Officer Wayne, cont.

[jeriendhal]

Gordon lifted his glasses up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Officer Wayne, if you're imagining yourself becoming some sort of white knight to the citizens of our fair city, allow me to remind you of a few civic facts. We've got a 15% unemployment rate, a 30% drop in population in the past 25 years, and a 50% dropout rate from the local high schools. There's a heroin epidemic in Old Gotham, our last two mayors were arrested for taking bribes, and the FBI just rated the GCPD as the second most corrupt police force in the country after Los Angeles. We're the city Detroit looks to so they can say, 'At least we're not doing that bad.' Now what is going to me make think that after a year, or maybe a month, of going up against that, that you won't just think better of it and move back into that mansion of yours to host a retirement party for yourself?"

Wayne stiffened, a cold look entering his eyes. "I will not quit, sir. My parents believed in this city. I believe in this city. And I've never given up on anything I've started."

"Do you think city will believe in you, Wayne?" Gordon asked. "I've met enough people in this town to know they probably won't. The ones who aren't scared of the cops think we should be beating up the ones that are. Neither of them trust us, and we haven't given them much reason to."

"I understand that. I'm not blind, sir." Wayne focused his gaze on the detective lieutenant. "If you really think this town isn't worth saving, why did you move here yourself?"

Which was a helluva question for a rookie cop to ask a detective, but Gordon was honest enough with himself to give an answer. "I didn't have any choice. I'd run out of options"

"There are always choices, and options," Wayne replied. "You're a smart man, I've read your files. There are a lot of jobs you could be doing besides police work."

"Police work is the only job I want to be doing."

For the first time, Wayne cracked a small, intense smile. "Exactly, sir."

Gordon paused, then let a short laugh. He held out his hand, "Welcome to the Major Crimes Unit, Officer Wayne."

Comments

[seawasp]

Are you going to submit this to DC? Because this could totally work.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

One scene does not a comics series make, alas. Though it might work as a very weird issue of Gotham Central.

[seawasp]

But this could BE a comic series -- or, I suppose, a comic-based novel. A very powerful alt-hist one. There are all SORTS of questions that come up with this; for instance, does the Joker show up? If he does, does Officer Wayne end up with him as an ongoing enemy, or does Wayne actually end up preventing his creation by somehow mitigating the Worst Day Ever that created the Joker in the first place? How does Wayne interact with the inevitable "capes" in his jurisdiction?

Seriously, this could be awesome.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I've got an idea for how the Joker shows up. It ends... well, slightly better than the canon.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

In this universe I would expect the Joker to be a senior agent with the BATF.





Not that big a change.

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't he call him "Mister Wayne" at the start still?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

He's a police officer already at the story start. Gordon is interviewing him to see if it's worth his time to give Wayne a slot in the MCU, or just tell him he's got to walk the beat like most other cops

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK :)