Isabella opened the door, of course she did, she was a good kid. She didn't expect to see Harvey stand there, half his face missing, leaning against the doorway with a smile that only worked on one side of his face. "Hey kiddo, where's your brother?"
It took her a few moments before she opened and closed her mouth. "EDDIE!"
"WHAT?!" Ed got out of his room and shut the door behind himself, unsure what Isabella could want but hearing a note of distress in her voice and so he'd taken it seriously.
"QUIT YELLING, BOY!"
"Ah, the lack of self-awareness," Edward muttered as he made his way to the kitchen where his sister was, "Wha--" He'd been about to ask, but he noted the open door, took a side-step, got a glimpse of Harvey and, well. His brain worked fast. "Go to your room, Iz."
Ed was dressed in just a shirt and sweat pants, his hair wasn't done. He had not been expecting guests. He had not been expecting this. So he swallowed, feeling a lot of uncertainty. What a gruesome sight and he could barely make him out in the half-dark. "Evening, Harvey."
"Who the hell are you talking to?!"
"Oh, just a client. You know my cocksucking business is really taking off, they are even making house-calls now." Edward explained to his father while he stepped closer to the door, deciding to act as if Harvey didn't have half his face horrendously missing. "Is it raining? Come in."
"You'll end up in hell, boy! Ain't nobody who can say I didn't try with you!" There was some shuffling, but Edward knew his father would be too lazy to actually get off the couch. "WHERE'S YOUR SISTER WITH MY DAMN BEER?!"
"Thanks, Ed. Didn't mean to spook your sister. It's late, yeah." Harvey walked into the apartment and looked around. Looked just like his, smelled like his too. Even sounded like his. Harvey was in white hospital clothes and a coat that had been thrown over it that he had taken. Waterproof, fortunately, not that it stopped him from having muddy water splattered everywhere. It was hardly a difficult guess to tell where Harvey had come from.
"I was hoping you and I could --"
The voice yelled again and Harvey felt like it like fucking ammo being pounded into his head. He shoved his hands into his pocket and tried to stay calm. If that fucker yelled one more damn time...
As he shut the door behind him, he smiled at Edward. It was not a nice smile, there was a lot off with it. "How'd I look?"
Edward looked at Harvey as he took in the damage to his face and desperately tried to come up with a response that wasn't a smartass remark or pun or outright insulting. Finally he decided that a leopard couldn't change his spots. "Halfway decent."
He kept his voice down and then headed over to the fridge, taking out a beer. He didn't want his father coming out here after all and he didn't want his sister to have to leave her room again either. So he gestured to Harvey to stay where he was and headed into the living room to hand his father the stupid beer. He got hit over the head for his trouble, but whatever. Sometimes it was the path of least resistance he chose.
Returning to the kitchen, he waved Harvey along and began walking down the hallway. When they reached the door to his room, he opened it and let Harvey walk through first. He didn't want his father seeing Harvey, so he didn't want to talk within earshot and provoke anything. Edward closed the door behind him, then gestured around. "Welcome to my abode."
It was a small room with not a lot in it. A lamp on his nightstand that had been smashed and put back together, a whole stack of notebooks and, most importantly, about five used computers in various stages of being taken apart and rearranged. The room smelled different from the rest of the house and it was tidy, even if the way Ed tidied usually only made sense to him.
Right now, little made any sense. He had never had anyone outside of his family members in his room. As much as he was clinging to the casualness, pretending that Harvey dropping by was normal and that how Harvey looked didn't faze him and that he wasn't at all freaked out by any of it, the edges were frayed and starting to show.
He leaned back against the door, looking at Harvey as he breathed out slowly. "You ran from the hospital, didn't you?"
"No, technically, I climbed out of hospital. Fifth floor." Harvey mimicked someone falling from a building with his fingers playfully and then looked at Edward. How repulsed was he? How scared? He did wonder. Even the nurses struggled to look at him, how would someone who used to like him even deal. He knew how his dad had handled it - didn't visit once. As far as he knew, his dad was pretending he died.
So fucking stupid.
"It's been a rough coupled of weeks... months. Whatever. I just got an eyelid." Harvey casually informed Edward as he sat on his bed and looked around his room curiously. It was basically how he imagined it. Right down to the tech bits and bobs scattered around. "I wanted some air. You get it."
"I hate hospitals." So there was that. Harvey looked rough, and not just due to the obvious open wound that was half of his face. He was pale, there was a sheen of sweat, his eyes were glassy. He had to be running at least a low level fever. "I'm no medical professional, but I reckon that should probably be covered. Kept from sepsis."
Jonathan would find all of this so fascinating. But clearly Harvey knew that he ought to be in treatment and knew he looked awful. Seemed almost too obvious to linger on. "I've tried to visit you but they'd not let anyone in."
He wondered whether Harvey knew. "I didn't really expect you'd come visit me."
"I just thought you didn't wanna see my face." Harvey admitted but he didn't sound hurt by it, he just expected it. He felt his face throb and took a second to focus on it before swiftly tunnelling out. If he felt it, he would faint. And now was no time to fainting. "I had to come see you first. I got a lot of people to see, you know."
Harvey's mouth was bleeding as he talked and it dripped gently down his white shirt.
"Spill, Ed. You saw who. Describe it, give me a name, give us answers."
Ed stared in Harvey's direction while his mind, prompted like that, replayed what had happened frame by frame. He had certainly reviewed the details plenty of times. "Bright lights make me shrink..." He muttered a riddle, mostly to make it easier to lie by omission. "I heard that you'd been hit with water and I remember I thought that made no sense. The way they'd sneaked up, the way they were running. Figured it had to be worse than that. Then you started screaming."
Now, those screams? They were burned into his mind. "I was worried for you. Why would I've been looking any other way?" For obvious reasons, but he was just asking a question, not telling a lie.
"But you ain't like that, Ed. Why are you lying? Cause, see, I think about things too. And I ain't no genius but I do know you. And you have that divide. You weren't looking at me, you were looking at the guy." Harvey stood up suddenly and came closer to Edward, invading his personal space and practically boxing Edward in like the bully he never was. He slammed his hand behind Edward, against the door, trying to rattle some sense back into him.
"I would have looked at you. I'm dumb like that. You ain't." Edward knew the guy, he could already tell. That body language said it all. "You squirm like a liar, Ed. And we both know, you ain't a liar."
Hardly the first time he had pressed himself against his door hoping to avoid a beating. Really did not feel fair that it'd be Harvey doing it. Angry Harvey. That anger he'd only ever seen glimpses of before. He lowered his head to look at the floor instead of looking at Harvey, breathing out slowly. "I concede that as a logical thinker, looking at the perpetrator would make more sense."
Which was close to admitting that it was what he had done. "Listen. I'm telling you that it's better for you not to know. That's not a lie." He looked up finally, already guessing that was not going to work out for him. "I'm not a liar and I'm smart, so... You know. Listen to me?"
"I'm kind of done with people treating me, right now. I had plastic surgery, I had an induced coma, rehab, I had fucking psycho-bullshit. I'm done. I want one thing, Ed. I don't care if it's good or bad for me." He raised his hand and gripped Edward by his shirt, holding it tight. "I want to know who. A good friend tells his friend what he needs to know. Why ain't you my good friend no more, Ed."
"Tell me and I'll owe you one. I'll make it all square but I gotta know. You can't deny me the right to know who DID THIS?" Harvey asked, his voice raising in anger and his body trembling with it. "I want to fucking know, Ed!"
"Fuck, Harvey! Can you quiet down?!" They were in his house and not only did he feel trapped between a rock and a hard place in a way that he hated, but there was the added factor of Isabella. He didn't want her involved.
He stared up at Harvey and tried to forget that he was all that. That he was sweet and just and cared. Because then why wouldn't Ed just send him off to his doom? Easy way to get rid of a bully. Instead here he was, looking at Harvey and trying to find whether any of that side of him was even still left. "You are my good friend." Were. Perhaps were. "That's why I'm not telling."
"No, no, no! You're a bad friend. You're protecting them. I knew it. You-- you weren't my friend. You were in on it too. You all fucking were!" Harvey yelled as he lashed out suddenly and his fist went right through Edward's door. Harvey yanked his hand back out and grabbed Edward by his shirt, using it to toss him away from the door and across the room.
"Is that it then, Ed? You wanna fuck with us. You wanna -- why?!" Harvey grabbed a screwdriver off Edward's desk and held it up to him. "You fucking tell me, you rat, or we're gonna dig your eyes out!"
Paranoia, that made sense. While severely overestimating how much Ed would have ever possibly cared about high school football and also underestimating how much Ed cared about Harvey Dent. But then, not only had Ed underestimated how much he cared himself - just how obsessively he had been trying to track down the culprits, investigated the motive and started plotting revenge had taught him that - he was also currently trying to reassess his feelings in that regard.
While groaning as he sat up, because his supposed friend had just tossed him across a room. Fuck, that hurt. Nothing broken though. His eyes widened when Harvey reached for the screwdriver and there was a nervous laugh when he got up, backing away. "Wait a moment, yeah? How about no? That's-- You really shouldn't. I've got nice eyes, for one thing. Got them from my mother, only good thing I've ever gotten from her."
"I need the names, Ed. See, it don't matter no more, none of this. It's all just a stupid joke and all I want, all I need, is a name." Harvey came close to Edward and it wasn't hard to overpower him. Edward may not have been in a coma for half a year but he wasn't exactly strong. And right now, it didn't matter if he was working on reduce muscles and probably a brewing infection, Harvey felt nothing. He was pure strength with nothing to slow him down.
He had the screwdriver right under Edward's eye now. "Tell me the name, Ed. It's be a fucking shame to lose your left eye. Trust me, I fucking know."
Right. There was no way that he could fight Harvey off and he couldn't even get himself to move, now that there was a screwdriver by his eyes. A beating he could take, he'd amble training with that. This was a different kind of threat.
So he had to defend himself in different ways. Thinking of how Oswald did it, Edward allowed his breath to hitch, before coming out in a fearful tremble. His pride took a bit of a hit at the whimper. The fear was real, didn't mean that there wasn't part of him that mourned the loss of dignity. He looked up at Harvey and tried to look into his eyes. "Please, Harvey. Please, don't do this. That's not you..."
"No, it ain't." Harvey admitted as he watched Edward whimper and shiver under him. And then, after a moment of slight hesitation, he kept his screwdriver there. "That's why Harvey ain't here. I am. And I want to know the fucking name. I won't walk away, Eddie. Give me a fucking name."
Harvey wasn't about to back down. Well, not Harvey, his head was somewhere else entirely. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to hurt Ed.
Right. Not Harvey. And here fucking Jon wouldn't even believe him about a less extreme dissociative episode. Edward licked his lips and tried to recall anything he knew about DID, hating the lack of data he had to work with. Jonathan had rambled about it on a number of occasion, usually critical of it even being a thing and always criticising any instance of it occurring in media. Somehow Jon had never bothered to treat him to a lecture on how to deal when a very aggressive split personality threatened to take one's eye out.
As he came up short of anything else, naturally, his brain defaulted to riddling. "Not all birds of prey are up in the sky; some are found in the city, not soaring as high."
"... It's a bird." A bird threw acid at him. Okay, that baffled Harvey enough that he did lower the screwdriver. And as he lowered it and felt Edward exhale in relief, he fumbled and dropped the screwdriver. Oh shit.
Suddenly dizzy, Harvey let go of Ed and stumbled away from him, losing his footing and hitting the floor. Fuck. He looked at Edward, eyes wide with panic.
"... I'm sorry, Eddie. I don't know what came over me." Harvey sucked in a pained breath and curled into himself, arms over his head as if to protect his face. "I'm not-- I'm not well. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"You don't say." Suddenly less animated in that ruined part of his face, suddenly looking obviously paid. Suddenly talking differently, voice not as deep. Body language had changed even before Harvey fell over, curled up. Edward was observing and filing information away, while he felt it inside his mind and around his heart, walls being built up.
Why care about Harvey? Attachment was a weakness. He bent down to pick up the screwdriver and tossed it over onto his bed and well out of the way. Then he stepped closer to Harvey, looking down at him.
And his chest seized. Why did his heart hurt? "...you need medical treatment. You'll get an infection like this. I'm sorry, Harvey. I really am. I'm sorry this happened to you, but you can't let it kill you." He crouched down and tentatively put a hand on his shoulder. "You need help."
"I just want to go home, Eddie. I just want to go back home." Harvey admitted as he inhaled sharply and wished he didn't feel like he was going to cry. Crying was immensely painful. "I don't trust them, at the hospital. They're against me, I know they are. I've heard them!"
Or, at least, in his psychosis he had. He wanted to go and see his dad, despite the bastard never wanting to see him. "Let me go home. Just for a sec, Eddie. Don't call the cops, please. I just wanna... I wanna see my dad."
"Now, why the hell would I call the cops to come to my place?" Ah, Harvey. Spending so much time pretending not to be a Narrows kid that he really did not know a thing about the code people around here lived by. The one that had nothing to do with the law and everything with survival. "You want to see your dad. Right. Granted, not something I can relate to."
Edward shrugged. "I mean... Do you want to walk there? Home, I mean."
It wasn't because he missed him, a very different feeling was ruling him now. Rejection. Hurt. Anger. He wanted to understand why his dad didn't come and the more he didn't know, the worse it got. He hoped it was grief and once he knew that, he could let go of the anger. Harvey pulled himself up and looked at Edward, nervous and unsure. "I can go alone. I can see fine in the right eye."
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icebergloungers2021-10-21 08:54 pm
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It took her a few moments before she opened and closed her mouth. "EDDIE!"
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"QUIT YELLING, BOY!"
"Ah, the lack of self-awareness," Edward muttered as he made his way to the kitchen where his sister was, "Wha--" He'd been about to ask, but he noted the open door, took a side-step, got a glimpse of Harvey and, well. His brain worked fast. "Go to your room, Iz."
Ed was dressed in just a shirt and sweat pants, his hair wasn't done. He had not been expecting guests. He had not been expecting this. So he swallowed, feeling a lot of uncertainty. What a gruesome sight and he could barely make him out in the half-dark. "Evening, Harvey."
"Who the hell are you talking to?!"
"Oh, just a client. You know my cocksucking business is really taking off, they are even making house-calls now." Edward explained to his father while he stepped closer to the door, deciding to act as if Harvey didn't have half his face horrendously missing. "Is it raining? Come in."
"You'll end up in hell, boy! Ain't nobody who can say I didn't try with you!" There was some shuffling, but Edward knew his father would be too lazy to actually get off the couch. "WHERE'S YOUR SISTER WITH MY DAMN BEER?!"
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"I was hoping you and I could --"
The voice yelled again and Harvey felt like it like fucking ammo being pounded into his head. He shoved his hands into his pocket and tried to stay calm. If that fucker yelled one more damn time...
As he shut the door behind him, he smiled at Edward. It was not a nice smile, there was a lot off with it. "How'd I look?"
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He kept his voice down and then headed over to the fridge, taking out a beer. He didn't want his father coming out here after all and he didn't want his sister to have to leave her room again either. So he gestured to Harvey to stay where he was and headed into the living room to hand his father the stupid beer. He got hit over the head for his trouble, but whatever. Sometimes it was the path of least resistance he chose.
Returning to the kitchen, he waved Harvey along and began walking down the hallway. When they reached the door to his room, he opened it and let Harvey walk through first. He didn't want his father seeing Harvey, so he didn't want to talk within earshot and provoke anything. Edward closed the door behind him, then gestured around. "Welcome to my abode."
It was a small room with not a lot in it. A lamp on his nightstand that had been smashed and put back together, a whole stack of notebooks and, most importantly, about five used computers in various stages of being taken apart and rearranged. The room smelled different from the rest of the house and it was tidy, even if the way Ed tidied usually only made sense to him.
Right now, little made any sense. He had never had anyone outside of his family members in his room. As much as he was clinging to the casualness, pretending that Harvey dropping by was normal and that how Harvey looked didn't faze him and that he wasn't at all freaked out by any of it, the edges were frayed and starting to show.
He leaned back against the door, looking at Harvey as he breathed out slowly. "You ran from the hospital, didn't you?"
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So fucking stupid.
"It's been a rough coupled of weeks... months. Whatever. I just got an eyelid." Harvey casually informed Edward as he sat on his bed and looked around his room curiously. It was basically how he imagined it. Right down to the tech bits and bobs scattered around. "I wanted some air. You get it."
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Jonathan would find all of this so fascinating. But clearly Harvey knew that he ought to be in treatment and knew he looked awful. Seemed almost too obvious to linger on. "I've tried to visit you but they'd not let anyone in."
He wondered whether Harvey knew. "I didn't really expect you'd come visit me."
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Harvey's mouth was bleeding as he talked and it dripped gently down his white shirt.
"Spill, Ed. You saw who. Describe it, give me a name, give us answers."
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Now, those screams? They were burned into his mind. "I was worried for you. Why would I've been looking any other way?" For obvious reasons, but he was just asking a question, not telling a lie.
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"I would have looked at you. I'm dumb like that. You ain't." Edward knew the guy, he could already tell. That body language said it all. "You squirm like a liar, Ed. And we both know, you ain't a liar."
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Which was close to admitting that it was what he had done. "Listen. I'm telling you that it's better for you not to know. That's not a lie." He looked up finally, already guessing that was not going to work out for him. "I'm not a liar and I'm smart, so... You know. Listen to me?"
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"Tell me and I'll owe you one. I'll make it all square but I gotta know. You can't deny me the right to know who DID THIS?" Harvey asked, his voice raising in anger and his body trembling with it. "I want to fucking know, Ed!"
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He stared up at Harvey and tried to forget that he was all that. That he was sweet and just and cared. Because then why wouldn't Ed just send him off to his doom? Easy way to get rid of a bully. Instead here he was, looking at Harvey and trying to find whether any of that side of him was even still left. "You are my good friend." Were. Perhaps were. "That's why I'm not telling."
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"Is that it then, Ed? You wanna fuck with us. You wanna -- why?!" Harvey grabbed a screwdriver off Edward's desk and held it up to him. "You fucking tell me, you rat, or we're gonna dig your eyes out!"
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While groaning as he sat up, because his supposed friend had just tossed him across a room. Fuck, that hurt. Nothing broken though. His eyes widened when Harvey reached for the screwdriver and there was a nervous laugh when he got up, backing away. "Wait a moment, yeah? How about no? That's-- You really shouldn't. I've got nice eyes, for one thing. Got them from my mother, only good thing I've ever gotten from her."
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He had the screwdriver right under Edward's eye now. "Tell me the name, Ed. It's be a fucking shame to lose your left eye. Trust me, I fucking know."
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So he had to defend himself in different ways. Thinking of how Oswald did it, Edward allowed his breath to hitch, before coming out in a fearful tremble. His pride took a bit of a hit at the whimper. The fear was real, didn't mean that there wasn't part of him that mourned the loss of dignity. He looked up at Harvey and tried to look into his eyes. "Please, Harvey. Please, don't do this. That's not you..."
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Harvey wasn't about to back down. Well, not Harvey, his head was somewhere else entirely. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want to hurt Ed.
Luckily, someone else would do it for him.
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As he came up short of anything else, naturally, his brain defaulted to riddling. "Not all birds of prey are up in the sky; some are found in the city, not soaring as high."
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Suddenly dizzy, Harvey let go of Ed and stumbled away from him, losing his footing and hitting the floor. Fuck. He looked at Edward, eyes wide with panic.
"... I'm sorry, Eddie. I don't know what came over me." Harvey sucked in a pained breath and curled into himself, arms over his head as if to protect his face. "I'm not-- I'm not well. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
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Why care about Harvey? Attachment was a weakness. He bent down to pick up the screwdriver and tossed it over onto his bed and well out of the way. Then he stepped closer to Harvey, looking down at him.
And his chest seized. Why did his heart hurt? "...you need medical treatment. You'll get an infection like this. I'm sorry, Harvey. I really am. I'm sorry this happened to you, but you can't let it kill you." He crouched down and tentatively put a hand on his shoulder. "You need help."
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Or, at least, in his psychosis he had. He wanted to go and see his dad, despite the bastard never wanting to see him. "Let me go home. Just for a sec, Eddie. Don't call the cops, please. I just wanna... I wanna see my dad."
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Edward shrugged. "I mean... Do you want to walk there? Home, I mean."
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It wasn't because he missed him, a very different feeling was ruling him now. Rejection. Hurt. Anger. He wanted to understand why his dad didn't come and the more he didn't know, the worse it got. He hoped it was grief and once he knew that, he could let go of the anger. Harvey pulled himself up and looked at Edward, nervous and unsure. "I can go alone. I can see fine in the right eye."