Jack was returned to his cell after his session was over that evening, and was immediately greeted by Buzz. "So how did things go with the shrink?" he asked, eagerly.

"Uh…fine," said Jack. "You know, the usual questions about my childhood, that kinda thing."

"Uh huh," said Buzz, with a knowing smile. "And that's all, huh?"

"Yeah, that's all," said Jack, studying him curiously. "You ok, Buzz?"

"Oh, I'm good," said Buzz. "How's the shrink?"

"She's good," replied Jack, confused.

"I bet she is!" chuckled Buzz. "Of course her tits could be bigger, but I bet she's got a tight little body that feels great once she takes it all in. And you're right, that ass ain't anything to complain about either."

"What are you talking about?" asked Jack, his heart speeding up in fear.

"I heard you guys today," Buzz replied with a grin. "Well, I heard her for sure – loud little thing, ain't she? Moaning and begging for it – you did good, Jack!" he exclaimed, slapping him on the back. "I don't know how you did it, but you did her! And now we can blackmail her! If her boss finds out about this, she's outta here, and she'll never be able to work again! So she's gotta help us escape now, or we'll tell her boss all about how you're screwing her…"

"Keep it down, Buzz!" hissed Jack, clapping a hand over his mouth.

"It's fine – Chuckie's asleep and the guard's gone to get coffee," said Buzz. "It's just the two of us, so first you give me all the details about what you and the shrink did together, and then we need to think up a plan about how we're gonna blackmail her."

"Buzz, nobody can know about this," said Jack. "I promised her…"

"You promised her?" repeated Buzz, incredulous. "Jack, don't you understand? She's our ticket outta here, just like you planned! Thank God at least one of your schemes managed to work, because I was just about to go stir crazy locked up in here! But now we can take the shrink with us, and we can have a little fun with her once we're outta here – I'm sure you don't mind sharing…"

"Buzz, look…I'm not gonna…things are different now," stammered Jack.

"How are they different?" asked Buzz, confused. "We're still locked up in here with no way out. And she's our way out, guaranteed. What's the problem exactly?"

"The problem is I'm not going to blackmail her," retorted Jack. "She's worked hard to get where she is, and she doesn't deserve to lose it all because of some stupid mistake."

"Jack, you ain't thinking straight," said Buzz. "We can get outta here. Who cares what happens to her?"

"I do," retorted Jack. "I love her."

Buzz stared at him. "You love her?" he repeated. "You're starting to believe your own game or what?"

"No, I'm telling you I love her!" snapped Jack. "And I ain't gonna hurt her by blackmailing her! She doesn't deserve that!"

"Oh my God, you really have gone crazy locked up in here," murmured Buzz. "Jack, she's hot, but there are other women out there, women who aren't our only hope for breaking outta the nuthouse. I'm sure you can sacrifice her for our freedom – there's nothing more important than that…"

"She is," interrupted Jack. "And I'm not sacrificing her. Not for anything."

Buzz's astonishment turned to anger. "Fine," he muttered. "Go soft, Jack, see if I care. But I'm getting outta here, and blackmailing that shrink is the way to do it. I'm gonna go see her the moment the guard gets back, and I'm telling her I'll tell Dr. Leland all about your little hanky-panky sessions unless she springs me from this dump."

"I ain't gonna let you do that, Buzz," murmured Jack.

"Yeah? How are you gonna stop me?" demanded Buzz. "You know what loving somebody means, right? It means you're soft and weak and a pushover. And I ain't scared of you. I'm getting outta here if it's the last thing I do."

Jack said nothing, watching Buzz as he headed over to the bars to await the guard's return. Buzz suddenly felt something thrown around his neck, which constricted tightly. He choked, struggling against the bedsheet that Jack held firmly around his throat as he pressed him against the bars, pulling the sheet tighter.

"You're right, Buzz," whispered Jack in his ear. "It is gonna be the last thing you do."

Buzz flailed wildly, trying to scream for help, but Jack's grip was firm, and his eyes were hard and cold as he choked the life out of his former colleague. Jack released the sheet at last, and Buzz's lifeless body fell to the ground. Jack calmly dragged the corpse over to the bottom bunk, covering it with the sheet to conceal it. "Don't wanna cause a fuss just yet, Buzz – I gotta think," he murmured. "And at least I got silence in which to do that. It'll be nice to have the cell to myself for a lotta reasons," he added, climbing onto the top bunk. "Course you had to go and make things complicated, Buzz. I knew I could always count on you to be a pain in the ass."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the packet of cigarettes and the lighter that Harley had given him after their last session. He lit one, exhaling a cloud of smoke slowly. "This changes everything," he muttered. "I mean, this ruins everything…they're gonna try me for murder. They're probably gonna give me the chair for it. Imagine somebody caring about your death, Buzz. But they will. The cops and the shrinks and Harley…"

He trailed off, puffing on his cigarette again. "Harley, how's she gonna react to this?" he murmured. "I mean, she didn't like you, Buzz – nobody did. But it'll shock her, what I've done. It'll hurt her to see that I'm capable of something like that, in cold blood. I mean, not that she didn't know I was a killer before, but it's different when the victim is someone you know – it makes the whole thing seem more shocking and real. And if she finds out I only did it to protect her, she'll feel guilty and responsible on top of everything else. I can't do that to her. So I gotta make up a reason why I killed you, Buzz. Hell, maybe I don't – maybe I'll just say I felt like it, that I thought it'd be fun. They'd all believe that, from a guy like me. Harley would believe that – she thinks I don't feel anything, that I'm just some heartless psychopath, and isn't that just what a heartless psychopath would do?"

He puffed out a cloud of smoke. "Maybe that's the best thing to do. To embrace that label, and just become the heartless psychopath that everybody thinks I am. When people think the worst of you anyway, why would you try to be anything better? And this way Harley will be safe. She'll probably be so horrified by my actions that she won't want anything to do with me ever again. Which is probably for the best, really. Even when you're trying to be careful, things get out, as you've demonstrated, Buzz. Probably better for her that she just cuts ties with me completely, before I can ruin her life. Shame, though. She's quite a gal. And I know you don't believe it, and neither does she, but I do love her like crazy."

He leaned back on the pillow, smoking thoughtfully. "They'll have to prosecute me for this, and the courts won't buy the insanity plea a second time. They'll fry me for this one. They'll ask Harley if she thinks I'm in my right mind, and she'll have to tell 'em the truth, because she's an honest, professional gal. I wouldn't want her to lie for me anyway."

He puffed on the cigarette slowly. "And she deserves better than a heartless psychopath," he muttered. "She deserves some guy who doesn't have to kill for her. Some nice, normal guy that she can have a nice, normal life with, just like she wants. She'll settle down with him, have a couple kids, and a rewarding career, and maybe one day she'll think back on that time she had an affair with her psychopath patient, and she'll wonder just what the hell she was thinking. She'll wonder how she could ever have been so crazy."

He stubbed the cigarette out, shutting his eyes and waiting for the body to be discovered. "And she'll be so relieved that she stopped before the madness could consume her life and destroy it," he murmured. "The way it's destroyed mine."