6Part II – Elevation
"The Prince followed, but could not overtake her. She left behind one of her glass slippers, which the Prince took up most carefully. She got home, but quite out of breath, without coach or footmen, and in her nasty old cloaths, having nothing left her of all her finery, but one of the little slippers, fellow to that she dropped. The guards at the palace gate were asked if they had not seen a Princess go out; who said, they had seen no-body go out, but a young girl, very meanly dressed, and who had more the air of a poor country wench, than a gentle-woman."
- Cinderilla; or, The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault
Bruce took Selina to a dinner on a gazeebo on the beach. Why would someone build a gazeebo on a beach she had no idea. It was cold and Selina was uncomfortable, her feet were already swallowing and her breasts hurt. In any other time it was nice to have a dinner just the two of them listening to the waves but the salt in the air was making her queasy, and it's the 20th or so dinner date with not proposal, she was getting tired. She have been trying to tell him that she might be pregnant but it brought her such painful memories, she haven't even got courage to do a test yet, but she knows, she knows. It should be less scary than the last time, for one her entire world isn't melting around her, and if Bruce disappeared again she would be pissed to her core but she wouldn't go mad with grief either, she was not an uneducated homeless teenager anymore. She would still find him and kill him for abandoning Helena and Dick though. Not that he was showing any signs of going anywhere, neither was his babbling, what was he even saying? Bruce could go on and on about one specific subject. Most of the time she found him cute when he was nerding about something she couldn't care less. But now he was looking at her with an weird expression. Was he saying something important? Shit, he stopped talking and was now looking hurt. Sometimes Bruce's feelings are easier to bruise than an overripe plum and no one ever accused Selina of being gentle.
He got up. Thank god! Maybe they were leaving now? All Selina could think of was being naked and comfortable in Bruce's warm fuzzy beddings with those talented hands of his rubbing her feet they were hurting so much.
She got up too, terrible mistake. She tasted the pasta she just ate with bile.
Oh no he was getting on one knee. Fi-fucking-nally. And yet he couldn't have picked a worse moment.
She tried to tell him she was going to get sick, but her hand went to her mouth, his eyes shone with happiness mistaking it for a sign of barely held tears of emotion.
He opened a little black box, she couldn't see the ring because she was trying to hold her head up as a pitiful effort to avoid the disaster looming.
"Selina Kyle, will you marry me?"
"I don't feel right." She managed with a strangled voice.
"Oh… I see."
As his tone got ice cold and he closed the box she felt her chest burst with despair.
"No, not like that… Oh god."
And she covered his half-hurt, half-confused face with projectile vomit.
oOo
"Master Bruce?" Alfred's voice answered on the second ring. He could heat the children's voice on the background.
"Alfred. I'm taking Selina to the doctor. Put the children to bed, please, there will be no party tonight."
"What happened, sir? Is Miss Kyle alright?"
"I'm not sure. I'll be back soon." He hang up and turned the car on.
"I told you I'm fine, Bruce." Complained Selina on her sit. In Bruce's opinion, she was still looking a little green.
"Well, clearly you are not." He answered dryly.
She just sighed annoyed.
"Fine."
She berated herself internally the whole way to Lee's office. She just couldn't tell him, it felt wrong, she was a coward. But also, she wanted a conformation and she didn't have one, a scientific one. Maybe they needed to see Lee after all.
She was very surprised when they got to her office. It was empty and she was finishing her shift, the receptionist left after letting them in, she didn't ask but looked disgusted at Bruce' vomit covered self.
"What happened to the both of you?" Asked Lee horrified.
"I went sick on him and now he thinks I'm dying."
"Are you?" Asked Lee amused.
"How should I know? You are the doctor!"
Lee folded her arms and gave Selina the same look she gave to Babs when she was talking back.
"Bruce, you can clean yourself in the bathroom, I might have something in my lost and found that will fit you. And you, Selina, come with me."
Selina and Bruce exchanged a look but obeyed.
"I'm pregnant again." Blurted Selina as soon as the door closed behind her.
"So you know you are not dying, then. Congratulations!"
"Yeah. Huzzah!"
Lee frowned.
"You don't want to keep it this time."
"No!" Selina's hand went automatically to her belly protectively. "I mean… It's not that. It's just…" She looked at the door.
"You haven't told Bruce, I gather."
"I didn't even take a test."
"We can take a look now, if you want."
Selina tried to shake the sensation that she was back to her old squat, teen aged and depressed.
"Alright."
"Lie down, let's make a sonogram."
Selina did what was asked and dragged her dress up as Lee put rubber gloves and set her medical gear.
"Do you think we can already see something?" Selina asked nervously biting her fingernails.
"We'll find out soon enough."
"What if you don't see anything?"
"Then we'll make a blood test. How long since your last period?"
"I'll have to see the exact date on my phone, but my purse is in the car. But I think I missed a couple. I never had a regular cycle."
Lee hummed as she applied the cold gel on Selina.
"Besides sickness what else have you been feeling?"
"Same as last time, tired. My feet are so swollen that my toes look like sausages. I can feel my boobs all the time like a woman in a trashy romance novel. I kinda want to kill Bruce too. But that's nothing new."
Lee snorted.
They made silence for a few seconds and then Lee's face lit up.
"There it is. Congratulations, Selina. You are expecting again."
"Fuck." Selina looked transfixed at the nonsensical image on the computer. "Is he, is he okay?"
"Seems to be. I don't see anything worrisome, but I'll still take blood to be sure."
"Okay… Okay…" She repeated more in an attempt to sooth herself than an answer to Lee.
"Is everything alright?" Came Bruce's voice thought the door.
Lee studied Selina with her wise dark eyes.
"Do you want me to let him in? He seems worried."
Selina sucked air through her teeth.
"Yeah."
Lee hesitated.
"Do you want me to leave and let you talk alone?"
"No, please, stay."
"Selina, what is it?"
"It's just…" A tear escaped her eyes before she could help it. "I can't help but think about last time. I want to be happy and in some ways I am but still… I feel so angry too."
"Angry?"
"Yeah. At me, for still having these feelings. At him. He should have been there the first time."
Lee put a hand over Selina's.
"I don't think he is going anywhere now, honey."
Selina sniffled.
"I know. But this kid will have so much Helena didn't. It's unfair. Am I a bad mom for thinking that?"
"No. I don't think so. You've just learned about the baby in your belly. You've loved Helena for more than a decade. You won't feel that way forever."
Selina pondered over Lee's words for a while.
"He was…" She breathed in and whipped her face. "He was proposing when I vomited on him." She let out a teary chuckle. "The kids will love this story."
Lee smiled.
"Double congratulations are in order then. You will be fine, Selina."
"I know. I'm always fine."
"Can I call him, now?"
"Yeah."
Lee held Selina's gaze for a while before calling from Bruce. He entered. Naked from the waist up, and what looked water stains on his trousers.
"Oh dear, I'm sorry. I'll get something for you to wear."
"No need to bother about me." He approached Selina's bed. Worry written all over his face. "Is Selina alright?"
"Yes, she's healthy. But she has something to tell you."
Bruce furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"Cat?"
Selina swallowed hard.
"I'm pregnant."
"What?"
"I'm pregnant. Shit, Bruce, are you deaf?"
"No, I'm just… Are you sure?"
"Well, the fucking doctor said so just now."
Bruce looked at Lee without registering her, then to the image on the computer, then back to Selina.
"We're having a baby." He said slowly. Then added "I mean, I assume we-"
"Yes, you dumdum, we are, I'm keeping it." She was crying again, those stupid hormones. "We are."
"Oh…" He breathed. "Oh Selina."
Bruce grabbed her face kissing her hard.
Selina pushed him away but she was smiling.
"I just vomited your weirdo."
"I don't care." He said against her hair, still kissing her where he could reach.
"I'll let you alone for a while."
They looked at Lee like they were just noticing her.
"Is everything truly okay?" He asked. "With the both of them?"
"Yes." Leslie smiled fondly at the two of them. "Congratulations."
"Thank you." Said Bruce, Selina just nodded.
And she left.
"How are you feeling?" Asked Bruce letting go of Selina's face to hold her hands.
"I want to go home."
His smile fell.
"Can't you really stay with me at least tonight?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I meant your place, geez. I just want to go to bed."
He grinned.
"But you called it home."
"Oh my god, Bruce, seriously?"
oOo
Bruce and Selina found Dick and Helena lying on the sofa, her legs over his thighs, sad sleepy expressions on their faces. The remains of the party that never happened around them, the askew "She said yes!" sign hanging on the wall, the rubber ribbons of ripped balloons on the floor as Helena's new crossbow lied menacingly on the coffee table, Dick's dirty face and the half eaten cake.
"I'm sorry, Sir, they refused to go to bed."
"Mom?" Helena's head shot up.
"Hi kitten. What happened here?"
"Oh thank god, you're back, you're here." Said Dick hugging Selina so hard she almost fell. Helena followed him as Selina embraced both of them.
"Easy, buddy." Said Bruce with a fond smile.
"Is everything alright?" Alfred as the first to ask.
"Yes." Answered Bruce "but we have something to tell you."
"When will be the wedding?" Asked Helena excited.
"Well" Bruce exchanged a look with Selina. "It isn't that what we have to tell you."
Three confused faces stared at them.
"I'm pregnant again." Announced Selina in an uncharacteristic shy voice.
The room exploded in questions, exclamations of joy, and Bruce was sure he saw Alfred disguise a few tears.
oOo
"Are you alright?" Asked Bruce as he entered the room, his skin steaming with the hot water from his shower. Selina was lying in the middle of the bed, limbs spread like a starfish.
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?"
She sighed and raised her head.
"You will be annoying and overprotective during this whole thing won't you?"
"Sorry." He said coyly.
She snorted.
"But are you though?"
"Not even a bit."
"Thought as much." She sighed head falling on the bed again.
"Hey…" She said after a while as he dressed himself. "Don't you have something to ask me?" She was sitting on her folded legs now, holding the little box. A half smile on her face.
"When did you get it from me?"
She just shrugged.
He sighed, her smile fell. Bruce sat in front of her, and took the little box from her hands. Opened it. It was his mother's cliché, he knew, but it couldn't be any other way. He raised his eyes to meet Selina's.
"I don't want you to think you are obligated to say yes just because we are having another baby."
Fear disappeared from her face as she laughed wholeheartedly.
Bruce stared her with his confused serious face that was so him that she wanted to kiss and punch him, not in this exact order.
"Won't you ever learn? You couldn't force me to do anything I didn't want, I've got you-"
"Wrapped around your little finger. Yeah. I'm aware. But I wanted you to be sure."
"And you didn't even know I was pregnant." Suspicion crossed her face. "Or did you?"
It was one the rare instances in which Bruce was the one giving her the "are you stupid?" look.
"How could I know that?"
"I don't know! You're freaking Batman!"
They fell silent for a few moments.
"So…" He cleaned his throat. "Are you saying yes?"
Silence.
"Selina?" He sounded a little alarmed.
"Hell! Fuck it. I am. Of course I'm saying yes." She took the ring and put on her own herself, wriggling her fingers afterwards. "Geez."
Selina squeaked when Bruce jumped on her covering her with kisses as she laughed and complained about him crushing her and the baby.
oOo
On the night before the wedding, after his duties to the city, Bruce was leaving the shower when he heard someone knocking on his bedroom's window.
"Bruce? I heard the car I know you're there." She slammed the glass with even more enthusiasm. "Who the hell locked this window? Open up!"
With his whole face frowned in confusion and annoyance he opened his window to face Selina's Cheshire cat smile.
"What are you doing Selina? We shouldn't be seeing each other! And what about the baby?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Oh not you too. And what about him?"
"You could fall!"
She leaned slightly backwards her face morphing into horror.
"SELINA!"
She snorted and pushed him away climbing inside.
"That was not funny. And very dangerous."
"Pff, please." She threw herself on the bed. "Mybedmybedmybedmybed." Despite himself he felt his lips twitching when she rolled herself on the comforter like a burrito mumbling that.
"We shouldn't be seeing each other. It's bad luck."
"Since when do you believe in luck?" The human burrito asked.
"Alfred will be mad."
"He doesn't need to know. I can climb off the window in the morning. Just like old times." The suggestive way she said the last sentence mellowed him. Bruce approached the bed, sitting next to her.
"So… Couldn't stay away even for one night?"
She raised one eyebrow mockingly.
"We do think high of ourselves, don't we?"
"I'm just concluding on what is presented to me."
"Easy Batman. I just couldn't bear the room Alfred fixed to me. It smells like mothballs. And Helena is too excited for her own good. I wouldn't get a blink of sleep in her room."
He chuckled and leaned into her.
"Whatever you say, wife." Bruce said against Selina's lips.
She reached to meet him and then pulled him close by the roots of his hair, kissing him slowly.
"I'm not your wife yet." She said huskily when they gasped for air.
Bruce kissed her again, this time more urgently, unwrapping her, his hand seeking skin touch, but avoiding the breasts he knew were too sensitive all the time now and focusing on her hips and thighs.
"Yet." He whispered in her year before nipping on it.
She giggled and tried to wrap her legs around his waist, but Bruce held her shins.
"Let's go to sleep." He commanded.
"Really?" Selina pouted.
"Really. I don't want to ruin you for tomorrow. Barbara will talk my years off if you look tired."
She made an unhappy noise that made him chuckle.
"Not fair." And she slid her hand across his chest, her pout slowly morphing into the dirty smile he liked so much as she reached inside the crotch of his pants.
"Selina." He warned.
She didn't touch him just let her wand wander around where she could feel him twitching and hardening.
"What?" She faked a confused face.
He swallowed hard.
She finally laced her warm calloused fingers around him.
Bruce let out a needy whimper.
"What? Did you say something? I can't hear you." She stroked him once. "You'll have to be louder."
"Damn you, woman." And when he dove to capture her lips Selina was smiling against his kiss.
oOo
"Hello." He said as she blinked her eyes open.
She purred softly rubbing her face on the front of his chest.
"It's today." She whispered.
"Yes." Selina felt Bruce's chest become still as he held his breath. "You can still make a run for it."
She rolled her eyes playfully as she pushed him away.
His smile fell. His eyes became sad.
"I mean it. If it's not what you really want we can still break the whole thing off."
Humour left Selina's face, she eyed him confused and annoyed.
"What are you talking about, Bruce?"
He sighed.
"I don't know Selina… You've always been so reluctant."
"I'm here, now, am I?" She snapped.
"I know. But-"
"But what, Bruce? Gosh you sometimes are so insecure. Look. The reason why I was always so against marring you isn't because of you. Despite our history. It was because I never belonged to anyone and I didn't want anyone feeling like they owned me, like I'm a thing."
"That's not how I feel about you at all-"
"I know that! That's why I said it wasn't about you! Jesus, I can't believe you are driving me mad on our wedding day."
"I'm sorry." He gave her a small shy smile.
"I hope you are."
He reached for her again, grabbing her right hand and kissing it on top of his mother's ring, his messy curls falling on his eyes. Selina wanted to punch herself over how much she was attracted to his sleep rumpled face.
"So… you're really not leaving, then?"
To his surprise she let out a laugh.
"Can you imagine if I did? The hell it would unleash?
He made a face but kept kissing her, now going down her wrist.
"I really don't want to imagine that."
"And yet you were the one bringing it up."
"No one is perfect."
She gave him a mocking gasp.
"He's becoming self-aware!"
He nipped her forearm in retaliation.
"Master Bruce? Is that Mistress Selina's voice am I hearing coming from your room?"
"Shit." She covered her head with the comforter. "What did he just called me?"
The door was slammed open.
"Good morning, Alfred." Said Bruce loudly. "It's so nice that you have the master key and can enter my private quarters whenever you feel like doing it."
"I can see you."
Selina uncovered her face.
"Oh no, I was found." She deadpanned.
"One night. You lot couldn't just follow nicely for one single night."
"Shouldn't you be happy that we love each other so much that we can't bear be apart?" Teased Bruce.
Alfred sighed shaking his head.
"I want you both downstairs for breakfast in ten minutes." And saying that he left leaving the door strategically open.
"Look what you've done, Selina. You've upset Alfred."
She gave him an insulted look.
"You were the one sassing him!"
oOo
Selina whispered to Bruce that he was weird and sappy when they met under the arch and lift her veil, because he was silently crying. Nevermind her eyes were a bit watery too, but she was pregnant so she had an excuse.
Alfred, as they learnt, had a minister's licence. What Alfred wasn't qualified to do after all?
The wedding was small, only family and close friends. Everybody praised Selina's baby bump. Jim made a tear-jerking speech. Harvey drank too much and made a fool of himself. Barbara gave everybody hell being the Matron of Honour. Helena and Babs had a lot of fun using their huge flower girl dresses to hide props to prank people with help of Dick, of course, who's dimples and curls still were their biggest weapon against getting in trouble. Bruce had to leave at one point because the rogues somehow found you about their Kittycat getting married to their sweet Brucie that they all feel like they raised from young age and they were very insulted that they were not invited.
I said I'd post tomorrow but if I don't post something it grows and grows until I lose all control.
They even managed to make me write a little bit of foreplay in this thing, innocent pure me!
The next story's chapters might start coming first on Sunday.
Take care of yourselves and make is very solitary author happy by leaving a comment.
See you soon
