Chapter 2:

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!

- Edgar Allan Poe

Victoria stared up at him. He loomed over her and definitely had a good four and a half inches on her. She sucked in a breath and he leaned casually against the door-frame, staring, just watching her with those dark black eyes. It felt as if every twitch, movement and breath she took did not go undetected by him. She tried to look calm and collected on the outside but that didn't stop a thousand thoughts racing wildly through her head. And he knew. Oh, God how he knew because she wouldn't forget that amusement that danced around in his black eyes like a light somewhere in the distance, and as quickly as she saw it.. it vanished. His eyes gained their dark composure and he sucked at the inside of his cheek in an almost bored fashion.

Victoria wiped her sweaty hands down the black fitted skirt of her supermarket uniform. She cursed Eileen in her head. How could she do this to her? Know about her awkwardness around males and then both figuratively & literally throw her in to the deep end with the biggest, most viscous looking one she could lay her eyes on. She glanced up at him and saw his expression changing from an almost bored one to a suspicious one. She was confused as to why he would be suspicious. She wasn't a threat, she just wanted to introduce herself. No. Eileen wanted her to introduce herself. Victoria decided she had been standing there for too long and knew she had to say something if she didn't want him to think she was a total nut case that belonged in Arkham.

Swallowing thickly she glanced up shyly. "Hi.. my name is Victoria."

He said nothing. He just continued staring down at her, his arms rising up to cross over his chest. They stood there for another five seconds before she felt maybe she should explain herself.

"Uhm.. I just noticed you moved in and I wanted to introduce myself because I felt it would be rude not to and.." she trailed off after realising she was blabbering. Another obvious sign that she was nervous. Looking down at her feet she could feel the heat rising to her face and she desperately wished the ground would rise to swallow her up or that Eileen would run out of the house and save the day. But Eileen did not and it was only when she heard a gruff but nasally voice did she snap out of her thoughts.

"I'm Jac-k."

She glanced back up at him but his expression hadn't changed. She thought that maybe he felt awkward just like she did, but no, that couldn't be right - he looked totally at ease.

"Oh, well it was nice meeting you Jack." she croaked out. She would have extended her hand if she was sure he'd shake it but he seemed like the type of man who resented any type of unnecessary physical contact and plus, her hands were still sweaty from her nerves so she was silently thankful.

There was silence again, he had clearly chosen not to respond to her and she felt that she should quickly end the conversation and retreat back in to the sanctuary behind her.

"If there's anything you need then don't be a stranger." she offered, cringing at her own words. They were lies. She hoped desperately he would be a stranger. Victoria glanced curiously at his scars and quickly took them in. She felt as if she couldn't look at them for long enough, they were uneven, bumpy, puffy and looked as if they had been poorly stitched up. She felt a pang of sympathy for this man, maybe he'd gotten in to a fight with the wrong mobster, perhaps a Falcone or one of the new crime families like the Moretti's that had recently popped up.

Smiling she turned her back on him and knocked on her door. He slammed his behind her almost immediately and she couldn't but sense the annoyance that came with the slam. The door opened immediately as if Eileen had been standing peering through the peep hole watching the whole thing and she probably had. Victoria rushed in quickly forgetting to even bolt the locks up on the door. She walked in to the sitting room and glared at a giggling Eileen who was holding on to the sofa arm for support.

"That was not funny." Victoria seethed, gritting her teeth.

"Oh don't be such a granny. I was doing you a favour." Eileen smiled.

"Not by putting me out on the spot like that!" Victoria cried.

"Oh you'll get over it Tori" Eileen said affectionately referring to her by her nickname. "and plus, you made a new friend!"

"I don't think he wants to be friends." Victoria groaned.

"Okay, acquaintances then." Eileen chuckled.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for your shift?" Victoria asked changing the topic.

"Oh shoot! I'm going to be late!" Eileen whined. Victoria felt satisfied at knowing Eileen would pay for her little stunt.

Eileen excused herself not long after to get ready for her night shift at the local bar and Victoria was left to do some house cleaning. Victoria grumbled to herself whilst dragging her old vacuum cleaner out of the cupboard, turning it on and then vacuuming all the discarded crumbs that laced the floor from Eileen and Victoria's random movie nights. She thought about her shift tomorrow at the Supermarket and absolutely resented the fact that she'd have to do more heavy lifting and cleaning. Deciding the best thing to do would be to get an early night, she sat down, read a few magazines and then dragged her bag of bones to bed whilst making sure her alarm was accurately set for 7:00am.

The next morning her alarm blared loud and Victoria grabbed the pillow covering her head with it and groaning unintelligible things in to the soft cotton material. After slamming the alarm and rubbing any sleep out of her eyes, she slowly dragged herself to the shower and turned the water on hoping it wouldn't take too long to heat up like it usually did during the cold November months. Luckily for her the water heated up right away which allowed her to undress and step in to the hot steamy bliss she craved for. The water beat down on her and she sighed squeezing out some of her favourite strawberry cream shampoo and lathering her hair. After she was finished with her shower she got dressed in to her black skirt, smart white shirt, and black blazer. She also threw on her dark blue rain coat because she knew Gotham was a rainy city with unexpected showers.

Victoria stepped out of her apartment at 7:35am locking the door and throwing a fleeting glance at Jack's. The windows on both sides of his door which Victoria knew to be the kitchen and bathroom windows because all of the apartments shared the same layout were both off. She wondered if he was sleeping or out working or neither, maybe possibly just sitting in the dark staring at the white sterile looking walls he may have taken no liberty in changing. She laughed at this as he seemed the type of guy who would find the simplest things entertaining, or maybe she was wrong and he was a whole lot more complex than that.

She began her twenty minute walk to the store and silently prayed to God that it did not start pouring down. Apparently God did not hear her prayer because on the last few minutes of her walk it belted down and even her raincoat could barely protect her from the perpetual rain. She groaned when she reached the store, routinely walking towards the employees kitchen and pouring herself some bitter coffee and helping herself to a stale cracker.

One of the employees called Katie who Victoria did not like due to her obnoxious and stuck up behaviour came bounding in to the employees kitchen talking loudly about how was doing a routine check on all employees during work. Everyone groaned. Mr. Powell was her boss, the one that would constantly pick on her and she knew already that today was not going to be a good day. After drinking her bitter coffee she made her way to the store floor and began restocking the cereal aisle.

She had been there for a while replacing boxes after boxes of cereal she'd never heard of or even cared for. It was when he came that her scowl deepened.

"Oh, Victoria I see you're working hard." Mr Powell said eying her.

She shuddered under his gaze.

Man, is he creepy.

Victoria chose to ignore his fixated stares and tentatively carried on restocking the shelves. It was when she noticed him bounding over, she could have swore - scouts honor, him knock a whole row of cereal boxes off the shelves and on to the sterile tiled floor. Victoria turned to him with a bemused look on her face.

"Oops, better clear those up Victoria." he said smirking.

She gritted her teeth, wanting desperately to punch him in his ugly face. How dare he knock over those cereal boxes on purpose and then have the audacity to tell her to pick them up. If she didn't desperately need this job she would have thrown the cereal boxes off of his bald head and told him in style that she doesn't need his stupid low paying job and to fuck off. But the truth of the matter was that she did need the job, and so she bent over and began to pick up the boxes off of the floor. She could have sworn that as she bent over he crouched down and began to look up her skirt with a sick smirk on his face. She quickly straightened up flattening her skirt down and her face growing red with anger and disgust. He winked at her, ticking something on his check list and walked away stepping on a discarded Frosted Flakes cereal box sprawling the flakes everywhere across the aisle. She stared after him absolutely livid and shaking indignantly.

When Victoria made her way home that evening at exactly 8:00pm she looked miserable. She was sure that her boss was picking on her on purpose now and that he was being an outright pervert. However, she knew she could not say anything in fear of losing her job so she told herself to suck it up and just carry on doing what she did every day. It was when she walking through one of the streets of the Narrow's that she heard screaming, it sent a chill up her spine but it didn't bother her as much as it once did. Screaming, shouting and gunshots are a normality in the Narrows and she was in no position to run to the source of the trouble. It was already a tough job ensuring her survival in Gotham's slums.

The screaming had died down and she was thankful her apartment was located in the opposite direction of the screaming in-case she ran in to any muggers or a bunch of mobsters which she really didn't need at the moment. It wasn't uncommon for them to march up to her demanding she let them take her out for a drink or to come back to their place. She could never grow accustomed to the fear that welled up in her heart when that happened. It was every man or every woman for their-self here.

Victoria marched up to her door and was thankful she hadn't bumped in to any trouble on her way home. The lights above her lightened her surroundings and she was thankful none of the stupid teenagers had decided to throw rocks and break the lights around her area for their silly entertainment. Fumbling for her keys she did a right check, she saw nothing. She looked to her left, and saw nothing. When she turned around she had to stop herself from screaming.

Jack stood before her, his hands stuffed in his pockets. She gasped and wondered why she hadn't even heard him come out or maybe he came in.. she couldn't tell. His eyes narrowed at her and he still had that look of disinterest on his face.

"Jack, you scared me." she breathed.

He stared at her. Those dark black eyes protruding in to her soul.

"Sorry, uh.. sugar."

She stared back at him. Her green eyes searching his black ones. She wanted to reply "Victoria. My name's Victoria.. not sugar." but thought better against it. Maybe that was just a habit of his, pet-names and all. Instead she flashed him a small smile and unlocked her door with her keys. Turning around slightly she could still see he was standing there, watching her. She felt awkward and nervous.

"Bye, Jack." and with that she slowly closed her door, watching his eyes still boring in to hers and she could have sworn she saw the faint traces of a smirk playing on his scarred lips.

A/N: So, how did you find the well.. slight interaction between Jack and Victoria?
I'm trying to keep Jack in character as to what I would imagine him to be like if he was to speak to a normal every day person.

Anywho, let me know your thoughts!

Review please, and to those who have reviewed on my first chapter thank you very much! It's very encouraging : )