Book One - Part One: Dark Knight

Chapter Twenty Two

Bruce leads Elena across the land behind Wayne Manor, to the lake that sits at the far end of the land, Elena's not been out here since she was a kid. She used to ride her horse up here, before he died anyway, after that she kind of grew out of it. And it's different now. It looks like a building site, an abandoned building site. She frowns and looks to her father.

"What is this?" she asks looking to Bruce.

"It will be The Glasshouse" he answers. "I was having it built for your birthday" he admits. "But then you were kidnapped so I put the build on hold" he crosses his arms over his chest. "I had them start up again when you came back, but when you started asking about the Bat I paused them again...." he looks to her. "Now it's decided I'll have them start up again, altering the designs slightly" he explains.

"You built me a house?" she asks him, he nods. "Dad" she starts.

"You can't want to live in the manor with me forever?" he asks her.

"I love the manor" she assures him. "I grew up in that house....all my memories are in there"

"And you are now a vibrant and young woman who should be thinking about her future....the Glasshouse can be expanded, and I won't be alive forever, you will get the manor when I die...."

"Don't" she snaps. "You're going to live forever" she points out, he smiles and kisses her head.

"Do you like it?" he asks her. She takes a breath and really looks at part built Glasshouse.

"I look forward to seeing it built" she comments. "I'm sure it will be beautiful"

"Until it's built you can use the Manor batcave as your base of operations" Bruce offers. "But when the Glasshouse is built it will be built with your own batcave" she smiles a little.

"It's really happening" she whispers, he nods.

"Yes, it is" he touches her shoulder. "Last chance to back out" she shakes her head and turns to him.

"No, I've never been more sure of anything" she assures him.

"Then let's get started on the batcave....." he tells her, she nods and smiles wider, excited to get started.

...................

Elena pulls the cover off of the old Batcar and smirks throwing the cover aside before moving her tools closer to the car.

....................

That's how Bruce finds her two hours later, buried under the Batcar, working. His eyes widen slightly as he sets the mugs of coffee down at the side.

"What are you doing!?" Bruce shouts alarmed, Elena pushes herself out from under the car and looks to him.

"Upgrading the Batcar" she points out flipping up her mask. "It's years out of date, at least....." Bruce makes a noise in the back of his throat, the thought of someone, even Elena, pulling apart his car. "Dad" she starts. "You're not Batman any more, would you rather I just built a new car?" she asks him. "Cause I can do that, I just...I wanted part of you with me whilst I am out there" he softens looking to her. "It's also why I dug out those" she nods across to a workbench where a black box sits, Bruce moves to it and opens the top revealing that it's filled with batarangs. He touches the tops of them and looks to her. He understands that she's not here to delete the Batman but to go on as his legacy. Nightwing is his own hero now, and Robin was less about the Bat towards the end. But Elena will become the Bat. Bruce nods and takes a batarang out of the box before throwing it at her, she easily dodges it and shoots him a look.

"Just testing" he teases, she smirks and grabs the batarang before turning and throwing it back at him, Bruce dodges it and chuckles a little. "Deserved that" Bruce turns and wakes the computer, his eyes widening as it brightens to life. "Wow" he whispers, everything is so much fresher, newer, high tech. He always knew his daughter was smart, that was never a problem, but he never realised just how smart she is.