Disclaimer - I don't own the characters in the DC universe, mainstream or the Elseworlds. However, I do own this one-shot.

It's been rattling around in my mind for sometime ever since I bought "Catwoman-Guardian of Gotham," which is set in an alternate universe where Catwoman is the heroine of Gotham city, and Bruce Wayne's Batman is a murderous criminal who killed Selina's parents when she was a child.

Please tell me what you think. This one-shot begins in the last scene of the second comic of the Guardian of Gotham story.

The End of Catwoman.

She felt empty, just so empty, shocked and shaken. As she drove to the cemetery, something she had been doing ever since she had been a child, Selina Kyle felt numb. The events of the last couple of months had shaken the foundations of the long-held beliefs she had held ever since she had become Catwoman and when she arrived at the cemetery, Selina took a deep breath to steady her nerves before she got out of the car, trying to regain some of the confidence she had spent her whole childhood building so she could become a demon of the night to strike fear into the hearts of the criminals so no child would have to ever go through the kind of hell she'd gone through.

It was raining and the bitter chill of the weather made Selina pause as she got out of her car, but she didn't let it stop her. The rain wouldn't kill her, and besides, with it being chilly she hoped to feel more alive than she felt right this minute. As she trudged the well-walked route she always used to reach the gravestone of her parents, Selina felt her eyes begin to water. She wished, oh how she wished her old friend and confidante Brooks was here with her, offering her comfort like she always had in the past. Brooks would be looking out for her, as she always had. But no more, because Brooks was dead.

She felt a fresh surge of sorrow and guilt threaten to overwhelm her because of everything she had lost, but as she approached the massive gravestone of her parents, Selina pushed those thoughts aside, and she studied the gravestone, taking solace in the simple message on both sides; Martha Kyle - Loving wife of Thomas, and Thomas Kyle, loving husband of Martha (she was forcefully reminded she would need to arrange for Brooks funeral, but it was at the top of her list, she ignored it for the time being).

She took a deep breath and with a black leather gloved hand she reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a small gold plastic ring with three small smiling faces engraved, and very gently and reverently she laid it down on the ground before her mothers' side of the gravestone.

"I…I found your ring, mother," she began quietly, her voice choking on the sobs that threatened to overwhelm her, "the one you loved, making me love you.,."

Selina paused as she took a deep breath that made her shake, and she was unable to control the fresh tears that she'd been holding back ever since she'd found the ring last night in the belfry when she was fighting…. fighting Bruce, who had revealed his identity as the Batman after he'd just murdered her best friend.

"Unlike you, the monster who stole it didn't think it was worth much. Never even bothered to pawn it," Selina said, thinking privately to herself what it said about Bruce as a person, how he put more stock in the value of things, though she did wonder what had possessed Bruce to keep it. Had he just thrown it into his collection of loot and forgotten all about it, or had he kept it as a kind of trophy much like she had kept the tools and weapons of her own former Rogues Gallery? Somehow that didn't seem like Bruce, so she was going to go for option one, he'd just thrown it into his loot and forgotten about it. He wasn't the sentimental type, and he didn't care about anybody but himself.

"Actually," she added, deciding to voice her thoughts on the man she'd married, not for love as it had turned out, but for her to die so he'd inherit everything she owned, "he..he didn't place much sentimental value on anything. Not even a real ring."

Selina looked down at the tip of her boots for a second, mustering her thoughts before she looked back up at her parents' graves. "But he's…he's gone now," she stumbled, "just like you."

The moment the comparison was out of her mouth, Selina wanted to suck it back into her mouth; after what she'd learnt about Bruce, about what he had done to her long, what he'd taken from her, before they had met again after so many years, the last thing she wanted was to compare her parents to him.

"Whatever he was, monster or not…I only wish you an dad could have lived to meet your grandchild. The doctor says…its a daughter," Selina whispered, remembering how overjoyed she was she was going to become a mother, but before she discovered the truth about Bruce she'd assumed he would have been overjoyed himself, but now… Selina just wasn't sure, she also had no idea if he would have let her live if he'd learned she was pregnant, and then claimed the baby for himself and raised their daughter to be as psychotic as he had been.

Selina closed her eyes, trying to swallow the sudden anger which went with the pain she felt at the thought of another life ruined by Bruce Wayne. She was about to speak again, but the sound of creaking branches which moved in the wind which went with the rain made her realise this confession was going to be best done if she checked no-one was nearby.

Taking a deep breath, she walked around the gravestone to make sure no-one was close by, and when she was satisfied she walked to face the gravestone again she felt safe.

"Everything's changed now, mother, father," she said quietly as she thought about how her life had been shattered, shaken down to her foundations, "the monster who is your granddaughter's father is also the monster who murdered you. I feel so used."

Those four simple words spoke of all the misery she'd suffered, how she had let Bruce Wayne into her life because she had admitted to herself Brooks had a point about how lonely she'd been. Her friend may not have said it out loud like that, of course, but Selina had never really bothered with dating; most of the people she'd dated because it was expected of her and because the media were always fascinated in Gotham city's wealthy elite, were pathetic. Shallow and rather small-minded. But she had admitted to herself deep down she needed and wanted someone to love and to love her back.

Bruce Wayne had fitted the role perfectly, but now she knew the truth.

"I can't continue with what I'm doing," she whispered, feeling ashamed in herself for having to admit that, but truthfully she had known the moment she was pregnant before finding Brooks dead body lying on her bed with that bat-shaped blade sticking in her back with the Batman standing over her with that sick grin on her face that seemed somehow more darker than the Joker's at the Clown Prince of Crime's peak, because Batman was not trying to disguise his crimes with humour there was going to be any chance of her continuing her role as Catwoman. "But somehow….it feels right. A long time ago, I would never have imagined this. I… I had given up my happiness for the greater good. I thought I knew that" she whispered, feeling bad for her confession to her parents she would have eventually found herself alone with no-one to care about her. The admission made her look down at her feet with shame.

"But now…Now I've got a little person growing within me," Selina went on, her hand automatically stroking her still flat stomach, knowing that underneath that, in her womb, a baby was growing within her, "and I know I will have to put her first. I hope you understand," she finished, looking beseechingly at the gravestone as if in the hope her dead parents would give her their blessing from beyond the grave.

For a very long time, Selina had been training and working herself into a weapon to take on the criminals in the city, to get revenge for her parents murder though as she'd grown older she had worked out the chances of finding the killer was a billion to one, though this was before the murderer had come out of nowhere without warning, donning a disguise, one far more darker and more menacing than her own cat guise. She had been hoping and praying her parents from wherever they were now understood her reasons, understood why she had put Gotham first rather than trying to move on, but she wondered if her parents were happy for her now she was pregnant.

After spending another few minutes at the cemetery, Selina got back in her car and began the drive back home. As she arrived she was surprised to see two police cars outside her estates' gates. At the sight of her car approaching, the lean white-haired form of Jim Gordon got out.

Selina slowed down and wound down the window. "Hello, Commissioner Gordon," she greeted, effortlessly slipping into her "Selina Kyle, socialite extraordinaire persona" without effort. "Is everything alright?"

Gordon sighed, "I wanted to speak to you personally, but you were out. We found a number of reporters here. They somehow heard the Batman was your husband."

Selina groaned and leaned back in her chair. "Ex-husband," she ground out when she'd gotten her act together; she would need to think of something to say to the media later, though truthfully she didn't want anything to do with them. "He stopped being my husband when I found him standing over the corpse of one of my oldest friends. He wanted us dead so he could inherit the manor, and move everything he'd stolen into it."

Gordon nodded. "I figured as much," he said amicably. "Do you mind if we talk inside?"

Selina wanted to tell Gordon she just wanted to be left alone, but she decided it would be a good idea to speak to him. "Okay. Get in," she said, "I'll drive us up."

"Are you sure?"

Selina nodded. "Yeah, besides I'll get us there in moments."

They made the journey to the manor in silence, but when they got through the door and headed for the kitchen, they were besieged by hundreds of cats.

Gordon smirked at her, but Selina was in the kind of mood where every emotion she saw was magnified, though her training had taught her to look deeper, a lesson she had forgotten when Bruce had seduced her. She could see the cogs turning in Gordon's mind and she wondered if he would be alright with the revelation she was Catwoman.

"They seem hungry," he commented at last.

"They usually are," Selina replied, leading the way to the kitchen. She sorted out some drinks and sat down in a chair.

Gordon leaned forward. "How are you holding up?"

Selina looked down into her tea. She'd wanted something more soothing than coffee. "Not well," she said truthfully, "the man I married, the man I loved, turns out to be a psychotic murderous criminal who only married me for my home and my fortune. Nothing more. On top of that," she took a deep breath and decided to just come out and say it, "do you mind keeping this between us for now?"

"Of course," Gordon whispered.

"I'm pregnant," Selina said, watching Gordon's reaction extremely closely; he was surprised by the suddenness of the news, but he didn't look that surprised. "I'm carrying his child. A little girl and I don't know how to feel about it."

"That does sound rough," Gordon said at last after a moment's silence as he clearly tried to work out what he could say about that, on top of everything learnt about the Batman. "Anyway," he moved onto surer ground, "the Batman is dead, and we've got divers looking for his body."

Selina said nothing, knowing the police would send the divers to the bottom of the bay to find Batman's body, but truthfully she didn't give a damn after seeing him alive. "I know," she said shortly, noting the sudden interest on his face. "I'm aware of police procedure. I've seen cop dramas," she added with a smile.

Gordon nodded with understanding, but she noticed something there in his eyes. Suspicion.

When the meeting had finally ended and Gordon had left, Selina went upstairs to get changed, switching on the security system as she did so she could go down into the lair to work for a bit, but with the manor still damaged from her fight with Batman, she didn't want to take the risk someone from the press would try to break through the shattered window. But then she stopped when she saw there was a fault in the system. She could tell because this was on a separate circuit. She couldn't tell what it was, but she knew it was there.

Grabbing a small electricians tool kit Selina left the manor and walked to the outside box where the problem was coming from. Selina was expecting to see a faulty circuit, anything like that, but what she saw instead made her eyes shoot open with horror. Someone had broken into the manor at some point, and they had bypassed the security system. Selina gritted her teeth in anger, but she was also confused. When had this happened? Nothing in the manor looked like it had been touched.

She examined the wiring. Whoever did this was good, she admitted to herself, it will take me only a few minutes to repair it if I had the right bits to fix. Opening the kit, Selina got to work on making a small lash up which would hold for now, mentally preparing herself to check the security footage in the manor. She had a number of security cameras that worked on a different circuit to this thing, and she had a link to her computer in the lair.

When she was finished, at last, Selina stood up and closed the box and walked back up to the manor. Once she was inside she switched the security systems back on, and she headed down into the lair.

When she was sitting in front of the computer, she checked the footage from the cameras. She decided to review them from a start date going back a couple of weeks to be on the safe side, and she began. She sat in the chair for hours, ignoring the sound of the mewling cats around her, but she became more and more bored. Finally, she admitted defeat and sat back in annoyance.

Nothing. It hasn't just happened, it must be something from much further back, she thought to herself, and she closed her eyes in dread, wondering if it said something about her as a person she had not seen what Bruce really was on top of her home being invaded….

Wait a moment!

Sitting back up again with sudden inspiration, Selina punched in a new search time into the computer, choosing the first day she was aware of the Batman's existence, the day Killer Croc was murdered to the current day. At first, there was nothing, no movement in the corridors aside from Brooks and the cats - the sight of her friend in her scandalous maid's uniform made her smile sadly, and her eyes began to water. She wondered how Brooks would have reacted if she learnt her friend was pregnant, but the stupid question was instantly replaced with a sarcastic answer.

Oh, you know Brooks would have loved the baby even if she didn't like Bruce. Why would you think otherwise?

Selina picked up a cat at random and she stroked it gently, smiling as she listened to the little animal purr loudly at her ministrations. "I know," she said, "I'll feed you in a bit-."

She stopped when she suddenly saw something on the monitor. Putting the cat back down on the ground and ignoring its meows of protest Selina leaned forward and watched. Her blood had been chilled outside when she had seen the sight of the bypassed circuit, but now it hardened into icy dread when she saw the tall form of Batman walking through the mansion like he owned it, his dark costume merging with the shadows however the effect was ruined by the small torch in his hand.

Selina's eyes flicked to the date. That was one of the nights she had talked to Gordon, during that talk she and the commissioner had spoken about the Batman, how he'd appeared from nowhere, and how he'd adopted a gimmick and found power in it. All that time he was in her home!

But the date still haunted her. A week later she first met Bruce Wayne. It was too much of a coincidence.

She watched the security footage and noticed how he scanned each painting, tapestry, and vase on display; her family had been collecting art for decades, but she could tell he was pressed for choice here. Batman had always gone for small amounts of cash and other things to steal so having an entire mansion to choose from must have been difficult.

And then his attention fell on a certain painting of - Oh no! Her eyes widened as she watched the Batman take off the painting of a woman with a black panther on it, only to see the hidden switch underneath. She watched him lift the painting off of the wall with no effort and flip the catch that opened the door. She watched as Batman walked down the stairs only to pause in shock when he saw the computer station at the bottom - the security cameras built into the cavern picked up on his open-mouthed surprise when he saw the station, but she decided it didn't matter much. She watched silently as the Batman walked around the cave, not touching anything, but studying everything with his eyes alone. He saw the crime lab, the workout area, the trophy room…

Selina still couldn't believe it, but it was true. She had never once wondered why Bruce had come specifically for her before, especially after learning about his Batman persona. She had been more interested in staying alive especially after being taken by surprise in her own bedroom, but she had assumed Bruce had come after her so he could make it big by inheriting everything she owned. The death of Catwoman would simply be the icing on the cake.

It had never occurred to her Bruce had come after her knowing already about her own persona, and as she watched the recording of Bruce studying everything in the cave from the security footage, head bowed as he looked around, clearly in thought.

"HAH!" the sound of Batman's voice as it echoed suddenly throughout the cavern as he threw his head back and his arms out took her by surprise, but she wasn't surprised when she saw the twisted grin on his face under his cowl. She might not be able to see his face, but Selina could tell what he'd been thinking at the time, it was so obvious anyway.

Batman hadn't bothered to steal anything because he had worked out a better plan to deal with her, and she knew the story anyway. A week later from the break in neither she nor Brooks were even aware of, she and Bruce Wayne would meet, and it would go from there.

Selina rewound the footage of the break-in again and rewatched it slowly. She wanted to revisit the moments where Batman had made up his plans in his black heart. As she watched him visit her costume wardrobe, Selina wondered if he remembered what he had done to her years before, though he guessed he appreciated the irony.

Selina looked down at the keyboard, her eyes welling with tears as she automatically stroked her still flat stomach. She would spend the next month as Catwoman, she decided, though she would quickly give it up, though she would not just leave here and now. No, it was best if she settled her affairs and got everything in order while she prepared to have the baby.

Thinking of her child made Selina wonder what the little girl within her would be like, but she decided it made no difference. Bruce Wayne had been a monster because of his upbringing where he never even know who his own family were, she was convinced of that. She wouldn't abandon or hurt her child, never.

Commissioner Gordon was worried as he stood on the rooftop of police headquarters, the still shattered Cat signal lighting up the sky. It had been close to a month since Batman's death, and things were completely different in the city and not all in a good way. The Batman had slaughtered the biggest criminals in the city - Scarecrow, Riddler, Killer Croc, Penguin, and lastly the Joker though he had also gone after some of the bigger gangs and wiped them out forever to make his one-man crime wave easier to achieve, and as had been proven so many times in the past, nature abhorred a vacuum.

Catwoman had managed to mitigate the worst of the potential crime wave as some of the smaller league criminals and mob bosses whom the Batman had left alone, though he had gone after a few of them as well to make sure nothing happened with his own plans. Gordon, seeing an opportunity to really do a major clean up in the city, had once more joined forces with Catwoman to put those minor bosses away before they could step up and fill the void. It wouldn't last forever, of course. Soon there would be a large mob in Gotham once more ruling the underworld, though if there would be criminals with as bizarre gimmicks as Riddler and Scarecrow, he wouldn't be surprised.

But Gordon was worried about Catwoman. She was still out there, of course, making sure the city was kept safe, and yet she was hitting the mob bosses more strongly than she usually did, and while he had his suspicions he wasn't going to say anything unless he had no choice.

"Hello Commissioner," a familiar purring voice whispered to his side, and Gordon had to control himself so he didn't leap out of his skin. He turned around and found himself looking at Catwoman, clad in her usual purple costume with the bulletproof corset. In her hand was her bullwhip.

"Catwoman," he greeted back, "the crime rate is certainly dropping now we're pressing the mob bosses."

"It was the logical thing to do," Catwoman replied, her heels clicking as she walked over to stand by the signal beacon, "with the Batman gone and the so-called supervillains gone," her purple lips rose in a disdainful sneer which made her thoughts on the title given to people like Penguin and Joker clear though Gordon privately felt the term applied to Joker more than the others, given how homicidally insane he'd been, "the city would have been ripe for the taking."

"Yeah," Gordon replied with a sigh as he tried to work out how he was going to speak to this woman, "but it was close."

"True, but I know you better than that. I know you're not up here at this hour to tell me something we both know already," Catwoman said, getting right to the heart of the business, "what's wrong?"

"I'm worried about you," Gordon said bluntly, holding back his urge to sigh he was so transparent. He saw Catwoman start with some surprise for a moment before her original posture returned. "You seem edgier than normal, and you're working much harder than you did before Batman showed up."

"I just want to keep the city safe," Catwoman protested, her voice becoming annoyed but Gordon could see right through it, it was as though this woman was offering excuses like a teenager. "I'm fine, honestly."

But Gordon looked at her pointedly.

Underneath her mask, Selina closed her eyes, though the effect was ruined because the cop in front of her didn't know it. She remembered how Gordon had started at her without her mask after Batman's death, and she had wondered at the time if he'd begun putting two and two together. As she realised that, Selina realised she couldn't keep the truth from Gordon indefinitely. Soon he would turn on the beacon and she would not turn up, but she decided to tell him what she planned to do. She had too much self-respect for Jim Gordon to do that to him.

"I'm not fine," Catwoman whispered and she looked down, her mind racing as she tried to think of a way to tell Gordon the truth. In the end, she decided to just get it over and done with. She sighed and reached up a hand and pulled off her cowl.

Gordon's eyes popped when he saw Catwoman lift off her cowl off her head, revealing the beautiful face of Selina Kyle. He wasn't particularly surprised, he had begun to wonder about the woman ever since he had seen her a month before, but he had too much respect for Catwoman to try to pry.

"Selina Kyle," he whispered.

Selina nodded. "Yeah," she said simply. "I am Catwoman." She rested her hand gently on her stomach, drawing the aged police commissioner's attention to her with the motion. "I'm retiring."

That blunt, short admission explained everything to Gordon, though he wished Selina would speak to him without falling into her masked vigilante persona. He could understand why the woman would be retiring from crimefighting. Catwoman was well known in the city for being athletic and skilled with gymnastics, and besides it wasn't unusual for the woman to be shot at or stabbed; that was normal when you were a cop or a vigilante, but since the woman was pregnant, it would be too dangerous for her to go out. He understood that. He also understood when the baby was born, the chances of Selina Kyle donning the cowl and costume of Catwoman were not particularly high. She would be worried about the baby at all times, and he couldn't see her bringing the infant with her in the Catmobile. She wasn't that stupid, and besides, he had heard stories of how badly damaged the car had sometimes gotten over the years.

"I understand," he whispered at last, but he was unable to hide his admiration for what this brave young woman had done over the years, "you've got to look after your child. I understand that-."

"I know. You've got Barbara, but to be honest, I've been thinking about retirement ever since I found out I was pregnant, and this was before I found out Bruce Wayne wasn't just the Batman, but he was also the common mugger who murdered my parents."

"What?!" Gordon whispered; this was news to him. He remembered being a junior police officer when the Kyles had been murdered in that alley leaving their daughter alone. "Are you sure?"

"He pretty much confessed as much to me," Selina replied, not wanting to get into a conversation on that front; some of it was too personal for words, and she wasn't in the mood to dwell on any of it. "He told me he'd created me by forcing Catwoman into existence by murdering my parents, but he didn't know who I was until he broke into my home, and found out from there by chance."

Gordon was about to ask her what she meant by that, but he decided against it. He could see Selina didn't look like she wanted to venture into the topic anyway, so he decided not to bother. "And then he began dating you," he stated, guessing why the murderous bastard had done that, there was only one logical reason for it.

Selina nodded, confirming his thoughts. "He decided he wanted to inherit my family wealth while getting access to my facilities there," she replied, her voice a whisper, "he seduced me, dated me, married me, and we had sex together," she knew Gordon wouldn't baulk at the blunt fact, "and then he tried to murder me. I don't even think the thought I might be pregnant with his child entered his mind, but I guess he wouldn't have cared."

"Bastard," Gordon whispered, and then he shook his head. "When do you plan to retire?"

"Not long from now. I wanted to sort out the city a bit more, get things wrapped up, and tell you before I actually left."

Gordon wondered if she had even planned on telling him anything, but he pushed those thoughts aside, for now, worried about her health. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know, Jim," she whispered and for the first time, the real Selina Kyle, the little girl who had lost everything in the span of just a few moments, re-emerged through the hardened facade she had worn as she had grown up, "I just don't know."

Jim Gordon looked up as the huge form of Kyle Manor loomed over him. The family estate of one of Gotham's oldest and most prestigious families never failed to amaze him, though the place spoke of tragedy ever since Selina's parents had died. In the months following her retirement from crime-fighting, Selina had concentrated on her non-costumed life and her growing responsibilities as a parent.

It hadn't taken long for the media to grab the story of her pregnancy, on top of the scandal she had been fooled by Batman who had murdered her maid, the press had loved the sensational story of how she had been seduced, married, bedded, attacked and then left pregnant by the murderer. Selina had given a statement but she had refused to do anything else, knowing it would do little good in the long term, and besides, in time everyone would forget what had happened.

But now little Helena Kyle had been born, Gordon wondered how she was coping, so he had called to ask if he was okay with coming around. Selina had said yes instantly.

He let out a sigh and he walked to the door and knocked. A few moments later and the door was answered with the cries of a baby, and a harried-looking Selina. "Jim," she smiled, though he could see the exhaustion in her eyes, "hi. Please come in."

Gordon stepped in, ignoring the crying infant in Selina's arms with long experience. "Thanks. She's beautiful, Selina," he added, looking at the small infant who was calming down as Selina fed her milk from a bottle in her hand that he hadn't noticed her holding.

"She is," Selina whispered, gazing down with pure love at the little girl. Gordon had been there when she had gotten her scans of the baby, and she had been looking at them with pure love, no hatred like he had expected.

Retirement and parenthood had done Selina Kyle the world of good.

Until the next time, readers...