"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." - Joseph Conrad
•••
Now clad in a ringmaster costume, Jerome moved to the center of the arena with a megaphone in his hand.
"Here ye, here ye. Gather around. The show is about to begin!"
His voice boomed through the speaker, echoing around the entire Boardwalk Circus.
Strutting back and forth, he cupped a hand behind his ear to show he didn't think the crowd was being loud enough.
The volume of the cheers increased tenfold and Bird grabbed onto the side of her head with a feeling like her skull was going to crack ad crumble.
After their game of Russian Roulette, Bird had tried to intervene and stop Jerome from taking her brother off to be killed as the main attraction of the night.
He'd pushed her into a crowd of people and told them to keep her occupied.
The next thing she knew, she was crowd surfing against her will and spent what felt like an eternity trying to break free.
In the struggle, the split skin on her forehead had reopened and her vision from her right eye was blurred with blood and sweat. Stinging like a bee.
Trying to fight her way through the ones gathered around to see the live murder of Bruce Wayne, Bird stumbled and grasped onto strangers to keep standing.
It felt like the ground was uneven.
She'd been flipped and spun around so much in the air that she was dizzy.
One voice seemed to be ringing about above all others, jeering and hollering until a single gunshot rang out.
When Bird heard Jerome's voice echo, "Shut up!"
She figured he'd killed the other guy for trying to be the center of attention.
Jerome continued to put on a show and rile up the crowd and Bird had nearly made it to the front row when someone grabbed onto her arm and tried to pull her back again, without looking she brought her elbow back in an upward motion and got them right in the face.
With a groan of the pain, the person stumbled backwards and fell over.
A few people nearby who'd witnessed it started laughing. Mimicking the laugh of the one they'd based their cult around.
"Well, I think we can all agree that tonight was a rousing success. We brought this miserable city to it's knees!"
Coming to a stop, Bird reached up, trying to clear the blood from her eye and working to form a plan.
•••
Bird had weaved through the crowd and was just starting to make her way to the front of the circle, still trying to formulate a plan on how to get Bruce out of the danger zone when a series of gunshots rang out.
Cutting through the crowds excitement like a crack of lightening against a pitch black sky.
All the commotion and chatter along with the cheers came to an abrupt stop.
Everyone looked back to see Jim standing with a handgun pointed up in the air from where he'd fired the shots.
"Detective Gordon!" Jerome called out from where he was sitting on top of the canon, "You're just in time for the big finish!"
A wide smile spread across Bird's face as she caught sight of him.
He was alive -and just as she'd predicted, if she bought them enough time he'd show up with the strike force and they could get Bruce out of there.
"Nobody move!"
Another voice rang out as the strike force moved in.
Within a matter of seconds the crowd started to disperse into chaos.
Shots were being fired from both sides.
People trying to run and hide.
Bird got caught back up in everyone running wildly around, shoving and knocking everyone else down and it took her a little time to get back up to the opening where Bruce was handcuffed to a pole, with a cannon loaded with sharp knifes and various other pointy objects aimed for him.
Coming to a stop now that she had escaped the sea of people, she pulled in a deep breath and looked around, her eyes stopping on the canon and seeing the wick had been lit.
Without wasting another moment she ran to where her brother was struggling, trying to get out of the handcuffs before the canon went off.
"Starling!"
He breathed her name with a sigh of relief.
She was okay.
He didn't know what had happened after Jerome sent a large crowd after her and dragged him off in the other direction.
"It's okay," Bird promised him, "I told you I'd get you of here."
Her voice sounded confident, but he could see the sweat starting to bead on her forehead.
He opened his mouth to tell her that she should go, but all that came out was a hiss of pain when she jerked one of the staples out of his arm and took a chunk of flesh with it.
Bruce looked back and forth from the lit cannon, to where she was struggling to get the staple straightened out enough to be able to use it to pick the lock.
Finally, after nearly dropping the blood slicked metal strip numerous times and stabbing her own fingertips, she was able to get to work on the handcuffs.
Just as the second latch popped up, the siblings took off running away from the canon, managing to duck behind a row of seats just as the explosion went off.
They'd avoided being ripped to shreds by mere seconds.
Closing her eyes, Bird leaned her head back against the back of the seating and took in a deep breath.
The relief that saturated her like a downpour in drought was over as soon as it started when she looked over to where her brother should have been, but he wasn't there.
Standing up she, she spun in a frantic circle. Trying to catch sight of him among the chaos, but he was gone.
"Lady Wayne!"
Bird had barely had time to process hearing her name before Alfred wrapped in a tight hug, stood back and remarked, "What the bloody hell happened to you?"
Rubbing her hand over her face and smearing more of the clown make up away, she managed a smile, "Alfred!"
"Where's your brother?" He asked looking around before laying his hands on her arms, "Are you alright then?"
"Bruce tried to tell me you were dead." Bird breathed.
"Yes, well," Alfred cleared his throat, "I had it covered... but your Detective Gordon showed up in the nick of time."
Bird glanced down to the ground with a small smile, "Yeah, he uh, he has a habit of doing that."
Snapping back into the present and the need to make sure Bruce was okay, she offered, "Let's split up, we can find Bruce and cover more ground that way."
Not giving him the time to respond, Bird took off running in the opposite direction.
•••
After several minutes of failing to find Bruce, Bird stopped to catch her breath.
She'd checked everywhere she could think of that someone would hide to avoid being found by a blood thirsty Jerome who was most certainly still out to bleed him dry of his blue blood.
It then occurred to her that Bruce wasn't concerned about his own safety.
That if she wanted to find him, she'd have to think like her brother.
Meaning that he'd try to lead Jerome away from other people to avoid anyone else getting hurt.
Spinning in a slow circle, her eyes stopped on the fun-house. The Maze of Mirrors; the flashing sigh read.
That was it.
She could feel it in her bones.
It was the perfect spot to disappear into where he could lead the danger away from everyone else.
Several steps inside the Maze of Mirrors and being slightly horrified by her own reflection between her crazy hair, smeared make-up and blood on her face, she could hear the sound of a struggle.
Rounding another corner she slowed to a stop as she spotted them.
Jerome was flat on his back on the floor, broken glass from destroyed mirrors reflected the lights and sparkled like glitter on the floor around him.
Red drops of blood coated the mirrors and floor as Bruce straddled Jerome and punched him repeatedly in the face.
Meanwhile, Jerome laughed manically through the pain, egging him on.
Bird took another step towards them and then stopped.
Almost every instinct she had was trying to send her running to her brother's aid.
To grab him and drag him out to safety.
To save him -possibly even from himself as he unleashed the rage he had on the already broken man beneath him.
But this wasn't her fight.
Perhaps on a lesser level, there was also a spark of morbid curiously that wondered how far her brother would take it.
So she stood in place and watched as Bruce continued to hit him in the face, winkling and dislodging the stapled together flesh.
Blood spattered, ran out from along the loose edges and into Jerome's ginger hairline.
"That's it!" Jerome was gurgling on his own blood, "Let it out!"
Enraged, Bruce look around until his eyes landed on a rather large shard of glass.
Jagged and sparkling in the light.
He grabbed it up, raised it high above his head.
Feeling hate seething inside of him.
Coursing through his veins like acid. Eating him alive from the inside out.
As far as he knew, Alfred was dead because of him.
And in that moment he wanted to kill Jerome.
Just as he was about to lower the sharp tip, he caught sight of his own reflection in the mirror.
The remaining traces of the blood and face-paint that hadn't sweated off made his skin look unnatural, his expression was twisted up in pure hatred.
He didn't even recognize himself.
Somewhere between being abducted from Wayne Manor to this moment in time, he'd morphed into someone else -something else.
Swallowing hard he started to lower the glass shard he was holding but it was then that he saw someone else watching him in the reflection; his sister.
Bruce had no idea how long she'd been there, how much of the fight she'd witnessed -most of all he didn't understand why she was just standing there watching him.
After all the effort she'd got to keeping him from killing Matches Malone -yet there she stood mere feet away while he was literally seconds from killing someone.
"Bruce," Jerome choked out staring up at the teenager, "Do it!"
He taunted.
He wanted to see the golden boy snap; even if it were at his own expense.
To prove to him that there are no heroes on Gotham and that Bruce was no better than he was.
Bruce's body trembled, tears welled up in his eyes.
He wanted to do it. Wanted to hurt Jerome so badly that he'd never get back up.
He moved the glass closer to Jerome's throat as he laughed and nodded, encouraging him to cross the line that there was no coming back from.
It was then that Bruce let out a scream.
A battle cry against the darker side of himself and he managed to pull himself back from the edge.
Throwing the shard to the side, it burst on impact with the floor and Bruce stood up and walked away.
Leaving Jerome gasping for air through the blood that had puddled up at the back of his throat.
Bruce was shaking, he wasn't even sure how his legs were carrying him.
He came to a stop by his sister, eyes locking with hers in a silent question, wanting to know why she'd just stood there.
Why she didn't do anything to intervene as he nearly committed a homicide.
But the expression on her face was unreadable and he didn't have the strength to gather his voice to speak, so he walked past her without another word.
Bird stood in place, listening to echoes of her younger brother's footsteps until they disappeared from the glass maze.
It wasn't until she walked closer to where Jerome was lying on the ground, that he'd even known she was there.
She stood over him, staring down at the mess looking up at her.
"I know," Jerome sputtered out, rolling his head to the side he spit out some of the blood he'd been choking on before looking back at up at her, "I know... you... killed your mom too."
He'd known it when she asked him if he regretted what he'd done.
Could see it on her face, in her eyes.
Like recognizes like.
And just like the night they'd met, when she'd known before anyone else that he'd been the one who killed his mom, the thought takes one to know one crept into his head.
Pulling in a deep breath, Bird shook her head, her eyes flicked over to the large shards of glass from the busted mirror.
Jerome laughed; the motion forced more blood from the corner of his mouth and offered, "Our little secret?"
Shaking her head back and forth she turned and walked away.
Left him still sprawled on the floor in a bed of broken glass painted red with his own blood.
She quickly found her way out of the fun-house and came a stop as she saw Alfred and Bruce hugging. Clutching onto each other, both had feared they'd lost the other.
Then she spotted Jim as he rounded the corner from an old food stand and walked up to them.
With a smile and breath of relief, he laid a hand on Bruce's shoulder.
His attention was then pulled over to where Bird was standing just outside of the Maze of Mirrors.
She was bruised and bloody, but she was alive.
Something he'd not been sure of until he was finally able to lay his eyes on her once again.
He started towards her but then came to a stop.
Still unsure of where they stood since he'd shot and killed Mario and Bird had taken off to avoid him at all costs.
Bird stared back at him, letting out the breath she'd been holding as her entire focus centered on him and before she even knew exactly what she was doing, she running.
Not away from him this time, but right to him, straight into his awaiting arms that curled around her and held her close.
For the first time all day he felt like he could finally breathe again. The first taste of oxygen in an air starved chamber.
"Jim," She clutched onto him tighter, before pulling back some to get a look at him as she asked, "You saw my message?"
His mind flashed back to her face on the TV screen, using the fleeting seconds of time she had before the dynamite Jerome had would ignite, to warn him that the cult was going to target the police station. Urging him to be careful.
"Yeah," He swallowed hard.
Holding onto the sides of her face, he visually checked her over, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," She airily repeated the word back to him.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but then he spotted movement at the entryway of the house of mirrors.
Jerome stumbling towards where Bruce and Alfred were standing, a rather large chunk of mirror in his hand.
"Behind you!" Jim yelled towards the pair as he let go of Bird and ran towards Jerome before he could sneak up on Bruce.
Jerome raised the glass into the air.
Killing Detective Gordon wasn't at the top of his to-do list today, but at this point he was willing to settle.
But Jim moved quicker as he brought his arm back and swung it forward, hitting Jerome hard on the side of his face.
When he raised his head to look back at him, his face had detached from the staples that were keeping the flap of skin in place, it hung unevenly off to one side.
Seeing the stunned look on Jim's face, Jerome tried to use the shock value to make a move and swiped the sharp glass through the air but Jim weaved back and narrowly avoided injury.
Not taking the chance at letting him get another opportunity like that, Jim hit the younger man again, this time with enough force the the skin from his face flew off and landed in a puddle on the cement ground.
Jerome stumbled backwards and collapsed from the force of the blow.
•••
Bird looked up from where she was sitting on a couch in the front sitting room at Wayne Manor when Jim entered the room.
She managed a small smile at him through the state of complete exhaustion she was in.
When he'd made the decision to return to the GCPD she'd been so worried everything would change between them.
Even though she didn't admit it out loud, a part of her had feared that she'd always come in second place to his job.
But here he was, choosing to go with her back to Wayne Manor over staying at the Boardwalk Circus.
By the time they'd left, the place had mostly been cleared out anyways but she'd expected him to stay and be one of the last ones one the scene.
Crossing the room with a first aid kit in hand, he returned the sleepy smile and sat down across from her on the coffee table.
Jim had gotten the first aid kit from Alfred, who'd been working on getting the staples out of Bruce's skin in the kitchen.
"Let's see it." Jim nodded to her.
Bird hesitated for a moment before finally holding her arm out for him to see; avoiding his eyes when she heard the sharp breath he pulled in.
Bruce only had a few staples in his arm and Jim expected about the same for her -but now he could clearly see she had several more than her younger brother.
Including one right in the back of her hand, which he imagined probably hurt the worst.
"He was hurting Bruce." Bird felt the need to explain, "I got between them."
Jim nodded in silence, his eyes falling back to where he was holding her hand in both of his.
With another deep breath, he rubbed his thumb over her skin near where the staple was deeply in-bedded in the back of her hand.
Bird bit down on the side of her tongue, trying not to show how much it hurt when he started to remove the first staple.
She barely flinched the entire time Jerome was using the staple gun on her, but now, being alone with Jim, she wasn't doing so well at hiding the pain.
Maybe it the mental and physical state of exhaustion she was in.
Or maybe even just the fact that it was Jim and he was one of the only people on earth that she'd willing let her guard down for.
He looked up at her from under his brows when he finally got the first staple out.
Now that it was entirely out of her skin he could see it wasn't your standard size office staple; it was a bigger, thicker kind of staple that Jerome had been using from the gun.
"I'm okay." She assured him. Her line of sight followed the crimson coated piece of metal to where he dropped it on a paper towel beside him on the table.
Even through the pain she found herself sitting there with a smile spreading over her lips while she watched him tend to her injuries; trying to be as gentle as possible.
She wasn't used to someone being so soft with her.
"You need to know that the only reason I went with Jerome was because I knew he'd end up going after Bruce and I-" Bird start to say but Jim interrupted her.
"You don't have to explain." He dropped another staple to the towel and caught the thin line of blood running down her arm with a clean gauze, "I figured it out. I knew you had a reason and then when Lee told me that Jerome remembered the last thing he was trying to do was kill your brother, I knew why."
"Yeah?" Bird ran her tongue over lips, "What else did Lee tell you?"
Jim raised his head and looked at her. His confused expression was the answer to her question.
Clearly, Lee had kept the secret of her panic attack between them.
"What else should she have told me?" He asked.
Jim's forehead lined with concern as the all too familiar feeling of being the last one to know something when it came to Bird started to creep in.
Leaning her head back, Bird pinned her eyes shut.
She was so tired of lying and hiding things from him. The guilt of doing so was eating her up inside.
Yet another thing she wasn't used too.
A part of her wanted to just tell him everything right then; up to and including how she was responsible for the death of her biological mother.
After all, Jerome knew now and she didn't know what he was planning on doing with that information, if anything at all.
But she just couldn't. Being an open book wasn't in her nature.
Plus, owning up to that would also mean he'd know she'd been lying to him since it happened over a year ago now.
If he could accept and move past the act itself; he might get hung up on how long she hid it from him.
Either way, his finding out would mean she'd run the risk of losing him.
"Bird?" His voice was quiet but dripping with worry.
Baby steps, she told herself.
Despite her having been the one who'd been avoiding him and saying she needed space, she wanted this to work with him and she knew honesty was going to play a big part in that.
Perhaps it was the grogginess; usually it was in those sleep-ridden mental states when she felt like she was ready to turn a new leaf and make changes.
She wasn't sure, but she decided to choose honesty in that moment and give him a truthful answer.
"It's not a big deal-" She started which immediately led Jim to believe the opposite was true, "But I had a small panic attack at the station."
Quickly she followed the admission with an assurance, "I'm okay. Lee actually helped me through it."
Holding air deep in her lungs, Bird watched him intently, waiting to see what his reaction would be.
Guilt.
She watched it flood over his face. A black and white picture filling with in with color.
Jim's eyes fell from her face with the realization of what was going on with her before he'd left for the location where Dwight had planned on reanimating Jerome.
The vacant look in her eyes and the way she didn't seem to comprehend what he was saying to her at the time.
The disassociation.
His chest ached.
She had grabbed onto his arm. Physically clutched onto him and he walked away.
At the time he hadn't saw what was right in front of him. He'd been so focused on stopping the cult from bringing Jerome back to life.
"I'm sorry."
His voice was as heavy as his heart felt.
Bird's brows furrowed in response.
"It's not like you caused it..." Her voice trailed off leaving the space open for him to explain.
"Maybe not," His blue eyes met with hers again, "But I was right there and didn't even see it."
"How could have you known?" Bird questioned. "I think the last time I had one I was a teenager. Well before we ever even met."
"Still," He shook his head again. Carrying the blame. "I know you and I knew something wasn't right but I was just so focused-"
"It's not your fault." She asserted.
No amount of assurances from her could ease the pain he felt or lessen the disbelief he found himself in.
Ever since he'd shot and killed Mario, he'd been trying to get her to talk to him. To hear what he had to say. To come back home.
Then when he had a chance to be there for her -he wasn't.
They sat in silence as he removed the last staple and patched up the wounds on her arm.
"You know," Jim finally looking back at Bird, "We had video off a nearby security camera of the moment you left with Jerome."
The footage flashed through his mind again. Jerome taking the handcuffs off Bird and her seeming to willingly leave with him.
She'd just walked away and no one could understand it.
"I already explained why I went with him. To try and keep Bruce safe." She pointed out.
"I know. But the thing is, is that all day everyone's been asking me if I really know you." Thinking back further he remembered Barnes asking him the same thing quite some time ago, "Actually, even Zsasz asked me the same thing the day Falcone put a hit on me."
Bird stared at where he was still holding onto her hand and then slowly raised her eyes to his face.
She peered at him from under her dark lashes. Clown make up and traces of blood were still smeared across her face.
"What are you saying?" Bird questioned. Her expression as unsure as the tone of her voice.
"I don't know." He backtracked, "We just have a lot we need to talk about and right now isn't the time."
He offered up a half-smile.
He wasn't going to bring it up right now, not go there after everything the day had brought on them -but she had a feeling he was mainly referring to her having stayed with Harvey right after Mario's death.
"Nothing happened." Bird moved her hand more to the side, intertwining her fingers with his, "When I stayed with Harvey Dent. I promise, Jim. Nothing happened."
"Why'd you even go there?" He couldn't stop himself from asking.
"I don't know." Her words were accompanied with a lame shrug, "I just... I don't know."
Oswald had called her out on it when he'd showed up there.
That Jim had hurt her and she went to the one place she knew would hurt him back.
She'd tried to defend that it was the one place she knew no one would go looking for her.
And in truth it had been a good move and she now felt a sense of closure with their relationship ending that she hadn't felt in the past.
Lately, she felt like she was closing the book on so much of her past. Finishing up chapters and turning to a new page.
She was pulled back to the present from her thoughts when she felt Jim's hand start to pull away from hers.
"Jim?"Her voice shook ever so slightly, "Nothing happened."
"I believe you." He answered.
"Then why are you looking at me like that?" Bird asked, swallowing hard as she spoke.
She couldn't quite describe the look on his face but it was causing her chest to ache.
Jim's eyes traced over her face and the startled expression she was wearing.
Killing Mario had hurt her so badly that Jim had been afraid they might not be able to move past it.
The last time he'd brought her staying with her ex-fiance up, Bird had snapped at him that after what he'd done he'd no right to ask her about it. And maybe he didn't.
Maybe if his mind wasn't altered from lack of sleep then he'd have just let it all go and be thankful that she was at least talking to him now.
But he'd spent all day defending her to Bullock and anyone else who suggested she'd gone dark-side and left with Jerome willingly.
And it bothered him that everyone kept insinuating that he didn't really know her, when he felt like he knew her better than almost anyone.
"I feel like I know you-" He started.
"You do know me." She was hurt.
"Yeah," He cleared his throat, "The Bird who'll risk anything and everything to keep her brother safe? Yeah, I know her. But the one who went back to Dent after everything that happened? I..." He had to clear his throat again to keep his voice steady, "I don't know..."
Bird looked down to her arm that was now all cleaned and bandaged up.
Sitting there now, she wasn't so sure she knew the person who did that either.
"I'm sorry." Her voice was soft. Just over a whisper, "for everything."
"I'm sorry for everything too," Jim repeated back.
His eyes landed past her on a clock mounted on the wall. As much as he wanted to stay there and get everything sorted with her he knew with them both being so tired and worn out it wouldn't do any good.
Plus, he needed to get back and try to help put the GCPD precinct back in order. He knew it had to be an all hands on deck situation from the amount of arrests that had taken place.
Standing up, he stopped in front of her when she looked up at him.
"Come home?" There was a sliver of hope in his voice. Maybe she felt it was time to come back so they could sort things out and put the pieces back together.
But instead of a verbal answer, she broke eye contact and looked down the floor.
"I miss you," He admitted, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head before adding, "I love you."
•••
It was several minutes later that Bird made her way towards the kitchen, where she found her younger brother sitting at the table with his arm wrapped up.
"Hey," She greeted as she walked in and sat down in the chair Alfred had been in minutes prior, "How are you holding up?"
"I almost killed him." Bruce voiced out loud the thought that kept creeping back into his mind.
That he wanted to kill Jerome.
Felt like he had it in him to do so.
"But you didn't." Bird pointed out.
"I thought he killed Alfred," Bruce continued, "And after the pain Jerome caused on a mass scale... the idea of killing him... felt like justice."
"It's a double edged blade, little brother." Bird rested her elbow on the table and propped her head up against her hand, "To kill or not too kill. We live with the consequences either way."
"There might be a fine line between vengeance and justice but there is still a line." Eyeing his older sister he pointed, "A line that should never be crossed."
Her eyes narrowed slightly at the way he was looking at her. Almost like he blamed her for something.
"I'm feeling very judged right now." Bird stated, "I didn't kill Jerome either, you know."
"Yes." Bruce replied with a single nod, "But you have killed people before."
"Like I said; we live with the consequences either way." She snapped harder than she'd mean to. All sharp edges.
He started to open his mouth with an argument at the ready but she cut him off.
"You kill someone and you carry that with you. But you letting someone live can be just as heavy of a burden. Arkham didn't hold Jerome before. There's a chance he'll escape again and he'll pick back off where he left off." Bird's brows raised.
"Starling." Bruce blew out a heavy breath as he said his sister's name. Full of disappointment.
Bird stared at him.
She knew he was exhausted. Completely and utterly spent from the events they'd gone through.
But she sensed something else in him too. Almost like he was irritated with her.
"What?" She pushed.
The silence of the room felt thick.
"I just..." He cleared his throat, eyes falling to her bandaged up arm, "I don't want to hurt you."
She'd saved his life. Put herself through pain to keep him from suffering more. Held a gun to her head and pulled the trigger just to buy him some more time.
He knew she loved him and would do anything to save him - but just like she'd said about the choice of letting someone live or die being a double edged blade, so was his yearning to really get to know her.
There were countless times during the entire ordeal that Bruce was struck by seeing the similarities between Bird and Jerome.
A shared darkness. Twisted and broken.
"Say it." Bird urged.
"I know you were in the house of mirrors. That you stood there and you just... you watched me almost kill him and you didn't intervene." Bruce swallowed hard and the dry air burnt his throat on the way down, "I think there's something wrong with you."
"I'm not always going to be around to hold you back from-" She started to argue.
"We were surrounded by violence and pain... and death, blood. You weren't even fazed by it."
With lowered brows, Bird defended, "Keeping a level head was my only shot at getting you of there alive."
"No," He shook his head, "It was more than that."
He was struggling to find the correct words or even fully wrap his head around everything he'd witnessed.
"Know what I think, little brother?" Bird adjusted her grip on the edge of the table for leverage to slide her chair back.
He thought there was something wrong with her? Sure, she'd give him that.
She knew from an early age that she didn't seem to process and feel things the way people around her did, but if they were dropping truth bombs she had one of her own.
"I think somewhere, deep down inside of you -you're upset with me because I let Jerome live. I think you wanted him dead but you didn't want the blood on your hands... so you walked away and left me there thinking I was going to clean up the mess you started. Just like with Matches Malone." Bird stood from her seat, "But I'm not doing that anymore."
•••