Gotham's Spider

8

By the time Penny had woken, she found that she was in her room at Wayne Manor. One thing she also noticed right away was the burning pain on her cheek, and her dry throat. Squinting her eyes, Penny looks around her room, as far as everything looks, everything is normal, nothing in here has been touched or moved. Slowly she sits up, but she doesn't bother getting out of bed yet. She raises a hand to her cheek, and winces at the contact. 

Even with her enhanced healing, she can already tell that it's bruised and going to take at least two days to heal. 

Her hand lands back next to her, and that's when she takes a look at the clock hanging across the room. It looks like she slept for about ten hours. She shakes her head, and slowly she peels the covers off her legs, and slides them onto the floor. Penny doesn't bother looking outside, or making the bed, or anything she would usually do when she woke up, instead, she went right into the bathroom, and right to the mirror. Once she takes a good look at herself, she winces. Her brown and purple hair is tangled, her eyes are red, and she has a large blue and purple hand print bruise on her face. She shakes her head once more. Penny turns on the tap, takes water into her hands, and splashes it onto her face. The cold water feels nice on her face. Then she takes out her hair brush, and quickly brushes through the knots. Once she puts the brush down, she realizes what she's wearing. She is still wearing the clothes from yesterday, just not her shoes, sweater, or socks. 

Her head snaps to the door. The upside to having spider senses, you can tell when someone enters your room, even while you're in another one. Penny turns away from the mirror, and slowly enters her room once more. Her eyes are met with Bruce and Alfred. They had worried looks sketched on their faces, that is until they saw her walking out of the bathroom. 

Nervously Penny looks up at them, and gives them a timid smile. She knows that they're both good people, and they're most likely not going to hurt her, but she doesn't know what's going to happen. She doesn't know what they're going to do. She doesn't have ESP. She stops walking a few feet away from them, and looks down at the ground, her arms now wrapping her body. She doesn't say anything, but Bruce does.

"Penny, how are you feeling," he says taking a few steps forward. 

"Um... fine, I guess. My...  face hurts."

"Yeah, I can see that. Um... What happened last night, has anything like that happened before?"

Penny looks up at Bruce and nods. His face falls, and he walks right up to her, ignoring the fact that she took a step back. He wraps his large arms around her in a hug.

"I'm so sorry, that should have never happened to you."

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes, but as his arms were wrapped around her, her arms never moved, she just leaned into the hug, wishing that this moment could last forever. Of course the moment couldn't last forever though, for there was a knock at the door. Bruce unwrapped his arms from around her, and they both took a step back, their focus now on the door that Alfred was opening. The person on the other side, surprised Penny. There was a police officer, and a woman wearing a suit. The two of them entered the room, they both directed their attention to Bruce, and woman spoke first, but Penny thought the woman looked familiar, and as soon as she started speaking, it clicked in her head.

"Mr. Wayne, my name is Maria Carter, I am Penny Parker's social worker."

This woman is her social worker, the one who placed Penny in that home in the first place. The one who saw her bruises and did nothing, the one who had done the same thing over and over again. Put her in abusive homes, and not take her out until a major incident that involved other families, or the police. Penny doesn't really like Maria Carter.

"This officer needs to speak with Penny regarding last nights events, and then I need to speak with Penny alone about her next placement here in Gotham."

At those words, Penny shakes her head. She understands and is totally willing to speak with the officer about last night, but she doesn't want to speak about another placement. This woman is terrible at placing kids, and yet somehow she still has a goddamn job at fucking CPS. Bruce had seen how Penny's face had fallen at her words, and he took into consideration the thoughts he had been having about Penny these past few weeks. 

... 

After Penny had spoken to the officers about what had happened at dinner last night, she was brought to Maria Carter. Though this time when Penny was brought to her, she saw that Bruce was with her, and smiling. Penny had known that they were talking while she was being questioned, but because she was being questioned by the police, she couldn't have listened in on their conversation with her super hearing, without getting distracted. 

So as soon as Penny got up to the pair, she looked expectantly at Maria, just wanting to get told where exactly she was going to be staying for a while. But what happened next, she didn't expect. Sure she had gotten along amazingly with the Wayne's, but she never expected this to happen, especially not to her. 

"Penny, Mr. Wayne is going to be your foster father."

Bruce's face was smiling, and hearing the news, Penny looked shocked, and happy all in a matter of a few seconds. I guess that's what they were talking about while she was being questioned.

"You want me to stay?" Penny said turning to Bruce. 

"Of course. You've bonded so well with everyone here, and I think you could be an amazing addition to this family."

Penny's smile got even wider, if that was possible. She just couldn't believe it, and she just couldn't be happier. He obviously wasn't in it for the money, I mean he's a billionaire, and he already has a bunch of kids that he's adopted, so it's just amazing that he wants to house her, that he wants to be her foster father. 

AN: Sorry that I haven't updated in a while! It's been stressful, and honestly I forgot all about the Wattpad stories i had to update, anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Also, how would you guys feel about a Teen Female Superman story that crossovers with the Avengers? Thanks!