Author's note: Merry Christmas, you guises! Here's my gift: over a 10k words! hehe
I'm sorry for taking so long and I wish you all happy holidays.
And, you know, if you feel like giving me~ a gift, a review will work just fine!
6 – A REWINDED CHAPTER
"What about your lead?" Jim asked.
The good thing about SC Jitters was that it was always packed, noisy and had free wifi, so even on Selina's off days, she'd show up there with her laptop to do some digging or skype call her family, like she was doing then.
"Palmer Technologies," the girl sighed looking out of the window. The glassed building stood tall over the street with no discretion. "Looks like another dead end. I don't know, the trail is good, but not very helpful. I went there a few times, just to visit, checked the blueprints, but nothing seems to ring any bells. No secret compartments or rooms… no weird safes… I even hacked their books and they look clean."
"You hacked their books?"
Selina hummed for a few seconds avoiding eye contact.
"It might've been someone else doing that job for me."
"Selina!"
"It's not illegal," she argued and Jim gave her that look he liked to give whenever her bullshiting was failing. "…much."
"Goddammit, Selina," said Jim.
"Don't worry about it, okay? Everything is under control. Besides, Palmer Tech seems to be the most reliable company ever in the history of companies."
"Reliable?" Jim echoed frowning.
"Completely."
"A corporation completely reliable?"
"Crazy, right?" the girl wondered and the cop nodded.
"Weird."
"I know."
"That can't be right."
"I thought so too, but I made my digging and nothing showed up. They are clean."
Jim sat back, crossed his arms. He was at the police department, but his table was far enough now for there not to be many noise.
"Do you really think that?"
"Not really, no," she pondered. "I think that the lead is about something I can't see, something I can't figure out yet. But I also know that there are other people I can go after, so I'm just gonna finish August here and head out."
"Out to where?"
"Central City, if nothing else comes up."
"What's making you stay, though, baby?"
Selina shrugged. It probably looked like she was killing time and maybe she really was, but she also wanted to know for sure if it was the moment to leave.
"The loft contract, really. How's Babs hanging on?"
"She's doing alright. Did she tell you that she's back in the gallery?" Selina nodded smiling. "She's been taking Barbie, said it's been a lot of fun."
"Well, Barbie is adorable, I'm not surprised. How is she?"
"Getting bigger and smarter. Call home at night to talk to them."
"Will do."
"Her hair is getting darker, a red shade very similar to Ivy's, you know?"
"This city is full of redheads," Selina joked and Jim laughed. It was true.
"Who's that?" someone else asked on Jim's side and a second later Harvey Bullock appeared on the screen. "Oh, look! It's the older daughter. How you doing, kiddo? Getting in trouble?"
"When do I ever get in trouble, Bullock?" she retorted.
"You want me to make a list?"
She rolled her eyes.
"How are your redheads?"
"They are great! Clara is talking now, she is really adorable."
"Tell Scotty I said hi, will you?"
"Sure thing. Are people still giving you shit about that video?"
"Uh…" Selina shrugged and then shook her head.
"I know you can handle yourself, you made it clear, but that's what got that video out in the first place," Bullock said eagerly, pointing his Fedora at the camera. "So if anyone bothers you, kiddo, you can call uncle Harvey here and I'll come on running to kick some ass, alright?"
Selina laughed.
"Alright," she agreed.
"What do you mean, she should be getting shit, she was reckless and stupid!" Jim protested.
"Jimbo!" Harvey cut at the same time Selina exclaimed "No, I wasn't!"
"That's not what I trained you for!" he said for the millionth time and the girl lowered her head, her forehead on the table.
"Not that bullshit again!"
"Yeah, buddy. You did train your girls," Harvey observed, as if it explained everything.
"To defend themselves!"
"That's what I did," Selina argued, looking up again.
"No, it wasn't. You were making sure you'd get paid," Jim pointed out and Selina blushed. "Busted."
"Dad, you're such a killjoy."
Bullock laughed.
"It's so funny when they call you 'dad'," he joked, leaving the station. "Who'd tell you'd have a seventeen years old daughter!"
They still could hear his laugh as Jim shook his head.
"Central City, huh?" he asked and she nodded. "Why?"
"I'll send you the link."
"Will I understand it?"
Selina smiled.
"You know, if you don't feel like calling Lee, you can always ask Ed."
Jim forced a smile that looked so fake it was hilarious. It was a good day. She didn't have to work, four out of five people of her family were fine, her baby had stopped making her faint and get sick, and Caitlin Snow-Raynolds had released another article about the substance found in Dorrance's system, she said some things that caught her attention and sounded familiar.
They said that the Flash's city, despite its meta-humans, was a nice place to live. Well, she would see.
[...]
A couple of days before, during her lunch break, Selina conclude that the weird encounters wouldn't ever end and she was doomed to odd conversations. She had gone to the toilet, because her baby decided to rest against her bladder, and when she was washing her hands, a woman with a baby girl was getting in.
"Hi," the woman greeted. She had dark eyes, black straight hair and her baby looked just like her. Selina gave a smile for answer. "Could you hold her for me for a minute, please?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," the teen agreed caught off guard, and the baby was put in her arms with urgency.
"You've no idea how long I've been needing to pee," the mother admitted, getting in one of the booths. "Do you know what it is already?"
"Excuse me?" Selina asked. She was a bit distracted with how attentive that little girl's eyes were.
"Your baby," the woman said. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
Oh yeah, her baby. It seemed that it was taking so long for it to start to grow, but now the bump had been evident for the past three weeks, discreet at first, but now she was looking obviously pregnant. Selina was just beginning to get used to it, all her clothes were starting to get tight around her waist already. If she didn't have plans to leave the city within the next ten days, she'd have to ask for a new uniform at work.
"No, I don't yet," Selina told her. To be honest, she didn't even go to the doctor, although she probably should. The problem was that there was only one doctor she trusted and that doctor was a close friend of Alfred Pennyworth, which meant that she was only two degrees away from Bruce Wayne and that was too close a call.
"Looks like a boy. You carry a boy differently than a girl, you know?"
The girl nodded.
"That's what Kim Kardashian said," she observed and the woman got out of the booth frowning. "Come on, we all have guilty pleasures. At home, there were three women – me, my mom and my sister Ivy – and my dad. We are all different, but if there was one thing that unified us, it was Keeping Up With the Kardashians. V is obsessed with celebrities, mom grew up a fop, I really like their fashion. Even my dad would watch it if he was home, and at first it was because we wouldn't let him change the channel, but then he warmed up to it and now he even checks Cait Jenner's blog and stuff," she shook her head. Why did that city made her so chatty? "Sorry, I'm blabbing. I'm a Kardashian Stan, like my sister Ivy, who was kidnapped. Have you-"
"I saw the video," the woman cut her gently, raising a hand and Selina breathed.
"At least that damn thing worked for something," the girl moaned, handing the baby back to her mother.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad! You were great. It's what you left Gotham for, wasn't it?" she pondered, meaning the fight and the attention.
The teen smiled.
"I actually left to seek peace of mind and restore my faith in humanity."
"Is it working?" the woman asked and Selina burst out laughing, making her laugh too. What a question.
"No!"
"At least the only thing you need to be in peace with is your baby. Have you thought of names?"
"Well, that I did," Cat replied, breathing after all the laugh and resting a hand on her baby bump. "Connor if it's a boy, Sarah for a girl. I think its father will agree."
"Those are good names," the woman commented, but they were interrupted by Selina's phone ringing. She checked it, saw that it was Harleen and sighed.
"That bitch," Selina cussed bitterly and looked at the lady apologetically. "Sorry, I have to take this. Nice to meet you!" and when she took the call- "I hope you have some fucking sense back into your dumb brain or you better hang up right now."
[...]
Some people do things that make others angry. Some people are normally okay, but manage to burn some sensitive spots every now and then. Some people, on the other hand, piss everyone off just by existing. Selina got a taste of each of these types the week before her weird toilet encounter.
"You okay?" one of the girls, Ruby, asked for about the tenth time and it still was short past 10 a.m. "If you need to take a break or anything…"
"Ruby," the teen cut her from her spot filling mayo portions at the counter. "I'm just pregnant, not sick. Stop treating me like I'm gonna crumble. If I need a break, I'll make a break. Could you just stop worrying?" and before the other girl could say anything else, she was quick to add- "It doesn't matter that I fainted, I'm past those months already."
Any other protest by Ruby was muffled by the excited voices of two guys that entered and Selina turned to look.
"Selina Kyle!" none less than Tommy Elliott exclaimed from the line to make his order and she smiled. He was with Jonny Crane, who looked a bit unsettled, but overall alright and both of them had identification cards on their shirts, the unmistakable P of Palmer Tech shining blue over a square that must be where their photos were. After they ordered, they sat in front of her. "You know, I saw that video, but I couldn't quite believe it was you."
"Yeah, everyone saw that damn video," she whined without stopping what she was doing.
"Don't worry about it, Cat," Jonny said, always the sweet one. "You look badass in every single version."
"Well, thanks Jonathan. Some people know how to greet!"
"Come on, will you ever forget that?" Tommy asked, making a bit of a pout that, well, made her laugh a bit and she shook her head.
"Damn right I won't, Thomas," because she wouldn't, but the thing about those couple of years after she first met Tommy Elliott was that they got to know each other a bit better and when he wasn't talking about Bruce, or near his other white friends, he was an okay guy. He even got a little cute.
A big part of the change, Selina guessed, could be because of that other guy: Jonathan. Don't ask Selina how, but ever since they became friends, Tommy became a much better person.
"That video came out two weeks ago, though," she continued. "What took you so long to pay a visit?"
"I wasn't in town," Jonathan answered.
"And I didn't have the balls to come alone," said the other boy and Ruby sat his plate of blueberry pie before shooting a glance to Selina as if asking if she needed saving. The teen just shook her head. "You're just so intimidating, Selly."
"That's because you know me," she said. Ruby put a glass of orange juice and a cheese bun to Jonny, and then went back to her spot shouting orders. "Most people just think I'm tiny."
"You're that too," he said, chewing his pie. Like Bruce, he had learned to be charming doing the most simple things. "But you're more intimidating than tiny."
"Wow. That's quite the compliment, what's got into you?" Selina asked genuinely surprised. Whatever it was that was making Tommy act like a decent person, please, never leave.
"It's just the truth," he shrugged and she looked at Jonny with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know either, don't ask me," the older boy was quick to say and then – "At the interview… you said something about looking for Pamela," Selina nodded. "I saw your blog. Did you have any news?"
"Nothing big, not really. Lately, I just been getting those 'good luck, you've got my support' bullshit, as if their 'positive vibes' will make V's kidnapper release her whole."
Selina scoffed and Jonathan moved uncomfortably in his chair. These past few days, talking about Ivy's case made her moody, passionate and emotional, so she decided to change the subject.
"What do you guys even do at Palmer Tech! I thought you two were in the medical area."
"I'm with the psychological support department," Jonny answered her de pronto and Tommy first took a sip of the tea Ruby had just handed to him. Tea! In mid-August!
"You do know that nanotechnology is something that already is used in medicine, right?"
"Oh!" she exclaimed mockingly. "Snob Tommy is back! I was wondering how long it'd take-"
"Selina, come on," he pleaded and she said nothing. "I found out that Palmer Tech is pioneer in medicinal nanotech, focused on post-surgery recovery, that's why I'm here."
"Thank you, now I understand," Selina replied and started to put the mayo portions in the mini fridge under the counter.
"It's kind of weird seeing you in uniform, though," he said, Jonathan one hundred percent focused on his cheese bun. "After years of fancy clothes and high heels in Gotham's noblest area…"
"A job is a job, Elliott. And you do what you gotta do."
Before Selina could go any more philosophic, Laurel stormed in so fiercely that it was impossible not to look at her. She came straight to the teen, who had just finished putting the mayo in the fridge.
"Sel, you've been served," the lawyer announced, putting a folded paper on the counter dramatically. She knew how to make an entrance. "Sorry, I tried to make him drop the charges, but nothing could stop him."
Selina looked at the papers with little interest, her eyes going fast through what I said.
"That's what douches are good at," she ironized.
"You'll have to testify. Can't leave town. And we'll need to call your parents."
At that, the girl took a deep breath and pouted, letting it hang for a while.
"You see, that's not possible. I've no parents."
"But you're adopted."
Selina hummed.
"Except that I ain't. We just… sort of have a deal and they let me stay… it's family, but not legally. So yeah, no calling my dad. Don't worry, I got it covered."
For a moment, Laurel was just silently watching Selina, wondering who was that girl, but then she just shrugged it off. She'd never understand.
"Will you need a lawyer?"
Selina folded the papers again and put them in her front pocket.
"Don't worry. There's this dude that owes me a favor, I can call if I need it. But I won't need it."
"Who?" Tommy interfered. "You can't possibly mean Dent."
"You bet," she replied with a smile.
"I really tried to have him dropping the charges, but he wouldn't let it go." Laurel told her again.
The teen shook her head.
"No problem, really. I've got this. You came for lunch too?"
"Well, of course!"
They both smiled.
"I'll have Zane make the special for you."
"You always know," she replied, already looking for a place to sit and Selina nodded at Ruby before she looked at the boys in front of her.
"Customers are customers. You just gotta know what they want."
"Art, food… Seems like a lot to know," Jonathan commented.
"Who'd be charging you with anything?" Tommy, unable to push away his curiosity, asked and Selina shrugged.
"Just this dude called Klade Winger who thought he could assault me and ended up with his joke of a penis out to the world at a night club."
Both Tommy and Jonny stared at her wide eyed.
"You didn't," the later gasped.
"I totally did," she said casually. "The place he was displayed was particularly visible," she searched something on her phone and then showed it to them. "Here."
"Oh! God!" they exclaimed, half disgusted, half amazed.
"You tiny little evil," Tommy commented.
"I know, right?" she took the phone back and pulled the fresh batch of brownies that had just been placed near her to cut the slices. "Isn't this place fun?"
"Admit you just miss Gotham."
"Thomas, 'miss' is an understatement."
"Then go back," he pondered and Selina sighed.
"Not without Ivy, no."
"It's a long shot," Jonathan commented soberly.
"That I'm willing to take, because it's the only option I have," she told them. "Look, there are only five people in my life that I deeply care about and only eighty percent of them are safe in different levels. Ivy is the twenty percent I own and can do something about, so that's what I'm gonna do. What I'm doing."
"I noticed that you said in the blog that she was kidnapped," Jonathan said carefully. "What makes you so sure?"
"You know how Harleen was hanging posters all around town to see if someone had seen something?" they nodded. "Turns out, someone did. An eye witness from the Deck of Cards. Didn't help much, but gave us a start point."
"The Deck?" the older boy echoed, frowning. "I guess it makes sense, it's right beside Arkham. It's the last place they saw Pam, right? Harleen told me. It also explains why she's been spending so much time there. It's nice you two partner to find Pamela."
Selina would be delighted if only one of the things Jonathan said hadn't caught her completely off guard.
"Hold on, Harleen's doing what?"
"I guess she's trying to gather more info, I saw her with Jerome a couple of times now. Are you okay?"
She wasn't. Selina was puffing like an angry bull and her hand gripped the knife fiercely.
"Is she out of her fucking mind?"
"Selina?" someone with a very soothing voice called from her side and held her right hand. "Why don't we let go of the potential weapons and go get some fresh air? You need to breathe."
Snapping out of it, Selina let go of the knife and found out that it was Ruby by her side.
"You know what?" she said. "You're right, I will make that break now," she fished her phone from her pocket. "I'm making that break and calling Harleen now to see if she still have some sense in that dumb blonde head of hers!"
She was practically pushed outside, barking things like 'stupid bitch' and 'how can someone be so idiotic' while furiously typing on her phone. She called Harleen and waited, but when the call was taken-
"Selina Kyle!" came a voice that definitely wasn't Harleen's followed by a hysterical laugh, and her immediate instinct was to hang up and scream at the wall.
"Selly, you're scaring me, please calm down," Ruby pleaded, only then her voice tuning again. "You can't stress, think about your baby…"
Breathing deep a few times, Selina realized that she was crying. Crying, for fuck's sake, again. She had one hand on her belly, the other holding her phone.
"It's too late for that, you know?" she said with broken breath. "It was conceived under stress, my baby. Stress is the first thing it knows."
She turned to Ruby, letting the tears fall, and the girl gave her a sad smile.
"I think you're wrong. I think that the first thing your baby knows is love."
Smiling just as sadly, Selina tried to clean her face with the back of her hand.
"Why do people do idiotic things even after you warned them? Damn, Ivy will be so pissed when she finds out. You know that guy I knocked out in that club?" Ruby nodded. Everyone knew. "It was because of him. Jerome Valeska. It trigged me right back to him. Ivy hates him. And Ivy deals with hate different than me. Now her girlfriend is with him. This world is a mess."
"You can't help everyone, Sel," Ruby pondered. "It's just not humanly possible."
Selina sighed.
"I know."
"But you can help me," she teased, and Selina looked at her slightly confused. Ruby smiled again, this time for real. "Who's that Tommy guy?"
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. He's cute."
"Except when he talks, perhaps," Selina observed and the other girl made a face.
"Come on, Sel, you looked friendly."
"That's because I learned to tolerate him!" she exclaimed, but with Ruby going all puppy eyes on her it was kind of hard to say no. "I hate your ass so much sometimes, you've no idea. Okay, fine. Just promise me you won't mention this" she pointed at her baby bump "to him."
"I thought you weren't hiding."
"I ain't. It's just him I don't want to know."
"Why not?"
Because despite the fact that, okay, she grew to not hate him, there still was something unsettling about Tommy Elliott that made her want to be careful, but that was too long an answer, so Selina just said –
"Because he's weird."
Ruby went back to work before Selina, who stayed a bit longer and called Harleen again, this time calmer, to say that she'd better get her ass away from Jerome and call her back when she had recovered her senses or Selina would have to make some calls and, oh, what resourceful person she could be.
When she came back inside, Tommy and Jonathan had left already, but Ruby gave her two thumbs up meaning that she had managed to give her number to Tommy or something similar. Selina went back to her condiments duty, but a couple of minutes after, one of the guys handed her an envelope with her name on it.
"Someone left it for you," he said and she frowned.
"Who?"
"I don't know. It was in one of the tables and it has your name."
Curious, she opened the envelope. It had nothing but a blue flower, small and drying, rolled on an ivy twig. She looked around, but anyone who'd left it there was probably gone. She had no idea what it meant.
[...]
It was good to be out of the morning sickness zone, no worries about suddenly fainting and although the sausages still smelled terrible, that beginning of fifth month was surprisingly fine. Of course starting a fifth month also meant that Selina Kyle had entered her fifth month of cycles and dead ends to find her sister and only God knew what could have happened to Ivy so far.
So that first week of five months was a tad edgy for the seventeen years old and some would have to excuse her for being a bit… blunt.
Unfortunately, not everyone could make it out intact of those delicate days, as the girls from Jitters found out one morning as they changed into their uniforms to start the day.
"Uh, Selina?" one of the girls called. She was older, uni student trying not to drown in debt, and she had terrible timing. "Is that a food baby?" she asked, lousily pointing at the teen's belly.
You see, for her, the changes in her body were noticeable for weeks – she had a new rack that would make Ivy nod in approval, some of her jeans had to go, and that baby bump was poking out for a while now. But it was true that not many people were able to notice so far. Actually, that was the first time someone pointed it out.
"No," she answered, as if it was obvious. "It's a human baby."
To be honest, Selina didn't know what she expected when she spilled the words. When Barbara started to show, everyone would just immediately swoon or ask to touch her belly and try to feel the baby. At work, people would engage in conversations about babies. Some client would mention how her pregnancy went, they'd share stories, ask about scans and name options. But instead, what she got was –
"You're pregnant?! How?!"
Which was quite the weird question.
"That's a weird question," Selina said, for she was pretty sure everyone in that room knew how one gets pregnant.
"I mean," the girl tried to explain. "Aren't you, like, seventeen?"
"Yes," she replied, struggling to see her point.
"Why would you get pregnant at seventeen?"
"Oh," the teen exclaimed.
That would lead to some Teen Mom talk, that was the point! About how she had screwed her life by not being careful or taking care of it, and how she was such a lost potential to the world, because now she would be a mother, might as well have come straight from a MTV reality bullshit to remind them of the importance of "making the right choices". Nah, she wasn't having it today.
"You think it's that simple?" Selina snapped, finishing buttoning her uniform. "Maybe you should think twice. It's easy to keep tabs with your medication when things are fine, but try to remember to take the pill everyday even when you're working to help in the house, because your pregnant mother is not doing so well; when your sister is kidnapped right under your nose and despite all of your father's efforts, the useless police department can't seem to find any clue that will bring her back, so all you can do is do their job; and on top of everything, your boyfriend is the only good, peaceful, nice thing of your day. Yeah, I forgot to take the pills, I got pregnant at seventeen and stayed pregnant, sorry. But shit happens."
"Selina?" Zane, the cook, called from the door and handed her a big envelope. He didn't show any sign of knowing why the air was so thick with awkwardness. "A guy in a Wayne Tech car left this for you."
She took it and looked at the mailing address. Jim's handwrite read 'For my badass baby girl that should KNOCK IT OFF RIGHT NOW Selina Kyle' that made her smile for the first time in the day.
"It's my dad's. He probably asked Fox to bring it to me. Thanks Zane."
"You've some pretty dope connections, Sel," he said, leaving and she shrugged proud of herself. He had no idea.
Selina put the envelope in her locker, knowing what it was, a small smile still on her face. She was going to save that one for later.
"That baby of yours," the uni girl approached one more time. "Is that why you left Gotham?"
Taking a deep breath and working hard not to roll her eyes, Selina closed the locker before answering.
"I left Gotham to figure out what 42 could possibly be the answer for, but I guess I shouldn't have left, because Gothamites tend to mind their own business."
[...]
Central city wasn't exactly near Star City, but that robbery that had happened at Jitters was so impressive that it hit national news pretty fast, and it hit Jonathan Crane in a deeper way, because the reason it was such a blast was because Selina Kyle was involved and she had used her fifteen minutes of fame to make sure she was heard about looking for Pamela above everything else. Pamela, who was right in the other room and he could do nothing about.
He checked his phone just because, knowing that it had no signal and sighed before knocking on her door twice.
"Pam?" Jonathan called and waited. On the other side of the metal doors, he heard uncertain steps.
"Jonny?" Ivy asked and he nodded to the guard to let him in.
When the door was opened, they faced each other from a safe distance. They still only given her white cotton clothes to wear and her room was square, with one graded window, a shower on the corner with no mirrors and no curtains, everything dangerously resembling a prison cell. On the other end, there was another door that led, he knew, to the herbarium, where he himself had spent some time in.
Pamela, on her side, looked so much better than the last time he had seen her. Whatever they had been giving her for the past five months had stopped dueling with her body and started working with it. Her skin looked healthier, her hair seemed to be a brighter red and it looked like she was better with herself.
"Hi Jonny," she greeted with unexpected calm, and he stepped inside, having the door locked behind him as soon as he was in.
"You look alright," the boy commented, getting closer. Pamela had a way of making herself look smaller with that long, long hair and the posture of her shoulders that he wasn't sure was intentional or if Woodrue had just broken her. She offered him the shiest of the smiles.
"I've got conditioner now," she told him, playing with a strand of red hair. "Thanks for helping, I'm eating better and they even allow me in the herbarium, have you been there?"
"I have, actually," he admitted. "There's a blue flower that I'm trying to study, they have dozens here."
"I thought you were studying psychology," the redhead commented eyeing him and Jonathan shrugged.
"I like to think of myself as a scientist, a bit of a pioneer."
Pamela relaxed, the tension beginning to ease from her shoulders and she stepped closer.
"You and I both, Jonny."
Hesitantly, she touched his arm just briefly and they went silent for a moment before he suddenly remembered why he was there and reached for his phone.
"You got a phone?!" she exclaimed, a spark of hope rising, but he was quick to cut it.
"There's no signal, don't get your hopes up. But I did download something before getting here to show you. I think you'll like it."
"What is it?" Pamela asked, already down with the sudden adrenalin that got into her. She sat on the bed and Jonathan did the same, she was quick to get closer.
"A video," he answered, going through his gallery and turning the screen for her to see it better.
"Is this about cats? Cats' videos always make the day better," the girl observed and Jonny smiled to himself.
"Well, actually… sort of. It happened a few days ago and went viral within hours. It was awesome."
With no further explanations, he hit play. It started with the logo of one of those Youtube channels that make music out of viral interviews and then, for her surprise, none less than Selina was on the screen. Her hair was in a ponytail and she was wearing uniform, but she also had a face hard to forget. Besides, her name was on the foot, above "heroin of the day", and it made no sense.
"Well, will you let me talk about it?" the Selina on the screen asked someone. "Then okay, what do you wanna know?"
"You were very brave today, miss Kyle," a journalist kept out of the frame said. "Some would say reckless, but also brave. Where did it come from?"
"From seeing that there were three morons trying to steal a family diner before lunch," she answered.
"She looks different," Ivy said frowning, but not missing a word.
"Does she?"
"I think she gained a few pounds. Look at that awesome new rack, you go, Selly."
"How did you know you could take them down? I mean, you're just a girl."
"Oh God," Ivy breathed. "Death sentence."
On the screen, Selina looked dead offended.
"Just a girl? Is that an excuse for anything? This is the twenty-first century, you think that being 'a girl' should come with 'just' on the front? Being a girl makes me a badass. I knew I could take them down because they were clearly idiots and I come from Gotham. There, you must always be two steps ahead, because there's threat in every corner, and not dumb ones. There, we are full time warriors." Finally, she breathed. "Plus, my dad took me and my sister to all kinds of self-defense classes."
Ivy laughed and something caught in her throat. Oh, Selly… what was she doing?
"Where is it?"
"Star City," Jonathan answered.
"Are we-"
"No. We're quite far, actually. That's why I don't come more often."
On the screen, while the journalist talked, they showed scenes from various angles of Selina taking down three armed men like a boss.
"She's awesome," Ivy commented and then turned to Jonathan. "Don't ever tell her that I said that."
"…besides being an extremely dangerous situation. The main question is, why would you pull such an act of heroism? Was that because of your colleagues or the children…?
"It wasn't heroism," Selina cut shaking her head like it was the stupidest thing and she wished to un-hear it. "It was just me making sure I'd get paid."
After that, the video followed with a song out of the interview, an actual piece of art with a catchy refrain that lasted forty glorious seconds and was brilliant, making Ivy genuinely laugh in months.
"Tell us what brought you to Star City in the first place?" the journalist said, last thing on the video, and the camera zoomed in Selina's face.
"I got a lead, that's why. Because my sister Ivy – Pamela Isley – was kidnapped and someone tipped that she was here, so I've been looking for her. If you know anything or want to know more about what I'm talking about, go to haveyouseenivy dot tumblr dot com and contact me. And V, if you're watching this, I'm looking for you. I'll find you, and we're gonna go home."
It ended like that and Ivy couldn't say a word, she just brought her knees to her chest and processed it, running the last bit in her mind again and again.
"They tipped her wrong," she finally said, voice weak. "They are trying to diverge her."
"But she's clever and she'll figure out," Jonathan replied with conviction, trying to comfort her.
With sad eyes, Ivy looked up at him. The first time she had seen Jonathan Crane was when she went to the hospital to steal food and he was tripping. She was thirteen and he was tied to the bed, drowning in nightmares. She didn't think much about what could be haunting him, just that there was salad, rice, fruit waiting to be eaten or to go to the trash. Stray dogs had been eating better than her at the time, so food was number one's priority.
She didn't know why she came back to his room. To be honest, the whole live nightmares prospect was rather scary, but she kept going, kept staying longer, until one day he had tofu, quinoa and spinach, so she ate right there, using the time to read his file; she found it all very interesting.
"Why did you decide to help me?" Ivy asked him as he didn't break eye contact. After everything, Jonathan still had such kind eyes. Her daddy issues turned her into a mean bitch most of the time, but he turned his table.
Breathing out a smile, Jonathan nodded just once.
"Because I remember you," he told her. "Long days at the hospital just wishing for it to go away and a redhead girl who'd come every now and then. You eating an apple. And when you left a note in my folder, the days started to become clearer after the doctors found it, and you didn't come anymore, but I remember. And I owe you."
"I didn't do anything," Ivy whispered surprised and unexpectedly content.
Because, well, she actually did do something. It wasn't so hard to figure out what was going on with him and how to stop it, really. They had to reboot him piece by piece and they were even trying to do that, but doing the wrong path. The fear inducer had hit Jonathan on the short way and he was 24/7 under stress, it was a miracle he was still alive. She copied his file, made some researching and wrote the note: make it the long way.
The long way of fear makes it easier to process. If they managed to make his thalamus send the fear signal to the long way instead of the short one, then his body would start to collaborate. With the cut of hormones, the night terrors would give him a break eventually. And it did.
Jonathan put his phone back in his pocket and withdraw a piece of folded paper, showed her the childish handwriting of those five words. Make it the long way.
"Of course you did," he said right when that beeping came again. "I gotta go, my internship starts tomorrow and it's quite the trip. I'll see you next weekend, Pam."
Ivy nodded. And then
"Jonny?" he looked from the door, just half turned to her as he waited for it to be opened. "You can call me Ivy."
He nodded.
"'Til then, Ivy."
[...]
"Are you going to take that or not?"
A couple of nights after that failed robbery, with the song of the video still ringing fresh in their minds, Thea decided that Selina deserved a night out just the two of them, but every few minutes Selina's phone would buzz and she'd never take the calls. When Thea confronted her about it, she sighed.
"It's my dad and he's pissed, so I'm just trying to ignore him for a few days until he gets to the 'it's-okay-baby-just-don't-do-this-again' phase."
"Is that about the video?"
"It's about everything. We've this rule: no heroes. And it's no help that everyone has been using that word to describe me, though I'm far from it."
The phone stopped for half a minute as the line to get in the club walked a couple more steps and then it started to ring again.
"Maybe you should take it, he must be worried."
"Trust me: he only wants to give me a piece of his mind," the younger girl assured, but for her distaste, the phone only seemed to ring louder, so Thea gave her a pointed look that made her sigh. "Okay. Wanna hear him rant? He's funny when he's mad."
"Just take it already!"
Selina already was hitting the green button and prepared herself, leaving the phone on speaker.
"Hi daddy!" she greeted, trying to pull her cards from the start.
"Don't you dare 'daddy' me, you little reckless thing!" Jim barked and Selina smiled looking at Thea. He would never disappoint her in this. "Why were you ignoring me?"
"Me ignoring you? That's absurd!" she faked surprise and a bit of disbelief, as if it was the worst of the accusations that he'd even think about it. "My phone died, that's all."
"Selina, you can't lie to me," Jim informed evenly and the girl hummed.
"You don't know that, though."
Instead of the awkward silence that would normally follow up whenever an argument like that would come out, Jim was ready for her.
"I'm disappointed, baby," he said in a sad tone, but she knew things would look up pretty fast, because he called her 'baby'. "I thought we had agreed…"
"That there would be no heroes. I know. But dad, everyone got it wrong."
"There are a million recordings of what happened, Selina, and I know what I saw. You need to cut this behavior right now."
She looked at Thea as in saying 'see what I meant?' and the Queen girl shook her head bemused.
"Promise me you'll stop with this nonsense. I know you're trying to save money, but if they had robbed your work and you had to have your payment delayed, we'd send you some money," he continued.
"No way, dad. You've Barbie and babies are expensive."
"I'm just saying that you're not alone in this, accept that."
Selina sighed. She could reply with 'Okay, Jesus' just to piss him off, but Jim was being surprisingly okay with everything, so she decided to be nice.
"Okay, dad. I promise," she said, filled with sincerity and she could practically see him smiling on the other side. She was ready to hang up when he decided to speak again.
"Oh, one more thing!" he said, and by his tone she was a hundred percent sure that he hadn't forgotten it, just wanted to play her. He had something that she'd be interested in. "We got a thick envelope from Bruce. It's for you, what should I do?"
At the mention of Bruce's name, she hit the speaker button so fast that it took Thea a couple of seconds to realize that Selina had made the call private.
"Send it to me, obviously," she said.
"You think you deserve it?" Jim questioned.
"Dad."
"You think that shipping is cheap?"
"Figure it out!"
On the other side of the line, Jim Gordon laughed.
Once inside the club, the music was loud and the lights were something Kanye West would be proud of. It was true that Selina had to be spending her time figuring out a way to get some quick money to do the abortion by the end of the week, but Thea was right, she needed to relax a bit, play all the tricks Barbara passed along to her and V, and the ones she figured out by herself to get a good time. She deserved it, if she was going to feel sick for a few days, so she danced and jumped in her high heels, letting her body sweat.
Selina had found a dark green cropped and high waist black skirt in her bags that still fit (and probably would for a while, she had a feeling they were Ivy's) and that was her outfit of the night. She thought that the short skirt was the reason why she was attracting so many looks, but when she went to the bar to get some water, she found out that not exactly.
"You are that vigilante girl," the barista said, giving her the water she asked and Selina sighed. Vigilante was too much.
"You mistake me for someone who'd give a fuck," she tried to diverge, but he wasn't having it.
"I saw your face on TV, Kitty," he insisted and she rested her water bottle on the counter dead staring him.
"Then you know you shouldn't fuck with me."
As the barista stepped back wisely giving her some space, Selina eavesdropped a conversation going on two chairs from her seat. There were three guys, one of them was lean and charming, while the other two looked like the punks the Penguin had recruited on his first days of crime lord. They were talking not so quietly about a harvest they needed done and the guy – apparently a reaper of the best – was flatly denying.
"Come one, Winger, we need this done in forty-eight hours!"
Winger, Selina thought, so obvious. Zero for creativity.
"I'm not doing it, not for all the money in the world," he replied for what looked like the hundredth time. "You think I'd like to end up like one of your reapers?"
"You wouldn't!" one of the guys, the one that looked more desperate, said. "The Green Arrow hadn't been able to catch you yet."
"And that's just the kind of job that will land my ass right on his lap! For fuck's sake, Sniff, diamonds? For the black market? Don't they have a whole solid base in Africa for that?"
Selina would have dropped it to go find Thea, who had disappeared with a blond guy, and it was true that she had just promised Jim not to get involved in anything, but that Winger guy had just used a lot of her magic words to keep her interested. Instead of leaving, she asked for a drink she wouldn't drink and listened a bit more.
"Not for these ones. These have a very specific market and if you get the right gem, the boss will pay you on the spot. I'm talking seven digits here, Winger."
Seven digits! If Selina had that much money, she'd have enough to pay the illegal abortion and probably buy Ivy back from whoever took her! She prepared to make her move, though she didn't have a plan yet, and kept listening.
"We already sent the data to your cloud, all you have to do is the job."
Winger checked his phone and the first thing he saw made him put it down again with an annoyed look on his face.
"The docks? Are you for real? It's one of the places better secured by the Green Arrow! No, forget it, I'm not taking chances."
Winger stood up ready to leave and Sniff and the other guy stood up as well, both looking like they had signed death sentences. Interesting.
"Millions, Winger. Millions!"
"Nope," the reaper said, popping the final syllable loudly and turning his back to them, waking in her direction. Selina was seeing all that through the corner of her eyes while she pretended to be seriously checking her phone, as if someone was supposed to contact her. "Find someone stupid enough, I'm out."
Sniff and his friend immediately started to talk, trying to come up with something, but Selina went to Winger and bumped onto him, dropping her drink in the process and catching his attention with one shy gesture that seemed to be the universal way of convincing men in the first contact. Damn, Ivy was right, wasn't she? Men are so stupid.
"I'm sorry, I'm just so distracted," she managed to stumble the words, as if it was such a shame to embarrass herself in front of him. "I, uh- my friend was supposed to meet me here, but I've been waiting and… she's my ride. I can't lose her in the crowd!"
"Hey, it's okay," Winger assured her, flashing a charming smile. "What's her name? Where did you last saw her?"
"Hm…" best liars always tell the truth, she repeated to herself. "Thea. I saw her talking to her ex somewhere around here, but then… I mean, a quickie is supposed to be quick, right?"
"Yeah, but how would you define 'quick'?" he asked, not at all bothered that she had dropped Martini in his fine shirt. He was in flirt mood now and she could use it in her favor.
"Five minutes top?" she answered, making sure to smile and blush just a little.
"Five minutes, really?"
Selina hummed.
There was this time she went to Bruce and Sam's school. She was supposed to meet Sam, because he was going to show her the new version of the fabric he and Bruce were developing before they'd go for their date. That project was going on for almost a year, and when Selina got to the labs, it was the billionaire that she found there. After a tense talk, they locked themselves in the chemical room for about eight minutes that could be described as transcendental. They doubt Sam ever found out, but those were the days after everything happened and no one was no one's, so she doubted it'd matter.
Coming to think about it, that was the quickest she'd ever gotten and Bruce was freshly fifteen. You can count a fifteen years old boy to be fast.
"-ish," she finally replied him. She wanted that phone of his, so maybe he could get to it already.
"I'm Klade Winger," he offered his hand and she took it.
"Selina Kyle."
A spark of recognition flashed in his dark eyes. She was sure he'd say something annoying like 'the girl from the video!', but he shut it just in time. Instead, he started to very blatantly go on about quickies and how he could teach her a few techniques that she actually agreed quite fast, because that phone (!); so they headed to the top back bar, where the empty toilets, phone booths and loveseats were, and she knew that somethings were supposed to happen, but then came Ivy's voice almost two complete years before shouting through the phone and she clicked.
Her quickest hadn't been with Bruce. It hadn't.
Just because you knew it could happen, it doesn't make it okay! – Ivy had said.
"Stop." Selina demanded. Winger, pressing her against the wall of the booth, didn't move or changed his approach, so she used both hands to push him away. "I said stop! Get off me."
Because his hands on her body reminded her so much of other demanding hands it made it hard to breathe.
Winger didn't stop, so she stopped him. Collecting all her will and anger, it took Selina two full minutes to knock him unconscious and another one to search all his pockets. She left his documents and money behind and only took the phone before going Lisbeth Salander on him.
Selina made sure he'd stay unconscious, took off his shirt and wrote some words on his chest; then she started to drag him from the booth. Surprisingly enough, Thea was there looking for her.
"What the hell are you doing?" the older girl asked, partially scared. She had read his chest and Selina was taking the ribbons from the loveseats.
"Help me with it, will you?"
Thea observed as Selina knotted his hands to a higher pole, his back to the dancefloor below. That back bar was practically empty, but it would get more people when the change of DJs were to happen, which would be in about ten minutes, so finally she decided to help.
"Just because I really like that book," she said under her breath, making sure that his hands were firmly knotted while Selina removed his pants. Thea scoffed when she checked him out. "His dick really is small. For someone with such reputation, we'd think Klade was better equipped."
Both girls stepped back, arms crossed.
"He must know what to do with it," Selina commented and Thea frowned, reading the words again in red lipstick, and then looking at the teen, who didn't even addressed her to say "I didn't wait to find out. I think that 'no' was more important to understand." She looked at Thea then, her expression different, and asked the most unexpected thing. "Do you know anyone who'd have a sewing machine?"
The following day, while Klade Winger was only beginning to figure out how to pick the pieces of his dignity and put them back together, Selina had the day off and a bunch of special Kevlar clothes waiting for her on her bed. She had a pair of pants, a jacket with a hoodie, some tank tops and gloves.
That special Kevlar was developed by Bruce and Sam with Wayne Tech and it was completely different from the bulletproof vests she used before. The fabric resembled leather and its nanotechnology made it light and still bulletproof without needing all those layers. Theoretically. She hadn't tried the bullets yet, and wasn't planning to so soon. All she could do was hope.
"What would Beyoncé do?" she asked herself going through every single piece again, trying to come up with something. If she wanted all those seven digits in her account, she'd need to suit up to not be recognized as the "girl from the video", and she had to come up with something fast.
With the data from Winger's phone uploaded to another device, Selina had all the information she needed to get in and out. If those mobsters were right about everything they gathered, she'd hardly have problems to get the job done; she was small, agile and the best reaper of Gotham ever since she was fourteen. She started sewing (in Thea's own sewing machine, who'd ever guess?), molding the clothes into something that'd help her move with ease and not be easily detectable.
Before the sun was down, Selina left her loft wearing her Kevlar pants, tank top, jacket and low leather boots – her favorite pair. She got in her car caring a medium black bag and drove away, parking in a strategical place, triangulating with the docks and the crime lord's place. That was another thing Star City had in common with Gotham: the mob lords were untouchable, even though everyone knew where to find them.
She walked for several blocks and found a blind spot at a bar where she changed a few things, emptying her black bag that once was two tank tops. Selina wasn't carrying anything fancy, just a couple of knives, a laser pen Captain Barnes gave her the previous Christmas for Secret Santa, the diamond compass she took from Bruce when they still were kids, goggles, her gloves.
By the time she got to the docks, with all its guards and cameras, Selina already had put her hood up, a pair of goggles on her face. She had braided her hair and the tight hood made it look like she had tiny cat ears.
The thing about Selina Kyle was that she was weightless, silent, invisible, flexible and she'd be able to hit you before you even noticed. Her approach technique was different than anyone's and even though she had never done a work that big – the gem they wanted was particularly beautiful, she almost felt bad having to give it to the mob – she felt confident about it.
That Sniff guy had told Winger that they needed someone fresh to do that job and no one was fresher than herself. Within the hour, the job was done. Selina walked away on the shadows, she had put every single guard to sleep on her way in, and headed to the mob's place after making a phone call.
"Winger?" the person that picked it up said first thing.
"Not Winger. I've the gem, though. Where do I drop it to get my paycheck?"
"You've got the gem?" the person asked in a dubious tone.
"I can put it back if you don't want it. Or negotiate with the black market myself."
"Hold on."
She did. It took them forty-two seconds to get back at her with the address.
The diamond was the size of Selina's palm, shiny and almost blueish, so transparent it was. Breathtaking. She put it on the table of the crime lord with Winger's phone by its side, the number of the account she used with Penguin's men written on its open notepad.
"Who are you?" the mobster asked with a thick accent. He was Finnish. She didn't know there was such a thing as a Finnish mob, but whatever.
"What do you care?" Selina hadn't been dumb enough to take the mask off.
"How did you know about this?"
She smiled.
"This guy Winger was knotted to a bar with his dick out, something about him being a rapist written on his chest? All his things were by his feet, including this," she pointed the phone. "Not so hard to decode."
"So you just went and did the job for him?"
"Nah, I did it for me. Could use the extra money."
The teen could see that her relaxed posture annoyed all those men and she hardly cared. There were six in that room, she could handle them. Probably. The crime lord took the diamond from the table and analyzed it for a boring three minutes, and then looked up at her.
"Every single reaper on our contacts, how many do we have?" he asked no one in particular and someone mumbled a number. "About twenty. And none capable of doing a simple job. Half of them found themselves in prison, the other half is too scared to try. But a girl sneaks in on the last night and just does it. What are you up to?"
Selina didn't break a sweat. Please, she once was the right arm of Fish Mooney and the Penguin, and even though she didn't have Butch or Helzinger behind her, she was good at solo missions.
"I heard you were paying four million for this job, but I also know that this gem is worth four times more, maybe five if you're lucky enough. So I think, since I was the ONLY one that had the job done and was nice enough to bring it to you, I deserve eight million. I'm feeling generous, though. I can take… six."
She lighted up the screen of the phone, making the account visible again and waited.
"Six million?" he echoed, sounding amused. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"You don't. But who cares? As long as you pay me. Now."
"Maybe I'd like to hire you. What's your name?"
Selina borderline laughed.
"How about Money Driven Whore?" she said. "That's what you'll call me once I leave, right? Just transfer the cash and we're all good."
He put the gem back on the table and opened his laptop with a smile that was there since she answered his last question.
"I like you, kiddo," he said, checking the phone and making the transfer. "I don't know if it was luck, but you might have a bright future in crime. You sure you don't want the connection?"
She didn't answer. He turned the computer so she could see the transition and then nodded.
"Now tell me, what makes you so sure that we won't follow you or kill you?"
Selina didn't care, really, because she was done there. The money was hers. Millionaire. So she turned back, headed to the door.
"You can't afford to lose the 'trust' of the best reaper you've ever seen, that's how."
And okay, it was very scary, she could admit now. But she left the place with a full bank account that would make her life easy for several years, she wouldn't even need to think about the other stones, the smaller ones she took and hid in secret pockets of her bag. And okay, it took a long time to mislead the men sent to follow her, but she finally did it, right in time for the police to make their move about the robbery. That's how you make a robbery.
She found her blind spot, removed layers, unbraided her hair and headed for her car, after checking if the money really did fall in her account. If it hadn't, she'd make some calls to a certain lawyer and make it even, but all was fine. From her phone, in a bar's toilet, Selina dispersed the money into smaller accounts, just to make sure and even set to make anonymous donations to the Gordon family account every two months.
There was a nice breeze in the air and Selina started to sort out what to do first as she walked to her car. Schedule the abortion to the end of the week was the priority. Leave Star City in the first opportunity was number two-
"That was a close call," someone said coming from an alley right before where her T-Bird was parked, and making her jump back, ready to fight. "Hi Cat, long time, no see."
Selina breathed out.
"Kelly?"
For a long time, she thought Kelly was dead, but she had seen his name along the many packages she'd gotten over the years. The Tarshish club in Smallville, commanded by his wife, was the last proof to know that he was fine.
"Hi kid," he said with a small smile. "You look different."
"It's been three years."
He nodded.
"Yes, it has."
She waited and he said it again.
"It was a close call tonight."
"What, you're God now?" she mocked, but she knew. "I needed the money."
"You're no good for anyone in prison," he argued.
"I needed the money," she echoed.
"No, you didn't," he cut her rather sharply. "And you know it. You've made your decisions ages ago, when you didn't tell him, and it's alright."
"Alright?" Selina asked confused. "To whom?"
"To us," Kelly answered, softer this time. "This job you took today… you just like the rush."
It was true, sort of. Beating those robbers was a hell lot of fun.
"I can't have it," she said low, her hand going to her venter. "It's too dangerous."
"We know," Kelly replied. "But we are here for you, Selina. Fish, she will help you, if you let her. We all will."
"My dad will kill me."
"Now, that's an exaggeration."
She sighed. That morning, she looked in the mirror and saw that her belly had started to point out. She still couldn't feel it move, it was too soon. Could she really be able to abort it? If Kelly hadn't showed up to slow her down, would she go through with it?
"We know you're looking for Ivy, we are trying to help, but like you all we have are missing pieces," Kelly continued interrupting her line of thoughts. "We'll do everything we can, Selina, and Fish will come for you herself when the time comes. We got you."
She nodded.
"I know."
"Do you trust us?"
"Yeah."
It was Kelly's turn to nod.
"Keep checking your mail."
He turned back to the alley.
"Don't you want a ride?" she offered and he smiled.
"It's alright, Kitten. Go rest."
"See you soon," Selina said as a goodbye and then got into her car at last, driving back to her loft. She had to work the following morning, after all. And it was true, she trusted the Pond, trusted Fish.
So she rolled with it, even if it meant keep her baby. It was meant for greatness, she knew, and perhaps that was what scared her the most, but it was hers. Her little Wayne.
