Chapter 24 – Baby talk

Catching up with the Kents lasted well past dark, with Lois' fatigue bringing an end to it around eleven. Bruce and Selina walked their guests out to their car, waved goodbye with faces tired from smiling all night, and walked back to find Alfred cleaning up the evening's festivities.

Selina stood in the kitchen doorway, arms crossed as she regarded the butler. "You've known about Clark forever, haven't you?"

Alfred glanced up from tying off a trash bag. "There are no secrets between me and Master Bruce, Madame Selina. What he knows, I know."

Shaking her head with a smile, Selina rolled her eyes toward Bruce. "Well, I'm glad you finally decided I was worthy too."

"Yes, but it'll be at least another six months before you're ready to hear about the robots," Bruce teased.

"Robots?" she said phlegmatically.

"He means Superman's robot impersonators," Alfred chimed in.

"Oh, this I've got to hear!"

"Well, since Alfred already spilled the beans," joked Bruce. "A few years ago, Clark commissioned some robotics lab to create not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE of these things. It was before he and Lois got together, and she'd started to suspect Clark and Superman might be the same person. So the robots were to prove that Superman could be in the same place as Clark."

"Oh my word. That's diabolical!"

"As an added bonus, they were immune to kryptonite, so they could go certain places Superman couldn't. It was like his own personal army."

"Where are they now?" asked Selina.

"In a landfill scrap pile somewhere," Bruce answered. "Pollution caused their sensitive machinery to break down after several months."

"That's a shame. The Kents could have used them as babysitters!" Selina snorted at her own joke.

Alfred indulged in a laugh as he dragged the trash outside. Bruce smiled begrudgingly, regarding his wife with amusement. When the humor settled down, a pensive look crossed Selina's face.

"Bruce, can we go upstairs and talk?"


Shortly afterward, Selina was sitting cross-legged in the middle of their four-poster bed, while Bruce paced near the end of it. If he kept this up, there'd soon be a bare path across their carpet.

"…so you're saying you want a baby?!" Bruce ran his hands through his hair.

"Not right now," Selina appealed. "Just… before too long."

Bruce scoffed. "That's not very specific, or helpful."

"I – I don't have a set timeline in mind. But that's not what this is about."

"I'm confused then. You brought me up here, said the Kents' baby 'inspired' you, and –"

"No, no! I said their baby has given me – us – some things to consider," Selina corrected.

"Consider, inspire, whatever. Same difference. Either way, we're talking about having kids. Kids, Selina! Three months into our marriage."

"Listen, would you just hear me out?" she begged, exasperated. "You and I both agree that Lois' pregnancy is a huge miracle, right?"

"Definitely."

"And kind of scary for them, too?"

"How do you mean?"

"They don't know how the baby will develop, for starters," Selina sat up straighter. "And if he or she survives delivery, what sort of superpowers will they have growing up? None? A few? All of them?"

Bruce paused his agitated pacing. He was finally listening now.

"Lois and Clark have absolutely no idea what the future will bring for this child. For them as a family. But you saw them today, Bruce. They were elated! I'm sure they're aware of all those uncertainties, yet they're still overjoyed about this baby."

He looked at her, silently asking for her point.

She gave it. "I'm just saying, if the prospect of raising this child isn't too daunting for them, then what are we so afraid of?"

He knew that when she said 'we,' she really meant 'you.' What was he so afraid of. At least she was being tactful with her approach.

Relenting, he sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, half-turned toward his wife. "I wish it were as simple as you make it sound."

"Why can't it be?" she urged. "You've said yourself, you could go down to part-time as Batman. That sounds fairly simple to me."

"Do you remember No Man's Land, Selina?" he asked pointedly.

She faltered. "Um… yes?"

"It was an absolute nightmare. The worst thing that's ever happened to Gotham," Bruce said darkly. "What if it happens again?"

"You mean, the earthquake that started it all?"

Bruce stared at the wall, saying nothing.

"Bruce, that earthquake was the first one in over a hundred years! The odds of that happening again are –"

"Not zero," he finished for her.

"No, but ridiculously small! Okay, let's say the next one happens in, what, fifty years? You're over eighty years old - what can Batman do about it then?"

"Money. I'd have more influence by then, more political respect than last time."

"There's your answer. Bruce Wayne saves the day, not Batman." Shifting closer to him on the mattress, Selina laid her arm across his upper back. "Don't you see, Bruce? You'll be a hero until your dying breath, wearing that costume or not. You'll always have the means of saving people."

None of her words were false. He couldn't deny any of it. But she didn't understand… because he still hadn't told her…

"There's something else," he said through gritted teeth. "Something I found just before our wedding."

Plodding over to the closet, he emerged with the small brocade box he hadn't held in three months.

"Those aren't ugly baby photos of you, are they?" Selina tried joking. "Is that the real reason? You were an ugly baby, and you don't want to pass that on?"

"No, Selina. This is serious." He pulled out the journal and handed it to her. "Open it at the marked page."

"Diary of Thomas Wayne… oh, this was your father's!" Selina exclaimed. Bruce watched closely as her eyes scanned the page, lips faintly moving with each line. He knew the moment she recognized Vincent and Carmine's names. She looked ill, clearly just as troubled as Bruce had been upon digesting the story.

"Do you remember that night?" she asked, handing the notebook back in disgust.

"Vaguely. And I had no idea who was involved. Until now."

"Wow," Selina breathed. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I don't really know what to say."

"Do you see why it's harder than ever for me to willingly leave Gotham unprotected?" he implored. "Knowing that my own father contributed to the crime lords' strength? How can I not spend all my able-bodied years trying to rectify that?"

Selina didn't feel ethical arguing against that, not after just reading Dr. Thomas Wayne's unnerving confession. And so she let Bruce's rhetorical question hang in the air, respected but unresolved.