"Stay true to yourself; because there are very few people who will stay true to you." - Unknown

•••

Bird's stomach was in knots as she tried to read the morning paper.

She hadn't gotten any sleep the night before.

Well, if she was being honest she hadn't really slept since the night they'd barely escaped being blown to bits by a bomb.

The same night Harvey Dent had proved he wasn't above guilt tripping to get what he wanted in the end.

And what he wanted was for her to snitch on Lenny and his crew, to hand over every ounce of evidence she had against them and go on the record to testify against them.

Some of the gang had already been rounded up and brought in on lesser charges while Bullock, as acting captain, spearheaded the deeper investigation into the gang.

Which would ultimately bring down their violent crime syndicate.

A task which wouldn't be possible without her cooperation and today was the morning she was supposed to be deposed.

Closing her eyes, she laid the paper in her lap and leaned her head back against the headrest in her car as her driver drove them towards the courthouse.

This was wrong.

She knew it.

This wasn't like when Jim was on the force and would come to her and Oswald for help with various problems that arose, this was entirely different.

This was her throwing herself to the wolves and waiting to be ripped to shreds.

One minute she'd been debating with herself about telling her driver to turn around and the next she'd fallen asleep.

"Miss Falcone."

Bird blinked her eyes a few times as she started to walk up. Her entire face twisting up in confusion, no one had ever referred to her by her biological father's name.

Quickly straitening up in her seat, Bird realized it wasn't even her driver behind the wheel, it was man she'd never seen before.

"We're here, ma'am." He stated.

Peering out from her tinted window she saw they weren't at the courthouse.

They weren't even within the city limits anymore.

It only took her a few seconds to catch on, even in her drowsy state.

The dark cars parked across the street from an old cafe, the men in suits standing guard at the door.

Falcone might have been retired, but he still traveled like a mafia boss, still had the same protections as when he'd been ruling the city.

As the new driver opened the car door for her, Bird stepped out onto the sidewalk and smoothed her dress out, lingering a little longer than necessary before she made her way towards the doors.

There were only a few other patrons inside the old cafe, all of them more than several years her senior.

Her eyes traveled up from the rustic wood floor to where Falcone stood from his table upon spotting her entrance.

"My dear." He greeted with a nod.

"Don Falcone." Bird's voice was low and calm as she stepped forward to greet him.

After the usual exchange of cheek kisses, she took her seat across from him and questioned, "Where's my driver?"

"He's fine." Falcone answered as he sat back down in his own seat and eyed her in silence for a few seconds before asking, "How's the shoulder?"

"It's been better." Bird's lips pressed into a thin line, "I might need surgery."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that." He stated, taking a drink from his coffee, "But even if it does; I wouldn't worry too much. You've got youth on your side."

Bird's gaze fell to the table as the waitress sat a drink down in front of her and offered up a small smile before walking away.

"I was under the impression you were going back to your estate in the south." Bird cleared her throat.

She wasn't even sure why she was attempting to make small talk with him.

It was abundantly clear why he'd had her brought there this morning.

Word had clearly gotten back to him about her plans of working with the GCPD to bring down Fat Lenny's crew.

"I wanted to stay in Gotham for a while. Keep an eye on things."

"You mean keep an eye on me." Bird corrected.

With a single nod he didn't waste time in pointing out, "Good thing I did."

"Someone has to stop you from making such a grave mistake as the one you set out to make this morning."

And that was all it took.

One look from him, full of judgement and disappointment to make her feel like she couldn't do anything right in her life.

"I-" Bird started to defend, but he wasn't ready to give her the time to explain her side of it just yet.

"You know very well what happens to snitches in this city. What I can't seem to wrap my mind around is why you'd expect the police department to clean up this mess you've landed in. You could have called me." Falcone took another drink of his coffee, his gaze still heavy on her as she avoided his line of sight.

"I screwed up-" Bird started to say, but he interrupted her, "You can say that again."

"By underestimating what used to just be a small gang, but I'm handling it. I didn't need to call you for something like this." She answered, biting down on the side of her tongue to bite back a snappy remark, "I have the situation under control."

"Clearly you don't have anything under control." His tone let her know just how much he wasn't buying a single word she was trying to sell him, "Did you really think I'd let you do this?"

"It's my decision." Bird argued, her eyes starting to grow a little dark.

"It isn't." He argued.

Readjusting in his seat, he leaned forward some and lowered his voice as he spoke, "You want to make your own choices -I understand that. You chose a cooperate job over ruling the crime world -I accept that."

"Look at me." He instructed when she continually avoided his eyes.

Once he had her attention, Falcone continued, "You might not wear the Falcone name, but it's now widespread knowledge that you are my daughter and no child of mine is going to be a rat."

She didn't say anything.

Truth be told she didn't have much of an argument.

She'd known all along this was the wrong decision to make.

Her every instinct had been against it since the night in the hospital.

Maybe in some ways she was hoping something like this would happen, that someone would intervene and stop her before it was too late.

"What is this?" He asked.

Reading the look on her face and seeing a glint of relief in her eyes; he knew this wasn't her.

She not only knew better than to turn rat, but she'd never conducted herself in such a way in the past.

"Is this Gordon?" He guessed; under the assumption that her deepening relationship with Jim might have been the source of this sudden willingness to work with the GCPD and DA's office.

"No." She truthfully answered.

In the beginning he'd been urging her to work with Bullock and the strike-force to put a stop to Lenny's violence, but in the last few days he kept asking if she was sure she wanted to do this.

"Harvey." Bird finally admitted.

Reaching for her coffee, she took a small sip and repeated in a voice that didn't carry over a whisper, "Harvey Dent."

Falcone let out a heavy sigh, unable to comprehend whatever hold it was that this district attorney seemed to still have on her -even long after their relationship had ended.

"Dent?" He finally repeated back, pausing to enjoy another drink of his morning coffee, "He's still that important to you?"

"We have history." Bird quickly answered, "Lenny's crew went after him because of me. He could have died-"

"But he's alive and well." Falcone interrupted, "Sounds to me like you got him safely out of the situation you feel guilty for getting him into. You understand that you owe him nothing else?"

When she looked at him from across the table and their eyes locked, he took the opportunity to make it very clear how he felt about about her ex-fiance, "I never cared for him."

"Yeah, well, I did." Bird cleared her throat as her line of sight fell back to the table.

She still did to an extent.

Enough to risk her life at the chance of saving his.

"Well..." Falcone began, pulling in a breath as he stood up and looked at where his biological daughter was still seated, "You don't need to worry about Lenny any longer."

"What does that mean?" Bird's eyebrows furrowed.

"It means I'll take care of it."

"No." Bird scrambled to her own feet to better face him, though she stood several inches shorter than his imposing stature, "This is my problem. My mess -and I'll clean it up myself."

"Bird." He shook his head back and forth.

If her idea involved GCPD or the DA's office then it would only cause a bigger mess.

Just like the one he was currently trying to bail her out of.

"I can do this." Bird promised.

And despite all of the progress they'd made over the last year, she was left feeling like she still needed to prove herself to the Don.

Something she thought she was done with over a year ago.

••• later that day •••

The sun was starting to set by the time Bird reached the building she was supposed to meet Fat Lenny at.

"Well, well, well." The balding middle age gangster called out once he spotted her.

Arms that were folded across his chest spread wide with a welcome, "Looky here boys!"

His voice boomed an echo through the large open space as he spoke to his men, "Starling Wayne."

"You-" He pointed at her as he stood to his feet from the metal folding chair, "I didn't think you were going to show."

"It's Bird." She corrected, slowing to a stop well before reaching the chair across the card table in place for her, "And what choice did you leave me?"

"Hey, now!" He laughed, "Water under the bridge now, right? After tonight we're gonna have an understanding and no one else needs to get hurt."

Bird lowered her head some, scanning the vacant warehouse and watching to see exactly where he'd stationed his men before her gaze landed on him from under her dark coated lashes.

Lenny didn't appear to be armed himself.

He hadn't ordered his men to draw their guns.

It was insulting; that this man who'd threatened her and came after the people close to her hadn't had the thought cross his mind that she might be there to retaliate instead of give in.

Had it really been that long since she'd made a name for herself on the streets?

"You got what we talked about?" Lenny continued to drive the meeting forward, his greedy eyes focused on the briefcase by her side.

"It's all here." She nodded and resumed her forward advance to the table.

She'd taken the sling off of her arm before going in.

Not that she could feel much of anything in her shoulder after calling a doctor earlier that day that had given her a shot of numbing medication right into her shoulder.

Bird sat the case down, spun it around and opened it to reveal a large amount of money inside.

But the very second Lenny reached for the cash with his grabby sausage fingers, Bird slammed the case shut so fast that he could have easily lost a couple digits had he had them inside.

"I think we need to talk first. Clear the air." Bird suggested, latching the briefcase shut and staring him down.

"Never been much for foreplay." He sighed, "Always preferred to get right down to business. But sure, I'll humor ya." With that he motioned with his hand for her to go on.

"I underestimated you, Lenny." Bird admitted, keeping her hands on the case of money as she sat down in the seat that had been set out for her, "See, back when I was working for Fish Mooney, you ran a small time crew. Nothing like the numbers you're running now."

"Yeah, yeah..." He nodded, eyes narrowing, "You know I think I remember seeing you around the ole dive now."

His eyes left her face, traveling down her body until the table's edge blocked his view, "You grew up nice. Good for you."

Completely misreading the situation, Lenny laughed, "Apology excepted. Times have changed and we've both upped our game. You with the corner office and soon I'll be running the crime game in this city. You keep up your end of the bargain and I got no reason to come after you and yours."

Bird's glossed lips curved up into a smile and a nearly manic sounding laugh came out before she could stop herself.

"Apology?" She echoed.

Waving a hand through the air and trying to regain her composer, "You really think you have what it takes to be a major player in Gotham?"

At this point she wasn't sure which was more comical.

The fact that he really believed he was getting his way or that he saw himself worthy of running the underworld.

"You think that's all I am now?" Bird questioned, a smile still visible on her face, "Someone with an executive job and corner office? Who would be so easily rattled from your lame attempts at intimidation that I set up this meeting to give you what you want?"

"I mean, my god!" Bird exclaimed with another near fit of laughter, "Did it really never cross your mind that you messed with the wrong person? That maybe -just maybe, you underestimated me too?"

Lenny moved forward to the edge of his seat, the metal beneath him creaked from the shift in his weight.

"You really are as crazy as they say, huh?" He teased, still clearly not feeling threatened in the slightest.

She'd walked into a meeting with no less than a dozen of his men by herself and thought she was in any position to be hurling insults and making threats?

"Not the brightest crayon in the box?" He added, "That's okay. Your money is still as good as anyone else s."

"Really?" Bird nearly choked on her exhale, "You're minutes away from choking to death on your own blood and you're insinuating that I'm the dumb one? Lenny, come on."

Slamming her hand down on the table so hard it shook beneath the impact she yelled, "You didn't even bring a gun to this meeting. Do you how insulting that is?"

"Alright, that's enough. One more word out of you and I'll-"

Lenny's threat was cut short by the deafening sound of both the front and back entrances to the building being kicked open.

Followed by a rain of rapid gunfire, bullets ricocheting and shells pinging against the floor that was starting to run red with the blood of his own men.

Even though they had been armed, they didn't stand a chance in the ambush.

Terror widened eyes seemed to take up the majority of his face as he looked around at his slain followers and the leather clad individuals standing among the carnage.

"You..." Lenny seemed to be already be suffocating on his own air, "You... no, no... no, this..."

"No, no. Please don't kill me..." Victor Zsasz taunted him in a sing-song voice, taking the liberty to fill the blanks before letting out a laugh of his own as he holstered his weapons and stepped up to the side of the table.

"You're going to kill me?" Lenny shouted in broken speech, finding it hard to take a deep breath.

Sweat was profusely dripping down from his forehead and stinging his eyes.

"I think he's finally catching on." Victor commented as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade knife and flipped it open.

"Bird." He smiled wickedly at her as he offered up the knife with the handle facing her way.

"Thank you, Victor."

Lenny watched as Bird took the knife in her hand and adjusted her grip on it.

"You will pay for this!" He spat over the table surface with every syllable, "My men will go after everyone you've ever cared about. They will avenge-"

"No, see... I don't think so." Bird cut his protests short, "You loyalists have all been wiped out."

She motioned the still warm corpses around them.

"But the rest? The rest only worked for you out of fear. You went around swallowing up all these other small time crews to grow your man power, but there is so much more to being a leader than simply ruling out of fear." Pointing to the tip of knife in his direction Bird explained, "It's about respect and loyalty. Ruling on fear alone won't get you very far."

Lenny watched as Zsasz moved over and took a seat in the chair Bird had been sitting on.

It was unsettling the way the assassin kept smiling at him with a wild and bloodthirsty look in his dark eyes.

"No." Bird clicked her tongue, "I imagine I'll get more thank you cards than empty threats for doing away with the likes of you."

"After all..." She smiled again, "How do you think I knew exactly how many men you'd have with you? Or be able to set this up so perfectly on your territory?"

When she saw the realization starting to set in she nodded.

It had been with the help and knowledge of his own gang that she'd been able to plan and execute the events of the night so perfectly.

He'd been betrayed.

"You brought this on yourself." Bird coldly stated.

"Wait!" He held his hands out in front of him, "It don't gotta go down like this."

"Oh, but it does." Bird feigned an apologetic expression, "It's the perfect ending actually. Cut the head off the snake and the body will die. This problem you created for me will die along with you."

Swallowing hard, he found himself unable to take his gaze off the gleam of light reflecting on the razor sharp blade.

This was essentially the same method he'd been using for months.

Taking out other capos and bringing their gangs into his.

"I'm sorry." He was willing to say or do anything now to prolong his life.

He could see what a fatal error he'd made in thinking she could bullied into giving him what he wanted, but it was too and far little too late.

"You should be." Bird reprimanded.

"We could work togeth-"

One quick slice of the blade was all it took to silence him mid-word.

Bird had long grown tired of Lenny still thinking he had any sway over the situation.

He got as powerful as he was by not being afraid to spill a little blood.

What he hadn't taken into consideration was that Bird was willing to spill a lot of it.

"Thought he was never going to shut up." Victor commented as he rose from the chair and stood next to Bird while they watched Lenny's body violently shaking on the floor where he'd fell.

Choking on his own blood; just as Bird had promised.

When all movement and sound from Lenny had ceased, Bird pulled in a deep breath and handed the crimson stained blade back to Victor.

There was a shine in his eyes as he took the knife back.

She should be the one running the city, he was sure of it.

She was a Falcone after all and despite choosing to ignore her roots, she was still made in Carmine's likeness.

"Let's go." Bird said as she turned and walked away, doing her best to step over the puddles of blood and bodies on the cement floor.

Picking up the case from the table, Victor opened it and took out the money owed to their help. Laying the stacks of cash on the table, he nodded to the group he'd brought along for backup and instructed, "You know what to do."

•••

Harvey rose to his feet from the steps when he saw a dark car pull up alongside the walkway to his ex-fiance's townhouse.

The dim lighting from the moon, along with the dark tinted windows on the car made it impossible to see who was inside.

When the passenger door opened and Bird stepped out, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was a few hours prior that he'd gotten word that Bird had retracted her statement about Fat Lenny's gang after she'd missed her appointment to be deposed earlier in the day.

His mind had immediately went to worse case scenario.

The gang had gotten to her.

Either threatened her badly enough she refused to testify against them or even worse, they'd killed her in order to keep her silent.

"Harvey?" Bird questioned as she shut the car door behind her, "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"

"I've been trying to call you." He stepped closer, "What happened-"

He'd started to ask her why she'd retracted her statement, but stopped when he heard another car door open and looked across the top of the car to see Victor Zsasz had gotten out of the driver's seat.

Harvey's gaze drifted back over to Bird; now unable to miss how startled she seemed to find him outside of her house.

She was suspiciously clutching the top of her coat closed, but when she turned her head to look at Zsasz, Harvey saw the blood spatter across her cheek and the side of her neck.

"What did you do?" He demanded to know, voice raising with each spoke word.

"Maybe we should talk inside, yeah?" Bird asked, her voice a little high pitched and her eyebrows raised.

The last thing she wanted was to have a fight with her ex on the sidewalk in front of her house.

He didn't budge, watching her with a near dumbfounded expression on his face as she fished her keys out of her coat pocket and briskly walked towards the front doors.

"You coming?" Bird asked as she pushed the front door open and turned back to see what was taking him so long.

"I..." He breathed, his eyes going back to where the assassin was still standing next to the car.

To Harvey's dismay, Zsasz cracked a predatory smile and raised a hand to wave at him.

"Goodnight, Victor." Bird loudly called out.

"Bird." He replied a nod, before getting back into the car and driving off.

"They're all dead..." Harvey guessed, "Aren't they?"

"I'm not talking about this outside." Both her voice and her expression grew serious as she nodded for him to come inside.

Begrudgingly, he walked up the stairs and into the entryway of the luxury town-home and turned to watch her shut the door behind him.

But when she didn't stop to speak to him and instead continued on her way into the kitchen, he let out a frustrated noise and followed behind her, "Am I going to get an answer?"

"What happened to you not wanting to know details about that part of my life?" She arched brow.

"I think we're long past that, don't you?"

Bird could hear the anger seeping into his tone.

Unzipping her coat, she took it off and hung it on the back of one of the bar chairs at the kitchen island.

When she turned back around to face him, he could see the dark stains on her clothes.

It was blood.

And it wasn't her own.

"What did you expect me to do, Harvey?" She asked, mirroring his anger as she threw her arms out to the side.

"I expected you to not murder anyone!" He shouted.

His eyes closed while he pulled in a deep breath and tried to calm down, but that was something that never happened easily -especially when dealing with her.

"They got to you-" She began, motioning to his black eye, "It was only a matter of time until they tried to get to Bruce. They weren't going to stop."

"We were so close, Starling." Harvey sighed, his shoulders slouching, "So close to making a difference here. If we'd gotten the entire gang behind bars it would have sent a message to other criminals-"

"They wouldn't have stayed in Blackgate." She argued, "I underestimated them, okay? Back when I first heard of Fat Lenny's crew they were nothing to worry about, but they'd combined forces with a few other gangs and they were dangerous. Too dangerous."

"This is so much bigger than this one crew." He paused, running his tongue over his lips, "This was a real chance for change, this was-"

"Harvey." Bird interrupted, "I did what I had to do."

"All you had to do was keep your word!" His voice raised again.

"Which would have been the equivalent to signing my own death warrant!" Her voice raised to match his, "You've seen what happens to snitches, Harvey."

This was usually the time in their arguments and fights that she'd start to shut down, almost as if she were readying herself for the full wrath of his anger and all that came with it.

But not this time.

Instead, Bird stepped closer to him and jabbed a finger into the center of his chest, "And shame on you for trying to use what's left of my feelings for you against me, to guilt me into what you wanted."

"Shame on me?" He exclaimed, knocking her hand away from him and looking genuinely shocked at the allegation.

After all she was still wearing clothes stained with someone else s blood and acting like he was in the wrong.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, her head cocked to the side when she added, "I am sorry that you got dragged into this and even more sorry that you were injured because of it, but I saved your life that night and I don't really owe you anything else.

She'd expected an argument from him, possibly even fly into a rage as he'd done so many times in the past.

But he seemed more shocked than anything.

"Starling-" He began.

Her name came out mixed with a sound comparable to the air being knocked out of him.

"Thank you for coming by to check on me." Bird cut him off, knowing that for the night at least they didn't have anything else to talk about, "But it's getting late and you should go."

"Wait..." Harvey breathed, "You can't just expect me to sit on this. You killed someone; probably more than just one someone. I'm legally bound to report this."

"No you're not." Bird argued, still standing like a stone and refusing to back down in the slightest, "You care about your career far to much for that."

When his face twisted up in confusion, she clarified, "Loose lips sink ships, Harvey."

"Are you..." His voice trailed and off and just when she thought his features couldn't contort any more than they already had, his expression deepened, "Are you threatening me?"

"No." Bird's eyebrows raised, "Only reminding you that you had inside knowledge of crimes I committed both before and during the span of time we were together."

The lines across his forehead faded and his expression loosened.

What she was essentially saying was that if he did anything to try and bring her down, that she'd most certainly take him with her.

Harvey's eyes traced over her face, the beautifully crafted features he'd grown long-familiar with; jewel-like brown eyes fringed with long lashes, the dusting of freckles spanning across her nose that washed out into her cheeks, her full lips that he used to never get enough of kissing.

So familiar and yet now so foreign.

What a strange feeling it was.

"I don't even know who you are anymore." He voiced his thoughts.

The anger he'd felt had faded, something more like sadness had taken it's place.

"You do." Bird simply answered, her voice quiet when she added, "You just don't like it."

The situation felt strange to her as well.

Standing in a room with someone she cared about enough to run right into danger for, but who had no problem asking the impossible from her time and time again.

Then again, she considered, maybe she also kept expecting the impossible from him in wanting his acceptance wholly of who she was.

In truth, maybe somewhere deep down there was still a part of her wishing he could see her side more clearly than he did.

But it didn't matter. Not anymore, because she no longer thought she needed it.

"You're just used to getting things your way." Bird added on after a shared moment of eye contact in silence that neither had been willing to back down from, "But that's not how it works with us anymore, Harvey."

"What-" He started to ask, but she kept talking.

"We still care about each other. I mean, I knowingly ran right into a trap in hopes that you were still alive and I'd get there in time. You were sitting less than thirty feet from a bomb and instead of begging for help, you told me to go and save myself." She pointed out, "But you keep operating under the impression that I owe you something when that couldn't be further from the truth."

Bird made sure to look him in the eyes when she repeated, "I don't owe you anything."

His mouth hung slightly agape, his wordless tongue feeling crowded behind his teeth.

His gaze dropped to the floor before he looked back to her face.

There was a time early on in their relationship when what he wanted most in the world was to know her secrets. For her to be an open book, because all she did was keep everything -nearly every thought and any emotion under lock and key.

Sometimes misfortune is the price you pay for getting exactly what you've wished for.

Because there she stood with blood smeared on her face, giving him nothing but brutal honesty, having long moved past denying who she was -and it was a color he wished he'd never saw her painted in.

That's the problem with opening Pandora's Box; whatever evil comes out can't be shoved back in and you must live with it.

"It's la-"

"It's late." He cut her off with an echo of her own words, "Yeah, I should go."

She eyed him as he turned to leave.

Keeping only to herself that Falcone had all but forced her hand in the Fat Lenny situation.

When Harvey reached the door and opened it, he lingered in the door way, not sure what else could even be said in this situation.

"Goodnight, Starling." He cleared his throat.

Sometimes the only thing left to be said is a parting.

"Night, Harvey." Bird answered, watching the door until he was gone and the wood barrier closed behind him.

Once he was outside, he let out a heavy sight that turned to white fog in the frigid night air.

After he stepped of the last step, he paused to zip his coat the rest of the way up, only when he started to travel down the walkway he was brought to a stop again.

This time by the sight of Jim Gordon, who also slowed his pace to a halt when he spotted the DA.

"Harvey." Jim called out with a forced smile and a nod as he continued back on his path towards the door.

"Jim." Harvey nodded as they walked right past one another with barely a glance.

It was when Jim reached the stairs to the door when he realized the receding sound of footsteps had stopped.

With his hands still tucked in his pockets away from the cold he turned back around with a questioning look on his face.

"I just..." Harvey breathed with a near laugh, "I couldn't figure it out, you know?"

Motioning towards the townhouse, he continued, "I thought you got a different version of her. The girl I met was working at a mob-managed nightclub and kept saying she wanted something else but just couldn't shake those criminal roots. Now she's got a job that helps make the community better... her name in the papers for doing things right instead of wrong and I just couldn't understand what you could have possibly done or said any differently to her than I did."

"I didn't do anything." Jim answered; now with slightly narrowed eyes.

"The point is, I thought she changed-" Harvey began, but was silenced when Jim took a step closer and defended, "She has."

"That's where you're wrong." Harvey shook his head, "She's exactly the same person she's always been -hands stained in someone else's blood. You know, I- I... even if she wanted to change, I don't know that she could."

Harvey's face was still bruised from the beating he'd taken. Life and death situations can sometimes bring out the worst in a person and so Jim bit down on the side of his tongue, choosing to hold his silence over getting into an argument that he doubted would do any good.

Silently, he turned and walked up the stairs. That was the plan at least, until he found himself unable to open the door.

"A few weeks ago, when we were trying to stop Galavan all over again, his sister Tabitha got badly injured-"

Jim was unable to hold his tongue any longer.

Harvey turned back around to face him, "I heard."

The look on his face showed he had no idea what this had to do with anything they'd been talking about.

"Yeah, well, did you hear that the only reason she lived was because of Bird?" Jim questioned.

"I was there. I saw it. After all the pain that family caused her and she still helped Tabitha Galavan."

He was back down the entryway stairs before he was even aware of his movements.

"You're right to begin with. She's not the same person you knew. How could she be? Bird's been to hell and back and somehow she's still standing. And I... I can't take the credit for that, but I've been right there beside her since I got out of Blackgate, so don't stand there and act like you know anything about what's been going on or what she's still going through, because you don't." Jim's stopped walking closer, but his voice raised.

"Since you escaped from prison." Harvey corrected, followed by a nod towards the house, "Since she used criminal connections and broke countless laws to help you."

With a shrug, he commented, "Maybe you're the one who's changed Jim."

With that he turned and walked away.

Not wanting to argue with Jim anymore than the former detective wanted to have words with him.

Even after he made it inside the house, Jim was still a little angered by the confrontation he'd had with Harvey Dent just outside.

Harvey been right, of course, at least about some of it.

Jim had changed, he was well aware of that himself, but just like he'd said in Bird's defense, he'd been through far too much to be the same person he was a couple years ago or even several months ago.

He'd already bypassed the coat closet when he started to shrug out of his coat and found Bird in the kitchen.

"What happened?" He questioned as he draped his coat over the corner of the kitchen island.

When he turned back to look at her he could see the dried blood on her face, a nearly startling contrast to her fair skin as she stared back at him.

"Oh." He breathed, his eyebrows raised at the realization of exactly what had taken up her time for the day and kept her from showing up to be deposed in the Fat Lenny investigation, visually checking her well-being he questioned, "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Jim." Bird answered, making eye contact for a split second before her eyes darted over to where she'd left her own coat; her own bloodstained coat.

Not missing the small nervous tick, Jim looked over to see what she'd unintentionally looked at,

"I know you're probably wondering what happened today-" She started to say before her voice trailed off and he saw her shoulders slouch, "Where do you want me to start?"

Jim eyed her in silence, knowing without a doubt that whatever he asked her he'd get a honest answer to.

It was startling at times and even caused him to be hesitant before he'd ask something he wasn't sure he wanted to the answer too.

He went over to the refrigerator and got a bottle of beer out, while Bird stayed where she'd been standing, following him with only her eyes and waiting on his next move.

It wasn't until he'd gotten a drink or two down, that he knew what he wanted answered first and so it came out as more of a statement than a question, "I want to know what happened in that hospital room the night of the bombing."

Clearly caught off guard, Bird's forehead lined.

She'd spent the last few minutes trying to figure out the best way to tell him she'd taken out a small time crime boss and had several of his men executed.

"What do you think happened?" She countered, her eyes falling to the dark glass bottle that was already half-empty.

"I don't know." He shrugged and leaned back against the counter, "You never told me. All I know is you were a hundred percent against cooperating with GCPD before you went in -then you came back out and you were ready to give the police everything you had."

"He was in pain from everything." Bird's admission started out with a defense of her ex's behavior, an old habit she still hadn't entirely broken, "Obviously he wanted the people who hurt him brought to justice and so..."

Pulling in a breath, Bird explained, "He not-so-nicely reminded me that despite spending some years putting dangerous people behind bars, that the only serious threats to his life have come from his involvement with me."

Stopping with the bottle just inches from his mouth, Jim asked, "He guilt tripped you into it?"

"Yes!" Her tone was snappier than he'd expected, "I am capable of remorse, thank you very much."

"No, Bird that's not what I meant." He was quick to try and set the record straight, but her formerly benevolent expression had turned into a scowl.

She'd had enough of people trying to make her feel like a bad person for one day.

She was cognizant of how she didn't seem to feel things the same way as other people, but that didn't mean she was incapable of feeling.

Blowing out a sigh, he sat the almost empty bottle of beer down next to him and shook his head -why did it feel like everyone only wanted to argue with him today?

"Then what did you mean?" She questioned, before the angry expression softened and she attempted to hold back a smile, "Why? Were you worried? Jealous?"

"Okay. Stop." Jim pointed a finger at her, "That's not funny"

One of the things that always got under his skin was her apparent inability to take anything seriously.

"Stopping." She teased, holding her hands up in surrender.

But it wasn't more than a few seconds later that she pushed, "It was jealousy, right? You thought maybe in some moment of weakness and seeing him injured I kissed him or something?"

"Bird." Jim sighed, but seeing the playful gleam in her eyes started to bring a smile to his own lips.

He knew she was taking a jab at the first time they'd kissed, which just so happened to be at the hospital the year before.

A moment of weakness between them that still to this day they'd admit shouldn't have happened when it did considering they were both in committed relationships at the time.

It was nice for a moment to see her in better spirits than she'd been lately -even if it was at both their expenses.

"Nothing happened." Bird promised, "Just me feeling like crap because he got hurt and him using that against me and pointing out that I should have told someone about Lenny before it got that far."

His expression changed for a split second, eyebrows furrowed and then back to normal, but it was enough of falter for Bird to notice.

What she hadn't noticed was how she'd just admitted that she'd opened up to Harvey Dent about what had been happening before she'd told him.

"What?" Bird asked.

"What about today?" Jim asked.

"He came here to berate me for retracting my statement." She shrugged, leaving a great deal of their conversation out.

"I'm talking about with Lenny." Jim sighed, making a point to finish the beer before he spoke.

"We don't have to worry about him any more." Bird tried to go into as little detail as possible with that answer too, but it wasn't enough for Jim who shot her a look silently saying she was going to need to give him more than that.

"I think I might have gone through with it." She shrugged, "I left this morning for the meeting with the DA's office as planned, but as it turns out Don Falcone had other plans."

"I thought he went back down south."

"As did I." Bird glanced over her shoulder when Jim walked over to the sink, "But apparently he stuck around. Probably for the best, someone needed to stop me from making that big of a mistake."

Her eyes dropped to the floor, knowing she should have been there to stop herself.

That she never should have let Harvey send her on a guilt trip bad enough that she'd be willing to go against everything she ever stood for.

"So what happened?" Jim's voice was quiet as he walked back up to her.

"I did what I had to do." She asserted.

"Mhm." Jim hummed with a nod and questioning look as he folded up the washcloth he'd ran under the warm tap water in his hands and wiped some of the blood from her cheek.

Holding it out for her to see, he watched her as her eyes lingered on the red stained cloth and then looked back at him in silence.

She closed her eyes, but didn't back away when he gently took her face in one hand and continued to clean the blood off of her with the cloth in the other.

When he was done, she finally let out the breath she'd been holding.

"He wasn't going to stop, Jim." Bird said, "There is no reasoning with some people. You give an inch and they take a mile and then keep coming back for more. Lenny would have kept going after the people I care about, probably wouldn't have been long until he was going after Bruce and I couldn't allow that to happen. I didn't have a choice, but I also didn't go after anyone who didn't deserve it. Just Lenny and his loyalists that would have come after me."

"You did have a choice." Jim corrected, but his tone wasn't harsh.

Instead he sounded far more understanding than she'd been expecting, "But I understand and I've seen first hand the lengths you'll go to for the people important to you."

Despite initially insisting she cooperate with the police, he'd had a change of the heart the past several days.

As much as he wanted the gang behind bars, he cared more about her safety and had spent several sleepless nights going over the possible repercussions of her testifying against Lenny.

He now realized he should have said it out loud, but all along he'd known that whatever decision she'd make had to be hers alone.

The sense of relief she felt was enough to nearly bring her legs out from under her.

Not having to explain over and over why she made the choices she did.

It seemed to happen so rarely that she nearly forgot just how comforting it was to just be understood.

He watched the alleviation flood over her face and offered up a small smile as he tossed the soiled cloth over to the sink and said in a voice just over a whisper, "Come here."

With a smile of her own, Bird stepped forward into his waiting and open arms, her body sinking laxly into his strong frame as she let out a breath that carried the last of her left over anxiety away.

"Most of all." Jim pressed a kiss to the side of her head as he held her, "I'm just happy you're home and safe."

"Home?" Bird's voice was a little muffled from his shirt.

He could hear the smile in her voice, he didn't need to see her face for the proof when she quietly asked, "You talking about the house or you?"

Jim knew exactly what she meant.

Over all, home is a place to belong. Somewhere warm and safe away from the rest of the world. A comfort that could describe a person just as easily as it could brick and mortar.

His arms tightened around her and with a chuckle, he answered, "Both,"

She wasn't sure how long they stood like that in the middle of the kitchen; not that it mattered, those moments never felt like they lasted long enough anyways.

"Hey..." She whispered, pulling back just enough to look at him so he could see just how serious she was when she said, "You don't need to worry about Harvey. That's in the past where it belongs and where it's going to stay."

"You gotta talk to me." His forehead sank against hers, "I'm the one you should have told about what was going on."

Bird bit back the urge to remind him that it wasn't as if she sought out Harvey to spill her troubles to; that she'd only told him was what was going on because he wanted to know why he'd been targeted by a gang.

After all, she understood where he was coming from.

She'd have been hurt and suspicious if he was telling Barbara or Lee his problems instead of her.

They weren't each others first loves, both of them had people who'd claimed their hearts before, but Bird had been choosing to focus more on the present.

Something that was easy with his wanting nothing to do with Barbara and Lee having left town.

She realized it must be harder for him to do the same when Harvey Dent was right there in his face and though Jim never said anything, she could imagine her mad rush to save him from Lenny's plans probably didn't help matters.

"Right now is what counts." Bird took a step back, laying her arms on his shoulders and holding onto the back of this head and neck, "It doesn't matter who or what came before."

"You are what's important to me and I'm sorry if I made you feel less than that." She added, setting the record straight and his mind at ease with the simple statement, "You're who I want, Jim."

"Me too." His voice was low, he pulled her against him, her body curving against his, his arms folded around her, eyes magnetized by each other.

So close her breath became his; air that had left her lungs and settled deep within his own.

Hearts picking up speed.

Bird closed what space was left between them and leaned in almost painfully slow till her mouth pressed against his, until he turned his head slightly to the side, enough to break the kiss but not enough to cease contact.

His breath was humid against her face, sending her heart into a flutter with his admission, "You are exactly who I want too."

Their mouths collided, her fingernails raked over his scalp and his hands started to find their way up under the edge of her shirt.

A tangled mess of desire and erratic breathing, tongues surviving off of nothing but the taste of each others mouths, holding onto each other with everything they had -like they'd never let go.

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