11 - Rogues Gallery/Sparks
Since Edward Nygma had been banned from the morgue, Bernie had found herself spending a lot more time in the forensics lab, constantly coming up with excuses to venture onto the main floor of the GCPD. Ed was always happy to have company and for someone to listen to his genius rather than all four walls. At least Bernie could keep up with most of what he said.
The last few weeks he'd had little to focus on. A robbery here, a shooting there but nothing to the kind of scale that only Gordon and Bullock could get involved in. These past few weeks without Gordon had been quiet - subdued. Bullock had become even more acerbic and sarcastic than usual - almost like he was trying to make up for the lack of partner. The whole precinct seemed darker for losing him. To Arkham of all places. It must be hell.
Until today at least. She'd walked through the door and had a newspaper shoved in her face, the same one she'd read this morning. Ed seemed excited at the news.
'They're calling him the Electrocutioner,' He quipped and pointed out the front page photo. 'It's very dramatic.'
Bernie thought it overly dramatic when she read it at her breakfast table this morning before heading into work but she'd been brought up to keep things like that to herself. The picture in the newspaper was hardly brilliant. With those round glasses and scrubby beard he looked harmless enough, but how often was that the case? Bernie had the heart of a perpetual victim. She could see the harm in everything. Working in a morgue had only reinforced that fact.
Arkham Asylum had their own morgue of course, now up and running with a couple of her colleagues. They said there was a new body there nearly every night and there certainly wasn't enough staff to cope. Bernie could believe that - there were hardly enough staff to cope at the GMM dealing with all the corpses the GCPD brought through.
But then they had that mass breakout. As if the streets of Gotham weren't awful enough to walk on a night - now half of the asylum had been lost. And the worst one had been dubbed The Electrocutioner.
She had to wonder why people were so terrified. As far as she knew, there had only been one actual death at the hands of the asylum escapee. The rest had been left with some sort of neurological impairment.
There would be some - and there always were - that would demand the grid be shut off to stop him using it against ordinary citizens - if he even was using the power grid and not his own generator. Bernie was just good enough a detective to think that if this man was smart enough to use electricity and play around in people's heads, he'd be using his own supply precisely so it couldn't be shut down.
She caught the name James Gordon in the article and couldn't help the frown that shifted her glasses down her nose. Why was James Gordon always in the thick of the trouble? It was amazing that she hadn't seen him cross her table yet.
He'd been the security guard on the wing that most of the inmates escaped from. Reports suggest - as the paper put it - that he'd been the one to push for the GCPD to investigate before the mass breakout. Of course his name had been included when someone realised the implications - people still hadn't forgotten that Lovecraft had killed himself with Gordon's gun.
She was saddened that Gordon had ended up at Arkham Asylum. It was a waste of a compassionate man - and she hadn't even voted for Aubrey James.
Eventually though, she lowered the paper and stared at the beaming bespectacled man in front of her.
'Why've ye given me this, Ed?' She wondered.
Ed beamed. 'Gordon went in to see Captain Essen and now he's been reinstated.'
'Yer pullin' mah leg!' She smiled.
'Provided -' he warned 'He catches this Electrocutioner first.' Ed picked up a pair of thickly soled boots from his desk. 'And it doesn't take a genius like me to know that for that you're going to need some protection.' He smiled at the very thick soles of the boots.
'So how're things wi' Kristin?' She asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant voice as she folded away the paper.
'She didn't understand my cupcake riddle, so I went to help her and I was accused of harassment.' Edward muttered as he polished the boots again.
'By Kristin?' Bernie asked surprised. She'd never thought that Kristin would be so mean to Edward, she hardly seemed the type. She always seemed to say something nice or nothing at all.
'No, there was someone else.' Ed sighed helplessly. 'He seemed interested in her.'
'Ed, Ah'm sorry.' She replied in sympathy. And she was, truly. She knew the pain of a one-sided crush. Especially when that other person seemed close to someone else. It hurt but it was a kind of bearable pain and in the end - all you wanted was for them to be happy. Even if that wasn't with you. Not that Ed had any idea about her own crush. For a man who loved riddles, he never really got around to the riddle of their friendship.
'Don't be.' He smiled. 'It's hardly your fault, Bernie.' He dropped the boots and pulled a sheet from the pile on his desk. 'Is this what you were looking for?' He asked and held out what looked like a smear analysis.
'Aye,' She conceded and accepted the report.
'It's amazing what particulates grease contain, isn't it?'
'Absolutely.' She mumbled as she read it. 'Thanks Ed,'
The file - including analysis report was pushed into Christine's reception cubicle as the woman went about reception with her shirt over her nose, spraying air freshener with mumbles of 'It smells like death in here!'
Bernie stifled a smirk and sidestepped her as Christine liberally sprayed "Scent of the pineforest" All over her muttering 'You smell like Geeksquad! Been to see your boyfriend, Blushing Bernie?'
Bernie coughed and stumbled out of the reception before shaking her head. How had Christine never been fired?
A/N: *cracks knuckles* It's Sunday and Gotham's back. You guys know what that means! I missed Gotham! And what an action packed episode it was! I'm almost at a loss as to how I can add to it in any way, shape or form. Because it was that good! (either that, or I'm out of practice!) But I have heard some interesting rumours of late from my teasing friends who have binged the rest of the season - Bullock gets a girlfriend? Wait like not a prostitute - an actual girlfriend?! O.o. Wow. Joker arrives on scene?! I can't wait to see the rest of the episodes!
This is filler. Not particularly exciting filler but there we go. Rogues Gallery was amazing! And very, very compartmentalized. How could I include Bernie in any sense without changing the course of the episode? I surmised I couldn't - Ergo filler.