The Crane and the Falcon

Chapter VII

Lieutenant Sparkles - Hey! Welcome to the story! Love your name, btw, totally great! Thanks, I tried to make this story really original by throwing in the whole half-Japanese thing.

The power being a Falcone brought.

Sakura paced up and down the length of the glass wall in her apartment. Her eyes were puffy and red and she clutched a wad of tissues in her hand. "This is bad, this is bad, this is bad," she murmured. She sniffed heavily and coughed.

It was nearly morning and Sakura could see the dawn stretching across the sky, sending shocks of blue and purple across the night. She didn't want to think about what had happened hours before. The batman, that voice.

Jonathan…

But she physically shook the thoughts from her head, shaking her head back and forth. Her short, shaggy black hair moved with her. "God, oh God," she breathed. Suddenly, the phone rang shrilly, echoing through the wide apartment.

"Hello?"

"Miss Falcone?"

Sakura didn't recognize the voice. "Who is this?" she growled.

The man on the other end cleared his throat. "This is Harvey Dent, I've been hired as the new DA for Gotham City. I hope I didn't wake you but I understand you were the witness to a crime this morning?"

"Yes. Yes, I was." She tried to make herself sound as disagreeable and dangerous as possible. It got her out of the annoying interrogations.

"I'm currently working on a case against Dr. Crane, and I was wondering if perhaps you could give me some information on what you were doing last night?" Harvey sounded like he had a severe head cold, or didn't enjoy staying up all night after receiving a call about Crane and a warning not to drink his tap water.

The woman's mind raced. She knew where this was going. Court, testifying. She would never testify against Jonathan. Never. "Last night? I was at Arkham to visit my uncle."

"Yes, the nursing staff told me so." Harvey cleared his throat again. This was quite a weighty case to be his first in Gotham. "I wonder," he began slowly, choosing his words very carefully, "Why were you with Dr. Crane when you were found at Arkham?"

Sakura's throat seemed to collapse, but being a Falcone, she came with an innate sense of improvisation. "Dr. Crane treated my uncle. He approached me and asked if I wouldn't mind joining him in his office to go over any treatments my uncle might need. But apparently, Dr. Crane had other plans. He took me to-," she added a pause for dramatic effect, "to whatever hole that was." She bit her lip and prayed anything she said wouldn't be used harshly against Jon in court. "He said he needed to check up on something, then we could go to his office. That's why he brought me down there."

"Hmm, I see," Harvey mused. She could hear the scratch of pen on paper. "Miss Falcone, would you mind terribly if we discussed this further under more agreeable conditions?"

Sakura tapped her foot on the floor impatiently. "Of course, Mr. Dent. I'm rather busy for the next few days but perhaps we could schedule something after the weekend?" Her words were agreeable but her tone was far from it.

"Yes, yes, let me check my schedule," Harvey said eagerly. His colleagues had warned him about the Falcones, their unwillingness to cooperate with everyone and anyone and their utter disregard for laws or civic duty. "Brunch on Monday?"

"Why not?"

"Alright then. I'll be in touch."

"Good-bye then, Mr. Dent."

"Thank you for your time."

The line went dead with a satisfying click.

Sakura dozed off for a few hours after she had hung up the phone, only to wake with the sun in her face. She sighed to herself and let out a groan customary to a waking person. Still half-asleep, the woman went through her morning stretches to ensure her body was in peak condition for the day. It wasn't until she was taking a bite of a cup of fruit salad that she remembered why she was unaccompanied in her sleep the night before.

Her silver fork clattered to the granite counter with the clink of metal on stone as she covered her mouth with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. She needed to see him. She didn't care if that Dent man was watching the cell, if the whole world was watching him. She needed to see him.

For the second time that morning, the ringing phone made her jump. The adrenaline coursing through her body made her tingle. "This had better be good!" she roared into the phone.

"Please hold for Arkham Asylum."

"Miss Falcone?" the voice was female but unfamiliar.

"This is she."

"Miss Falcone, would you accept a call from Jonathan Crane?" Since his arrest, it seemed Jonathan had again lost the title of 'doctor'. "He's been screaming your name for the last few hours and won't rest until he's at least spoken to you. I'm afraid he's become quite destructive and-."

"Yes, I will accept the call!" Sakura's heart pounded in her ears as she cut off the rambling woman.

"Of course, miss." The poor woman had been shocked into silence by the sharp interruption and a moment later Sakura could hear heavy breathing on the other end broken by short yelps of fear.

"Sakura?" Jonathan's voice cracked and his breathing was ragged. Sakura nearly dropped the phone in surprise and joy. Tears sprung to her eyes.

"Yes, yes, it's me, Jonathan," she breathed, the tears heavy. "It's me." Her body went slack as she sighed to him.

"My office," he cried. His breath became pants, as if he was fighting some demon on the other end of the line. "The safe. You have the key. Please." Sakura could tell he was on the edge of sanity. "The antidote. Please. No don't, get away-!"

"Jon? Jonathan?" She could hear a scuffling in the background and the nurse's voice returned.

"I'm sorry Miss Falcone but he became-," she paused, "violent. I'm afraid this phone call will have to be continued at another time." Sakura could sense the smirk in her voice and bristled.

"If you repeat one word, one word at all, and you and your family will not live to see the sun go down. Do I make myself clear?" she spat, each word so sharp you could cut yourself on it. The nurse gasped in horror. "Do I?"

"Yes, Miss Falcone, yes, yes." The nurse was now stammering, her blood pounding in her ears.. This was where Sakura shone as a person of evil; intimidation gave her a high like driving or stealing from high security vaults and museums.

"You will destroy whatever recording was made of our conversation immediately. I want all guards and cameras nearby and inside Dr. Crane's cell deactivated by the time of my arrival."

"Yes, Miss Falcone, yes," the woman sniveled. Sakura grinned evilly and narrowed her eyes.

"Good."

Kinda short, and didn't really come out the way I wanted, but I hope you enjoyed it. Big build-up for things to come, so the next two chapters should be whammies (a double helping of Jon and Sakura, one at the docks and the other at Arkham).