6. Wounded
Eventually time heals everything

The rains had started after they'd arrived to the safe place and hadn't stopped since. A full day went by and still the Dark Knight did not wake. Thankfully the black cat had led them to a safe hideaway a few minutes after the terrorist attack.

Catwoman had learned his name from the swishing of his tail to the movements of his body. Unlike most animals, a cat poses three names instead of just one. The first name is given to them by the humans it chooses to socialize with. Then there are the names it uses when speaking with other cats and animals alike. Names than no human could ever know if they did not speak the same tongue. And then there was the final name; the name that the cat herself knew and would never confess to another living creature. It was said in old times that one could control a cat by discovering this name.

Only the catwoman of the present was permitted the honor of knowing such sacrosanct knowledge. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Patience knew at once with a single glance what this cat's name was. She bowed to him respectively, speaking his name with the greatest care so no animal listening would understand what she meant.

He bowed his head too, though far more dignified, as if he were encountering royalty, then led them to an abandoned apartment building at the top floor. It was a bit drafty due to the broken windows, but it wasn't terrible and at least it protected them from the elements somewhat.

Catwoman thanked him for his kindness and asked if he would mind to keep watch for them. He bowed again and left to survey the hallway that lead inside. She watched him leave and set about making a small bed for her injured comrade out of a table, some stacked newspapers, and a few wool blankets left in a closet.

She lied him down and studied the wound. It was worse than she thought. Thankfully though she'd learned a bit of first aid on the travels that she'd been through. She needed to stop the bleeding and get the bullet out. She should also try to get his armor off. She looked at it and groaned. This thing was like a freaking safe. Where the hell was the lock to unstrap the chest plate?

Oh hell! There wasn't time to get it off anyways. He was loosing too much blood by the minute. She would just have to work around it.

There were some tools she would at least be able to use, such as pliers, a needle, and a knife.

It was a bloody mess and she feared he would die for a moment. In the end, she needed to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding. That certainly made him jump. With the way he cried out when the fire hit him, a bystander on the street would think there was an animal being tortured somewhere.

Thankfully he only yelled once, so it did not attract any attention to the building.

Yet when he cried out so horribly in his sleep, it had torn something open inside of her. She hated to see him in pain. Like she'd seen it before and it'd nearly killed her.

She panted and wiped her forehead when the work was over. She usually hated alcohol but she desperately felt a drink was needed to cool her nerves after that. One for Batman probably wouldn't hurt either. Despite her desire, though, she could never leave him like this. It was too dangerous if someone found him; completely helpless and out of it like he was right now. If she wasn't here to protect him, anyone could come waltzing in and take advantage of the opportunity to kill him… or find out his true identity.

Now that she thought of it, she ought to try and mop his head of the sweat he'd precipitated. She put her hands on the corners of his mask. Avery different shock shot through her body when she attempted to remove the black cowl. She felt her whole body jump with painful energy and was flung a few feet back.

She twitched on the ground as she waited for the feeling to return to her limbs.

"Well… that's sure—gah—unexpected!"

Dre was loud trying to make it to school that morning. He'd spent the whole night looking up whatever he could about Catwoman and hadn't made it to bed until one o-clock. He'd literally fallen asleep right at his computer. It was only after eight when he finally decided to wake up. And when his eye caught sight of the clock he'd panicked.

"Crap!" He hissed when he realized how super late it was. School started half an hour ago. He tore his pajamas off quickly and jumped into his school uniform. He grabbed his umbrella and was out the door in no more than four minutes. His mother had already gone to work by seven thirty. "Gee thanks, mom, for making sure I was up." He mumbled angrily. Yet even he knew he was being unfair. He was fourteen years old after all. He should know how to get himself out the door without mommy's help.

Even as he was flying down the stairs, he'd managed to spare a glance at Patience's apartment door. Her morning milk and paper were still on her doorstep. So she hadn't come back at all last night. Dre grinned to himself as his imagination took affect. It seemed she'd had more fun with Mr. Bruce Wayne than she'd led them to believe.

He smiled with amusement as his thoughts turned quickly to all the different distractions the two probably found themselves in.

He honestly liked the thought of being able to tell his friends, "Hey guess what? My neighbor is dating a billionaire."

Faintly he wondered how her work would take the news.

Batman's eyes peeled opened. His vision focused on a rusty shabby apartment room that had clearly been unoccupied for many years, leaving it neglected and rundown. There were large circular windows that were cracked and broken in several areas with fresh rainwater running down the sides. Rusty iron pilasters supported what was left of the roof while pots and buckets were scattered here and there to catch the running water dripping through the holes. The light was dim despite the dozens of candles lit and surrounding the room. He smelt a fire cracking nearby. There was a lamp burning by a bedside table near the makeshift bed he lied on, along with some bloody rags, pliers, bandages, and needle and thread—the kind used for stitching wounds.

His side hurt tremendously and he could feel the beginnings of a fever starting to take affect with the result of the bullet wound. He shivered.

"You're awake finally."

Batman's eyes focused on a woman's dark silhouette in the center of a window. She turned to him and came closer.

Batman suddenly became alert as his arm came up and he grabbed at his cowl, wincing from the pain it caused to move. Sleeping in his armor was very uncomfortable. He breathed when he found the black covering was still in place. Catwoman came closer when she saw him moving.

"You shouldn't move." She said placing her diamond claw gloves on his shoulders and pushing him down. He obediently obliged. Moving was more of a chore than he could really bare right now. "It was hard dressing your wound. I was able to maneuver your armor enough to at least get the bullet out and bandage you up. However I had to cauterize the wound to keep you from bleeding to death." She shook her head sympathetically, looking back on the scene. "Sure made quite a racket when I did." He flinched when the pain shot through him, but she didn't look overly worried. She took one of her gloves off and touched the side of his cheek expertly, testing his temperature. "You'll live. But you'll have one hell of a fever in the morning."

When bare skin met bare skin time froze for a moment. Batman relaxed into her contact. He liked the touch of her cool fingers against his hot skin. His hand came up and kept it there for a moment longer. He wished his hand wasn't gloved; not only did he sweat like crazy inside it but also because then he could feel the texture of her auburn skin better than he did on his face. They stayed that way for a moment. Finally she pulled away and turned to the bedside table next to him.

"How long have I been out?"

"A full 24 hours." She turned and rung out a cloth in a water basin and pressed it to his sweating face. "I tried getting your cowl off but it zapped me. Left me twitching on the floor for a good ten minutes." She smirked grimly. "Is your identity so important?"

"Is yours?"

Her smirk widened, chuckling slightly. "Fair enough. Although, you won't exactly find loose wiring or booby traps under my hood."

"You don't have a face to maintain."

"How do you know? My identity is just as important as yours."

Batman thought of his second persona as Bruce Wayne. Every person in Gotham knew his name and his face. His company was one of the largest enterprises in the world and if his identity as Batman fell into the wrong hands, everything he'd worked for would come crashing down into nothing. He didn't know this woman who called herself Catwoman, yet he was more than certain she didn't have nearly as much to loose as he did.

"No it's not." He announced boldly to her question.

She looked at him through big brown eyes. He'd seen those same eyes somewhere before. For a single perfect moment, all they did was stare at one another. Then she leaned into him, slowly at first, and touched his forehead with hers. Batman could feel the intimacy of the gesture.

Without warning she was snaking her arm under his back. She spoke in a whisper. "Can you sit up."

"Maybe." He said wincing when pain shot through him again. It was horribly agonizing to move at all.

She saw that he wouldn't be moving for a while and lied him back down. She picked something up from the table and he could smell what was probably soup. "Here." She held a bowl up to his lips. "You need food. You'll feel better once you eat. "

Batman doubted it was poison and took it. If she'd wanted to do anything, she could've done it while he was unconscious. He swallowed the soup and blanched when the strangely sweet yet pungent taste hit him. "This stuff is terrible. What is it?"

"An old healing medicine from Egypt. It's a broth made from honey and coriander. It's supposed to sooth and heal faster."

Batman didn't know about old remedies all that much, but it hadn't crossed his mind to distrust the woman's judgment in this. Grudgingly, he swallowed the rest of the potion. When he was done, he couldn't decide whether he felt better or worse after that.

"I know," Catwoman consoled, "the taste is horrible but wait an hour and you'll feel better."

Her amber eyes watched him relax back into his bed. His chest rose up and down as he allowed sleep to take it's affect on him. Within another moment he was in another dreamless slumber.

Catwoman stood and paced the room. It was Friday today. Guess she'd have to schedual her date with TNT some other night. Yet the thought of going with another man now seemed to sicken her. She couldn't describe her feelings for Bruce but she felt drawn to him in ways she couldn't refuse. It was like she was a puppet hooked to the strings of fate and was going wherever they pulled her. She had no control of her own destiny, merely waited as another controlled her future. Somehow she felt Bruce was being manipulated the same way. When she thought about it though, it didn't seem right to her; in a way almost silly even. She couldn't imagine anyone being able to control him. As far as she could tell, Bruce was a born leader and ready to take charge with whatever the situation was. He was the kind of man who liked to make his own decisions, regardless of who might be in charge.

She wasn't sure if that was what she admired or despised about him.

Oh this was just too confusing. And now with the Dark Knight here too. She felt the same pull towards him as she did with Bruce. But when she thought about it more, she felt she could be more herself towards Batman than she could around Bruce. With the businessman, she had to hide part of herself away from him, her true feline self. But with Batman...

She looked over at him again and felt a strange and unexplained desire to curl up beside him. She never thought the sight of an injured man would make her feel so turned on.

Patience blushed as those unnaturally corporal ideas came to her. She turned away from him and started towards the window before the sight of him brought more embarrassing thoughts to mind. She concentrated on the rain and watched the people on the ground below to get her mind off of things.

"Right, just keep watching those unremarkable people going about their unremarkable lives." She told herself lowly. It was hard keeping the thoughts she really wanted to think about at bay. As an antidote she began thinking of things that were probably going on in her life right now that she hadn't even had the chance to think about since Batman was wounded.

It'd been a full day now and she hadn't been given the chance to call work and tell them a good cover story in regards to her absence. No doubt this was a really bad way to start out with during her first week of work. She'd hoped to at least get a month in before she used up her sick days. Uh, this was just not how she wanted to present herself to her boss. Her boss was definitely going to have her head for this.

And what about the media and police work. Now that there were two masked vigilantes in the city, what would that mean? Would they put her on the wanted lists with Batman? Or would she come to be a self-righteous hero as well?

The thought of living by a code of honor suddenly didn't seem all that glamorous to her all of a sudden. There was a part of her that wanted to do what was right, but at the same time there was another part of her that wanted to take life by the horns and take whatever she wanted from this world.

She gazed at her diamond clawed gloves, fashioned from the pendants of an Egyptian necklace. These too were stolen, she'd admit that. But at the time, she just had to have them and she couldn't find the means to come up with the money herself to purchase them. If she could've done it legally she would have, but she didn't have the financial means to accomplish that. Plus, the fact that she'd just been fired hadn't helped her in the slightest.

An hour went by, and then another, as she considered trivial and essential little issues that affect either both or the other.

On his bed, Batman stirred again till his eyes opened and he stared back at Catwoman, who was in the same position he saw her in the first time he woke.

"De ja' vu." He muttered squinting over to her.

"Not exactly." She said coming over to him like she'd done before. She touched his cheek with her naked palm. "You're fever has gone down somewhat. How do you feel?"

"Better… I think."

She sat next to him and folded her hands below her. "This is going to sound… completely off the wall to you," she began hunched over and finding the floor suddenly interesting, "but do you feel, by any chance, that we've met before?"

Batman looked at her. His face was completely unreadable and it made Catwoman nervous. He shrugged at last and looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe." He whispered. "A long time ago, perhaps. I don't really know."

Time held as his words strained through the stretching silence. Suddenly she neared him, touching a naked palm on his chest and drawing close to her face. Her lips brushed his ever so softly. She held them there for a moment, not drawing back or pressing closer, just holding them there, waiting silently for his next move. At last she felt him close the gap and kiss her with a passion.

She sighed, deepening the kiss. It was like every kiss in her life had been but a casual exchange between nothing more than friends compared to this. She pressed closer to him and felt his gloved hand lift, tracing a line over her bear back. This just felt so right to her.

Eventually she ended the kiss before it could get any more heated, and rested her head against his chest like an old lover. She closed her eyes and breathed deep. He did the same.

Suddenly Catwoman straightened to her full height. "Do you have family?"

Batman stared at her. What did she mean by that? He knew that she'd be able to track his true identity back through his family. But then again… "No." He said honestly. "I don't have any family."

"Is there someone who you can call for help?"

"…yes."

She turned from him. "Then you'd better call them cause I'm leaving."

"You're leaving me here?"

Catwoman turned back to him, a spark in her eye. "Don't be scared. You're a big boy. I think you can handle yourself." It was pure teasing really. She knew he hadn't sounded scared at all when he spoke… just curious. But she just couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease him.

When batman looked back at her, she vanished. Her stealth was something to be amazed over. It put even his own tricks to shame.

Cautiously, he got up, mindful of his injuries and taking precautions not to make them worse. The potion she'd fed him had at least brought down his fever. Least his wound was fine enough to allow him to move. All though, he'd wait till he was at least a few blocks away before calling for his ride and going home at last. Then he would probably have to explain to Alfred why he was gone for nearly two days without even a phone call. There was also supposed to be a big business meeting this morning that he was supposed to attend. That wasn't a really big deal, since he slept through most of those boring things anyways. The idea that he would flat out bail wasn't so surprising really. Plus he could trust Fox to handle things for him.

"Crap." He muttered when he realized he'd failed to call Patience back after leaving her like that the night before. He had a feeling, though, she wouldn't be too upset about that. She sure had jumped for the opportunity to leave the restaurant as fast as possible. In fact it'd seemed pretty obvious that she never wanted to see him again. Yet even still he couldn't put the idea out of his head to find her and try and talk with her.

But what he wanted to talk about was a mystery even to him.

Okay I guess I didn't keep to my promise very well. Instead of weekly, my updates have become, monthly. But you know, even those aren't really reliable either since it's been like three months since my last update. So it's more like every other month that I end up updating. Okay to be completely honest I've sort of lost interest in this story. It's obviously my most popular story so far but it's not the one I'm particularly interested in. I mean yeah sure, the story line is good, from all the comments I've gotten, (and you guys, thank you so much for all the support. They really, really help in continuing the story) but you know how you sort of start getting into something really weird, all at once, and suddenly you become a little obsessed over it-yeah that's what's kinda going on for me right now.

I'll try sticking to updating as often as I can but I shouldn't promise anything.

I'm just going to say one more thing before I let you go:

So... was the chapter too fluffy for you? Review and tell me: Should I add more love between Batman and Catwoman?