We Were Born Sick • Gotham Fanfiction •

XIV: The Two Birds

"Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in." ― Shannon L. Alder

~()~

Pulling in a breath between her teeth, Bird reached up her hand and closed it into a fist before knocking on one of the large, heavy wooden double doors in front of her. Doors that felt dark and imposing and made her feel too small as she stood facing them.

The time that passed from her knock until the door opened made her feel painfully uncomfortable in her skin and aware of how this was probably all a waste of time.

"Hey Harvey." She greeted with a nervous smile as the lawyer opened his door, pausing for a moment to look at her, before crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the frame with a look on his face that could have been described as anything but friendly.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded to know, his tone much gruffer than he'd ever used with her before.

Doing her best to ignore the unwanted feeling his demeanor was imposing on her, she struggled to keep the smile on her face as she brought attention to the contents in her arms.

"I brought pizza and I rented a couple movies." Bird pointed out, before nodding to the glass bottle poking out of her purse when she added, "And wine. I know most people pair pizza with beer, but I read this article in a magazine once about the best wines to pair with pizza and I'm not sure why but the information kind of just stuck and I thought, why not?"

"I'm not hungry." He stated, taking a step back inside like he was about to slam the door in her face, but she moved forward and stood in the way.

"Look, I know you're mad at me and probably worried from earlier, but-"

"Mad? No, mad was when you disappeared without a trace about ten hours ago. Worried was when I could have sworn I heard a gunshot outside of the restaurant and went looking for you to no avail. You just vanished; without your car at that."

"I texted you-" She defended, but he didn't give her a chance.

"Yes. Yes you did, about two hours after that. When I was back at work trying to focus on my case instead of thinking about and having all these scenarios playing in my head of what might have happened to you."

She made no attempt of trying to conceal the emotion in her eyes as she stared back at him.

Pulling his eyes away from hers, he angrily added, "But thanks for dropping by, so I could see you're in one piece."

She saw the muscles in his arm move under his skin as he held tightly onto the open door and for a brief second she thought he was actually going shut it while she was standing in the way. Deciding to not give him the chance to do so, she breezed past him into his apartment.

"What are you doing?" He exclaimed, clearly thrown off by her actions.

"I'm sorry." She stated, as she sat the pizza box and her purse down on a small table just inside of the door.

"How did you even know where I lived?" He pushed, still standing by the open door.

Ignoring the question she said in an almost feeble sounding voice, "I'll leave if you want me to."

He didn't tell her to go but also didn't make any attempt to make her feel welcome; he even kept the door open.

"I don't really want to leave, but I can understand why you'd want me to." She continued. The honesty in her voice caught his attention more than he'd currently care to admit.