A/N: This story continues to be based on the characters of Ms. Francine Pascal, with just a couple people I've thrown in. Sooooo... Yeah.

Gaia turned her cool blue eyes away from the bright, warm redness that trickled down her face as Houdini kissed her face, again and again. His nose had broken, flattened, and on his face the odd triangle made him seem somehow amphibian. Maybe she wasn't capable of fear, but she was certainly able to feel revulsion, disgust. The look in his eyes was enough to force her to vomit, if she'd had anything in her stomach. So she looked away and tried not to think about it. That was all she could do. Not think. But it was a difficult task, with his tongue licking his own blood off her face.

"I've wanted this… for as long as I've known you, Gaia. I love you, I love..." His strained voice trailed off in the otherwise empty room. She glanced at him, barely able to move her neck with the strap that encircled her forehead now. She didn't want to, but she had to know what was happening. His gray eyes were huge, wide as they cast down at her bra, the only clothing item left on her upper body.

She growled. "Oh no, you don't." He would not that last shred of dignity away from her.

Houdini smiled, distorting his twisted face just a bit more. "If we're to do this, my girl, we'll really do this."

"I'm not doing anything," Gaia snapped. Tears thickened her voice, and she hated herself for it. She wouldn't cry for him. Not ever. "And," she began again, satisfied at the strength in her voice, "I'm not 'your girl'."

"If you're not now, you will be." The sick smile disappeared as he licked his lips and studied her body. "It's only a matter of… minutes." His hands trailed down her shoulders, the lines of her bra, the smooth expanse of pale stomach, and she jerked involuntarily, not out of enjoyment. Maybe she'd been wrong about the vomit. He smiled, seeming to misinterpret her twitch. "I knew you'd enjoy this."

Gaia looked away again. "Don't fucking start with that." He ignored her, kissing her abdomen, trailing blood and saliva down her stomach. "How can you say you love me? This is not what people do when they love each other." Her words sounded hollow in her throbbing head, but talking was all she could do, so she did it.

"Making love is what people in love do."

"Some. And this isn't 'making love', Remy. This is rape. And as soon as I get out of these straps, I'm kicking your ass."

His face abruptly jerked away from her. "Don't you call me that!"

"Then don't do this. We'll have an arrangement. You don't do this, and I won't call you 'Remy' anymore. How's that?" she demanded, her voice cool as she tried to reason with him. Not that reasoning with a madman was ever a good idea.

Rage twitched all over his face. "That would never be worth you, Gaia. You…" He was distracted again, leaning over her body, the length of his body awkwardly pressed against hers. His anger wasn't forgotten, but it just seemed to be channeled into ripping off her bra as quickly as possible. Rough, unsteady hands groped at her body, and she let out a disgusted roar. The only small comfort she had was that he was so shaky that he still hadn't managed to take off her bra.

"Get off me." One last demand, or was it a plea? She wished she could will herself unconscious rather than be completely aware of what he was doing through this. Though getting out of the straps would be even better.

"I love you," he moaned into her skin, and with a soft click her bra had come undone. Shit.

Gaia realized with a start that she was really crying now, the full on, convulsing sort of sobbing. It was the kind of crying that she never did unless something was going horribly wrong. Not that something wasn't always going horribly wrong in her life, but she'd really let her guard down this time. She'd convinced herself that nothing out there was trying to harm her, and lo and behold, she was wrong again. But this time… She wasn't sure there was an escape.

Houdini pulled himself to her face again, gently laying bloody kisses over her wet cheeks as his skinny legs and hands pulled off his one remaining item of clothing, his paper-thin polka dot boxers. It somehow seemed horribly wrong that the man raping her was wearing such a ridiculous item of clothing. It would almost be funny in a different situation. Right now it just made her feel sicker.

"Gaia," he whispered. "Don't cry like that, Gaia, it'll all be all right. We can be fearless together. Isn't that what you've wanted all along? Someone like you?" His eyes rose from her chest to her angry, sad blue eyes, and they seemed more like Remy's, like that weak man she'd rescued. Except naked, and with blood all over his face. "That is what I'll be for you."

"No, no, no," she hissed, closing her eyes to make it seem less real. This couldn't be any further from what she wanted, not conceivably.

"Please…"

"Stop touching me."

"I can't. It's too late. I need you. I can't live knowing…" He swallowed audibly. "Knowing I came this close."

Gaia squeezed her eyes shut harder as she felt his hands tug at her underwear. She tried not to cry, tried to think of Ed. She tried to imagine that itwas Ed's hands that clumsily danced over her hips as the elastic slid off her. But she just wasn't sure that her imagination was that good. Houdini's hands were like clammy ice against her skin.

The world became dark around the edges, then faded. Even the pain in her head faded as the disease took over again.

"Stop, Remy..." she mumbled, and the last thing she was conscious of was him pulling away from her once again. Then blackness took over.

Gaia started awake. Her eyes opened to the harsh brightness of the room, and immediately had to close again as sharp pain blurred her vision with tears. Where the hell was she? Her legs curled up in a ball under her, and she realized in a flash that she wasn't strapped down anymore. But every little move she made gave her a small jolt of pain. That couldn't be a good sign. Slowly, she stretched her stiff arms above her head and hit something hard. A headboard? She tentatively re-opened her eyes and saw that it was, in fact, a headboard. Behind it were the dull off-white walls that she'd seen far too much of in her life. Hospital walls. Her eyes traveled around the room and landed on a brown-haired figure who rested his head in his arms on the edge of her clean, white bed.

"Ed," she whispered, but her voice was completely gone. She sat up painfully and nudged his shoulder.

He moved slightly in his sleep, his face still with the complete peace that only sleep can give you. As much as she hated to take him away from that calm, Gaia needed to talk to him. She needed to... hear his voice. She needed to make sure this wasn't just an illusion her sick mind had invented to take her away from reality. Her hand pushed into his shoulder harder, maybe hard enough to bruise.

"What?" he groaned, obviously annoyed, but then his eyes fell on her. A huge smile spread across his face. "Oh my God." He moved closer to her on the bed, carefully pulled her into a hug. His lips brushed her hair.

Gaia was overwhelmed by the smell of him. She hadn't known how much she cherished it until that moment, with his warm arms around her. For a while, she'd been sure that she'd never have that experience again. Resting her face on his shoulder, she breathed him in. Her own hands moved along his strong back, pulling him closer to her. "Ed... I'm sorry."

He pulled away, but stayed close, intently staring into her eyes. "You're sorry?"

"Yeah." Her eyes fell to his feet, those scruffy blue sneakers. Even they looked good to her.

"Why?" Gaia was sure she'd never seen him so confused.

"For telling you to leave when I needed you there. For... Screwing things up again. For trusting that bastard... I've just... been..." Tears filled her already rasping voice. "I've been dumb, Ed."

"It's okay now," he murmured, and his lips found hers, just for a moment. She found herself aching for more. But she didn't have time for that.

"What happened?"

"That... guy kidnapped you. The police found you strapped down in a hospital bed, with--" His face curled into a pained grimace. "--well, you weren't wearing anything. And there was blood all over you."

Gaia breathed out, slow and as calmly as she could manage. "But... Does anyone know what actually happened?"

The grimace turned perplexed, and his big brown eyes met hers with soft concern. "You mean... Did he... actually rape you?"

"Yes, Ed, that's exactly what I mean." Though at this moment, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. The rest of her life might seem that much more bearable if she never had to know that a deranged lunatic had raped her. But then... There was that other part of her, that part that refused to go on without clear-cut answers. She'd lived too long with no knowledge about her own life to not be curious. She just hoped that the saying "curiosity killed the cat" wasn't applicable.

Ed was quiet for a long moment. "No, or at least the doctors don't think so. But... He came too damn close." He grabbed her hand and pulled it to his mouth, touching it to his lips, and she sighed gently. "It was so scary, when they called me. All they knew was that you were naked and smeared with blood,in a room with a naked drug addict. They thought the blood was yours, Gaia. I thought... I thought it was yours." He swallowed loudly, choking back tears.

"Re- Houdini is a drug addict?" she whispered, not quite sure how to react. On one hand, she never would have suspected it. On the other, it explained a few things. He certainly had the desperate, needy thing down. Still, the question remained: how could a seemingly random drug addict with limited physical prowess control his own fleet of spies?

"Yeah, apparently heroine's his thing. That's why the police went looking for him in the first place. He's a dealer too, and one of his clients was an undercover cop. The scary part is," he continued as he looked at her sadly, "that them finding you was more luck than anything."

"Yeah, scary," she replied half-heartedly, for obvious reasons. Now her mind was racing, trying to piece together as much as she could. "So what happened? Where is he now?"

"Jail... for now. The police said they're not sure they can prove he did anything. There might not even be enough evidence to go to trial."

Grrrr. Gaia felt a rush of hot anger flow over her body at Ed's words. "No evidence? How about a witness testimony, the person he almost raped? How about the testimony of the cop who pretended to want his drugs? How about the warehouse full of narcotics and thugs? How can that be a problem at all?" she demanded, and she found her barely-there voice rising to an uncomfortable volume. "That's bullshit!"

"Please, calm down... You're sick."

"I'm sick, but not stupid. What aren't you telling me here? I have to be missing something." Her hand in his tightened as her eyes furiously searched his. She'd never thought Ed to be one to keep things from her, but right now she just couldn't be sure. The pieces didn't fit together.

Ed's soft stare turned harder, and theskin around his stubbly chin curved into a frown. "Look, Gaia, that's all I could get out of the police. Trust me, it was hard enough getting that much." He looked away, insulted, and pulled his handaway from hers."Thanks for the trust."

"I do trust you..." She reached for his hand again, bringing it to her stomach and gently running her thumb over his knuckles. "I'm sorry. I'm just... frustrated. I didn't think prison would be out of the picture for him. It's..." She tried to think of the word, not scary, but... "... concerning."

His face softened with worry. "I know," he murmured. "I know."