A Clever Fascination

Chapter 25 - The Anxiety of a Genius

pretty long chapter for you patient party ppl x

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If Katherine's reputation preceded her as much as Edward thought it did then Crane likely knew exactly who she was and that just wasn't going to end well. Of course, there was always a chance he wouldn't recognise her, after all, the two had never met, by the sounds of things. But Edward knew that man just as well as he knew every other highly intelligent threat in the city, which meant he knew all about Jonathan's terribly dangerous fear toxin. He'd been aware of it for years now, himself and Oswald had sat down to create a sort of emergency plan, just in case Jonathan got out of control with his chemical weapon. That's how bad it really was. Yes, it caused a horrible reaction in people, but the come down and last impacts were equally nasty, given its psychedelic properties.

Edward experienced the toxin firsthand when the Scarecrow decided that he wanted to test his toy on the most brilliant mind Gotham had to offer. The things that Edward saw, following the injection Crane stuck him with, had been horrific. It took him nearly a month to stop feeling hesitant to sleep or anxious in the dark.

He simply would not let that happen to Katherine. It really didn't matter what she thought of him, Edward knew that he would not let her go through any of the horrors he'd been through in his lifetime. It made his gut wrench to even think about holding that gun to her head now. He knew what that could meant. And that was a problem. Unless he didn't make it a problem, which might be the only way she survived. And even though she'd only warmed to him ever so slightly, there wasn't person alive that was going to hurt her while ever Edward was there. As if his brilliant little detective needed anymore reasons not to sleep at night.

Speaking of sleep, Edward couldn't. He'd gotten some rest but he simply couldn't sleep knowing the dangers of taking Katherine right to Crane. He sat alone in his room trying to read and then had given up and decided to pace the house, as he often did whilst in thought.

It had only been ten or twenty minutes before he heard a door fly open upstairs and then Katherine was leaning over the banister.

"What are you doing?" She snapped, groggy and with sleep in her eyes.

Edward stared back, unblinking. Usually, the good detective was patient and her kindness leaked into her words but every so often Kit had this very cold and forbidding tone, one she had taken with Edward plenty of times. This wasn't one of those times, this was luckily just half-asleep agitation. He supposed he was being a little bit selfish, given that she hadn't slept properly in a good while and now he was disturbing her with the sounds of restless footsteps. But this was what he did when he couldn't sleep, he paced and thought.

"I'm afraid I resort to wandering the halls when I can't sleep. I'm sorry if I woke you." He replied, patiently. With that he turned away from looking up at her and walked into his study.

For a while he sat on the sofa, unmoving and concerned. If Katherine was hell bent on taking Crane in, he'd put up a fight. The last thing he wanted was to have to go for round two with that awful fear toxin. It scared him. That's what it was meant to do but just the thought of it scared him. Edward sighed and closed his eyes.

The pitter patter of bare feet against hard floors made him open his eyes again. Kit was standing there, in her clothes from yesterday. But this time she had taken off the boots.

"What's wrong?"

"What makes you think that something's wrong?" He replied.

"You said you couldn't sleep," She began, walking a little further into the room. Kit didn't approach him with the caution she used to, that wasn't something she was conscious of, but he picked it up right away. She just walked straight over. "Is there a reason for that?"