Devil's Playground • Gotham Fanfiction •

XXVIII - A Gift Among Friends

She'd been happy the last week. Truly happy.

The problem was that happiness was fleeting, and sometimes, even in her happiest moments, she was sad, knowing it wouldn't last forever.

"We talked about this." Jim reminded her with a soft smile.

He was right.

They'd both agreed on the date when he'd return to work.

Decided together when they'd make their reappearance back in the world.

"I know." Bird leaned in and kissed him before sliding out of his arms and turning back to the counter to grab her breakfast.

Things were going well between them, and Gotham always seemed to ruin what was good.

She'd had the same fears when he'd first returned to work at the GCPD. Worried that no matter how close they were or how much they loved each other -outside forces would tear them apart.

But she didn't feel as hopeless as the last time.

She felt even closer to him now, more connected than ever before; nothing could tear them apart.

And even though she was a realist with a healthy splash of pessimism through and through - she was feeling oddly optimistic about the future.

Maybe it was the week long afterglow that encircled them or her fully coming to terms with the future that she wanted with Jim. Knowing how much she loved him and not doubting that he was just as in love with her.

He was hers and she was his.

She'd been trying not to think about Oswald after catching some news earlier in the week that he was missing. Still, she wondered if her decision to cut him out of her life was also playing a part in her feeling less burdened and freer.

Perhaps it had to do more with her passing the trials she'd given herself when she'd been around Jerome.

She'd recognized then that she was tempting herself back into the darkness.

An alcoholic walking into a bar, she'd thought at the time, how she'd been tempting fate and not letting her monster out to play.

She'd walked a tightrope over a sprawling bottomless ravine and made it to the other side in one piece; taking Alfred's words to heart, she knew now that the only direction to go was forward.

••• The next morning •••

Jim walked out of the large walk-in closet with changes of clothes in hand; he started to throw them into the open luggage bag on the bed but stopped with something caught his eye.

He laid the clothes down on the bed and picked up a grenade from the overnight bag that he knew he hadn't put in there.

"Bird?" He looked over his shoulder to where she was getting some of his socks from a dresser drawer.

He held up the weapon when he saw her had her attention.

"Yeah, I packed that for you." She offered him a smile as and bumped a hip against the open drawer to slide it shut.

Her choice of words earned a small laugh from him.

She hadn't so much packed it up for as she'd just haphazardly tossed a deadly explosive in beside a zip-lock bag of toiletries.

"I see that... but why?" Jim carefully sat the grenade on the bed and took the clean pairs of socks from her with a nod of thanks.

"In case you need it, Jim."