Lets thank the greatest readers in the world, shall we?

guest 1: Please don't have a breakdown! I updated, it ok

Loki: Aww, thank you! Yes, words cannot describe my love for Oswald Cobblepot/Robin Lord Taylor, he's freaking brilliant and in all honesty don't think I'd enjoy the show as much as I do without him. Hope you like the chapter!

zuleika126: Well then, thank you? you're welcome? I'm not entirely sure how to respond to that haha, enjoy the chapter!

Mindy7952: No you're the best! Thank you for the review, please enjoy the chapter!

Guest 2: Thank you soo much! Yeah, whether or not Molly is going to go after Jerome is probably the big question everyone has. Hope you like the chapter!

Lady Ravanna: Hmm, steal a car? Definitely interesting, and I do like where you're going with your theory. Thank you for the review, please enjoy!

Luna Latanya: Haha, sorry I tricked you haha! But Molly with Penguin, hmm, that is something I've been dying to do since I started this story. Not necessarily romantically, but just have them interact, which I briefly got to do last chapter and I was sooo happy about that. Anyways I'm rambling, hope you like it!

Owl Indigo: I'm sorry, you mentioned fiji and now all I can picture is Jerome in board shorts drinking one of those fruity cocktails with the stupid little umbrellas in them, hahaha! But yes I can agree that Molly definitely fully broke after his "death" so where she goes from there is definitely going to be interesting. Anyways, thank you for the review, hope you like the chapter!

princess-snow510: Mission Impossible Molly, breaking into Gotham General tom cruise stye hahaha...sorry I haven't gone to bed yet...thank you so much for the review, please enjoy!

purpleshadow20: Yay! Glad you're loving the story! Haha, yes Molly was a lot happier with that redhead around, let's just see how she takes to him being alive. Hope you like the chapter!

Laughter

there is no more laughter

songs of yesterday

now live in the underground

He's alive

Those words haunted my mind, repeating so often I was beginning to question if they meant what they were supposed too. Jerome Valeska was alive and I didn't know what to do. A part of me felt obligated to try and break him out, but he was recovering, and where the hell could I take him? Galavan was the one who wanted him dead in the first place so I couldn't bring him here. And it's not like we could camp out in a motel till everything blew over.

Yet, a bigger part of me didn't want to do anything. Jerome's "death" was the final bend that caused me to break. Without him I didn't feel. Its selfish and childish, but that part of me doesn't want the emotions back. The nothing was now my new addiction. Love is a weakness, but it also made me stronger. Living a once vibrant life in muted tones of greys didn't seem all that bad. It felt familiar in fact. Before everything, before killing, life seemed like a dull trivial task planned out for me. That's how it was now, only with more red. The only thing to really miss now was the laughter

A pretty girl like you needs a nice laugh

I raked my fingers through my hair, cradling my head attempting to bloke everything out. My efforts always seemed to have been in vain. No matter what it wouldn't help, it never would. Once you let the voices in, once you start responding there's no stopping them.

"I don't need this today" my voice so quiet, coming out in hushed whispers.

You shouldn't talk to yourself people will think you're crazy

"It's a little late for that" I laughed bitterly, resting my hands on the bathroom sink in front of me. I took deep breaths, easing my shaking nerves. As of late my temper seemed shorter than normal. Everything was setting me off, everything kept me on edge. Just this morning I had stabbed one of Galavan's little cronies in the eye because I didn't like that he was looking at me. Perhaps I wasn't really as numb as I tried to force myself to be, just repressed, emotionally constipated.

I splashed a little bit of cold water on my face in an attempt to calm down. It had little effect, for the most just getting water in my eyes and leaving my face cold. I took another deep breath, looking up at my reflection. Nothing had changed, I was still the same girl, the most that was different was that the circles under my eyes had gotten darker and my hair was even more unkept. I looked exhausted, despite the fact that I didn't feel like it. As if somehow it would make me look better, I rubbed my eyes, like that would brighten them up or make me look less dead. I blinked a couple times, refocusing my vision back at my reflection.

Only it wasn't my reflection staring back at me, it was Jerome. His eyes were wide, wild, staring me down. His smile bloody from the stab wound still very fresh on his neck. My body reacted before my mind could, my fist shooting out and colliding with the glass. The mirror cracked, not drastically but enough for me to bleed.

I cried out in pain, cradling my fist to my chest. It stung like a bitch, but then again no one said punching a mirror was painless. I looked down at my hand, inspecting the damage. The skin was already swelling, and was definitely going to bruise, and at the very least I had cracked the bones of my first two knuckles. I looked back at mirror, checking if it looked just as bad as my hand.

Jerome still stood in the reflection, smiling, laughing at me. He threw his had back, his laughter only getting louder until it was the only thing I could hear. I tried blocking him out, covering my ears, screaming at him to stop. Nothing would work his laughter just kept increasing. I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed by hands tighter against my ears, to the best that I could with one of them injured, hoping that maybe everything would stop.

My eyes snapped open as I sat up from my bed, scanning frantically around the room, as if everything that had happened was not some made up scenario in my nightmares. I placed a hand on my chest, taking deep breaths to ease my nerves. It had been a few days since I found out Jerome was alive, and every moment of it was hell. I hear him, his laughter would mix in with others, I could hear his voice, see his face. Of course I knew it wasn't really him, but it always felt so real, as though he was right there. My breathing finally regulated and I was able to pull myself together. When you experience these nightmares multiple times a night, it slowly starts to get easier to calm yourself down.

Once I felt somewhat stable, I rolled out of bed, stretching out a couple kinks in my neck. I shuffled over to the closet, grabbing a more presentable shirt to change into. I pulled the shirt over my head; already appreciating how much warmer it was than the tshirt I wore to bed. I pulled on a pair of black jeans given they pretty much went with anything. Not bothering with shoes or my hair.

Every morning seemed the same; I'd wake up, get dressed, tell off one of Galavan's men, go find something to eat. It was a weird thing to get in routine with, but at this point this point the "fuck you's" I'd share with the men guarding the doors just seemed half-assed at this point. My bare feet padded along the hard floor as I made my to the main room, stepping past the body hanging in the doorway as I entered. There was no surprise that the others were up and already on to torturing some random bloke. The man hanging from the door took my sudden entrance by surprise, crying out and nearly falling off the chair and stack of books he was on top off. He struggled, but finally regained balance, holding on to the noose around his neck to hold him up.

"Whoa! Bravo, congressman! nice save!" Galavan stood from his seat, smiling at the man "You really are quite spry for a man your age."

I stepped out of Galavan's way as he walked towards the man, still distanced from the group however. I noticed another person in the room, different though not unfamiliar. His name wasn't one I could remember at the moment, but I recognized him as Penguin's right hand man. Though that was probably a name in poor taste, given this guy no longer had a left hand. By looks of the bandages and blood he'd lost it quite recently too.

"Have you reconsidered your position? Can I count on your support in this election?" Galavan continued to talk to the congressman, who was still struggling to keep balance.

"Yes, yes!" the congressman's voice trembled as he pulled at the noose in an attempt to loosen it "You have my full support"

Galavan thanked him, leaving Tabitha to cut him down. He fell from the chair, landing in a crumpled mess on the floor. Finally he had loosened the noose, shaking as the color drained from his face. Galavan returned, kneeling down in front of him, pinning one his "THEO GALAVAN FOR MAYOR" pins onto the man's chest, adjusting the red ribbon as he did so.

"Tabitha, will you please show our guest the door?" the girl nodded eagerly, propping her sword up onto her shoulder and grabbing the man t by the arm, ushering him out. Galavan then turned to Barbara, who was grinning at the whole situation. "Barbara, you can take Butch to get fitted for his newest accessory"

Barbara practically giggled, grabbing Penguin's ex-henchman by the stump and dragging him out of the room in the opposite way Tabitha had gone. It now left just Galavan and I alone, and an uncomfortable silence fell over us. I shifted awkwardly on my feet, hoping that someone else would come in and defuse the tension.

"I'm glad you're finally awake, I've been meaning to talk to you" Galavan broke the silence, turning his attention towards me. He gestured for me to sit down, returning to his own seat. I took the seat, folding my legs underneath me in an attempt to keep my feet warm.

"So what's with Penguin's guy, he working for you now?" I asked, jerking my thumb over my shoulder to refer to Butch who had left.

"Apparently, Penguin is getting a little paranoid and acting out on his men. Butch has pledged his loyalty to me now" he stated with a shrug. I nodded my head in agreement, but something in his tone sounded as though he didn't quite believe Butch's story.

Silence fell over us again, though not nearly as awkward as before, still uncomfortable. I pulled the sleeve of my shirt down over my left hand; mimicking the same thing with the right, only something stopped me. Instead of the normal, clean hand I was expecting, it was covered in cuts and bruises. In fact, there was even a piece of glass still stuck in there. I pulled the piece out, hissing in pain as I dug it out of the wound.

"What happened to your hand?" Galavan asked, though he didn't sound interested

"Guess I punched a mirror" I explained still staring at the injury "Thought it was part of a dream"

Now that I had noticed it I could very well feel the pain, but before I had no idea why I had never noticed. Galavan huffed, shifting in his seat. I looked back at him and I could see the clear annoyance on his face that I had broken something else of his.

"You know, Barbara respects my home." He pointed out

"Well, I'm not Barbara" I said with a shrug. I went to cross my arms but remembered my hand and instead let my arms fall to my lap.

"Obviously" Galavan spoke bitterly, sending a glare towards my hand.

I followed his gaze back to my injured hand, though it wasn't just on my hand, it was on my ring. The punch had mainly hurt to my first two knuckles, leaving my third not nearly as swollen, so the ring still somewhat fit. The ring itself had been damaged, the diamond itself was obviously fine, but the actual metal had been bent and twisted, some of the smaller white diamonds that surrounded the main stone had fallen out. With money it probably could be fixed, but for now the heirloom was broken.

Shit

"Molly, I want you to go" his words were like a knife, slicing through the atmosphere, aiming directly for me.

"You what?" my voice was hushed, maybe I had misinterpreted him, maybe he meant something else.

"You're not needed here, you're talents are no longer of any use to me, so I am giving you the benefit of leaving" He spoke slowly, the faintest smirk on his face as though he's been waiting for this moment.

I blinked a couple times, trying to process his words. He was kicking me out, tossing me out on my ass without a care. And he spoke about it like it was some gift, that I was so lucky because he wasn't ordering Tabitha to kill me.

Or a stab in the neck

"So that's in then?" I questioned, standing up from my seat, beginning to pace "you're just tossing me out, like some used condom?"

"Did you really have to use that analogy?" Galavan looked disgusted, shaking his head.

I rolled my eyes, scoffing at his words "sorry, I thought it'd be the easiest one for you to understand cause you're a giant dick"

"At first I thought your trouble with taking orders was just ruse, an excuse for you to feed into your rebellious attitude. Yet here we are, and somehow you've gotten worse." Galavan stood from his chair, his voice growing more and more serious with each step he took towards me "You owe me, Molly, I could've left you in Arkham, but I broke you out because I thought I saw something in you. I thought you had potential, but clearly that was my mistake."

He kept walking towards me, backing me up until I hit the wall right next to the doorframe. Sure I had seen Galavan get mad before, but this was different. Typically when he was angry with me his voice was low, patronizing, belittling even. Now his voice was raised, each word sharp like a slap in the face, letting me just know how useless I really was to him.

"You've defied me for the last time, Molly. Now I'm giving you ten minutes to gather your things and get the hell out, before I call Tabitha in here and have her take you out herself" by now his hand was around my throat, not enough to prevent me from breathing, but enough to hold my in place.

I gave him a quick nod, prying his hand off my neck. There was a moment, a brief one where we just stood there, glaring at one another. Always glaring, that's all he and I ever did. In that moment I couldn't help but wonder if there was more to the reason he was throwing me out. Yes, every point he made was true, but perhaps there was something else.

Or someone

Then again, there was always that nasty habit I had of overanalyzing situations. I let out a huff, ducking out of the room quickly to start packing. At this moment, my biggest concern is what alley way I was going to sleep in for the night

Fucking prick

Dreaming

I was only dreaming

of another place and time

where my family's from

A/N: TADA! I did it guys! I finally wrote another chapter. Sorry if I was gone too long, and sorry if it's not as long as you guys wanted, but to be honest, with all the writers block and personal shit I had to go through I am just so glad I was able to do this. I'm actually really proud of this chapter because it finally sets up for the parts I have been waiting to do, and I originally had all this other stuff that was going to happened but in the end was just like "fuck it." So here we are! My original goal was to get this out before the end of the hiatus, but sometimes you can't just get what you want.

Which speaking of can we talk about Oswald for a quick hot sec, like who wants to band together and bust that poor little guy out of Arkham, because he needs out asap. Also who else is surprisingly excited about Lori Petty playing a female "Joker-esque" character because I feel like I'm the only person who is and I'm freaking writing Jerome fan fiction. I'm just hoping for some serious "daughter of the joker" pollen to happen, is that weird? I know she's not Duela Dent, but I can still pretend...sorry I'm rambling comics again

Alrighty, so Galavant kicked Molly out on her ass, and she still hasn't decided if she wants to go after Jerome or not. Man, things are just not going well for her, and they can't keep Jerome in GCH for much longer, who's to say he's still there...dun dun duuun

One final question: Pretty simple, what do you think is next for Molly, where's she going, what do wanna see happen?

Lemme know, be sure to review, also tumblr, spotify and all that good stuff!

Till next time

Kit

Song: Before the Lobotomy- Green Day