alive || jerome valeska

i'm gonna free you

"You all know what we're facing here." commissioner Essen spoke "Forty eight hours ago six criminally insane inmates were busted out of Arkham Asylum. Yesterday, four of those inmates broke into Yellen Shipyard, kidnapped seven workers, then dropped them off the roof of the Gotham Gazette." people uncomfortably shared looks "As for now, we still have no leads on the person or persons behind the breakout. Jim Gordon's lead, Jim." the woman stepped back, allowing the detective to speak up.

"These are our targets." he started, turning on the projector "Jerome Valeska, eighteen years old. Matricide."

Shivers ran down Lili's spine as the red head appeared on the screen. On his mugshot he was smiling like the maniac he is, it was hard to imagine that he was the same person who guessed her favourite candy. In that moment the memory of his soft, warm touch felt like a weapon pointed at her, forcing her to remember how nice it felt.

"Arnold Dobkins, schizophrenia, poisoner, rapist." click "Aron Helzinger, killed his entire family with his bare hands." click "Robert Greenwood, killed and ate a dozen woman." click, Jim let out a painful sight "Barbra Keen, killed her parents. We're going to work this in groups of four, I'll hand out assignments throughout the day. Alvarez is my coordinating officer. Any questions?" no one said a word "Let's get to work."

Everyone went back to doing their jobs, the usual background noise took over.

"Quiet the gang." Lili said, walking up to her partner "What do we do?"

"I'm gonna talk to Harvey." she nodded, expecting that this would be the answer.

"Alright, I'll look into Yellen Shipyard. See if they know something." she said, grabbing her coat and purse.

"Call me if you find anything." 

"You know I will." they shared a smile before parting ways.

After a long hour of questioning and reading unimportant files at the shipyard, Lili managed to find out one of the refuelling truck had been stolen, fully loaded with gasoline. After another twenty minutes of digging and asking, she got the license plate and the description of the vehicle.

When she got in her car to get back to the GCPD, she called Jim to share the news, who was already back at the station, and took care of putting out an APB. Now all they had to do was wait for a call, for someone to see something and repot it.

"So how's Harv, still sober?" she asked after breaking the news through the phone.

"Yeah, he's doing good with Scotty." he said, not trying to hide his dislike in his tone towards the woman.

"So he's not coming back."

"No."

Either of them said anything for a few seconds. They were happy Harvey was doing better, but without him the job just wasn't the same. Lili would even say she missed the man, but he'd never let her live it down.

"Are you okay though?" Jim broke the silence. Lili wasn't sure if he meant Harvey, Jerome, or just in general, either way, she let out an ugly laugh.

"Gotta be. You?"

"Gotta be." Jim sighed. The girl could hear someone calling out the detective's name "Hold on-" he said. She couldn't understand what the woman was saying, but it sounded important.
"We've got a lead, I'm sending you the location." the man spoke rapidly. Adrenaline rushed trough her body, and ohh, how she missed that rush.

"On my way." she said, and the phone call ended.

Luckily the place was only ten minutes away, with her speed, only five. She parked her car a block away from the location, she decided it would be best to approach the maniacs quietly and unexpectedly. She ran down the street, she could already hear the screams of the innocent students. She hid behind a car, watching three man stand next to the yellow school bus, laughing and jumping like a five year old in the circus.