Paired
Author: Rysler
Date: 04/05/05
Pairing: Two Face (Harvey Dent) / Renee Montoya [DCU]
Summary: Renee's got to bring Two Face in, but he has a few things to say first.
Renee stood in the brightly-lit half of the apartment's living room. Blue beacons danced along the ceiling, reflected against the window, where on the street below cop cars were aligned in a haphazard semi-circle around the building.
Harvey sat in a straight-backed chair against the wall, half-shadowed. His suit, split down the middle with alternating colors and by the shadow that enveloped half the room, made Renee feel like she was looking into a shattered mirror.
She was his hostage.
The room was rigged with bombs, handiwork allegedly finagled by the Joker. The Joker was the go-to guy for mad plans that involved hi-tech distribution beyond an individual's abilities. He manipulated lesser criminals easily. Most of them didn't even realize that they were being baited for the Joker's amusement as he watched the 11 o'clock news from his asylum cell.
Harvey Dent didn't care.
"I'm here to put you under arrest." She said it calmly, not moving toward him, not yet.
"No."
"You killed two people."
"I didn't." Harvey turned his head. The mangled side of his face came into the light. Twisted skin amplified the anguish in his tone. "I didn't." He lowered his voice. "It was Harvey."
Renee took a step closer. She knelt so they were eye-level. "Harvey wouldn't do that."
Harvey laughed. "Of course he would." His hand moved restlessly against his thigh, rolling the silver coin he pressed against his leg. She ignored it, and instead looked into his face as he continued, "Do you think Harvey wouldn't do it because he's good?" He glared at her with his good eye. "Think there are only two sides? Good. Evil. Nothing in between, Renee? As district attorney, I saw--I saw...I want there to be just two sides." A wail escaped his mouth, and he lifted the coin, pressing the metal against his lips to still their trembling.
Renee bowed her head.
His ranting continued. "Harvey, Harvey, Harvey... Everyone asks for Harvey. My former fiancée. That stupid bat. They think Harvey's in here trying to get out. If only they could rescue him!" He sneered. "Not you, Renee. You never knew Harvey Dent, did you? Too young?" He touched her cheek with his free hand.
She flinched.
"Don't you believe I can be saved?"
She looked up and wet her lips to speak, but he cut her off. "Maybe you see the monster, not the man. Or maybe the man and not the monster." His gaze darted wildly around the room, staring into inky blackness, blinking under brilliant white, spinning along with the police lights dancing across the ceiling. "Good. Evil." He looked at her again. "Renee."
"Harve--"
He seized her head and kissed her. Her lips touched the gaping hole where the right side of his mouth should have been and she felt like he was devouring her. Renee stumbled backward, falling into a sitting position on the floor. "No."
"Why not?"
"You know why."
"Damn y--" He lunged toward her, and then stopped himself. He squeezed the coin, caressed the edge, rolled it over his fingers, while staring at Renee, panting.
She said her words harshly, challenging him. "Are you going to hit me?"
He looked away from her and flipped the coin. It landed in his palm with a smack. "I would never hurt you." He leaned forward. "I made you. Your promotion, your reputation, because of me!" His face contorted into a disfigured smirk. "You aren't the girl from the ghetto any longer. I saved you."
Renee nodded. She couldn't go home. Two Face had destroyed her life. She'd had to build a new life with him in it.
"Detective Second Grade Renee Montoya." He punctuated each word.
Every detective made their career on one big case. Here sat hers. "I have to take you in."
"I didn't mean to hurt those people. I'm a friend of Jim Gordon. From way back. I keep the peace."
"Jim Gordon doesn't need you anymore."
He choked back a sob. "He doesn't need me. I was a terrible D.A. Couldn't make it fighting crime. Couldn't make it doing crime. I can't even go insane properly."
"There's still a place for you."
When they were walking toward the door of the apartment, Harvey's hands cuffed behind his back, he said, "It was an accident, you know. Just an accident."
"I know."
"It wasn't an accident!" He laughed, as if he'd tricked her. "I chose. I took that first step. I was--desperate, you understand. Helpless. But they punished me anyway. They made me evil." He was more definitive and more confident than Harvey Dent had ever been. Renee knew he still feared evil less than he feared himself. He stepped across the threshold. A SWAT officer took his arm and led him down the hall.
Renee paused in the doorway, her face half-shadowed. So Harvey had chosen evil. Batman, when it came down to it, despite what people said, had chosen good. There was nothing she could say, no justice, peace, or security to invoke, to make either man change his mind. She wondered what she would do if she was ever forced to choose. For now, like District Attorney Harvey Dent, she would do as she was told.