The bat and the Cat Come Back

Chapter 21

"…You don't think it's just epically cruel to not tell your husband, the Batman, that minor detail?" Blake asked.

"Well, Robin…" Selina began quietly. "His reaction will be more violent if he thinks something happened. And we might need more violent."

"I think he'll come after you next when he finds out that you knew you weren't pregnant. How'd you find out anyway?"

"I thought it was pretty suspicious that they called me so long after I was discharged from the hospital. A pregnancy test doesn't take that long, Blake."

"Shouldn't you be more devastated?"

"Shouldn't you be taller?" Selina retorted.

"I'm just thinking…are you sure you aren't? What if you really are?" he asked.

"You and Bruce aren't the only ones who know how to do computer hacking. I have all kinds of skills tucked away, bird boy," she said. "I got in, looked at the tests they ran. And I've taken half a dozen self tests over the last 12 hours. All negative."

"I have to say, you're handling this better than most women?"

"Dealt with this a lot, have you?" she asked him.

"All I'm saying is: you're handling this all really well." He was sincere in his compliment, but Selina spent no time thanking him.

"So why did that doctor call you up and lie to you about being pregnant?" Blake asked. "It seems like that was pretty easy to determine that you weren't."

"Lex Luthor funds his medical practice. Well, he does now. His practice was just given a half million dollar donation. After some digging, I found that dear ol' doc also accepted a small personal donation of 75k in to his checking account. The bank scans a copy to the account for record-keeping. It was signed by Lex Luthor personally."

"So this is all part of Luthor's scheme. Well-thought out…"

"I suppose…"

"I'm still not convinced that we should keep this from Bruce," Blake said. "He's a pretty good actor…he'll be able to go ballistic anyway."

Selina weighed her options: she was going to break his heart either way. Tell him now, and she'd be able to console him and then they could continue on in their fight for Alfred and Gotham City. Wait and if something happened, well…he'd be distracted with her and that just couldn't happen.

"I will concede just once…and only once, Robin. You hear me? I'll go talk to Bruce and tell him. But you know he's going to be pissed. You saw him last night."

It had only been 12 hours since they'd all last met. Blake had come back after a nap and they were going to come up with a final plan. However, Bruce hadn't left his office. He was too busy brooding.

"I could tell him, but I don't think he wants to hear it from me," Blake told Selina.

"No. I don't think so," Selina told him. "I should just go tell him."

"It's not like you made it up. You didn't make it up, did you?"

Selina threw him a dirty look. "Why the hell would I purposely do this to my husband? Do you think I'm that horrible of a person that I could do such a thing? He deserves so much better than all of this shit, Blake. So much more."

"You don't think you deserve better, too?" he asked her.

"I'm still paying penance for the things I'm guilty of. And now, so is Bruce."

"This…" he waved his hands. "This has nothing to do with you. They want Bruce Wayne and the Batman, not you."

"I have a long history with Edward Nigma. And I do not wish to share it right now. But he's out for me, too. Not just Bruce. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to my husband."

"Good luck," Blake offered while she disappeared down the hall.

Selina knocked on the door and waited for a response. She didn't hear anything, so she stepped into the room after opening the door.

Bruce closed something on one of his computers and turned to look at her.

"Hey, how are you doing?" she asked quietly.

He was pale and his hair was laying funny from where he had clearly been running his hands through it repeatedly.

"Selina, come here. I need to talk to you."

His voice was soft as he held out his hand towards her.

Selina crossed the room and allowed Bruce to pull her into his lap.

"I need to tell you something, too, Bruce…"

"I think I should go first, honey," he told her. "I've been doing some research and…it's not that I didn't trust you, but…and I knew you'll be mad, but you aren't pregnant. I'm so sorry, honey," he said quickly.

Selina put her hands on his face. "I know. That's what I was going to tell you."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's all right. I'm sorry, too," she said as she put her arms around Bruce's neck to hold him to her.

"I couldn't even find where they had run a pregnancy test," Bruce said.

"It's added at the very end," she replied. "Like an afterthought."

"You checked, too?" he asked her.

"I don't feel pregnant, Bruce. I got into the medical files and also took some self-tests. Nothing. I'm so sorry. I know you were so excited."

Bruce tightened his hold on her. "I love you. So much. And I am so sorry that someone did this to you."

"To us, Bruce. This happened to the both of us. It just…wasn't the right time yet. Timing is everything for you and I. And you…you know I wasn't lying about this, right?"

"Why would I ever think that you lied about it?" he asked.

"My past isn't exactly clean…"

"The past is the past, Selina Wayne. I trust you. And I love you."

Selina finally smiled. "I love you, too," she said before kissing him. "However, we need to get you showered before you go out as Batman. Alfred is going to think I don't know how to take care of you."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Alfred Pennyworth was a smart man. And he'd learned a few things from Bruce over the years. Combined with the skills he'd gotten in the army, well, he knew he could get himself out of this…or die trying.

So the night before he'd begun to take apart his cell…piece by piece. It wasn't particularly strong, not like the previous imprisonment, but it was complicated. But with the proper leverage, and an epic amount of patience, he'd been able to pop the lock on his cage door.

He'd heard his 'guards' get drunk and Alfred knew that they were now passed out. They'd been snoring heavily for at least an hour. Creeping out from the cell slowly and cautiously, he tried to orient himself in the foreign building.

Where was he?

It was a building he didn't recognize, but that wasn't odd. He didn't spend a lot of time running around like Bruce did. And this looked just like any other basement, really. There were plain cement walls, damp and dingy everything. There was old furniture and left behind odds and ends that obviously didn't have a place anywhere else.

And then he saw the sign on the wall in the dim overhead light.

Arkham Asylum.

He was in the basement of Arkham Asylum. No wonder Bruce hadn't located him yet. Who would have thought to come to this building?

Alfred heard no sounds. And the flickering light above his head wasn't much, but he knew this was his one chance to escape. There had to be an emergency exit somewhere nearby. And from there, he could figure out a way across the river, out of the Narrows and back to the penthouse.

"Now, now, I'll be you thought you were pretty swift, getting out of your cage and all, old man," Edward Nigma said with an enormous grin on his face. "But you'll die anyway. The Joker…well, he's going to make sure you do get back to Bruce Wayne. But you'll be in a bunch of pretty little pieces. You see, we're in Arkham Asylum. And we've been running the place for a while. And he's got plans for you."

Alfred seized his one chance while Nigma was in the middle of his rant. He'd always been a pretty good boxer and he struck out with his left fist at Nigma's smug pretty-boy face. He connected with the man's face and his entire head snapped back like a man who had never done his own fighting before. Alfred wasn't surprised in the slightest. The man's green hat went flying and his head crashed into the cement wall behind him. One hit and the man was out cold.

Alfred smiled into the dark. It was a skill he'd rarely used since he'd become caregiver to Bruce Wayne, but it was more than handy from time to time. Stepping over the out-cold Nigma, he walked forward and stopped suddenly. Maybe Edward Nigma, the Riddler, had a phone on him.

Alfred turned around and began to search through the Riddler's pockets. Why did he have so many damned pockets?

Finally, he found the man's smart phone and he pushed a button to turn it on. Seeing the phone lit up, he was horrified.

The phone's background was a slideshow of photos of Selina. She and this idiot did have a lot of history.

He didn't have time to worry about that, though. He had to figure out how to get out of Arkham. And he wasn't sure who was watching his every move.

…

To Be Continued!

…

Author's Note: I do apologize that this chapter wasn't posted sooner. First we didn't have power for a couple of days during a really horrible ice storm and then it was the holiday.

So, happy new year and feel free to let me know what you think of this chapter! Thanks!