We Were Born Sick • Gotham Fanfiction •

LI: Another Sunrise

"There is no such thing as a "broken family." Family is family, and is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart. The only time family becomes null is when those ties in the heart are cut. If you cut those ties, those people are not your family. If you make those ties, those people are your family. And if you hate those ties, those people will still be your family because whatever you hate will always be with you." ― C. JoyBell C.

~()~

Barely missing countless flying bullets, Jim ducked behind the desk of the nurses station and lowered his head to shield his eyes from the shards of glass flying widely around him in the deserted wing of Gotham General.

He'd spent the bullets in the assault rifle already and had run out of ammo for both his service weapon and the other gun he'd been carrying.

The three guns he'd entered into the fight with were nothing compared to the machine guns Maroni's crew had been toting. Though, with what little defenses he had, he'd managed to drop several men.

Only now it seemed as though his luck had run out and every passing second was time borrowed from a clock whose time was running out.

Jim looked up to see one of Maroni's men standing above him and the barrel of a gun aimed between his own eyes.

If there was still gunfire riddling the hospital walls and furniture with bullet holes, then he was no longer aware of the sound. Around him the earth had fell into a deafening silence, the kind that left his ears with the feeling of being plugged with cotton.

The next and only sound he heard was a single gunshot, so loud he'd have sworn the sound alone was enough to make his ears bleed, followed by a few moments of complete and utter confusion –until he saw the man's body fall to the floor with a trail of blood seeping from the single hole in his forehead.

Jim managed to pull in a breath which seemed to restore the chaotic sounds around him.

It had be Bullock, he thought. His partner had somehow gotten there with backup in just the nick of time.
Or so he was convinced until Bird jumped over the desk and dropped down next to him, leaning her head back against the wood she caught her breath and turned to face him as she stated, "You're welcome, you know... for saving your life –again."

"How many more are there?" Jim finally asked when he managed to find his voice.

"I saw at least three men headed this way." Bird explained, "I was going to go after them, but then you had a gun to your head, so..."

"Let me see that." He nodded to the gun in her hands and when she held it out to him, he saw there were two rounds left in the clip and one in the chamber.

"Three bullets." He sighed, before his eyes landed on the gun he'd nearly been killed with, which was laying a little too far out of reach to easily snatch up without being seen and shot in the process.

"Guess we're in luck then, huh?" Bird swallowed.
Seeing the look Jim shot her she reminded him, "Three men."

"And only three bullets." Jim pointed out, "That doesn't leave any room for error and they're all heavily armed."

"One bullet –one kill." Bird replied, ducking down further as the armed men started to rip apart more of the furniture around them with gun shots. Maroni's men knew they had them cornered and trapped, but instead of going right in for the kill –they were taunting them.

"You make it sound so easy." Jim mumbled, as he adjusted the gun in his hand and prepared to face the men down.

"Give me the gun." Bird said, holding out her hand.