"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal." - Albert Pike

•••

With a yawn Bird stepped from the carpeted hallway onto the tile kitchen floor, the cold under her bare-feet startled her a bit more awake than she already was.

Silently she wished all the tile floors in her house were heated like the one in the master bathroom.

She'd just made it over to the counter where she was planning on starting a pot of coffee; that was until she caught sight of something, rather someone, outside through the window.

"Bruce?" Bird's voice came out a little raspy as she spotted her little brother pacing back and forth on the walkway outside.

Tying the robe closed over the matching nightie underneath, she made her way over to the front door and opened it enough to poke her head outside into the cold brisk morning air to call out to him.

"I'm sorry." Bruce apologized as he got closer and saw she appeared to have just gotten out of bed, "Did I wake you up? I -I can't come back later."

"By wearing down the sidewalk outside?" Her brows raised, stepping to the side she gave him enough room to slip inside the townhouse before quickly shutting the door to keep the cold air out, "No. I just came downstairs to make some coffee..."

Her voice trailed off when she realized he wasn't wearing his usual style of clothes, instead he'd opted for something much less formal -complete with a dark blue knit hat.

"Where have you been?" She questioned, pushing aside the unruly morning hair that had fell over her eyes and face, "Where's Alfred."

"I left really early this morning before he woke up." Bruce admitted to her.

"You mean you snuck out?" She corrected.

His guilty gaze fell to the floor just before he caught sight of his own hands and the unnaturally white shade his skin had turned to from being out in the cold for long.

He wasn't even sure how long he'd been pacing around outside of his sister's house.

Early that morning he was supposed to meet back up with Selina, only instead of finding his friend at their meeting spot, he'd ran into Ivy Pepper.

No one else knew, but Bruce had asked Selina to help him break into Arkham Alyssum a few days prior and she hadn't been seen since.

When he raised his head and his eyes met Bird's her heart dropped into her stomach at the realization that something was very wrong.

Any drowsiness she'd been feeling since waking up vanished and she demanded to know, "What happened?"

"It's Selina." Bruce said, reaching up to pull the hat off of his head as the room started to feel too warm.

"Come on." Her voice softened.

She draped an arm over him to lead him into the living room and guided him over to one of the chairs.

Taking a seat across from him, she said, "Tell me everything."

And so he did.

He started from the beginning of how frustrated and even angry he'd been when Bullock had told them without proof of any wrong doing the GCPD's hands were tied when it came to Hugo Strange.

So Bruce had been set on uncovering such evidence himself.

Only when he'd asked for Selina's help, she insisted she break into the asylum on her own, to which he'd immediately protested, until she gave her reasoning behind it.

If they caught her they'd toss her back out, thinking she was just another street kid finding their way into places they shouldn't.

But if they caught Bruce, he'd probably be killed since Strange knew they were onto him.

Only now he felt like the worst decision he'd ever made was involving her in this; something Alfred had expressly told him not to do.

He'd been warned of the danger it could put her in, but he thought they had a shot at bringing down the man who was ultimately behind their parent's murders and he'd had a tunnel vision set on just that.

"What if she's..." His voice trailed off.

Rubbing his hands over his face and hanging his head, he tried to force the words out, "If she's..."

"Dead?" Bird filled in the blank for him, before clearing her throat, "You can't think like that right now."

"It's all my fault." His vision started to blur, a lump grew in his throat.

He'd already lost so much in his life, he couldn't lose Selina too.

Especially not over something he'd asked her to get involved in.

How he wished for a time machine; a second chance to relieve the day he'd sought her out for this.

"I don't know what to do." His voice shook; unsteady from emotion.

"We get her back." Bird answered with such a simple statement it hardly seemed fitting for the dire circumstances they were currently sitting in, "And we bring Strange down."

Bruce's mouth hung open, still fighting to keep the tears in that were threatening to spill out.

It was an answer he'd known himself, but one he had no idea how to even begin to accomplish.

Jim stepped off the last step and paused as he rubbed his tired eyes and debated which room to check and see where Bird was.

When he noticed the air lacked the scent of fresh coffee, he turned to head into the front sitting room instead.

As he neared the doorway, he caught sight of her sitting on the arm of on the one of the chairs.

"There you are." He said as he entered the room, giving her a sleepy smile and reaching up to run a hand over his head and started to ask, "You want me to start the coffee-"

It was then that he caught sight of Bruce as the teenager scrambled to his feet from a chair facing Bird and to turned to face him.

"Bruce..." Jim greeted, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Detective Gordon." Bruce quickly returned.

His eyes bounced between where the detective stood with a stunned surprised expression and then over to where his sister had also stood from where she'd been sitting.

"You've gotta stop calling me detective." Jim said with a small sigh.

It was tough enough not thinking of himself that way; even worse when other people kept referring to him by the title no longer befitting his name.

Bruce glanced back over to Bird, who was still in what she'd slept in, now covered with a matching robe.

Her face shown only the slightest left over remnants of make-up from the day before and her thick brunette hair clearly hadn't even been brushed that morning.

With another look over at Jim who was wearing a pair of boxers and white undershirt and appeared to have just rolled out of bed himself, Bruce's eyes widened a little and he apologized, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. I didn't realize you were here..."

The room fell into an awkward silence, before he cleared his throat and added, "I guess this is going to take a little getting used to-"

"Yeah." Jim agreed before Bruce had even finished his sentence.

He threw out a smile that both felt and looked as awkward as the silence had felt.

"Okay..." Bird breathed, rubbing her hands over her face, "I'm going-"

Clearing her throat, she corrected, "We're going to get dressed. Bruce, you need to call Alfred and let him know you're here and we'll be bringing you home soon, okay?"

"Okay." Bruce agreed.

"What's wrong?" Jim questioned, finally moving past the awkwardness of the situation to see the upset look on Bruce's face.

Bird was going to tell him she'd fill him in on the way to Wayne Manor, but before she could Bruce admitted, "I asked Selina Kyle to break into Arkham and help gather evidence against Hugo Strange and now she's missing."

The boy who could barely bring himself to admit the truth just minutes before now was spilling it out for everyone to hear.

The guilt was already swallowing him whole.

"You what?" Jim's voice came out a little gruffer than he'd meant for it too.

"Come on." Bird said as she crossed the room and grabbed onto Jim's hand to lead him away.

Looking over her shoulder as they left the room she repeated to her brother, "Call Alfred."

Once they'd made it upstairs, Bird shut the bedroom doors and leaned against them, her head falling back with a thud against the wood.

"I can't believe he did that." Jim's voice was hushed as he stopped in the center of the room and turned back around to see where Bird had stopped.

"I imagine from his point of view it must have looked like no one else was doing anything." Bird quietly answered.

"Bullock's been trying to get a warrant to search the asylum from top to bottom-" He began.

"It's not good enough." Bird shrugged.

It had taken every ounce of strength she possessed to try and let the GCPD do it's work and handle this legally.

Something she was only doing for Bruce to begin with and here he'd went and endangered the life of possibly his one and only friend.

With a heavy sigh, Jim shook his head.

He could understand the youngest Wayne's frustration with how slow the process was moving, but that was no excuse to ask Selina to risk her life and break the law.

A part of him was surprised she'd even agreed to it.

Opening up on of the closet doors, he'd started to grab clothes to change into for the day but stopped when he heard another small thud and looked over to see Bird with her head back against the doors again.

"What if she's dead, Jim?"

It was that very line of thought that she'd insisted Bruce not go to, but it was a very real possibility at this point.

"She's not." Jim came shy of promising.

Walking back over to her he pointed out, "Selina's gotten herself out of more than one mess before."

"I know." Bird's eyes met his, "I know she's smart and resourceful, but we don't know what's going on in the building. Galavan's dead body went in and Azrael came back out. And if she's dead... if she got killed for helping Bruce than he's never going to forgive himself."

Stepping forward, he slid his arms around her, holding her against him.

"We'll figure this out." He said.

Bird leaned against him, holding onto him with her good arm as she was barely able to get the other shoulder to move.

When the doctor she'd seen had given her a shot to numb the pain, he'd warned her this was a one time thing, that the after effects could be swelling inside the joints -further impeding her already limited range of movement.

"You know what happens now, right?" Bird questioned, moving her head back enough to look at him, "We're going to have take care of Strange... off the books, no GCPD."

"No." Jim argued, his eyes meeting hers.

This was what she'd wanted to do all along and was now using Selina's life as an excuse to get her way.

"What happens now is we get dressed, go to Wayne Manor and figure out a plan." He said, leaning in to press a kiss to her lips, before pulling back just enough to say, "And you have to wear that sling for your arm.

"I'm fine-" She tried to lie, but he was ready with his argument, "You can't even move your arm."

•••

"How could you do this, Master Bruce?" Alfred demanded to know as he stared at him, "I strictly forbid you from involving that little girl, didn't I?"

"I know." Bruce nodded, his eyes cutting over to the couch where Lucius Fox was seated with Jim standing behind the couch.

He then glanced over to where his sister was standing.

"Selina's always handled herself... I, I was sure-" He continued to try and explain the reasoning behind his actions, but Alfred wasn't listening.

"Well, you were wrong, weren't you?" Alfred continued to lay into him, "It's different if you choose to be involved in something like this, but you actively involved Selina Kyle. You put your own concerns in front of that girl's safety."

"I..." Alfred pulled in a breath, his knuckles turning white as he held onto the cane he'd been having to use since the injuries he'd endured the night he fought Azrael, "I am really disappointed in you, Master Bruce."

Bruce swallowed hard.

He always hated that term; hated knowing he'd let someone down.

Anger was an easier emotion to handle, if someone was angry with him that it would in time pass.

But this was different.

Letting someone, especially the ones he cared about down, left him feeling like there was a ripped open space in his chest where his heart should be.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, "Look, I'm disappointed too, but right now the main concern is getting Selina out of there and dealing with Strange, right?"

Anguish was eating away at her little brother and even if it was well deserved, she didn't see how lecturing him in front of Jim and Lucius was going to accomplish anything other than embarrassing him even further.

"First off." Jim nodded, "Are you absolutely sure that Selina is still in Arkham?"

"Yes..." Bruce stammered, "She wouldn't have missed our meeting otherwise, Strange must be holding her a prisoner."

"Only I doubt she's in Arkham." Lucius interrupted, "He's probably holding her in the secret lab where he created Azrael."

"But Strange runs Arkham; he's seen there everyday." Jim started and Bird practically stole the words from his mouth when she closed, "The entrance to the lab has to be in Arkham then."

"You're thinking it's underground?" Lucius looked between them.

"It has to be." Jim asserted, "There has to be stairs, maybe an elevator... Ventilation shafts. I just don't know how to find them."

"I may have a solution." Lucius offered, "The technology Strange is using to create these monsters must be very advanced. My guess is he's using plutonium isotopes to mutate cell structure."

"Sure..." Bird breathed, thinking he might as well have been speaking a foreign language, "Sounds believable to me."

With a smile Lucius explained, "Which means there will be trace radiation; and at Wayne Enterprises I developed a miniature geiger counter for battlefield use. Get me into Arkham and I'll find the entrance to that lab."

Bird's expression twisted up even further.

She had a more simple plan in mind, albeit bloodier than anyone else would approve of, but a plan still.

She could make some phone calls, bring in the right people for the job and they'd either bring Hugo Strange to them or burn Arkham to the ground trying, but before she got to pitch the idea, her brother had one of his own.

"The Wayne Foundation gives the asylum money every year. I can ask for a tour." Bruce suggested to Alfred's dismay.

"From the man who ordered the assassination of your father?" Alfred said.

"No way." Bird stepped forward, "This is how we'd get ourselves killed -strolling up into Arkham, right into enemy territory."

"Only we wouldn't all be strolling in, now would we, Lady Wayne?" Alfred pointed out, "Me with this leg and you with your arm you need surgery on."

"Strange will want to find out what we know." Bruce reasoned, "And he won't see Mr. Fox and I as threats."

"Absolutely not." Alfred figuratively and literally put his foot down.

"Alfred, you said yourself that it's my fault what happened to Selina. That means it's my responsibility to make it right." Bruce stood his ground.

"And I may not be the man you'd choose as second in a street fight, but anything I can do to protect Bruce, I will." Lucius vowed as he walked and over and stood next to him.

Bird's mouth hung open as she looked between Bruce and Lucius.

Though her father's once associate was someone who'd earned her approval and trust quicker than most, that didn't mean she was ready to put her brother's life and well-being solely in his hands.

Clearly sharing her thought process, Alfred argued, "Still it's only half a plan, isn't it? Say Lucius can get you in there and you find the entrance to the laboratory, then what?"

"Exactly!" Bird exclaimed.

She was beginning to feel like she, Alfred and Jim were the only ones with any sense left in the room.

That was until Jim opened his mouth

"Then they tell me. I call Bullock, he'll come busting in with a hundred cops and keep Strange busy while I find Selina."

"Oh, I see!" Alfred's voice was airy, the expression on his face revealed just how utterly absurd he believed this all to be, "These two, yeah possibly... but how will you get in. Bet Strange won't let you within a bloody mile of the place."

Jim's expression fell.

It wasn't a perfect plan, but the bits and pieces seemed to be coming together and it was more than they'd had yesterday.

"If I can get you in the gates, can you manage the rest of the way?" Lucius questioned.

"Yeah." Jim nodded confidently, "I think I can."

"Right." Bird scoffed, "Smuggle him in through the gates? How? In the trunk of you car?"

"Well, yes." Lucius admitted, "That was my first thought."

"Oh my god..." Bird breathed, "Am I the only one who sees nothing but flaws with this?"

"No, you most certainly are not, Lady Wayne." Alfred agreed, "There is at least a thousand ways in which this half-baked scheme could end badly."

"Only a thousand?" She added in a voice just above a whisper.

"It's not perfect." Bruce stepped forward in agreement one that end, "But it's all we've got."

Looking at his sister he continued, "You told me not to think that it was too late to save Selina, and that's what I'm doing. If she's alive then I have to do everything I can to get her out of harms way." Their eyes met and he added, "You know I'm right."

He didn't say the rest of this thought process out loud, but he wondered how this was any different from her willingness to always run right to danger and take risk after risk to help save him.

How this was any different than when she literally took a bullet for Oswald and came far too close to paying the ultimate price.

Now it was his turn, his friend in danger and his cross to bear and his turn to take the venture.

It couldn't be anyone else.

"I don't like this." Bird's tone had softened, but her protests against the plan hadn't.

"I know." Bruce nodded, his eyes moving from her face over to Alfred's, "But there is no other way."

"Then I'm coming too." Bird stated.

"Excuse me, Bird... if I may-" Lucius began, "Not only might your presence set off alarm bells, but if push comes to shove -you are one limb down."

Her dark eyes narrowed at him, "I could fight circles around you with this arm tied behind my back!"

"I don't doubt it." Lucius gave a single nod, "But still."

"You signed over your shares of the company." Jim reminded her as he walked around from where he'd still been standing behind the couch, "It would look odd for you to be there."

When the room fell into an extended state of silence, Lucius announced that he was going to retrieve the geiger counter and would return shortly.

Followed by Jim who left to retrieve his old uniform from his days of working security at Arkham.

Once Bird, Alfred and Bruce were left alone, Alfred sat down on the couch and stared silently in front of him.

"I can do this." Bruce promised, knowing they each had countless reservations of letting him go through with the plan.

"Can you?" Bird echoed, "This is the man who put the hit out on mom and dad."

"I know-"

"So how do you expect to go and look him in the eyes, pretending that you're there on nothing more than company business?"

"Because I have to." Bruce looked over to the flames in the large fireplace and repeated like a mantra, "I can do this."

"You barely held it together the night you went after Matches Malone." Bird brought up the night that was still very clear in her mind.

Bruce had stuttered and stammered his way through the conversation, his emotions had been all over the place and Malone had known something was up from the minute he let them inside.

"Selina's life depends on this." Bruce argued, "I don't have a choice."

"Course you've got a choice." Alfred interrupted, pulling himself back to his feet, "In the same way that I can let you choose to go with my blessing and tell you to bring that little girl home safe or I can tell you right now I can stick you on an airplane and fly you somewhere very far away..."

"You can't." Bruce's forehead lined.

"Don't be such a donker, course I can." Alfred pointed out he was Bruce's legal guardian, "But I won't."

"You sure?" Bird asked, moving in closer to where the pair stood, "I'm sort of liking this plane idea. In fact, let's bring Jim with us before he gets himself hurt or killed."

"I'm sure." Alfred nodded, "See, for two years Master Bruce all I've tried to do is protect and keep you safe, thinking that -that's what your father would have wanted. But I think I'm just now starting to see that you're not the same boy he left behind, are you?"

When Bruce stared back at him with an unsure expression, Alfred looked to Bird, "You saw it first, Lady Wayne. The night he set off after Malone, yeah? Could have dragged him away kicking and screaming, but you saw just how much he'd changed and you let him make his own decision... why?"

"Because I saw so much of dad in him." She admitted, glancing over to where Bruce stood.

"Yes." Alfred nodded with his vision growing blurred from tears, "So standing here now I must ask myself what would Thomas Wayne do?"

When the siblings stayed silent, he cleared his throat in an attempt to make the words come out clearer, "Your father took responsibility for his actions. He fought very hard for what he believed in."

Looking between them, Alfred couldn't help but chuckle, "Something you both inherited in your own, quite different, ways."

"Point is." He continued, "I won't stand in your way of doing the same thing, Master Bruce. So off you go. Mr. Fox and Detective Gordon will be waiting for you soon."

Bruce looked between both Alfred and Bird with tears in his eyes.

Swallowing hard, he gave another glance to them both before leaving the room to gather his coat and meet Lucius outside.

Once he was out of sight, Bird continued to stare at the now empty doorway and questioned, "You sure you don't like the plane idea better?"

"Oh, I most certainly do." He admitted, offering up a smile in-spite of being so worried it felt like his insides had all turned to mush, "I've already let Gordon know that if I don't hear anything within the hour I'm going straight to Bullock myself."

It was a little while later, after she'd heard a car pull up that Bird went outside. She saw Lucius and her brother talking near the door of the house and Jim standing by the car, dressed in his old uniform.

"I know you're worried about Bruce." Jim began when she walked up to him with an unreadable expression on her face, "But I'm going to be right there. I promise I won't let anything happen to him."

Shaking her head, Bird looked up to the bright yet overcast sky and bit down on the side of her tongue for a moment before she trusted herself to speak, "You've got to stop making those types of promises, Jim."

He meant what he said, she knew that, but she also knew those were the sorts of things you never promise anyone.

Just like how he'd promised to find their parents killer over two years ago and how just a short time ago Bruce promised Karen Jennings that no harm would come to her if she helped them.

Reaching out, his hand found hers and he waited until she looked back at him before elaborating, "I'm going to do everything I can."

"I know." She gave a small, nearly weak nod, "But that doesn't make me feel better. Maybe it should... I... I don't know, but it doesn't."

"I'm too worried about something happening to Bruce." She continued, "Worried that you're going to be found out and something's going to happen to you and that for as smart as Lucius is that he could walk right into a trap without even knowing because he's far more book-smart than street. I'm worried this all too late to save Selina anyways... I'm just-"

"Worried?" Jim cut her off, "Yeah, I gathered that."

When she shot him a look, he did his best to smile for her benefit -though in truth he wasn't sure how well the day was going to pan out for them either, but they had to try.

He glanced over to where Lucius and Bruce were still talking, before he leaned in and kissed her, pulling back with the promise, "I'll call you the second I know something."

Nodding, she couldn't muster the strength it took to smile back at him.

Instead she watched, staring with an almost blank expression as he climbed into the trunk of Lucius' car and tucked himself as far as he could fit to stay out of sight.

She couldn't even find it in her to make a joke about how she always expected if he ended up in a trunk of a car it would be unconscious and not a willing decision.

Leaning into the still open trunk, she pressed her mouth to his one last time before standing back up and saying, "Be careful, Jim."

With that she pulled her eyes away from him and put the piece of carpeting back in place over the section he was squared away in and shut the trunk.

The next few minutes passed in a blur, a quick hug from her brother and Lucius trying again to ease her mind that he'd do everything in his power to keep her brother safe.

Glazed over minutes that finally faded into nothing as she watched the car disappear down the drive while she stood in place by the front door.

The truth was that Bird didn't know if her tagging along would have swayed their fate one way or the other, but it sure as hell would have felt better than standing there useless while they set out to risk their lives.

Maybe that's why she'd never been able to fully see herself stepping into Falcone's shoes, even back in her days of working for Fish Mooney and plotting with Oswald to take over the city.

She didn't want to be the one standing at a safe distance giving orders and watching everyone else flank out to cover ground.

No, she'd rather be down in the trenches with the fighters.

"Lady Wayne!"

Bird glanced over her shoulder to where Alfred's voice rang out from the inside of the house through the wide open front door.

Turning she walked back inside of the house and shut the door behind her, still finding it impossible to accept that she was going to sit around and drink tea with Alfred while nearly everyone else important to her was walking straight into the lion's den.

•••

Adjusting her jacket, Bird pulled in a deep breath and reached for the door to Arkham Asylum.

It was a little while ago, right around the time Alfred started pacing back and forth with his cane still in hand, saying they were down to mere minutes before he was going to go marching into GCPD and demand Bullock rally the troops, that Bird had said she was going to put another kettle on for tea.

Which she did; just before slipping out of the house and leaving without telling Alfred.

She'd sat there idly for far too long.

Another five minutes of that she was sure she'd grow mad enough to be locked back up in the asylum.

"Can I help you?" The security guard at the desk asked as Bird proceeded forward towards him.

"Yes, Hi!" She did her best to pin a smile on her lips, "My name is Starling Wayne. My brother and an associate from Wayne Enterprises came here about an hour ago and now I can't seem to reach either one of them. I was hoping-"

"Yeah, hang on." He rather rudely replied as he picked up the phone on the desk to call and let Professor Strange know she was there.

Bird held her breath and bit down on her tongue while she looked around.

Her brother and Jim being in danger were about the only earthly things strong enough to pull her back into this hellhole.

The place she'd been locked in for months of her life for something she didn't even do.

Forced to live in sub-par conditions, being treated as far less than human.

It was a time in her life she never wanted to revisit -and yet here she stood.

During her time in Arkham, she'd thought about escape many times, even having plotted it out once or twice.

In the end she'd opted to stay, knowing that she needed to wait until her name was cleared or the freedom of escape wouldn't be freedom at all.

But that had left her with several ideas on how to get out of the building unseen; meaning the opposite would have worked as a way to get in just the same.

That was her original plan; breaking into Arkham rather than using the front gate, but during the drive over she'd changed her mind.

Maybe one part of her brother's scheme was smarter than she'd bought into at the time. To just walking in like they had every right to be there.

Back in her days of working under Fish, when the older woman would get angry with her and start hurling insults, she'd often say that Bird was a nobody -just a girl with a name heavier than she knew how to carry.

She didn't fully understand at the time and was usually so enraged herself that she never took what was being said to heart, but now she could see her former boss and mentor had a point.

The Wayne name alone opened so many doors and the most she'd really used it for was getting out of speeding tickets when she was a teenager.

So now here she was, using both her name and the position she held within the company to push her way into Arkham.

"Miss Wayne."

Looking up, Bird saw the older black woman in a white lab coat who'd came to greet her.

Though Bird couldn't seem to pull her eyes away from the woman's purple lipstick that looked more like a color of craft paint.

"Yes?" Bird cleared her throat.

"I'm Ethel Peabody." She introduced herself, "Professor Strange will see you now."

"Uh." Bird stammered, briskly walking to keep up with her, "I want to see my brother."

"In time." Ms. Peabody promised as she led them into an empty hallway, "Wait here."

Bird looked around as Strange's assistant disappeared into one of the offices at the end of the small, wide hallway.

Hearing foot steps, Bird spun around thinking someone was trying to sneak up on her, but the anxiousness instantly melted away into ease when she saw it was Jim, still dressed in his Arkham uniform.

"Jim!" Bird exclaimed, rushing over to him, "Thank god. I was so worried-"

She stopped, caught off guard by the way he was looking at her -as if he'd never been more confused by anything or anyone in his entire life.

"I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I just couldn't sit there any longer." She explained, her hands landing gently against his chest as she stepped as close as she could to him and questioned, "Where's Bruce?"

Jim looked down to her hands and how close she was standing, then as if a light-bulb went off in his head he said, "Bird!"

"What?" She questioned, turning back to face him after she'd been looking over her shoulder to make sure Ms. Peabody wasn't back from the office yet.

"I mean, uh, hey." He cleared his throat and deepened his voice, "Hey."

"Tell ya what, sweet cheeks." He winked in a way that the entire side of his face seemed to wrinkle up, "I'll find the kid, you uh, you just stay right here."

Slowly sliding her hands from his uniform, Bird took a step back.

The thing in front of her looked like Jim, nearly had his voice down but that was where the resemblance ended.

It's facial expressions were all wrong, the smile was off along with all his mannerisms.

And never, in over two years of knowing him had he ever referred to her by sweet cheeks or anything of the life.

It might have walked and talked like Jim, but it wasn't him.

"What are you?" Bird's voice was a whisper-yell as she angrily demanded to know, "Where's Jim? What did you do to him?"

"I'm right here!" He tried to stick to the script, but Bird's horrified expression deepened as she watched the Jim-lookalike trying his best to smile, but it was if he barely had control over his facial ticks.

She backed further away from him, completely unaware she was backing right up into a handful of guards.

Within seconds their hands were all over her, grabbing onto both her fully working and injured arms.

"No!" She shrieked, but her voice blended into the screams of hundreds of Arkham inmates.

Kicking frantically and she tried to get away from them but she was outnumbered and it didn't take much effort on their part to drag her into one of them rooms and slam the door shut.

All while the Jim-lookalike stood in place watching until she was gone.

After which, Ms. Peabody came back into view and pointed him towards the front exit, "Best get moving, Basil. The police are en-route as we speak."

•••