The Ties That Bind Us

CHAPTER 2: Relief

Selina walked in guardedly, hanging on to her Glock on her waistband. She stepped into a large room with nothing but a flight of stairs on the far right corner. The back wall was solely made of floor-to-ceiling French windows and behind them there was a porch with long couches around a fire pit facing the ocean. She tried cautiously with her finger on the trigger:

"Is anyone home?", she purred.

Silence.

She made no sounds as she stepped in further in her high heeled boots, sneaky and alert. A cold wave was shot up her spine and she froze to the sound of someone coughing heavily upstairs. She took the gun into her hands and kept it in position in case she needed it. Walking up the stairs carefully and slowly she decided to try once more.

"Anyone out there?"

A strangled and throaty voice responded in between coughs.

"Selina... Come here."

Her heart stopped. For a split second she considered not moving and going back as if she'd never been there in the first place. But the husky voice behind the opened door at the end of the long corridor called out to her making her whole body light up, the adrenaline pumping through her veins now having nothing to do with any imminent danger. She walked briskly towards it preparing herself for what she was about to see.

The room was quiet with only the sounds of sea coming to shore. The only light was the moon coming from the window walls facing the king-sized bed. On it, a black figure shivering and trembling.

"Bruce!", she ran towards the bed putting her gun away.

"Hi," he said with a fuzzy smile, his eyes barely opened, "you came."

She sat down and put her hand on his forehead, feeling his temperature. He leaned towards it and closed his eyes. Bruce was burning hot, his face was sweaty, his hair damp stuck to his skin. Selina was shocked to see he still had his Bat suit on, having only removed the cowl which lay on the floor.

"How the hell are you alive?"

"I'm not sure I am," he mumbled, coughing after. She helped him by supporting his head and then laying him down again, "Is it night already? Why is the sun still out?"

"You're making no sense. It's night, yes," she said as he started coughing again, "You're burning hot. We should get you in the shower to try to bring down the fever and I'll try to find some meds in here."

She helped him sit up and as soon as she took her hands off him he started tumbling back into bed.

"Wow. Easy, tiger."

She put her arms around him and helped him get up, carrying part of his weight and holding his hand around her neck to stabilize him. Leading him to the room in the corner of the bedroom which she presumed was the bathroom, she kicked the door opened with her boots. He walked in and leaned against the counter, feeling exhausted already. She turned on the tap on the large granite tub and turned him around so she could help him get out of the suit.

Bruce looked like he had been dropped from a balcony only to be ran over by a truck. He had bruises of all imaginable colors on his back, and there was a swelling on his shoulders where the ropes from the pit had been tied to. Selina traced a wound on his lower back with her cold fingers and Bruce shivered. She stopped where his boxers started, unsure of what to do with them. When he looked to the side and captured her eyes in the mirror, she felt caught and immediately let go of him, clearing her throat.

"Come on, get in," she muttered, picking up his suit from the floor and hanging it by the door.

He walked slowly and she helped him down, the water still running low. She turned around and took her shoes and clothes off, leaving only her underwear on. She wasn't sure why, but she couldn't look him in the eye, and so she told him to slip forward so she could slip in from behind to wash his hair first. Sitting down on the edge of the tub and pouring water on his greasy locks, she put a bit of shampoo on the palm of her hands and started massaging his scalp with it. He let slip a sigh of relief as the hot water ran through his body and rested his head against her knees.