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Chapter 26 - Lucy

Selina felt a soft touch brush her arm. She raised her head to see a small, dark-haired girl regarding her very seriously. The little girl kept her hand on Selina�s arm, staring at her.

�Hi,� Selina said, wiping streaks of tears off her face.

�Hi,� the girl replied softly. She was four or five years old, dark hair framing a small, thin little face. Her body was underdeveloped: Selina thought she looked malnourished. She was dressed in a ragged dress which clearly wasn�t warm enough and her skin was freezing to the touch. The little girl clutched a ragged stuffed animal tightly. Selina recognized her from the group of kids who�d watched as she, Bruce and Dick had been led up to the ledge.

�You waved at me,� Selina said softly. The girl nodded.

�My name�s Lucy.�

�Nice to meet you,� Selina said, offering her hand. The little girl examined it for a moment, then shook it. �I�m Selina.�

�I�m sorry you�re sad,� Lucy said. �Miss Misery makes a lot of people cry.�

�Does she make you cry?�

Lucy shook her head. Selina brushed her hand against Lucy�s cheek, examining the child�s face. �Are you cold?�

Lucy nodded, still regarding Selina with a very serious, world-weary expression. �Are you?�

�Not really,� Selina replied. Her leather costume was warmer in the insulated environs of the cave than it was on the rooftops of Gotham but it still provided less than ideal protection from the damp. �Is there somewhere we can get you a blanket?�

The little girl shrugged. �I guess we could ask Maria. Come on,� Lucy said, slipping her hand easily into Selina�s. Selina stood, allowing the little girl to lead her out of the small cave into the wider cavern. Lucy walked with a slight limp, and Selina noted the way one of her feet turned in slightly. Bruce would know what was wrong with her, if he would break it up with Future Girl long enough to wonder what had happened to his supporting cast.

The return journey through the throng of children and young adults living in such close quarters was no less heartbreaking than the journey into the midst of the shelters. The kids still played together and talked amicably but the whole setup reminded Selina so strongly of the Glass Home for Children that she felt a little sick. She remembered the fear of night in the orphanage, how she had fought to protect herself and Maggie from the bigger, older kids. Lying awake and listening for the sound of footsteps coming over to their bunk. Or standing guard over Maggie as she ate, ready to fight for her sister�s right to a stale sandwich or a bruised apple.

She knew the same thing had to be happening amidst the shelters, whether or not Jessica�s powers picked it up. Somewhere, some little kid was going without food because a bigger kid had taken it. Or someone was loosing a place to sleep. She could almost hear the muffled sobs which had filled so many nights at the orphanage. And sense the same stalk of predators that had echoed among the bunks at Sprang Juvenile Hall.

Selina tightened her grip on Lucy�s hand, letting the little girl pull her through the maze of shelters until they reached their destination, which turned out to be a shelter comprised of a refrigerator box topped by a sheet of corrugated tin roofing. �Maria?� Lucy�s young voice piped up. �Can you give me a blanket?�

The Mexican girl emerged from her makeshift home, eyeing Selina dispassionately. She didn�t seem surprised to see one of the costumed visitors in the company of one of their own. �I don�t have one,� Maria told Lucy. Lucy took the news philosophically, turning to Selina.

�I�m really not that cold anyway,� she said. Selina frowned, looking to Maria.

�Where are my friends?�

Maria pointed to the catacombs lining the rock wall. �Take her,� she ordered Lucy, eying the girl with something close to hate.

�C�mon,� Lucy said, turning. They crossed the vast cavern and stopped before the rock wall. Selina eyed the catacombs helplessly. Short of yelling �Batman!� at the top of her lungs until Bruce emerged from one of the thousands of small caves, she had no idea how to locate him or Dick. Lucy noticed her uncertainty.

�This one,� the little girl said, pointing to the mouth of a cave to their left.

They entered the cave, walking a few feet to the back of the small fissure. Bruce sat on a pallet, a single candle burning beside him to illuminate the small space.

�We were invited to stay the night?� Selina asked. Bruce nodded, sparing only a brief glance for the small child at her side.

�We�ll start moving the children out in the morning,� he told her, his tone rough. His eyes were red, she noted, and she wondered if he�d been crying.

�This is Lucy,� Selina said, tugging the girl forward. The child stood before Batman, her curious gaze fixed on his face. She didn�t fidget or tremble with fright at the sight of Gotham�s Dark Knight, but Selina had decided that Lucy was probably the most controlled child she had ever encountered. Holly would have been terrified at her age to encounter Batman in a dark cave.

�Hi,� Lucy said, clutching her ragged stuffed animal. �You�re here to save us?�

Bruce nodded tiredly. Selina pulled off the rest of her mask, tossing it onto the bed beside Batman. She knelt before Lucy. �Where do you sleep?�

The little girl shrugged. �Wherever,� she said. �Sometimes with Maria, but she doesn�t like me much. She calls me a Sordida.�

Selina�s Spanish was a little rusty but she resisted the urge to race back to Maria�s hut and smack her for calling the little girl �dirty�. She glanced at Bruce, then turned back to the child.

�Do you want to sleep here tonight?�

Lucy nodded slowly, then asked, �do you think I�m a Sordida?�

�Nope,� Selina said immediately.

�Good,� Lucy smiled. �What�s a Sordida?�

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Bruce lay awake, his eyes on the candlelight flickering across the ceiling of the cave. Selina was curled next to him, Lucy sleeping in her arms. He was amazed by how quickly the little girl had latched onto her. Catwoman was hardly the maternal type. He wondered what would become of Lucy and the rest of the children of the Court of Miracles. Was Jessica right? Would they end up in prisons and orphanages, more victims of crime and neglect crowding the streets of Gotham? He would encounter them on patrol, he realized, these forgotten children who were locked on to a path of self-destruction laid out for them by their parents and an uncaring society. Child abuse had always been a hard issue for the Batman to grapple with. He believed that criminals were made, not born, but once they reached an age of maturity, they were responsible for their actions. He had no moral qualms about taking out a drug-dealer or a mugger, whatever their childhoods had been.

Bruce thought of Selina, sleeping so peacefully beside him. What role her childhood had played in the woman she had chosen to become. What his own had been. He found himself wondering what he would have been like if he had been born into a home of abuse and neglect. When he began to contemplate such things, his moral certainty wavered and that could not happen. He had to bring Miss Misery in. She had admitted to causing the deaths of scores of people and had forced these children to live miles beneath the earth in cramped, unsanitary conditions. She belonged in prison.

Selina sighed in her sleep, stirring slightly. Lucy rolled over, her own sleep slightly disturbed and the little girl slung an arm over Selina, brushing against Bruce. He closed his eyes. He would fix this, for all of them.

*****************

�I contacted Barbara,� Nightwing was saying as they gathered around a fire the next morning. �She�s setting things in motion with GCFS. Family Services will be down here ASAP, which means at least a week or more.�

�A week,� Batman repeated, incredulous. It was obviously time for the Wayne Foundation to make another large donation to the civil service sector.

Dick shrugged. �It�s a lot kids, Bruce.� He paused, biting his lip in uncertainty. �Are you okay?� Dick asked softly. �What she said, about me and Tim and Barbara and Jason-�

�It�s hardly a new accusation,� Bruce admitted quietly. �I�m fine, Dick.�

Dick cast an anxious glance at his father. He knew exactly what it meant when Bruce said he was fine: the subject was closed, and no, he wasn�t.

Dick sighed. �How�s Selina?�

�Angry,� Bruce replied without hesitation. �But she�s found something to occupy her time.�