With a small smile at Martha, he got up, patting her shoulder gently before leaving the bedroom, and Martha took a deep sigh, glancing at every corner that had a little memory rushing through her head as she cried silently, and decided to distract herself by taking a shower...She felt dirty from that man's hands and foul presence, and she can feel a twinge of pain around her neck as she got a scarce bruise thanks to the pearl necklace.
She went to the bathroom, quickly stripping, and took the shower, her tears falling with the shower as she then cried out loud since the water muffles sound, barely finding the automatic motions to wash her hair, her body, and such.
After she was done, turning off the scalding warm water, she hesitated before taking a deep breath, and then went to look into the full-size mirror on the back of the bathroom door, her eyes widening as she realized that her breasts had somehow grown a size more, looking plumper than ever, and her body has become slightly more muscular, and as she turned around to check out her assets from another angle, including her ass, she was suddenly grateful to the other one for saving her life, her son, and her hopefully conceived baby as there was slight bruising of small spots over her belly here and there as the gun didn't aim in the same spot every shot, but it was damn terrifying to realize that even if the other one somehow swatted or something, one of them might have made it, if her skin was not impenetrable as she caressed her belly, replying softly, biting her lip, but followed her son's advice in maybe reaching the other one somehow by his logic, "Thank you...If you can hear me right now...if you understand, it was a bad thing to kill, but not a bad thing to protect the family...You did a bad thing for a good reason...".
She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and thinking. What Alfred and Bruce said before... but what if this sort of thing wasn't controllable no matter what? If she could get a sign that maybe this... other side, could actually maybe be reasoned with, then... she shook her head again.
No, safest thing might be to get whatever this was treated somehow. That was the most surefire way to keep things from getting any more out of hand. She looked back in the mirror before she practically froze on the spot as she suddenly found herself staring face to face with her other self.
Martha was speechless as the other one looked back at her curiously and calmly, obviously naked too, suddenly looking very attractively upgraded than herself, somehow fitting the full-sized mirror of the door, just barely.
Martha couldn't deny; this emerald version of herself practically was a walking goddess as if the old Greek deities were real, it almost surprised her how much deep down, she kinda liked it. She shook her head again as she saw the other half do the same. Martha slowly reached a hand closer to the mirror and the emerald being did the same. "O-okay...", Martha whispered. "Is... is this real?", She asked. "Or is it because I've been up so long, I'm starting to hallucinate?".
The green half still looked at her with more of a curiosity; the look on her face was one of confusion and almost a sense of being lost; almost newborn like in a way as it reminded her of those days when Bruce was first born. Maybe it was like what happened to Martha when she blacked out; was this other side now trapped inside the darkest corners of her mind? Just waiting for the chance to come free again?
Martha replied, "Can you understand me?", and the green half looked at her with a little confusion, and said the only thing she was able to say, "Thomas?", in a soft, rumbling, sad, lost voice, her eyes looking around as inside the darkest corners of her mind, ever since she was created in that painful situation, she barely knew that her human half is almost always with Thomas and Bruce, trying to understand every day of what things meant, and that the green half enjoyed the rare instances of extreme emotion she saw in her small window like being extremely happy and content in Bruce's presence, like being extremely safe in Thomas' embrace about sad, bad things, like being extremely embarrassed after being extremely aroused that time, and having the instinct to protect her new family like a alpha female, with Thomas being an alpha male in her eyes, as her and her human half's mate, and that Bruce is their child, their offspring, their boy-pup.
Martha took a deep breath. Okay, maybe it was a hallucination, but she wasn't going to doubt anything if it actually worked in any sort of way. "Thomas... he's... he's not with us anymore.", Martha started to tear up. "He's dead...". The response she got was the creature having a look of pure rage on her face that almost frightened Martha to her core. Was that the last thing that killer saw? There was a loud roar before the creature smashed against the mirror. Martha thought the glass was going to shatter but while it looked like the glass vibrated violently, there was no sound, no thud, no sign that the impact even existed.
She then saw tears in her green half's eyes as she looked even more lost, and Martha went to sit down, and the green half followed her action, almost touching their knees together.
The green half rumbled, remembering what Martha said earlier as she was trying to call her out, and tried to talk, "Family not real good...Me want Thomas real...not dead...", with a whimpering sniffle.
"Okay... you... can talk... sort of...", Martha took another breath as she was staring into those green eyes. "Alright, I'm... I'm sorry, I want Thomas too, but... can't change it now... we're still here. I actually am only still here because of you.".
Martha motioned her hands again as once more, her opposite mimicked them, even if the face didn't match. A thought crossed Martha, "Bruce... do you know Bruce?".
The green half nodded, "Bruce son, offspring, boy-pup! Bruce here?", worried about Bruce, and Martha gave her a reassuring smile, "Yes, he's here at home, in his room, sleeping...He..he had a rough night but thank you for protecting him...He misses Thomas too...What do you mean by boy-pup?".
"Bruce son of Thomas, alpha male. Thomas mate to us, alpha females. We mates to Thomas, alpha male. Mates make offspring, boy-pup, and maybe new pup?", the green half tried to explain.
"Alphas... pups... okay, sounds like some sort of wolf pack like mentality there.", Martha nodded as she leaned back a bit. Then suddenly a word hit her, "Wait, new pup?". She then looked down at herself and quickly cupped her belly, "No... no way that she could know...".
Could, could it be possible? After how much trouble they had before with Bruce, after everything, was she perhaps carrying again? If so... the sheer shot to the heart of it all, being happy of perhaps having another child, but now Thomas was gone and would never be a part of their life.
The green half rumbled, "New pup strong because me here protect. You not dead because me...me did bad thing for good reason...Pack, family be protected. We protecting family...", and Martha looked up at her, seeing her other half doing the same, gently cupping her belly, looking fierce, determined, and all...
"Martha name-mate mad at me? Not happy with new pup?", the green half asked in confusion when she saw Martha's emotions flashing across the human half's face.
Martha sighed. Part of her really thought she was losing her mind, that maybe none of this was real, that the bullet struck her and put her into a coma or something. But... right now, she just had to carry on due to how real it all still felt which was probably the case, even if her whole world got upended and turned upside-down.
"No... I... I'm sorry, I am but... Thomas... just... I need time to grieve... to mourn for Thomas.", Martha said as she then took a deep breath, "Bad thing for good reason...". Martha had a more determined look on her face. "You... you won't come out again until I want you to, will you? I... I need time to still wrap myself around all this... I need some sleep.".
"Sleep... talk dreams?", her green half asked as Martha had a small smile, "Yeah... we can mourn our mate Thomas together there.".
Her green half nodded with a small smile, "Yeah, sleep...Mourn together...Thank you...understanding me.", and Martha replied, "Of course. You're very welcome.", before getting up, leaving the bathroom and hesitated for a moment before opening Thomas' cabinet closet, and tears fell as memories came of Thomas wearing that shirt or those trousers, as she dug up a worn, yet well-loved t-shirt and sleep pants for her new figure, smelling them deeply, and then got into bed, grabbing Thomas' pillow, and she then screamed, crying and sobbing in grief, not too loud to scare anyone else in the manor as she clutched into the pillow, furrowing into the empty side of the bed that will be forever cold without Thomas, slowly falling asleep.
She barely noticed her green half meeting her in her dreams as she held Martha gently as they grieved, mourning together for Thomas while talking a bit here and there barely.
"Mistress Wayne?". Martha slowly started to wake up upon hearing the knocking on her door as well as Alfred's words, "Mistress Wayne, are you alright?".
"Y-Yeah!", Martha shouted as she slowly opened her eyes and reached over, hoping to feel Thomas... but felt nothing. "Come in...", she groaned as Alfred slowly opened the door.
"Good morning, ma'am... it's... it's almost 11. I thought you could use your rest especially after yesterday.", Alfred responded. The wheels were quickly re-turning in her head.
"Thomas... he... wasn't a dream...", Martha spoke slowly as Alfred sighed, walking up to her with a breakfast tray and the Gotham Globe. 'THOMAS WAYNE MURDERED IN ROBBERY: WIFE AND SON SURVIVE', the front page said. "Thomas...", she whispered as she pushed the paper away while trying to get the sleep out of her eyes.
"I'm sorry, ma'am... I thought it might be best you at least saw that headline; try to keep reality and dreams from confusing you.", Alfred explained as she gave a small nod. "Thank you, Alfred... I... yeah, that's right. That's probably wise. How's Bruce?", she asked.
"Still in his room, up, but not talking much. We talked a bit, but he was mostly just asking why that man did what he did. I wish I could've truly given him an answer.", Alfred said with a heavy sigh.
Martha felt both a moan of dismay and a growl in her head slightly, and she then remembered last night, or rather this very early morning...She replied to Alfred, "Could you see to tell him to come in a while when he's ready? I...did he have nightmares?".
"No, ma'am, but I expect sooner or later, especially with the funeral in a couple of days...", Alfred sighed deeply, "After all, even if he's a growing young man now at 8 years old, this is...is bound to cause some things to traumatize him.".
Martha sighed, "Did...anyone hear anything from my room last night?", and Alfred shook his head, "No, all the staff was asleep with only the night security guard at the gates awake. How...how are you feeling, Mistress Wayne? You don't look too good...pardon my rudeness.", noting with sadness that Martha is wearing Master Thomas's favorite faded clothes, probably in a desperate action to at least feel something, have something close to her.
"I had a long night...", She sighed. "Um, Alfred...", she took a deep breath. "You might think I'm crazy for saying this, but... I was having a bit of a talk with 'her' in the mirror after I was done in the shower... what you said and all before, along with Bruce. I don't know still, but maybe I was being a bit quick with the idea of a straight up cure to things.".
"You're contemplating perhaps... trying to control this other side of yours?", Alfred asked. "Control, cooperate, whatever works well, I guess, in both our cases. All I can remember when I fell asleep was like this white void, she was there... and I was in her arms, I think, as we just wept for Thomas.", Martha sighed deeply as she went to play with her late breakfast.
Alfred asked in slight surprise, "Truly? Sounds like she's definitely part of you, and even if it was a short stint of several weeks for her, while it was 10 years for you, she deeply cared about you and Thomas...".
"She did...She is sort of like an adult and a newborn at the same time...She was enraged when I told her that...that Thomas is gone...then she just looked lost, heartbroken like me, that was when I realized that she wasn't a monster when she asked for Bruce like a worried mother, like me...She just looks different, that's all, a alter ego of me, you could say...", Martha explained.
"But still a savage one, am I correct?", Alfred asked as Martha nodded. "Yeah, I'm still worried if left to her own devices, the destruction she could cause if there's nothing tethering her. If she didn't see Thomas... who knows just what would've happened.", Martha sighed. "The funeral?", she decided to turn her attention back to what was much more present.
"I'm already helping take care of some of the arrangements, obviously, I'll need your approval with many things... and of course, not to mention there's a lot of legal hassles that will come.", Alfred said as she nodded. Obviously, she was aware of that, but the legal stuff could take a backseat. At least after Thomas was buried.
"Alfred, if you don't mind having a bit more on your plate; I'm going to need a bit of a wardrobe update.", Martha said as she got out of bed and stood up; her sleep pants fell down, but Thomas' shirt was long enough to keep Alfred from seeing her underwear.
"Ma'am... are you taller?", Alfred asked as he suddenly noticed it. Alfred was a full 6 feet and had to just slightly look up to Thomas, but with Martha, he had to look down quite a bit, now, she was almost a few inches shorter than him.
"Turning into her and then coming back left some other side effects... I'm bigger... in more ways than one.", Martha nodded with a blush.
Alfred nodded, "Ah, I understand...Do you want me to get one of the staff seamstresses?", and Martha nodded with another blush as she sat back down, pulling up the sleep pants, "I would really appreciate that, Alfred, thank you...".
"Of course. Enjoy your late breakfast, ma'am.", Alfred replied before turning around on his heel, and went to the door, opening it, and he looked back, "And I will tell Master Bruce to come in when he's ready, after the seamstress's done with you, and your breakfast eaten.".
Martha smiled thankfully, nodding as she began to eat her late breakfast, and Alfred smiled, relieved at least to see her eating as he knew Master Thomas wouldn't have wanted her to starve, even in mourning, and closed the door, leaving the bedroom.
Martha took a deep breath as she looked down on herself and almost wanted to laugh for a second at the thought of it all with that last moment. Maybe she should've asked Alfred to do it since one of the staff might ask questions.
She then shook her head. Like they would make any sort of connection. Rare growth spurt she could perhaps claim or just something with a bit of age. She then took a deep breath and started to eat.
A couple of hours later, Martha felt better after wearing the first adjusted and customized set of clothes, with the staff seamstress taking the other clothes to adjust and such, while leaving Thomas' clothes for pajamas at least during her time of mourning.
She looked over some things of the arrangements that Alfred had given her, at the table where she and Thomas had shared so much in intimate memories and working memories of teamwork on Thomas's chair job.
A knock came, with Bruce's voice, "Mom?", and Martha replied, "Come in, darling!", and the door opened, Bruce side-stepping into the room, closing the door, and Martha smiled at him gently, tucking the papers away, "Do you want to talk, or just want to see me?", not going to push him until he's ready.
"Are...", Bruce stopped for a second. "Are you okay?", he asked her, as he slowly got closer to her. "I mean... I know you're probably sad too, but...", he bit his lip. It was one thing to ask her about how she was doing in regard to losing a husband, but there was her other issue on top of things.
Martha sighed deeply, opening her arms, "Come here...", and Bruce came closer, climbing a bit of the chair, and sat into Martha's lap as her arms embraced him just like last night..
"I can't promise that I'd feel completely whole again without your father, but I can promise that I am not leaving you...Yes, it hurts to feel heartbroken without your father as I loved him very much...both of us did...", Martha spoke softly as she kissed his hair, tears falling.
