When Selena reconnected with her ostrasized cousin Jack Fenton, she had no idea what it would end up spiraling into.
Jack had always been the black sheep of the family. She remembered how her parents would gently encourage her to not talk too long with him whenever they were at a family gathering together. They’d stopped inviting the Fenton branch of the family before Selena finished middle school. It wasn’t until years later - when they were in their late twenties - that Jack had reached out to Selena to reconnect. She’d been reluctant at first - her parents’ gentle warnings still echoing in her head - but slowly, they reached an amicable kind of acquaintanceship that consisted of phone calls and Christmas cards.
She had still been shocked when Jack had invited her to come to meet his newborn daughter. She’d been even more shocked that she had said yes.
As she held little Jasmine Alicia Fenton in her arms in that squeaky, uncomfortable visitor’s chair in a tiny Illinois hospital, Selena felt her world tilt slightly to the left.
She was still Catwoman. She would never be able to give up the thrill of the chase - both for the treasure and the Bat.
She was still Selena Kyle - a socialite who used every connection she had to climb higher and weave her way into more and more networks, all to better understand her targets.
But she was also Auntie Lena. She made phone calls to talk not with her cousin, but with her niece - because even if technically they were second cousins, Selena decided they were aunt and niece. She sent a little girl elaborate birthday presents and surprised her with a week long girls trip in the summer every year.
And when she helped Jazz hold her baby brother Daniel James for the first time, Selena had finally accepted that she was absolutely gone for these kids. She couldn’t mock Bruce for his adoptive tendencies anymore. Not now that she understood what it meant to look at a child that wasn’t yours and loving them anyway.
Now there weren’t just gifts of kitty plushies and books of brain teasers, but ones of model rockets and photo albums filled with thick, glossy photos from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The girls trips became sibling getaways with their awesome Auntie Lena.
The first time Jazz called her asking how to make mac and cheese when she was six years old, something twisted in Selena’s stomach.
The first time Danny called her to ask how to deal with someone picking on him at school, that twisting became a heavy lead weight.
The first time Jazz asked if she and Danny could stay with Selena for the week since Jack and Maddie were leaving for a ghost hunter convention next week and still hadn’t found them a babysitter, that lead weight sharpened into a steel point.
She was determined to give these kids a good childhood. Even if it meant offering to let the kids come stay with her for the entirety of summer vacation. Even if it meant screaming herself hoarse on the phone with Jack after Jazz told her about him leaving samples of something from the lab in the kitchen fridge where either of the kids could have eaten it.
Still, she tried to let them keep their parents close. Even if she couldn’t understand it, Selena could tell that Jazz and Danny loved Jack and Maddie, and nothing Selena could say would change that.
When Selena opened her door to find her teenage niece and nephew on her doorstep at three in the morning in Gotham, hearing her niece cry about how Danny had some sort of accident in the lab and neither Jack nor Maddie had taken him to the hospital or even noticed, she made a decision.
She was determined to give these kids a good childhood.
Even if that means taking these kittens in herself.
It took a few weeks and a few favors from some friends of hers who kept a good law firm on retainer, but she managed to get it done. Jazz and Danny were moved to Gotham and set to begin at Gotham Academy next semester. Danny was set up to see a trusted family physician who knew how to keep his mouth shut. And if Selena decided to sic OSHA on her cousin and his wife in order to get their lab - and their portal - shut down, well, who was going to blame her?
The growing pains were there, or course.
The kids were used to seeing her only for short bursts of time as the fun aunt, not as the full-time parent who had to do the less glamorous parts of caretaking - such as setting curfews and grounding.
Selena had to get used to not being able to move as freely around her home at all hours of the night. Not without a solid alibi.
The sudden onset of powers was certainly a challenge. How did one keep a teenage boy from sneaking out when he had suddenly developed the ability to turn invisible and walk through walls?
The answer turned out to be simply - you didn’t.
Three months after Jasmine and Daniel Kyle came to Gotham, Catgirl and Stray arrived on the scene.
