Chapter One

It was a long shot, me getting the job at Gotham's Police Station, I wanted to join the Major Crimes Unit where all of the action was and since my dream of being a police officer fell down the drain this was the closest I could get. Administration.

I couldn't believe it when I received the job offer at the end of the interview and as overjoyed as I was I missed the way Mr Diaz, the interviewer, was admiring the way my shirt clung to my curves and my long legs that were showing under my appropriate-length skirt.

I was young, only 26, with pale skin, freckles and wavy red hair that went along with it. No, I wasn't Irish or Scottish and neither were my ancestors, I was a gothamite through and through.

And now as I stood outside the doors of the police station I felt the nerves in my stomach and the jitters in my feet as I debated if I was too early to go inside. It was the biggest building I had ever been in, although like the rest of Gotham, it was dark and unwelcoming. There were stone columns on either side of the door and stone gargoyles resting on top. Brass doors emblazoned with the words police station beckoned me inside to what would be my new career.

They were even rumours that on the roof was the light that shone the bat signal but as far as I knew that was all false. I would definitely be trying to sneak my way up there to find out for myself. Grinning at my thoughts I decided it was time to go inside, I smoothed down the creases in my dress that were from sitting down on the train for my journey here and pushed the doors open.

Inside was incredibly loud, I was surprised that I wasn't able to hear it from outside. I followed a few other people and waited my turn for the desk sergeants attention. I allowed my eyes to wander, as they were prone to do, and caught sight of a group of detectives standing in front of one man. I recognised him from the news as Jim Gordon.

They were too far away and the room was too noisy for me to hear what they were saying but I could see a photo that Detective Gordon was gesturing at.

The Joker was a new criminal in town but he had already made a name for himself, known as chaotic, extremely dangerous and wore the most bizarre makeup to distort his face. I'd been told that he had scars in the shape of a smile but as I'd never seen him in person I was unsure if this was true or if that was just his makeup.

"Miss!" I jumped as I was caught staring at the detectives and had clearly missed being called a few times if the desk sergeants expression was anything to go by. She looked extremely annoyed and motioned for me to come forward, which I did quickly.

"I'm so sorry." I apologised, cursing my pale skin as I felt it heat up in embarrassment.

"I'm Jennifer Hunter, here for my first day."

She raised an eyebrow and look down at her files to see if I was telling the truth. Satisfied, she stood up and opened the doorway for me to enter through.

"Carmichael!" She shouted over the dim roar of the bullpen. A shifty looking man perked up from where he was scribbling on some papers in front of him and hurried over once he saw me.

"Ah, yes, you must be the new admin. Come over here please." I followed him with a goodbye to the desk sergeant, who didn't offer a goodbye or her name and was immediately hit with the sheer amount of paperwork that was waiting at what would be my desk. "So we need you to start by typing up these case files into the system, there are a lot so you'll be pretty busy."

Carmichael, who told me to call him Joe, showed me the system and once he was happy that I sort of knew what I was doing, he left me to my own devices.

I had my own desk, which I could see was only because the paperwork was overflowing onto the one opposite me and I stared at the pile wondering where to begin. There was no order to them so I decided to just pick up the file closest to me and became engrossed in my work.

Each file fascinated me, I had known Gotham's crime scene was horrific but it was really hitting me now that I lived in a terrible place. Of course, I already knew that, especially considering the whole Scarecrow fiasco last year. I shuddered to think about it and instead refocused my mind on a murder committed only two days ago, a husband murdered his wife.

Apparently the wife had been cheating on him, which of course meant he had to kill her. I tutted to myself and shook my head in disbelief as I wrote up the file. There was a picture attached and so I stretched my legs to try and find the scanner in this place. My eyes once again wandered over to the bullpen but Detective Gordon was gone and the rest of them were sat at their desks, either on the phone or looking at case files.

I walked over to what I thought was the scanner and looked over the keypads. It couldn't be too complicated, and I was right, it wasn't too complicated however it was extremely loud and very slow. I scowled down at it and once it was finally done, spun around intending to get back to my huge mountain of work.

However I didn't anticipate anyone being behind me and bumped straight into Detective Gordon, who caught me with wide eyes as I rebounded off him and dropped made his drop his paperwork on the floor.

"I'm so sorry." I flushed again in embarrassment as I quickly stooped to the floor to pick up his things. He smiled at me with his eyes crinkled in amusement.

"It's ok honestly, thank you for getting those for me." He gave me a once over, eyes not lingering anywhere just a scan to see if he could place me. "Are you new here? I don't think I've seen your face around."

I nodded quickly, my hands wringing together under my own stack of paperwork as I shifted nervously. "Yes, I'm the new civilian administrator." I smiled slightly at him to try and show I wasn't a complete mess.

He smiled back and relaxed his stance, stepping backwards slightly "I'm Jim Gordon." He held out a hand.

"Jennifer Hunter." I took his hand and shook it, releasing it quickly. "It's nice to meet you, I should get back to work I have a mountain of paperwork to get through and as it's my first day I don't want to mess it up."

He laughed and looked over at my desk. Upon seeing the mess of paperwork that it was he looked a little embarrassed. "Sorry about that, we've not had a chance to catch up on our paperwork for a while as you can imagine, it's been a little hectic." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Anyway I hope you enjoy the rest of your first day," he spotted another detective waving for his attention, "if you ever need help around here my door is always open." He smiled and left, hurrying over to the detective and then they both hastened out the door, calling a few others as they did so.

I wondered what was going on, but with another glance at my mountain, I knew I would see the finer details sooner or later.

By the time lunch had come around I was feeling exhausted and the mountain look as though it hadn't been touched at all. Before I left my desk to get something to eat, I decided to straighten the files up a little so it looked as though I had done something with the three hours I had already been here. There was tiny section of desk free now and that made me smile. By the end of the week I was hoping most of the desk would look like that.

As soon as I stepped out of the precinct I took a deep breath in, not realising how stagnant the air had been inside and felt the warming rays of a few uncommon sunbeams on my face. That wasn't to last long however as the sun quickly went away and I felt a few raindrops of my face instead.

I huffed and joined the lunchtime crowd in their journey to find food. I went into the nearest coffee shop and paid quickly for a sandwich and a slice of cafe, opting to sit inside to enjoy them.

My phone rang as soon as I was about to bite into my food. I grumbled as I pulled it out, feeling my stomach ache for the food I was so close to eating.

"Hello?"

"Jennifer! How's your first day going? I thought I would give you a call and see because I know you won't if I leave it up to you." My mother's voice came streaming down the phone, speaking so quickly I took a second to detangle the words.

"Hi Mom, yes it's going well I'm just on my lunch break now."

"Oh why didn't you tell me darling. I could have joined you but now I'm on the other side of Gotham, I've got a hair appointment and then getting my nails done." She continued to babble down the phone about her plans, forgetting about my new job almost immediately so I went about eating my lunch and giving a few answers here and there to keep her momentum going.

Once I finished eating I had to interrupt several times to get her to stop talking. "I have to go now Mom, I'll talk to you later." Ignoring her protests as I was not about to be late on my first day to hear about her new kitchen counters.

I hurried back into the precinct and over to my desk. I stopped and blinked quickly to understand how the tiny corner I had cleared now had several case files piled onto it and there was now an overspill onto the floor. I gaped in disbelief as an unwitting police officer stood on top of the files and left a footprint indent.

I scooped the rest of them up quickly and spotted a trolley that would work as extra storage space and loaded it up.

"People are the worst aren't they?" A deep voice from behind startled me and I spun around to find an attractive police officer smiling at me in amusement. He ran a quick hand through his dark hair which gave it a windswept appearance that was not unattractive.

I realised I hadn't said anything and once again felt my face flush. "They are." I agreed gesturing to my desk. "I have no idea how they've managed to do this."

He chuckled and looped his thumbs into his belt. "People are relieved that we finally have someone in to sort that out." He admitted, nodding his head to my mountain. "I'm Kyle Dixon by the way."

"Jennifer Hunter." I pushed the trolley I had over to my desk as he followed along. He helped me put most of the files onto the trolley so that I had a clear space to work and I found that he was actually quite funny. He told me all about the case he was working on and how he ended up rooting through garbage yesterday to find some evidence.

"I don't know what people in Gotham are eating but the smell of the leftovers is enough to make me regret taking the case." I laughed and looked up to see his blue eyes crinkled in amusement, they lingered slightly on where my blouse rested on my collarbones and he opened his mouth to say something before his eyes widened in shock at something behind me.

I turned my head slightly as I didn't want to seem nosy, putting my case files down as I had started organising the remaining ones on my desk by date. My mouth fell open in complete shock, my heart sped up so that I felt as though I could feel it in my throat.

Greasy green hair hung limply around his face as his eyes darted back and forth around the bullpen. I couldn't see what colour they were but from here they looked almost blank and shark like, helped along by the rings of black face paint around them. The rest of his face was stark white with a bold red across his lips extended to this cheeks. It was very unsettling to look at even though some of the white had come off, probably from sweat and you could see the pinkish skin underneath.

He suddenly started laughing as the police officers roughly marched him into the room and it sent shivers down my spine and how odd it was. It was high pitched but also low pitched, not a squeal or a shout, something completely unique to him.

Almost as if he could feel me looking at him, his eyes connected with mine.