A Fair Question - A Harvey/Rachel one-shot
Author: Avelera
Universe: Nolanverse, reference made to DCAU-verse.
Rating: PG-13 for some suggestiveness.
Characters/Pairings: Harvey/Rachel
Word Count: 1,034
Warnings: Dark Knight foreshadowing and potential spoilers.
Summary: Harvey and Rachel share an intimate moment. Foreshadowing for certain events in The Dark Knight.
Author Notes: This was actually the first TDK fic I ever started writing, but I was (and still am) dissatisfied with the ending so I agonized for awhile before posting it. No particular song inspired it, but my boyfriend is a criminal prosecutor and I suppose you could say he inspired my take on Harvey/Rachel ~_^
Cross-posted to westillbelieve, posted here at the request of sashyasavvy.
“What would you do if anything ever happened to me?” Rachel said, her head resting on Harvey’s shoulder as they lay side-by side on the bed, the flush of their recent lovemaking cooling on their skin.
“You know I’d never let anything happen to you,” he said, nuzzling against her neck.
She pulled away, turning onto her side to face him, a thoughtful frown on her lips, “I’m serious. This is Gotham City, anything could happen, and it’s not as if I don’t have enemies. The mob, the Joker, even a random mugger…” she as cut off by the sudden, almost imperceptible tightening of Harve’s embrace. Craning her neck, Rachel could see the effect her words had wrought on her lover. It was as if all the easy grace had been poured out his body. He looked strangely brittle, his shoulders tense, and the muscles of his jaw standing out in sharp relief against the planes of his face.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No, it’s a fair question,” he said. Taking a deep breath, he rolled onto his back and cast his gaze up to the ceiling.
“First I would get revenge.”
“Revenge?” Rachel gave a short laugh devoid of humor, “Harvey, you wouldn’t…I mean, you are the most non-violent person I’ve ever met. I always thought that was…refreshing about you.”
“But I’m not,” he said, refusing to be swayed from the subject now that it had arisen, “I have a dark side, Rachel, just like anyone else. If something happened to you, if someone hurt you, or, God forbid, if someone killed you,” he unconsciously tightened his embrace, “I think I would lose my mind.”
For a moment, they sat in silence, his words heavy in the air.
“I wouldn’t want that. If anything happened…I would want you to heal, to move on. You’re not a man of vengeance; you’re a man of justice.”
“Some would say they’re one and the same. That justice is just the name we made up to cover up the truth; that every single law was written just so people could have revenge.”
“You of all people should know that’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” he said, propping himself up on one elbow, “What good have the laws done us in Gotham? The mob runs amok, everyone who can afford to now lives outside the city limits, and the ones who can’t are afraid to go outside after dark. And it took a masked vigilante dressed as a bat to show us how far we’d sunk. He accomplished more in a month than I have in my entire career, all because he doesn’t obey the law. If I were half the man he is, I would have exterminated every last one of them.” he bit off each word, his lips drawn back as if he was snarling. Rachel could feel his muscles tense beneath her, as if he would throw her off and begin the crusade single handedly.
“Batman doesn’t kill,” she whispered
“But I would,” he said. Rachel stiffened, “If they hurt you, I would.”
“No. You’re better than that, I know you are,” she said.
“Am I?” said Dent, raking his free hand through his hair, “Sometimes I feel like there’s another side of me. Just now, and once when I was…when I was questioning a suspect, I felt it. I’ve always tried to be good, to do the right thing even when it was hard. But sometimes I feel it, this rage, like there’s another side of me that I’ve locked away. The side that could hurt, torture…kill.”
On the nightstand sat the silver Liberty head coin that Harvey had so conscientiously removed from his pocket before Rachel had all but torn his clothes off and they had fallen, hot and desperate, onto the bed. He picked it up now, massaging it between his fingers, feeling the familiar contours of Liberty’s delicate face and corkscrew curls. Two-sided, a rarity amongst coins, rarer still in a coin minted over eighty years before, the pride of his father’s collection. From the day his father had placed it in his hand he had carried it on his person and, over time, a nearly superstitious attachment had grown in him towards it. A childish and unspoken belief that the coin embodied luck, his luck, the kind that came from always knowing how the chips would fall. Back in Internal Affairs it had taken on new meaning, the two-faced coin had become his mirror, the symbol of how he always managed to face the right way, wherever the wind might blow.
“Harvey, everyone has those thoughts,” Rachel was saying, pulling him from his contemplation of the coin, “We all wonder what would happen if we gave in, if we took the law into our own hands. That’s what makes us human,” she placed a light kiss on his cheek, drawing his gaze away from the coin’s mirror surface, “But it’s not what makes us good. What makes us good is not giving in to those voices, believing that reason and justice will win in the end. And I know you are a good person. You’re Gotham’s White Knight,” somehow, she managed to say it with total conviction, without a trace of irony.
He chuckled. “What does that make you? My squire?”
“Right now, whatever you want me to be,” she said, snuggling into his shoulder and placing a a quick line of kisses from his collarbone, up the arch of his neck to his lips. There she dallied quite a bit longer, until they were both panting and breathless.
“I don’t know what it is about you, Rachel, but around you I…” Harvey said, the creases now gone from his forehead. A faint flush colored his cheeks.
“Mmm?”
“Around you I feel… like a better person, like I can forget that darker side exists.”
“Well then I’d better stick around then, hmm? So Big Bad Harv doesn’t come and get you,” Rachel said with a trace of mischief.
“Big Bad Harv?” Harvey laughed, “What kind of name is that?”
Rachel never did give him an answer, but as the night wore on, Harvey wasn’t one to complain.
Universe: Nolanverse, reference made to DCAU-verse.
Rating: PG-13 for some suggestiveness.
Characters/Pairings: Harvey/Rachel
Word Count: 1,034
Warnings: Dark Knight foreshadowing and potential spoilers.
Summary: Harvey and Rachel share an intimate moment. Foreshadowing for certain events in The Dark Knight.
Author Notes: This was actually the first TDK fic I ever started writing, but I was (and still am) dissatisfied with the ending so I agonized for awhile before posting it. No particular song inspired it, but my boyfriend is a criminal prosecutor and I suppose you could say he inspired my take on Harvey/Rachel ~_^
Cross-posted to westillbelieve, posted here at the request of sashyasavvy.
“What would you do if anything ever happened to me?” Rachel said, her head resting on Harvey’s shoulder as they lay side-by side on the bed, the flush of their recent lovemaking cooling on their skin.
“You know I’d never let anything happen to you,” he said, nuzzling against her neck.
She pulled away, turning onto her side to face him, a thoughtful frown on her lips, “I’m serious. This is Gotham City, anything could happen, and it’s not as if I don’t have enemies. The mob, the Joker, even a random mugger…” she as cut off by the sudden, almost imperceptible tightening of Harve’s embrace. Craning her neck, Rachel could see the effect her words had wrought on her lover. It was as if all the easy grace had been poured out his body. He looked strangely brittle, his shoulders tense, and the muscles of his jaw standing out in sharp relief against the planes of his face.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No, it’s a fair question,” he said. Taking a deep breath, he rolled onto his back and cast his gaze up to the ceiling.
“First I would get revenge.”
“Revenge?” Rachel gave a short laugh devoid of humor, “Harvey, you wouldn’t…I mean, you are the most non-violent person I’ve ever met. I always thought that was…refreshing about you.”
“But I’m not,” he said, refusing to be swayed from the subject now that it had arisen, “I have a dark side, Rachel, just like anyone else. If something happened to you, if someone hurt you, or, God forbid, if someone killed you,” he unconsciously tightened his embrace, “I think I would lose my mind.”
For a moment, they sat in silence, his words heavy in the air.
“I wouldn’t want that. If anything happened…I would want you to heal, to move on. You’re not a man of vengeance; you’re a man of justice.”
“Some would say they’re one and the same. That justice is just the name we made up to cover up the truth; that every single law was written just so people could have revenge.”
“You of all people should know that’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” he said, propping himself up on one elbow, “What good have the laws done us in Gotham? The mob runs amok, everyone who can afford to now lives outside the city limits, and the ones who can’t are afraid to go outside after dark. And it took a masked vigilante dressed as a bat to show us how far we’d sunk. He accomplished more in a month than I have in my entire career, all because he doesn’t obey the law. If I were half the man he is, I would have exterminated every last one of them.” he bit off each word, his lips drawn back as if he was snarling. Rachel could feel his muscles tense beneath her, as if he would throw her off and begin the crusade single handedly.
“Batman doesn’t kill,” she whispered
“But I would,” he said. Rachel stiffened, “If they hurt you, I would.”
“No. You’re better than that, I know you are,” she said.
“Am I?” said Dent, raking his free hand through his hair, “Sometimes I feel like there’s another side of me. Just now, and once when I was…when I was questioning a suspect, I felt it. I’ve always tried to be good, to do the right thing even when it was hard. But sometimes I feel it, this rage, like there’s another side of me that I’ve locked away. The side that could hurt, torture…kill.”
On the nightstand sat the silver Liberty head coin that Harvey had so conscientiously removed from his pocket before Rachel had all but torn his clothes off and they had fallen, hot and desperate, onto the bed. He picked it up now, massaging it between his fingers, feeling the familiar contours of Liberty’s delicate face and corkscrew curls. Two-sided, a rarity amongst coins, rarer still in a coin minted over eighty years before, the pride of his father’s collection. From the day his father had placed it in his hand he had carried it on his person and, over time, a nearly superstitious attachment had grown in him towards it. A childish and unspoken belief that the coin embodied luck, his luck, the kind that came from always knowing how the chips would fall. Back in Internal Affairs it had taken on new meaning, the two-faced coin had become his mirror, the symbol of how he always managed to face the right way, wherever the wind might blow.
“Harvey, everyone has those thoughts,” Rachel was saying, pulling him from his contemplation of the coin, “We all wonder what would happen if we gave in, if we took the law into our own hands. That’s what makes us human,” she placed a light kiss on his cheek, drawing his gaze away from the coin’s mirror surface, “But it’s not what makes us good. What makes us good is not giving in to those voices, believing that reason and justice will win in the end. And I know you are a good person. You’re Gotham’s White Knight,” somehow, she managed to say it with total conviction, without a trace of irony.
He chuckled. “What does that make you? My squire?”
“Right now, whatever you want me to be,” she said, snuggling into his shoulder and placing a a quick line of kisses from his collarbone, up the arch of his neck to his lips. There she dallied quite a bit longer, until they were both panting and breathless.
“I don’t know what it is about you, Rachel, but around you I…” Harvey said, the creases now gone from his forehead. A faint flush colored his cheeks.
“Mmm?”
“Around you I feel… like a better person, like I can forget that darker side exists.”
“Well then I’d better stick around then, hmm? So Big Bad Harv doesn’t come and get you,” Rachel said with a trace of mischief.
“Big Bad Harv?” Harvey laughed, “What kind of name is that?”
Rachel never did give him an answer, but as the night wore on, Harvey wasn’t one to complain.