Act III

The Killer
Gotham City

"Don't scream. It won't help."

Screaming is a useless waste of effort when you're tied up in a soundproof basement. All it does is make your already sore throat hurt even more and annoys the person who tied you up. Looking at his watch, The Killer prepared for his next round of rape and torture.

"Are you ready? Same as the last time. Please stop screaming."

Just one more day and she could be dispatched like the others and deposited for the Gotham Police to stumble across. All they were doing was stumbling along as he left his path of destruction. The press was eating it up, though. Nothing attracts a reporter like a tragedy. They wouldn't find him, though...not until or unless he wanted them to. He'd led them down so many wrong paths at this point that they were all chasing their own tails. Catwoman was an unexpected bright spot in it all. Why she gave a damn, he didn't know, but dispatching her prime suspect was more than a little enjoyable. He only wished he could have been there to see her face when she realized she had gotten a man killed with her meddling.

"Time to start. I said stop screaming."

Zatanna
Wayne Tower

I can do this. It'll be fine. It's all fine.

It probably wasn't, but it had been well established in interactions with Bruce Wayne that he isn't a big fan of secret keeping. And so, Zatanna rode the elevator to his office for the first time, squeezing her hands so tightly that they ached, on her way to tell him that she was pregnant.

Shit, I'm pregnant.

Alfred had confirmed it for her via blood test. He was almost giddy with the news while she fought the urge to throw up more. It wasn't that she didn't want kids – she absolutely did – but this wasn't really her planned start date. No matter...some things just decide themselves and the baby inside of her sure didn't take a vote on whether or not she was ready. She'd spent Sunday trying to go through all of the possible scenarios of how Bruce might react to the news. They hadn't even broached the subject of marriage yet, much less starting a family together. The evil voices in her head assured her that he would reject the baby and be furious with her, while the wistful child in her said he would jump for joy and be thrilled. The realist knew that the reaction would likely be somewhere in between. Regardless of what his reaction would be, she had no doubts about her path: this baby was hers and she was keeping it. She desperately wanted Bruce to be a part of that, but she was prepared for the possibility that he wouldn't want that kind of life. His lifestyle wasn't very suited to adding a very needy, very tiny human.

"What is it?" Bruce's voice came over the intercom as the secretary rang into the office. Zatanna sat down across from the desk in the waiting area and nervously bounced her leg.

"There's a Ms. Zatara here to see you."

"Really? Hang on, I'll be finished shortly," he said. The secretary gave her a small smile and turned back to her computer. Zatanna noticed the local newspaper sitting on her desk, opened to the headlines about their public debut at the fundraiser. Guess I didn't need to introduce myself. She was only sitting for a couple of minutes before the office door opened and Bruce stepped out, smiling when he saw her.

"Come on in, Zee," he said. She thanked the receptionist and walked past him and into the office. Before she could fully look around the large room, he grabbed her arm and turned her as he closed the door behind them. "God, I needed this today," he said, pulling her into a hug before kissing her. "You got me out of the most unbelievably boring conference call."

"Ah, my newest magic trick," she said, glad to find him in a good mood that she was about to ruin. "I didn't mean to intrude, though. If you need me to leave..."

"Don't you dare," he said, kissing her again and backing her toward the desk. Not what I came for, but who am I to complain? He lifted her to sit next to the computer and laughed as they knocked half of the papers to the floor. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Zatara?" He asked as he kissed his way down her neck.

"I don't even remember," she said as his hands slipped under her shirt. "Nice office."

"Thanks. I fucking hate it," he said, moving his hands down to her hips. His hands froze and he pulled his head away when the intercom buzzed again. "Fucking hate it," he growled, leaning over her to press the button. "What is it?"

"There's someone else here to see you. A Selina Kyle," the secretary said. Zatanna's head spun as her mood suddenly shifted. She hadn't woken up sick today, but a wave of nausea hit her as she felt Bruce's body stiffen.

"I'm busy. Tell her I can't see her," he said sharply, still leaning forward and trapping her against the desk.

"She's rather insistent, Mr. Wayne..."

"Let me in, Bruce," Selina's voice came over the intercom. "I'm not leaving until you do."

Zatanna pushed against his shoulders, but he didn't move. "I'm leaving."

"No, she is." He wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned back to look at her. She tried to read his eyes, but couldn't.

"Just forget it, Bruce. You clearly have things to do." She shoved him harder this time, but he stayed where he was.

"Whatever you're thinking, you're wrong," he said, body still tense. As he spoke, Selina came busting into the room, the secretary on her heels and stammering.

"Oh, I guess I should have known," Selina said. "Hard at work, as usual." She stopped just inside the door and glared at them as the secretary retreated back to her desk. Stomach still threatening to lose it, Zatanna decided she had enough fuel for her demons to haunt her for another month or two and pushed her way free.

"Annataz emoh."

Bruce
Wayne Tower

Fuck. Fuck fuck.

The first time Zatanna visits his office and this is what she's greeted with. She'd transported away so quickly that he didn't have a chance to react. He stood staring at the desk and fuming.

"Well, she certainly must think three's a crowd," Selina said as she moved closer behind him. "I have to agree."

"Why are you here?" He said, in no mood now to be nice.

"Good to see you, too. Jesus, you're in foul mood. The wicked little witch not keeping you happy? I can help with that, you know." Her hand was on his shoulder, but he quickly turned to glare at her. She took a step back and held her hands up. "Oh, do forgive me, Batman. I'll keep my hands to myself."

"Why are you here?" He growled again. Her face suddenly lost its arrogance and there was a look of fear in her eyes. "Selina?"

"Something happened," she said, turning to sit down in a chair near the door. "I was tracking someone that I thought was the serial killer. He wasn't."

"And you know that because?" She had his attention now.

"He's dead. Brutally and horrifically dead. And I'm the reason."

"What makes you say that?"

"I need you to come with me so I can show you."

Zatanna
Shadowcrest

So much for breakfast. Setting a vomit record for this year.

Things hadn't quite gone to plan. Not only did she tell Bruce precisely nothing about her pregnancy, they had been interrupted by the one person Zatanna knew held the most sway over his heart. She wasn't sure how long they had been in their on-again, off-again relationship, but it was as long as she had known him. Dick had talked about them from time to time – he could never make a lot of sense out of it and chalked it up to the whole "opposites attract" cliché. The criminal and the vigilante: practically poetic. Bruce had been in plenty of relationships, but he always went back to Selina. Always.

"Noitatidem elcric."

- "Did you really think you could compete with her?"

"Raelc ym dnim."

- "Foolish child. He was just biding his time."

"Raelc ym dnim."

- "I'm not going anywhere, you fucking whore."

"Raelc ym gnikcuf dnim!"

Nothing was working. Grabbing her jacket and keys, she stormed out of the house. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she couldn't stay still. Quiet was bad. Still was bad. Everything was bad.

- "And you think you can raise a child?"

The voice had a point. How could she raise a child when she couldn't even keep her mind from trying to rip itself apart? Just the thought of raising a child alone was enough to terrify her as she walked toward downtown, not heading anywhere in particular. She hoped that the sound of traffic and office workers would help drown out the voice.

- "It won't."

When she passed a movie theater, she stopped and headed toward the ticket counter. "One please."

"For what movie?" The attendant asked.

"Anything. Action. Something loud." The young man gave her a strange look, but ran her credit card and handed her a ticket. She sat down in the middle of the otherwise-empty theater and hummed until the opening credits started to roll. As she stared at the screen, her hand ran over her stomach, thinking about the life now growing inside of her.

I don't know how to do this.

This should be a happy time...the best time of her life...but here she was sitting alone in a movie theater to drown out the voices in her head. She remembered how Zanna had smiled with joy and pride as she stated that the birth of their son had been the happiest day of her life. That's how it should be: mother and father and child together on the happiest day of their lives.

- "You don't deserve that."

"No, but my baby does."

She squeezed her eyes shut and cursed herself for talking back. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the screen again and tried to follow the plot of the mindless action movie in front of her.

Batman
Sean Jensen's House

"When did you find this?"

"Night before last. I tried to call you yesterday, but you didn't answer," Selina said, standing at the doorway as he surveyed the scene of the murder.

"Why didn't you call the police?"

"You know, that might be the dumbest question I've ever heard."

Pulling out his scanner, he started to move slowly around the room – looking for anything that might indicate who had killed Selina's prime suspect. Aside from the lack of trace evidence, nothing about this man's death matched the killings of the young women. This had been done with reckless abandon; whoever had murdered Sean Jensen didn't follow any sort of pattern. He was slashed over and over with a very sharp blade until he bled to death. The near-decapitation happened after he had already bled out. From what Batman could tell, he hadn't put up much of a fight, so the killer was likely stronger or had somehow incapacitated him before he started cutting. The message on the wall had taken some time to complete. Blood clots and dries very quickly in room air, so scrawling large letters effectively would be a tedious task.

"This doesn't make sense. Why would a serial killer this careful throw his whole plan out the window just to mock you?"

"I have no idea. That's why I brought you here."

He hadn't really been asking her, but at least they were in agreement that the killing seemed out of the blue.

"Are we sure it's him?" He asked.

"Well, I guess it could be some secret admirer, but may I direct your attention back to the giant message written in blood on the wall?"

"Why were you so convinced that this was the killer?"

"I told you. The boot prints, walking by the campus every day at the time the girls were taken. And don't tell me this house doesn't scream 'serial killer' to you."

He sighed and looked back at her, still standing in the doorway and trying not to look at the scene. "That's not evidence. It's wild conjecture. I told you..."

"I know what you told me and don't need a lecture! I need you to help me find who did this. Obviously, I'm not really doing a bang up job so far."

"I'm working on this. I've been working on this. Back the hell off, Selina. You've already gotten one person killed..." He saw her wince as he said the words and immediately regretted them. "Look, there's no way you could have known this would happen, but you need to let me handle this."

"No, you need to let me help. Especially now, goddammit. Look at this. Look at the girls he's already killed. You need all of the help you can get and I'm not stopping. This is my city, too. Work with me."

"No. Leave it."

"Fuck you and your goddamn stubborness," she spat out as she turned to leave. "I'm not stopping. Thanks for nothing, Batman."

Turning back to the room, he tried to make sense of Jensen's death. The killer somehow knew that Selina had been tracking him. He also knew exactly when she had confronted him, so he could come in and slaughter the man as soon as she left. But why? Why risk getting caught? Arrogance was a common trait of serial killers, but it usually only came out in their interactions with their victims or the press. To taunt someone who was trying to be a vigilante by killing a random stranger just didn't make any sense. Now he had to make a call that he wasn't looking forward to.

"Gordon? I need you to meet me at a crime scene."

Zatanna
Shadowcrest

As if things weren't weird enough, Asshole had figured out she was carrying around a new little human. Laying on her side in bed, Zee studied him as he chatted with her belly.

"What do you think? Ready for a new housemate?"

"Mrrrw."

"You have to be nice to him, you know. Nicer than you are to me." She reached down and stroked his head as he blinked at her.

"Mrr rrow ow." He rubbed his forehead into her stomach as he chattered at the baby.

"You two are going to be a nightmare to control, aren't you?"

"Mrrrrrrrrrrow," he affirmed. At least he was happy about the news; it was one less thing she would have to worry about along the way. The house was going to have to make some serious adjustments, though. Shadowcrest was amazing, but it was far from kid-friendly. She had gotten into more than one hairy situation as a curious child, which in turn led to her father growing more than a few gray hairs at a young age. On the plus side, her intuition had already led her to making useful changes to her room as part of her nesting. Oh, wow, is that what I was doing? The colors and changes made a lot more sense to her now. There was plenty of room for a crib in the corner so she wouldn't have to ready another room until he was old enough to sleep elsewhere.

"Get ready for some sleepless nights," she said as she gave Asshole another scratch behind the ear. He bumped his head into her again and looked up expectantly. "You gotta wait a few more months. He's not fully cooked yet."

Rather than wallow in self-pity, she had decided after mindless action movie number three that she was going to start making a plan for how to raise her child. Her father had handled her childhood, all things considered, like a pro. As she lounged in bed, she thought back on all of the careful measures he had taken to keep her from getting out of control...making sure she was well-grounded in reality. He was wise in not restricting her from using magic; she would have used it no matter what. Instead, he would teach her the consequences of abusing it. She was determined to teach that same respect for the power magic held to her child. It wasn't going to be easy. Her father had been ten years older, more experienced, and a hell of a lot wiser than her when he raised his daughter alone. Thankfully, that wisdom and experience had led him to keep extensive, almost obsessive, notes about his life and her upbringing. Some of it was amusing...some of it embarrassing...some of it terrifying. Her antics, issues, brushes with death, headaches, and heartaches would all be invaluable research to her now. She wished he was there to help her, but his journals were a pretty good surrogate.

"Alright dad, you've survived the first year," she said, setting journal #1 on her nightstand. "Let's see what happens in Zatanna: Year Two."

Bruce
Wayne Manor

Gordon wasn't thrilled. He was demanding that Catwoman be brought in for questioning about her involvement in the murder of Sean Jensen. Despite his irritation with her, Bruce had no desire to subject her to arrest and interrogation. If they started leveling charges against her for her crimes over the years, she would never get out. For the time being, he had assured the commissioner that he would find out what she knew, how she was involved, and what connection this had to the murdered girls.

"Your breakfast, sir. Will Ms. Zatara not be joining us?" Alfred asked as he sat a tray down.

Shit. I forgot about that problem.

"Uh, probably not. I might go sleep a couple hours there, if she'll let me," he mumbled.

"Let you? Did she...is something the matter?" Alfred studied him as he stammered. Alfred never stammered.

"You know me, Alfred. Always apologizing for something."

"I...right...well...if you need anything, Master Bruce..." He continued to stammer as he walked to the elevator.

Okay...perfectly normal interaction.

Rubbing his eyes, he wrapped up his report for evening patrol and headed to shower. Zatanna might not want him to show up, but he wasn't going to let her draw her own conclusions about what she thought happened at his office. From what he could gather by her reactions so far, Dick had told her entirely too much about his relationship history; she knew just enough to get the wrong impression. Or the right one, if she was considering Selina's motives.

Freaking mess.

Once he was clean, he stepped into the Zeta tube and transported to Shadowcrest. Arriving in the room, he found her asleep on her side, book half in her hand, with a sleeping Asshole curled up against her stomach. He reached down and scratched behind the cat's ear, but was greeted only with a half-open eye and a grumble. It was the first time in months he hadn't jumped up and leaped into his arms when he showed up.

"Great, you pissed at me, too?" He whispered as the cat buried his face back against Zee's stomach. "Fair enough." Carefully grabbing the book from her hand, he scanned a few pages. It was a journal detailing her childhood, written from her father's perspective. He only read a couple of minutes before he felt like he was invading her privacy, so he set the book down on the nightstand with what looked like another volume and moved a pissed-off cat away from her so he could lie down. She only slightly stirred, pressing her face against his chest. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and fell asleep, glad to have a few hours to rest before they talked.

Zatanna
Shadowcrest

No offense to feline kind, but waking up next to the man you desperately love is better than waking up to a cat that you begrudgingly tolerate to appease your house. She wasn't sure when the swap occurred, but Bruce's watch was going off in her ear as he snored. Got a real complicated relationship with that watch.

"Wake up, Bruce," she said, rubbing her hands over his chest and stomach. He groaned and pulled her against him.

"Don't wanna," he said, opening his eyes slightly and looking down at her. "Morning."

"Morning." His eyes closed again, but he quickly rolled onto his back, taking her with him with a smile. The playful movement would normally make her smile in return, but instead she groaned and rolled back off, jumping up and running to the bathroom. Her stomach was having absolutely none of it. When she was done retching up nothing, she brushed her teeth and walked back into the bedroom. Bruce was sitting on the edge of the bed now, eyes wide as he stared at her and gripped the mattress so hard his knuckles were white.

"Why did you come by the office yesterday?" he asked in a low, harsh voice.

Well, I guess the gig is up.

"I needed to tell you something," she said quietly, looking away from his angry stare. "I get the feeling you've already figured it out." She swallowed hard and took a breath as her tears started to blur her vision. "Pregnant. Alfred ran a blood test for me."

The silence stretched on for an eternity as she stood against the wall near the bathroom, fiddling with the bottom of her t-shirt. He still hadn't moved, aside from turning his glare to the floor as he clinched his jaw.

"How," he growled.

Well, Bruce, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much…

"I didn't really pack anything for the trip to the other dimension. Wasn't planning on...well...you. That and my weird metabolism there...I guess..." She didn't really know how else to explain it and it didn't really matter. As he continued to sit like a statue, she took deep breaths as her new future came into focus. This was one of the scenarios she had planned for. Granted, she had hoped it was the least likely and that her sweet dreams of the future would come true, but as he sat and fumed, she realized that the visit by Selina was just a harbinger of things to come. She didn't need the voice in her head to tell her that he was rejecting her and the baby. As much as she wanted to beg him to come and hold her, tell her it was going to be okay, and that he would love and support them, she knew that wasn't Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne wanted control and order. A baby – particularly a magi one – wouldn't let him have that. Waves of sadness and disappointment washed over her as the truth set in.

- "I told you."

"I know."

Bruce's head snapped up and his furious eyes bored a hole through her. She shrank back against the wall until he looked down at the floor again. With another deep breath, she willed her voice to sound as steady as possible.

"Bruce, I'm not asking you for anything. I didn't mean for this to happen and I'm sorry. I just...you had a right to know." His watch sounded another alert as she finished speaking. He looked down at it before standing and putting his shirt and shoes on. Without another word, he stepped in the Zeta tube and transported away. Sliding down the wall, her breathing became rapid and loud as the house began to shake and groan around her. She could hear Asshole hissing as her fists clinched at her side. The evil voice in her head screamed vile names at her with a maniacal laugh. Over and over they rang in her ears, reverberating through her head as she felt the rage build in her chest. With another deep breath, she let out a scream that broke the windows and threw the fixtures from every wall and ceiling.

"I...fucking...know!"

To be continued…

*Sorry if you're not an angst fan. Bruce is an angsty, complicated boy! Don't worry, I love him and them together. ;)

Thanks for waiting a little for the Act III start. Vacation and work! Back at it now, though, so I should be updating regularly.