A/N: Before you dig into this chapter, I want to clarify that the story's previous chapter was uploaded as a two-parter. I received a PM letting me know it was unclear because they had jumped right to the latest chapter. I've since added a quick disclaimer, to warn everyone, but in case you missed it and were completely lost by the storyline, I encourage you to go back and read CH-10 and CH-11 together and apologize for not making that clearer when I posted it.

Happy reading! - EQT.95


A ring echoed off the narrow walls of the space. By now Kate was used to the sharp tone resonating throughout her small office as she picked up the phone for what felt like the hundredth time that morning, "This is Kate."

"Kate! How's my girl doing?"

"Dad? How did you -"

"Margaret called. I'm so proud of you honey - taking on the mantle on the board and now, overseeing day-to-day. In no time the city will see that everything we've done has been in line with the law."

Kate listened to Jacob on the other end of the line from her new office - if you could even call it that. The space was a five foot by six foot windowless hole in the wall. After nearly thirty minutes of cursing and negotiating the tight quarters, she was finally able to orient the desk to fit across the space to face the door. Unfortunately, that also meant there was absolutely no space to get around the desk to her chair which meant she had to labor over the physical task of climbing over her desk every morning.

Her suspicions that the office was an old supply closet converted over for her use were confirmed when the floor's janitor barged in one evening to find his supplies had disappeared. After a slightly awkward confrontation, she confirmed he wasn't going insane but that his mop and bucket were now somewhere else in the building. It was only day four of her new role overseeing the Crow's operations, and she was already running short on bandwidth. She had all but abandoned hope of keeping up appearances through her role at the Hold Up, and she found herself relying heavily on Luke to sort through the Arkham files Sophie had collected. She worried this new position was going to upend her plans, but she also didn't think surrendering it to someone like Margaret Cobblepot in this role would service anyone - especially not Sophie. As long as she kept up appearances for the short term, she might be able to delay any plans by Cobblepot until after the audit when there was less leverage to make drastic changes.

"...and Margaret is quite fond of you. I knew you two would hit it off. If things keep up like this, we'll have the majority support of the board back and I'll be reinstated in no time."

"That's great, dad," Kate said, only half paying attention.

Margaret may be fond of Kate, but the same couldn't be said about Kate of Margaret. Before Monday's meeting, Margaret had spent all of Sunday briefing Kate on her plans to gut the task force and move toward a business plan relying exclusively on video surveillance technology. Kate spent the afternoon trying to find a way to convince Margaret this was a terrible idea, but Maragaret insisted that the riots from three years prior could have been mitigated, not by additional policing, but by a finely tuned surveillance system that would have cut off the uprising at its source before it ever became the destruction it was. What Cobblepot wasn't realizing was that the riots weren't a group of people meeting in a dark alley to plan a city-wide surgence: they were a reflection of Gotham's inequality. The timing was correlated to Batman's departure, and it functioned as a rebellion against another symbol of hope taken from the city's worst off. The riots were organic, and the only way to keep it from happening again was to improve the living conditions of the ignored.

She tried clarifying these points to Margaret but found it all fell on deaf ears. She wasn't in this to protect the people of Gotham: she was in it for the power and money a city-wide contract with Gotham would provide. It was during this initial conversation it was revealed to Kate that Margaret planned to step into the role of Crow oversight. The position was written into the company by-laws as a way to provide checks and balances between the day-to-day leadership and the board. In a series of convoluted leaps, Jacob had somehow undertaken that role as both board member and Lead Crow, and now that he was removed, that left a gap in the day-to-day flow of information back to the board.

It didn't take long for Kate to realize Margaret in this role would spell disaster for the task force and the audit. She observed Cobblepot's performance at the board meeting and knew she'd do everything in her power to undermine Sophie as Lead Crow and help feed into the narrative that the Crows needed a new direction. Before she knew it, Kate volunteered for the job Monday afternoon. Margaret was skeptical, not sure whether she trusted Kate to do the job correctly, but after Monday morning's declaration of doubt for Sophie, she had Margaret safely in her camp.

A knock on her door allowed Kate to disrupt Jacob's monologue, "Hey Dad, sorry to cut you off, but I gotta go."

"Of course, of course. Make me proud, Kate."

Kate dropped the handset to the receiver and beckoned whoever was at the door to enter. The door opened halfway before clashing with Kate's desk. Sophie poked her head around, examining the space and nearly laughed, "Nice digs."

Kate rolled her eyes, "Did you need something?"

"Paulie said you were looking for me earlier, so really that's what I should be asking you."

Kate blinked, suddenly remembering, "Right, sorry." Kate sifted through the growing stacks on her desk looking for a folder as Sophie slid through the door frame into the office. Once found, Kate continued, "This morning we received a formal mandate from the City that the Crows are to absorb three members from the GCPD into daily operations as special inspection officers."

"Excuse me? The GCPD? Here?" Sophie asked, her eyes wide with amazement.

"They've provided a list of fifteen potential applicants with their CVs. We need to send our preferred five candidates to GCPD for approval by end of day tomorrow," Kate continued, ignoring Sophie's growing look of outrage.

Sophie was lost for words. The GCPD was the exact type of corruption they were being accused of.

"I don't like it either, Sophie, but we need to jump through these hoops. I've given a cursory review of the names and placed an 'x' next to the ones I find least qualified, but you should weigh in as Lead Crow," Kate continued. She lifted the stack of papers to Sophie who snatched them from Kate's hand in frustration.

"You know this won't bring anything but problems, right?" Sophie said, flipping through the pages. "The majority of them are corrupt, and we expect to trust them with our cases? If the City doesn't shut us down, introducing this into the task force certainly will."

"Just take a look and find five. We'll figure out what to do with them when the time comes."

"We? No, Kate, this isn't your jurisdiction," Sophie challenged. She realized Kate held certain powers and oversight, but this decision would directly impact her ability to manage. "You may be allowed to poke your nose in on meetings and case information, but day-to-day operations and decision making is still in my court."

"This isn't up for negotiation, Sophie. Either we work together on this, or I select the five on my own. I'm really only offering this as a courtesy."

Sophie glared at Kate. This wasn't how Sophie expected her first week as Lead Crow to go, and knowing her greatest day-to-day resistance came from Kate was making it more complicated. They had barely spoken since Monday's meeting with the exception of their confrontation about Duela Dent, but that didn't mean Kate's intervention wasn't felt. One meaningless task after another was slowly filling Sophie's schedule, making her ability to manage all the harder, and she was having a hard time seeing Kate's role as anything but a detriment.

After meeting with Batwoman Monday night, she had taken her trip home to evaluate Kate's recent actions - it had been on her mind all day, and a few minutes of peace gave her the chance she needed to reflect on everything. On one side, she could see Kate's efforts as looking out for Sophie's good: she considered Duncan's words about Kate's participation at the board meeting and Kate's intervention to stop Margaret's prying that same night. Her proposed loophole around the Duela Dent case had been exactly what she needed, and it had the necessary foresight Sophie hadn't considered. On the other hand, she still felt a sense of betrayal about Kate's actions the week earlier at her apartment, and that was tainting how Sophie saw Kate's recent motives. There was also the glaring fact she had effectively stood in front of Sophie's immediate superiors and called her insufficient to do her job.

While she wanted to give Kate the benefit of the doubt, over the next few days she found herself grappling even more with Kate's sudden change of character as each new obstacle that landed on her desk came with her signature at the bottom. If this had been four years ago, she would have charged up to Kate and demanded an explanation, but her pride was getting the better of her. They may have been able to talk through anything in the past, but Sophie felt like Kate had switched teams, and that made her defensive about trying to clear the air. This new Kate sided with people like Margaret Cobblepot and put business first - she didn't carry the same convictions from her time at the Academy. Mostly Sophie was angry, but when it came to this, Sophie couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. The one person she once thought she could rely on anytime for anything was letting her down.

"Fine."

"Great, let's meet tomorrow morning to discuss. Have that Paulie guy join. I assume he follows you around all the time because he's good at something. We can have him take the meeting minutes," Kate said. Her phone began ringing again, filling the small space with noise.

Kate answered: "This is Kate… hey, yea I've got a minute... Just hold on a sec," she said and placed her hand over the mouthpiece. She returned her attention to Sophie who was still registering the ultimatum Kate had given her, "was there something else?"

Sophie took a breath as if to argue with Kate, but the look on her face was uncompromising, and the path forward was set. "No, we're clear," Sophie said tersely and left, slamming the door behind her.


It was Friday morning, and the dying breaths of winter air cut through the city as a taxi pulled up in front of an abandoned structure in Lower Gotham.

"Uhm, are you sure we're in the right spot?" Mary asked, exiting the taxi in front of an eight-storey dump of a building. It looked like it was supposed to be new construction, but broken windows and graffiti on the exterior brick facade painted a different picture.

"Yea, this is the address," Luke remarked.

The site was on the edge of 'developed' Gotham. Three years prior, the building was nearing completion, but the resulting riots from Batman's disappearance had left the construction site abandoned and unfinished. Now the owner was looking to clean his hands of this and two other lots and their degrading structures.

"And you're sure Kate is interested in this?"

Kate had warned Luke the space was going to be run down. She had gone to see it as Batwoman earlier that week but wanted Luke to examine it in the light of day. He had prepared himself for the worst: a gutted interior, half-demolished from a fire with half the facade melting off. This was actually far better than he expected. He shrugged, "Kate's looking to tap into zones with potential. There's a housing demand here."

"She's never going to rent this space. No one with enough money is going to want to live in this neighborhood," Mary said, surveying the surrounding buildings. Most were barely in better shape, and half the storefronts were boarded up. "There isn't even a Whole Foods."

"Yea, well, who said anything about it being for people with enough money?" Luke replied.

"Oh," Mary said. She blushed slightly with embarrassment. She had assumed when Kate said she was entering the real estate business, she was going to the high end market like Tommy Elliot or the Wayne family. She never expected Kate to invest in the actual people of Gotham, but she also had to admit that for the last seven years, Kate wasn't enough in her life to know what to expect.

They waited a few minutes until someone named 'Greg' showed up with the keys to the space, although they probably could have just hopped through one of the broken windows.

"19 units in total, 3 per floor with a penthouse up top," Greg said. He seemed numb to the damage to the interior as he walked them through the space.

"This place has a penthouse?" Mary asked with amazement.

"Three years ago was a different time," Greg said, shrugging. "People thought weird things."

Luke continued walking the main lobby, observing the damage was limited to the finishes; it didn't look like the building had been completely gutted like other buildings in the area. "Have you had surveillance around here?"

"Night guards only, but the follow through is hit and miss. People get spooked easy these days."

They spent the next hour and a half walking each floor and taking note of the damage. The structure was built of heavy timber which was uncommon in Gotham. It was more common to use cheap light wood frames because of the proximity to surrounding forestry sites. Sourcing heavy timber was clearly a design choice by the developer, and it wasn't a cheap one.

The charm of the spaces was growing on Mary, and halfway through the tour she began suggesting interior fit-outs for different units. Luke initially tried to keep his demeanor professional, not wanting to feed into Mary's imagination, but by the third floor, he was all in. Greg, to his credit, took the imagination of the two in stride. He occasionally threw in his own suggestion but generally stayed quiet.

"So all's left is the penthouse," Greg said, walking up the stairs to the last space of the tour - the elevators had been shut off for security. He unlocked the front door and revealed the full open-floor plan of the top unit.

The unit was completely unfinished - obviously a symptom of the site's abandonment three years earlier, but the heavy timber spanned across the entire space, uninhibited by a floor load above it. The ceiling was four feet higher than any other unit and natural light flooded through the north and west walls. The west glazing wrapped around the souther wall to provide the perfect view of Gotham's skyline.

"Let's buy it!" Mary whispered with unrestrained excitement.


"Right, so, we can all agree wiping camera footage off three different CCTV systems to help your partner get away with a crime is pretty obviously corruption," Kate said, crossing another name off the list. They had been reviewing the list of candidates from the GCPD, and it was clear the options were slim pickings. Sophie disagreed with Kate's initial list, and thirty minutes was wasted vying for the upper hand about who was right. "Do you still disagree with me about her?" Kate asked.

Sophie tossed her pen on the table giving up the fight. She wasn't sure if Kate had spent more time reviewing the candidates or not, but she seemed far more prepared and informed that her or Paulie were. If this had been any other person on any other day, she'd have voiced relief at someone shedding this supplemental light, but that it was Kate and about GCPD corruption made Sophie all the more frustrated.

Kate's phone lit up showing an incoming call from Luke. "I need to take this - it'll just be a moment."

"Sure, that's fine. I'm sure whatever posh real estate deal you're working on is much more important than this. Take your time - we'll just be twiddling our thumbs," Sophie said, glaring at Kate as she rose to leave. Kate's eyes narrowed in annoyance as she walked out, securing the door behind her.

Sophie brought her hands to her face in frustration.

"I see your trajectory with the Kane's is consistent," Paulie joked.

"Is it that obvious?" Sophie muttered with heavy sarcasm through her fingers. "Honestly? I think I'd take Jacob over her. I mean, Jacob was a hard-ass, but at least he didn't completely undermine the good of the work to feed his own ego. You know she's got me submitting weekly summaries on each case for her and the board to review? They're micromanaging my role so I can't actually lead anything. And now she's intervening to decide who gets selected from the GCPD?"

Sophie looked at Paulie who appeared deep in thought. She smirked at his contemplation. He was one of the few Crows who, like Sophie, didn't come from money or with extensive military experience. He was a scrappy kid from the wrong side of Jersey who was born with the handicap of ginger hair. His bright red head made him an easy target among the rest of the task force, but Sophie never once doubted his commitment to the team.

"What's on your mind, Paulie?"

"This is all pretty messed up, right? I mean, we were created to be a better version of the GCPD. If we let their corruption in, we'll be no better."

Sophie nodded in agreement. This was certainly an unexpected twist that she had never considered, and she couldn't help but wonder how many more surprises would come out of this before it was all over.

The two fell into a contemplative silence, and a few minutes later the door opened and Kate reemerged, "Sorry about that."

"You sure you didn't want to take lunch, too?" Sophie asked, her annoyance dredged with sarcasm.

"I ate a late breakfast, but thanks," Kate responded in kind. "So where were we? Of the fifteen we've eliminated seven on suspicion of obvious corruption. That leaves three more to get rid of. Any suggestions?"

"Hang on, I thought we crossed off eight," Sophie jumped in. She skimmed the lists, comparing her's to Kate's, "Yea, Roman Cavallo."

"I didn't agree to that," Kate responded.

"Are you serious? This guy is dripping with corruption. He's literally been accused dozens of times."

"But not once has been found guilty of it. He stays."

Sophie was baffled at this. Cavallo was a known crook, and Kate insisting he be considered was an obvious red flag. This power play by Kate was going to ruin the task force.

"So who else?"

Sophie glared at Kate for a moment longer, contemplating just walking out of the room. It was becoming clear that she didn't need to wait for the GCPD to arrive to introduce corruption to the Crows. "I say we cut Marcus Wise and Renee Montoya," Sophie offered after a moment.

Kate leaned back in her chair surveying Sophie's face, "Why?"

"Wise is too embedded in petty crime which makes me think he's been paid off to avoid hunting the big fish. He's never landed a big arrest, and his laissez-faire attitude doesn't sit well with me."

Kate nodded as she considered Sophie's words. "And Montoya?"

"Too inexperienced. She'll be too eager to exploit some otherwise bland detail as fantastical, and we don't need that kind of scrutiny - it'll risk making something out of nothing," Sophie said simply.

"I think we should keep her. Harvey Bullock was her mentor. If that's anything to go off, it means we can trust her not to exploit the situation."

"That was two years ago when she was a rookie. Since then she's been bouncing from detective to detective with zero consistency," Sophie countered. She wasn't about to roll over and let Kate push through her choices again.

"Let's scratch Wise as you suggested, but leave Montoya and Cavallo. Instead we cut Simmons and Raymond. They're partners, and having a duo like that would mean bad news whether they're corrupt or not."

Sophie sat stewing with frustration. She felt like a leader in name only - the real decision making rested with Kate, and she was being taken for a ride. "This is ridiculous," Sophie said, rising from the table. "Do whatever you want. I'm done here."

With that she left, leaving Paulie and Kate alone in the room.

"Do you have any thoughts?" Kate asked Paulie. He paled at Kate's question and shook his head no. "Great. I believe we are adjourned then."


It was hours later and everyone else had gone home for the weekend. Kate was packing and locking up her office for the night. It was late for a Crow but still early for Batwoman, and she had plans to patrol the area. She still didn't have any leads on Duela, but she knew Batwoman as a symbol for the city meant she needed to be seen even for petty crimes. She made her way to the elevator lobby when she saw the familiar silhouette of Sophie standing in wait for a lift as well.

Sophie noticed Kate approach and looked away, ignoring her. She was still fuming from the morning's meeting or, as Paulie called it later, the stick-up. Part of her had considered overriding the list with her recommendations, but realized an act like that would certainly get her fired. Instead, she submitted the five names as 'agreed' but vowed to ensure who got selected wouldn't come anywhere near active cases. The ding of the elevator signaled its arrival, and for a moment Sophie considered waiting for a different one to avoid Kate, but her pride overrode her frustrations: she wasn't about to be silently bullied out of sharing a space with Kate.

Sophie entered first, tapping 'G' and shifting herself to the back corner of the lift. She observed Kate enter and stand at the opposite corner. A prolonged moment passed as Sophie silently cursed the lifts for not working faster as the doors finally closed and began moving. Kate remained staring straight ahead and had leaned against the wall as though bored of the space.

"What's your deal?" Sophie finally asked, breaking the silence. Somehow the tight quarters of the elevator made her boil over. Her frustrations from the morning finally simmered over, and she wanted answers. "What happened to all those things you said before? About fighting for Gotham and being better than the corruption? Was that all a lie? Because you're sure making a shitty display of it. "

Kate glanced briefly at Sophie, seeing the frustration written all over her face, before turning her attention stoically to the digital read counting down the floors.

"Your silence is speaking volumes," Sophie said after a moment. What followed was a deafening wave of silence, and Sophie found herself growing more and more frustrated.

Another ding signaled their arrival to the ground floor, and Kate pushed herself off the wall and silently exited, leaving Sophie alone, mouth agape in surprise. "So that's it? You're going to sell out just like that?" she half-yelled, walking out of the elevator toward Kate. The entire lobby was empty, which made Sophie feel freer to make clear her annoyance with Kate.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kate said, continuing toward the entrance.

"What the hell, Kate?" Sophie practically shouted, now grabbing Kate's arm to stop her. Sophie scanned Kate's face for some clue.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kate replied again between a clenched jaw, her eyes not on Sophie but on the surrounding area. She pulled away from Sophie's grip and turned to exit.

Sophie was stunned. "I never expected you to be a sellout, Kate, but I guess we can just add that to the list," she shot back, her face red with anger as Kate walked away from her.

Kate, for her part, froze at this accusation. For a moment Sophie thought she'd finally get Kate to admit what she was doing, but instead of turning to address Sophie's remark Kate continued out into the night.

How could Kate not know, she thought, her anger turning to confusion when, suddenly, it clicked. Sophie glanced around: there was no one in sight, but after glancing around eye level, she looked up and identified three security cameras in the lobby. They were part of the Crow's surveillance system - something used more for show to prospective clients than anything else. What is Kate worried about these for? She lingered a moment longer before exiting onto the darkened street. She glanced left and right before she found Kate leaning propped against her bike halfway down the block. Sophie grinned as she approached Kate, pleased with herself for recognizing Kate's code. It had been years since they devised the strategy, but it had already been useful on two separate occasions in as many months.

"I almost didn't catch that," she offered once within earshot of Kate.

"I wasn't sure you would," Kate responded. Her face was just as stoic as before, and Sophie couldn't tell if this was Kate's general demeanor now, or she was reacting to Sophie's latest jab.

"About what I said in there, I wa-"

"It's fine."

Sophie glanced around, her mind swimming with questions, "So what's going on? What's with all the hostility?"

"You need to be more careful, Sophie," Kate said.

"About what?" Sophie responded, looking for a sign from Kate's face for information.

"You need to let the board do it's work."

"This is about the board? I should have known. You have actually sold out," Sophie countered, letting Kate's words reinforce her earlier opinions of Kate's actions. Kate wasn't telling her anything she didn't already know.

"This isn't just about the board, Sophie. Margaret is up to something, and if you keep it up, you won't be able to handle it on your own," Kate responded quietly.

"That's such bullshit, Kate. I can't handle it? I've been doing this long enough to know how to deal with the board. But obviously you must have some treasure trove of knowledge with all of your experience. Remind me again, exactly how long have you been a Crow for?" It was a low blow, but Sophie was getting a little sick of seeing Kate interject whenever she thought Sophie was out of line. After all, Sophie was the one with years of actual experience as a Crow.

"Look," Kate continued, ignoring Sophie's jab, "I think Margaret is positioning herself to make a move to take over the company. She's already working to dismantle it through budgetary allocations. Her goal is to cut the entire task force and move into surveillance, and one step toward that is proving you're not performing adequately.`"

"Well you aren't making that any easier," Sophie offered, only half listening to what Kate was saying. Though if this was true, it explained why Kate was reluctant to talk in the building lobby, but it didn't explain the rest of her behavior. "You're not exactly leaving me any room to do my actual job in the first place."

"Margaret is the primary stakeholder to two different CCTV companies. She's looking to merge them in the next few months which would make that mega company a monopoly - practically unstoppable. It would also mean merging the existing surveillance infrastructure built throughout the city. She wants a contract with the City out of it. I'm talking 'Big Brother' stuff."

"Which is illegal," Sophie added, eyeing Kate's theory with doubt. "The city would never let a monopoly take hold - there's literally a law against it."

Kate looked like she might laugh, "Sorry, this is still Gotham, right? How do you think Tommy Elliot, or even Wayne Enterprise got to where they are? Wayne Enterprise has a monopoly on at least half a dozen industries in this city. Margaret Cobblepot is well-positioned politically, and she has the means."

Sophie's brow furrowed in thought as Kate continued, "I don't have a lot to go off: I don't know her timeline, who all is working with her, or how much control she's already nabbed. At the very least we need the audit to go smoothly, and I need you to be more careful, otherwise I don't see how we'll get around it."

Sophie wasn't sure how to take this news. It suddenly put into perspective Kate's attitude over the last week, but that didn't mean she trusted Kate to be telling the truth.

"I'm not lying to you, Soph," Kate said, reading Sophie's thoughts. "You should also know something else: that Paulie kid isn't on your side."

Sophie stared back at Kate. She had almost done it. Kate had almost convinced her she was doing the right thing for the Crows. And then she said the one thing that was inconceivable even on Sophie's worst day. Instead of buying Kate's words, Sophie's suspicions of Kate's motives spiked to a new level at the mention of Paulie. She had been his mentor for years, and now Kate was accusing him of playing for another team.

"Excuse me?" Sophie asked, stunned by Kate's suggestion. "For someone with zero intel, you sure did narrow in on the one person on the task force who has the greatest track record for honesty and loyalty to me which is something you don't have a leg to stand on at the moment."

"Sophie, this is different. What happened before wa-."

"Which part? Explain to me which part is different: the part where you lie to me or the part where you make a fool of me?" Sophie asked, her pent up frustrations getting the better of her. "Because I'm getting a vibe you're in this for you right now."

Kate looked ready to argue with Sophie, but was also clearly at a loss for words. Sophie could read on Kate's face that this wasn't how she expected this conversation to go.

"You can't dupe me, Kate. I don't know what's going on with you, but you are not the person I thought I knew. Go tell your conspiracies to someone who you haven't destroyed your trust with. And if you ever do waste my time again with some theory, at least have the decency to show up with some evidence that backs it up and doesn't accuse an honest, hardworking person of playing sides."

Sophie turned and began walking back toward the building.

"Look, I could be wrong," Kate called out to Sophie. "Just… just keep an eye on him, will you?"

"This is a deep dive, Kate, even for you. Drop the act, will you? This whole charade of pretending to care isn't working for you anymore."