"That was quick and painless, no?" Fish purred at Selina when she finally made it back to the nightclub.
"Quick and painless," Selina agreed, pulling the file out of her bag and dropping the flash-drive into Fish's waiting hand. "Possibly some of my best work. You should see some of the saps they've got working down there. There's some guy who is way too enthusiastic about riddles." She put as much arrogance into her words as she could, but it was a struggle. She was tired, and it had been a long day in a string of very long days.
"You've done very well." Fish commended. "You should keep the look, lovely girl. It suits you."
"Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity. Gerard knows my payment information, I'm sure he'll be happy to pass it along."
"One more thing," Gerard said and Selina froze before she could beat a hasty retreat. "It's come to my attention that you are no longer living in your old apartment. Care to explain?" Selina paused for a moment, trying to come up with a lie that was more acceptable than 'I don't want you to know where I live in case you decide to kill me in my sleep.' Somehow she knew that wouldn't fly.
"Oh come now, Gerry," Fish tutted, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Don't be such a nag. Selina is an adult, she can live where she wants."
"Adult or not, isn't it in my best interest to know where my reapers are at all times?" Selina couldn't help but raise a disdainful eyebrow. He sounded like a controlling, abusive boyfriend. Which wasn't too far from the truth, if she thought about it. "I believe that a good businessman knows the whereabouts of his assets." Reaper. Asset. Selina wasn't even a person anymore. "You sound like an old woman with all your worrying." Fish said, smiling at her conspiratorially. "Your Selina can take care of herself, can't you, love?"
"I think I've proven that," Selina said, smirking. "Don't worry Gerry, you'll still be able to reach me. I'm still your number one girl." Just a little less accessible. "Besides, there was a lot of history tied to that place. People knew me there. A good businessman makes sure that his assets don't hire themselves out." Gerard's eyes flashed and Selina knew that she was walking a very fine line.
"Can't say I blame you there," Fish said. "A girl's got to eat."
"A thief's gotta steal," Selina agreed, smiling. Fish laughed, high and trilling.
"Oh I do like you, Selina. You are well on your way to becoming my favorite." Lucky her. Although Selina seemed to recall that Fish's last favorite had been Oswald Cobblepot, and she'd the one who'd turned him into the waddling freak that currently owned half of the timeshare that was Selina's life. Fish's favorite was a very dangerous thing to be.
"Well I am exceptionally good," Selina said. "But even brilliant thieves like myself have to sleep. Fish, it's an honor meeting you. Gerard, always a pleasure."
"Av revoir, darling reaper."
"Jusqu'à ce que nous nous réunissons à nouveau," Selina replied. Until we meet again. Fish complimented her French and Selina ducked out of the door.
"Looks like you and Fish get along swimmingly," Gerard said, coming out after her.
"Was that a pun?" Selina asked, unwilling to let the 'arrogant thief' mask drop just yet. It was her best protection. "Yeah, she's just my kind of crazy." She paused, gauging Gerard's reaction. It wasn't angry, or violent. He was jealous. "And hey, you're not allowed to be mad that she likes me. You're the one who introduced me to your diabolical female counterpart."
"She asked for a reaper." Gerard said begrudgingly. It was all Selina could do not to roll her eyes. He was the one who brought her in. And he had to know that she could use every ally she could find. If this all went south, there was a good chance she could use Fish for protection, but Selina figured that Gerard hadn't thought the plan all the way through. In his haste to prove that he wasn't a double-crossing bastard by helping Fish, he'd given Selina an out, whether he knew it or not.
"And that's what she got," Selina said. "Gerard, I love you, you know I do but I just walked into a building full of cops. Three of them have arrested me before, so you can understand why I'm a little emotionally exhausted."
"Of course, of course," Gerard said, waving her off. "Sleep well darling."
Selina didn't go straight back to Ivy's loft, paranoid about being followed, but circled around downtown for a while until the sun finally went down.
"I need a drink," Selina announced, keying into the apartment through the front door. "You would not believe the day I've had."
"Jesus Christ, what happened to you?" Ivy asked, nearly spitting out her drink when Selina walked into the kitchen. Which she probably shouldn't have been drinking in the first place considering she was mixing chemicals over the sink. There was something boiling in the corner, giving off fumes. Selina hoped that Ivy had disabled the carbon dioxide alarm.
"Fish Mooney happened. Nice lady, good sense of style, absolutely bat-shit crazy."
"So what was the job? You break into a sorority or something?"
"Police station." Ivy's mouth dropped open and the humor left her eyes. "I know. The thirty-third precinct. I had to steal some personnel file."
"What's Gerard want with a file? And is he crazy having you go into the thirty-third? He knows you've been booked there before, they could've recognized you."
"It wasn't Gerard. It was Fish. I got loaned out to Falcone's crazy second-in-command. Next thing you know the big guy himself is going to show up at my door."
"You know how crazy that is, right? He loaned you out?" Selina couldn't disagree, but she was momentarily distracted by Ivy's mixture starting to throw up acid-green bubbles. Ivy swore and dumped a white powder into the vat in the sink. The sizzling stopped and the liquid calmed to a light blue. "Oh, jeez, sorry. This stuff is crazy temperamental." Selina let her play with her chemicals, taking the opportunity to slip away and change. She felt better when she'd replaced Fish's perfect clothes with her own torn up jeans and old T-shirt. Selina tied back the sleek hair that wasn't her own in a messy bun and snapped the fake glasses for good measure. Whens she looked in the mirror, Selina looked a little more like herself again but her mind was still whirling without hundreds of thoughts. Gerard and Fish. Gerard and the Penguin. Wayne. Why he was in the courthouse, why he had managed to recognize her when her own mother wouldn't have been able to. The way he kissed her like he was drowning and she was air.
"Aw, you look like shit again," Ivy quipped when Selina came back into the kitchen. Her concoction, whatever it was, had settled at the bottom of the vat, clear as glass. "I liked the other look. Very 'thief-chic.'" Selina flinched, remembering how Alfred had used the same term.
"Can I have this?" Selina asked, changing the subject and pushing the memory aside. She grabbed the coffee machine and broke it against the marble counter without waiting for Ivy's permission. She needed to fix something. She needed to break something first. Anything to quiet the thoughts roiling around in her head.
"That's my coffeemaker. You just broke my coffeemaker," Ivy said, pouting a little. "Damn, it must have been a really, really long day."
"You have no idea. I had to play word games with this nerdy forensic analyst. It was all very The Hobbit." Ivy laughed and they traded riddles for a little while before falling into easy silence, each working on their own project. Selina let her hands do the thinking for her, mechanically putting the coffee machine back together, and occasionally running to the coat closet where Ivy had a basket full of old machine parts for her. Sometimes when Selina was bored or stressed, she'd see what she could make just out of those parts alone. The results had been interesting, to say the least.
"What the hell is that anyway?" Selina asked when she was almost finished. "You look like some kind of housewife mad scientist."
"It's an antidote. Or it will be. It's for you." Selina raised an eyebrow, fiddling with a piece of scrap metal and waiting for an explanation. "I know, I know, you're not about injecting anything, but with all the crazy that's been going on lately, I'm trying to think of ways to keep you alive. Poison isn't exactly Gerard's style, but believe me when I tell you that it can be a nasty way to go. I said I was going to help you, this is how I help you."
"This isn't – "
"Selina, I love you. And it is because I love you that I am going to inoculate you with this whether you want it or not." Suddenly there was an edge to Ivy's voice that hadn't been there before. Selina squinted, trying to figure out where the change had been.
"I don't want it." Selina insisted, looking at her hand, the machine, anywhere by Ivy and hating the feeling that she was being cornered. Ivy knew Selina's policy on narcotics. She knew. Why the hell would she bring this up? "I don't want it, V. Thank you, it's very sweet – "
"It's not sweet!" Ivy snapped, banging on the counter so hard that Selina jumped, dropping her wrench. "I'm not doing this to be nice, Sel. I'm doing this because you are on the shit list of some very powerful people and I am trying to keep you alive in any way I can. This I can do. Let me do this."
"No one's going to poison me. Besides maybe you by accident, but I'll forgive you" Selina said, trying to keep it light. Ivy angry was nothing new, but this was something just short of desperate. "I can't keep you safe!" Ivy said shrilly, her voice shredding through several octaves. "There are people – real, scary people – who are trying to kill you, and I can't keep you safe. You could've been killed today. I knew something was weird, but I was too busy playing house with my fucking girlfriend to keep you from going. And all day I was sick thinking that you weren't coming home because today was the day that he decided to kill you. All day I've been feeling like I was drowning and then you walked in and it was like I could breathe again. But what if you hadn't come back? What if he'd killed you?"
"But he didn't."
"But he could have. I can't protect you, but I can do this. Why won't you let me?" Ivy turned away, grabbing something out of one cabinet and shoving it into another. She slammed things around for a few minutes before speaking again. "You don't get to die first," Ivy whispered. "Selina, you don't think. What do you think will happen to me if you get yourself killed?" Selina felt her stomach drop, seeing tears gathering on Ivy's lashes. Ivy didn't cry as a point of fact. The last time – the only time – Selina had ever seen her cry was when she'd found out that she was going to prison. "I can't keep you safe from Gerard, but I can do this. Please let me do this, because I refuse to live in a world without you." Selina blinked, taken aback. She knew that Ivy worried about her, but nothing like this. Selina never should have told her. She never would have told her if she'd known that Ivy would react like this.
"I'll take it." Selina said softly after a few moments of horrible silence. She reached across the counter, grabbing Ivy's hand. "V. I love you, and I am so sorry I'm putting you through this."
"I'm not. We're criminals, Sel. This is how it goes. You can take care of yourself, I know that, but I'll be damned if I don't help."
"That settles it then," Selina said, pushing the coffeemaker to the other side of the counter and leaning towards Ivy with a smile. "Enough with this wishy-washy bullshit. Come on, I want to show you something."
"You can fight?" Ivy said, raising a vibrantly red eyebrow. The two of them were standing in the loft's living room, having pushed all of the furniture into a haphazard ring.
"Your lack of faith hurts me," Selina complained, adjusting the wrappings on her hands like Wayne had taught her. She shook her head, trying to trying to get rid of the memory of him. "It does, truly."
"I am nearly half a foot taller than you, Sel. One good hit and I could take your head off." Selina rolled her eyes.
"You're not going to get one good hit."
"Now who's the one with the lack of faith?" Ivy asked, smirking. She'd recovered from her little emotional meltdown in the loft and was back to her old self. Thank God. "Why do you even know how to fight, Sel? I've never seen you without at least two knives on you, and you know this city better than anyone. Why the hell would you bother?" Because she wanted to feel like she actually stood a chance of surviving. Because Wayne had convinced her that there were other options than just running or taking a beating.
"Because sometimes hitting something feels really, really good," Selina said. "And if you think you can hit me, fine, give it your best shot." She stayed perfectly still as Ivy lurched forward, swinging blindly. Selina ducked, jabbing at Ivy's ribs before darting to the other end of the ring. "Oh, come on, V, that was pathetic."
"I told you – " Ivy said, swinging again and missing again. "You and I haven't needed to get into fistfights since we lived under the pass. You're great with blades and I can shoot. Besides, I don't get into nearly – " Swing. Miss. "As much trouble as you do."
"Yeah, I know I'm a pain in the ass." Selina surged forward, tapping twice at Ivy's midsection and getting in a light jab at her chin before dancing away. "But you're my partner in crime, literally."
"This partner in crime is going to kick your ass if you don't stop doing that."
"Are you?" Selina taunted, darting towards her and away too quickly for Ivy to land a hit. "Are you going to kick my ass?" Ivy lunged at her with a roar and Selina backpedaled away, swearing and laughing in equal measure.
Selina and Ivy sparred almost every day after that, more for fun than anything else. It was a good way to beat out her aggression and anxiety, and since the police station job, she'd been sleeping better. Even managed to make it through a whole night without nightmares. Ivy was starting to get the hang of it too, even though she insisted that it was a waste of time. Selina argued that as long as she was pumping herself full of the anti-venom Ivy had cooked up once a day, Ivy would damn well learn to fight.
Despite the nightmares and Ivy's protests, Selina moved into a new place that Leo had scouted for her. It was bigger than the old one, all open spaces and high ceilings. It was too nice for her, if she was being honest, not to mention too expensive, but according to Leo, the old owner had been carted off and he'd gotten a great price at auction. Under an alias, of course. As an added bonus, it was on the river, so the trek to her workshop was shorter. When she wasn't at Ivy's, she spent a lot of time in her workshop, trying not to think. Not about Gerard or Wayne or Fish or Wayne or Oswald Cobblepot or Wayne. Especially not Wayne. Especially not about the way he'd kissed her.
There was a lot not to think about.
Bruce was trying not to think about her. There was a lot not to think about. What with her mysterious appearance at a police station of all places, and looking like…she had. It had taken him a minute to recognize her – she'd for all the world looked like a Gotham U student. And she'd been wearing lipstick. That was what had thrown him the most. Bruce had never noticed Selina's lips before, but when she'd been pretending to be whoever she was pretending to be, he couldn't stop staring.
It was the eyes, though, that had given her away. Big and green and forever analyzing, looking for patterns, escapes, answers. No matter how much makeup she put on, nothing could conceal those eyes. And whatever she was doing there, it sure as hell wasn't legal. She was a criminal, Bruce had no illusions about that; there was no reason for her to be in a police station. No legal reason anyway. He'd been obsessing about her motives for days. What would be worth the risk of her going to the station full of cops? Especially looking like she was something out of a student catalogue. If he was being truthful, he was obsessing. Alfred had been trying to get him out of the house for days, or at least interested in a new project. Bruce was so preoccupied with Selina that he'd completely neglected why he'd gone to the station in the first place. He was doing research on the crime families and was looking for firsthand information. The families had been at war for as long as he could remember, and Bruce had decided that it was time that he knew more. His parents had worked to take the families down, and when they'd died all of that effort had gone straight to shit.
But all of it, worrying about the mob, wondering how or why Selina was in the station, it was a distraction. A distraction to keep him from thinking about the way she had kissed him. One second she'd looked like she would gladly throw him off of a bridge, and the next she had pulled his head down to meet hers. At first he'd been so surprised that he couldn't move, but somehow Bruce ended up kissing her back. Suddenly he was kissing her back and it was like being able to breathe. And goddamn if he couldn't stop thinking about it.
Kissing Selina – the crazy, scary, fearless, beautiful girl that had crashed into his life – was like being able to breathe after years of drowning.