Chapter 30

"You don't get that I might've just saved your life!" Selina raised her voice over the usual hustle at Gotham General. She didn't want to have to babysit Tabitha, but she didn't trust her to keep away from Barbara. Tabby had only followed her as far as the hospital before making some lame excuse to split off from her. With the need to keep an eye on Tabby, Selina had considered abandoning her attempt to visit Bruce. After all, the last encounter they had wasn't particularly pleasant, and she wasn't sure if it was still going to be awkward with him. But she figured she owed him that much just to check that he's alright. Anyway... it'd been six months since the fight under the bridge, and to risk a pun - it should be water under the bridge. She shuddered just thinking about how long he'd been gone to god-knows-where.

"Fine, you saved me," admitted Tabitha, unhappy with the arrangement, yet she still followed after Selina for the moment. "But you can't expect me to just hang around you and twiddle my thumbs. Even if I can somehow put aside Butch getting shot in the head, half of that club still belongs to me. How long do you expect me to keep away?"

"Till we can get this figured out. We'll find a way to get back what belongs to you, Tabby. Just give it time, and let me deal with this first." Selina turned to the lady at the information counter who welcomed her with a polite smile. "Hi there. Can you tell me which room Bruce Wayne is in?"

The lady's smile slipped as her focus shifted to Selina's leather getup. "Erm... we've instructions not to let just anyone in."

"I'm not just 'anyone'," she replied, a little offended by the lady. "Bruce and I are friends."

The lady looked away and cleared her throat intentionally as she whispered, "Yeah right," under her breath. "You should come back some other time, miss. Bruce Wayne is in a secure ward that is only open to friends and family."

Tabitha laughed from where she was standing, didn't seem to care about helping Selina with her problem. Selina glared at the lady behind the counter, feeling tempted to smack her in the face when she noticed a huge, elaborate wreath of flowers on a wooden stand, making its way through the lobby, with the words "Get Better Soon - from all of us at Dechert & Paxton LLP" plastered on the front. She recognized the name from billboards around the city - they were a reputable law-firm, at least, according to them. A big name law-firm sending an expensive wreath of flowers to someone upstairs could only mean a desperate attempt to impress.

Selina grabbed Tabitha's hand and whispered to her, "Follow that wreath!" Tabby hadn't a clue what plans Selina had up her sleeve, but decided to follow just out of curiosity.

Picking up the pace, they managed to slip into the elevator that the delivery guy had entered, just in the nick of time. "Which floor?" he peeped out from behind the wreath.

Selina stole a glance at the number panel and saw that the twelveth floor was lighted up. "Twelve," she responded nonchalantly.

The delivery guy smiled, particularly at Tabitha, "What a coincidence, we're going to the same floor."

Tabitha noticed the attention and rolled her eyes.

"What a big wreath you have," Selina commented mid-way up to the twelveth floor.

"No kiddin'. Not cheap either, but these law firms would move the heavens to get a contract with a company as large as Wayne Enterprises."

"Hmm... Wayne Enterprises, you say?" Selina caught Tabitha's familiar grin, just as she slammed a fist into the face of the delivery guy. He hit the wall of the elevator behind him and folded onto the ground.

Just moments after, the elevator door opened to the twelveth floor. The lighting was dimmer on this floor than it was on other floors, and the wards were preceded by a lavish second lobby surrounded by lots of glass paneling, wood flooring and high-end seating. Both ladies picked up the wreath as they stepped over the man on the floor, and entered the lobby, waiting till the elevator door, together with the unconscious man, shut behind them before they carried on through the lobby. "Delivery for Mr Bruce Wayne," Selina announced to the nurses behind the counter.

They barely spared Tabitha and her a glance before pointing the way down the west corridor. "Fifth door to the right," said one of them. Selina peered down the west corridor and noticed the fair number of elaborate wreaths and bouquets already lining the corridor. "No flowers in the ward," warned the nurse. "Leave the wreath outside."

Selina nodded quickly, and moved to the fifth room down the corridor. Tabby and her put the wreath down beside the others, and Selina went ahead to open the door to the ward.

Within the huge glass paneled ward, surrounded by three large television screens, three nurses surrounded the only bed in the middle of the room, a cop standing watch just a few feet away. They turned apprehensively when she entered, the cop reaching for his gun. She froze in place, not having expected to receive such a reception. "No visitors allowed," said the cop, moving towards her.

Bruce looked up from the bed, his face was rife with thin scabs and bruises, and he had a respirator on - one that he tore away quickly. "Let her in," he said to the cop.

The cop turned to him in protest. "But Mr Wayne, doctor's instructions..." The nurses nodded in agreement.

"Need I remind you all that Gotham General receives annual donations from my company," he told them firmly. "Should I speak with your supervisors?"

They traded anxious glances, the nurses relenting first. "If Mr Wayne wants to have a visitor, he should be allowed," one of them said, the others agreed almost immediately.

The cop initially hesitated, then decided to negotiate for a compromise. "Maybe just one visitor instead of two?"

Selina turned to Tabitha. Tabby shrugged. "Whatever, the seats look comfortable outside anyway. I'll see you later," she turned to leave.

Bruce placed his attention on the nurses. "The three of you too," he said, then to the cop, "And him."

"But Mr Wayne, we aren't done..." argued one of the nurses.

"You're done when I say that you're done," he told them stubbornly.

They seemed uncomfortable with the proposition, but more afraid of him than they would risk their careers for. Obediently, they shuffled out, including the cop, who right before he left said, "I'll just be outside if you need me, Mr Wayne." And the door shut behind them, leaving Selina alone with Bruce.

She laughed at the thought of Bruce bossing those adults around. It rarely occurred to her how influential he might be in society. He was always just plain o' Bruce to her. "That was pretty cool... what you did," she said, motioning towards the shut door.

"Selina," he said, looking intently at her. "I didn't expect you to come. I didn't know if we were still on speaking terms."

"Are we?" she said with a smile, moving closer to him.

"I'd like to be," he replied quietly. "Thank you for coming."

She plopped herself down on the edge of his bed, noticing for the first time that one of his arms was wrapped up in a cast. The other arm was bandaged up to the elbow. "What the heck happened to you, Bruce?"

"A lot," he said with a mild chuckle.

It suddenly occurred to her that Five looked exactly like Bruce, and she never knew where he went after that fight in the Wayne Manor. She stood up from the bed, cautious not to be fooled again. "You are Bruce, aren't you?"

"Ah... Alfred told me about that encounter you had with Five. Guess we all got fooled by him."

"Wait, before we go on," said Selina, still cautious. "Tell me something only the real Bruce Wayne would know."

Bruce smiled as he mimicked Selina. "Have you ever kissed a girl?"

She laughed in response, thinking to smack him playfully for his poor imitation - then deciding against it due to his current condition. "I can't believe how lame I was back then," she said in embarrassment.

"We were both lame," he replied. "But we were kids, so we're excused."

She returned to the corner of his bed, elated that her friend was back. And that their fight was, at least for the moment, resolved. Six months ago, she'd determined to stop speaking to him, but she'd never really felt at peace in regards to the whole situation. Sure, he'd got her in a susceptible position to be hurt by Maria, again. But deep inside she knew he'd meant well, in his own odd twisted way. "So that arm," she inquired, pointing to the one in the cast.

"Dislocated, but it'll be fine soon," he replied. And when she continued to question with her expression, he carried on with a brief explanation, "I fell."

"And everything else?" she asked, waiting for a more in-depth explanation.

Again, he kept it brief. "The fall."

"So..." she said, suddenly feeling awkward about him holding back with her. She couldn't understand it - he was so warm one minute, only to be cold the next. "Where were you for six months?"

"Tibet."

"Tibet? Why? Who took you?"

His expression tightened, and his eyes went shifty. She remembered when he'd last been like that - when he was trying to hide Five from her. "Selina, I'm really sorry but I can't talk about it."

She stood up. As much as she enjoyed being with Bruce, she couldn't seem to shake that side of him that would occasionally keep her locked out. She wondered if he knew how much stuff like that annoyed her. "You think you're trying to protect me again. Haven't I already told you that I can protect myself?"

Bruce pushed himself up into a sitting position. It seemed to take quite a bit out of him to do that. She only then noticed the beads of sweat running down the side of his temples, and the thin whistle out of his nostrils. "I don't mean to fight. Let's not do this," he told her, already looking exhausted.

Selina remembered the respirator that he had removed when she'd entered. She pointed to it, "Do you need to put that back?"

"I will, later."

"Why do you need it anyway?"

He picked up the respirator and held it in his hands. "I came back from Tibet with a mild case of pneumonia, but I'll be fine."

"Let's see," she wrapped her arms around her chest and looked at him. "You spent six months in Tibet, goodness knows how you got there in the first place. Then... something that you won't tell me. And then you fell, dislocated your arm. Oh and now you have pneumonia. But all in all, you'll be fine. Did I get that right?"

He let out a laugh, though it sounded more like a sigh. "That pretty much covers it. Are you mad?"

Selina widened her eyes in sheer disbelief that he would ask her that question. She wanted to storm out of that room in anger, but something bid her to come to terms that that was a Bruce Wayne trait that would probably never change. He'd always want to protect her, even if it came down to her own disadvantage. "Nah," she said after some thought. "Why would I be mad over some dumb little thing like that?" She lied about not caring, even though she did. But she figured it wasn't exactly worth losing their friendship over.

Bruce smiled appreciatively at her, then leaned back in his bed.

"You'd better get some rest. I have to go look for Tabitha."

He nodded slowly, holding the respirator to his face as his lids started looking droopy. "Thanks again for coming, Selina."

"Sure, get better soon Bruce."

Then she left his room to search for Tabitha. But Tabby wasn't on the seats on the twelveth floor like she'd said. And when she got down to the first floor, she found a bunch of hospital staff standing over the still unconscious delivery guy, looking through his wallet to figure out his identity and why he'd passed out in the elevator.

A quick sweep of the place told her Tabitha wasn't on the ground floor either. There was a high chance that Tabby had gone to confront Barbara after all, just in the few minutes she'd allowed herself to be distracted.