Thanks for reading! Did my best to update quick. Have a good weekend everyone!
(x)
When one of the officers told him what was happening, Harvey Bullock bolted across the station. He looked down at Jim's desk and saw a ripped envelope and a bonus check staring back at him.
"Oh, no, no, no. Oh, hell, no..." He broke back into a run, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Maddie standing only a few feet away. She zeroed in on all the officers running toward the hallway.
She fell into stride beside him. "Harvey, what's going on?"
Harvey stopped, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to him, hard. "You need to get out of here. Now."
He shocked himself by how viscerally the words came out. He shocked Maddie too. First she froze. Then she nodded, turned, and went for the exit.
Harvey had enough time to think 'there's a first time for everything', before he raced towards the back of the police station. He skidded to a stop as he reached the hallway entrance, to see Jim Gordon leveling his .22 straight at his fiance. Lee stood in front of him, her arms held up in submission. Jim breathed heavily, his hand shaking as he pointed the gun at her.
Harvey called out, "Lee, he picked up the check with the drug! Get out of there!"
Jim Gordon immediately turned around to face Harvey,his face contorted in anger. His partner growled out a furious sound and aimed his gun right at him.
Harvey tried to take sense. "Jim! Put your weapon down! C'mon, let's talk about this!"
In answer, Jim fired off a shot straight at his partner. Harvey threw himself out of the line of fire and collided with the far wall. Pieces of wooden mantling splintered and fluttered to the ground as the side of the wall caught the bullets meant for him.
The hallway fell chillingly silent. Harvey unholstered his weapon and inched out, just enough to see the smoke from the discharged firearm rising toward the ceiling and his partner training the sights of his gun back on his fiance.
(x)
Lee felt the terror, raw and real and threatening to overtake her. The light had gone out of Jim's eyes. He stared forward, robotic in his movements, apart from the sweating and quaking brought on by the drug that highjacked his body. She knew Harvey was right. She needed to run. She needed to get herself and their child out of there. But she'd also read the reports. She knew that anyone perceived as a threat would be at the mercy of the victim's intense impulse to attack.
Jim blinked, and for a moment, she saw him. Her Jim. He was fighting it, fighting off his body and mind's every command to shoot her dead. She watched the wheels turning in his mind, running through the engine of distrust, shame, and rage.
The officers that had gathered at either end of the hallway pointed their guns forward, ready to fire. As she stared down the barrel of his gun, she realized in an unwelcome burst of clarity that this was their last chance.
Lee spoke softly, hands held high in the air. "Jim, you know I would never do anything to hurt you."
Suddenly, his gaze was replaced by one much harder and colder. The drug began to win. He aimed the gun at the spot directly between her eyes. His pointer finger flinched, only a hair away from pulling the trigger.
Lee's breath stopped dead in her throat. But she steeled herself and forced her fear to take a backseat. She said, "I know you're feeling like nothing is making sense right now. I know you're lost and you're scared."
His hand trembled and his arm sagged ever so slightly, moving the gun down an inch.
Lee took one tentative step forward. Jim breathed in a terrified breath and the gun returned, only an inch or two away from her face.
She kept her voice steady. "I know you're afraid that you're going to lose everything." She whispered, "I'm scared, too. I'm scared all the time that I might lose you. But I'm here, Jim. Right now, we're in this together."
She took another step. Jim's arm flinched, but he didn't fire. Lee slid her foot closer and closer until she could feel the heat from his fever radiating off of him.
"Jim." She said his name like she did when they first started dating. Like it cost her five dollars every time she said it, so she needed to make it last.
He breathed noisily, air wheezing out of him. The gun still stayed between them.
Lee begged him. "Don't leave me. Stay with me, Jim. I need you."
His hand shook like a leaf. Jim lifted the gun upward, so close that it almost touched Lee's face, and then he lowered his gun down to his side.
Jim reached forward and placed his free hand against her cheek. He breathed out, "I… I need you, too."
Lee jutted out of the way just as Harvey tackled him from behind, sending Jim's weapon out of his hand and clattering onto the ground. He grabbed both of Jim's shoulders and pushed him up against the wall of the hallway. "Sorry, partner," he said. "This is for your own good."
Jim's shoulders sagged. It was as if the puppet master cut his strings. He collapsed hard against the wall. Harvey grabbed him up from under his arms and carefully lowered his partner down onto the ground.
Lee fell down on her knees at Jim's side. He jerked and moved, trapped inside a nightmare from which he could not wake. She cradled his head gently and ran her hand down the front of his shirt. "Jim," she said in a breaking voice. "No, no, no. Don't you leave me. Stay with me. … Stay with me."
The precinct sprung into action, securing the area, calling for backup, and keeping their eyes ever focused on Detective Jim Gordon. Moments later, an all too familiar sound reached her ears. Lee had never been so relieved to hear the warble of ambulances approaching.
(x)
Madeline sat in the conference room, her mind reeling from the events that had taken place over the past few days. She stared forward, not even fooling herself into thinking that getting back to work was possible. Her brain struggled to keep up. It reminded her of what the movie people called 'soft focus'. There was a lack of definition in her thoughts, in her movements, in reality itself.
"Hey."
She jumped and looked up to see Harvey Bullock standing in the doorway.
He said, "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."
"No, no," she said. "You surprised me, but you didn't…" She looked at him closely and said, "Oh my God, what happened to your face?"
Harvey stepped inside the conference room and sat down. "You should see the other guy."
She stood up and put up her finger. "Just, wait here. I'll be right back." She returned with a ziploc bag full of ice cubes. "Here…" She gently pressed the ice against his right cheek. "That oughtta help you not wake up with a face the size of a beach ball."
He flinched at the cold, but accepted it. With his free hand, he took his hat off and set it down on the table.
Madeline looked at him. "Are you all right?"
"I know it might shock you, but this wasn't exactly the first time I've been bumrushed by the general public."
"I'm not talking about the shiner. I mean, after what happened today with your partner."
Harvey looked up at her, before he said quickly and calmly, "No, no. He's gonna be fine."
Madeline didn't have the energy to hold back. She expelled a long breath of relief.
He said, "They got him down at Gotham General. They said his vital signs looked good. Lee's down there with him. I tried to tell her I'd stay with him … but she wants to be there when he wakes up."
She nodded. "So they think he'll make a full recovery."
"Are you kidding?" He set down the ice and stretched his jaw. "He'll be back in here tomorrow, with an IV in his arm and a bandage around his head. Gettin' right back to opening up every case we've ever closed."
She nodded her chin at Harvey. "That sounds a little like this guy I used to know."
Harvey looked up, holding her gaze.
Madeline reached out and carefully rested her fingertips atop his hand. She whispered, "I miss that guy sometimes."
He stared down at her hand and let it rest there. "I'm right where you left me, Maddie."
She absorbed his response for everything it was, and everything it said and didn't say. "Sometimes I think that's true. Sometimes I wonder if I hadn't left-"
"I don't," he said.
Now she was the one taking the punch. She swallowed her pride. "You don't, huh?"
"I ain't one for looking back. Never did me much good."
Madeline considered responding with familiar canned lines about mindfulness and staying in the moment. Then she looked into Harvey's eyes and discarded them all. For just a moment, underneath the bruises and the salt and pepper in his beard, she saw the man who first caught her eye walking through Blackgate Penitentiary. That devil-may-care, self-assured detective who locked eyes with her and sent her that crooked grin from across the room. She said, "That makes sense. You've always been the kinda guy who knew what he wanted when he saw it."
Harvey said, "I like to keep my eyes open." He took her hand in his and squeezed it tightly before he stood up to walk away. "You never know what's gonna come back around."
A smile worked its way onto her face. She said, "See you tomorrow, Detective Bullock."
He sent her that familiar sly smile from the doorway. "Can't wait." He put his hat back on his head and left.
Maddie shook her head, still smiling. She mused softly to herself, "Delight, rupture, repair, new delight."
It remained to be seen. As Harvey had so astutely pointed out earlier on their car ride to her office, time would tell.