eddie likes to (riddlethem) wrote in rooms, @ 2014-12-11 12:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !dc comics, *log, eddie nigma, stephanie brown |
eddie/steph sad times
Who: Stephanie/Eddie
Where: Gotham
When: before karaoke with muerte
What: trying to fix things and failing
Warning: Sads
Stephanie had gone back to work when Eddie left the manor and when they had that huge blowout. She bounced from clinic to clinic, keeping busy and refusing to stop and give herself time to think. Time to think about her dead brother or the man she kept losing over and over again. But, they always managed to poke in from the recesses of her mind. Damian and the way he looked at her so savagely the last time he saw her, Eddie and the warmth in his brown eyes as they laid together in bed. But, she didn’t dwell, she didn’t try to think. She just tried her hardest to move on.
Gotham had a strange sense of calmness about it these days. The armistice between families caused all the goons to put down their weapons and lick their wounds, and the citizens of Gotham began the steps to recover. From losses, from destruction, from pain. Everyone in the city was affected in some way or another. Whether they knew someone who knew someone or they lost the person who meant most to them, everyone had a stake in this healing. The holidays were around the corner, and while it would be unimaginably painful for some people, Gotham was resilient. Gotham would recover. Gothamites would find flickers of hope even in the darkest of times.
Crime Alley seemed to be the epicenter of that movement. Families gathered to mourn loved ones. Kids lit candles, adults commiserated and recollected. That alley of pain and loss had turned into a place of hope, of love. A beacon of light in the darkness, and all because of one riddled man. One green riddled man who loved this city probably more than anyone did.
Stephanie was at her clinic in Crime Alley, a day after she and Eddie had their blowout fight, and she couldn’t help but be piqued. And maybe, just maybe she would happen to run into Eddie there. Truthfully, only hours after she angrily closed off the conversation with Eddie, she had to talk herself out of going to his apartment and knocking at his door. He wanted her to do the work? Oh, she was going to do the work. Because he might have been crazy about her, but she was just as crazy about him. She would chase, she would hunt, she would work. Sure, she was fucking terrified of things going wrong, but Eddie was right, too. If she was so scared, what was the point? What was the point of even trying?
She walked out of the clinic with her winter coat over her lilac covered scrubs, stethoscope hidden underneath a scarf. In one hand, a piece of chalk commandeered from the chart in the waiting room to keep track of patients and curtains. In the other, a candle for Damian. When she arrived, she knelt down in front of a collection of candles and lit her own to leave amongst the memorials. Questions of why, pictures of loved ones, candles of all different shapes and sizes littered the alleyway as far as the eye could see along with the hanging lights overhead. Steph earned a few smiles from patrons of her clinics, people who recognized her as Doctor Stephanie Nashton, and she stopped to chat with a few of them for a moment or two before moving on. Eddie was nowhere to be found, but she couldn’t think of leaving just yet. Being here was a balm that she hadn’t found since she told Eddie to leave the manor. So, instead, she turned to one of the brick walls and began to draw in lines of white.
Eddie was very good at managing his time when he needed to. He could break his day up into working on the city, checking on his people and then studying in the Dragon Age door. When he slept it was out of exhaustion and when he ate it was out of absolute hunger. He had been lax on his medication while staying with Stephanie in the manor because nothing there could give him a panic attack, but after their conversation he knew he’d spiral without it. Stephanie made him crazy and maybe that wasn’t a good thing. Maybe taking a step back and taking care of himself first wasn’t such a bad idea. The stress and the pain faded into calmness and he felt like he had his mind back. He felt like he wasn’t going to explode the next time someone tried to ask him about her.
That night he was supposed to be studying with Tevinter mages with their gothy fashion and noses so high it was a wonder that they could see down them. He got about halfway through packing his books into a messenger bag before deciding fuck it and decided to go clean up the memorials, candles and flowers at Crime Alley instead. Eddie simply had a lot of love to give and no where to funnel it, so taking care of mourning and hopeful strangers in Gotham was the best thing he could do.
Dressed in a long black peacoat with a dark green suit under and a funny, large scarf of green and purple that Marie made him, Eddie bought flowers from the side market, some prayer candles and then headed down to the alley. He could smell the melting wax mixing with cold air and Gotham smog as he approached. The strung up lights above made him smile and all the mingling families, loners and senior citizens made him fill with a warmth only Gotham provided. The holiday season was a time for remembering, for giving love to those lost and the place was already crowded.
“Mr. Nigma!” A woman shouted as he approached and Eddie automatically put on his charm. The woman was middle aged and worn from a hard life in Gotham. She rushed to him and touched his arm, admitting that she had heard he could make people hear the voices of dead loved ones. That she had heard from one of her neighbors that he did such a thing for a woman who lost her son during the “evil Batman” crisis. Eddie smiled. He joked about how he ought to charge money for this sort of thing and then gently pressed his fingertips to her forehead.
“I can hear him sing!” The woman exclaimed, tears springing from her eyes immediately. She hummed along with an old tune and then hugged him before wandering back over to her husband’s picture. “Charles, is that really you? God, I used to hate that song.” The woman told the picture and then kept humming.
Eddie watched her go and then turned to start cleaning up the memorials around the alley. He took away dead flowers, replaced them with fresh ones and did the same with candles. Some space was cleared and he laid down a medal he found on the veteran when he took in his dead body. A votive candle with an angel printed across the front was put down and he reached into his pocket for his box of matches. He pushed the tiny box open with his finger and found that it was empty. “Excuse me, miss. Do you have a-” Eddie said to the blonde woman next to him and then stopped when he realized who it was.
Stephanie was immersed in the lines she was drawing against that old red brick that she didn’t even hear anyone else around her. She didn’t hear the murmured prayers or the random bursts of tears. She didn’t hear whispers of family members begging some deity for an answer or the exclamation of a woman who heard her husband one last time. No, she was only focused on the picture in her mind, on the long line she was drawing from the furthest her arm could reach down to about her waist. Wonder Tower, and it looked so much like the one drawn on the expanse between her shouderblades.
She jumped when a voice invaded her mind, line going jagged, and she turned because she knew that voice. Of course she did. It’d only been a day or so since they spoke, but Stephanie blinked at him like it had been years. “Oh. Hi,” she said, attempt at a flimsy smile fading. Her arm lowered and she rubbed the chalk between her hands. “I was hoping I would see you here. But you weren’t here and so I--.” She waved her hand at the beginnings of the sketch, and then looked down. There was a few minutes of quiet, and then she fished a book of matches out of her pocket and held it out to him, palm turned up to him with the tiny box in the center. “Is this what you needed?” She tried her hardest not to look at him, but she couldn’t help it. Blues caught browns, even if there was hesitation in her gaze.
Eddie was doing his very best not to let himself believe in fate or anything that was ingrained in him like most Gotham kids. He was trying to convince himself that Stephanie wasn’t special, that once he got enough distance from her, he’d find someone else. Someone that would make him feel just fine and wouldn’t invade every single goddamned thought. But, she was here drawing Wonder Tower on the wall of what was basically his temple, his sanctuary. The one day he decided to ditch mage school and here she was looking at him like he was a dragon ready to turn her into ash.
He laughed at her question because to him it sounded like ten other kinds of riddles and he took the matchbook. “Thank you.” Eddie struck a match, lit the candle and then clutched the matchbook in his hand as he said a small prayer. He prayed to Mary. He prayed for peace. Once he was done he handed it back to her. “He haunts me. Last night I had a dream about this small village in a desert. Him and his boys had to kill one of the men in the town and when they found out, they all rushed them. Imagine a whole village shoving and throwing rocks and screaming in a language you don’t understand.”
Stephanie didn’t mean to look frightened when she saw him, and honestly she shouldn’t have been surprised to see him there at all. That was what she had gone there for, wasn’t it? She had to talk herself out of calling him, or beeping him on the comm, or hitting him up on the journals. She knew that she fucked up in the conversation with him; she knew that she needed to decide what she wanted; she knew she had to stop being so scared. But that didn’t discount how much her heart hurt just thinking about Eddie. Steph had spent years upon years just hoping for an opportunity like this, and here she was stumbling over her clumsy fucking feet again. She blinked a few times, and there was a happiness seeing him that she shouldn’t have had that drowned out the surprise. She didn’t smile, but oh god, her heart ached just to see him.
Worrying her lip, she watched him say his prayer with the sort of warmth and affection that only a woman who’d known a man for years could have. She resisted the urge to touch his face, but she did brush her fingers against his coat before she could stop herself, tiny white streaks skirting down that black peacoat. Then, her lips dipped down into a frown when Eddie told him about his nightmares. “I’m sorry, Eddie. That sounds horrible.” Her frown deepened, and she pocketed the chalk, rubbing her hands on her lilac pants. “You’re probably the first person in a long time who he can actually talk to. Even if it’s from beyond the grave. Which is just sad.” She turned back to that sketch. “To be that lonely.” She blinked over at him. “Did he get a burial yet?”
Eddie looked at the chalk on his coat and touched it, rubbing off a little white to roll between his fingers. He had considered looking into a way to get rid of all his tattoos so he wouldn’t have to see anything that reminded him of her, but god he loved it when she marked him up. Even if it was with a piece of chalk that could be brushed off. “I think me and him have an understanding of loneliness. I think he wants to be forgiven. By god, by those people, by his family. I can speak to the dead, but I sure as hell can’t do any of that for him. So, I pray for help.” Eddie didn’t mind nightmares about burning skulls and black tar soaking white sand. He had seen worse in Arkham, in Gotham. All Eddie wanted to do was figure out the puzzle on how to find this dead man some peace. “Yes, he was buried at the mansion.”
He stood up and looked at the Wonder Tower she was drawing. “I’m sorry to have interrupted you.” Eddie turned to look at her and felt suddenly out of place in his own fucking city around his own fucking people in front of his own fucking wife. His shoulders slumped from the weight of all that and he looked down at the newly lit candle. He thought about forgiveness. “I want you to know I’m sorry for bringing up the tranquil thing to you. It’s my own- it’s my insecurities, not yours. I know whatever problems we have, it’s not because of my brain. I won’t make a threat like that again. I was just feeling unstable. Lonely. That isn’t your problem. Goodnight, Stephanie.” Eddie smiled down at the medal he had placed on the ground and then stepped past her to leave.
Stephanie didn’t stop the tilt of curiosity to her head as he rubbed the chalk between his fingers. After all these years, she still loved to watch him work, to be, to live. Even when she was hurting or livid, she just really enjoyed being around him. There was a flash of a smile that melted away into a sad screwing up of her mouth. “Forgiveness is hard to come by sometimes, but he’ll find it, I think.” She sighed, looking up at the lights hanging above-head. Twinkling little fairylights that brought a warmth to this place that never could have existed without the riddled man crouching below her. She looked down at him again. “I’ll leave him flowers.” She gave him a funny little smile. “That’s the least I can do.”
Sighing, she shook her head about him interrupting and almost reminded him that this was his space that she was invading. If he wanted her gone? She would leave. That funny smile dropped quickly, and she shook her head again though. This wasn’t his fault, not really. If anything, it was mutual. Stephanie knew that things were difficult, and she wished she knew what to do. She opened her mouth to refute some of the things he said, but before she had the chance, he was walking around and away from her. “Eddie,” she implored, turning to grab his wrist gently before he got too far away. Her thumb skated across the inside of his wrist, feeling that beating pulse against her skin. “Don’t leave. I’m sorry, too. For...everything.” There was a mirthless scoff, and she tugged him a little, not letting go just yet. “I’m sorry, too. I wish I knew the right thing to say or do to make things okay. To make things better. But I keep fucking it up, and I keep pushing you away more and more even though that’s the last thing I want to do.”
Her gaze flickered to the other end of the alleyway where she had climbed into his lap and fucked him until his chest was raw from the kevlar. Things felt so simple that night, and she wished complications would have stayed away completely. “It literally took thirty minutes, and I wanted to come talk to you, come chase you down in Dragon Age, just go see you.” Her thumb traced his skin. “It’s not your brain that’s causing our problems. I promise that’s never been or going to be the problem.”
Eddie looked down at her holding his wrist and he tugged gently, pointlessly before letting her simply hold him in place. He wanted so badly to put her behind him. To find something else in his life and prove to people that he was more than just a rogue with a superiority complex. But, he loved her. He wanted her. And she didn’t fucking leave him alone. “So, what is the problem, Stephanie?” Eddie asked and his eyes were clear, his voice even. Stephanie was lucky she didn’t see him fly off the handle during their conversation over the journals and frankly he hadn’t felt that enraged in a long, long time. For him, anger led to a deep, dark path that eventually landed him in Arkham, so he did the mature thing and worked through it. He took his medication, he let himself believe that he was worth something and he worked to make himself a better man.
“You come here and draw Wonder Tower on my wall, in my sanctuary so I’d know you were here. Why? You want me and you don’t. You’re scared and you won’t let me go. It’s not fair to me, don’t you realize that? I was all in. I’m not afraid because I know what ruined my marriage. It wasn’t being close, it was putting up every fucking barrier we could find between us. It was dishonesty and resentment and fear. If that’s how you want to start this, I don’t think I can.” Eddie sighed with a shrug and then gently rolled out of her grip like water through fingers. “You don’t know what to say? Yes. Start with yes.”
The riddled man looked back at the tower on the wall and shook his head. “It’s too late for that, though. I’ve heard you say no too many times. Everything we were building, all those good things? They’re gone. They really are. I don’t want to lay in bed with you and talk about our future children. I don’t want to act like you believe in forever. I’m done, baby. And, I think you are, too.” A simple conclusion to a complicated equation. Eddie thought it was strange. It felt like someone opened up a wound and let out all blood and puss until it dried into a scar. The love she had seen in his dark eyes flicker, flickered and then faded. He felt free in a way he hadn’t all year. The chain she had around his heart loosened just enough that he could escape. The lingering pain was only soreness. Eddie looked at her and he didn’t feel desperate. He didn’t feel the urge to get on his knees and beg. He felt distance and the riddled man suspected that it had been there this entire time. That all of this was just the death throes of a bad, bad year.
He laughed and wiped his eyes that were wet from loss and relief rolled into one. “But, this is Gotham. We ruin everything, we burn money like bonfires and then we start over. Do you want to start over?”
Stephanie fought the urge to crumble. When he twisted her hand out of her fingers, her grip went lip, and her hand fell to her side with a slight swing. She fought the frown, but the corners of her lips dipped down a little. He was right, wasn’t he? He had every fucking right to ask what he was asking for, and what she was doing to him was not fair. It wasn’t intentional, but it was fucking selfish, these mind games she was playing. Wrapping her arms around her body, she stepped away to give him the space he clearly wanted. Her heart ached painfully, and she looked down at the dirty concrete below their feet. What was the problem? She knew that she wanted him, she knew that she wanted to say yes, but she needed to suss the fear out
The yes was on her tongue, but he continued to speak, and she wrapped her arms around herself a little tighter. Done, and she bit back a groan of mourning and surprise. Instead, she blinked away a sting of tears, looking up to the inky black sky devoid of stars and of that blinding bat signal that had been gone for weeks. Eddie might have felt relieved, but Stephanie? She just felt heartbroken. Done. The word bounced around in her head, and part of it sounded more final than when he told her he wanted a divorce. She could see a warmth die from his eyes. Could see the wetness springing there. She sighed shakily, biting down on her lip as she tried to piece herself enough to agree. She would move on; she had her clinic, her patients, her nurses, her family. Stephanie would always be able to be reborn at the end of the day, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to this time. She liked herself, and she wanted him.
Lost in her thoughts, she almost didn’t realize he kept speaking. Rolling her head back down, she blinked surprise, a rogue tear escaping down the side of her cheek. “You want to start over?” She sounded a little shocked, like an executioner had hooked her up to an electric chair and said nah, nevermind. Nodding emphatically, she said, “Yes. Yes, I want to start over.” She swiped at her eyes. “I want to start over. One more mulligan.” And wasn’t that a sign that she still remembered and treasured the little bits of their relationship. Mulligans. When was the last time one of them had used that? She dared a step forward, but she kept her arms wrapped around her. “Please, baby.”
Eddie didn’t like seeing her go through a rollercoaster of emotion and it was almost enough for him to snap right back into that subservient place that he had been before. He didn’t though because at the end of the day, his health was more important than being with her. Just like her health needed to be more important than being with him. This was what he wanted for her, what he wished for month after month and finally when he got it, he was upset that she didn’t run to him like he ran to her. He was slightly puzzled by her pleading eyes, but he didn’t let himself dwell on it too long. The only way Eddie could get through this, the only way he could attempt to be with her again, was if he saw her as a different woman from anything he had ever known. He couldn’t look in those blue eyes and see years of love manifest like he did before. No, his initial instincts were right. His wife was dead. She had been dead for a long time. This? This needed to be a new Stephanie.
“Alright, we’ll start over.” Eddie didn’t touch her and he didn’t call her baby. “My name is Edward Nigma. You may call me Eddie. I am a part of the Justice League as well as the Bat family, though my past is riddled with crime and madness. Many believe that one day I will go back to my rogue ways, but they are long, long behind me. And, you are?” Eddie asked like he didn’t know and he locked doors in his brain that had Stephanie Nashton written across the front. He refused to let her hurt him again.
Stephanie could see the man she knew as Edward Nashton melt away before her and be replaced by a man she hardly knew. She understood what he was doing, and a tiny part of her appreciated it. Because as much as she liked to believe that she was the same Stephanie he knew and loved, that wasn’t true. That hadn’t been true since she left this Gotham and came back. It hadn’t been true since she had her first panic attack by the harbor a decade (for her) ago. Vestiges still existed, of course. To the core, she was the same hopeful, kind woman who wanted nothing more than good for people and redemption for those who deserved it. But, she was finally her own woman in a way, and it took being away from her husband for such a long swath of time to make that happen. To be healthy again. And, a new beginning was something they both needed and deserved after all this heartbreak and strife.
She couldn’t help the tiny smile that crawled up her mouth, but she told herself that this wasn’t a man she knew. She wiped her still chalky hand on her leg. “Hi, Edward.” She held out her hand for him to shake, though she wasn’t sure if he would even take it. “I’m Stephanie-- Brown.” There was the slightest hesitation on the Brown. Though she had used the name in that other Gotham, she’d gotten so used to thinking of herself as Stephanie Nashton once again. Maybe she would have to actually change her name back. “I’m a doctor, and here in Gotham I have a few clinics in the city. There’s actually one just down the block thataway.” Her thumb jutted over her shoulder. “I was Spoiler, and a Batgirl, and a Robin, but now I’m Batwoman, and I love every moment of it.” She tilted her head to the side, wondering how much they could both spill out of their brains of the years together. “Did you grow up around here?”
Eddie smiled sadly at the Brown before nodding and going along with it. This was painful in the same way watching all his things burn in a house fire was, but he had to believe it was going to lead them somewhere good. Even if it took some time, even if they got to the end of this and decided they weren’t meant to be, this had to be the way to do this. He took her hand and shook it warmly before giving her a real smile at the rest of it. He loved her vigilante history, he loved her clinics. “That’s a very impressive resume.” Eddie teased and then looked at the Wonder Tower drawn on his wall before walking past her and beckoning with his hand for her to follow.
“I don’t think I’ve ever showed you where I used to live, actually. It’s close to here.” He stopped and then held his hand out for her. “I know we just met, but Gotham is such a dangerous town. I could get stabbed. I’ve been stabbed at least a dozen times just in this area. I need a strong, blonde bat to keep me safe.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and there was a smarmy glint in his eyes that she’d remember from that night they ran around as teenagers. It was genuine and curious and it loved this city so fucking much. “Now, I have to warn you that the area isn’t much to look at. But, I can give you a glimpse into the past if you’re interested and not so easily spooked.”
Stephanie had to believe this would turn into something good, too. One last ditch, no holds barred, balls to the wall effort to foster a relationship with Eddie -- Edward -- and that would be that. Either they would work it out, or they would need to move on. She thought briefly of the other men in her life while she’d been gone, and she knew in her heart that Eddie would be the love of her life no matter what. No one would be able to hold a candle to those feelings, but she could move on. But, optimism now, and it would work. It had to.
She smiled at the teasing compliment, wrinkling her nose and pulling a slight face. No roll of the eyes or hmph, but the night was young and Eddie knew what buttons to push. Not that she minded that honestly. His hand was considered for a split-second before she took it readily, hold tight and sure. “I’m honored to be the bat for the job then. I’ll protect you from stabbers and suspicious people.” She smiled easily over at him, letting out a loud laugh when his eyebrows waggled in that familiar way, seeing a man much younger than the one who owned this hand now. “I’m not just a strong, blonde bat, but I’m brave too. I’m not easily spooked.” She sounded proud of that, and then there was a genuine smile. “I’d really like to see where you grew up, Mr. Nigma.”
Eddie threaded his fingers with hers and held on tightly. No, that wasn’t really starting over, but it was under the guise of it, right? And, here he was showing her something new, something she had never seen before. He took her out of the glowing haven that was once Crime Alley and turned the corner. “Over there is Monarch Theatre. It actually shows movies now and I’m working on finding a guy to repaint the ceiling. It used to have this dome completely covered in Greek gods.” Eddie sweeped his hand over his head dramatically and smiled. “When it was in its prime, I used to sneak in to watch cartoons. They were a lot more lax about street rats back then. Now, I hope we can use it for educational outings for local schools. Maybe show them a nice, boring documentary on the big screen.” He verbally poked at her since documentaries had always been something they teased each other over. “Or just a Harry Potter. That could work, too.”
As he lead her down the street, it turned progressively darker. The remnants of Arkham City could be found in the skeletal cars that were scrapped for parts, the burnt down buildings lost in gang wars and a chill that went up your back as someone screamed in the distance. They were both from Gotham and neither were afraid of the dark. Let some idiot goon try to take them now and they’d both have their own ways to deal with the problem. Most didn’t mess with Eddie on principle. They saw his bright colors and slicked back hair and thought twice about it. Sure, he helped a lot of people in the city, but he could take so much away from them if he wanted to without even throwing a punch. No, he wasn’t much of a bat.
They wandered towards a street where only one of the street lamps worked. It was an apartment complex that looked old as balls and took up the entire block. Like most things in the area, it was rot and abandoned. Covered in graffiti and boarded shut. He pointed up to an apartment up three levels and to the right. “I was raised right there up until I was old enough to run away. It was always a poor neighborhood, but when I was small it wasn’t so bad.” Eddie turned to look at her and his eyes were glowing that glassy green. He took her other hand and held it tightly as he focused. Slowly but surely, the street started to fill with a scene out of the twenties. Women with bobbed hair rushing down the street in warm looking coats. Men in cheap suits leaning on brick walls as they read the paper. Children chasing each other while trying to stay out of the fast traffic. The street filled with the smell of gas, mud, smoke and cheap food. She could hear cars honking, children laughing and women chatting as if it were through a heavy door. Distant, swirling and ready to blink out of existence at any second.
The scene flickered on like a projected movie for a moment before vanishing in the green smoke. “And, right there is my mother’s favorite hat shop. That’s where her ghost is. I’d introduce you, but I don’t think you’re ready to meet her just yet.” He smiled warmly as his eyes turned their usual dark and the street went back to being a normal, dark Gotham street.
Stephanie’s thumb skated over his knuckles as their fingers entwined, and it was so easy to fall back into this even if she told herself not to. But, they could never have a complete start over unless one or both of them had their minds completely wiped clean. Too much history, too much baggage, too much love between the both of them that could never be ignored or forgotten, no matter how hard they tried. Sure, Steph was newish, but she could still remember and feel. It was still there in the back of her brain, nestled in even when she mentally shushed it. Her heart hammered a little more, and this was going to be as close to a start over as they could get.
She laughed when he teased her. “School trips are supposed to be fun, and that doesn’t sound much fun,” she teased back, grinning just a touch as her blue eyes lit up just a touch. She smiled easily when he brought up another type of move. “Maybe I’ll have to make an excuse to go over there for that, then.” Her fingers squeezed his, and she tried so hard not to hide a look of affection for the sake of it, but failed. But, she drew quiet as they walked down the street and the warmth of the alley was left behind them. Stephanie showed no fear, even if it was a tougher side of town. Sure, her face and rib were still healing, but she could take anyone down that might cause some trouble. Not that she really believed anyone would. That armistice seemed to blanket over everyone, not just the Families. At least for now.
Something about this area clicked, but before she could put two and two together, he was taking her hand with glowing green eyes. Immediately, Steph was swept up in the story he laid out before her, the time machine of the place where he had grown up. It felt like she was watching a movie on TCM, something in black and white that she would catch on days when she took a couple of hours at home and felt nostalgic for a number of things. Her head turned to watch the kids running, she turned to look at the men leaning against walls and people popping in and out of shops. Her face was charmed beyond belief, wonderment that she had never grown out of flickering across her face. It spread more as the scene faded in a puff of green, blue eyes bright and smile spreading.
“I love when you do that.” A beat. “Not that I’ve ever seen you do that before, naaah. Never.” She rolled her eyes playfully, and it was clear that she wasn’t scared of his powers to this day. She thought it was brilliant, that he was brilliant. A moment more of warm smiles and her blues looking into his browns, and it looked like something clicked in her brain. “I only grew up a couple of blocks from here myself.” She pointed down the block in the direction of the her childhood home, just a few streets down from this apartment complex. “Holy shit,” she said, amused as anything. Charmed even.
Eddie smiled at the roll of her eyes and he knew that this was the best they were going to get at pretending to start over. Oh, he was sure he could find a way to wipe her from his mind, but she was so tangled up in everything, how much would he lose? Would he even be interested in her if it wasn’t for all the history they shared? He was a man of two minds about the whole thing. He wanted to escape from her because a tiny inkling told him that it was ruined forever. Other times he wanted to run to her, to patch it up like he had always done. The fact was, he didn’t have what it took to do all the patchwork anymore. And those boundaries she put up when she said no? He was the guy who was making sure they stayed up now. They were the things that kept him safe from being hurt again.
“Really? Well, I suppose that makes sense.” Eddie didn’t seem all that surprised. They once shared a dream about growing up next door neighbors, so of course they shared that common thread. The dream had to remain a far away memory, though, so he shook it out of his head and gave her a warm, friendly sort of look that didn’t belong to a lover. “That was around the time Batman first started running around with a Robin. Did people know about Batman then? Was he just a shadow? Did you know of Robin?”
Walls and boundaries had always been a problem for Stephanie Brown, a kid with too much heart and no one to share it with. So, instead of being open with it like Eddie could be, she protected herself. It had been a problem in their relationship since the beginning, and she knew that she needed to unravel the damn thing if they would have any hope of really rekindling things. Eddie didn’t need to do all the legwork to fix this relationship; it was Steph’s fault too. And part of her, a big part, knew that she wasn’t wrong to be so coiled in after ten years away from him, but that didn’t mean that she shouldn’t have barred him from disarming her. Should have let him in a little more. Should have let go a little more. But, that had always been hard for the blonde bat, and old habits died really fucking hard.
She laughed again, nodding her head slightly. “Yeah, it does make sense. Of course it does.” They were such products of their city, of their neighborhoods that of course they grew up only a few blocks away from each other. She almost asked him if he remembered her childhood home, but starting over. No memories. She tried to lock each one away in that closet in her head where she stored so much from this Gotham over the years that she was gone. Tried being the operative word. For as much as Steph blocked herself off, oh god was she a bleeding heart, especially when it came to him.
Nodding, she said, “I spent so many nights as a kid looking out at that signal in the sky. Wondering if I would ever get a chance to do the same. Hoping that Batman and Robin could stop my dad. Wanting to help them, too.” Her fingers squeezed his again. “Was there a signal back when you grew up, too? Or did the Bat just stumble upon crime and take it down with a scowl?”
“No- well. In most cases I pre-date Batman. My most persistent memories come from worlds without a Batman. I was about twenty when the Waynes were killed in most cases...though in others I was only fifteen. Did I tell you that when the new Batman game came out I gained new memories? Isn’t that odd?” Eddie asked and let go of her hand long enough to pace towards his apartment building and look up at it. “I was some pencil pusher who wanted to blackmail all the powerful people in the city who were ruining everything. Batman insisted that my form of vigilantism wasn’t good because...reasons? And then my OCD clicked after he beat me. Thus, the Riddler was born. Of course, those memories feel...less real. Such is the life of a patchworked fictional man.”
Eddie turned to look at her. “I was inspired by him. I remember- my most clear memory, the realest one, was when I just started out as a thief. I was so bored with the life, it wasn’t any better than delivering pizzas. I needed a challenge. The cops didn’t understand my riddles, the mobs didn’t get it. But, he did. He got this look in his eye and I knew he enjoyed it just as much as I did. That’s what it feels like to be rogue. Like playing chess against someone who loves the game. Loves any game you make.” A long, long look up at the sky where the bat signal should be before he turned to her. “This bat isn’t like that. Thank goodness.”
Stephanie blinked a few times. “Do you gain new memories a lot? I think you’re the only one who’s really...made up of different people. I didn’t even know what the other Stephanie Brown was like when I wound up in that Gotham. I just had to piece things together and try not to let it influence how I was.” Of course, other factors fucked her up completely. Her mom? Steph still hadn’t gotten over that, and she really, really didn’t want to dwell on it. “Do you like getting new memories?” she asked out of curiosity. Steph didn’t know if she could deal with brand new memories popping into her head now and then just because someone decided to write something more about her.
Her head tilted to the side as she listened to him. She had never known nor understood what it was like to be a rogue. Steph, despite her fears and her family background, had never been built like that. She was too light gray to ever actually understand the motivations. She got some things of course -- like how her father wanted to prove himself or how Eddie wanted to be appreciated for his intellect. But, the way Eddie described it made it clearer than it had been to her in some time. She nodded along with him, understanding a lot better. “I never really thought of it that way, but it’s true. And that Bat? Liked to toy with people, so it makes sense. He loved his games.” She had been a victim to a number of them herself, but she was done with that bullshit completely. “I’m so glad this one is nothing like the others. We’re spoiled,” she quipped with a smile, but it was true. “The other Bats I know are cruel men who shut down decades ago. At least this one has a fighting chance, even if Gotham keeps knocking him down.”
“Only once and a while. I do like it, though I fear of one day getting a helping dose of the Riddler you and meow face know. I’ve read enough of him to know that I don’t want to be anything like that man.” Eddie took that interpretation of himself personally because there were a lot of similarities and yet none of the lines he didn’t like to cross. The new Riddler was just a cheap Joker. A killer, a thug who found theatrical ways to put down his victims. Eddie didn’t understand that. Bankrobber Eddie (who was a scumbag in his own right) wouldn’t get it either. “Too much like the clown. Not fair.” He put his hands behind his back and looked around the street, imagining a happy, renewed Gotham.
“Things are certainly changing. I fear Bruce will blame himself for this even though he really ought not to. The boy wanted to die. He’d find happiness here eventually, but at what expense? Will any of us ever feel love and acceptance from one another? I don’t know if it’s possible anymore even if it is readily given. I just don’t believe in the things I used to.” Another long look up at the red and black sky. A bruise with blimps for blemishes. Gotham the battered spouse. Gotham that never left and so they never left her. “We were helping the city when he started the attack. No, it wasn’t dramatically, but these things don’t always need a big show for it to work. Jobs, education, healthcare. These things are not as exciting as dressing up like a bat.”
“I never want that to happen to you. Ever.” Stephanie’s biggest fear right now was any form of that Riddler coming to this Gotham. Replacing this Eddie, her Eddie (though she wasn’t supposed to call him that, was she?), and tearing the city apart brick by brick. “It’s not going to happen,” she told him, sounding sure, because she’d be damned no matter what status their relationship was in. No matter if they were married, or friends, or even ended up hating each other, she knew that she was always going to care for him. Love him, even, in her own way. He was her Achilles’ Heel, no question.
A cold kick of wind hit them, and Steph had to tell herself not to step closer to him to warm them both up. Instead she shivered, tensing up her shoulders, and she shoved her hands in her coat pockets. But, she made no move to move towards him, nor did she look like she wanted to leave. She tilted her head to the side, blonde hair spilling in tendrils across her shoulder. “It’s possible,” she murmured, and she had to hope that was true. Sighing, she rubbed her face, her cheeks ruddy red from the cold, and then wrapped her arms around herself. “I think...well, I think a lot of it is getting lost in translation, isn’t it?” She didn’t elaborate, not in that moment, choosing to jump to the rest of his comments. “Not as exciting but just as valid. Even better probably.” Stephanie knew the bats were needed in Gotham, but she also knew that what she and Eddie and everyone else were doing outside of that. The morale that building this city and not just fighting crime created was astounding. It was so easy to love this city when she could remember the glowing, warm candles and pictures that lined that alleyway wall that once only brought pain.
Eddie chuckled at her defensive stance against the other Riddler. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. This is my home. And the man I am now will not so easily be changed.” He remembered conversations with those more roguish than him and when they used to make him sad or angry, now they only made him feel more secure about who he was. Retired. Moving onto bigger and better things. Oh, he could break out the neon when it was needed, but that was all a show. It was always just a fucking show. All the riddled man wanted was to feel secure with himself and now it felt as though he had been this man for decades.
“I think there’s room for both. I think there’s room for darkness in this city, too. I only want less suffering. Less death if we can help it.” Eddie watched her shiver in the chilled Gotham air and he didn’t move to be close to her. He suddenly thought of Freeze (the popsicle had been on his mind lately) and he wondered if he’d try to warm his wife’s body if she ever survived her illness. He wondered if he’d be annoyed that the woman he had been using as a trophy finally woke up. Eddie didn’t have any of those problems. He saw Stephanie shiver and he felt no urge to warm her, he felt no idealization for those blonde locks. He felt distance and that was that, wasn’t?
“I ought to get back home. Plenty of work to do and things to study. I only wanted to check on the alley. It seems like it’s doing fine.” Eddie smiled kindly and gave a small wave.
She knew that this Eddie was strong enough to not cave into his old ways. That was why she didn’t even question him infiltrating the mob from the inside. She trusted him to be. But still, his words placated her a bit, the taste of the memory of that other Riddler on her tongue. Bitter and nauseating. This Eddie standing before her? He was strong. She knew that. In spite of what others might believe, she knew that he was strong, and that he loved his life. He didn’t need her to keep it going. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t want him to want her or even need her a little bit.
Stephanie could feel that distance too, feel it growing between the two of them, and she looked at him with bright blue eyes dimmed in the darkness surrounding them. She worried her lip a little and wrapped her arms around herself a little more, and she wondered how bad it was to be mourning a marriage she hadn’t been a part of for over ten years. Especially while she was mourning a baby brother, too. “Less suffering. Less death,” she agreed quietly, and she bit back a shake in her voice.
The wave had her stomach lurch really quick, and a shout in her brain told her to make him stay. Steph blinked a few times, and she smiled a little nervously. Like they really were only first meeting each other. “Do you want to come back for a cup of coffee? It’s free and I promise it’s pretty good.” Then, quickly, as a follow up: “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course. Just--” Smiling, she sighed in frustration at herself, at letting this get this far. Why should she be nervous asking him to come back to her job for coffee? But, here she was, and she twisted her fingers into the sleeves of her coat for traction. Grounded reality.
Eddie knew two things. He knew she wasn’t going to let him leave without asking him to stay and he knew that if it was anything more than a cup of coffee somewhere harmless, he wouldn’t go. She wasn’t allowed at his place and if he was at the manor? It wasn’t for her. Coffee at her job sounded fine, though and he could justify agreeing. “Well, sure. I think one of your nurses owes me a favor, actually.” Eddie had eyes everywhere, after all. He noted how nervous she was and thought that she should be. Any other grown man with the money and respect and power he had would have just cut her loose already. Even his mother wanted to know why he still let Stephanie control his heart.
He took a step back and put his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to lead the way. Eddie didn’t move to hold her hand this time, even if the very thought of being just friends (something he sanctioned himself) was very, very odd. Another offered smile and then he let his mind drift back to Freeze, to Dent, to Arkham. This part of town always made him think of his roguish days. Of the people he knew that were now likely lost forever.
Her mouth twitched up, relief evident in the way her shoulders unclenched and her fingers loosened around the fabric of her coat. She waited a moment, as if giving him time to make sure or to change his mind, and then she turned back around to walk them in the direction of the Crime Alley clinic. It was only a few blocks away from where they stood, funnily enough. Steph wondered what else about Eddie was right under her nose that she wasn’t even aware of. Like, she supposed, infiltrating her nurses. She laughed a little. “I’m not even surprised. Am I allowed to ask what the favor’s for?”
She rubbed the cold out of her arms as she wandered down the sidewalk, passing the glowing beacon of hope and redemption in the middle of this seedy side of Gotham. Smiling at the small crowds wandering towards that warmth, she told herself she would go back again, but maybe making sure Eddie wasn’t there first. Clearly she wasn’t a pleasant sight for him in his space. Her lips twitched to a frown for a fraction of a second, but she recovered. She chewed on her lip, nibbled away that fear and nervousness as best she could. The silence lingered, the click of his shoes and the scuff of her sneakers punctuating it as she fished for something to say. Anything. Goddamn anything. It used to be so easy to talk to him, but here she was. She almost made a comment about that, but in the end, she went for something neutral. Something that didn’t touch the family or them.
“Have you learned anything interesting in your studies?”
“Amy’s brother is a Maroni guy. I keep her brother out of trouble and she tells me if they’re up to something they shouldn’t be. I need her to keep an eye on them. A peace treaty over the holidays is swell, but Maroni is still hurting from Damian’s attack. He could try something. I want to be careful and nosey even if I doubt anything will happen.” Eddie didn’t have a problem telling Stephanie anything she wanted to know. It wasn’t that he thought she deserved it or even that he trusted her very much anymore, he simply knew that she would always get to know everything about him if she asked. Being his partner for so long granted her that, even if it wasn’t true anymore.
The awkwardness from Stephanie was amusing at first. He didn’t make any moves to try and charm her or anything like what he would do to someone else. If she had told anyone in Gotham that Eddie Nigma made her feel awkward or she didn’t know what to say around him, no one would believe it. “Ah, my studies. Boring stuff right now. Learning how to conjure things under duress. Making sure skeletons don’t try to strangle me. Lately, I’ve been reading tales about old necromancers. Most were shunned from society for obvious reasons and lived very eccentric little lives because of it. Others were treated like saints. I’m hoping I’ll achieve sainthood instead of being shunned. That’s the dream.”
Eddie winked and as they approached the clinic, he opened the door for her and swept inside. Amy, a twenty-something with dark hair and serious eyes was the first person he went to, as if Stephanie had vanished somewhere in the background. He instantly seemed comfortable around this girl he barely knew. Making her smile and nod and squint like they were in cahoots together. This was the sort of way he had with most people. Well, most people except for Stephanie. By the time their short exchange was over, Eddie mimed for her to call him and she smiled, charmed, before going back to her work. He stepped back over to Stephanie and clapped his hands together. “So, coffee?”
There was a noise like a huh at the back of her throat, like maybe she should have figured that out herself, but then again who wasn’t connected to the mobs somehow in this town? Amy was a nice enough girl, a great nurse, and so what if she was trying to protect her brother? Steph would probably be inclined to do the same thing in the same situation. “It’s smart. To have eyes and ears in there, it’s smart.” And she believed that to be true. Sure, that armistice was all fine and dandy right now, but what happened if someone slipped. She smiled in amusement. “You know more about my employees than I do. I’m not surprised by that either.” He always knew more, and instead of being angry or jealous, she admired it. The man with his finger on the pulse of the entire city.
She shook her head. “That doesn’t sound boring to me,” she told him, sounding genuinely curious. Eddie’s necromancy didn’t freak her out; it fascinated her. She was even interested in looking into it herself a little bit just to understand him a little more. To see bits and pieces of him that maybe she didn’t get before. “I want to learn more about it,” she admitted, and the and you bit was implied, of course. Eddie surely knew that without her saying it. And then she smiled at the dream and at that wink. “You’ve got more of a chance at sainthood than anyone I know.” And that? Was true. Redemption was really big with God, wasn’t it? And Eddie was the picture of redemption.
Stephanie looked on as Eddie spoke and charmed her nurse with such ease, and a tiny jealous green monster boiled in her stomach before she could help it. She busied herself with talking to another nurse, asking about any new cases, and signing some charts. But maybe she caught that flirty little call me and the bashful smile across Amy’s face, and she had to bite back something. Instead, when Eddie turned around, she placed the chart she was reviewing back in the rack and nodded. “Coffee,” she agreed, and even the nurses could tell a palpable difference between the two since the last time they saw them together.
She lead him back to the breakroom, through the small clinic with little more than curtains surrounding beds and basic technology and supplies. “This is the newest one, funnily enough. Leslie’s first clinic was around Crime Alley, but I just got around to starting fixing this one before I--.” She waved her hand. “You know. Anyway. I haven’t been able to expand or remodel yet, but I’m planning on starting after the new year. After….” She was finished mourning Damian. Steph sighed for a second, and then smiled wearily. “It’ll be a good project.” She opened the door to the breakroom, a sparse room with one round chair and a small collection of chairs in the middle. On the counter sat a Keurig and a caddy for some k-cups, and a couple of mugs were in the cabinets above them. She pulled two out and hit the button to start heating up the water.
“It’s a fine clinic as it is now. Though, remodeling would allow you to do a lot more.” Eddie knew plenty about this place without her telling him. People needed these clinics to survive and sometimes when he found a homeless man that needed something for an infection or a cold, he pointed him to one of these clinics. “People trust you and that’s big in Gotham. Most clinics like this...well they usually turn out to be something bad. Everyone knows they don’t have to worry about that with you.” Eddie followed her into the break room and took a seat on one of the chairs while using another as a foot rest.
A moment passed and he gently played with the goofy scarf Marie had made him. His heart ached for a split second because thinking about her and his friend and their kids was like thinking about a dream, a real dream, he had to give up. He considered another universe where he and Stephanie were happily married with a baby on the way. He saw them picking out a tree and furnishing their brand new home. The thought faded as he watched her make coffee and he knew he was so, so foolish for thinking that would be written in the stars for him.
“Damian’s memorial is coming up. I told Grayson to tell you. Holly will be there.” Eddie wasn’t going to, that was obvious. Damian never wanted him in his family and comforting Stephanie was out of the equation, so why bother? “I hope it’s better than last time. I don’t think anyone even showed up.”
“It could be better,” Stephanie retorted without any sort of snappiness or malice, just a truthfulness about her. “I want it to be better.” But she was glad that her clinics had a reputation for being a good place. “I want to make Leslie proud, you know? She would treat anyone, and she just wanted it to be a safe place in this city. I want it to be a good, positive place where people aren’t scared to come in, no matter what.” She would treat anyone, she had proved that already. Mob, goon, rich, poor, it didn’t matter. She just wanted to help. She wanted people to feel better.
And the fact that Eddie was hurting? Well, that was not making him feel better. She feared that he would never be able to be around her without going through so much pain or even distance. Her heart ached for the fact that his was broken, and every bone in her body just wanted to fix this. But, Steph wasn’t stupid enough to think that this was going to be an easy fix anymore. That was dead and gone, and she knew she was going to have to fight tooth and nail for a semblance of what they both wanted for so long. She was ready to do it, too.
“I haven’t heard from him yet.” She popped on k-cup in and it began brewing into one of the mugs. While that was pouring into the mug, she stepped to the fridge to grab a peppermint creamer she had bought recently to force herself into a holiday sort of mood. She splashed it into his coffee once it finished brewing, and then brought the mug over to him. “I’m glad Holly’s going, and I hope that more people come this time. I...think we all need it. Just for closure.” She held the warm mug out to him, fingers tingling as his brushed hers. Turning around to get hers, she stopped halfway. “Will you come?” She had no fucking right, but if he asked, she would pepper it with something about being there for Bruce or whatever. That was true, of course, but her motivations were more selfish than that.
“I think it’s funny how much you want to make people proud who are certainly already very proud of you. Leslie wasn’t a woman I knew very well, but she has patched me up before and I know this is exactly what her vision would have looked like.” Eddie said very candidly. He had no reason to compliment Stephanie and indeed barely any desire to flatter her. It was just the truth. The truth was she had managed to build exactly what this city needed and what Leslie would have hoped for. “Still, I think you’re right in wanting to expand. Staying a certain way forever is a waste of time.” The city needed more clinics and more doctors like Stephanie. Again, that was just the truth.
He smirked at the faint smell of peppermint and thanked her for the coffee before taking a small sip. Her question made his eyebrows shoot up in surprise. He laughed dryly. “Me? No, I wasn’t planning on it.” Eddie didn’t even realize she was asking him to come until after another sip of coffee. That sobered him. “What good would that do? You should be there with your family.” It wasn’t a no. He just didn’t understand why she’d want him there when he could barely managed to touch her anymore. It wasn’t like it was before she rejected his offer to stay at his place. There was no urge to touch and hold her. No need to make her feel better and feel loved like he tried to do at the mansion. So, why would she ever want him there?
Stephanie smiled a little. “I grew out of most of it, but I still fall victim to needing to make people proud now and then.” It was easier in that Gotham to not give a shit what most people thought. Her mother was a rogue along with her father, the Bat was more brutal, and the family was detached. She had few real attachments over the years aside from Leslie, honestly. And even if the woman was never going to show up here, probably, she still felt the need to make her proud. Eddie’s frankness? Actually made her feel proud, too. “Thanks.” But, she nodded. “I have to grow with the city. Otherwise it’s worthless, and I can’t let this be worthless.”
She expected the surprise, and she didn’t flinch at that laugh. She deserved that, didn’t she? A sigh was bit back, and she turned to fix her own cup of coffee, back turned so he couldn’t see the frown on her face. A plop plop of peppermint into her own cup before she turned around. “I want you there,” she told him frankly. “Bruce will, too. And the rest of the family. You know that. But mostly? I want you there. I’m selfish, and I want you there.” Sighing, she leaned against the counter, grabbing her cup of coffee to cradle the warmth between her cool fingertips. “I know that there’s a lot going on between you and me, and I know I’m probably your least favorite person right now, but...I want you there. You don’t even have to hang out with me, you can spend the entire time with Bruce. Just. To know you’re there will make it easier.” There was no mention of need, though that was clearly peppered throughout her words if he wanted to find it.
Eddie’s brow creased and he looked down at his coffee before watching her lean on the counter. His answer came easy, with her it always did. “Yes. If you want me there, I’ll be there.” He didn’t know why it was so hard for her to tell him the same and he figured he’d never really understand. Memories of her various no’s and rejections popped up like wild flowers and he had to take a long sip of coffee to bash them back down. He deserved something better, he knew he did, but for all the show he was putting on tonight, he still felt like a dog at her feet. He let out a sigh because all of this hurt like fiberglass rattling around in his lungs. How wonderful it must be to say no to her. Eddie imagined the real freedom of it and knew it must have felt better than this.
“Everyone knows we’re not together, I think.” He pressed his fingers against the mug and kept his eyes down at his shoes. “But, I don’t think any of them will be surprised to see me standing with you regardless. Yes, I’ll be there for you.” Eddie nodded, voice gentle and strong. Another sip of coffee and then he got to his feet. “I really, really ought to be going.”
Stephanie knew enough about Eddie to know what not being able to look at her meant. She immediately wanted to take her request back. But, she was weak, and she was selfish, and she needed him there even if he didn’t even like her anymore. Let alone love her. She looked at him heaving that sigh, and her heart tore in two, and she wished she could find the words to make this okay. But, there was nothing, and they were at the point of no return. Start over or move their separate ways. She rubbed one of her arms with her hand, other still clutching the mug like it was an anchor in this room. “Thank you,” she said quietly, not even bothering to sip at her coffee. The idea of that sweetness hitting her stomach made her nauseous.
A noise of acknowledgement, and she said, “I hope not.” She knew that if everyone didn’t know they weren’t together, then they could certainly guess given what was going on between Gotham’s former sweethearts. “Thank you, Eddie. It means the world to me.” She placed her mug on the counter behind her hip, and she took a step forward. “Okay.” Her voice was soft and not pushy. She had already asked too much of him. “Stay warm.” A beat, and then: “Call me?” she asked before she could help herself. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to though. If not I-- I’ll see you at the memorial.” She smiled shakily at him, but didn’t dare to touch him or hug him, even if that was what she wanted. She had no desire to twist the knife further into his side.
Eddie chugged the rest of the coffee and then felt a strange awareness of his hands. Handshake? No, that was silly. Hug? No, he didn’t want a hug. So, he just set the cup down and backed up towards the door like a bank robber about to get away with the loot; gun pointed at the nervous teller. “I’m not calling you.” Eddie said automatically with a funny laugh because god what kind of nerve did she have? “Are you kidding me? Fuck, put me in the electric chair now, Stephanie.” He felt the somberness of this whole thing crack at the edges and fall apart. Like a pancake that didn’t flip right. Like Christmas tree lights that burnt out in the middle. God, what kind of nerve did she have?
“I’ll see you at the memorial.” He repeated after her and he turned with a funny flourish of his hand as he went. The feeling he had now reminded him of when he was young and angry and felt like a zero. He knew the feelings he had then were immature and unfounded; a genius who simply thought he deserved more than he got. Here? He knew he deserved a good family, a woman to love and someone who could love him back. He deserved it and all he got was a ghost of a wife, a broken family and a tiny apartment that needed to be small to make him forget all the shit he lost. When he opened the door to the clinic, he put himself in the hotel and headed straight for a door he could raise hell in. The rogue in him wanted out, so tonight he’d see what a gaggle of angry skeletons could do to an evil empire’s treasury.