"Have I ever told you that you look gorgeous in the dark, Finn?"
Oh that voice. I couldn't go a day without that voice invading my apartment. She was always quiet when she came in, slinking in and appearing at the most inconvenient times. My eyes rolled up to look at the intrusive woman. She was wearing that stupid suit again and her dark eyes twinkled at me from her spot on my windowsill.
"I'm certain I've told you that I don't distribute 'fucks' after twelve. What do you want, Selina?" I leered at her from my position, hunched over a cold bowl of ramen. Selina dropped her smirk, sliding from the windowsill and advancing towards me. It didn't take long, being that my apartment was an empty box.
"She worries about you. She wants to see you. We don't live that fa-"
"Jen is fine with you. You can be there for her more than I can. I don't have time to co-"
"It's not that you don't have time, it's that you won't make time for her."
I felt the bite from that one and I sat up straight. She was right. Between my job at the hospital and my…side job, my recreational time was limited. Selina's lips tightened into a firm line, her aggravation clear as day on the parts of her face that her mask didn't hide.
"Sending her money every week doesn't make up for your absence, Finley. And here's your damn package. I even got you clean needles for your customers. No need to thank me."
With quick hands, Selina slid a sealed package across the card table and left through the same window she came in from. She didn't even bother to close it. Bitch. I pushed back from the table with a passive sigh, moving towards the window to close it but was stopped by something. Something I never noticed before. An empty night sky. When exactly was the last time I actually looked at Gotham was's polluted night sky? I waded through murky memories, finally grabbing onto the memory.
A threat against Gotham Genera, my hospital. Chaos. Duct taped hands shaking uncontrollably. A single light in the sky, creeping in through the masks eyeholes. The light of the Bat.
I reared back from the memory, gasping. That was eight years ago. Well, almost. It'll be exactly eight years in less than a week. Five days. The city called it Harvey Dent day, to remember the 'White Knight' who died that day. Supposedly murdered by Batman. But the doctors, doctors like me, knew that the Batman saved us that night. Saved the city. He wasn't a murderer, I believed that much. But saying that out loud? Might as well wrap me in a straight jacket and throw me in Arkham.
I stepped back from the window, closing it and pulling the blinds down. I hadn't seen the light of the Bat in god…eight years. I shook the thought from my head, running my hands through my hair to get rid of the tangles. My sister and I shared the same bright blond hair. It was the small things I shared with her that made the separation worth it. I told myself it was for her protection, the whole thing with her rooming with Selina. In truth, it was to cover for my guilt. But I was getting better. At least that's what I had been telling myself.
Dragging my feet along the floor, I passed through my apartment like a sad ghost. My small bed was my safe place for the short hours I was alone and I sought out the warm sheets. My body eased and relaxed away the tension from the day, letting the peace of the night sooth me. But no, peace never lasted long in Gotham City.
The pager by my head startled me and I threw myself out of the bed. By bed, I mean "mattress on the floor". But it sufficed. Following the pagers beeps, my phone followed by screaming at me with the agitation of an emotionally wounded teenaged girl. Fuck it. With slow fingers, I answered the phone.
"Dr. Robinson here."
"Ah, Finley. You sound lovely." It was Dr. Ross, the head of my department. He and I were the authority, in a way, over anesthetics at Gotham Central. Even before its destruction eight years ago at the hands of a cross dressing schizoid.
"It's three in the morning, Ross. What do you want?"
"I have a lady, a quite lovely one, here that would to speak to you regarding your skills for painkilling."
"Can't you give her Tylenol and send her on her way? I'm dying over here."
"Not with this one. She's persistent. Not that I mind." I rolled my eyes, grimacing at the phone in my hands.
"Fine. But I better be paid double for this shit. Who is the asshole that thinks it's necessary to wake me up for this crap?"
"Miranda Tate, Dr. Robinson. And she can hear you."
Well hell. I just called the most powerful woman in Gotham an asshole and that was just the start of my problems.