Closer Than Your Shadow

Ghost Of A Chance

December 12th 5:48 p.m.
Gotham
Dick's Apartment

I watched Dick step into Bruce's Maserati from the bedroom window. Frost was spreading up the windows and the sky was turning grey over Gotham. Winter was here, and Christmas was just around the corner. I don't think I'd ever felt less jolly during the holidays.

I was still processing what happened. How Dick just lost the most important thing to him.

It was unfathomable. What I did to Dom then Tony turning himself in left Dick with nothing.

It took Dick a minute to collect himself before he walked out the door. His face was dull and stoic. As if the news hadn't affected him at all. But it had. I felt his heart break in my hands.

It was all wrong. It was a cruel punishment for a man who wanted to bring peace to his family.

Tony Zucco had been an arrogant man since I'd met him. His words were always filled to the brim with malice and underlying aggression. His actions were despicable and merciless. He killed kids. Everything about him was dark and evil. Like his sole purpose in life was to continuously ruin the life of a little boy who'd done nothing but love his parents.

And in a few hours it'd be tied up in a red bow for the GCPD. They'd crack dozen's of missing cases. Genisis and Lenny would see a semblance of retribution.

It still felt unresolved, like a ticking time bomb was on it's way.

Before Dick left, he said he'd call from the precinct once he figured things out. I was glad he wasn't alone. But what help was Bruce going to be? He obviously wasn't the person to turn to for emotional guidance.

And I was left alone with nothing but the sound of the faulty fan and a leaky sink.

There were so many things I wanted to say. So many things I wanted to try and explain. To everyone. Especially to my friends, who unfortunately were on my back burner for the past few days.

They were left with more unanswered questions than I was. They didn't know why I was gone. Dez would never know what actually happened to Genisis. Lindsay and Sal would never know why I left without a word. Lindsay... God I missed her. Her empathic kindness and laughter.

Now she'd never know if anything I ever said was truthful. If I was actually the shy girl she immediately loved, not the wanted criminal who might've stabbed a man in the throat.

But I was that.

I was a liar, a rat, a bad friend. All rolled into one. And everyone would die thinking I was a shitty person. I'd die knowing it if I didn't try to find the truth.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

I grabbed my phone off the couch cushion.

"Hey. What happened?"

"Sorry, let me get out of the building first," he said, and he greeted someone then the sound of car horns echoed in the background. "Zucco came into the precinct and turned himself in for racketeering and conspiracy. He told them he was scared. That the Maroni's were gonna be coming after him."

"What? Zucco would never do that unless the Maroni's were turning on him first. That makes no sense."

"Yeah. I know. I have no fucking clue what I'm supposed to do right now. I don't know what game he's trying to play. I need to figure out the Maroni's hierarchy right now."

"It has to be Cano or Natasha running things now if Zucco left. Does he have a lawyer? Has the DA gone in to talk to him?"

"Yeah, he does. That's who we're waiting on. I have a feeling this is because the FBI's here or because someone's cleaning house." There was a shuffle. Then a few voices yelled and Dick answered with a sullen 'Yeah, I'll be up there in a second. Smoke break'. "I'll call when I can Nigma. It might take a while for anything to happen. Should I just come back? Tonight-."