Jailbird Fly (Effie/Eddie Log)
Effie bounced up the stairs, her long pigtails swinging as she followed the officer to get changed from her prison oranges and back into her jeans and hoodie she had worn into prison. Once done, she bounced out into the visitor’s area, throwing herself on her father, hugging him tightly. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Yes, she knew he had done bad and illegal things to free her, but she couldn’t stand another minute in there, and she certainly couldn’t stand going to Blackgate! There would be repercussions, questions...but the judge had freed her stating there was no evidence tying her to the murders beyond her own words, and words were not enough at this time to convict her…
..and so, she was free, questions and thoughts be damned. She was afraid, however, that she didn’t have anything to go home to. Bruce had never come to see her, and she doubted Tony would be as forgiving now. She clung to her father, suddenly terrified to leave.
--
Thank God for the law, there were many loopholes and run-arounds when it came to holding someone for a crime. And Edward knew a good deal about how all of those things worked. Getting her out of jail had been easy, keeping her out would be a different story all together. But they could deal with that when it came.
When he saw Effie, Edward straightened in his wheelchair and offered his daughter his most charming smile, the same one he'd extended to the judge. "I couldn't let my girl rot in jail," Eddie breathed before she pulled away, and he turned his chair to go.
But when Effie didn't release him Eddie became concerned. He patted his daughter on the back and offered her a curious, sideways look, "Something wrong, baby?" --
“He never came,” she whispered, knowing Eddie would know who she meant. All this time...and her husband never came once. Bruce claimed over and over again to love her but..he had never been there when she needed him most.
And she had believed him, given herself to him...and now her heart was broken as she faced leaving here and returning to a man who probably didn’t want her to come home.
She sniffed, but didn’t cry, refusing to break down in public. Instead, she stood, closing her emotions off, wrapping her hands around the handels of her father’s chair, hiding Effie away as Enigma took her place.
--
"Darling you have to understand that there are limitations on goodness, and this place is the epitome of darkness. Why would he want to come to a place like this when your situation looked so hopeless?" Eddie was secretly proud that Bruce hadnt come to check on Effie, but he didn't let it show in his features.
Edward settled into the wheelchair as Effie pulled away and sat contently when she pushed him.
He offered a smug look to the guard and sighed contently when they reached the area that would take them back out into the main part of the police station.
Effie was sliding deeper into Edward's pocket and he stifled a giggle while they waited to be allowed to leave.
--
“He still should have come,” she said cooly, signing her release paperwork and pushing Eddie out into the street. She gave a happy, contented sigh as the sun hit her, tilting her head back to enjoy it for a moment.
“It feels...wonderful,” she breathed.
--
"That's something you'll have to take up with him, baby," Eddie said with a shrug. He hoped that if he ever landed in jail at least Effie would visit. He hoped Jonathan would, but of course Eddie did understand how the other man felt about jail. They all hated it.
When she commented about the sun Eddie nodded, "Nice being free, isn't it?" --
She nodded, hugging her father. “Thank you, again,” she said, kissing his cheek before bouncing. “Where to? We could go out for lunch, or shopping, or to the park…”
Anywhere but the Tower where she didn’t want to see Bruce and face her true judgement. She didn’t want to loose him and the life she lead.
--
Edward again only shrugged, "It doesn't matter. You're the free one, we can go where you'd like." He did recall that last time he said that they ended up with bags full of Sanrio. But honestly Eddie didn't care.
Today was about her.
--
“Well, we could have lunch...in the park,” she suggested, not really wanting to be inside another building just yet, not when she was free. “And maybe...go look at the weapons shop?” Yes, it could be slipper slide back into her old life, but it was something her father would like and she did need to replace one of her knives.
Plus...if she truly had lost everything, she would need to start over, and working with her father was a way to do that.
She just...wouldn’t kill anyone.
--
"Lunch in the park, hm? I think I can manage that." Eddie nodded, satisfied with the suggestion. He hadnt eaten outside in quite a while, picnic style, since that one time with Spooky.
And Eddie always wanted to look at weapons.
"Let's grab some lunch, then we will go look at shiny toys. I'll even get you something pretty if you'd like," Edward said, able to smile outwardly finally. He liked that she wanted to go get new weapons. This backslide was very welcome. -- Effie smiled, standing on the riser on the back of his wheelchair as was her custom, using him as a kick board as they sailed down the street. “Sandwitches? Maybe some coleslaw?” she offered, humming happily as she steered them, using the tip of her sneakers as a break when they went down a hill. “Or something else?”
She was trying not to think, to deal with everything later instead of right now. Anything to keep her sane.
--
Eddie shrugged. He lifted a hand and motioned to a hot dog vendor down the street close to the park, "What about a hot dog and a coke? I can't remember the last time I had a hot dog....needs lots of onions though."
Edward would help Effie if he could, but he would do it rationally. In the past his trying to be helpful had backfired and that was not what he wanted at present. Things were delicate but up in the air.
And if Eddie knew Bruce, which he did because the man was like a picture book, he knew Bruce wouldn't let Effie go so easily.
--
“Ewww,” Effie said, wrinkling her nose, but she went along with the idea. Yes, Effie tried to put proper and healthy food into her body on most days...but she was still a teenager with the eating habits there in at times.
She steered them over towards the street vender, ordering four hot dogs, two smothered with onions and one with light poisioned onions and heavy relish along with two soda’s. She bounced as she waited for them to be fixed, vibrating the wheel chair as she did.
She was just...so happy to be free! She could do a cartwheel!
--
Eddie could only be amused by her reaction and pleased when she began to wheel them in that direction. It didn't matter what Eddie consumed, his metabolism was impeccable and it went through him. Which helped when he was drinking.
He needed a drink come to think of it, he couldn't remember the last time he had had alcohol and that was very unacceptable. Far too long to go without.
When the hotdogs were fixed, Eddie paid the vendor and took the food, setting the stacks of hotdogs and wrappers in his lap, a hand curled around each of the sodas. Patiently he waited for Effie to find them a good spot.
--
Effie found them a semi private spot, humming as she wheeled him over before locking his brakes and taking a seat, sorting through the food so that he had his nasty, left out too long onions and she had her slightly less death inducing hot dogs, making a little border of straw wrappers and napkins to keep his bacteria on his side of the table before adding mustard to her hot dogs.
“So what were you doing while I was wasting away?” she asked, curious.
--
Edward settled at the table when she rolled him to it, taking his hotdogs willingly after setting one of the cups in front of her space. The other he set to the side and almost instantly one of the greasy, onion-coated hotdogs simply ceased to be. Licking his lips Eddie groaned in delight and drank from the paper cup that held the soda. Not bad for a beverage that lacked alcohol.
"Planning to rob a few places. The normal stuff. And trying to keep out of sight..." Edward still hated Bruce but he put up with him as best he could.
--
Effie looked horrified at her father’s eating habits, herself taking small, dainty bites. “Chew, Daddy, it helps,” she muttered, but when he was busy with his drink, she took a giant bite, resembling a squirrel when he turned his attention back to her.
Chewing and swallowing, she stuck out her tongue. “Why don’t you become a detective again? You don’t need to rob places anymore and you’re so brilliant!”
--
"Oh chewing, hm?" Edward replied at the look of her when her cheeks ended up overfull from the bite of hotdog. Amusing!
Eddie picked up the other, now-soggy hotdog and began the act of consuming it. In a matter of moments it too endured the same fate as the one before, ceasing to be.
He licked his lips, drained the cup and set all of the trash aside to throw away later. If there was one thing Edward wasn't, it was a litter bug. Well, not intentionally anyway.
"Because that's boring. And nobody around here would need a service like that. You have to have a world that balances itself, and without people like me you would be void of the need of Hero's. We keep the world spinning."
--
“I chewed,” she protested, blushing that he had caught her. “It may be a decent hotdog…” She wasn’t willing to take away all of her criticisms...but it was good.
“But we hurt so many people,” she said, toying with her bun, biting at her lip. “Our victims...their families…”
A tear slid down her cheek as she thought of Erik and Christine, of how much pain she had caused them...caused Bruce.
“How can we be happy making so many miserable?”
--
"That's part of life, Effie. The natural balance of things. Tigers hurt the tiny bunnies, they know these bunnies have families and probably other little bunnies to feed but if they don't kill them the bunnies will take over and unbalance the Eco-system. It's nature."
"Nobody said you had to take anyone's life or hurt anyone. You're an adult Effie, you make your own choices. I've made mine and I have regrets but I wouldn't change who I am for anything. If I did, I don't think you and I would be here right now like this." Edward had stayed up a lot of nights wondering what Effie would be like had she stayed with her foster parents, or had he been a better father to her.
"Misery is part of life. Have you heard the expression, Misery loves Company? Perhaps we hurt ourselves on a level too deep to understand and the only way to alleviate that is by making someone else feel it. Of course that's fleeting, because nobody will ever feel what you do inside. You've been thorough a great deal. Far too much, really."
--
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she whispered, toying with her hot dog still. “But...I liked the jewlery…” And the heists that went into obtaining them. It was a part of who she was, Effie could never truly be over being a thief, she could just control the impulses. The desire, the want...it would always be a part of who she was.
Like any addict, tortured by the idea of just one more hit.
--
"Then don't. Nobody said you had to hurt anyone, baby. You can still have the world without harming anyone in it." Eddie took one of her hands gently and squeezed it affectionately, "You do what your heart says and you'll be just fine."
She was his monster. He created who she was and he knew what she was capable of. But she was human and she had to come around in her own time. And time was what they all seemed to have an abundance of at present.
The fact that she was so monstrous was what made Eddie entirely sure that Bruce would never leave her. He needed her. Needed her monster to counterbalance his own, and she was the only woman that hadnt run screaming at the very thought, which was a bonus. Despite how Eddie might view it.
--
“So...what were you thinking of hitting…” she asked, toying with her straw, looking up at him through her bangs. A part of her was screaming at her for even considering this, but the rest of her was just too heart broken and depressed to care. Her father was the only one who had been there for her...he was the only one who loved her.
--
Edward offered Effie's hand another squeeze before releasing her, sitting back in his wheelchair. "At present the museum is still looking promising, however there is a jewelry show that I keep hearing about. It's rumored that this collection is one of the rarest this city has ever seen. It would be a shame if someone didn't go check it out for value," Edward explained.
He didn't mind cutting Effie in on his projects if she was willing. She had the necessary skill and obviously the desire. Now if only she would listen to her daddy and get a divorce. Things would be so much easier.
"What do you say, baby? Pretty things? Expensive ones? Or would you rather make dinner for a man that doesn't love you?"
--
She bit her lip, worrying at it, torn, eyes darting back and forth as an argument raged in her head before she lowered her head. “I’m in,” she whispered, sounding more as if she was agreeing to her own execution. But..he was right. This was what she should do...had to do, more than being Bruce’s submissive little wife who tried so hard to make him happy when it was obvious he didn’t care.
--
Edward nodded at the tone of her voice, "You are worth so much more than he sees, baby. You have skills, so much potential. You're like a flower being stunted instead of being allowed to grow...." He said with a sigh, looking at her finally with sincerity, "I wish you could see what I do in you. I would give anything to let you look thorough my eyes and show you everything you can be. But you made your choice. I respect that. And we will deal with the consequences."
Edward shifted closer to Effie, taking her hand again, "Like I said, you're an adult. I can't make your decisions for you but I will tell you my opinion. Wether you take my advice or not is up to you." Edward had other things on his plate but he always tried to make room for her.
"I'll make sure you get plenty of the cut."
--
“You’d better,” she said, sticking out her tongue. She would file his advice away for later, to think about when she wasn’t feeling so miserable and rotten. “After all, I’m not doing all this to get a paultry pearl.”
-- Eddie shook his head at her, "Darling would I drag you to a show for pearls? Please. I have better taste than that. Rubies, emeralds, diamonds...all kinds of colors. It'll be festive. You'll love it."
Edward wondered what Bruce would say if he knew that Edward was taking Effie on a major heist. Oh he wanted to giggle!
It was too bad that Jonathan was missing out on all of the fun. He needed to catch up with his better half at some point, his heart demanded it, but for now this was sufficient.
--
“You’re wearing your ring…” she stated, having caught it flashing in the light. Her eyes narrowed, anger and jealousy flooding her. “Daddy, please tell me you didn’t go back to him, he tried to kill you!” she yelled.
She would not allow her father to become a victim again, and yes, the irony went right over her head considering her relationship with Bruce.
--
At the mention of the ring Edward nodded, lifting his free hand up to look at it. "He came to me, actually. It was sort of a peace meeting. Of course it was good to see him, after I quit shaking like a leaf," Edward said casually, lowering his hand.
He smiled at Effie, "Monsters lurk in the darkest of places, baby. You should know that if anyone does. When the chips are down it's better to be at the side of the devil than in the pathway of his destruction."
It was something they both knew well. Jonathan seemed tamer, and he said he was working on their problem. "I haven't seen or heard from him since he came to the warehouse. I think he's trying to make sure it's...safe."
--
“Fuck that. I’m going to kill him,” she stated, angrily taking a bite of her hot dog. “Cut off his hed and use it for a bowling ball,” she muttered around her mouthful, glaring at the air. She was NOT going to let her fathe be used by that man. Never ever again.
Her daddy, god damnit! And no one was allowed to do that to him!
--
"Now now, Effie. Be rational. Being irrational is what almost got me killed. You can't kill him, he is smarter than that," Edward had underestimated Scarecrow and he wasn't going to let Effie fall into the same traps.
"And I don't see how that would be fair to me. I love him. Yes, he did a bad thing but how does that compare to what Bruce has done to you? He didn't outright try to kill you, of course, but you know what I mean..."
Edward offered Effie a knowing glance and relaxed in his seat.
--
“I would die to keep you safe,” she stated cooly, staring at her father as if daring him to question it. “And you tired to kill Bruce, Mr. Short Term Memory. Multiple times. So turn about is fair play. And I dont’ even have to be involved...I’ll sick the Hulk on him.”
Effie still had her devious mind, no matter how it was blanketed now by morals and choice. She could so easily twist Bruce around and make him attack Jonathan, to overpower the smaller man.
And she would do it in a heartbeat.
-- "You don't think that after all you and I have been through that I wouldn't die for you?" Eddie almost laughed after the words had spoken. Effie was part of the reason he had survived, and why he had gotten her out of jail.
It was why he had attempted to kill a man that couldn't die, but back then he didn't know that was the reason. He knew now. And he could kill Bruce if he wanted to. He had the means and a fool-proof plan. But he wouldn't. Because he meant the world to Effie. The same way Jonathan meant to Eddie.
"I can't stop you, but I have warned you. Good luck if you try," Edward said, shrugging.
--
“Why would you?” she asked, confused. “I’m not worth it.”
And there was a raw honesty in that statement, Effie truly believing she wasn’t worth fighting or dying for. The years of neglect and being unwanted leaving a gaping hole in her that she had covered with false narcassim and bravado.
She didn’t even realize how broken she truly was.
-
"Because you do those things for the people you love. Bruce has tried to protect you because he does love you. Part of him does. His monster holds him back but that's why you have me."
Edward would sacrifice himself for Jonathan too. Without hesitation. It wouldn't even be a second thought for the criminal if it came down to it.
You did crazy things when you loved someone so dearly.
--
“Yeah, well, you’re weird,” she muttered, blushing, not really accepting his words...unused to the feeling of being wanted and loved. It was easier when her father hated her. She took another large bite of her hot dog, her cheeks poking out again as she tried to chew it.
Under the table, her legs wrapped around his in a sort of hug, a soft sound of contentment slipping from her.
-- Edward only shrugged contently at his daughter, as if to say that was all he had to give. Nothing more or less. He would protect her, but not from her own stupidity. If she was dumb enough to take on Jonathan, even using hulk the fight wouldn't end well. Eddie would see to that.
Otherwise the day was pretty and he was exhausted from the events leading up to that moment. Sharing could be so tiring. --