TWO DAYS LATER - Part III
In training Dick Grayson to be Robin, Batman had taught the boy to look for advantage in disadvantageous circumstances. When he realized he had accidentally hired Selina 'Catwoman' Kyle to catalog the art and antiques at Wayne Manor, Bruce reasoned that he would at least have a chance to study her when her guard was down, perhaps learn how she thinks and how to predict her behavior.
She'd been working at the manor for only a few days, and he'd already learned plenty. It was not the sort of revelation he expected. He learned that he was an isolated, lonely man who took no joy in life. He learned it was pleasant to share a meal with a bright congenial woman, to watch an old movie or listen to music with someone after dinner, and simply to have someone else in the room while reading on a rainy afternoon. He learned that smiling and laughing makes others want to smile and laugh, and there is a profound satisfaction in this.
All he learned about her was that the relationship between their civilian identities was not so very different from their costumed ones. The first night when she realized he wasn't as shallow and superficial as he pretended, she verbally beat him about the head and shoulders, kissed him, and left him standing there with a dumb look on his face.
After that, Bruce decided he was done being passive: on the pretext of apologizing for the first meal, he asked her to stay after work that second night and eat with him again - For after dinner, he rented the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. He settled in for what he imagined would be an instructive evening: watching Catwoman watch a movie about a sexy thrill-seeking art thief.
***
As a rule, Bruce didn't care for movies: he never went out to see one in a theater since the night of his parents' murder. When videos became popular he saw them as a marvelous way to keep abreast of popular culture. He told himself this knowledge was as vital for making smalltalk at the Wayne Enterprises watercooler as it was in deciphering the taunts of Batman's enemies. But he did not consider watching videos to be entertainment - not until tonight. Watching The Thomas Crown Affair with Selina Kyle was nothing if not entertaining. She seemed to view the intricately-plotted chess game-cum-romance between a daring art thief and the beautiful insurance investigator out to trap him as a kind of screwball comedy. She laughed merrily and often, and offered the occasional comment along the lines of "security stooge in the side pocket," "yeah, that'll work," and at one point "sheesh, channeling Batman now." Bruce found himself laughing along with her, although he couldn't say he always understood the joke.
While the evening was useless from a crime-fighting perspective, Bruce had to admit he enjoyed himself. A few days later Selina thanked him by bringing a tape of Cyrano de Bergerac, and of course he invited her to stay and watch it with him.
It would be mean another night he couldn't patrol as Batman. Still, he reassured himself, he had intended to keep a close eye on Selina after working hours. He had imagined he'd be following her home and discovering her preparations to return to the manor as Catwoman. He did not expect to be sitting in his own livingroom watching Cyrano's preparations to seduce Roxanne. Nevertheless, these movie nights did permit him to keep an eye on her.
Alfred had a slightly different view: He felt Bruce was loathe to admit to having ordinary human feelings and had to concoct a Batmanesque rationalization for doing something he enjoyed. He was pleased, however, that since Selina's arrival, he did not have to remind his employer to eat quite so often. There are only so many times you can reheat a plate of cutlets before they take on the appearance and texture of cardboard.
Selina may have enjoyed these evenings as much as Bruce, but ever catlike, she lived in the now: a good time last night had nothing to do with an annoyance today:
"Are you a vampire or something?" was this morning's opening volley.
"Excuse me?"
"All three Bronte sisters working together wouldn't know what to make of this house - there must be sixty rooms, and you're always in the dreariest one. I was just in the drawingroom where we watched the movie last night -"
Bruce spent most evenings there. A wall of oversized windows faced the city, assuring that he would spot the BatSignal if it were lit.
"- in the morning the sun comes streaming in through those big picture windows, it's quite wonderful. So of course you're in here, in a room with no windows at all"
"That's why this is the library, direct sunlight can damage the books."
Selina shook her head and left. The man was a puzzle. A frustrating but handsome, contradictory but intelligent, rich, moody, gloom-dwelling but intriguing puzzle.
***
Bruce had some distinctly uncomfortable moments during that second movie night - When Cyrano, cloaked in darkness, woos his love Roxanne on her balcony, she not realizing who it is that's wooing her, Bruce coughed. When Cyrano mused that Roxanne's love was in fact tied up in two different men: handsome Christian's face and Cyrano's poetic soul, Bruce squirmed. When years later Roxanne recognized her old friend Cyrano as the voice from the darkness below her balcony years before, Bruce fidgeted with the sofacushion. When the film ended and Selina asked how he liked it, Bruce turned quite pale and said "Well…" then trailed off. His stomach churned. There had been a secret and ironic agenda in the film he had chosen. Had he betrayed himself and was this film her way of retaliating?
"My bad." she said frankly, "It was chick flick."
"Huh?"
"A chick flick, the kinds of thing women drag their boyfriends to, that they can't stand but sit through anyway."
"I guess you're my girlfriend then" he answered without thinking "because I didn't much like it."
She smiled. "Then you can pick the next one."
"That would be a 'dick flick'?" he asked.
Selina laughed out loud. "I knew it, I knew you could lighten up if you tried."
Bruce tried his best to look like he had meant it as a joke.
He reflected that after three meals, two movies and a tongue-lashing, Bruce Wayne wasn't finding Selina Kyle any more predictable. He wondered how these events would affect the next meeting between Batman and Catwoman. In forty-eight hours he would find out.
***
Still unsure if he was engaged in a silent battle in this series of movie nights, Bruce wanted to choose the next film with great care. At Alfred's suggestion he chose Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's comedy about a pair of ever-bickering lovers. Selina begged off the invitation, however, leaving promptly at 5:00.
Suspicious, he followed her. She went to the Centurion Club and there met Robert Tykes, a fellow Board Member from the Gotham Museum. While this wasn't particularly suspicious from Batman's point of view, Bruce found it disturbing. When the pair were joined by the museum's Executive Director, Taylor White, and the head curator, Randal Kaufman, Batman became more suspicious, but Bruce felt, unaccountably, relieved. This too was disturbing - that he should be more troubled by the sight of Selina having drinks with Rob Tykes than Catwoman hobnobbing with three of the most well-connected insiders at the Gotham Museum. Where were his priorities?
Apparently he'd left them in the VCR back at the manor, he thought sourly.
When the group left the club and walked two blocks uptown to the Carmen Gallery, Batman mentally kicked himself: Tonight was a special cocktail party when the Gallery would publicly unveil a spectacular emerald necklace they were donating to Gotham Museum. It was to be sold at a Silent Auction the fundraising committee was planning on the very day he met Selina at the museum. Bruce had become so preoccupied with her presence at Wayne Manor, he hadn't even considered the possibility that she might have another target.
There was no reason Bruce Wayne couldn't drop in on this party, he was a museum board member and had been invited. When he entered the room, Robert Tykes approached him first.
"Save yourself Bruce, it's the dullest party the arts world has seen since the opening of that Egyptian Studies exhibit, and at least they had the excuse that the guest of honor had been dead for 5000 years."
Bruce smiled wanly and took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. Tykes continued his lament:
"I invited Selina hoping she'd liven up this boring lot, but she's in a vile mood. All she did was start Kaufman and White talking shop -about the Scandals exhibit no less - they're still pretty defensive about it and now they're off at the bar getting quietly sloshed."
SCANDALS had been the talk of the town a few months earlier. The show contained very controversial artwork - the kind of images meant to push people's buttons. Those who were offended protested and petitioned - even the Mayor got involved denouncing the use of public monies for what he described as "disgusting filth." That, of course, put the thing on the front page of the newspapers, and soon artists, showbiz people, and civil liberties organizations had galvanized to defend freedom of expression and speech. There were more demonstrations, and wars of words in the op/ed pages. The exhibit ran its course then closed, and the excitement was forgotten by all but a few.
Bruce joined Taylor White at the bar. The museum director appeared to be arguing his case to a bottle of scotch. When a person came into view, he turned to include Bruce in the conversation, but continued seamlessly:
"… 13,000 artists-in-residents, 125 hours of arts programming that reaches 300 million viewers, thousands and thousands of grants, and do you know how many artists and exhibits the fuss is about - Four !. Just think, Bruce, how much art is controversial in some way - most of it, right - and what a tiny percentage of public money funds controversial art."
"Taylor that was months ago" said Bruce, trying to lighten the mood, " that flap won't affect the fundraiser."
"The Mayor came off badly." Taylor White turned back to the Scotch bottle and directed the rest of his statement to an audience that wouldn't try to cheer him: "his criticism backfired - he's head of the most cultured and sophisticated city in the world - he wound up looking like the kingpin of some mid-west backwater kowtowing to a PTA that wants to ban Huckleberry Finn. He blames us."
Bruce wandered over to Selina, standing by herself at the display case that held the necklace. As he approached he heard her speak in a low hiss: "It's a payoff"
'You know I forgot all about this shindig before when I asked you to see a movie tonight" he began, again trying to lighten the mood. It occurred to Bruce that Robert Tykes was right about it being a dismal party - when Bruce Wayne is the cheeriest person in the room, it's not a good sign.
She turned. "I thought we decided you were not going to act the clueless playboy with me."
Boy, she was in a vile mood.
"Not an act, I really did forget it."
"Guess your mother never told you not to make faces or it might stick that way." She muttered.
Casual references to parents always soured Bruce's mood. No, his mother never did say those wonderfully trite things that all mothers say, because her life had been cut short by a bullet.
"I'm sorry" he snapped bitterly. He stood silently and pretended to look at the necklace but his heart was racing and his stomach seemed to push into his throat. It had been Batman's voice that spoke. Oh shit. Oh shitoshitoshit. It was only two words. Three syllables. She probably wasn't even listening, he thought hopefully. She's absorbed in whatever it is that's upsetting her about that necklace.
When she spoke, it might have had something to do with the necklace, or it might not:
"Does it occur to you, Mr. Wayne, that there are a lot of very angry people in this city? You know why? People get angry when they feel powerless. When they get the feeling that they're being shafted but don't know exactly how."
***
In training Dick Grayson to be Robin, Batman had taught the boy to look for advantage in disadvantageous circumstances. When he realized he had accidentally hired Selina 'Catwoman' Kyle to catalog the art and antiques at Wayne Manor, Bruce reasoned that he would at least have a chance to study her when her guard was down, perhaps learn how she thinks and how to predict her behavior.
She'd been working at the manor for only a few days, and he'd already learned plenty. It was not the sort of revelation he expected. He learned that he was an isolated, lonely man who took no joy in life. He learned it was pleasant to share a meal with a bright congenial woman, to watch an old movie or listen to music with someone after dinner, and simply to have someone else in the room while reading on a rainy afternoon. He learned that smiling and laughing makes others want to smile and laugh, and there is a profound satisfaction in this.
All he learned about her was that the relationship between their civilian identities was not so very different from their costumed ones. The first night when she realized he wasn't as shallow and superficial as he pretended, she verbally beat him about the head and shoulders, kissed him, and left him standing there with a dumb look on his face.
After that, Bruce decided he was done being passive: on the pretext of apologizing for the first meal, he asked her to stay after work that second night and eat with him again - For after dinner, he rented the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. He settled in for what he imagined would be an instructive evening: watching Catwoman watch a movie about a sexy thrill-seeking art thief.
***
As a rule, Bruce didn't care for movies: he never went out to see one in a theater since the night of his parents' murder. When videos became popular he saw them as a marvelous way to keep abreast of popular culture. He told himself this knowledge was as vital for making smalltalk at the Wayne Enterprises watercooler as it was in deciphering the taunts of Batman's enemies. But he did not consider watching videos to be entertainment - not until tonight. Watching The Thomas Crown Affair with Selina Kyle was nothing if not entertaining. She seemed to view the intricately-plotted chess game-cum-romance between a daring art thief and the beautiful insurance investigator out to trap him as a kind of screwball comedy. She laughed merrily and often, and offered the occasional comment along the lines of "security stooge in the side pocket," "yeah, that'll work," and at one point "sheesh, channeling Batman now." Bruce found himself laughing along with her, although he couldn't say he always understood the joke.
While the evening was useless from a crime-fighting perspective, Bruce had to admit he enjoyed himself. A few days later Selina thanked him by bringing a tape of Cyrano de Bergerac, and of course he invited her to stay and watch it with him.
It would be mean another night he couldn't patrol as Batman. Still, he reassured himself, he had intended to keep a close eye on Selina after working hours. He had imagined he'd be following her home and discovering her preparations to return to the manor as Catwoman. He did not expect to be sitting in his own livingroom watching Cyrano's preparations to seduce Roxanne. Nevertheless, these movie nights did permit him to keep an eye on her.
Alfred had a slightly different view: He felt Bruce was loathe to admit to having ordinary human feelings and had to concoct a Batmanesque rationalization for doing something he enjoyed. He was pleased, however, that since Selina's arrival, he did not have to remind his employer to eat quite so often. There are only so many times you can reheat a plate of cutlets before they take on the appearance and texture of cardboard.
Selina may have enjoyed these evenings as much as Bruce, but ever catlike, she lived in the now: a good time last night had nothing to do with an annoyance today:
"Are you a vampire or something?" was this morning's opening volley.
"Excuse me?"
"All three Bronte sisters working together wouldn't know what to make of this house - there must be sixty rooms, and you're always in the dreariest one. I was just in the drawingroom where we watched the movie last night -"
Bruce spent most evenings there. A wall of oversized windows faced the city, assuring that he would spot the BatSignal if it were lit.
"- in the morning the sun comes streaming in through those big picture windows, it's quite wonderful. So of course you're in here, in a room with no windows at all"
"That's why this is the library, direct sunlight can damage the books."
Selina shook her head and left. The man was a puzzle. A frustrating but handsome, contradictory but intelligent, rich, moody, gloom-dwelling but intriguing puzzle.
***
Bruce had some distinctly uncomfortable moments during that second movie night - When Cyrano, cloaked in darkness, woos his love Roxanne on her balcony, she not realizing who it is that's wooing her, Bruce coughed. When Cyrano mused that Roxanne's love was in fact tied up in two different men: handsome Christian's face and Cyrano's poetic soul, Bruce squirmed. When years later Roxanne recognized her old friend Cyrano as the voice from the darkness below her balcony years before, Bruce fidgeted with the sofacushion. When the film ended and Selina asked how he liked it, Bruce turned quite pale and said "Well…" then trailed off. His stomach churned. There had been a secret and ironic agenda in the film he had chosen. Had he betrayed himself and was this film her way of retaliating?
"My bad." she said frankly, "It was chick flick."
"Huh?"
"A chick flick, the kinds of thing women drag their boyfriends to, that they can't stand but sit through anyway."
"I guess you're my girlfriend then" he answered without thinking "because I didn't much like it."
She smiled. "Then you can pick the next one."
"That would be a 'dick flick'?" he asked.
Selina laughed out loud. "I knew it, I knew you could lighten up if you tried."
Bruce tried his best to look like he had meant it as a joke.
He reflected that after three meals, two movies and a tongue-lashing, Bruce Wayne wasn't finding Selina Kyle any more predictable. He wondered how these events would affect the next meeting between Batman and Catwoman. In forty-eight hours he would find out.
***
Still unsure if he was engaged in a silent battle in this series of movie nights, Bruce wanted to choose the next film with great care. At Alfred's suggestion he chose Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's comedy about a pair of ever-bickering lovers. Selina begged off the invitation, however, leaving promptly at 5:00.
Suspicious, he followed her. She went to the Centurion Club and there met Robert Tykes, a fellow Board Member from the Gotham Museum. While this wasn't particularly suspicious from Batman's point of view, Bruce found it disturbing. When the pair were joined by the museum's Executive Director, Taylor White, and the head curator, Randal Kaufman, Batman became more suspicious, but Bruce felt, unaccountably, relieved. This too was disturbing - that he should be more troubled by the sight of Selina having drinks with Rob Tykes than Catwoman hobnobbing with three of the most well-connected insiders at the Gotham Museum. Where were his priorities?
Apparently he'd left them in the VCR back at the manor, he thought sourly.
When the group left the club and walked two blocks uptown to the Carmen Gallery, Batman mentally kicked himself: Tonight was a special cocktail party when the Gallery would publicly unveil a spectacular emerald necklace they were donating to Gotham Museum. It was to be sold at a Silent Auction the fundraising committee was planning on the very day he met Selina at the museum. Bruce had become so preoccupied with her presence at Wayne Manor, he hadn't even considered the possibility that she might have another target.
There was no reason Bruce Wayne couldn't drop in on this party, he was a museum board member and had been invited. When he entered the room, Robert Tykes approached him first.
"Save yourself Bruce, it's the dullest party the arts world has seen since the opening of that Egyptian Studies exhibit, and at least they had the excuse that the guest of honor had been dead for 5000 years."
Bruce smiled wanly and took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. Tykes continued his lament:
"I invited Selina hoping she'd liven up this boring lot, but she's in a vile mood. All she did was start Kaufman and White talking shop -about the Scandals exhibit no less - they're still pretty defensive about it and now they're off at the bar getting quietly sloshed."
SCANDALS had been the talk of the town a few months earlier. The show contained very controversial artwork - the kind of images meant to push people's buttons. Those who were offended protested and petitioned - even the Mayor got involved denouncing the use of public monies for what he described as "disgusting filth." That, of course, put the thing on the front page of the newspapers, and soon artists, showbiz people, and civil liberties organizations had galvanized to defend freedom of expression and speech. There were more demonstrations, and wars of words in the op/ed pages. The exhibit ran its course then closed, and the excitement was forgotten by all but a few.
Bruce joined Taylor White at the bar. The museum director appeared to be arguing his case to a bottle of scotch. When a person came into view, he turned to include Bruce in the conversation, but continued seamlessly:
"… 13,000 artists-in-residents, 125 hours of arts programming that reaches 300 million viewers, thousands and thousands of grants, and do you know how many artists and exhibits the fuss is about - Four !. Just think, Bruce, how much art is controversial in some way - most of it, right - and what a tiny percentage of public money funds controversial art."
"Taylor that was months ago" said Bruce, trying to lighten the mood, " that flap won't affect the fundraiser."
"The Mayor came off badly." Taylor White turned back to the Scotch bottle and directed the rest of his statement to an audience that wouldn't try to cheer him: "his criticism backfired - he's head of the most cultured and sophisticated city in the world - he wound up looking like the kingpin of some mid-west backwater kowtowing to a PTA that wants to ban Huckleberry Finn. He blames us."
Bruce wandered over to Selina, standing by herself at the display case that held the necklace. As he approached he heard her speak in a low hiss: "It's a payoff"
'You know I forgot all about this shindig before when I asked you to see a movie tonight" he began, again trying to lighten the mood. It occurred to Bruce that Robert Tykes was right about it being a dismal party - when Bruce Wayne is the cheeriest person in the room, it's not a good sign.
She turned. "I thought we decided you were not going to act the clueless playboy with me."
Boy, she was in a vile mood.
"Not an act, I really did forget it."
"Guess your mother never told you not to make faces or it might stick that way." She muttered.
Casual references to parents always soured Bruce's mood. No, his mother never did say those wonderfully trite things that all mothers say, because her life had been cut short by a bullet.
"I'm sorry" he snapped bitterly. He stood silently and pretended to look at the necklace but his heart was racing and his stomach seemed to push into his throat. It had been Batman's voice that spoke. Oh shit. Oh shitoshitoshit. It was only two words. Three syllables. She probably wasn't even listening, he thought hopefully. She's absorbed in whatever it is that's upsetting her about that necklace.
When she spoke, it might have had something to do with the necklace, or it might not:
"Does it occur to you, Mr. Wayne, that there are a lot of very angry people in this city? You know why? People get angry when they feel powerless. When they get the feeling that they're being shafted but don't know exactly how."
***