Straying out of Sanity

Within seconds I had someone checking my pulse. I was doing my best to slow down my breathing and continue to act if I had passed out. Minutes later I heard more people flood Bruce Wayne's penthouse, and judging by the words exchanged, they were cops. I also had more people come check on me, and I figured they were paramedics. Another minute slowly passed before I heard Alfred's voice directing some of the police and paramedics to move me to a bedroom.

I felt someone pick me up and I struggled to stay limp, especially when they adjusted me in their arms and I felt like they were going to drop me. I succeeded some how in being unconscious and was brought to a bed and laid down upon it. As soon as I felt relief from being carried I unmistakably heard Lieutenant Gordon's voice fill the room, asking Alfred what had happened and stating he needed to speak with me when I woke back up. I was surprised the paramedics couldn't tell I was faking in the first place, let alone him.
Soon the lights were turned off and the only sounds left in the room were of Gotham's night life on the streets below.

I opened my eyes first, to see if I really was alone before risking looking around the dark room. When I confirmed that I was in fact alone I finally let myself stop acting and broke down, crying. I had trusted the one man I shouldn't have and in turn he dropped my cousin out a window, stopped me from diving after her, and what made his actions ten times worse was the fact he had enough balls to kiss me immediately after.

That was the breaking point for me, that I had actually let that man violate me the way he had, and that I undeniably loved it. Not only was I distraught by the fact my cousin might be dead right now, but I was also disgusted at myself for the way I had acted.

I curled into a ball on the huge bed in which I was laid and cried as quietly as possible, due to the fact I was still supposed to be unconscious right now. In my misery I kept thinking I could hear Rachel's voice and I was contributing it to the state of my deteriorating sanity, until suddenly the door opened and a light was turned on. I sat up quickly figuring my fainting act was long over. The light was a shock for my eyes but I continued to hear Rachel talking.

"Emma, are you okay?" her voice suddenly asked as I was beginning to recover from the lighting.

"You survived?" I asked, jumping off the bed to hug her, the fact that she was standing here completely unarmed was unbelievable to me.

"Yeah, I'm surprised myself," she laughed uncomfortably an pulled away from our hug. "What happened to you?" she asked, staring at my face like something was wrong.

"What?" I began to ask as Alfred entered the room carrying a few towels and followed by a few cops, including Lieutenant Gordon.

"Glad to see you are feeling better, Miss Carson," he told me, looking troubled.

Alfred walked over and handed the damp towels to me silently while everyone stared awkwardly.

"What did he do to you, Emma?" Rachel asked me and I furrowed my eyebrows at her before running a hand across my mouth. As I saw the face paint smudged on my fingers I took a sharp breath in and turned away from everyone, quickly placing one of the towels over my jaw and held the other against my soiled fingers.

As Rachel placed a hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me, someone else entered the room, saying, "We still don't know the whereabouts of Harvey Dent." I looked over my shoulder to see that it was indeed another cop.

Before Lieutenant Gordon could reply to the cop I quickly said, "I know where he is."

"Emma?" Rachel asked as everyone else turned back to me, shocked. I continued vigorously rubbing the paint off my face and walked past everyone and out of the room. The closet Harvey was in was away from where everyone was investigating so it was no wonder why he could not be found.

As I walked up everyone followed me to the closet, and we all witnessed a rhythmic banging coming from inside, proof that Harvey was awake again. I grabbed the handle of the mop and timed myself so that when I pulled the mop out of the doors, Harvey Dent fell straight through and hit the ground.

"Harvey!" My cousin exclaimed and rushed to his side, hugging him.

"Rachel," he replied before looking around and spotting me. He quickly pointed and demanded of his cops, "Arrest her!"

"What?!" Rachel asked, letting go of her boyfriend quickly as I rolled my eyes.

"She attacked me!" Harvey exclaimed and then turned to the cops again, "Arrest her!"

"No," Rachel said strongly, standing beside me, in between myself and the cops.

"I didn't 'attack you'," I sighed and turned to walk further down the hall to where more cops were standing around the surveillance screens, to the protest of the cops that were already following me. I walked casually into the group and picked up my glass of wine that I had previously lost due to all the chaos, causing the new group of cops to also protest.

Harvey walked up to me quickly, followed by Rachel, the cops, and Lieutenant Gordon, and stood exactly where he did in front of me when I first noticed The Joker.

"Look," I said and nodded my head towards the screens which were looking all footage of The Joker.

"...Oh," was all Harvey said.

"And you thought attacking Dent was the proper way to deal with this situation?" Gordon asked me.

"If I brought this to his attention then he would have been an idiot and would have gotten himself killed. I was planning on finding Rachel next but I obviously didn't get that far. So if you still want to arrest me I'd rather it be possession of alcohol since in twenty," I followed this statement by downing the rest of my wine, "Instead of aggravated assault or whatever else you law junkies would call it."

"You aren't arresting her," Harvey said quickly to Lieutenant Gordon and his cops."I believe a misunderstanding has occurred and you will pardon her for the little alcohol she has consumed, Gordon," he said and turned to Rachel before looking my way again. "I believe I owe you an apology, and a thanks," Harvey told me, holding out his hand.

"I already told you, I-"

"Don't shake hands with politicians," Harvey finished for me, "Right."

"Well..." Gordon gained our attention. "I won't have her arrested, but I still need to question her." Rachel quickly protested against it but Gordon stopped her, "It's the same I did with you, I need to know what she witnessed."

"Whatever," I said and walked away, back to the room in which I was placed when I had "fainted", only Gordon now following me. As he walked in he shut the door, isolating us, as I sat on the bed and threw the stained towels to my side.

"What happened, Emmalee?" Gordon started with.

"You already know, you have all the surveillance footage so figure it out for yourself," I told him.

"You're case is different," Gordon told me and moved so he could stand a few feet in front of me.

"How?"

"He's never acted like that in any other of out cases. It's very... unusual for him to have... done what he did."

"So it's unusual for a man to kiss a woman now? It's like you're trying to tell me he's gay."

"No, he isn't gay. He's a sociopath and he wouldn't-"

"How do you know what he would and wouldn't do? Do you even have a name for him let alone a criminal record? Or an accurate description of him besides a psycho clown with green hair and a purple suit? What the hell do you know about him, Lieutenant?"

Gordon was silent in front of me. I had expected him to answer me, even vaguely, since they were actually pretty basic questions but from his body language and expression, it was clear the Gotham city police force knew next to nothing about The Joker.

He sighed eventually, and sat next to me on the edge of the bed. "I won't ask you what happened then, you're right. I have all the video from tonight. and I won't ask you why you kissed him back-"

"I did not kiss that man back!" I interrupted him, scooting myself away from him.

"It was obvious, Emmalee," he said almost solemnly, "You kissed him back. Many of the witnesses say you looked like you did and the videos only confirm that observation."

"But I didn't! You- you're all watching it wrong!" I tried to reason, now starting to panic.

Gordon sighed, continuing on despite my protests, "I'm not holding that against you. There has to be some psychologist that can explain away your actions due to stress or what not if this actually reaches court, but what I don't understand is what he possibly thought he could gain by kissing you. Like I said, the Joker is a sociopath and only acts for the benefit of himself."

I was silent for nearly a minute after what Gordon had said, afraid he was on to me somehow. "He... stopped me from jumping out of that window after Rachel..." I said softly.

"And... you're suggesting he only did what he did to prevent you from killing yourself?" Gordon asked.

"I don't know, I'm not suggesting anything!" I said, the stress ever present in my tone.

"But you did bring up a good point, he wouldn't gain anything by kissing you, but by keeping you alive..."

"Why does it sound like you're actually trying to help me?" I asked Lieutenant Gordon skeptically.

"I'm trying to keep you from looking like The Joker's accomplice. I'm sure he knows you're Rachel's cousin and he's most likely planning on using you to get to her or Harvey," he told me. I only stared at him blankly.

"Why?"

"Because I might be right and you might be important now."

"Important how? I'm some runaway nobody, your men have even told me that."

"But you have connections, and they go right to the top. Between Bruce and Rachel alone they're enough to get you out of almost any mess you find yourself. You're a very lucky girl, besides the way you live your life," Gordon told me and I decided to remain silent. "Can I ask you something?"

"Depends on your question."

"Where ate Mitchell, Jayson, and Laurel?"

"Um... I don't know their plans for tonight," I said both carefully and truthfully.

"Alright," Gordon said before continuing with," Is there anything you might need to tell me? Who you're staying with, how you got your dress?"

"What are you getting at?" I snapped.

"Emmalee, there's something more, bigger than what you're letting me see."

"I don't understand why you would think that."

Gordon sighed, rubbing his temple with his thumb and index finger. "I didn't want to just come out and say it but... Emmalee are you or any of your friends or even your little sister in trouble with the mafia, or even The Joker himself?"

I couldn't believe what he had asked me, how the hell could he tell? "No," I said, "I mean I can't believe you'd stretch something like this that far, it's ridiculous! I know I have a knack for getting in trouble but shit Gordon, I know who to fucking stay away from!"

"Alright, I believe you," he told me but it was obvious he didn't.

"Lieutenant," he heard as the door opened and we both turned to see, much to my surprise, Paige standing in the doorway, in full police attire.

My eyes widened at the sight of her, but she paid me no attention. "Yes deputy?" Gordon responded.

"We need to decide on how to get the remaining party guests home safely," she informed and within seconds I was led to the main room by Paige and Gordon, and I copied her initial reaction and ignored her for the most part. It was clear that the police force weren't worried so much about the partyrs but more Harvey, my cousin and myself. Originally they had decided on providing a police escort for the three of us until Bruce entered the room, from discussing damages over the broken window and whatever else, and quickly turned everyone's opinion against it, except Paige's, saying that it would be safer for the three of us to spend the night at his penthouse. Rachel quickly agreed, though Harvey seemed hesitant, and I also had no real problem with staying for a night, but after it was settled Paige slowly seemed to start panicking, on a minor level of course. That obviously wasn't part of her plan for whatever reason she was here.