It was an icy night. Spring came on slow in the New England, but it came even slower along the great lakes, where the cold winds could keep biting long after the spring solstice. Belladonna Hayes had returned home to Wisconsin after two weeks in Gotham. The aging psychiatrist could only do so much to help the naïve young Doctor Birch, and she had finally allowed her own well being to override her concern for the younger woman.

Back home she once more felt at peace, and as the days passed she simply moved on; if Pamela Isley was going to be released that was all there was to it. Medically Isley had displayed sound mind and cognitive coherence beyond anything Hayes thought possible for a patient at Arkham. Maybe Birch was right, maybe Pamela Isley really could be redeemed. Or maybe... There was the terrifying possibility, the abhorrent notion, that Doctor Jonathan Crane had been right all along.

It was this thought plaguing her mind as she tried to sleep, this thought that mad her jar from her drowsy state, her eyes roaming around her dark bedroom as she suddenly exclaimed, "Whose there!?"

Silence was her only companion. She fumbled for the glasses on her bedside table, finally finding them and putting them on; she almost wish she'd hadn't, the sight she was met with caused her to flinch as if she'd been struck.

"You!"

"Good evening, Doctor."

With a click the bedside table lamp turned on and the woman's eyes settled on the cloaked figure in the corner of the room, only dimly visible under the light of that single lamp.

"What are you doing in my house?"

A single step forward and the rarely seen creature of the night exposed himself to the aging psychiatrist. The cape draped around him completely hid his body from view, it's scalloped ends fall all the way to the floor, rippling out around him like living shadows. "I want your opinion..."

"My opinion?" She asked with a disbelieving huff. "You never wanted it when I was there and working."

"I'm not here to debate occupational ethics, doctor. You cleared Pamela Isley for release... I want to know why. Do you believe she's sane?"

Hayes clucked her tongue, getting out of her bed and pulling on her robe. "That would be debatable by almost anyone save for Dr. Birch, I believe; but I could say the same of you. What passes for 'sane' in the modern world is, in a word, laughable."

Belladonna turned away from him, walking to the balcony window he had entered through, looking out over her backyard, a smile coming to her face in spite of the situation. Down below in her garden her Moon flowers were blooming under the night's full moon.

"I was asked to observe Isley and determine whether she showed enough clarity of mind to be released from the care of Arkham's staff. After conducting my observations I concluded that she does appear to be of sound mind and it is no longer justifiable to hold her in Arkham Asylum... Whether or not she's safe to be around other people? That I cannot say..."

The Dark Knight grunted faintly in acknowledgment before speaking again. "What about Birch?"

"She's a smart woman, but she has the same optimism most young doctors do, no matter what field they're in; she's convinced she can save the world. Perhaps... Perhaps she is right. For all intents and purposes it seems like she's been successful with rehabilitating her patient."

"You just told me you're not sure Isley's safe to be around people."

"I did... But any good psychiatrist is always kept aware of her own biases. People think I fled Gotham because I was scared of the monsters in that place. That is not why I left, Batman... I left because I finally had seen them for what they really are. I left because I could not, in good conscience, say that I was qualified to continue treating those people. If it were up to me none of them would ever be released; indeed, if it were my decision many would be on death row at this point... " She turned back toward the vigilante now, unwavering, unrelenting. She stared him right in the eye with courage that even hardened criminals could rarely find. "You save these people, Batman... You bring them to us, and we treat them until they escape again, then we wait for you to bring them back. Every time, more people die, and yet we still continued the charade. I couldn't bring myself to do it anymore, and one day Batman, you won't be able to either..."

Author's Note: Whew. I know it's been awhile, sorry about that reader's! We're nearing the home stretch though, and now that Christmas break is almost upon us I've got more time to write!