A/N: This picks up right after last chapter, so make sure you read that prior to this one! Hope you enjoy!
Necessary Heartbreak
Zee screamed at the sharp ring of the gunshot.
Bruce tensed.
Vivid, graphic images of his parent's murders flashed through his head as his brain tried to make sense of what'd just happened.
The bound man was now completely still and silent.
There was a bullet wound in the side of his head.
Jack chuckled darkly and jokingly blew off the barrel of the gun.
"As I was saying," he lulled at the pair of terrified teenagers, "I wouldn't be too sure that she'll be okay. After all, what if the police happened to find a murder weapon with her fingerprints all over it?"
"You're a sick son of a bitch," Bruce told him.
Jack shrugged. "Probably true. But the moral of the story: next time you fail me, the police are gonna get a present, and Zee's gonna have a one hell of a bad day. Clear?"
Bruce clenched his jaw. Biting back a response, he nodded. "Crystal."
"Good," Jack said. He placed the gun back into the box it'd came from and shut it away in the wardrobe. "Now, get out before I change my mind and kill you both," he added with a cold grin.
Bruce held back his anger. He wanted nothing more than to tackle that little shit and beat him still he was unrecognizable.
But, for Zee's sake, he knew he had to hold his temper and comply.
He took Zee's arm around his shoulders and helped her walk out of the concrete room, although he was more or less carrying her.
They got many concerned looks from other street kids as they entered the main silo of the Flea.
Bruce was starting to strain under Zee's weight, accompanied by all the injuries he'd had in the past twenty four hours. "Help," he croaked out. A couple of Zee's friends rushed forward and took her from him, helping her to a couch. Bruce crouched down so they were at eye level and he asked, "Are you alright?"
She nodded hesitantly. "Y-yeah. I'm f-fine," she stuttered out.
Bruce glanced around and noticed they'd attracted a small crowd of street kids, the younger ones straining to see over the heads of the older kids. He turned to them and yelled, "Scram!"
Most did as he commanded, not wanting to get on the bad side of the slightly infamous Bruce Kyle. However, a few of Bruce and Zee's friends stayed to comfort the girl.
Floyd Lawton, an older friend of Bruce's, asked him, "What happened in there? We heard the gunshot, and…well, we thought that Jack…" he trailed off.
Bruce nodded. "Jack was mad at me…" he paused, debating what to say next. "So, he beat some guy near to death in front of us to scare me. Then he shot him," Bruce finished in a flat tone, intentionally leaving out the part where Jack had forced Zee to take the gun, thereby putting her fingerprints all over the murder weapon.
"Why'd he take Zee then?" another girl named Zinda asked.
Bruce shook his head. "I have no idea," he responded flatly.
"It was a mind game," Zee spoke up. All eyes turned to her, and she continued, "He's scared."
"Scared of what?" Zinda asked.
"Bruce," Zee responded simply. "He's scared of Bruce."
"Me?" Bruce asked. "Why would he be scared of me?"
Floyd scoffed. "Did you not just see what all those kids did when you told 'em to scram? They went running with their tails tucked between their legs, dude."
Bruce shook his head. "So what?"
"So," Zee started, "you have influence. And when someone besides the guy on top has influence…"
"The guy on top sees a new threat," Floyd finished. "Zee is right, Bruce. Jack is scared."
"But he has Maroni behind him," Bruce argued.
Floyd glanced at Zinda. "Have you not been paying attention recently?" he asked Bruce.
Bruce shook his head. "I've been away for a while."
Floyd glanced around the Flea, looking for anyone eavesdropping. Seeing no immediate threat, Floyd told Bruce, "Rumor has it that Falcone's getting old and weak, so Maroni's started to get aggressive."
"So?" Bruce asked.
"So, when Maroni crosses the line, and I guarantee you that he will, Falcone might have to take him out. So, if Jack loses his backing by Maroni…who's to say that he stays in charge of the Flea?" Bruce could sense Floyd was starting to get excited. It was common knowledge that the Lawton Brothers had had a bone to pick with Maroni, and then, suddenly, Floyd's older brother Eddie Lawton turned up dead. There was a rumor that Jack Napier himself was the person who pulled the trigger, that Maroni had been testing Jack's loyalty.
"That's a big if," Bruce commented dryly, trying to discourage Floyd's talk of what would essentially be a coupe. "Look guys, I just got back to Gotham, and I've had a rough day. So, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go home and get some sleep."
Floyd shrugged. "Just think about it, okay? No one likes Jack, but the kids in the Narrows respect you…"
"Knock it off, Lawton," Zinda told Floyd.
Floyd rolled his eyes. "Whatever, just think about it."
He walked off, and most of the other kids did the same, sensing that Bruce and Zee wanted to be left alone.
When they were officially alone, Bruce asked her, "Are you sure you're gonna be alright?"
She still seemed a bit shaken up, but she nodded nonetheless. "Yeah, B. I'll be fine." She paused, not sure of what to say next. "What about you?" she asked.
Bruce shrugged. "I've seen worse," he told her.
Bruce noticed something in her eyes. They looked different than before. Sure, they'd always had an edge in them, which was a clear sign of a street kid, but there was something else, too.
Something new.
Bruce froze as he felt her lips press onto his. His eyes closed on their own as he kissed her back. He liked the feeling, but something in the back of his head started to scream at him that this was wrong.
After what was probably just a couple seconds, Zee pulled back and told him, "Thank you, B," before abruptly standing up and walking away.
Bruce was left there, utterly confused over what had just happened, watching her go.
Apparently, some of the other kids had been slyly watching the two, and Bruce got a lot of looks as he exited the Flea.
He didn't know where his legs were taking him.
He could've ended up at Wayne Manor, again, for all he knew.
However, his feet somehow knew exactly where he subconsciously wanted to go.
Bruce was going home.
He pushed the buzzer and a familiar gruff voice asked, "Who is it?"
"Henry?" Bruce asked.
The other end went eerily silent, but Bruce could hear loud footsteps thundering towards the door.
The door to the gym was thrown open and there stood Bruce's adopted father, Henry Grant.
Henry took one good look at the boy, making sure it was really him, before throwing a fist at him.
Stars swam in Bruce's eyes as he recoiled from the blow.
Henry dragged him inside and screamed, "Where the hell have you been?! You were gone for weeks! You could've been dead for all we knew…" his voice cracked and he stopped yelling.
Henry grabbed Bruce and pulled him into a tight embrace. Bruce could feel the man's tears running down Henry's face, slightly wetting Bruce's hair, but he didn't mind. It beat getting beat up, anyways.
Henry kissed Bruce on both cheeks and said, "I was so worried…"
Bruce saw the anger come back in his eyes and was just able to back up enough that he didn't receive the full force of his father's next swing. "Where were you?!" he demanded.
Everyone in the gym, which were only a couple guys in the ring and two guys over at the bench press, were watching the events unfold, but Bruce didn't really care. He told Henry, "I got picked up at Tin's place last month."
"Why were you there?" Henry asked.
Bruce shrugged. "I got a hold of some stuff I wanted to sell, and he was the best Fence in the Narrows."
Henry shook his head. "I'm not even going to ask how you got out, I'm just glad you're home. Now go get cleaned up," he told Bruce, returning to his usual gruff voice. "You look like something the cat dragged in."
Bruce scoffed, but did as his father told him. It sounded like Henry had assumed he'd been sent to Juvie and escaped...and Bruce was going to let him think that.
Finally, he was home and life could revert back to normal.
At least, that's what Bruce was hoping for.
Selina bolted out of the car the second Alfred hit a red light.
"Miss Wayne! Get back here!" he yelled, but Selina ignored him, sprinting through the alleyways of Gotham until she came across a fire escape.
Ascending to the rooftops, Selina breathed in the fresh, yet revolting, Gotham air, happy to be home. However, she had a mission and that was her first priority.
Granted, Switzerland was nice, but she hadn't been able to enjoy it fully. The thought of Bruce alone in Gotham for a whole month was constantly nagging at her, and even though she knew he was a street-kid, she still worried that something might happen to the boy without her there to save him.
Selina approached the first edge at top speed, craving the sensation of flying from rooftop to rooftop, something that Alfred had banned her from doing after he'd caught her climbing a chalet's drainage pipes.
The whole world seemed to slow down as she glided across the gap, not a fear in the world.
Her feet made contact on the other side and she grinned. "Home sweet home," she muttered, before starting towards the Flea.
She got some odd looks entering the building. She realized she was still wearing the petite, girly clothes Alfred forced her to wear when going out or traveling, and this time, she wasn't with Bruce to scare passersby off.
Making a beeline to the back of the Flea, she looked around for Zee, but the girl was nowhere to be found.
She asked one of Zee's friends, "Hey, have you seen Zee?"
The girl shook her head. "I haven't seen her around here in a while." The girl introduced herself as Zinda and asked, "Aren't you that girl that Bruce was hanging out with about a month ago? It's Cat, right?"
Selina nodded and asked, "Have you seen him?"
Zinda shrugged. "Yeah, I see him around every now and then."
"Do you know where he's staying?" she asked the girl.
Zinda paused, thinking. Drawing a blank, she shook her head, "No, why?"
Cat reached into her back pocket and took out a letter, asking, "Next time you see him, could you give this to him?"
Zinda took the envelope and nodded slowly. "Sure…" she paused. "Out of curiosity, are you two like – ya know – a thing?"
Selina shrugged. "No idea. So you can give it to him?" she asked, trying to return to the matter at hand.
Zinda nodded. "Sure thing, kid. Oh, and next time you come around, I'd wear something a little less cute."
Selina smirked. "Yeah, I figured that one on my own. Thanks," she said, turning and leaving the Flea to go find Alfred, who was probably worried out of his mind.
A half hour later, Bruce heard the buzzer go off at Henry's gym. Ted was in the ring, sparring like always, and Henry was nowhere to be seen, so he answered the door.
"Hey, Zinda," he greeted the blonde girl. "What's up?"
She handed him a letter. "This got dropped off at the Flea for you," she said gravely.
Bruce looked down at it and his smile disappeared. "Shit," he muttered.
"No kidding. Well, you'd best not keep the Princess of Gotham waiting," she teased. "See ya around, Bruce."
Bruce said goodbye and then closed the door, taking the envelope up to his bedroom in the loft where he read:
Dear Bruce,
I just got back to Gotham and I thought we should talk.
If you got this letter, I probably couldn't find you to tell you in person that you don't need to worry, nothing's wrong.
I figured that with everything that's happened, we should talk, face to face.
I left the study window unlocked, although I doubt you'd have a hard time breaking in without it.
Either way, I look forward to our next meeting.
~Selina~
Bruce tossed the letter onto his nightstand and laid back on his small, creaky bed.
It'd been over a month since he'd left Wayne Manor and gotten kidnapped, and in that time, a lot had happened.
Bruce hadn't talked to Zee about the kiss. It seemed like neither knew what to say in regards to it, so they both ignored the topic when around one another.
And that left Bruce in a really bad spot.
He liked Selina a lot, but knew that they could never have a serious relationship. They were who they were: Selina was a billionaire, and Bruce was street trash, plain and simple. Yeah, they'd shared a kiss, and, from what Bruce understood, it'd been her first, but was it just that? Was it just a kiss and nothing more? Besides, the longer he was around Selina Wayne, the more danger he put her in. So was him being around her just him being selfish?
On the other hand, he and Zee had grown up together. She'd been through a lot of the same crap as him and they'd been there for each other. They'd always had somewhat of a flirty relationship, but Bruce had never consciously thought of her as any more than a close friend. Then she'd kissed him, and, suddenly, he realized that he felt something more for her than he'd originally thought, something which had been dormant until Jack had woken it up when Bruce thought he was going to shoot her.
As per usual, all of Bruce's problems traced back to Jack Napier.
But, the next choice was his, not Jack's.
He could either go talk to Selina and turn her down, or ignore her all together and thereby ignore the problem, which could lead her on.
"Dammit," he swore under his breath.
"Language," someone else chided.
Bruce shot up into a seated position and saw Ted standing there, still sweating hard from his workout, which was only the second of four he'd do that day.
"What's up?" Bruce's adopted brother asked.
Bruce shook his head. "Nothing."
Ted raised an eyebrow. "Nothing? Then what's that?" he asked, nodding to the paper in Bruce's hands.
Bruce started to crumple it up. "Just a message from a friend."
"Oh yeah?" Ted asked. Like lightning, his older brother reached out and ripped the letter from Bruce's grasp. Bruce tried in vain to get the letter back from his sibling, but Ted just shoved him away offhandedly and read it.
"Who's Selina? She your girlfriend?" he asked with a teasing tone.
Bruce finally got the paper away from him. "No…"
Ted cocked his head to the side and asked, "Wait a minute, you're having girl trouble, aren't you?"
Apparently Bruce's face had gone a bit red, which was a dead giveaway, and Ted nodded.
"You could've just said something. You know," Ted started, a light smirk coming across his face, "I have quite the expertise in that field in particular."
"Oh yeah?" Bruce asked.
Ted nodded. "Believe me, I've seen it all: cheaters, clingers, prom dates that dump you at the dance because they suddenly realize that they're lesbian… That last one's a true story by the way."
Bruce snickered. "Really?"
Ted smiled. "It was freshmen year, and I legit joined the football team purely to impress the head cheerleader, Kathy Kane. When she said yes to going to prom with me, I kinda knew it was too good to be true. Anyways," he sat down on the bed next to Bruce and told him, "you can ask me anything, cause I've probably dealt with it."
Bruce sighed. "I'm kinda caught between a rock and a hard place right now," he told Ted.
"Ooh," Ted winced. "Two girls?"
Bruce nodded. "Anyways, one of them, Selina, I've only known for a little while. Meanwhile, I've known the other girl for basically my whole life…"
"Zinda?" Ted asked. "She's kinda cute, I guess…"
Bruce shook his head. "Zatanna."
"Oh," Ted nodded. He smirked, "Nice one. But go on."
"Well…I kinda kissed Selina, and…the very next day, Zee kissed me…"
Ted winced again. "That's a rough spot," he told Bruce. He thought, which Bruce suspected was remarkably hard work for him, before telling Bruce, "If I've learned anything in these past seventeen years of life, it's that the longer you wait to make a decision, the harder it becomes. It's like boxing: if you hesitate on a right jab, worried of how your opponent might counter it, your opponent will see your hesitation and left hook your sorry ass out." Bruce chuckled a bit, and Ted told him, "But on a serious note: if you want to be in a relationship with one of them, do it. If you don't, tell them. And if they get angry, and call you a manipulative bastard or a son of a bitch or a thousand other things I've been called, then, in my opinion, they aren't worth your time."
Bruce nodded slowly. "I think I get it," he told Ted. Bruce smirked. "Who knew you were actually good for something?"
Ted took a swing at him, but Bruce was already gone and running out of the gym.
Bruce arrived at the wall of Wayne Manor around noon, and scaled it, taking a good look at the mansion.
He sighed, knowing what he was about to have to do would be hard, but worth it, for both of their sakes.
He jumped down onto the grounds and made his way to the wall below the study.
The glass doors to the balcony were unlocked, just like she'd said they'd be, and he entered the dimly lit room.
Bruce looked around and saw Selina precariously balancing on a chair, trying to pin up the picture of some guy at the top of her cork board. Her back was turned to him, so he alerted her to his presence by clearing his throat and sarcastically commenting, "You're still at that?"
Selina almost fell, but was able to regain her balance after a few panicked moments. She looked back at him sternly, but her mad expression faded in an instant when she saw who it was.
"Ya know, there're taller people in this house who could to that for you," Bruce told her.
Selina shrugged. "Alfred's making lunch," she told him.
Bruce held up her letter and tossed it onto one of the couches. "I got your message," he told her.
She smiled. "I'm glad you're safe. Alfred made me go out of town. Switzerland. We have a house there."
Bruce smirked. "Of course you do." Inwardly, he yelled at himself to focus. "Why'd you want to see me?" he asked.
She blushed a bit. "We're friends, aren't we?" she asked offhandedly.
"You've been running around the Narrows looking for me, sending messages," Bruce told her. "What's up?" he asked.
Selina picked a package up from one of the futons and handed it to him. "I got you a present," she told him.
Bruce couldn't help but smile to himself. He ripped the brown paper off of it and pulled out a long, dark cloak, exactly his style, and judging by its fabric, it was probably worth more than everything else Bruce owned combined.
"The locals say that Natives used to use that fabric during the coldest seasons. You said that thing about how cold Gotham gets in the winter, so…" she trailed off.
He smiled. "Thank you."
"Also, I wanted to know if you wanted to stay here, in my house," she added.
Bruce's eyes rose from the coat to the girl's eyes. That voice in the back of his head screamed at him to accept her invitation, to live a good life with someone who gave a damn about him, to not do what he was about to do.
But, it would be for her own good.
"Why?" Bruce asked, immediately changing the mood in the room. He knew how much courage she had to have been mustering in order to ask him that, but he couldn't think about that, right then. She was thinking short term, and he had to think long term. She didn't have to think about survival, a luxury which Bruce didn't have.
"I-I figured we could help each other out," she stammered. "You can help me find the man who killed my parents, and…I can give you a better place to live."
Bruce saw his opportunity, saw her confidence slip. He knew he had to take the chance given to him. "What's better about it?" he asked, acting as though he was offended about her thinking Wayne Manor was somehow better than the Narrows.
Granted, it was better, but that was besides the point.
Her smile faded instantly.
Bruce shook his head. "Listen, kid: chill." He tossed the jacket onto the couch and said, "I came here to tell you to stop hassling me."
Bruce could feel his heart breaking inside his own chest, but he knew he had to continue.
"H-hassling you?" Selina asked, the hurt of his words evident on her face.
Bruce breathed in. Here goes nothing. "Yeah, you're beginning to bug me," he told her with a forced impassive tone.
"I thought we were friends," Selina said, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
Bruce shook his head. "Listen: I lied. I didn't see who killed your parents. I didn't see his face."
"I don't understand," Selina responded.
"I lied so I wouldn't get locked up in Juvie, so it's no use buying me presents, or sending me messages, or trying to hang out. There's no point because I can't help you," he told her in one breath, emphasizing the last four words.
The look of hurt on her face made him regret saying any of those words, but the damage was already done.
He turned away from her and walked out of Wayne Manor, not stopping until he was safely hidden in the tree line where he sunk down next to a pine.
Just before he'd reached the window, he'd seen tears start to run down her face.
He reached up to his face and realized that he'd been crying, too.
However, what was done was done.
Her life would be a hell of a lot better without him in it, anyways.
It was a necessary heartbreak.
But the thought didn't make him hurt any less.
A/N: RIP to any BabyBatCat shippers. Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, but I wanted to make sure that I did this one right. I'd kinda fallen into a slump after I posted a Pilot for another series and the response wasn't exactly what I'd hoped. I got down on myself, like I tend to do when something I do doesn't turn out right, and started to question my writing capabilities.
This chapter in particular is one of the biggest BatCat events in Season 1, and I knew that if I screwed it up, I'd regret it later on. But, I finally sat down, locked myself in my room, and wrote it, and I think it turned out well. Also, the next chapter starts with Selina's reaction to Bruce's douche move, so stick around. Anyways, make sure to Review, as any and all feedback, positive or critical (which are really one in the same), makes my day and encourages me to continue writing. Thanks for reading!
Also, if you have any ideas for BabyBatCat oneshots, PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU, either Review or Personal Message me them and I'll write it. (Although probably not on this account if it's Mature Content)
