Selina was back on the streets.
It wasn't that she didn't have a place to go back to. She did. But staying at Barbara's while the woman was in the hospital wasn't like, say, squatting her abandoned flat. It just felt wrong. Ivy didn't mind - Ivy didn't care about much anymore - so she had stayed there. Cat, though… One morning, she'd been arguing with Barbara over make up and silly shoes and fancy dresses, getting her eyebrows plucked, her legs waxed, her hair stabbed with golden hairpins. Barb' had been grinning at the door when Bruce came by to collect her. The blonde had been both amused and proud, even a bit happy. She'd been trying to get Ivy and Cat into princess clothes for weeks now and, man, did she like to fuss over them. Ivy's hair had gone through endless braiding experiments, and the kid had acquired a wardrobe's worth of foliage themed clothing. And the dresses Bruce's butler had sent…
«That Alfred Pennyworth has taste», Barbara had said, examining the fluffy horrors Selina had been expected to wear. «They are lovely.»
«I don't think you can sit in any of those.»
«Let's be honest, sweetie, I've yet to see you sit. You crouch, you climb, you pace, you stalk, but you don't exactly stay in place.»
«I'm not going to do any crouching, or climbing or whatever, looking like an upturned tulip.»
«I should hope so. Which one do you prefer? I think the pink one is the cutest.»
Selina had gagged at the word, rolled her eyes, and tried the pink dress on.
Five hours later, Barbara had been gone, to never come back.
It had been a long evening and - as always with Bruce - it had come with very fun parts and very aggravating parts. Like being sermoned about saving both their lives by pushing that Payne guy out of that window. «You're such a bad person for having the guts to take the hard decisions. Maybe we could have asked him nicely not to sell us to Bunderslaw. Then we could have ridden off into the sunset on our winged unicorns and stuff». Did he think she had liked killing the man? Sometimes, you didn't have a choice.
She had gone back to Barbara's place and slipped into her own clothes (more importantly, into her own shoes). Then she had spent half an hour watching CSI reruns, idly waiting for Barb' to return so she could rant about her feet and how no one could pee in that stupid dress, and how that 'charity' gala was going to throw away tons of perfectly good food from that buffet.
Then Jim had arrived, and shown her that shitty drawing of «every guy ever». From the look on the cop's face, something had been very, very wrong. The man on that drawing might not have been the one Barbara had left the ball with, but what were the odds? If someone had been after her… So Cat had said she thought it was, and Jim had grilled her on everything, from the man's looks to the time Barbara had left with him, and anything she might have noticed about him. She had tried to ask her own questions, but Gordon hadn't bothered replying. If he had, he would not have walked out of the apartment with his balls.
Selina had discovered the details in the newspapers. The Ogre, who killed the people close to the cops who investigated him. Who had not gone after Barbara because she was rich, or because she was pretty, but because once upon a time, Jim Gordon had dated her, and he had forgotten about that. He had not warned her, he had not protected her. But then again, he sucked at his job. He sucked at thinking. Selina had done a better job protecting herself and Bruce than he had. And, because he couldn't have been bothered to at least warn Barb' that the hot guy she went home with for a one night stand might be a serial killer, the lady had watched her parents die.
It was bad enough when the cops came to knock on your door to tell you «sorry, kiddo, your ma' hanged herself». Having to see one's parents die… Well, it had done Bruce no good, had it? Selina still had nightmares of his screaming. Not of his folks being shot, no, of that. It was the «Mom! Mom! Dad! Dad!». And then that scream.
As if murdering Barb's parents wasn't bad enough, the Ogre was the kind of sicko who kept girls for months before killing them. Selina knew what that meant.
If Gordon had not been busy with the whole gang war situation, Selina would have tracked him down to give him a piece of her mind.
She had sneaked into Gotham General's psych ward to check on Barb', several times, but the woman was always either talking to doctors or to cops, and when she wasn't, she was passed out with tranquilizers. So the girl was waiting for her to be sent home, and avoiding the apartment and the memories of a smiling Barbara telling her to have fun at the ball. She had a feeling she would not see that person again.
Instead, she stayed in the streets, snatching food and listening to rumors of a newcomer in town, some gang leader who was gathering street kids and hobos, giving them shelter and guns if they agreed to join her «family». Someone who said the working girls would no longer be expected to service every Mafia bastard who ordered them too. Someone who promised the kids would have roofs over their heads, and protection against child protective services and the «adoptive parents» the kids might be sold to. Stupid, obvious lies. It was like listening to Mayor James' speech about «though-love programs» and «the loving arms of juvenile services».
Selina believed none of that crap.
Then, she met Fish.
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