Chapter 28 – Visiting Hours

From the moment everyone heard Dr. Filger's recommendation to visit Bruce often, a schedule was drafted. The collaborative effort was inspiring; each day featured several half-hour shifts, some tandem, others individual. Accommodating Bruce's rest times and rehab sessions, virtually all available visiting hours were being utilized.

So it wasn't terribly surprising when Bruce's memories rapidly began unearthing themselves.

For now, Bruce's brain was stuck at almost a year and a half ago, shortly after Dick's adoption. Thankfully, that meant Selina didn't have to explain their mutual identities, nor the contentious first half of their relationship. Bruce remembered all of that fine. He just needed to proceed on to their engagement and marriage – the happy ending.

Yet, how happy was their ending, exactly? She couldn't even honestly say they'd reached it yet. Or that they ever truly would.

Besides, she had yet to reveal that his memories were only half the equation now. Thank goodness those memories were returning as swiftly as they were, or she'd be forced to reveal more before they were both ready.

It had been one week since he regained consciousness, and Bruce's mind was still stuck at last summer, when they received Clark and Lois' wedding invitation. The Kents reassured her that it wouldn't be long now, since Bruce had proposed to her shortly after seeing that invitation.

Late that afternoon, Selina exited his room wearily, the strain of keeping a poker face quite evident. She was exhausted. Four months of his coma, and now this. She feared it would be another four months before he was back up to speed, and by then…

Alfred and Dick pulled her aside as the Kents entered for their shift. "I know how difficult this must be, Selina. But we have to trust the process," said the butler.

"That sounded great a week ago," Selina looked down, shifting the bag on her shoulder. "But what if he stays stuck like this for another week? Or another month? Or –"

"That's enough borrowing trouble," Alfred held up a hand. "You know that if it goes on too long, I will step in and tell him the rest."

She looked stricken. "The shock of that will probably put him in another coma!"

"Now, don't exaggerate the situation..."

"I don't think I am!" she defended. "Alfred, there's no way he'll –"

Her plaintive words were cut short by her phone ringing. Not recognizing the number, but loathe to ignore it in case it was one of Bruce's physical therapists, she answered it.

"Hello?" Her eyes darted back and forth, pinching slightly as she listened. "Yes, this is Selina Wayne. What did you say your name was again?"

Alfred watched in quiet curiosity as her expression went from perplexed to pale with shock.

Selina missed her scheduled visit the subsequent morning. Alfred messaged Bruce, informing him not to be alarmed by her absence. But given Selina's usual punctuality, it was difficult for Bruce to feel otherwise.

Is she sick? he'd sent back to Alfred.

No.

An appointment?

No. As I said, she's just very tired. She'll try her best to come later today.

Bruce frowned at Alfred's words. Maybe she's tired from carrying that huge bag everywhere she goes, he wanted to write back. Sighing, he set his phone down on the bedside tray. Getting upset over one missed visit wasn't going to provide any benefit.

When she finally arrived at her four o'clock slot, he beamed. Yet the troubled look on her face stole any joy from the moment.

"Everything all right?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Um…" she swallowed, nervously sitting down. Were her hands trembling? He hadn't seen her like this since the day he'd woken up. And even then, she'd seemed less anxious than now.

"Selina, whatever it is, just tell me," Bruce entreated.

"I… after I… left your room yesterday, I got a phone call."

"Okay."

She stared at him hard. "From my father."

"Your father?" he repeated, astonished. "I thought you said both your parents were dead?"

"My adoptive parents are."

Bruce's bed could have dropped three floors down and he wouldn't have noticed. "You were adopted?!"

"Apparently," Selina quipped. "First I've heard it too. So I figured we could go through the shock together for once, instead of you getting all the surprises."

"Generous of you," Bruce acknowledged.

"You may not feel that way after I tell you who my biological father is."

Her serious tone unnerved Bruce. Whatever this was, it was big. "Better tell me and get it over with then. Like ripping off a band-aid."

Gripping her tote bag until her knuckles turned white, Selina complied. "Carmine Falcone."

She wasn't joking. From what he knew of her, she wasn't one to fabricate something of this magnitude.

"That's awful, Selina." Bruce's eyes threatened to bore a hole straight through her. "I'm sorry."

"At first, I refused to believe it. I thought someone was pranking me. But then all the pieces started adding up, and I just… couldn't deny it anymore."

Bruce heard the resigned agony in her voice, saw the undeserved guilt haunting her eyes. "How do you know for certain it's true? I mean, how'd he even find you?"

Her face only turned more distraught from his questions. "That's the thing, Bruce. The thing I've been waiting to tell you, hoping you'd remember on your own."

"Selina, I know what Dr. Filger said, but if it's causing you this much anxiety… just tell me."

Realizing a better chance would probably never come, Selina decided to take it. Her hands were definitely shaking now, Bruce observed as she reached inside her satchel. Moments later, she presented him with a newspaper clipping.

"Our wedding announcement," she said flatly. "Carmine and his wife, Louisa, saw it in the Gotham Gazette and recognized my name. There's a lot more to the story, but that's all I can handle telling you right now."

For a brief yet infinite amount of time, Bruce held the article in his hands, feeling the fragile thinness of the paper. The black and white photo showed him holding a grinning Selina, dressed in the finest wedding attire Gotham had ever seen. Rings were visible on each of their left hands.

Their faces, the caption, everything looked authentic. Yet not one atom of it looked familiar to Bruce.

"I am so, so sorry to force all this on you," Selina lamented. "If it hadn't been for Carmine's call, I would have waited, but –"

"What were you waiting for?"

"…what?"

Though his face was inscrutable, his voice was firm. "You shouldn't have kept this from me."

She was speechless. When he finally drew the courage to look up at her, his eyes were misty.

"Whatever is real, I want to know it," he professed. "No more stalling, no more secrets. Please."

Selina's mouth felt as dry as the desert, yet somehow she moved her tongue to speak. "All right. No more secrets."

With that, the large tote bag she'd religiously held in front of her the past week fell to the floor. Behind it was her distended, pregnant stomach.

"I found out the day after you went into a coma," she informed Bruce, whose jaw was practically on the floor. "And if you're thinking I look farther along than five months, that's because it's not just one baby. It's twins."

Take it, leave it, love me, hate me... I wrote what I wrote, with many more chapters left in store!