Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In! - GOTHAM

[12] Heart And Soulmates

Trigger Warning: murderers in love, gruesome murder, slight uhhhh rapey vibes, removal of a heart and sending it as a valentine [but he likes the gift so its' fine /j] [If you can't handle the input of a Northern mam...take it up with her. /lh]. To avoid most of the trigger warnings skip from ''But why would he want to be with him, if he didn't like him?"' to ''Even The Queen Of Hearts side of Evelyn had to give her head a shake as if to literally shake the images forming in her head.' 'And '"It looks like your friend can't hold his alcohol", to "there must be an a angel, playing with my heart...."'

It had started with fairly mundane things. Shelves annoyingly reorganized, the odd few minutes missing at a time - she'd never blacked out for a whole night before. It had all started when a very unpleasant man [the same one who had been her potential target that night] had set his sights on targeting Ed...She knew where the man would be, alone and easily waylaid. She'd memorized his time table, after all. The Queen Of Hearts genuinely thought she was doing Evelyn a favour - if she wouldn't make the first move, than The Queen would. She'd encountered men like Silas Smiley before - Nicknamed Smiley Si, although she preferred Sly Si.

She had everything planned out, every minor detail, everything. She often planned things out like this, although there was a bit more of a risk if this went sideways. She'd made loose arrangements to meet Ed, but she knew that this was where this man was headed - And she knew he didn't like Ed. But why would he want to be with him, if he didn't like him? 'The only reasons this man would want to be around him are sadistic ones...' She thought, and felt sick at the idea of what a monster like this would want to do with another man. Man, woman or child... Even The Queen Of Hearts side of Evelyn had to give her head a shake as if to literally shake the images forming in her head. This man had to go, Ed involved or not. The fact this could get her closer to The Forensic Scientist was just a bonus.

It wasn't her first choice of spot - but the perfect place for someone to disappear from. People often did. Nobody saw anything, nobody said anything, nobody cared about anything. And sickeningly, thanks to his campaign to clean up Gotham - Publicly, he was campaigning to get the place shut down. He even made jokes about what happened there in his campaigns that it wasn't the kind of place he'd frequent himself and of course, this wasn't firsthand information. People he'd taken there barely even remembered being there, nevermind who took them there, or...what they'd done.

The Queen shook off the thought again as she walked into the building. She spotted Ed - having what she considered must have been a less than pleasant conversation with her intended target. She put on her best fake smile, and approached the two. "I see you've chosen to join us, Miss Hart." Smiley gave that grin of his, the saccharine, fake smile that gave him his name - and made anyone who looked at it too long feel slightly sick. "I arranged to meet with Ed here." She took a seat next to him. "What a coincidence, so did I. Drinks are on me." He went to the bar and ordered three particularly fancy cocktails. 'Rich men...eugh.' The Queen Of Hearts couldn't help the internal snark. Ed was acting strange...surely he couldn't be drunk already?

"It looks like your friend can't hold his alcohol." Smiley joked, again with that grin of his that didn't reach the eyes. 'That sick bastard slipped him something. He knew he would be distracted worrying about us, and-' The Queen cut off her train of thought there. She had to get Ed out of here, but she couldn't let Silas get away either - she would have to settle for calling a cab, but not before she slipped the same drug she'd lifted from the mans' pocket into his drink, with a little additive of her own. Once she knew Ed was relatively safe, her smile returned as she watched him drain his glass. The Queens' protectiveness of Edward Nygma was something she would never admit to. A weakness she wouldn't reveal - simply passing this off as doing her other self a favour... She hoped he would appreciate what, she, at least, considered to be a rather grand romantic gesture. "I know a place not far from here. I could drive us there. Despite the fact he never found himself particularly interested in grown women, he found himself accepting her offer. In his current state, everything seemed like fun. "It couldn't hurt." 'Oh, but it can.' The Queen internally replied with a slight smirk as she got him into her car and started driving.

"No, No, this is the wrong way around!" He laughed drunkenly as he was strapped to the metal gurney. She'd given him a shot of adrenaline to keep him nice and conscious throughout the procedure...At least, she hoped that was how it worked. She was no expert. It was something she wished she could ask Ed about - he was more the chemist. "No, no, for the first time in your twisted life, this is the right way around." The Queen snarked, feeling oddly at peace with herself, oddly whole as she picked up a scalpel to begin her gruesome task. 'Gruesome task?' She thought again, 'A labour of love.' She smiled as she turned up a record to full volume to cover up any noise - it was more for her own enjoyment, since she had the whole place soundproofed anyway - and made the first cut, as she she sang along with Annie Lennox. "There must be an angel, playing with my heart..."

Later that night, when there was less chance of her being noticed, Evelyn placed a carefully crafted wooden box on Eds' doorstep - a heart-shaped shield bearing a falcon painted on the lid. She was oddly excited as she concealed herself in her chosen hiding spot, a smile on her face as she watched Ed open the door and take her gift inside. 'So, I did this...No, The Queen did this...We did this? There is no we....there's only me.' The thought was scary, but also a bit exciting. For the first time in her life, Evelyn Hart knew who she was.

Meanwhile, Ed was in for quite a surprise when he opened the box to find a human heart inside, Love me tender by Elvis Presley playing as he picked up a note from inside the [clearly handcrafted] box. 'My heart belongs to you, now this sick fuckers' does too! <3' Ed noticed the blood spatter pattern suggesting the heart had still been beating when placed in the box, and found himself oddly moved. He could use forensics to find out who the strange and morbid [although oddly touching. How had they even been able to remove the heart so precisely as to keep the victim alive the entire time? He was curious] gift was from - but that was cheating in his eyes, to find out who a valentine was from.