Disclaimer: Not making any profit off of this story.

"Gotta hand it to you, Wayne. Excellent job covering every angle of this case." Commissioner Jim Gordon slowly took a puff on the cigarette in his hand before continuing, "That bastard's going to spend the rest of his life in prison."

"It's hardly enough," the man across from Gordon scoffed, ignoring the cloud of smoke that was creeping towards his face. "Maroni will find a way out of the sentence, somehow. Who knows how deep his connections run in the Gotham legal system." Detective Wayne shifted in his chair, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the desk as he ran his hands through his dark hair in frustration. "He's probably buying his way out of prison as we speak."

Gordon managed something that was not quite a chuckle, not quite a sigh. "Damn it, Bruce," referring to the brooding detective by his first name. "At least reward yourself for the small victories. You did your job as best you could. Now, unless you also happen to be the District Attorney of Gotham, the rest is out of your hands. It's up to Dent now to… make a dent." Gordon looked up from his last comment almost sheepishly.

Bruce gave Gordon a withering look. "Really," Bruce grunted, but Gordon saw the faintest beginnings of a smile or something that resembled it on Bruce's face. Gordon grinned in response, pleased that his attempt at humor had managed to distract Gotham's most brooding detective for a split second.

Bruce nearly rolled his eyes, but refrained. Gordon was his commanding officer, after all. After a pause in the conversation, Bruce relented. "Was there anything else you needed, Gordon?" Bruce had been called in for a meeting, but Gordon usually didn't make a point of calling each officer into his office for mere congratulations.

Gordon swiveled in his chair to face Bruce squarely now, putting out his cigarette on an ashtray on his desk. Gordon's expression, open and joking a moment before, subtly shifted to something more serious. "As a matter of fact, yes. Big news, in fact. I'm assigning you to a new case, but I want you to drop the other ones."

Bruce's normally cool blue eyes widened in surprise. With anger creeping into his voice, Bruce stood up and began, "Chief, you don't have the right to-"

"What do you mean the right, Detective? This is my damn office, so I suggest you sit down." Gordon's tone brokered no discussion. He met Bruce's eyes with an icy glare of his own and watched as the detective slowly sat back down. Gordon relaxed back into his chair. "Sorry, Bruce. But you need to listen and let me finish," he continued. He pulled out a manila folder from a stack on his desk and slid it across the smooth wood to the detective.

As Bruce flipped through the folder, Gordon started explaining. "There's a new drug on the market, but it's not like any we've seen before. They apparently call it Venom. We suspect there's a supplier on campus at Gotham State."

Bruce took out what appeared to be a professional portrait of a happy, dark-haired young man wearing a letterman jacket. Handsome and confident, the young man smiled like he had the world in the palm of his hand. "Who's this?"

"That, Wayne, was a kid by the name of Garrison Jacobs. Popular football player at GSU, even as a freshman. It was rumored that he was going to be the starting quarterback next season."

Bruce grimaced as he took out the next picture in the folder: the body of a grotesquely muscled man, dead on a coroner's table. "And that is the apparent effect of addiction to Venom, tragically illustrated by Mr. Jacobs." Bruce compared the two pictures; the dead victim was almost unrecognizable from the young man in the portrait from before.

"So, it's a steroid," Bruce commented, shuffling the pictures back into the folder and closing it, placing it on the desk. He felt uneasy about the difference between the two pictures of Garrison.

"Yes, and that's unfortunately almost all we know about it so far," Gordon replied. He took back the folder and started flipping through. "We've done some preliminary investigation into the team, but apparently none of his teammates are opening up to the cops. But this is a critical time for us, Bruce. If we can contain the further distribution of Venom, we're saving ourselves a lot of work later."

"But why not put the guys in Narcotics on this? You know I'm a homicide detective. And it hardly seems like this guy was murdered."

Gordon took a moment to look around his office; the blinds were down and the door was shut. He lowered his voice before responding, "Bruce, have you had a bad feeling about this department recently? I mean, more than usual?"

Bruce didn't respond, waiting for him to continue. Gordon cleared his throat and continued softly, "Look, Bruce. Too many cases recently have been coming up short. Investigations that should have been routine are slipping from us with this and that excuse - uncooperative witnesses, insufficient evidence, whatever."

Gordon looked at Bruce full on, trying to discern the expression on the younger man's face. "Do you understand what I'm saying here?"

Bruce had similar suspicions recently about the integrity of some of his fellow officers, but didn't want to voice them without sufficient proof.

"Yes, I do. And I agree," he confided. Despite the reputation of the crooked Gotham City PD, Bruce had never found a reason to distrust Gordon over the many years he'd known him, and was relieved that someone else thought the same.

"Good. Then you can understand why I need people I can trust on this job. If there's even a chance that one of our own is involved with the distribution of Venom, the whole operation is blown if word of this gets out. We need to be very careful who we discuss the case with from now on. I'm afraid that the guy I sent to investigate the athletes has already tipped off the dealers, inadvertently or not."

Bruce nodded. "Fine. Secrecy, I can handle. But what's the actual mission?"

"Right. Logistics. I'm sending you undercover to gather information on the distributor and the target audience. We don't want the sellers to be aware of a large police presence - at least, not yet."

Bruce looked up. "What, as a professor or something?"

"No, Bruce," Gordon continued with the trace of a smile on his face, "as a student."

Bruce was not pleased.

"Don't give me that damn look, Bruce. You think that glare intimidates me? Look, as a student, you'll be much more likely to get valuable information. Going in as an authority figure like a professor would be too suspicious."

Bruce had to admit he had a point, but couldn't resist arguing, "I'm not a nineteen year old frat boy, Commissioner."

"You're right, Bruce. You're a twenty five year old frat boy," Gordon shot back with a chuckle. Bruce did have a certain… reputation among the officers for partying and womanizing. Gordon knew, though, that Bruce's off-the-clock persona was mainly that - a persona. Gordon suspected it was to keep other officers from getting too close to an apparent slob, though slob was the last word Gordon would use to describe Bruce.

Bruce attempted another glare, but it wasn't quite as hard as his last one. "Fine. So I'll be a student. Gathering intelligence on Venom and reporting back, seems simple enough."

Gordon smiled genuinely now. "Knew I could count on you, Bruce." Gordon slid the manila folder back to him. "All the information you need to know is in there. I've already made a copy for Prince. You two will start officially training as soon as I can work out some of the details."

"Prince? What does she have to do with this?"

"Oh, did I forget to mention that? Detective Prince is going to be your partner. She'll be joining you as a student, so that you two can cover more ground on campus."

Shit. "I work alone," Bruce responded quickly.

"Can you stop with that damn line? Like you're the only one who cares about this city and is working to protect it? Not for this case, Bruce. You two are some of the only officers I can trust in this department, and as I explained earlier, it's important that we shut down this ring before it really gains momentum. You know Prince is as qualified as you are, if not more so," Gordon smirked.

Gordon was right. Detective Diana Prince was highly accomplished. She had graduated from the police academy at the top of her class. In hand-to-hand combat, she was highly versatile; if anything, she was likely only second to Bruce in the number of fighting styles she knew, ranging from ancient Grecian techniques to more modern combination styles. Mentally, Prince was sharp as a tack, able to piece clues together in previously overlooked ways. As a relatively recent Themysciran immigrant, she had mastered the English language quickly, though she still needed to catch up some aspects of American pop culture.

And on top of all that - she was physically stunning, not that Bruce would ever admit it out loud to anyone. Bruce found he often had to stop his gaze from lingering too long on her arresting blue eyes, dark hair, and athletic figure - it was highly unprofessional of him, and frankly a bit of an irritating distraction.

"Oh look, there she is now. Let me call her in now so I don't have to go over the whole thing twice." Gordon walked to the office door, opened it, and called out into the room, "Prince, a moment please?"

What? Bruce had been too distracted thinking about his coworker to react, when suddenly the object of his thoughts materialized in the door. Dressed casually in a leather jacket, black top, and dark jeans, she was disarmingly lovely. Her badge and gun hung loosely from the belt on her hip.

"Hello, Commissioner. Detective Wayne," she greeted with that signature smile of hers.

Oh, this is dangerous. Bruce fought the urge to match that smile with one of his own; he simply nodded at her.

"Thank you for joining us, Detective Prince. Take a seat next to Wayne," Gordon motioned as he took his seat at this desk again. "I was just briefing Wayne on the details of the case I mentioned to you earlier." Gordon took another file from his desk and handed it to Diana. "Here's your copy with the information you'll need. In summary, this is a mostly classified operation. You'll be going undercover on the GSU campus to gather information about the distribution of Venom, a dangerous new steroid that has already resulted in the death of a 20-year-old athlete at the school."

"College, huh?" Prince grinned, processing all the information Gordon had told her quickly. "Seems fun. Haven't had an excuse to wear sweatpants in public in a while."

"See, Bruce? Take a lesson from your coworker, huh?" Gordon chuckled, suddenly noticing how Bruce shifted in the seat next to Diana uncomfortably. Oh, Gordon thought. No wonder he insists on not working with her, containing a smile that was forming on his face. Gordon continued, "Diana, Bruce can brief you on the rest if you have any questions. I have a meeting to attend in a few minutes, so I'll leave you to it. The goal is to have you on campus in the next few weeks before the term begins." Gordon stood up to leave.

Bruce, who hadn't said anything the whole time, stood up as well. "If you'll excuse me," Bruce muttered, "I need to finish up details on the Maroni case."

Diana's face lit up, reaching to gently grab Bruce's wrist. "Bruce, I meant to congratulate you on a job well done! I heard how brilliant you were in the interrogation room, getting him to confess like that. He's a sick man."

Bruce looked down at Diana's hand on his wrist and paused slightly before he brusquely stepped away. "Appreciated, Detective Prince. If you'll excuse me," he murmured before nearly silently gliding out of Gordon's office.

Gordon watched Bruce go. How does he manage to leave a room so quietly, he wondered. He looked back at Diana, who was still seated and wore a slightly annoyed expression on her face. "Does he ever take a compliment," Diana wondered aloud.

"Sorry, Diana, it's not you," Gordon replied. Or maybe it is - his crush on you, that is. "He's wound up today because he thinks Maroni won't end up getting any jail time. But I trust Harvey to get the rest of the job done and land that sick bastard in prison."

Diana's expression changed to one of gentle amusement. "That reminds me," she said. "I need to call Harvey back."

"Oh?" Gordon asked. "Something about a case?"

"No," Diana said, a slight blush coloring her face. "He actually asked me out on a date the last time I saw him, but I forgot to respond. It's been busy around here, but I feel horrible for making him wait for an answer."

Gordon almost laughed. "A date, huh? Well, he'll be a lucky guy if you let him take you to dinner." Oh man, I wonder if Bruce knows.

"You're sweet, Jim," Diana said. She stood up. "Well, since Bruce is apparently too busy to discuss the case, I'm going to head to lunch, if that's all right. And you should get to your meeting."

"Absolutely, Diana. I'll see you two again tomorrow at one to talk about more of the specifics. Let me know if you have questions in the meantime. I am trusting you two to wrap this up discreetly." The pair walked out of Jim Gordon's office, ready to face the day.

A/N: Hello, all! Sorry for a bit of an absence. To quote the old adage of fanfic writers, real life simply got in the way. A couple of announcements from me:

- First, thank you for the support for When Worlds Collide. I am working on it, although slowly, and I cannot promise updates very soon - I think my main problem is that I didn't plan it out very well, so I'm in a bit of a rut. But, again, thank you for your patience.

- Now I present to you a different BMWW AU which was slightly inspired by me trying to figure out what's going on with WWC, but I promise I have a better idea of where this one is going. As you can see, details of their respective characters are quite different from their origin stories, but just trying to have fun with it. As you can see from the title, this is loosely based on the plot of 22 Jump Street, which I just watched and thought it was hilarious. This story will unfortunately not be as laugh-out-loud funny, I think, (this is Gotham we're talking about, after all) but hopefully I can still inject a little humor. And maybe a few expletives, like the movie. :-)

- As always, I of course welcome and encourage your feedback and constructive criticism - it is always a boost when I see someone favorite, follow, or best of all review the story. It means a lot to me that you guys are taking the time to read the writing I can do on the side.

Until next time,

R

-edit 12/15/15 – reuploaded with some minor detail changes.