AN: Soooooooooo apparently the new season of Gotham is gonna be Scarecrow's time to shine. I'm not proud. I made a noise that may or may not have sounded like a dying barn owl and startled the dog.

I am proud. I am ashamed on your behalf.

Aw, c'mon. You were a little happy, right?

We'll see if this brat can deliver.

Gotham-verse, sort of. (He was. He's just unwilling to admit it.)

We'll see. Heaven help everyone involved if this goes south.

Full title is 'The City is Smoking (and I'll Burn it to the Ground)

Christineoftheopera-Mm-hm. Jealous. Absolutely GREEN with envy...

Kitty texts her mother again, just to be sure she and Ada are okay, and slumps into the unforgiving hospital chair. She's here all the time, you'd think the staff would get her a better one. Humph.

"Kitty?"

"Jonathan, hey."

He's…better. A little. Still drugged, more often than not, but they've eased him off enough so he's a little loopy more than unconscious. And sometimes he's just tired more than anything.

She's petty. She'll admit it. She wore her 'I Told You So' shirt as often as humanly possible for about two weeks. That might be why the staff hasn't given her a better chair…oh, well. Pride before comfort, and when he's awake she's usually sitting on his bed, anyway.

"How're you feeling?"

"Little foggy." He blinks a few times and flails a hand in the general direction of the television. "Why's there a riot?"

"I don't know." She checks her phone-Mum's fine, she and Ada are locked in a McDonald's bathroom. "Some sort of chemical weapon. Tetch's virus, they're not saying much."

"Mm."

He yawns and pokes the IV in his hand. She swats at his fingers.

"Let it alone."

"If it's going to itch this much, it should be doing something productive. Like giving me superpowers."

"It's productive, it's keeping you alive and mostly sane."

"Other people in this city have superpowers." he grumbles, but he settles for gripping her wrist and fiddling with her bracelet, eyes fixed on the live footage of murderous girl scouts. "What are they doing?"

"I have no idea."

He snorts, slides a finger under the bracelet.

"This is very disorganized."

She chokes on air.

"Are you seriously judging a biological attack-"

"I am! Look at this! How much of this is placebo, or uninfected people joining in because why not, or-"

"You are horrible!" she hisses, because Jonathan you cannot be serious the city is literally on fire. He gives her a tired smile.

"Side effect of growing up with a mad scientist?"

"Did you just."

"And of being experimented on?"

"You're not funny."

"You're laughing."

"It's incredulous laughter, you monster!"

He grins at her, utterly unrepentant, and fine, maybe it is disorganized, but still. You don't just sit here and judge people's attempts to destroy Gotham. If nothing else, it has to be rude. Right?

Or maybe not. She wouldn't know. But. You shouldn't do it.

"You'd do it better, I suppose?"

"Mm-hm."

"The fact that you think so scares me. Just so's you know."

"We both know you have a murder contingency plan."

"It's Gotham, you have to have one of those-"

"You should have a 'spread mass pandemonium' plan to go with it-"

They shut up as an old woman with a shotgun appears on camera. She's quickly lost in the crowds, though, and Jonathan resumes toying with her bracelet.

"I would have done it better. You don't unleash a virus on people, then you don't have a control group because it's contagious."

"That's usually the idea-"

"No. No, no." He swallows and makes an irritated gesture. "You want the group of people with…whatever you've done, you want them, and then you want the normal group, and you watch them. For science."

"If you say so, love." She squeezes his wrist. "Go back to sleep, huh? I think you're a little out of it."

He hums and shoots a dark glare towards the screen.

"I still say it's disorganized."

"You would." She picks up her phone again, texts Mum. "Want me to turn this off?"

"No, it's fine. What if the zombie hoards come this way?"

"Don't even joke."

All the same, she eyes her backpack. The number of books she has to carry in that thing…they're heavy. She could knock someone out with them, probably. She'll have to hope so. Just in case.

THE END