XXVIII - A Gift Among Friends
"It felt like I had driven back in time. That lane was how I remembered it, when nothing else was." - Neil Gaiman
•••
Bird stirred from sleep just enough to turn over on her side and reach an arm out to Jim's side of the bed.
But all she felt under her touch was the cool surface of the sheet.
Waking up a little more, she raised her head and confirmed that his side of the bed was empty.
"Jim?"
Her voice was a little scratchy.
Being awake this early was entirely against her will.
It had been over a week since Bird returned home -and Jim hadn't been back to work since.
In that time, neither of them had left the house.
They'd shut their phones off and hadn't let the outside world interfere with repairing the cracks that had formed in their relationship.
Time had no meaning.
No need to get to bed by a specific time when the next day had no awaiting deadlines or responsibilities.
In truth, Bird had always preferred the night to day.
She'd always felt more at home when the city was lit with a moonlight glow.
Bird got out of bed with a yawn; her movements were sluggish as she crossed the room and disappeared into the walk-in closet to choose her clothes for the day.
Several minutes later, she was heading down the stairs in her townhouse, tying her hair up in a bun on the top of her head as she went.
Her gums still tingled from the mint in her toothpaste, and her face was freshly washed and moisturized.
She checked the main sitting room and the office downstairs for Jim, but when she didn't see him, she went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.
But once she got there, she saw no need to.
Sitting on the counter was two coffee cups bearing the logo of the nearby cafe and a plain white paper bag - more than likely containing fresh croissants.
She walked over and started to unfold the top of the bag to check what was inside when a pair of arms slid around her from behind.
"Morning." She beamed a smile.
"Morning." Jim greeted back.
Bird's stomach jumped at the feeling of his breath brushing against her ear when he spoke.
He pressed a kiss to the side of her face; she chuckled.
She turned around to get a look at him and noticed he was clean-shaven -she always thought he looked good, but a part of her would miss the rough feeling of his stubble against her skin, against her face and neck, the reddened hue the contact left on her inner thighs.
Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly.
"You got up early today."
He nodded.
"I go back to work next week." Jim reminded her, "Have to get my sleep schedule straightened out."
"You know…" Bird breathed as she leaned in and rested her arms on his shoulders, "You don't have to go back to work. Neither of us does. I've got money. We could just go."
"Yeah?" Jim's hands found their place against the curve of her hips, "Go where?"
"Just throw a dart at a map." Bird smiled, but there was a hint of sadness in her expression, "Literally anywhere."
She'd been happy the last week. Truly happy.
The problem was that happiness was fleeting, and sometimes, even in her happiest moments, she was sad, knowing it wouldn't last forever.
"We talked about this." Jim reminded her with a soft smile.
He was right.
They'd both agreed on the date when he'd return to work.
Decided together when they'd make their reappearance back in the world.
"I know." Bird leaned in and kissed him before sliding out of his arms and turning back to the counter to grab her breakfast.
Things were going well between them, and Gotham always seemed to ruin what was good.
She'd had the same fears when he'd first returned to work at the GCPD. Worried that no matter how close they were or how much they loved each other -outside forces would tear them apart.
But she didn't feel as hopeless as the last time.
She felt even closer to him now, more connected than ever before; nothing could tear them apart.
And even though she was a realist with a healthy splash of pessimism through and through - she was feeling oddly optimistic about the future.
Maybe it was the week long afterglow that encircled them or her fully coming to terms with the future that she wanted with Jim. Knowing how much she loved him and not doubting that he was just as in love with her.
He was hers and she was his.
She'd been trying not to think about Oswald after catching some news earlier in the week that he was missing. Still, she wondered if her decision to cut him out of her life was also playing a part in her feeling less burdened and freer.
Perhaps it had to do more with her passing the trials she'd given herself when she'd been around Jerome.
She'd recognized then that she was tempting herself back into the darkness.
An alcoholic walking into a bar, she'd thought at the time, how she'd been tempting fate and not letting her monster out to play.
She'd walked a tightrope over a sprawling bottomless ravine and made it to the other side in one piece; taking Alfred's words to heart, she knew now that the only direction to go was forward.
••• The next morning •••
Jim walked out of the large walk-in closet with changes of clothes in hand; he started to throw them into the open luggage bag on the bed but stopped with something caught his eye.
He laid the clothes down on the bed and picked up a grenade from the overnight bag that he knew he hadn't put in there.
"Bird?" He looked over his shoulder to where she was getting some of his socks from a dresser drawer.
He held up the weapon when he saw her had her attention.
"Yeah, I packed that for you." She offered him a smile as and bumped a hip against the open drawer to slide it shut.
Her choice of words earned a small laugh from him.
She hadn't so much packed it up for as she'd just haphazardly tossed a deadly explosive in beside a zip-lock bag of toiletries.
"I see that… but why?" Jim carefully sat the grenade on the bed and took the clean pairs of socks from her with a nod of thanks.
"In case you need it, Jim."
They stared at one another in silence for several seconds.
"I don't think -" He began, but she cut him off.
"My life has been saved by a well-timed grenade throw on numerous occasions." Her brows raised as she spoke, "And we have no idea why your uncle showed up out of the blue here yesterday."
"I don't trust him." Jim said, "But I also don't think I need to take explosives to the cabin."
"I think you do." Bird dropped it back into his bag, right onto the socks and other clothes he'd just put in.
"Be careful with that!" He cautioned with a flinch.
Bird smiled widely at him, her eyes coming to life with a spark of mischievousness; before Jim could stop her, Bird snatched it back up.
"Why?" She cocked her head to the side, casually tossing the grenade up in the air and catching it like juggling a ball, "Scared?"
"Of you blowing yourself -or the both of us up with that? Yeah, I am." Jim tried to grab it away from her, but she spun around quicker before he could.
"Bird, stop it. Come on." Jim complained, but a laugh slipped through with his arms snaked around her, trying to get the explosive device from her before she decided to play more carnival games and juggle it again.
Bird dropped her head back against the front of his shoulder with a laugh of her own as she relented and let him take it from her grip.
She could feel his body relax with a sigh of relief.
"Seriously, though." Bird turned back to face him; she cupped her hands over his but didn't try to fight him for the grenade, "Real talk. I don't trust your Uncle Frank. For to him to just show up like that last night… after all these years? He must want something."
"Yeah." He agreed, "Which is why I have go and figure out what that something is."
"Take this with you." Bird dropped her arms back to the sides and watched with a smile as he stared between the grenade and his overnight bag before finally dropping it in to take with him.
"I'm also hurt that your family has a cabin you've never taken me to." She crossed her arms over her chest.
Jim laughed.
"It's just a small hunting cabin. Couple of dusty rooms and taxidermy animal heads on the walls. Didn't really think it'd be something you're interested in."
Bird shrugged.
Her mood shifted a few degrees closer to somber.
"You got everything packed?" She asked.
"Think so." Jim nodded, "Just gonna make a coffee for the road, and then I should head out. Get an early start on the drive."
Bird nodded, her lips curving u at the corners when he stopped on his way out of the room to kiss the side of her face.
Once alone, Bird rubbed her hands roughly over her face and let out a heavy breath.
She didn't like this one bit.
Selfishly, she was upset about their time together with him off-work being cut short.
But it was more than that. Jim hadn't spoken to his Uncle Frank in years, then the older man had shown up on their doorstep the night before, all smiles and charm. Talking about how he wanted to reconnect and invited Jim to come on a weekend hunting trip to the family cabin.
Blood relatives popping out of the woodwork hadn't panned out well for Bird at all in her own family; she was afraid it wouldn't work out any better for Jim.
For a second, she entertained the thought of going back to bed after Jim left but quickly abandoned hope of that. She probably wouldn't get much sleep until he was back from the trip.
She was awake and up for the day, whether she wanted to be or not.
On her way into the bathroom, she switched the TV in the bedroom to have some background noise while brushing her teeth.
She overheard the talking heads from the screen detail the day's weather forecast before it switched to their top story - the city's missing mayor.
Bird rinsed her mouth with water again before opening the bottle of mouthwash.
The hosts ran over some theories as to where Mayor Cobblepot could be.
One suggested his previous ties to organized crime had caught up with him; the other guessed that he might be hiding in shame from how badly the recent televised interview had gone.
Bird rolled her shoulders and pushed them back, trying to relieve the sudden feeling of pressure building in her chest.
The voices from the TV moved further into the distance, and the sound of the dripping faucet grew louder.
"No, no, no…" She struggled to catch her breath.
Not again, this wasn't happening again, she tried to tell herself despite her heart beating so rapidly that her chest physically hurt from the thudding.
Her mouth hung open as she fought for even the smallest breath of life,
The reflection in the mirror in front of her started to distort, her vision grew blurry and shadowed among the edges, and her knees buckled.
She flailed, fell, tumbled hard to the floor, knocking the open bottle of mouthwash and several other items from the counter down with her.
The bright blue liquid splashed against the light color floor tile, looking almost radioactive in the room's bright lights.
Every one of her senses rushed into overdrive and then seemed to fail on her just as fast.
Silence hollowed her ears, and she couldn't hear Jim's voice when he yelled out from downstairs to ask what the thud he heard was.
She couldn't even feel the coldness of the mouthwash when it started to saturate the fabric of her sleeping shorts.
"Bird?" Jim called out again as he neared the open bedroom door.
Several seconds prior he'd heard a clatter and thud from the second floor and called out to ask what had happened but he hadn't gotten a response.
He walked into the bedroom and looked around.
His bag was still on the bed, packed and ready to go.
"Oh my god!" Jim yelled when he looked over to the bathroom and saw her on the floor.
He raced into the room and dropped to the floor beside her.
She was sitting on the tile with contents from the counter scattered around the floor.
Her head hung forward, dark brunette waves shielding her face from sight.
Chest still rising and falling heavily, every breath was a gasp, coming up for air after reaching the surface of the deep end.
"Bird?" Jim pushed the hair out of her face to get a better look at her, "What happened?"
She didn't answer,
This time the panic attack didn't last near as long as the previous one but had hit her with such force she'd been knocked off her feet.
"It's okay." Jim tried to soothe, but his voice was shaking with worry.
He sat the rest of the way down on the floor beside her and pulled her against him.
Closing her eyes, she sank against his body and tried to calm down. Every inhale burnt her throat from the harshness of the mint in the air.
Jim ran a comforting hand in slow circles over her back and held her close against him; her entire body trembled.
He waited with her in silence until she could speak; she curled closer to him.
He'd missed the worst of the episode, but he knew it must have been another panic attack.
In truth, he'd wanted to bring the one she'd told him about that happened at the police station up to her -but as the days had passed without incident, he hoped it had been an isolated episode.
"The news, um-" She cleared her throat, "They did a story about Oswald and-"
A disbelieving laugh slid from between her teeth, "It's so stupid. One minute I was brushing my teeth, and the next, I'm on the floor."
She wouldn't raise her head to face him.
"Hey," Jim frowned when she still wouldn't look at him, "Listen, I'll call my uncle and tell him we need to reschedule-"
"No." Bird shook her head, hair frizzing against the fabric of his shirt as she did, "I'm okay. Like you said, you need to figure out why he's turned up after all this time."
"No-" He began to argue.
"Jim, it's fine. I'm fine."
She slid out of his arms and leaned back against the cabinet doors.
He watched her as she tucked her hair behind her ears and looked around the room but made no attempt to get up from the floor.
"Yeah?" He questioned, "This makes what? Two panic attacks in about the same number of weeks?"
Rolling her head against the wood door behind her, Bird finally looked at him with embarrassment reflected in her face.
"You being here isn't going to stop them." She reasoned, "Apparently, it's just going to happen now."
"I still don't want to leave you alone." His face was lined with concern.
Bird hadn't told him what kept triggering the attacks, but he was pretty sure it was just her inability to determine the cause herself -not that she was trying to hide something.
She seemed entirely baffled about why it kept happening herself.
"Go." Bird offered him a drowsy smile, "Seriously, it's okay. Ivy's been blowing up my phone these last few days, and I've been meaning to check in on Bruce. I'm not going to be alone."
Jim stood up, then offered Bird a hand -which she accepted, and he helped pull her back up to her feet.
"If I go, you have to promise you'll call me if something like this happens again, okay?"
He was still hesitant at the idea of leaving her.
"And you'll come rushing back?" She laughed softly, still embarrassed.
"Yes." He gave her hand a slight squeeze, "I love you."
"I love you too, Jim."
•••
Bird lowered her head to get a better look out of her windshield as she drove up a winding, tree-lined gravel driveway.
Parking close to the door, she reached into the cup holder to retrieve the paper she'd written the address on that Ivy had given her over the phone.
Weeds were growing through the gravel, and the yard didn't look like it had been tended to in some time.
Bird lingered by the car when she got out.
She could see bright leaves from thriving plants hanging by the windows.
Yeah, she thought, this had to be the correct place.
Just as she reached the door, Ivy flung it open and greeted her with a wide smile.
"Quite the place you've got," Bird said with raised brows as she walked by Ivy to get inside.
"I know, right!" Ivy shut the door and motioned around the entryway, "Can you believe someone just left this place sitting empty?"
"Judging by the bank foreclosure sign in the yard - I don't think they had a choice." Bird commented before getting to the point of her visit, "You said on the phone you had something for me?"
"Yes!" Ivy bounced on her feet, excitedly clasping her hands together, "You're going to love it!"
"What is it?" Bird asked.
Ivy's smile drooped at Bird's lack of enthusiasm.
"You could at least act happy to see me." The redhead complained.
"It is good to see you, Ivy." Bird attempted a smile, "I've just got a lot on my mind right now. Jim's uncle showed up out of nowhere, and now they're gone on a hunting trip and…" Her voice trailed off, "It doesn't matter."
Ivy's eyes dropped to where Bird was still wearing the woven friendship bracelet. Her anger at feeling neglected and ignored faded.
When she'd first presented that gift to Bird, she'd made her promise that she'd never take it off, and so far, she'd honored the request.
"Guess what the surprise is!" Ivy gushed.
"You should also know I'm not really a fan of surprises." Bird tossed out.
"Guess!"
"I don't know." Bird's eyes narrowed, "Give me a hint. Where did you get it?"
"From the river," Ivy said.
Bird's nose scrunched, "The river is filthy. Do you have any idea how many bodies get dumped there every week?"
Ivy's head leaned back, and she let out a loud laugh that echoed off the walls around them as if Bird had just told her the funniest joke ever heard by mankind.
"I'm serious." Bird spoke loudly over the laughing, "I should know. I've sunk quite a few there myself over the years."
The pair got into a brief argument over Bird claiming that she didn't want whatever it was that Ivy had found in the river.
Ivy was certain that Bird would just love what awaited her.
Finally, Bird relented and let Ivy lead her to a room on the first floor with a closed door, where they got into another argument until Bird finally agreed to let Ivy cover her eyes and lead her inside to the surprise.
Usually, she found it easier to give in because Ivy was one of the most stubborn people she'd ever met.
Of course, she was still technically a child in her mentality, and it really showed at times like this.
Ivy led Bird into the room with her hands cupped her eyes.
"Ta-da!" Ivy exclaimed as she finally removed her hands and let Bird get a look at the room.
Bird looked around, her eyes stopping on a twin-size bed with an old metal frame with flaking white paint and visible rust; it had probably been in a child's room at some point through the years.
Slowly, Bird advanced towards the single bed.
Her steps sounded abnormally loud to her own ears as she moved closer.
Pulling in a deep breath, Bird turned back to face Ivy, away from where Oswald was unconscious in bed.
"Ivy, what the hell is this?" She questioned.
Confusion spread over Ivy's face, "That's Penguin, duh."
Closing her eyes with a burdened sigh, Bird pointed out, "I know who it is. What happened?"
"I pulled him out of the river." Ivy waved a hand towards the bed, "He was shot, but I've been nursing him back to health."
"Well, good luck with that." Bird briskly walked past her out of the room.
Her heart raced in her chest, her hands felt clammy, head dizzy.
"Bird, wait!" Ivy caught back up with her in the hallway and grabbed onto her arm to bring her to a stop.
"He's your friend-"
"He was my very best friend." Bird bit down on the inside of her cheek.
"Then why do you look so sad?" Ivy's head tilted with the question.
She wondered if Bird hadn't heard the part where she'd been getting him back to health.
"Because we aren't what we used to be, and I won't let him keep hurting me." Bird didn't have the words to express how badly it hurt her to decide to cut him out of her life.
Her breathing grew uneven, and she placed a hand against the wall to steady herself.
"He was so much more than my best friend, Ivy. He's the other half of my soul-" Bird shook her head, her vision started to fuzz; she corrected, "Was. Past tense. He's nothing to me now."
"And I can't-" She gasped, "I can't breathe when I think about him."
Her hand went to her chest, trying to hold her racing heart inside her body.
One second she was leaning on the wall for support, and the next, she was on the floor.
Suddenly, Bird couldn't remember anything. Not where she was or who she was with.
Her mind was blank; nothing but sheer panic.
Her body rejected all of the air she tried to suck in, which made her chest hurt so bad her eyes started to fill with tears.
She felt like she was going to die.
Ivy ran up the stairs to get something. By the time she made it back, Bird was on all fours crawling around in circles making some of the worst choking noises Ivy had ever heard.
"Here, here!" Ivy dropped to the floor beside her and grabbed her arm.
The movement threw Bird off balance and she fell over on her side. Her cheeks were unnaturally dark, and her lips looked pale.
Uncapping the glass roller bottle, Ivy dropped the metal cap to the floor and rubbed the roller ball over Bird's wrist.
"Here, breathe!" Ivy yelled as she pushed Bird's wrist to her nose, forcing her to breathe in the mixture she'd just put on her skin.
It took several seconds of Ivy forcing her to keep her wrist there, but finally, Bird was able to pull in a deep breath.
Weakly, she rolled from her side over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.
Ivy stayed knelt down near her and asked, "What happened?"
"Oswald." Bird groaned.
The first time she'd slipped into a panic attack at the police station after telling Oswald they were done, she hadn't put two and two together.
The one she'd had earlier that day during the televised news story over his disappearance had raised her suspicions that he was what was triggering the episodes.
Now, she was absolutely positive that the reason for the trouble was Oswald.
The last time she'd had a full-blown panic attack was when she was a teenager, not long before she'd met him. And they'd been kept at bay until the day she'd made the decision to cut him out of her life like pruning a plant for its own survival.
Raising her wrist back to her nose, Bird breathed in again, feeling a wave of calm rush over her as she did.
The scent was lightly floral
"What is this?" She asked.
"Oh!" Ivy shifted on her knees, "I made that from plants with calming properties. Pretty cool, right?"
Ivy looked around them.
Sometimes she heard noises in the middle of the night in the mansion she'd been squatting in and needed something to help ease her nerves.
Picking up the metal cap from the floor, Ivy twisted it back on and offered the glass bottle to Bird, "You can keep it if you want. I've got loads more."
"Thank you." Bird took the bottle and put it in her pocket but didn't attempt to get up from the floor.
Ivy crossed her arms over her chest and mumbled, "I thought you'd be happy I saved Penguin."
"It's complicated." Bird quietly answered.
She didn't think the English language possessed strong enough words to convey just how complicated it actually was.
Once upon a time, Bird didn't believe much in fate, often felt that the saying 'everything happens for a reason' was bullshit; Empty words at best.
But the older she got, the more she found herself believing that some things were destined to be.
Because of Oswald and the bond they'd shared for so long, she did believe in soul mates. Not in the romantic sense, but in how some people are meant to cross paths.
Since she was a young child, she'd always felt like a piece of her was missing -and hadn't felt whole until she met Oswald.
It was like he'd been carrying the thing she was missing along with him, and when they met, it clicked into place.
He had been her very best friend. The most important person in her life for several years.
She had loved him with everything in her, chose him repeatedly above all else, and would have given anything and everything for him, up to and including her very life -which she very nearly did.
She went to bat for him against everyone else.
Their friendship was part of the reason her relationship with her parents went south; she chose him again and again over them.
They were so tangled up in each other for so long that sometimes it was hard to tell where he ended, and she began.
They were an absolute mess, but she loved every single second of it. She'd spent so long deep in the maze that she couldn't see over the top and find a way out.
Everyone from Butch to Alfred had warned her that Oswald was her blind spot, but she'd not believed any of them.
The one thing she had been absolute in was her loyalty to her best friend.
But life changed and warped them -as it tends to do and they were no longer the same people they were initially.
A vow they'd made early on that they would hurt, use and lie to other people but never do that to one another had fallen to the wayside.
She had stayed with Harvey Dent after he'd hurt her -stayed for too long, she knew that now. But she'd still found the strength to walk away and stop that cycle.
She'd even left Jim and the city behind when she realized they were both drowning and she had to leave to save herself.
But it was like Oswald had -had her under some spell where she couldn't see just how bad things had gotten between them.
Even when she'd stabbed him with a fork, and he'd put a knife to her throat, she didn't call it quits.
Bird had been so stuck in the cycle of hurting one another with him that she hadn't seen the turmoil it was causing her.
Just like everyone else had cautioned her, Oswald indeed was her blind spot.
She'd been willing to cut every other single person out of her life when they hurt her or started to pull her down, yet she'd held onto Oswald through all of it.
They'd circled the drain, and she hadn't even attempted to keep her head above water.
Pandora's Box, once all the trouble has been let out, it can't be neatly tucked back inside.
The damage can't be undone, and there was no way that Bird could continue to blind herself to everything that he'd done.
Impossible to forget the harm they had done to each other.
All of the ugliness had been laid bare.
"Well?" Ivy grew impatient with the prolonged silence in the hallway, "What do you want to do with him then?"
Bird closed her eyes, pulled in a deep breath, and in a moment of utter despair, admitted, "I wish you hadn't fished him out of the river."
Ivy's eyes widened.
She silently wondered if she could ever do anything to earn such a cold reaction from Bird about herself.
"But…" Bird sat up from where she'd been lying on the floor, "What's done is done. So, I guess we should probably call a doctor for him."
••• Flashback •••
Bird pushed the exit doors of the ballroom open with the force of her entire body.
The double doors flew open, and she inhaled the cool night air deeply.
She stopped and looked around before grabbing onto the sides of the long burgundy color evening gown she was wearing and lifting it high enough to ensure she wouldn't trip over the fabric as she ran down the cement steps of the building they were holding the senior dance in.
"Wait!"
A voice called out from behind her.
Bird kept her pace hastened but steady and kept her eyes forward, intention set on getting to the street and as far away from the dance and her classmates as she could.
With any luck, her best friend would already be there waiting on her.
"Star, come on. Where the hell are you going?"
She hated that nickname more than her actual name Starling.
For the life of her, she didn't understand how she ever liked the way he and their friends called her that.
Well, friends was a rather generous term to describe the group of fellow classmates she'd gone to the dance with.
"Away from here." Bird came to a stop on the sidewalk and finally looked back to her date for the dance.
"Look, ignore them. It's not a big deal." Billy reached up and loosened his tie. The formal wear felt suffocating.
"Let's go." He nodded towards the dance hall, "We should get back in there."
Bird's head cocked to the side as she stared at him.
Sure, to him, it didn't seem like a big deal.
"Just go back inside to your friends." Bird countered, "Not like any of them want me here."
Billy let out an exasperated sigh. He reached up and rubbed a hand through his gelled hair, resulting in a disaray that she probably would have loved if she wasn't so mad at him.
"They're assholes, you know that."
He glanced around the street and then back to the circle drive outside the building.
"And you're not?" Bird's glossed red lips curved, and she let out a laugh that caused him to take a step back away from her.
"That isn't fair." He argued, his electric green eyes reflecting the halo of brightness from the street light above them.
"You're only here with me because your parents told you to ask me to the dance." Bird hurled the words at him with a fire glowing in her eyes.
She made a mental note to let her dad have it when she got home.
How dare he ask one of the executives at the company to encourage their son to ask Bird to the dance.
She hadn't even planned on going to the stupid dance. The goal had been to just suffer through the rest of the year until graduation and then move out of Wayne Manor and away from her controlling rules.
But then Billy had been so lovely and charming when he asked her to be his date, and she'd said yes before her brain was entirely on board.
How ridiculous she felt now for actually getting excited about the dance. Knowing that while she went dress shopping with the girls from the group, they had all known she was just invited out of pity.
All that wasted time spent curling her hair and putting on a full face of make-up to look good for the pictures; for him.
The night had started out so well too.
The group of teens pre-gaming in the back of a limo on the way with hundred-dollar bottles of champagne.
The music played at the dance didn't suck for once, and for a moment, Bird started to feel normal again. Connected to her classmates in a way that had been impossible since she'd returned to school the year before after her attack.
This was going to be the last big social event of their senior year, and for part of the night, it seemed like it would be a fond memory to look back on. She'd even considered keeping in contact with some after graduation.
Then one of the girls had too much to drink and let it slip to Bird that she was supposed to be there with Billy, but he'd had to cancel and take Bird instead because her dad had asked his parents to talk to him about it.
Just another way to try and keep power over her.
Her dad knew she planned to take off the minute she turned eighteen. He was probably hoping that if she rekindled her high school friendships, she'd spend less time with Oswald and maybe even want to look into the colleges they were going to.
Like one night would change the trajectory of her life.
Then again, one night just a few short years ago did change everything in her life for the worse.
"You can't take what Anna said seriously." He argued with her, "You know she's drunk."
"Your friends don't want me around." She reiterated what she'd learned from overhearing gossip between them.
Billy frowned.
Before the sexual assault and attempted murder that had taken her out of school for months, they had been her friends too.
He wasn't sure how to tell her that the others didn't feel comfortable around her because she'd changed since returning to school the year before.
Many of them weren't sure what to say to her, so they didn't talk to her at all.
Then there was the odd way she spoke sometimes, eluding to having another life that none of them would understand.
The way her anger burned with such force it made being around her feel unsafe.
The dark satin glove slid from down on her left arm far enough that he caught sight of the red lines on her skin. Cuts against her fair skin that she'd put there herself.
Yet another thing to add to the list of why no one really wanted to be around her. No one knew how to handle her or what to say.
Most of their classmates had just stopped trying, deciding she was too weird.
"It's not all on them, you know?" His tone was softer, "You could try a little harder to get them to like you again. Then things wouldn't be so awkward."
Bird shook her head. None of them could understand what she'd gone through.
And in her eyes, she didn't need them.
Didn't need any of them because she finally had a real friend.
They both looked over as a town car from a local transportation company slowed down and then pulled to a stop by the curb.
The backdoor closet to them opened, and Oswald stepped out to greet Bird.
His eyes widened when he saw her dressed up so elegant; he was at a loss for words.
He'd never seen her in formal wear before.
Usually, she stuck to ripped jeans and baggy shirts. He'd usually see her in that or her school uniform, which always made Fish mad when she came by the club in it because their boss complained it brought all the perverts out.
She looked absolutely stunning.
The most beautiful thing he'd ever laid his eyes on and he couldn't understand why she didn't dress up more.
Billy's eyes widened as he looked between Bird and the way the man who'd gotten out of the car was eyeing her.
It wasn't right; he could feel it in his gut that something was off with the thin man with the slicked-down jet black hair and a nose far too big for his face.
One look at him, and he knew if they crossed paths on the sidewalk, he'd travel to the other side of the street to get as much distance between them as possible.
Finally finding his tongue, Oswald greeted Bird with a compliment, "You're an absolute vision this evening. I have never seen you look more beautiful."
Bird gave him a nod and a confused smile in response. She didn't think she'd ever heard him say that before.
Billy stepped closer to Bird and urged, "We should get back inside."
Unclasping her small clutch purse, she pulled Billy's cellphone out and handed it back to him.
He felt his pockets before slowly taking the phone from her, wondering when the hell she lifted it off of him.
Billy's dad had told him that Bird's dad had taken her cellphone away to keep her from contacting someone he didn't want her to spend time with.
The teenager could only guess that she'd stolen his phone to call the very person she wasn't supposed to be with.
Bird started to turn and make a move for the car, but her classmate stopped her.
He grabbed her arm, probably a little tighter than he should have to keep her from going.
This felt off, and even though it wasn't directly said, it had been implied that he should keep an eye on her at the dance.
If Thomas Wayne found out she'd left the dance with this man, he was sure his own parents would blame him for it when the news got back to them.
"Unhand her!" Oswald yelled out with a staggering step toward them.
His eyes were wild with wrath, and a switchblade knife seemed to appear out of nowhere in his hand.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Billy stuttered. He backed up so quickly that he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Ready?" Oswald kept the knife in one hand in case he'd still need it and offered his free hand to Bird.
With a smile, she accepted the gesture and took his hand, letting him lead her toward the car.
"Star, come on!" Billy sounded frantic as he got back to his feet and watched them.
He'd heard the rumors that she'd entirely lost her mind, and watching her about to get into a car with a man several years their senior while he was holding a knife -he was starting to believe it was true.
No one in their right mind would take a risk like that.
When she continued to ignore him, he tried the only other tool in his arsenal to talk some sense into her, "Dude, if your dad finds out-"
Bird stopped, her posture stiffened.
The last thing she needed was for her dad to find out about this.
He was already grasping at straws to keep control with her quickly approaching 18th birthday. Trying to bribe her with an entry-level position at the company, offering to let her study abroad -anything to get her out of Gotham and away from Oswald Cobblepot.
When she'd turned her nose up at all the offers he'd made, he'd then started looking into an institution she could go to -to get around-the-clock help and care for what he called 'psychological issues'.
His attempts to keep her close and an eye on her had drastically grown since the private investigator he'd gotten to dig up dirt on Oswald to send him away had gone missing.
The private investigator had been Bird's first -and so far only kill.
It had been an accident; she'd mixed booze with the wrong pills and gone insane with paranoia and took out the man who'd been following her -not realizing he'd been working for her dad.
Ultimately, she couldn't say she regretted it once they uncovered the plan of digging up dirt on Oswald to get him locked up.
Thomas' desperate attempt to get Oswald away from his daughter. In his mind, he'd been convinced the only reason she'd started to go down the wrong path was because of meeting him.
"Why would my dad find out, Billy?" Bird turned back to face her date for the dance with a coldness in her eyes that sent a chill down his spine.
She smiled at him, but the expression was void of all traces of any positive feeling.
He'd known Bird for most of their lives, only now he felt like he was looking at a stranger.
"Yeah, Billy. How would he find out?" Oswald echoed with an unhinged laugh that made his skin crawl.
Billy looked between them, his eyes falling down to the knife that Oswald was still holding and then back up to their faces.
At that moment, he became painfully aware of how empty the street outside the dance was.
The shadows between the streetlights seemed more extensive and darker than moments before.
Despite their appearances looking very well put together and polished, Billy couldn't think of a more terrifying sight than the two of them smiling at him.
A couple of rapid hyenas and the was the prey that didn't stand a chance.
He felt the spark of danger in the night air and took several steps backward to create more distance between them.
"Never mind." He sputtered, shaking his head and looking at the pair before turning and running back towards the senior dance, back to safety.
To be continued…
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A/N - Thank you all so much for reading! I really hope everyone enjoyed the chapter!
It feels really good to be back in the Gotham universe and continuing Bird's story.
Thanks to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Shadow knight1121, RaceyLacey, Isobel Bauch, Lara The Fangirl, DayStorm, Ace Kate and BrookieHazel for reviewing since my last update.
Again, thank you all so much for sticking with me!
xx