Mama Gotham

Unbroken

Warnings: Other than the usual Gotham being Gotham and occasional cursing, today we will be getting into Alyssa's not so happy relationships. Emotional abuse trigger, just a heads up. If you can't read it, message me and I'll tell you what happened.

As the heat of her family scandal slowly died down, Alyssa's life returned to normal. Jamie returned to her college classes upstate, promising to keep closer contact, and as far as she knew her mother was still in town. She had a tiny apartment and a nice job at a coffee shop last Alyssa had checked.

As for her father, who the hell knew? He seemed to have meant his goodbye message, as none of the Connors girls or anyone else had heard from him since.

But that was fine; just because he had decided to be a decent person in the end didn't mean she had any interest in forming a father-daughter relationship.

She had one of those already; she was currently arguing with him.

"You can't just let everything die out!" Harvey Bullock was saying. "You gotta make this thing work for you, otherwise they're gonna use it against you!"

"You worry too much!" she waved him, off, kicking her feet up on Jim's desk as the boyscout was no where to be found. "I got my life completely under control for once. And there ain't nothing or nobody who can change that."

Harvey scoffed, but his attention was drawn across the room to where one of his colleagues was pointing a young man in their direction. "Who the hell is that?"

Alyssa followed his gaze and her eyes went wide. "Huh....I'm wrong."

******

Despite her desperate attempts to avoid him, the man eventually found her.

"Alyssa."

Alyssa winced and put a fake smile on her face before she turned around. "Ben. What are you doing here?"

"I, heard about your parents. I came to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine." she said shortly.

"How are you fine? You don't look fine." Alyssa tried to mask her emotions, but Ben had seen her slip up. He stepped up to her and wrapped his arms around her in a comforting gesture. Against her better judgement, Alyssa gave in to his warmth, staining his shirt with her tears. "Hey, hey, its okay. Its okay, I'm here for you."

Perhaps it was the fact that he took the time to listen to her rant about all the crap she had been going through, but Alyssa found herself actually listening to his offers of solutions.

Stop going down to the GCPD, stop visiting Arkham as much. It only made her feel worse.

Instead, she should focus on her career. Make life better for those kids. She couldn't let them suffer just because her emotions were out of whack. She had to keep herself in check, not over-react.Everything he said made perfect sense, just like it had all those years ago.

Except this time, when he tried to kiss her, she stopped him.

"I sort of have a boyfriend...." she said meekly.

"How do you sort of have a boyfriend?" Ben frowned.

"He-He's a forensic scientist at the GCPD. You'd like him, he's really smart, and funny –"

"Alyssa, I thought we agreed that you weren't going to get involved with the police anymore?"

She frowned. "I-Its just where he works..."

"He's tied into it. You know getting involved in police cases upsets you."

"I –"

"Shh, its okay. You don't have to worry." he took her hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. "I'll protect you."