Never Let Me Go
With hundreds of Arkham inmates lose in Gotham, Bruce's attention is divided between Selina and his nightly alter ego. Selina is starting to remember the freedom of being the mysterious Catwoman. As well as her desire to destroy Batman and Ivy.
Harleen and her new lover are making elaborate plans for Gotham's innocent population, and a new candidate with a checkered past is running for Mayor of Gotham.
Disclaimer! I do not own Gotham or the DC characters!
1.
~ Alfred wasn't happy with having to bring Bruce's dinner to him in that dank bunker again. Selina had eaten dinner alone for the third night in a row and the butler could tell she wasn't happy about it either. Bruce had forced the butler to make excuses for him. Traffic, work, meeting, work, press statements, work. Alfred could see the frustration written plainly on Miss Kyle's face whenever he told her she would be dinning alone.
"Master Bruce." Alfred said curtly when the young man ignored the dinner tray Alfred had so carefully put on the table next to him. "Miss Kyle was disappointed that you didn't show up for dinner like you promised."
Bruce glanced at his watch.
"Damn, I must have lost track of time." he said. "Will you make my apologies? Tell her I was working late at the office."
"I already have, sir." Alfred said. His voice not disguising his annoyance with the younger man. "I would have thought having Miss Kyle here at last was what you wanted, but you've been ignoring her for three days."
"I've been a little busy, Alfred. In case you haven't noticed, hundreds of dangerous psychopaths are lose in the city. My nights have been spent rounding them up and my days are spent with the new Arkham project." Bruce said with an exhausted sigh.
"Yes, and in the meantime, you are neglecting your guest." Alfred scolded.
"It's for Selina that I'm doing this, Alfred." Bruce said.
He finally turned to his old friend.
"Ivy is still out there. So is Crane and that intern Harleen Quinzel. The man she helped escape, is the same one who let all the murder's out and instigated the riot. He has been in prison since he was seventeen because he murdered his mother. Gotham isn't safe while those maniacs free." Bruce said angrily.
"Sir, perhaps you can take Miss Kyle back to Europe. Forget about Gotham for a while. I'm certain Gordon and the rest of the GCPD can handle this." Alfred offered. "The two of you seemed so happy in Switzerland."
Bruce looked at the older man in contempt.
"Is that why you didn't tell me about Arkham reopening in the first place? Did you want me to stay away forever?" he asked.
"Yes." Alfred said boldly. "Anything to keep you happy and away from this dangerous little hobby of yours."
"You would let the innocent people of this city suffer when you know I could help them." Bruce accused.
"I don't care about the innocents of this horrible city, sir." Alfred told him coldly. "I only care about you."
Bruce shook his head.
"You don't mean that." he said.
"I do mean that." Alfred snapped. "And besides, isn't it dangerous having Miss Kyle here in the house? You secret life so close and all? What if she finds out? Not to mention the fact she tried very hard to kill you last time she was in Gotham."
"The medication Fox designed keep that side of her… sedated. They keep her memories of what she became from Ivy's toxin at bay. As long as she takes those, meds, she'll be fine. She'll be happy." Bruce said.
Alfred looked over the young man with uncertainty. Bruce's face clearly showing his own need to believe that Selina was safe.
~ Selina wasn't surprised she would be alone for dinner again. Bruce was still at the office and wouldn't be home until well after she was normally asleep in her own room. Alfred had wanted her to sleep in her own little pink bedroom during her stay at Wayne Manor. It was almost comical their first night back in Gotham, with Alfred letting them both know about the separate sleeping arrangements.
"No misbehaving." he said sternly to Bruce. Selina had smothered a laugh as Bruce's face turned scarlet with embarrassment.
Still, she had managed to sneak into his room in the middle of the night. Most of the time she found his bed deserted. It would often stay empty until morning. Those nights, Selina couldn't sleep and would wander Wayne Manor for hours on end. Isis, her black cat Bruce had rescued from her apartment, keeping pace with her as the explored the empty, lonely house.
"Here is dessert, miss." Alfred said placing a small tea plate before her. On it sat two pills, powder blue and blood red. Alfred never called them pills or medication, his manners were too nice for that. Only dessert.
"There's a good girl." he offered in way of encouragement.
She had eaten dinner alone that night after Bruce had promised he would be there. Wayne Manor was the loneliest of places to be and she was going stir crazy with only Alfred and Isis for company.
She looked to Alfred who nodded for her to take her medicine and she reluctantly swiped them off the plate.
Either Alfred's eye sight was going or he thought she was more compliant, but he never caught her sleight of hand. The pills going into the cracks of her fingers instead of her mouth. She drank the full glass of water without complaint and smiled at Alfred.
"Master Bruce called and said he would be late again. He sends his apologies." Alfred told her.
Selina nodded.
"I haven't seen him all day." she admitted. "Think he'll make an appearance soon?"
"I hope so." Alfred said with a little bow.
After Selina had supposedly taken her medication, she was left in peace. She knew the pills made her drowsy and she knew that Alfred knew this to. She would be expected to want to go to bed early and sleep peacefully all night. So, she played along. She went upstairs to her pink room, shut the door, and flushed her pills in the toilet.
Now it was time to get dress to go out. Alfred wouldn't check on her till morning and she knew how to escape Wayne Manor without setting off the silent alarms throughout the house. She dressed, as always, in black. Her leather jacket, a staple in her wardrobe for years was now a hot fashion trend in Gotham. A picture of her dressed in her normal clothes had been given a splashy centerfold in a fashion magazine. Selina Kyle had become a media mystery woman who was always on the latest trend by creating the latest trend.
Suddenly, it was high fashion to wear Army surplus boots and a grey hoodie under a worn black leather jacket. There was even a "steal this look" with candid photos of Selina at Bruce's speech in front of Arkham Asylum.
It annoyed her only slightly to think her style was being ripped off. But her style was born out of necessity. Not of looking good.
Selina slipped out of her bedroom and down the servants hall to the back entrance and delivery chute. No one would notice her leaving and she would be back before sun up.
~ Batman was on patrol of the Narrows. Even with the fed's coming to close down the drug runners, the little burrow next to Arkham Island was still a breeding ground for criminals. It was a safe bet to assume that Ivy and the others had hidden here.
Most of the inmates that escaped Arkham were easy to find. In fact, the police had picked them up within 24 hours due to the obvious hospital gowns and manic ramblings. Others, like Ivy and Quinzel, were more adapt at hiding. They were smarter than the everyday criminal. Batman wasn't sure if they were insane or not, but they were all heartless monsters. That much, he had seen with his own eyes.
His car, not flashy on the outside, held within it every new piece of technology Fox could cram in. Info red dash board, auto pilot steering and stealth mode just to name a few. Batman allowed the car to drive itself down a few deserted block while he looked out the window. These nightly drives, were growing old. Alfred was right, he was neglecting Selina.
Batman quickly snapped on the small screen that was programed to catch key phrases and words in the local news. Not surprisingly, Vicki Vale's perfectly camera ready face appeared. She was being interviewed by a very pretentious reporter about her experience in Arkham.
"No, I don't blame the inmates of Arkham for the riot." she said.
Batman noticed she had dyed her hair back to platinum blond again.
"I blame the mayor and his entire administration. There are reams of evidence, confiscated by the GCPD that show proof of intentional misdiagnosis all to fill up beds in Arkham Asylum. There needs to be a full investigation into Mayor James and Doctor Rosenbaum's actions." Vicki said.
"Do you support Bruce Wayne's plan to rebuild Arkham into a beacon of hope for the mentally ill?" the reporter asked in his well practiced accent.
"I think the Wayne family has always been the great dreamers of Gotham. They never see what it is, but what it should be. What it can be. That's a wonderful thing, it's something to aspire to, but right now, we need to address the hundreds of inmates that are still on Gotham streets. Just last night, a couple was attacked by one of the escaped inmates of Arkham and killed. GCPD is overrun with trying to round them all up. People of this city are scared-" Batman snapped off the transmission. He had heard just enough from Vicki Vale tonight.
He was doing all he could but he was just one man. Tonight alone, he had found one of Arkham's escapee's in an alleyway of the Narrows. A tired looking old man sitting quietly alone. His Arkham ID bracelet identifying him as one of the many who had ridden a ferry here. He wasn't afraid of Batman dropping down from his own hiding place. Or of the police cars that arrived a few minutes later. The cops were careful with him. The older man didn't protest and just wanted to be someplace warm and wanted something to eat.
Arkham had been full of horrible criminals, but many of them were castaways like that poor soul. Batman shuddered to think that Selina could have been in that place.
~ Gordon had barely had a chance to catch his breath in the days since the Arkham riot. Vicki Vale wasn't helping. She called his office everyday asking for an interview. She wanted to know about the records for the patients. About Rosenbaum about the mysterious warden who had vanished off the face of the earth.
"We cant' let the press know about Jack Gruber." he said to Dent.
"Are you sure it was the same man, Gordon? I mean, it's been a few years." Harvey Dent reminded him.
Gordon shook his head.
"I won't ever forget that face." he said. "Figures he would return to Arkham. It's like a playground for him. A place to conduct his experiments on the patients there. Just like before."
Dent was chewing on a pen, while casually lounging in one of the office chairs. With his pretty boy looks, he seemed more at home on a beach somewhere and not in Gotham.
"What did you think of Wayne's speech?" Dent asked sarcastically and nodded to the little TV in his office. It was another news report about Arkham. Wayne was dressed like he was running for office while he spoke of the new hope for Arkham.
"He has the resources to pull it off." Gordon said.
"It's a million dollar project. Without government money to assist it, Wayne will have to dig deep to get it off the ground." Dent reminded him.
"When he does, there will be plenty of business. We're arresting a former inmate everyday." Gordon said. "We caught one tonight in fact. A tip led us to some poor guy in the narrows. Got over on the ferry he says. Can you believe it?"
"I can believe it as easily as I can believe all these rumors about some nut job in a motor cycle helmet beating up street thugs." Dent huffed.
Gordon tuned Dent out. He felt his heart skip a beat and pain go off in his injured hand at the news report on the TV. This time, it wasn't Wayne they were focused on, but rather, who the beautiful woman he was leaving with was.
Gordon clutched the hand Selina Kyle had stabbed and seethed with anger at her. He could do nothing about it. He had entered her apartment without a warrant and she, along with Wayne's lawyers could sue him.
She had vanished off the face of the earth for weeks. What was she doing back in Gotham?
~ Selina had always liked Gotham. After abandoning Wayne Manor for the evening, she caught a bus into the city and roamed the streets like a regular tourist.
Sure, a mugger tired to grab her, but she had surprised herself when she kicked him square in the chest and sent him flying back. The man was coughing and gasping for breath when she strolled away from him. Her focus on the bright lights of the theater district.
She was never tired at night now, and she wandered all over. Gravity seeming not to apply to her. She climbed up rooftops easily and broke out into a run. She jumped gracefully and landed silently back on the streets below. Never once getting hurt, or even afraid she would get hurt. Then, she took the bus back out of the city and snuck back into Wayne Manor well before dawn.
The house was silent and still as always. Isis was waiting for her. She checked in Bruce's room, but found he hadn't come home yet.
She showered and went to bed alone. Her body easily calming down enough to rest. Almost like a cat nap before she heard her door open and someone sneaking into her bedroom.
She felt her bed shift with the body of someone and strong arms pull her close. A man's lips kissing her neck and holding her from behind.
"I love you, Selina." Bruce said sincerely. His voice was exhausted and yet happy. "So much." he added.
So sorry aboutthe long absence. More updates to come. No worries.