Chapter 14

Oswald's POV…

After seeing Mary ever so briefly in that bathroom, I walked back to my apartment that night feeling particularly low, and in some form of dramatic irony it was raining. The whole scene between us wouldn't leave me. I kept seeing her face, feeling her touch, and then there was everything she said. Every word I heard again and again in my head and I didn't know what to do or how to begin to right the wrong that had erupted between us. I knew what she wanted, and I knew what I had to do to get it for her the problem was that the time just wasn't right. She was tired of waiting on someone to save her. She had been waiting for such a long time and now, she had been counting on me, but I had somehow proven myself false. Mary had been waiting for that moment to come when it would be just us. With no Maroni and no hiding how, we felt only now she didn't want to wait. She wanted to be mine now rather then tomorrow or the day after and she wasn't willing to wait anymore. Because of that I didn't know what the future held for us anymore and neither did she.

"I'm not standing on the sidelines as you make your plans. I will free myself now instead of waiting on you to do it for me" said Mary, the memory of her declaration startling still in memory even as I understood the reasoning behind them more then I had when she first spoke them.

I kept thinking of that as I reached my apartment and going inside and finding a bottle of wine, I didn't bother with a glass, but instead, I just sat down to drink freely from the bottle. When I sat down and took the first sip, I thought it would ease something inside me, but the only thing it did was fog my mind a bit. I kept thinking of her and the things that had been done to her. I thought of the pain I had caused her and the pain I let my mother cause her. I thought of that moment in the rain the rain outside unable to keep it away. I hadn't dwelled on it much since Mary and I had been reunited, but now I did. I wondered of our fate if I hadn't left her standing there that day. Would she be my wife now? Or would something else had separated us until now? With each drink, I had less answers, and yet I didn't because without Mary there was hardly any point in it.

"I should have just taken her and ran away that first night" I thought, remembering once again that night in that alleyway knowing as I did that she would have left with me right then if I wasn't so caught up in the power struggle in Gotham city. She had been raped by that monster Frankie, she had been forced to marry Maroni, and touched by any man that wanted her after that, so if I had asked she would have went with me, but let my chance to have her as mine slip away. I remembered her that day when I saw her sitting next to him that first day, she didn't smile, but sat pale and stone like until the time came for her to leave.

"She looked like she was in pain. I was supposed to ease her pain and instead, I brought her more" I whispered the words in that moment the wine overpowering my senses as I pictured the end Mary might have come to if we'd remained separated and not be united once more.

"I gave her the strength to wait patiently for me to come for her, but now, her strength has ran out" I said the words with a slur unable to stop myself from thinking of her as I'd seen her last time we were together.

"I should always have treated her like my future queen, not some woman off the streets; she deserved better" I thought, imagining the hope she had lost that night when I'd been so harsh to her, and downing more wine I held the deepest contempt in my heart for my actions. I could feel my heart throbbing in my chest as I sat there. I was supposed to save her. I was supposed to make her mine and together, we were supposed to rule the city together. Now though, it didn't feel like that would happen as it seemed Mary was going to find her own way out of her circumstances without me. Mary was done waiting on me and now all I could do was show her that there was still time for me to swoop in to take her from the life she loathed so much. I thought of that moment today and I could still feel her hand on my cheek.

A realization came then as I sat there then finally truly drunk out of my mind. I remembered the way she had looked at me and I knew all was not lost. Mary had not stopped loving me, she'd said as much, and I knew there was still something to be fighting for. Our love still burned bright and now I only had to prove myself to her again. I knew that was what she wanted the longer I remembered our encounter in the bathroom from before.

"I love her and she loves me, we just have to get our chance to really be with each other" I thought feeling that our story wasn't over as I thought of the chapters we'd written so far.

"I will save her and make her my queen. I will show her that I am the man she wants me to be" I whispered sitting slumped in my chair until sitting up I made a decision to stop wallowing in my pain. Because though Mary said she would save herself now, she would still be waiting for me to save her too. I knew that she still wanted me to make her the one by my side. I vowed to do that as I thought of her in that moment.

"I'll save her before she can even attempt to do so herself" I whispered letting myself fall into a delicious drunken haze.

Because she still had hope in her eyes when she looked at me. Mary still wanted me to be the one to save her from the life she knew now, and I could still do that. By the time I passed out drunk at the table no plan had formed in my head. I still didn't know how I would redeem myself in the eyes of my love, but I wasn't ready to give up yet. I would prove to her I could be her savior. I was worthy of her, I just had to find a way to show her, but as of that moment, I didn't know how. The opportunity to make things right didn't come for almost a week until one day Mary came in with her driver Charlie with her, and as she joined her husband as he sat with his men at the table, Charlie sat at a table nearby. Mary never dared look at me, not even briefly. Her eyes were always gray and downcast, her smile hardly there, but when it was it was faked in a way that only I could tell. I wanted to reach out to take her hand but stopped myself. The longing to do so was still there as my phone rang from within my pocket.

The sound had every eye on me.

"Excuse me, Don Maroni, it is my mother" I said it as I moved away from the table. No one noticed I was gone as they dissolved back into conversation, but when I answered the phone, I couldn't feel calm. Don Falcone never called me out of nowhere this way. Everything was always planned and methodical, but this call out of nowhere made me nerves the second I heard his voice on the other end. I had never heard him be this urgent. Yes, he gave orders, but this tone was different. I had never heard him this way and instantly my guard went up. That voice broached no reproach. He needed me now and I must get away at whatever the cost.

"Excuse me, Don Maroni, but I must leave immediately. Something has happened, my mother, her heart is not good…she needs me" I exclaimed, the lie was told easily watching as the man smiled my eyes lingering on the movement of his arm as he wrapped it around the shoulders of my Mary.

"Of course, go to her, but on your way, you can walk Mary out. She could even give you a ride there" said Maroni, it felt like he was mocking me, but I smiled anyway feeling grateful for the moment alone he was affording me with the woman I loved even if he had to kiss her before letting us leave.

"Oh no, I'd hate to impose—" I said expecting the Don to intervene, but instead it was Mary. There was something in her eyes when she spoke then, a softness that I knew was rare as our eyes met in front of all of them. She gave me just the hint of a smile and I couldn't say another word. I didn't dare as she rose from her chair with the man that was her husband, and letting him kiss her hand she used the power she had gained as his wife to call to Charlie and end any question of whether I'd be coming with her.

"I'd be more then happy to drive you…Charlie, come on" called Mary walking passed me as I said my thanks to her husband not walking passed her until it was time to open the door for her.

I wondered if this was her way of ambushing me the way I had her the other day as we left. I stayed behind her as she made her way to the door. I couldn't help shivering as I watched her, she did that to me, and she didn't have to even touch me. It was in the click of her heels, the way she walked in those heels, and the beauty that was her. I couldn't help appreciating that beauty in that moment as she stopped suddenly, and Charlie took my place just behind her. I found I envied him as he moved to help her with her coat.

"Come on, Oswald, we wouldn't want anything to happen to your mother" said Mary after her coat was on our eyes meeting again as she glanced over her shoulder at me before letting me go passed her to open the door not missing the sarcasm in her voice.

"My mother will appreciate the urgency, Mrs. Maroni" I whispered, not sure why I said it, but when I touched the door handle it was the last thing I was able to say as a sudden shock went through me until reaching my brain the shock stopped there making the world around me darken.

"Oswald!" exclaimed Mary, I heard her voice as I hit the floor, but that was the last thing I heard.

My mind was only on Mary, she was right behind me as sparks went all around us, and there was an explosion.

"What's happening?" I thought as chaos seemed to rein around me, Mary still there on my mind, and just like before I couldn't save her; the thought made my chest throb. She needed someone to protect her and that man was not me. I couldn't protect her from my mother those years ago, but now though years had passed nothing had changed. I couldn't protect the woman I loved, I couldn't even protect myself, and as the darkness came in closer, I felt sickened at the thought. Mary deserved better than me and yet even as I knew that I couldn't let her go. In the darkness everything around me wavered and there was nothing I could do.

"I'm sorry, Mary" I thought it as everything real fell away and something seemed to swallow me.

Yet in that darkness there was light as my memories became a nightlight in the midst of whatever this was. And then there was only a rooftop filled with song as I looked down to find her there dancing with me to the song that had become ours.

My heart was wrapped up in clover the night I looked at you. I found a dream that I could speak to , a dream that I can call my own. I found a thrill to press my cheek to, a thrill I've never known.

As the song played in my head, nothing else mattered, only her and I, and for a moment everything was just as it should be.