After Martha's visit Irene rushed to take the last ferry to Gotham, she would need to book a room to spend the night but she couldn't wait any longer. She had pushed this back too much already.

If this was as urgent as Bruce had suggested Irene had already wasted enough time.

The new Wayne mansion was located along the bay in a secluded area. The old manor had been attacked by the Joker and Harley Quinn almost eight years ago, and Irene couldn't help but wonder why Bruce hadn't bothered to repair the damage that had been done during the attack.

"Hello Alfred." Irene said when the butler opened the large glass door. She didn't know how anyone could live in a home that mostly consisted of large windows. Though the view from the bay was beautiful.

Alfred didn't seem surprised to see her, in fact he reacted as if her being there was entirely normal and expected.

"Miss Miranda, he's in his workshop. Follow me." He said as he opened the door wider to allow her in.

They didn't say a word as he lead her to a room the had an elevator that led to a large underground workshop. It almost seemed larger than the mansion above them.

There were dozen of computer screens and fancy black cars all around them. She could see various versions of the Batsuit in display cases in the other end of the room. They were all things she had seen the night she had lost Clark.

When Bruce had brought her and Jimmy here to help clean the cuts she had gotten that night. But the large plane sitting in the center of the room was new.

Bruce was up there working on it, he looked so different not wearing a fancy designer suit or dressed as Batman. He almost looked normal.

"Irene, it's about time." Bruce said as he turned around to face her. She didn't even want to question how he knew that it was her, but she hated how he seemed satisfied to see her. "But I knew you'd come around eventually."

"You sure like to think you know everything. Don't you?"

Bruce made his way down the metal step until he was standing in front of her. From the light layer of sweat on his face he had been clearly working on the plane for a while, and Irene couldn't help but be surprised. She didn't know Bruce Wayne to be a skilled engineer. "Almost everything."

"I think this is what you've been asking for." Irene stated as she held out all the files she and Jimmy had built on each of the meta-humans they found.

"You found them." He replied not even bothering to open one, like he already knew that the files contained what he was looking for.

"Some of them."

"How did you know where to look?" He questioned as he motioned for her to sit on one of the chairs in front of a desk that had dozens of large computer screens.

"Lex Luthor gave this a while back. Before the Capital." Irene admitted as she took a seat, he pulled up another chair sitting across from her. "He had been collecting data on potential meta-humans."

He almost looked frustrated by her admission, knowing just as well as she did that she should have given him that drive sooner. "And you didn't think about giving this to me before?"

"Before I didn't want to think about anything related to Lex Luthor." She admitted knowing that although she had been wrong he had no right of judging her for her mistake. At the time she wasn't ready, but now she was. "I'm not like you Bruce. I can't just shut off my feelings."

He was silent for a moment and Irene wondered if she had offended him. "Let's see what you've found."

"The drive that Luthor gave me had five meta- humans. Other than Diana we have..."

"Diana isn't confirmed." He stated dismissively and if it wasn't a big deal. As if Diana wasn't possibly one of the strongest and most skilled out of the five.

Irene had never even considered that maybe Diana would t want to be a part of this. After all she had helped Clark and Bruce during their battle with Doomsday. "You haven't spoken to her?"

"I have."

"And?" She questioned not appreciating how vague he was being considering he was the one that was seeking her out.

"She has yet to give me a definitive answer."

"Alright." Irene said under her breath slightly annoyed at him. She reached toward taking the files away from him before laying them across the desk pointing at each one as she spoke. "Kara Danvers from National City, Barry Allen from Central City and Victor Stone from Metropolis."

"And the other?"

Irene was still disappointed that she and Jimmy weren't able to find the identity of the man in the undersea video. But the only thing they were able to find were folk stories from Iceland about a man that came from the sea to help surrounding villages and sailors during storms.

It was a promising lead but one that she couldn't follow without actually going to Iceland herself.

"The other I was hoping you could find. There's a video on the drive and I'm sure one of your fancy computers can run some facial recognition and find him."

Bruce nodded knowing that it would only take him seconds to find the identity of the man in the video. "You'll have your work cut out for you to recruit them."

"Me?" Irene repeated in disbelief. She had done all the work to find the meta-humans, and she hadn't expected Bruce to want her to recruit them too. She simply didn't think that she was the right person for the job. "I'm sure Batman is more likely to inspire people to be heroes than a reporter from the Daily Planet."

"You're just not any reporter. You're the reporter that inspired a man with extraordinary abilities to become Superman. To sacrifice himself for the world." He replied as if it were that simple. "There's no one better than you for this."

Irene looked at him for a moment and realized that he believed every word he said. He was giving her too much credit.

"And the man who's dedicated himself to protecting Gotham City isn't?"

"People fear Batman." Bruce reminded her and although he said the words like a dismissive fact, Irene couldn't help but wonder how that reality really affected him. "Maybe there was a time where I could have inspired these people. But I'm not that man anymore."

Irene didn't believe that to be entirely true. Sure Batman had become a controversial figure over the years but that didn't change the fact that he put criminals away. "Why?"

"When I first started I thought of it as avenging my parent's murder." He stated a distant look in his eye almost like he was reliving that moment all over again. And it surprised Irene that he was telling her this, especially because he seemed so guarded. "It was all about vengeance, like if every criminal that I found was the man that killed my mother and father. I dedicated my life to protecting Gotham but in doing so I hurt the people I cared for most. I fooled myself into thinking that my crusade was all that mattered. Everything I kept telling myself was just a..."

"A beautiful lie?"

Bruce almost seemed shocked, though he hid it well. Maybe he was surprised that he had told her everything that he had, shocked that he had opened up to her. It wasn't difficult to assume that Bruce didn't do that often. That he rarely let people in.

"Yes." He finally said simply and Irene could sense that he wasn't going to share anymore. That he had decided to shut himself off again, not that Irene could blame him. She was practically a stranger to him.

But he had been there in on of the most difficult times in her life. Bruce had seen Irene at her worst. And maybe he had been seeking her out for help, but his pushing her to be who she was before was the reason that she was here.

Was the reason why she was looking for answers again and not locked up in her apartment.

"You can be that man again. You can be better." Irene told him and she truly believed that he could be better. He was already trying to be better. "There was a time when the people of Gotham saw your symbol in the night sky and they felt safe because they knew Batman was out there. You were can make the symbol mean something again. It's not too late."

Barbra had told her that Bruce had been through a lot, and she couldn't even begin to imagine how much. And he may have lost his way a little but that didn't mean he couldn't be redeemed.

"It's late. You should stay here tonight." Bruce said suddenly as he stood, the conversation clearly over.

Irene also stood the idea of staying in his mansion seemed ridiculous. They both knew that there were no more ferries back to Metropolis and that she would have to stay in Gotham. But she couldn't stay.

"That's alright I was planning on staying at a hotel not too far from here."

"Gotham isn't safe this late a night."  He reminded as he pressed a button on the desk speaking into a microphone. "Alfred can you prepare a room for Miss Miranda please."

"Right away Master Wayne." He replied a couple seconds later.

"Bruce..."

"Don't be stubborn Irene we both know you staying here is the best option. Also the most efficient. We can begin work on our best approach to recruit the meta-humans early in the morning."

Irene nodded knowing the she had to accept the help. It was dangerous for her to be out in Gotham this late at night, she couldn't afford to be unreasonable. It wasn't just her that she was putting in danger anymore.

Before anything else could be said an alarm went off in the room, one of the screens came to life displaying the image of the batsignal shinning in the night sky.

Someone in Gotham needed Batman and now it was time for Bruce to go. Now it was time for Bruce to really prove that he was going to be better.

A/N: I love the Bruce Wayne character because of how complex he is so I enjoyed writing this chapter. We'll see a lot more Bruce in the next couple of chapters so be ready for more fun.