Most of the girls were gathered around one long table, sitting quietly while waiting for the waiters to serve them their fancy dinner. Selina watched that with a smile as she returned to the party, thinking that was perhaps the first and only chance many of those kids would have to dress nicely and have someone serve them sophisticated food. And for that, she was grateful: if for one night in their lives those girls were treated nicely, well, maybe they could believe they actually deserved that, and not just now – for the rest of their lives.

Running her gaze around the table, Selina immediately noticed Holly's absence. She walked to Leslie:

"Holly is not here", she told the orphanage director.

Leslie immediately frowned:

"She was with us during the pictures. I brought the girls inside, and Holly was just behind us, talking to Talia…"

Selina bit her lower lip.

"Okay", she said. "I'll ask our hostess about it…"

At this point, Selina could already feel her hear racing in her chest, a feeling of urgency causing her to move quickly around the room. Damn you, Talia, she mused, can't you even watch a little a girl for a few minutes, you heartless hag?

The answer was obvious, of course: she couldn't. Worst – maybe she purposely wouldn't. Because it was Holly, and no doubt Talia had noticed how Selina felt about the girl.

Although she couldn't actually believe that Talia would intentionally harm Holly because of their connection. She wouldn't. She wasn't that bad, was she?

Talia was standing among a large group of people: a few reporters, the mayor, business partners – no Bruce in sight. Nevertheless, the woman looked busy, and didn't acknowledge Selina's presence when she approached the group. Unfortunately, Selina had no time to waste, and she spoke in a loud, impatient tone:

"Where's Holly?" Her question was blunt and obviously disturbed the conversation, most people around Talia turning to look at Selina. Talia herself took longer than the others to do that, although the question had been directly addressed to her; when she finally turned, the aggravation in her features was obvious, even theatrically displayed.

"Holly?" She repeated the girls name like it was the first time she had ever heard of it. "One of the girls?"

"Oh, go to hell", Selina answered in exasperation – she had no time for that. "Where is she, Talia? You took her to take pictures…"

"Miss", a man interrupted her. He was neatly dressed in a dark suit, strongly built, a distinctive scar on the left side of his face. Bodyguard, Selina immediately registered. Talia's security people were very discreet, but she was familiar enough with the type. Especially because the man had placed himself between the two women, like he had been previously warned that she could be the source of trouble. Hands ahead, he even slightly pushed Selina a few inches back. "Calm down, please."

"Screw you", Selina said, addressing both the man and Talia, perhaps even those surrounding them. "If something happened to her, Talia, I'll hold you responsible!"

"Oh, my God!" Talia's expression was one of deep shock, but Selina wouldn't fall for that; she knew that was just for show.

"She better be fine, Talia", she sternly announced, a dozen of faces around them watching her in expressions that translated both alarm and repugnance. Selina realized that she couldn't care less – better yet, she recognized even a certain satisfaction that she still could have that effect in people, even out of her Catwoman outfit.

Selina didn't have the time to enjoy that feeling or register anything but Holly's absence, though. The fact was, the girl wasn't anywhere in the vast room, and she needed to keep looking. Just as she walked away from Talia's group, many outraged voices commenting on her awful behavior, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She was ready to snap, thinking that maybe Talia's bodyguard had come after her, when she saw who was behind her:

"You said there's a little girl missing, Miss..?"

"Kyle", she immediately added. The man that spoke to her was none other than Commissioner James Gordon.

"Selina Kyle. Yes, now I remember." He nodded to himself at some private thought he didn't share out loud with her.

"The girl missing", Selina kept talking, "is Holly Robinson."

"Holly Robinson?" He reacted in honest concern. "She's the daughter of one of the serial killer's victim."

"Yeah."

The Commissioner had already taken his cell phone from his tux' inside pocket and dialed. "This is Commissioner Gordon", he spoke gravely, "I need backup immediately in St. Mary Church. Run warnings to all units in downtown Gotham about a missing child…"

Even in the midst of all that damn mess, Selina found out, to her surprise, that she was able to feel gratitude.

XXXXXXXXXX

Bruce knew he hadn't been alone outside for more than fifteen minutes; however, he returned to a very different party from the one he had left.

The music had stopped. Most guests were sat on the several chairs spread around the room, talking in whispers and gazing at each other in apprehension. Walking among the tables and gathered in small groups, a handful of people: security people hired for the party, Commissioner Gordon, Leslie Thompkins, staff from the orphanage… and Selina. That was all he needed to know to finally deduce that something had happened involving one of the kids – and he had a pretty good idea which one.

He was about to reach Gordon when Talia intercepted him:

"Bruce. Where have you been?" Despite the question, she didn't seem too curious about his previous whereabouts. She didn't even wait for him to give her an answer before speaking again. "We have a problem."

"What's that?" He had his attention divided between Talia and the Commissioner, noticing that Gordon was now instructing a group of policemen that had just arrived as how to conduct a search.

"It seems that Holly Robinson is missing", she declared. "We are trapped here. Gordon called a lockdown and security is not allowing anyone to leave."

There was a tone of complain in her words, but he didn't indulge her there:

"The Commissioner is right, Talia", he said, much to her dismay.

"This is nonsense. All for a child that is probably just trying to get attention."

"No", he bluntly disagreed. "Not Holly. She would never…"

He was abruptly interrupted by violent, angry words, shout from behind him:

"Where is she, Talia?!"

He turned to see a furious, frantic Selina approach them, going at Talia while pointing an accusatory finger, speaking with such rage that it was hard to even recognize her. Talia's only response was to roll her eyes:

"Not this again…!"

But Selina wouldn't have it: she seemed to be deeply upset – something that, considering Holly's disappearance, was easy for Bruce to understand.

"Where the hell is she, Talia? Who took her? Who…?"

Selina had actively ignored Bruce and everyone else around her, except for Talia. One of the bodyguards, however, had intercepted her by placing himself between the two women.

"Don't come any closer", the man said, his voice a raspy, low sound, not a bit less threatening because of that, though.

"Get out of my way", Selina groaned through her clenched teeth, her eyes a cold, menacing sight.

"Selina", Bruce risked, gently touching her arm – he was fiercely repelled by her, who shoved his hand away without ceremony.

"Don't touch me!"

"I'm just trying to…"

"You want to know what's going on? Ask your girlfriend! She knows something, I just know she does, and she's not talking…!"

Now Bruce was sure that the situation required intervention. Even more because Talia wasn't making things easy: she chuckled – a sound of arrogance and scorn.

"Are you insane?" Her smile was the perfect match for the contempt in her voice. "I have nothing to do with this…"

"You lying bitch." The hate in Selina's voice was pure and absolute. "You did this. You took her outside and…"

"… and when we were done with the pictures, I told her to look for you, Selina dear." She raised an eyebrow. "Where were you?"

Talia's gaze went from Selina to Bruce, and back again.

"Honestly, Selina…" Talia crossed her arms and put on a wicked smile. "If you want to point fingers, why don't you start with yourself?"

Bruce saw it: the moment. He had seen it enough in his life to recognize it, and act accordingly: it was the moment in which a person reaches her breaking point. When the thin threads of morality and social restrains are finally severed, and a person stops thinking in the most rational, logical manner. And that moment, right then, was when Selina lost all her carefully cultivated self-control.

She was swift, agile, much like the feline creature she invoked with her costumed self every night. The bodyguard would have never been able to react in time; Selina easily hit his nose in a surprisingly quick, simple hand move, and pushed him to the side by pulling him by his tie.

Her target wasn't the bodyguard, though, but Talia. She violently dashed forward, ready to strike, but Bruce managed to interfere before more damage was made. Holding Selina by her waist, an arm around her body, the other holding her hand before she could connect to Talia's face – who had, strangely enough, not moved or blinked, standing perfectly calm as her bodyguard was knocked down and she was about to be attacked.

"Let me go!" Selina roared in fury, her feet not even touching the ground as Bruce tried to contain her without being too rough.

People had gathered around them now, security men, even a few policemen. They watched the situation in hesitant confusion, but that wouldn't last if Selina kept behaving like a mad person. Bruce asked her, their faces close together, all eyes on them:

"Selina, please!" He spoke the next sentence in a whisper close to her ear. "Think, Selina. Think about what you're doing…"

That seemed to have an effect on her, as she stopped fighting his grasp and now gasped for air.

"Breathe", he encouraged her. "That's it, breathe…"

Just a few feet from them, still standing at the very spot she had been through all this, Talia watched them. Her hazel eyes were attentive and enigmatic, her expression an evaluative one. That definitely wasn't the way Bruce would have wanted things to happen, but he guessed that much was now clear without being said – and that was confirmed when she merely glanced at him in resentment and turned her back on them, walking away from the confusion, two other bodyguards following her.

Bruce followed her example: still holding Selina, however gently, he pulled her to a quieter corner of the room, just behind the stage where the now idle music group had played most of the night. She didn't fight him, she barely moved; in fact, she allowed him to guide her there in silence, immediately sitting on the floor when he finally let go of her.

He crouched next to her, a knee on the ground, a hand on her shoulder:

"Hey." He caressed her exposed skin, his fingers stroking the back of her neck. "It's okay. I'm going to find her."

She had hidden her face in both her palms, and like that she remained, in silence. She didn't move even when Leslie approach them, sorrow in her nervous voice:

"Selina!" She kneeled next to Bruce, placing her soft palm on Selina's knees. "Please, my darling, don't get hopeless… we'll find her…"

"Leslie", Bruce spoke in a firm, objective tone, "when was the last you saw Holly?"

"Outside, maybe an hour ago. We were done with the pictures…"

"Stop it!" It was Selina; she had finally revealed her face again, her green eyes misted, her features taken by grief. "She's gone! He took her, the man that killed her mother… he did it… he finally managed to do it…!"

"We don't know that", Bruce argued.

"I do", Selina insisted, opening her hand and revealing an object on her palm: the silver pendant that Bruce had given Holly. "She's gone, Bruce… gone… in the hands of a psycho…"

As she lowered her head and sobbed, Bruce realized it was the first time he had ever saw her cry.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Commissioner Gordon knew this: when a day was bad in Gotham, it was a really bad day.

He hadn't had one of those in a while, not ever since the Joker and the whole ordeal with Harvey. When that was over, he had been enough of a fool to think that maybe, just maybe, things wouldn't get as bad again.

Now, he wondered if he hadn't greatly undermined Gotham's famous capacity for disgrace.

It started early in his house, with Barbara finally giving him her ultimatum: it was Gotham or her. He had until the end of the day to give his resignation letter to Mayor Garcia and say his goodbyes, or else, he would have to say his family goodbye.

He understood why Barbara was doing that: last year had been a tough one, to say the least. The kids weren't doing so well – Jimmy was having bad grades and wasn't making friends in school, while Babs was getting more and more involved with her gymnastic lessons, barely spending time with the family. Nothing strange there… not only they had been through a lot, being taken by an insane Harvey Dent and almost getting killed by him, but also forced to lie. And the lie, that was what was killing them. They couldn't talk about what happened, they had to pretend – for Gotham's greater good – that Harvey had been a hero, and not a crook. Batman, the man that saved their lives, was now public enemy number one… and they were not allowed to say differently.

And he knew how painful it was, the lie.

The solitude.

Sat in his office, he looked at his desk and the envelope over it.

It would be easy to just leave. Deliver the letter, go home, kiss his kids and hold his wife. He would be able to finally sleep an entire night without interruptions, and the next day they could take a plane and fly back to Chicago. Maybe Cleveland, like Barbara wanted. That wasn't such a bad idea, not at all…

But a bad day in Gotham? Really bad.

The whole day he stalled his visit to the Mayor's office, thinking that he couldn't do it like that, so abruptly. He thought perhaps would be best to do it after that beneficent even in St. Mary's; if he resigned before that, soon the news would be flying around, and reporters would be all over him about it. He could easily not go to the event, but he had always admired Leslie Thompkins' work, and that was the first time someone was actually doing something for her and the orphanage, and he wanted to show his support.

In retrospect, his life would be a lot easier if he had just worked late as usual…

He took the papers that were on his desk, just next to his resignation letter. It was the file about the serial killer that was attacking women in Gotham, the sick bastard that had a taste for torture and suffering, and very skilled hands when it came to inflict pain without immediately killing his victim. Pages and pages of dead bodies and ugly descriptions of wounds, piled up with psychological profiles and long lists of suspects. Among that, just a few lines and a picture that was worth anything: information about Holly Robinson.

"Poor girl", he mumbled in the darkness of his office, the girl's picture in his hands.

"She can be saved", said a voice behind him.

He didn't need to turn to know who was there, and so he didn't. The husky, grave tone was unmistakable – Batman. Long gone were the days in which he could go to the rooftop and use his "bat-signal" to summon his masked allied; these days, if he did such a thing, he would be followed by a S.W.A.T. team ready to shot and kill Gotham's greatest hero.

What a world.

Now, they had to resort to that: clandestine and dangerous meetings in Gordon's office, risking his position as Commissioner and Batman's life. No wonder they rarely met – only problem was, in the last few months since Batman was no longer directly assisting in investigations, the percentage of closed cases in Gotham City P.D. had dropped almost twenty percent.

Right now, with a child missing and in the hands of a psychopath, Gordon could certainly use some help, even at the cost of his job… that he was about to leave, anyway.

"How do you know she's not dead yet?" He couldn't help the bleakness in his tone. "Clearly this man took her because he believes she could identify him somehow… If he has half a brain, he's going to get rid of her as fast as he can."

"No", Batman disagreed. "If he simply wanted her dead, he could have done that right there."

"Maybe he did. Maybe we just didn't find her body yet."

Gordon sighed. There was truth in his words, and he feared that any moment a phone call would come telling him there was a dead child in a ditch somewhere.

Batman didn't seem convinced:

"This man… he's not afraid of getting caught. That's not why he took Holly."

The fact that Batman had referred to the girl by her first name didn't escape the Commissioner; he thought it was better to not point it out, however.

"Then why did he? If the girl wasn't a threat…?"

"He wants to attract attention."

Gordon frowned. "Who's attention?"

"That, I don't know yet."

He heard Batman moved from behind him to the side of his desk, revealing himself in his dark, tall figure to Gordon. He spoke:

"This serial killer's last victim…"

"If you mean the body found on the shore, she's not identified yet", the Commissioner quickly answered. "She didn't have a record, something that is pretty strange for a working girl of that age, but…"

"You won't find her anywhere", Batman said, throwing at Gordon's desk a file. The Commissioner looked at it for a second, then taking it and carefully examining its contents. He looked through it for a minute before finally speaking:

"Are you serious?" Gordon raised his eyes from the file to stare at Batman in alarm. "Are you saying the dead woman is this Lori Wallace?"

"Former FBI agent. Now serves a governmental project named 'CADMUS'."

"'CADMUS'…" He considered that for a moment. "I've heard about it, actually. An old friend did a consultancy job for this project."

"Do you still have connections there?"

"Maybe."

Batman thought for a moment, then speaking again.

"These people might have information about this man… and other things."

Gordon nodded. "I'll look into it."

"Tomorrow night", Batman said, already retreating to the dark corners once again. "I'll meet you here."

Gordon considered that: according to Barbara, tomorrow night he and his family would be away from Gotham, far away, and would never look back. All he had to do was deliver the letter. Then, this CADMUS thing, Holly Robinson, Lori Wallace, and the other two hundred cases the PD was working on would be someone else's problem.

Tomorrow night.

"Yeah, alright", Gordon answered to the darkness. "See you tomorrow night."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The almost imperceptible tension in his muscle jaw was all the emotion he had let transpire when Catwoman showed herself to Batman as he came out of his car in the cave.

"How did you get in?" His question was blunt and direct.

"Please", she mocked, "I've been all around this place while you were at the hospital – unescorted, mind you."

He removed his cowl as he walked upstairs to the main platform in the cave; there he sat on his chair and turned to the computer, already login into several databases and servers. She joined him by the computer, arms crossed over her chest, her goggles pulled up to her head.

"You're not gonna ask me why I'm here?"

He didn't divert his attention from the screens around him, barely acknowledging her presence. Still, he spoke austerely:

"Go home, Selina."

Catwoman nodded her head in disbelief:

"How can you ask me that?"

He stopped typing, finally looking up to stare at her:

"You are in no condition to do this."

"To hell with that, Bruce. I'm in perfect condition."

"The way you reacted tonight…"

"I hope you're not doing this because of the way I spoke to your snotty little girlfriend…"

"It is not because of Talia!" He pointed an accusatory finger at her. "It's about you! You lost control, you risked your cover-up identity, you almost hurt people."

"Not people; Talia. She…"

"It doesn't matter, Selina! You can't just let your feelings take over you!"

She silenced; moments later, when she spoke again, her words struggled to come out, her voice a hoarse, faint sound:

"It's Holly, Bruce. Holly."

"I know."

"I'll do whatever it takes to find her. With or without your help."

Again he stopped what he was doing to look at her, a worried expression in his features.

"You're too involved." He gravely stated.

"So what?" She dismissed that with a gesture of her shoulders. "Why is being involved a bad thing?"

"Because you can't think clearly. You make mistakes."

"I don't need you for this, Bruce. I can do whatever I want, no matter what you think." She leaned forward, approaching her face from his. "But I figured that if we worked together, we could join efforts and would be able to do more for Holly. How's that for a rational line of thought?"

"It's alright", he answered, not seeming to be completely convinced.

"I can help you, Bruce. You could use another pair of hands."

His attention was back on the computer, and he looked like he was again ignoring her; Selina knew better, though: he was thinking about her proposal. She thought that he could use some encouragement:

"Here", she said, reaching for her backpack and taking an object wrapped in cloth, tossing it on Batman's lap.

He didn't take it immediately: his eyes went from the object to Catwoman, an inquisitive glance as he asked:

"Is this…?"

"I don't wanna ruin your surprise."

Taking the object, he carefully removed the cloth around it, revealing its contents: the precious crown Catwoman had taken from Gotham's Gallery, months ago.

"Aren't you even going to smile in triumph?"

Bruce's stoicism bothered her more than she thought it could. He remained impassible:

"Did you expect me to thank you?"

"I did, actually." Shaking her head, she proceeded. "But we've got no time to talk about expectations, I guess. All I care about is Holly, okay? I think we have a couple leads to follow…"

"Selina…"

"There's the CADMUS thing, but I've also been thinking about interrogating people in a few places, places the victims usually went to find clients… my guess is that this guy might have an eye on them for days before…"

"Selina." He was standing up from his chair, approaching her in a sudden, almost abrupt manner.

"What…?"

Already he had taken hold of her face, both hands on the sides of her head, his eyes straight on hers. "Thank you", he said, the words apparently coming out in great effort.

"This is for Holly, you know? I'm not saying I've changed or…"

"I know." Still holding her, he spoke. "I'm going to find her, Selina. I promise."

She took the step that finally brought them together, her head resting on his armored chest, his arms encircling her in a tight, protective embrace.

"When we do find her…" Selina hesitate.

"What?"

"I can't make any promises, Bruce. I can't promise that when we get our hands on this guy I won't…"

"I know", he whispered.

"Do you?" Her question was made against his chest, her words coming out muffled against his armor. "I want this to be clear, I don't want you to be surprised, or shocked…"

"I won't be, Selina." His gloved thumb caressed her exposed cheek. "But I trust you to do the right thing when the time comes."

"The problem is, Bruce", she stated, not without a hint of sadness in her words, "that what I consider right, and what you do, might be very different things."