Late the next afternoon, Elsa summoned Greta, Eve and Suzi to help her pack her clothes. They sifted through the enormous collection the older woman had, pulling faces at each other as they held up long evening gowns and costumes from the show. Elsa chided them several times, telling them to keep their minds on the job she had tasked them with, but it made little difference.

Elsa explained the system she wanted them to follow several times, but none of them could remember it. Neither could they work out the difference between the types of clothes that Elsa had asked them to pack in different places.

"Where does this one go?" Eve asked, holding up a long midnight blue dress with gold detailing around the neckline and running down the front.

"I told you, furs and gowns go in this trunk, and the costumes in that trunk." Elsa explained for the fourth time, growing impatient. She watched as Eve moved to put the dress in the costume trunk. "No!"

"What?"

"Eve, Eve… does that look like a costume to you? Huh?"

"Well, truthfully, sometimes it's hard to know with you." Eve admitted bluntly, causing Greta to get the giggles and earn herself a light slap on the arm from her mother.

"You know, I'm going to miss that sharp tongue of yours, my darling."

"Where is he?" Dell demanded, bursting into the tent and looking wildly around.

"Where is who?" Elsa asked with a sigh.

"Your Hollywood hotshot… Spencer. I'm gonna kill him!" The strong man exploded.

"What are you babbling about?"

"His hands… Jimmy cut off his hands to pay for an attorney. They bring him back to prison tomorrow."

Greta looked at Dell wild-eyed, before turning to Eve with an 'I-told-you-so' look on her face. She folded her arms over her stomach, hugging herself tightly, as she paced around the limit space available in that part of her mother's tent. She couldn't process what she was hearing. She couldn't understand why Jimmy would ever consider doing such a thing.

"No!"

"How can he defend himself if he doesn't have his hands?"

"You have to get him out of there. Do you hear me? You have to get him out of there." Elsa ordered him forcefully.

As Dell nodded and turned to leave the tent, Eve pulled Greta closer to her so that she could whisper in her ear. "I'm going to see if I can help. Maybe Dell and I can come up with a plan to get Jimmy out."

"You think I am going to let you go near him on your own?"

"I'll be fine, Greta." Eve assured her, shaking her head. "This is for Jimmy."

"What are you two gossiping about?" Elsa demanded, fixing them with an expectant look.

"How to help Jimmy." Greta informed her at once.

Elsa nodded slowly. "I think you had better go after Dell. Suzi and I can manage here."

Not needing to be told twice, they rushed out of the tent to catch up with the strong man. "Dell!" Eve called after him. "You lied to Jimmy… about that night you came into my caravan. You told him you wanted to put an act together."

"Look, lady, I'm sorry about all that mess… I really am… But I can't go round two with you right now."

Eve put her hand on his chest, stopping him walking any further. "No. No… I think we should put that act together; Strong Man and Strong Woman. I'm talking about Jimmy… I want to help."

"We both do." Greta said firmly.

"Come with me."

Dell led them out into the woods, earning several sarcastic comments from Greta, who warned him that if he didn't keep his hands to himself she would happily chop them off. He assured her that she was quite safe; they simply needed to go somewhere that they could talk without being overheard by anyone.

Finally, he was satisfied that they were far enough away from the camp to make their plans. They sat on a fallen log, discussing what they could do to spring Jimmy out of prison. The easiest way, they realised, would be to somehow intercept the van transporting him between the hospital and the police station. It would be far easier to get into a van than to break him out of jail.

"Are you happy?" Dell asked the women, looking between them once they had come up with a plan they thought would work. "You know what you're both doing? Good, we haven't got much time."

The women nodded. Satisfied, he stood and led them back towards the camp. They separated as soon as they reached the settlement. Eve and Greta returned to Elsa's tent, pretending that nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Elsa asked them no questions and they didn't volunteer any information.

The next day rolled around quickly and the trio spent their time nervously waiting for the moment when they would have to leave camp. Finally, Dell signalled to the two women and they went about their designated tasks as quickly as they possibly could. Dell went to Jimmy's caravan to fetch clean clothes and other things he might want. Eve went to fill a bag with food and drink as they were assuming that the police wouldn't have been particularly generous. Greta went to find medical supplies; bandages, a needle and thread and alcohol in the place of disinfectant.

"Greta?" Dot called out catching sight of the younger woman hurrying across the camp with a bag in her hand. "Do you want a quick reading lesson?"

"Oh… sorry… I am helping Elsa finish packing her things up." She lied apologetically. "Maybe later?"

"OK." Bette agreed with a bright smile, turning and heading back in the direction she had come.

Exhaling sharply, the young woman made her way over to where they had agreed to meet and waited impatiently for the others to arrive. Moments later, Eve appeared and then, after a couple more minutes, Dell joined them too. Tipping everything into one bag, which the strong man slung over his shoulder, they headed through the woods towards the road into town. They set up their sting, preparing for the prison van that would soon be passing through with Jimmy locked in the back.

In essence, their plan was simple; stop the van, get Jimmy out, hide him somewhere safe. It sounded fool proof, but there was a lot that could go wrong, so they had to make sure they covered all their bases carefully.

"Are you sure you are alright with this?" Eve whispered to Greta as they tramped through the undergrowth.

"Of course." The younger woman replied, rolling her eyes at her overprotective lover. "I will be fine. Are you alright?" In response she received a look that told her just how stupid Eve thought that question was. "Well then…"

While they waited, the sun set and darkness fell. Several other vehicles passed by but Greta, from her position out in the road, waved them on quickly. She was just starting to get cold, wondering whether Dell had made a mistake, when headlamps came out of the darkness around the bend.

"This is it!" Dell shouted from his hiding place as the prison van drove past him.

Moving into the centre of the road, Greta raised her arms and started waving frantically, attracting their attention. The van slowed to a halt and the passenger's door opened. A guard climbed out and walked over to where she was standing, putting most of her weight on the leg that wasn't bleeding from the cut she had given herself with her penknife.

"Are you alright, Miss?" The man called as he approached.

"I hurt my leg while I was walking my dog." She replied innocently. "He ran off and it hurts too much to walk."

"Maybe we should take a look at you." He suggested in a tone that the young woman didn't much like. When he ran her eyes down her body, ending up on her leg, she pulled a disgusted face.

As the guard couched to take a look at her injury, placing his hands on her waist as he did so, Greta brought her knee up and it connected with his nose with a sickening crunch. Eve appeared from nowhere with a thick branch in her hand. She brought it down on his head sharply, causing blood to blossom instantly and the man to topple sideways. Apparently not satisfied, she hit him again and again, until Greta grabbed her wrist and yanked her away.

With a shout, his colleague leapt from the van and rushed over, pulling out a gun as he did so. He aimed it at the two women who had toppled over when Greta pulled Eve's arm, moving it slowly between the pair with a scowl twisting his lips.

"You stupid bitches!" He snarled at them.

Greta thought that they were in trouble, but then running footsteps behind the guard caused him to turn, moving his aim away from them. Dell barely even flinched, not slowing down at all, as the man fired his gun. For a moment the blonde thought that the shot had missed, but then she saw a dark patch spreading across his shirt.

He barrelled into the guard, knocking him to the ground and smashing the crowbar he had brought into his head again and again. Greta scrambled to her feet, holding out her hand to help Eve up. The older woman rummaged through the guard's pockets until she found the keys, throwing them to the blonde before moving to Dell's side, stopping him and nodding towards the van where the reason for their actions was still imprisoned.

"You got shot?" Eve asked, still trying to catch her breath, as they moved round the back of the vehicle.

"Yeah… hurts like hell."

"Good." The woman told him bluntly. "How's your leg, Greta?"

"Fine… it was just a flesh wound. It will heal quickly."

Greta passed the keys to Dell and stood back as he fitted them into the lock and opened the door. Jimmy blinked out at them warily, clearly wondering what had been going on. His father unlocked the manacles at his hands and feet and helped him climb out of the van.

"What…?"

"There'll be time for explanations later." Eve said quickly, glancing around. "We need to get out of here."

"I know a place where you'll be safe." Dell promised him.

Not arguing, the young man allowed himself to be led into the woods by his father. Eve and Greta followed behind quickly, shooting looks over their shoulders to make sure that there was no one around. The blonde located the bag they had filled with supplies and hurried to catch up with the others.

"I told you my plan was better." She said smugly as she caught them up at the point where they left the cover of the trees and started up a sharp slope that led up to a derelict metal hut. "Just throwing a rock through the windshield might have been too risky."

"OK, we get it, you're a criminal genius." Dell muttered, rolling his eyes.

Eve frowned at her. "The way he was looking at you…"

"I can handle men like him, Evie." Greta assured her. "Not that I had to, because you were on hand to rescue me."

"Anytime." Her lover replied with a wink.

They pushed open the door to the hut and looked around carefully. Apparently Dell had been preparing for a while, because there was a bed and other amenities that would make life much easier for anyone staying in the building.

"When did you do all this?" Eve asked, looking round in astonishment.

"I didn't." Dell replied quickly, lowering Jimmy onto the bed and moving to look out through the door before shutting it firmly. "Elsa… she knew about this place. I didn't ask questions."

Delving into the bag, Greta pulled out the medical supplies she had gathered and set them carefully aside before handing the bag to Eve. The brunette pulled out the bread she had brought and helped Jimmy to eat. He wolfed it down gratefully, before looking for more. Smiling, Eve pulled out several of Suzi's hot cakes, feeding him one and placing the others on the table beside the bed.

"Let me change your bandages." Greta said in a soft tone, lifting his arm gently into her lap and beginning to remove the dirty dressings.

"No!" The young man argued, pulling away. "Don't! I don't want you to see…"

"Jimmy Darling, stop that nonsense this instant." She ordered firmly. "I am going to treat you whether you like it not, so you had better get over it."

Jimmy scowled, but apparently realised that she was completely serious and relented. He turned his head away so that she wouldn't see his expression as she tended to his wounds. When Greta pressed the alcohol soaked cloth to the stitches on his stumps, he was unable to stop himself crying out. Eve stroked his forehead soothingly, looking at the younger woman who was wincing apologetically as she continued in her task.

Finally, once she had secured the clean bandages in place, Greta sat back and surveyed her handiwork. She cupped Jimmy's cheek gently, forcing him to look up at her. He refused, even going as far as closing his eyes when she managed to get him to face her.

"Stop being a child and look at me, Jimmy." She instructed. His eyelids fluttered open. "Thank you. I am sorry I had to hurt you."

"It's not your fault."

"No… why did you do it, hmm?"

"I couldn't see a way out. I had to take a chance. I had to try something."

"But this?" Greta asked, shaking her head. "This was not the way."

"Well it's too late for regrets now. It's done."

Nodding, the blonde leant down and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Then she stood up and glanced over towards Eve who smiled weakly. They said their goodbyes and walked out of the hut, leaving Dell alone with his son. Deciding that they were far enough away from the building to be out of sight, Eve tangled their fingers together. Greta smiled up at her.

"Thank you for defending my honour." She said, teasingly. "But I could have handled him."

"I know you could." Eve agreed. "But it just made me so mad… the way he was looking at you… the way he had his hands all over you. What if you had been alone out here? What if you weren't able to handle him on your own? Anything could have happened."

Greta nodded slowly, acknowledging that her lover had a point. "It is alright, though. He barely touched me and now… now he cannot touch anyone else."

Stopping in the shadows at the edge of the wood at the border of the camp, Eve wrapped her arms around the younger woman and kissed her gently. She tried to pull away and straighten up, but Greta pulled her back down, deepening the kiss and clinging on tightly not wanting to let go.

Reluctantly, they broke apart and entered the camp. They were just back in time to make it on stage, ensuring that they could hopefully avoid suspicion of being involved in Jimmy's escape.

As expected, however, the police soon visited them. It seemed as though they had sent every officer available to them to descend on the camp. Greta found it laughable that the authorities thought that the carnies were so stupid that they would bring Jimmy back to his home, knowing that it would be the first place they were likely to look for him.

Striding from her tent irritably, Elsa put her hands on her hips, fixing the man with a furious scowl. "So, Detective, what false accusation have you prepared for us now?"

"Where is he?" The man demanded. "Where is Jimmy Darling? I know you've got that asshole holed up somewhere in this godforsaken place. Two brave officers are dead… they got their heads bashed in tonight. And when I find him, I'm gonna string him up myself. That's a promise."

"Well, like you said, you have to find him first, right?" Elsa reminded him, smirking.

"Officer, Officer, thank God you're here! You have to put out an all-points bulletin immediately… my Marjorie has been abducted!" Chester told him, grabbing the detective by the shoulders.

"Take your hands off me."

He shook his head. "Please, she's just a girl. She's got brown hair and the sweetest smile. She stands about… uh… two and a half feet tall, fully extended. She must be so frightened without me."

"Mr Creb, are you talking about your puppet?" Elsa asked, looking at him with complete disbelief.

Standing further away, beside Eve, Greta burst out laughing, burying her face in her lover's shoulder to try and muffle the sound. Even with the seriousness of the situation at hand, the man's behaviour was just too comical for her not to react. Eve did her best to keep a straight face, but Greta could feel her shaking with silent giggles.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying; Marjorie is missing!"

"Get out of my face, wise guy, before I lock you up, too."

Elsa shook her head. "I think Mr Creb is just confused."

"I'm not... Why will no one listen to me? My Marjorie needs me. I have to go find her."

"Move an inch and I'll put a bullet in you." The detective warned him bluntly. "Now, boys, let's tear this place apart!"

As he turned and smirked at Elsa, clearly having enjoyed giving that order, she shrugged. "Again."

As the officers moved through the camp, the blonde stalked over to where Eve and Greta were standing, attempting to send her daughter a stern look. When the younger woman bit her lips together but was unable to stem her giggles, she shook her head seriously.

"It is not funny, Greta."

"It is very funny." The younger woman argued. "He just tried to report his dummy as a missing person."

"They are searching the camp for Jimmy. If they are to find anything else…"

"They won't find anything." Eve assured her quickly. "Jimmy isn't here."

"I know that, darling." Elsa told her impatiently. "But they are looking for any excuse to destroy us. We have to be careful."

"Greta Mars?" They all jumped as a deep voice called the young woman's name. Turning as one, they fixed the detective with suspicious glares. "Or should I call you Sally Harper? Or Eva Schäfer?"

"What are you talking about?" Elsa demanded impatiently.

"We have reason to believe that the woman now known as Greta Mars is wanted in connection with an arson attack that killed four people – two children – in New York nearly seven years ago."

"You have got the wrong girl, officer. My daughter has never even visited New York."

"And I suppose you are about to tell me that she has never been to Berlin either?" The man smirked. "Eva Schäfer has been wanted by our German counterparts since '45 for the murder of her adoptive parents, Kurt and Ilse Schäfer, before setting fire to their house."

Elsa snorted. "My daughter was only thirteen in 1945, officer. Besides, we both came over to America in 1936."

"I do not know what you are talking about. I have never heard of this Sally Harper or Eva Schäfer." Greta replied just as calmly, shrugging her shoulders. "As my mother said, I have been here, with the troupe, since it was formed."

"So the fact that you perform as Songbird Sally is just a coincidence then, Miss Mars?"

Greta nodded firmly. "That is exactly what it is."

"I suggest you find some evidence to back up your wild theories." The older woman demanded, rounding on him and jabbing her index finger angrily into his face. "Otherwise you stay away from my daughter."

He stared emotionlessly back at her for what seemed a very long time. Then, with a smirk in Greta's direction, he swaggered away to see what his team had come up with. They watched him go, none of them moving for a couple of moments in case he glanced back in their direction. Sure enough, the man turned round and looked at them. They watched him push his hands in his pockets and wander away.

"Greta…" Elsa muttered warningly, not turning to look at her. "I think we need to have a little chat, don't you?"

The blonde exhaled sharply. "They cannot pin anything on me."

"Not here, stupid girl." Her mother hissed. "We wait until they have gone and then you and I will have a conversation."

Greta was not particularly looking forward to that conversation. She shifted nervously from foot-to-foot as the police concluded their search of the camp, doing her best to avoid meeting anyone's eyes. As soon as they, reluctantly, decided that there was nothing of interest around the place, they left. The troupe slowly began tidying up after them and heading to bed.

Motioning for her to follow, Elsa led her daughter through the caravans and into the privacy of her tent. She poured them both a glass of schnapps, handing the liquor over before holding her own glass out to clink against Greta's. The younger woman frowned in confusion, before copying the motion.

"So…" Elsa leant back on the couch and lit a cigarette calmly. "Not only are you homosexual, but you are also a murderer and arsonist."

"It is not like that." Greta assured her quickly.

"I think you had better tell me everything. I cannot help you if I do not know the whole story."

Lighting up a cigarette of her own, the younger woman stood and started to pace. She opened her mouth to start a couple of times, but stopped. Finally, she poured herself another glass of schnapps and downed it quickly.

"In Berlin… my adoptive parents were Nazis. They were not interested in me, other than raising another Nazi to blindly follow Hitler. I spent summers at Hitler Youth Camps and was constantly being forced to attend dinner parties with high up officials." She explained. "I had come from an orphanage… they came there, just before the start of the war, to decide which children should be informally adopted by prominent families and raised 'properly' and which were not pure and should be sent to their camps. I was, apparently, one of the lucky ones.

"As I told you when I arrived, a German officer came to the house to attend one of the dinner parties. I was ten at the time and he said that I reminded him of someone he had known. Kurt, my adoptive father, laughed and said that I was just some gutter rat from an orphanage; he told him that I had been born Gretel März and abandoned at birth. The officer said that he had once known an Elsa März…"

"He told you what I used to do?"

"Yes." Greta admitted. "He said that I looked like you… I think that they must have asked some questions and they found out that you had disappeared for a few months and only reappeared after my birthdate. They had never been particularly nice to me, but after that…"

"They were cruel?"

Her daughter nodded slowly. "I had had enough… one day, when I was out walking to avoid being in their house, I came across an abandoned hut. There was a man inside, an American soldier. I do not know how he had come to be there, but he was kind. I smuggled him food and, in exchange, he taught me to speak English."

"Was he the man who brought you to America?" Elsa asked gently.

"Yes… he knew that the war was ending. He had managed to get in contact with some of his friends and they were coming to rescue him. He said that he would take me too. I set fire to the house to cause a distraction… I did not know the Schäfers were inside; they were supposed to be out. We travelled on foot to the Polish boarder and managed to get in the back of a supply truck.

"I do not really remember much about it… I was terrified that we would be caught… But we eventually arrived in New York and Joe told me that I was to tell people that my name was Sally and I was his daughter. I lived with his family for a while and it was good… really good. I loved them."

"But it did not last?"

"No… it lasted less than a year. Something happened, I do not know what. I woke in the middle of the night, Friday June 13th 1946. Joe had a gun… he killed his family and then he came after me. I managed to escape by climbing out of my bedroom window. He killed himself. I thought that… I thought that they would find the bodies and think that I had done it… I panicked and set fire to the house before I ran away. I hoped that if it was burnt, they would not realise that I was not dead too."

"That is stupid."

"I know, I know!" Greta agreed, running her hands through her hair. "But I was fourteen and upset and scared. I was alone in a strange country and I did not know what to do." She shook her head and moved to sit opposite her mother. "I lived on the streets, begging and doing whatever I could to earn enough money to eat. You learn to get by; to adapt and survive."

Elsa nodded understandingly, lighting another cigarette. "But you knew about the show? How did you find out?"

"Joe had searched for you when we left Berlin. He wanted to try and reunite us. He found out that you had come over to America and joined a circus. I went to several circuses in search of you and they told me that you had started your own freak show. I went looking and finally heard that you were here, in Jupiter." She shrugged. "You know the rest."

"So you are an arsonist, but only a murderer by mistake."

"I guess so."

"And there is no way that they can link you to those crimes?"

Greta shook her head firmly. "There was never anything official to say I was adopted by the Schäfers or the Harpers. There are no papers from when I came to America, so there is no way of knowing when I arrived."

"We will sort this." Elsa promised her firmly. "If they come sniffing around, we will keep them at bay."

"Thank you. I just–"

"What are you doing here?" Elsa demanded, cutting her daughter off and standing as she spotted a figure in the doorway. Greta whirled around and saw Maggie framed in the entrance to the tent, looking between them nervously.

"Come with me." The young woman said quietly. "There's something I have to show you."

The older blonde considered her for a moment, before glancing at her daughter. "We will continue this in the morning."

Nodding, Greta was only too happy to escape to the sanctuary of the caravan she shared with her lover, knowing that she would have some explaining to do there as well.