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The last thing she remembered was the Manhattan skyline. The view from the top of a building was hard for Selina to describe, she was a thief, not an artist. but she never got tired of it. It didn’t matter what city or what height, or the latest heist she was planning to pull. If the photos wouldn’t incriminate her, she’d snap a shot every time.
She blinked, and one moment she was taking in that glorious view, the next she was flat on her ass, up against a brick wall with rain pouring down around her. Eyes wide, she looked around. There was a sound of fists hitting flesh and she saw a man in a skin-tight suit with a domino mask.
“Cat!” That was a child. A child was kneeling next to her also in a super-suit with a domino over his eyes “come on. Nightwing has this miscreant handled.
She didn’t know what was going on, but moving to higher ground was never a bad idea. The kid followed her up a fire escape and as she climbed she realized with a dull horror that she was no longer in New York. The Gotham skyline stretched out before her, darker and more menacing than the big apple.
“Robin to Oracle,” the kid peered down to the street. “Catwoman was hit with the weapon and now a separate one has appeared.”
It was then she realized that Catwoman was referring to her. What the hell had she just been dropped into?
“Oracle says we have to wait for Nightwing. Then we can go to the cave.” The kid, Robin presumably, said.
“Cave?” She kept her body relaxed consciously, but she was prepared to run at any moment. The area was familiar, vaguely. There were some newer buildings in the distance, but she was unmistakably in Park Row.
“The Bat Cave” was an answer that only raised more questions. “Oracle has said she is too busy running comms by herself to deal with this tonight”
“Good on her” a deeper voice spoke up and Selina jumped “Babs needs to learn a work-life balance”
“Nightwing” the kid hissed “we are in the field”
“Yeah and the only one up here is Selina,” he gestured to her and she felt ice in her veins. He knew her name. “Come on, let’s get the car and get this fixed before B gets back”
“Baby you have to be doing drops if you think I’m going anywhere with you,” she summoned every bit of grace she had and made her way to the edge of the roof.
“Sel- Catwoman, I know you’re probably freaked out-“ he gave a clearly practiced smile like every dirty cop and well-meaning mobster and she bolted. He was on her in an instant, blocking her path. The fight was an exhilarating blur, and that wasn’t something she said about fights often. He was about as flexible as she was, maybe a bit more, and both of them were clearly used to fighting. He bent himself in half to dodge her back hook kick and then tried to catch her leg with his. She aimed a punch at his chest and he spun to dodge. It was like dancing, but better.
Then she slipped up. He feigned like he was going to kick her head, so she ducked. He had apparently meant to lower his leg at the last moment to catch her in the ribs, but her attempt at a dodge put her head where her ribs were meant to be. She was on her side, face pressed against the roof and Nightwing was above her, frantically apologizing over the ringing in her ears
Maybe it was a side effect from getting shot by that weird gun, maybe it was the head injury, but the world began to spin around her. She didn't fight back as they lead her to a black car
- - - -
There were bats in the cave, but no Batman.
She wasn’t sure why there was a gaggle of kids in the cave though, and she didn’t know how they knew the Batman. She didn’t even know how they knew her, but they clearly did. By the time the world stabilized itself, she wasn’t about to ask. The one in the purple kept asking for heist stories while the one in the black cowl who drew her blood asked her about the drops trade and people with organized crime connections. All the while Robin played on some sort of handheld gaming console, and Nightwing flitted about the cave.
The oldest of them was clearly the one in black and blue, the one who kicked her in the head. When the purple girl and Robin started to bicker over something that sounded like it may have involved some sort of identity fraud, all it took was a sharp look from him and they both quieted. When the cowl kid started reaching for an energy drink, Nightwing plucked it out of his hands and replaced it with a soda. He seemed to alternate between checking in on everyone and straightening the work areas.
“Don’t touch that!” Cowl kid snapped and in half, a second was snatching some tool from Nightwings hand “go mess with B’s stuff, not mine!”
“Clean your workstation and I won’t have to,” he looked down, unamused.
“I can’t find anything when you mess with it though!” The kid whined. He sounded like a child. He clearly was a child. Who the hell were these kids and why were they, vigilantes? Where were their parents?
Did they even have parents?
“Bud-“ he was cut off by the beep of a machine.
“Shut up wing,” The kid in the cowl whipped out a tablet, and he presumably started reading the results.
“Well. Good news and bad news.” The kid said after a moment “good news is our Selina is fine. And the effects will wear off in like, a day. I think it’s a de-aging thing. Or possibly a timeline thing. Either way, this won’t cause the universe to collapse or anything”
She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, “that was a concern?”
“It happens more often than you might think.” Nightwing shrugged, as though that was comforting information “what’s the bad news”
“B gets back soon so he’s definitely going to kill you” he smirked and Nightwing groaned.
“Is it too late to go back to Bludhaven?” He asked and peeled off his mask. Selina could tell even with it on the man before her was handsome. He was tanned, with messy black hair. His eyes though were a startling blue. Like glacial ice. Around her, the other kids around her unmasked themselves as well. All other thoughts were put on the back burner as she tried to absorb the fact that none of the kids in front of her looked to be older than 17.
“Who’s B?” She asked, hoping against all hope they were some sort of responsible adult. Hopefully, one that was actively discouraging these literal children. What the hell was Nightwing thinking letting them all go out like that>
“Batman,” Nightwing grinned “he’s basically our dad”
“He is my father you balding-”
“He is not my dad!” the purple girl yelled over Robin's declaration. Both voices echoed around the cave and no-longer-wearing-a-cowl kid whistled lowly
“Okay… you both have strong feelings about Bruce” he plopped himself into a desk chair “now we need to figure out what we’re telling him about…” he trailed off, eyes focusing on something behind them all
“no, Tim, go on,” a new voice said from the stairway. “What are you telling me about?”
There, in the shadows, was unmistakably Bruce Wayne. He was older than she remembered, graying a little at the temples and with lines on his face. That wasn’t right. He should have been about her age. A few years older maybe, but not clearly in his forties at least. He caught one look at her and then he just looked tired.
“Dick?” he turned to Nightwing who had slowly been making his way for the cars “What was the one thing I asked you all not to do when I was away?”
“Try to track down the weird guns Wally and barry have been having issues with” Nightwing sighed “In our defense, we were just on patrol”
“A fool was attempting to mug someone with one Father” Robin piped up “Drake says Selina will return to normal in about a day!”
Bruce Wayne was the Batman. Holy shit Bruce Wayne was the Batman. It made so much sense, but at the same time, it made none. Yes, he could afford all the gadgets and whatnot. But why? Why would he dress up as a bat and start dolling out vigilante Justice? It would have been easier, safer, and saner, to just donate some of his ridiculous fortunes.
“I do have good news” Drake picked his soda can up “It is not destabilizing the multiverse.”
Bruce Wayne nodded, and then looked at her. Well, he didn’t make eye contact. Batman never did, he seemed to have his gaze focused on some point just to her left.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked, not unkindly.
“The last time I saw you, you rode out to the city limits with me.” He wasn't looking her in the eyes but she stared into his.
“So 2022,” he said easily. “That was what, two years before I took you in Dick?”
“A year or two, yeah,” Nightwing agreed. Was his name Dick?
“Hm,” Bruce nodded thoughtfully “and Stephanie, why are you here?”
“Bruce!” She gasped, over dramatically “are you saying I’m not welcome in the cave? After all these years? After all I’ve done for you?”
Bruce let out a sigh, one that contained more exasperation than words could. “You know that’s not what I meant”
“There’s this ring of guys on her campus that are roofy-Ing people” Drake answered for her “we’re looking into their high school disciplinary records before we do a sting”
“And what happened to your own computer, Tim?” Bruce sounded like he didn’t want to know.
“Someone took a potshot at me when I was at work the other day. So my Red Robin laptop got destroyed and Jason locked me out of my desktop to be an ass” Tim, apparently not Drake, sighed.
Drake industries was a Gotham-based company run by Janet and Jack Drake. Tim bore a striking resemblance to Janet. She put that thought in a box, unwilling to look at it further.
“I think he thinks he’s helping,” Stephanie grinned wickedly.
“I’m going to place one of my old capture cape things on the chair, “ He responded gravely. “He’ll slit my throat again when he gets out but it’ll be worth it just for the look on his face”
There was a lot of information being revealed and Selina was overwhelmed by it. What was going on with the family before her? Bruce must have seen the look on her face because he looked at his phone and then at the kids, plus Nightwing.
“It’s late. Everyone upstairs. “ he ordered. All of his kids rolled their eyes and made varying expressions of annoyance, but Tim minimized the program he was running on the main computer and all the kids filed up the stairs, arguing good-naturedly about some sort of Challenge.
“Do you… want to sit?” Bruce asked awkwardly. Selina took a seat in the nearest chair and Bruce sat on top of one of the newly cleaned workstations.
“I called you an asshole to your face,” she said, and she wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that.
“Yes. “ he agreed. “But you helped me pull my head out of my ass”
She looked at him, surprised “really?”
“I started being Batman as a way to help Gotham. To try to stop what happened to me as a kid from happening to anyone else. And if I couldn’t stop it, I wanted to bring the perpetrators to Justice” he explained “but I could help as Bruce Wayne too. I forgot that.”
“You what,” she tried not to scoff “ forgot you had more money than god? You disappeared for five years. At least two of those you were here and running around dressed as a bat. And despite spending all that money on renovating a cave, you forgot you could spend it to help people?”
“I was donating thousands of dollars a year to the Renewal Fund,” he said wryly “a few other charities too. Just because I wasn’t raising awareness doesn’t mean I wasn’t donating.”
“What about those kids?” She switched topics “that little one can’t even be 13. You just let them out like that?”
“I tried to stop them. I wouldn’t have chosen this life for any of them”
“You said you didn’t want what happened to you to happen to anyone else, but you’re putting children in the line of fire”
“You don’t know them. They’d be out there with or without me.”
“You’re the adult!”
“I know!” his voice echoed around the cave, bouncing off technology and rock. “I know.” The second time he said it it was softer.
“Every single time I have tried to get them to retire…” there was a haunted look in his eyes “it doesn’t go well. They go out without armor or backup. They bite off more than they can chew and sometimes they get lucky and come home. Sometimes…”
He didn’t look like he was capable of finishing his sentence. But she knew where it was going
“You lost a kid” it was a statement. Not a question.
He was quiet. “Something like that”
The silence sat between them, heavy and thick. Bruce looked at the same Tablet Tim had looked at earlier, looking at the results of her blood test.
“This should wear off by morning. “
“Should?” She raised an eyebrow
“Early afternoon at the latest.” He made his way to the stairs and she followed. As far as mansions went, Wayne Manor was actually pretty tasteful. There was no gaudy decor, nothing that noted the family was obscenely rich aside from the size of the home itself. The art was mostly photos and drawings, and a good portion of the vases looked like they were made by amateurs.
“The kids made most of them” there was a twitch of his lips, barely a grin. “Damian draws and Tim does photography. He’s got a whole dark room at his apartment”
“And the vases?”
“Art class,” he glanced at her “mostly”
She clearly knew him. Knew his kids, knew his family. It was weird to think about. The Batman had been an assholish enigma. Bruce Wayne had been an assholish recluse. But as he guided her through the halls of one of the biggest houses in New Jersey she got the feeling he changed. No-not changed. Shifted. There was a picture on a table, framed and bright. It looked like something someone had slyly taken at a holiday gathering if the lights in the background were to be believed.
Bruce sat across from an old man, clearly in the middle of a game of chess. On a couch, three boys and a girl held controllers and stared intensely at a screen out of the frame. On the floor near them, Nightwing and the little kid seemed to be fighting over a bowl of popcorn. There was wrapping paper littered around the room and a large dog seemed to have made a nest of it.
The Bruce Wayne she had grown up seeing in the papers and tabloids didn’t have a family. He had two guardians and a maid, but no family. When she compared the picture to the Bruce she knew, it was kind of sad.
“You took that one” Bruce stopped beside her “Last December.”
She didn’t reply, and after a moment, he started walking again. By the time she started trying to figure out what to do with that information, they were at a door. He wordlessly held it open for her, and she took her cue to take the guest bedroom.
******
She didn’t go to sleep, but she did wake up. Dawn came in through the window and Selina blinked a few times. It had been a while since she used her guest room at the manor.
She crept silently across hardwood halls, every creaking spot long since memorized, and she entered Bruce’s room. All the lights were on and he sat at his desk, staring at a computer. It looked like it was something to do with the company.
“Hey baby,” she said before kissing his cheek. He looked up at her and there was a twitch in his lips as he wordlessly tilted his head up towards her. She smiled and kissed his lips.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her
“I’m going to check on the kids in a bit. “ it wasn’t an answer, “ I’m sorry for bringing up Jay”
He shrugged “It’s alright. How are you feeling?”
She sighed “I’m tired. “ He wasn't about to let it go, not until she answered.
In a sweeping motion he lifted her up, and she laughed as he gently threw her on the bed. She moved under the covers and beckoned him to join her
“You haven’t slept” she insisted. He didn’t say a word, his lips just twitched upward and he crawled into bed with her. When she woke up she would check on the kids, but in the present, she pressed herself into Bruce’s side and made the active decision to go to sleep.