Albany had read the book cover to cover twice. She was stuck between the struggle of belief and betrayal, she was trying to decide which hurt more. She thought Oliver was her friend, they had done nearly everything together. All that time his motives were corrupt. Even after learning of the truth she still felt the guilt of killing him swirling in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to hate him so bad, she wanted to believe killing him was in some way validated. But it wasn't, not to her anyway. She couldn't hate him. He may have been investigating her and using his kindness to infiltrate her personal life, but she still considered him a friend.
The brunette slammed the book shut with both hands and launched it across the room. She tilted her head back onto the wall and closed her eyes. The tears stained her skin. How did it all come to this? It began as a routine job, now she was stuck in a replica of a room she felt so much pain in, under the watchful eye of her so called father.
She looked over to where the book had landed. It had hit the pink doll house. Something caught her eye. She crawled over to it and picked it up. She dropped it and saw a drop of blood seep from her skin. She stuck her finger in her mouth and looked down at what had hurt her, it was a piece of glass. She looked to the dollhouse and saw one of the windows was missing. She opened the front of the house and examined the other windows, they were all made of glass. She found the biggest window and began to pry the sheet of glass out. It wasn't very big, but it would do. She brought the glass back over to the bed. Once there, she ripped a corner from the pillowcase and wrapped it around one end of the glass. She then placed it under her pillow.
She sighed and stood on the bed. She reached up to the small window and peeked out; it was night-time. She had no idea of the exact time due to the lack of a clock, but she imagined it was near midnight. Her estimation was based on how long it had been since she had eaten. Her father would bring her food at around six PM, then she heard nothing for the rest of the night. She remembered staying up many nights to fill out paperwork or make up for lost time. It was always around midnight she would be getting hungry again.
She fell down onto the bed and pulled the thin sheet across her body. She lay on her side and brought her hands up to her face. She soon gave up wiping away her tears, there were too many.
Her eyes opened. She heard a noise. Her sleepy mind identified it as the door handle moving. She glanced up to the window and saw it was still dark. Her father had never come to her in the night. Her mind immediately jumped to the worst memories. He must have been drinking and decided his anger needed to be soothed. Is that was the case then this was her chance to try and attack him and possibly get the key to her shackle from him. She threw the thin sheet off of her and reached under the pillow for her makeshift weapon. She moved over to the door as far as her restraint would let her, trying to be as quiet as she could.
The door handle continued to rattle.
She readied her weapon as her heart began to beat faster. Her hands were shaking just as much as her legs were, but she was able to steady herself.
The door opened.
Albany lunged forward with her weapon and swiped as fast as she could.
The dark figure jumped back and landed with a thud just outside of the door.
Albany tried to move closer to the figure, the weapon still in her hand.
"Nice to see you too, doll," a voice said.
Albany paused and lowered the glass. "Jerome?"
"No, it's the Easter bunny. Heard you wanted some chocolate eggs."
Albany reached for the light switch and pressed it. She looked back into the doorway and saw a familiar ginger on the floor with one hand on his cheek. "Oh god Jerome I'm so sorry!"
Jerome wiped the cut on his cheek with the bottom of his shirt. He chuckled. "Don't be, I should have warned you." he stood up. "Don't I even get a hug?" he asked with a smile.
Albany's eyes lit up and she moved towards him. She stopped.
Jerome followed her eyes down to her blooded ankle. He looked up at her and pulled a key from his pocket. "I wondered what this was for."
"Where did you get that?" she asked surprised.
Jerome knelt down before her and freed her of her shackle then stood up. He moved a stray lock of hair from her tear stained cheek and cupped her face in his hands, wiping the rest of the tears away. "I heard you were playing happy families," he frowned. "If I'm not aloud to do that, then neither are you."
Albany smiled and threw her arms around him.
Jerome rapped his arms around her and kissed her hair. "I'm sorry I took so long."
"How did you find me?"
"You really think I'd let the doctor wander round town alone? What if you got caught by the police or killed? Who would cook me dinner then?"
Albany pulled away from his body. "You followed me?"
"I also followed daddy once he had hit you with his car. We aren't too far outside Gotham." As he spoke, he checked her over. "Is that from him?" he asked, running his fingers over a bruise.
She nodded.
"Here," he said, pulling a bottle from his back pocket.
Albany recognized the label, it was the pain killers. She swallowed some. "How did you get in here? Where's my father?"
"He's a bit...tied up right now." he lifted a finger as his smile widened. "Ah, now that, Dr Lux, will defiantly cheer you up." he wrapped an arm around her waist to support her. "Come on."
Jerome sat Albany down at the kitchen table and began to clean her ankle. "You're gonna want to be able to stand for this." he wrapped a bandage around the wound.
"For what?"
"You kept your half of the promise." He opened the door to the living room with a smile. "Now it's my turn to keep mine."
Albany walked over to the doorway and reached for the light switch. She flicked it up and looked into the room. Her father was slummed on a wooden chair with his hands and legs tied. Her eyes widened at the sight. She began walking backwards.
Jerome stood behind her and wrapped his arm around her. "Don't worry doll, he can't hurt you now."
"How did you..." her words trailed off.
"It took him a while to open the door, but when he did, he had this in his hand." Jerome walked to a table and picked up a nearly empty bottle of Vodka. He took a sniff and grimaced. "Jesus man, if you're gonna drink ya might as well drink something decent!" he threw the bottle to the floor and approached the unconscious man. "He made it so easy for me. I was kinda disappointed."
"Easy to what?"
"Whack him into unconsciousness." he nodded toward a baseball bat lying next to the wooden chair. "The next bit was so routine. Get the cable ties, hands, legs, chair yada yada yada." he turned to Albany. "So, whad'ya think, sweets?"
Albany's eyes were still on her father. "Tied up. That's funny."
Jerome smiled at her reply. "You wanna know what's even more funny?"
Her eyes switched to his. "What?"
He handed her the bat. "It's your turn," he said in a sinister voice.
The man stirred.
They looked at him.
Albany walked until she stood in front of him. She watched him weakly lift his head and waited for his dazed eyes to meet her.
Jerome watched Albany ball her hand into a fist and force it into his face. He pulled out the gun from his belt and handed it to her.
Albany looked down at the gun, then to Jerome. "No," she said.
Jerome was taken aback by her voice. It was dark, it was full of years of hate. He slowly smiled and handed her the knife. "Don't make too much mess," he smirked.
"I intend to."
Jerome walked to the sofa and chuckled. He sat down and lit up a cigarette. He was going to enjoy this, but not nearly as much as Albany.
Albany ran her hand through her wet hair and turned the shower off. Once she had inspected herself in the mirror she got dressed. Her clothes were still a little damp but she didn't mind, she would rather have them damp than covered in her father's blood. She rubbed her hair with a cream towel and wandered into the kitchen.
Jerome closed the door leading to the living room. He walked over to the sink and washed his hands. He glanced over his shoulder.
"What's that smirk for?" Albany asked.
"I knew you had a lot of built up anger, but that...that was not the Albany Lux I knew." He turned to her and handed her a shirt. "Put it on, you'll get cold in damp clothes."
Albany took it and put it on. It smelt like Jerome. They stood in silence for a while. "So...what now?" she finally asked.
Jerome held up a bunch of car keys. "Looks like you've iterated a car, and I quite fancy a holiday."
"A holiday huh?" Albany placed a finger on her chin and thought. "It would be nice to de-stress for a while."
"Haven't you done that already?" he laughed motioning to the door.
"Where do you fancy?" she asked.
"Well, I've always fancied New York."
Albany smiled. "New York sounds good."