"Happy Holidays"
By: Faita


	Bruce, Batgirl, and Batman were sitting around the Batcave, doing
nothing.
	"This is really boring" Batman said. Batgirl looked over at him.
	"Just our luck. There is actually no crime in Gotham" Batgirl 
said.
	"You should be happy. You get a night off" Bruce told them.
	"You said your self. We never have time off" Batman told him.
	"Yeah" Batgirl agreed.
	"Fine. Then go for another scan of the city. You're bound to pick 
up something" Bruce told them.
	"Christmas season. Most likely Batman" Batgirl said to Batman.
	"Agreed let's go" Batman said while walking to the Batmobile.
	"I need to get out one more time before tomorrow," Batgirl said 
walking to her motorcycle.
	"What's tomorrow?" Batman asked.
	"Just some Christmas party the rich people put on every year. Dad 
wants me to represent Grayson Co. this year" she told him.
	"Sounds classy" Batman said.
	"High point of my week" Batgirl said sarcastically.
	"Wait" he stopped, she stopped too. "Does that mean you have to 
wear a dress?" Batman asked.
	"Let's just go" she said and got on her motorcycle. Batman jumped 
into the batmobile. Just when the top was going up, Bruce yelled to him 
to stop, the top went back.
	"What?" Batman asked. Batgirl put her helmet on but kept the flap 
of her helmet up.
	"The party, that reminds" Bruce told him "I need to have someone 
to represent me. I think you should go for me, never did like the 
things" Bruce told him. Batman looked shocked.
	"I guess I'll be seeing you there," Batgirl said as she put the 
flap down and drove away. Batman closed the top and followed her.

	"There were 2 robberies, that's it," Batgirl said walking over to 
Bruce.
	"It least it was something" Batman told her taking off his mask.
	"Agreed," Batgirl said.
	"Not much crime this time of year" Bruce told them.
	"Well, I have to go. I have things to tell my mom" Terry said 
walking away.
	"I have to find a dress," Emily said. A minute after she said 
that, Bruce looked around the batcave to find that he was alone. He 
sighed and continued on some work on the computer.

	The wide glass doors opened to a huge ballroom full of rich old 
people wearing fancy clothes dancing on the floor. Stars were every 
where shinning through the glass ceiling. An eight-piece orchestra was 
playing next to tables full of small snacks. Two people walked up to the 
top of the tall white staircase over looking all the motion. A girl 
wearing a white dress that wrapped around her neck and went do to her 
ankles, and gold jacket the fell to her hips and with her hair up in a 
bun with several pieces hanging out. A boy wearing a tux stood next to 
her.
	"This'll be fun," Terry said.
	"Welcome to my future" Emily smiled at him.
	"What makes you so sure?" Terry asked her overlooking all the 
dancing people.
	"It's rule. If you get kidnapped at least two times before you 
turn 15, you're in the official rich for life club" Emily told him 
beginning to walk down the stairs. Terry jogged after her. She stopped 
and stared at him, he stopped and returned her look.
	"What?" he asked her.
	"Don't do that" she told him.
	"Do what?" he asked her confused.
	"In a place like is you only move above a walk in you're dancing, 
or in the snack line in front of Mr. Craig" she told him.
	"Who?" Terry asked beginning to walk after Emily down the stairs.
	"Mr. Robert Craig, owner of Craig Enterprises, he also happens to 
be a very big and hungry man" she answered. Terry laughed. A blonde with 
a light blue dress that hugged her hips and went down to her ankles. She 
was about Terry and Emily's age. She walked over to them as they reached 
the bottom of the stairs.
	"Emily, Emily Grayson is that you?" she asked her.
	"Yes, yes it's me Vicki" Emily said in false enthusiasm.
	"And who is your friend here?" she asked looking Terry from head 
to foot.
	"Terry McGinnis, I'm representing Bruce Wayne" he said extending 
his hand. She extended her hand next to his, he looked at it. Emily 
whispered something in his ear. He bent down and kissed Vicki' s hand.
	"Terry, this is Vicki Stanton. Vicki is representing her uncle, 
Charles Stanton" Emily said.
	"So how is Bruce" she asked him.
	"Fine as can be expected" he answered.
	"Wonderful. See you around Emily" she said as she left.
	"Nice girl" Terry said.
	"For a barracuda" Emily said.
	"So you don't like her," Terry said.
	"How'd you guess?" she asked.
	"So is there anyone here who is actually here and not representing

someone?" Terry asked her.
	"There're only about five of us who come here representing 
someone, six including you" she answered. They walked over to a crowd of 
people in the corner.
	"Emily dear, how are you?" and old woman asked her.
	"I'm fine Ethel. How is Betsy?" Emily smiled.
	"She's fine. She had a little girl last month" the woman smiled 
with pride.
	"Congratulations, you must be very proud" Emily said smiling.
	"I am. Who's your friend here, a new face?" Ethel said shaking 
Terry's hand.
	"Ethel this is Terry McGinnis, he's representing Bruce. Terry, 
this is Ethel Craig, Robert Craig's wife" Emily introduced them.
	"It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Craig" Terry said.
	"Call me Ethel. You know I helped raise Emily ever since she was a 
little baby" Ethel told Terry.
	"Come on Terry let's go" Emily said trying to pull Terry away, but 
he didn't move.
	"So exactly how long have you know Emily?" Terry asked her.
	"Ever since she was a little baby, I used to baby-sit her" Ethel 
smiled.  Terry crossed his arms over his chest.
	"Really?" he asked. Emily was really tugging on his arms trying to 
get him away.
	"Emily it's impolite to pull on someone's arm" Ethel told her. 
Emily stopped and stood facing away from them, she began to walk in the

direction she was facing.
	"Do you have any pictures?" Terry asked Ethel.
	"Do I have pictures?" Ethel said as she pulled out several 
pictures from her purse. Terry grinned.

	Terry walked behind Emily laughing. Emily excused herself from the
conversation she was in, and turned to look at Terry. He gathered 
himself and looked at her face. He saw her expression and began to laugh 
all over.
	"Will you please forbear from cackling?" she asked him.
	"What?" he asked her.
	"Just shut up" she told him.
	"Sorry. Ethel just showed me some pictures of you as a baby," 
Terry said almost beginning to laugh again, but Emily put her hand over 
his mouth.
	"Don't laugh" she told him.
	"OK, OK I'm fine. You looked to funny. So, this is where you go 
every year?" Terry asked her smiling.
	"Unfortunately" Emily answered.
	"I kind of like it here" Terry said.
	"I hate it" Emily said.
	"So you're the type who is rich and hates it," Terry said.
	"I guess so. I just never fit in" Emily shrugged her shoulders.
	"You seem to fit in," Terry said grabbing a snack off of a plate 
on the table next to them.
	"Just a disguise" she told him.
	"You have so many" Terry whispered.
	"Yeah" Emily agreed smiling.
	"Well," Terry was beginning to say something. But dozens of men 
crashed through the glass ceiling on to the floor. Glass fell all over 
the floor and dancing people. People tried to run put one of the men 
shot a couple of rounds in the air, making more glass fall. The people 
stopped and looked at the men. Terry and Emily sneaked behind the crowds 
out of sight.
	"Everyone down! NOW!" one of the men yelled. All the people slowly 
sat down. The other men walked over to them and began to take their 
money and jewelry. All were wearing suits that completely covered their 
faces. One of them walked over to Ethel and grabbed her handbag.
	"You better give her that back," Batman said. Everyone suddenly 
stopped what they were doing and stared at him.
	"Well?" Batman said. The man gave Ethel back her bag, and ran. A 
rope wrapped around his ankles and he fell to the ground.
	"Any one else want to give these people back their things?" Batman 
asked them. No one did anything.
	"Oh come on," Batman said. The men began to return the things to 
the owners when a gun was fired into the air. Everyone turned around to 
see who had shot it. The leader of the men was walking out into the 
middle of the room. He had Emily under his arm and a gun pointed to her 
head. Some people sitting on the ground gasped, others looked at Batman. 
Batman was shocked. As the man walked into the middle of the room and 
faced Batman, still having Emily's neck in his arm, Emily shrugged at 
Batman.
	"If you try anything silly Batman" he cocked the gun "she won't 
see another Christmas," he said.
	"Yeah right" Emily said as she elbowed him in the stomach. He let 
go of her and clutched his stomach. Emily hit him in the jaw with her 
knee; he fell to the ground in pain. The other man took one step forward 
and stopped.
	"Attack!" the man on the ground yelled to them in pain. The men 
ran forward at Batman, completely past Emily. Some of the other people 
ran over to Emily and helped her back into a corner. One of the people 
was Ethel.
	"That wasn't very polite" Ethel told Emily "but nice job" she 
added. Emily tried to look back at Batman; he had too many men on him 
then he could handle. He was managing to tie some up, but they escaped 
and attack him again. He sent so flying to the ground with one punch to 
the jaw. The people rushed Emily till she could not see him anymore. She 
ran away from them down some corridors, they chased her as far as they 
could, but she had gotten past some guards that they could not get 
through.  
	Batman dodged one punch at his head, but received one to his 
stomach. It seemed that whenever he dodged a punch, another hit him. He 
didn't have time to think and act at the same time, so he just acted, 
better to go down fighting. He looked to his side, a fist came straight 
at his face, he froze in place, and the fist seemed to come at him in 
slow motion. Then, still in slow motion. A blue and black blur cut the 
man's hand, causing it to pull away from Batman's face. Batman looked to 
where the blur had come from. Batgirl stood proudly on a bare table. 
Some of the men attacked her. Giving Batman some more time to think 
about what he was doing.
	~Good girl~ he thought as he blocked two throws at the same time. 
Batgirl had men coming at her from all directions. One man got a hold of 
her from behind. She flipped him into some men coming at her. Then all 
fell over.  She straightened up and wiped her hands together. A man came 
up behind her. She turned around and kicked him in the stomach; he fell 
to the ground. Batman had punched out his last guy and went over and 
punched out Batgirl's last guy.
	"Thanks" she said watching the man fall to the floor.
	"Nice timing" Batman smiled.
	"I almost didn't come" she grinned. Ethel ran over to them.
	"Emily, you must find Emily. She ran past some guards and left, 
you must find her" she begged them.
	"I'll find her," Batgirl said running in the direction Ethel was 
pointing.
	"Have some one call the police department, tell them there's a 
Christmas present for them" Batman told Ethel.
	"I will. And young man, if you could, please find Terry McGinnis, 
we can't find him anywhere" she asked, he smiled.
	"I'll see what I can do" he said as he began to walk away.
	"And young man" she called after him. He stopped and turned 
around.
	"Thank you, and have a Merry Christmas" she said.
	"Same to you" he said as he began to walk away again. Emily soon 
past him, walking towards Ethel. He smiled as she past, she returned it. 
Ethel ran over to Emily and gave her a big hug.
	"I'm so happy you're safe" she told her.
	"I will be if you let me have some air," Emily said, Ethel 
released her, Emily began to breathe heavily, then Ethel corrected her 
posture.
	"Where did you run off to?" Ethel asked her.
	"I went to find help, but the Batgirl told me everything was taken 
care of, so I came back" Emily told her.
	"Then those two really are heroes," Ethel said.
	"Guess so" Emily said.
	"It's, I guess so, not just, guess so" Ethel corrected her.
	"Oh Ethel" Emily complained.
	"How do you except to grow up fine if you don't practice?" Ethel 
asked her. Terry walked up behind them and placed is hand on Emily's 
shoulder, she jumped a little.
	"Hi" he said.
	"Are you OK Mr. McGinnis?" Ethel asked him.
	"Yes, yes I'm fine" he answered her.
	"Oh good. I have a call to make, excuse me," Ethel said as she 
began to walk away.
	"Let's go" Emily said looking up at Terry, Terry shook his head.
	"I'm ready for that" Terry said. The two walked up the stairs; 
Terry had a bit of a limp, and was using Emily's shoulder to help him 
balance.
	"Nice limp" Emily said.
	"Thanks" he answered.

	"And she hit him in the stomach, turned around, and whacked him 
good in the jaw" Terry told Bruce. The three of them were sitting up 
stairs. Terry and Emily were out of costume, and they all had mugs of 
hot chocolate in the hands.
	"What about you and telling them to give back the stuff, and they 
actually began to do it" Emily said, they laughed.
	"Then you came in with a gun being pointed at your head" Terry 
said, Emily slapped him in the arm.
	"Well it seems you two had a good time," Bruce said.
	"Certainly better then yesterday" Terry said, Emily nodded in 
agreement. 
	"I have something for you two," Bruce said as he got out of the 
chair he was in and walked over to a near by closet. Terry and Emily 
looked at each other in surprise. Bruce walked slowly back to then with 
two packages with ribbons on them; he handed one to Terry and the other 
to Emily. They took them and began to open them. Terry pulled out a 
rectangle object about two feet long and one foot wide. It had red 
streaks on it. Terry smiled.
	"It's a hoverboard, I talked to your mother, and she said that you 
had wanted this but couldn't afford it" Bruce said.
	"Wow, thanks Bruce" Terry said turning it over and studying every 
side of it. Emily pulled out a picture in a brown frame. In the picture 
there was a smiling blonde woman with soft brown eyes. Standing next to 
the woman was a man holding her hands; her had long black hair and brown 
eyes. Emily smiled. She walked over to Bruce and gave him a one-arm hug, 
holding the picture in the other.
	"Thank you" she said. She went over and sat back on the couch next 
to Terry. Terry grabbed it out of her hands and looked at it.
	"Who are they?" Terry asked.
	"That's my Dad, and that's my Mom" Emily said pointing to the 
picture.
	"I took that picture about 17 years ago. That's when they found 
out that Anne was going to have Emily" Bruce told him.
	"She was really happy," Emily said smiling at the picture in 
Terry's hands.
	"If only she knew" Terry said and sighed. Emily hit him in the 
back of the head and took the picture out of his hands.
	"I only meant that she would be happier if she saw how wonderful 
you would become," Terry said in his defense.
	"Then you're excused" she told him.
	"I wonder how long we'll have to wait?" Terry whispered to 
himself.
	"That's it, now your dead" Emily said attacking him, pinning him 
to the couch. She began to tickle him. They heard Bruce clear his 
throat. She stopped tickling Terry. Emily and terry looked over at Bruce 
staring at them. Emily got off Terry and sat back down on the couch, 
Terry sat up too.
	"You two can be very childish sometimes" Bruce told them.
	"Well everyone becomes more childish around Christmas" Emily told 
him. He looked at her, his face not changing its stern expression. Emily 
wiped the smile off of her face and laid back into the couch.
	"Almost everyone" she said in a whisper to herself.
	"Christmas is just like any other day of the year. The only 
difference is that people become more crazy" Bruce told them.
	"We'll go make another trip around the city" Terry said standing 
up.
	"Thank you for the hoverboard" he said to Bruce as he began to 
walk away.  He walked a couple of feet they turned around. He looked at 
Emily. She was looking at the picture of her parents, they as if she 
could feel it, she looked up at him.
	"Oh" she said and jumped off of the couch and ran to join him.
	"Thank you so much for the picture Bruce, I love it," she said.

	"Nothing. Well I'm surprised," Batgirl said to Batman. The two of 
them where standing on a rooftop over looking most of Gotham city. A 
light snowfall surrounded the city, landing on the already snow covered 
ground.
	"Well better safe then sorry" Batman said to her. She nodded her 
head in agreement.
	"Since we have nothing better to do, and since the day after 
tomorrow is Christmas, and I won't be seeing you. I have a present for 
you" Batgirl said.
	"Really?" Batman asked amused.
	"Yes, but I wouldn't give it to you if you make a big deal out of 
it" she said quite serious. Batman wiped the grin off of his face.
	"Not a word" Batman said.
	"Well you can say a word, if it's a good one" she said.
	"Just give it to me" Batman said frankly.
	"Fine, here" she pulled out a package from her belt, and gave it 
to him.  He opened. He took out a small necklace with a medallion on it.
	"Thanks" he said.
	"Look at the other side" she told him. He flipped it over. There 
was a picture of a small red bat on it. He smiled.
	"How thoughtful" he said, "I love it"
	"Thought you would" she said. She searched the city again with her 
eyes.
	"Here" he said to her. He handed her a handkerchief.
	"What's this for?" she asked taking it.
	"Put it on, I'll show you when we get there" he grinned.

	"Almost, almost. And you're out" Batman said leading a blindfolded
Batgirl out of the Batmobile. He guided her over to the edge of the
building. Now the two of them were standing on the top of a building 
over looking all of Gotham. Snow crunched under their feet.
	"Batman where are we?" Batgirl asked him.
	"Wait" Batman instructed her when they reached the edge. She 
stopped. He pulled of the blindfold.
	"Merry Christmas" he told her. She gasped at the sight of Gotham. 
Stars, despite the still falling snow, covered the sky. Lights shown 
from windows, streetlights, and driving cars. It was a beautiful site to 
any eye. Batgirl smiled.
	"It's beautiful" she told him.
	"Highest spot in the city. This is my present to you" he told her, 
also over looking the great city.
	"Too broke to get a real present huh?" she asked him grinning.
	"Yeah. But, on the other hand, I am rich enough to give you the 
city" he said proudly.
	"Touché" she smiled.
	"Every time I think, why am I doing this, why am I risking my own 
life every night, I come up here and remember" Batman said still looking 
over at the city. Batgirl looked at him; he turned to look at her.
	"Now that was nice," she said. They laughed.
	"Guess it is" Batman said.
	"Why?" she asked him curious.
	"Why what?" he asked her.
	"Why are you doing this, why do you risk your life every night?" 
she asked. He looked at her surprised, almost stunned by her question.
	"I guess it just feels like the right thing to do. I don't really 
know. It just makes me feel" he trailed off.
	"Essential?" she finished.
	"Yeah I guess" he nodded.
	"Well don't worry Batman. You'll always will be essential, whether 
you know it or not" she said beginning to walk away. He watched her has 
she leaped off of the edge. He smiled.
	"Merry Christmas Emily," he said to himself.