4. A CHAPTER WITH BACKPACKING

The long version of the story about how Selina ended up with a beautiful and rare Thunderbird 88 started a few weeks after her 16th birthday when she got her license and after Jim and Babs said that her birthday present would be a car, to what Ivy exclaimed-

"Wait! Who's choosing the model?" which was a valuable point that interested the older teen profoundly, for Jim had a terrible thing for ugly 90s cars.

"Me." Selina said de pronto, so emphatically that both adults frowned.

"As long as it doesn't costs more than 5 grands, we're good." And that made for a good deal. If anything, Selina had managed to save 3 grands during the months she had been working for Babs with the exact goal of buying a car.

It was a nice morning of March when the snow still hadn't melt, and she had spent the previous night at the Manor, where they managed to finish two seasons of The X Files as a late celebration of Bruce's 15th birthday (she was on the west coast with Babs at the time). She woke up early at the sound of cars' engineering and since she had to go anyway, Selina got out of bed without waking the boy, got dressed and gathered her things, for a change leaving though the front door.

That's where the story gets interesting, because as she stepped outside, she faced about twenty classic cars that she guessed were all those covered models from the insanely huge garage of the manor and they were so many and so beautiful that the girl had to remind herself to breathe again.

Another car came and parked right in front of her, a black BMW looking straight out of a 80s' movie, and Alfred came out from behind the wheel looking badass and eyeing her curiously.

"Miss Kyle?" he asked and finally she was able to close her mouth.

"What's going on?" Selina asked crossing the front yard towards the prettiest Thunderbird she had ever seen. For some reason, she knew the butler would follow her and so he did.

"Master B's grandfather was a car collector and Master Thomas kept this tradition, but Bruce has little to none liking for old cars." At this point of his explanation, Selina turned to him with mouth agape just to find a look in Alfred's eyes pretty similar to apology. "And since he wants to buy some new ones, he had the idea of auctioning these beauties and use the money for charity."

Selina nodded and shrugged.

"Sounds like a good idea." She said, touching the hood of the T-Bird. The metal was slowly heating under the lazy winter sun and the color was just so pretty. Alfred continued.

"He's going to keep two or… five for him and the other will go."

"Is this one going?" she asked looking through the glass to see the panel in black, white and red leather.

"It is, in fact." The butler responded and Selina's heart broke a little/

"Do you think Bruce would sell it to me?" she wondered, her fingers sliding on the recently polished metal of the door, and then she tested the lock. The door was open and from inside came the smell of leather and classic that made her want to listen to some Joan Jett. Everything was new and original, she could bet that the car hadn't even been used.

She didn't have money for a car like that, she knew that. But one can dream.

"I don't think he'd mind." Alfred said, surprising her and he continued. "Go on," he said and didn't even have to say it twice. She quickly hopped onto the driver's seat with eyes and hands amazed by the beauty of the car.

Without even noticing, she sighed. That was it, she had fall madly in love with that car already and she didn't even know if she could have it. Looking up at the butler, Selina could see that Alfred was hiding a smile, in her mind, she made some math, trying to calculate how much that car would cost and how far she was from having the money.

"I don't have much." The teen admitted, but he shrugged – an act so not-Alfred-like that it was almost confusing.

"I doubt that would be a problem."

"I mean, I hardly have enough for this beauty. Does it have a name?"

Selina had gone with Ivy to countless second-hand sales looking for a car that was cute and affordable and all the T-Birds that she had found were not so pretty, with weird colors and half-life engineering, the cheapest costing four grands. That Wayne T-Bird? It was something out of a museum, it was unique and it had a posture that matched hers, like it had been made for her, but she couldn't afford it.

Paying better attention to the steering wheel, she noticed that instead of Ford's logo, it had a styled W, and it occurred to her that perhaps that model really was unique, perhaps Bruce grandfather had had Ford doing his own, personal red T-Bird from the last generation.

Well, not perhaps. More like probably.

Seeing that she noticed the details, Alfred really smiled and she caught him, noticing for the first time that he was an automobile lover just like her.

(she didn't know exactly how or why her love for car existed, she only knew it was there, inside her, and it was totally fine)

"I'm afraid not," he answered. "You'll have to do the honors. How much do you have?"

"Eight grands top." She assumed, looking guilty and pouting. She already could feel the leather slipping from her hands even though she was holding to it with love and care. She was so sure that he wouldn't agree, it was a Wayne car (!), but-

"It's yours." Alfred cut her line of thought and Selina looked at him shocked.

"Come again?"

"You can have it." He replied, guessing that maybe using other words she'd get it.

"But… it's not even close to what you guys can do at the auction."

Alfred straight up scoffed. It wasn't even nine in the morning and that day already was about twenty shades of crazy.

"And then some other billionaire would never do as much as display it for guests that should be impressed? That's the opposite reason why Master B decided to be rid of them."

"I thought it was for charity."

"The money is. But he also wanted them to be seen and used. We won't use them. His grandfather never did. And many people will purchase them and do exactly the same – stuck these cars in garages, just to say that they have them." He reasoned. "No. If you have it, then we know someone is doing good use of it."

Selina had never seen someone so eager to sell something for such a low price outside of Chinatown. And if Alfred thought that she should keep that beautiful, shiny, lovely car, then she wouldn't argue anymore.

"I don't have the money with me, though, so I'll have to talk to Babs and Jim and I'll come back tomorrow." She said, already stepping out of the car when she saw Alfred shaking his head.

"You leave in your new car, Miss Kyle."

"But it's not officially mine yet, the money-"

"It's fine." He cut her, turning the day completely crazy with his following words. "I trust you."

Now, if you didn't have the time to listen to all of that, or if Selina couldn't afford to waste saliva, she'd just say that she had her contacts.

You see, the thing about what Selina and Alfred became wasn't much like friendship. Friendship was too much of a strong word, if you asked them. It wasn't out of friendship that the butler let her go home with a Wayne car to call hers (in fact, she named the car Dan Nicky, a tribute to one of the bests Instagram posts of all time), nor it was why she sank in his analysis about the owl card she send to him, much less why she called that morning asking him if she could come over to the manor. Friendship couldn't begin to describe it. She was friends with Bruce, and Ivy, and Macky. Even with Babs, although their relationship had changed a lot the past years. The thing about Selina and Alfred was that they relied on each other, even though they didn't always trusted in one another.

There was a time when she'd never think that Alfred would say that about her. She herself wouldn't see where she'd stand in a couple of years after first entering the Wayne Manor going there to just talk to the butler, yet that was exactly what was happening.

When she arrived, he already was waiting in the front yard, looking all put together, like he always did.

"Miss Kyle?" he greeted as a question ever so alike he did when the lawn was filled with cars.

"Hi!" she greeted, getting out of the car and more excited than one would expect for someone who had spent the first hours of the day puking her guts out, whose sister was kidnapped and whose boyfriend had left to God knows where and never made direct contact.

"Is everything alright?" he asked and she could swear that he was worried. Maybe she really wasn't reacting to how the day dictated her to react, but the sun was bright and there was this salty breeze from the ocean and even though, okay, the morning sickness was a pain in the ass, things were looking good that week.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The girl answered, slowing down her energy and they fell silent, the butler waiting for her to say why she was there, and then "You know why I called?"

"No." Alfred answered, although it was rhetorical.

"I was wondering," she circled the car and stopped in front of him, leaning against the car. "Do you still have that contact that buys jewelry with a fair price?"

Alfred's eyebrows went up. That probably was among the last things he expected her to ask. Probably he didn't even think that she remembered that he had those contacts, but he should know better – she was Selina Kyle after all, and if there was something she was good at, it was to know the right people for different jobs.

"You're in the jewelry business, now, Miss Kyle?" he asked and Selina hummed.

"Do you want the detailed answer or just-"

The best thing about Alfred was that he knew things, people and subtleness. He had loved a lot and so did Selina, even though she was much younger. That's why he was quick to cut her.

"Just-" he started and she got it. That was how well they had come to know each other.

"No. The answer is no." Selina said and waited – Alfred went quiet and she waited. And then "What are you gonna say?"

"Oh, I can say a lot of things," he replied. "But what I'm going to say is, is it urgent?"

"Yes." She answered, feeling the energy go up again. He was going to help, she knew it.

Alfred sighed.

"I'll make some calls. Come on in."

She followed him inside and waited in the study room. It was almost surprising to see that the Manor still was the same without its master and to think about Bruce made her stomach drop. She missed him. She missed all the things that made her stable and normal and herself – her family, all patched up but whole, her cats, her Bruce -, but then again, one could never expect normal in Gotham.

It took Alfred just ten minutes to get through his contacts list and strike a meeting for Selina on that same week, two days from there, and hand her a paper with the address that was just outside of town where she'd make her barter. If he asked why she needed the money, it would be one of the rare occasions where she'd just tell him – that she was going on a trip to find Ivy and she didn't know when she'd be back – but he didn't ask. Instead, he said

"You look different."

She smiled, although she could guess that he was talking about her wardrobe choice of the day instead of 'something different inside her, in her posture or her eyes' the way people like to romanticize these moments that are ever so significant when you're about to step in the decisions you make.

"Different good?" he nodded. "Cool. I like different, even when it's the bad type. I like the rush of change it implies." She rambled, folding the paper and stuffing it into her jacket pocket.

"I heard you had a little bit of an adventure in the Hill last week." The butler mentioned, as if it was nothing and of course he knew, of course Jim wouldn't miss the chance to tell everyone he trusted about her detective skills, it seemed that Barbara had gotten on to him with that 'Selina could be a cop' talk.

"Yeah, I'd call it more like a misadventure, actually."

Alfred scoffed, as if dismissing it. She had no idea how much he knew, probably less than Jim knew, because she didn't give him many details.

"Does this business have something to do with Miss Pepper too, now?"

There it was, why he didn't ask. Because he guessed.

"It does." The girl answered and for the first time that morning she actually felt sad.

"There's no way we can convince you to stay, is there?" Alfred asked and Selina first looked up to him quite surprised by his reaction and then shook her head. He nodded, agreeing. "You kids, you are the same."

He was talking about her and Bruce, she knew. He had said that so many times, but she never gave it too much thought. It turned out, she felt, that Alfred knew Bruce pretty well and by knowing him he got to know her. The idea of her and Bruce being the same was so absurd for Selina in many levels, but the butler said that with such conviction that each time she believed him a little more.

"You had news from him?" she asked, at the same time keeping and changing the subject and not letting them fall into awkward silence. The butler nodded.

"I did indeed. He asked me about you."

"Well, he could've called me." She pondered, because that was what Bruce said he would do: call her. Except that he didn't. Alfred shook his head.

"Master B said that it'd be, in his words, tempting. But he also said he had something for you."

"Really?!" the girl exclaimed, flattered by the idea that she was so important to Bruce that she could be a distraction for him too, but then she remembered why it was so good that he wasn't around and she focused on what needed her focus.

"He told me to tell you to go to the El Gaucho and they will give you something, said that they will know what to do when they see you." He continued, not even once pretending that the message didn't confuse him. Selina nodded. "Does that make any sense?"

"It does." She answered with a small smile. "Thank you, Alfred."

"Selina?" Alfred called one more time when she mentioned to leave. It was always very rare for him to call her by her name only and the teen could never shake the tiny leap of joy it brought, because she was winning him. "Will I see you again before you leave on your trip?"

That wasn't a question Selina was expecting from him and she had to think for a couple of seconds to mentally check her schedule.

"I don't think so, no." She admitted.

"Well then, Miss Kyle, I guess this is farewell."

He said that with a certain finality that sounded weird in her ears. Everyone Selina told about the trip she was going to do reacted very differently, their tones always with a taste of 'she'll come back within the month', but Alfred said it differently. He said it with the tone of someone that had said many goodbyes that could turn one way or the other. It was both scary and beautiful.

"I guess so."

And wasn't it kind of sad? To complete the craziness of that morning, after that, Alfred did something that was bigger than when he let her stay in the Manor with the hopes that her lie would be a truth, or when he let her have her T-Bird, or when he'd set an extra plate for her in the morning when they could swear he didn't know she had spent the night: he saluted her.

It was so amazing that all she could do was salute him too.

[...]

Selina gained a pound. A whole pound that forced her to put aside half of her skinny jeans and that was a day for skinny jeans, so there was her outfit choice: one of Ivy's ripped jeans, low boots, a black tank top and her hair on a ponytail. And since she already screwed her work day at the gallery by going to the Manor, she just headed straight to El Gaucho to see what was it that Bruce had for her.

She also had used that morning to clean her safe at the gallery and planned to head to Penguin's to clear her account there too, sell all she could sell to Alfred's contact and stash all the money in secret compartments she had set up with Ivy when she first bought the T-Bird before leaving the town.

Everything was getting so real now that she was actually going – to find Ivy and to find Fish (although she didn't tell her family about that last part) – and the expectation was both exciting and nerve wrecking. She reviewed every single step to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything, multi-checked the program Lucius installed in her computer and phone, ran tests, revised all the information she had gotten and felt prepared, yet anxious. For one side, she was so ready to go already, but on the other hand, the possibilities of something going wrong were absurdly high.

When she arrived at the El Gaucho, she was greeted with warm smiles and called by her name, even though she looked very different from the little Kardashian that went there with Bruce. Since the restaurant was new, they wanted all the recognition they could have, so one of the things they did was take photos of the famous/influent people that frequented it.

Now, Selina wasn't famous, although she did appear on a teen magazine or two (against her will), but she went there with The Bruce Wayne and they spent two or three hours there eating, chatting, dancing to some tango and taking multiple photos with the staff.

It wasn't hard to find on the walls the photo of her and Bruce, a pretty one of the two of them watching the churrasco process used to prepare the meat. She didn't even know that they were taking photos of that moment, but it was alright, she didn't mind.

"Bruce told me you guys had something for me?" she asked at the reception and one of the girls nodded.

The hostess led her to an office then, where there was a tall woman waiting behind a desk looking important and busy, but who smiled once the girl sat in front of her.

"Miss Kyle, I was wondering when you'd come." The woman said with an interesting accent.

"I just got the message. What is it about?" no small talk when curious, that was her motto. The lady seemed okay with it.

"When you and Mr. Wayne came here, we had a lot of material, because he asked us to keep on photographing you, did you know that?" Selina, with risen eyebrows, shook her head no. The lady then opened a drawer and put on the table a thick envelope right in front of the girl. "He came here the following day and talked to me, left this. Well, not exactly this, but the note inside it. He asked us to print the photos and give it to you with the note."

Photos. She took the envelope and opened it, immediately going through the pics. There were funny ones and serious pictures and even some that could be considered romantic. It was a romantic act, really, to set that up for her even being far away. Quite cute.

"Thank you." The girl said, looking up at the lady. "He didn't need to do that."

"He didn't, that's true." She said, resting her chin in her hand. "But young love is such a beautiful thing to watch, we couldn't say no. It's the least we could do, after all he's done for us."

Selina tried not to cringe at how the lady said 'young love' and focus on the other things she said.

"What do you mean?"

The woman sat a bit straighter and Selina could see now, in her uniform, that her name was Ariana.

"Well, he gave a tip large enough to pay the college debt of the three college students that work for us and the hospital bill of one of the hostess, so…"

At that, Selina smiled, her heart warmer after that piece of news. She wondered why Bruce didn't tell her about it, but it was so typical of him to surprise people with small acts of kindness. Not that student loans and hospital bills were small for those people, but it was for him. Effortless, even.

"It was nothing," Selina said and then- "but he's pretty something, isn't he?"

Ariana smiled.

"He's a good kid. Not many people want to see that in him."

Selina shrugged, knowing it was true and also knowing that it was all part of the plan. She went back to envelop and also found a memory card, that Ariana told her contained the digital version of the photos, and a note that she waited to be alone in her car to read it.

[...]

We are good, don't forget that. I won't. See you soon, Bruce.

[...]

Regret. That was the theme word of the trip from Gotham to Smallville every time Selina had to stop the car to puke or just stretch her legs. The fourteen hour drive turned into nineteen and by the time she finally arrived in the city, it was too late to want to do any search.

It was also the theme word on the second day, when she woke up sick and sore in her cheap motel room and all she could do the whole day was to sit by the toilet bowl and wait for the nausea to wear out. Only on the third day – a Sunday – Selina felt well enough to explore the city.

Superman's childhood city, as its name suggested, was small and boring. She had breakfast, lunch and dinner in the same diner that was also a souvenirs store and bore on its walls photos of all kinds of known and unknown faces, including the millionaire Lex Luthor in his youth years (not that he was old now, Lex was in his early 30s) with the same group of friends in all the photos she found of him. He caught her attention especially because LexCorp was the group that took in Dorrance when he was first rescued.

Selina didn't have a photo of Fish to show around, but she had plenty of Ivy, so she started to ask people on that same Sunday already, as she looked for the exact site where Dorrance was found. It was a lonely piece of land with nothing special to it. Clearly, Selina didn't know what to expect, but she sure expected something. Instead, the girl only found herself wandering and making random questions to small town people who liked to engage in long conversations.

It was, to say the least, disappointing.

She kept thinking about the long drive and the sickness and Ivy and wondering how the hell she would pull that off. Her start point sucked and with nowhere to go, what should she do?

On the fifth morning – a Tuesday – of being around, she called home via Skype. At that point, Selina had made the diner her second home, a place where she'd sit and go through the program and her evidences to try and be proactive. She put together a blog with basic info about V and her disappearance, made posters in the best Harleen style with the link of the blog and her phone number, hung it everywhere and waited. She had decided to wait until the week was over and then move on to the next place, even if it was just a place her guts tell her to go to.

"How are you feeling, baby?" Barbara asked on the video. She was feeding some mashed thing to Barbie, who looked bigger and smarter every time Selina called.

"I'm feeling better." Selina replied with a small smile.

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm really better, it's not a lie!" she protested, but she was smiling. Little Barbie was making a mess.

"I told you to wait to make this trip, your immune system is crashed."

"Mom, seriously," The girl cut her. "Don't worry about me, I'm so much better now, you've no idea. There's this square here that is basic, but put together where I can run every morning and… the motel is not bad, even though their wi-fi is. Apparently, Smallville has the great amount of three night clubs, look at that! They have more night clubs than restaurants."

"It's a dormitory city, Selly," she heard Jim's voice first, and then he showed up behind Babs. "There's got to be some fun for the students."

"Oh, did you find some cute college guy already?" Barbara asked, suddenly excited. "Did you see Sam?"

Selina sighed, rolling her eyes and Jim frowned.

"Why are you trying to set her up with random men, she's got a boyfriend!" he interrupted.

"Sam studies in another campus, Babs- wait!" she cut, looking straight at Jim. "Are you okay with Bruce now? Now that he's across the globe?"

"You put it very nicely, yes." The tenant said, sitting beside Babs, his posture straight.

"You two are the worst," she mumbled.

"Say whatever you want," he continued. "But you can't make babies when your boyfriend is cruising around."

For a second or two, Selina lost focus, her hand automatically going to her belly where the bump was supposed to start to grow any moment. She had lost three pounds the past week, but her hips still were larger, the B-cup starting to hint that it could become a C. How come her body had changed so much in less than four months already?

She half heard Barbara joke about how square Jim was, but they stopped bickering when they saw her frown, completely misunderstanding it.

"I'm sorry, baby," Babs said, her tone nice and sweet. "We know it must be frustrating to not get any news."

"You were so confident when you left, Selina," Jim said. "And you're good at this, at figuring things out, I'm sure you'll find just what you need."

The teen shrugged.

"Would I be asking for too much if what I need to find is Ivy and I want to find her now?"

The couple smiled that smile that meant 'yes' and she sighed again. It was almost noon and she was getting hungry.

"Where are you? This place is noisy." Barbara asked.

"The diner." Selina answered. "One out of the two restaurants of the city. The other is too fancy, I need to save money. Anyway, this one seems to be the favorite of everyone anyway, so it's easier to ask people if they saw anything weird."

"They've seen a lot of weird." Barbara said and Selina adjusted the screen, because the light was coming in a bad angle now. "It's Superman's hometown."

"You know, everyone says that, but is it right? Ain't his hometown the whatever town he came from before being shipped to Earth?" Selina wondered gesturing, but she was cut by Jim before she could go too far.

"Hey, who's that in that photo?" he asked, pointing somewhere above Selina's head.

"Dude, there are a lot of photos," she replied and he pointed again.

"That one, three frames up right above you. The one with the red and blue frame."

She looked back and up briefly. This time she wasn't in one of the tables by the wall and she didn't usually sit on that side of the diner (too bright), but she knew which frame Jim was talking about. Although she didn't pay much attention to it, the familiar bald head was there and she quickly dismissed it. He was in quite a lot of photos around there, most of them with the same group of people from the first photo she had seen of him: Chloe, Clark, Lana.

"It's Lex Luthor. They like him a lot in here."

"No, the woman with him." He specified and Selina looked again. "She looks… but it can't be. I must have mistaken for someone else."

The teen looked up.

"That's quite high."

"Yeah."

"Good eyes. How could you make out the people?" she asked and Jim Gordon shrugged.

"I don't know, must've been the light."

"I'll look closer," she mentioned to stand on the chair, but he dismissed it.

"No, baby, don't bother. It must be the cold case I was looking at that made me see things."

He didn't tell which case it was and they said nothing more about the photo, but when the waitress brought Selina's lunch, the teen asked if she knew who was in the photo and the answer made her immediately stand up, drag a chair to the wall and climb up anyway, just to look closer.

"They come once a year for the past three years to celebrate something. I don't know what, but they always come and the party is always big," the waitress told her.

Selina could have a stroke, so fast her heart was beating. She had no idea how it happened, not the slightest clue of how they got there, but that wasn't the point. The point was that she had found one of the answers she had been looking for for so long.

There, smiling with Lex Luthor, by his right side, was none less than Maria Mercedes Fish Mooney.

[...]

Now that Selina realized that Fish had been there, in Smallville, more than once, that she was alive and influent yet anonymous, it was as if a curtain had been removed and she finally could see that the city was watching her. The feeling wasn't strange, for Gotham had the same eerie characteristic and she knew how to handle it, but it was always kind of funny – and not in a good way, like something Jerome would find funny. She was more aware of people observing her as she put up posters in stores and poles, that strange girl from Gotham City making questions they didn't know how to answer (or, now that she thought about it, didn't want to).

On the following Thursday morning, she was at the diner again and went to the toilet, leaving her things on the table, her journal open and filled with notes about the three clubs the city had, because if there was something she knew about Fish Mooney was that the woman knew how to run a club and perhaps she had started to rebuild her empire through her strongest point.

When she came back from the toilet, her things were in the exact same place and same way she left, but there was a word highlighted in blue that wasn't highlighted before. Damn, she didn't even have a blue highlighter to begin with! Slowly, she picked up the journal and sat down.

The word highlighted was Tarshish, the name of one of the night clubs of Smallville, and although no one in the diner gave sign of being the person that looked through her things, Selina knew better. She had been one of Fish's little birds once, after all, and the first thing you got to know is to blend in. Someone there worked for the Pond.

Just because every single detail was important, she threw "Tarshish" on Lucius super search browser and she did find Tarshish the night club, but she also found a bible passage from Jonah that she started to read out of curiosity, because she always found it interesting when mundane things were biblical references, and no doubt it was interesting.

Tarshish was the city to where Jonah went to instead of following command to go to Nineveh; he was sailing there when there was a huge storm and the only way of making the storm end was to throw Jonah in the sea. It was on the sea to Tarshish that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish.

The Tarshish club had its opening the previous year under the administration of a woman not very older than Selina herself whose last name was Kelly. Now, that could be another coincidence, but how many coincidences were needed for one to star to suspect of something? At least she had a club to start now.

The cycle of universities parties started on Thursday, like in Gotham, and even though the regular classes wouldn't start in another month and a half, the summer program was running strong, so Selina picked her best outfits from her suitcase already willing to extend her stay if needed, and got ready for the college night of Ohio.

So off she went on a Thursday night in crop top and high waisted jeans, her hair falling in curls on her shoulders, ready to mix with a bunch of college students looking for another coincidence to put her in the right direction.

"I.D." the security at the door demanded, stopping her short and she looked up confused. Even in her stilettos Selina still was shorter than many people.

"Really?" the girl asked, genuinely surprised. She had never, ever had problems to get into Gotham U's parties (maybe because usually Macky was the head of security, but still) and to be stopped was new. The security didn't even flinch.

"Really."

Her mind worked a mile per hour in a second to come up with something, but she was saved by the last person she'd expected.

"Selina?" a familiar male voice said from inside the club and the girl turned to him surprised.

"Sam!"

In his defense, it took him only a couple of seconds to understand that she needed a little help and to jump to rescue her. Good thing he was a good actor.

"You've made it!" he said, coming to hug her. He dismissed the guard with a couple of words and a friendly tap on the shoulder and had her inside in less than a minute. "How come-" he started, then changed his line of thought, stopping before they hit the loudest part of the dance floor, his drink unstable in his hand. "I never thought, how are you? Jesus, you look great. Holy shit, it's been a while."

Selina laughed, really amused. It really had been a while – a little over a year – since she last saw Sam Bradley. He was deep in the summer school program.

"I'm alright. I thought you were in Metropolis." She said and he shrugged.

"Not during the summer program."

She nodded understanding. Ivy had told her about all the types of college means to her in the hopes that maybe Selina would find interest in going back to class (no need to say that it didn't work very well, but at least now Selina knew what happened in the university life).

"That explains. Are you working here?" she asked meaning the club.

"No, it's just for the night. My academic center pulled this party off to kick off the new season. How did you end up here?"

There was no short answer for that question.

"It's a long story," she diverted as they headed to the bar. "But to sum it up, I left Gotham and ended up in this shithole."

Sam laughed, even though it wasn't very funny, just true. Maybe he already was a little tipsy, that blue drink he was holding looked intense.

"Why would you leave Gotham? Aren't you intrinsically connected to it, or something?"

Selina smiled, turning to the bartender flashing her best smile in the hopes of getting his attention and a drink. It was cute that Sam'd remember things she said long ago and that he wasn't supposed to remember.

"Maybe. But the quality of the air was fucking with my lungs," she said, side-eyeing him to see if he'd believe her. He clearly didn't, but also said nothing about it.

"The air really is better in the countryside."

"Yeah, but the people suck. This place is boring."

He got closer, daring to touch his arm in hers. He was one of the few people that could do that.

"You're such a big city girl, don't be so hard on Smallville, it's charming here. Why so mean?"

She didn't answer him right away, for the bartender put the drink in front of her – a red liquid with a cherry and all rested upon a coaster of the same color. The first thing she noticed was that no one else's coaster was red, even when the person had a red drink like hers. All of the coasters were blue. She popped the cherry in her mouth to taste the drink that was strong and sweet, rolling nice on the tongue, and she took a sip, the constant change of the lights made her notice something on the coaster.

Usually, those things were propaganda of booze companies or the club itself, but that one was personalized, Selina realized, by the outline of a fish as if in neon lights while the blue coasters had the outline of a wave also in neon lights, but that wasn't all.

Selina took the coaster and lifted it, waiting for the light that caught her attention in the first place and there it was, another symbol that she couldn't quite place where she knew from, an upper case P with an ellipse that, she guessed, was supposed to resemble an atom. Sam got a new drink and just to make sure she checked if his coaster had the same symbol. It didn't.

With a small smile, Selina held on to that coaster, keeping it to herself.

"Because I'm a frustrated motherfucker, that's why," she finally answered, still looking at her secret symbol and Sam chuckled.

"I've missed you, Sel."

[...]

Sam Bradley went to the motel with her that night. They relived their best moments and made a couple more to keep in the memory. In her best I'm-just-being-a-good-sis days, Ivy would question Selina what the fuck she was waiting for to dump Bruce and be with Sam forever. In her best Fuck-the-men days, Ivy'd just let Selina fuck whoever she wanted and nod in approval.

Later, she took the coaster from her purse along with her UV flashlight to take a closer look at the symbol again.

"I've never noticed this," Sam commented, probably seeing the symbol for the first time. He was lying by her side on the bed watching her analyze the circle. "How come you have that flashlight?"

"My dad is a cop," she answered and he scoffed.

"So is mine," he said and she looked at him.

"I'm adopted."

He nodded, as if it answered everything.

"Comes with advantages," they said at the same time and laughed.

She flashed the light on the coaster again, making the symbol appear over the shiny fish.

"Do you know what this is?" the girl asked frowning. It still was really hard to put that piece together, as if she had only ever seen that briefly once in her life.

"Hell yeah, Tommy has been trying to get an internship there for most of the year."

"Tommy? Tommy Elliott?" she questioned, confused. "Internship? Isn't he like, thirteen? Or is this some kind of contest because Bruce graduated early?" there were a million questions she could make, but before she went too far, she moved to what really mattered. "Internship where?"

"Palmer Technologies. It's a huge technology company and the base is in Star City, it's pretty awesome."

"Starling?" Selina asked and Sam nodded. Two years already and it still was a struggle to remember that the city's name had changed. "Have you been there?"

"I have," he told her and she decided to hang on to every word he had to say about the place. "It's got everything the company of a billionaire has to have, a little like Wayne Enterprises."

"Lemme guess-" she joked. "lots of glass."

He laughed.

"You guess right, Sel. You guess just right. That and the best professionals of the market. They have one of the most sophisticated security system of the planet."

Okay, that was interesting. But breaking security was one of Selina's favorite hobbies, so all she needed to know was where to break and why. But the way she could figure out things was so common that it wasn't even impressive.

When Sam fell asleep, Selina searched on her phone everything about Palmer Technologies, stumbling over a few known names that made her raise an eyebrow or two, her mind already forming a plan. She gathered enough information to have where to start and then gathered her things. It was good that she kept most of her stuff in her car, carrying around only the essential and in forty minutes she had showered, packed and closed the bill.

When Samuel Bradley woke up in the middle of the morning, all he found was a note, a smile and a few new memories to hold on to until next time.


A/N: Would you leave me a review, maybe? Thanks for reading! x