"We were too greedy, grasping for immortality too soon. Perhaps if we had only been patient, content to wait, we would all have forever in the end."― Jessica Khoury, Origin

•••

"I'd also like to address the recent attempt on my life by the man known as Penguin. It is true that he attacked me and as of now he is still at large. Men such as Penguin will no longer be tolerated. These are men who scurry from the light of decency like cockroaches. Men who... not even a mother could love."

Bird's lip curled in disgust as she stood beside Oswald while they watched news coverage of the speech Galavan had given after it had been officially announced that he was going to be sworn in as the new mayor of Gotham.

In an outrage, Oswald smashed the glass on the front of the T.V. set in with the end of his cane and then dropped it to the floor.

"He's trying to draw you out." Bird quietly said as she looked over to her best friend, "He'll be waiting for us to strike at the party tonight."

"He dies, tonight!" Oswald called out to the group crowded around the television in the kitchen behind a small restaurant they were all holed up in.

Bird nodded in agreement and blew out a breath as she rubbed her hands over her face.

Her entire body ached and her mind wasn't doing much better. She couldn't remember a point in her life where she'd ever felt more exhausted.

But she had to push it to the side.
Galavan wasn't going to live to see another sunrise and she was going to make sure of it.

She'd already failed by not being able to kill Butch –then he'd managed to slip out of the bar and disappear before she could find him.

It felt as though the entire city was crumbling down around them.

GCPD had already raided Oswald's mansion and other properties that could be linked back to him.
Arrest warrants had been issued for him and Bird and all known associates.

Just like Harvey Dent had warned her –Oswald's empire was crashing down and she was getting caught up in the fallout.

Evening was quickly approaching, which didn't leave much time polish off the final touches on their planned attack on Galavan's victory party that night.

"Where are the weapons?" Oswald asked, looking to Gabe as he spoke.

"In here, boss." Gabe answered as he disappeared into a storage room for a moment before returning with a large wooden crate.
Setting the crate down he showed them it was packed with different types of guns and explained, "Got a bunch more just like this one."

Everyone in the room started to arm up and load the guns, while the stronger of the bunch dragged the rest of the crates out of storage.

"No one is to kill Galavan but me, understand?" Oswald announced.

"Boss, I get what you're feeling." Gabe sympathized while in the process of loading ammo into a shotgun, "A mothers love... it's the most beautiful, most simple-"

"Gabe!" Oswald shouted as he thrust his arms down at his sides and stomped his foot on the floor.

With a sigh, Gabe clarified what he'd been trying to get at, "Cops won't let you within a hundred feet of Galavan. Let us whack him for you, please?"

"No." Oswald declined, "He's mine."

"This is why we came up with the plan for decoys." Bird reminded Gabe and the rest of the men in the room.

Oswald had a very unique look about him –he'd be easy to pick out in a crowd and the police were on high-alert with Galavan's insistence to carry on with the victory party.

That's where the decoy plan was going to take place.
They had enough men for a small army gathered together and in just a few hours when the sun started to set and the party started –each and every one of them would be dressed up in Oswald's likeness.

The army was going to crash the party and Oswald would be lying in wait until he got the chance to take a shot at Galavan.

Stepping to the front of the room, Victor Zsasz looked between where Oswald and Bird was standing as he questioned, "What about Gordon and Bullock?"

Bird swallowed hard and looked over to Oswald, but instead of answering himself, he motioned for Bird to do so –letting her know it was her choice.

"Try to leave them out of it." She answered, but her response did little to clear the air.
Proven when she was met by a room of confused expressions.

"Meaning what exactly?" Zsasz pushed with a confused but verging on irritated look on his face.
The night would be much simpler if they were just given free rein to kill anyone and everyone.

"Meaning... I don't want them to be hurt –let alone killed." She admitted to the room. Her gaze fell to the floor when she continued, "But they both know what Galavan has done. So if they get in the way... if they interfere and try and protect Galavan..."

"We take 'em out?" Gabe finished for her when Bird seemed unable to locate the appropriate words.

Bird didn't look up from the spot on the floor where she'd been staring. Instead she nodded her head.

Oswald watched her before he looked back to the rest of the room and said, "Now, let's get dressed. We've got a party to attend."

•••

"Bird." Oswald greeted as he caught the reflection of his friend in the mirror as he adjusted his tie, turning around he managed a soft smile and surveyed the black dress she'd chosen, "You look beautiful."

"Thanks." She struggled with the breath she was trying to take and dismissed, "Have to blend in with the party after all."

"You know..." Bird sighed in hesitation, "You are aware that we're walking right into a trap, right?"

"Of course." Oswald quickly answered.
He wasn't a fool.

Just as he knew someone acting out of emotion could be manipulated, he knew that Galavan was using those very tactics on him through the messages he'd given in his television interviews.

"Meaning that he has some sort of backup plan to guarantee his own safety." She added.

"I'm well aware that my chances of surviving the night are on the low end of the spectrum." He stated, knowing exactly what she kept hinting at, "I've made peace with that."

Swallowing hard, his gaze fell to the wood floor of the room in the safe house they'd gathered in since leaving the restaurant, "You are the only true friend I've ever known, Bird. Despite what I've said when anger got the best of me –you have always been there for me. Not once did your loyalty falter... even when it most certainly should have."

With a new strength in his voice, he cleared his throat and looked back to her face, "I entirely understand if you'd rather not come tonight–"

"Galavan has to die." Bird interrupted, "And I'm going to see this thing through until the end."

"Even if the ending is ours?" He asked.
Everyone who was going to the victory party that night had a much greater chance of dying there than of walking away.

Not only was GCPD going to have the place surrounded, but just as Bird had pointed out –Galavan had most certainly taken precautions of his own.

"Then we take him with us." She smiled.

She'd lost count of how many times they'd been in life and death situations –most of those where the outcome seemed bleak at best.

Somehow they'd both always managed to survive up to now.
Both of them were either harder to kill than your average person or lady luck waited to smile upon them until the last moment –but they were always the ones left standing when the smoke cleared.

As she stared at him with neither of them knowing what to say next and both feeling like this could be one of the last times they'd be standing in each other's presence; Bird couldn't help but think that he'd been right when he'd voiced his suspicions that no matter what roads they took, they'd always end up back together.

Maybe that's really how it was supposed to be for them. That every decision she'd made to try and change her life around was wasted effort.

She was always going to end up right here and maybe that is exactly where she was supposed to be.

The day they'd first crossed paths had changed the course of both their lives forever.
A bond was formed that had them both willing to fall on their own swords to save the other.

A butterfly effect of sorts brought them to this point in their lives; they were both standing in this exact spot because of a chance meeting years before.

Maybe this is exactly how things were always going to end.

Years might have passed since they met, but in many ways it felt like just mere days ago.

Their lives had burned bright and fast since then and she couldn't help but feel like maybe that's how it should be.

Supernovas are capable, even if only for a moment, to outshine entire galaxies.
They possess more energy than the sun will in its entire lifetime.

Neither of them were the type to slowly dull and just fade into the history books
No, their names would be on the tongues of Gothamites long after they were gone.

"No matter how tonight ends-" Bird began with a sharp inhale, "You should know that even with all of our stupid fights and all the times you've nearly gotten the both of us killed... I wouldn't take it back."

"Not a single second of it." He agreed, blinking away the burning sensation in his tired eyes.

"Boss?" Gabe asked as he knocked on the open door frame and got their attention, "We need to be leaving. The group of your lookalikes are already on their way to the party."

"Thank you, Gabe." Oswald dismissed him with a nod and waited until his heavy footsteps were no longer audible before he looked back to Bird.

Clearing his throat, Oswald tried to think of the perfect parting to speak for them.
From here she was going directly into the party –she hadn't given him much detail on what she was going to do other than saying she had something she needed to take care of before the night would descend into chaos.

Then he would wait until the security perimeter around the building was breached by his lookalikes and GCPD would be trying to rush Galavan off to safety before he'd make his move.

He had no way of knowing if he'd even make it to that point, or if Bird would make it back out of party and if this was the last earthly meeting they'd share then he wanted it to be just as perfect as the moment they'd met.

An impossible feat for sure considering how much his life had changed with Bird in it.

Stepping forward, Bird silently wrapped her arms around him. Clutching onto him and somehow able to keep her frazzled emotions at bay when she could feel his embrace close in on her.

People were going to die that night.

Bystanders at the party, probably most of the lookalikes they were going to send in and even cops.
It was one of those dark nights where not a soul was safe –but Galavan had to die to pay for what he'd done.

And beyond that, Bird vowed to herself that she'd do everything in her power to ensure that the best friend she'd ever had would live to see another sunrise.

"I love you, you know?" She finally whispered, "I always have."

His embrace tightened when her words cut him deep –knowing that they didn't carry the same weight that his would.

For such a long time now, he'd viewed her in a much different light than she seemed to view him; but most days that didn't matter.
She'd brought an element of beauty to his life that he'd never experienced before and for that he was eternally thankful.

"I love you too, Bird." Oswald answered back.

Raising up, she pressed a kiss to his cheek before she separated herself from his arms and leaving him to watch as she went out of the door; taking a piece of his already broken heart with her.

•••

Bird managed to slip into the celebration party for Theo Galavan's election win without the police at the doors noticing.

Even though she was now a wanted fugitive in Gotham –their main concern was Oswald Cobblepot.
A pretty young woman in a designer dress didn't turn the heads of the police solely on the lookout for the crime lord.

The party was already in full swing by the time she'd made it there.
She'd first done a sweep of the entire location to make sure her brother and Alfred weren't there and to her relief neither of them was attending the celebration.

Gotham's high society were eating hors d'oeuvres and sipping on the finest champagne and wine that money could buy.

The turnout wasn't as big as she'd expected, but with the looming threat of Oswald's so called attack on Galavan just the night before, it seemed much of Gotham wasn't willing to risk their lives for a party that night.

Just as well, Bird thought to herself as she swooped up a glass of chilled white wine from one of the waiter's trays and leaned against a decorative column towards the back of the room; the night was going to be hectic enough as it was without half of the city trying to run for their lives.

Bird's eyes drifted up to where what looked to be close to a hundred or more silver and gold balloons were suspended above the stage with confetti held up by netting until the moment was right.

The silver balloons were glittering in the lighting and kept stealing her attention while she was trying to keep an eye on where Jim ad Bullock were talking on the other side of the room.

If she was able to keep the detectives in her sight then she could make sure they weren't going to know she was there... not yet at least.

"Ladies and gentleman!"

Bird's attention was pulled back down from where she'd yet again been staring at the shiny balloons above the stage and down to where Harvey Dent was wearing a thousand watt smile as he made his way down the center of the stage and most of the attendees flocked closer to get a better spot for the night's events.

Harvey kept the smile on his face as he waited for everyone to gather around before he continued, "Let me be the first to officially introduce you to the honorable, Theo Galavan, the new mayor of Gotham!"

Bird rolled her eyes and watched as her ex-fiancé lead the room into a round of applause in anticipation of the man that everyone seemed to whole-heartedly believe was going to make the city a better place.

Theo stepped out on the stage and smiled at the crowd. Slowly, he sauntered forward with his arms out to the sides in appreciation of the warm welcome.

Camera flashes went off from around the room as every paper in town had reporters there to capture the new mayor in the most flattering light.

The city had long been sick of Aubrey James' lax dealing with criminals and everyone felt like this was going to be the beginning of a new era in their troubled city –little did they know that the person standing in front of them was more monster than human.

When the netting was released and the balloons and confetti rained down over the stage, Bird peeked around the column she was hiding behind to see Bullock giving a lazy attempt at clapping along with everyone while Jim rolled his eyes and gave a harsh stare in the new mayor's direction.

Harvey stepped down off the stage while Theo continued to play the part and voiced his gratitude for the chance to serve the fine people of Gotham –he went so far as to further sell it with taking several bows for the audience.

Bird watched as Harvey shook hands with a group of people and when he moved, his sights lined up with where she was standing, she stepped away from her hiding spot and made sure their locked eyes before she turned down a small hallway away from the ballroom where the party was located.

It was only a matter of seconds before Harvey stepped into the hallway and didn't have much time react when Bird opened the door of the storage room she'd ducked into and pulled him inside.

"What-what are you doing here?" Harvey stammered out as he stared at her.

"I needed to talk to you." Bird admitted.

"Here?" He questioned, "In a place swarming with police when there is a warrant out for your arrest?"

"Desperate times, right?" She lamely attempted a joke, but it didn't bring a smile to either of their faces.

"I know you don't see it, but I'm right about Galavan and soon enough you'll know the truth." She said, but when she saw him open his mouth, presumably to argue about it, Bird quickly added, "But that's not why I wanted to see you."

"I wanted to give you this." Bird stepped forward and took hold of his hand while she swallowed down the stale air her lungs seemed to have trouble pulling the oxygen from while she placed something in the palm of his hand then folded his fingers over it.

When she let go, he opened his hand and saw the engagement ring he'd proposed to her with so many months ago.

"It's really over." She gave a weak shrug, "We're really over."

Despite some time having passed since the day they had agreed to part ways, so many things felt unresolved to her and it wasn't until she saw the wounded look on his face when he closed his hand back around the ring that she knew he felt the same way.

"I blew through your life like a storm." Bird accepted out loud, "And you deserved better than that.

"You-" Harvey started to say as he shook his head and his gaze landed on the floor.
The blame didn't fall solely on her.

"And I deserved more than someone who only wanted me at my best." She cut him off.

His head rose from the point he'd been watching on the floor as it quickly became clear that she didn't need him to tell her she wasn't the only one at fault.

"The truth is that your life has been in danger and I had those cameras installed so I could make sure you were safe –but I guess it was more than that. I know I'm the one who walked away, but I don't think I was really ready to leave." The raw emotion in her voice wrapped like a noose around his neck, stealing away more of his breath by the second. "It sounds crazy, but watching you there in our house... sometimes it felt like I was still there..."

He couldn't quite find the words to say yet, but her admission was probably the least insane thing he'd heard from her mouth all day.

Bird pulled her eyes away from his face and stared down to their shoes finding herself also at a loss of what to say next –a major inconvenience when they were probably minutes away from Oswald's lookalikes storming the building.

"Why now?" Harvey asked taking a step closer as his eyes went to the door behind her and he repeated, "Why are you saying all of this now?"

"It needed to be said."
But her dismissal of an answer did little to ease his steadily growing nerves.

Even with her seeming much calmer than when she'd slapped him in Barnes' office earlier that day, he was now questioning his choice of following her away from everyone else at the party.

He wasn't sure if she'd just led him away from danger or right into the heart of it.

"Do you ever think about it?" Her voice had taken on a slight hoarseness and she had to clear her throat before clarifying, "Do you ever think about how different things might have turned out if we'd just left Gotham last year when you first wanted to?"

"It's hard not too." Harvey admitted with a new found honesty in his own voice, "I think about it all the time. Where we'd be right now if we'd even made one decision different than we did."

"Butterfly effect." Bird managed with a half-smile.

"Exactly." He agreed with a sad smile of his own.

"I really did love you." She added, blinking rapidly when she could feel her eyes burning –but no tears slid out.
She wasn't sure she even had anymore tears to give.

"I did too." He paused, "I loved you so much –more than I thought I was even capable of."

Maybe that's what made it so difficult on them both to accept that their relationship was really over.

Love is forever changing and somehow still there after being stretched far too thin and knotted up and even after being tinted in the darkest shades –it somehow still lives on; tangled around every single shard of a shattered heart.

In some ways for the better and a potent for the worse; they both knew they had been forever changed by their time together and the flawed love they'd been tangled up in.

"You deserved a lot more than what I gave you. I demanded you to be open and honest with me and then when I didn't like picture you painted... I chose to ignore the parts I didn't like." He began to say, "I guess I thought that if you just could see there was a life out there far different from the one you were living... and that if I could just love you enough then..."

His voice trailed off and his usually proud shoulders fell in defeat with a shrug.

"You can't love someone back to good, Harvey." Bird softly stated.

"I know that now." He agreed, choking the lump back down that was steadily growing in his throat.

Feeling a bit centered and more at peace than the last time she'd seen him, the smile on her lips grew a little more when she stepped forward and rose up to press a soft, but heartfelt kiss to his readily awaiting lips.

When she pulled back, he took his time opening his eyes before asking, "What now?"

Stepping closer to the door, Bird instructed, "Staying low is going to be your safest option."

"What-"

"Your average gunman won't be shooting at the ground." She gave a simple enough answer that only served to confuse him further before the sounds of shattering glass and rapid fire gunshots echoed thorough out the entire building.

He now had the answer to his earlier questioned as to whether she'd led him away from danger or right into it.
She'd gotten him away from where Oswald's men were launching their all-out assault on the newly elected mayor's celebration.

"Starling!" He yelled, quickly rushing forward when her hand landed on the door handle, but before he could stop her she'd pulled the door open and left.

Quickly shutting the door behind her and using the key he'd found to lock the door, Gabe turned to look at Bird and questioned, "You alright?"

"Yeah." She nodded, as she reached up and unpinned her hair.
Letting it messily fall and frame her face, Bird rubbed her scalp and thanked him for his assistance with trapping Harvey safety in the storage room.

Gabe glanced back to where the door that was muffling Harvey's voice as he continued yelling out her name while beating on the door, Gabe looked back to Bird and asked, "How'd it go?"

Ignoring the question, Bird held out her hand for the gun she'd instructed him to bring for her.

Once she had the weapon in her hand, she reminded him, "We don't know how many people Galavan might have here –so make sure no one goes into that room. Keep him as safe as you can –but get out of here before the place is completely filled with GCPD."

Glancing back to the room, Bird added, "After that he's on his own."

"Got it." He nodded, watching as she headed for the exit at the end of the hallway before yelling after her, "Be careful!"

Bird pushed the door open and immediately laid her eyes on the guard who'd been positioned on that door.

He'd been expecting for someone to try and sneak up on him from the outside and not someone to come out the door from behind him.
Before he could even get turned around Bird hit him in the head with her gun and stepped back as his unconscious body landed on the ground.

She took care to scan her surroundings before she knelt down to pick up the officer's radio where crackling voices were sounding from.

"Remaining officers stay inside and clear the lobby. Primary target is on the move. Detective Gordon is enroute to the rear entrance with the mayor. Need that limo at the back service entrance, stat."

•••

"Get him out of here!" Jim yelled as he and Theo Galavan ran from the building where shots were still being fired.

The limo driver quickly got out of the driver's seat and turned to open the back door of the elongated car, but was brought down by a shot to the back.

Turning around, Jim drew and pointed his gun at the threat –which turned out to be Oswald, brandishing a shot gun.

Ducking down for cover behind the detective, Galavan peered around him to see what was happening.

"Hello, Jim." Oswald greeted him before instructing, "Please, step aside."

Keeping his gun pointed at Oswald, Jim answered, "You know I can't do that."

"You would if you knew what kind of man you were protecting." Oswald argued.

Not wanting his cover to be blown and hoping to be rid of the nuisances once and for all, Galavan stood a little taller and ordered, "Shoot him, detective."

"Oswald... listen to me." Jim pleaded, "You have to put the gun down!"

The enraged expression on Oswald's face gave way to a look of gut-wrenching heartache as he admitted to the detective he still considered a friend, "He killed my mother, Jim."

Jim didn't lower his weapon, but the look on his face softened when he admitted, "I know."

Galavan jerked his head to the side in shock as he looked at Jim before demanding, "Detective Gordon, I am ordering you to put that man down now!"

Seeing he had Jim's attention and hoping his words might break through to the one he'd done so many favors for, Oswald limped forward slowly, "He had her murdered in front of me. I held her, watched her die."
His voice broke and tears filled his raw eyes to the brim all over again, "Do you know what that's like? It changes a person."

"Sorry bout your mother Penguin, but I'm gonna need you to put the shot gun down on the ground, slowly. Now!" Bullock said as he made his way over to them and cocked his gun, taking aim at the side of Oswald's head.

"Actually..." Bird said as she snuck up behind him, "How about you put your gun down and back up."

Turning his head slightly, Bullock blew out a sigh at seeing Bird had a gun on him and after the stunt she'd pulled earlier that day with ordering Zsasz to shoot up the building they were all in –he didn't doubt for a second she'd pull that trigger.

"Gotta be kidding me..." He breathed, as he removed his finger from the trigger and held his hands up in surrender, he muttered, "Shoulda known, can't have one without the other."

"Kill them, detective!" Galavan nearly hissed into Jim's ear as he watched Bullock lay his gun down on the ground and take several steps away from Oswald, just as Bird had instructed him to do."

Oswald looked at Bird and she gave him a small smile and nodded back.
Turning his head and looking back to Jim, he said, "Someone is going to die tonight. We've made our peace with that. I suggest the new mayor does as well."

"Don't make me shoot you." Jim's voice was gruff, but in reality,he was pleading with the criminal.
He could understand perfectly why Oswald would want to take revenge into his own hands, but no one was above the law and he couldn't stand back and let someone –even someone as guilty as Galavan, be murdered on his watch.

With the Bullock no longer armed, Bird took aim in Jim's direction and looked down the shiny metal of the gun reflecting the lights around them before her eyes rose to focus on his face.

"Please just walk away." She pleaded.

"I can't-" Jim started to say as he grew increasingly uncomfortable with two guns now focused on him.

"You have to!" She yelled back. Pausing for a moment to regain control before saying, "Don't make us go through you to get to him."

"They are unstable, dangerous criminals." Theo Galavan continued to speak from where he was behind Jim, "Shoot them!"

From the corner of Bird's eye she spotted movement on the roof. It took her eyes a little while to focus in the darkness and streetlights until she saw a sniper gun being placed on the ledge.

Her first thought was that it was someone from the GCPD strike-force, that was until the figure moved and Bird' could see they had a long ponytail and she immediately knew the shadowed figure was Tabitha Galavan.

"No!" She shouted as she ran towards Oswald and screamed, "Get down!"

A loud gunshot rang out and Jim quickly echoed Bird's instructions, "Get down. It's coming from above!"

Bird and Oswald both let out a cry of pain in near unison when they both landed on the ground.
Immediately his hand went to his shoulder, to the source of the radiating pain that was now shooting down his entire arm like straight acid in his veins.

Bullock scrambled to get his gun and help his partner return fire against the threat on the roof.

Oswald flailed in agony on the ground for seconds that ticked away like long hours as he tried to get over on his good side to get away from where bullets we're still flying through the night air.

"Bird?" He called out when he got turned over on his side enough to see where she was curled up in a fetal position not too far away from him.

"Oswald..." She strained to say upon hearing him calling out for her.
Pulling her hands away from her side she could see they were both covered in her own blood.

Her breathing rushed violently in and out of her lungs; sweat was already dripping down her face, but somehow she managed to raise up enough to crawl over to where he was laying.

Her eyes widened as she saw the fresh streams of blood running like water from between the fingers of the hand he was holding onto his shoulder with.

"You're hurt..." She cried out between her pained shallowed breaths.

She knew she'd been injured, but it wasn't until she saw him bleeding that she realized she hadn't been quick enough to get either of them out of danger in time.

And on the way to the ground a bullet had ripped through her side and into Oswald's shoulder.

"Bird..." His voice trembled as he saw the blood dripping from her nearly saturated shirt and onto the ground beneath her and his eyes overflowed with tears –no longer solely from the physical pain his body was in.

It was as if his acknowledgment of her severe gunshot wound injury caused her to be hyperaware of how much pain she was in and how much blood she'd already lost.

She crumbled further down from where she'd been struggling to kneel and his entire face twisted up with pain when her shallowing breathing started to turn into fits and gasps for oxygen.

He held his shaky hands out in her direction, but his movements were aimless.
He had no idea what to do –or even if there was anything he could do to help her now.

His mouth hung open as he frantically looked from Bird's wounded and weakened state over to where Jim was returning fire with the shooter on the roof and then back to his best friend with his expression growing more hopeless by second.

"You..." Bird hissed out, her forehead lined with pain, "You have to go."
Pointing with a crimson stained finger over to the still open door of the limousine, Bird repeated, "Go."

"No... no..." He argued with a frantic shake before he reached out and grasped onto her hand; not willing to leave her in the condition she was in and she didn't look capable of making it to the car.

"I can't-" He hoarsely choked out, "Bird, I would die a hundred lifetimes at your side rather than live a single one without you in it."

"No." She argued right back as she pulled her hand from his grip and reached up to take hold of his tie, where she nearly cut off his air supply when she jerked his face closer to hers and grimaced, "Oswald, go."

Her head weakly fell forward until her forehead collided with his as she promised, "You're going to survive. You always do."

"No..." He struggled to breathe as she still had a tight grip on his tie, but Bird dismissed his refusal and reminded him, "Galavan has to die. You go... and you... you make him pay for everything he's done."

With that she let go of his tie and sank back against the pavement as she ordered, "Go!"

"I will. I will make him pay." He promised through gritted as he looked from where she was lying to where it was just a short distance to the open driver's side door of the car.

Maybe if he, himself, wasn't injured then he could have dragged her over to the car and gotten them both out of there.
But he barely had any moment in his injured arm and he knew that wasn't option.

He hesitated for another second before crawled over and got into the car, sending up a thank you when he found the keys in the ignition.

Bringing the engine to life, he sped away from the scene as fast as the tires would take him.

It wouldn't be tonight, but Galavan was going to pay. He was going to die and Oswald was going to follow on through on what he'd promised Bird even if it was his last act on earth.

"Jim!" Bullock yelled when he saw the limo speed off and he fired some shots at the car to try and stop it, but Oswald escaped.

Jim had heard the engine and the car speed away, but he couldn't be concerned with anyone's escape, not when there could still be danger lurking from above.

His eyes scanned the roof, but whoever had been shooting at them was long gone and back up was starting to swarm the grounds and the roof.

"Bird! Hey, hey with me? You gotta stay awake."

Jim stood from where he'd taken cover behind the patrol car when he heard Bullock's voice and even though he understood every word, it took him an unusually long amount of time to fully comprehend what was happening.

"Hey!" Bullock yelled out to anyone who was nearby, "We need a bus, now! She's been hit!"
His pleas for someone to call an ambulance were quickly answered as one of the uniformed officers nearly knocked Jim down in his mad dash to get to the radio inside the patrol car and radio for help.

Jim's eyes fluttered to a close as he neared where his partner was knelt down over Bird, who lay wounded and bloody on the ground.

"She's lost a lot of blood." Bullock spoke quietly as Jim finally reached them.
He looked down to where he was still firmly pressing his jacket to the gunshot wound on the young woman's side in an attempt to slow the bleeding.

Jim stood in place above them, swallowing hard as he saw how pasty her sweat slicked skin looked in the streetlights.

Her breathing was rapid, still coming out in shallow gasps as if she just couldn't get the oxygen to where it needed to go and the fabric of her dress was saturated in blood.

He had no idea if it had been an in and out shot or if the bullet was still inside of her; no way of knowing if any vital organs had been hit.

All he knew was that he'd let her down in far more ways than one and the guilt was swallowing him up in a black hole of emptiness.

Bird's hair was damp and messily stuck to her face while she laid on her back staring up to the sky.
In contrast from her hurried breathing, her eyes remained open and only slowly blinking every once in a while with a glassy look taking over her brown hues.

She blinked again, only this time her eyes didn't reopen and Jim's heart fell when he saw her head starting to limply roll to the one side.

"Bird!" Jim yelled dropping down beside where Bullock was keeping pressure on the injury, "Open your eyes. Stay awake. Help is on the way, okay? You have to hold on..."

Jim's voice trailed off as Bird opened her eyes and looked right at him; with a helpless look that practically asked what exactly she was supposed to hold onto.

"Detective Gordon-" Theo Galavan said as he walked up onto the scene and came to stop just steps away.

"Back up." Bullock ordered and made sure Jim had ahold of the jacket to slow the bleeding like he was doing, before he pulled himself up to his feet with a tired groan said, "We need to get you back inside."

He knew just as well as Jim did that Galavan was guilty of more crimes than he could probably even begin to rattle off at that moment, but they didn't have proof.

All they had was the words of confessed criminals and by the looks of it he wasn't sure Bird was going to be around to give them anymore information she had.

Bullock gave one last look to where Jim and Bird were before he grabbed onto Galavan's arm and led him back towards the building.

"You have to hold on." Jim repeated, his eyes darting across her face and down to where he was now responsible for slowing the bleeding.

"It's -it's okay." Bird coughed with an agonized expression on her face as she stared up to him with tears running from the outer corners of her eyes and into her hairline.

Adjusting on the ground, Jim gently lifted her upper body enough to rest against him so that her head wasn't against the hard rock coated pavement.

"You can't save everyone, Jim." She panted out, finding it harder to breath with every passing second as her own sweat was stinging her eyes.

Jim could hear sirens in the near distance and he pleaded, "Stay with me. The ambulance is almost here. You have to stay-"

His unsteady voice and even shakier words halted when her frantic gasps for air rattled through her chest and sent her into another coughing spell, only this time when she opened her mouth to gasp for another breath he could see her teeth were starting to stain from blood that was also spreading out onto her quivering lips.

"No!" Jim's voice raised as he frantically looked out towards the direction of the road in search of the ambulance and then back to her face as he stammered, "You're-you're going to be fine. You..."
His eyes started to burn and his voice grew thick with emotion, "I'm sorry. I should have believed you, I should have-"

"It's okay." Bird's airy tone and choppy voice that rattled out of her proved the exact opposite of what she was saying.

It wasn't okay.

She wasn't okay.

"He..." Bird struggled to try and move, but she was too weak and all Jim could do was helplessly stare down to where she was now cradled in his arms as she tried to speak, "Oswald –he, he got away and the –the bad guy... the bad guy didn't win. It's-it's okay."

"Bird!" He yelled when she blinked once more before her glassy eyes closed again and she could no longer hear his pleas for her to come back to him.

She wasn't responding at all, aside from her continually hastened intake of air, by the time the ambulance arrived and the paramedics pushed him back to give them room to try and stabilize her while getting her loaded up on the gurney bound for Gotham General.

•••

Jim raised his head and looked across the small waiting room to where Bruce was sitting with his head in his hands and Alfred was standing with his back to the wall wearing a devastated expression of his own.

They were waiting for word on Bird's condition.

His entire body was wired from anticipation –needing to know if she was going to be okay, but he had to keep reminding himself that the more time that passed the better.

It meant they still had a living person they were trying to save.

Every single time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the glassy look Bird had in her eyes while her life started to slow to an end.

His breath rushed out of his lungs with the force of a sledgehammer against his chest when he looked down to the red blood stains on his clothes from where he'd been holding her.

Slamming his eyes shut, they popped up just as quickly when he flashed back to first walking upon where Bullock was trying to slow her bleeding and Bird barely looked alive.

"You can't save everyone, Jim."

The words she'd spoke rattled around in his skull.
Her voice hadn't stopped haunting him and only served to further remind him how he'd let her down.

The gory scenes when he shut his eyes were more than he could bear, but what he saw when he looked around the room wasn't much better.

Every so often Bruce would look across the room and he didn't even have to speak for the detective to know exactly what he was thinking.

Silently questioning how something like this could have happened with the police right there.
It was his job to save people, to keep the citizens of the city safe from harm –and yet he couldn't even protect someone who meant more to him than he'd admitted.

He watched as the youngest Wayne swatted a tear from his reddened cheeks and lowered his head back down.

Perhaps, Jim considered, maybe he'd only been mirroring back the blame he'd placed on his own shoulders in the young teens eyes.

He felt like Bruce blamed him, but in all actuality he blamed himself.

Bruce stared down to the contrast of his dark brown shoes against the blinding hospital white speckled linoleum of the floor.

The last time he was here was when Reggie had stabbed Alfred and they'd almost lost him.

His empty stomach twisted up from the dense chemical stench in the air.

Hate.
He hated hospitals.
Hated every single thing about them.

When he felt a tear fall from his eye and splash down on the floor, he rubbed his face with his hands.

How could he have left things with her the way he did?
The last time he'd spoke to her it had ended in a fight with him going outside to call Alfred for a ride because he couldn't even stand to be in the room with her.

He'd lost his parents over a year ago and now all he could think was that he should have known better than to ever part ways with someone he loved on a bad note.

Bruce knew better than anyone just how swift and violent someone could be ripped from the world.

One minute his parents had been laughing and smiling and the next they were lying dead in an ally.
He'd never knew life could be so horribly cruel until that moment and now he felt like he was reliving it over and over again.

At least they knew how much he loved him.
He'd never fought much with his parents and just before they'd died they'd enjoyed a show at the theater together and while he still hadn't forgiven himself for letting that night paralyze him and not doing anything to help save them –there was a small ounce of solace that came in knowing that at least they'd left this world knowing he loved them and that they loved him.

Only now, all he could think was of the judgmental things he'd said to his sister before they last parted and how he'd been so quick to anger and take the moral high ground without ever listening to what she'd said or even trying to see her side of it.

She had to come out of this alive, he thought to himself, she just had to.
What world could possibly be so cruel to take both his parents and then his older sister away from him in a time span of just a few short years?

Jim looked back up to Alfred who had moved from where he'd been standing against the wall to the seat beside Bruce, but only remained sitting for a few minutes before he was back on his feet.

It was impossible for him to sit still.
He wanted to do something, but there wasn't anything he could do for anyone at all –aside from try to reassure Bruce that his sister as strong and would pull through this.

Only Alfred was trying to tread carefully in that water –knowing that there was a very real possibility that Bird wouldn't walk away from the injuries she'd sustained that night.

It wasn't so long ago that Bird was telling him how she was beginning to understand what her father meant in the letters he'd left behind for her and her brother, where he spoke of feeling mortal.

Perhaps Bird had been right all along and he'd too easily dismissed her concerns.

After all, it was just the prior year that she'd left him with instructions on what to do if she were to be killed and luckily nothing too severe had come from the situation that had left her fearing for her life back then –so why should he have given much credit to her when she started speaking of a future without herself in it this time around?

A pit opened up in the core of his stomach and Alfred just barely landed on the edge of the chair when he could no longer stand when it fully sunk in that he might be burying the young woman he'd watched grow up from a very young child.

Bird was more than just the child of the family he'd worked for -for over a decade –she was family.

As far down as he tried to push the thoughts of what would happen next if they were lose her, the macabre thoughts wouldn't let him have a moment's peace.
He would be the one making arrangements.

And even though he knew all of the paperwork was back at Wayne Manor; he found himself trying desperately to remember if she'd told him she wanted to be cremated or buried.

It was senseless, he tried to tell himself, it was entirely irrational to be concerned with such matters while Lady Wayne was still among the living and would surely remain that way.
She had to survive this, just as she'd survived every other hardship and tragedy in her life.

Finding his own legs growing restless as he stared a hole through the clock on the wall, Jim rubbed his hands over the top of his legs and stood up, he was just about to ask if anyone wanted something from the vending machines with the double doors opened and the doctor walked out –wearing an expression that didn't seem to bode well for their situation.

Jim stood by the chair he'd been sitting in for what felt like years as the doctor spoke with Bruce and Alfred and he didn't need to be in earshot of them to know Bird's fate.

Bruce quickly turned away from the doctor fell against Alfred with tears streaming down his face while Alfred clutched onto him with a broken look of his own at a complete loss of what to say or do.

There was nothing in the world he could say that would make the situation any less catastrophic for the teenager who'd already lost too much too soon.

Jim rubbed a hand over his own mouth and stared at them with the feeling of someone holding a lighter to his own eyes.

Maybe if he'd done something sooner then he could have changed the course they'd all been on.
If he'd listened to her when she'd told them Galavan was behind everything, or if he'd pushed her harder in the weeks leading up to it...

Bird was gone –and he now had to live knowing that while he'd stood guard and protected Galavan, Bird had taken a bullet for her friend and paid the ultimate price.

He'd failed nearly everyone who mattered to him and it wasn't long until the grief shifted into a red hot anger bubbling up inside of him.

Turning his back to where Alfred was still holding Bruce as they mourned the loss of a family member, Jim rested his hands on the tall counter of the reception desk.

He couldn't even hear the nurse sitting at the desk on her computer asking if he was okay when she observed his labored breathing.

He couldn't hear anything at all.

In an otherwise silent outburst, Jim angrily threw him arm out across the counter and knocked down the decorative vase and hard plastic displays of various medical information pamphlets.

It was then that he felt a hand on his shoulder and spun around to see Lee looking at him with a concerned expression.

She looked over to where Bruce was now sitting down in a chair with tears streaming down his face, but no audible sounds could be heard.
The pain he felt ran so deep that he could barely even breathe.

Every loss he'd suffered punched another hole in his life, his happiness, his soul.
Gaping black voids that would never be completely sealed up.

His memories of his parents and now of his sister, of happier times when their family was whole –were hardening up like scar tissue inside of him.

"Jim..." Lee quietly said as she grabbed onto his hand and gently pulled him towards the other side of the waiting room to give Bird's family some space.

Once she had him alone, she handed him the envelope containing the results from the blood test she'd done on Bird's request.
She'd been right. There were traces of varying hallucinogenic drugs her system.

Jim's already sullen expression fell ever further as he looked back Lee and then over to where Bruce and Alfred were, knowing what he had to do now.

He had to tell them.
Tell them that Bird could only be held so accountable for way she'd been acting.
That she was truly in war against immeasurable outside sources all while fighting another one inside of her own head.

He had to look Bruce in the eyes and accept blame for his fault and the part he'd played in Bird's final days.
Had he done a better job and been a better friend then she'd still be here.

He needed to tell him that Bird had given her life in an attempt to save someone very important to her and that in the end she believed she'd done the right thing.

Jim had seen it in her eyes while she lay bleeding out on the ground, trying to assure him that it was okay, that Oswald got away and the bad guy didn't win.

He'd spent so long criticizing her life choices and the people she aligned herself with –that he hadn't been able to see that she fully believed she'd been doing the right thing all along.

Bird knew she wasn't perfect and she'd never claimed to be, but she hadn't viewed herself or her best friend as the villains in the story and in the end she'd shown more loyalty and bravery in her short life than most people could possess in several lifetimes.

The doctor let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the wall just on the inside of the large doors that had shut behind him.

Having to deliver news like that to loved ones was one of the worst parts of the job and something he'd never gotten used to in all his years of practicing medicine.

His own footsteps sounded unusually heavy to his ears with every step against the floor as he made his way down the hallway.

It had taken some convincing from both his self and the family's butler, but they'd been able to persuade Bruce Wayne against his request to see his sister one last time.

Walking back into the after surgery recovery room, the doctor looked up to all the machines tasked with monitoring signs of life and then down to the young woman's body in the bed.

"When will she be stable enough to be moved?"

The doctor looked across the bed to where Carmine Falcone was standing.

"It's a miracle she made it off the operating room table." The doctor said, "It's still my professional opinion to advise against moving her in this state."

Falcone looked at the screen showing Bird's steady heartbeat before he reasoned, "She's not safe here. My people are getting a place set up for to continue her recovery as we speak. She'll be better off-"

"With everyone believing she's dead?" The doctor questioned, before admitting in the most respectful tone as possible, "The people I just lied to out in the waiting room... they're devastated-"

"This isn't about them." Falcone cut him off, "Her mother made a decision shortly after she was born that decided her life for her. But now, these circumstances... no matter how unfortunate present a choice that she didn't get before. When she wakes up, she can start over fresh somewhere away from the city that has brought her nothing but pain."

"If." The doctor cleared his throat, "If she wakes up."

"She will." Falcone nodded, his eyes traveling back to the screen reading her heart-rate, "She's strong because she has to be. She's a Falcone, after all; it's my blood that runs through her veins."

•••