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Crazy = Genius: Panic! At The Disco
"Nice!" I smile as Bruce delivers a spin kick to the punching bag.
"I did it?" Bruce grins.
"You did it." I nod. "But practice makes perfect. We still got a long way to go. Let's finish this in the morning." I take off my boxing gloves.
"I spoke with Lana on the phone earlier. She said prom is tomorrow."
"Yeah, guess so."
"You're not going?"
"No." I shake my head. "I went to the Spring Formal my freshman year."
"How was it?"
"Sweaty gym, half wasted couples—very high school." I nod.
"Did you go with anyone?" Bruce asks.
"No, I went stag. Met up with my friends there." I place my boxing gloves down on the couch before pouring some water.
"Clark didn't ask you?"
"No. Why would he ask me?"
"You know why."
"Bruce Thomas Wayne." I hand him his water before sighing. "Look, we danced, okay? For two minutes. I had to leave early because I was gonna go back to Denver with my mom for the summer."
"How was it?" Bruce sips some water.
"I changed my mind. I didn't go."
"Why?"
"Just didn't feel right. And there was a huge storm that night, so I dodged a bullet."
"I see." He grins
"Stop grinning and drink your H2O."
"He likes you."
"What?"
"Clark. You were all he talked about when everyone stayed here. He likes you." Bruce nods.
"No, he doesn't. He likes driving me mad." I deadpan.
"And you like that."
"Okay, bedtime. Now."
"You should go to prom."
"I don't want to."
"Why not?" Bruce furrows his eyebrows.
"I just don't like dances." I shrug.
"So why did you go to the last one?"
"Because it was my first dance. Ever. And it was fine. It was nothing mind blowing, so how would it be any different this time around?
"You won't know if you don't go."
"I'm fine with not knowing, Bruce. I wanna be done with high school. And I will be—just two more weeks."
"Do you have college in mind?"
"Princeton is my top choice. I also applied to Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Brown and Harvard. I probably won't get in."
"What do you mean? You have a perfect GPA and your academic achievements are outstanding."
"Thank you, Bruce. But it's not my grades I'm worried about. It's the financial aid. If I get a full scholarship, I won't have to worry. But if I don't, I gotta get a job."
"But you have a job."
"Working at a diner will only get you so far. I've been working there since freshman year. Trying to pull my weight to thank Miles and Layton for taking me in while my mom was back in Denver. But I'll figure it out. I always do." I nod. "You need your rest." I now lead him with me and we exit the room.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Hey." Harvey greets and I turn my head.
"How was dinner with my mom?" I ask.
"It was nice." Jim grins.
"Good." I nod. "Gennaro Marx, single, sixty three. High school English teacher. Same exact surgical incisions as our last victim."
"What are the odds he's got no adrenal glands?" Harvey questions.
"So, what's he doing with them?" Jim wonders.
"No idea." I cross my arms.
"You should be with Bruce and Alfred."
"What?" I turn to him.
"Remember our deal. And I don't want you involved in any more of this. You've seen enough."
"Is my mom in there?" I gently hit his forehead with my fist.
"She agrees with me too." Jim nods. "You stay on the Wayne case and I do my thing."
"And your thing would be?"
"This." He glances at the dead body.
"Hey, that's my thing too." I smile. "We should be partners. Oh, wait, we already are."
"Brianna."
"Bruce said he would call and he hasn't yet. Relax, Jim Jam, I'm following the rules."
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"What do you got?" Jim asks.
"Your book where the victim taught English. Tell you one thing—girls didn't look like this when I was back in high school." Harvey comments and I kick his leg from under the table.
"Easy." He warns.
"I'm just sayin'."
"Hi, Brianna." Lee walks over.
"Hey, Lee." I grin. "Lee's our new M.E."
"Oh, good. You've met." Captain heads over.
"Oh, Detective Gordon and I already know each other." Lee informs.
"Oh, right. From Arkham?"
"Yeah, Arkham." Jim nods.
"Welcome aboard." Harvey holds out his hand.
"Thank you." Lee shakes it.
"You can fill her in on your cases later. Doctor Thompkins, will you follow me? Lots to get you up to speed on."
"Certainly. I'll see you, Brianna."
"Friends see each other." I wave and she grins before following Captain down the stairs.
"There. Holy Mother Mary." Harvey stands up.
"You got him?"
"Staring right back at me." He shows me and Jim the yearbook. "That's him. That's him. That's the guy from the pool. His name is Gerald Crane. He's a biology teacher."
"School doesn't let out for hours." Jim checks his watch.
"Let's go." I stand up.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Gerald called in one day and said he wasn't coming in.
That's the last I heard of him." Miss DeAngelo tells us.
"Let me guess, about three weeks ago?" Harvey inquires and I shove my hands in my jacket pockets.
"Yeah."
"That's when neighbors said he up and moved out. Unis searched the place. Nothing."
"So what can you tell us about Crane?" I sit down with Jim and Harvey.
"He was a good teacher. Focused. And a good father. He was very protective of his son, Jonathan. But he could be quiet, too. Somber. Think it had to do with his wife—she died six or seven years ago." Miss DeAngelo says.
"She died? How?"
"Uh, car accident."
"Did Crane ever talk about fear or phobias?" Harvey wonders.
"Why? Is someone targeting phobics?" Miss DeAngelo questions.
"Yeah." Jim nods.
"Killing them?"
"Does this mean something to you?"
"These victims, were they missing their adrenal glands?"
"How'd you know that?" I lean forward.
"Uh..." Miss DeAngelo pulls out a stack of papers form a file cabinet. "This was an academic paper that Gerald wrote a few months ago. He asked me to proof it for him." He hands it to me. "See, Gerald had a theory that fear was an evolutionary flaw in humans. War, rape, theft, murder—it was all caused by fear. He was obsessed with it."
"So Crane kills these people and took their glands to test a theory?" Jim guesses.
"No, Gerald wasn't trying to prove he was right about fear. He was trying to cure himself of it." I realize.
"Exactly." Miss DeAngelo nods.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Crane's idea of curing fear was to inoculate himself against it." Ed reads the paper.
"Like a disease?" I cross my arms.
"Exactly. But in order to do so, he needed a condensed source of the hormones that cause fear."
"Phobics." Harvey inquires.
"Crane's preying on them? Spiking their fear by scaring them and then killing them in order to harvest the hormones?" Jim questions and Ed nods.
"Damn."
"How much of this stuff does he need?" I wonder.
"What do you mean?" Ed asks.
"How many more people is he gonna kill?" Jim clarifies.
"Oh. Of course. Good question. Depends on how scared he is, I guess. What's he scared of?"
"In Scottie's phobia support group, he said he was afraid of failure." Harvey smells a chemical.
"Who isn't? It's gotta be something else." I inquire as Ed takes the beaker away from Harvey.
"Did you hear?" Ed says.
"Hear what?" I read the paper over.
"That we got a new medical examiner. Much better than the old one. And she smells nice."
"Look at this. Crane developed protocols for two inoculations, himself and somebody else—Subject B." I hold up the paper and Jim reads it.
"Ooh! I wonder who that is." Ed takes the paper from me with a smile.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Cell phone records?" I walk down the stairs with Jim.
"And credit card statements." Harvey steps out with a box in his hand. "Give me a hand."
"Yeah, sure." Jim replies and we stop to see Oswald grinning at us from a few feet away.
"Uh, give me us minute." I inquire.
"Take your time, kid." Harvey tells me.
"Oswald." I walk over to him.
"It's good to see you, old friends." Oswald greets.
"What are you doing here?" Jim asks.
"I wanted to invite you both to a party I'm hosting." He hands us each an invitation.
"No, thanks."
"I hear you. Too busy, I suppose. Are you on a tricky case? Anything I can help you guys with? It worked so well the last time."
"We don't want your help. It was a mistake to ask. I don't want you coming here."
"You shouldn't treat me this way, Jim. One day soon, you'll need my help. You'll come to me. And walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light. Good luck with your police work. And please...reconsider my invitation." Oswald places the invitation back into Jim's hand. "It won't be the same without you. The both of you." He nods. "Brianna, I hear you have a lovely voice. I hope you can make it and sing for us." He grins and pats my shoulder before leaving.
"Jim." I warn as he throws the invitation in the garbage. "Jim!" I exclaim as he takes mine and throws it into the garbage.
"You're not seriously considering going." Jim turns to me.
"He helped us take down Flass. The least I could do is sing at his shindig for five minutes."
"You're not going."
"Says who?"
"Says me. And you have your own shindig to attend to. Prom, right?"
"I'm not going. I don't do dances. Especially high school ones."
"Fine. Either way, you're not going to that party. He's involved with Maroni and Falcone. And I don't want you getting mixed up in that. I won't let that happen."
"Jim-"
"You don't wanna go to prom, fine. I didn't go to mine either."
"Clearly." I raise my eyebrows and he sighs before placing his hand in my shoulder.
"Don't make me ask Alfred to lock you in, okay?" Jim raises his eyebrows back.
"It's just a party. With the person you were supposed to kill, but didn't, and now he's our friend. I'd say it's a win." I nod.
"Brianna." He warns. "Look, after we take down Crane, we'll go out together, okay? Me, you and your mom. If you're okay with that of course."
"Yeah, Jim, I'm okay with that." I nod with a grin. "I'll get lunch. Be back in a half hour." I pat his shoulder before leaving.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"We must be missing something." Jim inquires as I sit at his desk, spinning in the chair while finish up my Thai.
"What about your guys' pal, Penguin?" Harvey suggests.
"What about him? He helped us with Flass. Maybe he'll help us with Crane."
"Exactly what I said." I nod.
"No. We're not going back to him." Jim tells me.
"It's worth a try."
"No, it's not."
"Then we wait for another body to drop, because we're not gonna find him here."
"Yeah, you're right. We're never gonna be able to track Crane. We gotta get ahead of him by finding out what's driving him."
"We know what's driving him. He's obsessed with fear." Harvey says.
"Yeah. But why? What's he afraid of? What happened to him that made him this way?" Jim wonders.
"His wife was killed in a car crash." I tell him.
"Yeah." He nods. "Check that out."
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Got it. Karen Crane." I tell the guys. "Says here she died in a house fire, not a car accident."
"You think the coworker was lying?" Harvey questions.
"Three other people said the same thing. Crane must've lied about it for some reason. What happened in the fire?" Jim asks.
"Article says she was sleeping upstairs when the fire broke out. Husband Gerald and son Jonathan, eight, were downstairs." I read the article.
"Crane was in the house when his wife died?"
"And didn't save her. No wonder he lied."
"He's ashamed."
"His fear is the reason his wife died. That's why he's doing this." I nod. "Address for the old Crane house. Let's go." I get up.
"Okay." Jim replies.
"Wonder twins." Harvey mutters and my phone goes off before I take it out.
"Hey, Alfred." I answer it.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"Hey, buddy." My high tops hit the ground. "How's it hanging?"
"Brianna?" Bruce pants.
"Don't worry, I got you. C'mon." I turn. "Get on my back. Go on." I urge and Bruce jumps on my back before I hold him up. "Alright, hold on tight." I heave and he does so as I pull the zip line to get back on top of the hill.
"How did you know I was here?"
"Oh, you know, I have my sources."
"Indeed she does." Alfred says as he sits by the fire with a cup. "Hello, there, Master Bruce. Well, you certainly took your time. What, did you stop off for a pie and a pint on the way out, did you?"
"How long have you been there?" Bruce asks.
"Well, I don't know, about...about an hour. Just when you started climbing up that very nasty hill."
"Thanks for your help."
"Yeah, I never got you down there, you know." Alfred sips his drink before getting up. "You alright?"
"Come here." I sniffle and Alfred takes Bruce off my back. "I got you." I now pick up Bruce , holding him in my arms.
"I'm cold, I'm tired, and my ankle's sprained." Bruce wraps his arms around my neck.
"You're okay. You're alright." I sniffle again before gently setting him down.
"I just wanna go home."
"You wanna go home? Or do you wanna wait and watch the sunrise? Like you did with your dad." Alfred sits down.
"Well, Alfred...we can only stay if you think you can handle it." Bruce tells him.
"If I can handle it? Mate, this place is positively cushy compared to some of the places I've slept at. Cup of tea, you cheeky monkey?" He hands the cup to Bruce and I chuckle. "Brianna." He hands me a cup.
"I don't wanna—I'll go n-"
"Stay." Bruce tells me. "I wanna see the sunrise with my family." He nods and I sit on the other side of him before sipping some tea. "Thank you." He kisses my cheek.
"You're welcome, Bruce." I grin before my phone goes off. "Jim?" I answer it.
"Hey. We took Crane down. Jonathan's in the hospital. They were able to stabilize him." Jim tells me.
"Good." I sigh in relief.
"How's Bruce? He okay?"
"He's fine. We're okay, we're gonna watch the sunrise."
"That sounds great. Listen, um, about the three of us going out, how does the circus sound?"
"Sounds like a plan, Jim Jam." I grin.
"Good. But there's someone who wants to ask you something first."
"Who?"
"Just wait until you get home."
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
"You cold?" I hear Clark say as I shut the door and I turn to him.
"What are you doing here?" I take my beanie off my head. "Why aren't you at prom?"
"Didn't wanna go." He shakes his head as I fix my leather jacket and then my hood.
"Why?"
"Just didn't want to." He walks towards me.
"Okay."
"Where's Bruce and Alfred?"
"Bruce twisted his ankle on his hike. We brought him to the hospital. Alfred's staying over night and I'm going in the morning." I inform. "You have three seconds to explain why you're here before I kick you in the crotch."
"Brianna Brady, will you go to the circus with me?" Clark holds up two tickets and I look down before shaking my head with a slight grin.
"Yes." I look back up at him. "I'll go the circus with you, Kent." I walk past him.
Fucking Jim.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
🪐🌙✨🚀🌌☄️
jim bringing brianna's man cause he knows clark makes her happy☺️ next chapter, mister cameron monaghan's first appearance!!
bloody inspiring, oswald
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