7 – A CHAPTER OF DIRECTION
There was something reassuring about the cinnamon smell of the hot beverages in front of the teen girls, the cappuccino's lightning in the middle of the milk foam looking extra cheerful. It was a sunny day in Central City, but after the official reopening of S.T.A.R. Labs, Selina and Ivy had to try the city's most famous drink, no matter the temperatures.
"I can tell that you already love this place," Selina observed, watching Ivy. From where she was, the light coming from the glass doors made the redhead bright with colors, and she sighed with a smile.
"I kind of am," Ivy admitted and sipped her Flash cinnamon cappuccino before continuing. "I mean, look at this place! It's so bright and charming, how can you not like it?"
"By having furry heart, I guess," replied Selina, taking a sip of her own beverage. "Which I probably do."
"Bullshit," cut Ivy, more of a statement. "You like to pretend to be all tough, but we all know you're a big, fat house cat."
Selina crisped her eyes.
"How dare you spill my secret!"
Instead of laughing out loud or bringing up another retort, the girls only exchanged a look and a smile. It was their second year officially as "family", but Ivy and Selina had come a long way. Their understanding of one another made sisterhood at its best: they knew how to cheer up and how to bring down. During that sunny day of September, so pretty to many nerds across America, they didn't feel like bringing anyone down.
"Seriously, though," Ivy continued after they finished their Flashes, her arm hooked on Selina's, even though no one would ever take them as arm-on-arm girls back home, as they left the place. "Do you think you could ever live here?"
"With all the metahuman and stuff?" Ivy nodded. They pushed the door open at the same time. "I don't know. Maybe a summer house by the lake."
There wasn't no summer house by the lake for Selina to rent at the beginning of the following September, but even that couldn't take that cinematographic aspect of 'smell like pumpkin and asks for more cappuccinos than the system should support' the city had, and Central City still was the best place to read and reread the letter Bruce had sent her.
He was in China and said he was writing instead of calling because he still wasn't strong enough to hear her voice and not book the next flight back home. He didn't tell her before, but he had been planning to travel for a long time, just not exactly like that. He said that he was going to see all the places he wanted to see and learn all he needed to learn, that he already was doing that all in order to find himself – the other half, he meant, the one that wasn't sure what home was.
I love you, he wrote. Three words that they agreed not to say, but he broke that rule anyway. I love you and I know you love me and I'll come home soon… as soon as possible. I love you because you know me so well and that's how I know you'll be alright while I'm gone.
Selina had lost track of how many times she had read that paragraph holding the letter as well as one of the photos he sent, her other hand caressing her growing bump.
"Selina?" a familiar voice called, and she put the letter down, hiding the photo, just to see none less than Felicity Smoak standing there.
"Are you stalking me? I can leave the Star City, you know," the teen said and the hacker seemed to stumble on her words. "I'm joking. Though I do can leave it."
Felicity let out a breath.
"Right. Kids," she shook her head. "I didn't expect to see you here, I thought you went home.
"Nah," Selina shook her head. "Still looking for V."
"Here?" she asked, a mix of curiosity and confusion in her voice, so the teen folded the letter, shoved it in one of the bags by her feet, sat straighter holding her cappuccino with both hands.
"I need to talk to Dr. Caitlin Snow-Reynolds," she admitted and the hacker's eyebrows went up.
"Why?" she asked. "Do you think she knows where your sister is?"
"Not exactly," Selina said slow, leaning forward. She had no need to explain herself to anyone that didn't need to know about her cases, but Felicity was the only known face she had seen in three days. Besides, she was dying to share it with someone ever since Jim sent her a whole set of GCPD files to analyze. "I think that there's something going on, something big. But all I have are bits and pieces and maybe she could help me figure out some things. I don't know, it's a long shot, but what do I have to lose?"
Surprisingly enough, Felicity smiled looking at something behind her. Jitters was packed and loud that lunch.
"Well, isn't it your lucky day?" she said and Selina looked up from her drink confused.
"Excuse me?"
"Caitlin happens to be a good friend of mine, little one," announced Felicity, making the teen cock her head.
"No shit. Do all nerds have like a secret whatsapp group or something?"
The hacker laughed.
"Something like that. Well, Cait is right there," she pointed. "I can introduce you."
Selina looked over the table Felicity had just pointed, packed with people – three guys and two girls. One, she knew, was Iris West, from the news. The other, with her back to them, should be Caitlin. She had only seen the doctor once, the previous year, from a fair distance and in small photos of articles she read.
"Would you do that?" she asked. She was planning on showing up at the front desk first thing on Monday and trying her luck like she did back in Gotham, but this short cut could make things much easier.
"Of course!" the older girl exclaimed. "Your conspiracy theory got me curious. Come on."
She helped Selina with her bags, donuts and mug, lead her to the packed table.
"I should've left those in the car, but I really needed to go pee and Jitters was closer," Selina explained.
"Yeah, that bump… you look very pregnant now."
"I know! Nothing fits me anymore, that's why I had to buy so many stuff-"
"Hey guys, I'm back," Felicity said, putting the bags on the floor next to the only empty chair of the table and five pairs of eyes looked at them. "This is Selina Kyle, the girl I told you all about," she continued and the teen waved as they greeted her with 'hi's and 'we're full time warriors' in the tuned version of that catchy song, but the next thing the hacker said caught the girl off guard. "Bruce Wayne's girlfriend."
With her lungs suddenly crashing, Selina turned to the blonde.
"What?" she didn't understand why Felicity was smiling.
"Come on, you came at me really strong, don't you think I'd do some digging? I'm a hacker, after all, and it wasn't something so hard to find out. You better believe me when I say that the paparazzi love Wayne's affairs and you weren't put aside."
Taken aback, Selina looked around, the eyes of the table looking at her curiously.
"What else do you know?" she asked, feeling her ears ring. Felicity shrugged.
"You were taken under Jim Gordon's care since you were fourteen, his first year as a Gotham rookie. You were a witness under protection, lived at the Wayne Manor for a while, was one of the protégées of Fish Mooney and later of the Penguin, gave Jerome Valeska a nasty scar…"
"Wait, how could you know that?" the girl accused. That file was supposed to be gone.
"That one was harder, I admit. Your file is full of holes, and I think it has to do with the fact that you have some connections at the GCPD, but-"
Selina stepped back, looking at all those half-known faces. It was a trap, she felt corned. And there wasn't much she could do in that situation but leave, it was her best option.
"This is a bad idea, I should go."
At that, Felicity closed her mouth and Selina heard a lot of 'why's and 'but you just got here's.
"Oh, God, I'm sorry," tried the blonde, but the teen had her eyes on the door, her cappuccino and donut forgotten on the table as she tried to take all the bags at once. "Selina, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say so much."
"Is that something you read on my file as well?" accused the girl and didn't leave space for replies. "No, I really should just-" she fumbled with the bags and a pair of small hands held hers.
"Is that about your past?" the person asked. It was Iris. "Because you shouldn't worry about that, we partner with Captain Cold all the time."
"We?" Selina echoed, trying to breathe and they all started to lie at the same time very badly.
"Besides," Felicity talked over them. "Cait is right here and you wanted to talk to her, didn't you?"
Selina nodded, taking a few deep breaths. It was true, she did want to talk to Caitlin. She put down her bags again, but her eyes still were worried about the exit door right in front of her.
"Okay, let us introduce ourselves properly," said Iris, going back between a black guy and Barry Allen. "I'm Iris, this is my brother Wally and this is my fiancée Barry. Cisco and Caitlin," she pointed the two in front of her and when Selina shook Cisco's hand, he looked a little… weird.
"You used to come here with your sister," he said dreamingly. Not a question, but a statement, and the girl shook her head.
"No, we only came once, last year, when S.T.A.R. Labs was reopened."
"Oh, you were there?" Caitlin asked sweetly and Selina shrugged.
"Ivy is a big nerd."
"And is it Ivy that you want to find?"
"Well, you all seem to know that song," that damn song.
"Are you kidding me?" Cisco asked. "That's my ringtone," some of them laughed. Selina wouldn't admit even under torture, but she had the song in her phone as well.
"It's Thea's also," Felicity said. "Oliver wants to die."
"His sense of humor is wack," Wally commented, getting a few agreements. They all looked like such a cohesive group of friends. The only people Selina was cohesive with were all over the place.
Caitlin was looking at her.
"You think I could help?" the teen nodded. "Sit down and tell me how."
She sat and only then noticed that Felicity had pulled another chair for herself. Selina looked for her phone in her purse already starting to explain what led her there.
"So, I've been reading your articles about that Dorrance guy you treated and in the last one you released the components of the drug that were in his system, mentioned that you guys tried to replicate it to help him, right?"
"That's right."
"Among the symptoms you said the drug caused, there was aggressiveness, lungs malfunction, low levels of calcium…"
They all exchanged a look before she continued.
"There was something about it that was bugging me, so I sent the article to my dad and he helped me figure it out," she found what she was looking for and gave the phone to the doctor. "Take a look at that and tell me if it seems familiar."
Quickly, Caitlin scanned the file frowning, the others were silent and paying attention with their mugs.
"Where did you get that?" Caitlin asked worried.
"Looks very alike, right?" replied Selina and the doc agreed. "Almost four years ago, this drug took the streets of Gotham, killing a lot of people. Most of them were crack heads, but the curious part was that this drug caused a sudden burst of strength and aggressiveness to the person who'd take it. And then their body would collapse and they'd die because of the calcium of their system was totally consumed. The drug's name was Viper."
Caitlin nodded soberly, waiting for her to continue and passed the phone to Cisco.
"Viper was created by this guy Stan Potolsky, that worked at WellZyn, a part of Wayne Enterprises."
Half of the people on that table scoffed.
"Good luck finding anything on them," Barry commented. "Wayne Enterprises is like a black hole."
"I know. My dad worked on this case at the time and he couldn't find anything, even with Potolsky's leads. But it's been some time and I happen to know a few people that could help me a bit."
"Your boyfriend?" asked Wally.
"No," Selina answered in a tone that suggested that that was such a bad guess. He help actually came from Alfred and Lucius, but she wouldn't give that away. "That's not the point, focus, please. Dad said that when they tried to find out what WellZyn was on to, they only got dead ends. The list of employees is not very long, all their scientists and researchers are kept secret and they have an odd connection to owls. But we do managed to find out that Potolsky had a counselor, a botanist that he consulted at every decision made."
She looked around to see if everyone had caught up.
"Now, I don't know if you remember, but apparently, Dorrance came to America under the instructions of a botanist that no one knew who was or how he looked like, just like this counselor of WellZyn, am I wrong?"
"You raise a good point," Cisco said thoughtfully. "But what does it have to do with your sister?"
That was where things get even more interesting. Selina took her phone back – it was with Iris now, though she didn't know how exactly the journalist could help – and looked for the archives she wanted.
"Jerome said that the car in which V was taken had a sticker on it and he didn't give many details to me, but the drawing he made for Harleen about it last week helped a lot," she showed the drawing to them, a circle of twisted twigs with a leaf inside. "This is the drawing," and then she passed to the next. "And that's the symbol of the International Biennial Botanic Fair for Old and New Brilliant Minds that was held in Smallville this year. Ivy used to talk about it all the time when it was happening, how her teacher took some students with him and how she'd be able to go in a couple of years. I've a feeling this botanist counselor is one of the brilliant minds of the fair, like the people that took V."
"And how would we help?" asked Barry, looking at her in a way the girl could swear he was reading her soul. Why wouldn't he, though? The lab was his, he had to make sure he knew what he was getting everyone into.
"Going CSI on that shit," she explained. "You already cracked half of the puzzle. And I've began looking around, but I'm not a hacker, I can't crack police's documents. Plus, there's no way my dad can do it, because GCPD is a mess, the layers are too thick and he'd end up owing too many favors. So… maybe, if you do those cross of information trick of figuring out where this and that is from, maybe we can find a location or whatever. Something."
"I suppose we can do that," Caitlin said, looking at Barry.
"Wait, though," interrupted Wally. "Can't you that from home? Contact us and everything, we'd get the car going. There's nowhere more comfortable than home."
Selina shrugged.
"The favors, I don't like to owe them. Gotham is a dumpster, I can literally count the good guys in one hand and there's no way we'd dig WellZyn there without dying in the process. Besides, I can't go home. And, it's fucking S.T.A.R. Labs, who wouldn't want to be here?"
Wally didn't focus on the right parts, though.
"Why can't you go home?" he pressed and Iris poked him to stop, but Selina answered anyway.
"Because Ivy is not with me," and before she could stop her mouth. "And because my dad doesn't know about this."
A few jaws dropped when she pointed at her belly.
"You didn't tell me that!" exclaimed Felicity.
"Teenage drama! I didn't witness that in such a long time," mused Iris. They all seemed way too excited for Selina's taste.
"Tell us," Cisco asked. "Is that a I-will-be-kicked-out-of-the-house situation or because it's a Wayne baby?"
"Who said it's a Wayne baby?" she retorted.
"Oh, it's definitely a Wayne baby," said Felicity with finality and they all looked at her. "Uh, chronology. Come on, your life is fascinating. And the paparazzi, I mentioned them."
"No, let me try," interrupted Barry. "Your dad doesn't approve your romance?" he said and she laughed.
"No, he loves Bruce. But he wasn't much of a fan of all the sex we had, always the 'USE PROTECTION' kind of dad. I bet he'd prefer I turned lesbian like V," she wondered. "Though V is not lesbian. Anyway. Yeah, it's a Wayne, but you guys need to promise not run your mouths about it, it's a secret. My plan is to figure out what to do once it's born, so," she gestured the zip over her mouth and got a few nods of agreement.
"It?" Iris echoed. "You don't know the sex yet?"
Selina hummed, trying not to look at anyone.
"Selina, have you seen a doctor?" asked Caitlin.
"I don't really trust doctors," the teen admitted, despite the fact she had just spilled a lot of info for a bunch of them. "Except one. But she's dad's ex and a real good friend of Alfred, so… yeah, no way."
"I say the same," cut the doctor seeming offended and she stood up. "Come with me, we'll take a look at this baby right now. You can't go on as you please, this is important!"
"I've been reading books," Selina said, still well sat in her chair, but everyone was standing up.
"Not an option. You have another doctor to trust now," Caitlin replied. "Now let's go."
"I'm not going to a clinic."
Wally scoffed.
"Not a clinic, silly. S.T.A.R. Labs."
[…]
Ivy Pepper didn't like Bruce Wayne and she was very good at explaining why. First of all, he was a Wayne and the Waynes were the reason why her mom wasn't around anymore. He was cute and nice, which probably revealed some personality flaws. And he was deadly rich, which – as a kid from the streets she knew – meant that, for him, everything was dispensable. Even people.
But the main reason why Ivy didn't like Bruce was because of Selina. And she said that a thousand times in a thousand different ways, the more common was the obvious.
"He's a slut," back when they girls shared a bath, as she tried to justify why Selina was better off without him anyway.
"You don't need to tell me that," the older girl had said. She knew it. And Ivy knew that she knew it, but it also made no difference, so she always had to add another argument, like
"Friends with benefits is a male invention to have a girl in their beds without having to waste money on relationship's things. Like… dates and gifts."
"You're making this up."
"Besides, the main 'benefit' is professional sex without payment. I say you start charging him. With the amount of sex you two have, you'd be the billionaire pretty soon."
"Stop implying that I'm a whore."
"You're right, you're not," she thought for a second or two. "He is. Maybe you should start paying him."
Which, well, at least made Selina laugh for a good half-hour. But also didn't keep the Brulina thing from happening, so sometimes she had to go dirty, like the first argument she ever used, back in the days when she was thirteen and Selina was trying on pretty dresses for a charity ball, right before Barbara was taken from them.
"He's gonna break your heart, you know?"
"What heart?" Selina replied that day, but her answer changed as the years passed. Last time, it was "He wouldn't do that again."
"You love him," Ivy told her one of the last times they had a fight. "He cheats on you and you love him all the same. Don't you see how damaging it is?"
"You don't know him," Selina tried to argue.
"I don't need to, Selly, don't give me that crap. He's toying you and every single girl he's sleeping with! You two can last as long as you last, but don't you think you'll be the one walking hand-in-hand with him at last, enjoying his normal rich life. Someone else will. And he'll marry someone else, leaving you to watch from the corner. You know why? Because out of this thing you two have, you are the one who ends up not getting the credit you deserve."
"I don't love him, though," said Selina and Ivy scoffed. "You're wrong."
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that and maybe it'll stop. The love, I mean. And don't think I'll be around to pick up the pieces when it happens again."
Ivy was good at hitting where it hurt best, and Selina should be used to it. In some ways she was, because she'd never let it show which sensitive spot was hit, and she was pretty tough. Stronger than last time, also. It was a fact that Selina liked to brag about how incapable of doing any harm Bruce was, but that one time was pretty bad.
Right now, things weren't looking very good either, because she was sat on a lab bed waiting to take a look at the kicker Wayne in her belly without its father with her, and for twice, Ivy was right, her heart was a little broken.
"Could you lay down, please?" requested Caitlin and Selina followed. She had asked Felicity to stay. You remind me of my mom, she had said when asked why. Not her biological one, but Babs. Selina had gone with Barbara in every scan, practically every appointment.
Cisco pushed a big screen a few feet from the bed in an angle that was good for both Selina and the doctor to see and started to type some things in the computer attached to it.
"It's a bit cold," apologized Cait, pushing Selina's wool shirt until right below her breasts, exposing her round baby bump and then she splashed some gel – cold, indeed – to poke around with the magic scan stick. "Hold on… oh, look at that!"
"Wow!" Selina exclaimed staring at the screen. When Barbara made scans, the image was yellow and weird, but this was some real technology going on, because even though it was in shades of blue, she could tell damn right exactly how her baby was. "Oh God, that's Bruce's nose. I was hoping it wouldn't have his nose."
"I doubt you care about Bruce's nose on Bruce," teased Felicity touching her shoulder. Everyone's eyes were on the screen, on its corner, some numbers and calculations were showing up as Caitlin poked the baby, getting it to show the arms and hands, legs, knees, feet.
"I don't. But poor kid with that damn Wayne nose passed down!" they laughed. "What's up with the numbers?"
"The computer is calculating the sizes and weight of your baby," Cisco explained. You're twenty to twenty-one weeks far-"
"Tell me something I don't know."
"Did you pick a name yet?" Caitlin asked instead.
"Sarah or Connor."
Cisco laughed.
"You, young lady, have awesome taste in movies."
"I know, right?" she agreed.
"Okay, so…" Cait continued. "Your baby weights 0,370 kilograms, which's a little over ¾ of a pound. He's 11 inches long, that's a big boy."
Selina let out something between a gasp and a sigh.
"He," she echoed. "Of course it's a boy," he was moving, probably bothered with all that poking, and now she could see his profile. Yep, definitely the Wayne nose. And not only that. "Look at that jaw. Damn, he's gonna look so much like his father."
"Is it bad?" Felicity asked, but before she could get any answer, the sound of a heartbeat filled the room. Connor's heartbeat. And Selina couldn't tear her eyes from the screen.
"Strong heart," Caitlin commented and the teen took a deep breath that filled her eyes with tears that she was fast to hide with her hands.
"Oh, my God," she breathed. "Oh God, what am I gonna do?"
Because, really, what a plan did she have? Give away a Wayne to adoption and risk to have him in the system she so much hated? Or go back to Gotham nine months later with a boy that dangerously looked like the richest guy of the country, be killed on an alley because of it or worst? And what about the constant 'I knew this would happen' look on Jim's face whenever he looked at her?
No, going back to Gotham wasn't even an option. And after she got pass that, what else she could do? Kelly said the Pond had her back, but what kind of guarantee was that?
"I thought you were figuring out as you go," Felicity reminded her, and the girl took a few deep breaths.
"I'm fine," she assured, even though she wasn't yet. The sound of the baby's heart was cut and the room was silent. "I'm fine."
"We're printing Connor's first photo for you," said Caitlin with a kind smile. Selina didn't know what she did to deserve such people around her. It felt like such an irony.
"Thanks."
"That's it, you had your first prenatal appointment," the doctor gave her a piece of cloth to wipe the gel off.
"The name you chose," Cisco said, getting closer. "is genius. I wish I had had kids already to think of it first."
Selina smiled and she saw Caitlin behind him shake her head.
"Don't mind him, he's a name freak," she said, opening a door that led to a room different than the one they came from. It had computers all around and looked a lot like a control room from Star Trek.
Selina knew that S.T.A.R. Labs worked with the Flash, and being there felt quite amazing. The Flash was actually one of the super heroes she didn't despise. Completely.
"You know what I'm curious about?" Felicity asked as they sat in chairs scattered around the room. Barry was on a corner looking through the GCPD files she had gave them. The actual head of S.T.A.R. Labs working on her case himself. Ivy would so freak out. "How did you get Klade to drop the charges? Laurel said he was so focused on suing you, but then just gave up."
Selina was smiling, but not the goofy kind of smile. The smile of someone who had had her share of fun and no one knew about.
"Talked some sense into him," she answered and the hacker's eyebrows went up.
"Talk? You talked Klade Winger out of something? How?! I mean, I've seen a lot of people, Oliver especially, try to reason with him with little to no success."
Shrugging, Selina spun in her chair lazily, her feet up the seat.
"Of course he couldn't. You know men with their big egos and fragile masculinity. They ain't taught how to target their fellas' weak points, that's why they think they are good at everything, even though they clearly ain't. But women are born to be ruthless. We learn where to hit from a very young age, it's just that we usually target the wrong people."
"You hit him in his reputation."
The teen nodded.
"Twice," she confirmed. "At the club and after he served me."
"Is that why he swears on his life that you were the one who stole those diamonds?" asked Felicity, making some heads snap up.
"What?" Wally asked, the only person paying attention from the beginning, since the others were trying to find a pattern on the Viper and Dorrance's drug, talking science on the corner until the words 'stole' and 'diamonds' were put together. "You stole diamonds?"
"I did not," she answered calmly.
"He was so sure," continued Felicity excited. "But they searched her, she was clean."
Selina was looking at them putting her best look-at-the-absurds-I-go-through face.
"Men are such sore losers," the girl added.
"Laurel said you almost punched the cop that was trying to open your car."
"Uh, yeah! I mean, the dude was forcing the door! They had a warrant, all he had to do was ask for the keys, I'd give them! It's a fucking legend car, you don't be fucking with it! Damn cops, man, stupid cops."
"Our dad is a cop," Iris mentioned and Selina looked at her as if asking 'So?'
"So is mine," she informed matter-of-factly.
"Laurel said you were so intimidating the cop even apologized about thirty times," Felicity told everyone. Seemed like the story amused her.
"Did they catch the reaper, though?" Iris asked, and the blonde shook her head.
"But they did managed to recover some feed."
"They?" repeated Barry with a small smile.
"Okay," Felicity admitted. "I did."
That was some interesting info Selina was accidentally getting into. She had managed to jam the signal of every camera on her way with a device planted in the heel of her boot, every step she took sent a wave of dirt through the waves of technology, cleaning her path. It was another little thing she had to thank the Pond for, she had gotten those boots almost two years before. Only enough information with it for Ivy and she to figure out what it was, what it did and how to turn it on and off.
"You're seriously going to wait for us to beg you to tell us?" Cisco asked and Felicity looked at Selina, her stare following a silent discussion until she was finally convinced.
"Okay," she chose a computer and started to furiously type. "It wasn't easy, that's some sick technology going on with those jammers and I still don't understand how they functioned, but eventually I got through a few scenes in the docks."
She hit enter and a video started to roll in every screen of the lab. It was indeed the docks of Star City and there was a dark, small figure walking in the shadows, taking guard after guard down in fragments of video until she reached the diamonds and stole way more than the job asked. It was a rather terrific job, the girl was proud of herself.
"That's terrifying," Cisco commented and Felicity put the video to roll again.
"-ly awesome, you mean," completed Wally, eyes locked on the screen.
"It's definitely a woman," Caitlin said.
"Light, flexible and lethal, from the looks of it," said Selina, trying to make herself seem impressed. In a way, she was. She was so good a reaper, she kind of felt like the Kanye West of it all.
"Well, partially lethal," Felicity corrected. "No one died. She was silent and precise, look how she movies, so feline. On the streets, word is that she said she could be called Money Driven Whore, but at the station they are actually calling her… Catwoman."
At that, Selina couldn't help but laugh.
"Catwoman?" she asked rather shocked and Felicity nodded, making her laugh even more. "Cool."
"We're working to figure out who she is, now."
"If she turned those diamonds in cash, I doubt anyone will ever be able to catch her," said Iris, her eyes on the looping video. It was exactly what the teen was thinking, but she was glad she wasn't the one to bring it up.
[…]
"You won't believe who the Penguin dropped at our door this morning!" Barbara said on the phone that same afternoon, when Selina still was at the S.T.A.R. Labs spinning in her chair, waiting for some progress on the whole Viper thing.
"Who?"
"Harleen Quinzel. I didn't see her in forever, she looks alright. He said it was a special delivery and she looked quite distressed."
"Oh," the teen mumbled unworried, playing with a stuffed cat she had bought that morning.
"He said he rescued her and she said it was all your fault," continued Barbara and Selina shrugged.
"I don't talk to the Penguin in months."
"That's what I told your dad," Babs said calmly, making the girl smile. "How's the job hunt?"
"Slow, but it's okay, I still have some money," a lot of money, to be precise, but who was counting? "No need to make any calls or anything."
"Someone donated a thousand dollars in our account."
Selina hummed.
"You can pay the gas bill now."
"Don't you want to know where it came from?" asked the blonde and Selina dismissed it.
"Mom, you know I don't ask where money come from once it's in my hands," reminded the girl and the adult laughed.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing," she said in a soft tone. Whenever Connor kicked her somewhere, she'd put the stuffed cat's paw over the spot, like when cats try to catch the laser dot. "Playing with a cat. And pretending I don't know people are talking about me," that last part was said a little louder and made the S.T.A.R. Labs people straighten their backs, caught off guard. "You know, the usual."
"Call me if you need anything, okay?" Barbara told her with that motherly voice that got so much better after Barbie was born.
"Okay, I will. Gotta go."
"I love you, baby."
Selina smiled, dropping her eyes to the floor.
"Love you too, mom," she answered before hanging up, and then looked up at the others again. "So?"
By then, the West siblings had left for work, so now it was just her with the boss, the doc, the nerd and the hacker.
"It's gonna take time," the teen assumed and got four nods. "How much?"
"At least a week," said Felicity. "to start figuring out what to do with what we have. There's a lot of stuff here."
"You do realize that a person was kidnapped and I don't want to find a body, right? And don't give me police statistics, I don't believe in them, not with this," Selina told them. "You guys are the best in the country, can't we put a little speed into it?"
There was an awkward silence for about five seconds and then they all began to talk at the same time. They did that a lot and she had to cut them.
"It's a yes or no question," and they breathed.
"Look, we'll do our best according with the work we already have to do, okay?" Barry said, stepping closer. "And I assume you'd like to participate in everything?"
"Damn right, I will. I mean, I'm not a science person, but I want to help as much as I can."
"You've been doing a great job, detective," Caitlin said behind Barry. "The things you put together will make everything easier. Perhaps you should keep doing your own research in parallel."
She was about to protest that it wasn't enough anymore, but Barry talked first.
"But at the same time, it'd be good to have you near, so we can talk whenever we need to. One of our receptionists quit yesterday and we need someone in the front desk during the afternoon. If you want, you can have the job."
Selina looked at him, eyes crisped, and put her feet on the floor read to stand up.
"Aren't receptionists the first to die in metahumans attacks?" she asked with little tact.
"Yeah, but we're heavily secured," Cisco assured. "None of our receptionists died…"
"And you're pregnant. Criminals respect pregnant people," added Caitlin, letting Cisco affirmation hang.
"Plus, you intimidated a cop," completed Barry. "I think you could intimidate a metahuman just as easily."
"It's not so hard to intimidate cops," she pointed. "But you've got a point," she thought for a few. "Will that Wally kid stick around? He's cute."
The adults shrugged.
"Probably," said Barry at the same time Cisco said "We kind of can't be rid of him."
She stood up, hands on her hips.
"I do need a job and this would be better than the last one…" the girl wondered out loud. "And I need to follow up close this conspiracy theory. So I'll say yes. Because of those things and not because of the cute guy, though he's a plus."
They all looked pretty pleased with the deal and it occurred to her that perhaps the offer was to keep an eye on her, but it was okay. She could behave for a while, as long as they found Ivy at the end. That was all that mattered to her.
