No One Can Know || Victor Zsasz

seventeen

Owens & Co. was officially opened. Months of preparation and finally the one stop shop that was completely legal, was open. It hadn't taken long for Novella to get all of her necessary permits and such, actually it had taken longer to get all of the merchandise in and organized.

It was a small two story brick building. She ran all the legal actions out of the bottom and anything concerning Cobblepot from the upstairs. The grand opening would unveil the top of the line military grade weapons and the lines of protective clothing. The less promoted grand opening would unveil highly coveted black market weaponry and the attendees would be far more gruesome.

Throughout the process of preparing the store Novella had completely checked out of the world around her. She'd never really watched the news before, and without her job at the GCPD to keep her informed, she was severely out of the loop. It had taken Harvey barging through to her apartment for her to discover that Jim was in prison. It wasn't long after that she found out that Theo Galavan was the reason he was in prison and that Lee had lost her baby. A baby Novella hadn't even known they'd been expecting. It was enough to give anyone a headache. She hadn't even known that the Gotham underground was again in chaos. Penguin had been shot at the mayoral banquet which gave way to a series of events that could be described as less than unfavorable. Arkham and murders had reshaped and made him.

Victor tried to keep her informed, but it was a challenge. For him it was like trying to keep a squirrel on crack in one place. She was so focused on twenty other things that she didn't process information until it was relevant. When they'd told her that Kristen was dead she just nodded along but later that night, when she was alone with Victor she'd broken down. She'd stopped working for a week after that. Then it was back to organizing and such.

•*•*•*•

"Hey Novie," Victor swung the door to the shop open and strolled in. Given it was broad daylight she was a bit confused, and it must have shown on her face.

"Relax kitten, I'm just here to get some equipment. At least that's what any passers by will think." She scrunched up her nose at the horrible nickname he'd used.

"The hell you think you're doing calling me some gosh awful thing like 'kitten'. Also, if you really need bullets the kind for your guns are in the back on the left. It's in numerical and alphabetical order." She waved him off to the back where he found the small package right where she said it'd be.

"So, you've got that opening tonight, right?" He asked as he placed the merchandise on the counter to purchase.

"Yeah. Really though it's going to just be a ton of sweet talking all the gangsters. I've already got Cobblepot and a few others that are in high positions. Really, I just need to win over the old timers who don't want a girl dealing them their guns." She did the transaction and passed him his bullets. She knew what they were meant to do, but she had her hopes that maybe not all of them would be involved in things that were too illegal.

"So, I was thinking." She raised a brow at the way he was dancing around a subject. Her facial expression said it all spit it out Zsaszels. "You know how we've kind of kept it low key for our entire relationship?"

She nodded her head. "You said it'd be too dangerous for it to get out."

"Well, I think that you're in just as much danger with this job as you'd ever be with me. In fact, it might make things safer if everyone knew you were with me." She stared at him, not blinking or even breathing.

"If everyone knew, then they'd know not to mess with you. Not only are you an ex cop's niece, but I know you can take care of yourself." He looked at her with nothing but trust in his eyes. Trust that if they let it out, then everything would still be okay.

"You think it'll be okay? I thought we had to-"

"That was before," he said, cutting her off, "That was before, when you worked at the GCPD and I didn't know how well equipped you were to handle situations. And that was before I realized that this was going to be a long term kind of thing." She felt the smile playing at her lips and the blush in her cheeks. Her attempt to shake her lilac hair in front of her bright face was futile when Victor was already reaching to cup her chin. It was a soft chaste kiss that had her grinning like a fool, and him smirking like a tom cat.

"The opening tonight, you should come as my date." She looked up with hopeful eyes to him saying okay before pressing another kiss to her lips and leaving to a job.

•*•*•*•

"Hiya purple paddy!" A voice with way too much pep called out.

Novella turned around to see a dark haired girl with striking blue eyes walking into her store. She didn't seem like the type to be seen in this kind of store, but then again, Novella didn't seem like the type to own this kind of store.

"Hey peppy, what can I do for you?" Novella looked the girl over for any signs of an obvious threat, but saw none.

"I'm not really too sure. I'm not going to buy anything, but I started walking and I ended up here." The girl looked around in a spacey sort of way before offering a hand, "I'm Potter by the way, Potter Roum."

Novella shook the girl's hand and noticed the flakes of dried yellow paint that flaked her skin. Looking the girl over she noticed she wore an old tacky orange sweater and blue jeans. Novie loved the outfit immediately.

"Novella Owens, welcome to my shop. It's perfectly fine if you just want to look, I'm here to answer any questions." Novie tugged at her bottom lip before adding, "Also I love your outfit. I've been looking for some old sweaters but I just can't seem to find any that scream me."

The girl looked a tad taken aback, but quickly broke out into a large smile. "I'd say go to a thrift store, they've got wonderful clothes! I typically find most things I wear at the one downtown, but this particular beauty I stole from my boyfriend." She laughed a bit which spurred on Novie's laughter.

The girls continued to chat about random things before it got to the point that Potter had to leave.

"I'm so sorry, but I've got to go see my sister. I'd love to hang out sometime though!"

"Me too. Come around whenever the shop is open and I should be here." The girl nodded and walked out, leaving the mess of lilac curls to get ready for her big debut.

•*•*•*•

A/N : So I know I sort of sped through season two but that's because I've got something really cool planned for season three and something even better planned for season four.