GOTHAM

BATCAVE

Selina sat at the Batcomputer watching the medical bay on the monitor. It was the closest she could get to Dick. Poison Ivy had a new serum that they didn't have an antidote for yet. This one seemed to be mixed with fear toxin. Tim was working on an antidote but in the meantime Dick was rambling on about Blockbuster and was confusing Selina with Catalina Flores. Having her in the same room with him was making his condition worse.

So Selina listened and watched him ramble from the computer. She put the pieces together as much as her mind wanted to reject them. What Talia had done to Bruce, Catalina had done to Dick. Sweet, happy, charming Dick raped by that piece of trash.

Selina swore under her breath as she loosened her painful grip on the Batcomputer. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she tracked down the information she needed. It was time to hunt.

Selina stopped briefly in the lab to check on Tim. The boy was hard at work on an antidote. Selina stepped up beside him at his work table.

"No! Stop! Please!" Dick's cry was heard from the med bay.

Tim's face paled and he started to get up from his chair. Selina stopped him.

"No. You have to stay here. Alfred has him." Selina cupped the back of Tim's head with her gloved hand and she rested her forehead on his. "Find the antidote. Fix your brother. You can do this." She stepped back from him after a moment.

"You're going out?" He questioned as his eyes swept over her uniformed figure.

"I'm not of much use here." Selina reached for her cowl. "I can't even be in there with him." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "He's terrified of me."

"Her. He's terrified of her. He just can't tell the difference through the toxin. It wouldn't matter who it was. I'm just thankful Babs isn't here." Tim fidgeted for a minute as Selina started to turn away. "Kick her ass." Selina stopped to look at him. "I know, I know language but do it anyway." Tim shot her a crooked grin and Selina gave him a soft smile.

San Francisco

The Docks – Night

Catwoman approached the sounds of a beating in the alley off the docks. As she slid in to the alley she saw Tarantula kicking a man on the ground. She leaned up against the brick wall of a building and casually crossed her arms.

"Is this a habit with you? Attacking defenseless men?" Tarantula whirled around at the sound of Catwoman's bored voice.

"This is none of your business." The younger woman snarled.

"No. It's not. I have business with you though and I'm not really inclined to wait." Catwoman shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not really the patient type. You could verify that with Batman but I really wouldn't suggest Gotham as a place for you to ever go back to. Or Batman as someone you ever want to cross paths with."

"What are you talking about?" Tarantula sounded confused.

"I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." Catwoman directed her attention past Tarantula to the man on the ground. "She's going to be busy for a while. You should go. Shoo." Catwoman motioned with her hand.

The man looked between both women and slowly started limp away. Tarantula moved to stop him but Catwoman pushed herself up off the wall.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about him if I were you. You're going to be much too busy." The voice was cold and lethal.

"What is your problem, lady?" Tarantula swung back to her. "What did I ever do to you?"

"You didn't do anything to me." Catwoman's fingers slid gently over the whip at her hip. "You hurt what's mine. You don't just get to do that."

Tarantula gaped at her. "You think I hurt Batman? I did not hurt Batman. He scares me. You got the wrong woman. I swear."

"Trying my patience." Catwoman said. "Nightwing."

"Nightwing?" Tarantula's eyes widened. "We dated. Sure, things ended badly but.."

"Badly? That's what you call rape?" Catwoman seethed inside but controlled her voice.

"Rape? He whined to mommy about that after all this time?" Tarantula's hand crept down to her side and snapped back up to aim a gun at Catwoman's head. "He could have stopped me if he really wanted too. What do you think you're going to do about it?"

"Are you listening to yourself? He could have stopped you? He said no." Catwoman had managed to piece together some of what had happened from Dick's ramblings. "He was broken, shattered, unable to defend himself but he said no. You and I both know that should have been more than enough."

"You're lecturing me?" Tarantula gestured with the gun. "You were a thief. I'm surprised Batman even gave you the time of day."

"I was a thief a long time ago. I gave it up when Nightwing was a baby Bird. I never hurt anyone and I even helped out from time to time." Catwoman watched every moved Tarantula made. "But you, you're a crimefighter who murders and rapes. How do you balance that scale?"

"How do you balance it?" Tarantula's laugh was ugly. "You do-gooder types take the scum off the streets; put them in places like Arkham and Belle Reve. They just get out again. My solution is permanent."

"You aren't judge and jury." Catwoman could see that she was making Tarantula nervous. "You don't get to make those decisions."

The sneer Tarantula sent Catwoman was all bravado. Her finger tightened on the trigger. The whip cracked out against her hand. She yelped as the gun went flying.

Catwoman didn't waste time. She followed the whip's momentum and the distraction the pain would cause Tarantula. The woman would have very little use of her right hand for some time. Her right fist plowed into the woman's face, snapping her head back. Catwoman's left came up from below straight into her solar plexus.

Tarantula struggled to breathe and retain her balance. Catwoman's lips pulled back in a silent snarl. Her booted foot slammed down into the other woman's knee and it gave with a resounding crack. Tarantula screamed as she crumpled to the pavement.

Catwoman was on her almost before she hit the ground. Shots to her ribs and her nose caused both to break. Experience ensured that no major damage was done to her internal organs. Tarantula tried to fend Catwoman off. Another shot shattered her orbital bone.

Catwoman crouched next to the battered, bleeding Tarantula inspecting her handiwork.

"Got anything to say?"

"You're not a brawler." Tarantula spit out blood and wheezed. "Not how you fight."

"Now where did you hear that fairy tale?" Catwoman's smile was as sharp as a knife edge. "I trained with Wildcat. I work with Batman. I've gone toe to toe with Bane. I choose not to brawl because it's too messy but I wanted you to hurt Catalina. I wanted you to remember this for a long time."

The feline vigilante straightened and turned, walking away and curling her whip. After a few feet she turned back. "Stay away from Gotham. Stay away from Bludhaven. Stay away from my family. Don't ever try to touch what's mine again. Next time I won't be so nice. Do you understand me, Catalina?" She waited until the bloody woman on the ground managed to nod then turned and left the alley.

GOTHAM

BATCAVE

The pressure of a warm hand on hers woke her. Her eyes drifted open to meet cerulean blue eyes, devoid of fear.

"Hey." Dick smiled at her.

"Hey yourself." She smiled back. "You feeling the aster?"

"Starting to." Dick bit his lip and looked away uncertainly. "Selina, I'm not sure what I might have said….."

"Kitten." She waited until he looked back at her. "You don't have to explain anything to me or talk to me but take it from experience, you should talk to someone. Dinah or one of the League counselors."

Further conversation was cut off by the entrance of the bold, beautiful Barbara Gordon. She entered the medical bay and stood at the end of Dick's bed with her arms crossed.

"I leave for two days, Boy Wonder, two days and you go get yourself dosed on some super serum Ivy whipped up." She shook her head at him. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Maybe I wanted you to come back and take care of me." He flashed her a cheeky grin.

"What? This is a ploy to get me in a nurse's outfit?"

"No." Selina held out both hands as she stood up to leave. "That is more information than I need to have. I will leave the two of you alone."

"Really? After everything you and Bruce have put all of us through I think this is only fair." Babs laughed at her as she slipped out of the room.

Selina walked away listening to Dick and Barbara banter behind her. He was okay, her Kitten was okay. As much as Catalina had traumatized him she hadn't managed to truly damage his spirit. That was what was truly important.

Convincing Bruce to open up to Dick about his own experience with Talia would probably send both men into such shock neither would ever be able to recover. As much as Dick liked to think he was nothing like Bruce in some ways he was very much his father's son.

A familiar ring tone began to play on her phone. She pulled it out of her pocket to answer it.

"Mmmm, Tiger. I was just thinking about you." A feline smile curved her lips. "Not much. A quick jaunt to San Francisco for some exercise, will you be home soon?" She paused, listening. "Excellent. I've been lonely in that big bed without you."