We Were Born Sick • Gotham Fanfiction •

XXXV: Growing Pains

"Pandora's Box could not be unopened, no one could return to Eden." ― Selena Kitt, Temptation

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Walking into his apartment, Harvey let out a tired sigh as he dropped his keys to the small table by his door and sat his briefcase against the wall.

As he turned on the light and started to walk into the living room, he jumped when he saw Bird sitting on his couch.

"You scared the-"
He stopped mid-sentence and rushed over and sat down next to her, his brown eyes wide and terror filled as he saw how beaten up she was.

"What happened to you?" His voice was shaky as he spoke and his hands shook as he moved his arms, wanting to hold her, but he wasn't sure where to even touch her without causing pain.

"I'm sorry." Bird apologized, picking his spare key up from the coffee table and handing it to him as she said, "I just let myself in when I got here, and-"

Placing the key back in her hand, he folded her fingers around it and kept her hands in his, "Keep it... you can always come here."

"Thanks." She breathed, clutching the key tightly as she gently pulled from his touch and dropped the key into her purse that was sitting next to her.

"Please talk to me." His voice barely a whisper.

"I guess we are to the point where we should exchange keys, I'm mean we've already got so much stuff at each other's places." She said as she pulled her keys from her purse and with a weak laugh said, "I carry three copies of my key... so you can have one of these."

When she handed him the key, he took it and dropped it down to the coffee table without ever taking his eyes off of her.

"Is this why you cancelled on me last night?" He pushed, feeling like his heart could barely function enough to beat with the longer he looked at her, "I didn't want to worry you... but, it's going to be a while until I'm all healed up and we need to talk."

"Nothing good ever stems from a conversation started with those words." He softly said, as he reached down and pulled her hands into his own.

"I guess it's fitting then, because this isn't going to be a good conversation."
Slowly, she turned on the couch and faced him. His heart stopped when he now could see her entire face up close and his eyes roamed over her swollen discolored skin, scanning over every single cut.

Pulling in a deep breath and trying to stay strong with seeing how worried he was, Bird started to explain, "I'm in a lot of trouble, Harvey."

His mouth hung open as he stared back at her, a thousand questions racing through his head and not a single one of them found their way to his tongue.

"You see, before when you kept talking about me getting away from the life I'd built for myself, I agreed –mainly because I didn't want to lose you. But, the truth was I wasn't sure if I wanted to stop... I can't explain it, but it's like the evil and darkness of Gotham is inside me and getting mixed up with the wrong people just came so naturally. It was so easy to fit in –I was good at being bad." Her eyes nervously met his before she looked around them and down to their connected hands.
"There's always been a part of me that wanted to be a better person, a part of me that didn't really start to grow until I met you and it wasn't until recently that I really dared to dream about a better life. One where I don't have to chase sleeping pills down with alcohol in order to make it through the night because my demons won't let me sleep."

Swallowing hard, she raised a hand and brushed a stray tear from her cheek as she shook her head and let out a weak laugh, "I'm rambling."

"What are you saying?" He quietly asked, growing increasingly worried by the second.