We Were Born Sick • Gotham Fanfiction •

VI: Starcrossed

"Perception is created and twisted so quickly." -Louis C. K.

~()~

Wearing her best friendly smile, Bird held the container of freshly baked cookies in her arms as she approached where Jim was sitting at his desk which faced his partner Bullock's desk.

Clearing her throat, she greeted, "Jim."

Dropping the pen he'd been writing with, he looked up at her with an ever growing look of confusion as he questioned, "Starling... what are you doing here?"

"Bird." She corrected him, with a slight edge to her voice.

"Alright..." He sighed, before giving the slightest nod, "Bird, what are you doing here?"

"I –um, I baked cookies." She announced proudly displaying the container and stating, "These are for you."

"What'd you put in them?" Bullock asked, taking a break from his own paperwork.

Her brown eyes cut over in his direction as she hissed, "Not like I poisoned them."

"Here." She said, looking back to Jim and lightly shook the container.

Slowly reaching up and taking the cookies from her, Jim's words came out in the tone of a question as he said, "Thank you?"

"I wouldn't eat those, Jim." Bullock said, looking back to his paperwork as he added, "That one's got the crazy eyes."

Biting down on the side of her tongue and ignoring Harvey Bullock's remarks, Bird asked, "Jim, can we talk?"

Seeing Bullock's attention cut back to them, she said through her teeth, "Privately."

"Yeah." He nodded, curious as to what she was doing there and why she'd brought him cookies. Especially after this last encounter with her made him wonder if she was unstable enough that she might actually try to take revenge on him for thinking he'd killed Oswald Cobblepot.

As he started to stand up to lead her somewhere they could talk alone, Bird saw Bullock starting to reach out for the container of cookies and without hesitation she reached out and slapped his hand away.

"Hey!" He raised his voice at her, "You just assaulted a GCPD detective."

Jim held back a laugh as Bird turned to Bullock and countered, "That's slander... you cookie thief."

"Cookie thief? I'm just watching out for my partner. Testing to make sure you didn't poison these." He called after them, as Jim and Bird walked away. He picked the container of cookies up and opened it. Even if he was considering they'd been poisoned, they smelt so good he was thinking just one cookie couldn't be too dangerous.

Leading Bird over to the side away from any seemingly prying eyes and ears, Jim looked at her and gave a small nod for her to explain what she was doing there.

"I'm sorry." She said, her eyes matched the sincere tone in her voice, "I acted prematurely without having all of the facts and I owe you an apology for that."

His head cocked to the side as he started to gather this was an apology for far more than just startling him enough that he'd almost wrecked his car.

"Bird..." He said his eyebrows raised in question, "Why are you really here?"

"To apologize and to thank you." She admitted.

"Thank me for what?"

"For you know... being a decent guy and not killing someone just because the orders came from Don Falcone."