When Selina woke, she was lying on a hard mattress with her head propped up. This time she knew exactly where she was: Gotham Memorial Hospital. There was a sharp, sterile smell all around. Her head ached. Her injured left wrist was throbbing and when she looked down she saw that it had been put in a gauze cast. A little clear tube was sticking into the back of her right hand. A silver machine with a computer screen beeped pointedly at her on her left.
To her right, Bruce slept upright in an armchair, his neck resting awkwardly on his shoulder. His eyes were puffy as if he had been crying. She didn't want to disturb him as she tried to get more comfortable but shifting made her bruised ribs ache. An involuntary hiss escaped her lips and his eyes shot open.
He looked like he was about to say something when the door opened. A tall, statuesque woman in her mid-thirties wearing crisp olive-green scrubs entered, shutting the door softly behind her. She has a stethoscope around her neck and a metal clipboard in her hand. Her straight ash blonde hair was cut in a severe bob. She wore no makeup or jewelry.
"Hi, Selina. I'm Dr. Mayfaire. I treated you when you were brought into the emergency room. Do you remember me?"
"No I…" Selina wracked her brain for a memory of this woman, but there was nothing. "I don't remember."
"It's okay if you don't. You have a pretty nasty concussion. Mr. Pennyworth said you were attacked." Dr. Mayfaire looked at the chart in her hand and made a few notes. "You were very dehydrated when you came in. You also have some bruised ribs and a greenstick fracture to your ulna. We got you patched up and hydrated. You're going to be sore for a little while, but you're going to be fine."
Bruce piped in. "Is our baby okay?" Selina looked at him, the shock must have been clear on her face but his dark glossy eyes kept their puppy-like innocence. He lightly touched the back of Selina's hand, carefully avoiding the IV. She had nearly forgotten about the accidental pregnancy but clearly he had not.
The doctor's lips tightened at that but she continued in the same gentle tone. "The baby seems fine. It's a fighter."
"Like its mother." Bruce added.
Dr. Mayfaire nodded at him then turned back to Selina. "I still want to keep you for twenty-four hours to make sure your injuries aren't worse than we think."
"Yeah, okay, whatever." Selina replied feeling suddenly very tired.
"I need to speak to Selina privately. It will just take a minute." The doctor told Bruce.
"Sure." He told her and to Selina he said. "I'll be right outside." He kissed her knuckles softly and left the room.
"I saw your face when I told you your baby was okay. Your boyfriend seems happy, but you don't. You're very young, Selina. You have a whole life ahead if you. Are you sure a baby is what you want right now?" The doctor's voice was warm with compassion.
"I don't know. I just found out. I don't know what I want to do." Selina looked down at her cast, unable to meet the doctor's grey eyes.
"That's okay. You don't have to make any decisions now. You're not very far along, maybe four or five weeks at most, but don't wait too long. These things have a tendency to get more challenging the longer we wait." Dr. Mayfaire warned.
"Okay." Selina said numbly.
"You don't have any next of kin listed. I only let your boyfriend in here because he's the father of the baby and I didn't want you to be alone." Dr. Mayfaire explained. "You can't live on the streets with a baby. Do you have somewhere safe to stay?"
"I've been on my own for a long time. I always figure it out." Selina tried to cross her arms but the motion pulled on the IV so she had to let them lay awkwardly on her belly. "It's not his." She added softly.
"Does he know that?" The doctor inquired.
Selina nodded.
"I shouldn't have let him stay."
"It's okay. He probably would have snuck his way in if you hadn't." Selina said sardonically.
"You don't have to do anything for him. There are people who can help. Gotham has a great homeless youth outreach program. I can get you in a nice foster home where you can get back on your feet." The doctor offered.
"Yeah, right." Selina snorted. "The only thing foster homes did for me is show me how messed up people can be. I'm better off on my own."
"Alright. I won't force you. I just wanted you to know that there are other options out there for you. Here's my card if you decide you do want my help after all." With that, Dr. Mayfaire made a few more notes on the chart, handed Selina a crisp, white business card and left the room.
Selina was in a hospital gown with no apparent pockets and no idea where her clothes had gone. With nowhere else to put the card, she folded it in half and stuffed it into her cast.
Bruce returned to his previous place in the chair at her side and started to tell her how they had found her using a lost phone app but she was asleep before he got very far.
Author's note: Selina's daring chair escape is loosely based on Black Widow's opening fight scene from the first Avengers movie. I wish I had written originally that it was a wooden chair so we could have had the cool chair-splintering-into-bits effect but alas in my infinite lameness I made the chair metal. Oh well. Live and learn. This was probably more realistic anyway.
Dr. Mayfaire is inspired by Anne Rice's Dr. Rowan Mayfair (sic) and E.R.'s Dr. Neela Rasgotra, both of whom I do not own. I really wanted the doctor to be Mario, but then I remembered he is supposed to be dead at this point in time.