Jerome Valeska One-Shots

Polly Part 2

Days passed by drearily in Arkham; the same gray walls boxing in its prisoners—I mean patients—with boring consistency. The only bit of color in the place was Polly. Her bright red hair stood out like a beacon that called the other inmates to her with alarming speed.

Quite quickly Y/N had realized when she first arrived that she would need to conform completely to the identity she'd created for herself. Any slip ups could potentially be fatal if the other inmates knew she had a functioning brain under her mess of red hair.

And it worked, perfectly—until Jerome showed up.

Not only did he challenge her role of craziest ginger and persist in talking to her and therefore drawing attention to her, but he also saw through her facade. From Day 1 he somehow realized that she was putting on an act, and no matter how many times she parroted his words back to him, he refused to accept any other reality. It wouldn't be so terrible if he weren't absolutely right.

But that brings up the question of why she was in Arkham at all. If she's sane, why is she there?

Y/N started using her talent when she was younger to pull pranks on other Narrow kids. Her parents were poor, but they tried, and at least they didn't gamble away the family cash like some others did. But eventually, they couldn't pay up when someone's muscle asked, and they got taken out, leaving Y/N in the care of her elder sister. The pair got on well and kept themselves going for a long time.

The only issue was that her sister had a little bit of a drug problem and it was difficult to fund that and put food on the table. Her sister paid with sex as often as she could, and even used it to make some cash, but that stopped when she discovered that she was pregnant. Y/N helped her to stay off drugs and took over the finances, but she was too young to get a decent job and found herself using her abilities to trick people into paying her over the phone, and she even helped out a couple of the big fish lure their prey into traps for some extra cash.

But her luck ran out one day and she found herself in an interrogation room with a Detective Jim Gordon, who had caught her tied up in one of Penguin's operations. She knew from word on the street that though the two were "friends", Jim still wanted to arrest Oswald if he could. Not wanting to rat him out and risk harm to her sister, she panicked. She knew that she also couldn't take the fall because she could take a huge fine or be sent to prison with a whole bunch of hardened mamas.

Deciding that it was the best option, Y/N faked insanity to get out of any charges, making it look like Penguin had simply manipulated her into compliance. Arkham seemed loads better, seeing as it was state funded so she'd get free meals and leave more money to her sister. Penguin assured her through written communication that her payload for her service would be delivered to her sister, seeing as she hadn't snitched. (You're a true friend, Y/N.)

Her initial plan had been to start out overwhelmingly insane and then calm down as she was "cured" and then earn her release, avoiding any charges because she hadn't been in her right mind previously. The only thing was that she couldn't start too soon or get out of character because then it would be fake and get her caught.

Jerome's arrival just made everything more complicated.

That infernal mischievous grin of his not only got her distracted, but it had almost blown her cover too many times to count. Y/N had planned to start her transition around this time, but she didn't want that charming egomaniac to think that he had anything to do with it! And speaking of...

Just then, that same ginger came skipping across the rec room towards her, and Y/N wanted to groan. She'd had about enough of his meddling. She decided that she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of riling her up today. She set her shoulders and stared at one of the drab bricks on the far wall, determined that Jerome wouldn't be getting a lick of her attention today.