"In a mad world, only the mad are sane." ― Akira Kurosawa

•••

"What is it?" Lily questioned as she looked over to the driver's seat where Bird was sitting; she'd just let out another heavy sigh.

As she slowed to a stop and turned into the parking lot of a large, upscale apartment building –Bird glanced over at her and repeated back, "What?"

"I've not missed a single sideways glance you've given me since we left Penguin's." Lily pointed out. Tucking her long raven hair behind her ears, she added, "Not to mention the dramatic sighs..."

"I don't get it." Bird finally admitted once she'd pulled into a parking spot and shut her car off. Leaning her head back against the headrest she shook her head, "Galvan's reasoning for coming after my family is ridiculous enough as it is –but then I don't get why you would have ever agreed to help him in the first place."

"No, you wouldn't –would you?" She questioned as she looked out of the car window across the dark parking lot.

Bird ran her tongue over her teeth and waited to see if Lily was going to explain or if she was going to have to start up with invasive questions.

"Theo Galavan is probably the only person on earth who hates the Wayne name and everything it stands for more than me."

Bird's face twisted up with confusion once the words had left Lily's mouth.

"There probably isn't a soul in Gotham who hasn't wondered what it's like to be Wayne at some point or another. Just the name alone is some beacon of light –a sign of hope for the city, but none of them know what it's really like to grow up a prisoner inside the walls of the manor." Lily said.

Bird watched as emotion pulled at Lily's face in a way that seemed more genuine than anything she'd seen from the woman before.

"It was a long time ago..." She breathed, "Things were different back then. My very existence brought shame to the family because of my father's indiscretion and I was never allowed to forget that. I wasn't a person –no, I was just some dark stain on the name and reputation of the family. So much so that they'd sent me off to boarding schools overseas, locked me away in asylums even. I spent every single day hating the place that I came from, hating the same people whose very blood ran through my veins."

"Then you pack your bags when you turn eighteen and you don't look back." Bird angrily yelled, immediately regretting it when her voice echoed inside the car and hurt her own ears.

Closing her eyes and pulling in a breath she lowered her tone, "You make something of your own that has nothing to do with where or who you came from. You don't just show up years later to ruin the lives of people that have nothing to do with that happened to you."

"Is that what this thing with Penguin is for you? Something of your own that has nothing do with where you came from?" Lily countered, but didn't give her time to answer when she explained, "I never even got the chance to try and make anything for myself."

Lily rolled down the window to let in some cool night air.

"They made me look crazy. Completely unstable. With enough money you can buy off just about anyone. My father was paying to keep me locked away in an asylum in another country while trying to get my rights taken away. I was the oldest after all and he wanted to make sure there was no way I could get my hands on the company or any of the Wayne fortune. I knew about crimes that Wayne Enterprises were complicit in and so he had to take away any credibility I had in case I tried to out family secrets. " Lily's voice was quiet, "So I ran the first chance I got; but I had nothing. No money. No plan-"

"Then why would you ever come back?" Bird pushed.

"My father died." Lily shrugged, "All that was left of the family was Thomas and I'm not sure exactly what I wanted to get out of it. Money, maybe? I don't know, maybe even deep down I wanted to see what kind of man the little brother I hardly knew had grown up to be. But before I ever got to reconnect with my brother –I met Carmine Falcone."

"Who had power and money and-"

"And the means to give me the life I should have had all along." Lily nodded, before letting out a drawn out sigh, "And then you came along and I ended up back on the run all over again."

"That company should have been mine." She added, "That fortune you and Bruce are sitting on should have been mine."

"But you're willing to settle for just a nice chunk of change in exchange for helping Galavan take the company?" Bird flatly stated.

"I don't expect you to understand." Lily blankly replied as she pulled the handle and pushed the passenger side door open to step out into the night.

Bird was silent as she watched her shut the door behind her and head towards the entrance of the building.

She understood –she understood more than Lily thought she did.

This wasn't going to stop. With Lily it was never going to stop.

•••

"Welcome back." Oswald greeted Bird as she stepped into the dining room.

He raised his glass of red wine to his lips and admitted, "I've had the knife delivered to Galavan."

Bird nodded and assumed since Butch wasn't there that he'd been the one who'd delivered the knife.

Slowly, she advanced towards the table and sat down where it took her tired eyes a few seconds to notice the large puddle of blood on the table and a blood soaked towel laying balled up in the middle of it.

"Who'd you kill?" Bird asked with no emotion in her tone.

"No one." He admitted with a swish wine in his glass and watched the liquid climb the sides before downing another large mouthful.

"I've done it, Bird." He smiled with a nearly unhinged look in his eyes.

"You did what exactly..." She questioned as the feeling of the room started to shift and a sickening knot of anticipation formed in her stomach.

The smile on his lips grew. After being forced to work under Galavan with the threat of his mother's fate looming over his head, he'd finally figured a way out.

"Found a way to save my mother." He drank down the last of the wine and sat the glass down so hard Bird thought for sure it was going to break on impact.

She swallowed hard as she reached out and lifted a corner of the towel on the table to reveal the gruesome sight of a severed hand.

Dropping the towel back down, she scrambled up to her feet and stammered, "Oswald?"

"I found the answer." Oswald nodded, as he slowly rose to his own feet, "The solution to all my problems was right there in front of me and thanks to Celestine and Caleb, I'm now able to see them clearly."

Bird's eyes darted over to where a bottle of whisky was sitting at the opposite end of the table and it didn't take long for her to realize why the bottle was so familiar to her.

It was Butch's favorite.

"Oh my god..." She breathed, her face twisting back up as she lifted the towel again with the new realization of who's severed hand she was looking at.

"With his conditioning still working, Butch is the only person we can truly trust." Oswald reasoned as he watched her face, "This is a blood feud for Galavan, he's acting out of emotion and that can be manipulated. Now we'll have someone on the inside and Butch will lead us to my mother."

"Oswald!" She shrieked, "This is Butch we're talking about! How could you?"

"I had to!" He yelled back at her, his voice cracking and more nasally than usual.

"No, no you didn't!" Bird matched his tone, "Galavan isn't stupid –he's going to see right through the act and then he'll kill Butch, kill your mom and finally come for us-"

"No." Oswald waved a finger in the air, "Mother's life is on the line. I've thought this through, Bird."

Her mouth hung open as she tried to think of what to say next, but the entirety of the English language was eluding her.

This was Butch.

He might have been conditioned to do so, but he'd followed Oswald with nothing but the highest degree of loyalty and had been doing everything he could to quietly locate Gertrud's location.

This was the same man who'd taught her how to properly use a gun years ago.

After being shot, she'd been terrified of guns –that was until Butch showed her she had no reason to be afraid as long as she was on the right side of one.

Butch was someone she considered a friend.

One of the few people who'd earned a degree of trust from her; and what Oswald had done to him was wrong.

"I -I, I... already started planting the seeds of my insanity with Galavan's sister. You were sitting right here; she thinks I blamed Butch for the count house raid. That I'm unhinged. That I've gone mad." He stammered, his voice cracking and tone wavering as his best friend stared back at him like they were nothing more than strangers, "After all, with them kidnapping and holding my mother hostage –how could I not be a little mad?"

"No!" Bird yelled back at him, "This is wrong on so many levels, Oswald."

"It had to happen-" He scrambled to defend his actions, but his eyes widened and his voice shook when he watched Bird wrap the towel around the severed hand and pick it up, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to find Butch and take him and his hand to the hospital." Bird spoke in a scolding tone.

She closed her eyes trying to remember just how long it could be before doctors would be unable to reattach a lopped off body part. Bird felt like she'd read somewhere that it was in the three hour range –and all she could do was hope there'd be enough time.

"You can't!" Oswald shouted at her, his eyes moving rapidly from the bloody towel in her hands up to the disgusted look on her face, "You'll ruin everything..."

"Who are you?" She cried out, her head shaking from side to side, "I'd do anything to save your mom and you know that –but even I have lines I won't cross and this is Butch we're talking about."

"Wars have casualties." Oswald's voice lowered back to his normal rang, "Have you forgotten that's what we're fighting?"

Reaching up he adjusted his tie and gave a near trembling shrug, "I won't stop you from leaving, Bird."

He lowered his head and watched from under his brows as she turned to do just that; waiting until she'd made it only a few steps before commenting, "It's your decision, but the damage is already done and if Galavan were to find out then my mother is as good as dead-"

"Don't you even..." She hissed under her breath, before spinning around to face him, "Don't you dare make it sound like any of this is my fault."

"Your fault?" He repeated back with a quick dismissive shake of the head, "No, but you now hold the key of how tomorrow will play out in your very hands. You know if Galavan finds out I've tried to trick him –that my mother is dead and so am I."

Bird's forehead lined with emotion and her lips shook when she tried to take a deep breath.

"It isn't fault like lies with you..." Oswald softly pointed out, "It's fate. My mother's fate and my own."

"No..." She swallowed hard, "If I don't find Butch, if I don't help him than I am just as culpable in this as you are."

"It's your decision." He tried to say, but she knew better than that.

"It's not." She cleared her throat and dropped the bloody towel and hand back onto the table, "You already made that decision for me when you left his hand here for me to find."

"I didn't know when you'd be back-"

"Lies." She hushed him, "You wanted someone to be just as guilty as you and I guess that's always going to be my cross to bear, huh?"

••• days later •••

Bird stood leaned against the wall as she watched Bruce and Alfred face each other with their gloved hands up in defensive poses.

With a small sigh, she kicked her high heels off and let her bare feet rest against the cold floor.

On the outside she seemed calm and collected, but under the surface was nothing but a turbulent storm.

Butch had made it back to Oswald's just the prior day to tell him that he was on the inside now, only to anger Oswald when he admitted they were still no closer to locating his mother's whereabouts.

So he'd been sent back in.

Lily had been keeping up her end of the bargain as well, feeding them whatever tidbits of information she'd come across.

Like how Theo Galavan had brought in his gorgeous blonde bombshell of a niece to distract Bruce and pull him further into Galavan's clutches.

According to Lily, she wasn't sure how much, Silver St. Cloud, knew about what was going on –or if she knew anything at all, but Bird knew just how much could be hiding behind an innocent face.

Which is why she was now standing in Wayne Manor, dressed in a short black cocktail dress and deep purple suede pumps –with her hair and make-up done up for the probably the first time since the charity even for the children's hospital months ago.

That night had ended in bloodshed and all she could do was hope tonight would have a better ending.

After all, in less than an hour she and Bruce would be joining up with Lily for a dinner at Galavan's penthouse.

She'd shown up at Wayne Manor early to find her brother and Alfred boxing.

Apparently Bruce had been bragging to him, saying that he felt in the less than the handful of training days he'd had with his sister that he felt like he had greatly improved and was possibly even close to not needing any further training –in response, Alfred challenged him.

"Focus." Alfred instructed, as he was nearly effortlessly able to block every attempt the youngest Wayne threw, "Head down. Head down. Focus."

Bird watched as Alfred threw in some blows of his own and her little brother protected his face behind the padded gloves; every once in a while he'd sneak a peek over in her direction to see if she was paying attention to how much he learned from her.

Not missing the wandering eyes, Alfred sighed, "Distractions will be the death of you, Master Bruce."

What an oddly fitting sentiment, Bird thought to herself, little did they know that Silver was brought in to be just that for him.

"He's right." Bird agreed out loud, "Focus."

"I am." He grunted as he blocked another incoming hit.

"Now, get on your toes!" Alfred yelled, "Move, move!"

Bird's annoyed stare traveled up to the ceiling as her little brother started to rapidly bounce around on his feet as if he were incapable of holding still.
This was the very thing she'd been trying to break him of.

Even Alfred paused and lowered his arms as he commented, "Well, don't... dance around like a bloody showgirl."

"And here I thought he was learning that from you?" Bird laughed.

"Hardly." Alfred replied, easily dodging an incoming blow.

With the sounds of his sister's laughing echoing in his ears and the amused expression on Alfred's face, Bruce slowed his pace some. Focusing more on staying limber and ready to duck, dodge, bob and weave at a seconds notice.

Instead of looking over to see what his sister was doing, Bruce locked in with near tunnel vision on the black boxing gloves coming at him.

Bird straightened her stance some as she saw the change in him. Going from jumping around and play boxing for fun, to something be awoken inside of him.

He didn't want to be laughed at.
He wasn't putting in all this work to be found amusing.

"Good. Good." Alfred nodded, "That's better, isn't it?"

With a battle cry, Bruce rushed forward; prepared and focused to bring Alfred down –only the older man dodged the attempt and managed to wrap his arms around Bruce and hold him prisoner.

"Got you!" He loudly pointed out and Bird watched as even Alfred was aware enough to point out, "Now, see, your enemies are going to fight at lot dirtier than that."

When he was unable to wriggle free of the tight grip his butler had on him, Bruce chose instead to tuck his chin down and get closer to the arm that Alfred had around his shoulders and neck and without a second thought –Bruce bit down until Alfred made a pained noise.
But when he wasn't released, he dug his teeth in even farther.

"Bloody hell!" Alfred yelled as he let go of him and looked down to the teeth marks on his skin.

Bird held back a laugh and smiled proudly at her brother for figuring a way out of the iron locked grip.

"Learned that for you, no doubt!" Alfred accused jutting a hand in her direction, but once the pain subsided enough he even cracked a smile, "Very good, Master Bruce."

"Have you spoken to Mr. Fox about the computer?" Bruce asked as they resumed their fighting stances.
He wasn't sure how long it would take until Lucius was able to fix the badly damaged computer that had been destroyed in the room he'd uncovered behind the fireplace –but he felt like it had been long enough.

That he'd waited long enough to learn his father's secrets.

"That I have, yeah." Alfred answered.

"How much longer until it's fixed?"

"I'll tell you when it's done, won't I? Patience."

"I'm tired of patience, Alfred. I'm ready to begin." Bruce argued with him.
In reality he knew it hadn't been all that long ago that he'd unearthed the secret room, but he felt as though he'd grown and matured a considerable amount since then and he felt ready to learn family secrets.

With a sigh, Alfred argued, "I'll tell you when you're ready, Master Bruce."

"I'm ready now. I know I am." He stubbornly argued.

Bird opened her mouth to back Alfred's stance on this, but before she could the butler had a plan of his own.

"Oh, by the way, by the way, Miss Silver called. She wanted to tell you she's looking forward to seeing you for dinner this evening."

Stopping in his tracks, as if he'd forgotten he was trying to block incoming hits and deal out some damage of his own, Bruce got a star-struck look on his face and asked, "Silver called?"

"Yeah." Alfred gave the simple one word verification, followed by a direct hit to the center of Bruce's face.
The impact knocked him all the way down to the floor and left him with a bloody noise.
He raised up and looked between Alfred and Bird with a stunned expression on his face.

"Told ya. Not ready." Alfred repeated, as he extended a hand to Bruce and slowly a smile fell over his face as he nodded and let Alfred pull him to his feet.

With an energetic jump and burst of renewed energy, Bruce smiled, "Let's go."

"Eh, eh, eh." Bird interrupted, "You need to go and get cleaned up for dinner. We don't have long before we'll have to leave."
With a smile she added, "And best not to make a habit of showing up to formal dinner parties with a bloody noise and bruised face."

Pausing while in the process of removing his boxing gloves, Bruce looked to his older sister and pointed out, "You're always showing up everywhere injured."

"True." She smirked, "But I can pull it off –you just make it look like stole the wrong person's spot in line for the swings at recess."

"I do not." He argued, before flashing her a smile and throwing out an idea, "We have an extra pair of gloves..."

"Please." She nearly snorted, "You really want to show up to dinner all black and blue?"

"I'll beat you one day." Bruce beamed a smile brimming with confidence at her, "One day I'll win –you'll see."

"If I do my job right, little brother, you really will." Bird called after him as he left the room.

She didn't just want him to be knowledgeable and strong –she wanted him to be an unstoppable force.

"You alright there?" Alfred questioned as he eyed Bird before taking a drink from his water bottle and catching his breath.

"Me?" Bird smiled, "Shouldn't I be asking you that? I mean you're not exactly a spring chicken, Alfred."

"I beg your pardon?" He laughed, pretending to be deeply offended by the insinuation that he was getting up in his years.

"What's the matter?" Bird teased, "Is your hearing going too?"

"You cheeky monkey, you." Alfred laughed shaking his head at her.

And while Bird laughed along with him; the ever present feeling of running out of time started to come to the surface.

It was something that had been happening more and more lately. Sometimes she could chalk it up to paranoia –other times she felt like the sense of impending doom was very real.

It popped up even in the most casual and simple moments. Her heart would pick up speed and she'd be left feeling like it may be the last time she got to have that experience.

Even the banter between herself and Alfred –or with her brother wasn't enough to completely push the feelings of predestined trouble away for long.

"What is it?" He questioned upon seeing the smile fall far from her expression.

"Nothing." She lied as she glanced around the room hidden beneath the manner and over to the broken computer.

Not believing her in the slightest, but also knowing that she was prone to anger when pushed, Alfred nodded towards the stairs, "We'd better head on up. Master Bruce should be ready soon."

Bird followed him up into her father's office and watched as he closed the hidden entrance, before picking up on something from his expression.

"You don't care much for Theo Galavan, do you?" Her eyes squinted some, "Or is it Silver you're not fond of?"

He'd had few encounters with Miss St. Cloud, all of which had her treating him as if were just mere hired help and she existed on some other plane high above him.
Spoiled, self-centered and irritatingly entitled –all of the things that Bruce could have easily been considering the money and excess he came from, but he was nothing like her.

"I don't know Mr. Galavan or his niece well enough to truthfully answer that." Alfred avoided.

"If something feels off about him, then you should trust that feeling." Bird quickly spoke up, but wouldn't offer up anymore reason behind it.

"Well..." Alfred cleared his throat, "He may not be my favorite pick of the lot, but he saved your brother's life, didn't he? And yours."

"Yeah... because Jerome was really such a threat." She muttered under her breath.
If only everyone else knew the entire night had been orchestrated so that Galavan would emerge a hero in front of every Gothamite glued to their television screens.

"That Valeska character had a knife, a very sharp one, pressed to young Master Bruce's throat –the very same knife he'd plunged into you only minutes before that-"

"I haven't forgotten." Bird cut him off, her hand instinctively laying over where he'd injured her, "Got the scars to remind me."
With a deep breath resting in her lungs, Bird added, "I don't trust Galavan and you shouldn't either. I don't like him-"

"Then why are you going?" Bruce asked, emerging from the doorway with a confused and slightly worried expression on his face.

Bird looked over at him, but didn't quite have an answer for him.

"I like him." Bruce spoke up, catching the sight of Alfred lowering his head from the corner of his eye, "Maybe you shouldn't-"

"Worried I'm going to embarrass you?" Bird realized, looking down to her shoes she muttered, "Wow..."

"It's not that, it's just..." Bruce's sentence trailed off and he helplessly looked to Alfred, but their butler didn't offer him an out.

The members he'd met of the Galavan clan so far had been nothing but polite and kind to him. They carried themselves with a certain finesse that his sister, at times, lacked.
Not to mention her track history of being a little unpredictable in the presence of people she didn't care for; she had no real qualms about trying to hide how she felt and could even be painfully blunt and show little regard for others.

What if they were settled down to what was supposed to be a nice dinner and his sister ended up being nothing but rude to them in their own home –a home she'd be a guest in?

"Don't worry." Bird cut him his thoughts off as if she could read what he was thinking on a marquee across his forehead, "I'll be on my best behavior."

"Very well then." Alfred cleared his throat and looked between the siblings, "Shall we get going then? Lily is probably already there waiting on you lot."

•••

"Adorable, no?"

Bird's posture stiffened at the sound of Theo Galavan's voice behind her.
She'd been watching her brother from across the room as he talked and laughed with Silver –who was every bit as stunning as Lily had told her.

Swallowing hard, she fought to hold her silence and the violent impulses beating away inside of her chest. All she wanted to do was kill him, rip him to pieces for all of the pain and grief he'd brought into her life.

"There is nothing in the world quite like young love, is there?" He continued, until she blew out a heavy sigh and finally turned to face him.

"That isn't love." She argued as she stood now face to face with him for the first time since the children's hospital benefit.

"No?" Theo questioned with his eyebrows raised.

"No." She asserted, "That's your niece manipulating my little brother."

"Ah." He replied with a short nod, "Tell me, Bird... are you always so cynical?"

She immediately countered, "Don't you ever get sick of this act? You can stock up on all the hair gel and expensive suits you can get your hands on, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter how much Armani you dress a monster in –it's still just a monster in designer clothes."

With a smile, he glanced around them before fixing his gaze back on her and commenting, "Love the passion. Really, I'm moved." He dramatically placed a hand over his heart before laughing, "You should look into acting –or even politics. It's all the same anyways."

"There you are!" Lily interrupted them as she'd spotted the unhinged look in her biological daughter's eyes from across the room. The last thing any of them needed was a scene.
Placing a hand on her back, Lily gave a wide smile and said, "Let's have a drink, huh?"

"What are you doing?" Bird grumbled, jerking away from her touch once they'd gotten several steps away.
"Hold it together." Lily snapped back at her, "It's not just your neck on the line here, it's mine too and while you may not be too keen to care about that... let's not forget Bruce is standing right over there." Lily pointed with one of her freshly manicured nails.

"Don't be stupid." She added, as she motioned for one of the waiters to come over and she told him to bring back two martinis.

It was only minutes later that he'd returned and presented a tray with two freshly prepared gin martinis.

Not bothering with a thank you, Lily lifted the drinks from the tray and pushed one into her daughter's hand. "Drink, mingle, smile and try to pretend that you're not waiting for the first opportunity to shed a little blood."

Bird looked down to her drink and pulled the diamond-head cocktail pick out of her drink that held two green olives and held it one hand while she raised the glass to her lips with the other and tossed it back; drinking the contents in one swallow.

Dropping the stainless steel pick back into her glass with a satisfying ping, she then pushed the empty glass back into Lily's hand and gave her a forced tight lipped smile.

"Classy." Lily complained, shaking her head and watching as Bird wandered off across the room in search of another waiter

It was a little over twenty minutes that they were all seated around a large table with an elegant dinner spread laid out in front of them all.

Bird was finishing off her third martini of the night and growing increasing angry and irritable at being in the same presence as Theo Galavan. She was sure that she'd never hate anyone more than she now hated him –along with his sister Tabitha and even Silver.
At this point she'd had anyone just from association with him.

She'd just waved down one of the dinner staff to order another drink when Theo started to make a sentimental toast about how blessed they were for having so much, but that at the end of the day material items don't mean anything. That without family life is empty.

"To family-" He tried to finish when Tabitha entered the room.

Smiling at them all, she apologized, "I'm so sorry. Something came up last minute."
She took her seat at the table and looked around at everyone.

Bird squinted when she spotted a dark stain on the side of her face, it was then that she caught the crimson hues in the lighting and chuckled to herself.

Starting up on her fourth drink, Bird called out, "Hey, Tabby. You've got a little something on your face."

When she looked over at her, Bird winked and took another drink from her glass.
Perhaps her mother had been right after all about just drink and smile to get through the night.

After all, she was at a table with people who wanted to bring her entire family to shame and probably go so far as to kill off the bloodline.
The whole evening felt a better dark comedy than she'd ever came across on screen.

Drinks and dinner with the enemy.

Raising the cloth napkin to her face, Tabitha wiped off the smear of blood and quickly folded the cloth out of sight from anyone else.

She'd spent the last hour trying to undo Butch's brainwashing.
It had been a good story and a near valiant attempt for Oswald to put one of him men behind enemy lines, but it really hadn't taken them long to learn his true motives.

Tabitha knew that with if you put the body and mind of someone who'd been brainwashed through enough turmoil, that you were likely to uncover the trigger word that had been implanted during the conditioning process that could reverse it all.

Smiling back at Bird, Tabitha knew that Penguin's days were numbered and in turn –so were hers.

Bruce looked over at his sister with a frown at seeing she'd started to drink heavily already and they hadn't even made it to the first course of dinner.

"Starling?" He softly said as Tabitha and Theo were talking among themselves, "Maybe you should have some water instead of-"

Seeing he was reaching for the stem of her glass to surely take it away from her, she slapped his hand out of the way and said, "I don't want water."

"I think maybe your brother is trying to tell you that you've had enough-" Lily intervened when Bruce turned his head and gave her a pleading expression.

"It's enough when I say!" Bird loudly snapped, getting the entire table's attention on her.

"Oh my..." Tabitha breathed, as she raised her water glass to her lips in an attempt to hide the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
When her brother had told her she needed to be at the dinner, she'd agreed for the sake of keeping a family friendly appearance up –but this, seeing Bird getting closer to losing it and turning her own family against her, all on her own; made it worth it.

"You were saying?" Bird turned her head and looked at Theo as she held up what was left of the contents of her glass ready for a toast.

"Yes..." He breathed, looking a little shocked before finding his previous train of thought, "As I was saying: to family. In the end, it's all that matters."

Everyone raised and clinked glasses over the center of the table and Bird looked around with a wild look in her eyes as Bruce quietly nodded and did his best to smile, "Family."

"Hear, hear!" Bird chimed in looking over to where Lily was sitting and agreeing, "To family."

Trying his best to ignored Bird's alcohol fueled outbursts, Theo focused on the youngest Wayne and sounded sincere as he spoke, "I've known Lily for quite some time and it's been an honor to get to know her family... andI hope, in time, you'll come to think of us as family, Bruce."

"Thank you. It's-it's been some time since I had a... a meal like this." He admitted.
Before his parents had been killed, they'd have a big family dinner together several times a week.
No matter how busy either of them were, they always found the time to sit down with each other and enjoy a nice meal and each other's company.

He had dinner with Alfred nearly every night and even though Bird did her best to come by and join them, or even take him out somewhere –it just wasn't the same.

Deep down he knew nothing would ever quite feel like that again, but maybe this could feel pretty close.

"You mean with girls?" Tabitha teased him.

"You should come over more often." Silver said in an overly sweet voice, "We can, like, hang out or whatever."

"I'd like that." Bruce nodded, not able to hide the smile that she always brought out of him.

"Look how cute they are." Tabitha spoke up, taking a drink of white wine before saying, "Don't you just want to eat them?"

"I don't know..." Bird let out a low whistle, "Cannibalism seems a little barbaric to me –but I suppose some people just have no limits."

Silver's eyes widened as she looked past where Bruce was sitting to Bird and Lily nearly choked on the drink she'd been in the process of taking.

"Alright, you two." Theo said, looking between his own sister and Bird, "Leave the young people alone."

"Well, they are cute and they know it." Tabitha smiled.

"Bruce is cute; Silver seems kind of shady." Bird commented as the liquor she'd been consuming was disintegrating the filter between her brain and her mouth.

"I... I don't know what you mean." Silver's eyebrows lowered and hurt expression took the place of the happy one she'd been displaying mere seconds before.

"Stop it." Bruce protested, his expression pleaded with her to not ruin the night for all of them, "You don't even know her."

"I don't need to, little brother." Bird argued, "You're familiar with the term, beautiful but deadly, right?"
Her eyes darted around the room for a few brief seconds before saying, "Like in the wild: the brighter and more colorful creatures are a sign to avoid them. Like snakes..."

Clearing his throat, Theo nodded towards his wait staff, "I think it's time to cut this one off for the night."

"Oh, of course!" Bird scoffed, "Because you get to call all the shots and what say to the rest of us have?"

"Stop it!" Bruce yelled at her, wishing she was able to see what a fool she was making of herself, "Please?"

Bird's eyes met his and slowly she started to settle back down from her series of outbursts.
How she wished she could tell her brother that she wasn't the bad person in this scenario, that they were dining with the very people who'd tried to kill her months ago; but she couldn't.

Reaching out for her glass of ice water, Bird promised herself that she was going to keep herself from tearing at the seams until after dinner.

"I'm sorry." Bruce apologized to everyone else for his sister's behavior, "She's..."
His voice trailed off, "It's been a rough couple of years-"

"No." She interrupted, the calm inside of her vanishing nearly as fast as it had arrived, "Rewind –and I'll finish that for you. She's crazy right? I mean that's what you were going to say? That I'm not in my right mind?"

"Well, you're certainly not acting like a sane person." Lily was fast to counter.

"I think we should all take a break and-" Theo tried to play referee, but Tabitha shushed him as she argued, "Are you kidding? Let them go at it –dinner and entertainment."

With a wicked smile she used her fork to drag a piece of ham off the serving platter and onto her plate as she settled into her seat to see what would happen next.

"I can't imagine why!" Bird screamed at her, "I mean being abandoned as a helpless infant and then-"

"Oh, grow up." Lily rolled her eyes, "I've apologized till I'm blue in the face and it doesn't make any difference to you. So you had a hard start to life? You're not the only one, but you're an adult now. Grow up and stop blaming me for everything that's gone wrong in your life."

"Oh my god." Bird's voice bellowed from the room as she rolled her eyes and ended up dizzy in the process, "You're one to talk-"

Theo interrupted the argument as he clanked his knife against the side of his glass until the sound was so loud and incessant that not a soul could ignore it.

"That's the thing about family get togethers, huh?" He tried to joke looking at Bruce, "You never know who's going to be the first one to throw a punch."

With a wide smile that Bird could see right through, he said, "It would be a shame to let dinner get cold and go to waste. Especially when there are so many less fortunate than us."

Bruce breathed a sigh of relief at his understanding and civility and gave him a smile across the table.

"No, what I see here is beautiful and surely delicious dinner –and equally beautiful company to enjoy it with. I can't think of a single thing in the world that could be worth arguing over when we're safe inside with a fire to keep us warm. Can't we just focus on that?"

The fire in the hearth wasn't the only thing burning in those moments, Bird's anger and rage was red-hot right behind her eyes and her head was throbbing.

Here they were in a room with someone she considered to be a living, breathing monster and her little brother was looking at him like he'd just hung the sun in the sky and still had energy to save the day afterwards.

"Thank you." Theo nodded with his hands held up like a prayer when the room stayed silent.

"A change of subject then?" He offered up, "How are things at school?"

"Good." Both Bruce and Silver replied, before smiling at each other.

Bruce had recently rejoined his school and when Silver moved in with her uncle she'd transferred there.

Plucking a roll up from the basket, Bird watched everyone as she slowly picked the bread apart and ate it piece by piece. Trying to focus on chewing and swallowing the food instead of the blackened hate searing away at her insides.

"How about your campaign for mayor?" Bruce questioned, "I saw on the news that your ratings are on the rise."

"Yes." Lily nodded, "You're really starting to get the entire city to rally behind you."

"It's a great feeling." He beamed, "The people of Gotham want a change –they are sick of seeing criminals thrive while the good people of this city suffer. I just feel blessed to hopefully be the person voted in to make such changes."

Bird rolled her eyes but managed to keep her snide comments at bay. In fact, she felt like in spite of her earlier outbursts that she was now holding it together nicely.

When Theo continued to gush about how much the city had taken to him and how he even had people calling him a hero, Bird excused herself to the restroom to give herself a break from having to listen to him for a moment longer.

It killed her to see her little brother buying into everything that Galavan was selling so easily.
Then again, it seemed like every other citizen of Gotham City was being caught up in him too.

Unlocking and pushing the bathroom door open, Bird glanced down the hallway towards the dining room but could still see everyone was talking and eating dinner and wasn't quite ready to have to put her game face back on and act like she held anything other than utter hatred towards the Galavans in her heart.

So instead she made her way down the other hallway, stopping when she could see shattered glass on the floor in one of the rooms where the door was open just enough to see inside.
With a single finger, she reached out and pushed the door open wider to give her a better view of the damage.

It was clear to see that a fight had happened in the room –and judging by the still wet blood spattered on the floor, she'd guess it happened pretty recently.

Careful to avoid the blood stains, Bird walked further into the room and started for the large desk to do a bit of snooping while she was there; until a smallish silver color television set caught her eye.

Through the haziness in her mind she was able to remember Oswald telling her how he'd watched live footage of his mother being held captive.

Picking up the remote off of the top of the T.V, Bird pushed the power button and waited for the screen to blink to life.

Her face twisted as a painfully sobering image came into view; Gertrud Kapelput pacing in what looked to be small room or possibly even a type of cell.

The older woman was crying and mumbling things to herself and Bird stepped closer to try and see if she was able to figure out where her best friend's mother was being held. But aside from Gertrud, she couldn't make anything else out other than a plain wall and a twin sized metal frame bed.

Almost as if she knew she was being watched, Gertrud turned the camera with tear stained cheeks as she pleaded with her thick accent, "Please... please... I don't know anything. I don't, I don't know-"
Her words ended with a loud sob powerful enough to bring her down to the floor.

Bird somehow managed to turn the television off and drop the remote onto the table beside it.

Hearing about Oswald's mother being held in deplorable conditions and seeing the now terrified and broken shell of a person she'd grown fond of were two entirely different things.
It didn't matter how long Bird tried to pin her eyes shut or think of something else, she knew she'd never get that image out of her mind.

As much as she felt bad for Butch and what had been done to him, she hoped it was going to be worth it and he'd be able to unearth her location.

Once they had Mrs. Kapelput safe once again –then they rip the Theo and Tabitha limb for limb.
For now, she'd just have to keep playing nice and make it through the evening.

Feeling so out of sorts that Bird nearly got lost in the large penthouse on her way back to the dining room, she was finally able to find it and silently took her seat.

"Everything alright?" Theo politely questioned.

"Yeah..." She hoarsely replied, clearing her throat and adding, "Nearly got lost."

"See anything interesting?" Tabitha smirked.

Bird didn't reply as she stared down to the plate of food she knew she'd not be able to stomach a single bite of.

Bruce looked over at his sister with a concerned expression at how differently she was acting now versus when she'd gotten up to leave the table.

It felt as though an entirely different person had returned.

"As I was saying..." Theo looked to Bruce as he continued on their conversation that had been paused with Bird's return, "I've recently got the support of the DA's office behind me in my run for mayor as well."

Bird had just started to bring her glass of water to her lips when he spoke and his words stopped her arm in midair.

"I just met with Harvey Dent the other day actually." He continued, "We had a meeting discussing ways to make the city safer, actions that could be put into place if I'm lucky enough to be elected..." Letting his voice trail off, he then said to Bird, "If memory serves correct –you two used to date right? I know you were at the benefit for the children's hospital together-"

"They were engaged." Tabitha corrected, feigning a look of sadness when she added, "Looks like it didn't work out. That's too bad."

"It is a shame." Theo agreed, "Any chance of reconciliation?"

Everyone gasped as the half-empty glass of water that Bird had been holding shattered in her tight clutch.

"Go to hell." She growled with a new shade of darkness in her eyes.

"Oh my god!" Lily exclaimed jumping up from her seat and picking up a clean cloth napkin as she rushed to her side and tried to blot at the blood dripping down from Bird's now wounded hand.

"Starling?" Bruce asked as he could feel the hairs one the back of his neck start to stand on end.
The last time he'd gotten this feeling around her was right after she'd chopped her hair off in the bathroom and berated him for snitching on her to the police.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you-" Theo tried to apologize, but Bird wasn't having any part of it as she yelled back, "Screw you!"

She roughly pushed Lily back away from her and shook her bleeding hand out to the side in an attempt to get all of the glass pieces off her skin, she looked around to see everyone staring at her –everyone except for Bruce, who was looking down to his half-eaten plate of food; appearing smaller than usual as if he were trying to disappear from the room.

Her mouth hung open as she tried to take a breath, but it felt the walls of the room were closing in on her and she couldn't stand in there for another second.

"Bruce, come on. We're leaving." She shakily said.

When he didn't make any attempt to get up from his seat, Bird yelled, "Now!"

Bird picked up her own napkin from the table and closed it tightly in her injured hand to try keep pressure on the cuts.

"Bruce-"

"I'm not leaving." He finally said in a voice that sounded much stronger than his sisters, "I don't want to leave yet."

"I wasn't asking you." She dismissed, as she stepped closer and grabbed onto his arm, "I said let's go."

"No." He jerked his arm out of her grip, "I'm staying."

"No you're not." She hissed from between clenched teeth, "I said we're leaving-"

"You're not mom." He snapped back at her.
He was often to use his sister's lack of social grace, but he couldn't remember every feeling so embarrassed by her in his entire life.

Bird's brown eyes widened and Bruce's soon were just as big as he caught the unhinged the look in his sister's stare.

She opened her mouth and he thought for sure she was going to scream at him, but instead all that came out was a laugh –irrational, loud and nearly maniacal sounding.

"Fine!" She yelled as she finally got the unstable laugh back under her control.

Still clutching onto the napkin in her hand, she stormed out of the room wishing she'd driven herself to the dinner instead of riding with her brother and Alfred.
With those thoughts she paused long enough to grab the car keys out of Lily's bag.

•••

Bird glanced in her rearview mirror, before turning down a street in one of the worst parts of town.

After she'd left Galavan's, she'd checked her phone and seen she had several missed calls from Selina's current number.

From keeping in touch with the teenager, Bird knew that after Butch and Selina had went to track down the Pike brothers in The Narrows –that they'd forced their sister, Bridgit into burning down the buildings on the list they'd been given.

It was just the night before that GCPD had intervened and Bridgit had accidently set one of the young cops from the strike-force on fire with a flame thrower.
Officer Garrett had succumb to his injuries and died at the hospital; so there was now a city wide search out for the culprit.

Since Selina and Bridgit went way back and had history; she was worried about her friend.
She'd called to say that since Bird was the one who'd sent Butch to her door and got her involved in it that they needed her help to get Bridgit out of town.

The last message she'd gotten was from an angry Selina telling her to never mind the earlier messages, that they were going to handle it themselves.

When Bird called her back, Selina told her that they were going to steal enough money to get her friend far away from the city.
Bird jokingly asked if they'd planned on robbing a bank –but Selina said she'd had a better idea, they were going to go to where there was nearly an unlimited supply of cash and where not a soul there would call the police.

After prying a little further, she'd gotten enough information to piece together that Selina and Bridgit were planning on robbing the patrons of a place where women were auctioned off to the highest bidders; which is what had led Bird down into the darkest parts of the city as she tried to locate where the new auction site was.

"Bingo." She breathed under breath as she pulled around to the back of the building and shut the car off.

As she opened her door and stepped out onto the broken pavement she could feel the bass from the rock music under her feet and nearly lost her balance as the heel of one of her shoes landed wrong on a rock.

Closing her eyes, Bird blew out a sigh and thought of how this was the last place on earth that she wanted to be –but she didn't like the idea of Selina being there either and so she'd come to make sure the teenager made it back out.

Kicking her heels off next to the side of the building, Bird grabbed onto the already lowered fire escape ladder and started her climb up to the roof.

Her choice to drink earlier that night had left her with more regrets than she could start to tally up.
She should have stayed sober and kept a better handle on her anger, it felt like the only thing she'd succeeded in doing was turning her brother against her.

She'd slipped up in her response when Harvey Dent had been mentioned, she'd let it be clearly known how much she still cared about him which had probably painted an even bigger target on his back.

With the throbbing pain in her head comparable to someone chiseling away from behind her eyes with an ice pick, Bird was a little surprised that she'd made it all the way to the roof with no incidents.

Slightly stumbling over to where an old broken window was now just covered with some torn up plastic, Bird started to look inside until she heard movement on the roof with her and looked over to see Selina and a girl she didn't recognize come out of hiding from behind a pile of scrap metal.

"What are you doing here?" Selina questioned.

"Checking on you." Bird admitted with a clumsy shrug.

"I don't need anyone watching out for me." Selina was fast to reply and dismiss the sentiment.

"Yeah, well, I don't care." Bird replied, rubbing her forehead, "You should have just for a bank instead."

Eyeing her for a moment, Selina finally nodded and pointed out to Bridgit, "This is Bird –the one I told you about."

"Hey." Bridgit greeted, slightly fumbling over her words, "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Bird replied, eyeing the device she had strapped to her back she added, "Nice flame thrower."

As she looked the young woman over, Bird could easily pick up on the haunted look in her eyes of someone who'd seen too much too young.

Feeling judged and guilty enough over the pain and trouble she'd seemed to have caused everyone around her, Bridgit stated, "I never meant to hurt anyone-"

"It happens." Bird cut her off with another shrug, before adding, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry you got dragged into all of this."

"Let's just get this done." Selina interrupted them as she stepped up to Bird by the window and they both looked in.

The music playing was loud, but the speaker the microphone was connected to was much louder.

They watched as a large man unlocked and opened a tall fenced in cage like area and connected each end of a chain to metal collars around two girls necks, before roughly pulling them out onto the platform by the chain leash.

"Ladies and gentleman... or should I say pimps, hoes and thieves! Do I have some product for you today!" The auctioneer called out, his voice echoed off the walls and Bird and Selina exchanged looks.

"Do you like what you see?" He called out with a wide smile, as the two blondes were led down the stairs on the stage where he was standing, "Let me hear you –do you like what you see?"

The audience was comprised of mostly men, but there were a few women in the crowd too.
Everyone was shouting with excitement and waving fists full of cash in the air while yeing the two terrified women like they were sizing up a prize hog about to be sent to slaughter.

Taking the leash, the announcer pulled the women behind him to the end of the stage, "Check it out, check it out! The bidding will start at eight hundred apiece."

"I want her!" A deep voice bellowed through the crowd's cheering and jeering.

The girl who'd been stripped down to just her bra and panties started to sob loudly and clutched onto the hand of the girl with her who was in a tight black négligée trembling in fear.

"Eight hundred? I got eight hundred. Do I hear nine?"

"Wait..." Bridgit breathed, pulling their attention away from the window, "Those girls are for sale?"

"To the highest bidder." Bird somberly answered.

"Told you this place was freaky." Selina shuddered.

The horrified expression on Bridgit's face intensified.
Freaky? When Selina said they place they were going to rob was freaky, she wasn't sure what she was being led into, but she'd never in a million years thought of this.

"We need to help them." Bridgit frantically said, gripping onto the fuel tube of her flame thrower.

"We're here to help you... cause you killed a cop, remember?" Selina argued with her, "We get the money –we go."

"But-" Bridgit tried to argue, not sure how her friend would be able to just walk away and leave those other girls behind

"Listen!" Selina yelled over her, "Listen, you go down the stairs, the lock on the back door is busted. I know cause I busted it. You go in, wait for me to my move."

"Here." Selina said turning her attention to Bird as she pulled off her backpack and took two guns out, "I brought an extra."

With an arched brow Bird pointed out, "I'm not going in there."

Staring at her with a blank expression, Selina finally rolled her eyes and spoke in a voice laced with irritation, "Then what did you even come here for?"

"Hmm... let's see." Bird drummed her index finger against her chin and pretended to be deep in thought, "Oh, I know! I got it! Maybe so you don't end up stripped down to nothing on the wrong end of a metal chain."

"Not gonna happen." Selina argued with her, before dropping one of the guns back in the bag and saying, "You can be the getaway driver then."

"Wait for my signal." She repeated to Bridgit before she ran over and climb into an air vent to slide down into the building.

"Sold for twenty-five hundred to the gentleman in the burgundy hat. Come on, ladies. Found you a nice new home! Oh, you'll be very satisfied. Very, very satisfied."

Bridgit's mouth dropped open and Bird's face twisted up with repulsion.

"We should help those girls, right?" Bridgit spoke up.

"Look, Bridgit..." Bird sighed, "Saving people isn't going to make up for the one you killed. Life just doesn't work that way. Your conscience isn't some system of checks and balances where the good and bad will cancel each other out. The sooner you make peace with that –the better off you'll be."

Bridgit slowly nodded her head.
All her life she'd had her brothers looking out for her –or at least that's what they called it.

They treated her as their slave and when she'd mess up, they'd go so far as to literally chain her to the wall and toss lit firecrackers at her.

She'd lived in fear so long – fear of them and even more fear of life without them.
They constantly reminded her of how they protected her and kept a roof over her head.

Living in that tiny apartment in The Narrows with them was horrible, but maybe life outside of that place, life on her own would be worse.
But that didn't matter anymore. Her brothers had fled and left her to deal with the police and she'd accidently killed someone –now she was on her own.

Looking in the window, Bird saw Selina stealthily drop from the ceiling onto the top of the large fence caging the women were being held in.

"I think that's your signal." Bird nodded, before offering, "Good luck."

"Next up; check her out as she walks down the stage; see how graceful she is. Look at this one! Whoo! I'm going to start the bidding here at nine hundred! Can I get nine hundred?"

Bird directed her attention back inside and waited until Selina and Bridgit had the room under their control before she went back down the fire escape and ended up sitting down on the pavement next to where she'd left her shoes.

Pulling in a deep breath, she rested her head back against the dirty brick building and waited for them to come back out, but the time alone didn't do much to ease her heavy mind.

Now that more of the alcohol was gone from her system and she was able to think more clearly, it had fully started to dawn on her that they wanted her to find that video of Oswald's mom.

Why else would they have left the door open to that room? Because they knew Bruce wasn't the type to be sneaking about their house, but Bird on the other hand would utilize her time there.

She might as well have been putty in their hands with as easily as she'd played right into their plans.
They wanted her to have a meltdown, to drive her to the brink of snapping so that her brother would see her like that.

Here she'd spent the evening not understanding how on earth her brother couldn't see through them –all the while she remained several steps behind them and their plans.

Stupid, she thought, she'd acted so foolishly that night.

"Let's go!" Selina's voice echoed out as she and Bridgit threw the side doors open with a bang and found Bird.

"Get up." Selina ordered when Bird didn't budge.

"I can't." Bird finally spoke as she let her arms hang limply at her sides and rest on the pavement.

"What do you mean?" Selina asked at the same time Bridgit questioned, "What happened?"

"Someone is out to get me and I'm making it easy on them." Bird admitted, leaving both girls utterly confused, "And now Bruce thinks I'm crazy."

"You don't want people to think your crazy?" Selina asked still trying to catch her breath, "Then just don't act crazy. For example: get up... we gotta go."

"Catch." Bird said as she tossed the keys to Lily's car up in the air and like she was instructed, Selina effortlessly snatched them from the air.

"Fine. I'll drive." She said, looking over her shoulder to the car, "Come on."

"Take it and go –both of you. Get out of here." Bird spoke in an empty tone, causing Selina and Bridgit to exchange looks.

"I don't think leaving you here alone is a good idea-" Bridgit began to say, and Selina rapidly nodded and cut in, "Yeah, cause it ain't."

"Go." Bird loudly said, as she threw her arms up in the air and let them drop back down.

Leaning her head back against the bricks, she let out a long sigh until all the air had been forcibly expelled from her lungs and her chest started to ache.

"Selina?" Bridgit whispered while she nervously bounced on her feet.

Her friend gave her a shrug in response, and the tried a different approach, "Look, we're leaving so either you get up and come with us –or we're leaving you here."

"That is what I've been telling you to do all along." She complained, not opening her eyes back up to look at them.

The night fell back into silence, until Selina gave a despondent shrug of her own and mumbled, "Whatever. Bridgit, let's go."

•••