imperium, away from earth. There is no doubt about it now, Senator J. Allen Carter was involved in the invasion. The question I'm asking our guests tonight is, if we can't trust our own government to protect us from these invasions, then can we trust this team of heroes? Most of the world has put their trust into Superman again, even though two years ago he led an attack on Earth, but are we ready to trust these other heroes? Lets do a rundown of the roster here. So we have Superman, Flash, Hawk Girl, Green Lantern aka John Stewart, Wonder Woman, Martian the Manhunter, and last but not least Gotham's own vigilante – Batman.

I turned the TV down once I heard the roar of the Batplane come into the cave. Bruce was home and I had a lot of questions.

The alien invasion didn't leave Gotham unscathed. Dick was stuck in Blüdhaven, which had its fair share of destruction, so it was just the kid and I this time. My injuries weren't too bad considering it was the first time I've ever fought aliens, but I had bumps, cuts, bruises, and maybe even a cracked rib. Tim hit his head pretty bad. His grapple line was cut. Thankfully he was too high off the ground. I would have never forgiven myself if he hurt himself too badly. Bruce never said anything to me, but it was an unspoken rule between the two of us: When Bruce wasn't around; I was accountable for Tim. Now I wouldn't say I was Tim's mother, but sometimes I felt like it. Whether it was homework or our nighttime gig, I was always checking up on him.

I remained sitting in the chair of the computer and Bruce approached me in a matter that seemed like he was just as sore as I was.

"Anything pressing I should know about?" he asked as he used the keyboard to switch through news channels.

"Nothing crime related. Tim on the other hand is pretty banged up. He has a slight concussion. I sent him upstairs to rest not that long ago. Best to have him rest for at least a week before letting him go back out," I said looking up at him. His cowl was off and he had dark circles under his eyes. Those eyes narrowed a bit when he looked at my face as his hand gently tilted my head to the side. Oh, I forgot about the shiner I got on my right eye and the split lip….

"Did you ice these?" He grimaced a bit.

"Some, I just got caught up in-"

"Come on, let's go upstairs. I could really go for some of that tea Alfred is always peddling. Where is he by the way?"

"I told him he should get some sleep too. Who knew when you were going to be home? I just had to promise to stay the rest of the night." The truth was that all the color finally went back into Alfred's face once he saw the news coverage of Batman and his new companions after they took down The Imperium. I had just come back into the cave with Tim and he was dressing our wounds when we all saw the footage. I worried about Alfred sometimes. The stress he must go through. How many times has he almost had a heart attack worrying over Bruce?

"Good. I don't like him waiting up for me all the time," Bruce replied relieved as we made our way upstairs to the kitchen.

I was already all bandaged up and in comfortable clothes. He wasn't. It was weird to see him in his costume upstairs. He never did that. As we waited for the kettle he made me an ice pack. I sat at the kitchen table held it to my eye. Well, I was more leaning into it than holding it. I was starting to get really tired, but I still wanted to know what the hell happened and who all those people were that helped him and Superman. Instead it was just silent for a good minute, both of us letting the day (more like days) catch up to us.

"I know you're tired, but I have some questions, if you don't mind."

"I suppose you do." He leaned against the counter and blankly stared at the stovetop.

My forehead scrunched up in amusement, "That old saying for boiling pots, I think it applies to kettles too."

Bruce just lips turned up a little at my comment.

"Sorry, I guess I'm brooding again," he said finally looking at me.

"No, no. You aren't brooding. You seem like you are just…processing. I know we know Superman pretty well, we have a file on Flash aka Wally West, a file on John Stewart, and a small file on Hawkgirl; but I have no idea who Miss America is or our green friend."

"Miss America?" He was in a full grin now with one of his eyebrows up. I blushed a little, feeling a little foolish.

"Yes. It was just a temp name Tim and me came up with until I knew more about her. Alfred thought it was fitting," I explained. He was quite charming when he grinned like that and I of course kept rambling on, "I mean come on, she's totally ready for the swim suit competition."

"Her name is Diana and she's the princess of the Amazons." He said nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal.

"Amazons? Like the Greek myth?" I said a bit shocked. He just raised that damn eyebrow to me again. "Hey don't give me that look. Sorry I'm not as jaded as you are." The kettle started screaming. He poured us both some tea and he sat at the kitchen table with me.

"Ok, what about the Martian?"

"He's just that, a Martian." Bruce explained to me everything that happened as we both drank our tea. I almost didn't believe everything I was hearing.

"It sounds like this J'onn trusts you a lot and it actually sounds like you trust him," I said after he told me everything.

"I trust him about as much as Superman now."

"What about the rest?"

"I trust them, but-" I cut him off.

"But no as much as you'd like to."

"Yes."

"Give it time Bruce. I'm sure you didn't trust me that much when I first started working with you. You took a giant leap of faith when you showed me the Batcave."

"That's not true. I trusted you as much as I did the moment I found out who you were under that mask," he said. His face gave me no detail on whether that was a good thing or bad thing.

"Barbara, I trust you with not only my life; but with my son's life and my secret," he put his hand on mine. I smiled and put my other hand on top of his. Something started to come over me. I started to feel warm and happy. These feelings scared me; and because of that I started to act like a schoolgirl and teased him.

"I think Clark is rubbing off on you. You're being too sweet." He sighed and pulled away. I laughed a little at his annoyance and decided to change the subject.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet," he said. He then tilted my chin to the side and looked closely again at my black eye.

"What are you going to tell your father this time?" he asked.

"My excuse has been all over the news mister. I'm going to tell him people were panicking and acting out of line so I stepped in."

Bruce didn't look impressed.

"I don't know. If I tell him that I got mugged, AGAIN, he's going to have a police detail on me. He's done it before," I sighed bringing the bag of ice back up to my eye.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stress you out," he responded smirking a bit.

"It's not funny," I protested.

"No one said it was," his grin became wider. I kicked him under the table. He just smiled even wider and made a small chuckled noise.

"You must be deliriously tired Bruce because you are actually laughing," I said getting up from the table and bringing my cup to the dishwasher.

"Believe it or not Barbara, the things you say give Alfred's dry wit a run for its money," he said following my previous actions.

I blushed a little. He actually gave me two compliments that night. What was going on?

"I don't know. Tim is pretty funny," I said dumping out the ice pack.

"Tim's jokes are usual always at my expense though," he replied leaning against the counter next to me.

"I know, I think that's what makes them so funny," I patted him on the shoulder and left going upstairs feeling like I won.

"Goodnight Barbara," he called after me.

I replied with a command, "Get some sleep Bruce."

This is only the beginning. After reading the Batman Beyond 2.0 comics I felt compelled to finally start putting this story up.