The evening had hardly begun, the sky having only just transitioned from the picturesque wash of oranges and pinks into the dark, starless screen above and while the building was now largely vacated – the majority of its regular inhabitants out patrolling or having gone home to their families, there was at least one man who remained. He was seated at his desk – a large, sturdy piece of furniture made out of real wood – his back hunched, his head hung low while his fingers pinched at the bridge of his nose. His sand-colored hair was usually pushed back and neatly kept, his eyes typically had a bright, alert look to them...but not this night; no, this man was tired. Exhausted, really, if one were to be completely honest. To say that it had been a rough couple of weeks would be damn near an insult – the young detective had seen more than his fair share of ugliness in this city and an untold number of cases that could only be politely described as having been a bit 'messy' but this...this shit-show that was rampaging through the city of Gotham now? It was unfathomable. It was infuriating. And terrifying. It was terrifying. A handful of good men and women had been slaughtered in the very room where he now sat in contemplation...the stench of gun powder and death clung to the air even still, serving as a sick reminder for all those who entered. Some of those people had been his friends, and Sarah...
The man drew in a deep breath, holding onto it for a few seconds before releasing it slowly through his mouth in an effort to calm his nerves. The loss of Sarah Essen had stung. Not only because he had considered her a friend, but because he knew that in a city filled with selfish pricks and crooked cops, that Sarah had been one of the good guys. She had been a truly decent human being and he believed that her intentions had always been honorable and that had she lived, she would have been one hell of a commissioner. Hell, she might have even been able to really help this cesspool of a city had she been given the chance, but no...any and all light that Sarah Essen had to offer the world had been viciously stamped out by that boy. The man felt his body tense, his jaw clenching tightly as the image of the young psychopath flashed behind his eyelids – he could still see his wide, snarling grin and hear the ostentatious, sinister laughter that had erupted from deep within the young man's chest the night that they had arrested him for the murder of his mother. There were very few things that could unnerve a man like Jim Gordon, and while he would never admit it out loud...that boy unsettled him in a way that he had not been able to shake. The moment that Jim had accused him of his crime and the child realized that he had been caught and no longer needed to keep up the act that he had been putting on, everything that resembled a human being seemed to melt away, revealing the monstrous face of what could only be described as the embodiment of mayhem itself. He had sincerely hoped that that night would be the last time he ever had to see Jerome Valeska, but it seemed as though the universe had other plans in mind, as he had encountered the lunatic just hours earlier. He found that the boy had murdered his father, Paul Cicero, in his apartment before both he and his partner, Harvey, were rendered unconscious by some sort of strange gas that had been released within the building, allowing the fiery-haired maniac to escape.
It was frustrating, to say the least, that the man who had slaughtered so many of his friends and colleagues had managed to slip through his fingers – in fact, it was almost as frustrating as the unremitting repudiation that he had been met with by his superiors each and every time he attempted to propose that this man, Theo Galavan, had helped to orchestrate or was, in the very least, somehow involved with the criminally insane group, though he knew that he could not fault them too much for their hesitance and skepticism, as the man clearly had powerful friends and had swiftly gained popularity throughout the city and it was not as though Jim had been able to provide any real, solid evidence to support his claims. But he just...he knew. He knew that Theo Galavan was a snake, he knew that he had some hand in all of this chaos, and he knew that there had to be something, somewhere inside of that grandiose penthouse of his that would tie him to The Maniax. Unfortunately for the young detective, though, he had been given a direct order to stay away from Galavan after his last bid to convince the others of his true nature went south. Since then, he had done his best to comply with the orders that he had been given and opted to shift his primary focus towards locating Amelia Mara instead.
While the department had all but officially labeled Miss Mara as an accomplice to Valeska and his little gang of psycho's rather than considering her a hostage as they had initially, Jim found himself unable to accept that as a possibility, having met the woman years before. Though she had struck him as being a deeply troubled girl, he never once got the impression from her that she had any kind of ill-intent or that she was in any way dangerous. He believed with every fiber of his being that Miss Mara was a decent person, that she had a good heart despite the trauma that she had endured and that, timid as she may be, she was one of the good guys who would stand against the evil, cruel wretches of the world like Jerome Valeska, rather than fall into their ranks. Allowing a quiet sigh to fall from his lips, Gordon peeled his eyes open and cast them off to the side to examine the small, burgundy rucksack that rested against the surface of his desk. All of her things were still inside of that bag, which wasn't saying too much as the woman had packed rather light. Eyewitnesses had placed her at the recent massacre at Gotham City Central Park, which was what had led the others to doubt her innocence, but Jim could not fathom that she was there of her own volition – she was, after all, surrounded by a group of unhinged individuals and the possibility that she had been coerced or threatened into doing...whatever it was that they had had her do was practically a foregone conclusion. And besides, if she truly were in on the whole thing...why would she have run like she had? The bag before him and the sparse contents that it held...it did not take a detective to come to the conclusion that this was the bag of someone who was frightened, someone who felt as though they needed to leave and do so with haste – she had forgone many things that a person might typically take with them if they were leaving for literally any other reason besides fleeing from a terrible threat...She was not apart of this. Of that, Jim was certain.
Feeling a vibration against his leg, the man straightened his back and reached a large hand inside of his pants pocket, pulling out his phone and smiling down at the small blurb that had popped up on the screen.
"Wish you could be here. I'll try not to stay too late. There's some leftovers in the fridge if you're hungry when you get home – please don't stick around the office all night again. You need to get some rest. I love you."
He wished that he could be there with her, too. Lee had gone to attend some benefit for the Children's Hospital, and while admittedly that wasn't exactly his idea of a fun time, it stung that he could not attend, as he knew that he had not been giving his fiance nearly the amount of attention that she deserved from him as of late. He would have gone, but of course it was known that Theo Galavan was going to be in attendance at the benefit which, unless Gordon wanted to get his ass chewed, meant that he needed to stay far, far away from it.
Shooting another look over towards Amelia's bag, an idea began to take form in the detective's head. His hand darted out, roughly grabbing the rucksack as the man pushed himself to his feet, studying his surroundings as he plucked his coat from the back of his chair and slung it over his shoulder. He could stay away from Galavan easy enough, he figured, and seeing as the man would be preoccupied for the majority of the evening, maybe this would be a good opportunity to see about taking a look at that penthouse of his.
"Hey, Jim! Where ya goin', bud?" He heard Harvey's voice call out from behind him as he started to make his way towards the door.
"To get some rest," Jim lied, "Still feelin' a little funny from the gas. Thought some sleep might help."
"Yeah...yeah, that's probably not a bad idea. You need a ride home or somethin'? Cause I can drop ya off if you're not feelin' well."
"Thanks, Harv, but I think I'm alright."
"Okay, if you say so. Just take it easy and don't do anything stupid."
A shallow smile pulled at Gordon's lips as he offered the man a small nod.
"Right. Of course."
A/N: Hey guys, sorry again for having left ya hanging, but as I've mentioned before I've been having some issues lately with my anxiety and it's been a slow process trying to get back to a comfortable place inside of my head so I kind of have been having to step back from a number of things lately to just try to focus on myself and my mental health, but I feel like I'm starting to make some progress, so there's that! Also, I'm sorry there's no Amelia or Jerome in this chapter, and I'm not 100% sure I'm super pleased with how this update turned out because I was kind of unsure how exactly I wanted to approach it, but here we have Jim Gordon finally entering the show in a real, active kind of way rather than just being mentioned by other characters, and for that I am super excited. The next update, I promise, will not take nearly as long to be posted – I will be chipping away at it for the remainder of the week and then going over it again to make sure that it is exactly as I want it to be, or as close as I can get to that this weekend and I will be putting it up soon. Again, I apologize for the long wait and if this particular update isn't exactly stellar (I've been over it a thousand times and though it's still not exactly what I want it to be, it'll have to do because I just...can't look at it anymore, tbh lol) Anyways, I apologize for any errors I may have missed while proofreading and again I apologize for the horrifically long wait and the lack tof Amelia and/or Jerome in this update, but I do hope you were able to enjoy it regardless. The next chapter is going to be IT – at least for part one, I suppose. This next update was originally intended to be the actual ending but I've since come up with a whole slew of ideas to continue on with, so if that is something that you would like me to do, I would certainly love to hear from you. I do deeply enjoy writing but it can sometimes feel a bit like you're screaming into the wind when you get little to no feedback from your audience so that you can gauge how you guys are liking the story and the characters and everything so far and what exactly it is that you do like about what's happening or just your thoughts in general. These things are all good things to know, as a writer I'm interested to hear your thoughts, even if it's something as simple as "Hey, I like this", that's fine – it helps keep me motivated and energized and I'd definitely appreciate it. Thanks again!
