Nygma

A couple of weeks passed by since I stitched up Gordon in a dark abandoned warehouse overseen by Oswald Cobblepot. Work was going as normal as it could in Gotham and tonight was just the regular late call of a body being found in an alley.

Detective Bullock was nowhere to be found, so James Gordon and myself were working it. The cops walked about trying to gather evidence as I crouched next to the body writing notes in my little notebook.

Gordon stood over me with a large flashlight since the sun had already set.

"What do you see Ed?" he asked after a while of silence.

"It was a struggle," I responded glancing up to him. I looked back to the body, "defensive wounds on his hands. What is very intriguing is the bite marks on his neck."

"Animal?" suggested Gordon.

I shook my head. "Definitely human bite marks. There's a gun holster with the gun holstered on the inside of his jacket. Whatever happened, happened fast so he wouldn't have been able to grab it. I believe he was killed from being strangled."

Gordon nodded. "There's been a string of killings like this, this week."

"Detective!" called one of the officers standing down the alley some. "There's a lot of blood down here, there's a trail. It's fresh."

"Got it" nodded Gordon. He walked towards the officer and I put my pen in my pocket getting to my feet and followed.

"It leads this way." noted Jim.

"There might be another victim." I suggested wanting to come as well.

We both walked down the alley, Gordon's flashlight bouncing as we walked. We followed the blood down another alley.

"This is more than one person's blood" I noted quietly.

Gordon agreed.

"So have you been meddling in the business of Cobblepot?" asked Jim once we were completely alone. Though he still kept his voice low.

"No." I responded.

That was a lie, Oswald had come to see me a couple times since the warehouse. I had already been on another job with him. I don't know why I still did favors for him after him pretty much attacking me while Jim lay on the table dying. The rebel aspect of it excited me I guess.

Gordon nodded. "Good." he responded.

Oswald

It had been a couple of weeks since I had brought Nygma to the warehouse to save Jim. I heard next to nothing from Nygma aside from the occasional voice mail telling me Jim's out of office whereabouts during Jim's period of healing. I got so annoyed at the lack of communication. So much so that I had to find the smallest to call him out for jobs.

He would always leave as soon as the job was done and hardly spoke one word to me aside from "What are we doing tonight, Oswald?"

During those evenings, I was tempted to make a move on him out of sheer frustration, but I didn't because I knew patience wins out against sheer force.

I was tired of sitting in my club alone, so I picked up my favorite umbrella and walked out the door.

It was nearly midnight in Gotham. The moon was full and lit my path as I walked better than with the streetlight. Not the best time to go for a stroll, but I wasn't an honest gentleman.

I could feel that something big was going to happen tonight by the way the air of the city felt. I prayed that Nygma was already at home safe and sound away from the corrupt Gotham seen primarily after dark.

Nygma

"I'm not seeing anything," I told Jim crouching to the ground as the blood trail ended.

We were at the end of an alley that came to a dead end. I looked around, up the buildings that blocked us in.

"This is very stran.." I mumbled but a shot whizzed right by my head and I hit the ground out of pure reflex.

"STAY DOWN ED" came Gordon's loud dominating voice as more gun shots came at us.

I hugged the ground closing my eyes tight. /what the hell was going on?!/

I managed to crawl behind a few trash cans and sat up, my breathing heavy. I looked across the way to see Gordon standing behind a piece of the wall that jutted out taking shots when he felt safe to do so.

If this were under any other circumstances, I would feel very hot right about now watching the man protect me. The way he took control of our current predicament was nice, but I couldn't entertain such thoughts when I was this close to dying.

The gunfire ceased but Gordon still aimed his gun around the side of the wall.

"Well well, what do we have here?" came the voice of a woman. I had never heard her voice before.

I sucked in a hard breath and peered around the trashcans. Gordon's flashlight had fallen and was illuminating a woman standing in between two men. She was wearing a glittering silver dress and some really gaudy jewelry.

"Go away Fish, now." demanded Jim.

"I will, when my men scoop your dead body up off the pavement Detective." came her snide reply.

"I don't think so," seethed Gordon firing again in her direction.

The gun shots started up again and I froze where I was. I had no way of protecting myself.

Gordon had run out of bullets, I heard him drop his gun. I didn't carry a weapon to toss to him.

I heard a scuffle and I snapped my attention to see a rather large man attacking Jim. I swallowed and crawled to my knees as my mind whirled with ideas of what to do. I just couldn't sit there helplessly as this man had Gordon in a choke hold.

I let out a yell and launched myself at the man and Jim. A gun went off and nailed me in the side. I had never been shot before, this was new as I fell into the man with Gordon and then to the ground. I was so dizzy.

The wound was burning like someone set me on fire. I groaned as I fumbled for my phone in my pocket. I hit re-dial and it dialed the last number I called, which was Oswald Cobblepot.

Once I heard the ping of the phone being answered I choked out the words help. I didn't pause as I launched into a location of where I was, Gordon was fighting some really big guys, and there were guns, and I had been shot, it burned.

I was losing consciousness.

"Help," I choked out before my eyelids closed and I just lay there on the ground.

Oswald

I hadn't taken more than a few steps out of my club before my phone began ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and checked the caller ID. It read Nygma.

I immediately picked up the phone,"What is it, Neg?" Chills ran down my spine as I heard his voice on the line. His voice was frantic as if he was trying to get all of the information he needed to tell me before he passed out.

"Help..."

"Neg, Neg, NYGMA! Hey are you still there?" No answer. I shut my phone. Damn, DAMN, DAMMIT! Why didn't you stay home tonight of all nights, you dumb fool! I shook my fist at the sky.

I pulled out my phone and made a few calls. I knew that I would need some more backup if I was going to take on Fish and get two men out; one for sure needed immediate medical attention. I got in a car and raced off to the location Nygma gave me with my umbrella riding shotgun.

I stood out in front of Fish's place. All of my help I had called up were arriving in waves.

I looked at the people to my left and the people to my right and gestured with my right hand to signal the start of storming the building.

I was the last to following behind and then split off so I could sneak around the back of the building with a few of my most trusted men. I knew while the large group kept everyone busy at the front of the building, we could sneak in the back door.

We reached the back door and I gestured to one of my men to break it down and shoot down any of Fish's men guarding it as we had planned. With that cleared, I lead the charge down the hallway.

We arrived in a large open room. I could see both Gordon and Nygma across the room, propped up on a pillar. Gordon was unconscious but looked fine aside from some bruises on his face and around his neck consistent with strangling and trading a few punches, but nothing fatal. Nygma, however, was another story. There was a large blood stain on the right side of his torso. There was a fresh pool of blood underneath where he was sitting. I wasn't a doctor or anything but I could tell that by the state he was in, I needed to get him out of here now.

"How nice of you to join us tonight, Penguin." Fish came out of the shadows with a few men following behind her. "These" she gestured with her hands to Gordon and Nygma,"are out guests of honor." She smiled brightly at me.

"Don't fuck with me, Fish!" I spat back at her. I need to end this soon or Nygma won't make it!

I grabbed my umbrella and placed it in front of me gripping the handle in both hands and the tip of the umbrella pointed at the ground.

Fish let out a laugh,"You think you can hurt me with an umbrella, Penguin? How do you propose that?"

"Like this!" I pointed the tip of my umbrella at her and opened it. The tip of my umbrella smoking slightly.

Fish had stopped laughing now and I could tell was tasting blood. A spot of blood was spreading from her the center of her abdomen. She stumbled catching herself on a pillar to her right.

I shot the other men that were with her before they could react and they fell to the ground with a large thump.

I closed my umbrella and ran over as quickly as I could to Nygma. I told the men with me to check on Gordon.

"Neg, are you still alive?" He didn't respond to me. I motioned over to one of my men to help me carry Nygma out carefully and told the others to get Gordon out of here.

I drove as fast as I could to that warehouse I'd brought Gordon to a few weeks ago. I had my men carry Nygma in and place him on the table that once held an unconscious Gordon.

My men brought as many medical tools that they could scrounge up. We didn't have time to wait on a doctor to show up. I threw off my coat and rolled up my shirt sleeves. I stared at Nygma's body lost as to what to do. /Neg, if you were only conscious to be able to tell me what to do!/ I could feel the tears burning in my eyes. I turned my head away from his face fearing he was already dead.

Next thing I knew, something was pulling at my right shirt sleeve. I turned my head to see Nygma's eyes open slightly. His mouth was moving but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I leaned my ear down to his face.

Nygma

My mouth was extremely dry and I was in a shit ton of pain but I knew I had to put it aside right now. I needed to tell Oswald how to save my life, so I could make sure Jim would be okay. I did try to save his life for the second time.

All that was sitting in my mind at the moment was a riddle. Oh what an inappropriate time, but the most appropriate time.

My voice was very soft, and I told Oswald the riddle when he leaned close.

"I have billions of eyes, yet I live in darkness. I have millions of ears, yet only four lobes. I have no muscle, yet I rule two hemispheres. What am I?" I whispered to him.

I let out a chuckle and then grunted in pain.

I heard Penguin growl at the question in annoyance. I was only slightly disappointed when he didn't even try to think about it and ask for the answer. Though I suppose he wanted to hurry this up a bit.

"The human brain," I wheezed and my laugh sounded more like a wail.

I fell silent for a bit again, trying to gather the strength to tell him how to perform surgery on me. I gripped his sleeve again.

"You need to get the bullet out first. Take some forceps, tweezers, something. Cleanse it with alcohol and insert it into the wound and find the bullet." I choked out to him slowly.

My eyes remained closed, my other hand gripped the side of the table and when I felt the cold metal inside my torso I screamed in pain. I had a low threshold for pain I have come to realize.

The soft ping of the bullet falling on a plate soothed my wails.

I then talked him slowly through cleansing the wound and stitching the wound shut.

I drifted in and out of consciousness as the deed was done. I could tell the bullet hadn't gotten far, the bottom of my rib cage slowing it down.

I was relieved about that at any rate, I was sure I was going to die. This would mean I would be calling in to work for a while. I had never called into work before, this week was just full of new experiences.

I lay on the table staring up at the light glaring back down at me.

"Where's Detective Gordon?" I asked weakly trying to ignore the shooting pain in my side.

It was the first time I actually thought about the man through this whole process. My mind had been on Oswald and his hands fixing me up.

Oswald

I breathed in an annoyed sigh as Gordon's name was mentioned. I pointed over my right shoulder with my right thumb, my silent answer to his question.

"Neg, Gordon is fine just unconscious. All he has is some surface bruises on his neck and face." I paused, swallowed back tears that I knew were beginning to form in my eyes, and continued,"Who I am more worried about is you." I began stroking his full head of hair with my right hand. "You aren't cut out to be the hero, you know?" I smiled faintly at him.

Nygma

I looked up to Oswald weakly, his face was filled with emotions. this again...?

I couldn't be angry with him though, I could only be angry with myself. I was too tired to fight him off, I didn't really have a valid excuse to leave.

I swallowed hardly as the man stroked my hair and I closed my eyes.

At least Jim was okay. I felt guilty almost for always thinking about the one man I couldn't have. When I could tell Oswald wasn't interested in only my expertise on bodies. I wasn't the idiot I tried to portray when it came to this.

"I know," I murmured weakly.

Oswald

"Just please get some rest, Neg. I am just happy that you are still alive. Had you not thought to call me, I doubt you would've never woken up." I bent down and kissed him lightly on the forehead with my eyes closed, "Sleep well, and thank you for helping me save your life."

I turned to leave his side and start heading for the exit of the clean room.

Nygma

I closed my eyes as he kissed my forehead and turned my head to the side to watch him leave.

"You're welcome," I murmured quietly after him.

I was still in too much pain to react much. Had I not been on this table, I would have probably ran again.

I just didn't know what to think or feel. I turned my head the best I could to look over to Gordon.

He was just laying there, but he seemed to be coming to. I struggled to angle myself better to calm him down when he got up.

A grunt came from the table and the man sat up slowly moaning weakly from the pain. His bare chest showed the signs of the fight he had been in, plus the injuries that hadn't healed from his previous beating.

"Gordon," I warned.

Jim looked to me leaning back on his hands which were braced to hold him upright.

"Nygma? What the fuck happened?"

"You put up one hell of a fight, I got shot. It was lots of fun."

"Yeah sounds like it," came his dry response.

I chuckled at that and sighed. "Oswald brought us here. Took the bullet out of me and stitched me up."

"How endearing," he responded obviously not happy with the fact he would be indebted yet again to this man.

"You might as well rest Jim," I yawned.

"No, we are getting the hell out of here. The last thing I need is to be found here."

Oswald

"Detective Gordon, by all means you can leave if you'd like, but your comrade is in no fit state to be moved. I just finished stitching him up no more than fifteen minutes ago, but if you'd like him to die of blood loss I'll show you to the door." I smirked at him.

He just glared at me silently.

"Again you can leave whenever you like Detective Gordon because I know I couldn't stop you. Nygma will have to say until he heals up because he is not as resilient as you. He will be 'calling in sick' until he gets better."

Jim just stared at me lips pursed still silent.

"Honestly, here in my humble abode, is the safest place in the whole city."

Jim finally got fed up with me, dressed himself and walked towards the exit.

"Jim Gordon, old friend, I will take the utmost care of your comrade and he will be returned to you as soon as he is ready to go back to work." I paused, "Fish is still alive. I only was able to wound her while trying to rescue the both of you."

Jim turn and started to open the door.

"Oh and Jim just so you know Nygma took that bullet, I had to remove from his innards, for you. Just think that over along with what other information I alerted you to a few weeks ago."

He glared at me with a slight frown of regret on his face and he exited the warehouse.

I walked back the clean room to see how Nygma was doing.