Olivia walked into the GCPD after she had agreed to meet up with Lee. She knew that it had happened. Ed had been released from Arkham. Their attempts to block his release had failed. Harvey Dent had done everything in his power, but it seemed that Cobblepot was rather influential. Olivia had tried not to think about the warning she had heard from Penguin, but she had to admit that, deep down, she was scared. She was worried about what could happen, despite her best intentions not to get involved.
Her brother was also in the precinct after the Tetch case. Jarvis Tetch had proved to be a pain in Jim's side. He had found Alice Tetch and he knew that there was something in her blood that had proven dangerous. It had been poison and Tetch was now on the loose. He was still at large in Gotham and Alice was in a jail cell. They wondered if she was in on it with her brother, but Jim was not convinced on that front. Alice had been locked in Indian Hill with everyone else and she was now out and scared of Jarvis.
"Hey," Olivia said when she noted Jim exiting the office of Captain Barnes. Jim looked to his sister and nodded his head once. "How did it go?"
"The meeting?" he asked from her. "Apparently I'm off the case. The GCPD are now looking for Tetch."
"You know that you could re-join them, right?" she enquired from her brother and he chuckled, but shook his head.
"I prefer living the life I have now," he informed her and she wondered if he was being entirely truthful, but she did not push it. She knew better than to pressure her brother into discussing his deep feelings. That was usually a conversation best reserved whenever they were drinking a bottle of scotch. "Are you here to see Lee?"
"Yeah," Olivia said with a nod of her head. "We are going out for drinks. She said she should be finished by now, but she wasn't in the parking lot."
"Listen, I am heading off to try and find Tetch-"
"-Despite you being told to leave things alone?"
"He tried to make me jump off a building," he reminded his sister and she sighed. Jim often kept things from her. She had almost yelled herself hoarse when he had told her what had happened. She wanted him to stop this PI business. She wanted him to go and find a career where he did not risk his life, but he would not do that. She knew that.
"Just be careful," she demanded, knowing that she had no power over Jim. He would do whatever he wanted. She would not be able to stop him. Saying nothing else, she merely hugged him and pecked him on the cheek.
Before she could leave, he took hold of her wrist, preventing her from leaving him. "You know that he is out, right?" he checked with her. "And you know-"
"-I will deal with that when it comes to it," she interrupted, not wanting to think about Ed coming anywhere near her. But she knew it was inevitable. She knew that he would eventually make his presence known, no matter any restraining order they sought or what they tried to do.
"Just do not be in that apartment by yourself," Jim warned her. "In fact, can you see if you can stay with Lee until I am finished with this?"
Olivia rolled her eyes. "Jim," she complained, her voice a loud whine and she tucked her hair behind her ears. "I am not hiding away from him. If he wants to find me then we both know he will. I will deal with him and make my feelings towards him completely clear."
"I do not like this, Olivia," Jim said.
"Nor do I."
Olivia jumped once she heard a new voice behind her. Lee appeared from seemingly nowhere, popping out at both of them. She rolled her eyes at both of them, knowing that they had her best interests at heart, but she was able to take care of herself. She had to.
"Lee," Jim greeted her.
"I just took some of Alice's blood," she said and then shook her head. "Sorry, I forgot for a moment you don't work here."
"No problem," Jim said.
"But you are right about Liv," Lee said with a stern nod. "She can stay at mine for a few nights. Mario has round the clock security so Ed won't be able to get through them at all."
"And that is not going to last forever," Olivia said. "If he is a free citizen then there is not much that we can do. I…I will be fine. I swear."
"I'll let you know when I have Tetch and then we can head home," Jim said.
Olivia flapped her arms by her side. "Am I invisible?" she demanded from the pair of them as they were seeming to have a conversation about her, but not listening to her in the slightest. Then again, she had gotten used to that between the two of them.
"Yes," Jim said firmly. "Now go with Lee. I will call you when I am finished."
He bent down and kissed the top of his sister's head before leaving her and Lee. Olivia looked pleading to Lee and the doctor held her hands up. "You're not getting around me," she warned her. "Now come on, we're going to get drinks and forget Ed even exists."
…
Forgetting Ed's existence proved to be difficult. Mario was at work on the night shift at the hospital, leaving Lee and Olivia in the apartment alone. Lee had turned the TV on, but it was showing the run up to the mayoral election. They both had questioned how Oswald was even able to run to be Mayor. Two bottles of wine had been drunk between them and they were slightly tipsy. As soon as they saw the election and Penguin giving his final speech on the news, Olivia frowned.
"Wait," she said, leaning forward so that she could peer at the TV closer. She frowned as Lee watched her, wondering what she was doing. But then she saw him.
"Oh no," Lee mumbled.
"What the hell is going on?" Olivia demanded, her voice terse. She didn't know what she was witnessing, but it looked very odd. "Is Ed working on his campaign? How is that even possible?"
"Penguin had him declared sane and he is now a free man," Lee shrugged. "You know how corrupt this city is, Olivia. I would not be that shocked if I were you."
"Jesus Christ," Olivia muttered, shaking her head slowly. "How is he a campaign manager or whatever the hell he is!"
Before they could say anything else, Lee's cell began to ring. Lee took hold of it from the side table and took the call. Olivia kept her gaze on the TV as Lee spoke on the phone in one syllable answers. Olivia turned to her once she hung up and Lee stood up quickly.
"Tetch broke his sister out," Lee said. "Your brother was there. Don't worry, he is safe, but they want me to go in and check on some of the officers who were injured when Tetch stormed in."
"You're going in now?" Olivia asked. "After a bottle of wine?"
"Hey, you drank one and a half bottles," Lee pointed out and stood up. "I'll be fine. I'll get a cab to work and text you when I am there to confirm everything is okay. You are staying here, okay? The guest room is just down the hall…make yourself at home…there is security…everything is safe here."
"Lee, I do not mind going home," she said to her.
"No," she said firmly, grabbing her bag and slipping her coat onto her frame. "I will hopefully see you soon, but if not I will see you in the morning."
"Be careful," Olivia demanded from her and she took off with a solitary wave.
Reaching for the bottle of wine, Olivia topped her glass up and leant back on the sofa, her gaze moving back to the TV as she focused her vision on Ed and felt that familiar aching feeling in her chest that had not once left her alone whenever she thought about him. Downing the wine, she hoped that perhaps alcohol would numb some of her emotions.
…
Waking the next morning, Olivia heard that her brother had been sectioned from Lee. Tetch had conditioned him to try and kill himself whenever he heard the ticking noise of a clock. But then Harvey had told her that Lee and him had hatched a plan to free Jim. They needed him to help find Tetch and they were going to do all that they could to save Alice. Lee had come in late and had woken Olivia up to tell her the plan, urging her not to panic. But that was difficult when it came to Jim. She was still sleeping soundly at ten in the morning when Olivia awoke with a headache. She dressed in the same clothes she had been wearing, adjusting the grey leather shirt and the black jumper. She had showered and washed her hair, leaving to dry naturally before heading into the kitchen.
She fixed a pot of tea before she heard her phone begin to buzz. She had left it on the kitchen counter while she was showering. Grabbing it, she looked down where it said she had a new message. Opening it up, it said three simple four simple little words:
Did you miss me?
…
Penguin had told him that it would be best for him to stay away from Olivia. He had warned him that she would bring him nothing but pain and heartbreak. He would be hurt. He would not have her back, not truly. But Ed knew that they could work things out. He had belief that she would not have moved on, not truly. He still wanted her. He just needed her to accept him for him. He needed her to do that and then they would be together.
Seeking her out had been easy enough. He suspected that she would be under her brother's watchful gaze at most times, meaning that going to their now shared apartment would be impossible. But that did not mean that he could not find her elsewhere, somewhere he knew Jim would not be. He had snuck into the halls of the school after class, remembering the exact way to her classroom. It was the Monday following the Mayoral election and Ed had taken well to his role as Penguin's advisor. He enjoyed the role. He liked the power he had.
"You look exactly the same as you did the last time I saw you."
She startled as soon as she heard him. She had been pinning up work on the wall, standing on a chair to reach. Her hair had grown, tumbling down almost to the small of her back in soft waves. She was wearing a soft grey jumper tucked into a long, pleated black skirt over a pair of tights and boots. Her face was pale and she looked slightly gaunt. Perhaps that was grief?
As soon as she saw him, she didn't look startled. It was almost as though she had expected him to appear. Holding his arms out to the side, he smirked "Ta-da," he said flamboyantly, "not insane."
"It's amazing what you can buy in Gotham nowadays," Olivia said in a low drawl. She went back to fixing the posters on the wall and Ed's lips fell. What was she doing? Was he not worth her complete attention? He looked annoyed for a few moments, but he soon shook it off and closed the door behind him.
"Is that it?" he asked from her.
"What more did you want?" Olivia wondered from her, still focusing on tacking the paper to the wall. "Did you want me to hurl abuse at you and demand for you to leave? Or would you have preferred me to have told you that I forgive you and that I will stand by you and profess my undying love to you?"
"I would prefer option two," he said to her, moving further into the room and closer to her.
"Well, you are not having either option," she said to him. "Because I discovered something…that you are not worth me exerting any emotion over."
"You don't mean that."
"Don't I?" she asked from him, turning her head over her shoulder to look at him. "Because from what I seem to recall, Ed, you were the one who ruined our relationship, not me…and I deserve someone so much better than you…someone who won't try and kill my brother or frame him for murder."
"People ask for so much these days," Ed said to her and she rolled her eyes.
She went to stand up on the table then so that she could reach the higher part of the wall. She continued bending down to pick up the posters and hanging them up. Ed held his hands upwards. "Please can you get down from there before you fall."
"I'm fine," Olivia said to him, but Ed noted that the table was slightly wonky.
"You know why I am here, Olivia," Ed said after a moment's silence. She sighed and turned back to look to him. "I am here to win you back."
She did laugh then, but Ed remained stern faced.
"Oh, you are serious," she commented and then pointed at him. "Are you sure they certified you sane?"
"I've missed your wit," he said to her. "I am serious, Olivia. I am going to get you back one way or another. You will be mine again."
Olivia snorted. "You are deluded," she whispered, struggling to comprehend Ed's logic. She turned to look at him completely then, arms folded over her chest. "You are completely deluded. Do you know that Penguin came here to threaten me, Ed?"
The look on his face told her that he didn't.
"Oh, yeah," Olivia kept on pushing him. "He came here and he warned me to leave Gotham so that I didn't act as a distraction to you. He pretty much told me that I didn't want to know what he would do if I didn't leave. Well, guess what, you can tell him that I have no intention of going anywhere."
"I didn't know that he had threatened you," Ed said to her, his voice honest and, despite everything, she believed him on that. "No one threatens you, not even Penguin."
"Well what are you doing with Penguin anyway?" Olivia pushed him and he continued to look up to her and he noted the way her eyes moved over his face. She took in his neat haircut and his chiselled jaw, her eyes dashing to his lips for a brief second before she went back to looking at him. "I saw you on the TV on the other night at his election."
"I am working as his advisor," he said to her. "We are having the celebratory parade tomorrow."
"What kind of a city is this when Penguin is the Mayor?"
"A corrupt one," Ed answered without skipping a beat, "but you already knew that."
"Guess I did," she responded and went to turn around, but Edward reacted quickly.
He moved his foot out and tapped the table as it was already wonky. Olivia lost her balanced and Ed, as he had planned, was already there and waiting to catch her as she fell. She shrieked as his arm went around her waist and he stopped her from tumbling to the floor, holding her up with that one arm, her body pressed tightly against his as he let her front slide down his. He saw her cheeks turn red and noted her lips part and pupils dilate. He smirked. She was still attracted to him.
"You did that on purpose," Olivia hissed at him, her fist hitting his chest.
"To prove a point," he said, "and I consider my point proven."
"And what point is that?"
"You're still attracted to me," he spoke. "Lips parted, breath came out in a short pant and your pupils dilated."
"Maybe that was because you almost set me hurtling to my death?" she snapped at him again.
"I would never do that," he replied. "I'll always catch you, Olivia. You should know the lengths I go to in order to keep you with me."
"Get the hell away from her."
Jim. Olivia stepped back from Ed, pushing at his chest as Jim stormed into the room, dressed in his black shirt, jeans and leather jacket. Olivia stood in front of Ed and stretched her arm out. "Whoa, whoa," she demanded him, "he is not worth it, Jim."
"I'm wounded," Ed said, moving a hand to his chest.
"Shut up," Olivia hissed back to him.
"I mean it, Nygma. I'm not working for the GCPD now so there's nothing to stop me pummelling you into the ground."
"Stop it," Olivia demanded from her brother and he looked down to her and glared harshly. "Come on, we're going home."
She grabbed hold of Jim by the arm and dragged him to her desk. She handed him her folders and Jim obligingly took hold of them. Ed remained stood where he was as Olivia shrugged on her light brown mac and grabbed her satchel. She turned to look back to Ed. "I trust you can find your own way out?"
"I'll see you around, Liv," Ed said to her.
"No, you won't," Jim hissed and Olivia kept hold of his forearm to stop him from going after Ed. She looked back to Ed, her gaze harsh.
"Stay away from me," she demanded and left without another word.
Ed chuckled. "Not a chance, my darling, Liv…not a chance."
…
A/N: Do let me know what you think!