The blaring noise of an alarm clock burst through Elizabeth's consciousness with such a force that she sat straight up in bed. She reached blindly around and after what felt like hours shut off the noise. With a groan she fell back onto her pillows. After she had gotten back last night she had spent several hours working on the design for Jonathan's devices, Elizabeth wanted to finish them as soon as possible as her plans were moving along much faster than she had anticipated. She had expected Falcone's men to at least take a week to find out any information on Cuvier's whereabouts and it had only taken them three days.

Elizabeth stumbled into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face to wake herself up. Feeling much better she made breakfast for herself and ate while checking over the designs she had come up with last night making a few changes here and there. When she was done she packed away the designs in her purse and retrieved her cellphone. Last night had reminded her that Victoria was in town and seeing how Gotham was a dangerous place and she actually did care for her sister Elizabeth should probably call to check up on her.

The phone rang several times and on the last ring Victoria picked up breathless.

"Elizabeth?"

"Hey, Victoria sorry to bother you, just making sure you're getting on alright."

"Yeah, yeah, just woke a little bit ago." In the background Elizabeth heard a man's deep timbre and Victoria giggled.

"I'm assuming that's Antonio."

"Yeahahahahahaha! Stop, stop it! I'm trying to talk. Sorry, I'm staying with Antonio in his family home now."

"That's nice, I'm glad you're doing well then."

"Yeah, hey, Elizabeth did you hear? Last night a restaurant was robbed!"

"This is Gotham, happens all the time."

"No, but get this, that was the restaurant that Antonio was going to take us to! Imagine our luck! Good thing you had to work or we would've ended up in the middle of it."

"Yeah good thing, hey listen, I have some stuff I need to get done today but do you think we could get together, I want to meet Mr. Antonio."

"My sister wants to meet you," Victoria said covering the phone with her hand.

"And I would love to meet her, invite her over for dinner tomorrow I'm sure the family won't mind." Elizabeth heard Antonio say.

"Okay. Elizabeth?"

"Yeah."

"How about you come over tomorrow for dinner? I'll text you the details later ok-gah! Antoniooohahaha!"

"Okay, I'll see you later then." Elizabeth hung up. "Okay time to get to work."

A ball-cap hung low on Elizabeth forehead the brim covering her eyes a new dirty blonde wig pulled through the back in a ponytail. She was wearing her old college sweater and a pair of old sweatpants. With a backpack slung low over one shoulder and chewing bubble gum Elizabeth melded in with the residents of the apartments around her. According to Falcone's information Cuvier had set up in one of the abandon complexes around her. She was scoping out the building she wasn't about to burst in there with guns blazing until she had evidence that Cuvier was actually there.

In the past hour she had seen two large fairly well dressed men enter and had yet to leave. Elizabeth heard the rumbling of the car and she ducked around a corner. Casually she looked around the corner, getting out of the car was a man she had definitely seen before, Dave, Cuvier's right-hand man. Smiling Elizabeth walked away hands in her pockets.

Only a short subway ride away and Elizabeth was once again at Jonathan's warehouse. When she entered she didn't bother looking for Jonathan but started working right away. She had two different designs to build and test and she wanted to get through the building part today. The first model took three hours to build as she was starting from scratch but the second took only an hour. Elizabeth looked at her watch it was only four o'clock.

"Elizabeth!?" A voice cried from behind her causing her to jump. Wheeling around Elizabeth saw a blonde head that she hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Jervis!" The buck-toothed man ran up and hugged her squeezing tightly picking her up off her feet despite him being a couple inches shorter than her.

"Oh Frabjous day! How are you doing, my dear?"

"Excellent, Jervis, and yourself?"

"Wonderful! But what are you doing here?"

"Jonathan hired me to build a few gas dispersal devices for him and I'm just finishing up on the model to see which kind he prefers."

"How fun. By chance have you seen, the March Hare?"

"No, I haven't but he might be upstairs in his workroom."

"Thank you, I'll just…" Hatter went to walk off but paused looking lost.

"I'll show you the way just give me a sec I need to pop—this—on." With a loud pop the covering to the device snapped together with the backing. "Okay, it's this way." Elizabeth led him through the twists and turns of boxes and up the stairs. The door to Jonathan's "study" was closed and she knocked on the door. "Jonathan?"

There was a groan from inside the room and the door open slowly a disgruntled and disheveled Jonathan poking his head out. Elizabeth quickly stepped away from the door just in case he had any fear gas on him.

"What?" He said harshly his eyes trying to focus without his glasses on.

"Jervis is here to see you." Jonathan rubbed his eyes and pulled his glasses from his pocket, sliding them onto his face.

"Oh good. Jervis I am pleased to inform you that you lost the bet."

"Which one?" Hatter asked looking disappointed and reaching for his wallet.

"200 hundred dollars on Edward and Elizabeth."

"Really?"

"Yes, Edward paid last night."

"Oh, congratulations, congratulations!" Jervis hugged Elizabeth tightly again. "This is one bet I don't mind losing." He let go of Elizabeth long enough to hand Jonathan 200 hundred dollars then he grabbed her again spinning her around. "Isn't love wonderful? I hope you are as happy with Dormouse as I am with my Alice! Now March just needs to find someone and we can all be Wonderland together!"

"I'm sorry Jervis," Elizabeth said extricating herself from the tea scented man, "but I have no idea what you're talking about. All it was, was…oh my god, Edward thinks were dating." Elizabeth feel back a few steps and leaned up against the railing of the balcony. She ran a hand through her hair pulling the ends, her mind reeling trying to figure out how he could have thought that they were… "Oh so that's why…I didn't mean it that way though." Jonathan and Jervis were looking at her, Jonathan with amusement and Jervis with sad concern.

"Does this mean you're not in Wonderland?" Jervis asked.

"I have no idea. Yes…no…no, no, yes. Ah fuck Damn it all to—." Elizabeth kicked one of the poles holding up the hand rail causing it to bend slightly. "I must be insane, yes, I'm dating the Riddler."

"Mr. Cuvier."

"Yes?"

"The girl she was outside the apartments today, I made sure she saw me."

"Excellent." Cuvier tapped his fingers together smiling. He had cleaned up in the past few days, showered, shaved, and changed clothes. Cuvier was back to his normal level of insanity which made him more dangerous than before. Now he was collect and could plan instead of acting in a mad rage injecting every moving thing with his serum.

"Dave, increase the number of men inside I want her captured without fuss."

"Yes, sir." Dave exited the room. Cuvier was smiling the dim light from his lamp making his eyes appear hollow and his smile like that of a demon.

"The trap is set with the proper bait and now for the Wolf we do wait."

Across Gotham another rhyme loving villain was sitting in a chair taping his fingers together. It had been awhile since Jonathan Crane had acted as a therapist, not since he had received the teaching position at Gotham U. and began his research, but when Elizabeth had started to "freak out" over the idea of dating Edward he just had to intervene. After he had sent Jervis away he had taken up his old "good doctor" role. Now Elizabeth was currently sitting in a chair across from him with her feet propped up on the table talking about her nervousness of a relationship with Edward. Nervousness, ha! No. These were her fears. Her delicious fears.

"…and I just don't know. I hate not knowing!" Elizabeth finished and Jonathan continued to stare at her for a few seconds staring at her. She shifted uncomfortably and removed her feet from the table. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm complaining to you. It's not like you care about my relationship worries."

"Sit down." Jonathan said as she went to get up. "It seems to me that these…reservations simply stems from you're fear of failure."

Elizabeth stiffened and her nostrils flared. "I knew it." She stood up and marched towards the door but Jonathan was faster than her and he held the door shut with one hand.

"Sit down."

"I'm not going to be one of your subjects."

"Do not worry, child, I never experiment on the people working with me unless they seriously mess up." He touched her shoulder and led her back to the chair. "Now they may have revoked my degree but I still am a doctor and I want to help you."

"I've heard more terrifying words but not many," Elizabeth said as Jonathan forced her to sit down in the chair.

Jonathan smirked, "Now, now let us not make this about me, this is about you…it seems as though you are afraid of failing as a partner to Edward. You are afraid that you will not be smart enough. Afraid you cannot up live up to his standards." Elizabeth didn't say anything but from the way she was looking at him he knew he was right. "But I can tell you that in all the years I have known Edward he has never been this interested in another person, except for Batman."

"Are you telling me not to worry?" Elizabeth asked raising an eyebrow.

"Perhaps, it all depends on how you interpret it."

"Yes well that's all very nice, but I've never actually had, well it sounds silly to call him this, a boyfriend; but I've always thought that men only looked at me sexually."

"So you are thinking that Edward just wants you for sex?"

"Depends on how you interpret it."

Jonathan gave a half smile, "If Edward just wanted you for sex he would not have set up that Chemistry lab for you."

"I suppose you're right, but I guess everything is just happening all at the same time. Just getting confusing." Elizabeth glanced down at her watch, "and with that I have to go. Sorry Doctor Crane."

"And where are you going?"

"To make things a little less confusing."

Elizabeth watched as men walked past the window of the apartment building. She had been watching the building for an hour now; she hadn't seen anyone come in or out and had only discovered two possible entrances both with lights flickering near them. One would think that criminals hiding in a condemned building would draw less attention to themselves. It was nearing 1am if she was going to do this there was no point in waiting. Elizabeth picked up a large brick and threw it through one of the dark windows next to the lights. She heard the men's voice cease and the scrap of chairs as they got up to investigate. When they were all out of the room she threw a small smoke bomb she had gotten from the military supply store in through the open window.

As the room filled with smoke Elizabeth ran over to the door and slipped inside easily as the lock was broken. Elizabeth snuck along the hallway and shut the door that was flooding light into the hall. Even with light only coming from under the crack of the door Elizabeth could still see everything in shades of grey with near perfect clarity. The men now stumbling out of the smoke filled room, even without the smoke making their eyes water and sting, they wouldn't be able to see a thing. Quickly Elizabeth ran up to the man closest to her and punched him in the stomach and then hit him on the back of his head knocking him out. His body thumped to the ground alerting the men that something was wrong.

They tensed trying to blink away the smoke and see what had happened. Not wasting time Elizabeth ran up to another man and kicked out his knee. He howled in pain and she grabbed his head and ramming it into her knee breaking his nose. The other two men withdrew their guns now.

"Listen girly, we don't want to hurt you." One said.

"Cuvier wants to talk with you." Elizabeth kept quiet and carefully picked up the pipe that one of the unconscious men had dropped. Then she crept past the men who were straining their eyes trying to see through the darkness. They might be saying they didn't want to hurt her but she needed to know whether or not they would use their guns. Aiming right between them she threw the pipe so that it hit the wall and clattered to the ground. Hearing the noise the men ran forward trying to grab her, both slammed into the wall with great force. Now confident that she wouldn't be shot at Elizabeth ran forward quickly and picked up the pipe again knocking both men over the head.

Unfortunately, the noise had drawn the attention of the other men in building. Across the dilapidated lobby a door opened and five men walked out alert and ready. Elizabeth ran behind the front desk and ducked behind the counter as the men spread out. She knew she couldn't take them all at once but she still had to find Cuvier, if he found out she was her he'd either run or try and attack her; she needed to do this fast. Footsteps were approaching her quickly Elizabeth glanced over the counter top a single man was coming, she could handle that.

Elizabeth got into a crouch as soon as the man stepped around the corner she launched herself upwards knocking the gun out of his hand and nailing him in the jaw with her palm. She felt his jaw slam into his teeth and break. The man crumpled to the ground and Elizabeth ducked behind the counter again as four beams of light illuminated the wall. Great they had flashlights now.

"Josh?" She heard one of the men ask taking a few steps towards her hiding spot. Elizabeth grabbed the fallen gun; it was a 6-chamber revolver with five shots. Cocking the gun as quietly as she could Elizabeth steeled herself for what she was about to do.

"Josh?" The same man asked.

"Five down four to go," Elizabeth said standing up and taking aim. One: Elizabeth's bullet hit the nearest man in shoulder and he fell to the ground with a cry. Two: She missed. Three: The bullet hit the man in stomach and he collapsed with a grunt of pain. Four: Missed again. Five: She grazed one of the men's arms but he remained standing. Out of bullets Elizabeth threw the gun away and launched herself over the counter towards the injured man. He raised his gun and Elizabeth rolled to side just as a shot rang out. Her roll might have saved her from the bullet but allowed time for the uninjured thug to run over to her. The grabbed her head and pulled her up by the hair.

"You little bitch!" He roared jerking her head back and holding a knife to her throat. The blade pressed against taunt skin, she could feel it slowly slicing through her skin.

"Call the boss now before I kill the bitch!" The other thug removed his cell phone and began to dial a number.

"You know Cuvier only said we couldn't kill you, and you have such a nice body."

"You idiot." Elizabeth said carefully as to not cut herself anymore.

"I'm not the one who fell for a trap little bitch," the thug said, running his tongue along the edge of her gnarled ear.

"No you see, I am very scared right now."

"Good."

"And when I get scared, when I feel fear, I get very, very dangerous."