Edward didn't say anything the rest of the day and the next morning he was silent as well. Maybe they had teased him a little too much. Yesterday had been the last day of the drugged food which meant that the food would be a lot better but also they were now eating in the cafeteria. Apparently the Rogues were let out of their cells a lot more often than Elizabeth had thought. She now found out that they were allowed out for meal times, art therapy, extra recreation time, if granted by their psychologist, and for religious services—though she also found out that none of the Rogues took the asylum up on this.

They were currently in cafeteria. Elizabeth and Jervis were sitting together; not really chatting yet making light conversation about the procedures at Arkham. Edward was sitting by himself on the other side of the small table, hunched over his food, determinedly not looking at them. Penguin and Two-Face were sitting at different tables surrounded by other inmates, probably some of their henchmen. It was amusing watching Penguin play king of the nest; he had told Elizabeth that he was planning on becoming a legitimate business man by opening up his own club, "The Iceberg Lounge", but is appeared that he didn't want to give up his power quite yet.

"Jervis?"

"Yes, Elizabeth?"

"I've been wondering why are there separate Rogue sections for men and women? I always thought they were all clumped together."

"That is how it used to be but after the doctors found out about Harley's late night stripteases for the Joker they decided to separate us, that is also the reason we must wear these hideous jumpsuits instead of a shirt and pants like before."

"Oh, wow, that's…interesting?"

"Yes," Jervis chuckled, "Harley is quite the character." They both went back to their food. It was a few minutes before Elizabeth paused. Someone was watching. She glanced up. A thin wiry man was staring at her from a few tables away. His head was shaved but it was marred with four long scars running down his face, he had smaller tally-like scars on his arms as well. Elizabeth shivered she knew who he was. Zsasz. A psychopathic serial killer, he didn't want money or power, he wanted nothing but the whole world dead. His piercing gaze was just too much and Elizabeth looked back down.

"Jervis, I thought Zsasz was locked in solidary indefinitely."

"What?" Jervis looked up quickly, he spotted Zsasz and looked back down, "Oh my, this must be his one day…every two months, with good behavior, he gets a day to be outside his cell." Jervis nervously flicked his eyes back up, "Oh dear look at the time I'm late! I'm late!" He grabbed his tray and took off. She watched him scurry across the hall when she turned back she saw that Zsasz was gone.

A warm body pressed up against her and wrapped a hand around her throat. It wasn't choking her but just holding her tightly enough that is was hard to breathe. Elizabeth didn't move, she didn't even breathe. A scarred arm came into her vision, he grabbed her plastic fork and speared her last sausage. The juices sprayed on her hair when Zsasz took a bite. He set the fork back down his hot putrid breath encompassed her ear. She repressed a shiver. Zsasz pulled his hand away from her throat slowly, trailing his middle finger along her neck. Right where he liked to "liberate" his victims.

Elizabeth didn't move until she saw Zsasz sit back down in his seat. Then she let out the breath she had been holding. Rubbing her neck she pushed away her tray. She wasn't hungry any more. Jervis rejoined her after a minute.

"Are you alright?"

"You left me." Elizabeth stated, she wasn't angry or surprised. She just felt very numb. Jervis looked ashamed at his own cowardice.

"Sorry…" He mumbled then he nudged Elizabeth and pointed to Edward. She peeked over Jervis' shoulder. Edward was glaring at Zsasz clutching his fork tightly in his hand. He was mad, that was sweet of him.

The fork in Edward's hand snapped and began digging into his flesh but he still didn't stop glaring at Zsasz. He had threatened her. That bastard had dared to threaten his puzzle. His property. Nobody ever messed with a Rogue's possessions. Of course he hadn't shown the inmates his claim to her yet. He'd have to change that.

At lunch Edward sat between Elizabeth and Jervis he still wasn't talking to them but it was a lot better than before. Meal time was nearly over with when a large beefy inmate, who had been staring at Elizabeth for a while, came over. Edward glanced briefly towards him, he was just one of the run-of-the-mill rapists Arkham contained. He leaned on hand on the table and slicked back his hair. His demeanor was in that special somewhere in between suave, stupid, and horny.

"Hey there doll," he said, "wanna see the fun side of Arkham?"

"No." Elizabeth said coldly finishing her hamburger.

"Come on doll." He leaned in placing both hands on the table, "these Rogues ain't no fun."

"Go away you over-sized brute," Jervis said with a dismissing hand, "you're fouling up our air."

The brute ignored him. "Tell me, is your hair silver everywhere?" He reached out to grab a lock of hair but Edward seized his wrist squeezing it tightly. The man grunted in pain.

"You will leave now." Usually the rapist would have backed down but his little show had begun to catch people's attention. He puffed out his chest trying to intimidate Edward. Without a second thought Edward twisted his hand and snapped the man's wrist. He yowled in pain and like a wounded beast dove across the table. Edward and Elizabeth jumped up to dodge him and he landed on the floor hurting himself even more. Now the entire cafeteria was watching.

The man stood again and raised a fist. Edward quirked an eyebrow. 'Idiot.' There was the scraping of chairs; three more men were joining the fight. Why not? It wasn't every day you could gang up on a Rogue. Edward felt a little less confident, even when the original opponent stepped beck, but naturally he didn't let it show. He moved slightly to his right so he was covering Elizabeth. It was a protective move that that he didn't consciously make.

One of the challengers cracked his knuckles. He swung wildly at Edward who dodged it easily. The bald man threw several more punches, none hitting their mark. Edward finally threw his first punch and hit the man four times in the solarplexes. He buckled over in pain, he would be finding it hard to breathe for several minutes and then he would throw up.

Edward now turned his attention to the other two men. They were both looking uneasy now but under the pressure of all the inmates they couldn't back down. The shorter stocky blonde finally made a move. He approached Edward fists raised. Edward smiled and raised his own fists. They exchanged a few blows, Edward was clearly winning until the second inmate decided to finally join in. Edward hadn't seen him approach because he was busy dodging a kick to the groin and he was able to land a blow to Edward's back. He stumbled forward and caught a kick in the stomach. With a grunt of pain Edward fell to his knees. The two men were closing in. Edward rolled away and got back on his feet. He put up his fists ready to fight again when a small hand touched his shoulder. Elizabeth was looking up at him with a mix of displeasure and smugness on her face.

"I've got this." Edward lowered his fists slightly and took a small step back. He wanted to see what she would do.

"Come now boys," she said throwing her arms open, "you should stop before you get hurt."

"Move your ass sweetheart, before we need to, though what a fine ass it is." Elizabeth scowled.

"I suggest you leave now." Her tone sharper now and her eyes were hard.

"Alright sweetheart you asked for it." The blonde charged at her, she ducked under his swing and grabbed his arm. In an impressive feat she flipped the nearly two-hundred and fifty pound man over her shoulder and on to the floor. There was a loud crack as his head hit the floor and he didn't get back up. The beefier inmate pulled something from the inside of his jumpsuit. A shank. He approached Elizabeth from behind and was about to lunge forward when Edward hit him in the throat.

Elizabeth turned around when she heard the thump of a body behind her. The second inmate was laying on the floor clutching his throat wheezing a make shift knife on the ground next to him. Edward was standing over him, looking amused by the man's agony. Elizabeth went over to him, he looked at her and then grabbed her arm pulling her close. She was surprised at first and then she saw why. The rest of Arkham had formed a ring around them blocking them off from Jervis and all other outsiders. Elizabeth heard Edward's heart pick up in pace but his face showed no sign of unease.

"This woman under my protection," he said in a clear voice, "and anyone who doesn't understand that will end up worse than these four." Edward gestured to the men he had injured. "Either by me or her." He nudged the immobile body of the blonde man. There was a thick silence, punctuated only by the moans of the injured men. Finally the group parted, returning to their meals. Elizabeth felt Edward relax slightly.

"Does this mean we're talking again?" She asked looking up at him. Edward smiling cockily down at her.

"I suppose."

There were no consequences for Edward and Elizabeth, the guards and orderlies didn't really care if the patients beat each other up. The four men were taken to the infirmary and all the others were being escorted back to their cells. The Rogues were just being cuffed when somebody called out to Edward and Elizabeth. It was Dr. Leeland.

"Yes doctor?" Edward asked in a tone that suggested he wasn't really interested.

"Edward, we're going to have our session a little early because of this." Edward rolled his eyes. "Miss Howard, I would like to speak with you as well if it's not too much trouble."

"Of course not."

"Then if you'll follow me. Orderlies if you could escort Mr. Nygma to the usual room I'll be with him shortly." Dr. Leeland beckoned Elizabeth to follow her. It only took a minute to walk to her office.

"Go ahead and sit down, would you like some water?" Elizabeth looked at her confused. "This isn't a formal meeting, I just want to talk, girl to girl, so to speak."

"Okay…" Her statement just made Elizabeth even more confused. Dr. Leeland didn't sit behind her desk but in the chair next to her.

"Now…I know you might not want to talk about it but can you tell me what happened after you were in solidary a few days ago?" Elizabeth looked at her suspiciously, what did the doctor want? She didn't say anything. It was a minute before Dr. Leeland finally realized she wasn't going to answer. "I'm not your enemy, I know what Dr. Gullenrow did. I just want to hear it from you."

Elizabeth relaxed and sighed. "Well, it must have been hours that I was in solidary then Dr. Gullenrow came in. I didn't realize it was him at first, he told me what happened and that I needed to have a session. He took me from the cell then I saw Rosslend and Berg and a couple of others. They were smiling and cracking their knuckles. I knew right then what was going to happen. In my panic I tried to run back into the cell but then Dr. Gullenrow stuck something into my neck. It wasn't a sedative but it made me feel woozy and I lost control of most of my muscles. I could still feel though, I could feel everything but I couldn't…" She trailed off recalling how she was helpless against her attackers.

"I see, thank you Elizabeth. I'm glad you told me. This isn't the first time Dr. Gullenrow has exhibited this sort of behavior. I'm hoping to bring a case up against him and every bit of information helps. Would you be willing to give a statement if I'm able to make a case against him?" Elizabeth smiled and nodded; it was good to know that somebody besides patients wanted Dr. Gullenrow stopped. Dr. Leeland got up and poured two glasses of water from her cooler. She handed one to Elizabeth and took a sip from the other.

"How are you faring at Arkham so far?"

"Better than I would have guessed."

"Good, good…the phone call you received yesterday, how did that go?"

"Fine, Alyssa wasn't really pleased of course, to come to Gotham for a weekend, only to find me locked up in here."

"Is she coming to visit you?"

"She said she was going to try. I hope she does though, I haven't seen her for at least a year."

"Good because she is here in the lobby and you can see each other as soon we finish here."

"Really!? Great!" Elizabeth was ecstatic.

"There's just one more thing I need to ask of you."

"Okay, shoot."

"Well, it's about Edward Nygma…"