A/N: Feedback or we kill someone off who doesn't die on the show.

Just kidding, we wouldn't really threaten to kill someone because we've already done that in a future chapter. And not done that. It's complicated. You'll see...you know, if you're still out there.

By the next morning Audrey had formulated a theory about the mysterious woman in white: she was using the Haven Herald crime blotter to choose her victims. And it seemed to her that considering that Duke hadn't actually assaulted anyone she was merely going on the assumption of guilt. She told Nathan this much as soon as she got to the station and found him eating breakfast at his desk.

Nathan looked completely unconvinced, and continued to eat his cereal. She explained that Duke was going to give Vince a detailed description of her so that he could make a composite sketch, which she hoped to be able to hand out. He didn't say much, but she felt like that there was something he was holding back, and when she confronted him, he just told her that things were good between them. That was a strange change of tune, considering that they had had a huge argument not long before, but she waited for him to say more but he didn't, so she went to meet Duke at the courthouse.

The two of them poured over the records of both victims, looking for a connection. It didn't take long before Duke pushed the files away and began to express his concern about how they'd deal with the problem.

"The problem is this woman is an eye for an eye kind of chick, and I'm not convinced that I'm going to survive her punishment for murder one."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," she insisted. He wanted to believe her. "Here, make yourself useful and hand these out," she said, giving him photocopies of the flyers that had been created from Vince is sketch.

He felt himself go numb with shock when he realized that the drawings that Vince had made was almost identical to the painting of Lady Justice on the wall of the courtroom. "It's her."

Audrey didn't disagree, and she soon convened a meeting between herself, Duke, Nathan and the Teagues. They discussed what they could do if the murderer was a painting. Audrey suggested that they already knew that troubles ran in families, but Dave told her that there was no real life model, so they weren't going to be able to figure out her identity that way.

When Duke objected to the idea that she was based on some feminine ideal, he went on to explain that she seemed to be made of clay or plaster, and that got Dave's interest. He suggested that perhaps she was a Golem and that she was being controlled by somebody. The question of course, was who. Audrey hoped aloud that they could get whoever was controlling the Golem to call it off, and no one dared contradict her.

Once they had a plan of action, Nathan begged off the case for a moment, explaining to Audrey that he needed to go speak to the judge about the prison transfer he needed to prove his loyalty to the Guard.

"You don't have to do this for me," Audrey insisted, figuring that this had some sort of ties back into what had happened the night the baby was born. "It's not going to change anything," she told him. Unfortunately, she thought this was true.

"It's not about you," he told her. "It's about catching a killer," he said, but he didn't leave her convinced that his involvement with the Guard was more about the bolt gun killer than the fact that she would be dead or disappear sooner than any of them wanted to think about.

Back at the station they finally discovered the link between the victims. They'd both had their cases heard by Judge Boone, the same judge Nathan needed to speak to. And Audrey wondered if perhaps the judge had created the Golem to punish the people that by law he had let off easily.

This seemed plausible, at least until the judge himself turned up dead short while later, neck broken, impaled against the wall, and blood filling one of his decorative scales of justice like an obscene metaphor.

Nathan, who had been speaking to him about the prison transfer just minutes before he was murdered, discovered that the painting no longer had Lady Justice in it. When he had Audrey discussed it, it became clear to them that whoever had killed the judge knew he was corrupt, and personally found it offensive. This pointed to his killer being somebody that knew him. Nathan explained that Boone was probably targeted by someone who knew he was corrupt, so they decided to look for connections to other people who worked in the court.

At least Audrey, Duke, and Tommy did. Nathan left to see what would happen with the prison transfer once Jordan lied to him about not being at work, which aroused his suspicion. That meant he wasn't there when Duke and Audrey realized that someone who knew the judge well had also been present to hear intimate details of the crimes that had landed the first two victims on the wrong side of the law.

Lynette hadn't wanted to come to speak to Duke and Audrey at the courthouse, but eventually she acquiesced and Audrey began to explain to her that she was the one causing people to get hurt. Of course she immediately expressed disbelief, and if it had been anyone else under just about any other circumstance, Duke might have felt bad for her. At the very least he could sympathize with the horror of realizing that you had an ability that could damage, even kill, people even though you didn't want to. But, considering that her trouble put him on the endangered list, he found that his empathy was in shorter supply than it would be otherwise.

Maybe Audrey felt differently because of the danger to him too, because instead of being gentle like she normally was with people who were coming to terms with their troubles, she told Lynette that she had to notice that the painting she saw every day was missing the figure of Justice. "She's out there because you released her. And she's hurting people."

Duke pointed out that it was possible that Justice was out there cutting off the heads of high school kids right then, and Lynette immediately took offense. "You enjoying this?" she demanded to know. "You know, harassment's a crime. Yet another offense to add to your lengthy rap sheet."

"I'm sorry, about all of that," Duke said sincerely. "I'm sorry that I implied that even you are driven to drink. If I offended you read your religion or morals, I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."

"No you're not," the stenographer retorted. "You're not sorry for anything."

Although he knew it wasn't wise to antagonize the mousy woman, he couldn't help but feel furious when she made this blanket statement. "I'm not sorry for anything?" He ignored Audrey speaking up in warning, knowing already that she was going to tell him that he was going to bring Justice to them. At that point, he almost wished that Lynette's avenging Angel would appear. "Lady, you don't know the slightest thing about me. You don't know what I've done, what I've had to live with."

Glancing at Audrey, he said, "Let me show what Lynette what she has done. See, I can prove it to her." He realized then that it was the only thing that was going to bring the twisted form of justice to an end. If Lynette didn't get forced to admit that she was instigating the events, they would just go on and on. And he certainly had enough that he was hiding to draw out the creature.

Audrey clearly thought that there was another way, because she tried to stop him. Telling him that it was enough. But it wasn't enough. It wouldn't be enough until Lynette saw what she was doing. "You released that thing, sending it after those kids, but it's in the wrong place. Because nobody deserves to be punished more than me," he said, hoping that it wasn't too late for the kids who had done something dumb, but didn't deserve to die for it. He barely heard Audrey tell him that what he was doing wasn't the way, and he thought she was wrong anyway. "You think I'm a bad guy? Well, you're right, I am a bad guy. I murdered a man, a helpless defenseless man. I murdered him, and I got away with it. What do you think of that, Lynnette?"

It soon became obvious what she thought of that, considering she gasped, and Audrey looked terrified for him. So it came to no surprise to him when Justice appeared, and put a blade to his throat. At least those kids are safe, Duke found himself thinking as the cold steel touched his skin.

"You're a murderer," Lynette hissed.

As he expected, as he had desperately hoped she would, Audrey began to explain, putting it in terms that the stenographer could understand. "Lynette, it's not as simple as that. What he did save hundreds of lives. Despite his actions, despite his fate, he is a good man." She turned her head, and he thought that she was going to say something to him, but she looked over his shoulder. "He is a good man." She stared Justice down, but continued to speak to Lynette. "Don't let him die."

He couldn't see the expression on Justice's face, but the blade didn't dig into his throat, so he began to hope that Audrey was getting through to at least one of the women.

Lynette look sad as she explained that nobody knew what it was like to listen to people's darkest deeds laid bare, and then watch them get away with their crimes. This struck him as funny, considering how often he had helped Audrey and Nathan cover-up other people's wrongdoings, not all of them unintentional. The man who had killed Evi had meant to. The man who had nearly killed Audrey in the police station had meant to too, but most people were able to sleep at night without knowing these things.

For once, Audrey had no sympathy for a troubled person. "Do you want to be responsible for another death?" she demanded to know. "Killing someone who did it to save lives? That's not justice."

Duke didn't quite realize that the look he gave her, past the blade, was so beseeching until Lynette's face crumpled. "But if you did what you did to save lives then... I was wrong to judge you. And the man with the eyes and the woman with the broken bones..."

He only became aware of what Audrey was worried about when she said, "Stop, Lynette."

It was obvious then that he had been wrong about her having sympathy. She didn't want Lynette to sacrifice herself, either.

"I did that. That's criminal."

This seemed to get Justice's attention, because he felt the blade slip away from his throat. Then, when Lynette screamed out that she should be punished, the blade fell away entirely. This should've come as a relief. It didn't. Not when he witnessed what happened next.

Justice grabbed the stenographer, and pulled her into the painting in the courtroom. Before their eyes, Lynette became one of the people looking out at the courtroom in sorrow. Then Justice jumped back into the painting herself and it was finally over.

Duke could tell from Audrey's shell-shocked expression that he wasn't the only one who was horrified by how the unfortunate chapter had concluded.

Maybe it was because the baby keeping them up at night so often left them feeling less than fully charged, but Audrey and Duke found that they didn't have the usual need to rehash everything that night. Instead, they rented a movie, and planned to spend a couple hours not talking. The plan worked quite well, and considering it was a drama, instead of something with a lot of gunfire or explosions, their daughter obligingly slept through it, leaving them cocooned in quiet with their own thoughts.

But when they got to the closing credits Duke looked at her. "Did you mean what you said earlier, about me being a good man?" he asked sounding oddly shy.

"You have your moments," she said, smiling.

"Yeah?" he asked, locking eyes with her.

She held her arms out to him. "Often enough to make me happy."

He sighed in contentment as he went to her. It was a good moment. She only wished she knew if there were a lot more like them still in store for her. If Lynette hadn't been able to escape from her trouble, would she be able to do better? The thought of not being there for a million more hugs pierced her heart, and she put her face against his shoulder, mostly because she didn't want him to see the expression on her face.

The Next Night

It hadn't been easy to convince Duke that she'd only spend a couple of hours at work that evening, but she managed to because she intended to keep her word. And maybe it was because he realized that she'd finally got sick of the feds promising her that they would send files on the victims who were missing body parts like the people who had been found dead in Haven. He gave her his blessing when she said she intended to call Claire over to give her hand because she thought the psychiatrist had had a good idea earlier. "I don't know, Audrey, but maybe she's right about these things being connected," he told her after a goodbye for now kiss. "I've been beginning to wonder that myself..."

Claire accepted the invitation but had of course immediately got the wrong idea. "Is this an impromptu therapy session?" she asked moments after she arrived at the station.

Nathan had wondered the same thing when Audrey tried to explain her plan to him. That bothered her because it implied that she wasn't doing as good a job as hiding her angst as she hoped she was. At least Duke wasn't giving her a hard time like everyone else seemed determined to.

"No, we're at a dead-end with this whole bolt gun killer, so I thought that maybe we could give your idea shot."

"Does that mean that you're beginning to think that the two things are related?" Claire asked, logically.

Audrey shrugged. "I don't know. But I'd hate to dismiss it, and then find out that I was wrong to." That she worried she would find this out on the night of the Hunter wasn't something she was going to verbalize to someone who could have her committed. "Besides if the bolt gun killer is after him, we have to know his identity."

"Right. But I thought you didn't have one of these programs," Claire commented as she watched Audrey begin the composite program. "And what happened to getting a sketch artist?"

Audrey glanced at her. "I said we didn't have a program like on Bones. The program on that show is impossibly complex. This...this is like a computerized version of that kids' game Guess Who."

"Oh! I want to play with it then. That game was a lot of fun."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "You playing with the composite program isn't going to help me figure out the identity of the man in my dreams."

"I thought Duke was the man of your dreams," she joked.

"Duke is the man in my fantasies," Audrey deadpanned.

"And in your bed," Claire shot back, then blushed when this earned her a glare, "Oops, boundaries, sorry."

"Uh huh. Anyway, as for your earlier question, the only person who was available to do a sketch was Vince, and Nathan and I don't want to involve him." She didn't mention that she and Nathan had discussed the Teagues being too interested in everything lately. "And this program would probably be faster anyway."

"True, since Bob Ross died, no one does art fast anymore."

"Okay..."

Meanwhile

When Audrey had told Nathan about inviting Claire to the station to work on the facial composite, she had dismissed his idea of using Vince to do the sketch by saying "things are different now, you know?" and he had agreed. But she didn't realize that he had something other than the Teague brothers in mind when he agreed. Although, for moment he thought she might when she immediately asked how things had gone with the prison transfer. But when he searched her face, he realized that her question had been innocuous, not a pointed one about Jordan.

Maybe it was because he felt conflicted about Jordan that he had assumed that Audrey would know. He couldn't quite decide if it was fortunate that she couldn't read him quite as well as that, at least not when she had so much on her plate to worry about right then. Instead, she was so distracted that she didn't seem to realize that he lied when he answered her question about if there'd been any drama with a no. There had, and he'd watched Jordan hurt two men in order to allow the prisoner to escape.

And he felt more conflicted than ever about his interactions with Jordan when he went to the Gun and Rose to finally confront her after stewing over things for more than a day.

Nathan didn't bother to knock. He just let himself in. And as soon as he saw Jordan sitting at the counter, looking at her hands in a forlorn way, he felt some of the fierceness go out of him. It was almost as though he could read her mind: she was thinking about the men she had hurt the afternoon before. And she wasn't thinking about it in a way that implied that she had enjoyed what had happened.

Jordan clearly heard the door opened behind her, because she complained, "We're closed."

As soon as she turned around, he said, "You lied to me. I need to know what your people are doing, what I'm involved in."

She turned away from him, guiltily he thought. "It's not what you think."

He wasn't about to let her off easy, and he told her that he found out that the man they had asked to have transferred and allowed to escape didn't have cancer. It surprised him a little when she explained that the man had accidentally killed his son when his trouble had kicked him in the middle of the night, setting the bed on fire. And now the prison had stopped giving him sleeping pills, which meant that the nightmares that had sparked the flames could return, and endanger an entire prison worth of men. Most of whom did not deserve to die.

Some of his righteous indignation began to slip away when he realized that she was sincere, but he still asked her why she hadn't told him. She retorted that at best going through normal channels would have landed the man in solitaire with asbestos walls for the rest of his life, which he couldn't deny was the most likely scenario.

"He's safe now," Jordan insisted. "My people help the troubled, and we do it anyway we can."

"If you just told me the truth, you wouldn't have had to hurt those guys," he said, and she gave him a pained look. "You know I was there, I saw you. You hated it."

And he knew she did. His trouble was awful, and he had struggled the entire time he was inflicted to deal with it, but he realized it didn't compare to what she faced. At least his trouble only affected him. He had never had to worry about hurting anyone else. And even when he couldn't feel anyone, at least they could feel him.

Looking at her, he made a decision that he hoped Jess would understand. If he was going to really get The Guard to trust him, it would be through Jordan. And he would have to give her what she wanted. From the look in her eyes, he knew what that was: a chance to touch someone who wouldn't feel agonized when she did.

So he kissed her.

When they broke from the kiss, she was giving him a look of wonder. She obviously could tell that touching her didn't hurt him.

Or at least it didn't hurt him in a physical way. Knowing that he would probably have to explain what he had done to Jess hurt him in an entirely different way. But if what he was doing would keep Audrey from losing everything in the world, even herself, he was willing to risk losing Jess. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Duke hadn't been thrilled that Audrey had not only wanted to go to the office, but had waited until late to do it. But, he decided that it was as good a time as any to go and drop off a misdelivered package that had found its way to the Gull that afternoon; apparently they hadn't fired the idiot mail person who'd continually screwed up the mail for the Gull and the apartment the year before. He hadn't realized that the box wasn't for his bar until he opened it and saw that it wasn't a brand of liquor that he served. A look at the box's label told him that it was meant for the Gun and Rose.

It puzzled him at first when he drove into their lot and thought he saw Nathan's truck near the doors of the eatery, but then he recalled Audrey mentioning that Nathan had struck up a friendship with someone who worked there in order to spy on a shadowy group in town.

A familiar figure was making her way towards a car as he parked, but Duke didn't call to her when he got out of his car. He and Beaty could chat another time - he just wanted to get rid of the box and go back to the Gull, and no doubt Nathan being there would prolong the visit as it was. She didn't notice him anyway, so he didn't feel too bad about it.

Instead he headed towards the door with the box in his hand, already thinking of a way to tease Nathan about his lack of loyalty to the Gull, when he happened to glance in the window. When he did, he nearly dropped the box of bottles.

A dark-haired woman who wasn't Jess had her arms around Nathan. And she was kissing him. He waited for Nathan to push her away, and then say something he couldn't hear about having a fiancée, but he didn't. Instead, Nathan kissed her back.

Duke backed away from the door, shocked. Nathan might literally be the last man on earth that he ever expected to cheat. Had things gotten too intense when working with the woman who was obviously the "in" that Audrey had mentioned, leading him to unexpectedly crossing a line? Or was it just a way to get he wanted from her? It was hard to say which of these ideas was more disturbing, and by disturbing he meant more likely to upset Audrey which was the important thing as far as he was concerned.

For a moment he debated with himself, trying to decide if he should wait in the parking lot and confront Nathan the moment he left the bar, but he thought he had a better idea. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to tell Audrey. At least not yet.

He couldn't help but throw one more glance over his shoulder to Nathan and the black haired woman, who were still lost in each other. Clenching his teeth he realized he had to do something or Jess would find out someone had moved in on her man. Unless they already broke up... the thought occurred suddenly to Duke. No, he reminded himself. Nathan had made his plan to go up and spend a few days with within the past week.

Sitting out in the Land Rover Duke growled "And he called me a two timing bastard."

He ran back to his truck and shoved the box in the back. One of his employees could deal with it the next day as far as he was concerned. The smuggler started the car. He had plans to make.

Police Station

Audrey sighed when a glance at the clock told her that she was rapidly running out of time. Duke was being patient, but she didn't want to push it. And they were getting nowhere fast as they click through the hairstyles and other things on the composite program. "This is pointless," she told Claire. "I'm never going to get this."

"Well, you're not going to get it because you don't want to get it." Claire gave her a slightly chiding look.

"I want to get it," Audrey insisted, shaking her fist at the computer screen. "I'm beginning to think of the Colorado Kid is the answer to everything."

"And those answers might shatter your world," Claire said gently. Then she began to try to get Audrey to visualize her dream, and Audrey went along with her.

At least until her computer beeped, indicating that she had email. Claire was unhappy for the interruption, but as soon as Audrey scanned the emails and discovered that they were the files she had been waiting for from the feds, she had a horrifying epiphany.

The first file indicated that another victim had been found with the missing body part, this time a chin. And when she glanced at the body parts still on display in the composite program it all fell into place. "Oh no," she said faintly, and Claire gave her a concerned look.

"What is it?" Claire demanded to know when Audrey took her computer over to the crime scene photos of the victims from Haven and rapidly began to sort through them. "Is it the Colorado Kid?"

"No. No, it's the bolt gun killer," Audrey answered distractedly.

"What about them?" Claire asked, obviously confused.

"What if he's not-" her voice trembled as she tried to find the words to explain what she meant. "What if he's not using body parts for trophies?" Looking up at Claire she asked, "What if he's building a woman?"

Claire's only answer was to give her a horrified look, and that's how she knew that the idea was not insane. She really wished it was.

The first thing Nathan did when he got home was to thoroughly brush his teeth and use mouth wash. Then he used a rough wash cloth to scrub his lips for good measure, all along thinking I need to tell Jess about the kiss.

He felt like a condemned man as he picked up his phone and dialed her number, ready to confess everything. But when she answered the phone his tongue didn't cooperate. "How's Marie?" he asked, stalling for time.

"Pretty well," Jess told him, sounding pleased for her cousin rather than put upon. "The casts come off in another week or so."

"Then physical therapy?" he asked, knowing this was true. As far as they could tell, Marie would probably be back on her feet around Halloween. Around when the Hunter returned. He forced himself not to think about that.

"And then," she agreed. "But I'm sure you didn't call to talk about Marie."

"No," he admitted. "Look, uh, things are heating up in town around the bolt gun killer, Jess. I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to make it this weekend after all."

"Oh." She sounded so disappointed, leaving him feeling like a jerk and a coward both. "I understand. The killer's not going to catch himself, is he?"

"No such luck." Tell her, tell her, he commanded himself. "Well, love you."

"I love you too, Nathan."

As he stared at the screen of the phone after it went dark, he really wondered what the hell was wrong with himself.