August 18, 1245h Filb poked his head into Spud's room, watching for a moment as Spud played listlessly with Buckshot and the Evil Spoon. The boy's other toys sat neatly on a shelf, forgotten or ignored. Spud himself was tidily dressed, for the first time in Filb's memory looking not remotely grubby. It was almost more disconcerting than seeing Dick lying stilly in his bed. Forcing down a sudden sense of world-weariness, Filb finally spoke. "'Lo, Spud." Spud looked up, too tired to be startled. "Hi, Filb." His face screwed up in confusion as he realized what Filb was wearing. "Whatcha doin' here in uniform?" "I'm workin', and I am so *not* lookin' forward to goin' back to the station." Filb put a tone of dread into his voice. "You in trouble?" "I will be when Amy gets hold of me." "How come?" Filb made a great show of sighing and stepped into the room, squatting down by Spud. "Well, I'll tell ya -" Then he paused as if considering. "Nah, you don' wanna hear my troubles." Spud considered Filb skeptically for a moment, as if suspecting some ploy. "Did you break the radio again?" Filb chuckled in spite of himself. Yeah, that had been a moment. "Nah, nothin' like that. Just - you really wanna hear?" Spud sat up on his knees, regarding Filb seriously. He nodded. "Okay, see, Amy called me today to be a runner." "A runner? You don't run," Spud scoffed. "True. But a runner means more like someone who runs errands, y'know?" "Oh." "You got a chair for an old man, Spud? 'm not so good as my partner at sittin' like this." Spud stood up, looking around the room. With a determined air, he walked over to a semi-buried chair and pulled a pile of clothes off it, scattering the laundry on the floor. "Sit here," he directed. "Oh, Barb is gonna like that," Filb remarked. "I'll take care of it. Now tell me your problem." Filb sat in the seat and leaned his elbows on his knees to address Spud. "Right. So I'm s'posed to be running errands, right?" "Yeah." "So Amy, she says to me, first thing I get in today, she says 'Filb,' she says to me, 'Filb, it's Saturday, and we're having lunch with Grayson." Spud's eyes got wide. "But Dick-" "Shh. Who's tellin' this story?" Spud closed his mouth to listen. "That's better. So 'm thinkin' like you are, that Grayson's not wantin' to do lunch today, even if we always have lunch at Hogan's on Saturday, 'cuz y'know, your dad's busy fixin' to get better after his fight with the glass truck." Spud nodded. "And I figure Amy knows this, too, but you know what it's like to say no to Amy once she gets somethin' in her head." "Traffic duty," Spud answered sagely. "Right. So's I just kinda scoot on out of the station figurin' I'd figure somethin' out once I got here." "And?" "Well, it's like I said - Grayson's workin' on that gettin' better thing, so I gotta go back to the station empty handed. I might not even get lunch." Filb managed to make himself sound worried about the lunch. Spud looked up at him in genuine sympathy. "So whatcha gonna do?" "I don' know. She really wants lunch with Grayson... HEY!" Spud jumped back slightly. "What?" "I got it. She just said lunch with Grayson. She didn't say which Grayson." "You're gonna take Babs?" "Nah, she doesn't want to sit around Hogan's hangin' out with old cops." "Sure she does," Spud volunteered her gallantly. "Nope. Yer ma's great, Spud, but she's not one for sittin' in cop bars." "I bet she would like it. *I* like going to Hogan's." Filb looked speculatively at Spud. "You do, don't you?" Spud nodded. "'Cept you need a Grayson to go with you." "Wait a second. *You're* a Grayson!" Spud blinked. "I am?" "Sure you are. Remember the court thing, when they said you were *ahem* James Grayson?" "That's right!" Spud's face fell. "But I should stay here-" Filb let his expression falter, too. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just gonna have to let Amy chew my hide." Spud looked at his father's downcast partner. He thought for a minute. Then he spoke carefully. "Dick says its good to help people when they're in trouble." "Yep, that's m'partner, all right." "And that sometimes we have to pick to help someone in trouble because they're in more trouble than someone else." Filb nodded, although he wasn't quite sure what Spud meant. "'Cuz Dick's got Babs and Dinah and Alfred here, right?" "Yeah, but you've got responsibilities and-" "But Dick wouldn't want you to get in trouble because of him. I mean, I know that happens all the time anyway, but not on purpose." Filb fought a grin. "Yeah, but this isn't on purpose either," he pointed out. "No, it's not. But see, if I don't help you out now, that's kinda like getting you in trouble on purpose. Since I can get you out of trouble, I mean." "You think?" "Well, you and Amy can have lunch with Grayson if I go, right?" "Yeah, I guess-" "And then she can't say you didn't do what she said." "Yeah, but-" "And when Dick wakes up, he'll totally say I did the right thing, 'cuz Amy will prob'ly be upset with him, too, about lunch." "Maybe-" "So I think - do you think Babs would let me?" "Let you what?" "Go to lunch with you?" "You really want to?" Spud hesitated, seeming to think hard about it. It was all Filb could do not to reach out and hug the boy. "I think-" Spud finally said slowly. "I think it would be the *right* thing to do." Now Filb did hug him. "I knew you wouldn't let me down. Let's go find your ma."