XII
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." ― Robert Frost
"Hey! Sorry I'm late." Bird spilled an apology as she slid into the booth seat across the table from Harvey Dent. In truth she'd have made it there on time if she hadn't taken a long way around, trying to lose a car she was sure was tailing her from the street outside of Wayne Manor.
With a smile he assured her, "I just got here myself, my trial ran a little later than I'd expected."
"Are you winning the case?" She asked, as she opened the lunch menu and scanned it.
"I think so." He smiled, "But then again I've learned when it comes to prosecuting criminals there's no such thing as a sure-thing."
"Probably depends on who their connections are." She anteed with raised eyebrows, before looking back down to her menu.
"You're in a much better mood today." He observed, as he opened his own menu.
"I spent the morning with my brother." She admitted, laughing as she joked, "Decided to give Alfred the morning off."
"Who's Alfred?" Harvey questioned.
"My family's butler and now my brothers legal guardian." She explained, speaking as if it were not only completely normal to not only have a butler, but also commonplace for them to be left custody of minors upon the parent's death.
"I'm sorry…" Harvey breathed with a look of confusion, "Did you just say your parents left your younger brother in the care of the butler?"
Bird laughed, "He's part of the family and honestly, I don't think there's a better person for the job. I really feel like Bruce is safe with him –Alfred used to serve in the British Special Air Service.
The smile faded from her lips some as she added, "I guess it pretty much came down to either Alfred or me and they made the right choice. I'm the last person who should be left in charge of someone else's well-being. When I got my own apartment, my mom bought me some furniture and for some reason she got me this plant too, I'm not sure why. But I fought for months trying to keep that plant alive and then one day, I left the window open and then Shark got inside from the fire escape and ate half of it."
"Shark?" Harvey asked, having an unusually hard time following her train of thoughts and conversation.
"Yeah, this cat that hangs around outside of my building. Every time I leave my living room windows open the damn thing gets inside."
"Why did you name a cat Shark?" He pushed for more info to fully understand the origin of the name.
"The name is well earned; whenever he gets inside he tends to leave bloody corpses of mice or small birds on my floor." She answered with a shrug, "I guess he's trying to bring me gifts or something, I don't know…" Her voice trailed off as she saw the look of disgust on his face, "And this totally isn't a conversation to have over lunch."
Nodding in agreement, Harvey pulled in a deep breath before saying, "Well, I'm glad to hear things are better between you and your brother."
"Me too." She nodded, remaining silent as she stared back down at her menu with the feeling if she opened her mouth another inappropriate conversation topic would slide out before she could stop herself.
"So I take it he's over being mad about the press conference?" Harvey asked, trying to keep her talking.
"He's still upset about it, but I think he's starting to see that Gotham City is one gigantic gray area. He pulled all of these boxes of files and papers concerning our dad's company and he's been trying to organize things and figure out how Gotham works." She explained, with a small smile.
"That's an awfully large task for anyone, let alone a thirteen year old." Harvey commented.
"That's true." She nodded, before giving him a look as she added, "But Bruce isn't your average thirteen year old. He's a Wayne… he's my father's son in every sense of the term."
The couple ordered their food and growing tired of talking about herself, Bird quizzed him for some info on his current case. But about all the information she could get out of him was that he considered the criminal he was prosecuting to be less than human and if the jury found him innocent he'd be close to losing any and all faith in the justice system.
Bird's eyes drifted past him to where the same car she'd seen tailing her earlier was parking outside of the small sandwich shop right next to where she'd parked. With the sun glaring in her eyes, she was pretty sure she could make out two human figures inside the tinted windows.
Picking her purse up, she found her cellphone to see if she had any missed calls from anyone –briefly she thought maybe Falcone had another favor to ask of her, but he was cordial enough to at least call and let her know he was sending a car ahead of time.
She had no idea who the two men were that got out and looked at her car for a brief minute before they both turned to face the restaurant. Both of them were dressed in dark clothes and she could easily tell they both had at least one handgun on them.
Looking back to Harvey she nodded and smiled, hoping it was an appropriate response to what he'd been saying; his words had fallen on deaf ears ever since she spotted the dark car.
When the men started for the door, she stood up and watched as they both slowed to a stop like they were trying to figure out her next move.
"Everything alright?" Harvey questioned, standing up with her.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I, uh…" Her voice trailed off as she glanced around, "I'll be right back."
Sitting back down in his seat he watched as she headed towards the small back hallway with a sign overhead pointing customers that way for the restroom. Despite her saying she'd return shortly, he already had a feeling like their lunch date was over.
Bird checked over her shoulder to make sure that Harvey hadn't followed her, before she ducked into the kitchen and pushed through the small group of kitchen staff until she reached the back exit.
Reaching into the interior pocket on her jacket, she pulled out the smooth metal cased switchblade knife that she'd stolen from Oswald years back the first time they'd crossed paths.
Tucking her hands behind her she causally leaned against the rough brick building, until she spotted one of the men rounding the corner.
Giving him a wide smile she commented with an arched brow, "And here I'd started to get comfortable, it's rude to keep a lady waiting, you know?" Noticing he was alone she asked, "So, where's your boyfriend?"
He gawked at her with a slightly jumbled expression; seeming taken aback by her attitude and words.
"Why are you following me?" She questioned, the smile still on her lips, but venom seeped from her tone as she stared him down.
"Miss Wayne-"
"It's Bird." She hissed.
"Bird." The man nodded apologetically, "I need you come with me, nice and quiet."
"Nice and quiet?" She repeated back amused, "Clearly you don't know me."
"Relax…" He said taking a step forward.
"I wouldn't come any closer." She asserted, changing her stance and moving her hand around front as she flipped the knife open.
Now it was his turn to look amused as he retrieved the gun he'd had tucked in the waistband of his pants and cynically teased, "Hasn't anyone ever taught you not to bring a knife to a gun fight?"
With a smirk displayed on her lips, Bird shrugged, "Hasn't anyone ever taught you that with guns it's better to have distance?"
"Is that so?" He laughed.
"Yeah." she nodded, "See in a little over a second the average person can run about twenty-one feet. That's more than enough time for me to stick my favorite knife deep into your carotid and watch you writhing in pain until you bleed out –before I go back inside and finish my lunch that you have so rudely interrupted."
Looking dumbfounded by the facts she'd just laid on him, he opened his mouth to say something but before he could Bird knocked the gun from his hand, stomped down on his foot and as he crumpled over in pain she delivered a very painful blow of her elbow to his back bringing him down to the ground.
His eyes quickly located his gun but before he could grab it, she kicked it out of his reach just behind where she was standing.
"Hey, hey, hey!" A male voice yelled, just as Bird got the man on the ground raised up had pressed the knife to the front of his neck deciding to go for jugular if she had too.
Bird looked over to see another man running towards them as he drew his own gun.
"Take another step and I'll splay his neck wide open." She warned.
"You need to calm down, we're not here to hurt you." The one holding the gun said as he slowed some but continued closing in on them.
"Yeah?" She asked with a loud, maniacal laugh. Her eyes were pulled down to where she had the one knelt in front of her, he was slowly reaching into his jacket after what she could only guess was another weapon.
Knowing she had to act fast and precisely; she stabbed a short amount of her blade into a cluster of nerves residing just under the shoulder muscle. With a loud cry of pain his whole body went limp and as she withdrew her knife, she dropped to the ground, spinning on the pavement and picking up the gun; with lightning fast speed she was back on her feet.
The one on the ground continued to yell out in pain as he lay helplessly on the ground and his partner stared at Bird in shock.
"Why are you following me?" Bird yelled, despite the hysterical tone her voice had taken, her hand holding the gun didn't tremble in the slightest. Her posture and the look in her eyes showed she could put a bullet in both of their heads and not even blink.
"Oswald Cobblepot." The man answered as he pulled a cellphone from his pants pocket.
"What about him?" She demanded to know.
"You need to come with us now… or we're gonna chop off his head, put it in a bag and send it Falcone."
"You can't kill someone who's already dead, dumbass." Bird spat at him, keeping her composure despite the fact her mind was now racing and the acid was souring in her stomach.
"Not a fan of Penguin?" The guy guessed at her unwillingness to come with him to save his life, "I get it, truth is I don't much care for him either –but here we both are and I'm just trying to do my job."
When Bird didn't flinch or give any indication his words were resonating with her, he let out a heavy sigh. He was quickly growing tired of not only her stubbornness, but the way his boss was putting so much time and energy into finding out if Cobblepot's story had any truth.
His gaze remained heavy on her as he called out, "See the problem here is you think you're running the show. You think cause you brought one of my men down that you've won." When she didn't budge, he held the phone out to the side and shook it as he said, "Your boyfriend in there, he a lawyer? He looks like the lawyer type. One call to the driver in our car out front and-"
His threat came to an abrupt stop and he jumped what felt like at least ten feet into the air at the loud crack of a gunshot. For a moment he thought he'd been shot until he looked over to see the screen of his flip-phone had been shot clear off.
"Who do you work for?" Bird asked, her voice eerily calm now as she stared him down.
"Sal Maroni." He answered, swallowing hard as he spoke.
His orders of bringing her in unharmed was going to be nearly impossible. At this rate he was thinking it was going to take a bullet or two to bring her down, his eyes dropped to her legs as he considered a blown kneecap would severely debilitate her.
Bird held her breath for so long that she felt like her head was going to explode right off her shoulders. They were supposed to have another week until Oswald finally admitted who he was, they were supposed to have more time and more importantly give her a heads up about it.
As much as she wanted to just kill both of them, take out their driver and forget about this stain on an otherwise perfect day –she knew doing so wouldn't only get her best friend killed, but it would surely earn another round of Maroni's people after her.
"Alright!" She yelled, as she tossed the gun in her hand to the side and held her hands up in surrender.
"Just like that?" He asked cautiously, as he slowly advanced towards her.
"Out of respect to the Don of course." She stated flatly, with a raised eyebrow.
~()~
Oswald sat slumped down in a chair next to Don Maroni, who'd just been served a large plate of freshly steamed lobster.
His head was still spinning and aching from Maroni's outburst at learning who Oswald really was, an outburst which had resulted in the crime boss slamming Oswald's face down on the table so hard he'd thought for sure his skull had to be fractured. He could feel blood still dripping from his nose and he was afraid if he breathed wrong it might upset the Don.
Hearing the door open he looked over to see them dragging a man in with a black cloth bag over his head. It had to be Jim Gordon, he thought. In an attempt to have his own life spared he'd told the story of how Falcone had sentenced him to death but a rookie detective had spared his life.
He was relieved to see they'd fetched Jim, considering he'd dropped a few other names, well mainly just one other, out of fear for his life and he knew Bird was going to be mad enough when she learned he'd jumped the gun and moved on with his plan a week sooner than they'd decided.
The room fell into silence after the hood was removed from Jim's head and he looked around startled to see Maroni staring him down as he cracked open one of the lobsters, the cracking of the shell in such a silent room was comparable to bones being broke. Jim looked over to Oswald hoping for some clue of what the hell was happening, but Oswald wouldn't make eye contact with him.
It felt like an eternity had passed with the three men sitting at the table, Oswald seemed afraid to look at any person in the room and Jim found himself unable to look away as Maroni continued to crack open more lobster to eat.
"Don M-Maroni-" Was all Oswald could stutter out, before the Don yelled, "Shut up!"
Cowering back down in his seat, he wondered what was taking so long. He thought they might have brought Jim there to corroborate his story –now he was starting to fear Maroni might have some other plans.
Wiping his hands on the large cloth napkin tucked at the collar of his shirt, Maroni raised a hand in the air and his right hand man Frankie Carbone stepped up to see what his boss needed.
"Where's Angelo?" Maroni asked.
"Calls are going straight to voicemail, boss." He quietly answered back.
"Keep calling, he should have been here by now." Maroni instructed, before shooting a smile at Jim as he stated, "We can't start without having everyone here."
"Who is everyone exactly?" Jim asked, feeling like he had a lump in his throat that wouldn't let his voice pass through.
All his question earned was a harsh look from Maroni, before he went back to his lobster dinner.
It was several minutes later that the door finally opened and in walked Angelo with a tight grip on the arm of a female with a black bag over her head as well. Leading her to the table he, harshly instructed her to sit down before pulling the bag off of her head.
Bird looked around the table and let out a sigh as she rubbed her forehead, thinking Oswald had most likely gotten all three of them killed. She was so mad that she didn't feel the least bit bad at seeing he'd been beaten and was bloody.
"Welcome." Maroni said looking between Bird and Jim, who were seated next to each other facing him, "I'm Salvatore Maroni."
Bird remained quiet, but Jim spoke up, "I know who you are… what do you want?"
He started to explain to the pair why they'd pulled away from their usual afternoon plans, until the door opened again and another of his men came stumbling in, holding his left arm against himself and appearing to be in pain.
Looking to Angelo, Maroni asked, "What the hell happened to Jessie?"
"That… bitch…" Jessie answered, pointing with his good arm to where Bird was sitting as he hissed between his teeth, "Stabbed me."
"Self-defense." Bird shrugged, not making eye contact with Maroni when he looked back at her.
Looking between his man Jessie who was larger than Bird in both size and stature, he looked back to the young woman who didn't appear to have a scratch on her as he asked, "How the hell did that happen?"
"There was an incident, boss." Angelo explained, before shamefully admitting, "She brought Jessie down and… got his gun."
Looking at her, Don Maroni gruffly asked, "You tried to kill my men?"
"I didn't know who they worked for. In my defense, I asked several times who sent them for me and the only answer I got was that I needed to come with them." Adjusting in her seat, she nodded to Angelo and admitted, "I also shot his phone when he threatened the life of my date."
"Date?" Oswald asked, his voice came out as a squeak and got the attention of everyone in the room, besides Bird who still refused to look at him.
The atmosphere in the room changed as Don Maroni wiped his lobster buttered fingers on his napkin and said, "You shot at my men, that's unacceptable."
"I didn't know who they were or what they wanted, they tailed me from my family's house to a sandwich joint and then showed me a gun and told me to come with them. As soon as I was informed they were sent by you, I surrendered the gun and willingly went with them." With a nod she added, "Out of respect for you, of course."
The room fell silent and Oswald swallowed repeatedly trying to clear his throat and think of something to say to help Bird out, who seemed like she was on the verge of being handed a death sentence. That was until Maroni slammed his hand down on the table, causing Oswald, Jim and Bird to all jump. But instead of lashing out in anger, he had quite the opposite reaction as he let out a loud booming laugh that almost seemed to shake the china on the table as much as his fist had.
"I'm just…" He breathed between laughs, "I'm just trying to wrap my head around how she even got an attack in on Jessie, I mean look at them!" Looking down to his plate he held up the largest lobster on the spread as he boomed a laugh, "I've seen lobster bigger than her!"
A few of his guys laughed, but the three people being held against their will at the table didn't even crack a smile at the joke.
Directing his attention back to her and still coming down from the fit of laughter he asked, "You work for Fish Mooney, right? Sweetheart, what is it you do exactly?"
"It's Bird." She corrected, causing Oswald's eyes to nearly bug out of his head as he shook his head back and forth –she was clearly in no position to be correcting the Don.
With a look of sheer amusement on his face, he nodded, "Right, right… Bird, sweetheart, what is it that you do for Fish?"
Her jaw tensed, but she didn't dare correct him twice despite how demeaning the term sounded from him. "I'm the one who sends our alcohol orders to your people. I've also been known to mix a mean drink when I'm left to the tend the bar, and sometimes… I just bus the tables."
"That!" He exclaimed pointing to her, as he glanced back to his handful of men standing guard behind him, "Is a shame. That's just wasted talent my friends."
Bird glanced over beside her when she felt Jim was watching her, one look at his face and she knew they were both wondering the same thing. Only this time the detective didn't speak and it was Bird who simply asked, as though the answer wasn't of importance, "Don Maroni, are you going to kill us?"
Eyeing the young woman for quite some time, he tilted his head to the side as he answered truthfully, "That depends on all of you."
When he had their attention, he continued, "Here's the thing –the reason I've brought you both here is-"
"Just tell the truth." Oswald pleaded, before he could stop himself. He knew he was already sitting in a dangerous position and he needed to keep his mouth shut. A fact confirmed when Maroni showed him one of the most hateful looks he'd ever seen.
"Either of you want a drink?" Maroni asked, his voice calm as he looked back to Jim and Bird, "I'm having a Negroni; so good with seafood." He said motioning to his plate before taking a drink of the pink liquid in his glass.
"Sure, sounds good. Thank you." Bird nodded, and felt Jim's eyes on her again before he somehow got his cotton-dry mouth to make a sound and he answered, "Water."
Nodding, Maroni snapped his fingers and one of his men disappeared into the kitchen to get their drinks.
Jim looked around, he wasn't sure what was more unnerving –knowing he could be minutes away from meeting his fate; or how Bird seemed almost too comfortable in such a dyer situation. Maybe she knew something he didn't, she always seemed to know something more than he did –or maybe Bullock was right and she really was crazy.
He eyed her again, before glancing over his shoulder towards the kitchen to see it appeared to be fully staffed. They'd taken his gun when they got him into the car on the way there, and the only exits were both heavily guarded by armed men.
"So, Penguin here told us a fascinating story. I've never heard a story so good." Holding his hands out to the side he added, "Hard to believe it's true."
With fear widened, red rimmed eyes, Oswald stammered, "It is! It is true, every word is true-"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Maroni shouted, as he pointed a finger in Oswald's face, who immediately slunk down in his chair and pinned his eyes shut, like he was preparing for another beating.
Bird jerked forward in her seat, and Jim's gaze darted her way when he heard what sounded to be comparable to a low growl slide from between her teeth. Luckily, it was a noise Maroni couldn't hear over his own voice as he continued to shout.
Picking up one of the large lobster claws off his plate, Maroni pressed it hard against Oswald's cheek as he yelled, "One more word from you and I'll shove this down your throat."
In response, his body trembled as he nodded frantically and tried to lean his head away from the claw.
Dropping it to his plate with a loud clank, he made a face as he had to wipe more butter off his hands. It was then that he saw Bird was on the edge of her seat, eyes locked on Oswald with an arm on the table in front of her with her hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist.
"Alright there, babes?" Maroni questioned.
Her eye twitched with rage at all the pet names he insisted on calling her, simply because she was a female.
"I was just thinking that I don't even know what a Negroni is and I could have probably whipped one up faster than your guy." She managed to say, as she slowly released her fist to see her short nails had started to cut into the palm on her hand.
Leaning back in his chair with a laugh, Maroni pointed at her as he observed, "This one's a firecracker."
It was then that the man emerged from the kitchen and sat an orange slice garnished glass down in front of Bird with the same pink liquid as was in Maroni's glass before setting a glass of ice water down in front of Jim.
Pulling in a deep breath, Bird laid her palms flat against the table and tried to focus solely on the feeling of the white threaded table cloth under her touch. She needed to calm down, needed to remain focused and not let emotion get the best of her. The only way to survive this situation would be to remain in complete control.
Finally exhaling she opened her eyes and picked up the glass in front of her, briefly sniffing it before taking a drink small enough it barely wet the tip of her tongue. There was a definite bitter orange taste to the drink, which she quickly identified as Campari –which almost seemed over powering, but it was mixed with something sweet that left a nice buzz of bitter and sweet on her taste buds.
With eyebrows raised in surprise, she took another drink and looked to Maroni as he shot another threatening look in Oswald's direction before commenting to the room, "I try to be civil, but I'm not the kind of man who likes to ask twice."
When he was sure all eyes were back on him, Maroni picked back up, "So this story Penguin told me. Really was one hell of a story –dropping names like Falcone and Fish Mooney." Nodding to Jim and Bird he added with lowered brows as he removed the napkin from his collar, "Wayne and one of the cops responsible for taking down the Wayne's killer. So you can see why it sounds more fiction than fact."
"No, slow down Mr. Maroni… I don't-" Jim started to try and talk his way out of everything, but he didn't get the chance. As Maroni slammed his fist down on the table and yelled, "No, no, no. NO! You let me finish. You'll have your turn to speak."
Bird glanced at Jim before taking another drink from her glass; even if she did die that night at least she was going out with a good drink –which was more than most could say.
With terror in his eyes, Oswald raised his head and looked over to Bird and Jim –the two people who now held his fate in their hands. He trusted Bird more than anyone, he knew no matter how mad she was at him she'd still do what she could to save him and Jim Gordon had already saved his life once.
He hated being in the position of his fate resting on someone else's shoulders –but then again even he had to admit it might just be better there than on his own.
"Okay." Maroni sighed, when no one else made an attempt to talk, he focused back on the pair across the table from him. "This story he told me, well you're both in it and I want you to tell me the same exact story."
Bird stared at Maroni as she took another sip from her glass and Jim's gaze fell to the table, knowing that what he said next could very well seal the fate of everyone in the room. He found the strength to question, "What story is that?"
"Oh, you better know what story my friend; because if you tell me the same story he told me, then I can believe it's true. Then I'm happy, but if you tell me another story… oh mama…" He breathed looking up to the ceiling before focusing back on them, "Then I'll know someone is lying to me and I won't know who it is, so all of yous will die"
"Do I make myself clear?" He questioned.
"Crystal." Bird nodded, as she downed another swig of her drink and wondered if it might just be her last.
"Got it." Jim agreed with an unsure nod of his own.
With a smile, Maroni adjusted and leaned back in his seat as he took a drink of his Nagroni and said, "Tell me a story then."
Jim looked over to Oswald, who was hunched down in his seat staring back at him through the blood stiffened hair that was hanging in front of his eyes from the beating he'd taken. He hoped and even found himself praying that Jim told the truth and it was what Maroni wanted to hear. As much as he knew Bird would do what she could to help him, he'd also seen her pushing her luck with Maroni since she'd been brought there.
"Somebody murdered Bird's parents." Jim said sitting stiffly in his seat as he nodded to the young brunette seated beside him, "My partner and I caught the case."
"We didn't even know each other back then!" Oswald piped up in a shaky voice before he could stop himself. Don Maroni wasn't the most patient man in the universe and the last thing they needed was Jim telling him some long, drawn out story that wasn't even relevant to saving his life.
"What did I say?" Maroni shouted, his voice so loud Jim could have sworn he saw the exposed bulb chandelier above them start to shake.
"The GCPD and Gotham needed a fall guy to-" Bird started to blurt out, and for the moment Oswald thought he was saved until Maroni ignored what she had to say and instructed Frankie, "Put him on the slicer."
"What?" Oswald nearly cried, before breaking into a stuttering fit of yelling no repeatedly.
As Frankie dragged her best friend into the kitchen behind where they were sitting, Bird jumped to her feet, but was met by an array of guns pointed at her from his guards as Maroni yelled, "No! Sit down!"
Swallowing hard she dropped straight back down into her seat, with her hands clenched by her sides under the table as Maroni called out, "If I don't like what babes here has to say, slice his face… prejute!"
He held his hand up signaling for his men to lower their weapons, before he motioned to Bird and said, "You were saying?"
Swallowing hard she internally cursed herself, emotionally she was all over the grid despite her best efforts to control her impulses.
Calm, cool and collected –she told herself, that was the only way any of them were leaving this place alive.
"I was a pawn in a conspiracy between Falcone, the mayor and the GCPD." Jim spoke up, when he noticed Bird who'd formally been more composed than him now appeared to be on the verge of either an outburst or a breakdown. He wasn't sure which one, but it was easy to tell something was brewing beneath the surface.
"What kind of conspiracy?" Maroni questioned.
"To frame Mario Pepper for the Wayne murders –with the help of Fish Mooney, who was Mr. Cobblepot's employer at the time." Jim answered.
"See here's where it all starts to get a little murky." Maroni said with a shake of his head, "According to Penguin, you knew about this from the beginning. That Pepper was a pansy."
Realizing he was now speaking to her, Bird raised her head to meet his gaze as she nodded, "That's correct."
"Are you saying you helped with framing someone innocent to take the fall for your own parent's murders?" Maroni pushed, leaning forward as he eyed her suspiciously.
"The orders came straight from Falcone himself and Pepper was hardly what I'd call innocent." Bird stated, her tone now seeming unemotional and her eyes took on a distant look as she glanced over at Jim before continuing, "My parent's murders sent most of Gotham spiraling into chaos and the only way to start resolving the situation was for the public to believe their killer had been found and captured. Falcone is a businessman after all… and chaos is bad for business."
"Ooh…" Maroni breathed, shaking his head back and forth as he watched her, "That's cold."
Her eyes dropped to the table and her voice sounded strange to her own ears as she repeated one of Falcone's mottos, "Business must come first."
Jim's eyebrows furrowed as he watched Bird. Despite knowing she worked for the Falcone Crime Family and clearly had both her priorities and morals all jumbled up and out of whack, he couldn't help but sympathize with her and the things he'd learned about her.
Even though she spoke in such a manner that the bad she'd done didn't bother her, and she'd taken her orders in doing what was best for the business –he noticed the way she almost appeared to be sinking down in her seat. Her arms folded over her midsection and head lowered, it reminded him of a wounded animal. The pain he'd seen in her eyes had haunted him.
"Anyways…" Bird breathed, not raising her head, "Like Jim said, Oswald worked for Fish at the time. He was her umbrella boy –always right there beside her, privy to all sorts of information. That's how he knew about the conspiracy and so he went and told the entire story to some detectives. Needless to say, word got back to Fish and Falcone of how he'd betrayed them and well you know what happens to snitches."
"I do." Maroni agreed, his expression not giving much away in the way of letting them know if they were on the right track.
"I was ordered by Falcone to kill Cobblepot. I couldn't very well betray the conspiracy and leak anything about the framing of Pepper if they had something to hold over my head. A crime like murder." Jim let the spotlight fall on him as he tried to finish up the story, knowing by this point Maroni already knew whether the trio would live or die. Sighing he added, "I didn't kill him, obviously, I let him live… and now here we are."
Raising her head and nodding, Bird repeated in a somber tone, "Here we are."
Maroni stared at them both, a deadpan expression giving no indication as to if the pair had sealed their fates. Leaning forward he picked up the cloth napkin and whipped his mouth before asking, "Falcone, Mooney, the cops… none of them know he's alive?"
"If they did I'd be dead already." Jim pointed out, drinking down the last of his water as he awaited the Don's reaction.
The chair creaked under Maroni as his body shook from laughing. Laughs which grew louder with every breath he took as he looked between them.
"It's delicious!" He exclaimed, looking between them before sliding his chair back and standing up as he called out, "Frankie, bring the Penguin back out here. The little punk is telling the truth!"
Leaning back down he said, "Thank you both. Good story, great story and told well. Most people in your situation would have freaked out."
Letting out a heavy sigh of relief, Jim hung his head and pulled in a deep breath knowing it wouldn't be last one after all.
Bird stared as Oswald stumbled over to the table, looking so weak he could barely stand.
"There you are!" Maroni said, as Oswald reached the table finally, "You snitch, you rat, you gorgeous turncoat son of a bitch. Come here I love you!" He said, as he placed his hands on the sides of Oswald's face moments before planting a kiss on his cheek.
"Be happy Frankie, we just got ourselves a brand new weapon against the Falcones." Maroni said to his right hand man as he put an arm around Oswald's shoulders and pulled him against his side.
Jim scooted his chair back away from the table clearly ready to leave and convinced the situation was over.
Oswald looked to still be in a great deal of pain, but the bliss of living to see another day was present.
Maroni was nothing short of ecstatic and most of his men seemed to feel the same way. It was a joyous moment for everyone –everyone except for Bird, who remained seated at the table as she reached out with a slightly shaky hand for her glass, needing another drink.
As Maroni continued talking about how great it was that Oswald's story checked out, Jim started to stand up until he noticed Bird hadn't budged.
Reaching over he nudged her arm, thinking her sullen mood was because of everything she'd had to dredge up and admit too. "Hey, it's okay… for today at least we've dodged a bullet." He tried to assure her.
"It isn't okay." Bird whispered back as she turned her head to face him and he saw her red, rimmed watery eyes as she was clearly fighting against showing any emotion.
Thinking that she was finally about have that breakdown he'd sensed earlier, he scooted his chair closer he breathed, "I know you just went through hell, but now is not the time to do this. Hold it together until we get out of here."
"I'm not getting out of here." She stated, her voice so soft he could barely hear her. Taking another drink from her glass she pointed out with a weak, saddened smile, "I work for Fish Mooney, I just admitted to Maroni that I chose the Falcone Crime Family over my own family. You think he's just going to let me live and trust that I won't say anything to Falcone?"
Seeing the realization slowly sink in as his blue eyes widened, she motioned to herself as she said, "Dead girl walking."
A/N- First off, I owe Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, Love. Fiction. 2016, and guest a huge thank you for reviewing chapter 11. Your support just means everything to me!
Secondly, my amazing bestie Miss E Charlotte has made a video for this story and I've probably watched it a thousand times already. Lol. If anyone wants to see it, you can find it on her Youtube account or her Tumblr (missecharlotte) and I've also reblogged it on my own Tumblr (sagelondyn), where you can find edits I've made as well!
Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please take a few moments of your time to leave a review. ^_.^
