Six weeks later

"Did you do your homework?" Bruce asked, his shadow falling over where Dick was sprawled in the leaves that dotted the back lawn of the manor.

"It was easy," he answered. He set his phone down on his stomach, and the billionaire felt safe in guessing that he'd been reading a new email from Gina before he'd come up. "Want to sit for a minute?"

"I have a meeting at seven."

"Eww. Evening meetings."

"Time zones," he shrugged. "It can't be helped." Still, though, no one would die if he was a few minutes late, and they'd both been so busy these past few weeks... Considering that, he took a seat on the grass. "How are your classes?"

"Meh. You know how the first few days are. All 'here's the syllabus' and 'let's review' and 'this is an advanced class, which means it will be challenging.'" He laughed shortly. "As if. The only thing that might not be a breeze is physics, and that's just because I'm so used to thinking about it spatially rather than formulaically."

"Alfred said you got your AP scores from last year back."

"Yup. Four fives." He shoved both fists in the air. "Take that, standardized testing! Bite me, minority achievement statistics!"

"…Do you even qualify as a minority?"

"Apparently. That whole half-Gypsy, formative years in a traveling circus thing did it for me. It sure wasn't the circles I marked in the personal information section that said 'Caucasian,' 'male,' and 'family income exceeds $250,000 per year.'"

"How did the testing board know about that, though? Don't those tests get sent out to be graded?"

"Yeah. They didn't tell me about the minority thing. The school counselor did. She wanted to have a special meeting to inform me that I'm a statistical anomaly." He rolled his eyes. "Because, you know, I thought tons of kids had seen their parents murdered only to get swept up by a rich person until she told me different. I'm sure she was just trying to be nice and encouraging, but wow was it annoying."

"No kidding." He was a little ticked that the counselor had been so presumptuously stupid, but he let it go. "So what's on the plate for this year?"

"Physics, the next level of calc, computer science, French, and US History. They let me out of English this year. A couple of my teachers are already trying to get me to take a couple of classes up at the university in spring, but who has time for that on top of everything else?"

"You're pretty busy," Bruce agreed. It was true; between school, the new project at Wayne Enterprises, and expanded Robin duties, he was beginning to wonder if he would get to see the kid out of costume for more than five minutes before Christmas.

"Approaching Bruce-grade occupation," he grinned. "I think you've made me into a workaholic. That's okay, though, I love it." His phone buzzed, and he glanced at it briefly before typing out a response. "So what's up with you?"

"Busy. The same as always," he sighed. "This social season is going to be the death of me, I swear. Gordon is already talking about making this year's Police Charity Ball the biggest ever."

"Does that mean I might get to go to this one?"

"Nope."

"But I'd have a date and everything!" he protested, holding up his phone.

"Still no," he reiterated gently. "I told you the first time you asked, you can't go until you're sixteen. That's Gordon's rule, not mine, so you can't hold it against me." Hearing a frustrated sigh, he changed the subject. "How's Gina?"

"Pretty good, now that they set a trial date for Lise and Dunaway. I guess they're flying her to Metropolis to testify. She's really excited, she's never been to a big city before. She said Margie's nervous, though, especially since she's going to be starting her new job right after they get back."

"She has a job now?" the billionaire asked, a little surprised.

"You obviously haven't looked at the proposal we sent up on Tuesday," he said with mild reproach. "One of the first things we decided to do was build a decent hotel. There are a couple of bed and breakfasts in town, and a few places like the one we rented, but not much other than that. It's pretty hard to get tourists to go out of their way to a place where they can't spend the night easily, so that seemed like a priority. We're really pushing to have it open by next spring. Anyway, I suggested we make Margie the pastry chef. Gina said she started crying when she told her about the offer."

"…I thought everything was supposed to be cleared through me first?" Bruce frowned.

"She's local, and they need the money since they were granted custody of Gina. You've had her cake, Bruce. Can you really think of anyone else better suited to that position?"

"No, I can't," he admitted. "You haven't hired anyone else for this thing I haven't approved, have you?"

"No, but we did put out a general call for local laborers and craftsmen. Oh, and we're extending Marty and a couple of other local fishermen loans to help them set up official charter offices on shore for next summer. We started designing ads to get some hype going in the travel media, too." He smiled bashfully. "Lucius said you wouldn't mind."

"…You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

"The project, or mildly pissing you off by not waiting for approval?"

"Both."

"Yeah. It's really awesome to know that this is helping so many people, you know? And I know you don't mind as much as you're making it out that you do," he nudged him.

"Just turn me a profit before you graduate high school, okay?" He thought for a moment. "No, that's not reasonable at the rate you're tearing through classes. Turn me a profit before you graduate college, and we'll call it good."

"What're you going to do if I don't, disown me?" Dick jested. He blanched slightly when the man beside him didn't reply. "Uh, that was a joke."

"Was it?" He smiled to show he was kidding, and saw the teen visibly relax. "You know better than to think I would. I wouldn't be very happy, but I wouldn't disown you." I couldn't do that. "Besides, it's really in your best interest to make money rather than lose it. Fifty percent of the net income will go into your trust account, so…"

"Seriously? You don't have to do that. I'm having fun, I don't care if I make money."

"Well, I do. You're earning it, you should have it." He paused. "When's your first field visit?"

"About eight weeks out. Gina's ecstatic."

"Alfred's going with you, right?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, he already said he's going to leave you plenty pre-made in the fridge. The last thing Gotham needs is a hungry Batman."

"That would be ugly."

"Tell me about it. Speaking of a certain formidable duo," he arched an eyebrow. "What time are we going out tonight? It's Friday."

"When I get back from my meeting and eat. Then we'll go. Have you picked a weekday yet?" He'd allowed a slight change in Robin's patrol schedule this year, permitting him to go out on one school night per week provided that his grades didn't suffer.

"I think either Tuesdays or Wednesdays will be the best. Homework levels have been historically low on those days."

"Sounds good. Being able to switch between the two if needed will be nice."

"I thought so. Anything big on the table for this weekend?"

"Pezzoli's been running his drug rings from prison."

"Really? Interesting."

"He's got a big shipment coming in tonight, supposedly."

"I'm listening."

"Half a million worth of crack."

"Becoming more intrigued by the second."

"The guy running it is his cousin. From what I understand, he was a frequent patron of Roxane's, but his name never made it on the lists for family reasons. He should be there tonight." His old hesitation about mentioning anything having to do with Erwin had more or less vanished in recent weeks as the teen's nightmares had mellowed. Markowitz had haunted him for a short time after their return home, but lately even that specter seemed to have faded somewhat. He's probably so damn tired by the time he makes it to bed each night lately that he's not even having dreams, Bruce reflected.

"Now I'm excited." He grinned. "Are we going to have to fight over who gets to pummel him? Because I have to admit, I think you cheat when we duel for beating rights."

"No, you can have him. One of his goons who's supposed to be helping with the offloading is a dealer I've been wanting to get my hands on for a while now. I'll take him instead."

"Awesome. What time does this all go down?"

"Twelve thirty."

"So…we'd still have time for a quick warm up spar before we go out?"

Bruce smiled. True to his word, Dick had been spending as much time training as he could. He'd been a good fighter before; lately, though, with the added motivation of wanting to eliminate situations in which his mentor might feel the need to sacrifice himself for his benefit, he'd inched into what even Batman had to admit was the 'impressive' category. "Think you've got a chance this time, do you?"

"Maybe."

"I think your confidence about school is going to your head," he threw in lightly, taunting him.

"…I've got a new move," the teen smirked slowly. "I'm pretty sure I invented it, actually."

"Oh?"

"It's super effective."

"How do you know, if you haven't tried it on anyone? I haven't seen you use any new moves in the field."

"Just a hunch. A really, really strong hunch."

"Well, we'll just have to see where it goes, then," he grinned at the challenge.

"Yeah. We will." He peeked at his phone. "Don't you need to go? You're going to be late."

"I should." He stood up and stretched, feeling lighter following their chat than he had in days. "You should come inside before Alfred kills you for not wearing a jacket."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll walk you in," he said, jack-knifing to his feet.

"Show off," Bruce shook his head with a tiny smile.

"Like you don't do the same thing. I know you flex when a girl grabs your arm at a party." Silence. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Besides, I'm warming up."

"Going down to the cave?"

"Yup."

"Don't wear yourself out before tonight."

"Oh, I won't." They reached the back of the house and parted. "Have fun," Dick said sarcastically.

"Just you wait, kiddo. When we're business partners, I'm sending you to these meetings in my stead." Raising his hand in a brief wave, he vanished around the corner of the house before a retort could be launched.

Dick groaned at the prospect, then looked down as his phone buzzed again, announcing a new text from Gina. Didn't you say you have an uncle or something in Metropolis? the message read. Only I was thinking you could come down for a couple days while I'm there testifying…I already know I won't get Margie out of the hotel room to do anything without a second person to keep her from somehow getting mugged from both sides at once.

He beamed. "Hey Alfred," he asked, swinging inside and down the hall to the kitchen. "Do you think Bruce would be mad if I went to Metropolis for a weekend next month?"

"Have you asked him about it?"

"Not yet, no."

"Hmm." The butler paused in his slicing of potatoes. "I don't imagine it will cause him more than a passing discomfort, but you may wish to engage Mister Kent's help before you broach it to Master Wayne."

"But you're okay with it?"

"Provided you take your homework with you and are sure to complete it in a timely fashion, I see no cause for concern. I'm sure Miss Graves will also have schoolwork to attend to."

"…How'd you know Gina would be there?"

"Oh, I suppose it was just a lucky guess, young sir," his mouth twitched upwards.

A slow grin spread across the teen's face. "Coolest butler ever," he complimented, hitting a button on his phone and listening to it dial. "Hey, Uncle Clark? Yeah, right, Alfred barely manages that…I was wondering, could I crash on your couch for a couple days next month? A friend of mine from out of town is going to be in Metropolis, and she wants to hang out…yeah, she…yeah, Bruce knows about her. He doesn't know that I want to go to Metropolis to see her, though. You'll like her, she's awesome…Really? Sweet! Thanks!...Yeah, no problem. I'll clear it with Bruce first." He laughed. "Yeah, I probably will have to call you to get your help convincing him…sure. Yeah, dinner would be cool, I feel like we hardly saw each other when you were here…oh wait, that would be because we didn't…" He laughed again. "No kidding, right? Okay. Okay, cool. I'll email you the flight info once I have it. Thanks, Uncle Clark. Yup, see you then."

"All settled, then?" Alfred asked.

"Nothing left but Bruce and a plane ticket. And with the troops amassed, it should only take a week or so for Bruce to fold." Bouncing on his toes, he tapped out a quick reply to Gina.

All wrapped up but a certain overprotective billionaire. *Wink* See you there.

Author's Note: First off, thank you all so much for reading, and double thanks to those of you who have been so kind as to review. I have received several queries as to whether or not Gina will reappear in a later story, and after giving it some thought I do believe that she will. I hope that everyone enjoyed the ride; I know I did. Happy reading. :D