thirty three

                                    

                                          
•*•*•*•
                          
"That brilliant son of a bitch escaped," Novella said in awe. She turned to look at Caspian who also had an awed expression. "I mean Victor must be furious but still you have to admire a man's pull."
                          
"Miss. Owens you must know that he had no way of organizing this seeing as he was frozen." Caspian tried to rationalize everything but it just caused him to look like a prick.
                          
"Lookie here you prepubescent worm," Potter jumped down from her place on Novie's desk, "You don't get to ruin my girl's imagination. Unless you'd like to get comfortable with the feeling of sharp steel near your nether region." She gave the tan-skinned boy a death promising smile that had him looking to Novella for help.
                          
"Well on that note Potter, maybe you and I should take a little trip on over to The Artist's Kettle. I've been meaning to pick up a few things to maybe brighten up the store and the little excursion will be the perfect opportunity to see if Caspian can handle running the store solo." Novella smiled at the two scowling people and started to drag Potter to the door.
                          
"The only way he can run this store is straight into the ground. Oh wait he isn't even skilled enough to run it there in a straight line. The idiot would probably take a detour to candy mountain cave and lose his liver. Not that I would object." Potter glared at the boy who had gone red.
                          
"Potter that wasn't nice come on," Novella said and gave Potter a tug.
                          
Caspian, finally filled with courage, said, "Potter I would appreciate it if you wou-"
                          
"Would what? Refrain from hurting your pretty boy feelings? No thanks that wouldn't be nearly enough fun."
                          
The two girl's walked out leaving behind a deflated Caspian. Novella tried to cheer the boy up with an apologetic smile, but her efforts were to no avail.
                          
•*•*•*•
                          
Novella had just arrived home from her long day at the store when she came face to face when an extremely pissed off Victor. He had little splatters of blood on his face and a glass of milk in hand.
                          
"I see it's been a hard day. You got that two percent blues going on." She walked over to him and sat on the arm of his chair. 
                          
"You could say that, but at least murder was involved." He took a long drink then offered it to Novie. 
                          
"You wanna talk about the rest of it?" She took a sip of the glass and handed it back to him.
                          
"Not especially, but you ever seen one of those home-made dresses?"
                          
"Please do explain." She let out a laugh at Victor's annoyed expression.
                          
"The woman that freed Nygma had a home-made dress with a bunch of question marks on it."
                          
"And this is relevant how?" She raised an eyebrow at him and he shook his head.
                          
"It's not just thought I would mention it. You like those cooky things." He placed his glass on the end table and pulled Novella onto his lap.
                          
"Aww you care," she said pressing a kiss to his cheek. "You're my favorite hyena."
                          
"I've told you I'm obviously a tiger." He bit at her ear in a playful sort of way.
                          
"Really? Well if you're any type of tiger then it's a baby tiger." She started laughing but was cut off by Victor's lips on hers. Needless to say that night ended in a much better way than the day went.
                          
•*•*•*•
                          
Jim Gordon walked through the doors of Owens & Co. with one thing on his mind - Novella. He knew he'd messed up astronomically with how little they'd seen each other lately and with how angry he always made her when they were with each other. She was the last bit of real family he had left -he didn't count his sister and her husband anymore- and he refused to let them develop a rift.