A/N: Edward Nashton is based on the likeness of actor Jude Law.

The phone began ringing on Harleen's desk and she looked up from her folded arms, peering at it. The way this day, this week, the past year had gone it could be anything and at the moment she wasn't ready for that.

The caller went to voice mail twice before Harleen finally picked it up on the fourth ring of the third attempt. She carefully cradled the receiver in her hand and brought it to her ear.

"Hello," she said quietly.

"Harley! I knew you were there, damn it! Why didn't you pick up the phone?" A woman shrieked at her. She knew the caller outright; she had been yelling at Harleen her whole life.

"Judy" Harleen said calmly. "I just got back to my office and I seem to have misplaced my cell phone."

"I know," her sister said sighing, "I have it. I figured you had to be at work because you weren't home and you have, like, a thousand missed calls on your cell from Arkham."

"You have my phone?" She replied, puzzled. She hadn't seen her sister in at least a week.

"Yeah, I went to the Academy to drop off some costumes for the Regionals. Diane said you left it in the office yesterday" was Judy's reply. "Anyway, I'm gonna drop it off at your place. What's wrong, you sound…weird?"

Harleen shook her head and breathed a sigh of relief. She thought of all the voice mail messages she would have to listen to, ninety percent of them about Joker.

"I'll meet you at my place if you have time for it." Harleen replied, a sharp note in her voice. Judy had been blowing her off lately and she had a creeping suspicion that there was a man involved.

"Yeeaaah" Judy said drawing the word out. "I have something for you anyway. See you in a bit?" Harleen nodded despite the fact that Judy couldn't see it.

"I think I'm finished here" Harleen replied.

She ended the call and gathered her purse and pulled on her jacket. She paused at the door, her hand on the light switch and turned around to survey her office. Hours, mere hours before she had been on the floor behind her desk with Joker, clutching her with his face buried in her neck. Less than an hour ago, on another floor he had kissed her.

She felt a funny feeling wash over her, like many fingers tracing her body in unison. A shivering touch that was both pleasant and a little unsettling. She shook away the sensation and turned off the light.

She almost made it out the front doors without further distraction but was stopped mid-stride by Commissioner Gordon's voice and the authority within it. She turned on her heel and watched him approach, followed by a tall man in a dark green suit. He walked with a cane and a slight limp.

"Doctor Quinzel, this is Detective Edward Nashton." Gordon said indicating each of them in turn. She took in Nashton's short, light brown hair and green eyes. He was clean cut, his face slightly angular and he crooked a smile at her.

"Nice to meet you, Detective" she said extending a hand. He took it and they shook. His hand was warm, but not wet as many were, a cool confidence exuded from his smile.

"I thought I would have Detective Nashton drive you home, you have had quite a day Doctor." Gordon commented studying her features. She frowned at him.

"Pardon me, Commissioner, but that is a hell of an assumption to make that I can not make my own way home." She replied sharply. He quirked a brow and rocked back on his heels.

"Permit me to conjecture that the Commissioner is concerned for your wellbeing after you have taken such a blow this morning." Nashton said nodding at her and she remembered the large bruise on her face and the pain registered again.

Perhaps she had been knocked senseless after all. She was the one who'd made out with Joker in a padded cell. She shook her head, no they hadn't made out; it was just a kiss. Damn that man, he was needling her mind even now.

"Alright," she sighed resignedly. "But we're taking my car and you'll have to make your own way home. I have to go now, I'm meeting my sister."

She surrendered her keys and Nashton followed her to her car and he motioned her toward the passenger door. He unlocked her door and opened the door for her and then closed it behind her. She watched him circle the vehicle and wondered when the last time a man held a door open for her had been.

He unlocked the driver's side door and adjusted the seat before sliding in, tucking his cane away in the backseat. He adjusted her mirrors and she glimpsed the cane in the back.

"I don't want to be rude, but..." she began as he started the engine and backed out of the parking space.

"How does a cop get by with a bad leg?" He finished for her. "While walking down the street I met a man. He tipped his hat and drew his cane and in this riddle I told his name. What is the name of the man?"

"What?" Harleen looked at him open-mouthed and tilted her head. He grinned at her and then set his gaze back on the road.

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine." He replied. Harleen sat back in her seat and frowned. "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd began playing on the radio.

'I met a man, a man, Aman? No, that isn't a name, too obvious. Walking down a street, met a man, tipped his hat and drew his cane.' Harleen sighed and then glanced at the cane in the back.

"Andrew." She said snorting and shaking her head. Nashton smiled at her.

"Very good, Doctor." He said and was quiet. She looked at him for a few moments and began to wonder if he would uphold his end of the deal.

"Five years ago I was a beat cop." He said suddenly. "There was a string of murders which appeared to be mob hits, but there was something else to them." He sighed. "The killings appeared to be serial and bore a lot of the same characteristics. During the course of the investigation I made Detective and was assigned to the case. I like to solve puzzles and made some headway in the investigation. I got a name, an alias really. Red Hood."

Harleen nodded recalling the name from the press and some stories the supposed crazy mob muscle in Arkham liked to tell. Red Hood was like a ghost story among the mobsters. Like Joker was becoming.

"One night I happened upon a scene of a crime in progress," Nashton continued. "It was him. He looked up at me from the body he crouched over and just…seemed to be staring me down." He shook his head. "I never saw his face, just that hooded sweater pulled down, hiding his face; very bold. He shot me and then walked away casually, whistling."

A long silence passed between them and Harleen laid her head back and gazed out the window, the bruise on her face reflected in the rearview mirror. The side streets and lights passed in the silence and she didn't mind.

"Guy is supposed to be dead." Nashton said almost to himself. "Rumor is he crossed Falcone and he had him put down. He even brought in someone special to do it. But that's all rumor."

"But you're still looking for him." She said in a near whisper. She thought of Joker and the man he used to be. The man Professor Edwards said no one had looked for when he had come up missing. A man no one cared about except for her.

She shot up in her seat.

Judith!

Her heart skipped a beat as the realization struck that her sister was meeting her at her apartment. Her home; where the ruined Joker's mind still partially clung to her bedroom wall. Her apartment; which Judith had a key to.

Her eyes fell on her building as they pulled up and a chill ran down her spine.