A/N: I'm SO SO SO SORRY that this has taken me forever to get up. For some reason this chapter was super hard for me to write. I have no idea why. Anyways, I hope to be updating it soon later this week to make up for it! All of your comments have literally made my life. I can't believe so many of you have been reading this story! If it weren't for you guys and your reviews, this chapter would have taken a lot longer. Love you all!
-H
The next morning, Eli knew that she couldn't go to work and face Daggett again. Especially since her other projects didn't need her attention for the time being, so she wouldn't have anything to distract her. Instead, she decided to make her weekly trip to the library and volunteer. When she was little, she always spent most of her free time there, and she found the familiar smell of old books comforting. Plus she liked patterns and codes, so shelving the books would be somewhat therapeutic.
As she ran through her morning routine, she noticed that her Dad was quieter than usual. He was sitting in the kitchen staring at his boring breakfast and guzzling coffee. She didn't want to pry, so she didn't ask what was wrong. She had an idea though: Harvey Dent.
"Hey Dad, I'm volunteering again today so I'll be home early. Want me to save you some leftovers?" Since it had just been the two of them at home, Eli had adopted her Mom's role as the woman of the house. She always seemed to have to make sure her Dad was eating right, or else she suspected he would just survive off of frozen pizza and Chinese takeout. She cringed at that thought.
Her Dad's voice seemed strained once he answered, "No I'll be late again. The Congressman never got home from the fundraiser last night."
"Great . . ." she mumbled somewhat sarcastically. Eli hated how her Dad was so overworked and under-appreciated. Nobody deserved to be treated like that.
...
Eli liked the precise nature of the library shelving system; everything was organized and each book had its own space. Unlike her life which was often chaotic, she found solace knowing that something in her life was regulated and structured.
Surprisingly, the day went by pretty quickly. The monotony of her work helped her think about her life and sort through her problems. She realized that Daggett Industries was not worth the excess stress. After her current projects were up and running, she was definitely going to quit; there were no more doubts in her mind. Though, it had taken almost the whole day for her to come to that conclusion
"Hey Eli, there's a call for you at the front desk," a soft woman's voice came from behind Eli, successfully breaking her from her thoughts. Eli turned around and recognized her to be one of the other volunteers.
"Who is it?" She asked, knowing that not a lot of people knew she volunteered at the library. To come to think about it, only her Dad knew that. And he would just text her if he needed something. Weird.
"I don't know, but he says it's important," she said as she disappeared shyly back from behind the bookshelf.
...
"What?!" she almost cried into the phone. The pain in her voice was evident as the news sunk in.
"I'm so sorry, Eli, it's going to be okay. I found your Dad just in time. We're at the hospital now, he was only shot in the leg, and it's looking good. Just come in and the Doctors can explain it all to you better than I can," Blake's voice comforted her but she still felt like the walls were crumbling down around her. Her Dad was basically all she had left in Gotham, and she couldn't believe she was so close to losing him tonight. She knew all the statistics about surviving a gunshot wound, but that didn't give her any consolation.
"I'll be there in ten minutes," she declared with feigned strength. Growing up, she knew that her Dad's job was dangerous. She used to stay up on the nights that he worked late worrying that he had gotten shot. Over the years, she managed to compartmentalize her fears, but they were still there. Now they were coming to life.
...
Eli practically broke all the rules of the road to get to the hospital as quickly as possible without crashing her car or running down any pedestrians. All she could see was her father's broken body on the ground with blood seeping out of his leg. Blake hadn't given her any information about the shooting, so she had pictured the worst case scenario. Tears filled her eyes, but she angrily wiped them away before they could fall down her cheek. He's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay, she repeated in her head. She quickly started to count to 999 by threes in her head; it was an old trick her psychologist taught her to prevent having panic attacks. Having an eidetic memory, though it seemed great on paper, was actually a nightmare. Not being able to forget anything was painful at best, and she was willing to try anything to forget sometimes. Counting in her head was distracting, and was less self destructive than other things she had tried.
Eli didn't care that she parked in a handicapped space; all she cared about was seeing that her Dad was okay. She slammed her door without locking it and sprinted into the all-too-familiar hospital.
She rushed toward the front desk to figure out what room her Dad was being treated in, but she ran into John Blake before she would reach the counter. He saw her pained expression and immediately began to lead her to the room without saying anything. She was thankful that he didn't say anything, because she suspected that if she tried to respond to anything, she would burst into tears.
With every step toward the room, Eli felt like she couldn't breathe. The white hospital walls were oppressive and ominous. Her breaths started to grow fewer and deeper. John noticed how much trouble she was having as he met her widened eyes, and tried to give her a reassuring nod. John hated seeing her that vulnerable and scared, so he wrapped his arm around her shoulders as if to comfort her. She shivered against him as they got into the elevator. The silence wasn't at all awkward; instead, Eli found it to be reassuring.
John immediately reacted to her shivers and slid off his GCPD coat and slipped it around her pale shoulders.
"What are you doing?" she said, her voice sounding exhausted. Though she appreciated the gesture, she wasn't really used to being taken care of. Eli valued her independence and personal strength too much to rely on others to get what she needed.
"Letting you know that the world's not ending," he said simply as the door opened. He smiled and nodded toward a hospital room on the left. She could see that it read "J. Gordon" on the paperwork beside the door frame. John knew that she would want to go in there alone, and that he would try to make her feel better once she came out of the room.
...
Eli could barely recognize what was happening as she walked with John to her Dad's room; her mind was racing and she was too distracted. All she knew was that she wouldn't have been able to make it to the hospital room without his help.
When she actually saw her Dad's name on the folder outside the room, Eli's heart skipped a beat. She had pictured this day since she was old enough to understand how dangerous her father's job was, and it was just as terrifying as she imagined it to be. John gave her a reassuring nod as he sat outside the door and left her to go in the room by herself.
Eli didn't know why she was so scared; John had assured her that the injury wasn't that serious, and that it would just take time to heal. She knew it was illogical to be so scared, but she couldn't help it.
As she walked into the room, Eli kept her eyes trained on the ground. She couldn't quite bring herself to look at her Dad yet. The only other time she had seen him broken was when Harvey tried to kill her brother, and this injury seemed to bring up those repressed memories. Damn it Barbara, pull yourself together, she chided herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm down her erratic heart. Feeling a bit better, she took a decisive step into the room and forced herself to look at her father.
"Dad-" she exclaimed once her eyes fell onto her Dad's broken body underneath the stark white hospital sheets. The heart monitor beeped steadily next to his bed, which she took as a good sign. The doctor hadn't met with her yet, but she planned on getting all the information after she saw how her Dad was in person.
She rushed to the chair on the side of his bed and grasped at his hand. He managed to slowly sit up and face his worried daughter.
"Don't get up. Just rest," she said frantically, worrying that he was hurting himself.
"I was shot, not dying," he muttered weakly. "Hand me some water?" His graying hair was messy and dark bags were full under his eyes. She had never seen his skin so pale and sweaty, and it pained her not to worry about him.
"I'm allowed to worry Dad . . . I almost lost you tonight," she gripped his hand as if he was going to fall away from her at any second.
"Doctors say . . I'll be . . fine." Gordon's speech was slow and fragmented. Eli knew that he was already exhausted, and she didn't want to strain him more.
"Try not to talk. I'm just glad you're safe," she murmured reassuringly. Eli could feel her fears drain out of her body as she saw her Dad. The images of him bleeding on the ground were quickly replaced by the fighting man in the hospital bed. If one thing about her father was true, it was the fact that he never gave up. And that gave Eli the confidence to know he would be okay.
She sat with her Dad for a few more minutes, holding onto his hand until he drifted off into drug induced sleep. Before she left, she affectionately wiped the sweat off his face and ran her fingers through his chaotically messy hair. In sleep, he looked peacefully and unhurt, and that's how she wanted to remember him until she saw him next.
...
As Eli walked out of the hospital room, John noticed how much stronger she seemed than before. Her shoulders weren't hunched over and her eyes seemed to be brighter. Tears weren't threatening to fall past her long lashes anymore, and she physically looked stronger. Eli wasn't that vulnerable girl he brought into the hospital, but rather a strong woman who looks like she was going to hunt down the people who shot her father. He smiled as he admired how his uniform look on her body, and stood up to see how she was doing.
"How's he doing?" he said as he caught up to her determined strides.
"He's a fighter, and I've never known him to give up. With time I'm sure he'll be fine." John nodded in agreement; Gordon had always been one of his heroes for that exact reason.
"-Miss. Gordon," a voice came from behind the two young people. John turned and recognized him to be one of Commissioner Gordon's doctors.
"Eli, this is Dr. Peterson. He's your Dad's main doctor. I'll let you two talk . . ." he said as he gestured toward the approaching man in the white lab coat. Eli nodded, thankful that she had John to help her in this tough time.
John watched as the two talked, and he started to wonder why he had stayed to help her. He could have left the hospital after he showed her to her father, but he had stayed. He had even waited right outside the door for her and given her his own coat. Seeing her in pain had hurt him in ways that he hadn't felt in a long time, and it surprised him. All he knew was that there was something about her that made him want to stick around and make sure she was alright.
...
"The doctor says he should be able to leave in a week or so. Because he's older and there was damage to his lungs from the water, they want to keep him under observation." Eli said as she relayed the conversation to John. "He just needs sleep, so there's really nothing else I can do besides visit." Eli wished there was something else she could do, but he wasn't like the computers she worked on. There wasn't some magic program to fix everything, and that's what made her so frustrated.
"Let me take you home again then. You look like you need some sleep."
"Oh, you've done too much for me John. You're the reason he's still alive, and I can't thank you enough. I don't want to burden you any more." Eli's eyes dropped to the floor, feeling unaccustomed to being helped so much. If anything, she had always relied on herself to get things that she wanted. It was weird to think that someone else wanted to make sure she was okay other than her father.
John stopped walking and turned to face Eli. He put both hands on her shoulders comfortably. "Ever think I actually enjoy your company?" He said smiling down on her. "Come on, I'm heading that way anyways."
"You're not some serial killer trying to lure me to your basement, are you?" She said jokingly. Something about being around him made her feel so much better. It felt like all of her problems had just magically disappeared.
"Well I guess you'll just have to wait and see," he countered, walking away toward his car. Eli quickly followed him, knowing that being alone would feel worse than anything else.
...
"My house is that way," Eli said pointing out the window of John's car. He had made a wrong turn and the car was heading back into the city.
A mischievous smirk crossed John's face as he kept driving. "Oh I know. We're taking a little detour."
Eli frowned and stared at his determined face. "I knew it. You are a serial killer," she laughed. She was surprised by how comfortable she was around him, even though he was being secretive.
His smirk turned into a genuine smile as pulled the car into a slow stop and parallel parked on the side of the busy city road. "Close. Come on," he said as he hopped out of the car and quickly walked around the car to open the door for her.
"What's going on?" Eli looked around and recognized the street. It was a few blocks away from her house, yet still in the heart of the good part of Gotham. It was famous for small businesses, quaint restaurants, and dive bars.
"What, you don't trust me?" Eli paused for a moment in the car, wondering if she should actually go with John. He held his hand out to help her out of the car. She sighed, looked at his pleading face, and took his hand to step out of the car.
A/N: Sorry not a lot happened in this chapter, but get ready for some action next chapter! Can't wait to finish it! It should be up soon this week :) Please review!