A/N: Anything recognisable to Gotham belongs to it's rightful owners. I only own Penny and a few extra OC's who may be scattered along this fic.

I first published this piece of fanfiction in 2015 under a different username, it was born after I was writing another fic which paired Penny and Alfred Pennyworth. In that fic Penny had been friends with Harvey for a long time and through writing that I started to enjoy their chemistry so I wrote this. At some point I purged my fanfic account and for a few months that was okay but two years later I deeply, deeply regretted that decision. I don't know why I did it. Thanks to the wonderful fanfic archive I managed to track down a few of them, this included.

I read the whole thing through and I wanted to republish it because it was a piece I was proud of and quite frankly Harvey Bullock will always have a very special place in my heart. So here we are. I'm going to republish it with minor changes and now that Gotham is finished I'm thinking about potentially continuing it because that show, as far as I'm concerned, did Harvey dirty. I think this fic will be quite canon divergent therefore but given how little the writers seemed to give a crap about Harvey's life I figured I can get away with it.

If you enjoy please do review =)

Harvey Bullock had now become exactly what he didn't want to become. He'd become exactly like Dix. Gotham had chewed him up and spit him out. Gotham had beaten, shot, heartbroken and twisted Harvey Bullock until only glimmers of the detective he once was were visible and even then, it was only visible to those who knew him well. He was a shadow of the white knight he'd once been, or at least that was what he liked to tell himself and everyone around him. The truth was that Harvey was still soft in the middle (both literally and figuratively). He was romantic, kind hearted, a decent guy behind all that sass and brash brutishness. Sure, Harvey had fallen in line with the gangsters of the city, sure he used prostitutes to sate a need for someone, once in a while he paid them extra to hold him a little longer. It was fruitless though, it didn't fill the hole he felt in his chest, so instead he crammed it with fast food and alcohol too. He couldn't, he wouldn't drag a woman into this life, he wouldn't go looking for a woman to pull into this mess, not after how he saw the other officer's marriages end up.

Harvey learnt very early on that he had to go along to get along. Beneath the bravado, however, Harvey was still the same nerd wanting to be a hero. Gotham would never allow it though. She had piled so much guilt on Harvey for his attempts to be a hero that the Detective had now given up and ceased trying all together. Dix was bigger than Dottie in terms of the shit that Gotham had thrown at him. Dix had hurt, had caused so much more pain than Dottie.

Dot had been his girl and Harvey, although he'd be hard-pressed to admit it, had even fallen in love with her. She'd been his, she'd cooked him dinner and they'd talked about getting a little house. Maybe even having a kid or two, after Dix's accident though Harvey found it hard to cope and Dottie couldn't cope with Harvey not playing protector. Harvey not playing supporter. She couldn't cope with having to offer a little support herself and instead of talking things out she let him catch her with a uniformed officer who Harvey had real beef with.

Harvey had been heartbroken, really torn up, but Gotham had been there to pick him up and pull him down. Gotham had given him girls of the night, booze that left his head spinning, drugs, gangsters, prostitutes. An endless cycle so that he could barely remember his own name let alone Dot and anytime he did remember, he'd drink a little more.

Dix on the other hand was another matter altogether. Dot had been a cold hard bitch and in time Harvey had been able to see it for what it was and bid that chapter of his life good riddance. Harvey could say it was better it had all come to a head before a house and kids were involved. With Dix however the guilt and what ifs would never go away and Harvey would always know it was his foolishness that put his partner and mentor in a wheelchair. So, Harvey Bullock had stopped being a hero, stopped running into the breach and started towing the line. Yet beneath the surface Harvey was a good guy, he always tipped his waitresses, always treated the girls good and always helped out a kid in need. Harvey just got tougher, got rougher and drank the pain away.

There was a sweet shop on the corner of mid-town, right on the border of mid and uptown where Harvey went from time to time. Everyone loved Schrubers, everyone. Every kid and adult in Gotham knew Schrubers sold the best sweets in the world and to top it off they were cheap. Harvey had spent half his childhood in and out of the shop. Maurice Schruber used to give him a mystery to solve every week and if Harvey got it right, he'd get himself something free. It was only in times of nostalgia Harvey really went in anymore and now was one of those moments.

The door opened and the bell tinkled. The shop keep wasn't paying attention though, she was swaying gently, ass up in the air, cleaning some shelves along the very bottom of the unit on her knees. Harvey had to admit he was an ass-man, well he was an ass and breast man. In fact, he was a fan of something he could grab hold of but, the ass and breasts were his favourites and presented before him was a damn fine ass. Harvey tilted his head but didn't say anything, just admired for a moment until the woman glanced back, even then Harvey didn't stop looking.

"Look all you want but you go to touch and kids will be pretending to smoke your fingers before you can say sherbert dip." The woman said standing up and brushing herself off. She was new, or she seemed new. Harvey was trying to figure it out because he hadn't been in here in so long and if he had been in here recently, he'd probably been drunk.

"My hands will stay where you can see em'." Harvey replied holding his hands up and letting out a laugh. "You missed a spot." He joked gesturing to where she'd been cleaning.

"Yeah, that's definitely the first time I've heard that today." The woman shook her head and there was something familiar about the eye roll that she did but he couldn't figure out what it was.

"Well the old ones are the best." Harvey retorted.

"Is that what you tell yourself in a morning?" The woman asked him.

"Ooh, oh ho, ouch! Kitty has claws." Harvey replied letting out a bark of a laugh and watching her closely.

"Fists too so mind your mouth." Harvey's mouth twitched up into a grin at that comment, oh this was definitely his kind of girl. "So, you want something sweet or not?"

"How much are you?" He asked on a reflex. The woman's eyebrows shot up and she gave him a look that evoked a feeling of being on thin ice. A feeling that only his mother had been able to evoke in him before. It was a sort of fear, a fear that made you want to push a little harder but at the same time made you worry just how dire the consequences would be if you did. "It was a joke, I uh-" Harvey faltered taking his hat off and scratching the back of his head. "You got any gingerbread?" He asked trying to skirt over the earlier comment.

"Baked fresh this morning, gum drop buttons and everything." The Woman said holding up the tray a little. "I changed the recipe a little. I don't think the old man will mind, I mean the ginger really wasn't coming through, here you can be my guinea pig." She said holding one out to him. "Come on it's a free gingerbread."

"Yeah and I read Hansel and Gretel." Harvey replied, of course he wasn't going to deny a free gingerbread but he wasn't going to deny himself talking, well, verbally sparring with this woman for another couple of minutes. She was pretty tasty herself, aside from the nice ass she had wide hips, not exactly an hourglass figure but she wasn't far off. A little weight around her tummy, not much at all though and ample breasts, rosy round cheeks. She was shorter than Harvey too, small but with a powerful stare and he liked that. She had the attitude of someone three times her size and Harvey liked that a lot.

"Oh, so now I'm not just a hooker, I'm a witch too, jolly gee what a stand-up kind of guy you are!" She said letting out a sigh.

"Ok, give em' here, guinea pig ain't gunna be the worst thing I'm called today.'' Harvey said holding out a hand.

"Well it certainly won't if you leave everyone with the wonderful impression you're giving me right now." The woman replied. "Now eat, what do ya think?"

Harvey took a bite rather than replying and immediately he could taste the difference, it was subtle, subtle but an improvement that tied the whole thing together. Harvey had been buying gingerbread from here since he was a kid and it had never tasted so good.

"Good, good, they taste good, still missing something though." Harvey said and the woman folded her arms across her chest and watched him intently waiting for his answer. "The face." Harvey said holding up the half eaten gingerbread man. "Most important part." He added pulling off a gum drop button.

"Hadn't gotten around to it yet."

"No too busy scrubbing shelves and giving passers-by a good look at your ass I imagine." Harvey was pushing his luck and he knew it.

"Well a girls gotta have a U.S.P." She replied.

Harvey was surprised she hadn't punched him at that comment but he liked that she hadn't, he liked that she had the wit enough to reply. If there was one thing Harvey enjoyed it was a verbal jousting match, especially with a woman and especially if it led to other things. It had been so long since he'd been able to do that. The women he paid for sex couldn't exactly recreate the reality of having that kind of spat and the women he didn't pay for it with, well, he was usually a little drunk or they both were and then he couldn't be bothered.

"And you definitely have a sizeable one-" Harvey was really pushing it now a stupid grin plastered on his face. He let his implication trail off as he waited for a name.

"Penny, my names Penny and what do they call you? Tiny?" She asked him a smirk drifting across her lips.

"You're welcome to let me prove you wrong." Harvey grinned, there was no hurt in his voice though because he knew well enough to take it in the spirit of things. "Bullock, Harvey Bullock, Detective."

"Oh, a real James Bond you are." Penny let out a laugh, commenting of course on the way he'd said his name.

"Well Miss Moneypenny." Harvey did his best Connery impression but all Penny did was laugh.

"Don't give up your day job, or night job, or any job for that matter."

"Gingerbread's good, now can I get two to go and erm, better give me some bubblgum too and some twizzlers." Harvey said clocking the time and starting to fish around in his pocket for change.

"The Gingerbread you can have for being my guinea pig, the bubblegum you can have for the smart mouth and brightening my day. The twizzlers you can pay me a dollar twenty for.." Penny said matter-of-factly bagging everything up for him. "Come back next time and I might throw in some whiskey cremes." She said giving him a grin.