She sat numbly in the patient's chair in her office and stared across her desk out of the window behind it. The world outside seemed too bright, too clear for a day like this.

Knauer had offered her a ride home.

Harley told him that he would do more good where he could guard the Colonel personally. He admitted that was true, touched her cheek where she had begun to bruise and she thought that he had hands like her father.

"Thank you," she said quietly and he imagined she meant so much more. She was too tired to begin to explain to him otherwise. She felt stretched thin and used up and as though she wanted nothing more than the ending of this day. Sleep, at least, brought the possibility of peace.

One phone call and a blur of afternoon traffic later and the music was something light and frivolous; she heard it only in the background. She stretched as long as she could along the cushions (not very far, she had never been as tall as she would have liked), tried to concentrate on something base and solid, her body, her being, and away from things she did not want to think about. Pam stroked her hair back from her forehead, she felt as a child soothed by her mother. She missed her mother, she thought.

"How you feeling, Harls?"

"Holding on," she said quietly, mouth quirking. She couldn't quite manage the smile.

She missed Jack, she thought.

She sighed and laid her cheek again on Pamela's thigh. Her hands ran absently through her hair as she hummed quietly with the song. Pam had offered her dinner. Harley couldn't muster the stomach to eat it. They'd given her the day off. It was 'understandable'. That was the closest she'd ever gotten to sympathy from the Lieutenant-Colonel. She'd imagined the man incapable of such an emotion. It was just as well… She wanted no such thing from him.

Harley sighed and rubbed her cheek against Pamela's thigh, fingers circled about her ankle.

"Do you really know how much trouble I'm in, Pam?"

Harley felt it as the redhead's body jerked softly with the chuckle, her mouth quirking upward.

"I was just getting ready to ask you if you knew that, blondey…"

Harley closed her eyes for a moment.

"What's going on? This wasn't an isolated incident, was it, Harley? You've dealt with this guy before. Do you really even know if he's under surveillance? What if he gets out? What if someone comes to just get him, what then?"

For the first time since she had met the woman she had no reason to argue against her paranoia.

"I don't know, Pam, I don't know… The right people show up, the right channels are followed, there is absolutely no reason for them to deny the correct request for transfer of custody. I mean, they have their own fucking police," Harley rubbed at her eyes, momentarily overwhelmed and finding the simplicity of darkness behind her lids soothing.

"Who do we have?"

"Wilhelm… while he's at the hospital the only person that ranks higher is Standen himself… but that fact alone makes him useless. If Standen says the Colonel can go, he can go… all they have to do is say that they're taking him to be formally held and charged and off he goes, out the door."

"Any chance of overriding him?"

Harley stared at her. "Are you kidding me?"

She bristled. "I'm not a fucking soldier, I don't know these things."

"He's the hospital director. Common sense says no, Pamela." She relished the rare opportunity to berate her friend. She could concentrate on that, it was distracting, right? No, it wasn't enough. "This isn't over. It's only a temporary reprieve. He could be out right now. He could still be there waiting for me tomorrow, and no one can really stop him…"

"Come on, Harley," Pam joked weakly, "You're starting to sound like me."

"No, it's a legitimate worry. But he doesn't know where I am right now… I'm safe at the moment, and I have to be thankful for small favors, right?" She squeezed her friend's thigh, patting it softly.

"They never gave me any training for this… They never teach you what to do when the enemy is your own people. Friendly fire doesn't even begin to qualify for what they did to him, Pam… They destroyed his whole life, tried to destroy him, and you were right, gloat all you like, but they are back to finish the job and I have to get him out of there."

"Harley!"

"No. Look, if I leave him there, then I am condemning him to death, I am letting them do that, and I will not, Pam, I will not."

"This is crazy, Harley! I mean, where in the hell are you going to go? Where on earth can the Army not find you?"

Harley hesitated. In the end, the question was did she trust Pamela? Harley did, in fact, with her life. She steeled herself.

"Gotham. He knows the city. There are millions of people there. Take new names, just disappear."

Her lips tensed, teeth grinding, jaw chewing at false starts as she sought the words and resisted the urge to simply scream at the blonde.

"Why would you do all of this for him, Harley? You barely know him. I mean, he's just your patient."

"He's more than just a patient—"

She was interrupted by Pamela's agonized groan.

"Oh no, Harley, don't tell me you did exactly what I told you not to do… God, it's such a fucking burden being right all the time. You've fallen in love with him, haven't you? Never mix business and pleasure, Harl, never eat the apples on your apple cart, don't you know that?"

"Yes, I know that," Harley snapped, sitting up, "But there's no controlling how I feel… I can't just walk away and forget him, as though I know nothing about him, and I don't care in the least what happens to him. He's in danger. I can save his life and you're telling me it's wrong to do it?"

"It's breaking the law!"

"And murder isn't? They'll kill him if I just leave him there, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, once they're sure they have no more use of him. He's just information to them. Once he's pumped dry, they'll just throw him away. He has no one, Pammy, no mother or father, no family. I'm the only one that is on his side, I'm all he's got, the only chance he's got to have a semi-normal life, don't you see that? I can't turn my back on him now."

Pamela shook her head, eyes squinted shut.

"Harley…"

"Listen to me. I don't have anyone either. We've both let our lives drift by in a series of orders and commands but we have each other now. And who else could be with him the way that I can? I have the training he needs, I can help him. This is his moment of greatest need and I can be there for him. You have to understand that, Pam. I have to do this. After everything that's been done to him he deserves to have someone that is on his side, unconditionally. I… I would die to keep him safe, he deserves that much from someone. His life has been so hard, Pam, I would give anything to make it better for him."

"Oh god, Harley, you are such a fucking sucker. He's got you completely snowed," Pamela groaned.

"Shut up! I'm serious, Pamela. This means everything to me, and you are the only person I have on my side. I need you to be with me on this."

"You can't ask me to do this, Harley, you're throwing your whole life away for him!"

"I would, Pammy, I would. I love him. I can't help that. I've tried to talk myself out of it, but he has me and I don't want him to let go." Pam groaned louder, clapping her hands over her ears. "I'm not going to change my mind on this!" Harley yelled.

"This is crazy talk, Harley! You can't do this. You know what kind of luck you have. You'll get some prick MP with a mission on his mind and they'll fucking track you down in a few months and then I'm going to be sending your mail to Fort Fucking Leavenworth when they throw your ass in for espionage and obstruction of justice and maybe just plain old treason."

"They don't house females at the Disciplinary Barracks…" Harley mumbled from the side of her mouth, and Pamela growled at her.

She laughed softly despite herself. The redhead's face softened, and her hands found her face as the tears that had long been standing in Harley's eyes finally slid down her cheeks.

"You look so tired, baby doll."

"I am tired." She sniffled, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to gather control over herself.

"You need to just go to bed, honey, just rest. You look like death warmed over."

OOO

The day came bright and shining, but Pam did not take her usual cup of tea. She stayed with Harley for the duration of the morning, and tried without success to convince her to stay home from work today.

"I have to talk to the Captain. Things are falling apart quicker than I thought they would. We're going to have to leave sooner than originally planned. Time is of the essence, Pamela, and I have to do this, with or without you."

"There really is no convincing you otherwise, is there?"

Harley tried to train her expression into one of sternness, found that she still did not have the energy to do so.

Pam snorted in disgust and shook her head.

"I never should have talked to you, life would be so much simpler if I didn't have you around."

"Wouldn't be as fun," Harley said quietly, and they smiled together, Pam bowing her head, shaking it again.

"This is insane, Harley. Don't you realize it?"

"I can't help it. It is what it is."

The redhead sighed.

"What do you need from me?"

"I need transportation. We have to have a way of getting there. I have to find someone who is willing to make us fake identification, and that's not going to be cheap."

"God, I can't believe I'm doing this… But if I leave you to your own devices, you're going to fly off half-cocked and muck it all up…"

OOO

Pamela drove her to work and promised to be near the phone all day should Harley need anything from her. She was still muttering darkly, however, as Harley climbed out of her car again

She waited, but the panic did not begin to well into her throat as she was afraid it might. She would avoid the bathroom on her floor at all costs, even if it meant climbing up a floor to do so. She wished for a sidearm, anything to offer herself protection. She had no idea what was waiting for her beyond the revolving doors. Jack might be dead already. Her steps quickened and she pushed the thought from her mind desperately as she crossed the first floor lobby for the elevator bank. No, that couldn't happen, it just couldn't.

"Lieutenant Harleen Quinzel?"

Oh, she was getting so tired of hearing that name.

She turned slowly eyes immediately falling to his chest. Black band about the arm, MP. Gold oak leaves, Major. Her eyes flashed to his face. He had a solid, strong jaw and somber brown eyes. She did not recognize him. That meant nothing, however.

"Sir?"

"I'd like to speak with you. If you would follow me?"

Her heart continued to flop uselessly somewhere in the vicinity of her lower intestines, it seemed, and her legs felt numb as she walked the length of the hall that led to a block of conference rooms. She'd sat in one her very first day on the job, one of nineteen new interns to the hospital. She might never see this place again, she thought, and looked quickly about the room. No… still nothing to use as a weapon.

"I need to ask you a few questions about yesterday's attack. The records indicate that the Corporal was a patient of yours?"

"Yes." She relaxed slowly. Maybe he wasn't Elite…

"They.." he flipped through a sheaf of papers. "They also indicate that you have only seen him twice since he was admitted to the hospital."

"That's correct," she answered quietly.

"Why only twice?"

"My schedule is very full. Sometimes I have problems fitting all of my patients in. Some of them are seen every other week, instead of every week."

"Do you have any idea why he might have targeted you in particular, having only seen you twice?"

"I don't know," she said after a moment. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Uh-huh," he said quietly, looked to a new piece of paper "And can you explain to me why you did not return home last night?

She stared at him, jaw slack, certain she was hearing him wrong.

"What?"

"We visited your apartment this morning. You weren't there. Now, you either left very early in the morning, or you never went home at all."

Her brow creased. "I spent the night with a friend."

"And they'll confirm this?"

"I don't understand.."

"Just answer the question, Lieutenant."

"Yes, she will, but I don't understand. Why am I being interrogated? The man tried to rape me. I have bruises all over my body. Why aren't you trying to make sure he can't hurt anyone else?"

The Major snorted softly, leaning back in his chair.

"I don't think he's going to be bothering anybody, Lieutenant. The Corporal is dead."