I can't thank everybody enough for keeping up with this story. I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I'm glad to see readers along for the ride. Have a lovely Thursday. My goal right now is to post another chapter on Tuesday after the new episode!

(x)

Jim paced up and down the hallway as they waited for an update on Lucy Grimwold's condition.

Harvey looked over at his partner from where he sat back comfortably in one of three blue plastic chairs all connected together and attached to the whitewashed wall. Harvey said, "Just in case you were wondering, you wearin' down a path in the linoleum ain't gonna get Sleeping Beauty to wake up any faster."

When Jim sighed it came out as more of a growl than he intended. He nodded in the direction of the nurse's station. "The longer we stay here the closer another victim is to getting that drug in their system."

Harvey said, "You think I don't know that? I want our little fire starter to wake up and start talkin' just as much as the next overworked underpaid public servant."

Jim shook his head. "We need to get answers." That was putting it lightly. What they really needed was to have gotten answers two days ago. But that was only part of the problem. Jim knew that they had ways of keeping things from you in hospitals, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. What they needed were answers that were short and one-syllable.

Harvey looked to him. "Seein' as how the generally unconscious aren't much for conversation, why don't you sit your ass down?" He pulled out two pudding cups and two plastic spoons. "Enjoy the one thing this place gets right around here."

Jim narrowed his eyes at his partner.

"What?" He dug in. "It's called time management."

Jim could feel himself working back up to pacing again, or better yet, working up to he and Harvey splitting up to cover more ground. He was just about to tell Harvey what his own idea for time management was when someone spoke behind him.

"She's awake."

Jim and Harvey looked over. A short, squat nurse with dark skin and white hair blinked at them. She looked over with a dry expression, a face with too much makeup, and a voice that sounded like two packs a day. "You told me to tell you when she was awake."

Jim stepped forward. "Is she talking?"

The nurse motioned for them to follow her. "She keeps asking 'how many?'"

Harvey frowned as he stood up. "How many what?"

The nurse answered, "How many people she killed."

(x)

Lucy Grimwold lay in her hospital bed, gauze wrapped around her arms and most of her face. When she spoke her voice sounded like much like the nurse's, an after effect of smoke inhalation. "I don't remember what happened. One minute I was in my apartment. The next minute I was … setting fire to the building using a book of matches from my kitchen cabinet. It was like I wasn't myself. It was like … I was there watching everything happen outside myself."

Harvey glanced at Jim as if to say 'yeah, that'll hold up in court'.

Jim asked her, "Do you take any medications, Lucy?"

"No." She coughed loudly and said, "I hate pills."

Jim said, "Why don't you walk us through what happened when you came home from work?"

She answered, "I did what I always do when I come home from work. I walked inside, set down my keys, went through the mail, and started to unwind. Then before I knew it, I was reliving it all over again."

Harvey asked, "Reliving what all over again?"

"The fire," she said. "Last year my house caught on fire. I tried to get out, but every exit was blocked. The whole building went down in flames. I wouldn't have survived if the fire department hadn't arrived as quickly as they did. One of the firefighters ran inside and pulled me out."

Jim frowned. Then he asked, "This might seem like a strange question. But did you start seeing anyone for therapy afterwards?"

"Yes," she said, clearly surprised that he'd asked. "I go to see a doctor on the east side of town at Veteran's Services. We started having sessions right around-"

"A month ago?"

She blinked. "Yeah, h-how do you know about that?"

Harvey answered, "It matches the pattern we have on a couple other cases we believe to be linked." He asked. "Did you see anyone strange around your building? Anyone shifty, anyone that you don't typically see hangin' around?"

She shook her head. "No, everything looked like it usually does." She asked, "Am I being arrested? I mean … I set fire to my apartment building. People … I saw the news." Her eyes brimmed with tears. "People died."

Jim neared her just slightly. He bent down to her eye level. "Lucy? Look at me." She obliged him, and he said, "You are not the type to go around burning down buildings. We can see that."

Lucy looked like she might cry. "Believe me when I say that I have no idea what happened. I've never even so much as forgotten to pay a parking ticket."

Jim said, "I believe you. You're not being arrested. But as a precaution, the doctors here are going to have you stay under observation due to your injuries and the mental health concerns you've mentioned."

Lucy shook her head. She was clearly lost deep within her thoughts. "I just don't understand what's going on." She started to softly cry. "Why would I do something like that?"

Jim spoke to her in a soft voice. "We sent a blood sample of yours to our forensics department. If they find what we think they'll find, it may explain why you set those fires. The same drug that put you into the state you described would also exonerate your actions."

Lucy's tears continued. Jim wasn't completely sure that she'd heard him over her own thoughts which were no doubt filled with shock and shame. He reassured her that they'd be in touch, and Harvey instructed her to call them if she remembered anything at all out of the ordinary, no matter how small or unimportant it might seem.

Jim walked out of the room, and the same numbness he witnessed in Lucy he began to feel himself. Harvey talked, stream of consciousness, trying to put the puzzle of their case together from the limited pieces they had.

Jim sprung back to attention as Harvey's fingers snapped before his eyes. "Hey, Jim? Houston, do we have a problem? The people of planet Earth need you back on the ground."

He looked to Harvey with an aggravated glance, but at least it let his partner know he was checked back in. "I just can't stop thinking about Torres, Yanagi, and now Lucy Grimwold. And how many more innocent people this psychopath plans to drug."

Harvey shook his head. "Tell me about it. One minute you're home, going through your mail, the next minute you're out the door going on a murderous rampage."

Jim stopped in his tracks. "Wait. Harvey, what was that you said?"

"Okay, so technically, I suppose it's not a murderous rampage if you don't know you're doing it, but you know what I mean-"

"No. The mail." Jim felt the familiar sensation of adrenaline pumping through his veins. "The truck, the work station, her apartment. Every single one of them was-"

"Opening their mail," Harvey realized.

Jim picked up the pace and hurried down the hospital hallway back towards the car. Harvey sprung to life and chased after him, or would have, except he stopped to press his hand against his ribs. He took off after Jim muttering, "Goddamn cheapass fire escape… Nothin' works right in this city."

(x)

Dr. Leslie Thompkins had her work cut out for her. She moved quickly throughout the M.E. lab, collecting and organizing test results, blood samples, and the pieces of mail Harvey and Jim sent to her for analysis. She wore a white respirator over her face and thick latex gloves on her hands. The respirator muffled her voice as she debriefed Jim, Harvey, and Captain Barnes. "Bonus checks," she said, holding up each envelope and letter contained in their separate ziploc bags. She pulled down the respirator and continued. "Each person, Torres, Yanagi, and Griswold was sent a bonus check in the mail, and each one was coated with a white powder adhesive."

"Figures," Harvey sighed out. "The only time anybody in this town gets extra cash and it turns you psycho."

Lee nodded, sadly agreeing with him. "Now that I have a sample of the drug before it gets into the body, I understand how it's administered. The victim picks up the letter and immediately the powder is absorbed completely by the skin. There's no trace left of the drug except inside deeper layers of tissue and in the blood stream."

Captain Barnes frowned and asked, "Are you able to tell how this drug turns perfectly normal citizens into killing machines?"

Lee nodded. "I don't understand every part of how the drug works. But so far my theory is that the drug affects the CD45 cells of the adrenal glands. This sends adrenaline rushing through the body, and the person feels as though they are under attack. Normally, when the body is fueled by adrenaline you're alert and excited. Whatever's in this drug is turning that excitement to rage."

Harvey said, "That explains all the freak-outs at the crime scenes."

Lee added, "They react as if they were fighting for their lives in the heat of battle or the middle of a war zone or being consumed by flames."

Jim asked, "So if they're fighting for their lives, why are they creating the war zone?"

Leslie said, "That's where I'd need a few more doctoral level courses in neurology. But it's clear that they believe they are in danger, and they may even be recreating the scene of their original trauma."

Jim turned to Captain Barnes. "I'm starting to see why someone might be interested in seeing this drug taken by PTSD survivors."

Lee said, "Could you imagine if you sent this drug into a real war zone or a fire station or…"

Captain Barnes said, "A building full of trauma survivors like Veteran's Services."

Harvey said in a low voice, "The entire city would burn itself down."

Jim shook his head. "So if that's the goal, why not just do it? Why not just send it out to the masses? Why take people out one by one?"

Lee pointed to the blood samples that she'd collected from each victim. "So, when I first studied the blood samples from Torres and Yanagi, I noticed that less of the drug had been given to Yanagi. At first, I thought it was just a fluke. But now, Lucy Griswold's blood has even less of the active drug than the other two victims."

Harvey stood up straighter. "Is it just me? Or is this is startin' to sound like that story about the three bears?"

Energy filled Jim's voice when he said, "They're trying to find the right dosage. This is an experiment."

Harvey looked to his partner. "You know, like a doctor might work on, in some underground capacity?"

Jim glanced at his Captain. "We have to let Gotham know. More people could be opening their mail right now to find checks they'll never cash."

Captain Barnes started walking out of the M.E. lab followed closely by Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Barnes said, "Let me handle alerting the post office and Veteran's Services and minimizing media blowback. In the meantime, the two of you track down whatever psychotic excuse for a scientist put that drug into the mail in the first place."