A/N: Sorry this Chapter is coming out later than I said in my original post, stuff came up and I had no time to write whatsoever. Thank you for your patience, and here's (the long overdue) Chapter 18! Hope you enjoy!
Innocent Till Proven
Getting into Galavan's apartment proved easy enough for Bruce.
He slipped in through a window and scanned the room. There were several filled bookshelves along one wall, a mahogany desk at another end, and a particular wall was plastered in campaign slogans and pictures of Mr. Galavan smiling and looking all politician-like. It was probably his study, meaning that was most likely where he'd store anything confidential.
Bruce made a beeline for the desk. Unfortunately, all of the drawers were unlocked. Over the years, Bruce had learned that if something wasn't locked, the contents inside probably weren't too important, meaning that there was most likely nothing too controversial hidden within the drawers. However, he did stumble upon a small locked box under a false floor in one of the bottom drawers, but it was a combination lock. Bruce cursed. He'd almost brought a pair of bolt-cutters. He'd literally looked dead at them and thought 'Nah, I won't need those.' Hindsight was 20/20…
For the time being, he chose to forget the box and venture out into the rest of the apartment. As slowly and quietly as possible, he cracked open the door and peered into the dark hallways. The television was blaring downstairs and the light from it cast up into the staircase, spilling out onto the second floor.
Bruce knew he should've kept going, but he had to take a glance downstairs. Selina was down there with Sterling. He had to at least check on her.
His stomach clenched up. Downstairs, Selina and Sterling sat on the couch leaning up against each other. Sterling made a joke and while she laughed, he slipped an arm around her shoulders.
The things Bruce would do if he got his hands on Sterling St. Cloud…
But, that wasn't the mission. He'd get his shot at Sterling, just not yet. Sterling was manipulating Selina and Bruce had to be able to prove it, or she wouldn't believe him.
So, for her sake, Bruce tore his eyes away from the downstairs living room and crept down the hall.
He found another unlocked door and crept inside. It was clearly Sterling's room. School books were messily strewn about, there was a dust-covered guitar in the corner, and the bed was only half-made. Bruce made his way to Sterling's desk. He rummaged through it, but found nothing of interest, just old school-papers, a passport, a few pocket-knives (none of which were larger than Bruce's switchblade), and a couple of books.
Bruce glanced at the trash can next to the desk and something stuck out to him. Along with used tissues and candy wrappers, there was a piece of paper that looked old. Like really, really old, almost more like parchment. Bruce gingerly lifted it out of the bin and unfolded it.
It was too dark in the room to read most of it, even with his keen night-vision, but Bruce was able to make out that the sender's name was a Father Creel.
Maybe Sterling was Catholic?
Was that something he could use against him?
Probably not.
He looked at the heading. It was addressed to a Mister…
Bruce froze.
Footsteps were shuffling around down stairs. A few seconds later, he heard the front door slam. Selina had probably just left.
Bruce folded up the paper and slipped it into his jacket pocket. He needed to get out of there, too.
Bruce crept out of the bedroom and silently closed the door. He made his way back down the hall and into Galavan's study where he slipped out of the window.
He hit the streets. He knew what he had to do next…and he wasn't looking forward to it.
Bruce needed to ask an old friend for a favor, but in order to do that, he had to find him, first.
"I want to ask you a question," Galavan started. He'd requested Selina to come over to their apartment for a discussion. Sterling had told her that he apparently had something for her and that he'd seemed really excited about it. Naturally, Selina was curious, so she'd agreed. Galavan continued, "If you could have one dream come true, what would it be?"
Selina's stomach dropped. She had an answer instantly, but could she say it out loud? No. Not here, not with him. Instead, she opted for a half-truth. "I would have the police catch the man who killed my parents."
"The police?" Galavan asked, seeming surprised.
Selina swallowed and nodded. He seemed to see right through her. "Yes. I would see him tried and imprisoned, that's what he deserves," she responded robotically.
"And…" Galavan started, "what would you do if you found him?"
Selina grit her teeth and responded sharply, "Like I said, I'd see him arrested and tried."
Galavan hummed in acknowledgement, saying, "My dream? I would save this city. I would rid Gotham of corruption, crime and poverty."
Selina scoffed quietly and responded, "That sounds good. But how would you do that?"
Galavan smiled almost mischievously and said, "Oh, I have plans, schemes, ideas aplenty. But I need help. I need your help," he told her.
She nodded curtly. "Of course." She knew this was going to lead to some big twist, something he wanted from her. And given his question earlier about her parents, she had a faint idea of what he was planning to offer in return.
Sure enough, he continued, "And perhaps, in return, I could help you with your dream."
Bingo.
"How so?" Selina asked, trying to keep her face void of emotion.
Galavan chuckled and stepped back behind his desk, saying, "Selina, your family helped build this city. The Wayne name is synonymous with growth, strength and prosperity." He removed a file from a locked box in the desk and continued, "It's also a lie."
Selina raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Please explain what you mean."
He told her, "I've been investigating Wayne Enterprises for quite some time." He sighed. "I found toxic waste dumps, illegal weapons contracts, use of banned chemicals, nightmarish experiments. It can't continue. Please understand, this isn't about corruption. It's about saving innocent lives."
Selina stared at him in shock. Apparently he knew more about her company than she did… "You have my word," Selina told him, "I will look into all of it. And I will stop whoever's responsible."
Galavan sighed. "No, Selina, you won't. You can't."
Selina scoffed and leaned forwards on her elbows. "People often underestimate me," she told him.
"Wayne Enterprises is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with a board that will kill to protect its secrets," Galavan told her in monotone. He leaned forwards as well and asked, "Who's underestimating who?"
"Why are you telling me this? You obviously have a solution you want to propose?" she asked eloquently.
Galavan chuckled and nodded. "You control 51% of the voting shares of Wayne Enterprises," he told her. "If you sell me your shares, I could take control. Do what needs to be done. You would be a cash billionaire with freedom."
Selina arched her eyebrows as high as they could go. "You want my company?" she asked.
"I want to clean of Gotham," Galavan corrected her. "Protect its citizens. Return this city to what it was. But I can't do it without your help."
Selina stared a hole in the floor, piecing together her response. Finally, she looked Galavan dead in the eye and told him, "Wayne Enterprises is my responsibility. It's all I have left of them."
"I'm not just offering you money, Selina," Galavan told her. She tilted her head to the side in curiosity as he set a sealed folder down in front of her. "The night your parents were killed, you weren't supposed to be there, were you?" he asked.
Selina shook her head. "No."
"Your parents were headed for the theater. Your father changed his mind, suggested a movie. Invited you along. You got there late."
Selina paled. She stuttered, "I've never told anybody that."
"He was following your father that night. Before the alleyway." Selina's heart was racing now, she could hear her pulse in her ears. Galavan had her hooked to every word. "I'm a man of considerable resources and, even then, it took some doing. That's why I didn't want to say anything last night. I couldn't confirm it until today. If you sell me your company," he placed his hand on the folder, "I will give you this as a signing gift. This is the name of the man who killed your parents." Selina's heart dropped down to her feet. "With documentary proof. Accomplices, motives, why, how, and who. I will fix your company, protect your legacy, and give you closure. It's what your father would've wanted. And what Gotham desperately needs."
She looked up at him in disbelief, and then back down at the folder.
Two years of work trying to find out who killed her parents and the answer had been sitting in a folder in front of her for over two minutes. She wanted to reach out and sell the company right then and there, consequences be damned, but something held her back.
When she didn't immediately agree, Galavan took the folder back and told her, "I need your answer by the end of the day."
Hours later, Selina sat in the secret room below the Manor in a daze, reading her father's final address to her over and over again.
She didn't realize that Alfred had been yelling her name until he entered the room, exasperatedly saying, "Oh, there you are, Miss Wayne. Been looking all over the gaff for you." He glanced around the room and commented, "Bit dreary down here, isn't it? Fancy something to eat?" he asked.
She never moved her eyes from the letter.
Alfred finally realized something was wrong and asked, "What's up?"
"I need to ask you a question," Selina told him. "And I need your word that you're gonna be honest with me."
"I always am," Alfred replied all-too-quickly. Selina raised an eyebrow and Alfred sighed. "All right, you have my word."
"Two years…we've been researching Wayne Enterprises for two years and found nothing. You promised you'd help me, so tell me: how long do you think it will take?"
"Well, there's no set timeline. Doesn't really work like that, does it?"
"Alfred, a year? Two years? Five?"
"Well, like I said, it might take a lot longer than that for you to become the woman that taking on something like this requires. But you will get there. I promise you that."
"Yeah, well how many will suffer in the meantime?" Selina asked. "How many will die because of the crimes committed by my family's company?"
Alfred stuttered in surprise. He sat down across from her and asked, "Where is all this coming from, Miss Wayne, eh?"
Selina stood up from the desk and turned away from Alfred. "I spoke to Mayor Galavan this morning."
"And?" Alfred asked.
"He wants me to sell him my shares in Wayne Enterprises so he can fix the company, clean up Gotham."
Alfred leaned up against the desk and nodded. "I see…and what aren't you telling me?"
Selina stared at the floor. "He says…that he knows the identity of the man who killed my parents."
Alfred nodded. "Which he's offering in return for the company, right?"
Selina turned away again. "Yes."
"Yeah, well, that's not an offer, is it? That's bloody extortion."
"Yeah, well, I can't help but consider it, Alfred," Selina retorted.
"Well you shouldn't," he countered.
"It's just negotiation," Selina told him.
"There's a fine line between extortion and negotiation."
Selina shook her head. "My parents were killed because of the corruption that my father was trying to stop. When they died, so did that line. And as of now, their deaths have been in vain because I wasn't willing to cross it. But if Mayor Galavan can truly..." her bottom lip started to uncontrollably quiver, but she pushed on, "if he can truly fix Wayne Enterprises, isn't it my moral duty to allow him to do so?" she asked, finally looking at Alfred with tears welling in her eyes. "For my father's legacy?" she added.
"Wayne Enterprises isn't Thomas and Martha Wayne's legacy," he told her, standing up straight and looking her in the eye. "That legacy is standing right here."
That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Selina choked out through sobs, "Alfred, am I wrong if I just want it all to be over? I just want… I just want it to be over."
Alfred shook his head, "No, no. No, you're not wrong. Come here," he said, holding his arms out. She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his chest.
A few more hours later, Selina was in an elegant black dress and suit jacket, sitting across from Galavan with a contract between them.
"All the papers seem to be in order," Selina told him after reading over the whole packet for the last five minutes. One thing her father had taught her: always read your own contracts, especially in Gotham.
"You're making the right decision," Galavan told her. "Sign and the file is yours," he told her, nodding to the folder next to his hand in which, supposedly, the name of her parent's killer was written. She stared at the papers in her hands.
It was almost ironic.
She had to write her name on a line to finish the deal. In order to end all of this, she had to cross a line…and there it was.
She clicked open her pen and placed the tip to the paper.
She paused.
This was it, all that she'd worked for for two whole years.
All the sleepless nights avenged.
Every waking moment that she'd missed her parents.
All she had to do was write her name.
She started slowly, her hand shaking slightly.
S-e-l-i…
"Alfred!" a familiar, gruff voice yelled into the room, "get Selina away from him, now!"
Alfred moved quickly, grabbing Selina and pulling her away from the table as a SWAT team moved in. "Detective Gordon?" Selina asked in shock, but Gordon ignored her.
"You're under arrest!" he told Galavan, charging him and throwing a punch to the man's nose.
Galavan seemed to be even more shocked than Selina. Blood rushing from his nose, he spluttered out, "May I ask what the charge is?"
"The kidnapping and torture of Aubrey James," Gordon responded in a tone of satisfaction." He nodded to his partner, Bullock, and ordered, "Cuff him." Gordon and an entourage of cops escorted him out of the room.
Selina eventually recovered from her shock and whipped around to look at the table.
The document was gone. "Where…" she started, searching all around the desk for it.
She looked to her right where the fireplace was blazing brighter than before.
Her stomach dropped and she sank to her knees.
In the fireplace burned the muted orange folder, along with the contents inside.
Everything she had worked for: gone.
All the pain she'd been through: wasted.
And it was Jim Gordon's fault.
Selina crept into her father's study, cautiously scanning the room before entering. Earlier that day, she'd invited Sterling over for lunch to discuss a deal: she provides legal aid to Sterling's uncle, Sterling finds out the name of her parent's killer. Then Alfred had to butt in and kick Sterling out, but not before Sterling had slipped her a note with the address of where he was now staying.
Finally, she may have gotten a chance to escape. Alfred was across the house preparing dinner and she'd 'gotten caught trying to break out' only five minutes earlier. She'd let him think that he'd caught her and then huffed and stormed off like a stereotypical teenage girl would, and then slammed her bedroom door shut, but from the outside. She probably had about five to ten minutes before Alfred went to check on her and find her missing, so she had to act quickly.
She made a beeline for the balcony window, which was always unlocked. She took hold of the curtains and were about to open them when they ripped open on their own. She gasped and let out a strangled scream in surprise.
Standing there was none other than Bruce Kyle, himself. He had a curious smirk on his face that she normally would've loved. Right now though, she was pissed at him.
"Sneaking out to see your boyfriend, huh?" he asked sarcastically, taking a few steps inside the room, and leaning up against one of the couches.
"Bruce…" she started, anger flaring up in her chest at his nonchalant attitude. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Bruce scoffed. "Saving you from making a big mistake." Selina rolled her eyes and Bruce told her, "Sterling is bad news, Cat."
For some reason, him calling her Cat got her even angrier. She grit her back teeth and retorted, "You've said that before…"
"This time, I have proof," Bruce countered, seeming earnest. "You interested?"
She wasn't buying it. "Oh, yeah?" she asked, putting on an expression of exasperation and boredom. "Like what?"
"Well, for starters," Bruce said, tossing her the file he was holding, "his name isn't Sterling St. Cloud. It's Jean-Paul Valley, and he's an assassin."
A/N: Dun-dun-dun! The plot thickens...I hope you enjoyed and if you have any comments/questions/critiques about the story (or one of my many other projects) please make sure to review!
I'd like to give a MASSIVE thank you to thedoctor11th for suggesting I use the name Jean-Paul Valley! I would've never come up with that on my own and using that name gives me a ton of possible future story arcs, but that'll have to wait for another time ;) I think they really messed up the Azrael story arc in Gotham, so I'll probably make some changes to that using Jean/Sterling.
Also, I didn't post a Night-of-Episode-Oneshot this week (5x02) like I normally do after the episode airs because I was away on Thursday and Friday and wasn't able to watch the episode until Saturday (which meant completely avoiding Instagram and YouTube for two days in fear of spoilers). Plus I was already behind on this project and I didn't think it was worth pushing off this chapter any longer.
One more thing: I've meant for Selina's overarching, ongoing investigation into Wayne Enterprises to be a given throughout the series so I didn't have to dedicate filler chapters of the story to just depicting her research, or in canon's case: Bruce's training. I felt like I didn't communicate that enough, especially since almost every chapter so far in Season 2 had been very Bruce-Kyle-centric, and Selina hasn't gotten nearly as much time or development to herself until just now in this chapter. That will be changing a lot, especially with the next couple of chapters as the 'Son of Gotham' (or in this case, Daughter of Gotham) event takes place. Also, in the next few chapters I'm gonna double-down on the differences between my own Selina Wayne and Gotham's canon Bruce Wayne, because they are not the same person (of which I teased in this chapter a little), not by a long shot.
And this also might be my last post for another week or so. I'm just getting back into school and I had to miss on Thursday and Friday so I'm way way behind. Make sure to follow so you'll get notified because I have no idea when I'll have another chance to write. (I literally have two math assignments due tomorrow that I haven't even started yet but whatever, this was totally worth it)
I think I covered everything. If you made it this far, thanks! So, in conclusion: Thanks for reading and ciao for now!
