VIII

"A friendship founded on business is a good deal; better than a business founded on friendship." - John D. Rockefeller


Pulling a deep breath of the crisp evening air in between her nervously clenched teeth, Bird came to a stop outside of Fish Mooney's club. Today was the day she'd been both preparing for and dreading in equal measure.

Shaking her head back and forth, she turned to walk away. This sort of thing was more Oswald's area of expertise, as it was he was currently not only playing Don Falcone and Don Maroni; he was also working on pitting them further against each other so in the near future they'd begin to tear apart what the other had built.

Her best friend's ability to gain the trust of others, all while plotting their downfall amazed her. Sure, she could be manipulative when she needed too and she also held a treasure trove of secrets and intel in her mind that she'd break into to get what she wanted or save her life, but she was starting to doubt her ability to get back in Fish's good graces for the sole purpose of operating from behind enemy lines.

She considered physical strength and her fighting abilities to be her strong suit –not so much mind games.

It had to be done, she told herself. Someone needed to be keeping a close eye on Fish and privy to her plans to gain power. If Oswald could juggle keeping an eye on and manipulating both Falcone and Maroni, then surely she could play spy when it came to Fish. But there was a difference, Oswald couldn't care less about the people he was playing and she had a rather complicated relationship with the female crime boss.

After she was able to come home from the asylum Bird had been in, she'd asked her parents repeatedly who'd found her the night she'd been attacked, only neither of them wanted to tell her who it was. Only that they'd already sent thanks to the responsible party and she needn't worry about it.

After some digging and asking the right people the right questions, she'd learned that it had been Fish Mooney who'd found her and gotten her help.

It was perfect, Oswald told her upon learning the news; he saw it as a way into the Falcone crime family. If they'd walked in off the street, it would be nearly impossible to gain any sort of recognition, if anything they'd seem suspicious. But if Bird walked into the club to thank her for saving her life and managed to hit it off with Fish, then it would be a foot in the door.

Bird didn't believe it would work at the time, she was sure this crime boss working for Falcone would take one look at her seventeen year old self and send her away –especially when she had no choice but to leave straight from school and go there, meaning she'd showed up in her private school uniform. She'd never felt so out of place in her entire life, but by some miracle things fell into place that day and within the next few months she hung around the club more and more, picking up odd jobs and just making her presence known.

Over a year and a few missing umbrella boys later, both she and Oswald were not only working for Fish but were also highly trusted members of her staff.

Now here she stood, just weeks away from turning twenty and she was more nervous about stepping foot inside of the club than the first time she'd ever been there. But there was no one else to do this, it had to be her. Oswald had betrayed Fish in such a way that once she found out he was alive she wouldn't rest until he was dead.

Taking another deep breath in an attempt to calm herself, she walked back up to the door and pulled it open before she had another chance to talk herself out of it.

She looked at the waiter behind the bar, who raised his hand in a small wave before going about his business and Bird offered him a smile as she set off on her way to find Fish.

When she couldn't find her anywhere downstairs, Bird started up the stairs and headed for the main office room. The door was closed and it took her several seconds to finally gain the courage to knock.

"Yes?"

Taking in another deep breath, Bird opened the door to see Fish and Butch Gilzean inside.

"Bird." He greeted with a confused expression, before quickly looking to his boss to gauge her reaction.

"Hey Butch." She greeted back with an almost weak smile before she cleared her throat and slightly lowered her head as a sign of respect when she added, "Fish."

The room remained silent, making Bird all the more uncomfortable and hoping to fill the empty space she continued, "I was hoping we could talk… if you have the time of course."

After what felt like an eternal minute, Fish nodded for Butch to leave them to talk.

Once the door was shut to the room and the younger woman seated across the desk from her, Fish eyed her inquisitively, "Bird, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize, for both the way I reacted when I found out that Oswald had been killed and also for it taking such a long time for me to build up the nerve to come back here." She tried to keep her breathing level and appear calm, "I was embarrassed and ashamed, I let my emotions cloud my judgement."

"And here I thought you were done with me." Fish said, her eyes narrowed slightly as she thought of how long it had been since she'd last seen her.

"No." Bird assured her, "In so many ways you've been like a mother to me, if you hadn't taken me under your wing years ago… I honestly don't know where I'd be today."

"Yes." Fish agreed, leaning back in the plush office chair as she took in the sight of her lost bird that had managed to find her way back to the nest, "I still remember the first day you came here, to my club. You had that deer in the headlights look on your face, you were practically shaking with nerves."

Bird let out a small laugh as she nodded in complete agreement as she also remembered back to that day, which now felt like an entire lifetime ago.

"I knew then there was something special about you. A fire inside, I could see it in your eyes, that you wanted it all; money, power, respect and then some." Fish added.

"Of course, all my life I'd been told to follow the rules and then there you were… making your own rules, ordering people around and they listened as if what you said was the law." Bird remembered, "I left here thinking that I wanted to be just like you one day."

"And I knew you'd be back then." Fish shrugged, "This last time you walked out, I wasn't so sure."

"I wasn't either." She swallowed hard as she spoke, "I just… I lost so much at once. My parents death came out of nowhere and then I found out Oswald had not only been killed –but he was a rat; all that time I considered him a close friend and he'd been snitching to the GCPD? It makes me sick to think he fooled me like that… really made me question so much about my life and the people in it."

"Oh, baby girl… he had us all fooled." Fish agreed, shaking her head in disbelief as she spoke, "He betrayed both of us."

"I see that now. With the time that's passed I can see everything so much more clearly."

Despite the almost stone expression the crime boss wore, Bird could tell her plan was working. As for now, while Fish still believed that Oswald was dead –she'd have no real reason not to trust her again. After all, it would appear that with both her parents and closest friend gone, that she didn't have many people left that she cared about or trusted, so it would make perfect sense that she'd come crawling back.

"I brought you something." Bird spoke as she took her purse off her shoulder and removed a deep burgundy crushed velvet jewelry box, large enough to hold a necklace, "A present."

Sliding the box across the desk Bird offered up a smile as Fish picked the box up, taking her time to feel the expensive coating under her fingers before slowly opening it to reveal a gorgeous two band platinum necklace, fixated with what looked to be at least three hundred small round diamond side stones lining both. In between the bands were six medium sized blue sapphires, each surrounded by several pear shaped diamonds all leading up to where a seventh vivid sapphire weighing in at twenty-eight carets was hanging, adorned with even more diamonds.

Bird's smile grew as she saw the gift had rendered her boss completely speechless.

"Oh my…" Fish breathed, trailing her fingers across the brilliant cut gem stones, "It's beautiful."

Raising her head and looking at Bird, she questioned, "Did you buy this or steal it from someone?"

"It was my mothers." Bird admitted, her jaw tensing slightly as she spoke.

It was the truth, the necklace had belonged to her mother and the day before when she'd dropped by Wayne Manor it had been with the intention of taking it from her mother's jewelry box. It was a genius idea she thought to herself, as she pushed the guilt aside from stealing from her dead mother, it was a genius idea because a gift like that would mean more to Fish than something she'd bought on her own. It should have meaning enough that it would quickly return her to good standing.

"I take it you want to come back?" She asked the younger woman.

"I can't see myself anywhere else." Bird replied.

There were a few beats of dead silence in the room, enough for doubt to start creeping up in Bird's mind, before a smile appeared on Fish's lips as she said, "Thank you for the gift. I'm glad you're back where you belong."

~()~

Any trace of guilt that she had been feeling over stealing her mother's jewelry or manipulating Fish Mooney had seemed to give way to an almost perverse feeling of satisfaction that Bird felt after knowing she'd gotten her spot back alongside the crime boss.

Maybe she should have felt bad about what she'd done, she figured most people in her position probably would –but knowing that Fish was someone who didn't forgive or trust easily left Bird feeling a sense of giddiness in her stomach that her plan had gone off without a hitch. She knew she'd pulled off something that not many others could have and for that she was proud of herself.

When she'd first learned Oswald was still alive and that their long awaited plan of taking over Gotham City was still on, she'd really had her doubts about their ability to pull it off, but the past couple of days had gone almost flawlessly.

It was just the day before that the low-level thieves she'd put Oswald in touch with had robbed Maroni's restaurant, they'd killed the current manager and made off with all but one of the bags of money being counted at the restaurant that day –the plan had played out perfectly.

It was just a few hours before that she'd gotten a call from her friend letting her know that, as he'd predicted, the move had installed Maroni's trust in him enough so that he'd been promoted to manager.

Bird knew that meant soon enough, he'd admit the truth to Don Maroni about who he really was and then she'd have to be the one to tell fish that he was still alive, so she wouldn't lose her boss's trust. That day would come soon enough, she was sure of that –but for today she wasn't going to let those thoughts haunt her. Today was another win for their cause, another giant step closer to overthrowing Falcone from the top of his empire and doing away with Maroni, one step closer to ruling Gotham.

After fixing a drink for both herself and Fish at the bar, she walked back to the table she'd been sitting at just in front of the stage. As usual, Butch stood beside Fish and the trio watched as a young woman took the stage, Bird guessed they were probably about the same age, couldn't be more than a handful of years separating them.

The nameless girl started singning a rendition of Spellbound to the soft piano music that played as the soft glittering lights from above danced off the walls in the club. She wore a skin tight dark shirt with a blue mini skirt with fishnet tights underneath; her minimal jewelry was a contrast to the thick shimmery blue eyeshadow above and below her eyes. Dark, unkempt waves framed her face and it was clear by her arms laying stiff at her sides that she was uncomfortable on the stage.

"She's got a good voice." Butch commented with an indifferent shrug.

"Yeah, but not much stage presence." Bird argued, her head cocked to the side as she looked over the woman with scrutinizing eyes, "She's either really nervous or bored as hell."

With a wave of Fish's hand, the music cut off and the girl stopped singing in the middle of her line.

"What's your name?" Fish questioned.

Her eyes slightly squinted in the harsh lighting as she said, "Liza."

Taking a sip of her martini, Fish trailed a finger down the long stem of the glass as she asked, "How long have you been singing Liza?"

"Not long." Liza admitted, bringing her arms to the front as she fiddled with her dark threaded bracelet and her eyes darted between the trio who all stared up at her.

"You like boys or girls?"

Seeming almost taken aback by the question, Liza answered, "Boys…"

"So?" Fish replied, speaking as she moved her hand out to the side and added, "You want the job or what?"

Liza paused, giving some thought to the question as she wasn't sure what she'd be agreeing to. "Well… you haven't told me what the job is yet."

"You want to be a woman with power, money and respect –like me?" Fish asked, growing more intrigued with the young woman, who's hour glass figure was hugged tightly in her dark clothes. A better hairstyle and an upgraded wardrobe and she was thinking Liza could be a nice fit for what the job required.

"I guess." Liza responded to the latest question. She watched as Bird cocked her head to the side like she didn't believe her answer. When she saw Fish look over to the girl beside her, Liza cleared her throat and spoke with more conviction, "Yeah."

"Are you willing to do whatever it takes to have it all?"

This time her tone was true and steady as she spoke directly into the microphone, "Yes, I am."

With a smile that seemed anything but friendly, Fish explained, "That's the job."

Liza blinked a few times in disbelief at the news. The statement was spoken in such a way that it was the answer to all her questions, but in truth it only left her with more.

"Seduce me." Fish ordered.

Caught off guard and shaken from her thoughts, Liza laughed, "What?"

"You think I'm kidding?" Fish asked, with no traces of humor in her tone.

Liza's laughter dried up when she saw the looks on everyone's faces and realized Fish wasn't joking in the slightest. She still wasn't sure what all the job entailed or even if she really wanted it –but she descended the stairs slowly, one at time with her hips swaying from side to side; causing her mini-skirt to slide up on her legs dangerously high. She was all too aware of how her every stiletto clad step echoed through the silent room like claps of thunder, and she did her best to ignore the almost violating feeling of three sets of eyes glued to her.

Liza kept her eyes on Fish Mooney, making sure to make the crime boss feel like the only one in the room or at the very least the only one deserving of her attention. Slowly she leaned on the table, facing Fish as she leaned in her closer; trailing a hand down the side of her face to the front of her neck before leaning in and pressing her mouth against Fish's mouth as she moved her lips hungrily, like she just couldn't get close enough to the older woman.

Finally, she pulled back, a pleased hum on her lips as she kept eye contact with her and reached a swooping hand down to pick up her martini glass. Raising it to her lips, she swallowed what was left down in one drink. Letting the warmth fully set on her stomach, before returning the glass and standing up to walk away.

Looking over her shoulder she saw Liza had taken a seat at the bar, Fish looked between Butch and Bird with the intention of asking what they thought of Liza, but before she could a familiar face walked into the room.

Smiling widely at the detective, Fish watched as Bullock glanced at Liza, "See you something you like?" Fish questioned.

Looking back to her his own smile grew as he assured her, "I do now."

Butch headed to the bar where Liza was sitting to take down some information from her since they were strongly considering hiring her to use as their secret weapon against Falcone.

When Fish signaled for Bullock to follow her over to a booth so they could talk, Bird stood up and started towards the bar with the intention to take inventory of their stock of alcohol. Bird figured jumping right back into work and her old responsibilities was the best way to go about things. After all, everyone was used to her practically being a fixture at the club and no one thought twice about discussing business in front of her –if there was one thing she'd learned from Oswald, it was how helpful the gathering of information could be.

"Bullock." Bird greeted as she passed the detective.

Side-eyeing her, he replied with a nod and the nickname he'd designated for her, "Crazy eyes."

He held back at a laugh as she came to a stop momentarily, before letting out a sigh and shaking her head as she continued on without arguing with him.

~(The next day)~

Walking down the long, dimly lit hallway in the apartment building, Bird checked the folded up piece of paper from her jacket pocket to make sure she was heading for the right apartment number.

Reaching the correctly numbered door, she raised her hand and knocked and waited for the person inside to come to the door.

"Hey…" Liza breathed as she opened the door and eyed Bird, "You're early…"

"It's Friday." Bird stated, seeing the confused look on the other womans face, she added, "I have an important date tonight so we need to get everything done as fast as possible."

"Come in." Liza curtly said, holding the door open to her apartment and watching as Bird walked in.

It was just the night before that she'd been driven out to an old, desolate industrial part of town and told if she wanted to work for Fish Mooney badly enough that she'd have to fight for it. There was a problem, Liza had been told, Fish had two suitable girls and only one job –so it was coming down to a test of who wanted it more.

At first she'd thought it seemed ridiculous, fighting over a job that she still wasn't crystal clear on what it even was –but the other girl had immediately started to remove her earrings for the fight and Liza wasn't backing down.

Her hand raised to the corner of her mouth where the other girl had managed to get a hit in and busted her skin open.

"So how does this work?" Liza questioned as she watched Bird walking around her apartment, making notes in a notebook resting on her forearm.

All her questions earned was a less than friendly expression from the girl who seemed like whatever she'd been tasked with doing had to be the worst job on the face of the earth.

Wordless, Bird spun on her heels and walked into the bedroom where she pulled back the double doors of the closet and let out a heavy sigh at the all the clothes in front of her.

"Do you own anything besides metallic miniskirts and fishnet?"

"I…" Liza started to say, but wasn't given the chance as Bird shook her head and mumbled about how they were going to have to buy all new clothes for her.

Liza's eyes narrowed slightly as she eyed Bird, who was dressed in clothes almost identical to the tight dark jeans, boots and dark shirt she'd been wearing the day before.

"You don't like me much, do you?" Liza realized, her head leaning to the right as she spoke and stood in the doorway to the room to ensure she got an answer before the other girl could slip past her.

"It's not my job to like you. It's my job to help turn you into something that…" Bird's voice trailed off, looking to the leather skirt she was wearing and tight dark blue shirt that barely came to the waistband of the skirt, motioning with her hand Bird sighed, "That looks nothing like you."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she stepped to the side and let the girl who was still making notes in her notepad to walk past her.

"Fair enough…" She sighed, tucking her waves behind her ears. Liza's high heeled shoes tapped against the wooden floor as she followed Bird back into the living room, "What are you writing down?"

"You ask a lot of questions." Bird countered flatly before explaining, "If this all works; if Falcone takes a liking to you than he's probably going to see the inside of your apartment at some point. If it doesn't look like a place the girl we're going to turn you into would live, than it's going to set off some red flags."

Thankful for some kind of answer, in honesty a clearer answer than Fish had given her about anything, Liza nodded, "Got it."

"No, Liza. I don't think you do. If you screw this up –Falcone will kill you." Thinking about everything she'd learned about Carmine Falcone and what happened to those that betrayed him, she added in a voice that sent up a chill up Liza's spine, "If Fish and I are lucky, he'll kill us too."

The weight of this job she'd fought for was starting to sink in, she could feel a physical weight pressing down on her chest from it. Being a woman of power, money and respect sounded good enough –but she was starting to wonder now if it was actually worth the price she could pay if something went wrong.

Watching as Bird went into her kitchen and declared she'd even need new dishes and silverware, Liza pulled in a deep breath. Money and power –she wanted it all and with as thorough as Bird was being with the attempt to give her entire life a makeover, Liza understood that it was too late to back out.

"Come on."

Shaken from her thoughts, Liza looked up to see Bird heading for the front door. "Where are we going?" She asked, struggling to pull on her jacket and hurry after her.

"Shopping."

~()~

Liza stood in line at the fast food place, she looked over to Bird who'd just spent well over a thousand dollars on new furniture to be delivered to her apartment. She wasn't sure if she was spending her own money or if Fish had given her money to spend for the cause. Either way, in their time together Bird had warmed some and had shown her more friendly side a few times.

They'd been to a few different stores that Liza had never shopped at before and while at first she assumed from Bird's clothes they weren't stores she'd venture into either –she'd seemed to both know her way around and be comfortable there. When she'd questioned her about it, Bird admitted that a lot of these stores her mother used to shop at and tried to make her shop at too. After that, she'd taken on an unfriendly tone and told Liza to stop asking her so many questions.

So far they seemed about halfway done with everything they needed to do that day and Bird had informed her that they had time to stop for lunch. So now here they stood, at a place not too far away from the furniture store, in a rather awkward silence as the pair blended in with the lunch rush of employees from local businesses.

As they reached the front of the line and ordered their food, Liza watched as Bird payed for everything again. A relief to her, finding work wasn't always the easiest thing to do in Gotham and the truth was she'd auditioned at Fish's club out of desperation to make her rent payment for that month.

Stepping over to the side to wait on their food, Bird said, "Okay, so after this we need to hit a few more stores and hopefully have time to make it to the salon to fix your hair. If we can't today than I can come get you tomorrow-" She cut off in the middle of her sentence, nearly in the center of a word when she heard her name being called.

"Starling!"

Liza's eyebrows raised as she saw the other girls reaction as she stopped talking and got a slightly shell-shocked look on her face, before plastering on a smile and turning with a greeting of her own, "Harvey… hey."

Returning the smile he opened his mouth to say something, but Bird didn't give him the chance as she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Just grabbing lunch." He stated with a laugh as glanced around them, wondering what else she could think he was there for.

"Right." She agreed with a loud, slightly unhinged sounding laugh as she scratched the side of her forehead in disbelief at herself.

"I'm on a short recess from court." He added, seeming to either not notice her nervous ticks or not pay attention to them, "This was one of the closest places."

With a smile that caused a fluttering in Bird's stomach, he asked, "What about you?"

"Oh, just doing shopping and catching up with an old friend." She quickly answered, as she grabbed Liza's arm and pulled her up beside her and said, "This is my friend Liza."

Nodding between them she continued, "Liza, this is Harvey Dent."

"Nice to meet you." He politely said, extending a hand which Liza shook as she countered, "Likewise."

Noticing not only how fast he was to turn his attention back to Bird, but the way he watched her so intently like she could very well be the only girl in the room, Liza started to wonder if he had anything to do with the date Bird had mentioned later that night.

"You're a lawyer?" Liza questioned, remembering him talking about a recess from court.

With a nod he answered, "Asistant disctrict attorney."

Not really familiar with the title, Liza's head cocked to the side as she guessed from his association with Bird, "You represent criminals?"

"No." He answered with a small chuckle, "I'm the one who presents cases against the criminals."

"Oh…" She breathed, looking confused as she stared over to Bird, who refused to look at her now.

"What?" He asked, seeing the look on her face.

"N-nothing." She stammered, internally cringing as she saw the look Bird shot in her direction.

"Did I miss something?" Harvey asked, his attention focused solely back on Bird; who offered up a friendly smile and chuckled, "I don't think so."

Innocently looking at Liza, Bird asked, "Are you okay?"

"Mhmm." She hummed, avoiding both sets of eyes on her.

"27."

Realizing that was the number on his ticket Harvey turned back to the counter and got his bag of food as he said, "I need to get going."

"Of course." Bird politely replied, keeping a smile on her face.

"See you tonight though, right?" He asked, keeping his eyes on Bird as he walked past her to head for the exit.

"See you tonight." She answered with a nod.

Once she and Liza got their tray of food and sat down at a table in the back of the eating area, Liza asked, "I take it he's the important date you mentioned earlier."

"A bit of advice…" Bird sighed, "Until you know how to navigate this world, you should probably just keep your mouth shut. Don't talk unless someone asks you a question, you're more likely to keep breathing that way."

Liza's eyebrows lowered in confusion as she tried to discern whether Bird was really giving her advice or threatening her.

It wasn't long until the silence got to be too much for her and she asked, "So… he puts criminals behind bars and you're a criminal –is that why you're dating him? To have someone on the inside, keep yourself from going to jail?"

"No." Bird answered, picking her cup up to take a drink, "Fish already has plenty of people on the inside, people that are much higher positions than Harvey is –and tonight is our first date, so I'm not technically dating him."

"Ah." Liza replied, before commenting with a shrug, "He's cute."

Bird's lips curved up into a smile as she agreed whole-heartedly, "He's ridiculously cute."

The pair made small talk while they ate to pass the time, and despite Bird's varying moods ranging from making Liza feel like they were old friends one minute to feeling like she needed to take her earrings out and prepare for a fight the next –the moments when Bird was warm and welcoming to her to were a comfort she hadn't known she needed.

"This is nice." Liza couldn't stop herself from admitting, "Having someone to talk to –someone to have a lunch with, I haven't made any friends in Gotham."

Clearing her throat and wiping away all traces of any friendliness in her demeanor, Bird corrected, "We're not friends, Liza."

"Right…" she sighed, "It's not your job to be my friend."

"Liza, look-" Bird stated with a sigh of her own, "The truth is I like you and if we were meeting under different circumstances than I'm sure we would be friends, but once Fish gets you prepared to meet Falcone, that's it for us. Even if you pass me on the street you can't acknowledge me, you just walk right past me like we've never spoken before."

Nodding and letting her nervousness show, Liza questioned, "Have you met him before?"

"Falcone?" Bird asked, glancing around them to make sure no one was within ear shot of them.

"Yeah."

"A few times, yeah."

"What's he like?" Liza asked.

Blowing out a breath, Bird rubbed her hands over her face giving some thought to the answer as she said, "Carmine Falcone is… all manners and old-world charm, but Liza don't let that fool you. If you don't pull this off, if he finds out you've been working for Fish –he will kill you."

"Along with you and Fish, right? Anyone who knew about it?" Liza's voice shook slightly as she spoke.

Pulling in a deep breath, Bird repeated something she'd heard Falcone say on several occasions, "Business must come first."


A/N- Hope you all liked the chapter!

Thank you to Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, SmellYourScentForMiles, and to the guest who all reviewed last chapter! It means the world to me!

For anyone who isn't already, you can find me on Tumblr (sagelondyn) I'm always posting edits to go along with this story. ^_^

Thanks for reading.