Mama Gotham

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"Let's talk about the first child you took under your wing."
"Jerome."

Against her better judgement, Alyssa had found herself back in Dr. McMartin's office. This was actually her fourth session. She wasn't entirely certain what kept bringing her back.

"How did you meet him?" the doctor probed, diving headfirst into her latest attempts to figure out the mayor of Gotham.
"I was...eleven." Alyssa looked up in thought as she tried to recall the day that seemed lifetimes ago. "My parents took Jamie and me to the circus. Jamie ran off. I chased her into the hall of mirrors and one of them fell down when I bumped into it. That's how I found Jerome. He was hiding behind the hall of mirrors. He was crying."
"And you comforted him?" Erin prompted.
Alyssa nodded. "He didn't tell me why he was crying, but he answered when I asked him his name. I bought him cotton candy to cheer him up."
"But you've mentioned several times how tight money was back then."
"Yeah, so?"
"Well if you're pinching every penny a treat for a stranger doesn't seem like the best idea."
"It made him smile." Alyssa said as though that were all the justification required.

"But you stayed with him even after you cheered him up. And you kept coming back." Erin said, getting the look she got every time she thought she had a breakthrough in Alyssa's case. "What exactly was it that drew you to this boy?"
"He was a crying child, I wasn't about to just leave him."
"I'm talking about afterwards. You had already cheered him up, why did you feel the need to go the extra mile?"
"Cuz...he was just a kid." Alyssa said rather lamely. "He was barely older than Jamie. I mean you should've seen him when we ran into his mother; poor thing looked like he was trying to disappear."
"And you sympathized with that?"
"Well, yeah."
"Why?"
"What do you mean, 'why?' It's a human instinct, when someone's in pain you feel bad for them."
"You've told me you hate pity."
"I do!"
"Then why did you pity Jerome?"

"I didn't! I just –" she sighed. "He was scared...When he first noticed me he jumped away and when he looked up...." she bit her lip and looked down. "When I looked at his face, I saw me. Just a lost little kid, who didn't matter, and didn't think he ever would. A little kid who...cried herself to sleep at night because....she wanted her parents so bad." Alyssa's voice cracked and she didn't seem to notice that she'd switched pronouns. "And could never understand, why they didn't want her too..." she sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Nobody should have to go through that. It's not fair."

******

If living in Gotham had taught Alyssa Connors anything, it was that curiosity killed more than cats. Curiosity meant looking into alleyways, following people you shouldn't, and just general things that put you at a high risk of death. Well, higher than usual on any given day in this city.

Yet here she was, out on the pier at the request of a strange letter that had been shoved under her door in the middle of the night, waiting for who the hell knew. The letter had only provided a time, place, and a warning to come alone. Nothing ominous about that. The only clue she had as to what to expect was the odd signature at the bottom of the letter.

The Court of Owls. How pretentious.

The sound of a car approaching derailed her train of thought. Alyssa turned to see an expensive looking car pulling up sideways towards her. The paint job was shiny and black. Why were all the cars in Gotham black? Making a mental note to exchange her city car for something yellow, Alyssa stepped forwards and knocked on the back window facing her. If this person was anything like Don Falcone, the driver was not the one she was here to meet.

Sure enough, the window rolled down to reveal an older gentleman. He had salt and pepper hair, a scruffy beard, and looked oddly familiar despite the fact that she was certain they'd never met.

"I'm Alyssa Connors, who the hell are you?"

"You can call me Frank." the man informed. "I'm here to discuss an opportunity with you Ms. Connors, if you'd like to hop in."

"I wasn't born yesterday. I'd much rather you step out than get into a confined space with a man representing some court I've never heard of. And please, call me Alyssa."

A slight smirk crossed his face, but Frank complied, opening the car door and stepping out. "The court you're referring to is something you've never heard of because we didn't contact you until now. But I can assure you we've been watching you for some time Alyssa."

"Who hasn't? I give weekly televised press briefings."

That smirk was still present. "We watch just a little bit closer."

"Ooookay." the mayor rolled her eyes. "Can we stop talking like we're in a Stephen King novel please? I want straightforward answers. Who are you and what the hell do you want?"

Frank laughed. "You really are as much of a spitfire as they say. Fair enough, I can respect that. As I'm sure you've worked out, I'm a member of the Court of Owls. We run Gotham."

"No you don't, I do."

"You think you do, and so do the rest of the common folk. Everyone does the Court's bidding, some of us just don't know it. Thing is though, you've popped up on our radar one too many times to ignore, and not always for something good."

Alyssa was officially done. "Well so sorry to be a bother, but I'm not actually sorry at all. If Carmine Falcone can find a way to live with his toes being stepped on, so can you. Good day Mr. Frank." she gave a dismissing wave over her shoulder as she turned to walk off.

The sound of the safety clicking off a gun made her pause. "I'm afraid you misunderstand my meaning, Alyssa."

Alyssa sighed, reaching under her blazer for the holster strapped to her side. "And I'm afraid you misunderstand how long I've lived in this city Frank." she rounded on the man, the gun Victor Zasz had given her trained on him. Alyssa made it a point to carry it everywhere, as she had amassed a great deal of enemies, as well as homicidal friends. "Did you really think I'd come unarmed? I mean you said you'd been watching me."

"No, we knew you would. That's why there's a marksman up on that building behind you. But the assassination of the mayor, would cause a panic. If we got that gun in your hand, the one gifted to you by Victor Zasz --"

"Then you make it look like a mob deal gone wrong and no one thinks twice. Because, well, Gotham." Alyssa filled in, taking a step backward. "I like it. Clever. But not nearly clever enough. This...Court of yours clearly doesn't like attention or uprising. You think you're big? You are messing with the wrong girl. Kill me and I give your organization a week max before my family brings you tumbling to the ground. Likely painfully and bloodily."

"You seem quite confident in your worth."

"Caring for people goes a lot further than threatening them." Alyssa stepped to the side, carefully keeping her gun trained on Frank as he followed her movements. "Personally, I don't put much stock in my own life anymore, but I know some very ruthless people who stop at nothing to prove me wrong."

Bang!

The man cried out in pain as a bullet hit his knee and knocked him down. Alyssa ducked as a second bullet went whizzing past her head. These Court of Owl people were not as smart as they thought they were. The moment Frank had revealed the location of the marksman, Alyssa had been subtlety putting the car between her and the building.

Not about to let him get another shot, she rammed her elbow through the driver side window of the car and into the driver's head before he had the chance to reach for a weapon of his own. Making sure not to put herself back into view, she unlocked the door from the inside and shoved the now unconscious driver into the pavement.

Taking his place, Alyssa got the heck out of dodge and made a mental note to thank Floyd Lawton. As a very expensive assassin (shh, don't tell anyone) he'd made sure that his friend knew how to get out of these kinds of situations. In exchange for some high class hardware of course.

With an open area and nothing to bounce the bullet off of, it had to have a straight shot to hit. This would have been easy were it not for the cover and getaway rolled into one that had just been left for the taking. Egos made people idiots.

Still, Alyssa doubted this was the only time this Court of Owls was going to try to kill her.