Her Protector

Chapter 10

The drive to the station was a quiet one. Dead silence filled the car from start to finish. And while Rose was needed to be interviewed about what happened, she practically demanded to see the body. Jerome's body.

Lee was filled with concern when she saw Rose enter the office with an officer behind her. "Rose, do you want to be here?"

Rose nodded her head before walking in, staring at the fabric covering a body on the metal table. "I want to see him." She told Lee.

The older woman took a deep breath before nodding her head, and uncovering Jerome's face.

It was no exaggeration. Lee was in complete shock when Rose stood expressionless without anything. No shakes, no near gagging, no eye closing, nothing.

It concerned the woman to see this girl like this. It wasn't the Rose she remember meeting at the charity event. The same Rose she would see when the teenager would visit the station.

"Rose-"

"Please leave me alone." Rose told Lee, staring at Jerome's skinless face. Her eyes just seemed to be magnetized to them. Like this skinless face had a force that was holding her attention. 

"What are you doing?!"

Her screams echoed through her head as the image of Jerome's face be cut into played through her head.

"I'm so sorry." She muttered to the lifeless body before her. With her sleeve-cuff covered hand, Rose brought it close to Jerome's face before retracting it and placing it under her chin.

Touching it would be a whole other story. Something she definitely wouldn't be able to do. She closed her eyes before shaking her head. "You know," Rose muttered quietly. She refused to open her eyes to look at the face again. "If you had forgotten about the show that night, all of this wouldn't have happened." 

But then again, Jerome just needed to have the attention. He wanted to make a name of himself. Something Rose would never understand in his world. 

She opened her eyes in time to see an arm twitch. Breathing started to pick up as she backed away from the metal table he laid on. Did it actually work? Did Dwight really bring Jerome back to life?

No, that can't be possible. It literally defies all logic of science. That's what the ginger girl kept telling herself. Maybe she imagined it. Maybe she imagined Jerome's arm twitching. But did that make even more sense? 

Instincts took over and the girl hurried out of there. She kept looking over her shoulder, ready to start running the moment she saw the body in the hallway. 

"Rose?" The girl let out a small shriek when rammed into someone, backing away when she felt arms grab her own. "Rosie,"

That name again. Tabitha would use it. A lot when she was younger, when they first took her in. The usage of it lessened as the girl got older. But still. It was something that only Tabitha used. Rosie. It made her wonder about her aunt. Does Tabitha wonder about her niece? One that she hasn't seen since that night? Does she hope that she's ok and safe? Rose wondered what Tabitha would've done if she learned what had happened to her niece. 

Though, that was a pointless thought. She technically already knew the answer. Tabitha would've killed Jim for allowing her niece to get kidnapped. Killed him for letting her witness what she did.

"What's wrong?" She looked up only to see Victor. It was a relief no doubt, but she looked over her shoulder again. Rose pictured Jerome limping down the hallway. Skinless face and an arm reaching out for her. His precious flower. 

Rose shook her head, trying to get rid of the thought out of her head. "It's nothing," she spoke quietly before looking back to Victor. "Can we please leave?" 

Victor shooked his head for explaining the situation. With Dwight on the loose, Rose wasn't technically safe. They would be sending her back to Wayne Manor while Victor stayed behind at the station. 

"I'm not going anywhere without you." Having the assassin near her, it made her feel safer. 

"Just for a little bit Rose," Victor assured her while walking her out to a police car. "It'll all be over soon." He promised the girl. 

She didn't believe him. But Rose followed through, sitting in the back of the police car and allowing them to take her to Wayne Manor. 

***

Lee sat in annoyance as Jerome kept laughing about the fact that Jim killed her husband. 

"You miss a lot being dead," Jerome kept cackling. It had seemed that he did indeed miss too much action since his death. 

Lee just allowed him to keep going. "There's a hundred cops on the other side of the door ready to kill you again." 

Jerome continued to laugh for a little bit longer before stopping. "I see your point." He told her, getting close up to Lee's face. "The last thing I remember, I was going to kill Bruce Wayne," the blank look on Lee's face told him that he didn't succeed. "Right, Theo Galavan killed me." He continued to mutter an insult about him before deciding on killing him first. 

"Theo Galavan's dead," Lee informed him. "Which time?" She asked the maniac before her when he asked about who killed Galavan. First, there was Gordon and Penguin who killed him, then he was blown up by Butch. 

"Galavan came back to life?" Jerome questioned before nodding his head, mimicking Lee's response. Theo Galavan, always upstaging Jerome. 

To Lee's surprise, not once had Jerome mentioned Rose. Though, one could consider that to be good. For now, the girl was safe from him. 

Her breath hitched when Jerome wrapped a hand around her throat, getting close to her face again. "Where's my face?" 

Not exactly what she was expecting, but she should've seen that. Surprise it took him this long to question his missing face. 

With the information that he wanted from her, Jerome tied Lee up before turning the tv on. He wanted to see this Dwight guy in action. This guy, who stole his face. Quite literally.

"He doesn't have anything," he told Lee while watching the broadcast that Dwight was playing on. "Though," he placed the police hat over his head. "He is a handsome fellow." He chuckled before heading towards the door. "You'll want to keep watching, don't want to miss anything that'll happen."