XIV

"Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in." ― Shannon L. Alder

Pulling in a breath between her teeth, Bird reached up her hand and closed it into a fist before knocking on one of the large, heavy wooden double doors in front of her. Doors that felt dark and imposing and made her feel too small as she stood facing them.

The time that passed from her knock until the door opened made her feel painfully uncomfortable in her skin and aware of how this was probably all a waste of time.

"Hey Harvey." She greeted with a nervous smile as the lawyer opened his door, pausing for a moment to look at her, before crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the frame with a look on his face that could have been described as anything but friendly.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded to know, his tone much gruffer than he'd ever used with her before.

Doing her best to ignore the unwanted feeling his demeanor was imposing on her, she struggled to keep the smile on her face as she brought attention to the contents in her arms.

"I brought pizza and I rented a couple movies." Bird pointed out, before nodding to the glass bottle poking out of her purse when she added, "And wine. I know most people pair pizza with beer, but I read this article in a magazine once about the best wines to pair with pizza and I'm not sure why but the information kind of just stuck and I thought, why not?"

"I'm not hungry." He stated, taking a step back inside like he was about to slam the door in her face, but she moved forward and stood in the way.

"Look, I know you're mad at me and probably worried from earlier, but-"

"Mad? No, mad was when you disappeared without a trace about ten hours ago. Worried was when I could have sworn I heard a gunshot outside of the restaurant and went looking for you to no avail. You just vanished; without your car at that."

"I texted you-" She defended, but he didn't give her a chance.

"Yes. Yes you did, about two hours after that. When I was back at work trying to focus on my case instead of thinking about and having all these scenarios playing in my head of what might have happened to you."

She made no attempt of trying to conceal the emotion in her eyes as she stared back at him.

Pulling his eyes away from hers, he angrily added, "But thanks for dropping by, so I could see you're in one piece."

She saw the muscles in his arm move under his skin as he held tightly onto the open door and for a brief second she thought he was actually going shut it while she was standing in the way. Deciding to not give him the chance to do so, she breezed past him into his apartment.

"What are you doing?" He exclaimed, clearly thrown off by her actions.

"I'm sorry." She stated, as she sat the pizza box and her purse down on a small table just inside of the door.

"How did you even know where I lived?" He pushed, still standing by the open door.

Ignoring the question she said in an almost feeble sounding voice, "I'll leave if you want me to."

He didn't tell her to go but also didn't make any attempt to make her feel welcome; he even kept the door open.

"I don't really want to leave, but I can understand why you'd want me to." She continued. The honesty in her voice caught his attention more than he'd currently care to admit.

From the first time they'd met, she'd always appeared calm and put together; most times seemed rather indifferent to everything –even him. There had been times he'd internally questioned if she was truly interested in him the way he was with her.

She was constantly on his mind, haunting him when they were apart and it was a feeling that didn't even go away when they were together. Yet she didn't seem to feel the same, or so he thought, with the way she was always vanishing on him.

"I'm not good at this." She admitted with an unstable sounding laugh as she crossed her arms over her chest and avoided his eyes.

"At what?" He asked when she didn't say anything else.

She cleared her throat, but it didn't seem to help to steady her voice much, "Handling emotions, let alone trying to explain them, I guess." Her voice broke with another unsteady laugh, before she shook her head at herself feeling like she was the single, most awkward person on the face of the earth.

"I just…" She breathed, motioning between them, "I'm not always the easiest person to be around, I know that and in truth I'm not the best at relating to other people. I keep most everyone at arms length and for arguments sake, they're probably better off there for one reason or another. Maybe it was a mistake coming here tonight, I don't know."

Closing her eyes she pulled in a breath and in a rare occurrence for her, she took the messy route and chose to be honest. "All I know is that the entire drive here my head was spinning and by the time I made it to the elevator in your building I felt like I had a fist trying to punch it's way out of my chest and I'm not used to feeling like that and I'm not entirely sure what it does or doesn't mean. But... Harvey you cause me to feel, and feel things I'm not sure I've felt before."

Slapping her hand over her eyes, she sighed at herself and suddenly regretted ever taking a step into his apartment and allowing herself to be in this situation. After spending so long conditioning herself to not feel much of anything and to never show weakness, she felt entirely out of her element standing there in front of him with her feelings on display; she felt vulnerable and she was having trouble existing in her own skin from it.

Slowly, she rubbed her eyes and let her hand fall from her face and the silence of the room carried with it a new found sense of fear for her; she was afraid to look up at him. What if she looked at him only to see everything she'd been feeling wasn't reciprocated? Staring down at the floor, a new feeling set in –one that was nothing short of disgust with herself for showing up and babbling like some lovesick fool.

"Oh my god." She sighed, finally looking up at him with a new emotionless glaze over her eyes as she apologized, "I'm so sorry. I had no right to come here muttering like an idiot, it's late and I'm sure you have to work in the morning."

His eyebrows furrowed at seeing such a sudden and sharp flip in her behavior, even her voice sounded different now.

Going to the small table, she pulled the bottle of wine from her purse and sat it next to the pizza box, "Consider the pizza and wine as my apology for ditching you with our lunch check earlier today."

Walking slowly towards the door, hoping to quickly slip past him she added, "There's this thing for Wayne Enterprises tomorrow, a charity luncheon event. I was hoping you'd be my plus-one, so just think about it."

Stopping her as she tried to walk past him, he asked, "I guess it depends on which version of you I'd be going with. The one who showed up here a few minutes ago wanting to share the pizza and wine with me, or the one who's now leaving it here as payment for our sham lunch date from earlier?"

"This one." She stated, feeling self-conscious as she added, "I don't normally come undone like that, I don't know what got into me. I'm not even sure what I was trying to tell you; just forget it ever happened."

"Maybe I don't want to forget it." Harvey admitted to her.

"I do." She whispered, pulling her purse straps onto her shoulder as she folded her arms around her midsection, still in a state of disbelief at herself.

"Why?" He questioned, his voice was now almost as soft as hers when he spoke.

Finally looking at him, she tilted her head to the side with an unamused look on her face, like he'd just asked the single stupidest question in the English language.

"That back there –the nervous, disorderly rambling was-"

"A mess." Bird cut him off.

Cracking a smile he agreed, "It was a mess, but it was real and I'm pretty sure all of what you said was possibly the most open and honest you've ever been with me and I liked it."

Her eyes fell to the floor for a moment and he watched her, smiling as he admitted, "I like you… a lot."

When she looked back up to him he added, "God knows I'd have to; you've ran off from every single encounter we've had and I just keep coming back for more."

A warm feeling rushed over her and she couldn't help but smile at his words.

"I get what you were saying." He finally admitted, a serious expression back on his face as he spoke. "Sometimes it's easier to push someone away than to cope with the emotions they stir up."

"But I've never been one to just take the easy route." He said with a small smile at her, "I want you –the real you. I'd rather have you show up here in the middle of the night with cheap fast food, rambling about how you feel, than to meet you for dinner with you holding everything in and acting indifferent." He explained.

Smiling she nodding to the table as she argued, "That's actually a pretty expensive bottle of wine…"

He let out a chuckle at her words, but continued talking as he said, "Because this whole time I was really starting to think I was only one getting invested in…well, invested in us."

She beamed a smile and there was a restless feeling of wispy wings in her stomach as she softly asked, "We're an 'us' now?"

"I haven't been able to get you out of my head." Harvey said, "You're always there, popping up at random times when I should be focusing on something else, but I can't because most of the time all I can think about is you."

They stared at each other in silence for a while, before he smiled and pulled his eyes away, nodding to the things she'd set on the table. Closing the door, he walking past her picking up the box and bottle of wine, he asked, "So, what movie are we watching?"

With a smile, she followed him to the kitchen as she pulled the cases out of her purse she said, "Well, I got two movies because I wasn't sure which one you'd want to see. We've got scary and funny."

Setting the box down on the kitchen counter, he walked over to the cabinet and retrieved two wine glasses, which he set down before handing her the corkscrew and saying, "We'll watch the scary one first and the comedy after –wouldn't want you to have nightmares."

She laughed, as she opened the wine bottle and started to pour it into their glasses. Thankful he'd not only forgiven her so soon, but that being around him was comfortable. Despite his tendency to ignite her stomach in a fit of flutters; being around him was a calm feeling she wasn't familiar with.

It was funny to her, he talked about not wanting to take an easy route, yet being around him was unusually easy for her.

Taking a drink from her glass, she watched as he opened a cabinet and reached up to the top shelf to get down some plates for them to eat off of. She smiled with the glass still pressed against her lips as she watched him in his dark blue and black plaid design lounge pants and light gray t-shirt. As much as she loved constantly seeing him in his tailored suits he wore for work and their dates, she didn't think he'd ever looked more handsome than he did now, or maybe it was just that she felt closer to him than ever before.

Her smile didn't go unnoticed, when he walked back over to the counter with their plates.

"What?" He questioned, fighting a smile of his own with the way she was watching him.

"Nothing." She said, her voice slightly muffled against the glass as she took another drink and sat the glass down to top hers off.

Leaning against the counter, her eyes stayed on him as she softly said, "Thank you."

"For what?" He asked, turning to face her after he opened the pizza box.

"For being understanding… for just being so much more than I deserve." The end of her sentence was barely audible as she stared at him; her eyes moved over his face and she couldn't help but notice that his eyes were also heavy on her.

Moving forward she raised up and pressed her lips against his, her hands laid flat against his chest when she felt his arms move around her, pulling her body against his. Harvey could taste the sweet red wine on her lips and his heart sped up with the way she felt in his arms; it was everything they'd both thought kissing the other would be.

Her hands moved up his chest to his shoulders and back of his neck as she pulled his face closer to hers. The feeling of his hands sliding down her sides earned a soft moan from her, and she smiled against his mouth when his fingertips dug into her sides at the sound.

They were both a little breathless by the time the kiss was finally broken, and his forehead rested against hers. And for the moment it felt like everything else had ceased to exist stood, and silently they both wished time itself had stood still and locked them together in that moment for eternity. Kept them trapped there with on another, safe and sound from the rest of the world that always seemed to get in the way.

~(The next day)~

"I'm sorry." Bird apologized as she darted into the main room of Fish's club and was immediately met with her boss's anger laced gaze as she sat at a table with Liza, who was now unrecognizable from the girl who'd auditioned there weeks ago.

"Where were you?" Fish demanded to know, her talon like nails drumming on the table as she spoke.

"I fell asleep at…" Her voice trailed off as she wondered what she'd even call Harvey Dent now, was it too much or too early to call him her boyfriend? "I fell asleep at someone else's house and he apparently didn't feel the need to wake me when he left for work." Bird answered honestly.

"No matter." Fish cut her off, waving a hand through the air, "You're already running far enough behind and the old man won't be feeding the birds for much longer.

Nodding to Liza, Bird said, "Right, come on then."

Liza scrambled to her feet, picking her white clutch purse up from the table and starting for the door.

"Bird will meet you at her car." Fish called after her, as she stood up to face her young employee.

Liza paused at the doorway for a minute before she left them alone, wondering how much trouble Bird had landed herself in.

"This man you spoke of…" Fish said, as she walked up to Bird, "A boyfriend?" She questioned.

"I'm not sure." Bird admitted, her jaw tensed as she added, "I guess so… he referred to us –as an us."

"Normally I'd be happy for you, but right now we're on the brink of something that we're only going to get one shot at and you're on my A-team. I can't have you being distracted." Fish explained, as she trailed her hand down Bird's cheek. "This man isn't going to become a distraction is he?"

"No." Bird answered confidently, "It was an honest mistake and it won't happen again."

"Good, I need to know you're willing to give a hundred percent here, because one wrong step and it's all of our heads on the chopping block." Fish reminded her, though it sounded more like a threat directed straight at Bird.

When the younger woman stayed quiet, she patted her cheek a littler harder than could be mistaken for just a love tap before she said, "Off you go, make sure our weapon gets there in one piece."

"I will." Bird assured her.

Once she was out and in the car, Liza eyed her for a few minutes before she thought back to the first day Bird had taken her out shopping to start getting her ready for Falcone, and they'd ran into Harvey Dent while getting lunch and she asked, "Am I right to assume the reason you're late is because of Harvey?"

Glancing over to the newly dyed blonde in her passenger seat, Bird laughed, "Yeah, but it's not what you're thinking. We fell asleep on the couch watching some terrible B-rated horror movie and at some point this morning he woke up and went to work and left me there."

"That's sweet though." Liza commented, happy for the moment to have someone to talk to and a subject that could take her mind off what was about to happen.

"It just had to be on the day I'm expected at work before noon though." Bird sighed, glancing back over to Liza as she added, "All he knows about my job is that I work a night club, so I guess he just figured I didn't need to be up as early as he did."

"Today there's this charity luncheon for my family's company. It's going to be terrible, it's also so ridiculously ritzy to look good for the reporters that will be there for the papers and I'm not looking forward to spending so much time with the people my dad worked with before he died, but Harvey is coming with me so I'm thinking it won't be as bad as the ones I attended in the past."

With a thoughtful look on her face, Liza nodded, "Maybe one day, when this Falcone stuff is behind us and I turn into this woman of money, power and respect like Fish promises, maybe I'll get invites to chichi luncheons." Her face fell some as she breathed, "If I survive my time as a secret weapon that is."

"Getting nervous?" Bird guessed.

"Trying not to be." Liza admitted,her tone rather strong compared to her trembling hands that lay in her lap.

"You're going to do fine." Bird tried to assure her, "You look, talk and walk the part now. Fish coached you on everything you need to know and how to act. She knows Carmine Falcone better than anyone else. Just remember everything she taught you."

Cracking a smile, Liza said, "And you turned me into a clean cut and respectable looking woman."

"You still look hot." Bird laughed, "Just now you look classy-hot and not trashy-hot."

They both laughed and for the moment both of their spirits were lifted until, bird pulled her car into a parking lot near a line of trees just outside of the oldest section of Gotham Park and they knew they were just minutes away from parting ways.

Bird and Liza got out of the car and stood just out of view from where Falcone was sitting on the old, stone steps like usual for that time of day as he tossed bread crumbs from a brown paper bag to the birds collecting on pavement by the fountain.

"Strange."

Bird heard Liza mumble under her breath.

"What?" She questioned.

"I've just heard all these horror stories, you know? And then to see him in person like that… just feeding the pigeons. He looks like he could be anyone's father or grandfather. He almost looks… harmless." Liza explained, as she fidgeted with the buttons on her thin white jacket.

"Like I said, he's all charm and old world manners." Bird reminded her of an earlier conversation between them, "I don't know... personally, I've never had any problems with him, but I also know what he's capable of and the price someone pays for trying to screw him over."

"And here we are." Liza stated.

Nodding, Bird agreed, "And here we are."

"Okay…" Bird sighed, thinking it was harder to send Liza off than she'd expected it to be, "Just remember everything you've been taught and you've got a number to call in case of emergency. We'll get in touch with you if Fish needs to talk or needs anything else from you. But there is where I leave you."

Pulling in a deep breath, Liza tried to calm her nerves. "It sucks, you know, having to cut contact like this. It was nice, having you as a friend while it lasted."

"It was." Bird agreed. As she took a few steps back making sure she was hidden behind the tree line as Liza took one last look at her before she started walking towards the fountain.

With her earbuds now in place and the cassette tape playing the song Fish had taught her to memorize, Liza slowly walked towards Falcone like she'd been instructed. To not look at him, just pretend she was taking a nice stroll through the park.

Stealthily, Bird stayed hidden amongst the trees as she moved closer to make sure the first part of the plan went off without a hitch.

It wasn't long until Falcone became aware of Liza's presence, as she slowly ventured closer –humming the song just loud enough for the wind to carry her voice to his ears.

Standing up, Falcone removed his hat as he approached her.

Bird watched from the trees, frowning when she couldn't understand what they were saying from where she was standing.

Carefully, she inched forward, taking shelter behind the wide base of an old tree with moss altered bark.

"I couldn't help but overhear that aria you were humming."

"Oh, yes, it's my favorite." Liza smiled as she replied.

"Mine, too!" Falcone exclaimed.

"Ah, well, there you go…" Liza awkwardly replied, when she couldn't think of anything better to say.

Bird rubbed her forehead and sighed to herself at how rude the remark sounded, but instead of taking offense she stared in shock as the crime boss apologized, "I'm sorry. I-I just… I didn't mean to bother you. It's just that my mother sang that to me when I was young; she sang it to me my whole life and I hadn't heard it in a while. Then I saw you and I had to smile because you look… well, anyhow, sorry. I'm rambling on."

If Bird wasn't aware of the placing of her own jaw, she'd have sworn it was laying on the ground. Carmine Falcone, the most notorious crime boss in all of Gotham was nearly speechless in Liza's presence.

It was clear he was instantly taken with the young woman, and Bird could have sworn she saw a twinkle in his eye from where she was standing. Fish's plan was going perfectly, better than anyone could have imagined.

"No, it's okay." Liza assured him, before she looked down to the cord of her ear buds in her hand and offered, "Would you like to listen?"

"Well, yes." He answered, clearly astonished by the offer. After all he was aware of his age and reputation and here was this young, beautiful woman who reminded him so much of his mother being kind to him after he'd interrupted her walk through the park.

Nodding to the stairs, Liza offered, "Let's sit down?"

"Sure, t-thank you." He stammered out as he followed her back to where he'd been sitting.

Bird lingered a little while longer, watching them as they each sat with one earbud in listening to the song together in silence until Liza started softly humming along with it.

Seeing Don Falcone like that, reminded Bird that he was human. His name carried so much with it that even after meeting him several times, when she heard his name she tended to think of a well-oiled machine and not a man who could be so easily rendered speechless.

Bird had to admit it was endearing to see the crime leader in such a different light, despite her conspiring with Oswald to overthrow him as the ruler of Gotham, there had always been something she'd liked about Don Falcone. Watching the way he was watching Liza was almost enough to make Bird feel guilty for knowing Fish was using her knowledge of Falcone's mother to bring him down.

With one last glance at the pair, Bird disappeared back through the trees, waiting until she was safely in her car before she called Fish and let her know how their initial meeting had gone; it was perfect.

A/N- So Harvey and Bird made some big progress in this chapter. ^_^ Anyone else happy about that?

Thank you guys so much for reading!

I owe a huge thanks to Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, Love. Fiction. 2016, and MzzLightwood for reviewing! I appreciate it so much.