"Ladies and gentlemen, we have begun our descent into Gotham city. Please turn off all portable electronic devices and stow them until we have arrived at the gate. In preparation for landing, be certain that your seat back is straight up, and your seat belt is fastened tightly. At this moment in time, we would also like to ask you to secure your carry-on items, stow your tray table, and pass any remaining service items and unwanted reading materials to the flight attendants. Thank you."
Eyes squeezed tightly shut while she listened to the flight attendant, sixteen-year-old Mary Roberts sucked in a deep breath of air as she clung onto her seats' armrests. She hated flying. Not only did it have to deal with one of her biggest fears – heights – but it also dealt with the unknown, to a much lesser extent. After all, with flying you don't really know what's going to happen unless it's announced over the PA system, whereas if you are riding by car to your destination if there is an accident at all it just….happens. And in a car crash, there is no second-guessing if you will live or die like there is in a plane crash.
"Mary are you alright?" the soft voice of her mother rang in her ears, which in turn caused Mary to crack open an eye, look out of the window she was sat next too, before sucking in another breath and shaking her head quickly. Mentally, she tried counting backward from 100, since that would occasionally help her calm down from having her panic attacks. But as she got to 80, she swore in frustration as she realized that it was not helping her this time around. But perhaps talking would ease her mind…well, she could always give it a try at the very least.
"You know I hate flying mom." Mary whispered. "Especially during the landing, so this is really freaking me out right now."
As the plane bounced down an inch after hitting an air pocket, Mary shuddered as she let out a shaky breath, while her hands squeezed onto the seat even tighter than before. Turning her knuckles white.
"I'm sorry hon," her mother said with sincere regret. "it was just easier to do the move this way. If Gotham wasn't in New Jersey, we could have made a road trip out of it. But it's not, so this was our best option."
Mary sighed and opened her eyes, fully this time, before turning in her seat at an angle to give her mom a small smile.
"I know that mom. I'm just hoping that we'll be landing soon."
It was as though the goddess of luck was listening to her conversation, because the next thing Mary knew, after the second had passed when she had turned to face foward in her seat again, another announcement was made over the PA system.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Gotham city. Where local time is twelve in the afternoon and the weather is clear and sunny. While the temperature is a nice and warm 80 degrees. We hope that you have had a nice flight riding DeltaAIR and that you'll join us for another flight soon."
Mary let out a small, relieved laugh at hearing that as she felt her rapidly beating pulse calm down back to normal, slowly but surely. 'Oh, thank GOD the flight is over.' She mused as she felt the plane land. Hopefully, Mary would NOT have to do that again for a while.
* LINE BREAK *
Fun Fact about Mary: She found out she was adopted when she was ten years old by accident. She had overheard her adopted mom and another woman named Emma Swan, talking about their life goals. And the subject of adopting her came up. And her mother has no idea that Mary knows.
* LINE BREAK *
Pushing their way through the hoard of people, Mary and her mother both breathed a sigh of relief when they were able to walk out of the gate. The teenager was exhausted and was positively famished. As she glanced over to her mom, Mary knew that the older woman felt the same – judging from the ashen color that her mother's face had. Because if there was one thing the two of them had in common, it was the fact that they were both hypoglycemic. And while they had brought their own snacks for the journey, it just wasn't enough to satisfy them both properly in the long run.
"Mom, are you hungry?" Mary asked as she started to dig around in her purse for her wallet. "I can go and grab us both some sandwiches really quick while you call grandma."
Mary's mother nodded and smiled her thanks, before going over to one of the waiting areas and whipping out her phone. Shaking her head fondly at the woman, Mary then turned and began to walk rather briskly over to one of the little Shoppe's she had spotted as they were exiting the plane and hummed the tune of Ave Maria under her breath. And then, just as she was about to step into the store – she soon found herself tripping over something or rather someone (as they stepped rather rudely in front of her) and fell.
"Ouch!" She groaned in pain as she sat up on her tush and rubbed one of her elbows. "That really hurt," looking up she spotted a bald man dressed in pure black walking away from her and she scowled. "Hey asshole, maybe watch where you're going next time!"
She yelled in indignation as fury washed over her body like buckets of ice.
The man she had called out too paused, seeming to have heard her. And she watched silently, fuming angrily as he glanced over his shoulder and looked at her for a solid minute before appearing to scoff as he turned back around and continued to walk further away.
"Dick." She grumbled as she went from sitting on her tush, to her knees so that she could start to gather up her strewn items.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Looking up, Mary blinked owlishly as she came face-to-face to a girl with gorgeous, soft-looking silver blonde hair and a worried look gazing down at her.
Mary shook her head. "I'll live." She stated earnestly, before watching in shock as the other girl let out a chuckle and began to help pick up her items. "I'm Mary. Mary Roberts." Mary said, introducing herself with a humored laugh.
A few seconds later, as soon as the last item was found and recovered from the airport floor, the two girls then stood, and the pretty blonde stuck out her gloved hand.
"Nice to meet you Mary." The blonde replied. "I'm Silver."
Author's Note: Welcome to a new fanfiction of mine, old readers. And welcome new readers! Tell me what do you think of my - first ever -Gotham fanfic so far? Do you like it? Who do you think Mary's adoptive family is? Do you like Mary so far? Why or why not?