The Ties That Bind Us

CHAPTER 12: Mission

Warning: EXPLICIT CONTENT [+18]

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The following couple of months Bruce and Selina had had some changes added to their pace and routine. She had decided to take on some freelance jobs with the secret French intelligence agency—although they wouldn't tell her their name; while Bruce was still obsessing over Fox's death, even though everything pointed to it being an accident. He wasn't one to ignore his instincts, though.

They would still train fighting every day and weren't taking it easy on each other anymore. There was a lot of buildup from being pulled out of their perfect bubble and into the real world again, and they used that time to relieve that. Selina practiced on her strength and Bruce on his agility, still trying to compensate for his wounded knee.

She had already gone on three missions, one in Stockholm and two in Barcelona. All of them were concerning stolen items such as documents and archives, one being an actual pair of diamond earrings that was previously being held as evidence against a serial killer in Bordeaux. They had all been a piece of cake for her, the longest trip having taken a little less than two weeks, and the shortest four days.

Miss Dupont, although she'd never seen her in person, was the only one she actually had contact with. The woman was extremely satisfied with her work, especially when she saved them months and a lot of money worth of operations. Selina had requested to keep herself anonymous at all times, stating that she would not take part in any of the follow-ups or trials that may happen after she helped them put their work together. Dupont agreed without hesitation, assuring her that her identity was being kept secretive; and Selina believed it, because the woman didn't even know her real name wasn't Selina Dyer, although she probably suspected it wasn't—not that that was a problem to her.

She had been usually working under the mask of her alter ego, but had made a few adjustments just in case someone recognized her by chance. Although she found it to be highly unlikely, images of her had been screened all around the world during the Gotham occupation, so if there was even a tiny possibility of that happening, she wanted to avoid it.

Bruce had been more tranquil since her first trip, which had been the most stressful week he'd had in a long time. He'd always known that she was extremely good at what she did, and self-sufficient at sometimes even an excessive level, but he couldn't help but feel distraught watching her going against probably some of the worst criminals in European mobs. But since then, the idea had already been settled down better in his mind. He couldn't deny her survival skills and instincts were significant, and like she'd said once—she was a survivalist, after all.

Waller probably would've referred Bruce as well, and he would've been working alongside Selina; but she knew chances were Selina would only take the job if it was for her alone, because if it had been addressed to both of them, Bruce would've likely talked them both out of it, and if she offered it only to her, he wouldn't have a say in it. Also, that was a minor pretext, because she would've referred them both right away had she thought he'd want to take part in any of that. But after so many years, she knew the Batman would want to remain dead, and Bruce to keep in hiding, since he'd also be too easily identified.

And so he tried to spend most of the days he was alone focused on keeping track of events in Gotham that stood out from the normal criminal scenes. If until a few months earlier he'd avoid the news at all costs, now he'd been studying it thoroughly practically every day. Selina knew he thought she hadn't noticed that, but he wasn't exactly being too discreet about it. Since Fox's death, Bruce had been nervous about the lack of information and investigations on it, and since he could not get in direct contact with Blake, he'd been getting all the scoops from Alfred, whom he suspected did not tell him everything.