Drink For Vale
Disclaimer: There are far too few fics that feature Valerie Vale here in the Gotham fandom.
"Huh, I guess even the great James Gordon can't be kept down for long." Came the voice of the quite beautiful and determined Valerie Vale of the Gotham Gazette.
Causing Jim to freeze up as he'd been trying to quietly make his way out of Valerie's room after dropping off a bottle of Whiskey for the reporter. "And wasn't I pretty clear on the fact I really didn't want to see or hear from you again?"
Jim let out a heavy sigh as he turned around to look at Valerie. "Yeah, but I thought I'd get you that drink since its the least I could do."
Eyebrows raising, Valerie soon noticed the bottle of Whiskey and looked back at him. "Consider me shocked then that you got me that drink." She told him in somewhat of a less hostile way.
"Yeah… Well… I owe you big time since I'm the reason you're in here to begin with." Jim replied while looking down.
"Would this have anything to do with the fact I saw you getting rolled into a room earlier?"
He looked up at her in surprise over that one and she smiled. "You saw that? And no, it has to do with the fact I… I actually care about you, Valerie." Admitted the man while looking down again.
Completely missing the look of shock and surprise that appeared on the woman's face before turning it into a look of indifference. "A little too late for that now, don't you think?" She asked somewhat bitingly and making him flinch as he looked up at her.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess so. And if you wanna paint me in a bad light for your next story, I won't stop you. And since you asked, what you saw earlier was me getting rescued from Tetch's attempt to kill me with a hallucinogenic drug called the 'Red Queen'."
And while it had been a damned unpleasant experience, it was at least an eye opening one where he himself was concerned and the code his family went by. Valerie's eyes widened as she could practically hear the wearyness and hauntedness in Jim's voice but she said nothing as he turned around and walked out. Leaving her on her own in the hospital room once again with her thoughts as her heart broke a little more for what could have been between her and the man of many titles. As she was vastly uncertain if she'd ever be able to forgive him for nearly getting her killed and choosing another woman over her.
Author's Notes: As much as I wanted to make this a happy ending kind of thing, I decided it was best not to go that route. Though maybe in the future I could do a sequel where she forgives him but we'll see. R and R!