Edward stood in front of his bathroom sink, cupping his hands in the cold running water and splashing it onto his face. He winced a bit at the sting when the water made contact with the bruise on his face, but he kept going, his blood still warm from the contact of having her pressed against him-"What the Hell were you thinking!?" he scolded himself. "You almost ruined everything!"

If she didn't want it, she could have pulled away. She didn't.

Edward splashed another cupful of water on his face, trying to forget how warm and soft she had felt against him, how her face had fit perfectly in his hands, how he could have-how he'd almost- "It was completely inappropriate," he hissed. "She's exhausted, mentally, emotionally exhausted. She came to you for safety, not for you to take advantage of her when she's in such a state!"

She would have let you kiss her. What else would she have let you do?

Edward turned the faucets so hard they almost broke, then stood up to look himself in the mirror. His reflection was angry, his face twisted in a scowl. "I don't know everything I did as the Riddler," he said in a dark tone that he scarcely recognized as himself. "But I do know that even at my worst, I was never that kind of a man. I'll let Strange re-commit me to Arkham before I become that kind of man now, and I will cut my own throat before I ever lay an untoward hand on Penny!"

That doesn't mean you're not in love with her.

Edward grabbed a hand towel from the towel rack next to his shower and furiously rubbed it over his face, hissing at the pain. God, but she had a mean right hand. He dropped the towel when he realized that he had left her alone, probably still upset, definitely confused, in his room without so much as a word. He ran a hand through his mussed hair and sighed. What must she think?

He arrived back in his bedroom five minutes later with a glass of ice water in one hand and an ice pack pressed against his face in another. Penny was still sitting on the bed with her hands in her lap, her face a cold blank as she saw him come in. She was no longer crying, much to his relief, though her eyes were red-rimmed. Edward sat a few feet away from her at the foot of his bed and handed her the water. "Here," he said. She took it without a word and sipped. Edward self-consciously tapped his fingers on the sheets. So far, she hadn't said a word to him, but she didn't look angry. She looked...tired. "Are you feeling better?" he asked, unable to bear the silence anymore.

"Yes," she said dully. "Thank you."

Edward exhaled. Perhaps he'd get out of this unscathed. "Well," he said, "I won't take up any more of your time. Goodnight, Penny." He'd gotten off of the bed and made it halfway to the door when her voice called him back.

"Edward." He turned around to see that she had gotten off the bed too, and was following him out. She'd placed the glass on his nightstand and had her arms folded across her chest. She looked up at him, a question in those ice-blue eyes, hers and Jon's eyes. "What just happened?"

Of course. He should have known that he wouldn't get out of it that easily. "Nothing, he answered. "I heard you screaming bloody murder, I came in, I comforted you, I got you a glass of water, and now I'm leaving. Goodnight."

"You almost kissed me."

Edward's heart froze. Penelope's face was still blank, though her eyes were clouded with something new, something he couldn't identify. "I," he stammered. "I-" he cleared his throat. "I was merely trying to comfort you. In the heat of the moment, perhaps my wires got a bit crossed, but I certainly was not trying to make any kind of overture."

"I wasn't accusing you of anything," Penelope said, her mouth a tight line. "But if there's something you need to tell me-"

"There isn't," Edward interrupted, more harshly than he intended. He saw her face darken and adjusted his tone. "There isn't," he said. "Let's just drop it, alright?"

"Edward," Penelope insisted, and Edward wanted to tear out his hair in frustration. Of all the times for her to regain her stubbornness, her tenacity. "I'm not angry with you, but I don't want you to keep any secrets from me. Whatever's going on, we can talk about it, we can try to figure it out-"

"There is nothing to figure out!" Edward snapped and he regretted it when he saw her flinch. "And besides," he added, in a gentler tone. "Do you want to get bogged down in a discussion about 'feelings' when Bane's still out there?"

Penelope's face paled at the mention of Bane, then her eyes narrowed. "Fine," she said. "We won't talk about this tonight. We won't talk about it tomorrow. But when this is over with Bane, we are talking about this Edward."

Edward raised his hands. "Fine. When this is over, we'll talk about it. There will still be nothing to talk about, but we'll talk about it. Goodnight." He turned around and walked out the door without a look behind him. He heard the door shut behind him and kept walking until he'd made it back to his sofa. He all but collapsed on it, his mind racing. What had he done? What had he almost done? He looked over to the clock on the bookshelf. 2:30 AM. He'd be getting no sleep tonight. Somehow, he doubted she would either.

He showered, changed, and left the apartment as the sun rose over Gotham City, managing to get out before Penelope could wake up. At least, he hoped she was asleep. The alternative was that she was avoiding him. As much as he was reluctant to deal with her after what had happened, the thought of her avoiding him made his heart clench. He wandered the six blocks from his apartment to his office, ignoring the passersby and the commotion of an early Sunday morning in Gotham. That was right, it was Sunday, wasn't it? It had been almost two full days since Penelope had taken residence in his apartment, two days since he'd seen her with her hair down, two days since Cash had opened his big fat mouth-

Edward staggered into his office, not even bothering to take off his hat and light summer jacket before planting himself in his office chair. He had work to do, he had intelligence to collect, but his eyes burned from the lack of sleep. He pat his pocket to make sure he'd remembered his anti-anxiety medication, taken twice daily, one in the morning, one in the evening, same routine as before she'd come into his home, same as when she would inevitably leave. He leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. He sat like that for hours, his mind anywhere but the case. Goddamn, Aaron Cash. Three days ago, he'd known exactly where he and Penelope stood. She'd been his friend, his closest friend now perhaps, but just his friend. Now? It felt like he was scrambling to figure out where the puzzle pieces fit exactly. He wasn't in love with her. He wasn't. So then, why couldn't he simply tell her that? He pulled out a lukewarm water bottle he'd kept in his desk drawer, unscrewed the container of pills, and was about to take his first pill when he heard the sound of his cell phone ringing. He cringed. If that was Penelope...he put the pill and water bottles down and pulled out his cellphone. He looked at the number and sat fully straight up as he answered it. "Harley?"

"Morning, Eddie!" Harley chirped.

Edward blinked. Well, this was unexpected. "Well, good morning to you too," he said, stifling a yawn.

"You sound beat," Harley said. "Late night?"

Edward had to chuckle a bit, despite everything. "You could say that."

"Well, wakey wakey! I'll be at your apartment in about an hour!"

Edward's stomach dropped. "My-my apartment?" Then he remembered. Before he'd found out that Penelope had been targeted, he'd made plans to spend time with Harley today. He'd never gotten around to telling Penelope that he was rekindling his friendship with Harley. After what he'd seen last night, there was no way she and Harley could be in the same room. "Harley, I'm sorry, but something's come up."

Harley let out a whine and Edward could just see the pout he was sure was on her face. "Aww, but Eddie! I've been looking forward to seein' ya all week! What's going on?"

"I've got a big case I'm working on, Harley," Edward said. Technically true, if not the full truth. "I'll call you when I'm done so we can reschedule."

"Ooh, a big case? Maybe I can help!"

Edward was about to tell her no and hang up when he thought better of it. Harley had been involved in the TITAN incident. She may have insight into Bane's actions that few other people did. After last night, he wasn't about to re-open Penelope's wounds. "Tell you what. Why don't you meet me at the coffee shop about a block from my apartment? We'll talk there."

Harley let out a squeal of delight. "Yay! PI Eddie Nigma and Harley Quinn, crackin' cases and takin' names! See ya soon, Eddie!" She disconnected and Edward leaned back. He needed to get around to telling Penelope about Harley. Later.

An hour later, Edward caught sight of Harley's blond pigtails sitting at an outdoor table at the coffee shop he frequented. Thankfully, it looked like she'd left her hyenas at home. He took the seat opposite from her and she looked up from the menu with a smile on her face. "Hiya, Eddie!" Then her smile turned into a grimace. "Jeez Louise, what happened to you!?"

Edward reached up to cup the side of his face that Penelope had slapped. He'd caught a glimpse of it before he'd left the apartment and knew it was beginning to bruise. "Oh, this? It's nothing, Harley. Just an occupational hazard."

Harley shook her head and gave him a saucy wink. "You got frisky with the girls at Pandora's again, didn't ya?"

Edward's mind pictured Pandora's Box and Penelope at the same time and he felt his temperature go up at least ten degrees. "Now, now. Where are your manners?"

"Left 'em in my other suit," Harley laughed. Then she clapped her hands together. "Alright, Mr. PI! What kind of case have ya got?"

Now it was time to see how trustworthy Harley was. Edward took a quick look to the street behind him to make sure no one was eavesdropping before he leaned in. "It's about Bane."

Harley's blue eyes widened to almost comic proportions. "Bane!?" she hissed. She took a look around herself as if she was expecting him to pop out of a potted plant at any moment. "Eddie! Why are ya gettin' mixed up in that!?"

Edward wet his lip. Harley's answers to his line of questioning would determine if he could trust her with the matter of Hugo Strange. "It's not Bane," he said smoothly. "I was asked to look into the TITAN formula, and that led me to Bane."

"The TITAN, huh?" Harley scrunched up her face. "Well, I can't tell ya too much about that. You wanna talk TITAN, you should try to find that ice queen Doc Young! If you can find whatever rock she crawled under!"

Edward clenched his fist. Calm down. "I have it on good authority that she's no longer in Gotham," he said. "At any rate, I doubt she'd know where Bane's holed up with the TITAN."

"Well, I don't know either," Harley shrugged. "Me, Kitty, and Red are steerin' clear. I just know the rumors."

Edward rested his head on his hands. "Oh? Would you care to enlighten me?"

"Well," Harley said. "From what I heard, Bane's gunnin' for Dr. Young. He's offerin' a reward for anyone who'll hand her over to him. He ain't leavin' Gotham without her."

Edward's eyes narrowed. Schrader's attack on Penelope's apartment may have inadvertently saved her. If he'd never known about it, Bane may have had her in his clutches by now. "Just her?" he asked. "What about Joker, or the Mayor, or Warden Ward? They were involved too."

Harley twirled the end of a pigtail nervously. "Well, Mistah J's still in Arkham, and I don't think Bane's gonna want to storm it. I think he wants Young first because she was the one who hurt him." She made a noise. "And she's got it comin' too! Maybe I'm bein' mean, but I never liked that witch. She always acted like she was so much better than everyone else like she was gonna be the one to fix Mistah J and make everything right! I guess the joke's on her, huh?"

Edward's next words left his throat in a growl and he slapped the palm of his hand down onto the table, causing it to shake. "If she has it coming then so do you, Harleen!" Harley's mouth dropped in shock and Edward collected himself. "Not to point fingers, but you were involved in that whole affair too. It stands to reason that Bane may come after you if he can't get his hands on Dr. Young. It's better for all of us if Batman takes him down quickly."

Harley gulped. "Gee, I didn't think of that. Yeah, you're right." Then she cocked her head and gave him a suspicious look. "Hey, you're not helpin' B-Man track Bane down, are ya?"

Edward forced himself to let out a chuckle. "Absolutely not. I know better than to put myself in the middle of that. I just wanted information about the TITAN to keep my client and my checkbook happy." Edward had never been good at lying, and Harley was more observant than most people thought. He could only hope that this would be enough to keep her from prying further. Her ill-informed, cruel comments about Penelope had unfortunately proved to him that she could not be trusted with the truth.

Luckily, Harley sighed with relief. "Good. I didn't think ya would, but I just wanted to make sure." She smiled again. "So, what else do ya need to know?"

Edward let a smirk come to his face. "If it's not too much trouble..."

After two restless hours spent replaying the events of the evening in her mind, Penelope had finally managed to fall back asleep. She woke up well past 10, feeling equal parts drained, confused, and mortified. Edward was long gone, as she knew he would be, and he hadn't left a note for her this time. She'd expected it, given his behavior the night before, but she was still disappointed. She sat on the living room sofa, her journal on the table in front of her. As she tried to do so often when she was faced with a dilemma, she put her thoughts on paper. ...I wasn't lying to him when I said I wasn't angry. Whatever almost happened, I fully believe that Edward had no intention of taking advantage of me. She bit her lip and paused, thinking over the event in her mind again before she continued. I allowed the enormity of the situation to get the better of me and I became overwhelmed. It was foolish of me to put both of us in that position, to begin with. It crossed a line, and Edward was right to terminate it before we did something we would both regret. Penelope paused again. She had been the one to initiate the hug. She hadn't pulled away, even though he'd given her plenty of opportunities to do so. Why hadn't she? I care about him, of course. I care more about him than I ever thought I could when I began to work with him last year. He's forced me to reconsider much of what I thought I knew about the patients at Arkham. It's made me a better psychiatrist and a better person, and I'll always be grateful to him for that.

Penelope stopped again and chewed the tip of her pen. Then she sighed. It's tempting to just accept his explanation for what happened. That he was simply trying to comfort me and that, in his words, 'his wires got crossed'. However, given his avoidant behavior after it happened, deep down, I know there's something more going on. She thought of the flowers. Did she know, or was there a part of her that hoped there was more to it? She shook her head. Transference is the likeliest explanation. It's been less than six months since he found out the full truth of what happened to Professor Crane. She thought of her old mentor's picture beside Edward's bed and felt a stab of guilt. While he has come to terms with the loss, I doubt that he's ready to move on to another relationship. And if he was, he's more likely to rekindle whatever he had with Selina. She's a known quantity to him, at least. The thought of that hurt her, almost. Why? In any case, it's better for both of us that we deal with the matter and then move on. We can't afford to allow ourselves to become compromised. After the matter with Bane is concluded, we'll talk. She put her pen down, closed the journal, and leaned back against the sofa. Writing down her thoughts was therapeutic, but there were still so many questions swirling about in her mind that she didn't dare write down. She cared for Edward, of course, but that didn't mean she loved him. Then again...Ellen had asked. Joan had asked. She caught the suspicious look that Aaron shot Edward's way that night in her office, the smirks she saw on Selina's face out of the corner of her eye on Ellen's birthday. One person might be mistaken. All of those people though. Could they all be mistaken, or did they see something that she couldn't, or wouldn't?

Penelope got off of the sofa with an irritated grunt and paced about the living room. This was ridiculous. Bane was in Gotham right now, with TITAN and a grudge. How could she be thinking of this now? She'd never been the sort of person to ponder romantic woes. Why did this have to happen now, when her life and so many other lives were at risk? Penelope went back to the bedroom and pulled out her shoes. She'd spent almost two whole days inside the apartment. She needed to clear her head. She needed fresh air. She went to the front door and hesitated. This was dangerous, but she wouldn't go far. Just to the coffee shop a block away to get a drink and a magazine. Edward would never know she was gone. She opened the door and for the first time in two days, walked into the outside world.

"...I think that's everything about the TITAN thing," Harley finished. She took a long sip of the sugary concoction she'd ordered, smacked her lips and smiled. "So? Did I help?"

Edward put his pen down on top of his notebook and gave her a beatific smile. "Immensely." Now that he had the full background, he could formulate a proper strategy on Bane.

Harley let out a whoop. "Yay! We should partner up more often! Batman and Robin, eat your heart out!"

Edward chuckled. "That's an interesting mental image." He looked down at his wrist and checked his watch. It was 12:30. He still had plenty of time to get back to his office and get work done before he had to go home and face Penelope. He inwardly sighed. He hoped he'd have something concrete for her by then.

"Hey, Eddie? Can I ask ya somethin'?"

"Certainly," he said absently.

"Do you remember anythin' about what happened at Arkham before you got your skull bashed in?"

This time, Edward outwardly cringed. "Bits and pieces. Are you speaking generally, or did you have something specific in mind?"

Harley twiddled her thumbs a bit. "It's just...when you were talkin' about Sharpie and Ward bein' involved, I thought you remembered more about the TITAN."

Edward shrugged. "Well, that was information I uncovered while on this case. It's not like I was there on the night in question."

"Yeah, but you still knew about it."

Edward's blood ran cold. "I-what?" He couldn't have. He'd been comatose for months, how could he have-then a flash came to him. When Sharp had hired him for that damned case last year, he'd remembered TITAN without being prompted. He had known about it. He must have. He wet his lip. "Well, that makes sense. There wasn't much that went on in that damned place I didn't know about." That had to be it. He'd known about the general experiment, but not the specifics. He couldn't have been involved. He should leave it at that, change the subject and move on. He should, but he had never been one to leave a question unanswered. He had to know. "Harley," he asked with a tremor in his voice. "I wasn't...involved with that affair in any way, was I?"

Harley shook her head. "With the experiment? Nah! That was all Mistah J's plan."

Edward felt his shoulders sag with relief. Of course, he wasn't involved. He'd been in a coma for months before the night of the riot. How could he have been?

"You did help us crack Arkham's security though."

For a long moment, Edward felt his heart stop. "What?" he asked.

Harley nodded. "Yeah! About a month or so before ya broke out for the last time, Mistah J asked ya to come up with a plan to get past the new security protocols."

No. No. No. No! "And I agreed to that?"

"Sure! You said, 'no overpriced Waynetech gizmo's any match for my genius', and you did it! It was great! You hacked Arkham's main website and connected it to the security system! Anyone who visited the website helped overload it! It was still runnin' after you were in a coma, and I was able to use it take over!"

For a long moment, Edward forgot how to breathe. He'd been involved. He'd helped that psychotic clown take over the Asylum even from his hospital bed. He'd helped him destroy Penny. In a flash, he saw her at the Arkham Memorial last year, facing down the barrel of Horner's gun with a suicidal resignation. He saw her on his bed, sobbing, reliving the nightmare of what the Joker had done to her. What he had done to her. The year she'd spent recovering, letting the guilt suffocate her. He'd done that to her. He'd hurt her. Just like Jon, just like Ellen. Penny, Penny, Penny... "Penny," he choked out. "Oh my God..." He couldn't breathe. What had he done?

"Eddie?" he vaguely heard Harley's voice. "Are you ok? Did I say somethin' wrong?"

Edward pulled his chair back and leaned over, his head between his knees, his stomach, and chest heaving. How could he face her? What could he possibly say to her? He felt Harley's hand on his shoulder.

"Aw, jeez. Are you havin' an anxiety attack? Do I need to call Kitty?" Then he heard her let out a surprised shout. "You!? What are you doin' here!?"

Then he heard the last voice he wanted to hear. "Edward?"

He looked up with a start. Standing before the pair of them, her face pale, her hands trembling, was Penny. The world stopped turning as he regarded her. Her ice-blue eyes were wide with fear, her features stricken with horror. "Harley Quinn," she breathed.

"The one and only," Harley drawled. "What's up, Doc?"

It hurts. Everything hurts. The ringing in her ears, the shrapnel embedded in her body, the burns on her face. She's alive, she's breathing, but oh God, it hurts, Mother, Father, it hurts so much, she wants to die.

Then a brassy voice reaches her ears. "Aww, poor, Dr. Young."

She opens her eyes, even though it hurts. Harley Quinn is standing over her, dressed in that horrific parody of a nurse's outfit, her henchmen with Warden Sharp in their grasp. Harley cocks her head as she regards her. "Huh. You're still kickin'." She pulls her foot back and kicks Penelope in her side, causing her to shriek in pain. "Aw well. I'll deal with you later. Come on boys, Mistah J's waitin'. She and the goons drag Sharp off, leaving Penelope in a pool of her own blood, leaving her to die...

Harley had that same look in her eyes, that same contempt. And she had her hand on Edward's shoulder, her Edward, even after everything she told him, he was still letting her touch him. He looked up at her with his green eyes blown wide, looking like she'd caught him doing something unspeakable, and in a way, she had. "Penny," he gasped out. It was too much. Seeing Harley, reliving that memory, seeing the man she cared about more than anyone willingly being in her presence, it was all too much. She turned on her heel and ran.

Edward was up on his feet in an instant, ignoring Harley's confused yelp. "Penny!" he shouted. "Wait!" He almost collided with passersby on the sidewalk as he followed her back to his building. Why in the Hell had she even left!? He caught up with her as she opened the front door of his building. "Penny!" he cried out. "I can explain, I was-"

Penny whirled on him, her face twisted in rage. "Why!?" she half-screamed at him. "Why were you sitting with Harley Quinn!?"

Edward put his hands up to placate her. "I needed information on Bane, that's all it was, I swear, I didn't mean for you to-"

"To what?" Penny asked. "To find out!? Do you know what she did to me, what she helped Joker do!? How could you not tell me you were still in contact with her!?"

The look on her face was more than anger. It was a look of betrayal. "I meant to, really I did, but it never seemed to come up-" Penny let out a cry of angry disbelief and stormed back up the stairs. "Penny, wait!" he cried out. "I can fix this! Let me fix this!"

She stopped at his door, turned around again and glared at him. "Fix what?" she asked with icy venom. "Fix that you've been in contact with a woman who hurt me and deliberately kept it from me? Fix that you left this morning without so much as a word? Fix that you almost kissed me and you refuse to acknowledge it!? I trust you with my life Edward, and you're still keeping things from me! What else are you keeping from me? What exactly am I to you!?"

Edward didn't answer her. He couldn't answer her. How could he answer her and keep her from hating him? "I...I..."

Penny seemed to shrink into herself. "I see," she whispered. Then she opened the door to the apartment and slammed it behind her. Edward stood on the other side, unable to speak, unable to move. What had he done? What in the Hell had he done? He staggered away from his door and walked down the stairs, his heart shattering with every step he took.

Of course. How did you think this would end? How did you reasonably think this would end?

When he made it to the foot of the stairs, Harley was there with a confused expression on her face. "What the Heck was that about!?" she asked him. "You said she wasn't in Gotham! And you called her Penny! And why's she in your apartment!? When did you two become friends all of a sudden!?" Then a look of realization came on her face. "You're lookin' into TITAN for her, aren't ya?" she asked in bewilderment. "You're protectin' her...you and her...you're...Eddie...are you in..." Edward watched her. Harley's reaction would determine once and for all what place she could have in his life. Her face darkened. "Oh, no Eddie! Not her! You could so much better than that witch! She's awful!"

Something inside of Edward snapped. "How dare you!?" he rounded on Harley in fury. "How dare you presume to talk about her like that!? She's done more for me in six months than you have in six years!"

Harley shrank back in the face of his anger. "Eddie, what's gotten into you? She ain't worth it! She's just a schemin', cold-"

Edward let out a dark chuckle. "And you're a co-dependent who's spent the better part of a decade crawling back to a psychotic clown. Forgive me if I don't take your word for it."

He felt a sliver of guilt at the hurt expression on Harley's face, but she quickly recovered. "She's no good for you, Eddie," she jut out her lip. "She only likes you 'cause you're a PI! If you went back to bein' the Riddler tomorrow, she'd dump you like a bag of hammers! She hated your guts back in Arkham!"

"And she had every right to do so," Edward countered. "And how exactly, would you know how good she is for me? You don't know the first thing about her, or what she's done for me!"

"I know who she was at Arkham," Harley shouted. "She experimented on Bane! Yeah, she didn't know Mistah J's real plan, but she was happy to drain Bane's blood! You really want to stick your neck out for a girl like that?"

"And where exactly, was this moral outrage when I was with a man who fear-gassed people?"

Harley bit her lip. "That was Jonny," she said. "That was different! He was one of us! She ain't!"

"'Us'?" Edward asked. "Who exactly, Harley, is 'us'? I'm not a Rogue anymore, no matter how much certain parties want me to be." Harley hesitated, and Edward moved in for the kill. "What really bothers you about her?" he asked. "That she's a reminder of what you used to be or the fact that for a good period of time, she had your precious puddin's undivided attention?"

Harley took a step back as if he'd slapped her. "What's happened to you?" she asked. "You ain't the Eddie I remember."

"I'm not the man I was when you left me in Aesop's clutches a year and a half ago," he seethed. "You'd better get used to that." Harley's face fell, and she walked towards the door. "Harley?" he called back, and he ignored how her face looked hopeful. "If you do or say anything to compromise her safety, you will regret it. Understand?"

Harley's eyes welled up with tears, and she nodded before she left the building. Edward waited for a long moment before he followed her out, walking like a man to his execution towards his office. If he had looked behind him, he would have seen Penelope at the top of the stairs, having heard the whole exchange with a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes.

When the sun fell that night, Edward still sat curled up in his office chair. His pill bottle remained unopen. He heard his phone ring multiple times that day. First, it was Harley's number. He'd gladly ignored those calls. Then Selina's. He'd ignored those too but had read her text. HARLEY TOLD ME WHAT HAPPENED. CALL ME BACK. Then Penelope's number. He couldn't bear to look at it or read her texts. How could he face her, after what he'd done to her? How could he tell her what he'd done and keep her from hating him? It no longer mattered if he loved her or not, he'd rather have her in his life as his friend than not have her at all. There had to be a way he could make it right. He'd made it right with Ellen, there had to be a way to make it right with Penny! "Think, Edward," he badgered himself. "You're a genius, you can come up with something! Something to prove you're not a monster! Something to prove once and for all that she was right to trust you! Think!" He heard a phone ring again and he groaned. God, what now? Was Ellen calling him to scold him? He looked to his cell phone, only to realize that the ringing was coming from his burner phone. His eyes lit up. His informants! He answered the call with an eager "Yes?"

"Hey, boss. I thought I saw someone in the old Krank toy factory. Looked like Bane."

For the first time since that afternoon, Edward let out a smile. "You did? For certain?"

"Kind of hard to miss Bane, boss. What do you want to do?"

Edward had his cell phone ready to call GCPD when a thought came over him. Did he really want to just be an anonymous tipster, or did he want to be there himself? That was how he'd make it right. He'd hand Bane over to GCPD personally. Maybe she wouldn't love him for it, but she wouldn't hate him. He'd make up for Harley, he'd never even have to tell her about his role in the Arkham mess! "Stay where you are. I'll be there in about half an hour to confirm this for myself." He hung up the phone and got out of his chair. He ran to his coatrack to get his cane and bolted out the door before he could stop himself. He'd hand Bane over to Batman and the GCPD on a silver platter and he'd do it for her, and everything would go back to how it was before.