Fools ||Edward Nygma|| [1]

Chapter Four || Thoughts of violence

"He's back.

The monster. I feel him.

Under my skin, in my head.

He's everywhere.

The urge.

I can't stop it".

Charlotte walked inside the Records Annex to put away files from some old cases she and Ed still had in their lab. The strawberry blonde looked up from her desk, but when she saw Charlotte she quickly looked back to the letter in her hands. Charlotte kept herself quiet and decided to look for the rightful place of the files herself. However, she found the organization to be very messy, so she decided to call for Kristen.

"Y-yes?" Kristen asked shakily and Charlotte looked at her questioningly. It looked like Kristen had been crying.

"Have you been crying?" Charlotte took a few steps closer to Kristen's desk.

Kristen sniffled and looked up at Charlotte. "Dougherty left Gotham and didn't even had the courage to tell me to my face. He left this letter. Nothing but a stupid letter with five lines".

Charlotte played dumb and shrugged her shoulders. She knew Ed had written the letter, but the reason why she had no idea. "Men are idiots. It shouldn't surprise us anymore".

"Wait, that's it!" Kristen suddenly shouted.

Charlotte looked at her alarmed. "What?"

"Mr. Nygma said that sometimes with men you have to read between the lines," she told and Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows.

"I find that a bottle of whiskey can be more effective," Charlotte stated and Kristen agreed with her.

Kristen mentioned for her to come closer and pointed at the note. "Look at this. Every first letter in each line spells out his name."

Charlotte saw Kristen was right. The first sentence started with an 'N', the second with a 'Y' and so on.

"Coincidences do happen I guess," Charlotte dismissed while wondering why Ed had written that letter and left a clue that could connect him with Dougherty's sudden disappearance.

It was Kristen turn to furrow her eyebrow. "An odd coincidence, don't you think?"

Charlotte looked away from the other woman and searched through the drawers full of files. "Yes, but what else could it be?"

"I-I don't know" Kristen answered hesitantly.

Charlotte closed a drawer and turned to Kristen in her last attempt to dismiss the matter. "Don't overthink this, okay? Dougherty was an ass and now he's gone. You should celebrate it instead of crying over him".

Kristen took another look at the letter with a sad expression. "Maybe you're right, but I'll still ask Mr. Nygma when I see him. Just to make sure".

The blonde standing by the drawers fought the urge to roll her eyes again. Kristen was stubborn and it seemed that it was impossible to show her the letter was nothing but a strange coincidence.

"Okay," she muttered to Kristen who nodded and walked out of the room.

Charlotte loved Ed with everything she had, but the boy could be so oblivious sometimes. She hoped Ed would find a better lie to tell Kristen or else things wouldn't end up well.

Things would be so much easier if Kristen was dead...

***

After a long time of searching through drawers on the Records Annex, Charlotte finally found the right ones and stuffed the files in their place. Kristen had yet to return and Charlotte didn't know what to make of it. Had she already figured out what happened? Or was she just being paranoid and Kristen was just with her friends drinking coffee?

Charlotte decided to stop obsessing over that dilemma and made her way back to the lab. She was definitely just being paranoid. There was no way Kristen would find out unless Ed told her.

To Charlotte's relief, Kristen was just drinking coffee and speaking with two officers. She was smiling and didn't seem like anything bad had happened. Charlotte took a deep breath and walked into her lab.

Ed wasn't there. She was worried for the whole time he was gone, but when he arrived, Charlotte found he was quite different and avoided any eye contact with her. His hair was messy which by itself was unusual.

"Ed, where have you been?" Charlotte asked trying to sound casual.

"Out," Ed simply answered causing Charlotte to frown. He didn't sound like he wanted to tell her where he had gone to. 'Why was he being so mysterious?' Charlotte asked herself.

"Haven't you by any chance seen Kristen? She had a few questions for you," the blonde said.

"I did," Ed replied, still avoiding her eyes.

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"And nothing," Ed responded while opening a drawer on his desk and going through the contents. He sent her a quick tight-lip smile before looking inside the drawer again. "Everything is fine".

Charlotte could see that everything was not fine, so she insisted. "That's not true. I know you wrote the letter. What I can't understand is why you left your name on it. Do you know what happens if she figures out that riddle? You can-".

"Yes, I know!" Ed suddenly shouted and closed the drawer with too much force. That reaction caused Charlotte to jump and look at Ed incredulously. He noticed what he had done and quickly recomposed himself, giving gave her that same tight-lip smile. "Don't worry, she won't find out. Now if you don't mind I need a coffee".

Charlotte couldn't find her voice and just watched Ed walk out the door as quickly as he could. She was still in shock after Ed's reaction to her questions. He had never reacted like that before and she wondered if killing Tom had changed him more than she thought it would. Murder changed people, she knew it from experience. After killing the man in the alley, she found herself having numerous thoughts of violence towards her co-workers in the GCPD, especially towards Kristen. Ed never raised his voice towards anyone. What happened with Tom was the only reason Charlotte could find that could justify his actions.

Charlotte hoped whatever happened next would be better, but she had no idea just how much things could go even worse. And they would...

***

A/N: Ed is starting to change and Charlotte has no idea just how much, even though she is going through a change as well. This is the end of season 1 and we all know how things go in season 2 for Ed and Kristen. Let's see how things will go for Charlotte...