"So I overheard a couple of the detectives on the way out of the lab when I was on my way over..." Eric confided as he and Hazel sat snuggled up on the couch in her apartment after watching a movie from Netflix.

"...And?" Hazel prompted after her boyfriends pause.

"They were talking about the upcoming parole hearings... Isley's name came up."

Hazel sighed and wriggled out of his gentle embrace. "Eric, we've already been over this several times now..."

"I know, I know!" He sighed and shook his head, then looked at her again. "But, Hazel, come on. Poison Ivy!? People consumed by giant flowers, turned into sexual play things, used as living coin purses until their bank accounts are totally empty. You really think a woman who's done what she's done is going to be able to just go back to society?! Even if she can be reformed there's no way they'll accept it."

"It will be difficult," Hazel conceded, "but they'll accept her."

"How!?"

"Because they need her. We need her, Eric... Think about it. There's no hero on earth who can do the things she can... World hunger, Ozone depletion, oxygen corruption, all a thing of the past if we can just get her to come back from the darkness."

"Yeah, yeah... you said that before."

"Eric what is going on, you've never reacted this way before now, you never had a problem with the patients I treat or my enthusiasm for their rehabilitation." Hazel exclaimed in exasperation, standing up and walking around the coffee table as if she suddenly felt too confined.

"Well, before I hadn't looked extensively into previous doctor's careers." Eric replied, his voice dropping to a more quiet tone as he spoke.

"What do you mean?" Hazel asked, turning sharply to look at him.

"... Belladonna Hayes stopped by my office today."

Hazel's nostrils flared. The woman she'd initially liked and respected was beginning to become a true thorn in her side. Her teeth gritted as she fought back an impulsive remark and regained her composure. "And what, pray tell, did Dr. Hayes have to say?"

"She said she thinks you're being misled... She's worried about you, Hazel." Eric replied, looking at his girlfriend with concern.

"Sure she is. It doesn't have anything to do with her being spiteful that my alterations to her initial notions have helped lead Pamela Isley down the road to recovery."

"Seriously...? Hazel, seriously, you think this chic would come down from whatever hick town she hided herself away in, just to spite you out of some petty professional jealousy?"

"You can't understand, Eric, you didn't meet her. She was... She was different when I first met her, then I told her my theory on how to help cure Pamela Isley and suddenly she's hell bent on stopping me! If this were just her trying to stop me from releasing a dangerous prisoner into the world she would never have bothered to see me in the first place, she probably would have just tried to talk me out of it over the phone and then refused to see me, that would be expected of a woman who suffered the level of trauma that Doctor Hayes did; but this?" She paused now, looking imploringly at her boyfriend. "...For Christ sake, Eric, you've got a medical degree, you've seen more things than I have in this city, you've got a grip for how peoples minds work, tell me how what she's doing makes any sense at all! First she agrees to see me, then she tells me to stop trying, now this woman who ran to the other side of the country to hide from Arkham Asylum comes flying back in to Gotham just to review my patient!?"

"All right, I will admit it seems odd at first glance.. But you're not considering the whole picture either, this is a woman who went through Hell in that Asylum. I spoke with her face to face, Hazel, I heard her voice, I saw her expression, she is worried about you. Whatever you're doing in there, she thinks it's dangerous enough that she came out of her cave just to try and save you from yourself!"

"Save me from myself, what the hell is that supposed to mean, Eric!?"

"For fuck sake, it's an expression, Hazel; I'm just saying you've not exactly been your usual rational self lately! This is.... It just, it seems like your becoming obsessed."

"I just want to help my patient, Eric." Hazel replied, scowling. "Why can't you understand that?"

"I DO understand that, I've seen you when you're trying to help someone with their problems, Hazel And this? This isn't you wanting to help; this isn't even a side of you I've ever known, I don't like it."

"Now you're being melodramatic."

"No." Eric replied, sighing remorsefully. "No, I'm not. This case is eating away at you, changing you... And I don't like the person you're turning into."

For a long moment the lovers stood in uncomfortable silence, staring at each other. Eric looked sadly at the psychiatrist, waiting, hoping that the bitter anger in her eyes would melt away. It didn't, and finally he heaved another heavy sigh.

"I think I'd better go." He said quietly, pulling his jacket up from the back of the chair.

"Yeah. I think that's a good idea." Hazel replied. She watched him making his way out of the living room and to the door.

At the door he paused and looked back at her. "I'll call you..."

"Fine." She replied tersely. He looked imploringly at her for a moment but when she said nothing more he stepped out of the apartment and closed the door behind him. Hazel waited a few minutes, long enough to know he'd have reached the elevator, before she slumped down onto the couch and began to cry.

A.N. Whew! Sorry that took so long to get done folks, Arkham Asylum came out ,and school start back up the exact same week, and I've just been busy, busy, busy all month long. I hope to have chapter 21 up soon.