searchingfordistraction

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Gotham was satisfying. As it turns out, Seb was right; Jim needed a holiday. It was a pleasant change of pace, watching the chaos explode around him without having to worry about conducting it himself. But of course, eventually enough is enough. Too much of a good thing will always turn sour.

So, when a Door to Milliways turns up shortly after the death of Harvey Dent, Jim takes it.

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Even without Matilda's guidance, Jim would recognize it as the most likely in the carpark to be hers.

He hotwires it without even looking at what he's doing.

"Directions?"

She can give them to him all at once. He'll remember.

That is exactly what she does.

It's so nice working with someone who can keep up.

Isn't it?

In what may be a surprise twist to anyone who doesn't pay close enough attention, Jim sticks carefully to the speeding limit. He does not, after all, have a license to drive in this world; getting pulled over would not only be unendingly tedious, it would also destroy any advantage gained from speeding, especially since he'd have to be a bit more cooperative than he'd usually bother with. Rendering officers of the law unconscious would, he thinks, be likely to cross a line for Matilda even under these circumstances.

"Do we have a layout for the building?" he asks.

"Not a good one. There were some pictures, but just of the outside. I didn't have time to look for blueprints."

"We'll improvise, then," he says. "These places tend to be fairly cookiecutter."

He doubts the Trunchbull will have chosen anywhere especially fancy.

"You handle Miss Trunchbull, I'll stay out of her sight and get Jenny out."

This is not the plan he would have chosen an hour ago, but an hour ago they didn't know she had powers of her own. Matilda has a chance at defending herself against them; Jim does not. Best for the Trunchbull to think Matilda is on her own. Jim will only be a liability if she finds out about him.

She runs through a similar chain of logic in her head, then nods.

"Good plan."

As much as Matilda wants to be the one to rescue Jenny, there are two jobs here and she'll be better at the other one.

"You'll need to be ready to knock her out," he says. "We don't know exactly what she can do."

It's best all the way around to ensure that she not be able to do it.

(And, he doesn't say, once she's safely unconscious, he can take it from there.)

"Also a good plan," she acknowledges, although she doubts it will be that easy.

No, very likely it won't.

"All my plans are good," he says airily.

That actually gets a small smile out of her.

"Statistically unlikely, but given who's talking, I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong."

"Statistics," he tells her, "are for ordinary people."

Jim never did get the hang of being statistically likely.

"They so are not."

When was the last time he met an ordinary person who knew any statistics? Real statistics, not the ability to quote made-up percentages on the spot.

"Oh, dear," he says, "aren't they?"

And if he's deliberately dangling the distraction, well . . . what of it? They can make all the plans in the world, but none of them will be of any use if Matilda ends up making herself too tense to focus.

That's his story, anyway.

She shoots him a look.

Then she snickers.

He gazes innocently ahead, keeping his eyes on the road.

He's sure he has no idea what's so funny.

It's a quiet, subdued giggle by Matilda's usual standards, but it's still a giggle.

The hotel, when they eventually find it, is medium-tall and unremarkable-looking. No surprises about the layout. No surprises about anything, really. They have the room number—fourth floor, single room. Now all they need is an immediate plan of attack.

"Shorting out the power to the room, perhaps?" he suggests. "Can you do that without being able to see it or will you have to take out the whole thing?"

That he could do himself easily enough, but unless Matilda needs visual contact with the power controls, she can do it faster.

Matilda frowns slightly.

"I can't do it without knowing where it is and what it looks like," she says at last, shaking her head. She's not sure she could do it even so—she's had limited success manipulating objects not in the same room—but at least she'd know how to try.

"I can take care of that, then," he says. "She'll come down to complain before long, then you can keep her busy while I smuggle Jenny out the back door."

Firmly: "Good."

And while she can't cut power to a room she's never seen, she can open a locked door without touching it. She leads him in a side door, to avoid having to deal with hotel reception.

They may not have blueprints, but there's nothing in the layout of this building he hasn't seen countless times before.

It's not very long before the power on the fourth floor blinks out and Jim is quietly on his way upstairs.

Matilda, for her part, waits in view of the stairs closest to the front desk but not in view of the front desk.

Miss Trunchbull is the kind of person who goes by the most direct route.

Indeed she is.

She's also the kind of person who tends toward tunnelvision; staying out of her sight hardly requires Jim's level of genius. The moment she's left the fourth floor, he's at the door of her room, picking the lock. It's a standard lock - no keycard system in this hotel - so it's more time-consuming than it is challenging.

Even so, it's only a few minutes before he's pushing the door open.

Jenny has been standing behind that door, virtually motionless, since very shortly after Agatha left. The moment he moves past it, she swings a cast-iron table lamp up toward Trunchbull head level.

(Meanwhile: the unmistakable heavy stomp comes down the stairs, and Matilda realizes she doesn't really know how to knock out Miss Trunchbull. So she throws her down the hall as hard as she can and hopes for the best.

It doesn't work.

In fact, as the dust clears, she suspects it did more damage to the wall - which is now severely dented - than to Miss Trunchbull's head, which isn't.)

Much as Jim would be loath to admit it, his irregular diet and worse sleep pattern in Gotham didn't do his reflexes too many favors. He's still quick, still hits the floor and rolls into the room to get to his feet again with time to spare, but it's just possible that his height plays a role in his skull not being currently dented.

He's smiling when he stands again.

"Not much for the role of damsel in distress, then? No, I suppose I should have seen that coming."