~Diana's POV~
I sigh, pushing my arms above my head in an attempt to stretch as I wait to be transported from the WatchTower to the 'Cave. A small whine emits from the transporter, my only warning before I materialize into Bruce's beloved Batcave, a yawn falling from my lips as I step off of the platform. I slide my duffel bag from my shoulder as I pass the elevator, dropping it beside the door so as to not forget it later before walking deeper into the cave, towards the typing I can hear coming from the giant computer.
"Hey Br-Alfred?" I reach the bottom of the stairs and see Bruce's butler swivel around to face me, offering a tired smile.
"Mistress Diana, I wasn't expecting to see you tonight. I trust your mission was successful?"
"Yes, thank you Alfred. Is Bruce around?" I glance towards the training arena and showers but can't hear anything.
"No, Master Bruce is out investigating a lead at the moment." Alfred sighs, removing his glasses to wipe a hand down his face in clear exhaustion, slouching back into his chair. This is probably the most tired I've ever seen the older gentleman.
"How's it been going?" I ask softly, knowing that all that's been going on and has been hard on both Alfred and Bruce.
Alfred opens his mouth and sits back up in the chair, placing his glasses back on his nose before his mouth closes and he looks over towards a memory box with tickets sitting inside of it.
"I worked for Thomas and Martha Wayne since before Bruce, practically since their marriage." Alfred begins, eyes locked but glazed over as he stares at the small box. "They were good people, loving and kind. When Bruce was born, their little family was complete. Oh, Martha yearned for another child, a sibling for Bruce, but she had suffered a horrible pregnancy and it was determined unsafe for her to ever try carrying again so all of her love and affection went into adoring her son." I smile, having only ever heard good things about Bruce's parents, especially his mother who he clearly loved dearly.
"Master Bruce was quite the mama's boy," Alfred gives a wistful smile. "His father wasn't around much, working constantly, so Bruce spent a lot of time with Mistress Martha. But as the years went by and Bruce got older, a certain light in Martha's eyes began to diminish. There would be times that Master Thomas would leave for certain meetings, occasionally requiring Martha to attend with him, that always put her in an odd mood. I was never able to identify it until Bruce took on his night time hobby. It was fear. But a well hidden, hard to interpret kind of fear. I believe it is the same way I feel when he goes out there to protect Gotham, knowing that there's good intentions behind it but scared for the inevitable night where he doesn't return."
Alfred pauses, lost in thought before snapping out of it and resuming. "Bruce was maybe 3 when I discovered that these meetings Thomas was going to were with dirty men. Carmine Falcone and Mayor Hill, two very corrupt people. Falcone and Hill had shown up one night while Master Bruce had been quite ill with pneumonia, battling a high fever and wanting nothing more than his mother's embrace. Those thugs showed up and demanded to see Martha as Thomas had been called to the hospital for an emergency.
"I tried to persuade them to return when Master Thomas was home as Mistress Martha was attending a sick child but they pushed past me and into the manor, stomping up the stairs and began to slam doors open looking for her. I had run after them, trying to prevent them from waking Master Bruce or breaking anything but they didn't care. Martha appeared shortly after, demanding the cause behind the ruckus. She had been a sight to behold, in full mama-bear mode." Alfred chuckles to himself. "She was furious. Her hands were cocked on her hips, face turning red with barely restrained rage, foot tapping against the floor as she glared both men down.
"The once rude men immediately backed up a few steps and had the nerves to look bashful. She demanded they leave and gave them a rough time of when they could expect Thomas to be home for a meeting. She ordered that they never storm through her house again while her child is sick, that they could send all of their nasty friends after her, could take away all of the money they had helped Thomas procure, could ruin her reputation, but that they would never take her away from her child when he needed her again." The faint smile slides off of Alfred's eyes as they drop to his hands curled together in his lap.
"After she had realized I'd been standing there and the men were leaving, she immediately grew defeated, popping her head back into Bruce's room to check on him before suggesting that she and I sat down to talk. Mistress Martha was such a lovely woman, and I could tell that whatever business Thomas was doing with Falcone and Hill was nothing she wanted part in but she loved her husband too much to leave him or to take him away from Bruce. She explained everything to me, anything she knew, confided in me and though she offered to let me find somewhere else to work if I didn't want to be a part of the family, I found myself unable to leave.
"And while I may have briefly considered it, knowing Thomas' affairs with Falcone and Hill could put the family in a bad place should something go wrong, I couldn't find it in myself to leave either Martha or Thomas but after deeper reflection, I realized I couldn't leave because of Bruce. If something were to go wrong, he'd be the one left alone. And when it was only a few years later that they were killed and Bruce was now the sole Wayne survivor, I knew I had made the right choice. And I think part of Martha was soothed by the knowledge that even though I knew that the Wayne fortune was no longer pure, if it ever truly had been, I wasn't abandoning them-I wasn't abandoning Bruce."
I place a hand on Alfred's shoulder, knowing that he has carried far more secrets than I ever realized, more of them from before Bruce was old enough to tie his shoes. It seems to bring Alfred out of his reverie and he offers a shy smile before turning back to the computer.
"You're a good man, Alfred." I offer quietly but receive only a nod in response. "I'm sorry that I haven't been able to be here for the both of you."
"You and I both know that Master Bruce will never allow either of us to become too involved. He'll feed us enough information to get us off of his back but shoulder most of it himself," Alfred scoffs but with adoration.
"True, but that doesn't mean we won't help where we can and where he'll let us." I glance at the large screen, trying to determine what exactly Alfred is looking at when it switches to an overview of Gotham.
"That's odd," Alfred mutters to himself, fingers flying over the keyboard, causing the map to spin and move.
"What's wrong, Alfred?"
"Master Bruce's suit tracker has been disabled and I can't turn it back on. It's supposed to be a backup protocol, one only I can initiate but my command isn't working. So, either he's locked me out, which I can only hope he hasn't, or something's wrong." Alfred continues typing on the keyboard but nothing happens.
"Where was his last location?" I ask over my shoulder, moving towards my bag.
"An old train depot. I lost contact four minutes ago." Alfred tells me as I slip into the showers, quickly changing into my uniform. When I decided to transport to Gotham earlier this evening, I was hoping I'd be able to corral Bruce to bed and catch a couple hours of sleep that I'm sure we both need.
"Here, Mistress Diana," Alfred stands from the desk as I exit from changing. He hands me a small earpiece, which I slip into my ear. "It will allow me to keep in contact with you. Please let me know what you find."
"I will," I promise the man, grabbing his hand in both of mine and squeezing, trying to convey reassurance while I'm internally panicking.
Dropping through a broken skylight, I carefully land beside a dead body. "I'm in and there's no sign of anyone living here."
"Master Bruce was investigating the location earlier and found a decomposing body, some chemicals, and a detonation device." Glancing around, all three of those things are still here, along with a derailed and partially destroyed train car.
"There must've been quite a scuffle." I move to look closer at the train car, realizing its cables have been blown up and must've been the cause behind the car's current state.
"Do you see anything that would point to Bruce? Any gadgets or even blood?" I make my way around the depot, looking for anything when something glints in the setting sun which shines through the open bay doors. As I grow closer to the object, I realize it's a batarang. I carefully grab it, noticing the evident dent on one side, like it had hit something hard.
"I found a batarang and-" I glance towards the metal walkways above and see two more batarangs on the walkway with blood at the other end of it. "I found a few batarangs and a couple drops of blood," I admit to Alfred, growing worried at the evidence of Bruce being here but no Bruce in sight.
"Oh dear, I don't even know where else to begin looking for him," Alfred frets.
Neither do I.
~Bruce's POV~
I groan back to consciousness after being jostled and pushed into a wall. My eyes crack open and I glance around as a person attempts to open their apartment door. The door swings open where a few cats meow loudly at our feet. The person supporting me grabs my side, causing me to gasp in pain.
"I know," the voice breathes from beside me. "Come on."
As I become more and more aware, I recognize the voice as Selina's, sighing at not being dragged around by a Child of Arkham. We stumble further into her apartment and I clumsily reach for my cowl, pressing the mechanisms behind my ears to allow it to loosen and be pulled free. I drop it unceremoniously to the floor as soon as it's off and continue to move with Selina toward the couch she is guiding me towards.
Upon reaching the couch, she slings my arm from around her shoulders and I end up falling onto the couch, managing to twist in time to land more on my back. My jaw locks and I try not to cry out at the sharp pain radiating from my side and shoulder. Selina ignores this, her fingers instead begin searching for the clasps to my upper uniform. Taking a deep breath, I sit up slightly and help her undo the clasps, trying to assist her in removing it before I collapse back against the arm of the couch.
Her fingers reach forward and even just lightly brushing against my skin causes me to flinch. She sighs, "stay here, okay? Just don't move." Selina moves away from the couch, disappearing through a doorway and I take the moment to look down. My eyes widen at the sight. Across the entirety of my left chest, shoulder, and upper arm is a very angry electrical burn. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised but I had hoped the suit had absorbed more of the electricity then it really had. I thought I was in too much pain for just a fractured, possibly broken, rib or two.
But lying here on a couch isn't stopping the Children of Arkham. While I'm laying here, they could be out formulating their next plan. "I'm fine. I just need to get back out-" I move to try and sit up when Selina pops her head through the doorway, her head gear missing but a glare firmly in place.
"That might work on your butler, but I'm not buying that crap. Stay there." I sigh, struggling to find the energy to fight the order but instead end up closing my eyes and attempting to breathe through the pain. I hear Selina moving around before the floor creaks as she walks back to me. "Shit," she curses under her breath as she kneels beside me, my eyes opening to watch her. "You're lucky you were wearing that suit. You know that was stupid, right?" I don't see her hand before she's pressing a cool cloth to my chest, causing me to try and move away from her and a deep groan to reverberate from my throat.
"What?" I grit through my teeth as she moves the rag back to the bowl before bringing it to my shoulder.
"Showing up at that train depot." She elaborates. "Taking on their leader alone. Repeat after me, Bruce: 'I am not invincible and painkillers do not solve the problem.'" She rolls her eyes. "You weren't going to take them down on your own." She reaches out to hold down my arm as I unconsciously move it away from the cold water and firm pressure.
"It's not that bad. I've been through worse," I insist, catching the scowl on Selina's face. Diana would've had a similar reaction if she were the one doing this.
"Funny," Selina deadpans. "Any worse and you'd be sent home in a body bag." She pulls the rag back to dip it into the water again only for it to come away dripping with blood. She wrings it out and tries to clean it with more water but I gasp and actually move as far away as I possibly can, which considerably isn't far. Selina sighs. "I don't think you're getting very far like this."
"Great," I growl as she pulls on my elbow to expose my shoulder to her again.
"You can stay here until morning." she offers, offering a flirtatious wink. "Feels like I owe you anyway. That's twice now. You just keep adding things to my list, don't you?" At the additional flirtatiousness of her voice, I grow wary.
"Selina-"
"I told you I don't like owing people," she cuts me off. "Probably best to lie low for now anyway. I don't want the Children of Arkham finding this place." She removes the rag before grabbing a roll of gauze. Using my good arm, I push on the back of the couch and move into a more upright position to try and assist with the bandages.
After a few moments of silence, she glances at me through her lashes. "I had it handled, you know. With their leader? I had a plan and I really didn't need you swooping in and messing it up."
It's my turn to roll my eyes. "I wasn't there to save you. I thought you'd gone back over to their side."
"You thought you were going to take me out, did you?" she taunts.
"If I had to," I admit and she pulls the next loop of bandages tighter, causing me to grunt at the treatment.
"Good luck," she smirks, letting back up on how tightly she's wrapping. "That was gonna be my ticket out of here," she admits after moving on to my chest. "One last job to get the goons off of my back. So much for that. Thanks again, Bats."
"Sorry for messing things up for you, then." I offer.
"I know. I'm used to it anyway." she glances out the window over my head. "There's no such thing as a fresh start." Just then, a Siamese cat comes out of the doorway Selina disappeared into earlier. "Well, look who's back," Selina taunts the cat affectionately as it moves to rub against her. The cat immediately begins to purr, rubbing its head back and forth with its eyes closed in contentment.
"Hi, little one," I greet quietly and the cat's eyes snap open, it's back arching as it hisses at me.
Selina laughs as she moves to scratch the cat and calm it down, having finished wrapping my chest. "I don't think she likes you."
I scoff and rest my head back, staring at the ceiling. "Yeah, well you've got most of Gotham behind you on that."
"Not most. Maybe half," she tries to joke but looks away when I lift my head back up to glare at her. "Just trying to be optimistic," she says with a shrug of her shoulders. The cat hisses at me again and Selina shoos her away, standing back up and placing the cleaning supplies on the coffee table.
"This really hasn't been your week, has it?" She moves towards a bottle of Crown which was also on the table, pouring a large amount of the liquid into two coffee cups. I push myself up to be sitting as she walks back over with the cups, handing me one as she moves to sit beside me.
"You think? I lost my company, my reputation, and I find out my father was-" I hesitate trying to find the proper words but Selina finishes for me.
"Just like everyone else." That's not what I was going to say but I don't bother trying to correct her, watching as she takes a long swig of her drink. "They've all got something to hide, Bruce. Every last one of them." She tells me after noticing the way I grew quiet. "Even the so-called 'good guys'." She gives me a pointed look but I ignore it. I'm hiding the Batman, but nothing wrong and dirty.
"So what is it you're hiding, Selina?" I try to move the topic off of myself.
"All kinds of things," she purrs salaciously. "Come on, Bruce. Even you have your secrets. Those things you hide from the world. And won't let anyone else see?"
"The difference is, my secret is to help people, not hurt them." I gesture to the uniform pieces on the floor beside the couch.
"Then you're better than most." Selina says, something bitter seeping into her tone. "You're a good man, Bruce." She then downs the rest of her drink in a few large gulps, slamming the mug on the coffee table. "But good men don't lie with thieves." I'm not lying with her, though. I have no intentions of doing anything romantic with Selina. I already have someone.
But Selina continues. "I know what I am. No noble intentions, just the thrill of breaking what they say can't be broken." She leans back, the hair that's escaping her bun tickles my forearm that I draped along the back of the couch. "Knowing there's no safe I can't crack, no fortress I can't infiltrate."
"That's not all you are. I think that's just what you want people to believe." I insist, though I don't know her very well. I take a quick sip of my drink and fight not to wrinkle my nose at the taste, setting it aside as Selina looks away.
"You put a lot of faith in someone who doesn't deserve it. I've stolen from corrupt jerks like Hill, but I've taken plenty from good people too. And for what?" She scoffs, eyes trailing around her apartment. "Some shiny new toys and a crappy apartment on the edge of town? The high is nice but it wears off. Then, you look around and see….nothing." She broadly gestures to the sparsely decorated apartment. "So you get back out there, trying to chase that feeling down."
I sit there for a moment, unsure of what to say. "I'm sure there are people there for you. You just need to look around." I offer, voice trailing off, almost like a question. I sound like a fortune cookie. But she does have Harvey, right? They're a thing? An item? So, she's at least got him and I suppose myself if it really comes down to it.
Selina looks at me, eyes wandering across my bare chest, my stomach, trailing up to flit across my face, straying to my lips for a beat longer than I'd prefer. Before I know it, she's shifting closer, pressing into my side before sliding under my arm on the back of the couch, nuzzling into me like a cat.
This is not what I meant.
A/N: I cannot tell you how much I hated this scene in the game. I know and understand a lot of people like Selina/Bruce and were probably very excited that a relationship could be started in the game. But when I played, I was cringing the whole time and selecting any option to get her away from Bruce….But hey, that's just me. I also didn't mean to have such a big section at the beginning between Alfred and Diana but I like how it turned out. Let me know what you think!
Thx!
AMM