Dark in the City (Gotham fanfic)

Chapter 4- Nights of Crime

Welcome to chapter four! 

I hope you enjoy!!!!!

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"I'll walk you home," Oswald said to his new employee.

Red smiled thankfully, "Oh, I couldn't put you out of your way, Penguin."

He put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. "You could never. Besides, I'd like to get to know you better."

They had sat together at the restaurant for a while, mostly discussing what she would be doing, and found themselves as the last two remaining. Glancing at the clock above the bar, Red had gasped when she saw that it was almost 11 o'clock at night. That was when she had stood up and proclaimed that she was going to start walking home.

"Well, alright then. Let's go!" Red exclaimed with a grin. They left Oswald's club and turned down a deserted road as Red led the way to her apartment, realising only now that her new boss and friend had a severe limp in his left leg and that he indeed walked with the umbrella he always carried around. "Are you sure you wanna walk all that way? I mean, our apartments are four blocks away from each other so that's almost eight blocks."

"I'm fine," he snapped, seeming offended that she thought he either couldn't make the trip or that it would hurt him too much.

"I'm sorry, really, I know you can walk, I just didn't wanna cause you any harm," she explained quickly, apologetically.

He smiled slowly, "No, no, I'm sorry I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm just a little, uh, touchy about my leg. Everyone views it as a weakness."

"Well, it ain't, 'cause you seem fit and able to do anything you wanna," she said, smiling sweetly at him.

"Thanks, Red," he said, nodding his head once.There was a pause before he asked, "Speaking of, what is your real name?"

She shrugged. "Everyone calls me Red, so I just use that. I don't see a need to use a name given before I'd developed much of a personality. Like, you're Penguin to most people rather than Oswald, so you accept the nickname as your name."

He nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. But you know my birth name, and I don't know yours."

She and smirked. "That just makes me a fun mystery, don'tcha think?"

Just before he could protest any further, she opened a door to a building and waved goodbye. He waved back and turned around to walk back to his own building.

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Red exited the elevator and opened the paint-stripped door to her apartment. She tossed her bag onto the kitchen's island and took out her old work uniform of black dress pants and a white blouse, along with black loafers. She then pulled on her street clothes and red jacket before fishing out the flashlight she had hidden in the bottom of the bag and the rope that was on top of it, and then pulled the strap back across her shoulder.

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Gordon sat down at his desk with a cup of coffee and checked his watch. "Hey, Bullock. Isn't Red supposed to have delivered the paper by now?" he asked his partner who had what he assumed was a spiked coffee in his hand.

Bullock looked at his own watch and nodded. "Yeah, maybe there's some heavy traffic where she lives or something."

"Yeah, probably."

"Boys, you have a case I want you to work on. It's a string of home robberies," Commissioner Essen said as she walked up to the two detectives holding a manilla folder.