Insanely troubled- Jeremiah Valeska fanfic

Chapter twenty six

On the drive towards Jerome, everyone was silent, probably deep inside their own minds, wondering what to expect. You never knew with Jerome, he was a complete wildcard.

Everly's eyes traveled towards Jeremiah who sat beside her in the backseat. His feet were shaking up and down and he was fiddling
with his hands, his eyes on the road. He
must have been the most anxious one of
them all and with good reason to be.

She took a hold on his halfway clenched hand, opening it and starting to draw circles in his palm. It helped her deal with stress. "When
all this is over we'll move far away from Gotham. Maybe in a house by the lake. I'll
get a new job as a therapist, you can finally job as an engineer out and about alongside others"

It wasn't certain that it would happen, but dreaming about it wouldn't hurt.

"We'll get a dog?" He asked with a small
smile, not taking his eyes off of her.

"We'll get a dog" She nodded, laying her
head down on his shoulder. "We'll be
happy. No more being afraid. No more of
you isolating yourself from the world"

"Deal" He responded with a bit of happiness
in his voice as he kissed her forehead.

The car stopped up and they were thrown
back into reality. Bruce and Gordon got out from the front and Jeremiah and Everly
got out from the backseat.

"So, how did you get into this whole
mess?" Bruce asked her as they all
started walking.

"I fell in love" She answered honestly,
glancing quickly over at Jeremiah who
was walking beside Gordon. She hadn't
been a part of any of this if it weren't
for meeting him. "What about you?"

"It seems as if simply being me
gets me into any kind of chaos"
He replied with a sad smile.

It was true. The last couple of years Everly
had seen so much news coverage on things
that Bruce had gotten himself into and it
all started right after his parents died.

She was about to say something along the
lines of how bad she felt about the fact that
he needed to go through all of that, but was quickly distracted by the large crowd standing in front of a stage with a loud rock band on it.

She then noticed Jerome, up on the stage
just jamming along with the band, his
hostages behind him absolutely mortified.

"Remember what I said?" Jeremiah
whispered to her as he stopped up
beside her, his eyes sharp and alert.

"To not leave your side" She answered confidently.

"Exactly" He nodded as he took a hold on her hand. Bruce glanced down at them for a quick second before his eyes darted back to the stage.

Carefully, all four of them started walking
into the crowd, thinking they'd blend
into it and go unnoticed.

Apparently, they didn't.

The music stopped completely up and was replaced by a haunting silence followed by a few whispers. Everly didn't dare look up
in case Jerome was staring right at her.

"Well, look who decided to show up" Jerome yelled into the microphone. One could hear
his smirk just by the tone of his voice. "We were starting to get nervous especially
the mayor here, my guest of honor
take your seats on stage"

Bruce started to walk towards the stage again with no hesitation. Jeremiah whatsoever looked as if he doubted ever coming there.

"Come on don't be shy, oh, and take my
sister in law with you, won't ya?"