"You did what?" a horrified board member demanded.

"I canceled our planned partnership with GothCorp," Bruce responded coldly. He stood at the end of the conference table, dark suit unbuttoned and hands in the pockets of his slacks in a casual stance.

"Your name may be on the building," another board member argued, but Bruce interrupted.

"My name is more than just on the building," Bruce stated seriously. His voice was cold and even. "My name is on the paychecks of everyone in this room. My name is on the majority holdings of this company's stock. In short, ladies and gentlemen, I am the boss."

The meeting was interrupted by the intercom coming to life.

"Excuse me, Mr. Wayne," the front desk receptionist said from the speaker. "The police are here. They want to speak with you."

Bruce checked his watch.

"Excellent response time," he commented. "Send them up."

"You were expecting the police?" Lucius Fox inquired.

"Quite right, Mr. Fox," Bruce confirmed. He picked up a TV remote from the table and switched on the flat-screen hanging on the wall. "It might even have made the news by now."

"This is Vicki Vale, reporting for Gotham Live," said the blonde woman on the TV. Her straight hair was parted down the center and fell just short of reaching her shoulders. She had a face for television, flawless complexion, clear blue eyes, and soft features lacking any sharp angles. Her trim physique was noticeable even with the buttoned coat of dark gray she wore. Her attitude and manner were all business, giving the reporter, who could've been a model, the perfect image of a professional doing her job.

"To recap our top story of the day," Vicki went on. "GothCorp stock was pulled from the Market and all trading was suspended when their stock price fell thirty points in an hour. The sudden decline was caused when documents linking GothCorp to a cover-up in the substandard building of the Gotham hospital were delivered by an anonymous source to authorities. The hospital and GothCorp are both under heavy investigation. More as it develops."

Bruce switched off the television and dropped the remote on the table with a slight clatter.

"How are you involved in this, Mr. Wayne?" Lucius asked slowly. He pushed his glasses to a higher position on his nose. The question was not a challenge to Bruce's authority, merely a request for information.

"I knew the crash was coming and sold short on GothCorp stock," Bruce explained. "The police must have noticed the transactions. They're most likely here to arrest me for insider trading."

The elevator doors opened and only a moment passed before Jim Gordon entered the conference room with two uniformed officers in tow.

"Jim, good to see you," Bruce said, warmly shaking his friend's hand.

"Do you know why I'm here, Bruce?" Gordon asked. His manner was one of conflicted emotions. Bruce was his friend, and it was clear he didn't want to arrest him, but he had a job to do.

"Before you place me under arrest, I want to show you a few things," Bruce mentioned, directing Gordon's attention to the file folders he'd placed on the board room table before the meeting had started. He opened the first one and explained its contents. "These are the public records, easily obtainable on the proper websites, for GothCorp. Specifically, they cover the money given to them to build the Gotham hospital."

Bruce set the file aside and opened the next folder down. "This is the information from the city, detailing how much they paid GothCorp. The numbers all match, so it doesn't look like anything inappropriate was going down. It's only when you look over here that things go sideways."

Bruce pulled out the third folder and showed it to Gordon. "These are the records of the supply companies paid by GothCorp for all building materials related to the hospital project. These numbers don't match, a discrepancy of almost three hundred thousand dollars."

Gordon whistled in amazement. "That's way too much to be a clerical error."

"I agree," Bruce concurred. "Wayne Enterprises was about to enter into a partnership with GothCorp, so I did some digging, and these are the files I found online. Anyone else could have discovered the same information if they looked hard enough. It's not insider information, just a thorough examination of a potential business partner."

"I'll need those files," Gordon said after considering Bruce's defense for a few moments.

"Of course, these are copies," Bruce said, closing the folders, stacking them neatly together, and handing them over. "You may keep them."

"I guess we're done here," Gordon announced, nodding his head toward the elevator to get the other two officers to leave. He shook Bruce's hand. "I'm sure glad I didn't have to arrest you, Bruce."

"Me too," Bruce agreed. "Take care, Jim."

Gordon left with the officers, and Bruce turned his attention back to the board of directors.

"Before we were interrupted, we were having a discussion about my being the boss," Bruce reminded, looking over his employees with a hard stare. Only Lucius Fox met his gaze without flinching uncomfortably. "If there's nothing else needing to be attended to, I'll let you get back to running the company. Mr. Fox, have you checked the company financials?"

"Per your request, I checked them this morning when I came into work," Lucius replied.

"Please be so kind as to inform the board of the company's current financial status," Bruce requested. He buttoned his suit while smiling confidently at them all. "I'm taking the rest of the day off. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen."

Bruce exited the board room, pushing both doors open in departure to make a grand exit. When the doors closed behind him, he pulled out his earpiece and listened in on the meeting resuming in his absence.

"What was he talking about?" demanded a board member. "What's happening with the financials?"

"Mr. Wayne dipped into the company treasury in addition to utilizing his own rather substantial wealth for his stock trades," Lucius informed the board. "Because of what he did, Mr. Wayne transformed his personal fortune from millions into billions, quite literally, overnight. Additionally, the money he took out of the treasury was returned with a considerable amount of profit, increasing the total by forty percent from where it had started."

There was a long pause as the importance of the information sank in.

"Since Mr. Wayne was apparently the only one who knew about the impending stock plunge, we can assume he was the one who alerted the authorities," Lucius surmised. "He crippled a competing company and made a fortune in the process. He also boosted our available funds considerably. I told you his coming here would be good for us."

"I don't like it," a board member disagreed.

"What's not to like?" Lucius asked. "We didn't have to do anything but sit back and rake in the money. Ultimately, take this into consideration: in a single day, he crippled an entire company. Their stock price crashed and their leadership is either under arrest or investigation. If any of you have a problem with Mr. Wayne, I'd advise you to get over it, quickly. He brought in a tremendous amount of revenue because he's on our side, but look what he did to those who weren't. Opposing Bruce Wayne is not a wise decision. Do as you will, but if you're smart, you'll stay out of his way and never make an enemy of that man."

Silence fell upon the board room in an oppressive blanket of finality. Bruce removed his earpiece and put it away. He breathed a little easier. The police were no longer after him, Lucius was keeping the board in line, GothCorp was being called to account for its crimes, and the hospital was getting properly inspected before anyone was killed in a structure collapse. He'd done a great deal today, but he still had one more thing on his schedule.

                                                                                           ***

The late afternoon sun still lit the streets around the hospital where Bruce had scheduled a press conference. The sidewalks were jammed with reporters and photographers. When Bruce exited the hospital doors to speak to them, a flurry of camera flashes erupted around him, punctuated by an equal amount of shouted questions.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I thank you for being here today," Bruce said loudly, taking command of the situation. The crowd quieted down, and he continued. "I called you here today in order to inform everyone of the current situation and of what will be happening in the near future. The inspectors looking over the hospital have already found numerous problems. It's quite likely the building will be condemned."

An uneasy ripple coursed through the crowd as they considered how badly off Gotham would become without a functioning hospital.

"The hospital will need to be torn down and rebuilt to code," Bruce explained.

"Does the city have the money for that?" Vicki Vale asked. She stood nearest to Bruce and pointed her microphone in his direction.

"It doesn't matter," Bruce denied. "I'm financing the reconstruction."

A flurry of camera flashes and shouted questions prevented him from saying anything else for a few moments.

"My father was a surgeon," Bruce told them when the crowd quieted. "I think rebuilding the hospital will be an appropriate way to honor his memory."

Bruce pulled a white sheet away from a sign he stood beside. The sign read: Future site of the Thomas and Martha Wayne Memorial Hospital. Photographers flashed their cameras as they rushed to capture an image of the sign.

"During the demolition of the old hospital and the construction of the new," Bruce went on. "I've given orders to have a Wayne Enterprises' warehouse repurposed to serve as a temporary hospital facility. To all those in need within Gotham, you will neither be abandoned nor forgotten."