Chapter 13
She rubbed her tired eyes and stifled a yawn. They'd been at this for hours, pouring over security footage from the lab where the biotoxin had been stolen. The time code on the moved as she fast forwarded through the security footage at four times normal speed but nothing was happening on the screen.
"This place is a regular Times Square," she mumbled sarcastically. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be looking for. Something out of the ordinary. Something the FBI had managed to miss.
That she was helping him at all was ridiculous. She should be working on stealing the real ruby, not scrolling through footage of a nearly empty hallway. Tracking down dead end leads was a waste of her time. Except he was just so...him. She'd missed that. Plus, there was that "I'll have to blindfold you" thing that made her toes curl in her boots with giddy anticipation. Too bad he meant "I have to blindfold you to take you back to my weird cave with the nice bathroom." Sighing, she tried to focus.
He hadn't told her how he'd managed to secure almost six weeks worth of security footage from a top secret government laboratory in less time than it takes most people to order a pizza. However he did it, she was positive it wasn't legal. Funny how he was so willing to bend the law to suit his own needs. She glanced at him - he was fidgeting as he scrolled though biotoxin files names that looked like gibberish. They'd hit another dead end.
"Batman, come in," a female voice came through the speakers of the Batcomputer.
"Any progress, Oracle?" he asked, leaning back in the high-backed captain's chair.
"Some. Not nearly enough."
"Great," he said sarcastically.
"It's the government. If we don't want them to realize we're poking around I need to take precautions. But I'm actually calling because I have some information about your mystery artist."
"Go ahead."
"She goes by the name Effervescent. Her specialty is sculpting complex objects out of plastic. She's been a prop sculptor for several East End theaters for over a decade. However - she's a gambling addict. My sources say she got in too deep with a small time bookie and he requested she sculpt him a rather large ruby to pay off her debt."
"This bookie have a name?" he asked. Selina stood beside him, hanging on every word.
"Gerry Pavloski. He's only been in Gotham about six months, sounds like he's trying to establish himself," Oracle said.
"What perfectly coincidental timing," Selina said as they exchanged a look.
"You have a description?" Batman asked.
"Better. I have a picture. Sending it now," A grainy photo of a dark haired man wearing sunglasses filled the screen. Batman clicked on a file on his desktop and Nardoc Sera's picture popped up. A few keystrokes later, the Batcomputer verified what they already knew - Nardoc Sera and Gerry Pavloski were the same man.
"Send me Effervescent's location. I'll question her tonight."
"It would be a waste of time."
"Explain."
"She's in a coma. Hit and run about two weeks ago, both her and her wife are in critical condition at Gotham General. Their place is clean - I had a mutual associate check it out."
"Who?"
"Nightwing."
Batman said nothing as he stared at the picture of Gerry Pavloski AKA Nardoc Sera.
"So I hear you've got a new partner." Oracle prodded, teasing him. Selina could practically feel him blush. She grinned.
"Call me when you've got something on the lab. Batman out."
"Secret government security footage. A mysterious woman doing something that sounds a lot like hacking into a government computer system. My my, Mr. Bat, aren't we full of surprises," she said as he swiveled his chair around to face her. Arms were crossed over his chest, and his mouth immobile.
"Your point?"
"You break the law so casually when it suits your needs yet you'd rip Gotham apart to find someone if they'd done the same."
"It's not the same," he said.
"Rationalize it however you need to, handsome. We both know the truth." He spun his chair back around.
"Get back to work. We may have connected Sera to the ruby but we still need to connect him to the biotoxin." Her body was stiff and she was bored out of her skull. If she had watch an empty hallway for another hour she was going to scream.
She spun his chair back around.
"I think we could both use a little...physical activity," she said, her voice seductive as she slid into his lap.
"Selina-" he began.
"You got a gym in this thing?" she asked, cutting him off. He nodded once. "Let's spar. Neither one of us is getting anywhere. Getting the blood flowing will do us both a world of good."
The corners of his mouth ticked upward. A smile. An honest to God smile. Her heart pounded in her chest.
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He pinned her to the mats, her arms locked to her sides.
"You keep letting your guard down on your left," he said.
"I don't remember asking for pointers," she sneered, head butting him and jumping to her feet. Up instantly, he took her down with three short moves, ending with a knee to her left side.
"And yet you need them," he taunted. He'd forgotten how much he loved sparring with her. Lunging, she knocked him onto his back. He threw her into a pile of mats. Just when he thought she was staying down, she tackled him and they rolled across the mats, a tangle of limbs and black costumes.
"Admit it, you like getting all sweaty with me," she panted once they stopped rolling. He pulled them to their feet, her arms pinned between them, her upper back flush against his chest. She gasped in pain but refused to give up.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked, breath in her ear.
"Why are you letting me?" she snapped, slamming her heel into his knee. He buckled but didn't lose his grip, maneuvering them so he landed atop her, her arms still immobilized.
"What do you get out of it?"
"Pleasure," she purred, arching her body against his.
"I want a real answer," he said, his hands relaxing.
"That is a real answer, handsome," she teased, giving him that sex-filled stare he'd fantasied about more than once.
"You came back to Gotham for the ruby. That went sideways. Instead of leaving you've stayed to help solve this case. Why?"
"Maybe I like you," she said, playing coy to distract him and stop his questions.
"Why did you leave Gotham?" he asked, his voice quiet, low, his lips inches from hers. Her eyes flashed, anger evident. She didn't want to talk. Not about this. Glaring, the air around them was hot and still, bat wings fluttered in the distance. She kissed him full on the lips.
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Soft, eager lips moved against hers as he deepened the kiss. She'd forgotten how he could do that, how the slightest touch of his lips slowed time itself. Desire rushed through her, desire she hadn't felt since she'd left Gotham. She'd had lovers during her time away - some were a means to an end, one or two were because she wanted them. But none of them made her feel as hot and out of control as he could with nothing more than a kiss.
As suddenly as it began, it ended.
"If we're going to work together, we can't do this," he said, a note of regret in his voice. She watched his full lips close over brilliantly white, perfectly straight teeth. Movie star teeth.
A jolt of electricity surged through her body as pieces of the puzzle became whole. Years of practice kept her face emotionless. The way he kissed, her physical reaction, those bright white teeth - It was so obvious to her now. She knew. She knew who he was under that mask.
"Right," she said, sitting up.
"It's not that -" he began, shutting up when he thought better of it.
"No, no. You're right, we've got to run this operation cleanly," she said, refusing to look in his direction for fear he'd see the realization on her face.
"What did you say?" he asked. He sounded so odd that she couldn't help but look at him.
"I understand that we need to keep business and pleasure separate."
"No. What did you say?"
"We need to run this operation cleanly?" she asked, completely bewildered by his behavior. He leapt to his feet and sprinted toward the Batcomputer before she could pull herself up off the floor.
"Did I miss something?" she asked when she caught him. The keys clacked as he entered some terms into the search bar. Two identical invoices appeared on the screen.
"That's how they did it," he said, gesturing to the screen. "The same cleaning company serviced both the lab and the museum." They smiled at each other - the case had finally broken.