As soon as she was far enough away and confident that no one was following her, Selina pulled out her phone, dialing Ivy's number.
"How was the freak?" Ivy said, sounding way too cheerful for the darkness that suddenly seemed to permeate everything.
"Still freaky," Selina said shortly. "V, listen up because I've got to dump this phone. Cobblepot said…he insinuated that Falcone is the one who ordered the hit on the reapers. Not Maroni."
"What."
"I think he's telling the truth," Selina said, inhaling deeply through her nose. "Which means that Falcone was the one who's killing us."
"How do you know he's not trying to pull something on you?" There was an edge to Ivy's voice now. Selina swore, wishing for the thousandth time that Ivy didn't question everything and would just believe her. They didn't have time for this, they had to get answers now, or their life expectancies were going to plummet.
"I just do, Ivy. He wasn't lying. I need you to call in favors, every favor you can, because if we're in the middle if a war, our odds of getting out alive aren't good." Hers especially. She was playing for both sides, which meant that she wouldn't find shelter anywhere if everything went south.
"You're sure?"
"Can you hear the shaking in my voice? That's panic. I'm panicking Ivy, because I picked Falcone to win in this dogfight, and he turned on us."
"I'll make some calls. Come home."
"I will. But first I have some of my own contacts to get in touch with." Selina hung up, dropping the burner onto the ground and stomping on it with her heel. She'd pick up another one later, but for now she had to get the Wayne Manor.
Selina knew where the shed was on the grounds from first heist and quickly twisted the key into the lock. It gave easily – someone had oiled it recently and Selina's money was on Alfred – and she climbed inside. The tunnels were one-way and easy to follow, and Selina found herself in the basement within minutes. Part of her didn't know why she was here. But if Falcone had started the war by taking out his own people to implicate Maroni then there weren't a lot of places she could go. Wayne had money and resources and contacts within the police department that she didn't have access to. She needed him. And somehow, the thought didn't make her sick to her stomach.
"Miss Selina?" Alfred said, his eyes widening a fraction when he saw her stalking through the halls. "I'm glad you found the back way in but I did expect that you'd call."
"No time Jeeves and my phone's busted. I need to talk to Wayne."
"Now is not a good time, Miss Selina," Alfred hedged, trying to cut her off. Selina ducked around him as he tried to block her. "You really shouldn't go in there, it's not a good – " Selina pushed past him into the office and stopped dead in her tracks. Wayne was inside. So was someone else. A badge-wearing, gun-toting someone.
"Shit," Selina swore, turning on her heel. Detective Jim Gordon stared at her for a moment before his eyes flashed with recognition. His hand flew to his hip and Selina twisted her wrists without thinking, falling into a defensive position and holding her knives ready. What the hell was he doing here? Gordon was supposed to be one of the good ones, but Falcone and Maroni both had players inside the GCPD and Selina didn't know who to trust anymore.
"Knife!" Gordon shouted, pulling out his gun and shoving Wayne behind him. Selina spat another curse, staring him down. She didn't like her chances in a gunfight, but she'd had worse odds and come out on top.
"Oh, put those away, both of you," Alfred said, placing himself squarely in between Selina and Gordon, blocking her line of sight.
"Jesus Christ Selina, what are you doing?" Wayne demanded.
"You know her?" Gordon asked, looking incredulous.
"Yes, I know her," Wayne said. "Selina, please put those away."
"Him first," Selina ground out.
"I'm an officer of the law, and you could be brought up on charges for threatening me," Gordon reminded her. "You're the criminal here."
"Yeah, well criminals are getting gunned down in cold blood lately so you'll excuse me if I'm a little jumpy." And what had the cops been doing about it? Nothing. They didn't give a damn about what happened to any of her people. "How do I know you're not working for the families?"
"Working for the…" Gordon repeated, dumbstruck. "Are you crazy?"
"Please. Cops in this city are worse than scum. They'd follow Satan into hell if they were paid well enough."
"He's clean," Wayne assured her. "Selina, he's clean. I promise. Just put the knives away. You're safe here I promise."
"Holster your sidearm as well, Detective Gordon," Alfred said lightly. "Miss Selina is our guest and I will not have her feeling ill-at-ease." Selina bristled at Alfred defending her, but Gordon slowly lowered his gun and she stowed her knives.
"Are you okay?" Wayne asked, crossing the room and touching her shoulder. Selina glared at him, suspicion and concern waging war in her mind.
"No." Selina said shortly. "But I don't talk to cops."
"Well that's not true." Gordon said coolly.
"Want to run that by me again?" Selina growled, feeling her stomach bottom out.
"I'm sure you remember a certain axe-murderer named Jerome?" Selina flinched at the name and stepped back from him. He'd somehow turned Wayne's office into an interrogation room and she needed to get out of there. "He got out today. Any chance that's why you're so antsy? You were the one who turned him in."
"You're mistaken." Selina said obstinately.
"I don't think I am. It was a while ago, but I remember you, Selina. I thought I did back all those weeks ago at the orphanage, but I couldn't be sure. Now I am." Selina wanted to scream. Of fucking course he remembered. The one cop in the city who knew she was a snitch was buddy-buddy with her billionaire…whatever Wayne was…and now he had her name too.
"Fuck off," Selina spat. "What the hell are you even doing here?"
"I asked him here," Wayne said softly. Selina wanted to shake him. "He's a friend."
"Interesting friend you've got," Selina snapped.
"I could say the same." Gordon replied.
"I wasn't talking to you."
"Okay," Wayne said, positioning himself in front of her and holding her arms by her sides. "I know you don't like the police, but Jim's a friend of mine and he's here to help." Selina shot him an incredulous look. "I asked him to come so he could give me more information on the reaper shootings."
"He doesn't know about reapers," Selina hissed. "And wouldn't you guess it, we're a secretive bunch. There are two things we don't like. One: Being shot at. Two: The GCPD."
"Bruce is right, Selina," Gordon cut in. Selina spun around Wayne and he had to grab her wrist to keep her from flinging herself at the cop. She didn't know what was wrong with her. Maybe seeing Jerome was what was had her so on edge, but Selina desperately wanted to fight someone, anyone. Gordon just happened to be there. "Six kids were killed last week out of the blue. I'm trying to find out what happened to them." Selina wanted to scream curses at him, call him a liar. Cops didn't care what happened to them. They were just six fewer criminals to put in jail later. Six times less paperwork to file. "I'm not trying to fight you on this." Gordon said, meeting Selina's furious gaze. "I've seen your file." Selina gawked at him, her hatred burning anew.
"Bullshit."
"Before it mysteriously disappeared. I know what happened to you when you came in. And I know you still tried to do the right thing, despite what they did to you."
"Shut up." Selina snarled.
"Selina, what is he talking about?" Wayne asked, his voice tight. A muscle jumped in his jaw.
"Nothing." Selina snapped. "He's making things up."
"I'm not," Gordon said, not unkindly. "It was horrible and it was wrong and I'm sorry. But I am trying to help you."
"You want to help?" Selina asked, fury and fear raging inside her, making her stupid. "Then find out why Falcone is killing us!" She froze and clapped her hand over her mouth. She'd really done it now. It wasn't bad enough that a cop knew her name and her connection with Wayne, now he knew that she was Falcone. Worse, she'd given up sensitive information. She really was a snitch.
"You think Falcone killed his own people?" Gordon asked. "Why?"
"That's your job," Selina managed. "I'm just trying to stay alive."
"Jim," Wayne said softly and Gordon nodded, accepting whatever silent message had been passed between them.
"I'm going to get to the bottom of this." Gordon promised and Selina dodged away as he tried to pat her arm. Touch me and I'll fucking kill you, she thought venomously, glaring daggers. "And this will stay between us."
"Thank you Jim," Wayne said, shaking his hand. "He's a good man," he said once Gordon was gone. "He won't say anything."
"He's a cop." Selina contradicted, folding her arms over her chest.
"What's going on?" Wayne asked. "What was he talking about?"
"I think Falcone is the one who killed the reapers and blew up the Blake's house. I…I came here because you have access that I don't." She laughed bitterly. "I know that you have contacts inside the police department. I just didn't expect one of them to be here."
"If I'd known you were coming, I would've warned you," Wayne said, his eyes shining with concern. "But Jim will look into it. We don't know anything for sure yet." No, but it made sense. There was no reason for Maroni to take out the reapers if he wanted to get to Falcone, but it Falcone was trying to start a war, well then… Reapers worked for both sides. They had access and skill and it would be in Falcone's best interest to get rid of them. And if he implicated Maroni at the same time then he was getting double the bang for his buck. "Who's Jerome?" he asked quietly, obviously trying not to spook her. It was a little late for that; Selina was well and truly spooked.
"Jerome's a kid I used to know," Selina said, suddenly too tired to lie. "Complete sociopath. He lived on the fairgrounds in Lee Park and Ivy and I spent a lot of time down there when we were younger. It was fun at first, we got to pretend like we were normal for a while. And then Jerome lost it. Killed his mom and tried to cover it up. He was going to get away with it, so I turned him in." It had been Selina's idea and she had never known if Jerome had found out. Ivy hadn't wanted to get involved, said that if anyone discovered that they'd snitched that they wouldn't survive a week. So Selina went in alone while Ivy kept watch outside the precinct. What Selina hadn't known at the time was that cops were looking for her in relation to a car-jacking. She'd been caught on a video camera, before she was good enough to stay out of sight. She had walked into the police station, not knowing that anyone would recognize her, and had been arrested on sight.
Selina had been stuck in a holding room for three days. She was fourteen and the officer who had taken her in had beaten the crap out of her. At first Selina thought that because she'd given up Jerome, the cop thought that she knew more. Maybe was an accomplice or something. But as the hours dragged on, it became clear. He was hurting her because he could. Because she was young, and a girl, and no one was coming to claim her. Or so he thought. Ivy broke her out on the third day and they'd managed to set a good chunk of precinct on fire before retreating.
She hadn't walked for three weeks after, and had nearly slipped into a coma as her body tried to recover from the injuries inflicted on her. Ivy and Manny had taken care of her, and when Selina had finally gotten back on her feet, she'd known, once and for all, that nothing good came from working with the cops. Not even the so-called good ones like Gordon. Trying to do the right things last time had almost gotten her beaten to death. She was never making the same mistake again.
"You made sure that a murderer went to prison," Wayne said. "That's not such a bad thing."
"No, but getting the shit beat out of me for three days solid kind of counts as a bad thing." Selina had gone back when she'd been better and destroyed her file. With Manny's help, she'd managed to erase herself off of every police server in the city. And the officer who'd hurt her had received a mysterious package that had exploded when he'd brought it inside, taking his hand and the right side of his face with it. Hell hath no fury like Ivy Pepper.
"How? How was that allowed to happen?" Wayne said sharply, his eyes tight and dark.
"It was a long time ago," Selina said, forcing the memories away. She had worked hard not to think about that and had succeeded for years. Some things were just better left buried.
"No, Selina, please don't shut me out like that."
"I don't want to talk about it," she replied, wrapping her arms around her stomach and dropping her gaze.
"Talk to me. Maybe I can do something about it, maybe I can fix it. Find the policeman, make sure he's held responsible – " Selina looked up at him, at this stupid, stupid boy who thought he could fix her, and she snapped. Her vision went red and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to throttle him.
"Fix it?" she said, her voice ratcheting through three octaves. "You can't fix this. You can't fix any of this."
"Then tell me what I can do." Wayne said. "Because I can't stand sitting here and feeling so useless when you talk about all of this. I'm trying to help."
"Help." Selina repeated mockingly. "You're right. I needed help. When I was fourteen and I was trying to do the right thing and I got tortured by the police officers that your tax dollars keep employed." Barely breathing, Selina ripped off her jacket and hiked up her shirt, revealing the smooth pale of her stomach that was riddled with scars. Bye-bye bikini season. "I needed help when one of the men who swore to serve and protect gave me these." Wayne's eyes widened as he took in the mess of scar tissue on her body.
"He did this to you."
"Oh no. Not all of them." Selina said with a humorless laugh. "Some of them sure. Recovering from that was a really good time. For a while there, I thought that I would never walk again. But then again, I can't blame the cops for all of this. No, see that one," she traced a silvery line at her hip, "was from when a guy tried to rob me, and ended up stabbing me in the side." That was years ago, and terrifying. Selina had been coming back from a routine supplies run when some guy in a hoodie cornered her before she could get back to the camp underneath the overpass. She wasn't armed, and even if she had been, she hadn't known how to use a blade then anyway. So she'd given him everything she had and got a knife in the stomach for her trouble. Luckily, he wasn't aiming to kill. But a knife wound hurt whether you died from it or not. It was also the day that Selina had decided that she needed to arm herself.
Selina dropped her shirt and rolled up her sleeve, revealing an ugly, mottled patch of skin on her shoulder. "This is from when I got held up at gunpoint, and Ivy threw a water-balloon full of acid on the guy before he could shoot me. Great plan, unfortunately some of it got on me. That was fun too."
"Selina, I – "
"You can't fix me," she snapped. "You can't fix me, you can't take back anything that's happened to me."
"I'm not trying to fix you," Wayne said, still looking very pale.
"Good. Because I'm not broken. This is me, scars and all." Selina inhaled through her nose, rubbing her temples. There was a seed of guilt sprouting in her stomach at the horrorstruck look on Wayne's face. He was only trying to be supportive. Logically, she knew that. Selina was rattled, she was scared, and she had come here looking for some kind of solace, only to find a cop. So she'd lashed out, with good reason, although she was already beginning to regret it. "Look…" she started. Ivy always said that Selina was cool until she wasn't. Ivy's own temper might have always been bubbling right under the surface, but she got over it easily. Selina held anger closer to her chest, and when it escaped, she decimated anyone and anything in her way.
"I'm sorry," Wayne said, surprising her. Selina was the one trying to apologize. He wound his fingers through hers and pulled her close. Selina tucked herself into his arms, absently noting how she fit perfectly under his chin. "I know that there are things in your life that I can't begin to understand, but I'm trying. I just hate that this happened to you."
"I'm not to pleased about it either, believe me." Selina said wryly. "Although the acid burn makes for a good conversation starter. And it's good leverage when I want to make Ivy feel bad." Ivy still felt terrible about that, even though she'd saved Selina's life.
"Do you want to talk about all the shit that happened in the last half hour?" Wayne said after a long moment.
"No," Selina said. Gordon was going to look into the killings and Falcone, which was what she came here for in the first place. "I think we pretty much covered it."
"You're going to be fine," Wayne assured her, kissing the top of her head. "We're going to figure all of this out together, you're going to keep yourself alive, and if worse comes to worst, we kidnap Ivy and everyone you care about and stick them in the basement." Selina looked up at him, her eyes watering suddenly and a painful lump lodging itself in her stomach. "What?" Wayne asked, holding Selina away from him and studying her face. "What did I do?"
"You'd let us stay here?" Selina asked, her voice so soft it was almost a whisper.
"Anyone who's important to you is important to me. And if it gets bad, grab as many of your people as you can and we'll figure it out from there." Selina bit her lip, tears crowding the corners of her eyes, and threw her arms around his neck. "Whoa," Wayne said, catching her. "What's that for?"
"Thank you," Selina whispered into his neck. The whole world was going to shit, Falcone was killing his own people, Selina was a snitch and a traitor to both sides, and she was directly in the line of fire. But Wayne…he was here and he was willing to take all of this on, no questions asked. Her life was crumbling around her, but Selina couldn't help but think how lucky she was, in that moment, to have him.
Whoohoo! I got this up in time! I actually had a couple of hours to write this afternoon because I was on the train home (spring break, whoooo). Hope you all enjoyed!