We Were Born Sick • Gotham Fanfiction •

XX: Nothing to Lose

I am not young enough to know everything.- Oscar Wilde

~()~

Pulling in a deep breath of the chilly air pouring in through her open window, Bird reached forward and shut the radio in her car off when she slowed down to turn into the driveway of the Falcone Mansion.

Immediately she had to come to a stop due to a car parked in the driveway just in front of the gate with several armed men blocking the way.

One of the men carrying an assault rifle walked over to her window and leaned down to look inside of her car through her open window.

"Morning." Bird greeted with a tight lipped smile, "I'm here to see Mr. Falcone."

To her surprise the guy nodded, "Sure thing, pull on through."

With a stunned expression she watched as he motioned to a few of the other men and they stepped to the side as one triggered for the gate to open and slowly she drove though. At the most she'd expected them to phone inside and see if he'd be willing to meet with her, she certainly didn't expect to be ushered right on through.

Her heart started to race in her chest as she pulled to a stop in front of the house after being signaled to by another of his armed guards. It felt too easy, like she was possibly walking into a baited trap. As much as she wanted to help Jim, her survival instinct was on red alert and she was starting to rethink her choice, but she was too far in to turn back now.

The guard opened her door with a polite greeting and walked her to the front door of the house where she was met by another of Falcone's men who offered her a polite smile as he asked, "Do you have any weapons on you?"

"Oh!" She exclaimed feeling her cheeks darken some as she realized she'd brought weapons into the Don's house. "I meant to leave them in my car." She defended, as she pulled the handgun from her jeans waist band and a switchblade knife from her pocket and handed them over.

Passing both items off to another man, the one who'd questioned her asked, "Anything else?"

"No." She answered, but she could tell by the look on his face that this wasn't a situation where they were going to simply take her word on it –especially since she'd showed up armed. Normally she'd have been more on her game than that, but she'd been up half the night rehearsing what she'd say if granted the chance to speak to Falcone.

Understanding what came next she widened her stance some and spread her arms out the side and waited for the man to physically check her over for weapons.

"It's just a precaution." He assured her, and she nodded in a silent response as she stared up towards the vaulted ceiling and tried to ignore the invading feeling of a strangers hands patting all over her body.

Once he was satisfied that she wasn't concealing any other weapons, he stepped back and said, "If you'll follow me to the kitchen Don Falcone will see you shortly."

"Thank you." She replied, letting out a relieved breath as she followed him through the extravagant downstairs of the large house.

As she stepped through the doorway into the large kitchen; the first thing she noticed was the aroma of apple cinnamon muffins baking in the oven and the second thing she noticed was a scared Barbara Kean sitting in one of the few chairs surrounding the island in the middle of the room.

The blonde looked over to her with watery eyes, before staring back down to her hands that lay bound at the wrists in her lap. She'd felt like such an idiot; coming to the house of the biggest crime boss in Gotham City to plead for him to stop coming after Jim.
It felt like a good idea the entire bus ride back to the city, but she'd now been sitting in the house for what felt like an eternity with quite possibly the scariest man she'd ever met staring her down.