Chapter 2: Pilot II
"Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we're tired of hearing promises that we know they'll never keep."
Ray Daviest
"Hey!" Harvey called out to the two young detectives, "Get ready you two! We're heading out!" He said as he and Gordon started to make their way out.
"Out? Out where?" JJ asked, following.
"To see Fish Mooney," Was all the older detective said.
"Fish Mooney?" Charlie asked.
"Don't worry..." JJ sighed, "You were bound to meet her anyways..." He muttered.
They arrived at a bar, Fish Mooney's bar to be specific. Charlie sighed as she walked inside the bar with JJ, Harvey, and Gordon. Charlie lingered behind and sighed, clearly bored that they have to wait. She paused when she heard the sounds of someone getting beaten. Apparently she wasn't the only on that heard it. JJ and Gordon heard it as well, but Harvey did nothing about it and shrugged.
"Hey, JJ, I'm gonna take a look outside, you know to see if there's any lingering muggers to see if they might stand out..." She said.
"Alright, just don't go out and look for any trouble alright..." He said. Charlie nodded and made her way outside of the bar and instantly turned around the corner and made her way to the back of the building. She hid behind piled up boxes and peer over to see a group of men encircling a man who was on the ground, bleed and bruised. Most of them were large and burly men, where as there was one short statured, pale skinned fellow with black hair and blue eyes, holding an umbrella in one hand and a steel bat in the other . Next thing she saw was the one with the umbrella hit the bruised man with the bat. Charlie then came out from behind the box and revealed herself.
"Hey!" She called out to them, making them all freeze and look in her direction, "Is there a problem here?" She asked, though of course she knew what they would say.
"No, no problem here!" The one with the umbrella answered. Charlie smiled and nodded.
"Really? Okay then why don't you put the bat down," She stated. The smaller of them was just about to do that when a larger man stopped him.
"And just who are you?" He asked.
"Hey!" Another voice intervened. It was Gordon, "Drop the bat," He said. A clang resounded as the metal bat fell to the ground. Charlie pointed her finger at Gordon.
"That's who I am, Detective Gordon..." Charlie greeted.
"Detective Monroe..." He nodded.
"Back to the subject at hand, mind explaining what this is all about?" Charlie asked.
"Oh its nothing, the boys here were just having a bit of fun," One of the bigger men said, "Right boys?"
"All in fun!" The man with the umbrella agreed. Charlie crossed her arms and gave the short man a hard stare, which made him nervous as he saw that he was the one being stared at.
"Uh-huh, really, huh?" She said, she the and flickered her eye towards the bloodied one.
"Y-yeah, f-fun," He groaned, this made Charlie stare at him harder as she had and idea on what really went down. Seeing how no one was going to say a thing, Charlie sighed and turned her heels around, walking away from the scene.
The couple of days had been rough, since they had yet to find any leads. Charlie spent time in and out of the morgue, exchanging riddles with Edward. Each riddles Charlie gave to Edward grew difficult with each day, but eventually before her shift ended, Nygma answered her riddles such as today.
"He was walking!" He exclaimed.
"Excuse me?" She gave him a puzzle expression.
"The answer to the riddle! A police officer spotted a trucker driver going in the wrong direction in a one-way road. Yet he made no attempts to fine or punish him, the answer is that he was walking!" Edward said. Charlie had an impressed smile.
"You got it," She said, "I'm actually starting to have fun with these riddles." Edward was about to reply when JJ appeared.
"Charlie!" The blonde detective called out to her, "We've got a lead!" He said.
"Alright, tell me on the way," She replied and turned to Edward, "Sorry Ed, I gotta go, I'll give you another tomorrow," She said before leaving the precinct with JJ. Edward stood there, alone, awkwardly. He wanted to call out to her, but decided to leave it be and head back to his work.
Mario Pepper, their main suspect according to what Harvey told JJ, to which he relayed to Charlie. Charlie and JJ were waiting in the car as Harvey and Gordon went to meet with Pepper at his apartment building.
"So how do you think Gotham at the moment?" JJ asked as he was taking a sip of his coffee. Charlie had been staring out the window, watching the apartment building for anything suspicious when he asked.
"It's something..." She replied.
"Yeah, not the best place, but it's home..." He remarked.
"Yeah, a messed up home..." She scoffed. Give him a offhanded expression.
"Yeah, but I see you and Nygma are becoming close friends," JJ pointed out, "Its nice to see that he's gaining someone to talk to, mostly everyone in the precinct either resent him or poke fun at him." He said.
"Why? Because of his riddles?" She asked, JJ nodded, "I don't mind his riddles,things like these are just ways people try to interact with others," Charlier answered. She paused when she heard gunshots and saw their suspect on the run on top of the rooftops of the neighboring apartment buildings with Gordon trailing behind, "Crap! He's running!" She said, "JJ call for back up, now!" Charlie said as she unfasten her seatbelt and bolted out of the car. Turning around the corner, Charlie saw Pepper swing a knife at Gordon as the man dogged every swing. She quickly made her way to Pepper, grabbing him by the shoulder as he was about to swing the knife down. He turned around to face her and Charlie smiled, "Hi there," with that she swung her arm at him, landing a punch on him. Pepper stumbled back, but quickly recovered and swung the knife at her now! Charlie jumped back, the edge of the knife nearly cutting the fabric of her shirt. Pepper was about to cut her with the knife again but Gordon intervened and kicked the man's leg, causing him to fall down. Charlie made her way to Gordon's side and help the detective. When she looked back up, Pepper was about to stab them when gunshots were heard throughout the alley. Pepper felt to the ground with a thud. Gordon and Charlie turned around to Harvey with his gun out.
Later on, they returned back to Pepper's apartment and searched the place for the missing necklace. It didn't take long to find said necklace. Harvey and Gordon sighed in relief as they found the one linking evidence from the crime, but Charlie stayed outside, silent, as she watched the paramedics load Pepper's dead body into the ambience. She was in deep thought until Bellamy appeared and tapped her shoulders.
"Hey," He said, interrupting her thoughts, "Something wrong? You seem out of it..."
"Huh? What?" She said, "Oh, it's nothing just thinking..." She said.
"You're thinking that Pepper isn't the guy right?" He asked. Charlie turned to his, wide eyed. That was exactly what she was thinking.
"Yeah...how did you..." She trailed off.
"I can read people easily..." He answered, nonchalantly.
"Yeah...well, you're right...something seems off..." She muttered.
"How so?" Bellamy asked.
"Well for starters..." She sighed, crossing her arms, "Something about this seemed ...too easy."
Charlie had decided to take a quick stroll. During her stroll, she stumbled onto an interesting sight. She saw that lanky man with the umbrella, from Fish Mooney's bar, enter into one of the Major Crimes police cars. Charlie decided to lay low and spy on the car. A few minutes passed until she saw him leave the car. Charlie stood up straight and took another route to cut the man off.
Dear young Oswald Cobblepot walked among the streets of Gotham, proud of himself. He was making his way back to Fish Mooney's until he felt someone grab him by the back of his suit and pull him into an alleyway. He was about to retaliate with his umbrella until he saw the face of the woman from that day.
"Hi, remember me?" Charlie asked, smiling, "Let's have a little chat..."
Charlie dragged Oswald by his arm deeper into the alley away from any others. Once she thought it was safe she let go of Oswald's arm and slammed him against the wall, "So I was just taking a stroll when I see one of Fish Mooney's lackeys coming in and out of a Major Crime car," She explained, "Would you mind explain to this young detective why's that?" She stared down at him, rendering poor Oswald a stuttering mess.
"I-I have no idea what you're talking about..." He denied, Charlie smiled and slammed him again the brick wall and was about to punch him, but Oswald flinched, using his arms to shield himself,"M-Mario Pepper was framed!" He started. Charlie raised her eyebrows, lowing her arm, seeing as her plan had worked.
"Keep talking..."
"He didn't kill the Wayne's, he was framed," Oswald continued.
"Framed by who?"
"Who do you think?" He asked, "Fish Mooney and the GCPD-"
"You're saying that the police was in on framing Pepper?" She narrowed her eyes at him. Oswald shrunk under her intensified glare and nodded meekly.
"Yes! Don Falcone has everyone in his pocket, the mayor, the council, even the police!"
"Don Falcone, you're saying he has something to do with this?" She pressed.
"I'm not sure, all I know is that I saw Ms. Mooney with Martha's necklace, she said something about getting it into Pepper's house by through some drugs," he answer. She sighed and let go of him.
"Alright then...I believe you..." She said.
"Y-you do?" He stuttered, standing up straight.
"Of course, I can tell that you're smart enough to not lie to a detective, especially one who has seen you working for Fish Mooney and snitching to the MCUs..." She explained. Oswald nodded frantically at her words, "Alright then, now go on, get out of here!" She said. Oswald nodded once more and scurried out of the alley, leaving Charlie alone as she sighed exasperated and kicked the nearby trash. She walked out of the alley, frustrated and confused, her thoughts kept her preoccupied from seeing where she was going and bumped into someone. Once she made contact she snapped out of her thoughts and apologized, "Sorry-"
"Charlie!" She paused when she saw that is was Bellamy.
"Bellamy, what are you doing here?" She asked.
"I was looking for you earlier at the precinct but JJ said that you went for a walk, so I decided to head back home," He explained.
"Oh," Was all she said, "Well here I am, what is it you need?" She asked.
"Okay, remember when you said you think Pepper didn't kill the Wayne's?" He reminded her, she nodded.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I did a little snooping around and I've found out that he was framed by Fish Mooney and the-"
"GCPD," She finished.
"Yeah, how did you-"
"Don't worry, I've got my ways," She cut him off, "But what about you? You can't just go snooping around looking for answers, you're a paramedic these things shouldn't concern you!" She reprimanded.
"Charlie, I'm trying to help you out!" He protested.
"How? By trying to get yourself killed?!"
"By giving you advice," He countered, he looked at his surrounding and pulled her to the side, "Gotham is spiraling down towards hell of brinkmanship with itself as you can see, and no one isn't caring, this city isn't a place for nice guys and heroes...not with Falcone having all the higher ups in his pocket, there's gonna be a lot corruption around, here's the advice; lay low and pretend to go along with everything."
"...Why are you telling me this?" She asked, the paramedic sighed as he glanced to the side.
"Because, as sick, and twisted, and messed up as this city can be...it's still home to most of us..." He said, "I just want this place to be better..." Charlie stared at him before letting out a huff.
"Huh, a paramedic with hero complex, well I'll be damned..."
"Don't worry, I'll be popping by every now and then to help you out..."
"'Framed'?" JJ repeated, "Pepper was framed?" The young detective seemed shocked, even he too was a cop, he had a sense of truth and justice. But if what Oswald said was right, she had no one to trust at the moment., JJ was the only trustful person she knew in Gotham.
"Keep it down, we can't have anyone else finding out..." She shushed him.
"So, what are you going to do?" He asked.
"Don't worry about it..." Charlie muttered, "Just keep it on the down low and just go along with it. I'll let you know when I get something..." JJ gave her a quizzical expression.
"What are planning to do?" Charlie smirked.
"I'm going to have a small chat with a friend."
Charlie walked into Fish Mooney's bar, she was greeted by Oswald, who froze at the sight of her, "Detective Monroe, what are you doing here-"
"Tell your boss that we need to talk," Charlie said.
"M-may I ask why?" He asked, nervously, "Perhaps I could relay the message to her-"
"Zip it, ostrich! I'm not here to rat you out to your boss, no need to be on edge..." She snapped, walking past him. Oswald frowned slightly.
"'Ostrich'!" He said, following after her to the center of the bar, it was then that Fish appeared.
"Well hello, detective," Fish said as walked into the room, "What a pleasant surprise, I don't believe we've met."
"Ms. Mooney..." Charlie greeted, her voice laced with a slight malice, "Detective Charlotte Monroe."
"Oh, sweetie," Fish tutted, "Call me Fish."
"Nah, we're not close..." Charlie replied, "Ms. Mooney, can you tell me where you were on the night Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered."
"Here, may I ask what's this all about? I thought you caught your man?" She asked, one hand on her hip. Charlie merely smiled.
"Just a quick follow through..." She answered, "And can you verify the whereabouts of your employees?" She continued. Fish narrowed her eyes at Charlie. Another scout, a girl scout...
"I think we're done here, Detective..." Fish declared.
"Ms. Mooney if you have nothing to hide, then you better come clean, I don't care what other...transactions you have going on, I just need to confirm their whereabouts..." Charlie said, walking closer to the woman, "Or does all of this has something to do with Carmine Falcone..."
"Now sweetie, you're making a big mistake..."
"Am I now?" Charlie challenged, Oswald saw the hostility between the two, but he was fascinated by the detective's bravado. Fish looked over Charlie's shoulder to see her larger employees. Charlie saw this and took a step away. Seeing how she had no chance against them, she turned on her heels and walked out of the bar.
"Hope you have a lovely day, Ms. Mooney."
"Likewise, Detective Monroe."
Chapter 2 is up! Slowly working on the next chapter! They're not the best, but I'm slowly trying to get my characters situated in the story. Also thank you to the guest who left the review and those who followed and favorited this story! Reviews are welcomed! Enjoy!
Warning: Possible grammatical errors, unbetaed (is that even a word?)