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Selina wasn’t the settle down in one place kinda girl, she went wherever the wind took her and managed to survive while doing it. That all changed when she got stuck with Jim Gordon. She’d expected to be let go, thrown back into the streets of Gotham like any regular cop would. Like any regular cop had when she begged to know where her mother was. Thrown her into the alleyway like an animal, not even a person. Jim wasn’t the type to give up easily, as Selina would understand after five seconds of knowing him.
He insisted she stay with someone, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Eventually, the captain of the precinct gave her two options- get sent upstate, or live with Jim. Neither were good in Selina’s eyes, but she’d rather be in a city than no city at all. Getting away at this point was futile, all eyes were on her. Selina reluctantly agreed to stay with Jim, on the condition she could go out and see Ivy. Selina felt bad leaving her friend behind, and decided firmly upon those requirements.
Jim and Selina mutually agreed, and suddenly she was hauling her few belongings into Jim’s, rather Barbara’s, house. It was more extravagant than anything Selina bothered to give it credit for, but it didn’t suit Jim in the slightest. He had visible discomfort there. In the meantime, Selina made herself comfortable in an empty room, Jim promising to take her shopping the next day. Selina scowled at him any chance she got, making sure he was painfully aware of Selina’s dislike.
He seemed unfazed, flicking through a file absentmindedly. Selina scoffed under her breath, before having a well-deserved shower. The hot water wasn’t surprising, but she was unaccustomed to it. The expensive bottles of soap were a quarter empty by the time Selina was done. When she walked out, dressed in her lazing around clothes, Jim had left a peanut butter sandwich on a plate. She ate it, succumbing to her own hunger.
She decided to have a look around afterwards, the decor both intriguing and way above Jim’s pay. She wondered if he’d ever change it. She spotted Jim out on the balcony, head down and arms crossed. He looked troubled, but Selina paid him no mind. Served him right for trapping her there. She hoped he brooded the whole night. Going through TV channels brought her no excitement, and she was itching to go out, maybe jump across some rooftops to rile Jim up.
She couldn’t though. Not when it meant cops follow her and looking for her. She knew now that Jim was relentless in his endeavour to make her life boring as hell. Well, two could play at that game. Jim was becoming more and more irritated as Selina made life increasingly difficult for him. She’d refuse to listen to him, leave to visit Ivy without telling him, and getting into frequent arguments over petty things to which Jim sent her to her room and she screamed.
They only started really getting along two months later, when Jim came home with a bullet in his shoulder. Selina had watched his fruitless attempts at taking it out with his opposite arm, all the while he hissed in pain and made himself bleed more. Selina, sick of hearing Jim, came over and yanked the tweezers Jim was using right out of his hand. They’d had a brief exchange, mostly Jim telling her that he could handle it and her disagreeing.
He must’ve been tired or really having trouble, because he slumped his shoulders and let her do as she pleased. She got the bullet out in a few minutes, before helping Jim bandage himself and wipe the blood away. He thanked her, and she waved it off, holding his waist to help him into bed. She didn’t even know why, it’s not like anything had changed, and against her previous anger, she even put his bloodied clothes in the washing machine.
He was gone in the morning, leaving for work at his usual 6 am. Unlike regular days, he left a note under a mud of lukewarm hot chocolate. He thanked her again, before telling her to be careful when seeing Ivy that day. Selina snorted, a half-formed smile on her face as she drank the hot chocolate. She was surprised to find little marshmallows floating at the top.
Visiting Ivy slowly began to feel a little selfish of her. Selina spent all day living the high life, only to come see Ivy for an hour or so without even bringing her something to eat. Jim had said no child should be left alone on the street, right? So there was no harm in Ivy staying for a bit. After all, there were three other empty bedrooms, one with a fittingly large window for Ivy to grow plants off of.
Ivy seemed amused by the idea of staying with Jim, but went along with it nonetheless. She quickly too the room with the big window, placing down several pots with flowers in them. It felt strangely domestic when they both sat down with a bag of chips in front of the TV. Selina hoped that Jim wouldn’t kick Ivy out just because she didn’t ask first. They shared the house anyway, what difference did one more make?
Jim came home later than normal, bags under his eyes more prominent by the day. When he saw Ivy, he questioned if she was a permanent resident. Selina had said yes nonchalantly, even though worry was eating her insides. Jim nodded, told Ivy she was welcome to take a shower and went to bed. Selina would’ve been perplexed had she met been internally delighted. So, now it was the three of them, the only obstacle was adoption. Jim had already signed the papers for Selina, but was yet to officiate Ivy.
Selina work up early the next day, catching Jim as he was walking out the door. She asked him if he was going to let Ivy stay, and adopt her along with it. Jim promised to look into it and try as best he could to make sure she could stay. That had been enough for Selina. Five months into staying with Jim, she worried the grumpy detective had softened her heart.
Jim returned triumphant, showing Selina the adoption papers with a happy glint in his eye Selina had never seen before. He walked over to Ivy, got down on one knee to be at her eye level as she sat down, and asked her if that’s what she wanted. She shrugged, and told Jim as long as he respected her plants, she’d be nice to him. He smiled, and signed them without question.
Selina didn’t realise how she’d impacted Jim until then. He’d don anything he could to make the two girls happy. Ivy and Jim would cook on the weekends while Selina supervised, mostly because neither could cook and burning the house down wasn’t the best idea in the world. Jim would carrying them to bed on late nights, and Selina even gave him a side hug at the six month mark.
That’s when Jonathan showed up. Jim had come home one day, having talked about the Crane case nonstop, with one of said Crane’s standing beside him. Selina thought he was odd, stumbling around and fumbling up his words, unable to form a coherent sentence. He kept to himself in his room most days, avoiding direct eye contact or much communication. Jim said Jonathan had no place to go other than an orphanage, and Jim had already expressed his negative feelings on those. He’d said the ones he saw in Gotham were inhumane.
Jonathan was neutral with Jim, at least trying to speak to him. It was about mundane things. Jim told Selina that the boy had been through a lot, and needed some comfort. That he needed a friend, above anything. Selina practically yanked him out of his room and made him sit with them while Ivy watched a documentary on dangerous plants. Selina hadn’t seen Jonathan eat once, and encouraged him to do so. Probably in fear of her retaliation, he ate the popcorn they had.
This became a regular occurrence, watching movies and documentaries together. It made Jonathan more open, and he built up to sentences over time. Selina appreciated his kindness in a place like Gotham. They soon started calling him John, and the Crane case was talked about a lot less. Jim took a liking to Jonathan too, joining in on some of the movie nights. It was like they were some kind of family.
A year after Selina had began staying with Jim, Ivy called him Dad. It wasn’t made to be a big deal, and none of them ever acknowledged it, but Selina saw Jim smile as he left the house, wider than he ever had probably in his entire life. Selina never imagined him as the paternal kind of person, but apparently he was full of surprises as of late. Jonathan considered him a parent by then too. Selina was the odd one out.
Selina would’ve been lying had she said she helped all her friends off the street, Bridget was an a key example. She hadn’t seen the teen ever since she began staying with Jim, and it was clawing at her. She now knew that Jim was welcoming, and hey, there was one more room at the end.
When Jim came home to not three, but four teenagers including Bridget watching TV, he looked a little confused. Selina nearly laughed, thinking he might be counted them in his head. He raised an eyebrow at Selina, who shrugged and smiled. Jim sighed in response, welcoming Bridget. Selina felt her heart swell, only just, at Jim’s acceptance. Bridget moved in much easier once Jim had a word with her brothers.
Having four kids wasn’t all it had cracked up to be. Selina could tell sometimes it weighed on Jim about being away at work, and he took more days off than before. She tired to subtly tell him otherwise,that they were content just having a roof over their heads judging by the way Jonathan’s eyes lit up whenever he got regular meals and by the way Ivy was pleased whenever she had a safe place to herself.
Selina had never celebrated Father’s Day, and never intended to. She had never had a dad to share it with, an exercise in futility. Now she felt like she had no choice but to thank Jim, no matter their arguments before. He’d been compliant and kind most days, unless he was frustrated or brooding, in which case he’d go to bed. After one of those nights, Selina waited till everyone else was asleep. She noticed the case Jim was stuck on, and decided she could be helpful for him just this once.
The next morning, Jim got up at his usual time, and Selina was again awake waiting for him. Still half-asleep, he gave her a quizzical look. She gave him the location of the next likely bomb site, and at first he wasn’t too happy about her sneaking out. He told her it made him extremely worried for her safety and to never do it again. But then, he smiled at her, and thanked her for helping.
Maybe it wasn’t so bad to have a parent around, Selina was smitten with the idea.