Today was boring. Why did she take this job again? Harleen kept asking herself. Gotham. That was it. She had wanted Gotham. It had the best subjects. Fresh out of school, Harleen had wanted true psychos and people that intrigued her. She was just so flustered with all the work left behind by the last psychiatrist.

She had read his files. He was one of the few she took for her own personal studies besides those assigned to her. He had been too. Now there was a marvelous subject. Her thoughts went to the night before. She had gone because she had gotten the invitation and He had told her to.

It was miserable up until the younger woman called her over. What was her name? Mary? Maria? That's it! Maria-Rachel. Miss Harthen. Harleen had felt so young compared to her. So… ugly. So useless. She questioned everything about herself. Miss Harthen had done nothing more than call her over. Why did she go in the first place? They had called her. She had thought it was better than not being notice.

Harleen sighs as she leans back in the new, rolling chair. Her eyes look at the roof. The office she had wasn't the best. She was new. She would be on the bottom of the chain. No. More like she had the best office they could afford. Arkham was just so old. She pushes the stubborn strand of hair from her face as she presses on with her thoughts.

Something was wrong with that woman. What? Miss Harthen was nice. But. Her eyes. Something in her eyes. What was her manager's name? L something. Lily? Lidia? There we go. Harleen bit at the end of her pen, lost in her thoughts, unaware of the pen. She had been so edgy with Miss Harthen. First she was taking command and ordering her about. Then… Then Maria changed. Something in her eyes. Victor and Lidia had seemed scared then. You could feel the tension coming from them. How could you not? Her eyes changed. That was all Harleen was able to see before Lidia stepped in. Lidia had hidden her fear from her voice and went to a subject she knew would please the woman.

What was it that had set off Maria?

The door thumped open. Harleen was startled from her thoughts. She looked at the door a little scared, heart in her throat. She relaxed when her eyes lit on the person. He walked in, his thick presence filling the room. How could she not know who it was? She had, of course, helped him out. Harleen smiled as she looked at him. He fell into the fainting couch as if he hadn't a care in the world.

"How was your, uh night?" he asks as he keeps his face toward the ceiling.

"Fine." The thoughts she had been on before had come back as soon as he had asked. Her voice must have given her preoccupation away. She was looking down at her desk again.

He turned his head to look at her. He caught it. Harleen didn't notice him looking at her, studying her face. Reading her. The pen went to her lips again as she lightly bit at the end of it. Such a nasty habit. He held back a giggle at his thoughts.

"Do tell me about it," he pushes lightly, turning his head to look at the roof again before she could notice him looking at her.

She looks up.

"Well, the movie was…." She paused trying to put it into one word. "Beautiful." It came out a little breathy. "Miss Harthen gave a speech she clearly didn't know she would have to give. Startled her. Then Mr. Wayne gave her flowers and walked her to her seat. I think he liked her. Pretty woman. Wore a rather revealing top, but it suited her. Showed off her trademark."

He cut her pause for breath off. Curious. Who was this Miss Harthen? What trademark?

"Trademark? Who is Miss Harthen?"

Harleen looks at him like he just appeared. He pays it no mind.

"Miss Maria-Rachel Harthen? She's been all over the news. She's the star of the movie. Her co-star was Victor Valentine. She played Claudine," Harleen explains, brow lifted a little. "She was a model and the director just had to have her for the part. Her trademark is the tattooed angel wings covering the expanse of her back."

She stops. Waiting for him to acknowledge that he heard her. He turns his head a little, showing that he was waiting for her to go on with her original story. He wanted to know what was bothering her. Harthen? He turned to looking at the roof again. The name rang a bell.

"Well," Harleen says carrying on. "After the movie everyone went to the after party Mr. Wayne had organized. Nobody seemed to notice me there." He could hear the emotion in it. She didn't like not being noticed. She was used to being the star, pupil of attention. "About half an hour or so into the party I felt eyes on me." She pauses for dramatic affect. "It was Miss Harthen and Victor. He stood awfully close to her. It was clear that almost everyone in the building thought there was something going on between them. How could you not? They spoke softly together, hardly went more than five feet from each other, and stood so close their arms touched." She sure did seem it. "The way she kept smiling… Anyway. She motioned me over. Startled me at first. What would she want with me?" She was speaking with her hands now. "Well, I went over and. Well, the closer I got, the more I could see the difference between the two stars. Victor looked bored. Maria wouldn't stop smiling. She stayed strictly to her water and Victor to some hard liquor. She was very nice. I know I'm older than her but,…." She frowned here. "I felt like she had seen more of life than me, understood it more. I felt like a child next to her. It might have been her height. Tall, thin woman. Like a sports model. Shaped to the envy of a lot of women. Had the same contacts in as she had worn for the movie."

Harleen sit back in her chair again.

"Victor asked me to dance. Not long into the dance this woman pulled us from the floor. Drug us out the back door to a waiting limo. She didn't say anything to us, just rushed back in. Came back out with Maria. She seemed oblivious to the fact to the woman pulling her out. Lidia was her name. Well, that's what they called her."

He stiffened a bit. He knew that name. How could he forget it? He listens closer now, running everything said through his mind again, filtering it so he could piece it together.

"Lidia seemed so in control. Maria was cheery and wanted me to come back with them. Then," Harleen pauses, still not clear on it herself and it was obvious to the man on the couch. "Everything was tense. That happy Maria changed. Her smile fell and-and… Her eyes," she breathes. She shivers. She'd never seen it in her life. It almost scared her. "They changed. Such pure hate…. Pain. Like she would kill the world without flinching or thought."

The man's eyes widened a bit. Is it? Is it really her? He turns to look at Harleen, hanging on her every word now. She couldn't be. He was sure of it.

"Lidia quickly said something to catch her attention, along the lines of the music at the party." Harleen sighs. "I want to study her."

The man opens his mouth to speak. The shrill sound of the phone cuts him off thought. Harleen's hand goes for the phone without looking away from the roof.

"Doctor Quinnzel," she says dully.

She shoots up fast, eyes wide with joy, anticipation. She sends a meaningful glance at the man on her couch.

"Can I put you on speaker?" Harleen asks.

The person had to of agreed. Harleen hit the button on the phone's base, putting the phone back in the cradle.

"Doctor?" the voice was soft, pretty.

"I'm here, Lidia," Harleen says with her eyes sparkling as she looked at the man.

He sat up straight. Silence on the other end. A faint growl comes though.

"Lidia?" is called in the background.

The breathing on the other end stops. The person was clearly scared.

"Lidia!" the cold voice in the background yells.

"One moment, Mistress!" the person holding the phone calls.

They all wait. The person must have left it at that.

"Doctor?" Lidia asks in a whisper.

"I'm here. Who was that, Lidia? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. She won't hurt me. I-"

Her rushed and frightened voice is cut off by the sound of something thumping hard and the startled squeak from Lidia. It sounded like somebody hitting something. Or throwing something.

"Mistress?" Lidia calls, obviously holding the phone away.

"What?" the drawling voice asks in a pleasant tone.

"May I ask what you are doing?"

A pause. A quieted gun shot.

"Fixing a problem, my dear, Lidia," the voice calls back pleasantly.

The phone is dropped.

"Not in the house!" Lidia cries, light panic in her voice as she rushes away from the phone. "What will we tell the manager, Miss?"

"Nothing," the voice says in a smooth drawl.

The man on the couch almost shivered at the voice. Harleen did. It scared her. The man shivered in anticipation. He knew it. How could her not? He thought of it just after the Bat.

"Move the rug. If asked by housekeeping, pretend to be startled."

The sound of the phone being picked up.

"Maria asked me to call you," Lidia says into the phone.

"Maria?" the voice comes from the background. The cold voice sounded deathly interested, closer.

"Just checking up on an appointment, Miss," Lidia chirps in a happy voice. "For the movie."

"Why did we ever agree to the movie?" the voice, female asks.

"It was your choice, Miss."

"It was?"

The woman sounded confused. The man on the couch frowned. He'd never heard her like that before.

"Oh," the female says, "Maria chose it. Hurry up. I have work to do today, Lidia. Argento isn't as briefed as Carlton or the others were."

"I'll only be a moment."

The woman must have left her.

"Maria wishes for you to come over tonight. She doesn't have too many friends and counts you as one, Miss Quinnzel," Lidia says in a happy voice. She lowers her voice to a whisper. "I want to sign her up for your therapies too. She needs it, Doctor."

Harleen smiles proudly as she looks smugly at the man on her couch.

"I'll be over around four pm for the girls night. When would you like to schedule her?"

"How ab-"

"Lidia," the voice of the woman from earlier growls, angry. No. Pissed.

They could hear Lidia's breath stop in fear. They could picture the scene on the other end of the phone. Harleen wanted this woman as her patient. Even if it killed her.

"What have I said about the therapist?" The voice was just like Claudine's from the movie, but lacking that childish trill. It was pure predator.

"That you don't wish to be looked at," Lidia whispers. "But Maria asked for it."

"NO!" the woman roars. Silence.

"Mistress?" the voice was soft, tentative.

"Do it," the woman says in a muffled voice. "What ever makes you happy, Lidia."

"Tomorrow then?" Lidia asks both of the Doctor and the woman with her.

"How does 2:30 sound?" Harleen asks, pen ready to put it down.

"Fine."

The phone on the other end is pushed into the cradle harshly.