thedawniscoming | [rl] Harvey and Bruce

I've done my mourning. Twice, now. I've buried my best friend, how can you say that I need to be in my penthouse hiding away from the war that's going on in Gotham's streets when it cost my best friend her life, and nearly cost you yours. Twice over.

You were the best of us, Harvey, and he tried to bring you down to our level and you're letting him. Don't let this clown take away your life.

[he sits down in front of him again, staring him hard in the face, not flinching away in the slightest at the sight of those nasty tendons] If I lived the life Rachel wanted me to have, I wouldn't be here. I'm doing this for myself, and for the sake of our city.

There's a citywide manhunt going on for the Batman, and things are worse than they've ever been. Gotham needs its white knight. [frowns when he looks down and sees the black side of the coin]

And you said nothing! [the anger is sudden and unexpected even to Harvey, fist slamming into the plastic table as he glares Bruce down. The anger passes as quickly as it came, voice returning to a monotone.]

You sound like him. [Said idly, an observation with no merit because play boy Bruce Wayne could never be the Batman. No, the Batman had to die, he was judged and chance gave it's word. Bruce Wayne was a good man, not a killer, not the filthy thing that vigilante was.] The clown is nothing, just a bad joke. It was the filth of Gotham who decided this ending.

[He turned, leaning in almost conspiratorially] I told you I don't break my promises Bruce. I thought you said you 'believed in' me. I'll clean up Gotham. I promised her. [he leaves the words at that, leaning back again casually]

[a snarl at that name] And Jim Gordon? Commissioner, my mistake.

[his expression falters when he hears this. Harvey Dent, his biggest supporter - or, Batman's biggest supporter, because Bruce had to keep the two separate - now appearing on the brink of disgust. His stomach churned. What had he done?]

Gordon's fine. And, I do believe in you, but you sound... you don't sound like Harvey Dent when you're saying these things. The Joker killed Rachel and blew you half to Hell, and you sound like you don't even care.

What happened to championing for our resident masked vigilante? What happened to teaming up with him for the sake of Gotham? [hits the table, they have some pretty bad tempers, these two] What the hell happened to Harvey Dent?

Oh Bruce. [He leans in again, deadpan as he speaks.] The Joker's just like the Batman - a scape goat. He didn't do this to her, not alone, it was the filth of this city, the corruption Jim Gordon turned a blind eye to. [his tone is steadily growing in anger, turning almost imploring] He let her die Bruce, they both did! Their plans, their fucking schemes, she was expendable, a god damned sacrifice.

[Raising from the table himself, the rowdy boys they are with the tempers.] What happened? Watch the news Bruce, don't ask 'John Doe!' That masked vigilante, [he practically spat out the words] made his choice. Choice, Bruce, that's why we're all here. No one followed the rules, no one played fair. There was no black and white though Harvey fucking Dent thought there could be. Gotham needs- [an abrupt stop then slowly sitting down, holding the coin tightly.]

Gotham deserves better.

Edited 2009-01-12 06:51 (UTC)

You sound like him. [his voice is quiet, but he repeats himself, louder, realizing he doesn't give a shit if Harvey wonders how the hell the Joker sounds] You sound just like him. Look at what he's turned you into.

If it weren't for the Batman, we wouldn't have the Joker, it's true, but you said it yourself - we would have never started in this direction, never would have been able to make any of this progress without him. You can't... throw all of the blame for what's happened on him and Gordon, Harvey, it was the Joker who set things in motion, it was the Joker who was responsible.

Gotham deserves someone to save it from that madman instead of submitting to him. All you're doing is showing him that he was right.

[a snort] Trust me Bruce, that's not what his words sound like. [Harvey didn't care about 'chaos.' All he had ever wanted was what was fair. That was law, that was Lady Liberty in his hand. Not Batman and Gordon and the dirty cops and mobsters.] He's a mad dog, a child with a dangerous toy. He was judged. [there's a heaviness to his tone] Chance smiled upon him. There's nothing more. His luck will run out on it's own time. [in the same resigned tone, an undercurrent of anger churning underneath] He's not my business any more.

I never said it was all only their fault. I made the choices as well, Wuertz, Rameriz, Maroni. [lifting his brow] We were all judged, punished, all of us except the Bat and Gordon. Now tell me Bruce, is that fair?

[a long silence than quietly] Maybe he was right. [despite the words he doesn't sound convinced, like there's still something there that wants to prove that wrong.]

[shifts in his seat, trying to look more relaxed at this conversation but he just can't manage it] So, you're, what, going to flip a coin? That's how you ended up here, Harvey.

You owe a lot to Gordon, he's the only one in the department who knows where you are right now - that you're not just lying low to avoid the fallout of the mob trial and the Joker. And, he's keeping quiet about it.

How would you know how I ended up here Bruce? [he leans in again, hands folded in front of him] Did Jim Gordon tell you the whole story? Is your little friendship with 'superheroes' beginning to branch out?

[a near laugh at that, leaning back and slapping his hand on the table] Another choice, the same type that killed Rachel. You want me to be quiet? Fine, I'll be fucking John Doe. [a shrug] Better yet, since I owe Gordon I'll just pick up his fond little moniker for me. [looking straight at Bruce] Two Face, irony's a bitch isn't she?

[leaning over the table once more] I'll do that for you Bruce, hide 'Harvey Dent' for the good of Gotham. Lies, that's what Gotham needs. [gesturing to his face] They'll never see this. Is that what you wanted?

Don't turn this onto me, Harvey. Do not. [that, and he doesn't want to answer about how he knows how Harvey got here. The fewer questions he lets Harvey dwell on, the better]

You're still Harvey, you just need to stay here a little while longer while you get your head straight.

An old friend can't ask a question or two to catch up? That's cold Bruce.

Because they'll fix me. [said idly while he turns the coin over and regards it. They'd take the coin away from him as soon as Bruce left, decide later if he was allowed the 'luxury' of knickknacks. He could make the choice right now, to stay and be made all better or to escape, but in doing so he'd have to use Bruce as his buffer, his bargaining chip. He wasn't so far gone he'd try that, no, not yet. He could wait and see.] I killed two men Bruce, and another by proxy. Will that be hidden as well?

[he tries his best to look surprised] What are you talking about, Harvey? Gordon said that the Batman was responsible for those men's deaths. That's why he was gone when I arrived to bring you here.

Oh is that what he's saying. [flatly] The only one the Batman helped kill was Rachel, those three aren't on his hands.

Batman didn't kill Rachel, the Joker did.

[glancing away - what did Bruce know of all this? One of them could have lived and the Bat decided that wasn't Rachel] He made his choice.

If you had died instead, the Joker would have won. [shakes his head]

[clenching his fists around his coin so hard his knuckles turn white] So she was just a pawn in the chest game Bruce? Sacrifice her to save the king?

[slamming his fist down] The Joker won the minute Batman he began playing with Gotham as a game too. Gordon, Batman, Joker- ha, Harvey Dent, it was all a glorified chess board cloaked in good intentions.

Edited 2009-01-13 04:01 (UTC)

How do you know what the Batman's thinking, Harvey? Maybe it's not just a game to him. [trying and failing to reason with him, this is why Bruce is not a psychiatrist]

If you really think all of that, then maybe you should work on getting better and getting out of here so you can put them in jail the right way. The cry to see the Batman behind bars is stronger than it's ever been.

His actions spoke loudly enough. [He played the Joker's game, forced Harvey's hand at the press conference, choose who he was sure the Joker expected to be saved given that hospital visit] I shot him you know, the Batman. [said almost offhandedly as he stares somewhere beyond Bruce.] Chance said he should die and the Joker should live. [voice lowering, the therapy and drugs and calm actually breaking through, giving his tone an audible uncertainty] That's what's fair.

The right way. [a derisive snort and nothing else. In Gotham the only 'right' way was six feet under.]

Chance doesn't apply when it's someone's life on the line, Harvey. [shakes his head] You can't let yourself sink to their level. [he tries to look surprised at the fact that Harvey shot the Batman]

Besides, I thought you were the masked man's biggest supporter - and he didn't die. Doesn't that say something? There's a reason, a higher power, maybe, I don't know, that wants him to be able to keep on doing what he's doing.

Chance is the only thing that should apply. [still not quite certain but stronger in conviction. He looks back at Bruce angrily.] This isn't their level, they don't fight fair. I gave them all the same chance, the chance they wouldn't give in return. [trails off at that, sitting back]

And you were his biggest naysayer. [said offhandedly before continuing.] He was Gotham's hero. What was it I said Bruce, at the dinner? You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. Funny now, isn't it? [said deadpan]

He's not a hero - he's never been a hero. That doesn't apply to him. [Bruce looks very serious, now] But, it does apply to you. Are you ready to give up and become the villain already or are you going to keep being the hero Gotham needs you to be - not the one you think is just, but the one the law does. The one Rachel did.

Do you think she would like to see that you've become a murderer over the flip of a coin?

Rachel- [glaring quite heavily now, voice calm but everything else pointing to the opposite] -trusted Gordon's men, she trusted Gordon and Batman, she trusted me. Look where that got her. [he stops as soon as he says it, the words sound exactly like-

He stands up, turning away to pace down the small room.] I already told you Bruce, Rachel's dead, what we do doesn't matter to her anymore. [he stops pacing, when he speaks again it's much quieter, in a voice that could almost be Harvey Dent's.] I want to do what's right by her. [He stares down at his coin as he speaks because he doesn't know anymore, what's right and what's wrong. Not without chance's guidance.]

Edited 2009-01-13 04:40 (UTC)

[he's on his feet again now] Dammit, Harvey, of course she trusted the Batman. He jumped out a window to save her when Joker threw her out at my party. He saved her from the fear toxin that Crane was spreading through the city last year. And, Gordon's not guilty of anything but trusting the wrong people - he would not have kept those officers on the force if he'd known. He's a good man, Harvey, I've met him.

[takes a deep breath, sits back down] If there's anything Rachel is good at, it's knowing a good man when she meets him. You can't tell me you really want to insult her memory by becoming the type of man who was responsible for her death.

Gordon's a fool, we all were fools.[spat out venomously. The conversations hurts in a way only Bruce fucking Wayne could manage- in a way that makes him want to strike the other man just to quiet him. He ignores the conversation, the comments, keeping his back turned to Bruce when he speaks again. The restraint is something new that feel foreign when he exercises it, even though his life before had been only restraint and how far it could be pushed.]

How's the new DA. [a fairly neutral topic but one he does put a great deal of merit into.]

He's a joke. Just like the ten before you, and if you choose not to overcome all of this, just like all of those after you.

[he's folded his hands together, and is trying to calm himself down so he doesn't lose his nerve with Harvey again, because he's already been letting things slip by getting emotional - he's too used to Rachel being the only one who can set him off like that]

[another snort, almost like a laugh] What will it take for you to stop believing in me Bruce? [tired- he wasn't sure if that was something he wished for or the last straw on the camel's back if it came.]

You haven't done anything to betray my trust, threaten my life, or those of my loved ones, yet, so assuming you don't? [a smile, but there's a threat behind it] Nothing.

I know how you feel, Harvey. When my parents died, I... thought there wasn't any good left in the world. Even Rachel couldn't pull me out of the depression I'd sunk into. When I found out the man responsible was going to be released and put on probation early for testifying against Meroni, I was furious. I came back to Gotham to see the hearing.

[there's a long pause while he tries to work out what he's trying to say] Harvey, I brought a gun with me to that courtroom. And, if it hadn't been for Meroni's men doing it first, I was going to pull the trigger - because it was just. But, I was wrong.

And, Rachel, she told me, and she slapped me... so hard when I told her, and she told me that there is nothing impartial or just about revenge.

[He listens, first to the very subtle threat (Harvey would never but things were no longer up to him, now were they?) and then the story following. so there it was, the prince's seven year absence. Had he been running from what he had almost done? And there was that otherside of Bruce Wayne. He was a stronger man than Harvey was.]

If you had a gun to the Joker's head, would you still agree? [a pause before speaking again.]

You were in love with her weren't you? [asked idly, it didn't matter anymore if he was. it just meant Bruce understood better than anyone would ever know.]

[Bruce almost laughs at the first question, because hadn't he had the chance to let the Joker fall? He couldn't do it - or, was it Batman who couldn't do it? Why was it so hard to tell which was which anymore?]

I'm not saying I wouldn't rough him up first, but I would never end his life. The justice system exists for a reason, and just because the people he victimized were close to me doesn't mean he gets punished differently. I'm no judge or jury.

[his strong response falters as he realizes he should answer that second question]

...And yes. I was in love with her. [but that doesn't mean Harvey needs to know that she was going to wait for him.] He killed the woman I loved and blew you - one of my best friends - half to Hell, and I still wouldn't kill him if I got the chance. [it's so hard to speak in hypotheticals about this]

I spent seven years getting myself thrown in jail, moving around the world, doing things people like you are above so that I would be able to find the strength not to sink so low as murder for the sake of revenge.

You're a stronger man than I am Bruce. [he nearly pulled the trigger even after the answer had been heads.] Maybe you're what Gotham needs.

[he turns to watch Bruce as he speaks about Rachel, about himself, about things that touch a little too close to a possibility Harvey will not consider. The Batman helped kill Rachel, Bruce loved her. That was all.]

[He's silent for a long moment, twirling the coin in his hand before he speaks again.] You're a good man Bruce. I want you to know that. What happens next? It's out of your hands. [another pause as he glances down] It's out of my hands.

You're wrong. [shakes his head] You're wrong - it's in your hands, Harvey. When you get out of here, you can be Gotham's hero again. You can do exactly what Rachel loved you for doing and keep cleaning this place up.

What happened that night... can stay between you, me and Gordon. No one else has to know.

No one else will know. [sits back down- he didn't say Batman. Batman, no, he'd never tell. He lets his coin fall on the table, spinning until it landed heads up] I promise you that Bruce. [he could allow Bruce that hope. No matter what happened he would not parade as 'Harvey Dent.' Let them have their small grasp at hope.]

Rachel wanted me to clean Gotham. [he could still hear that sometimes, when the drugs weren't as strong] I won't break my promise to her.

Make me one more promise, Harvey. Do it the right way. Not by chance, not with a gun. Do it right. [shakes his head] Please.

[watching him almost blankly, perhaps the slightest hint of remorse. Not because he will kill, because he has no control over it. Bruce wouldn't understand, he cannot make that choice, he cannot make any choice of such gravity any longer. One day perhaps, bruce's hope is infectious, but now-]

I can't promise that Bruce. [his tone edges on tired] Give up, go back to your life. You owe me nothing and this is no place for you.

This is no place for you either, Harvey. [sighs, shaking his head] And, I'm not giving up on you. I'll be back on Friday.

[just watches him for a beat with unnatural intensity before sitting back with an almost exasperated, normal look] Still stubborn.

[there's a brief smile] Admit it, you'd be disappointed with anything less.

[he stands for a final time, smoothing his suit] When I stop by Friday, I'll bring some real food - plastic forks, of course. [there's a hint of amusement and it's accompanied by a wink, because he's not worried about Harvey shanking anyone with silverware to escape - though, maybe he should be]

[an amused snort, a touch more sincere] Or think it a sign of the apocalypse.

[standing as well as one of the orderly's comes in, still watching Bruce before he glances away and answers in a monotone] Thank you Bruce.

[fixing his gaze on Harvey for a moment longer] I want to do all that I can to help. [turns to head out the door]

I'll see you in a few days.

[rl] Harvey and Bruce

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