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Being a police officer working night shifts is like working a desk job, except that sometimes you have to run around to risk your life. She would know, she worked as the Riddler's secretary for two weeks before she got fired because of her "lack of passion for entertainment". That's fine.
Through a lack of real names and sheer luck, her stint in gooning never got recorded and she scored a job in the GCPD. Officer Najai Jahan. Not because of her qualifications or anything like that, but because the unit had a diversity quota they needed to reach. A token black woman fits that perfectly. Leaning back into her chair, Najai sips her coffee unimpressed.
One of the officers is bragging out loud to his small cluster of newbies about his greatest arrest to date. Daniel Bailey, 32, his "greatest arrest" was a serial killer that escaped on his way to prison and restarted a killing spree reaching four victims. That's a lie. Daniel Bailey was 30 years old when he was walking down an alley half drunk and Robin ran away from a passed out convict because he didn't ask for Batman's permission. The catch was attributed to the officer and the man never corrected the rumors.
A loud groan shifts her attention to the man facepalming on his desk. Zeke Ellison, former law school student that refocused his goal after dropping out. His mother ran off with a con artist. He is constantly tired and uses his position as a cop to snatch drugs from their evidence roosters. His deskmate pats him on the back for comfort.
Kamila Kane. She jokes that she's a descendant of the Gotham elite Kane family. Though there's no proof, she desperately hopes to live the life of a novel protagonist and that her real aristocrat parents swoop her into a life of money. They aren't, so she tries to date up the social ladder.
The woman sitting beside her laughs at them and starts teasing Kamila. That's Carly Walls and "pretty girl" is her life mission. She dyed her hair brown to match Kamila's, to cope with her jealousy because of the woman's friendship with one Oscar Fitzpatrick.
Glancing to the fridge, she sees Oscar is taking out a six-pack of beer that has his name taped on it. It's something he almost always has on hand. The man goes to the gym, is on steroid supplements, a former military officer and makes the high five figures a year. He got married to his highschool sweetheart, Zora Fitzpatrick, is slowly tipping into becoming an alcoholic and is currently having an affair with Legacy Delarosa from the front desk.
Not that Carly knows.
A chirpy voice greets her with, "Good morning Najai!"
Unimpressed, she looks up to the pointlessly sunshine man that is her permanent partner carrying a donut box.
Gabriel Russel, a privileged white man with shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes competing for the audition of Prince Charming. He has a squeaky clean background with only one speeding ticket at 18, two parents who are alive and happily married, and lives in an apartment on the outskirts of Gotham. Almost became a social worker, when he saved a woman about to be assaulted, thus giving him the origin story needed to become an uncorrupted police officer. The perfect middle income son with a perfectly respectable job and doing "the right thing" in the crime capital. If someone told her that he's aiming to be the next Dick Grayson she'd believe them.
Gabriel starts frowning in concern. "Are you okay."
Najai nods, "Just thinking about how annoying you are, Golden Boy."
The man huffs, unnecessarily flipping his golden locks to sass, "I'll have you know that I'm a delight."
Najai rolls her eyes and takes a donut off his tray. "Sure you are."
Before they can start to squabble, Commissioner Gordon calls out, "Jahan and Russel, to my office."
With a groan, she stands up and trots forward while Gabriel hands off the donuts.
"Wonder what that's about?" He remarks.
Najai rolls her shoulders. "Probably to tell us that our day behind the desk is over." She's right of course.
"Officer Adams got shot 12 minutes ago and Parker brought him to the hospital. Since their patrol got cut, you're taking over," the Commissioner debriefs them.
Just what she needed. But something about this is suspicious. Weary, she asks, "Who shot them?"
Pinching his nose, the Commissioner admits "We don't know. Batman took them with him and hasn't given a word since."
Najai can feel any chance of a peaceful night vanishing. "So Justice League shit."
"Justice League shit," He repeats. And it's bad if the Commissioner joins in on swearing instead of admonishing her.
Gabriel, reminding her that boy scouts have braincells too, raises a hand to ask, "What are the chances that we'll be in danger?"
The answer is, "Unclear, but we're counting on the Bats telling us if the culprit was still a problem." So they're just hoping that all is well. For as much as the Bats do for Gotham, their communication with the GCPD is abysmal. This could mean that the problem has been solved, or that it's so dangerous that they don't have the time to contact them. Fuck. Why did she have to join the Police?
"Your job is to continue the missing officer's patrol route from the Central High School to E.E Mortuary." This is probably the moment where she should quit.
"Where's Joker right now?" Najai asks. Because if he just told her to walk straight into Joker territory while the man himself is there, she's calling quits.
He nods in acquisition, "In Arkham."
Damnit, there goes her out.
"Anything else that we should know?" Gabriel asks, reminding her of his existence.
The Commissioner shakes his head, "Not right now."
With that, they get to drive ten minutes to the Upper East End and walk around as some of the most distrusted people around. Because fuck the police and ACAB.
"Sooo," Gabriel asks, because he's never heard of silent patrols before, "How many people do you think are going to try and mug us?"
Najai has to snort. "At least two," she answers. Because there's enough people in this city who think it's worth trying.
And true to their words, someone tries to steal from Gabriel but they escort them to the nearest station. The woman tries to frame him for molesting, which has her laugh for a full minute while her partner looks mortified. Their patrol goes on, mostly walking pretty and trying not to look like easy prey.
But Gabriel being Gabriel, smiles the whole time and not even the Gotham edge in it is enough to not have any robber try and make a move.
They make four arrests through his pretty look alone. That's when they get an unexpected catch. The street kid glares up at her, but doesn't try to get out of her hold.
"We're bringing you to a hospital," Gabriel states, not even letting that be a debate. In true gold hearted fashion, he magically grows a spine whenever someone needs help.
While she drives, he gently asks, "What's your name?"
The young girl looks at him in suspicion, then shrugs. "Sophie."
In a city where there are at least 30 other Sophies, it's either a good cover or she doesn't worry about being found.
"How did you get that?" He continues nodding to the bleeding on her arm.
The girl wrinkles her nose. "Fell down the stairs an' landed on a broken bottle. Should've paid more attention."
Bad cover since she has an obvious gun graze. Pursing his lips, he asks, "Who's stairs did you fall down from?"
Defensive, Sophie hisses "None of your business."
Gabriel nods the spite off in true Gotham fashion, and reassures her "As soon as they fix that, they'll get you to a good home."
The girl rolls her eyes and Najai would too if she could, because really?
"You know they'll try to traffick me, right?" Oh, this one is direct.
"I'll do my best so they don't," He promises. A few minutes later they drop her off at the hospital, CPS already on their way.
As they walk back to the car, Gabriel sighs. "I hope they'll place her with good people."
Najai raises a dubious eyebrow. "Sure," She says. No way the kid won't be out of there as soon as she has bandages on.
They get down a block where he laments the failing of the system and the tragic amounts of homelessness, when their communicators come to life.
"Officers Jahan and Russel, your location?"
Looking at each other, Gabriel answers, "Officer Russel here. We're a street down the General Hospital, why?"
There's a pause on the other side before they answer, "One of the buildings on your patrol route just got blown up. Luxury store Lilas d'Or; from what just got reported, all employees got out before the explosion went off, but two of them got shot at. No casualties yet."
Gabriel activates the siren and she speeds up their route. Frowning, Najai asks "Employees working at this hour?"
For a high-end business that is entirely out of pocket. Nights in Gotham are infamously crime ridden and more dangerous than by day.
The comms confirm, "From what was reported, a cargo of fabric got delayed and has been delivered today. The shop owner wanted to have it ready before they open in the morning."
"But now it blew up." She finishes. They confirm.
As soon as they drive close to the building, smoke can be seen escaping through the broken windows. The two of them jump out of the car and stride through the empty streets. Gothamites know better than to get near a danger zone.
"I go left, you go right," Najai orders, but Gabriel snorts. "Absolutely not. There's an armed unknown possibly still lurking around and we're not going to make it easy for them." A good point.
She nods in agreement as the two of them walk around the left side of the building. Drawing out her gun, Najai keeps an ear on her surroundings as they walk on. There is a rustle from behind the window. She immediately crouches down in cover, outside of eyesight. When she glances behind her, she sees her idiot of a partner peek in through the corner.
"Don't do that," she hisses. She does not want the one tolerable person at the station to die of stupidity.
Gabriel lowers himself beside her and whispers, "There's two people inside."
Internally cursing, she signals for them to move away, but her partner gestures in the other direction towards the door. For them to go apprehend and potentially save the attackers. Damnit, why is he playing hero? They're cops! But of course he's one of the rare uncorrupted in Gotham, it would be too easy otherwise.
Gabriel doesn't wait for her to finish her crisis and crawls towards the entrance door. It's broken in and half open already. Against all human instincts, they head inside and into the soft wave of smoke.
From what Najai can make out, the shop was probably beautiful in marble whites and fancy purples that cost more than most make in a year.
"Someone purposefully burnt something here," Gabriel mutters on the side. Following his sight, she sees it too. A black spot where someone made a fire and that will disappear if the fire reaches that far.
They're about to move to the next room, when he stresses, "Wait, there's something still there."
As he strides over, Najai feels her heart drop. "What are you doing?" She hisses. "We're busy with more important stuff, so don't touch it."
Because if that's evidence of someone up the chain doing something shady, they'll be on a hit list before the sun is up. Say what you want, but the Gotham elite does not allow anyone to hurt their illusion of perfection. Especially not cops.
But Gabriel just gets closer and lifts the half burnt note. Najai feels her eyebrow twitch. "I told you not to touch that."
Her partner waves her off and says, "It's a list of deliveries." Frowning, he adds, "But they're all sorted by number." And now they've stumbled into something that's definitely leading to some secret elite's shady business. Fuck.
Should she just throw the golden boy under the bus and let him deal with the consequences? Gabriel pockets the paper and looks at her with determination. "We need to move on before the fire gets too close to us."
She's still contemplating when he walks up to the door, but stops to turn around. He tilts his head with a confused, "You coming?"
Najai rolls her shoulders and follows. Slowly, they stalk further into what has to be a fitting area, with pins and needles coloring the walls artfully. After only a few steps, a shot lands on the wall in front of them.
"Fuck," She curses.
Gabriel throws over a table that they can hide behind as a second and third shot bang through the room. There's a new dent in the table. Najai listens as the people on the other side curse about their presence and tries to pin their location while her partner reports the situation to the station. That's when she notices smoke is turning darker and there is a flicker of light on the other side.
"The fire is getting to us," She hisses urgently. And they're stuck with two people who would gun them down as soon as they get the chance.
Gabriel notices too and searches their surroundings. He pauses, and asks her, "How much can you lift?"
Najai looks over incredulously. "What?"
"How much can you lift?" He repeats and gestures at the table.
Frowning, she guesses, "I should be able to lift that."
Gabriel's shoulders sag with relief. "Perfect. Help me get it to that wall," He tells her and doesn't wait for her answer before pushing the table along.
She curses again, but moves to help him while staying covered as they drag the only thing between them and a bullet deeper into the room. If they die, she's blaming him. They get to the fixture that holds a drape attached to the middle of the room to the side.
Turning to her, Gabriel finally explains, "You and me, we're tearing that down until it lets go of the ceiling and falls over the shooters. As soon as they're stuck, we throw stuff at them until they're knocked out and drag them outside."
That plan is insane and Najai takes back everything she ever said about him being remotely close to having common sense.
"Alright," She agrees.
Together they fumble at the decorative knot and break the lock to free it. The heavy fabric tries to drag along the floor, but they clutch it hard enough not to escape, then pull again and again with all their strength until the handles on the ceiling finally let go. There's a short "What the-" before everything is muffled.
Panting, Najai risks a look over the safety of the table. The two criminals are on the ground, struggling to move under the heavy weight of the fabric. She shares a glance with Gabriel, then they grab whatever they can reach and throw it. Grunts and yells of pain answer as they go on until it's blissfully silent.
They let themselves enjoy one second of peace.
Her partner walks up to the figures and starts pulling the drapes back while the flames lick into the room with fervor.
Gabriel turns to her aghast. "Well, don't just stand there. Help me!"
She balls her fists, then follows. Somehow they manage to drag two grown men out of the burning building and handcuff them in time for the first firetruck to arrive.
Immediately they get taken into a car and put through smoke inhalation tests that blur all together around her and ends up with them rooming at the hospital for the night.
Looking over at her partner, Najai realizes that she should apologize. "I’m sorry about freezing up. I just didn't think that your plan would work out."
Gabriel turns to her with a wide grin. "Apology accepted. Everything was in a rush, but in the end we did absolutely great," He tells her excitedly.
She returns the smile and drags him closer with an arm into a short hug. "Thanks for getting us out alive Golden Boy."
The man laughs and squeezes her back. He tells her, "It's what partners are here for."
Najai pulls back and rolls her eyes. "You have such a way with words pretty boy."
Gabriel puts a hand on his heart and jokingly laments, "Woe is me, unappreciated even in my greatest achievements."
Snorting, she turns around and walks out of the room telling him, "You can tell yourself that as much as you want, cuz I'm off to pee."
With those words, Najai closes the door behind her and lets the smile fall from her face. Turning left, one of the nurses greets her with a cart. "Are you ready for your medicine officer?"
Najai takes out a paper and hands it over. The nurse blinks a few times and asks, "Where did you find this?"
She doesn't bother beating around the bush. "It was laying inside the shop. Only me and my partner saw it and the rest of the police doesn't know anything."
The nurse pauses for a moment. Then she takes the paper and pucks it into a pocket on the inside of her coat.
Smiling as if nothing happened, the nurse tells her, "I must've gotten the wrong room. Another nurse will bring you breakfast in about ten minutes."
Najai doesn't say anything as the woman walks away with the cart. Even after there is nobody left in sight, she stares at the empty hallway for a long while. It's only when at the end of the hallway, another nurse starts to bring food into each room that she finally moves back and opens the door.
Gabriel turns around with a smile and tells her, "I've been thinking. Do you think we get the day off or do we need to be back on shift in five hours?"
Najai smiles at her partner and shrugs. "Worst case, we guilt trip the Commissioner."
Joyous laughter echoes through the hospital hall until the door closes behind her.