Meow
Disclaimer: Don't own anything except Serenity Anderson, the song Irresistible is owned by Jessica Simpson.
A/N: WOW, so sorry for the delay. I've had a busy, busy, crazy week. Here's the next chap, and once again I'm sorry for the delay!
Thanks again to all my reviewers, I love you guys!
Hatorisgirl, I agree Nelson is kinda icky!
VelvetShadow, Yeah! A happy dance! I love those! You love it muchly? Good word! Lol
CATgrl, I totally agree, NOTHING wrong with Terry ;) lol
lt. commander richie, ah! Thanks for pointing that out to me! I fixed it up! Thanks for looking out!
Red Tigress, Wow, thanks for your review! You think mine is one of the better stories? Awe thanks:blushes:
Daylight dancer, Thanks for the review, here's an update!
Ratdogtwo, Thanks! Here's the next installment!
Sapphire Wings 09, Thanks for the review!
Galaxya, Awe, you like this that much:blushes like crazy: I love that you love this!
Kyoko Kasshu Minamino, You rock! I got it from the internet…got it! He caught you? You never gave me anything…:does shifty eyes:
GambitGirl2008, Thanks! Here's an update! Enjoy!
Zypher Omega, I'll try to keep it up as long as you keep reading it ;)
Phew- now let's get on with the story! Anyway, this chap is going to be a little angst-y but no fears next chap is going to be action packed! …
As always let me know what you think and Have A Nice Day!
§§
"Serenity Anderson," Bruce Wayne stated reading the name off the file off the screen in front of him. As soon as Terry told him about what happened at the movies he decided to check out this girl that lived in Terry's building.
One file in particular caught his eye and he opened it. His eyes quickly scanned through the file but his facial expression didn't change.
"Find anything?" Terry questioned walking up behind him and laying a hand on the back of the chair, Ace shortly following behind him.
"Mother and brother were killed in a car accident on the way back from the circus," he paused for a moment leaning closer to the computer, "by Jokerz when she was eight."
Bruce quickly read the rest before pulling up the next page. He didn't show that he felt a pull in his gut. That was around the same age he was when his parents were killed…
Terry frowned, he never really knew about her personal life. He didn't know that Jokerz killed her mom and brother. And when she was eight? She was so young! That was around Matt's age! Maybe that was why she liked him so much…and that also explained the whole 'I hate you' episode with when he had helped her out that one time.
"What about her father?" Terry questioned suddenly. Bruce typed a few keys.
"Left when her mother was pregnant, current location is unknown," Bruce stated sounding disgusted. He typed a few more keys getting back to her custody file.
"She was taken in by a resident that lived in the building," he trailed off scanning further. His brows furrowed when he couldn't find a name.
"Odd, it doesn't say a name," he added on pulling open another file.
"The file keeps referring to 'she' but thy never state who 'she' is…" Bruce stated starting to get a gut feeling that he knew who 'she' was. He typed on the keys and began a search through all the files concerning her custody case.
Bruce looked over at Terry,
"Who's she living with?" he questioned.
The question should have been simple. She lived in his building for as long as he had. She went to his school. He should know whom she lived with…
But he didn't.
Terry paused and frowned. She never mentioned the name of whom she lived with. Never once said a name. At school they always said Anderson too, her name, not the name of the woman she lived with.
"I don't know," he stated thinking quickly, "she never said."
Bruce bit his lip to keep the retort from rolling of his lips,
"Let's look at the two women and see if they can physically be each other," he stated, changing subjects and pulling up two pictures side by side.
"Here's a profile of Catwoman," he stated indicating to the picture on the left side of the screen.
"And, here's a picture of Serenity," he stated, nodding to the picture on the right. Terry was stunned. He had pictures of Serenity on his computer?
"How did you-?" He was met with the 'duh' face again. "Oh right, Batman, got it," he corrected looking back up at the screen.
On the right side of the screen was a picture of Serenity. She was looking over her shoulder towards the screen, her face impassive but there was a sad look in her eyes. Her hair was pulled into a sloppy bun on top of her head; tendrils falling around her face and it appeared that she was watching somebody they couldn't see. She was leaning against a tree and her posture was relaxed.
On the left was the feline femme fatal, Catwoman. She was donned in her purple cat suit with black gloves and boots. A hand on was on her hip and there was a catwoman grin on her face. Her yellow eyes were sparking with life, and in her right hand held her whip, the black cat around her ankle. Her posture was proud and straight.
"They're so different," Terry stated shaking his head slightly, still trying to take in the possibility that Serenity could be Catwoman.
"Like Terry and Batman? Or Bruce Wayne and Batman?" Bruce stated looking at Terry with a 'so-what' look. Terry looked back at him with a frown.
"Message Received."
They both looked back at the screen.
"Are they around the same height?" Bruce asked, not turning his head to look at his young counter partner.
Terry was silent for a moment before nodding slowly,
"Yeah, I'd say there the same height," he confirmed scanning the pictures.
Serenity was a pretty girl, not overly beautiful but definitely not homely. She had a gentle beauty; an innocent beauty while Catwoman had brazen sex appeal. Catwoman had sex appeal and wasn't ashamed to use it to her advantage. His eyes flicked to Catwoman, studying her for a moment before switching back to Serenity.
"How old is this picture?" Terry questioned gesturing to the Serenity picture.
"Not too old, late last year, why?"
"Because Catwoman is slightly more muscular and defined in this picture than Serenity, if this picture was recent, then she should be just as muscular."
"I'll find a more recent–" He was cut off mid sentence when the computer automatically pulled open a file.
"The computer found the article that says the name of the woman who took in Serenity," Bruce stated scanning the file.
He froze, his hands poised above the keys in mid movement. His eyes didn't leave the words on the page. Thinking it was somebody was one thing, seeing that he was right-proving his suspicions were correct- was completely another. Terry saw him pause and moved closer to the screen to read over his shoulder.
"Who does it say? Who's she living with?"
There was a moment of silence before he spoke,
"Miss Selina Dent."
§§
"-But he's irresistible!" Serenity sang loudly and slightly out of key while she vigorously lathered her hair with suds. Fog was coming out of the top of the top of glass shower stall door and clouding up the mirrors. The music was blaring throughout the small bathroom and the only sounds were of the running water and her singing.
"-Irresistible,
Up close and personal now inescapable,
I can hardly breathe, I can hardly breathe,
More than just physical,
Deeper than spiritual,
His ways are powerful, irresistible to me,"
Serenity shut her eyes as she washed the shampoo out of her hair and began dancing slightly under the scalding water as she continued to sing loudly.
"Can't you see whenever he's close to me,
I really find it hard to breathe,
He's so irresistible,
Baby you know it's more than just spiritual,
His kisses are powerful, he's so irresistible,"
A smile formed on her face. Oh how she wished she had kissed Batman when she had the chance. They kept dancing around it and she kept teasing, and he kept resisting. He had more will power than she had originally thought…Maybe she should find a new boy to focus her attention upon. She tilted her head back in thought and let the hot water run down her body. What about Terry? A smile overtook her face again.
"He's so irresistible up close and personal,
Now inescapable,
I can hardly breathe, I can hardly breath,
More than just physical,
Deeper than spiritual,
His ways are powerful irresistible to me,"
He was cute, definitely was cute. Wasn't a beefed up jock, but wasn't a total wimp either, dark hair, dark soulful eyes. She shut her eyes and pictured Terry…in that Batman costume with that deep voice. A shiver ran up her spine. A girl can dream can't she?
She turned off the water and pulled the towel off the rack next to the wall. She wrapped it around herself just as the last refrain of the song was playing and she belted it out loudly,
"He's so irresistible up close and personal,
Now inescapable,
I can hardly breathe, I can hardly breath,
More than just physical,
Deeper than spiritual,
His ways are powerful irresistible to me!"
She held out the last note while she carefully wrung the excess water out of her hair and tried to keep her towel up. She carefully stepped out of the stall and walked a foot or two to the sink and wiped off the mirror.
Her skin was flushed and her cheeks pink. Her hair was darker due to being wet and was now hanging down her back leaving a trail of water.
She hung her head and carefully wrung out her hair again while singing the past refrain of the song, again. Giving up on her hair she gently tossed it over her shoulder and turned around-
To be met with a figure in black with a red bat across their chest.
Serenity almost screamed but somehow managed to bite it back at the last second and only gasped and jerked away. For a moment, or ten, she thought she was going to drop her towel…either that or faint.
Serenity felt her breathing pick up as she looked at the figure in the room a few feet away from her. What the HELL was he doing here? And while she was IN THE SHOWER? Weren't there RULES or something!
She opened and closed her mouth several times all the while clutching the towel to her still damp body. Wonderful, and she was only wearing a towel. Great, just great.
A million things were going through her head a mile a minute, how should she play this off? Should she be coy or shy? What was he doing here? Did he know she was Catwoman? What was going on? How long had he been there?
A thought hit her suddenly as she remembered something she had said a while ago; maybe she could play off that. She cleared her throat, not having to play that she was flustered, shocked or embarrassed that he was there.
"Look," she stated eyes flying around the room nervously, "I know I said I would help you out…or whatever, but I didn't mean…um, in the way that I think you're thinking."
Batman opened his mouth to reply but she beat him to it.
"It's not that I, um, don't want to, um, it's just that, I, ugh, don't really do, this ugh, kind of thing, I'm not very experienced and, ugh, maybe you should find somebody else," she rushed out feeling herself blush even if she was saying all this on purpose.
He studied her silently. He knew that should have come back at a different time but just couldn't. Here was a girl whom he never talked to more in his life than he did over this year, who had helped his brother put popcorn on his butt at the movies, standing in front of him in nothing but a towel, dripping wet.
He may be Batman, justice and everything, but damn he was still a guy. Her legs were long and her arms smooth. That when he noticed it. Her legs were muscular, not overly so, but he could see they held power, just like her arms.
He looked back up at her face and saw that she was blushing a deep red and looking around the room with frantic eyes. She confused him a lot. She looked like she was Catwoman, and then she did stuff like this. The frantic eyes and attitude threw him.
Then her words caught up with his slow foggy brain.
She thought what?!
"No," he stated and saw her head snap up with a deer in the headlights look on her face.
"That's not why I'm here, and I think you know that," he clarified but swallowed inaudibly when he saw a lone drop of water roll down the column of her throat, over her skin and into the soft material of her towel. He definitely should have come another time.
He saw a flash of something before an even more confused look overcame her features. Survival instincts kicked on and one word screamed in her head; Deny.
"I-I do?" She said looking at him with wide eyes.
Play dumb, play dumb, play dumb, her mind chanted.
"Don't play games with me, Cat," he said not moving a muscle.
Play dumb!
"What?" she breathed.
"Don't play dumb with me, I know it's you," his low voice graveled out and he took a step closer. She retreated a step further and he stopped.
"You expect me to think it's coincidence that these cat related thefts start a couple months after you were attacked, you own the cat that is seen with her, and now you're looking tone and in shape?" He said accusingly, his eyes never leaving her face. "I've been watching you."
He watched as emotions flew across her features before it landed, and remained, on anger.
"You think I'M Catwoman!" she said lowly.
"How else do you explain everything?" he answered her question with a question.
Serenity narrowed her eyes and let out a deep breath. Okay, so yeah, she was Catwoman. But what if she hadn't been; did that mean she couldn't work out after 'getting attacked' as he so eloquently put it? This was all he was going on to accuse her? Those few facts? He just assumed it was her! She knew she shouldn't get so emotional but it was bubbling to the surface.
"First, I have lots of cats hanging around here, that doesn't make me Catwoman-"
"The dark one, Bastet."
"Bastet comes and goes whenever she pleases, she's not attached to my hip, she sleeps here and gets fed here that doesn't mean she just stays here twenty four hours a day," she snapped. He remained silent.
"You know, it's funny," she stated locking eyes with him, "that the great Batman believes that just because my cat looks like some other crazy chicks cat I'm immediately assumed to be her."
"You've worked out more since the last time I saw you, you have her build, and-"
"You really have no idea what it's like do you?" she cut him off and he noticed her tone change. She was looking straight at him, her blue eyes shimmering slightly in the misty room and he wasn't sure if it was due to the atmosphere in the room or because of the topic. Her voice was still angry but now it wavered.
"Do you have ANY idea what it was like?" she questioned taking a challenging step closer to him. He remained silent.
"Being helpless? No matter what you do or say, there's nothing you can do?" She let out a breath.
"I was stripped of my pride, lying there exposed and vulnerable against my will," she said and she felt emotions rising up inside her as she remembered it all.
"You know what was running through my mind while I was lying there on the cold alley floor, being held down by those three Jokerz? I kept thinking how I couldn't protect myself when I needed to the most," she shook her head before meeting his gaze, "I told myself, if I lived through that horrifying experience, I would never be helpless again, ever. So I took some classes, and pushed myself harder than I ever have before."
He opened his mouth but she shushed him, "It's my turn to talk," she snapped.
"Do you know what would have happened if you didn't show up when you did? They would have RAPED me, well actually gang banged me or passing me around like some toy," she said enunciating each word. She saw him wince slightly and clench his fists.
"What? Don't like to hear it? Don't want to hear how I almost had my virginity ripped from me by some bored Jokerz who wanted a little fun? How I was powerless to stop it and was just there on the floor?"
She let out a shuddering breath and put and hand to her forehead before running it through her wet hair. She squeezed her eyes shut and she felt a tear or two slip out and down her cheeks.
"Sometimes, late at night I can still hear them laughing at me," she whispered, "feel his teeth on my skin." She quivered and clenched her fists tightly.
"Do you know how long and hard I scrubbed my stomach, trying to erase their touch from my memory?" she questioned looking him square in the eyes. He didn't show that he had even heard what she was saying. She bit her lip to keep it from trembling and stepped up right in his face.
"You will never know what it was like for me, so don't pretend that you understand, cause you wont." She let out a laugh but it was forced and biting, "You're safe, nobody would ever dare try to rape 'The Batman'."
Her eyes turned cold, "Or A Batman!" he winced slightly at the biting tone that she used but could see that her hands were shaking slightly as she held up her towel.
"I want you to leave," she said but he didn't move an inch.
"What about the fact that you live with Selina Kyle," he questioned gazing at her, doubt now entering his mind. If what she said was true, all of those things were coincidences then he made a big, big mistake.
But Wayne was never wrong…was he?
If his words startled her she didn't show it. Inside Serenity was reeling, not just from his guessing that she was Catwoman, but from having to relive the whole experience over again AND him knowing that Selina was the original Catwoman.
She ran a frustrated hand through her hair again swallowing down past the lump in her throat.
"No, I live with Selina Dent," she said with a frown rubbing her temple.
"Selina Kyle changed her name after getting released from prison, going under the name Selina Dent, sister of Harvey Dent," he told her his voice not expressing any emotion.
"Now you're going to say Uncle Harvey is criminal too huh?" she questioned sarcastically and he still didn't move.
"Harvey Dent, a.k.a Two Face," he finished and she threw her hands up and almost dropped her towel but caught it as the last second.
"That's ridiculous!" she exclaimed narrowing her eyes at him, "I'm going to pretend I never heard any of this, that you're not trying to destroy the only family I've even know just so you don't look stupid accusing me of being Catwoman."
"I don't think I'm wrong," he stated but he already felt himself questioning things.
"Selina Kyle WAS Catwoman, Harvey Dent IS Two Face." He restated and he saw her taking deep breaths.
"MY FAMILY'S NOT CRIMNALS!" she spat venomously her eyes a blazing blue color.
Batman watched her intently but didn't speak anymore.
"Get Out," she stated breathing heavily and gripping her towel so tight her knuckles were turning white. "I won't stand for you talking about my family like this. Selina and Uncle Harvey are good people and I love them more than I love myself, and if they were criminals, which they aren't, they would have told me," she told him.
Batman studied her. There was a look of rage on her face, a look he had never seen on her before, well there was that one time at the movies, but that wasn't directed at him. But underneath that look of rage there was something else…sadness? Vulnerability? He couldn't really tell.
But he realized that maybe it was time for him to take his leave. This hadn't gone as the way he thought it would have and now he had pissed her off. She spun away from him and bent her head. He watched silently as her shoulders moved with each ragged breath she took and as the trail of water made its way down her back.
"Would they?" he questioned before slipping out just as he slipped in.
She spun around to retort only to find she was alone once more.