Disclaimer: I do not own Gotham or any of its characters, the rights belong to FOX and their respected parties involved.
After the week James Gordon was having, he expected himself to be among the dead after the mastermind, Jervis Tetch AKA The Mad Hatter, sent him on the trip of his life with the use of the Red Queen hallucinogen drug. From being shot by Bruce Wayne himself, to experiencing a near perfect life with Lee, to the reunion with his own father, this was just another reason why he preferred the casual drink over drugs. Although it was forced upon him, the trip opened up Jim Gordon's eyes to what his purpose in life could be again. And in a way for a fraction of a second, opened up his heart.
After being personally treated by Mario Calvi, also known as Mario Falcone to others and the man that Leslie Thompkins is involved with as well, Jim had plans to go back home to his apartment and rummage through the place to look for a certain ring that his father always wore on his finger to figure out exactly what that purpose was and how he could get on track with it. But a few floors above also offered him plans to bounce back from a rocky start he's had so far with another victim of his own actions, Valerie Vale.
Things didn't go well for him the last time he spoke with her, James believed that they didn't end on the best of terms by any means. Valerie had broken up with him because she thought he was still in love with Lee and that he chose Lee to save instead of her. It was quite the opposite in Jim's head even though he had a tough time convincing both women otherwise. Maybe it was time to try a little harder, his mind thought.
James checked out of the hospital for brief moment and traveled to the nearest liquor store he could find to purchase a bottle of the finest whiskey he could find. After all, he gets a girl shot and he didn't even buy her a drink for it. It was the kind of thing he'd like to accommodate at the very least as a start.
Back into the hospital room laid Valerie in her bed recovering from her bullet wound that Mario performed extensive surgery on to remove and save her life. It was something James put on note in his head later on to thank him for. James sat back down in the chair he waited in before, the same chair he sat in when Valerie broke up with him, and the same chair he planned on righting things he wronged. The bottle of whiskey sat next to her bedside table waiting to be opened. James didn't care how long he waited, it could be all night until she was awake again. He wanted to be there again when she did. And after nearly an hour, Valerie stirred in her bed from her medicated sleep, with the remnants of pain forcing her to open her eyes and look over to the side of her to see Jim waiting there on her again.
"You're back." It came out of her mouth softly, and was heard by Jim to question whether it sounded like a statement or a question, not that it mattered to him. "That's funny. I was sure I made it clear before about how I felt with you around." Valerie's voice was weak for good reason with a mixture of fatigue, but to hear her voice again also felt like a blessing.
"I had a debt to you that I had to pay off. I'm not sure how good water cups are here for shots." James expected the backlash no matter how severe they were. Underneath he still saw that Valerie was a good-hearted person if you looked just right. And he was looking straight into her eyes with with famous smug smile that only Jim Gordon could pull off.
Valerie's eyebrow shot up to the offer unaware of what he was talking about until it immediately came into her vision, she didn't know how she could've even missed it the first time. The nice bottle of unopened whiskey sitting on her bedside table just staring at her. The gesture made her chuckle only for a few moments until it hurt her to the point where she couldn't anymore, James leaned forward more in his chair just to make sure she was okay.
"You get a girl shot and you went and bought her booze. You have more than nerve, Jim Gordon. And they are in healthy shape, I must say." Valerie teased over at him almost forgetting about how she was feeling earlier towards him. "I honestly thought you'd be the last person to be sitting in that chair when I woke up again."
"I like to think I'm one of the only people that have come to see you. Or the only." He wasn't sure if her family who were also cops had come by to visit her yet, if they even knew that she was in the hospital at all.
"I was getting to that. Why are you back here at all?" Valerie had a feeling but the small crack in her heart told her that maybe the action of actually buying her a whole bottle of booze was enough to earn Jim Gordon the right to an explanation, even if some part of her expected a speech.
James' smile had already gone from his face and went back to the recent hallucinogenic memory of having the perfect life with Lee, and the two kids they had together. It was in his mind but he was in control of it, he replaced the entire scene with just himself and Valerie in the scene of in his apartment rather than a spiffy home setting with their kids. It was enough for him to keep fighting for.
"I was telling you the truth. About what happened yesterday with Tetch and with Lee." He started off saying and reached his hand out to gently place against hers, with his fingers tracing the insides of her palm for approval. "I know the oldest trick in the book, Valerie. I've used it before. But yesterday I was giving into any tricks that Jervis was trying to throw at me." It was hard to read the Valerie's facial expression at the moment given it went from tiredly happy to a now unconvinced sadness much like she gave him before. "I told him to shoot Lee because I wanted him to, and I didn't want to see you get hurt because of me."
"Jim..." Valerie whispered out actually wanting to believe that it was true by the smallest chance. Even the seriousness in his eyes could tell her the story that James might be telling her the truth, and she would know. Having her father and brothers also as fellow police officers and the upside of being a reporter gave her the upside of knowing who was telling the truth and who could put on a stone cold poker face.
"You may be right, too. There are still some feelings for Lee that I'm trying to get past and it's not easy. But I guess..I guess I wasn't trying hard enough because you still got caught in the crosshairs." The last part he purposely said in a literal and figurative sense hoping that Vale would pick up on it, which she did by the slightest quirk in her eyebrow again. "And I am trouble, you were right again there too. My father once told me that sometimes love will get you into that kind of trouble, and that most of the time it's worth it..."
There were two things that stopped Jim mid sentence from continuing on with his sentence. One being thinking about his father again and his father telling him that same phrase to him, referring to the love for his mother. It brought the smallest tear to Jim's eye that caused him to turn away for the moment. His head quickly turned back to Valerie when the other thing was feeling her hand slowly close around his, and the little strength she had gripping it the best she could.
Silence continued to fall throughout the room while James and Valerie gazed upon each other. It made Valerie's heart flutter that he admitted, in his own way, that he loved her. And she couldn't deny that the feeling was mutual with herself. Apart from a few dates here and there between their jobs and the casual sex they've had in between those dates, there was a spark that made Valerie realize that Jim was telling the truth, and it was realest truth she's heard in a long time.
"Stop the press..." Valerie spoke out to finally break the silence and curled her lips up into one of the most authentic smiles she's ever shown anyone in her life. "Tough guy Jim Gordon admits his love for Valerie Vale. And sheds a real tear for it this time." Never in the short time that she's known Jim Gordon would she have guessed that he would fall for her, or that his real tough guy exterior would one day collapse in front of her to express how he felt about anything. "I'm sorry about what I said to you earlier. Jervis Tetch is one of the last people I ever want to believe and anything he says."
"No, you don't have to apologize. Without that psycho running lose and poisoning me I don't think I would be seeing things more clearly than I am right now." James shook his head and turned Valerie's attention to the part about James being poisoned. "Poisoned, yeah. Long story. I'll tell you later."
"How about over dinner?" Valerie offered to him naturally assuming that everything was pushed to the past including their apparent breakup she handed to him. "Get a girl shot and you don't offer to buy her dinner with that booze? You've got some nerve, Gordon." And luckily on James' end, he naturally assumed the same thing. James leaned with ease so he wouldn't cause further pain to Valerie and being careful of the IV's in her body, pressing a soft kiss to Valerie's lips in which she tugged on his bottom lip to steal another.
"Over the celebratory dinner of me locking up Jervis Tetch and you being the first reporter to tell the story on it." James informed her as he pulled his chair directly up to her bed so the distance of their hands wouldn't be a problem. He saw the look on her face and hoped he would gain support in his next decisions. "When I was under the drug Tetch put me under, I had these hallucinations in my head, one was with my father. I promised him a long time ago that I would honor a code, a code that I need to remember in my head no matter what it is. I'm going to find it, I'm going to take down Tetch and everyone involved with him, and I'm going to make things right. I promise."
"Do what you have to do to take that son of a bitch down." Valerie nodded her head as she relaxed back into her bed and looked over to the bottle of whiskey with a smile brightened up to her face. "We can open that when he's behind bars. Until then, do what you have to do." She repeated to him urging him that she would be fine.
James stood up and leaned over to press a soft kiss to Valerie's forehead, making her shut her eyes and enjoy his company for a little while longer. "I won't be gone for too long. You should rest up some more until then, I won't mind staying overnight."
"Don't go soft on me now, James Gordon. Though an overnight stay would very much be rewarding later on down the road of recovery." Valerie lightly teased him again and held onto his hand until the moment they had to let go so he could walk over to the doorway.
"Get some rest, Valerie." James reiterated with a half smile, and stopped midway out the door to turn back to look at her.
"Come on, just once I want to hear you say it to me." Valerie tested him with only to see if Jim would really tell her that he loved her, but admitting his feelings to her was already a stretch in of itself. Getting an 'I love you' could take constant effort from the reporter. "Please? For me?"
"Okay. You look really nice for being in a hospital bed." James lead her off with and walked away from the doorway slowly to continue his own personal mission to find out what his father meant by remembering the family code all the Gordon's followed. It was then that he decided to start his own code, and turned back the other way for a slight moment to catch Valerie smiling to herself in bed. "Love you."
The words perked Valerie up in her hospital bed and luckily it was still dark enough in the room where she couldn't let Jim see her blush. Love was a feeling she hasn't experienced with anyone in a long time, or maybe ever depending on how she looked at it. And judging by the expression he was still using and the fact that he stuck around a little longer to fulfill her wish, Valerie sent him off with the same look in her eyes and the same phrase to make even Jim Gordon feel the slightest bit special. "Love you too, James."