Legend

I was glad that Damian had his hand at my waist rather than holding my hand as we walked toward his father, because my hands began to sweat nervously. Bruce was sipping coffee and reading the paper, looking up and standing as we approached his table by the fireplace in Astor Court. The corner of his mouth curled up slightly as Damian seated me across from his dad and sat by my side. Inconspicuously, I pressed my palms to my pants to dry them off, glad my hair was up so I couldn't fiddle with it, as Damian passed a leather folio over to his father, who rifled through the pages inside as the server came up with coffee and juice for me, grapefruit juice for Damian. My juice turned out to be a delicious blend of tangy apple juice, ginger, and mint.

Bruce cleared his throat and we looked at him over the tops of our brunch menus. "I apologize for barging in this morning. I thought Damian would be out and about. I failed to consider other... enticements." I flushed and Damian rolled his eyes.

"Dad, privacy," Damian said sternly. "This kind of thing is just why I moved out." My phone rang and I looked at it inconspicuously. It was J; I'd call him back after breakfast. I listened as Bruce and Damian bantered about why even dads should always knock, smiling slightly, as J called back. I frowned; he always just left a message.

"Excuse me," I murmured, and both men hushed. "It's my brother, he never keeps calling." Both men rose as I left the table. I called J back, he was in an uncharacteristic frenzy, having gotten a D on a test. I recognized that he was furious with himself and worried what the grade meant for him in the hyper-competitive medical program and for our business. "Listen, J, it's not actually the end of the world," I said firmly. "No matter what, we'll find a way to work things out. It's one grade. If you decide that you don't actually want to be a doctor, maybe you could be a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist, or maybe you'd like to do something else. There are ups and downs all along the road." I was clinging to this because owning a business is hard work, and I wasn't sure I was up to it. The call turned into a mutual pep talk as we pumped each other up.

"So what was I interrupting?" J asked.

"I'm at brunch with the guy I'm interested in. And his dad. Not long after his dad walked in on us having sex." There was dead silence for a second as J processed this, then he absolutely roared with laughter.

"Glad I could make your day," I said sourly, although I was smiling.

"You always have the best stories," he said fondly. "So who is the guy? Why is he still living at home?"

"He's not living at home. It's Damian," I said after a slight hesitation.

"Well, I know you've thought about the implications, so all I'm going to say is that maybe next time you should drape a tie over the doorknob," he said, starting to laugh again. I hung up, smiling, and walked back to the table.

I heard their voices just before I rounded the corner; they weren't speaking loudly, but the restaurant wasn't crowded right now. They were talking about the pearls. I was sure Bruce would also think that they were way too extravagant for a woman his son had just started to sleep with.

"You should have given her your grandmother's pearls," Bruce said critically.

"No, Dad, geeze. One, you said you got rid of them. Second, you don't try to give family heirlooms to a woman you're still trying hard to coax into a relationship unless you want to scare her off. Third, your mom was killed for those pearls, so it's really not an experience I'm looking to relive."

"I didn't actually get rid of them," his father muttered. "They're in the safe. I just never had them restrung. But they're natural pearls. These others have to be cultured. They are beautiful, though," Bruce conceded.

"They're Mikimotos, they're not some cheap strand I bought at a bottom-rung jeweler," Damian said impatiently. "It was hard enough to get her to accept them. If I'd have shown up with a priceless strand of pearls, she probably would have bolted out the door."

"Look, son, I know how much you want a relationship with Alex. But go slow. You've got a substantial past to overcome. That's got to have affected her," Bruce said compassionately.

"I am going slow," Damian said through gritted teeth. Not wanting to get caught eavesdropping by the staff, I retreated a ways and marched back, making sure my heels clicked resoundingly on the hard floor. Both men rose as I came back to the table.

"Everything ok?" Damian asked, brushing his lips over my hair.

"He got a D on a test and freaked out," I sighed.

"Is it a serious problem? What if he decides not to finish medical school?" Bruce asked.

I shrugged. "I want whatever will make him happy. We'd figure things out." I laughed. "Maybe I should have asked him if he wanted to study acupuncture." Damian smiled and took my hand. Bruce looked mystified. "I told Tony I wasn't going to do the acupuncture coursework," I told him.

Bruce snorted. "That's good. I think you're stretching yourself too thin as it is. Bet that didn't go over well."

"There was shouting," I conceded regretfully. "Tony doesn't like to be balked."

"No," Bruce agreed. "But give him some time to readjust his thinking. And I understand Damian's helping you reassess the business."

I rubbed my head, my good mood leaking away. "I feel like it's gotten away from me," I confessed. "I think I didn't do enough planning, I was overconfident in my abilities."

"I thought your business plan was decent," Bruce said. "And you've been getting good advice from my people and Stark's. But I have every confidence that Damian will be able to figure things out, show you where the weak spots are, help you decide what to do about them. Business is messier than I think you were expecting, Alex. It's not always linear and there are a lot of outside factors that have to be considered as well." Damian squeezed my hand. Then Bruce changed the subject, to my relief, and the server came for our orders.

"You should get the Titanic omelette," Damian said, poking me.

"It has seven eggs, I'd never be able to eat it all," I said, swatting at his hand. Plus it was $125, with Maine lobster, lump crab, and caviar. I had a variation on eggs Benedict with crab cakes and asparagus and split a side of fruit and berries with Damian, who had an odd offering of one egg Benedict, silver dollar pancakes, sausage, and bacon.

"Gotta keep up my strength," he said cheerfully, offering me a crisp piece of bacon. I gave him a taste of the crab cake. Damian told us amusing stories from his trip--nothing too businessy-- as we ate. At the conclusion, Bruce shooed us off, and we escaped back upstairs. This time Damian shot the deadbolt--which would need a physical key from downstairs to override--before we attacked each other. He talked dirty, which turned me on, and he showed that he could be excitingly creative too. After we rested a bit, he handed me a hotel robe and we went down the hall of the suite to the dining room table, which he was using as a desk currently.

"So how did you come up with the business plan?" he asked, seating me and kissing my neck before sitting beside me. I explained that I'd followed instructions from a book.

"Yeah, it's pretty basic," he agreed. "We can do better, though." We spent the afternoon clarifying my goals and working up a hugely better plan, and he explained a lot more to me, such as how to handle the finances better and other things I had no idea even existed. The few things I was doing well--the taxes, for one--he made sure to praise so that I didn't get too depressed. He typed notes into his laptop as we worked so that I'd have the record although he stressed I should call him with questions. By the end of the lesson, I was dazed with information overload and a damned good idea how unprepared I'd been.

"I cannot thank you enough," I said sincerely as he emailed me the notes and shut down the computer. He smiled at me and cupped my cheek.

"It makes me happy to see you like this."

"Like what?" I furrowed my brow.

"Interested, engaged, energetic, ready to take on the world. You've been dragging, looking down."

"It means a lot to me that you'd take the time to help me when I'm sure that there are other things you could be doing."

"I needed a break," he said pointedly, and I chortled. "But I like analyzing business problems, and this was pretty easy to see where you were faltering. I don't want to take over, even if you'd let me, but I want to help."

I fidgeted, then decided to come clean. "When I was coming back from the call with J, I heard you talking about the pearls."

His eyes sharpened. "What did you hear?"

"I thought Bruce would take my side, that it was too much for a gift. When he said that you should have given me your grandmother's pearls," I struggled to say it, still kind of aghast at the thought. Talk about too extravagant!

"Ah," he nodded. "And you heard my reasons why." I nodded. "But even if I'd known he still had them, I wouldn't have given them to you, primarily because she died from wearing them, that's not something I want you to dwell on, but also because I wanted to give you something just from me. Do you know why I gave you pearls?" I shook my head. "Oysters." He grinned. "They come from oysters. The sight of you eating oysters is burned into my brain, so I thought to give you a memory too." He nuzzled me. "We should get room service tonight and have oysters."

"It's still too much," I murmured, shifting to face him. "It's not like I can wear them to work." I kissed him gently. "Well, maybe the earrings." He pulled me onto his lap and I moved so that I was straddling him, and we kissed.

"There's some sort of fundraiser at the end of the month," he murmured. "Will you go with me? And will you wear that blue dress you wore New Years Eve?"

"I can wear the pearls then," I sighed as he loosened the sash of the robe and folded it back.

"I hope so," he said distractedly, and I helped him with the sash on his robe. Just as I slid him inside, he said, "Will you be exclusive with me? I know we haven't been seeing each other for very long, but there's no one else I want." His blue eyes were hypnotic.

"I want that too," I said breathlessly, and started to move. His arms tightened around me and I could barely move, just rocking; we kissed passionately and I felt both filled and enveloped by him.

Afterward, we went to the living room and curled up in one of the window seats, watching the gathering dusk, not talking much, just being together, punctuated by outbreaks of kissing now and then. He made me dinner in the kitchen, after which I insisted on cleaning up. Then we cuddled on the sofa and he sighed.

"We never really talked about what happened in high school. I don't know if you want to, but if you do, I'm here."

"Maybe we should discuss it," I said slowly. "Get it out of the way. But it's not pleasant, as I think you know."

"I know mostly what you told me," he said quietly. "The detective said he was stunned how much damage you did to the Joker, but he never knew how the paralyzing agent wore off so fast."

I considered, remembering what I'd hissed at him on the sidewalk that summer, sitting up and turning to face him. "Well, I hit all the pertinent parts in what I told you." I didn't think about that time very much anymore; it was still disgusting, but at least the terror had worn off. "I had appointments with a rape counselor three times a week for a little over a month, then twice a week for awhile, but by the time I went to college, I was down to one a week, and I wasn't shoving a chair under the doorknob at night. Every now and then I had to go back as things resurfaced and I needed to face them, but I haven't had any flashbacks or anything since early in grad school. As for the toxin... for high school graduation, I got a pendant from Sif and Thor and Loki that helps me concentrate. I don't like to take it off much."

"That one with the pretty stone?" I nodded.

"I thought it would be helpful for studying to be able to concentrate more, but I found out that night that when I concentrated, I got better at whatever I was concentrating on. That night, concentrating meant that my body was able to clear the toxin faster, since that was what I was concentrating on. The lab accident didn't give me an accelerated healing ability, but in some ways that's kind of what the pendant provides. The tissue accelerator is a lot easier to use and faster, too, so that's usually what I rely on."

His deep voice was soothing. "How else did it affect you?'

"I never trusted a guy enough to talk about the rape before," I said, with a little smile I didn't feel. "It's disgusting and distressing, and the details are frankly unbelievable. Who's going to believe I got away from the Joker? I had a couple of boyfriends in college, briefly. I told the first one I'd been raped when he wanted to know why I wouldn't spend the night or let him tie me up. I didn't give him details, but he didn't handle it well, and we broke up shortly after. The second one...well, I just didn't trust him enough. I've never actually stayed the whole night with a man until last night."

After a minute, he said, "If I could go back, I would do everything differently. I would have insisted that one of the other guys escort you at the party. The Joker didn't care about any of them. But I would give anything and everything I have to go back and not leave you alone. I honestly thought it was in your best interest not to be seen with me, so nobody could link you with me. I never thought how you'd feel, I thought you'd see it the same way I did. You saved me, twice, and I couldn't do anything right."

"Is this, right now, I don't know, compensation?" I asked.

"No. I actually thought that keeping my distance was the best thing I could do for you in college, but honestly, I didn't want to. I've always liked you, even at the beginning when I was such an ass." I had to smile for real at that.

"You were so pretty," I said wistfully. "If you'd just kept your mouth shut..."

"Well, I had that big secret to protect," he shrugged. He put his hand out where I could take it if I wanted. "So being a spoiled rich kid repelled most people. You were a really good sport." I put my hand in his. "Then, I've got to admit, I was a little embarrassed that you were a better fighter than I was, so I wanted to keep things just friendly. I'm pretty good, but you could have whipped my ass if you chose. The teenage male ego is a fragile thing," he said. "And I deserved you rejecting me after high school. When I saw you in college, you always seemed to have guys chasing after you, so it hurt, but I thought it was penance. When you took that job at the coffee shop... I've got a confession to make. I'm not actually a big coffee drinker." I stared at him, surprised, then burst out laughing. He came in almost every shift for a mocha. "I just liked talking to you again."

I rolled that around in my head for a bit. "Did you have girlfriends in college?"

"A few, but they didn't last. They weren't gold diggers, but the litmus test was always 'can I tell her about what's in that cave?' and I never felt like I could. I introduced one to my dad, and she could barely speak."

"Your dad can be intimidating," I said, feeling sympathy for whatever woman he'd introduced to Bruce.

"I don't notice you being overawed," he said, lacing our fingers and smiling.

"I had to work at it. But finding out about that cave... kind of made him more accessible."

He snorted. "I don't think you're awed by him at all."

I grinned. "I'm not, actually, but I do have a healthy respect for him."

"So it was respect that had you demanding that we finish making love and shower before brunch?" His eyes twinkled.

"Well, he walked in on us, and we were in the middle of something wonderful, so finishing was payback. The shower was a matter of courtesy," I argued. "It wouldn't have been respectful to show up reeking of sex, all disheveled." He howled with laughter.

"So tell me one more thing," I said. "Why did you choose Harvard? I"m sure you got into other schools as well."

"I did," he nodded. "I went to Harvard because I knew Aslyn was going there and MIT was close. You'd keep up your friendship."

I reached out and touched his lips. "In case I didn't say it, I've forgiven you for keeping me at arms' length that time," I said softly.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "Because that was a pretty massive fuckup."

"It was a mistake," I affirmed. "But it was just that. A mistake." I sighed. "Even if we'd have been friends still, I don't think it would have changed anything. I wouldn't have been able to call or anything. I had a tracker that I glued to my watch back that could be triggered if I went missing, but I called the police before anybody noticed I was gone. I was freaked out and blamed it all on you, which wasn't fair." I rubbed my hand over my watch. "Tony made this watch as a replacement for me. If I pull out the stem, an emergency notification immediately goes to whatever phone numbers I've selected."

"Is that why you never take it off? It's really nice," he said, looking at it more closely.

I nodded. "It's a habit now, kind of like a security blanket."

"Will you add my number?" he asked tentatively.

"I'll have to drag out the manual, but yes," I replied.

After that, there didn't seem to be much to say. I stood up and stretched, letting the robe fall off my body. "I think I'll take a bath," I said, then walked to the bathroom, adding a little extra sway to my hips. He caught up with me before I made it to the door, let alone start filling the tub.

I stayed the night; we had brunch again downstairs, and tea in the late afternoon, after which he took me home. I had things to do before going to work the next day, starting with adjusting my schedule to better serve my clients and keep myself from burning out. That meant starting later in the morning and going later at night. Since a large portion of my clients were street heroes, that would mean they didn't have try to fit their appointments in around their day jobs as much. Ideally, down the road I'd be able to get a second physical therapist to supplement me, and we could have even later hours all week long. And I needed some time alone to process what had happened this weekend. It represented a huge change for me emotionally.

"Frankly," I said to Aslyn and Margaret on the phone, "my body also needs a break. I've never had so much sex in so short a time before." They laughed and made a few jokes.

"So everything's been worked out?" Aslyn asked.

"Yeah, we talked about it all. I warned him that I might have issues crop up, because I've never been in a relationship like this. Who knows what that might shake loose? I just didn't want him to freak out."

"That was a good idea," Margaret approved. "I can't wait to see these pearls." I'd only told them that Damian had given me a necklace and matching earrings, completely leaving out what I'd heard while eavesdropping.

"You guys will freak," I said confidently and I got caught up on their weekends too. Then I did my work and made an early night of it after remembering to dig out the watch's guide out and adding Damian's number. I slept soundly until the alarm the next morning.