Such A Joker (Jerome x reader) ~ (Jeremiah x reader)

Pinewood

The girl tries to step closer once more. "That's far enough!" "Alfred!" Bruce protests his guardian. "Look around you, Master Bruce," Alfred speaks making Bruce notice the many torn apart items in the room. "Listen I have no idea what you are, but whatever that this is, it's bloody dangerous," Alfred says making the girl slightly glare at him. Poor thing. It's not her fault. She is what she is.

"Do you know who I am? You seem to recognize me." The girl narrows her eye slightly. "How did you find me?" Bruce goes straight into his own information. "My Father, Thomas Wayne, came here the week before he died. He has it in his calendar." Bruce says and the girl scoffs slightly. "His calendar. Great. Were you followed?" I step forward more interested now. "No. By who?" She scans me and backs slightly back into the darkness. "Good. Then you all can leave." "Not until you answer Bruce's questions!" I say sharply making the girl sit straight into a chair with a worried look on her face. Am I really that scary? She looks at me as if I could kill her! Now what kind of crazy thought is that?

"I know my father came to talk to you about something called Pinewood Farms. What is that?" Bruce demands. She opens the wood-burning stove and throws some paper in. "God. You don't know anything, do you?" "So, tell me." She breaths in a shaky breath. "Do you not understand these people will kill you?" "I've been trying to tell him that." Alfred sighs. Bruce looks at him. "I'm not afraid to die. Not if it means doing the right thing." "Yeah? How'd that work out for your dad?" I tilt my head and glare at her. How dare she bring up a tragic moment like that? Sure, she may have lost a hand, but Bruce lost his parents!

"You have to go, it is not safe for you here." Bruce shakes his head. "I don't care." I step forward and rest my hand on the table. "Listen here. We came a long way, and Bruce has worked his ass off. So, you either tell us or we blow this whole thing out of the water to get some more answers. Your choice girlfriend." I smile at her and her eyes gloss over with fear. She nods and walks out into what seems to be a sunroom.

"Sorry about your hand. I don't get many visitors. You uh, spooked me." "We spooked you? I ask shocked as to how she doesn't think she scared the hell out of us! "How long have you lived here?" "Ten years. Ever since Pinewood." She answers. I look down at her hand and wince slightly. "Is that where you got that?" she looks at me and nods. "Pinewood Farms was a bioengineering program at Wayne Enterprises, the kind that was kept off the books. I was one of their first volunteers. I didn't have many other options at the time. I was at Blackgate." "Take it you weren't a guard?" I ask more interested in this girl's story.

"I was born with a crippled arm. Growing up my father liked two things. Booze and beating his deformed daughter. One night I fought back." As she continues to speak my head grows fuzzy and my ears ring.

I walk on soft grass surrounded by an atmosphere of pitch black. There is only a little metal mobile home parked a few feet away. I hear yelling. Loud yelling of a woman screaming harsh words. Slams and crashes erupt and then a well-heard smack on flesh. The woman screams get out loudly and the door opens. Someone is pushed out forcefully and falls on the ground with a thud. He is a young boy, no older than 13. I rush over to him and crouch down. "Are you alright?" I ask lightly tapping at his shoulder. He looks up at me, his fire-red hair all over the place and curled slightly, his puffy eyes clouded with tears. "Aw, you poor thing. Come here." I pull the stranger into my embrace and his breathing calms. "No one can hurt you now."

Once again, I am shaken awake and Bruce looks even more worried. He brings his sweater sleeve to my face and gently wipes my cheek. "Why are you crying y/n?" I shake my head confused. "I-I don't know." Bruce looks at me with worried eyes and grabs my wrist. "Would you like us to take you home before we go to Pinewood?" "No! of course not. I said I would help and that is what I plan to do." He nods and the four of us proceed to pile into the vehicle, myself still dizzy and confused. Who is that little boy? Is he out there hurt?

We rode out even farther than the city to come to see a worn-down building. "you really think this place is started again? It looks pretty dead to me Bruce." He shakes his head. "Something has started. If it isn't Pinewood, it is related somehow. Come on." We all step out and while they go walk in I stray back feeling an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Y/n? Are you coming?" Bruce asks looking back. "You know my head is feeling a little fuzzy. I'll stay here and be the lookout." They all nod and proceed to enter the building. Nothing happens for minutes beside the rush of cool wind in the trees. Everything is quiet right until two men in suits get out of a hidden car and start to enter the building.

I quickly get out my phone and call Bruce. The call is denied and soon after they come sprinting out with, but they don't make it to the car. Police roll up and have them at gunpoint. I look out and see them looking at me, and I raise my hands as well. Great start y/n. Getting arrested is a great start.

We all are taken down to the GCPD. Alfred locked in the holding cell, Bruce with captain Barns, and myself sitting on a wooden bench. Everyone in the building looks at me with fear. Why does everyone in this place look at me like I am a horrible person? Am I insane? Do they see something I don't?

"Alfred!" I hear the voice of my father call. I stand, and his eyes catch my own. He hugs me and holds me tight. At least he sees me for what I am. "BULLOCK! Prep Karen for travel. I want her at Blackgate. No contact. You! You're free to go." Barns says to Alfred now out of the cage. Bruce walks down to my father and Alfred. "What did you say to him?" I ask afraid for the innocent Karen. "The truth. He didn't seem to like it too much." "Yeah? How about you tell me?" My father then grabs Bruce's shoulder and proceeds to lead us all away to a diner where Bruce frees his news about everything.

"Your father found out about this program, where Karen was a subject and shut it down." My father says gathering up the longer story into one line. "When it was restarted, he tried to shut it down, and they had him killed." "And you think Karen can identify the men involved?" "Doesn't know their names. Says she can remember the faces."

"The man who contracted Matched Malone to kill your parents called himself the Philosopher." My eyes widen, and I sit up more. I've heard that. I know I've heard it! "How do you know that?" I ask my father. "I've been conducting my own investigation. I found out today. And if be willing to bet that this is the man behind Pinewood."

My father constructs a plan to have a man named Lucius Fox gather together all the files of the scientist who worked for the Wayne's for the past 15 years. Break Karen out of Blackgate and have her help identify the men involved.
As the night comes to spring Karen free form the prison my father holds me back. "Why? I can help!" I yell as he gathers things in a bag he might need. "y/n no! You're staying here where you're safe! Just look what happened earlier! You could've been killed! I promise I will tell you everything that happened under the roof once I get back, but for now please do something normal. I just want my little girl back." He sighs and zips the bag. "Was I a smart girl?" He looks at me confused. "y/n you were the top of your graduating class! You worked for the GCPD as an intern and worked your way up to the forensics cases in less than a year! That was always your go to. Science." He laughs and sits me down on the couch holding my hands in his. "I remember when you were 12. For Christmas Barbara bought you this sewing kit and I got you a microscope because all you said was you wanted to solve the secrets of the brain. You stayed up all night with the two things and in the morning, you had sewn together with a teddy bear and a stuffed cat. You had it lied down on the table and claimed you were creating a new friend and how he was going to solve the cure to cancer. You were always so happy, so different from any other child." Jim smiles at the fond yet long-gone memories of his daughter.

"Is that why everyone looks at me like I'm weird? Because I'm different?" "What do you mean y/n?' "At the GCPD all the cops looked at me like I am dangerous. Like I could hurt them. No one would even come near me. I-I just didn't understand why the looked at me so harsh. I could never hurt anyone!"

Yes, you could!

My father shakes his head and pulls me into him. "You are my girl. People don't have to understand you. Just understand who you are." I shake my head clenching my fist in frustration. "I CAN'T! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO I AM!" I scream and collapse with my head throbbing. My father kisses my head and wipes my tears. "y/n you're perfect to me. You are so much like your mother. So much more than you know. Always finding the good in people. With or without your memories you're still y/n Gordon. Fearless. Strong. Smart. You're my daughter!" I hug him with all the force I had. He believes in me. "thank you, dad."