Disclaimer: I do not own the Batman, or
any other Gotham City Characters,they belong
to DC comics. I also do not own "Some
Enchanted Evening,"Rogers @ Hammerstein does.
Chris Dee, however, came up with this version
Of Gotham City, and I am extremely thankful
that she allowed me to use her Cat-Tails
timeline. Also, I borrowed a little from her
first story "A Girl's Gotta Protect Her
Reputation, so if it looks familiar it's
probably from that story. This is story is
based on her Cat-Tails stories seen through
the eyes of the ghosts of Wayne Manor.
A Mother's Determination
By Frog
Timeline: A couple of months before the events of
"A Girl's Gotta Protect Her Reputation."
Place: Wayne Manor
Alfred was passing by the main doorway on his way into
the kitchen, when a strong draft opened the door from the
outside. Shaking his head with despair, he muttered, "Blasted door
always opens from the slightest breeze!" As he closed the door,
he momentarily wondered how the door could open, when there
was no wind outside. "Stuff, and nonsense!" Alfred once again
muttered, "You're getting as paranoid as the master, old man!"
The mysterious breeze sailed through the dark corridors
of the mansion, until it opened the door to a small, un-used
Victorian parlor. Inside the room, a dark-haired man with a
mustache and a dark suit was reading a book in the twilight
that came into the room despite the dirty windows. The man
looked up as he heard the door, open and closed mysteriously,
"Martha, where have you been?" he asked.
Suddenly, a blonde-haired young woman, with a 1950's
dress and pearls around her neck appeared out of thin air,
"I have been watching Mrs. Peterson ooh and ahh over her
latest grandchild," she answered with frustration, "Thomas,
I have had it! It's high time Bruce settles down,
gets married, and has children!"
Sighing with regret, Thomas Wayne closed the book,
"Darling, he does have children," he reassured her, " He
finally adopted Richard a few months ago, he adopted Jason
before...well, before he came to join us, and even Timothy
is part of this family. I bet if Jack Drake was not living,
he would adopt him as well in a heartbeat!"
"Thomas, what you say is true, but you forget,"
Martha informed as she began to count off the reasons
with her fingers, "One: Richard is an adult now, and
has his own life. Two: Jason is dead, and we are the
ones who are 'raising' him at the moment. And finally,
Timothy is nearly an adult, despite having a father
who is ruining his second chance to have a relationship
with his son!"
"You're right Martha," he said with a sigh,
"But, if we just gave him some time..."
"He has had enough time!" she shouted with fury,
"I am sick and tired of watching Bruce wallowing in
self-guilt and misery! I am sick of watching our 'living
friends' gush over their grandchildren! And I am
particularly sick of trying to be a hostess at Wayne
functions! Every time Bruce throws a party here, disaster
follows, and no one can see or hear me because I am dead!"
"Well, I can certainly hear you. In fact, I can
hear you all the way down in the cave," stated a young voice.
Both adults turned toward the wall as Jason Todd came
through wearing his bloody, Robin suit. "What's going on?" he
questioned them, "Bruce is starting to wonder if someone has
sneaked into the Bat Cave, because he keeps hearing a loud wail."
"It's your grandmother, she wants your father married,"
Thomas explained to his grandson.
Jason stared in amazement at Martha, then burst out in
laughter. As he laughed, he sputtered out, "Who...who would
want him? According to the women he dates; he is the most anal,
frustrating, arrogant man on the planet!"
"And just where have you heard this?" she asked her
grandson with fury.
Jason gave her a look of pure innocence when he replied,
"Oh...I just happened to overhear conversations when the women
are dumping him, it's not my fault! I was just hanging around...
it's not my fault no one can see me!"
Martha gritted her teeth in anger as her husband chuckled,
"I am afraid he is right, despite how he acquired this information.
Who would want him?"
"Really," she sarcastically replied, "That is what people told
me about you, Thomas!"
As he started to protest and her grandson laughed even more,
she disappeared from sight with a loud shout, "Men!"
**********************************************************************
Martha Wayne muttered with frustration as she flew with her
son across the rooftops of Gotham City, "Vicki Vale? No...she's in
England dating a duke. Talia? No...she's as mad as her father."
She sighed with weariness as she landed on a rooftop along with her
son, "Lord," she prayed as she looked up to the sky, "Please show
me the one that can get my son to the alter!"
"I don't think those jewels belong to you," she heard her son say.
With curiosity, she looked toward him and was just in time to see
a raven-haired woman in a cat-suit saunter up to him. Martha immediately
recognized her as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman. Suddenly, she remembered
all of those times when that particular criminal was the only one, besides
that Ghoul Head, to make her son go to Defcon-4. Watching with interest,
she observed that Catwoman was running one clawed finger around the bat
insignia on her son's chest. Despite appearance, Martha could tell that
her son was extremely nervous around this woman.
"Well," purred Catwoman with a saucy smile, "I salute you World's
Greatest Detective."
Batman caught her wandering hand and growled, "Selina."
"Yes?" she asked nicely, and then kneed him in the groin.
Batman grunted with pain, and released her hand, that was enough
for the Catwoman as she flipped away from him. "Catch, me if you
can!" she yelled to him as she jumped from the rooftop.
Batman growled in anger as he quickly followed her off
of the roof, "Catwoman!" he shouted in fury.
Martha Wayne smiled and rubbed her hands in glee as she
quickly looked up toward heaven, "Thank you!" Then quickly,
she flew off to catch up with them.
***********************************************************
Later that night...
Selina Kyle landed softly on her apartment patio,
"Hey, Whiskers. What have you been up too?" she asked as
she scratched his ear, "Wait, till I tell you what I have
been...Hey!" Whiskers was backing away from her in fear,
"What's wrong? Did I get something on my suit?" she asked
as she opened the patio door and shook her head in confusion
as she saw him race inside the apartment. "That's strange,"
she muttered as she went inside.
Unbeknownst to her, Whiskers could see what she could not,
the ghost of a very happy woman who was floating above her porch.
"Hello, daughter-in-law!" Martha Wayne shouted with glee and then
frowned in thought, "Now, how on Earth am I going to get
them together?"
***********************************************************************
A month later...
Both Thomas and Jason winced in pain as the sounds of the old
fashioned recorder filled the attic of Wayne Mayor with music. As
they made they're way toward the attic, Jason muttered, "If I have to
hear "Some Enchanted Evening" one more time..."
"I know, I know," agreed Thomas, "Martha!"
But, Martha Wayne did not hear her husband's shout. She
continued to pace the confines of the attic in deep thought,
while listening to the song:
Some Enchanted Evening...
When you see a stranger...
When you see a stranger across a crowded room.
When you feel him call you...
Across a crowded room...
And somehow you know...
That you will see him again...
And again...
Rolling his eyes in frustration, Jason finally stopped the
music by kicking the recorder into the wall.
"Jason, really!" she shouted, "That was a valuable recorder
as well as record!"
"Sorry, but you're waking the dead with that music!" he
yelled back as he took a seat on the floor, and began to casually
go through a book with old newspaper clippings.
Before Martha could lecture him further, her husband stopped
her by saying, "Darling, you have been up here for a month trying to
plan this crazy match-making scheme. Why don't you forget about it
and let our son try to court her on his own?"
"Forget it about it! No way Thomas Bruce Wayne!" she protested,
"And as for him trying to court her on his own, he would not know the
first thing about how to court a woman!"
"Martha!" he shouted as he finally lost his temper, "He's my
son! He should know..."
"He does not know! We died before he was six remember?
And Alfred has had no luck in teaching the boy on how to properly
court a woman!" she argued with fury.
"I hate to interrupt you guys," Jason sarcastically chimed
in as he held up an old newspaper article, "But could one of you
please explain this?"
Taking the article from him, Thomas quickly read it and
explained, "Oh, that's an old society article on my great-great-
aunt Louise Wayne. She was accused of having an affair with
Ronald Luthor, who was a married man.
"Did she have an affair with him?" Jason asked
with curiosity.
"No!" protested Thomas, "That was merely a concoction
of Luthor to ruin the reputation of the Wayne Family; but he
failed. Louise Wayne defended her reputation by claiming and
providing proof that she was in Europe as a nurse helping with
the Crimean War at the time Luthor claimed this affair happened."
"That's it!" she shouted with excitement.
Startled at her shout, the two males looked at her with
bewilderment, "What?" asked Jason with confusion.
"Oh, you'll see!" laughed Martha as she disappeared
into thin air.
Jason and Thomas stared at each other in amazement,
"What do you think she's up too?" questioned Jason to his
grandfather.
"I don't know," he admitted, "And I am not sure that
I want to know."
************************************************************************
A week later...
Gabrielle silently picked the lock and disconnected the alarm
to the door of a local grocery store; she was unawares that she was
being watched from the air. "It's taken me a week trying to find the
perfect girl who is a low-level burglar, but now that I have..."
muttered Martha Wayne. Once she was certain that the young girl was
in the store, the spirit silently reconnected the alarm system and
making it go off at this nearest police station. With a sly grin
she whispered, "I knew spending time watching Bruce fooling around
with alarm systems would come in handy one day!" Then with a chuckle
of utter delight, she flew off toward the Gotham Post.
***********************************************************
A few moments later...
Martha observed Gotham Post reporter, Betsy Carlton, typing
away on her computer, "Mmm..." she muttered, "Ms. Carlton apparently
has her police scanner off...well...I'll fix that!" Silently, Martha
turned the police scanner on and quickly programmed it to the proper
frequency that she wanted.
"Wha...how did that come on?" wondered Ms. Carlton as she
stopped typing. Before she could turn the scanner off, she overheard,
"Arrest in progress...suspect a woman in her thirties...suspected
cat-burglar..." That was all of the conversation that the enterprising
reporter needed to hear, as she quickly gathered her things
and raced out the door.
Martha Wayne wiped her hands in satisfaction, "Trap laid and set!"
she shouted with glee, "Now if that young woman is as feisty as I think
she is...she will not allow that particular blood-thirsty reporter to ruin
her reputation!" Then with triumph smile, Martha Wayne headed for home.
**********************************************************
A few weeks later...
"It worked!" shouted a delighted Martha Wayne with a newspaper
in her hand as she came into the little Victorian parlor where her
husband and grandson where playing checkers in the twilight.
"What worked?" asked Jason with curiosity.
Smiling with delight, she laid the newspaper before them and
pointed to a particular article. With confusion they quickly read
the article under Stage Views:
CATWOMAN PURRS
They say God writes lousy theatre. They haven't been to off-
Broadway's Hijinx Playhouse lately, where Selina Kyle, purporting
to be one of Gotham's most mysterious costumed nightcrawlers,
The Catwoman, is currently starring in a one-woman show: Cat-Tails.
For nearly two hours the buxom but athletic brunette, draped in a
skin-tight purple catsuit that leaves precious little to the
imagination, enthralled the audience with anecdotes about a
nightlife we all know exists in this city but few of us have
encountered firsthand.
Ms. Kyle is certainly a striking figure. She purrs, hisses,
meows and probably scratches with the best of them. She does
a mean backflip, and this reviewer certainly wouldn't want to
find himself in a dark alley on the receiving end of the claws
she brandishes or the whip she wields with expert precision.
The tales she tells about Gotham after dark and the figures that
populate it are both amusing and insightful. But is she really
Catwoman?
That's the question on everyone's lips at intermission: If
she isn't, she's taking a hell of a risk, says one camp; the real
Catwoman isn't likely to approve of someone else profiting from
her name and image. If she is, she's taking a hell of a risk,
comes the reply, publicly confessing to any number of felonies
six nights a week, two matinees.
It's the uncertainty that sells tickets, so of course there's
nothing in the show to settle the question once and for all.
To be sure, Ms. Kyle's monologue includes some knowledgeable
details about breaking into an unnamed Penthouse, but it wouldn't
take much research into security systems to construct such a
narrative once the facts of a crime were known. If authorities
did charge Ms. Kyle and she claimed to be merely an actress playing
a role, they'd be hard-pressed to prove otherwise. Of course the
next most-asked question about this show is "What about Batman?"
(continued on E-5)
Martha smiled with cunning and happiness as the two men of
her ghostly life gaped at her in amazement after reading the article,
answering their unspoken question, "He's going to see her tonight,"
then she paused as she delivered the punch line, "Again! Let this be
a lesson to you two...never underestimate a mother's love or determination!"
The End
any other Gotham City Characters,they belong
to DC comics. I also do not own "Some
Enchanted Evening,"Rogers @ Hammerstein does.
Chris Dee, however, came up with this version
Of Gotham City, and I am extremely thankful
that she allowed me to use her Cat-Tails
timeline. Also, I borrowed a little from her
first story "A Girl's Gotta Protect Her
Reputation, so if it looks familiar it's
probably from that story. This is story is
based on her Cat-Tails stories seen through
the eyes of the ghosts of Wayne Manor.
A Mother's Determination
By Frog
Timeline: A couple of months before the events of
"A Girl's Gotta Protect Her Reputation."
Place: Wayne Manor
Alfred was passing by the main doorway on his way into
the kitchen, when a strong draft opened the door from the
outside. Shaking his head with despair, he muttered, "Blasted door
always opens from the slightest breeze!" As he closed the door,
he momentarily wondered how the door could open, when there
was no wind outside. "Stuff, and nonsense!" Alfred once again
muttered, "You're getting as paranoid as the master, old man!"
The mysterious breeze sailed through the dark corridors
of the mansion, until it opened the door to a small, un-used
Victorian parlor. Inside the room, a dark-haired man with a
mustache and a dark suit was reading a book in the twilight
that came into the room despite the dirty windows. The man
looked up as he heard the door, open and closed mysteriously,
"Martha, where have you been?" he asked.
Suddenly, a blonde-haired young woman, with a 1950's
dress and pearls around her neck appeared out of thin air,
"I have been watching Mrs. Peterson ooh and ahh over her
latest grandchild," she answered with frustration, "Thomas,
I have had it! It's high time Bruce settles down,
gets married, and has children!"
Sighing with regret, Thomas Wayne closed the book,
"Darling, he does have children," he reassured her, " He
finally adopted Richard a few months ago, he adopted Jason
before...well, before he came to join us, and even Timothy
is part of this family. I bet if Jack Drake was not living,
he would adopt him as well in a heartbeat!"
"Thomas, what you say is true, but you forget,"
Martha informed as she began to count off the reasons
with her fingers, "One: Richard is an adult now, and
has his own life. Two: Jason is dead, and we are the
ones who are 'raising' him at the moment. And finally,
Timothy is nearly an adult, despite having a father
who is ruining his second chance to have a relationship
with his son!"
"You're right Martha," he said with a sigh,
"But, if we just gave him some time..."
"He has had enough time!" she shouted with fury,
"I am sick and tired of watching Bruce wallowing in
self-guilt and misery! I am sick of watching our 'living
friends' gush over their grandchildren! And I am
particularly sick of trying to be a hostess at Wayne
functions! Every time Bruce throws a party here, disaster
follows, and no one can see or hear me because I am dead!"
"Well, I can certainly hear you. In fact, I can
hear you all the way down in the cave," stated a young voice.
Both adults turned toward the wall as Jason Todd came
through wearing his bloody, Robin suit. "What's going on?" he
questioned them, "Bruce is starting to wonder if someone has
sneaked into the Bat Cave, because he keeps hearing a loud wail."
"It's your grandmother, she wants your father married,"
Thomas explained to his grandson.
Jason stared in amazement at Martha, then burst out in
laughter. As he laughed, he sputtered out, "Who...who would
want him? According to the women he dates; he is the most anal,
frustrating, arrogant man on the planet!"
"And just where have you heard this?" she asked her
grandson with fury.
Jason gave her a look of pure innocence when he replied,
"Oh...I just happened to overhear conversations when the women
are dumping him, it's not my fault! I was just hanging around...
it's not my fault no one can see me!"
Martha gritted her teeth in anger as her husband chuckled,
"I am afraid he is right, despite how he acquired this information.
Who would want him?"
"Really," she sarcastically replied, "That is what people told
me about you, Thomas!"
As he started to protest and her grandson laughed even more,
she disappeared from sight with a loud shout, "Men!"
**********************************************************************
Martha Wayne muttered with frustration as she flew with her
son across the rooftops of Gotham City, "Vicki Vale? No...she's in
England dating a duke. Talia? No...she's as mad as her father."
She sighed with weariness as she landed on a rooftop along with her
son, "Lord," she prayed as she looked up to the sky, "Please show
me the one that can get my son to the alter!"
"I don't think those jewels belong to you," she heard her son say.
With curiosity, she looked toward him and was just in time to see
a raven-haired woman in a cat-suit saunter up to him. Martha immediately
recognized her as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman. Suddenly, she remembered
all of those times when that particular criminal was the only one, besides
that Ghoul Head, to make her son go to Defcon-4. Watching with interest,
she observed that Catwoman was running one clawed finger around the bat
insignia on her son's chest. Despite appearance, Martha could tell that
her son was extremely nervous around this woman.
"Well," purred Catwoman with a saucy smile, "I salute you World's
Greatest Detective."
Batman caught her wandering hand and growled, "Selina."
"Yes?" she asked nicely, and then kneed him in the groin.
Batman grunted with pain, and released her hand, that was enough
for the Catwoman as she flipped away from him. "Catch, me if you
can!" she yelled to him as she jumped from the rooftop.
Batman growled in anger as he quickly followed her off
of the roof, "Catwoman!" he shouted in fury.
Martha Wayne smiled and rubbed her hands in glee as she
quickly looked up toward heaven, "Thank you!" Then quickly,
she flew off to catch up with them.
***********************************************************
Later that night...
Selina Kyle landed softly on her apartment patio,
"Hey, Whiskers. What have you been up too?" she asked as
she scratched his ear, "Wait, till I tell you what I have
been...Hey!" Whiskers was backing away from her in fear,
"What's wrong? Did I get something on my suit?" she asked
as she opened the patio door and shook her head in confusion
as she saw him race inside the apartment. "That's strange,"
she muttered as she went inside.
Unbeknownst to her, Whiskers could see what she could not,
the ghost of a very happy woman who was floating above her porch.
"Hello, daughter-in-law!" Martha Wayne shouted with glee and then
frowned in thought, "Now, how on Earth am I going to get
them together?"
***********************************************************************
A month later...
Both Thomas and Jason winced in pain as the sounds of the old
fashioned recorder filled the attic of Wayne Mayor with music. As
they made they're way toward the attic, Jason muttered, "If I have to
hear "Some Enchanted Evening" one more time..."
"I know, I know," agreed Thomas, "Martha!"
But, Martha Wayne did not hear her husband's shout. She
continued to pace the confines of the attic in deep thought,
while listening to the song:
Some Enchanted Evening...
When you see a stranger...
When you see a stranger across a crowded room.
When you feel him call you...
Across a crowded room...
And somehow you know...
That you will see him again...
And again...
Rolling his eyes in frustration, Jason finally stopped the
music by kicking the recorder into the wall.
"Jason, really!" she shouted, "That was a valuable recorder
as well as record!"
"Sorry, but you're waking the dead with that music!" he
yelled back as he took a seat on the floor, and began to casually
go through a book with old newspaper clippings.
Before Martha could lecture him further, her husband stopped
her by saying, "Darling, you have been up here for a month trying to
plan this crazy match-making scheme. Why don't you forget about it
and let our son try to court her on his own?"
"Forget it about it! No way Thomas Bruce Wayne!" she protested,
"And as for him trying to court her on his own, he would not know the
first thing about how to court a woman!"
"Martha!" he shouted as he finally lost his temper, "He's my
son! He should know..."
"He does not know! We died before he was six remember?
And Alfred has had no luck in teaching the boy on how to properly
court a woman!" she argued with fury.
"I hate to interrupt you guys," Jason sarcastically chimed
in as he held up an old newspaper article, "But could one of you
please explain this?"
Taking the article from him, Thomas quickly read it and
explained, "Oh, that's an old society article on my great-great-
aunt Louise Wayne. She was accused of having an affair with
Ronald Luthor, who was a married man.
"Did she have an affair with him?" Jason asked
with curiosity.
"No!" protested Thomas, "That was merely a concoction
of Luthor to ruin the reputation of the Wayne Family; but he
failed. Louise Wayne defended her reputation by claiming and
providing proof that she was in Europe as a nurse helping with
the Crimean War at the time Luthor claimed this affair happened."
"That's it!" she shouted with excitement.
Startled at her shout, the two males looked at her with
bewilderment, "What?" asked Jason with confusion.
"Oh, you'll see!" laughed Martha as she disappeared
into thin air.
Jason and Thomas stared at each other in amazement,
"What do you think she's up too?" questioned Jason to his
grandfather.
"I don't know," he admitted, "And I am not sure that
I want to know."
************************************************************************
A week later...
Gabrielle silently picked the lock and disconnected the alarm
to the door of a local grocery store; she was unawares that she was
being watched from the air. "It's taken me a week trying to find the
perfect girl who is a low-level burglar, but now that I have..."
muttered Martha Wayne. Once she was certain that the young girl was
in the store, the spirit silently reconnected the alarm system and
making it go off at this nearest police station. With a sly grin
she whispered, "I knew spending time watching Bruce fooling around
with alarm systems would come in handy one day!" Then with a chuckle
of utter delight, she flew off toward the Gotham Post.
***********************************************************
A few moments later...
Martha observed Gotham Post reporter, Betsy Carlton, typing
away on her computer, "Mmm..." she muttered, "Ms. Carlton apparently
has her police scanner off...well...I'll fix that!" Silently, Martha
turned the police scanner on and quickly programmed it to the proper
frequency that she wanted.
"Wha...how did that come on?" wondered Ms. Carlton as she
stopped typing. Before she could turn the scanner off, she overheard,
"Arrest in progress...suspect a woman in her thirties...suspected
cat-burglar..." That was all of the conversation that the enterprising
reporter needed to hear, as she quickly gathered her things
and raced out the door.
Martha Wayne wiped her hands in satisfaction, "Trap laid and set!"
she shouted with glee, "Now if that young woman is as feisty as I think
she is...she will not allow that particular blood-thirsty reporter to ruin
her reputation!" Then with triumph smile, Martha Wayne headed for home.
**********************************************************
A few weeks later...
"It worked!" shouted a delighted Martha Wayne with a newspaper
in her hand as she came into the little Victorian parlor where her
husband and grandson where playing checkers in the twilight.
"What worked?" asked Jason with curiosity.
Smiling with delight, she laid the newspaper before them and
pointed to a particular article. With confusion they quickly read
the article under Stage Views:
CATWOMAN PURRS
They say God writes lousy theatre. They haven't been to off-
Broadway's Hijinx Playhouse lately, where Selina Kyle, purporting
to be one of Gotham's most mysterious costumed nightcrawlers,
The Catwoman, is currently starring in a one-woman show: Cat-Tails.
For nearly two hours the buxom but athletic brunette, draped in a
skin-tight purple catsuit that leaves precious little to the
imagination, enthralled the audience with anecdotes about a
nightlife we all know exists in this city but few of us have
encountered firsthand.
Ms. Kyle is certainly a striking figure. She purrs, hisses,
meows and probably scratches with the best of them. She does
a mean backflip, and this reviewer certainly wouldn't want to
find himself in a dark alley on the receiving end of the claws
she brandishes or the whip she wields with expert precision.
The tales she tells about Gotham after dark and the figures that
populate it are both amusing and insightful. But is she really
Catwoman?
That's the question on everyone's lips at intermission: If
she isn't, she's taking a hell of a risk, says one camp; the real
Catwoman isn't likely to approve of someone else profiting from
her name and image. If she is, she's taking a hell of a risk,
comes the reply, publicly confessing to any number of felonies
six nights a week, two matinees.
It's the uncertainty that sells tickets, so of course there's
nothing in the show to settle the question once and for all.
To be sure, Ms. Kyle's monologue includes some knowledgeable
details about breaking into an unnamed Penthouse, but it wouldn't
take much research into security systems to construct such a
narrative once the facts of a crime were known. If authorities
did charge Ms. Kyle and she claimed to be merely an actress playing
a role, they'd be hard-pressed to prove otherwise. Of course the
next most-asked question about this show is "What about Batman?"
(continued on E-5)
Martha smiled with cunning and happiness as the two men of
her ghostly life gaped at her in amazement after reading the article,
answering their unspoken question, "He's going to see her tonight,"
then she paused as she delivered the punch line, "Again! Let this be
a lesson to you two...never underestimate a mother's love or determination!"
The End