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Chapter 31 - Coming Home

�Bruce needs medical attention.�

Alfred had been waiting for them in the cave, and as Selina brought the Batmobile to a stop, the butler moved forward, already opening the passenger door to examine Bruce�s injuries. Selina admired his stoicism: Alfred showed not a flicker of surprise at the sight of Lucy asleep in Bruce�s arms.

She cut the engine and climbed stiffly out of the driver�s seat, going around to the other side of the car to take Lucy from Bruce as Alfred began to help his employer from the car. Bruce shrugged off Alfred�s assistance, wavering only slightly as he cradled his injured arm and stepped from the car.

�I trust your meeting went well,� Alfred muttered sharply, his eyes narrowed in disapproval.

Selina felt the butler�s censure and shifted uneasily, suddenly aware at the disheveled appearance of her dirt-encrusted Catsuit and the grime streaking the area of her face below her mask. �There was an accident,� she told Alfred, Lucy�s head on her shoulder a strange, comforting weight.

�Apparently. Are you and the�and the child quite well?�

Selina nodded and Alfred returned his attention to Bruce�s bruised and battered face. �This is quite unacceptable,� Alfred told him. Selina left the two men to wage their battle in private.

She carried the little girl upstairs, trying to decide what to do next. Clean the kid up? Feed her something? Let her sleep? Unlike Bruce, Selina had never taken in a foundling. She had no idea what to do with a child this young. Selina finally decided on the most prudent course of action: she took Lucy into a spare bedroom off the main suite, threw back the covers and laid the little girl undisturbed among the soft cotton sheets.

She went into the bathroom and changed, cleaning as much of the past few days� grime and dust off her skin as she could. The thought of a shower was exhausting: she knew she�d fall asleep under the warm spray of water. Entering the master bedroom Selina shot a heartfelt look towards the soft white sheets with their thousand thread count but conscience forced her to pick up the phone on the beside table.

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Alfred set the bone in Bruce�s arm carefully, redoing the field splint Dick had fashioned. He had lost count of the number of times he�d done this for his charge. Every time he was required to do this, Alfred vowed it would be the last. At least this time Master Bruce hadn�t intentionally acquired this latest injury as an exercise in self-punishment.

�I take it that your evening was pleasant,� Alfred muttered, his eyes focused on what he was doing to Bruce�s arm. Bruce didn�t respond.

Alfred finished the splint and washed his hands. He began to bandage Bruce�s ribs. �If we are still keeping track of this sort of thing, you�ve broken two of your vertebro-sternal ribs and four of the vertebral ones, making a grand total of six major fractures. Most of them haven�t had time to heal after their last assault.�

Bruce grunted as Alfred tightened a bandage around his torso.

�I am growing weary of performing this task for you, Master Bruce.�

�It couldn�t be helped.�

Alfred sniffed, finished what he was doing. He straightened and snipped off the end of the bandaging, replacing everything on the surgical tray next to the medical bed. �Allow me to guess. The child followed you and Miss Kyle home?�

�We followed her, actually,� Bruce replied carefully, getting off the medical bed with a grunt. He pressed a hand to his aching side.

�And how long will the young lady be a guest at the Manor?� Alfred asked him. Bruce didn�t respond. He headed up to the manor proper. Alfred shook his head, beginning to pack the surgical equipment away.

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�Bradley,� a gruff voice answered after a few short rings.

�It�s me,� Selina said, suddenly realizing what time it was. Slam had probably gone to bed only a few hours before.

�You okay?� he mumbled, still half-asleep.

�Yup,� she replied. �See the news?�

�That was you? On all six networks?�

�Only six?�

�Yeah, the WB wouldn�t pre-empt.�

�Bastards,� she muttered, smiling against the receiver. �Sorry I woke you. I just didn�t want you up all night worrying about me,� Selina teased. �I�ll call you tomorrow. Might even stop in and say hi.�

�You do that,� he said firmly, sounding more awake. �We miss you.�

�I�ve got to go,� she said into the phone. �My love to Holly.�

With a click, the line from stately Wayne Manor in Bristol to a dilapidated old storefront office in the East End went dead. She felt Bruce behind her, watching.

�Sorry,� she apologized, then realized she didn�t owe him an explanation. Still, she continued. �He worries.�

Bruce didn�t respond, hovering near the door. His arm was in a sling; Selina noted that Alfred hadn�t plastered the arm. She nearly winced as she imaged the pain he must be in. Bruce would have refused painkillers and Alfred would have re-set the bone anyway. �How�s that feel?� she asked, rising. Bruce said nothing. He was being quieter than usual, the shock of the evening wearing off but leaving a strange stillness about him.

�What happened with Jessica, Bruce?�

He brushed past her, lying down on top of the blankets.

�Turn out the light,� he said.

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Alfred entered the next morning, faltering a little as he broke his cardinal rule and stole a glimpse of Master Bruce�s unorthodox sleeping arrangements. He�d been careful to avoid glancing at the bed in the morning before Master Bruce and Miss Selina knew he had entered the room; it gave everyone a chance to avoid embarrassment. Alfred had employed the technique quite successfully for many years when Bruce�s parents had still been alive and occupied the same room. Today was different.

Master Bruce lay on his back, his face still streaked with dirt, his hair matted and bloody, his splinted arm at an awkward angle across his chest. Miss Kyle, less dirty, her beautiful features composed in sleep, occupied the larger portion of the bed. She tended to be quite territorial about such matters.

�Good morning,� he greeted the sleeping vigilantes. They had been dozing too long. Leslie was expecting them at her clinic and Dr. Thompkins had a very busy schedule. �Rise and shine,� Alfred prompted, sweeping aside the curtains to let late-morning sunshine flood into the room.

�Alfred, you are a sadist,� Selina accused, coming awake with a yawn and a low moan as she stretched. �What time is it?�

�Eleven o�clock, Miss Kyle,� he said crisply.

�Did Lucy sleep well?� Bruce asked. Selina and Alfred glanced at him. They hadn�t known he was awake.

�The child is downstairs consuming an alarming amount of orange juice and toast,� Alfred informed his employer.

Bruce nodded. He seemed better this morning, more alert. Sadness still haunted his expression and she wondered again what had happened in his final encounter with Jessica. He sat up, his heavily-developed abdominal muscles screaming in protest against his broken ribs. Bruce went into the bathroom, Alfred trailing behind at an appropriate distance.

Selina lingered in the soft bed, listening to the sounds in the bathroom as Bruce showered and dressed, Alfred helping to pull the clothes on over his bruised body. She had almost lost him in the caves. When she and Tim had found his body in the rubble�she had thought for a moment that he was dead. Selina knew that, if she was to continue to care for him, to be his partner and his lover, she would always carry that fear. As he would for her. They were equals in that, at least. One of them would eventually lose the other through accident or circumstance. It was only a matter of time.

Bruce finally emerged from the bathroom. He�d bathed and without the layers of caked-on dirt covering his face, Selina finally saw how tired and defeated he looked. The strain and worry of their journey into the Court of Miracles had been hard on Bruce. Unlike Clark, she knew, he was a realist. Bruce couldn�t pretend that the children they had saved would really find happy endings. Batman would be facing down some of them on the streets of Gotham in a few years.

�Alfred said he found Lucy wandering the halls last night,� Bruce said over his shoulder, pausing at the door. �I thought you put her in the guest room.�

�I guess she got up,� Selina told him. �It�s a lonely house, Bruce.�

Bruce nodded in agreement, turning to leave the room without a second glance. Selina sighed, slipping out of bed and heading for the bathroom. She emerged a half-hour later, feeling much better now that she was clean and dressed in something not made out of form-fitting leather.

She had the feeling it was going to be a long, strange day.