The air was cold; damp.

It was almost as if the world knew that she was suffering and wanted to punish her for it a little more, to twist that knife deeper. Anna continued to push on, heels rapping loudly against the pavement as she wrapped the thin sweater tighter around her body. Small, icy clouds of smoke escaped her mouth with ever exhale, burning her lungs with its icy bite and reminding her far too much of the smoking buildings earlier. Time was precious and Anna had already wasted time trying to get Jay to safety with little luck.

Not like it'll help. It was a dark thought, and Anna quickened her pace. If he wasn't to find us, it won't be hard for him. It did hurt, more than she would like, that her once husband had turned into a deranged killing psychopath bent on tearing the city apart. That moment his laugh was broadcasted on the TV, with those deep scars stretching his mouth wide, she had called Jeannie, who was shaken deeply but enraged as she found out that it was her own brother terrorizing Gotham, causing the latest destruction. The two of them had been doing everything they could to keep this reaching her son's ears. He didn't need to know, he was an innocent and Jay did not need to know of his father, other than old fuzzy memories.

Anna knew she had to speak with Commissioner Gordon. Once it was announced he was actually alive and had captured the Joker, she made a call to the police, for it was practically her only choice to speak to.

Or Batman.

Either one of them, she didn't care. They could probably protect her family. They could prevent anymore of Jack's deranged madness from poisoning the city, prevent more blood from spilling onto the ground and onto his stained hands. She knew that Jack would and could do anything to prove his made, his insane point to all of Gotham. He'd done it before. The loud ringing made Anna jump as her phone vibrated in her pocket; she quickly pulled it open with shaky hands, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Hello?" Anna asked raggedly, shoving her way past another group of pedestrians who were blocking the sidewalk and dashed across the wet street, ignoring the blaring horns of pissed drivers ready to hit her, wanting her out of the road.

"Hurry the fuck up Ann! These fucking cops are giving me dirty looks and I don't have time for their fuckin' bullshit." Jeannie's voice snarled over the phone, sounding tired and pissed as well. Both Jeannie and the cops have never exactly gotten along. Scratch that, there was no getting along period. Jeannie had her own very long and dirty record from when she was running around with the gangs looking for quick cash after John was taken. Not the best person to be "hanging out" in a police station, waiting on certain people. Anna can't comprehend why Jeannie is getting all worked up when she clearly is an obvious issue.

I'm never going to hear the end of it from her. Ever. Especially after what's happened tonight.

"Where's Jay? He isn't with you is he?" Her tone was latent with worry, for she had no idea if the Joker had tried to make a grab at her son, and bringing him to the police station is the last thing he needs. Their son. Cold sweat beaded on her brow. If Jack took their son, she knew she'd put a bullet in his head herself with no remorse. After what he did the last time Jay was around him, Anna knew there was no love left in him for their son. And Anna had none left for Jack, it's Joker, now considering that Jeannie all but gladly threw him out of their lives for good.

"Of course he aint with me, are you friggin crazy?! I stuck 'em over with Scarlet. He hates her, but he'll be fine. Scar is one of the Falconi boy's favorites." While the situation wasn't ideal, it would have to do. There was a pause on the other end of the line; Jeannie's breathing causing static to brush the edges of the phone. She's never been good with them in the first place, breaking them more often than not. "How far are ya? Eventually one of these shitheads are gonna realize who I am and throw me out."

She rolled her eyes. Really? Jeannie was the kind of person that once you've met, you'd always know it was her. She was a very distinctive person. A hulking figure, reaching five eleven, dark brown hair reaching her chin, with lithe muscles and small breasts. She could and often does pass for a man when she wears her typical baggy clothing. The woman was far from pretty; with a partial Cheshire grin on the left side of her face all too similar to her brother's that had been carved into her face by ruthless loan sharks. Thanks to drunken daddy dearest pissing the money away and down the drain, and angering the wrong man.

Those loan sharks later came and shredded her face after her father overdosed than rather pay the money back. But after they were done with her, blood spewing on the table and floor, gurgling in her throat trying not to scream and make the injury worse, they turned their attention onto Jack, laughing as they tore his face apart, telling them it's their daddy's fault. Well, they only made Jack's face a matching set. The right side of his face had been torn apart in a car wreck, airbag deploying late and a piece of metal slicing through one side. There was no money for surgery, and the insurance companies wrote it off as customer negligence to let a child ride in the front seat of the car. Anna grimaced at the brutal past the two have. That little incident had happened four years before she had arrived in Gotham with her late mother. It's what sealed the deal on fully making Jack an outcast in their high school. Making him a freak by their standards and treating him like a diseased leper.

"Anna!" Good god. Jeannie roared from the other end of the phone, which caused her to jerk sharply, miss stepping and then rammed into a cold lamp post. Eyes rolling, Anna rubbed her arm, quickly dashed up the steps and towards the MUC building.

"I'm outside." She spat waspishly, not in the least bit caring how she sounded. The current situation had them both stressed out of their fucking wits. Hell, the whole city was stressed, so having a bit of attitude wasn't as big of a deal as it could have been.

"Fuckin' finally." With that, Jeannie hung up, leaving Anna alone as she clambered up the stone steps to the entrance. A cop opened the door, clearly decked out in armor, smiling and gave a warm ma'am. Anna had trouble returning the smile back as she stepped inside. The air inside the MCU was warm thankfully, almost stuffy with the amount of people running around inside. Anna was greeted typically by a rude Jeannie who strutted over while looking pissed beyond belief. Her shoulders were hunched over, making her appear even bigger than she already was, and Anna couldn't help but think that she looked like a pissed alley cat that had been dunked in a bucket of water.

"S'bout time you got here Ann. Do you have any idea how many times the 'fuckin pigs checked to make sure I wasn't a crook? Unfuckin' believable…" Jeannie furiously muttered, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Before Anna had the chance to tell Jeannie that she was in fact a crook, just a retired one who has quite the long list of grievances, two cops strode forward, a man and a woman.

"Mrs. Napier, Commissioner Gordon. Wish we could have met under better circumstances." The older man stated, sticking a worn hand out which Anna shook firmly. He looked over to Jeannie who was looming behind her, eyebrows rising slightly at the sight of her cheek, but was smart and made no further comment.

"Congrats on the promotion, Commish." Jeannie grunted, while Anna closed her eyes at her sister in law's antics. Now was clearly not the time to be a little shit with law enforcement.

"Uh, thank you. You happen to have information on the Joker yes? That's what you said in the phone call earlier."

Anna briefly paused, and pondered not saying anything, having a fantasy of running far, far away with Jay to someplace safe, where none of this would appear. Such a fantasy was wonderful, ideal, but she knew she had to tell Gordon the truth before Joker became a horrible reckoning upon Gotham. This was her only chance to make things right, to give the cops a chance at even attempting to prevent any more of this anarchist violence from growing. He'd already ruthlessly murdered Judge Surillo and the former Commissioner Loeb. Who knows the next person that he'll kill.

"Yes." She responded looking back over her shoulder, small shivers appearing at the sight of all the crooks locked up in their cells with cops taunting and yelling and prodding from the sides, much like animals and keepers in a zoo. Some paused, both crooks and cops, to stare at Jeannie's scar, until she returned a withering look. Gordon seemed to notice both of their discomforts at all the attention, and quickly made an offer to the two of them.

"Ramirez. Go and check on those DNA sets; I've got it from here." Anna watched the Latina woman make a face but nodded, before bustling away. "Here. Why don't we go back to my office so we can talk further in private?" Anna nodded, and then Gordon led them to his small, over crowded office. People continued to stare as they walked back, primarily at Jeannie. The trip back to the office was mercifully short. Anna knew if one more cop or criminal gawked, Jeannie would end up going batshit crazy on more than just a few of them.

As if she hadn't already done that multiple times before, including other law enforcement. She thought, Jeannie could be a real challenge, as if she already didn't know that. Jeannie knew it for a fact, and flaunted it, wanting a challenge to happen.

Gordon pulled out his keys, jingling as he unlocked his door and stepped aside to let them in. She made a short beeline inside to the small black chair, but Jeannie stood back against the wall, tapping her foot against it. Gordon sat down at his desk which was overflowing with cases and reports. He then pulled out a pad of yellow paper and a pen, then took a deep breath and spoke.

"So what is your relationship to the Joker Mrs. Napier?" Gordon questioned strongly, not wasting any time to try and warm her up. The world in Gotham had gone to shit and she got it. Anna ignored Jeannie's snort behind her. Now is not the time to be a smart ass.

"I was his wife." Anna stated calmly, but internally her nerves bundled tight. The shoe was about to drop, and she didn't want to do it. After this, the ripples in the aftermath were going to be catastrophic. The image of one Jack Napier would be finally consumed by the Joker, as if he had never existed. She numbly watched Gordon as he slightly gapped in shock; obviously he was not expecting this kind of information to just be dropped in his lap with little work. Jeannie was staying silent thankfully; Anna was suspecting once the woman opened her mouth, it would be like opening a can of worms. Full of all the disgusting things about the Joker they needed.

Gordon didn't even bother writing anything down as he pressed with the next question.

"What's the Joker's real name?" She glanced at Jeannie, whose face tightened with simmering anger and regrets, of her whole life that was filled with everything about who Jack was. The tall woman took a deep breath, preparing for the fall out of this answer.

God please help me for what I'm about to do.

"His name is Jack Napier."

Anna knew that God had stopped listening to her pleas a long time ago.

The cold air was a wonderful welcome for Gordon as he stood on the roof top of MCU. The SWAT suit was constricting, layers of bullet proof material weighing down on him. Thankfully, it did its job extremely well but the cooling sweat sliding down the spine of his back he could do without. Gordon was glad at the moment there was no further need for it.

The Joker had been caught in a grueling showdown that was finally over. The man was now locked up in a secure cell in probably the most secure public building in Gotham. The department tried to keep it under wraps, but the free media was a flock of vultures who've found the fresh meat for their story. It was good and all that the TV stations could let the people catch their breath and finally be free of fear; however once the media had gotten wind of the Joker being held in holding at MCU, hundreds of phone calls came pouring in the system. Most were reporters and aspiring journalists, wanting an interview with either Gordon himself or strangely enough, the Joker. Why the people in Gotham always, and he means always have a morbid fascination with the sick baffled him beyond belief.

Nonetheless, one phone call for some reason had peculiarly stood out from the others. That call had been forwarded to Gordon's desk, a woman claiming that she had legitimate information about the Joker. Normally, these kinds of people who claimed this would be put on a list to be "questioned", but Gordon and the police at MCU were sadly completely desperate for any scrap of information that anyone had. Gordon knew completely that he was taking a risk of actually taking the random woman in. If the woman was actually connected to the Joker in any way…

Damn. He sighed, bringing the steaming coffee to his mouth, taking a well needed sip of the cup of joe.

There was a huge risk in doing this. Hell there was always a risk doing this. False or misleading information could be brought in which could send the case on a wild goose chase throughout Gotham that always ended cold. Gordon looked at his watch, noting that there was about twenty minutes until the woman arrived. There was already a rather, strange, the best way to put it, woman waiting for her on the first floor, causing some uneasiness with many of the other cops due to the condition of her face. The eerie similarity to a certain other was just something that they were going to have to deal with. His own men were smart; they wouldn't try anything, not when they were all too paranoid with watching the Joker, like some sort of wild, exotic, dangerous animal in his cage.

"Mrs. Napier is almost here."

Gordon never seems to fail to be startled as their local Dark Knight would appear out of nowhere, and he whirled around at the source of the noise, heart jumping (slightly due to the caffeine) in his chest, and a black figure slowly walked forward and out of the shadows that simply seemed to wrap around him. Gordon swore silently to himself for being off guard again around Batman. He was still on edge from earlier, and the Batman was not helping the situation. Exactly how a man could silently walk on gravel of all things he didn't know and definitely didn't trust anyone who could. He was sure that he could bet money that Batman simply enjoyed sneaking out of the shadows like a ghost or boogeyman of some sort. He probably does, gets some sort of kick or amusement of it.

Gordon nodded as he sipped more of the liquid caffeine that one day will most likely kill him instead of a bullet from a crook's gun. The city was quiet after the loud explosions that had rocked the city from earlier. Lights twinkled far and wide off of glass skyscrapers that seemed to blend into the sky with the barely visible stars. Cars were still about, but there was practically no one out on the sidewalks. It was a smart move on all of their parts. After today's completely terrible mess downtown, you'd have to be fool to willingly wander about.

"Good work today. Dent's calling you a hero. Do you think people will soon say the same?"

"No."

It didn't come as a surprise for Gordon as he heard the clipped response. Despite what most considered heroic actions from him, he still had many people that hated him for their own reasons. They feared him. Didn't understand him. Gordon understood though; Batman wasn't a cop or even a soldier. He couldn't be controlled by the law. He couldn't be held down by the shackles that prevented good men from being fully able to do their job. He was simply above it, fulfilling justice no matter what.

"I pulled the files on the two women. The first, Anna Napier, was clean, other than one vandalism incident as a juvenile. She's married, but her husband has been gone for over six years. His files are practically empty. No photo ID, no records other than a birthdate and an address." Gordon huffed, irritation bubbling slightly. It was obvious that someone had done all the clearing for him. Before Loeb started doing crack downs on corruption, it was easy for a person to just simply disappear from the system. Pay quite a few grand to someone in the mob and bam. Done. Gone. Forever. Just like that.

"Someone had loose ends cleared up." Batman's voice murmured gravely, and Gordon nodded, running his hand through his hair causing it to become even more ruffled. "And the other woman?"

"Jeannie Napier. Long record with aggravated assault, arson, drug possession, theft, and vandalism. It mostly started after the city took her son after the father was murdered by a group of loan sharks he owed money to. She was running odd jobs for gangs but now she's been mostly clean in the past five years though." Jesus, with a record like this I'm surprised that murder just so happens to not be thrown in there. Gordon thought bitterly, knowing damn well that the woman had most likely killed someone before but instead got away with it. "I'm guessing you're going to want to speak with them before you question the Joker?"

"Yes." Batman rasped, rounding towards the edge of the rooftop, dark cape still managing to cloak him. Gordon frowned at exactly what the hell he was doing, before realizing like always that jumping rooftops was a regular part of Batman's forte, so he didn't bother to question him. Batman worked in his own ways and there was no point in bothering him.

"My office. I'll take them there."

"Good."

He jumped off, black cape flying wide open, like his very own set of wings as he glided down. Gordon gave a soft chuckle, and walked towards the door, finishing the coffee which had gotten slightly cold from being outside so long. He had work to do downstairs. And this certain piece of work simply couldn't wait any longer.