Author's Chapter Notes:

Oh my god, the final part! *gasps* The fact this story is finally ending should be amazing to some. *LOL* This part is going to be like Recollections in that it jumps around in time a little, though all the jumps are through presently occurring events.

This first part is pretty short, but the two after it are longer. Welcome to the beginning of the end, ladies.

OOO

It was such lousy weather, Harley thought absently.

That seemed like something safe to think about after the day she'd had.

There were other things, things she didn't want to dwell on, like exactly how hard the back of his hand had slammed into her jaw when she'd confronted him about the camera, or maybe the exact scathing tone of his voice that had just reduced her knees to water.

She was a grown woman, a Lieutenant, a Doctor, and yet somehow he could still reduce her to a sniveling child in a matter of seconds… God, what had he done to her?

But he'd hit her so hard, she'd crumpled, her whole head hurt, she had every reason to cry…

And then he had been so harsh with her, fingers wrapped into her hair beneath the chignon just like some elaborate and gaudy ring of gold.

"You listen to me, you insolent child if I should ever be so fortunate to include you in my purposes, it is a privilege, and don't you ever dare question how I do so, if you wish to continue being in such purposes… Kay?"

He gave her a beautiful smile, then slammed her head into the wall.

Once she'd come to again, (it must have been some time later, for the sky had brightened, and begun to darken again) it was amazing just how much makeup it took to cover the bruises. And how much they hurt.

How proud she felt just to have any mark of his on her form.

Once she finally had the bruise upon the right side of her face covered, she'd called Pamela.

"I need you to come get me."

"You idiot. You should have called me forty minutes ago…"

"I had an appointment run over. Sorry, Pam."

"Eh, I'm ready to go home anyway. This paperwork is getting boring… I want to get in the greenhouse, do some actual worthwhile work."

"Obsessed," she minced.

"Kettle." Pamela replied smartly, and Harley smiled, wincing.

"Thank you, Pammy."

"Yeah right. Like when did your bum ass ever buy a car? I'll call you when I get there."

Harley laughed, and lay her head listlessly against her hand, and instantly regretted doing so.

Her cheek really did smart, and her temple was throbbing. She would need to keep herself in profile at all times, lest Pam begin to notice the puffiness that was rapidly forming.

She found herself navigating carefully around Pamela's convertible sometime later, and in the driveway of Pamela's shortly before the sun disappeared altogether.

"God, it's been such a long day, I'm just gonnna take a shower and go to bed."

The feeble yawn she added went unappreciated as Pamela made her way determinedly from the car and straight into her backyard.

Harley shook her head, gathered her bags, and went straight to what had become her room. It always seemed as though the phone liked to ring awful times, like during dinner, or when you were freshly showered and dressed for bed and had the mother of all headaches for doing something very stupid.

Harley answered the phone tiredly, carefully cradled against her left shoulder.

"Hello?" she mumbled.

"Ms. Harleen Quinzel?" The voice was deep and smooth. She liked the sound of it, she thought sleepily, and yawned for real this time.

"That would be me: Doctor, however, Quinzel."

"Well, Miss However, seems like we've got a problem here at your apartment building."

"What?" She sat up in bed, and the world swam as the throbbing in her head became more intense.

"You really haven't heard, huh? About the fire?"

"Fire?"

"Yesterday. There was a fire on your floor, building's been evacuated due to structural damage; it's safe, just
unliveable... Weird how it happened really, the fire was so damned efficient, you'd think it knew what it was doing." He snickered quietly.

She frowned, deeply, disturbed by the sound.

"My things?"

"Oh, they're mostly safe, just likely problem is water damage, some smoke. The building's insurance is footing the bill, you know, you might as well get in on the bargain. It's a little late, I know, but we've been processing claims all day. You're one of the last people we could managed to find. One of your neighbor's saw you leaving with um… well, whoever's got this number, redhead, right?"

Harley shook her head, winced silently, and stopped moving her head as much as possible as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

"Look, uh, it's fine. I'll head on out, and I'll see what's been damaged."

"Great, great… See you soon, Doc."