Batman: Hero of Gotham

22- The Infirmary

Boop...boop...boop. The rate of Falcone's heart beeped at a normal pace. Bruce waited for Falcone to open his eyes. Once he did, Bruce glared at him. "The hell--Bruce Wayne...? You must have some clout. My own wife can't get in to see me. Good thing I'll be outta here in a week. Just like every other time they tried to put me away."

"You look like you tangled with the wrong guy." Bruce said.

"Eh, this nothing. You should have seen me before I became boss. I'd show up all beat to hell. Your father would sew me back together. Yeah, that's right. Tommy and I were close. More like friends...more like cousins. Going back decades."

"Until you sent Joe Chill to kill him."

"So that's what this really about? The pup digging up a twenty year old killing."

"Two killings. And they were never forgotten."

"You and me, we're practically family. I thought you'd have figured that out by now. I tried to get through to ya at Dent's party. Maybe I should have spelled it out."

"We are not family, Falcone. I'm nothing like you."

"If you're anything like Thomas Wayne, then we're not so different after all. Your father. Hill. Me. We ran this city. Still do." Falcone said, coughing. "Goddamn this pain. Can't think through it. Morphine's on the side there. Be a good boy and help Uncle Carmine out." Bruce walked over to the table with the morphine syringe. He picked up the syringe and eased Falcone's pain by inserting the morphine into the spinal canal. "Forty years I keep my veins clean of any of that gunk. But you never forget the tender kiss. It'd be so easy to give me the whole vial, wouldn't it? Enough there to put an old dog down forever. Of course then you'd never know the whole story. How much of your parents do you have in you? What kind of son did Thomas Wayne make?"

"I'm not a murderer."

"No, you're not. That's why you were kept in the dark." Falcone paused, embracing the relief of chronic pain that flooded him. "Much better, kid. Thank you. Gesture like that, reminds me of your mother. Your father may have been the doctor, but Martha-- she had the human touch. Think you got me of her in you, tell the truth. Yeah. There's a kindness in you."

"I lost her so young, I hardly remember anything about her."

"She had steel in her, did Martha. She was the only one that ever had a hold on your father."

"Until you hired an assassin to kill them both."

"You really think I hired Chill? Sure, I worked with Joe Chill from time to time. Put a button on someone, he'd take 'em out. But I never ordered that hit on your parents."

"So who did? How did he break out of jail? He almost killed me that night!"

"I have a confession to make."

"Oh yeah and what's that?"

"I...I broke Chill out of prison. That day that you visited him...I broke him out. He offered a deal with me. I couldn't say no. But that scumbag lied. All he did was cause more trouble. Trouble that pissed me off. He brought that Batman to go after me. That son of a bitch is the reason I'm here. I can't wait to get the hell out of here. After Joe was broken out, he brought suspicions to me. All the attention the police had was brought straight to my front door. God, I wished Chill hadn't killed himself in that useless alleyway."

"I knew you were suspicious of breaking him out. Good thing you're in here. You got what you deserved from Batman."

"First you help me out and now you give me shit? What the hell's the matter with you, son?"

"Alright alright...I'm sorry for what I said. I just need to know...who ordered that hit on my parents?"

"You can't trust anyone in Gotham, least of all those you call friend. Your parents learned that the hard--"

Suddenly, a bullet striked Falcone's face. Then one more. Blood immediately poured out from the holes. The beeping of Falcone's heart rate beeped repeatedly, declaring his death.