NOW I REMEMBER Normal 2 364 2001-11-11T03:28:00Z 2001-11-11T03:28:00Z 5 2347 13382 111 26 16434 9.2720

Bruce lay awake though the rest of his family was fast asleep.  He wanted to sleep but Selina's little bomb had his mind churning.  Pregnant—again!  He rubbed an eye with the palm of his hand. A mass of confusing thoughts and feelings went running through him.

He would love every child they had.

The two that they had were a handful enough as it was.

He would worry about Selina's health.

Selina could take care of herself.

He did say that he wanted lots of children.

That was before he ended up with twins!

He chuckled remembering the night he and Selina had talked about children.  The deep rumble in his chest made Felis moan and shift positions. She had crawled back to her original spot when he'd returned from taking care of her brother.  He hadn't worried too much about waking her; she slept through damn near anything.  Gray, on the other hand, could hear a person blink and he'd wake up raring to go. It seemed like from the moment they were born they were like that.  Bruce's heart started to thunder fast; suddenly he had to know.

"Selina?" he said carefully reaching over to her. 

"Hm?" she said coming half awake when she felt his fingertips on her arm.

"Are you really, Honey?"

"No.  Go back to sleep or you'll wake Gray."

He smiled out of relief.  Although, he missed the tiny little bear hugs he got when they were younger.  Well, Felis was still very loving but Gray, he was a big boy now. Or so he would announce.  Bruce sympathized.  He remembered his first days at school when his mother would want to hug him in front of everybody!  He took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.  Felis liking the feel of that mimicked him in kind.  He smiled putting his hand on her head and bent to kiss the top of it.  Bruce then thought of Gray getting older.  Which seem to bring on more trouble.  Everyone said that little boys tended to get into lots of mischief.  But he wondered if it was so much Gray's doing as his mother's encouragement. 

She'd tell to him chase the pigeons in the park.  The birds would expertly fly wild over the mounted police who were sometimes there.  The horses, being spooked by the sudden disturbance, almost threw their riders.  Selina would get that smug smile on her lips.  He in turn would eye her sternly and go after Gray to make him apologize.

He remembered the one-day at the Victorian tearoom downtown they had taken them to.

Gray had begged his mom for bubble gum.  She had denied him adamantly afraid he'd stick it in his pocket, like he was apt to do when he got tired of it.  Alfred would grumble for days when he'd discover the menacing treat AFTER having washed clothes.

That day, however, Selina had spied Mrs. Laura Castor and her prize Pekinese.  The dog had won numerous blue ribbons and trophies at dog shows all over the country and she let everyone know it.  When she found out that the Wayne's didn't have dogs, she sniffed and made snide comments about how worthless cats were.  To top it off, the dog had nipped Selina in the heel.  Selina in turn pick up the dog and held it away from her.  Bruce caught her arms before his wife could drop kick it into the next city.  She had claimed she wasn't going to kick it—much.

Selina had whispered something to Gray at the table, eyeing the dog, and handed him something.  Gray turned to the dog with an innocent, delighted smile.  Bruce eyed Selina but she ignored him.  The dog had taken the bubblegum Gray offered and chewed and chewed and chewed.  Mrs. Castor was unaware of the events until she stood to leave and her dog stuck to her.  She shrieked at the discovery of the gum everywhere on her thousand dollar mink and her dogs prize coat.  The dog had to later be shaved in order to remove the sticky mess.  The prized pooch missed the Championships that year and Min Worthington's Golden Retriever; Cleopatra Selene's Golden Eye (the dog's registered AKC name) won best in show.

Bruce had been furious with his wife, who again ignored him.  Now, forgetting where he was, he laughed out loud.  Gray sat straight up.  Bruce lay motionless. His son lay back down and slept again.  Bruce sighed, thankful.

Bruce remembered when the twins were weeks old, he'd get caught waking Gray after Selina had spent hours trying to get him to sleep.  Being the new excited parent he was, he wanted to check on them every time he had the chance.

"Don't," Selina would warn him.

"One peek won't hurt," Bruce would insist.

"Bruce if you wake that boy…" she'd threaten him.  He in turn would ignore her and sneak up to the nursery.  Sure enough, he'd wake Gray who he could never sneak up on.  At first, Selina would take the wailing boy and put him to a breast to get him to sleep again.  Bruce would watch intently absolutely fascinated.  It was the close scrutiny of her husband that led her to believe he just liked watching her feed the twins.  She thought it was rather kinky of him and she'd shrug, to each his own. 

Finally, Selina had enough of it and when he'd wake his son, Selina made him put him to sleep.  Having no breast to offer, Bruce had to walk the Manor, hoping the motion would rock him back to sleep.  And he'd walk for hours!  For Selina it was a satisfying end.  For Bruce, it was a pain in the ass.  Okay, he'd learned.  Through it all Felis had slept soundly.

Felis had been the smaller of the two.  Leslie had insisted that they wake her every couple of hours and make her eat in order to gain weight.  That was easier said than done.

They tapped the bottom of her feat, rubbed her face and unwrapped her from her blankets, hoping the coolness of the air around her, would wake her.  Nothing.  Selina was relentless though.  Especially after Leslie had weighed the child a few weeks later and there was no change.

"We'll have to incubate her if we can't get her weight up."

That was the first time he would see his wife pale with fear over the children.  It was a horrible look and it made his heart break.  It was especially hard on Selina because Grayson was hell bent on being at Selina's breast constantly.  He seemed to know instinctively that his sister was nursing and he would wail, completely outraged.  It got so that Selina would take Felis to another room to eat.

Bruce smiled.  His son was all boy!

He blamed himself mostly.  The twins had been born in the manor instead of a hospital.  That hadn't been their idea.  If it hadn't been for Ra's al Ghul kidnapping his wife when she was well into her last trimester….Ra's he thought.  He couldn't stifle the growl that hummed in his chest.  Felis heard it and squirmed again this time kicking her legs.  He caught hold of one little leg, to keep her from kicking a particular sensitive spot.  He gently slid her of his body to the bed.  "Better safe then sorry," he thought.

He got off the bed instead of trying to sleep.  The thought of Ra's descending on his house and stealing his wife always got his blood boiling.  There was no use trying to sleep now.  He couldn't stop the images of his coming home to find his butler stashed behind the couch in the front sitting room.  That's where Selina had carried him when he had passed out from drinking the spiked tea meant for her.

A band of rioters had started a small war in downtown Gotham.  They had seen the mass confusion from their TV that night.  When he had recognized a couple of the rioters as henchmen of Talia's old assassin group, he'd taken off.  At the time he hadn't realized that the riot was just a diversion to get him out of the house.  A feeling of utter doom consumed him when Talia had been nowhere on the scene.  None of Ra's frontline men where there either.  That led him to conclude that the main attack was somewhere else.  That's when his mind screamed, "GET HOME—QUICK!"

He had quickly put out the dispatch to Oracle to send everyone to the manor.  Even Nightwing was to come though he was hours away. 

"Hell," he remembered saying to her, "call Superman if you have too."  It was too late.

His house was minimally ransacked on the inside and he figured that in her condition, Selina had been smart and not put up a fight.  It was Robin who had directed him outback.  It had looked like a war had gone on at there.  It didn't make sense, at the time.

His thoughts were temporarily interrupted by a groan coming from his bed.  He turned quickly hoping that one of his children was not sick again.  He saw a flurry of commotion coming from under the covers.  Selina sat up.

"What is the problem?" She said in a loud whisper.

"Sister is kicking me." Gray whined.  Selina looked over at Felis.  She was kicking at the sheets and covers tangled in her feet.  She was also sweating.  Selina reached over Gray with a groan.

"She's not kicking you," she said with a grunt pulling at the covers wrapped around her daughter.  "She's just caught and hot."  Selina yanked off the blankets, releasing Felis' feet.  She pealed back the top comforter but replaced the sheet over Felis.  Once that was done, Selina sighed and lay back down.

"Daddy's awake," Gray said sitting up.  Selina groaned in annoyance.

"I'm just going to the bathroom, Gray.  Go back to bed."

"Yes, sir." He said quietly.

"Come here," Selina said and she wrapped herself around him.  They both purred softly and fell back to sleep. 

Relieved but still wide-awake, he moved further from the bed in order to keep from disturbing them.  Ra's men were not actually the first men to overtake his house.  A man that use to work for Ra's had arrived first. Caspian Murdock had been the one who stole his wife. 

Later he found out that Selina had continued to watch the news after he left.  Alfred had come with her normal evening tea.  Alfred had become weary of the tea when, having poured the hot water over the herbs, they gave off an unusual smell.  He had taken a slight sip thinking he had brought her the wrong tea.  One tentative sip turned into another; yet he still couldn't quite place the smell although the taste was still the same.  The next thing he knew he couldn't see strait and the house was swimming.   Selina had been speaking to him, saying she too had recognized a few of the men the cameras had spied but none of the usual Demon gang was in attendance.  When Alfred didn't answer she became concerned.  She turned to him to see him lying on the ground the tea spilt everywhere.  That's when Selina clued into what was happening.  She knew she couldn't carry him with her to the "safe" house, she called it, that Bruce constructed.  There were many scattered all over the house.  Places both she and Alfred where to retreat to if something like this were to happen.  At first Selina had objected to the idea.  But Bruce had questioned what she was going to do if something should happen as her condition advanced, attack with her stomach.  She didn't think that was funny and he paid the price for it.

He signed heavily while he looked out the French doors that lead to the balcony outside his bedroom.

Ra's hadn't made it easy for him to find her either and that had taken time.  He wasn't in any of his usual locations.  When Bruce, terrified that his wife's due date was getting close, too close, he'd finally uttered defeat and went to Talia.  Selina would kill him when she found out he had gone to Talia.  Being so consumed in worrying, he couldn't think.  Everything piece of evidence he found didn't lead anywhere close to Ra's.  Everyone he wanted to question turned up dead before he even got to them.  The worst part was, that had he been thinking strait, he would have seen some of the inconsistencies of the attack in the clues left behind.  Ra's hadn't started the attack on his house.

He found this out when he nearly brought Talia's house down.  Caspian had worked for Ra's when al Ghul had come for his wife the fist time, on their honeymoon.  Caspian knowing how desperate Ra's was to break up the couple, had planned to use Selina to get whatever he wanted out of Ra's, as a bargaining chip.  It was he who had first descended on the Manor and Ra's, who knew what was happening, let it.  Ra's group had confronted Caspian as they tried to leave.  Caspian had no idea Ra's would be there; he never knew that al Ghul had found out his plans by way of a, now dead, cooperative.

Things had gotten so violent that Ra's had his group pull back fearing for Selina's safety or so he said. Ra's had worried about Selina's safety all right.  He worried that if she died, that would defeat the purpose.  Ra's had wanted her alive or, more accurately, wanted the children.  Ra's had backed off from the Manor fight.

Later Bruce found out that Caspian had devised the plan and Ra's was not going to let Caspian black mail him.  The safest thing to do was let Caspian take his wife and let Batman think Caspian had done it.  Once Caspian thought he had Selina safely, Ra's would swoop in, keeping Selina for himself.  It was like killing two birds with one stone.  Ra's would get rid of Caspian and his threats (by way of the Batman) and have Selina.  The one thing Ra's didn't count on (and why NOT it happened EVERY TIME) was that Talia would do anything for Bruce.

Bruce had to not only get his wife back from Caspian WITH Talia's help but, having ended up at Ra's Nepal stronghold, somehow had to get her home as well.  This was especially difficult since having had to illicit both Ra's and his daughter's help, he might insist one of his rewards be one of the Batman's children.

Normally, Batman and Ra's al Ghul would come to some unspoken agreement to go their separate ways, until the next time.  He was so desperate he ended up escaping from the al Ghul complex.  Selina started having contraction 5 hours from home, he radioed for Leslie to meet them at the manor.  And in the middle of a dark stormy night, while lighting scored the night sky, the twins were born.

He had kept the secret of Ra's design on their children from Selina that night.  He had to at the time and since he got away with that little secret (along with his wife) he never mentioned it again.  However, now, he was more cautious of Ra's and any designs he might have on his twins.  Especially Grayson.  Grayson with his mother's eyes, was to Ra's the ultimate prize.  Since then Bruce hadn't heard a peep out of Ra's or Talia, which was not necessarily a good thing.

He walked back to his bed.  Sprawled on his side of the bed was his curly haired daughter. Next to her was Gray, equally spread out.  Selina had managed to still keep secure a small portion of her end of the bed though covers were nowhere in sight.  He itched to take the covers that were wrapped about Grayson's legs but thought better than to wake him.  They were all tired even himself he suddenly realized.

He slipped into his side of the bed not moving Felis an inch.  He was known for sleeping in the mouths of the Gargoyles that stood a top some of the tallest buildings in Gotham, this was a piece of cake.  Balanced at the edge of his bed he slept well.

That's how Alfred had discovered the four of them.  The twins had nearly the whole California king size bed while both parents teetered close to there perspective edges.  Gray having heard Alfred, stirred and pushed out even further which causes Selina to go over her side.  Alfred jumped rattling the tray of breakfast dishes he had in his hand.  Selina being of quick mind and body slammed one foot down on the floor and quickly got her balance as the second came down.

She did, however, stumble forward a bit because her foot was caught around some sheets.  Once she had detangled herself, hands on hips she looked sternly at her bed.  She looked up at Alfred.

"Now I know remember why they don't sleep with us anymore."

Alfred laughed.  This startled Gray who believing it was his sister who had caused some discomfort and he kicked his legs out.  Having gotten his sister pretty good, she back away from him and into her father who too went over the side of the bed.  Only Bruce who was quicker, of course, landed both his feet on the floor before he stood and turned to find out who his attacker was.  Confused he looked down at his bed then up at Alfred.  He shook his head in wonder.

"Now I know remember why they don't sleep with us anymore."