#but always being able to tell when jeeves is sad and working really hard to cheer him up

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

Of note in "Bertie Changes His Mind"- just noticed that for all Jeeves's expertise in ~the psychology of the individual~, he actually displays a failure of emotional intelligence at the beginning of the story. He's noticed that Bertie has been moody for the past few days, but attributes it to his having been sick lately, and is surprised by what he thinks is a sudden outburst. He evidently failed to notice any signs of sadness or loneliness building up to it, despite a later scene where he says Bertie's face is easy to read (in this scene Bertie's emotions are intense and pretty easily inferable from context clues, which probably helped).

I feel like this indicates that Jeeves might have trouble reading people's subtler emotions. I doubt he'd be able to derive someone's entire mental state from a minute eyebrow twitch the way that Bertie can. This would support my general theory that Jeeves uses his study of psychology as a crutch to compensate for poor social skills-- he's carefully observed and memorized the way people who are feeling a certain way will react to different stimuli, but he has to know how they're feeling first. Which might be troublesome for him, and somewhere where it would be interesting to see him and Bertie teaming up.

[pandoraimperatrix]

Four Names for Love

Gotham | BatCat | BabyFic | Multi-chapter | Read on AO3

Summary: When Bruce parted ways with Gotham he was leaving behind more than he thought. Meanwhile Selina is trying to find a way to herself after being abandoned again and on top of that she finds out she was left with a lot more than a heartbreak.

——————————————————————————

More 5th season missing scenes before going back to the plot.

 Eros part III

 Bruce woke up alarmed when he heard the squeak of the window opening, he grabbed the knife behind his pillow, but was relived when it was just Selina. She had a little trouble closing the window again, it was old and kept getting stuck.

‘Didn’t you say that you would be staying with Barbara tonight?’

‘She fell asleep at like, nine, if you think regular Barbara is weird you don’t want to know pregnant Barbara. I have never seen her go so many days sober since I first met her when she was still normal.’

Bruce sighed, head falling back on the pillow.

‘How is she holding up?’

Selina sat on the bed to unzip her boots.

‘She won’t say it but she’s sad. She really loved Tabitha. But I think it would be a lot worse if it wasn’t for the baby.’

‘I see what you mean. At least she seem to be taking care of herself. And how are you doing? I know you cared about her too.’

Selina turned to look at him over her shoulder. She had a soft smitten smile on her face.

‘I’m fine, Bruce.’

‘Come here, then.’ Said him reaching for her.

She chuckled, taking off her gloves.

‘Eager, aren’t we?’

Selina let escape a tiny whelp when he grabbed her by the waist, forcing her to lie down with him.

‘Bruce! Let me take off the jacket first.’

‘You were taking too long.’ He complained childishly against her hair. ‘It’s cold.’

‘You were doing just fine before I got here.’ She said making no effort to sit up again.

‘I was in fact not. I was freezing. Now I’m so much better.’ He kissed her exposed neck.

‘You wouldn’t last a day on the streets.’ Said Selina purring.

‘I remember lasting more than that when we were kids.’ He gave her a little bite.

‘That’s because I was there to take care of you.’

‘Well, you can keep doing that by keeping me warm now.’

She couldn’t stop the giggles bubbling out of her, but pushed him away nonetheless.

‘Lemme take off the jacket and the pants first.’

He sighed the most dramatic sight of all time but finally let her go. Selina disposed of her clothes throwing them in the floor and getting an annoyed look from Bruce to which she responded just by giving her best cheeky grin. They never really discussed about her sloppiness, but he would make this passive-aggressive comments sometimes that had the complete inverse result that he expected. Sometimes he even wondered if she was trying to start a fight out of nothing to see what he would do, as if he was to leave her over a misplaced hairbrush and her clothes usually looked better on the floor anyway.

Bruce held the covers up for her to get in, and when she was finally where he wanted he pulled her close again.

‘You really aren’t cold?’

‘A bit.’ She confessed rubbing her face on the front of his pyjamas purring. After a while she looked up to him, eyes like dark pools. ‘Wanna know a fun way to keep warm?’

They met in the middle for the kiss.

   She helped him undress his jacket first.

‘Can you lift your arms?’

‘Yeah.’ But he winced when he did it, clearly in pain.

She helped him with the turtleneck too.

The cut could’ve been worse she concluded. Then she reached for the first aid kit under the bed, searching for the antiseptic and the gauze to clean the wound. He flinched when she touched the cut.

‘Sorry.’

‘Not your fault.’

Her hand shook.

‘Selina? Are you okay?’ He asked worried.

‘But it is my fault, isn’t it? If I had killed him that day nothing of this would happen.’

He grabbed her chin pulling her head up.

‘None of what happened today is your fault, Selina.’

‘He blew up your house, Bruce. Hurt Alfred. Almost killed Jim and Lee… Made you relive that awful night. Just because I can’t do anything right.’

Bruce slid his hand from Selina’s chin to her cheek, rubbing her skin with his thumb with affection.

‘I’m happy you didn’t kill him. I’m glad he didn’t make of you a killer.’

She sighed pulling away from his touch.

‘I’ve killed before, Bruce.’ She said going back to tend to his wound.

‘That was different. He was trying to kill us.’ He justified.

Selina had a very tired and very annoyed expression when she looked up to him again, her jaw tense.

‘And Jeremiah isn’t always trying to kill us?’

He didn’t answer, but held her gaze until she broke it and, in silence, finished bandaging him.

‘Here, done.’

She then stood up.

‘Where are you going?’

‘The Sirens.’

‘Selina, no… Look, we’re both tired. Just come to bed.’

She really wanted to fight, maybe that was how she dealt with frustration, how she managed her sadness, by covering it up with anger. But when she saw at how miserable Bruce looked, how easily she could have lost him that day, she felt all the will she had to fight give in to this heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t want to go the Sirens, she didn’t want to feel better by getting shit-faced, she wanted to cuddle Bruce, wrap herself in his warmth and his smell and feel safe from psychopath clowns and the senseless violence of that god forsaken city.

And that was what she did.

 Gordon was giving one of his motivational speeches, Selina was bored. She decided she liked him much better before the marriage, when he was miserable, the speeches were a lot shorter back then. She looked at Bruce up and down, his head was turned forward, like he was paying attention. He had such a juvenile admiration for Gordon. It was cute. Not that she would tell that to either of them.

Her hand crawled behind the seam of his shirt, for once it wasn’t a damn turtleneck, it was a little warmer but it was still Gotham, he kept the jacket. His skin was warm under her touch. She flattened her palm against his lower back before start scratching upwards. He stopped her by taking her hand in his, intertwining their fingers together. Selina was ready to be scolded, but when Bruce looked at her his eyes were dark. Well, maybe he wasn’t paying attention to Gordon as much as she thought.

Bruce then pulled Selina’s hand moving away from the crowd, if someone found odd that they were leaving she sincerely didn’t care.

They soon found an empty room. Selina hopped up a table, to get herself a few inches, Bruce was always mock-complaining that curving himself to kiss her was giving him back pains. She parted her knees to welcome him. She closed her eyes as he started with kisses over her exposed collarbone, and hit him playfully on the shoulder when she felt he suck the skin linking her shoulder to her neck.  

‘Don’t give me another hickey!’

He chuckled.

‘So you can scratch me and give me as much hickeys you want but I can’t? That is hardly fair.’ He complained against her hair.

‘You walk covered head to toe, you wear those stupid turtlenecks all the time.’

‘So it’s showing them off what bothers you? Okay.’

He stepped back and she furrowed her brows in confusion.

Bruce took one of her ankles and unzipped her boot taking it off.

‘What are you doing?’

He just smiled.

He let go of her ankle and took the other repeating the act. Then he returned to his past position and kissed her on the lips, Selina lost herself to the sensation, almost forgetting that he was up to something until she felt his hands pushing her pants off.

‘B-bruce…’ She stuttered when they let go for a second for air.

‘Shhh.’ He kissed her again and Selina moved to help him pushing her pants all the way down. It wasn’t her initial plan to have sex in a GCPD packed with people, she just wanted to make out a bit to pass the time, but she was not complaining, not when Bruce was kissing her like that.

But then he stopped kissing her, she was ready to pull him back when he fell to his knees, looking up at her with hungry eyes. She swallowed hard feeling the heat pool on her lower half, it wasn’t fair how much she wanted him all the time. Bruce kissed her right knee, caressing her calf with one hand and her left inner thigh with the other. His kisses were spreading inwards, Selina’s breath getting heavier as he got closer to her centre. Then he sucked hard, kissing the reddening mark to sooth the skin afterwards.

‘No one will see it here.’

She let out something that was half a choke and half a laugh and tried to kick him, but he held her leg firmer, giving her a shit-eating grin, before going back to work. He was tantalizing close to his goal when the door was flung open.

‘Bloody hell!’

Bruce pulled himself up so fast it was like he was propped up by springs, Selina felt all the heat from her lower abdomen run to her face.

‘Alfred!’ Squeaked Bruce hiding Selina with his body.

‘Master Bruce… You and Miss Kyle really shouldn’t be doing this… here.’

‘You’re… you’re right, Alfred. We’re sorry.’

She was only sorry that they were caught, and by Jeeves, yikes. Well, could’ve been worse. What if it was Gordon? Or worse, Harvey? She shuddered.

‘Alfred, can you…?’

‘Oh, right. Well, I’m leaving then.’

When Selina heard the door close giving away that he was finally gone, she started shaking with laughter. Bruce turned around to face her, laughing too. She reached for him, pulling him close and burying her face in his chest.

 PRESENT

 Selina woke up feeling ill for the third consecutive day. Maybe having water on the pipes again didn’t mean she should drink it. At least with the money she was able to buy food and even a ‘new’ bedding. And by new it meant bedding someone stole from some house before No Man’s Land. At least it was clean. Sort of.

Then she started her routine like she have been doing for the past days, throwing up, washing herself, trying to eat something, giving up, thinking what she would do when she finally left Gotham. She still didn’t know what, but she was getting in there.

Maybe she should see a doctor, she was losing weight.

But the only doctor she trusted was Lee and she didn’t want to see Lee. She didn’t want to stumble in her joyful married life, she really didn’t want to answer her questions of where she had been, what she had been doing, if she was okay… She didn’t want her kindness or her pity.

She got to the Sirens without any trouble. It was so early in the morning that it was still dark, no one on the streets, her key still worked. The bar was naturally closed, she walked upstairs, but instead of following the path to her old room, Selina got caught in the differences around the flat. There was children’s toys on the sofa. An empty bottle on the counter. A pink baby blanket hanging on the back of a chair. Those things looked eerily misplaced in among Barbara’s glamorous decoration.

She ended up in the darkened baby’s room. Selina approached the crib, Barbara Lee was sleeping soundly. Selina felt the terrible urge to cry, but was interrupted by the cold feel of iron against her head.

‘Step back from the baby.’

‘Jesus, Barbara, it’s me!’

Without lowering the gun, Barbara turned the light on.

‘Selina? What are you doing here?’ She finally lowered the gun.

‘I…’ Selina choked, she couldn’t say. She just couldn’t.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Can I sleep in my old room?’ She managed.

Barbara frowned.

‘Yes, of course.’

‘Thank you.’ She crossed away from Barbara disappearing in the corridor.

 Deciding that going to the Sirens was a terrible idea, Selina’s plan was to wait a little until Barbara was asleep again to leave, but she was the one who ended up falling asleep. It was nice to be in a clean place, and even though she haven’t slept there in months, the bed still felt like hers, and she felt to exhausted all the time now.

She woke up to the sound of baby crying.

‘Shhh don’t be so mad at mommy, I know… Shhh… Here.’

As she reached the living room, Selina was presented with the picturesque scene of Barbara Kean breastfeeding. It really hit high on the list of weird things that she had seen. And she had lived in Gotham all her life.

‘Oh, you’re up. Feeling better?’

‘Yeah… Thanks. What time is it?’

‘Around noon. I was about to get lunch. Join me?’

‘No… I’m fine. Look, thank you for letting me stay. I’m taking off.’

‘Selina. This is still your house if you want it.’

‘Oh… no… You don’t have to worry about me, you have your baby.’

‘I actually could use a hand. As much as Jim and Lee help, they are not here all the time. I could also use the company. I miss when it was the three of us.’

Selina’s stomach let out a loud noise.

‘We can get your favourite takeout.’

But later when she opened the lid with her serving of chicken tikka masala, Selina felt the strongest wave of nausea she ever felt in her life. She almost didn’t make to the bathroom.

‘Are you okay?’ Asked Barbara by the opened door, baby in her arms.

‘Yeah,’ Selina groaned. ‘Peachy. I think I have a stomach bug or something.’

‘Hmmm. But a stomach bug would make you go sick after eating not before it.’

Since when did she became such an expert?

‘Selina have you had you period recently?’

Selina felt the whole world rotate and her blood freeze.

 Barbara knows what is up. And that was a long one, it was because I added more stuff than I intended. The whole section post the 5x07 was not on script, but after such a heavily emotional episode they gave Bruce and Selina such a tiny scene, I had to make something. And the plot finally starts going forward, but not by much. This is a slowburning story. See you next time. If you are enjoying the story please let me know. This whole social distancing thing is making me very lonely and it’d be nice to chat.