"Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you're really doing it to them." - Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects
•••
Bird sat up on the side of her hospital bed and took a drink from the bottle of apple juice they'd brought her.
Setting it back down on the table, she looked at the several packs of crackers and then up to Jim as he sat in the chair across the roller table from her and tore open one of the packs.
He'd showed up at the doorway to the room, wheeling the IV stand with him just after Mario had left the room.
Since then a nurse had come in and removed the IVs from both of them while one of the techs showed up with juice and crackers.
That had been several minutes ago now and neither of them had said anything to each other. Neither of them was entirely sure where to begin.
After removing one of the crackers from the now open two-pack, Jim offered up the other one to Bird.
Biting back a smile she took the cracker with a nod of thanks.
"This is not the dinner I was planning on when I got all dressed up for tonight." She did her best to joke.
She succeeded in eliciting a smile and small laugh from Jim.
Silently, they continued to sit there together and dine on the crackers and juice they'd been told they had to finish before they could leave.
"Did-" Jim started to ask, but stopped himself.
"Did, what?" Bird pushed.
He shook his head and Bird's eyes squinted at him. She had a pretty good idea he was going to ask what she saw while under the effects of the Red Queen.
"Was your trip just as horrible as mine?" She spoke up with a knowing expression already on her face.
Looking back at her, their eyes locked and he nodded, "How much of it do you remember?
"All of it." She admitted and he agreed, "Yeah, me too."
They both continued to watch each other, each wanting to know what the other saw but not wishing to relive what they'd gone through.
But they had to.
"Did you have, like, a guide through it?" Bird wasn't sure how to phrase her question.
All cards on the table, Jim admitted, "Barbara."
Bird's eyebrows raised as she asked, "Really?"
Jim was about to point out that it didn't mean anything beyond the fact that his ex was apparently capable of tormenting him even in hallucinations.
"Well, that shot down my theory." She sighed, "I thought maybe the drug caused us to conjure up thoughts of people who were dead."
Most of the people she'd seen or spoke to while under the influence weren't among the living.
"Who did you see?" He asked.
"Jerome Valeska." Bird finally admitted after a pause.
His eyebrows went up, forehead lined at her answer, "Why?"
"How am I supposed to know?" She tossed her arms up, "Probably because we've got a cult of people obsessed with him in Gotham and they keep seeking me out. And please, your ex-girlfriend was in yours!"
"And it was awful." Jim pointed out.
"Yeah, well so was mine." She agreed.
"What did you see?" He finally asked.
YOU ARE READING
Devil's Playground • Gotham Fanfiction •
Fanfiction"Sometimes you have to just sit back and watch people destroy themselves." Bird's own words after watching her biological mother die. Little did she know that apparently it was something she'd inherited. Maybe that's just part of the madness of life...
