15:46

Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham City

Bruce

Selina had finally kicked him out of her hospital room. She had said she didn't need a babysitter or guard service and that as long as he stopped by her apartment, took care of her cat and the mail, he fulfilled his friendship duties in her book. Oh and speaking of books some would be nice to have in the room; it was currently pretty dull staring at the ceiling until the next medical person came in. He was going to go back later that afternoon of course, and tonight, because that's what friends were for. And maybe even more than that.

First he had a discussion with Dick and Barbara at a little café in midtown Gotham that was un-remarkable in every single way. It was incredibly ordinary, right down to the wall décor. It could have been the set from a movie that needed a scene in stereotypical retro American diner/burger joint. The waitresses were the same way, pretty, young, some kind of student, or an older motherly type who was gruff on the outside but provided occasional bouts of advice.

It was one such quips that inspired this conversation. The words "go chase the girl or she'll get away", not even said to Bruce but another patron complaining about girl problems, had never seemed more real than now. To say they were both excited at his proposal to come clean to Selina was a monumental understatement. Instead of the resistance he had expected at Catwoman learning who they were, they both welcomed the idea and thought it was a good idea. Not just a good idea, one of the best he had in a long time, although Bruce chose to ignore that jab from Dick. Apparently they both had come to the conclusion, though together or independently Bruce would not know, that she had reformed enough that to be trusted with their respective secret identities. They trusted her and liked having her around, and had come to that conclusion before Bruce had.

It wasn't so much that Bruce hadn't trusted her, it was more he was afraid of what it meant though he would never admit it to anyone, least of all himself. That would require thinking about his feelings, something Bruce did not do very well. The last time he had trusted someone like that had ended in a spectacularly poor fashion, and he needed to make sure he wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. A fact both Dick and Barbara were assuring him of. Bruce had needed that last little nudge to get over the voice in his head that always cautioned that he be careful, take the road alone and not let anyone in, least he get hurt.

Nervous at the coming sunset was an understatement but Bruce found himself having a little optimism instead of his usual pessimistic worldview he liked to call realism. Besides, if it had been a hit on Selina, Catwoman on his side was a distinct advantage that would be good to have, especially considering her underworld connections went in a different direction than his own. While Catwoman's connections were maintained out of a friendship with fellow rogues and a deep respect for her abilities, Batman's had been forged with fear and malice. Batman learned things for two reasons: fear of going to Arkham or Blackgate if cooperation didn't occur, or to get revenge on another rogue and hide behind Batman to avoid retribution. Catwoman learned things because people genuinely wanted to keep her in the loop. It was very different.

If only his new-found optimism extended to other areas in his life. The Manor was crawling with large black chevys and Bruce's sensors had picked up a few in surrounding locations. Thanks to some feline inspired updates, he could tell a great deal about anything above, around, below or in the manor. The Federal Government had really gone all out on this, a fact that Bruce wasn't sure was comforting or worrying. He'd avoided going home for that exact reason, not wanting to deal with the Fed's finest.

But there was only so long he could avoid his problems, it would be suspicious if he didn't even stop by his own home as Bruce Wayne and check in on his parents, and his hackles were raised even more when he ran into Amanda Waller at the door. Just the person he didn't want to see.

"Hello Mam'. Anything I can help you with?" Calm collected Bruce Wayne was on the outside, being grateful that the Federal Government was devoting so much time after the last time they had screwed up. Inner Batman knew the only time Waller got called in was when someone of the costumed or super variety was involved or suspected to be involved. Which made going to Selina's apartment and getting that file all the more important, he needed to know what they knew, or at least suspected. Waller had made quite the reputation for herself, even going as far as to suggest villains could be used for good if controlled the right way. Waller was dangerous, and her at his house did not bode well for the Batman or Bruce. Yet another reason to be concerned instead of relieved. If she was sniffing around his house what did she suspect?

"No Mr. Wayne." She replied curtly and Bruce nodded and smiled. Play the dumb civilian Bruce, the grateful son, that was all he had to do. Waller would probably see right through it but there was nothing she could do about it. For now. He'd have to devote some more time to making sure he knew what she knew and that he didn't miss anything when his algorithms went through her correspondence.

"I see. If that changes, please don't hesitate to ask for anything. I can't tell you how grateful I am that the FBI is here."

She was not official FBI and Bruce had the satisfaction of seeing her nostrils flare. As she thanked him for his platitudes, promising the empty promise that she would take him up on it, Bruce entered his house and found people all over. It looked like a scene from an action flick that existed solely to explode things and shoot guns was about to occur in his house. Alfred was surely in a hissyfit with this many people in and out of the home.

Amanda Waller here meant a few things. Either she knew about the cave downstairs, which was not likely, or the more likely idea that she was there to ensure the Wayne's disappearance and reappearance was man-created, not meta human or whatever she chose to call people. Bruce was betting on the latter, though it would be irresponsible of him to ignore the first one. Extra precautions would have to be taken, which meant he would be visiting Selina in the city probably a lot more than she probably wanted him to. Lucius would also be pretty happy that he'd be in the office more.

Alfred met him in the foyer, knowing the look on his face. Alfred had access to all the files, he knew who Waller was and probably had some of the same worries. Knowing Alfred, he had run a check on everyone who had entered the manor today or was around the manor today, a fact that was confirmed when Alfred said something offhand about how clean things were. Everyone in the manor either had criminal or malignant connections that were not discovered by multiple organizations, or were government branded. Which could be its own kind of dangerous.

"Your parents are in the library with the Agent in Charge Sir, an Agent Elliott" Alfred was calm and collected. Bruce knew the smaller signs the man displayed when his feathers were ruffled. Though what the Federal Agents had done to irritate the butler could have been anything from treating him like the help or messing up the kitchen in pursuit of food.

"Thank you Alfred. I won't be here long. I'm going to collect a few things and head back into the city to be with Selina." Also known as moving the Batman operation to a Batcave that was accessed through an old warehouse in CrimeAlley that had gone into bank foreclosure a long time ago and the bank had turned around and sold to an offshore shipping company that happened to be a dummy cooperation. Technically the property didn't exist in records the city had, and was just a normal building on the outside but under was a batcave. It was such a forgotten property in fact, TwoFace had once tried to put in a liar there. That had been put down rather quickly.

Dick had gotten him the results from last night. The Sniper had picked a vantage point that indicated a highly skilled professional. There weren't a massive amount of people in the world trained to take the shot that had killed Harvey Dent, which shortened the suspect pool considerably. Of the Gotham Players, very few had the people with the skills to pull off a hit like that, or the money to pay off the kind of individual who could. It narrowed the suspect pool down considerably, but all of them were dangerous.

That had been farther confirmed when the autopsy came back and found the bullet was a highly special kind. The kind only available to elite military units or someone with a lot of money and connections. Bullets that exploded into tiny pieces of shrapnel once hitting their target where not an ordinary market commodity. The idea that it had been a shot at Selina or Nightwing diminished when Bruce read the report of the autopsy. The precise spot where Harvey Dent had been shot was incredibly hard to hit without skill or someone had a great deal of luck. Batman was willing to bet this guy had skills like this in spades.

Someone had paid a lot of money and gone to a considerable amount of trouble to take out Harvey Dent in a very public fashion. TwoFace's enemies that had the ability to order this kind of hit, what few of them there were, had drastically different styles than the way Harvey had died.

That meant the hit came from outside Gotham or someone was trying extra hard to not get connected with it. The criminal underworld was reeling, with reactions ranging from Poison Ivy being angry she hadn't gotten to do it personally to Cobblepot mourning a friend. Rogues were suddenly a lot more fearful, and while normally Batman would be grateful for that kind of thing, Batman didn't like someone moving in on this city. A killer was a killer, no matter who died.

Bruce opened his door to pack some of his things and came face to face with a Federal Agent, who for their part had the decency to look flustered.

"I'm guessing this isn't the bathroom?" the agent mumbled while Bruce managed to get out a curt no. It wasn't that he was afraid the man would find anything, Bruce was a master at hiding things and security systems after all. It was more that they would even consider going through his things that made him angry. He was no Tommy Elliott and he hoped they had figured that out by now.

First he pulled a few devices out of a loose floorboard that was hidden under a false bottom in the dresser. Then he swept the room for bugs and after finding none he set to work on moving a few things in the closet around in a certain way that triggered a reaction and opened up a hatch with a small lead-lined suitcase with everything he would need inside. After adding his regular clothes to a separate suitcase and call to a hotel in Gotham that had an easy surveillance system he could hack in to make sure his coming and goings would not be able to be tracked, Bruce was on his way. This would work for now. Eventually the Federal government would leave. They had to go chase the bad guy right?

Dick was coming too, under the excuse that he should be out of the way while investigators did their work and that a large investigation like this was no place for a teenager going through highschool. The idea had made Dick laugh, and considering all the boy had been through, Bruce supposed he would laugh too. He'd probably had more action taking down thugs than some of these suits did.

Alfred planned to keep the manor under control and report anything worth reporting on a burner phone that had been bought from a dingy convenience store in Bludhaven by a guy in a Cubs baseball cap who had paid in cash that had come in the form of change from various diners scattered over a large geographical area. Not that the disguise had mattered, the cameras in the store didn't always work anyways. But it was the thought that mattered, careless people were dead people, no matter what side they were on. Every possibility had been thought of, taken care of, and implemented while Bruce had sat and watched over Selina.

She was still feeling the effects of the drugs, and even though he knew she felt a lot of grief at Harvey's death even though he'd put a rather large hole in her side, though for a different reason than the one Bruce was supposed to know, she had been holding up pretty well. She had given him her keys without a fight which had been unexpected, though it was under the pretense to check up on her cat.

Her place had been undisturbed, and Brue had picked up on how to tell. No one had been in the apartment since the time he had swung by to pick her up. Selina had a few tricks and small security things she did in order to make sure no one was sneaking through her stuff. That had all been left intact and undisturbed. Which was a relief. It seemed that maybe TwoFace stabbing Selina Kyle had been random, and not him targeting Catwoman, as much as Bruce hated chalking things up to chance.

16:00

Wayne Manor, Outskirts of Gotham city

Alfred

His perfectly organized manor was being turned upside down by curious Feds. It was a disgrace, bringing this many agents as though the Waynes had done something wrong, Alfred knew it was measure of caution and an order from the head of the FBI to not fuck this up again, but it still made him bristle. Americans, they had no tact or finesse for an investigation and Alfred had more than enough room to criticize.

His ire had only grown at the supervisory presence of Amanda Waller. She had been introduced as a person from inside the FBI to make sure everyone did their job, but Alfred knew what she really did. He'd had an old pal over on the British side of things look her up so his opinion wasn't only formed on Bruce's opinion, and discovered she had quite a sheet of skills, accomplishments, and claims to fame. Her presence did not rattle him, no one really did rattle Alfred, but he did not like it all the same. Especially seeing as she had turned up her nose at the offer of a sandwich from the kitchen which was incredibly rude, preferring to come back with some greasy monstrosity. It appeared everyone had their vices.

He'd also had to chase multiple agents out of multiple places they did not belong all day. He'd given the one looking through the pantry, the pantry of all places, a fright and Alfred gave him what Dick referred to as the Bat-stare. The icy look that made a person feel small and shame at their actions, as well as a sense of forbidding. The agent had scurried off only to later get caught messing with things in the study. some people would never learn tact when looking through other's things now would they? Had to be a rookie or some dim-wit from forensics, who didn't have to care that people still lived in the place they were looking through.

Alfred didn't believe the man was a distraction for him, in fact Alfred knew where everyone was in the manor at all times. More like the Fed were grasping at anything they could find to give them a lead, which went they were probably desperate. Which Alfred knew, was not good. It felt like twenty years ago all over again, sitting in FBI headquarters with a young Bruce and hearing that the FBI would do what it can but there had been no leads so far.

Federal Bureau of Incompetence indeed.

Bruce had managed to get in and out of the house without attracting too much attention. The Agent in Charge had mentioned wanting to speak to Bruce but acted as though he was in no hurry to track the young Mr. Wayne down for questions. For his part the agent had the decency to look sufficiently embarrassed when he was called out for his men sneaking around. Not enough in Alfred's opinion but one apology was better than no apology.

Both Alfred and Bruce did not have a problem with agents searching through the house. Bruce was confident that they could look for months and never find any of the house's secrets, which was why he had told them if they were of need of anything to ask Alfred to take them to it. It was the lack of asking that drove Alfred batty. How rude, and inconsiderate and in a victim's home to boot. Americans never really did get manners.

"Was that Mr. Wayne I heard leaving?" Waller inquired, and if Alfred had not been used to Bruce sneaking up on people, he would have jumped.

"Yes it was. He's off to the city."

"Why." It wasn't a question, it was a demand, and even though Alfred was not military anymore, he still bristled at the nerve of some people. She probably knew all the places he had been and the things he had done for her majesty and yet she still treated him like some underling to boss around. No wonder people requested overseas assignments to get away from her.

"Have you not heard?" Alfred replied, and was delighted to see a brief flicker of surprise. "Last night, at the charity gala, it was held up by the gangster known as TwoFace. Selina Kyle, a dear friend of Master Wayne, was stabbed in the process. She's in the hospital. Poor dear doesn't have any close family in the city, so Master Bruce is keeping an eye on her."

"How kind of him." Waller replied flatly, "Dick Grayson went with him."

"Of course. This kind of investigation is no environment for a boy trying to study well for his SATs and trying to get into college. They are staying at a hotel in the city, shall I get you the address?" Alfred knew he was being deliberately grating, but it was not like she could call him out on it. What, a butler being too helpful? Unheard of. No, she would have to deal with his cheerful demeanor and bubbly personality. She underestimated him, arrogant woman, and it was better to keep it that way.

"That would be most helpful. Thank you Pennyworth."

Alfred couldn't help but make a grimace at her retreating back. That was Mr. Pennyworth to her.

02:00

Gotham Mercy Hospital, Gotham City

Selina

All Selina knew was that she would never take for granted something as simple as eating or walking without pain for granted ever again. She had been injured before but never like this. She had done nothing but been poked and prodded at, and Selina hated every second of it. She hated feeling powerless, and hated that Bruce felt like he needed to babysit her.

OF all the people's presences, she couldn't decide whether his or the GCPD officer stationed at her door were more smothering. Things already took longer to get to her because Gotham's finest stood in their way, and even when the police had been here to take her statement, she hadn't felt boxed in.

Selina had promised herself a long time ago that nothing would ever keep her in any kind of cage, whether it was steel bars or gilded, or mental, physical, emotional, what have you. She was a free woman, she was Catwoman, the fear of jewelry owners everywhere. She was not some little victim who needed her hand held and a guardian angel. She was a survivor, and she was a fighter.

The drugs were what had messed with her head the most. She felt like everything was in some kind of haze, almost like she was not really there. OF course when her meds started to wear off and it was time for more pain meds she could feel herself coming back out of the fog, especially where she'd gone and gotten stabbed, but until those moments, she felt like she was somewhere else entirely.

She'd been in and out of consciousness all day, having nothing to do in this joint but sleep or get prodded in the name of physical therapy and healing. Even eating was a struggle, her digestive system had taken a slash and needed to heal before it could work like it always had.

She wasn't used to sleeping or waking up with the drugs, which is why it took her a few moments to recognize there was a dark figure in the corner of the room. Just the shadow, and would be dismissed as nothing if there hadn't been eyes. Most people would have tensed up, started an adrenaline response, hit the call nurse button, something. But Selina Kyle was not most people, and she knew she didn't have anything to be afraid of from the guy dressed up in a batsuit. A fact farther confirmed by the fact he'd brought her flowers.

"For me?" She said sweetly, and got no response at first. "You shouldn't have. Let me see them, they look lovely."

That got a response, and she took the flowers from his carefully outstretched hand. They were purple, just like the color of one of her more dramatic suits and her favorite flower, Irises. They were her favorite, though how he knew that she didn't have the energy to guess at the moment. He'd probably done something silly, like snuck in her house and looked at some of her flower related décor. Or he'd been like most men and gone to a flowershop and asked for whatever was purple. The thought of Batman going to a flowershop was funny and she giggled a bit, something she regretted when pain shot up.

"Do you like them?" The voice wasn't batman, not the one she was used to. It was softer, gentler and concerned. It made her blood boil for some reason, though why she wasn't able to articulate at the moment. Even he was treating her like she was fragile. He who should know better, having been slammed into a rooftop, fire escape, pane of glass, concrete, baseball bat, basically everything that could be a weapon by her very hands. She was Catwoman not some stupid damsel in distress.

"They'll do. Especially since you almost let me get skewered like a ka-bob." There was a lot more venom in that statement than there had been when she thought the words in her head. Her words had clawed deep too, a slight shift in his stance, no longer so friendly and a tightening of facial features.

"Nightwing handled it." The response was the Batman she was more familiar with, cold, detached and analytical. But Selina didn't care about that or the fact she was pushing his buttons even after he'd gone and done something thoughtful. She wanted answers, why she didn't know but she wanted them. Who did he think she was, a victim?

"If you had been there I wouldn't be in the hospital." She and the Birdy had never gotten along. He'd always been in her business about something and had an annoying habit just like his partner of being exactly where she didn't want him. Unlike his Batlike partner, Birdy was a lot more vocal, flashy, and not at all Selina's style. What he lacked in strength he made up in speed, which was her thing. Clashing would have been an understatement.

"Well I wasn't able to be right there. TwoFace didn't kill you, Nightwing handled it and then searched for the sniper. He did all that was possible for him to do." There was a finality to it and a small note of frustration, and it only made her angrier. Selina knew in a part of her it wasn't because she was mad at him, she was mad at her situation.

"Maybe you should have been." She snapped, hoping to wound but this time he didn't move at all. He was very very still. They spent a long time looking at each other, her trying to be calm again and him doing whatever it was he did when he got quiet.

"Would you like me to go?" He asked softly, the nicer Batman back. The one she felt like she had gotten to know better and better, the one she wanted to be close to. The same one who made her feel like she was a china doll who'd gotten dropped and need consoling.

"Yes." She answered before she could really realize what she was doing. "Your files are in my safe. Combo is the day I adopted Isis."

He seemed sad, but she wasn't about to back down. He could handle it, she would feel better soon, set off an alarm in the art museum, apologize and things would be fine. Someone, at least a little bit could share some of her pain right now.

"Good-night Selina. If you need me tell the officer outside to pass it along to Gordon" The soft tone was back and then he was gone, the curtains flipping in the breeze. If the window had never been opened, it would be like he had never been there. Except for the flowers, those she sat on her bedside table. Maybe it would convince her to be extra nice to him when she met him on a roof again. In her purple catsuit.

4:46

Crime Alley Batcave, Gotham City

Dick

He was taking longer than he normally would. Normally, he would have been back now, they would have finished logs and all said good-nights and gone to sleep and Babs would have gone home so her dad didn't discover his darling daughter moonlighted as a crime fighter or worse, run off with a boy to do it. Normally, him and Babs would not be waiting in the Batcave, half asleep, waiting to hear how things went with Selina like anxious parents.

This was a big deal. When he'd first been brought into the Wayne home, he'd asked Alfred why Bruce wasn't married. At first the excuse had been that he was still young, but over time that morphed into he was Batman. The uniform didn't come with a wife, or even a girlfriend. He had a few friends he'd make appearances with at events and then the tabloids would twitter, only to die down afterwards. Selina was the first one who'd really been around a light, and Dick knew she was special when he managed to get a small blush out of his mentor when he brought up her and Batman. It had been subtle, barely a few shades redder, but Dick would tell anyone who believed him it had happened, even though even Alfred was a bit skeptical.

The rumble of a car got them both awake, and just looking over at Babs, Dick knew she was excited. She had thought it was cute in that way teen girls did when people got together or would make a good couple. Dick had resolved to himself, that if Bruce could find it in his shy, socially-stunted self to tell his girlfriend who wasn't his girlfriend that he meet on a roof in the middle of the night who he really was, Dick could tell Babs how he felt about her and ask her to go to Gotham Prep's formal that was coming up. As his date, not his friend. That distinction was very important.

"Get ready!" Babs whisper-squealed, and looked very excited. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Dick couldn't help but get excited too. This was it, this was the big one.

She quickly went back to neutral face when confronted with a blood-covered, very pissed off Batman. The suit even looked a shade darker from all the blood, sweat and water it had no doubt gotten on it. Uh-oh. Batman only went on a rampage like this for a few reasons. Reason number one was it was his parent's disappearance anniversary. Two, they were working against a time table and lives depended on it. Three, something deeply upset him in his life, he had been taken off guard by something or found out something unpleasant. Like the time Dick and Alfred had conspired together to make him take a mandatory vacation. Criminals in Blackgate referred to it as the night the knight went berserk.

"Why. Are. You. Two. Still. Up." It wasn't a question, and it wasn't anything that Dick or Barbara were supposed to answer. Dick had only made that mistake once, and had forewarned Barbara about the tone. "You two should have gone to bed and gone to sleep, over an hour ago. Now go."

Neither Nightwing or Batgirl needed telling twice, and quickly scuttled off to another part of the batcave, letting Bruce have his alone time to think and process over what was going on. He would eventually come around and stop being so snappy, in like a week or so. If Dick and Barabra didn't bother him they wouldn't have to do some stupid chore as punishment for bothering him, like verbally encouraging grass to grow to get better in-tuned with how Ivy thought.

"That bad huh?" Barbara whispered and Dick nodded in the affirmative. He wouldn't know what happened until he got his hands on the log, and Bruce would put it in his log like he did everything else. The second the man wasn't looking, Dick would have it in his possession and would send a summary to Barabra.

"I'll let you know when I find out." He whispered softly, even for a human Batman had good hearing and hated having background noise that was human made. She nodded and both went to leave, Dick insisting on taking her back since it was so much later than usual. It would give them a chance to gossip on the way back and share theories on what they thought had gone down.

And maybe, just maybe, Dick would have the guts to ask Barbara out. Maybe.

Hey guys, sorry for the delay I got sick and have some exams coming up. I was also pretty unhappy with this chapter although I can't find out why, so if you think you know, let me know in a review please.