L
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
"Bird." Don Falcone greeted as he walked into one of the sitting rooms in his mansion and found her looking out of the window.
As she turned to face him, he saw she appeared slightly disheveled, her hair didn't appear to be combed and there were dark circles under her eyes, not to mention the clothes she was wearing were wrinkled as if she'd slept in them.
"Forgive me for saying this, but you don't look at all put together today." He observed, waiting on her explanation.
"No, I can't imagine I do." She agreed, glancing down at herself before she said, "I had a pretty rough night, Don Falcone."
"Everything is okay now, I hope?" He asked, taking a drink of his coffee.
"When you went to your doctors appointment weeks ago, I paid someone there to get me a vial of your blood." Bird admitted, her eyes locked in a harsh stare on him as she spoke.
Raising his eyebrows he took another drink of his coffee and asked, "Ah, I see…and now why would you do a thing like that?"
"To have a friend test it against my blood –a paternity test." She explained, feeling anger start to bubble up inside of her as she spoke to him. With an unhinged laugh she held her arms out to the side and said, "Congratulations, you have a daughter… but something tells me you already knew that."
Setting his coffee cup down on a table, he started to walk closer to her, but she backed away angrily shaking her head back and forth as she said, "I spent my whole life wondering about my birth parents, thinking what I'd say if I ever met either of them. Then come to find out you're my father and you know, I spent all of last night thinking what I wanted to say to you and then I started thinking about how you backhanded me so hard that day at the club it was a wonder I didn't lose any teeth, and how you put Harvey in the hospital to punish me and now I don't even know what the hell I'm doing here, because I don't have anything to say to you."
"I'm sure you have plenty to say." He argued, watching her closely.
"I don't, but you should know that I spent the first five years of my life living in one hell after another –different orphanages and foster homes, each one was worse than the last. I was starved and beaten and… and I kept thinking that my parents had to have been dead to let me go through that." Trying to control her breathing, she shook her head back and forth as she muttered, "Whatever, it doesn't even matter."
"I thought you were dead." Falcone admitted, looking her over as he spoke. "For years, I looked far and wide for you… but the one thing Gotham is overflowing with is homeless children and I-"
"It doesn't matter." She cut him off, violently shaking her head back and forth, "I don't care."
"You do or you wouldn't be here." He argued with her.
With that she started to walk past him and out of the doors, but he called after her, "You have to understand that I didn't know you were still alive until you were twelve."
Turning around she said, "That was nine years ago and considering we met when I was seventeen that still gave you plenty of time to tell me."
Ignoring what she'd said he continued, "There was a community fundraiser event in the park, in the spring that year and your school put on this play." He remembered, with a small smile, "A forty-five minute production of As You Like It, and you played Rosalind. I knew the minute I saw you that you were my daughter."
"I don't care." She stammered, turning back and trying to leave again but what he said next brought her to a stop.
"You look just like your mother."
Slowly, Bird turned back around to face him with an unreadable expression on her face, the only identifiable emotion was pain.
"Who was she?" Bird demanded to know.
"When I met her she was going by the name, Lilly Ainsworth." His eyes fell to the floor as he continued, "I didn't know until after you had both disappeared that she'd been using her mother's maiden name as a guise."
"What was her real name?" Bird pushed for information.
"Lilith Wayne."
"W-what?" Bird breathed, taking a stumbling step backwards as she shook her head back and forth and Falcone nodded as he explained, "Your adopted father had an older sister. Thomas and Martha Wayne were actually your aunt and uncle."
"That's not possible!" Bird argued, "I've never heard that name before-"
"No, I wouldn't imagine that you had." He agreed, clearing his throat as he motioned to the chair across from the one he was sitting down in and Bird slowly walked over to sit across from him.
"When I first met Lilly, she was beautiful, smart… full of life." He remembered with a fond smile, "She'd just started work at a small café I used to frequent, and she was kind to me. I was instantly drawn to her and it wasn't romantic, not at first, no, we'd forged a friendship, a bond that wasn't like anything I'd felt before. I had lost my wife several years prior and I guess maybe I was seeking out some companionship. Of course, in a city a hundred enemies just waiting to tear me down, it wasn't long until one of them threatened her life to hurt me and I moved her in here so she'd be safe and we only grew closer."
"I always felt like she kept a part of herself hidden; she was guarded –but then again so was I." Falcone explained, "Then I started to notice and pick up on different things with her –she became increasingly paranoid, but who wouldn't be after a threat was made on their life? She would be so happy and energetic and then the smallest thing would send her tail-spinning down and she'd go for days, sometimes weeks without speaking to anyone and wouldn't leave her room –I made excuses for that too. You see, I had all of the signs right in front of me, but I chose not to see them."
"What signs?" Bird breathed, her voice shaking as she stammered, "W-what are you talking about?"
"She was sick." He simply said, swallowing hard and looking down as he folded his hands in his lap and let out a heavy sigh, "Before her return to Gotham under a different name, she'd been in and out of several mental health institutions-"
"No." Bird shook her head back and forth, "You're lying… if Lilith Wayne had truly existed than I would have known, I would have heard the name at some point… it's not true."
"It is true." He said, his voice loud with conviction as he spoke. Taking a deep breath he calmed down some, "I know this must be hard for you, but you wanted the truth, right?"
Slowly she nodded her head, unable to make eye contact with him now.
"Her parents; your grandparents -kept her hidden away for the most part. From what I came to understand, she spent her youth in a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland –her parents bought a house there for when they'd visit." Falcone said, and Bird's head jerked up as she looked at him and said, "We have a chalet in Switzerland… it's about twenty minutes away from a private pay sanatorium…" Swallowing hard she asked, "Okay, so she had problems… that doesn't explain anything, it doesn't explain to me why my family would act like she never existed."
"It's all business –think about it. Wayne Enterprises is a multi-national company worth not just millions, but billions of dollars, your grandparents kept Lilly out of the spotlight because of how her mental illness would have reflected back on the Wayne name; on the company." He said and she could feel her heart starting to break apart inside of her chest, thinking of how her birth mother must have felt, being her family's dirty little secret. Locked away in another country while they tried to forget she even existed.
"You uh, you… you keep talking about her in past tense, so she's dead, right?" Bird finally gathered the strength to ask.
The room remained silent for a painfully long time, so long in fact that Bird was starting to think he was done sharing information and wasn't going to answer her, but then he finally cleared his throat and admitted, "I believe so."
"You're not sure?" Bird asked him, her brown eyes wide as she spoke.
"There's more to the story, more that you need to know." Falcone said, as he stood up and walked over to the table near the door where there was a pitcher of ice water. Pouring himself a glass he slowly nursed the glass –like he was trying to delay telling her the rest of the story for as long as possible.
Finally he sat the empty glass back down on the tray and turned back to face Bird as he said, "By the time she'd gotten pregnant with you… whatever it was that was going on inside of her head, her problems had drastically increased and it was no longer just little abnormal ticks, or the highs and lows… she was going into manic episodes. Tearing rooms apart looking for something and then not able to remember what it even was that she was searching for. I saw her talking to herself at times, completely lost in delusions." With a pained expression he remembered, "One night she took a baseball bat to the mirrors and when I finally got the bat away from her, forced her to stop and asked her what the hell she was doing… she told me that she had to break them because her reflection wasn't mirroring what she was doing." Shaking his head like he still couldn't come to terms or believe it he continued in a voice just above a whisper, "She said the woman in the mirror was telling her to do bad things, violent things and she was trying to make the voices stop."
"Why didn't you get her help?" Bird demanded to know, her eyebrows lowered and an angry expression on her face.
"I tried, but she was already pregnant and there wasn't much the doctors could do. Most of the medication she'd need could have harmed you, so we just tried to keep her calm." With a shrug he quietly said, "I did everything I knew how to do. Hired on medical staff to watch her around the clock and for a while I thought things were better until…"
"Until what?" Bird asked, feeling like she was quite possibly asking a question that she didn't want the answer to.
"I don't think she even understood what she was doing." He began to say, "She got out one night, somehow slid right past the medical staff and my guards. She could be absolutely silent when she needed to be" He remembered, eyeing Bird as he spoke, "She tied a cement block to her ankle and climbed up on the railing of Gotham Bridge, there were witnesses –said she hugged the block to her chest and jumped. A few people dove in after her and managed to save her, but she nearly lost you that night. By the time I'd gotten to the hospital, she'd been completely sedated and your little heartbeat was so faint that at first they couldn't even hear it. They didn't think you were going to make it, but through the night you got stronger –my little fighter, you were barely hanging on but you were tougher than the doctors thought."
"After that, we kept her in the hospital, kept her comfortable and sedated until you were born nearly a few months later-"
"You mean you held her prisoner." Bird corrected and his gaze fell heavy on her as he reminded her, "I told you before, everything I've done has been to help you. I did what I had to do to keep you safe."
Bird's head felt like it was about to explode from all the newly learned information. Her head ached and her heart felt heavy.
Somehow finding the strength to speak again, she tried her best to sound apathetic as she sharply said, "As much as I love a tragic love story… fast forward, I'm still dying to know why I spent the first years of my life in an orphanage."
"After you were born, I flew in the best doctors to help Lilly and things settled back down. It took a few weeks but they eventually found the right combination of medications to keep her moods level and she went back to being the woman she was when I first met her. Only, things were different… too much had happened. I still loved her, but not in the way I did before." Taking in a ragged breath he continued, "There was no question that you were going to stay here, stay with me –she wasn't fit to raise a child and being under my roof was the safest possible place for you to be. I offered to let her stay here as well, she already had a room and I was willing to let this place be her safe haven."
"The arrangement worked for weeks, looking back I'd say they were probably the best weeks of my entire life and then one night…" Letting out a heavy breath, he walked over and looked out of the window. "Then one night after dinner, she told me she was going to sleep in the nursery with you –in the rocking chair like she so often did. I didn't think anything of it, until the next morning when you were both gone and the guard I'd had posted outside of the room was dead. I looked everywhere, had all of my best people on the case… but it was almost as if neither of you had ever existed. There were no traces to follow –you'd vanished."
With a shrug he looked out of the window as he quietly said, "I thought you were both were dead. Lost every ounce of hope that I'd ever see you again… then twelve years later the impossible happened and there you were, right in front of me once again –alive and healthy."
"What was my name?" Bird asked, slowly getting to her feet and trying to ignore the shaky feeling in her knees.
"Carmina." He answered, as he looked back at her, "You're named after me."
"I always wondered what name I was born with, or if I'd even had one." Bird quietly said as she bit down on the inside of her cheek, "I never had a name in the orphanages –little nicknames and so on, but no real name. Not until I was adopted at five years old." With a shrug she continued, "I had a therapist once who had a theory that part of the reason I'm so messed up is because I started out my life with no real sense of self, that I didn't even have a name to identify with." Sighing she breathed, "Whatever."
Letting out an indiscernible noise, she raised her eyes from the floor and looked at him as she stated, "I like Bird better. The name Carmina means nothing to me and the name Starling never really felt like it belonged to me… but Bird is the name I picked for myself." Nodding like she was trying to convince herself of it she said under her breath, "I'm Bird."
"I tried to find you." He said, walking closer, but she shook her head back and forth as she accused, "Not good enough apparently. You're a Mafia Don, you practically had the whole city in your pocket –even twenty years ago. If you'd really wanted me then you'd have found a way."
"You don't know how wrong you are, my dear. I did everything within my power, for years. Turned over every single stone and didn't find a single answer and then I finally had to accept that you were gone. The only plausible explanation as to why I couldn't find a single trace of you or Lilly was that there weren't any traces left to find." Falcone argued with her, but he could tell by the look on her face that she didn't entirely believe him.
"I…" Bird breathed, rubbing her forehead, "I need to go home… shower, maybe sleep some or something. This is just too much."
As she reached the door to the room, Falcone said, "I haven't done many noble acts in my life, but I tried to do right by you. After I learned you were still alive, my first instinct was to get you back –you are my daughter after all. After I saw you in the play, I watched you for the rest of the afternoon. Saw you playing the carnival games with your friends from school, you were the best at all of them –winning one prize after another; which you traded in for something bigger. And then at the end of it all, I started towards you. I had no idea what I'd say or do, but before I got to you I saw you run to Thomas and Martha Wayne. They hugged you and you had the biggest smile on your little face and you had that big stuffed toy you'd traded all the little ones in for…" His voice trailed off as he tried to remember.
"It was an airplane." Bird remembered, glancing over her shoulder at him as she said, "I remember that day. Bruce was four… maybe five years old and I'd traded everything I'd won in for that blue plane toy to give to my brother."
Nodding Falcone continued, "Yes, I remember watching when you gave him the toy, because right after you did –you were still smiling and you looked at me; right at me and I could have sworn the whole world fell silent and stopped spinning for a few brief seconds until you looked back to them. The Wayne's loved you and you had a family, you looked so happy and it ripped my heart straight out of my chest, but I turned and walked away. I thought the Wayne's could offer you more than I could, and believed you'd be safer as a part of their family."
He watched her as she refused to turn back around to look at him, he added, "I wanted something better for you than all of this and I tried to do the right thing by not interfering with your life, I tried to do right by you… and still here we are."
~(A few days later)~
"I'm not going." Bird stubbornly said as she sat down on the side of their bed and watched Harvey pull a few luggage cases from the bottom of one of their closets.
"Just until this gang war is over." He pleaded, "You learned the truth… you talked to Falcone, it's over. Now all you have to do is stay out of dodge until the war is over-"
"I'm not running." Bird said, rubbing her forehead as she spoke and Harvey's face twisted with worry as he watched her.
For the past few days she'd barely gotten out of bed, she wouldn't give him many details of what had happened when she went to confront Falcone after learning he was her father –but it was easy enough to tell that whatever had happened –had left a lasting effect on her.
It scared him; for the last several hours Bird had grown increasingly restless which had Harvey feeling like she was on the verge of doing something reckless. Now his first goal and priority was to get her out of Gotham before she had the chance.
"I already bought our plane tickets." He stated, as if that meant she didn't have a choice to decline the impromptu vacation out of town.
"Return them."
"Non-refundable."
"City hall switched their support to Maroni." Bird admitted, "Don Falcone got hit about ten minutes ago and from what I hear the hospital is already clearing out the east wing. In less than an hour he'll be dead."
"In the grand scheme of things, I guess one could argue that maybe somehow it's justice –everything he's done for so many years is finally catching up to him." Harvey tried to dismiss it, but she couldn't let it go that easily.
"He was supposed to be mine." She admitted, "The deal I'd worked with Oswald was when it came down to it… I was going to kill him."
"Starling…" He breathed, shaking his head and letting her know he didn't want to know anymore, but she kept talking. "Revenge for what he had done to you. I know you didn't want me to strike back, but I just couldn't let what he did slide. But… after finding out he's my real father…" Shrugging she breathed, "I left Oswald a message that night after I confronted Falcone, told him I wanted out and he was free to do what he wanted with Falcone and he's going to kill him. Now is his perfect opportunity to strike, he's probably preparing to make a move as we speak."
"You have to stop…" Harvey sighed, "I'm an officer of the court. You can't tell me these things –I have a legal and ethical duty to report it."
"I don't think I can let it happen." Bird said, not acknowledging what he said, "A part of me still hates him and wants him dead, but I don't think I can just sit here and let it happen anymore." Closing her eyes, she said through gritted teeth, "I know I said that finding out the results wouldn't change anything… but it did. My talk with him and learning the things I did… changed things."
"If what you're saying is true and the higher-ups at City Hall really okayed the hit on Falcone, then we're talking about everyone –all the important players switching their support to Maroni… which means they will kill anyone and everyone who stands in their way." He said, as he sat down next to her on the bed and faced her.
"For months, I've been trying to convince myself that I'm not as bad of a person as I thought I was. I've been trying to be better –find things inside of me that sets me apart from them and that's what this has all been about right? Me trying to change for the better? Harvey, if I just sit by and let this happen… than I'm no better than he is." Shaking her head, her red rimmed eyes met his as she confided, "I really want to be better, Harvey."
"Now?" He breathed, shaking his head, "You have to pick right now for this?"
With a weak smile she shrugged, "You know I have the worst timing with important things."
"This right here-" He said motioning to her, "Is why we should get out of town for a few days or a week. It scares me when you get that look in your eyes –that look like you're on a mission and it's all or nothing."
Taking her hands in his, he pleaded, "You can't do this, Starling."
"You are one of the most patient and understanding people that I've met… and forgiving." Bird smiled as she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips, pulling back she said with an apologetic expression, "I just need you to keep being that understanding, patient and forgiving for a few more days."
"You do understand that's actually asking a hell of a lot more than it sounds like." He stated, as his eyes met hers.
"I know." She conceded, laying a hand on the side of his face and giving him another sad smile, before she stood up and started to pull her coat on. "I'm hoping this can all be resolved today, but it might be a few more before I can come back home to stay and…"
Her voice trailed off as she turned back around saw him kneeling on their bedroom floor, down on one knee.
"Harvey…" She breathed shaking her head, "Don't you-"
"I love you." He said loudly, cutting her off. Once he had her attention he continued, "I love you so much, Starling and I know that I'll never feel this way about anyone else again; and I… I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Displaying the ring box she'd found in his coat pocket weeks before, he took a deep breath he asked, "Will you marry me?"
"I love you too." Bird said, her expression twisting in emotion as she said, "No."
"No?" He asked, with a noise like the air had been knocked out of his chest.
"No." Bird repeated.
They stared at each other for what felt like an eternal minute before he asked, "Why not?"
"Harvey, please get up off the floor." Bird said, feeling like the conversation was awkward and painful enough without having to look down to speak to him.
"I don't understand." He breathed, as he got to his feet and looked down to the ring in the box, before his eyes met hers and he admitted, "I really didn't see this coming."
Bird put a hand over her mouth to hide the smile and try and hold in the small laugh at how completely stunned he looked, like her saying no was honestly the last thing he'd ever expect to happen.
"I'm not saying no because I don't want to marry you." Bird explained as she stepped up to him, "I'm saying no right now, because the only reason you're asking me is an attempt to get me to leave with you."
"That's not true." He argued, still holding the open ring box in his hands as he admitted, "I bought this ring a month ago… I've just been trying to find the perfect moment and-"
"I know." She smiled, cutting him off as she admitted, "I found the ring in your pocket the night of the charity ball." Reaching out and holding onto his hands with hers, she promised, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you too, but we can't start it like this. It doesn't feel right… you asking me to marry you in hopes I'll agree to leave Gotham for a while feels more like a business arrangement than some grand romantic gesture."
His eyes were locked with hers, until she reached down and pulled the ring box from his hand, closed it and slid it back into his pocket, then said, "Ask me again –when this all over."
"It would be much simpler and a lot less nerve-wracking if you just said yes now." He reasoned, but he knew deep down she was right. As much as he did want to marry her, in that moment in time he was asking for all the wrong reasons.
She opened her mouth to say that she had to go, to get to the hospital before it was too late for Falcone, but before she got the chance Harvey lowered his head and asked in a defeated tone, "Is there another reason you're saying no?"
Not giving her much of a chance to speak, he admitted with a despondent shrug, "I'm getting really tired of feeling like I'm competing against him when it comes to you."
"Harvey!" Bird exclaimed, shaking her head back and forth, "I know that night after The Foxglove looked bad, but Jim and I are just-"
"Jim?" Harvey cut her off, "What does this have to do with him?"
A blank expression fell over her face and Bird stammered, "W-who are we talking about?"
"Oswald!" Harvey yelled, rubbing his forehead and trying to keep the lid from blowing.
Seeming ever further perplexed from the admission, she asked, "You feeling like you're in competition with Oswald?"
"It feels like I'm losing." He admitted.
He'd never been able to understand their friendship, or come close to comprehending how she couldn't see the type of person he was and how her association with him kept pulling her down.
"Haven't you ever heard the expression about comparing apples to oranges?" She sputtered, "What we have and what I have with Oswald is entirely different-"
"I know you say you're going to save Falcone, but when it really comes down to it Starling…" Running a hand through his hair he breathed, "When it comes down to it; I just asked you to marry me and you're running away from me and towards him."
"Harvey…"
"It doesn't matter what color you want to paint that, it doesn't change the facts." He argued, "You should be here with me, you know that? The city is at war and you claim that where you want to be is at my side, but actions speak louder than words and-"
"You're really wanting to get into this right now?" She scoffed, thinking to herself that now it was his impeccable bad timing messing the situation at hand up.
She also wondered if he was only bringing this up now to try and stall her, keep her distracted until she wouldn't have a reason to run out the door.
He didn't say anything, only stared back at her. Though, no words needed to be spoke, she could read from the expression on his face what he was thinking.
"So this is it, huh?" Bird sighed, "The part where you tell me that it's either you or him?"
"I'm not saying that." Harvey stressed, "But you had to know things were going to come to a head, Starling. You're smart enough to know that you can't walk away from your old life without leaving people like Cobblepot in the past-"
"Don't." She warned, her jaw clenched, "Don't give me an ultimatum here, don't tell me to choose between you and Oswald. You don't want me to choose."
"So I guess that's my answer?" He breathed, wondering when the air in their room had gotten so think it was impossible to catch a breath.
"You're the one wanting me to choose, not him!" She accused.
"Because he's manipulating you at every turn and you can't see it because you have such a blind spot when it comes to him."
"I know exactly who Oswald Cobblepot is." Bird arched a brow as she spoke, "Harvey, I think you're the one with the blind spot -only when it comes to me. The last years of my life I have been neck deep in everything you've devoted your life trying to rid the city of."
"That's not what I see when I look at you." Harvey explained, taking a step towards her and reminding her, "I love you."
"And I love you!" She exclaimed, shaking her head and admitting, "And I don't understand why that's not enough. Why is it that I have to leave my best friend to prove that to you?"
There was a dullness to his eyes when his shoulders dropped forward in a helpless shrug when he realized, "You're still going to leave, aren't you?"
"I have to… before it's too late." Bird apologized, leaning up to kiss him and locking into memory how it felt when his arms slid around her and held her close; like he never wanted to let go.
"I will come back to you, I promise." Bird softly said, as she stared up into his eyes, "I love you."
"I love you too." He replied, leaning down until his forehead rested against hers. Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes and said, "But I can't keep doing this, Starling. Being scared to death that every time you walk out the door it's going to be the last time I see you. I can't live like that."
"And you won't have too, I just need-"
"A little more time… yeah, you've been saying that for months."
"But this is it." She said, pulling her face from his and looking frantic as she pleaded, "Don't give up on me now, Harvey. This is literally the end of this chapter of my life; the home stretch-"
"I'm not giving up." He said, his hands gently landing on her cheeks as he tilted her head up to face him, "But this is killing me, so when you come back here… it has to be to stay. Okay?"
"I won't come back until this is all over." Bird agreed, reaching up and holding onto his hands as she said, "I promise."
~()~
A chill ran down her spine as Bird walked through the east wing of the hospital. Wheelchairs were left abandoned in the halls and there was paperwork scattered on the floor. Room doors were open and beds left unmade from where the staff had rushed to move all the patients to a different area.
Her footsteps sounded heavy to her own ears and the sounds of monitors beeping seemed unnaturally loud as she made her way down the hallway.
"It's nothing personal, I assure you, sir. You have been a wise mentor and a good friend, but… business must come first."
Bird came to a stop right outside of the room as she heard Oswald's voice. Pulling in a deep breath she leaned against the wall just outside of the room and listened to what was happening inside.
"I'm going to take your place, old man!" Oswald exclaimed, "And I'm going to be the King of Gotham." He laughed with excitement as he spoke, the end of it all was so close he could taste it. Everything he'd worked for was about to finally pay off.
"You?" Falcone scoffed, "Never! You're going to burn in hell."
Walking up to the side of the gurney the crime boss was left strapped down too, Oswald leaned in closely as he confided, "I do worry about that." Letting out the breath he'd been holding he pointed at him with the scalpel as he continued, "But you first, old friend…"
The tone of his voice changed as he repeated, "You first!"
"Stop!" Bird yelled as she darted into the room. She'd heard that tone in her best friend's voice before and it was normally followed by a large amount of blood being shed.
"What are you doing here?" Oswald asked, looking at her with wide eyes as he reminded her, "You said he was mine."
"I know." She nodded, eyeing Butch who was standing in the corner of the room holding onto an assault rifle. Turning back to Oswald she admitted, "I tried to just stay out of it, let fate take its course… but I can't."
As she walked over and stood on the opposite side of the gurney from where Oswald was standing, she looked down to Don Falcone and sighed, "I can't let you kill him."
"You don't have a choice!" He hissed from between his teeth, "You can't stop me."
"What are you going to do?" Bird asked with a shrug, "Command Butch to shoot me?"
Looking down to the gun in his hands, and then to the man who's orders he'd been programmed to thoughtlessly carry out, Butch pleaded, "Please, don't."
With a scowl on his face, Oswald stared his best friend down.
All along he'd been messing their plans up, one misstep after another and now that they were almost on top it was apparently her turn to screw up their plans.
"I will be the King of Gotham." Oswald said, shaking with anger as he spoke.
"You couldn't be king of anything." Falcone argued, despite being strapped down and left defenseless, "You're a nobody."
"Shut up." Bird snapped, looking down to where he was laying, she continued, "You deserve this, we both know… after everything you'd done the sad truth is you deserve to go out like this." Letting out a sigh, she added, "I guess you're just lucky that I can't chalk murders up to business when it comes to friends and family."
Oswald's eyes widened as he stared at her and asked, "You had the test ran… and you were correct in your assumptions?" Stuttering through his sentence he managed to ask, "He's really your father?"
"Oh…" Bird breathed, "The story gets better than that –turns out I'm actually a Wayne by blood too."
Butch looked between the friends with an ever growing look on confusion on his face as he tried to process what they were saying, but it was like the words just weren't sinking in yet.
"While I'm sure that's a perfectly interesting story, I'm afraid I don't have time for it right now, Bird." Oswald said, clutching the scalpel in his hand as he stomped a foot against the floor and said, "Just leave me to take care of this."
"Wait… you're The Romans daughter?" Butch finally asked, with a dumbstruck expression. Looking down the floor he breathed, "When did all of this happen?"
"Not now, Butch!" Oswald sighed heavily, burdened by Butch's slow response time when it came to matters of the brain and thinking things through. He often felt the same way about Gabe, psychically they could intimidate and provide protection he needed –but intellectually, he felt like they weren't even in the same ballpark as he was.
"I'm sorry." Bird apologized to her best friend, "I will still help you reach the top of the crime ladder in Gotham, but we have to do it without killing Falcone."
"Killing him is the only way!" He argued, and Bird yelled back, "Look at him, he already knows he's been beaten! You've won, Oswald… we're just going to have to revise the details is all."
"Nobody move!" Jim ordered as he entered the room just in time to catch the end of the argument between the friends.
Letting out a groan, Oswald pinned his eyes shut and couldn't believe the terrible luck he was having that day.
Holding out a hand he ordered, "Walk away, Jim Gordon."
"Shut up." Jim countered, looking between Butch and Oswald as he explained, "You're both under arrest for attempted murder. Drop your weapons."
In a fit, Oswald let out another frustrated noise as he threw the scalpel into a metal sink across the room and Butch laid down the gun he'd been holding.
As he started to handcuff them to a handrail on the wall, Bird complained, "What are you doing, Jim? We all need to get out of here before Maroni's men show up."
"Didn't you hear?" Oswald yelled at him, "Falcone is out, by official decree. Everyone agrees."
"I heard!" Jim yelled back at him, before nodding to Bird and saying, "Help me untie him."
With a sigh she got to work on helping him undo the restraints holding Falcone down.
"No, Bird, don't!" Oswald cried out, stubbornly trying to pull his hand from the handcuff, but stopping when the metal started to cut into his skin, "Release me, Jim… get on the winning side!"
Helplessly he looked between them as they continued to remove Falcone's restraints; he felt like the entire world was collapsing in on him and he couldn't understand how the day had gone so wrong when just minutes before he was about to kill the biggest crime boss in all of Gotham.
"Winning side? My ass! Maroni's a fool, he can't replace me. A thousand rivals will jump up to challenge him." Falcone angrily yelled, before lowering his volume and turning to Jim as he said, "There will be civil war. If I die now, Gotham falls apart."
"I agree." Jim nodded, "But can you turn things around? Can you take back control?"
"Of course. I just need a few days… two days at my safe house to make some moves and I'll skin Maroni and those disloyal scum like rabbits-"
"Wake up Napoleon!" Oswald yelled, "Maroni's louts are minutes away from coming here and cutting your throat, and the thing is, Jim, they aren't very fond of me either… so seriously, you need to uncuff me…" His voice trailed off and he frantically yelled, "Jim!" When the detective went out into the hallway, with the assault rifle Butch had been armed with in his arms.
After making a call to Bullock in hopes that his partner would come to his aid at the hospital. Jim returned to the room, and asked Falcone if he was able to walk.
"If I have to." He nodded, his whole body was aching from the explosion he'd been near earlier that day, he was worn out –physically exhausted, but he wasn't giving up the fight.
"Let's get you out of here. I'll take you to your safe house." Jim nodded.
"Jim, my friend!" Oswald yelled, with a nervous smile. "You are making a terrible mistake."
"I'm doing this for the city." He explained, turning to Falcone as he added, "Not you, but you're the least worst option, if I didn't think you could take back control… I'd let you die. Just so we're clear."
"We're clear." Falcone agreed.
"Y-you can't leave me here… Maroni's men will kill me." Oswald said.
"Possibly." Jim nodded.
"No… no, you arrested us." He reminded him, nodding to where Butch was handcuffed beside him, "We are in your custody."
"That's true…" Jim breathed.
"Look around, Jim." Bird said, "You're in a room full of criminals… but right now we're all on the same side."
"Are we?" Oswald yelled at her, "And pray tell, Bird, what side is that, because frankly I don't know where your alliances are anymore!"
Rolling her eyes she shot him a look as she said, "Right now, we're all just wanting to make it out of this hospital in one piece… am I right?"
Looking around she watched as everyone slowly nodded in agreement with her.
"James Gordon!"
Everyone looked towards the open door when they heard someone calling out Jim's name.
"Detective Gordon!"
"It's Loeb." Jim realized, looking around the room at everyone.
"You want me to kill him?" Bird questioned and when Jim looked at her she shrugged and whisper yelled, "The man has been nothing but a pain the ass!"
"Just stay here!" He hissed back, before stepping towards the door and looking out into the hallway, as he glanced back into the room he saw Falcone pulling a knife from his sock and Jim pleaded, "Don't kill them."
"He won't." Bird spoke up, nodding to let Jim know that she could control the room while he dealt with the police commissioner.
"Morning fellas!" Jim greeted, "What can I help you with?"
"It's not morning." Butch quietly said upon hearing Jim's voice from the hallway.
"Does it matter?" Oswald snapped, shaking his head and glaring at Bird.
"Oh, stop giving me those looks." She whisper yelled at him with her eyes narrowed.
"You came back to save my life." Falcone said, looking at her as he said, "Thank you."
Bird looked over at him, but didn't say anything. Instead she tried to focus on the conversation taking place outside of the room.
"He's all yours!" Loeb called out as he turned to leave, throwing Jim to the wolves and in truth hoping they killed the detective.
Bird darted out into the hallway, bumping into Jim as she did to see what was happening.
"Get back inside." He yelled, pushing her into the room and quickly spinning back around to prepare for the attack from Maroni's men.
"I saw at least ten guys down the hall." Bird recounted for the group still in the room. She'd barely gotten her words out before the empty wing of the hospital was lit up with rapid gunfire and the sounds echoing off the walls were nearly deafening.
"We're dead." Butch thought out loud, giving a lazy tug on his cuffed wrist as he spoke; upon hearing footsteps closing in on the doorway of the room.
Silently crossing the room, Bird grabbed the scalpel that Oswald had tossed into the sink, and moved back to lean against the wall just inside of the door.
Oswald and Butch both stared at her, wondering what sort of plan she was working on and both knowing Bird was their first line of defense.
Falcone remained where he was sitting on the end of the bed –still trying to regain his strength and prepare to run if he needed too.
"Well, well, well." A voice said just from outside of the door, "Maroni's gonna-"
The man never got to finish his sentence, just as he got through the doorway into the room, Bird lunged for him driving the scalpel into the side of his neck, straight into his carotid artery and kicking backwards as she pulled the blade out and blood started to pour and spurt from the wound, leaving a thick red line of blood across the wall as he stumbled backwards before falling onto the floor.
The crimson stained scalpel fell from her hand as Bird quickly retrieved the gun the man had been holding onto from beside his motionless body, and immediately removed the clip to see how many rounds were left before snapping it back into place.
Pulling in a deep breath, she looked around the room and then back down to the gun in her hand before she tucked it into the waistband of her dark jeans.
"Jim can hold his own out there." Bird said, trying her best to sound confident as she spoke. Looking to Butch and Oswald she displayed the key to the handcuffs she'd lifted off the detective when she bumped into him and said, "We have to get out of here."
"Oh, Bird..." Oswald breathed, dropping his head with a sigh of relief, "You are still my truest friend."
"Just add it to the ever growing list of how many times I've saved your ass." She said as she started towards the handcuffed pair, until she slowed to a stop.
"What are you waiting for?" Oswald frantically questioned; unable to wrap his mind around why she wasn't already unlocking the cuffs.
Another round of gun fire echoed off the walls and she looked over her shoulder towards the open doorway of the room.
"Bird?" Butch questioned, "The cuffs, remember?"
She turned back and around and looked between them, her gaze focusing on Oswald as she admitted, "I can't leave him out there on his own."
"You can!" Oswald insisted, "You said yourself, Jim Gordon can hold his own-"
"I'm not leaving him." Her tone was strong and for the first time in what felt like months, she knew without a doubt that the decision she was making was the right one.
"Bird!" Oswald hissed, his anger giving way to fear.
"You're safer in here with us." Falcone pointed out, "You'll be walking out into a firing squad."
His words earned little more than a glance over in his direction, before she walked up to Oswald. "This is your fault, you know." She joked with a sad smile, "You're the one who wanted to keep Jim Gordon around in the first place."
His mouth hung open and his eyes searched over the expression on her face, and though he knew there was no way in talking her out of it, he pleaded, "Don't go out there, Bird. Please."
"Take these." She pushed the keys into his free hand and leaned in, pressing a kiss to his forehead before pulling back and adding, "And don't get killed."
Turning, she briskly walked towards the door, only pausing long enough to call over her shoulder, "And if any of you care about me at all, you won't kill one another."
Before she'd ever left the room, Oswald was already scrambling to get the handcuff off his wrist, before handing the key to Butch so he could free himself.
Rubbing his wrist, Butch looked to Oswald and asked, "What now, boss?"
Oswald gave a weak shrug, the gunshots seeming to sound louder with his realization that they couldn't make a run for it. They'd all be dead as soon as they left the room.
"The shots are still too close." Falcone announced, taking charge of the situation, "It's too risky; anyone who steps one foot outside of this room is as good as dead."
"But Bird-" Butch started to argue.
"Is highly skilled and trained by the best of the best." Falcone cut him off, pulling in a breath before admitting on the exhale, "I made sure of that."
A/N - So the truth is out! Bird didn't only find out who her biological father is, she also learned she's a Wayne by blood as well. :P
Not too many more chapters and I'll be done with season one! I'm planning on starting a new story for when I hit season two -I'll have more details at the end of the last few chapters for all of you!
I really hope you're all having a great holiday season and I want you all to know how incredibly thankful I am for the support I've received on this and my other stories.
Big thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Shadow knight1121 and to Guestz for reviewing since the last update.
