A Gotham High Girl (Gotham villains next generation)

Secrets

When I wake up the first thing I notice is the change in location and, thankfully, a change in the cold weather too. After a few minutes I sit up properly, removing my blanket and repositioning my seat belt so that is no longer threatening to strangle me.

"Good morning miss Walker" Alfred says cheerfully though I can't imagine why as it seems as though he might have been driving all through the night.

"Good morning Alfred" I say whilst in the process of stifling a yawn.
I glance across at the passenger seat to see that Bruce is awake and staring intently out of the window.

"Hey Bruce" it feels so strange to wake up in a car with a seemingly rich man and his butler, both of whom I barely know. Then it occurs to me that the reason it feels strange is because it is.
Bruce looks across at me and says good morning to me too. He also asks if I'm hungry yet to which I answer that I am.
"Alfred, you look tired as well. I think it's a good idea for us to pull in to the next service station since Stella is hungry"
"And I also need to pee" I add perhaps a little too enthusiastically.
I try not to think about anything water related for a good ten minutes before we pull into the nearest service station which thankfully has a restroom. As soon as the car has stopped I spring out of my seat, forcefully shut the door and sprint across the small parking lot. Had an Olympic athlete been racing against me, I truly believe I could have won.

After my 'ordeal' I return quickly to the car where a bemused Alfred is sat.
Bruce takes about five minutes and eventually comes back with two coffees, a hot chocolate which he gives to me and a few breakfast items.
After eating Bruce announces that, given the circumstances of our route being such a long one, he and Alfred will take it in turns driving until we reach the airport in Lyon.
"What about the car?" I ask confused.
"I can arrange for it to be shipped back over or just sell it"
"But what happens when we land in America and we have no car?"
"We can get a taxi"
"Oh"
Bruce looks a little strained by my demanding behaviour so I add a much quieter;
"Sorry"
"It's fine"

Then Bruce's mobile rings and, since Bruce is the one driving, Alfred picks it up himself.
"Hello. No I'm afraid he is busy. Well can I take a message to pass on?" Whatever reply the person on the other end of the phone gives makes Alfred suddenly looks worried. He cuts the call and turns to Bruce.
"It was that woman... Oh what is her name? miss... Kyle! She was trying to tell you something important."
"Selina Kyle? What did she say?" Bruce asks.
Then I notice Alfred glance briefly in my general direction.
"I believe it would be better to discuss I in private"

At first I feel rather offended by this but after some thinking I come to the conclusion that it is clearly a family matter or something of the sort and they have right not to tell me. But there's still part of me which feels unhappy about this for a different reason - I am not considered family. Why should I be? This guy will never be my father, his girlfriend will undoubtedly never fill the gaping hole that had appeared inside my heart the moment the Doctors had told me mom was dead.

I start to cry again, silently, keeping my feelings to myself. I notice Alfred glance at me from the passenger seat via the mirror in the front. His facial expression indicates that he feels incredibly sorry for me. Perhaps he had witnessed Bruce going through something similar when he was a boy?
...It makes me wonder how long he has been Bruce's butler. He quietly gestures to Bruce, who also looks at me in the mirror and clearly decides to pull over.

After I get out of the car I notice that we are some way up a mountain and looking down over a valley. The evening sun hangs low in the sky, casting long shadows and lighting up the trees with a gentle orange glow. I stand completely overwhelmed by the memories of things I have lost which I took for granted and the unfairness of it all. Why me? I feel largely to blame, after all it was me who had nagged mom for ages until she agreed to take me snowboarding. She had only gone because I wanted to, a previous less serious ski accident had put her off... She had told me there were dangers and I had taken little notice.
"It's my fault" I mutter as yet another yet rolls down my cheek.
I hear a voice surprisingly close to me,
"I thought that... once"
Of course, it's Bruce. I marvel at how I hadn't noticed him approach me for a few seconds but then decide that I am preoccupied with my troubled thoughts.
"But it's true"
"How can you be to blame?"
"She never wanted to go, told me it was dangerous and she knew firsthand, but I shrugged it off. I didn't listen and I kept pleading with her to take me snowboarding until she did and... now she's dead."
"If you hadn't asked for her to take you she wouldn't be dead?"
"Exactly" I sniff.
"I spent so many years thinking like that and please listen to me when I tell you that it's not healthy. Besides your parents wouldn't have wanted you to blame yourself. I nearly shot the man who killed my parents because I felt responsible and wanted to avenge them, forgetting what I really had."
"Like Alfred?"
"Well, yes."

There was a pause as I consider his point, going back over his words. I wipe away a few half dried up tears.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your parents?"
Bruce takes a breath and turns to me,
"Well its quite a long story..."
"I've got all the time in the world" i reply.
"They got shot by a guy demanding we hand over any valuables"
I look at his face and see a lost and angry little kid surface for a second before, as he probably did every day, Bruce banished the feelings and turned to me.
"And even though my father told him to take the wallet he was trying to tell the guy he didn't have to point the gun at my mother and I, threaten us, he went to shoot my mother when she didn't immediately hand over her pearl necklace. My father took the bullet to save her but the man shot her too. Im not sure why he didn't shoot me but he looked at me and then ran away. My parents had always been very supportive of all charity and didn't blame the man for what he was doing - they knew he was just desperate."
"But I, I don't understand how you could blame yourself."
"We were at the opera house. I asked to leave because I was scared. If I hadn't then we wouldn't have been in that alley where the side exit was. But I try not to blame myself; like you shouldn't blame yourself for what happened. No one wants to bear that burden, it's hard but you have to let go..."
There is another pause as we both stand there staring out across the valley.
"The last thing my father said to me as he was dying was 'don't be afraid'"
At this crucial moment I decide i will try to move on - make a new start. Sure my new life will be different but I might get to make friends and the man who had taken me under his wing understood my pain.

Before I can say how grateful I am that he shared his story with me Alfred interrupts.
"Sorry to be a bother master Wayne, but I believe Miss Kyle is trying to call you again.