Tada... New chapter, I'm still really unsure about it but I think it's pretty good. Any mistakes I may have missed or criticisms for it are welcome of course, and I'm still open to suggestions, facts I should incorporate, etc. I hope this sits well with any readers out there and as always, review, it's welcome!
So Life Marches On... Slowly.
After the grocery store incident and the moping which followed Abby bounced back as Gotham citizens were wont to do. She probably needed therapy but the same could be said for the people she passed on her way to work every day.
The problem with her moping was that she had viciously ignored any contact with other people unless she deemed it absolutely necessary and had therefore worried her friends a great deal, especially Devon, who started to fear she was angry at him. So two days after, on Sunday, Abby's apartment was invaded by Dora, who was understandably irate and Devon. Spending a day with your friends, watching Netflix and eating unhealthy food is actually a good away to unwind and de-stress, as it turns out, as does calling your close family members and crying into the phone but Abby restrained herself from doing that after her first year in Gotham.
Some form of closure appeared at the end of the following week when Batman caught up with Poison Ivy and she was hauled off to Arkham, again. The cashier who she had "lovingly" whipped out of a grocery store with was quickly put down as another one of her unfortunate victims and he was currently rehabilitating in Gotham General while the GCPD looked for some reason for his kidnapping (And whatever scary, uncomfortable and weird stuff he probably went through afterwards).
Abby occasionally got nervous around large plants and one time, when she stepped on a dandelion while out on a walk she stopped dead, lifted her foot, bent down and started whispering apologies at the plant in broad daylight before putting it upright and speed-walking away.
Today Donnie was opening the restaurant early so all of this reflecting was happening on the morning walk to work. Kyle Dulcet, a coworker, bicycled past Abby as she walked past the large and expensive looking office building housing Gotham's newest rich corporation (Which she hadn't even bothered to remember the name of because it would probably move very, very far away after realizing they can't handle the whole package that was Gotham City…)
Finally Abby made it to the restaurant which was situated in a little hub of activity where many small businesses were set up. It was a part of Old Gotham as Abby understood it and contrary to popular view of that particular section of the city, kind of nice and not as shady as many are led to believe. The area had earned such a reputation because of its "proximity" to the road that led to Arkham and also because Crime Alley was technically in Old Gotham.
If Abby had to make a list of the members of the Rogue's Gallery who tend to hang around in Old Gotham there would be three people on it; Poison Ivy, the Mad Hatter and Scarecrow. It honestly surprised Abby that the incident at the grocery store had shaken her so badly seeing as the rogue wasn't an uncommon sight in the area (Abby swears she sees the woman at the flower store across the street sometimes, cooing at the hydrangeas…) It's gotten to the point where during the annual masked festival many of them are just decorated gas masks, there's even a contest running for the most creative and practical design of the festival.
Abby joined her coworkers as they waited for Donnie to unlock the café. He lived in an apartment above but frequently forgot to let his employees in at the right time. He also tended to not tell them important information such as vacations and random days off (But sometimes Abby wondered if he just liked to see the whole staff crowd around the side doors in the middle of bad weather, wondering what the hell he was doing inside.)
Five minutes after everyone was supposed to be inside and getting ready to open Donnie finally unlocked the door with a smirk and every staff member filed inside, more or less used to his eccentricities. Soon enough the first customers shuffled in; a cop, a jogger and a tired looking businessman. Dora was already taking the order for the cop so Abby figured she might as well get to the businessman, he was a regular thankfully, they all were.
From the kitchen came the smell of breakfast and Abby sighed quietly at the sight of Pancakes. She hadn't had much of a breakfast herself, not all that willing to drag herself out of bed before she really needed to (4:00 to be exact).
The day passed in an ambling but easy manner, the middle of the week tended to go quietly as far as days in Gotham went. When Abby was let off around 8:30 she walked out tiredly, Dora had gotten off 30 minutes earlier and was presumably sequestered in her apartment painting. The sun's presence in the sky did not go unnoticed by Abby as she once again thanked no one in particular for summer's long days (Evening ritual). It was a nice, clear evening, nice enough that quite a few kids were still out and about, playing games (Though never far from home) and Abby smiled at the whole scene, moments like this weren't exactly rare but they definitely weren't common.
Before making the long haul up the steps to her floor Abby checked her mail, one credit card offer (junk), a conspiracy magazine (Not junk) and a coupon (Junk)… For the Iceberg Lounge, possibly not junk. Abby frowned at it but put the mail away in her purse, mentally promising to scour that strange offer as soon as she got home. On her way up Abby was stopped by Alice, the little girl above her, as she bounded up the steps with a smile on her face.
"Hullo there misses!" Alice said with a toothy grin, Abby noticed she had lost a tooth and smiled back at the young girl.
"Hi Alice, I see you've been out playing… Did you lose a tooth?" She responded. Alice's grin became wider and she nodded before opening her mouth, pointing at the clear spot and animatedly telling Abby about the event in a stream of words that weren't all that understandable. Eventually Abby pieced together a story about the tooth popping right out very cleanly one night when Alice was in bed and that she had almost swallowed it.
"G'bye miss Abby, I've gotta go to bed soon!" Alice eventually said and Abby smiled and waved goodbye at her as she scrambled off.
Inside Abby's apartment it was dimly lit, with exceptions to the kitchen and bathroom Abby saw no real need for bright lighting, it saved energy anyways. She was about to settle down at the table and open up her laptop when she remembered the suspicious coupon from earlier. Abby grabbed her bag and fished it out, it was fancy looking but also very generic and it was offering a discounted meal at the lounge for a group of three to four people. Abby's brow rose at this, in suspicion and derision. The price for the meal was so low that Abby might think this was for a normal restaurant and the lounge was by no means normal. Owned by "respectable businessman" (Read as rich criminal who makes, buys, sells and steals well… Everything and anything maybe) Oswald Cobblepot ("The Penguin"), it has five star dining and often serves the rich (And also criminals but nobody talks about that… Shhhhhh!)
Abby knew this might take some thinking, if she went she probably wouldn't run into any of the Rogues Gallery, they were usually allowed only on certain nights and The Penguin likely wouldn't want to put his "good relationship" with the GCPD on the line by letting in innocent civilians while a bunch of psychopaths and otherwise dangerous criminals wined and dined. But there was always a chance and Abby was a cautious person first and foremost, maybe too cautious but it was better that than dead in alleyway because she was stupid.
One more thing readers, I was kind of iffy about cutting the chapter off here so there may be a change in the future (Closing event, etc) and a lot of this was brainstorming that I really needed to get out of my head and into the story before I forgot and moved on to another idea, just a heads up.