With The Thorn In His Side (Open)

[Deleted]

I could have been wild,
I could have been free,
but nature played this trick on me.

The detective sat, leaning on his elbow which was on the cherry bar top.  The bottles beyond it sparkles and glimmered delicately under the soft lights.  The sound of a few conversations and music looming in the background.  Harvey listened to it thoughtfully for a moment before finally removing his hat and lighting himself a cigarette.  Harvey smoked Camel Turkish Royals.  A strong cigarette with a smooth finish.  On a bad day he might have Lucky Strikes or something similar and without a filter. 

The cigarette case he carried was simple and silver.  There was a dent in it.  At some point it saved him from a bullet, he figured it was probably something lucky to keep on his person, especially in his breast pocket.  He was never one for wearing a bullet proof vest unless there was a real shoot out. 

The detective knocked back his shot of whiskey heartily, hissing at it while it burned itself down into his body.  Mmmmmm.  Harvey glanced to his left and then to his right while the tender went to refill his glass.  He noticed a lot of younger people these days.  The ones with the beards and the horn rimmed glasses with the ironic shirts and what not.  Harvey knew they were generally referred to as hipsters, but he honestly only kept up with all these labels and trends because his job required a surprising amount of cultural slang.  He snorted a single laugh before picking up his glass, full once again.

Harvey paid attention to the song again.  He wondered how many of these kids knew who the hell this was, or if they realized it was the band's debut album and was apparently about abuse.  Harvey shuddered a bit and shook off the thought that maybe he was being a bit of a hipster.  As the song faded into the next Harvey smirked to himself in the mirror behind all the liquor and took his next swig of whiskey.

Someone with hope.

When he blinked he could see his youth for a moment.  He could see himself walking home from school through tattered and worn streets.  He could see the hope that used to be so abundant and lively.  When his eyes opened again he could see the man in the mirror behind the whiskey.  Harvey raised his glass to himself and finished the drink once again.  Another puff of his cigarette and the bartender back to refilling his glass.

[Deleted]

Since coming to Earth, Shayera has had to defeat a giant robot on more than one occasion. Not in Gotham - it seems like all the giant robots tend to show up in Metropolis, while Gotham gets the nutcases instead. But giant robots aren't that difficult for Shayera. Usually all she has to do is smash her way through whatever part of it looks the weakest. What tends to be far more difficult is getting a decent drink without it being such a hassle that it's hardly worth it. Not as much since Rowdy's opened up, but she doesn't feel like going there tonight.

No, instead she decides to try somewhere new. Which is always a bit of a risk - she never knows what sort of a reaction she'll get. It's the wings - always the wings. If it weren't for them, she could probably walk in with a hat on or something and nobody would look at her twice. Instead she has a pair of seven foot long 'Hey, look, it's Hawkgirl!' coming out of her back even when she's done with her work for the day and just wants to be able to have a damn drink in peace. But, risk or not, if she didn't occasionally try a new bar then how is she supposed to find the good ones? No, wait, this is Gotham we're talking about - the less terrible ones.

When she walks into this one, she can practically feel most of the eyes in the room instantly go to her. But she's used to that and ignores it. The best thing to do is to immediately act like just another patron at the bar so that hopefully everyone can quickly start to think of her as one - as soon as they realize that they're staring. So she takes a seat at the bar and waves over the bartender. But as it turns out, she should have been more worried about him than the other patrons.

"What do you want?" he asks her suspiciously.

"A drink. Got anything that... what's that phrase? Has a lot of kick?" she asks, ignoring his tone.

"For you?"

"No, for the Queen of England," she replies sarcastically, "Of course for me! You have a problem with me?" Her eyebrow raises dangerously at that question.

But the bartender doesn't seem to take that as a warning and says, "Maybe I do. Maybe I don't like aliens."

And that answer is enough to make Shayera grow visibly tense as she suddenly glares at the man. "Then maybe I have a problem with you!" she says, standing halfway out of her seat, the anger in her voice practically visible. The nerve of this guy! Does he have any idea just how many times she's saved this planet, including him? Of course, this isn't the first time this has happened, even to the point that you'd think she'd be used to this by now, but no - no she isn't.

[Deleted]

Harvey didn't notice the wings from his angle. She was close enough at the bar that he'd have to actually turn his head to get a view of the wings. Harvey picked up his now refilled drink and inspected the glass for a moment while discarding the ash on his cigarette in the tray before him.

He looked at the amber liquid with great fondness until he began to hear the exchange between the tender and the lady a few seats away. His eyes darted back and forth between them. When the tender said something about Aliens Harvey finally turned his head toward her a bit more and saw the wings. It really didn't surprise him, he's had his dealings with all the leagues that are around, so it seemed.

"Lenny, serve the lady. I'm sure there's been a few minors served here recently."

Harvey pointed his thumb back at a group nearby. There were a pair of young guys that looked a little young for the Pabst Blue Ribbons they were holding. Lenny gave Harvey a begrudged look.

"She'll have whatever she wants. Put it on my tab."

As Lenny turned to prepare a glass for the lady he raised his glass in her direction.

"Settle down, doll. Lenny's got his wits about him all the sudden."

Harvey snorted a chuckle. He was a riot in his own mind.

The detective never really cared for all those 'heroes' making guys like himself look like a bunch of schmucks trying to tie their shoes the right way, but they did tend to save the entire planet from time to time. Harvey wasn't exactly a son of Krypton or any of that business.

He pulled his cigarette case back from his breast pocket and flipped it open with his thumb and held it toward the lovely bird.

"Smoke? Figure you don't, but my ma always said offering a lady a cigarette is what a gentleman does."

[Deleted]

The interruption to her conversation with the bartender is most welcome, especially given the content of it. Glancing over at the man who spoke up, Shayera's eyes then follow his gesture over to the boys and her eyebrow raises at the bartender when she looks back at him. Normally something like that is far too minor for her to really care about, but it sounds like she's not the only one who is quite happy to take issue with it if the bartender is going to refuse to serve her. When the man also offers to pay for her drink, she looks over at him again with an expression somewhere between surprise and amusement.

Relaxing back onto the barstool, the tension within her that came so quickly leaves just as fast. But though it may have appeared for a moment there that she was going to do something rash, she would have just taken her business elsewhere - she may easily lose her temper, but she knows how to behave herself even when she does. "Hmm, thank you," she says to the man, glad to have his unexpected and quite effective assistance, the smile she casts in his direction rather amused.

And the smile only grows at the offer of a cigarette, but she's quick to decline with a gesture and says, "No, there's no point - nicotine doesn't do a thing to me." And she's not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, when it comes down to it. "You're an officer?" she asks, hoping to start more conversation, though that's the moment when the tender puts a shot glass of something in front of her.

"You want 'kick'? That has kick," he comments.

"Alcohol, though..." she says, eyeing the little glass. She's always thought that shot glasses are too little of anything, but the fact that whatever the drink is comes in one is promising, at least. She picks it up and throws it back easily, holding most of it in her mouth for a moment so that she can taste it properly before she swallows.

What Shayera doesn't know is that the bartender is still unhappy enough about having his arm twisted into serving her that he took her request for something with 'bite' as an excuse to give her something he expects she can't handle: an especially pungent single malt scotch he normally only uses for mixers, served neat. But what the bartender doesn't know is Shayera's taste in drinks.

Her eyes go wide in surprise as she glances at her empty glass. "Do you have a bottle of this stuff?" she asks the tender, clearly delighted with it.

[Deleted]

Harvey gave a sly smirk as he coolly put the cigarette case back into his pocket. He took a swig of his own whiskey and another drag off his cigarette while Kenny served her up the scotch. He shook his head with another snorted chuckle when she downed the entire drink so quickly. He gave Lenny a sour look for the dirty trick that was a flailing fail. He only seemed to spark her interest.


"Give 'er the bottle, Lenny."

Harvey moseyed his gaze lazily about the place again and then back to her. Smoke hollowed from his nostrils like an angry bull in an old cartoon. He wasn't angry like a bull. As a matter of fact, Harvey was nice and relaxed.

"Yes, I am an officer," he said in a lowered tone.

"Though, I don't like to bring that into social settings too much. People tend to get a little paranoid when they realize they are drinking only feet away from an officer of the law. Makes me a little anxious when I make people anxious in places like this, especially during my off hours."

Harvey gave her another sly smirk and ran his hand through his hair. After a few seconds of silence he smiled more fully.

"Forgive me, I don't want you to think I'm an assassin, but I have to say it, followed... Must have not hurt to fall from heaven, you.'re still an angel."

Harvey chuckled, severely amused with himself. He was really trying to contain himself.

"AH, I'm sorry. I just had to and I'm buying that bottle. I think you can take a dumb pick up line, you look tough anyway."

Harvey chuckled a bit more then settled down.

[Deleted]

The unhappy look that comes to the tender's face when he sees just how well Shayera handles that drink is more than enough to cause her to give him a triumphant smirk. She actually really likes drinks that don't go down without a fight - she's not sure whether her Thanagarian physiology lessens the sensation somehow or if she simply enjoys the burning sensation in her throat far more than your average human. She just knows that any drink she's tried that people describe as 'going down smooth' has been a disappointment.

Fortunately, Lenny seems to throw in the towel at this point and retrieves the bottle without further protest.

Shayera can't help but smile to herself and nod as the man confirms her guess and explains the difficulties of keeping his job away from his social life. "Oh, I know how that goes - try being a superhero sometime, it's even worse. See, I get the paranoia thing too, but I also have fans," she explains, "I literally hire someone to do my shopping for me because if I did it, it would cause a riot." She sighs and shakes her head, pouring herself another glass of scotch from the bottle. This time she opts to enjoy it more slowly, savoring the bold flavor.

The fallen angel line causes her to half-heartedly roll her eyes. She's heard that one or variants thereof so many times that it's gone from being a real annoyance to something she's come to accept will be said to her frequently whether she protests or not - it's easier to simply get used to it. Though the remark about her looking tough enough to take it causes a laugh. "It didn't hurt because I fell right into a swamp," she replies with a smile, "And you shouldn't waste pick up lines on me, dumb or not. I'm much too old for you."

[Deleted]

Harvey quirked a playful brow at her when she told him not to waste his pick up lines.  He knocked back the rest of his drink and slid his glass to her for a couple of fingers of scotch.  He also took the opportunity to turn to her more fully in his seat.  He rested his right elbow on the back of the barstool and his left elbow on the bar, too.  He twisted his hips in the seat as well.

"Well, I know better than to ask a lady's age, but I'm sure whatever the number is it is fairly low, at least for whatever it is you are.  Sorry, I'm not well versed on alien races."

Once he had a glass of scotch he was slow to drink it.  Scotch, at least for the average human, was a slow drink.  He finished his cigarette and mashed the butt of it down in his ash tray.  He pulled something from his other breast pocket and from the different case he pulled a cigar.  He used a cigar clipper to clip the end and opted to light it with a match instead of a lighter.  (Cigars are much better with a match than a lighter, its science, probably.)

Unlike the cigarette from before, the cigar had a thick and sweet smell.  It went well with the scotch, too.  He puffed on it a few times to really get the cherry hot and once it was going strong smoke would often escape from his nostrils.  He held it between his teeth when he spoke again.

"And trust me, usually my lines are much better than that.  If I see around another time after this I swear I'll come up with a better one.  Speaking of, what are you up to in Gotham..  I have to be honest, I'm not really into the superhero thing.  I feel like in a lot of cases they just get in my way in my own work, but then again I don't really have the prowess to police on a galactic level either.  That's some Star Trek kinda stuff some of you guys do..."

The music in the background faded into the next song.  Harvey leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and just blew a long stream of smoke from his nostrils.

"My, my, my.  You think you're old?  They're playin' these songs and I remember this stuff being on the radio back in high school and academy. Man.  I am well on my way to being an old man.  I can's believe this song is nearly 30 years old."

[Deleted]

When he slides his glass over, Shayera is of course quick to share the scotch - if he's going to pay for it, he has a right to some, after all. She turns toward him a little too in order to make pouring it a little easier, though between the back of the barstool and the bar itself she has to shift her wings around a little so that they don't knock into anything. At least the back on the barstool isn't very high - that would make things especially difficult.

She can't help but laugh at his reaction to her comment on their age difference, and she decides to clarify it by saying, "Well, let's just say that I'm probably about twice your age. Of course, for me that's only about a third as long as I'll live - if I don't get myself killed. But by that measure I'm probably a bit young for you." Her grin now is somewhat teasing, because either way it doesn't work out.

Though her grin fades when he asks her about why she's in Gotham. She's not about to tell him the completely unedited version of that story, though she does think that she perhaps ought to give him more than the two seconds of vagueness that she gave the reporter. "I'm living here now, actually," she replies, "My life took an abrupt left turn, and I think that working here in Gotham for awhile would help me get back on track. I left the Justice League about six months ago." Which she figures is enough information for him to understand that big, but personal things are behind her presence in the city. Though, in an attempt to lighten the mood again, she smirks as she adds, "And at least I'm not a vigilante."

As the song changes and the man becomes nostalgic, she can't help but laugh and comments, "Most Earth music is new to me - I've only been on the planet for about five years, and it's hard enough to keep up with the current stuff, let alone anything older." There's a pause before she smirks and adds, "The first song I heard here was 'Low'..."

[Deleted]

"Oh that's cold, doll, that's cold."

Harvey only feigned a hurt look upon his face. At least she could take it just as well as she could dish it. Harvey always liked that in woman. No beats were skipped, at all.

He took the glass back and listened to her. He finally took the cigar into his left hand, drink in his right. He tapped some ash in the tray before him, once again. A gesture he was prone to, he even caught himself doing it with pens on occasion at work. He gave an astute nod when she said she wasn't a vigilante. He was smart enough to realize she didn't want to tell him every detail, but she wanted to be polite enough to humor him and answer his question. He raised his glass a little.

"Well, I can drink to that."

He tilted his head to the side briefly and then took a drink of the sctoch. The burn rolled down into his belly doubly so with the scotch. He hissed at the burn and then put his cigar back between his teeth again.

He gave her the first real smile he'd put upon his face the whole day when she mentioned Low. He closed his eyes momentarily, shaking his head. He opened them again, the smile remained.

"Well, don't take that one to heart, doll. Its not exactly the most well composed piece of music, but I'll even admit it does have a certain quality to it that demands that you get low."

Harvey shrugged, snorting a more robust chuckle than any of the others he had before. Suddenly his expression changed. He looked surprised at himself.

"Forgive me, I have been yappin' and messin' with ya so much I forgot to introduce myself."

Harvey pulled a card from one of the pockets of the trenchcoat hanging on the back of his chair. He was still wearing his suit jacket, though.

The card had a the Gotham City seal printed on the right side. The left side had all the text.

GOTHAM CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT

LT. Harvey T. Bullock, 
Detective - Major Crimes
Office: 555-4242, ext 1701
Cell: 555-7077
Email: [e-mail]

"Harvey Bullock. And you are?"

[Deleted]

The teasing grin hardly diminishes at his reaction. To say that Shayera is a tough woman would be an understatement, and that includes how she talks to people. There are some who find her to be rude and abrasive, so it's always refreshing to find someone who isn't so easily offended by that.

Then again, it also helps when the person she's talking to somehow manages to get her to relax and perhaps not be so brash in the first place. There's only so many people who can do that, and she hasn't been around many of them lately. Batman certainly isn't one - he actually tends to make her worse. When she decided that she needed a fresh start, she didn't exactly choose the gentlest of places to start from.

Of course, when she hears him hissing at the scotch, that only encourages her grin to reappear.

And his comments about the song get a chuckle as she says, "I can't say that I appreciate the lyrics very much, but that rhythm..." It's the kind of song she's far more likely to dance to when she's alone and knows that she won't get caught.

Though she'd noted a long time ago that he'd neglected to mention his name, she'd not minded enough to bring it up and figured that he'd bring it up sooner or later if he decided that he wanted her to know. And if he didn't, and she decided that she wanted to know - well, she has ways of finding these things out. But it seems that she'll be spared that effort, and she curiously glances over the card that he hands her.

"Pleased to meet you, Harvey. And if you believe the papers - Hawkgirl," she replies with a smile, "But if you actually know me - Shayera Hol." She pauses for a thoughtful moment before she pulls a napkin from the dispenser on the bar and asks, "Do you have a pen in that coat I can borrow?" When he gives her one, she carefully writes something on the napkin and then gives it and the pen back to him.

[e-mail]

Because, yes, even though she doesn't have a real phone number right now, even she has email. On a top level domain that doesn't officially exist, even.

[Deleted]

"I guess you could call me a nerd, or whatever the right word would be, in the collection of music and film.  There's hardly a wall in my apartment not lined with shelves full of movies or LPs."

Another puff, sip, and hiss.  Story of his life, right?

He could deduce she was Hawkgirl, but he had never heard her name before.  He liked it.  It rolled off the tongue very much to Harvey's satisfaction.

"Oh sure," he said as he began to grope himself for a pen.  He found one in his hat band when he happened to look at the trademark black fedora sitting before him.  He grabbed it and handed it to her.  Seconds later the pen with a napkin bearing an email were handed to him.  He looked at the napkin and then folded it.  He put it in his breast pocket.

"Shayera..." He experimented saying it aloud.  He said it right.  He was used to so many names all the time.  Knowing how to pronounce all of them the first time came a bit naturally by now.

"So, you seemed a little at wit's end when you first sat down a little while ago.  I figure it must be pretty tough bein' on Earth, eh?"

She did mention not being able to really go out without causing riots earlier.

"No offense, doll, but you did pick about the roughest town on this planet to start anew."

The Detective had lived here his whole life.  He knew it like the back of his hand.  He knew where it was strong, weak, rich, poor, loved and neglected.  He could never understand why people came to be here.  He chalked it up to them having some sort of foolishly romanticized image in their brain.  Harvey happened to catch his reflection in that mirror again.


Well, ain't'cha the most fool hearted son of a bitch yerself, eh, Harv?

[Deleted]

"What are LPs?" Shayera has to ask, though she's guessing from the context that it has something to do with music. Nothing she's ever heard of before, though. She takes another sip of her scotch, only to find that she's finished another glass. But though she considers another glass for a moment, she decides to leave it empty now. Two glasses full is barely enough to affect her, but she won't leave it at that for fear of having too much of a good thing so much as she's wanting to save the majority of the bottle for another time. She's not in a bad enough mood right now to want to forget her troubles, but she certainly will sometime in the near future.

When he says her name, she nods. She's come to realize that she just so happens to have a name that's not too difficult for humans to pronounce, or at least the English speakers - the syllables happen to be ones that they're familiar with and don't seem strange even if it's not a name they use. She has friends who have had to decide between hearing their name repeatedly slaughtered or going by a nickname of some sort. But though far more of the people on the planet are more familiar with her as 'Hawkgirl', she's quite happy to be able to give her real name without fear of the reaction.

When he talks about it being tough to be on Earth, she's quick to agree, "Mmm, have you ever gone somewhere and realized that you were the only person there like you? Like a room full of women, or black people, or something? I feel that way all the time. Everywhere." Which is probably about as close as she can get to explaining what it feels like to live on Earth. Of course, while she was in the Justice League she'd had so many others to talk to that had the same or a similar problem and there was a certain bond in that, but then... then she screwed it all up. She's lost her insulation from the constant awareness of her differentness.

But having said that, she suddenly makes an amused sound and then says, "But while this may be the roughest town on the planet, it's a cakewalk compared to Thanagar. And I like it rough - anything less is boring." In fact, a part of her is hoping that one of Gotham's notorious supercriminals tries to commit a crime on her watch soon - it would be exciting to have a real challenge after so long without one.

[Deleted]

"Ah, an LP is a record. It's a piece of vinyl that you can put on a little turn table and set a needle to it, then viola! You have music."

Harvey finished off his own and then set the glass back toward the tender.

"I'm in the mood for an old fashioned, Lenny."

The bartender took the glass and began to make the drink for Harvey. Harvey didn't do cocktails terribly often, but he did like and old fashioned every once in a while. He listened to her again.

"Hmm. I guess I can relate a little. I've felt like that a lot of myself. I have a tendency to keep my guard up and not let a lot of people past my walls."

Harvey was a little surprised at himself. He never really told anyone that before. Well at least not to a new acquaintance. He laughed at the comment about Gotham being a cake walk. He liked her the more words came out of her mouth and in his experience it was usually the exact opposite.

"Well, you came to the right place then, I guess. You ever need to know anything about it then just ask. I am sure I know plenty you don't and more you could ever want to know. I been here my whole life."

Harvey exhaled smoke through his nostrils and removed the cigar when his new drink was served. He picked up the glass and had a decent sip of it.

[Deleted]

"Ah!" Shayera replies, "I've heard of records..." Though mostly in the context of it being an example of outdated technology. Then again, compared to Thanagarian technology she doesn't see that there's a whole lot of difference between what the humans were doing decades ago compared to the present - it's all rather primitive in her eyes. Then again, perhaps her view of human technology can be best summarized by noting that just because someone is used to using a lighter that doesn't mean that they don't think that it's pretty cool to also know how to light a fire with a couple of sticks - if anything, she mostly just misses the conveniences.

She simply nods her understanding as he talks about his walls - she has them too. In fact a part of her suspects that the whole mess she'd gotten into wouldn't have happened if she'd kept those walls up like she should have. Then again, if she hadn't, the Earth would have been destroyed. But Thanagar would probably still be in one piece in that case... To say that she has mixed feelings about it all would be putting it mildly.

Nodding and smiling as he offers his assistance, Shayera comments, "Thanks - though most of what I need to know is is about the criminals in this specific area, and I already have very good sources for that. I just need to study all the information - memorize what I need to know. However, if you happen to know of any bars not run by alien-hating idiots..." She casts a hard glare in Lenny's direction. "That is information I don't have a source on yet," she finishes.

Looking back at Harvey, she smiles as she adds, "There's a good chance you'll see me around, by the way. I've offered to be on-call for Commissioner Gordon. So whenever you folks get into anything big enough, I'll be there kicking ass and taking names." Because though one always hopes that nothing will happen that's dire enough that the Commissioner wants a superhero there - it'll happen now that she's made herself an option. And probably far too frequently, too.

[Deleted]

"Well, I could turn you on to a few other bars then. I'll write the names of them down, here."

He pulled his pen back out and a napkin. He wrote the names and addresses of about five other bars. Once he finished he handed it to her and put the pen back in his hat band on the bar. He took another drink of his old fashioned and another puff of that stogie.

"Ah, well, I'll look forward into running into you again in the future. Hopefully it won't be under those circumstances and something like this again instead."

Harvey was all for a quiet, uneventful Gotham night. Though, he would never want time spent with any woman to be uneventful. That simple thought brought back the memory of Nurse Charlotte ran across his brain.

He'd been recovering from an injury in the hospital, this was years back, and he'd flirted with and annoyed the nurse a million times over. When he was finally getting out of the hospital he'd made an off hand comment about his flirting getting him nowhere and she surprised him by slyly suggesting he should take her to a movie, she knew he was a movie buff, and he was ecstatic. He picked her up that very night and off they went. They had a great time, but then as they left the theater they were mugged. The mugger was nervous and when Harvey went to reach for his wallet the guy discharged his weapon and it hit her. She died within minutes in Harvey's arms. It was pretty rough.

So in all honesty, maybe he could do with uneventful in the company of a lady. It was a whole hell of a lot better than someone getting killed.

Harvey closed his eyes for a brief moment and did his best to shake the memory off.

"I'm fine by you kickin' some scum tails, but please, don't let anyone hurt you around this guy. I don't take to well with seein' any lady gettin' busted up."