When Alaska Met Jerome

Thanksgiving

"Potter get your ass over here I've got a damn turkey in the oven!" I yelled into the phone before hanging up. Jerome and I had music playing throughout the apartment while we cooked. He wasn't too great of a chef, but with my guidance he hardly burned anything.

"Jerome, babe you need to mix everything together not just leave it on the stove." I said coming over to do his job for him.

"Ya know I know how to make gravy." He said pulling the spoon from the pot and pointing it at me.

"No you don't." I grabbed the spoon from him and gently hit him on the nose causing him to get gravy on it.

He gave me the most offended look before charging at me and trapping me against the counter tops with his arms. He leaned down almost kissing me before I leaned up and kissed the gravy off his nose.

"Kinky, let's use food like that more often." He said with a smirk.

"You and your brother both have the dirtiest minds in the world." Potter's voice called from the entrance of the kitchen.

"I didn't even here you two come in," I yelled escaping from Jerome to give my twin a hug. Jerome just awkwardly waved to his brother which Jeremiah returned.

Potter wanted to help finish cooking but she was utterly useless in the kitchen, just like Jerome, so she instructed Jeremiah to assist me.

"So, Jeremiah," I began looking towards him, "what've you and my sister been up too?"

"Well, I blew up some of Gotham but that's not really important. Potter helped of course, she's great with talking to my victims." His blunt answer took me back a bit.

"So Potter goes out on your activities with you?" I asked in complete shock. I knew Potter could get a little crazy, but full on criminal was different.

"Well of course. I couldn't do what I do without her." He said as he chopped up the lettuce for salads.

"Oh. I guess I just never pictured her in that kind of setting, but then again I never pictured the four of us making that broadcast a few weeks back so there's that." I laughed a little but he just kept chopping.

"You know Jeremiah, I'm not that great with people either, Potter's always been better at that sort of thing." I tried to make a connection but he still kept chopping.

"I'm really looking forward to working with you. I think we could do some great things!" That finally sparked his interest.

"And what do you believe we should do? I already have more bombs then I could ever use." He turned to face me with an expectant look.

"Well I actually had a few ideas for that. I've got a journal upstairs if perhaps you'd like to look at it sometime? But off the top of my head I believe most of my things mostly focus on handheld weaponry." He got a thoughtful look in his eyes so I kept talking.

"You've seen how cops have tear gas in little containers, right? Well if we did something along those lines but with some of Scarecrow's serums I think it'd cause some real damage. Or even if we-" I didn't get to finish my thought because at that moment we heard a fight brewing between Jerome and Potter.

"Should we check that out?" Jeremiah asked me.

"With those two? If they're into it then we'd lose a limb trying to get them apart. Let's just finish this up." I said gesturing to the almost finished dinner.

"Alright. By the way I would like to sit down and discuss some of your ideas possibly when we're more into this partnership." He suggested while properly finishing the gravy.

"Sounds like a plan!"

•*•*•*•

"Did you not here about the city almost blowing up?" Potter asked me as we sat around the table eating at the Thanksgiving dinner. I simply shook my head causing her to go into full detail.

"My gosh Alaska it was great! Jeremiah almost killed Gordon and in the process got all of Jerome's followers. Of course you can't trust those people so they had to die," she took a breath before continuing, but I was already slightly disturbed at how much she sounded like Jerome, "within that time frame I killed a dude and pointed a gun at someone. Laskie it was exhilarating, didn't you love your first time?" She asked as though I'd already killed a man.

"Potter I've never killed anyone. I did beat Galavan half to death but I've never killed." I said slowly causing her smile to diminish.

"You mean you've never gone out when Jerome was on one of his sprees?" I shook my head no. "My gosh Alaska do you even know half the stuff he's done?" At this I turned to Jerome who looked increasingly uncomfortable.

"Jerome, what's she talking about? Is this why you don't like for me to watch the news? You know how I hate being kept in the dark!" I stood up and walked over to him in anger. "Jerome Valeska you tell me everything."

"Do you want me to start with how Gordon shot me or how I lost my cult?" I was shocked to say the least.

"You got shot and didn't tell me?" I backed away when he reached for me.

"I didn't want you to worry. It was just after I'd pulled this little stunt to try and kill Bruce Wayne and mess with Jeremiah. I was on top of a building and he shot me a little; Jim thought I died but it was a ruse. A magic trick." His wording of a magic trick sent me into a state. I'd never been one for magic since that night, but him almost dying again scared the hell out of me.

"Jerome, I think tonight you should sleep on the couch. I'm very upset right now and you don't need to see me upset." He looked at me in confusion.

"I'm sorry babe, I just didn't want ya to worry. I hate it when I get ya all worked up." His attempt at an apology barely eased my fury, but it did help me cool down a little.

"Alaska, why don't you sit down and finish dinner," my twin suggested. She knew how I got when I was mad. She knew I could get overly destructive and say things in the heat of the moment that I'd regret later.

"Okay. Um, Jerome you need to fill me in on everything tonight," I said in a detached tone. It hurt me to no end that our relationship wasn't as open as I'd thought. I'd told him everything, or close to it, and he hasn't even told me what he'd been up to criminally speaking. "And I want in. I will not be a stay at home housewife. I know I'm already involved in Jeremiah's engineering, but I want it on your end too." Jerome just shook his head.

•*•*•*•

Later that night, after everyone had left he told me all of it. He told me how it had started that night he busted out of Arkham with a few close friends and made his way trying to find Jeremiah. How he had met his uncle - who nearly burned Jerome's face off - and killed him. How he'd been saved by Bruce Wayne and his girlfriend, the proceeded to attack a school official to access Jeremiah's location. He said that his brother had trapped him in a box that he escaped from and then ran around that maze until I found him. He told me how he had planned on gassing all of Gotham but got thwarted by Penguin. After he didn't die, like Penguin had hoped, the man came begging for forgiveness, and Jerome being oh so generous allotted him.

After that he said I pretty much knew everything, and the only reason he did all of this was because he thought Jeremiah wanted to turn me against him. When I'd asked why he wanted to turn Gotham insane he'd told me "because it'd be a laugh." And I agreed. It was at that point, when his story was over and I wasn't running for the hills, that I thought maybe I was a little insane too. And maybe I was okay with that.