Gotham's daughter

I'll have to let her go

Days passed and Jeremiah hadn't been caught.

A worry, which started as a spark inside Bruce, grew and, little by little, took over his thoughts. And that worry grew every time he came home after a clueless night from Jeremiah and looked at the girl who had his face and the woman he loved.

For safety's sake, Helena was once again restricted to the mansion while Selina helped Bruce on the hunt for Jeremiah's clues, but he didn't tell the bride about the newspaper Gordon had shown him. He thought this would upset Selina too much and decided to spare her. He would handle it.

And during it, the couple began training Helena. This happened at the insistence of Selina, who became supportive of Bruce's old idea that the girl would always be in danger for being their daughter, and that Helena needed to learn to defend herself.

The thing is, that idea had changed in Bruce's mind since he'd seen that scribbled newspaper photo. And the earlier idea of training her daughter had given way to another idea, a much darker one. And he couldn't say at what moment that new conviction had taken over his mind, but surely it was already there on that cool spring night when he'd found Clark on a rooftop in Metropolis.

"You know Bruce, I think in the future, we're going to need a base to meet, we always talk on the roofs. It's uncomfortable..."

"Don't use our civilian name when you're in the patrol." the bat replied very seriously.

"You're getting more and more paranoid..." The Kryptonian joked.

"Jeremiah Valeska is on the loose in Gotham and his target is Bruce Wayne and his family." the bat spoke without listening to the other. "Aside from that, Cobblepot is still up to no good, Riddler attacked us at a party recently, Ivy tried more than once to re-enter the mansion... What if all these psychotics find out I'm the one holding them back? Luthor seems like child's play compared to what could happen... they'll come after Selina... worse, they'll come after Helena..."

"Where are you going with this?" Clark asked worried, his friend was abnormally chatty that night, that was not a good sign.

"I will go to Switzerland at dawn, I'll take them with me."

"But Gotham needs you..."

"That's why I called you here. Help Zatanna, she will be patrolling Gotham for the next few days."

"I can help, but Gotham is your city." Clark said distressed. "You know it better than I do, she needs you."

"I evaluated all the scenarios and realized that to help Gotham, Bruce Wayne needs to step aside now." the bat said decisively.

"Alright, you can count on me. But that's not all, is it?" the Kryptonian suspected, his friend was very upset. "Are you hiding something from me?

"Help Zatanna. That's it."

The bat leapt to the next building, disappearing into the darkness. Clark watched him disappear, a hint of worry hovering in his thoughts.

***

"I thought it would be harder to convince you to come." Bruce revealed to Selina the next night, after dinner. Alfred and Helena had already slept and the couple were talking in the living room of Wayne Chalet that was in the countryside of Switzerland. Bruce was in an armchair and Selina was lying on a comfortable sofa.

"I spent so much time locked in that mansion that any different landscape is welcome." She said while drinking a glass of wine. "First, we got stuck because of Luthor and now because of Jeremiah... This way, Helena will never be able to get out of the house again."