II: Show Me Your Teeth
"She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. 'Time' for her isn't something to fight against." ― Roman Payne
••• flashback •••
"Miss Wayne, you know you are allowed out of your room through the day. You don't have to keep yourself all cooped up in here all the time." Nurse Greta said as she stood in the young woman's doorway and watched her as Bird lay on her bed and stared up to the dirty, paint chipped ceiling.
Bird looked over to the one of the few nice people employed by Arkham Asylum and gave a small nod, "I'd rather be in here."
"Isolation isn't good for your mental state." The nurse softly said, "Human beings are made to be social, constantly seeking out companionship. You might be doing yourself more harm than good staying closed off in here."
"Humans, huh?" Bird scoffed, "Nine times out of ten, I'm being referred to as 'inmate A-138'. This place... the people in it are trying to strip my humanity away."
She gave a small nod in agreement, she'd witnessed her fellow staff members treating the prisoners there as something far less than human. It made her sick to see, but all she felt she could do was be as gentle with them as possible –hoping that some of the good she was doing would help cancel out the atrocities they'd been through.
"You have a visitor." Nurse Greta finally said, offering the young woman a smile as she commented, "Maybe this will lift your spirits some?"
Standing up, Bird silently followed her to one of the visiting rooms. As they reached the door, the nurse commented, "You know, very few people in here are allowed unsupervised visits."
"My lawyer set it up." Bird shrugged, knowing what she really meant was that on her behalf, Erin had paid a large amount to the people who ran the asylum to get her some perks that other inmates weren't allowed.
Eyeing her for a moment, Greta finally opened the door to the room and motioned for her to go inside.
Bird slowly walked in, expecting it to be her lawyer again –the only person who'd been there to see her since she'd been cleared for visitors. She didn't even bother looking up until the door was shut behind her.
"Harvey!" She exclaimed, her brown eyes wide when she finally looked to see who was there to see her.
"I've been trying to get in here all week to see you-" He started to explain, but as she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms the impact knocked the air out of him and he couldn't finish his sentence.
His eyes closed and his arms tightened around her, relieved to see she at least physically seemed to be holding up well under the conditions she was being forced to live in and the constant state of stress she must be under.
"I've missed you so much." She said, her voice muffled against the fabric of his shirt, breathing in deeply she continued, "And you smell so good... so clean."
Leaning back enough to look at him she complained, "This place smells terrible, Harvey. I miss the scent of your cologne and my black jasmine soap and those cinnamon berry wax melts I bought, and..." Her voice trailed off when she swallowed hard and leaned her face back against him, fingers clutching desperately onto the fabric of his shirt as she whispered, "I miss all of the scents of our house... I miss home."
"I know." He quietly said, holding onto her tightly and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I miss you too. Every second of every single day, it kills me knowing you're in here."
Finally letting go of each other, they sat down across from each other at the table and she admitted, "I was starting to think you weren't coming to see me."
"I've been trying." He explained, a pained look on his face at seeing the broken look in her eyes. "You wouldn't believe all the paperwork I had to fill out to just be able to get in here. The whole process is painstakingly long –I think they're trying to discourage anyone from visiting."
His eyes darted back and forth over her face as he asked, "How are you?"
"Not good." Bird admitted, "I'm barely sleeping –when I do sleep it's nothing but nightmares and I spend like twenty-something hours a day alone in my room. This place... it's not good for me." Taking a deep breath she added, "I'm thinking about having Erin set up another evaluation to prove I'm ready to stand trial."
"No." He dismissively said, "You think life in Blackgate is going to be any better?"
"Harvey, yesterday at lunch this guy sat down at my table; his name is Greenwood and do you know what he's in here for?" Bird asked.
"No..." He breathed.
"He killed twelve women and then he ate them." Bird flatly stated, "I'm locked up in here with cannibals."
He stared back at her with a horrified look on his face and Bird nodded, "I have to get out of here."
"I know, and we'll get you out. We're doing everything we can." He assured her, his eyes lighting up a little as he admitted, "There's a service station just outside of The Narrows and the owner says that he thinks he remembers seeing you on a Wednesday night about two o'clock in the morning-"
"So what?" Bird pushed.
"So... the coroner estimates the time of death of the victims between one-thirty and three a.m Wednesday night. They were killed on the other side of town, way too far of a distance from the service station for you to have done it." He explained. "There's surveillance footage from an old camera on the side of the building-"
"Then that's all we need right?" Bird asked, her eyes widening.
"Not really." Harvey sighed, hating to know he was letting her down. "The footage is grainy and dark, but Erin has someone trying to clean it up so we can hopefully tell if the person on the tape is really you. It's a good start though."
"Yeah, I guess it is." She nodded, somehow managing a small smile in spite of it feeling like her heart had just dropped through the floor beneath them.
"I know this is hard." He quietly said, reaching out and taking hold of her hand.
"But it's just temporary... yeah, I know." She replied, hoping she didn't sound nearly as bitter as she was starting to feel inside.
"Have you heard from Bruce?" Bird asked, trying to change the subject.
"No..." Harvey answered. "Not since your last day in court."
"Probably because he thinks I really did it." She scoffed, but Harvey tried to make her feel better as he explained, "It looks bad... all the evidence stacked against you, it looks really bad and he probably just needs some time to figure things out for himself."
"Whatever, it doesn't matter anyway." She sighed, trying to act like it didn't matter to her, but Harvey could easily see past the façade.
They'd only been able to talk for about twenty more minutes before one of the orderlies came in and accounted visiting was over.
Getting out of her seat, Bird stood up and looked at Harvey as he also stood and walked up to her. Leaning down he tilted her chin up so she'd face him as he said, "You're not allowed to have much in here, but they did say you could have books and magazines so I brought you some stuff. I was told they had to check it over to make sure I wasn't trying to smuggle anything in... then they'll put it all in your room."
Bird nodded, tensing the muscles in her jaws to try and keep her chin from quivering at knowing he was getting to leave –getting to walk out the doors free while she remained a prisoner within the walls.
"I'll be back as soon as I can." He promised, leaning down as he spoke and Bird quickly raised up on her feet and hungrily pressed her mouth to his. Her fists clutched onto his shirt with desperation; trying to forget where she was and how short her time with him had been. She needed something to take her mind off of what was happening, she just wanted to start feeling normal again.
••• end of flashback •••
Bird unlocked the front door of the house she'd bought with Harvey and stepped inside, immediately realizing it didn't smell the same as when she'd left.
When they were getting the house set up long before she ended up framed for murder and put in Arkham, back when they were still moving in and making the house a home, Bird had bought heated wax warmers to go throughout the house along with about fifty packs of the cinnamon apple berry scented wax cubes she'd fell in love with.
Closing the door behind her, she headed straight for the decorative end table in the living room where the wax burner was. At least everything seemed to be in the same place, she thought to herself as she came to a stop at the table and looked down to the green melted wax sitting in the tray. Leaning down she sniffed at it and her nose quickly wrinkled in response.
She couldn't pinpoint what scent it was supposed to be –possibly something resembling pine. How dare he, she thought, how dare he start changing things in their house.
Did he not expect her to be coming back?
Anger flashed red behind her eyes and she picked up the wax burner so fast she spilled the wax out onto the floor and the plugin sparked from how fast she jerked the cord out of the outlet.
Storming into the kitchen, she stomped on the lever to pop the top of the trash can open and threw the entire thing in.
Before she was even fully aware of her actions, she'd opened the refrigerator and started tossing out the foods that she, herself, didn't care for. Foods that she didn't remember being in there before Arkham.
Her nose wrinkled at a bottle of bleu cheese salad dressing and she added that to the ever filling trash bin before noticing she didn't recognize a skillet hanging on the hooks next to the stove.
Her feet hit heavily against the tile floor as she grabbed the skillet up before swooping up a coffee cup from the counter as went back to the trashcan. When she ran out of room, she roughly pulled the entire lid off the bin and started to pull the trash bag out when she finally came back to her senses.
Looking down into the bag filled with the scent wax burner, new skillet, food and other random items, her breathing grew shallow.
What the hell was she doing?
Swallowing hard, she backed up until her back hit the wall and slid down onto the floor. On the surface she was mad at the things he'd changed in their house, but when she really forced herself to take a look around, she couldn't deny it went so much deeper than that.
It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment her anger at him had started to churn and grow. Maybe it was around the time he kept insisting she had to fight the charges again her legally, if not then –then it had to have been the first couple of visits he missed.
She remembered breaking one of the phones in the asylum when she called during her usual phone time and he didn't answer.
A frustrated noise bellowed from her mouth, muffled against her hands as she roughly rubbed her face and tucked her hair behind her ears.
Hearing the front door open, Bird scrambled to her feet and looked towards the doorway as Harvey walked into the kitchen and came to a stop when he saw her.
Their eyes met and she swallowed hard, it was the first time she'd seen him in two weeks. She wasn't sure what to say in a situation like this, she wasn't even sure she should have waited around after hearing the door open.
"Thank God!" He breathed as he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace so tight she could barely catch her breath.
Slowly, she raised her arms and held onto him too, but she couldn't entirely relax in his arms –not the way she used to.
"You weren't answering your phone and I was going out of my mind until I got a call from John, that he'd seen someone going into the house-"
"Who's John?" Bird questioned, a near blank expression fell over her face as he finally let go of her and took a step back to look her over.
"John Alforde, our neighbor on the right." Harvey explained, his face lined with worry as he asked, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine..." She breathed, her own face twisting as she asked, "You met our neighbors? And one of them called you because they saw me going into the house... it's my house too."
Seeming to either not hear her or simply not comment on what she said, Harvey asked, "Are you sure you're okay? When you didn't come home after getting released from Arkham, I assumed you were staying at your apartment and then when I saw the news... well, like I said –I was going out of my mind when I couldn't reach you on the phone."
"What are you talking about?" Bird asked, her jaw hung loosely as she stared at him.
"Your apartment building."
"What about my apartment building."
"The explosion..." Harvey carefully said.
"The what?" She asked, her eyes widening as an inappropriately timed laugh slipped out, "No, no... I just came from there and there was no explosion."
"You really didn't know?" He asked, rubbing his hands down her arms and apologizing, "I'm sorry. I know you loved that apartment, but the most important thing is that you weren't there when it happened."
Pulling away from him, she silently turned and walked into the living room, ignoring his questions as she went. Locating the remote on the coffee table, she switched the television on to find it was already on a news channel with coverage of the building explosion.
"Oh my god..." She breathed, her throat felt like it was getting smaller by the second and her mouth grew uncomfortably dry with each passing second of watching the building she once called home lying in near ruin as fire crews still worked to keep the flames contained that had spread to nearby buildings from the explosion.
"Starling..." Harvey breathed as he slowly walked up behind her, but she wouldn't turn around to face him. Gently, he placed a hand on her arm and started to turn her around so he could see her.
Once she was facing him, he could see the tears welling up in her reddening eyes.
"How could you meet our neighbors without me?" She caught him off guard with the last question he'd expected her to ask in a moment like that.
"We bought this house together, Harvey. Put in all that work and time and money trying to make this place into our home and then the minute I'm locked away –you start exchanging numbers with our neighbors. How could you?" She hoarsely asked, her face contorted in pain as she spoke.
Like it was a struggle to get each word out.
"I don't think you're upset about the neighbors." He argued, "I think you're upset because of your apartment."
Her breathing started to grow uneven again and she pushed past him to get back into the kitchen. Filling up a glass with water, she brought it to her lips and it wasn't until some of it had spilled out onto her shirt that she realized her hands were trembling.
Setting the glass down on the counter, she closed her eyes and tried to get a hold of herself while blocking out the sound of his voice when he followed her.
Finally, the ringing that hard started to sound from deep within her ears subsided and she pulled in a breath of air.
"Starling?"
"Yes?" Bird breathed, slowly turning around to face him.
"Maybe you are mad about the neighbors." He finally conceded, "Mad that I did things without you and I'm sorry for that." A guilty look filled his eyes and he said, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" She asked, the bitterness of her words already nipping at her tongue before she even spoke them, "For what exactly? F-for telling me to handle things legally? For convincing me that pleading insanity was going to the best outcome for the moment? For not answering when I called you, or missing visits on the days you promised to be there? Or maybe it's because you changed the wax cubes and bought a new skillet without me."
Swallowing hard and being mildly aware that some of what was coming out of her mouth was irrational, she couldn't stop herself as her voice cracked and she asked, "Why the hell did you change the wax cubes? I bought those berry cinnamon apple ones because I just... I just loved them so much."
By the end of her words, the tears she'd been fighting to keep in her eyes were sliding down her face and her jaw hurt from trying to keep her chin from quivering.
"For all of it." He said, clearing his throat and trying to swallow down the lump he could feel growing inside. "But you have to understand that just because your life got put on hold for those months, mine didn't. You don't know what it was like for me, all I wanted to do was get you out of there, bring you back home and I couldn't."
"I don't know what it was like?" Bird scoffed, her eyes glistening under the ceiling lights, "You have no idea what it was like for me being locked up in that place!"
"You're right!" He yelled, shaking his head back and forth as his own voice wavered with emotion, "Because you wouldn't tell me! You just shut down on me, Starling. When I'd come to visit... when you'd call home; I was lucky to get a couple words out of you. I wanted to be there, okay? I wanted to help you through everything, but I can't help when you shut me out."
"What good would it have done?" She screamed, tossing her arms out to the side in exasperation and letting them carelessly fall back into place, "Knowing the stuff that was going on in there would have just drove you crazy, Harvey. You couldn't have fixed anything."
Taking a step forward he argued with her, "I didn't need you to protect me from the bad things. I just needed to know that you were still in this with me. To know that you were somewhere inside that shell I saw after the first few visits."
"And I needed you." She admitted, blinking rapidly and drying up her tears, "I needed you to be there when I didn't feel like talking about anything, to come and see me even when I hadn't brushed my hair in days! Don't you get that? I needed you to pick up the phone when I called, even if we just listened to each other breathe because I wanted to know if I even had anything to come home too."
"Of course you do." He urged, "You have always had me. You still do. But I couldn't stomach it anymore. Seeing you in that place –seeing what being in there was doing to you and feeling so helpless to do anything.
Roughly running his hands through his perfectly combed hair and leaving it a disheveled mess, he asked, "Don't you think I wanted to tear that building down brick-by-brick to get you out of there? Because I wanted too! I did everything I could to get you out, I didn't sleep. Going over the evidence, looking for something that somebody else missed; tried to find something, anything to help you. But it wasn't enough. And I hate myself for it, but I started to dread the visits... I felt sick waiting for the phone to ring because I never had good news or anything to keep your hope alive."
Swallowing down emotion, he stepped closer to her, "There we were. Engaged, happy, talking about wedding dates and what bakery to get the cake from and the next thing I knew... you were gone. Literally vanished –for an entire week! And I even know if you were alive or dead –whether it was a mob thing or if you decided this wasn't what you wanted and fled on me. We were planning our lives together and the next thing I know, I'm sitting in an interrogation room at the GCPD with two idiots trying the good cop – bad cop routine on me because apparently after you disappeared, Jim Gordon told Sarah Essen that I've been violent with you in the past. There were people who thought I'd killed you, Starling. My entire world collapsed and then I get a call that two cops pulled you off the edge of a bridge in the middle of the night –covered in blood and completely out of your mind screaming about how you were a bird and born to fly. You nearly killed yourself."
"Because someone drugged me!" She hissed, "I am missing an entire week from my memory, I literally have no idea what I did during that time. You can't imagine how that feels."
"You're right." He agreed, "I don't. But I do know how it feels to be living in a nightmare. This didn't just happen to you."
"I know." Her voice was now so low that he could hardly even hear her.
Finally she raised her head and their eyes locked. Giving a weak shrug she questioned, "So what now? Where do we even go from here?"
"We fix it." Harvey answered, walking the rest of the way up to her and holding onto the side of her face as he brushed the still lingering trail from her tears away with his thumb, "I screwed up... again." He added with a half-smile.
"You did." Bird agreed, her face still twisted up in pain.
"So let me fix this... again."
"Are you sure you still want to?" Bird asked, looking up to his face as she spoke.
After everything that had happened, she wasn't so sure what she wanted his answer to be.
"Yes." He confidently said, before leaning down and claiming her mouth with his own. He could taste the saltiness of her tears on her lips.
Pulling back, he rested his forehead against hers and admitted, "I'm not entirely how sure how to fix this... but I do know that I still love you, I never stopped loving you and we'll figure the rest out."
Gently she nodded her head and somehow found the strength to manage a small smile –one that didn't quite reach to her eyes.
She was envious of him and his 'everything will work out' attitude. She didn't know what she believed in anymore, but a part of her still believed in him and if he still believed in them –then maybe there was a chance they could steer their lives back on track.
When his phone rang from his pocket, he let out a sigh and breathed, "I rushed out of the office after hearing about your apartment building and then got the call from John."
They stared at each other for a few seconds before he said, "It doesn't matter, I'll just take the rest of the day off. Work can wait."
"No." She protested, "You should go in. I know how stressed you get when you get behind on paperwork or don't have enough time to prep for a trial."
"But-" He started to protest.
"I got a call from someone at the police station to come in and talk anyways. I'm guessing it has something to do the Arkham escape." She confessed.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yeah, go ahead." She nodded.
"You'll be here when I get home, right?" His eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke, looking for any tell that she wasn't being truthful with him.
"My apartment is in pieces all over the 42nd street block –where else am I going to go?" Her attempt at humor lightening the situation failed and he gave her a look to show he didn't think it was very funny.
"I'll be here." She promised.
Accepting her answer, he leaned down and gave her another kiss before he turned to leave, on his way coming to a stop next to the trashcan. When he glanced back at her with an expectant expression, she shrugged, "I was really mad at you for changing the scented wax melts."
•••
"You all know what we're dealing with here; six criminally insane inmates were busted out of Arkham Asylum. Yesterday, four of those inmates broke into Yellen Shipyard, kidnapped seven workers and then dropped them off the roof of the Gotham Gazette. As of now, we still have no leads on the person or persons behind the breakout. Jim Gordon is lead on this." Commissioner Essen announced to the squad room full of officers who were gathered to hear the latest details. Turning towards where Jim was standing she nodded, "Jim?"
Bird caught the tail end of Essen's speech as she walked into the precinct. After she'd heard what happened at Arkham, she'd known it was only a matter of time until she'd either have officers show up at her door, or she'd get a call to come down to the station.
Leaning against the wall, she crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Jim took center stage under a white screen set up across from a projector. With the remote in his hand he clicked a button to start the slide show and a picture of Jerome Valeska's mug shot took over the screen.
"These are our targets." Clearing his throat Jim began, "Jerome Valeska, 18 years old, matricide. Arnold Dobkins, schizophrenic, also a poisoner and rapist. Aaron Helzinger, killed his entire family with his bare hands. Robert Greenwood, killed and then ate a dozen women. Barbara Kean, killed her parents. We're gonna work this in groups of four. I'll hand out assignments throughout the day."
He eyed the crowd before asking, "Any questions?" When no one spoke up, he shut the projector off and ordered, "Let's get to work."
Essen spotted Bird off to the side of the room and approached her with a warm smile, "Miss Wayne."
Bird shook the hand the new commissioner had extended and corrected, "Bird."
With a nod, Essen said, "Sorry to take time out of you day, but thank you for coming in so fast."
Bird nodded, she hadn't dealt much with Essen before –but in her mind anyone would be a better commissioner than Loeb had been.
"Alvarez!" She called out to one of her detectives, motioning for him to come over to them before looking back to Bird and saying, "I'm going to have you go with Detective Alvarez and just answer a few questions, we mainly just need to know-"
"No." Bird cut her off, stubbornly shaking her head back and forth.
"I'm sorry?" Essen stammered.
"I'll only talk to Jim Gordon." Bird stressed, before blowing a sigh and causing the hair that had fell over her face to puff out as she added, "Or Bullock... if I absolutely have to."
"Bullock is no longer with us." She explained, holding up a hand as Alvarez started to towards them to signal she no longer needed him.
"He died?" Bird questioned and Essen's eyebrows raised at the clear lack of emotion in her voice, before she corrected, "He's no longer employed by the GCPD, but he's still alive."
Bird shook her head and mumbled under her breath how much things had changed during her time in Arkham.
"Jim is running point on the Arkham investigation, he's very busy-"
"Look." Bird sighed, "I'm not trying to be difficult here, but I did just spend months of my life locked away in Arkham because of a crime that I didn't commit. I not sure who's after me or what's going on, but considering my apartment building literally exploded this morning –I'm going to guess that it's not over. So either you bring Bullock back out of retirement or just let me talk to Jim."
Pausing just long enough to make sure she was being heard and to pull in a breath, she finished, "Or I can just call my lawyer, who I'm pretty sure would advise against me being here in the first place-"
"Let me get you set up in one of the rooms and then I'll get Jim, okay?" Essen strained with a tight smile.
Bird nodded and followed her through the station, where she caught sight of Lee who gave her small smile in passing.
After getting put into one of the interrogation rooms and declining the offers for water or coffee, Bird sat staring straight ahead in silence until she heard door open back up and Jim walked in with Essen behind him.
"Hey." He greeted Bird with a nod, before stating, "Sorry to hear about your apartment building, but I'm glad you weren't there when it happened."
She nodded and watched as he sat down across the table, before Bird's eyes dated over to where Essen was starting to sit down with them.
Seeing the reaction Essen questioned, "Do you have a problem with my being here?"
"I don't know." Bird shrugged, "Did you frame me for a triple homicide?"
"No." She stated, her head titling to the side with the realization that it was an actual question and not a smartass remark.
"No." Jim backed her, looking to Bird as he vouched for his boss, "She's one of the good ones."
"Then she can stay." Bird accepted.
Once everyone was seated, Jim opened his mouth to explain why she'd been called and asked to come in, but Bird didn't give him a chance when she stated, "I had nothing to do with what happened at Arkham. Though, I admit... the timing does look bad considering I just got out of there myself."
"The timing of it does look bad." Jim admitted, his eyes narrowing slightly as he added, "Also doesn't help that the staff said you'd were friends with the inmates involved."
"Friends is a loose term." Bird pointed out, before pausing and openly admitting, "Cards on the table, you're wasting time talking to me. The only person I would have helped break out of Arkham would have been Barbara and we were close long before we both ended up in there."
Essen opened her mouth to ask a question of her own, but before she could Jim couldn't stop himself from reminding Bird, "I told you not to make friends while you were in there.
"So you did." The acknowledgment came with a roll of her brown eyes, "And so did Harvey and my lawyer-"
"Then why would you do it?" He pushed, "I spoke to the staff there myself and they said you sat with this same group of people every single day. That you spent rec time with them, ate your meals with them... do I really need to go on?"
Essen tried to break into the conversation again, but it soon became clear that she might as well have not been in the room when Bird's newly angered gaze fell on Jim and she said with gravel in her voice, "I had to."
"You had to?" Jim scoffed, "You say like that you didn't have a choice."
"Oh, I had a choice! Either fall in with them or..." Her voice trailed off and she leashed her anger. Clearing her throat, she paused for a moment before adding, "Some of the guards were scarier than the inmates, okay?"
"Meaning what?" Essen finally broke in.
Blowing out a sigh, Bird looked to Jim and asked, "Do you remember when you came there to see me after Barbara got her hands on a phone and started calling to threaten and taunt Lee?"
He nodded, "You said you didn't know how she got a phone." With a slight tilt of the head he admitted, "I didn't believe you."
"Good for you, because I was lying." She admitted, "Richard Sionis ran Arkham from in the inside out. If you got in good with him, he could get you anything within reason."
Bird looked down as she remembered, "I didn't always get along with him though. In the beginning I tried to stay away from everyone; just keep my head down and do my time until my lawyer could get me out of there. But Sionis and Jerome were always watching me, trying to court me into their group for whatever reason."
"And then something happened?" Jim asked, the tone of his voice much less gruff then before as he saw her absently mindedly twisting up the fabric on the sleeve of her shirt.
"Yeah, something happened. I realized Jerome was right." Bird's eyes locked with Jim's as she remembered, "My very first day in there, he told me I was going to have to make friends sooner or later and he was right."
"Care to elaborate on that more?" Essen asked her.
"Like I said, getting in good with Sionis could get you anything. Phones and other electronics, better food, a second blanket on freezing nights and even protection from handsy staff members who are quick to remind you that you're trapped in a place where no one really cares why you're screaming." Bird flatly stated, her voice entirely void of emotion and Jim didn't miss the vacant look in her eyes as she gave another shrug to further distance herself from the thoughts.
"Okay." Essen nodded, clearly understanding what Bird was getting at. Her own gaze softened when she added, "Look, for the record, I believe you. I don't think you had any involvement in orchestrating the breakout. But this doesn't look good. The timing is too coincidental, so if you know anything about this... anything at all, you've got to start talking, for your own sake."
"Exactly!" Bird exclaimed, looking to the commissioner, "The timing is too coincidental. Whoever did this is probably the same people that wiped out Bunderslaw's family and took him, probably the same ones who blew up my apartment building within ten minutes of me leaving there. Don't you see? Whoever is doing this –is trying to completely dismantle my life!"
"Conspiracy theories aren't going to help us find the missing inmates." Jim pointed out.
"I can't help either."
Essen nodded, she wasn't sure if Bird's reputation of being difficult to deal with was truly proceeding her or if she was holding something back. Either way, she didn't feel like her presence was helping matters much.
Maybe she'd be more open if she was just dealing with Jim.
"I'm going to check and see if we've got any new leads." She announced as she stood from the table and looked to Jim, "Can you finish up here?"
He nodded and once she was out of the room, Bird stood up from the table and asked, "Are we done here?"
"Unless you're not telling me something." He countered, also standing as picked the folder up from the table he'd carried in.
"I'm being honest." Bird assured him. Adjusting her coat, she started for the door of the room but he caught up with her just outside of the interrogation room.
"What you said back there..." His voice lowered and he stepped closer and asked, "Did something happen to you in there?"
"No." She answered, "Nothing much beyond the threats."
"Bird, you can tell me-"
"I just did!" She exclaimed, "If it hadn't been for Sionis then it might have been a different story."
"Yeah?" He questioned, still speaking low, "And what did you have to do to 'get in good with Sionis', as you put it?"
"Not what you're thinking." Her eyebrows arched as she added, "He prefers blondes. He really had a thing for Barbara."
When Jim's gaze remained unwavering on her and it was clear he was wanting more of an explanation.
"What do you want me to say, Jim?" Bird complained, "The man was locked in Arkham, he's nuts. During the time I was trying to be a good girl and not make friends, he and Jerome made some kind of bet with each other and got two of the inmates to try and jump me at dinner one night."
Swallowing hard she continued, "I lost it and nearly killed one them. After that I confronted Sionis and he kept going on about how true savages are easy to spot, but I surprised him. He said my violence was a thing of beauty. Even quoted Shakespeare or something about my being the serpent under the flower or something." Rubbing her forehead, she sighed, "I can't even remember, but after that he wanted me around him all the time and so to protect myself –I was."
"Sionis is the one last year who was forcing potential employers to fight for the open positions at his company, some of them fought to the death." Jim recalled, thinking to himself of how Sionis loved watching the dark side of humanity surface, to push people to cross lines they normally wouldn't.
"If you hear anything from any of the escapees, you'll call it in, right?" Jim asked.
Her dimples showed as she fought back a smile when questioning, "Do you want me to honestly answer that, or just nod as I walk away."
He shook his head as she started to take a few steps back away from him.
"I'm serious, Bird." He said loudly.
"One of those escapees happens to be a good friend of mine." She couldn't help but smile as she could practically see his stress levels starting to rise.
"She's dangerous." He reminded her.
"A lot of beautiful things are." Bird smirked, before turning and walking away without looking back at him.
Jim sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
In the near countless visits he'd made to see her in the few months she'd spent in Arkham, he'd seen her vulnerable side more than ever before.
Only now that she was back out, apparently she was starting to feel more like her old self.
The version that never failed to burrow underneath his skin long after she was out of sight.
As he headed off to find Commissioner Essen and touch base about the investigation, he didn't even notice Lee watching him from across the room. Her eyes fell down to the file in her hand that she'd been bringing to one of the officers.
Biting down on the side of her tongue, she wondered what he'd been talking so closely to Bird about.
She tried not to let it bother her, but for the last few months she'd had to listen to him bring her up several times a day not to mention she was sure he'd spent more evenings signing the visitors log at Arkham, then he'd spent with her at dinner.
She was used to him bringing his work home with him, the nights of being kept awake from his tossing and turning in the bed when he couldn't get one of his cases out of his head, but this felt different.
Blowing out a breath she tried to push the creeping thoughts out of her head and focus on work, mentally noting she'd bring some of it up that night at dinner.
••• Flashback •••
Bird sat at a table by herself during dinner, her day had only gotten progressively worse since having to part ways with Harvey after his visit earlier that day.
Someone apparently had decided that she needed some social time and the guard on duty wouldn't unlock the security gate leading to the women's wing so she could go back to her room.
Her dark brown eyes darted across the busy dining room with an almost paranoid level of alertness, the air in the room felt almost too thick to breath and even though no one had approached her, her skin felt prickly from a sense of impending danger.
She continued to scan her surroundings as she tore bits off of her dinner roll and popped them into her mouth.
Her gaze finally went to the table where Jerome was sitting and her eyes narrowed as she saw Richard Sionis speaking closely with a man seated next to him and Jerome kept glancing over at her, before excitedly turning his attention back to the conversation happening across the table from him.
Diverting her eyes away, Bird dropped the roll she'd been eating back to her tray and took a drink of water as she tried to slow her rapidly beating heart.
She'd have bet money that they must have been talking about her, but then again it seemed like with every passing day she was becoming more paranoid –and her being aware of her own lack of mental stability was only making things worse and she was losing sleep.
Taking another drink of her water, she kept her head slightly lowered, appearing to be staring down to her food but out of the corner of her eyes she was keeping tabs on the Sionis' table.
It wasn't much later that one of the men he'd been talking to stood up and starting to circle the room in a slow and predatory manner.
Turning her head towards the table, she saw Sionis was eating his dinner as if nothing were out of the ordinary –but Jerome had his elbow bent on the table and his chin resting in his hand as he stared at her with his green eyes looking brighter than usual.
He was waiting on something to happen.
Bird fixated her gaze back on the man walking still circling the room, every pass he made behind where she was seated caused her pulse to jump as she prepared for a fight if someone tried to attack her. The only moments of calm she felt was when he was on the complete opposite side of the room and in clear view of her –but it was a false sense of security and staying solely focused on him quickly became her downfall when she didn't see the other inmate sneaking up behind her.
Suddenly a pair of alarmingly strong arms wrapped around her, pinning her arms down to her sides where she couldn't break free and in what felt like less than a second of time she was roughly jerked up from her seat and her legs dangled above the floor.
Despite feeling like she was having her very life squeezed out of her, her main concern returned to the man who'd been circling the room as he was now closing in on her. Not seeing a weapon on him, she waited until he got close enough to her that she could swing her lower body out and up, effectively wrapping her lets around his neck and clamping down as tight as she could.
Tiling her head forward, she brought it back as fast and as hard as she could and the back of her head collided with the man's face, catching him completely off guard and with a groan of pain he stumbled backwards and she fell to the ground, bringing her other attacker down with her. Scrambling to her feet, she delivered a powerful kick to the front of his throat that left him defenseless and using all of his strength to try and take a breath, but his state of panic just made the task more impossible.
Hearing movement from behind her, she wasted no time grabbing up her dinner tray and hitting the man on the side of his head; bringing him to the ground with one powerful blow.
In a frenzied fit of rage, the rest of the room melted away into nothingness and she was on top of the man she'd brought down, taking everything out on him with her bare fists. One powerful hit after another came so fast that he hadn't had time to block any of the punches she was throwing, each one of them landing on his face and head with a dizzying force.
Her knuckles hurt, ached more and more with each impact they made on his flesh and bone, but the pain didn't stop her. In some sick way it only fueled the frenzy.
Her target wasn't moving any longer, to be honest she wasn't even entirely sure he was still alive –but she couldn't bring herself to stop pummeling him.
Drops of warm blood spattered up onto her face and soaked into her black and white striped dress, the skin over her knuckles was broken and she, herself, was bleeding.
Something thick and cold landed on the side of her face and startled her from the moment, breaking her rage filled concentration just enough to see the damage she'd done. Scrambling up to her feet, she reached for the side of her face to see what had landed on her –as she pulled her hand away she saw it was a glob of mashed potatoes.
It wasn't until then that she realized the entire dining room had broken out into a food fight, ignited by the food that had flew off of her own tray when she'd used it as a weapon.
The room was a scene of complete chaos with cheap, tasteless food being blindly hurled in all directions. Jerome was standing on top of one of the tables, laughing manically as he threw whatever food he could get his hands on. Each time he was pelted by something, his laughing grew louder and louder until it finally became the only thing that Bird could hear.
The noise bounced around inside of her head, physically colliding with one side of her skull and then the other –but never fully leaving.
Her breath rushed in and out of her lungs, no longer aware of the still ongoing food fight around her that was starting to turn violent as the inmates ran out of food to throw and started tossing around anything they could find –from their food trays, to books and even chairs.
Bird felt like all of the oxygen was being pulled from the room and forced from her lungs, the longer she stood there, the more it felt like any ounce of hope she'd ever had that she was going to make it out of those walls was slipping away.
Her legs gave out from under her and she landed painfully hard on her knees, before she crawled under the table she'd been sitting at and pulled her knees up to her chest. Closing her eyes she tried to find some ounce of peace within herself, but her entire world had spun into complete chaos and she was steadily losing her ability to see a way out.
As impossible as it seemed, somehow the sound of Jerome Valeska's laughing seemed to be growing louder and she opened her eyes to see he was knelt down next to the guy she'd beaten to a bloody pulp. Feeling eyes on him, he looked over to see Bird crouched underneath the table. Their eyes locked and he swooped something up from the floor, before he crawled under the table with her and held out his hand with his fist closed around whatever it was he'd picked up.
When she stared blankly at him, he reached out and grabbed her hand, holding it palm up as he dropped what he'd been holding into her hand.
Bird looked down to see he'd placed a blood stained human tooth in her hand, one of several she'd knocked out of her attacker's mouth.
Her brown eyes widened and she dropped the tooth to the floor and in response Jerome's laughing was reignited. His entire face changed, his cheeks turning into sharp points with his mouth so far open she had a clear view of his tonsils and the laugh that she once had found amusing was starting to invade her thoughts and take root in her head, haunting her in a way she didn't understand; but desperately needed to stop.
After what felt like an eternity, someone grabbed onto the back of his shirt and jerked him out from under the table. Followed by another hand taking a tight grip on her arm and also pulling her out from the shelter the table had provided.
The room was nearly empty of inmates now, the ones who remained were being pulled towards their rooms by the staff and she saw they were loading the two men she'd brought down onto gurneys to be taken to either Gotham General or the infirmary.
"Well look who it is." The orderly who had a tight grip on her arm said, and she turned her head to see a familiar face of someone she'd went to school with. Looking her over he smirked, "How the mighty have fallen, huh?"
"Jackson?" She asked, using her unrestrained arm to push her food coated hair from her eyes.
"Surprised you remember my name." He flatly stated, as he started to drag her towards the women's wing to lock her in her room for the night. "I remember when you thought you were too good to even speak to me."
Bird didn't say anything back, all the fight she'd had in her system was long gone and it was nothing short of humiliating having someone she'd graduated high school with working at the very place she was being held prisoner in.
"Come on. In you go." He said as they reached her room, and he pushed her inside with his hand moving down her lower back and onto her butt.
Quickly moving away from him, she spun around with hate narrowed eyes and hissed, "Don't touch me."
Taking a few steps into her room, his eyes darkened as he said, "Right... you're a Wayne. You think you're untouchable –always have."
"Well, guess what?" Jackson questioned, closing in on her as he reached a hand out and poked her shoulder as he called out in a menacing tone, "Touch..."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Bird warned, her voice low as she spoke and stared at him from under her eyebrows.
"Out of these walls you might have thought you were something special, but in here you're just another freak –an insane freak and I'm the one calling the shots." He threatened, before teasing in a childlike tone, "Looney Bird."
Turning he stepped outside of her room and she moved forward in a manner that was easily perceived as hostile and he looked down to his keys as he warned, "Bad things happen to our inmate population all the time, especially on the female wing. I'd really hate to see anything like that happen to you."
Sliding the door shut, he locked it before leaning in close to the small metal barred opening and giving an almost malicious smile as he said, "But don't worry, I've got a key to your room... I could come by and keep an eye on you. You know, in the middle of the night when it's cold and dark and all the nurses stay in the main office to watch T.V –the time of night where no one pays attention to the lunatics screaming."
Despite her stone exterior, he could see the color drain from her face and with a satisfied look on his face he said, "Sleep tight, Looney Bird."
Once he was gone, Bird backed across her small room until the back of her legs hit the metal railing of the bed and she dropped back onto the thin mattress, kicking her shoes off and scooted back until her back was against the wall.
There had been moments since she'd been locked up in Arkham that she'd considered maybe this was punishment for the bad things she'd done in her life. Even though she'd tried to change and live better; that didn't erase the terrible things she'd done and at times in the middle of the night while she'd lie awake in bed she'd try to make sense of what was happening and in those moments it seemed plausible that maybe this was a result of everything catching up with her.
But as she sat there now; in her blood stained clothes with mashed potatoes and vegetable soup in her hair, along with Jackson's threats playing over in her head –she was sure that she didn't deserve what was happening to her.
Her gaze fell to where there was a stack of magazines and some books on the bed beside her and she realized they must have been the ones Harvey was talking to her about when he'd came to visit her earlier that day.
Scooting them around, she stopped about a third of the way through the stack when she came across a bridal magazine and she somehow found just enough strength to manage a small smile, knowing that this was his way of trying to get her to keep hope for the future. To get through the present and to the point where they could actually start their lives together and Arkham Asylum would just be a painful memory –a bad dream.
•••
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