Asprin, Robert Lynn – Catwoman – Tiger Hunt (With Lynn Abbey)

The thought that she might wind up there again refueled the nausea. Selina staggered to the bathroom and wretched until her gut was sore. Then she turned on the shower and sat beneath it with the warm water pelting her face.

If the harbor water did make her sick, Selina decided that she’d call Bonnie. That woman would think of something, and the price of friendship was easier to bear than going back to the mission. The shivering finally stopped and she felt well enough to peel the costume off. She scrubbed it thoroughly, trying not to notice the brownish water swirl down the drain, and left it in its usual place to dry. Then, wrapped in towels and blankets, she lay across her bed in the dark, thinking about Eddie and thinking about Batman.

Whoever would have thought that Batman was an old man with graying hair and puckery, alcoholic’s mottled skin and wrinkles in his cheeks? She remembered all the times she’d changed her plans because of him—a man on the downhill side of fifty! Then she remembered how he’d tossed her off the pier.

You don’t belong here; those were his very words. It was almost as if he’d been protecting her like a father.

Selina shuddered and pulled the pillow over her head. She was fantasizing about having Batman for a father! She really must be getting sick. Batman hadn’t protected her; he’d come between her and Eddie Lobb. He’d been protecting Eddie! A muscle spasm put knots in Selina’s stomach. She ground her teeth together and waited for the pain to pass. In her mind’s eye the world was a mass of writhing, eel-y things with gaping, round mouths and sharp teeth. The spasms struck again, worse than before. She knew her thoughts were making her sick. She tried to redirect them or, when that failed, to make her mind go blank. She got rid of the eel-y things, but not Eddie Lobb and not Batman. Their faces continued to haunt her as she fell into a restless sleep.