The assassin's name was Newman, mostly because one day he just showed up in Gotham on day out of the blue and started killing for sport. It turned into a race between the cops and the families who could find him first – Falcone's people won out, and he'd been on the payroll ever since. He was good, too. Efficient, smart. He never left a trace, which was what made him so valuable, and so hard to track down. In the end, he'd only come in for the money. Despite the war between Falcone and Maroni, Falcone was still the stronger, wealthier family.

And now Newman was heading to White Hill to murder the heir to the Wayne fortune, and Selina was trailing behind.

Why? A small voice asked. Why do you bother? Wayne knew where she lived, he knew what she did. It would be easier just to let him die. And yet she was on a bus to the richest neighborhood in the city, two Bowie knives hidden in her sleeves and one dropped into her boot. Something was driving her, and even if Selina didn't know exactly what it was, she couldn't puzzle it out now. As far as she knew, Newman had never failed to take out a target, and if Selina wanted to break his streak, she had to keep her head clear. This guy was one of the best, and while there was no-one better with a blade, there was taking down goons in alleys, and then there was going after professional killers. Selina was quite literally taking a knife to a gunfight.

Selina got off of the bus well before she reached White Hill – if this ended badly, she didn't want anyone remembering a scruffy-looking girl who definitely didn't fit the bill for a Hill resident. In her dark jeans and ratty old jacked with the hood pulled up, Selina looked as out of place here as Wayne had in the Narrows. Despite the fact that it was broad daylight, Selina didn't bother trying to hide from cameras; if she was right, Newman had already cut every CCTV camera in the area, and if she was wrong then she could always have Manny erase the tapes again. If she lived long enough to call him, that is.

Again, the little voice urged her to turn around and go home, back to her people where she would profit from Wayne's death, not put herself in danger to prevent it. Back to the Narrows where things made sense. But she stuffed that voice into the back of her mind and forged on, trying not to think about the fact that she didn't have a plan. The last time she'd broken into Wayne's mansion, she'd been in disguise, on a mission, hunting. Now, she was going into someone else's hunting ground and was almost completely exposed. Barely any weapons, no backup plan, just her. Go home, the still reasonably sane part of her chimed in again as she reached the gates. He's probably dead by now anyway.

If he was dead, then she didn't have anything to worry about, Selina told herself as she hopped the fence and streaked across the lawn. No alarms blared and everything remained quiet, affirming her worst fears: Newman was already here. Selina didn't bother breaking in through a window or back door; if the broken lock on the front door was any indication, Newman had just waltzed in the main entryway.

How the hell was she supposed to find Wayne? Selina still had every inch of the Manor memorized, but no idea where Wayne could be, or if he was even in the house.

"Shit." Selina swore, kicking open the door of the security center. Nearly every house on the Hill had one, but being the reclusive idiot he was, Wayne didn't have any private security. The only one who kept watch was the old butler that had been manning the house since before his parents had been killed. She'd hoped that the cameras would still be on, even if the alarms had been disabled, but every screen was fuzzy with static.

"Please, please, please, please," Selina whispered, dialing her phone and trying not to panic. She was completely blind in here.

"Hola," Manny answered on the third ring.

"Thank God."

"Sel? Que pasa?"

"Manny, I don't have a lot of time and I can't answer any questions, but I need you to hack into the Wayne system again."

"Selina, I – "

"The cameras have been corrupted and I need you to turn them back on. Just inside the house."

"What the hell are you into, Sel?"

"I don't have time for this," Selina said, her voice hiking up an octave.

"Okay, okay," Manny said, and Selina could hear keys tapping over the phone line. "Give me thirty seconds, I've already been in this system…and…I'm in. I'm turning them back on now. Please be safe, Sel."

"Yeah," she said, hanging up without so much of a thank you. Selina stepped up to the television screens, searching for any sign of movement. "Come on," she whispered when there was nothing. "Don't be dead." Selina spied a microphone on the counter, like the kind principal's used to make school-wide announcements and quickly turned it on, praying that she wasn't signing her own death warrant. "Testing, testing," she said experimentally, gratified to hear her voice echoing throughout the halls. "Shall we play a game?" A little cheesy, but the only advantage she had was that Newman thought this would be an easy job, and everything indicated that he had one hell of a temper. "Here are the rules: I'm watching everyone, and the first one I find loses. Guess what Newman," she said, injecting as much arrogance into her voice as possible. "It's open season." Selina disconnected the microphone, eyes scanning the screens. It was an insane risk, telling both Newman and Wayne where she was, but the options weren't all that great.

After a few tense seconds, Selina spied movement on one of the televisions. A large man in a long coat, no doubt armed to the teeth.

"I see you Newman," Selina goaded, turning the mic back on. "South hallway, towards the kitchen. You're going to be disappointed, because neither of us are anywhere near there." She sighed audibly into the microphone, hoping that she was right. She didn't have eyes on Wayne yet. "God, you're boring." Newman paused at her voice before wheeling around and striding the other way. He was coming towards her. She would have to move soon, and then lose her only advantage. "Warmer," she prompted as he moved even closer to her hiding spot. "Warmer, good now down that overly dramatic staircase…dammit man, that's the wrong hallway. You call yourself as assassin and you can't even follow simple instructions?" The pixels that made up Newman on the screen stiffened and she could see him mouthing curses. Selina just hoped that she could keep him wound up enough to focus on her, until she could come up with a better plan. If this came to blows, she didn't like her chances.

Selina was so focused on Newman that she didn't notice movement on the neighboring screen. Wayne was moving towards her from the opposite direction. He was on a collision course with the assassin she'd been trying to lead him away from.

"God dammit billionaire," Selina swore, holding her knife ready. She bolted out of the surveillance room, creeping along the walls and trying not to make a sound. Newman was close and if he heard her, all hell was going to break lose.

Selina nearly bit through her lip to keep from screaming when a pale hand caught her wrist and pulled her against the wall.

"We," Wayne said smoothly, pressing his body against hers so that her arms were pinned by her side, knife and all, "have to stop meeting like this." He sounded for all the world like they'd met by some chance encounter.

"Get the hell off me," Selina snarled, hating how close he was, and that he'd gotten the drop on her. Wayne's arrogant smile vanished in an instant as he saw the bruises mottling the left side of her face and the cut above her eye that had been weeping blood since Gerard had given it to her. She hadn't exactly had time to look in a mirror, but Selina knew that she looked like death.

"Who did this to you?" Wayne demanded, his voice low and fierce. His fingers gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him and Selina ripped her face away.

"Don't touch me," she hissed, unwilling to raise her voice above a whisper. "Why are you here? I was telling you where I was."

"I know, I was coming to find you."

"You idiot, I was telling you where he was too, so you could go the other way!" God, he was dense. Why the hell would he come in the same direction of the man who was trying to kill him?

"Who is he? How do you know who he is?"

"You are asking all the wrong – fucking Christ, move!" Selina screamed, seeing Newman round the corner out of one eye. His gun was up, aiming at Wayne's exposed back. With strength she didn't know she had, Selina shoved him away from her, nearly throwing him across the hallway. Gunfire shattered the silence and bullets filled the air. In the confusion, Wayne crashed into her, slamming her into the wall again, but Selina bounced back quickly. "Run!" she shouted, grabbing Wayne's hand. Bullets nipped at their heels as they sprinted through the halls.

"In here!" Wayne said, ushering her into a room off of the main hall and locking the door behind hem.

"That's not going to hold," Selina said, eyes darting for something they could use to bar the door. She started pushing the desk in the corner, but it was too heavy. Too late she recognized the study Wayne had trapped her in the last time she was here. Irony was a bitch.

"You're bleeding," Wayne said, staring at her openmouthed. Selina blinked once, confused, pressing a hand to her shoulder. It came away bloody. Wayne hadn't hit her in the hallway, it had been the force of a bullet that had sent her sprawling. "Shit, you got shot."

"I'm fine, it's just my arm." Selina insisted, backing away when he stepped towards her. "Don't touch me!" Wayne retracted his hand as the door boomed loudly. Newman was trying to get in. "Do you have any weapons?" she asked urgently.

"Nothing in here. What about that?" Wayne asked. Selina's eyes went to the knife she'd forgotten about. Blood was flowing freely from the wound in her shoulder, gauntleting her arm and the knife's hilt in red.

"I can't use it," Selina said shortly. "They can't know I was here, or this is all for nothing." If anything got back to Gerard and his cronies about Newman being stabbed he would know that it was her, and then Selina would be number one on his shit-list, if she hadn't claimed the top spot already.

"Who?" Wayne asked once again. "Who the hell are you so goddamn afraid of?"

"People who send guys like him," Selina sniped just as the door was busted open. "Get down!" Wayne dove under the desk and Selina threw herself behind the antique couch that was nearly ripped to pieces in a hail of bullets. They were sitting ducks.

"Hey!" Wayne shouted from his pathetic excuse for a hiding place. "I'm over here! Don't you want to get paid?" Selina cursed his stupidity, her eyes catching something mounted on the wall beside her. Who the hell mounts a whip? She thought before an insane notion struck her. In a flash she was standing, ripping the ancient bullwhip off of its display and praying that her crazy gamble wouldn't get her shot. Again.

The whip cracked through the air, winding its way around Newman's wrist, and Selina yanked it back, tearing the gun from his hand.

"Traitor bitch," Newman growled in a low, menacing voice, pulling out another gun. "You think I don't know you, Selina Kyle? Gerard's former favorite? How pleased he will be to hear that I have dealt with you. But first." He turned back to where Wayne was still stuck and Selina launched herself over the couch, striking again with the whip and slamming her shoulder into the assassin's midsection. Her injured shoulder, naturally. The wound screamed and for her troubles, Newman barely budged. Before Selina could break away, he caught her by the throat and started to squeeze. She kicked at him, but the assassin had lifted her clear off the ground and all she could do was clutch at her throat and try to breathe. "Now you die." Selina choked and struggled for a moment longer before she felt the barrel of a gun press against her sternum. This was it. If she was being honest with herself, Selina always expected to go out like this, in a storm of gunfire. She had always known that this life would end bloody, but the one thing she'd never expected was to die a martyr.

Idiot. You should have stayed home, something vindictive inside of her thought, and Selina closed her eyes, expecting to feel the bullets ripping into her chest. She flinched as a single shot rang out, but there was no pain. Maybe she was going into shock. Maybe, somehow, he'd missed, though she couldn't understand how. He'd been pressing his gun directly into her midsection. In fact, she could still feel it digging into her flesh. Her vision was starting to go dark and then the grip on her neck weakened and she dropped to the floor, gasping and spluttering.

"You keep your bloody hands off of them," an accented voice said from above her. "Well it seems that you've gotten yourself into a right bit of trouble, Master Wayne." Selina's vision swam and she couldn't get a good look at who was speaking. He was dead, that's all she knew; Newman was dead and she could see the hazy outline of his body next to hers. She needed to leave, before whoever had killed the assassin called the cops. Selina tried to rise, but there seemed to be a weight on her chest and her shoulder was on fire. Something sticky was pooling under her, wetting her cheek and oozing into her hair.

"Oh my God," a voice above her said, sounding like it was a long way away. Someone was standing over her, blocking out the light. She flinched, not liking his voice and not remembering why. "Alfred, she's bleeding. He shot her." Selina managed to lift her hand, trying to swat him away from her.

"We have to get her to a hospital."

"No! No hospitals. No… no hospitals. Don't tell…" she wheezed, wasting air, but it was important. "Don't tell them…who I…am." The last of her oxygen used up, Selina's eyes closed and she sank into the darkness.

For someone who hadn't expected to wake up at all, Selina didn't spend very much time unconscious. She had never been a slow riser – years of living under bridges and overpasses had trained her to be asleep one moment and running the next – but she'd never woken up like this. It was like someone had sent a hundred volts of electricity straight to her heart. Her eyes flashed open and screamed, pain shooting through her body like acid.

"Bloody hell!" a voice shouted and Selina felt hands on her midsection, pushing her backwards.

"Get off me!" Selina shrieked, thrashing against them. Her vision was tinged with red and she couldn't breathe without setting her lungs on fire.

"What the hell did you do?" a familiar voice asked. Wayne. She couldn't see him through her still-hazy vision, but she could feel him hovering somewhere around her.

"Old military trick. Bang on the chest, restart the heart." That would explain the jolt back into consciousness, and the overwhelming feeling that at least one rib was cracked.

"Hey, hey, look at me." Strong fingers gripped her chin and Selina gritted her teeth to keep from spitting at him. "My name's Alfred, and I'm trying to help you. If you don't stop fighting, you're going to bleed out, do you understand me?"

"It hurts," Selina ground out. Every breath burned and her shoulder was throbbing, sending shocks of pain throughout her entire body.

"Yeah, I know it does," he said, not unkindly. "The bullet is still inside of you, love. It hit something and bounced around in there. I think it nicked your collarbone."

"Fucking fantastic," Selina groaned. He was going to have to take the bullet out, and if she had to guess, there would be no painkillers involved. In short, she was in for a world of hurt. Her eyes rolled in her skull and Selina could feel herself losing consciousness again. "You should've let me die," she mumbled.

"Stay with me. Hey, stay with me." Alfred said, grabbing the sides of her face. "I need you to stay awake for me, okay? What's your name, tell me your name." No. She didn't want him to know her name. But despite her heart hammering like it was trying to punch through her ribs, Selina's thoughts were sluggish and no aliases came to mind.

"Her name is – "

"Alleycat," Selina snapped, cutting him off. It was regrettable, as far as fake names went, but Selina couldn't think of anything else. "Don't you speak for me," she growled, leaning up to glare at Wayne. His mouth was a tense, thin line and his eyes, though narrowed, shone with worry. Alfred stopped Wayne's remark with a cutting look, and pushed Selina back down.

"Okay, Alleycat. This is going to hurt."

"Give me something to bite on," Selina ordered in a moment of clarity, managing to inject some authority into her voice. To her surprise, neither argued, and Wayne passed her something. Selina didn't bother looking to see what. She stuffed the cloth into her mouth, biting down as hard as she could. She inhaled deeply and nodded at Alfred.

Breathe, she told herself. One…two…There was a flash of something and Selina screamed against her makeshift gag before time went fluid. She couldn't tell what was real and what was imagined, it was all just a swirling mess of voices and pain. Somewhere, someone was begging her to keep breathing, to hold on a little longer, but Selina was half-sure that she imagined it. She had moments of lucidity, but they were quickly dissolved into visions of dark eyes staring down at her, blood leaking from the corners like tears.

"Can you hear me?" Wayne's voice said from somewhere above her, cutting through the fog. Somehow, the pain had lessened. "Come on Sel – Alleycat. Give me a sign here." Selina couldn't open her eyes, but she had enough strength to whisper a single sentence.

"Don't...tell me what to do...billionaire." There was an audible sigh of relief and someone barked out a surprised laugh.

"She's going to make it." Despite everything, Selina was a survivor, through and through. Damn right she was going to make it.

So finals are over (praise Jesus), so I thought I'd reward myself and all of you by posting this. Most of my train ride home was editing and finishing the ending - the back half of this chapter was not easy to write.

And if I don't get another chapter up beforehand, merry Christmas to all who celebrate! (You know what I want for Christmas? Reviews. Lots and lots of reviews.)

Enjoy!

~Fae