There was an excessively bright light in his eyes.

Ed sat up. His abdomen was stiff, twinging...stitches. He had stitches. He ran a finger over them.

Fifteen, to be exact.

They were surgically precise. But not Lee's handiwork, he'd watched her work at the clinic...

He gasped. Remembering...

'So. Lee's handiwork, after all...'

'Glad to see you awake.'

He knew the voice emanating from behind the bright light. He reached up and pushed it away. The room was little more than a brick cell. He swung his legs out of the hospital gurney-bed, and brought himself into a sitting position. Now he could see the owner of that voice, sitting in a chair against the wall. She stood, stiffly, and handed him his folded emerald jacket and his bowler hat.

'You lived, too?' Ed broke into a brassy smile. 'Nothing stays dead in Gotham, does it?'

'Not when Dr Strange is around.' Lee anticipated his need for information. 'It seems Oswald paid to have us both revived.'

Ed put the hat and jacket beside him on the bed. 'I think, in my case, he was expecting someone different.'

Ed quirked an eye brow, as the expression of understanding dawned on Lee's face. 'You're Ed again!' She stepped forward and hugged him, instinctually.

'Now, that's just a mixed signal.' Ed stiffened and Lee withdrew when she realised he wasn't returning the embrace.

'What do you mean?' Lee cocked her head. 'We were friends, weren't we?'

'Not exactly. I loved you and you tolerated me.' Ed shrugged, knowing the truth had been out for months. 'But then it was curtains for me. And some strange things have been going on during intermission.'

Lee nodded. 'You mean my relationship with the Riddler.' She paused. 'With you.'

He stood up.

'We're not the same person. It's him you're attracted to.' He looked down at her. 'The power, the glitz...the stupid rhymes.'

'Actually, I could take or leave those.' Lee smiled.

'When he wasn't stabbing you, he was a better partner-in-crime than I ever was.' Ed looked at the floor. Then, back into Lee's eyes. 'But that's not the point. You lied when you said you'd help me. Then, you hook up with my alter ego. Then you stab and kill me. And you still think we're friends?'

A dark look of pain shot across his face.

'How could you?'

'Ed—'

'—I can more than understand you not loving me, but then, you choose him?' His jaw quivered.

But Lee was looking up at him, giving him that same, sad beatific smile. 'You don't see what I was trying to do?'

'If you're going to say you were trying to trick the Riddler into letting me out—'

'Not trick. Merge.' Lee reached out again and drew him to her. 'I said I would help you. It was never about quashing one personality for another. You're both versions of Ed. Both brilliant. Both loyal. Determined. Both in love with me...'

Ed's eyes brimmed with angry tears. But she knew he was still listening. 'You have a medical degree. Don't tell me you never researched your own condition.'

'Of course I did. I wanted a cure. I never wanted to be a sociopath.' Ed spat.

'So you know reconciling personalities is the recommended treatment.'

'Most people's other personality isn't one of Gotham's most wanted!'

'True. But that's why he needs you..You're the part of him that understands human nature - he needs that when he schemes. You're what made him loyal to Penguin under torture. You're why he's still alive.'

'You're pitching this to him.' Ed looked down, heart sore. Even when I'm the one on the outside, you're talking to him."

'He needs to hear this.' Lee said, 'or else next time he's at the helm we'll be right back to stabbing each other.' She looked into his eyes. 'You're the part that's going to stop him from ever trying to kill me again.'

'How can you be sure?' Ed was shaking with the effort to control his angst now.

'Because I do love you.' Lee said, simply. 'Whichever one of you I'm with is always full of doubt. Maybe that's my fault. I kept my distance from both of you until I figured it out. I don't love either of you, solo. But I do love you both, together.'

Ed sneered in disbelief, but Lee pushed him back gently until he was sitting on the bed, and she could draw her arms around him. 'I know you can do it—reassimilate—if you try. You're the strongest person I know.'

'I'm scared. Scared of disappearing.' Ed's voice was muffled.

'I won't let you.' And pressing her forehead to his, she began to kiss him. He returned the kiss, softly. Then, a jolt of electricity seemed to run through him. 'It seems...he's part of my lust.'

'That's okay.' Lee said. 'You can be the Riddler from time to time without him taking over. Let a little of him out.' As she said that, her hair swept his face and she leaned forward to touch his hip, his groin...

'Hmm.' There was a black glimmer in his eyes and he didn't need to put the bowler hat on for her to recognize him.

'Hello there.'

'Pleasing as this carnal display is, don't think I've fallen for this act.' He fixed his arms around her waist and pressed a deliberate thumb on her stitches, causing her to wince.

But Lee didn't lose her nerve.

'It's good that you're vigilant, because Ed can be naive. But you're too damn smart not to see this is the solution to our problem.'

'What problem?' The Riddler was smiling, almost purring, watching her balance between the thigh she had pressed up against his erection, and the the thumb he was leaning into her surgical wound.

'The one where, alone, you can't figure out how to have me—love me—without killing me. Ed is this answer to giving you everything you want. Time to come out and scheme and wreak occasional havoc with Gotham, and a way to truly have me be in love with you...without it ending in dual murder.'

The Riddler said nothing, but the pressure on her wound lightened. He slid a long arm up her back and pulled her closer to him.

'If we do this, we have to do it my way.' The Riddler said.

'And what's that?' Lee asked.

'You help Ed to become the Riddler. And I let him hold the reins. Most of the time.' He flashed a brief smile. 'But Ed and I can't be always wondering whether this is all some long-con. Anxiety makes our condition worse, you know." He gave a ruthless laugh. 'But you could show us, once and for all, that you mean it.'

'I was planning to show you a couple of times, right here on the gurney.' Lee smiled.

'No...well yes, that...but more.' He leaned forward and kissed Lee so passionately she had to steady herself against him. When he drew back, he began to recite:

'I have no beginning or end. My moment is before the bells have rung, and I represent union. What am I?'

'A ring?' Lee gasped.

The Riddler looked genuinely pleased that she'd solved it. 'A wedding ring.'

He produced a slim box from his trouser pocket and showed her a rather large emerald set in white gold. 'I bought this when I thought we were going to leave Gotham together. Say yes, and I finally know you're not—'

'—Yes, Ed. I'll marry you.' Lee held out her hand for him, and he slid the ring on over the silver mesh.

'Just like that? No hesitation?'

Lee smiled. 'None. All of you is all I want.'

The Riddler tilted his head and gave her a disbelieving smile. 'Aaand the Narrows, the occasional bank robbery, and your own clinic?'

She grinned. 'Naturally. Now, I think it would only be gentlemanly if you let Ed hold the reins while we consummate this pact.' She looked pointedly at the gurney beneath him.

'Ugh, fine. But I guarantee he lacks my imagination.' He ran a hand down her curves.

'There'll be plenty of time for imagination later.'

The fierce look died out of his eyes. What she could see shining through Ed's expression was far more human.

'Are you okay with this?' She held up the ring, waggling her fingers.

'Okay? Lee, you're a genius! He actually stepped back and let me through!' He grabbed her and pulled her onto the bed beside him, leaning over her and caging her with his arm. She sighed, eyes closed, content, as he began kissing her neck, palming her breast through her clothing.

They'd had sex before, when he was the Riddler —a kind of erotic violence they had done to each other—but this was slow, steamy, passionate. Their stomachs brushed, their matching seams still new.

Ed brushed the hair out of her eyes. 'You are amazing.' He breathed, rocking into her. Lee blushed at the compliment.

The Riddler had never quite been able to believe Lee cared for him because he only understood the harder side of her - The Doc, the Queen of the Narrows. But here she was, with Ed—gentle, vulnerable —she'd done almost as many terrible things as he had, and she was living with them, the best way she knew how. Not by choosing to be The Good Lee or the Bad One, but by existing between them.

And that's what he had to do.

'I was hoping this would be a little more distracting for you.' she laughed, 'Has anyone ever told you, you think too much?'

'Always.' Ed grinned. 'But I suppose we could try a little roleplay?' He reached down and put on the Bowler hat.

This time, his eyes didn't go dark. But his spine straightened, and he grinned.

xxxx

Down the hall, the Penguin asked: 'What is that ungodly noise?!'

'I'd say Ed Nygma has finally woken up.' Dr Strange deadpanned.

'That noise...is Lee and Ed?' Penguin pulled a horrified face. 'I thought you were experimenting on gorillas or something.'

'I am. But the noise is coming from his ward. I could use a sleep gas to...'

'No. Let them have their...' the Penguin gave a disgusted smile, 'Fun. If we hope to regain Gotham, I'm going to need both the Queen of the Narrows and the Riddler to be able to function without trying to kill each other —or worse— every five minutes.'

Later, when Dr Strange had discreetly informed him that the occupants of Ward B now had their clothes on, the Penguin strode to the barred door and looked in.

The two were talking seriously, holding hands. Scheming how to dig the Narrows out from under the current piles of rubble, no doubt.

But his jaw dropped when he saw Lee wearing the ring.

'Congratulations are in order, I see.'

Ed and Lee both smiled.

'So is a thank you, Oswald, for resurrecting us.' Ed stood, flashing a charming grin at his old friend. 'But I don't imagine you did so without having plans for us?'

'Wh-what's wrong? You're not...it's like you're...you are him and you're not him.' The Penguin looked at Lee. 'What did you do to him?'

'I made him happy.' Lee answered.

'No-no, you foolish woman, I've seen him happy before. But this - it's like he's...shimmering in and out of being."

Lee gaped. 'You can see him do it too?'

'Now, it's not polite to talk about a person like he's not in the room.' Ed warned, his eyes flashing black.

But the Penguin had already barreled in and was looking at him from side to side, visibly distressed.

'It's okay, Oswald. He's still the Riddler. And he's still Ed.' Lee explained. 'He always was both people.'

The Penguin looked back and forth from Lee to his tall friend clad in green. 'You're okay?'

Ed Nygma smiled. He actually had a fiancé, and a best friend. Both of them knew the real him. He'd hurt both of them—tried to kill both of them. And here they were, still scared for him. Trying to help him.

Pathetic...but sweet.

'I'm what's left when the lion is blown away. What am I?' He drew Lee's hand up to his lips and kissed it.

Penguin thought for a moment. 'Dandy?' He said.

'Exactly. Fine and.' He gave the Penguin a friendly pat on the shoulder. 'So what are you planning? And how do we fit in?'

xx The End xx