You all are amazing, and a big thanks to everyone who has left reviews. Seriously, you guys are what keep this story going. Well, that and the amazing Edward Nygma. Hope you enjoy!

Once more, Bree found herself nestled in the warm cocoon of sheets and blankets that she had longed for all week. It was a truly freeing feeling, lying in bed, not having any place to be. She gave a content sigh into her pillow, wallowing in her idleness, and hugging it tighter to her wrapped form.

She stiffened at the sound of her phone vibrating insistently. Looking up to her nightstand, she gave that hunk of plastic a glare that could have put a chill through Satan himself. Eventually, when her action didn't seem to work, she lunged over half the bed and snatched the phone from the charger.

"Hello…" she slurred in a sleep-induced haze.

"Oh….ah…Bree!" a familiar voice chimed from the other end of the line. Bree propped herself up from the bed on her elbow and rubbed her temple.

"Ed? What's going on? Is everything alright?"

"Why? Oh…yes, everything is fine, I just think I may have found something peculiar about one of those cases you gave me!"

Bree groaned inwardly before putting the phone back to her ear.

"Ed…you know it's my day off, right?" she said delicately.

She could practically felt his smile drop on the other end of the phone, and a slight pang of guilt shot through her.

"Oh…it's….fine. I just may have stayed up all night researching, but I suppose it can wait—"

"No, no, it's okay. I just really don't want to go in to GCPD today. How about we grab some coffee?" she suggested, rolling sprawling out on top of her sheets.

"That would be great!" Ed chimed enthusiastically. Bree couldn't help but to smile, yet inwardly chastised herself for being such a pushover. She sighed. At least it was better than doing paperwork all day.

/

Another cool, rainy day had found its way into Gotham. Bree bundled herself into her dark pea coat and her favorite dingy red scarf that had been a gift from her mother the last Christmas her family had as a whole, before their divorce.

She turned her head away from the sporadic cool mist of a drizzle that now filled the Gotham air. She ducked into the small café that Ed had suggested, glancing through the window and noticing Ed sitting in the far corner. As she gently pushed the door open and nodded a brief greeting to the barista, she wandered over to the booth that Edward had claimed. His nose was buried in a small stack of papers he had haphazardly strewn across the table. Her brows rose as she noticed a second cup of coffee across the table from his.

"Hey, Ed," she said, sliding into the booth across from him with a smile.

"Bree!" Ed said, blinking a few times as he looked up. Apparently he really hadn't noticed her approach. Darker circles seemed to emerge underneath his eyes overnight.

"Geeze….you weren't kidding about staying up all night. Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm doing wonderfully. Better than I have been in a while actually," he said with a lopsided grin as he took another swig of coffee. He gestured to the other cup.

"I went ahead and bought you some. You sounded a bit tired yourself on the phone."

Bree chuckled and gave a slow nod as she reached for the coffee.

"Thanks, that's very sweet of you," she smiled as she reached for the sugar.

"Hmm…you're welcome," he muttered, slightly flustered as he gathered up the papers in an attempt to create some order.

"So, tell me, what do you have? I'm honestly pretty surprised you have anything considering I gave those files to you yesterday," she said, her eyes flickering up to his as she stirred the coffee.

"Well, I suppose I just got a bit excited…" he shrugged.

"Alright, what do you have?"

Ed pulled out one of the papers and flicked through his small brown notebook.

"Do you always have that thing?" she mused, propping her head up by her elbow and nodding to the notebook. He didn't even look up.

"Do you always ask so many obvious questions?" he retorted. She raised a brow.

Lack of sleep makes someone snappy….or everyone. Bree mused to herself.

"So that would be a yes. No need to be hostile," she quipped with a lazy grin.

His smile resurfaced as he straitened his posture and cleared his throat.

"Jason Roberts; age 34, officially missing, but suspected to be deceased," he flipped to the next page. "Rumor has it that he was involved in some rather unsavory activities, particularly with certain crime lord, Mr. Falcone."

"Alright, so what makes this one so different than any other mob disappearance around here?"

"I was just about to get to that," Ed began, "They never actually found his body, but they did find his left hand, complete with wedding ring and all."

"Okay…well that is a bit strange. Usually something like that would be used to send a message, but it would be a bit noticeable if our man without a hand suddenly skipped town."

"Exactly! One theory is that he angered the wrong person in the mob and was taken out. Another is that Roberts skipped town because of debt, and abandoned his family, leaving his hand as a mode of faking his own death. Now, his family is still in town, and Roberts' fate is still quite ambiguous."

"Sounds like a gold mine. Where do we start?" Bree smiled, taking another sip of coffee. Ed mirrored her. He drummed his slim fingers on the table pensively.

"Well, what's often immediately effected by the disappearance of a person?" Ed pressed, looking at her expectantly.

"Their….family?" she offered with a light shrug.

"Bingo," he said with a smile, "I figured we could start out by interviewing the family….and I may need to you do a bit of undercover work…"

Bree almost spit out her coffee as she snorted a laugh.

"Undercover? You're joking right? I'm an intern, not some super-spy, and why don't you do it?"

Ed raised a brow.

"Well, you are quite unassuming, which is why you'd be a better candidate."

"As if you aren't unassuming," she shot back with a lazy grin. His eyes glimmered darkly and a smirk played on his lips before continuing.

"Also, there's always the risk that someone may recognize me from homicide," he reasoned, holding her gaze steadily. She eyed him carefully for a moment before sighing.

"Oh, come on, no one will notice that you're with GCPD unless they make a hobby of hanging around homicides! But...I'll do it," she relented, "Where do I need to go?"

"Roberts' last employer before he disappeared," he flipped over a few pages in his notebook, furrowing his brows and trailing his finger across lines of text until he found what he was looking for. He hesitated a moment, before speaking back up.

"Fish Mooney," he muttered, clearing his throat.

"Excuse me?" Bree sputtered.

"Just ask a few questions! Flirt around; I don't know how people do it! Just ask about Roberts, see what his habits were like, who he hanged with, things of that nature."

"I'm not going alone."

Ed rolled his eyes, looking her over for a moment. Bree crossed her arms, raising her brows and shooting a glare right back. Edward sighed.

"Fine, I'll go too," he said reluctantly. Bree's grin resurfaced.

"Night on the town, eh?" she laughed. Ed swallowed uncomfortably.

"It's just for research."

"I'm gonna make you have fun," she added, poking at his little notebook. He began to gather his papers, and shuffled in his seat, readying to leave. Her smile faded slightly and she chewed her lip uncertainly.

"So when are we going to do this?" she asked. He smiled.

"I never was, but am always to be. None ever saw me, nor ever will, and yet I am the confidence of all who live and breathe on this terrestrial ball."

"Seriously, it is my day off, you know…"

"Tomorrow."

"Wait…before you go, I also kinda wanted to talk about…that other thing."

Bree's eyes flickered around before she leaned over the table.

"About Arkham?" he finished stoically. She nodded.

"You aren't going to….tell anyone are you?" she asked hesitantly, earning a sudden laugh from Edward that caught her off guard.

"Of course not," he stated with a smirk, his dark eyes burning into hers.

"Good….because this entire thing we're doing is not strictly—"

"Legal. I'm aware," he said with an almost bored tone.

"Yeah," she said, her brows rose slightly, but she didn't comment on his disregard for legality.

"Now, my turn for more questions!" he quipped, setting his papers back on the table and steepling his hands in front of him. She gave a small smile and nodded as she took another sip of coffee and settled back into her seat.

"Shoot."

"Interesting choice of words," he chuckled, leaning forward attentively. It slightly unnerved her how intense his observant gaze was.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that?"

Bree raised her brows and shrugged, giving a light smile.

"My father taught me. He used to take me to the range all the time, and I kept practicing when I was old enough to go on my own."

"Used to?" he inquired, letting the question hang. She shook her head.

"No, not like that, he's still around. My father was a cop. He worked for GCPD for a few years. That's how I managed to land the internship."

Ed nodded in understanding.

"Did he quit?"

"Not exactly….He was an active officer for quite a few years, but then he was shot in the shoulder during a drug bust. They moved him to a desk job, and now he works in the nicer suburbs now."

Edward stared at his empty coffee cup pensively, his finger trailing across the rim.

"And what about you?" he asked quietly.

"What about me?"

"Surely don't want to be an intern the rest of your life," he said with a smile, quoting her statement earlier at the asylum. "Especially not with a shot like that…And you're a grad student."

"How did you...?" he shot her a look that silenced her. Then it suddenly occurred to her that surely a guy like Edward would have done his research on just about everyone that entered the doors of GCPD. Then she sighed, there was no point beating around the bush with Ed.

"I'm working on my masters in criminology at Gotham University, and getting work experience at GCPD, but I don't really plan on sticking around Gotham forever. I know it's aiming pretty high, but I really want to work for the FBI someday," Bree admitted with a shy shrug. Edward smiled, his glasses glinting in the café lighting.

"I think you'd do a great job in the FBI…" he said, staring down as his steepled hands pensively.

"What about you?" she said, causing him to pause momentarily. "Do you like where you are?"

Edward grabbed the papers and bunched them against his tall frame as he rose to his feet. He seemed to muse this for a moment.

"Now, that is quite the interesting conundrum…." He stated evasively. A smirk surfaced across his lips, "Text me if you find anything before tomorrow."

Bree pursed her lips and furrowed her brows as he turned to leave, her eyes following his slim form as he approached the door. He paused as he touched the handle, his head turning back and smiling at her.

" See you soon, Agent Taylor."

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