"So, I guess he's already moved on," Adriana told Harri as she used the leg press at the gym.

"He's spoiled," Adriana heard Harri tell her though her earphones. "He's used to getting whatever he wants from people. I mean...he's a rich kid."

"He's never seemed spoiled to me," Adriana said. "He's a hard worker..he does a lot for others. I think that it's just really bothering him that he can't get the information that he needs."

"Yeah, which you still won't tell me exactly what that is," Harri said.

"It's private stuff," Adriana sighed before stopping the press since her legs were burning. "Maybe I should apologize to him."

"Listen," Harri said, her tone very serious. "You really want to apologize to a guy that ghosted you and got a new chick five minutes later because you wouldn't use your abilities to give him information?"

"But, Harri-" Adriana said, repositioning the earphone, since Harri was yelling a bit.

"He's an asshole, and I'll leave it at that," Harri said. "I won't sit here and listen to you defend him."

"I'm going to hang up now," Adriana said. They both sounded angry.

"Ya," Harri said and hung up.

Adriana got off of the machine. She hated this. Her life was a wreck. She turned around though and saw a familiar face. It was Brake.

Adriana wasn't sure if Brake had seen her looking at him so she scanned his thoughts. He had. Brake decided to stop pretending he didn't see her and walked over.

"I thought that was you," he said and tossed his small towel on his shoulder.

"Yeah," she said.

"Should I..." he said, pointing behind him, meaning he was wondering if he should leave her alone. It was a bit awkward...knowing that they both were working for the worst criminal in Gotham's history.

"No, it's okay," she said and started to walk. He walked beside her.

They walked quietly for a while, no destination in mind. They stopped once they reached the enormous glass windows behind the pool. There they were alone and it was quiet.

"I heard the lab break was a success," Brake said.

"Yeah," Adriana said. "Success." The Joker had gotten another deadly poison.

Adriana hadn't been able to stop thinking about the fact that she was the one who was most at fault for the Joker succeeding it having it. She had gotten the blueprints. She picked up the case and climbed the ladder in the elevator shaft. She had kicked the Batman down.

"Not exactly," Brake said. "The substance needed constant refrigeration."

"What?" she asked. "I mean..we removed it from a fridge but-"

"Yeah," Brake said. "It lost potency. It seemed like within the hour it lost potency. Needed to be used cold and right away I guess."

Adriana let out a sigh of relief.

"Yup," Brake said, seeing her relax. "Can't say I'm sad to see him end up with nothing."

She smiled.

"How did he learn..that..." she struggled to find a way to ask the question, and a bit nervous to look into his thoughts.

"That the poison was useless?" he asked. "Don't worry. We tested it on a monkey. Two of 'em actually."

"Wow," Adriana said, trying to hide her absolute joy. The poison she had stolen with the Joker was now totally useless to him.

She looked into his eyes and felt comfortable enough to discuss something personal.

"Why do you work for him?" she asked.

"I hate working for him but I gotta do it for now," Brake shrugged. "I need the money."

"Oh," Adriana said and gazed over at a woman swimming laps. "I'm Adriana by the way."

As soon as she said it, she wasn't sure if she should regret it. Giving Brake her real name...she wasn't even sure why she blurted out such a thing. He looked at her curiously with his deep rich brown eyes.

"I'm Wyatt," he told her. He told her the truth. He could have lied about his name, but he was being honest.

"Wyatt," she said, calmly. "That's a nice name."

"So is Adriana," he said. "You don't look like a Sheena. Adriana suits you, ma. So does this hair."

"Yeah..I wear the fire engine hair to kinda disguise myself," she said.

"Makes sense," he said. "So are you wearing contacts now or..?"

"No..the darker eyes are the contacts," she told him.

He raised his eyebrows.

"Pretty as hell," he said to her.

Adriana could feel it. The blue potion she had still been using from time to time. It made her audacious. She didn't want to be careful. She wanted to be free. For the first time.

"Hey..." she said..feeling impulse rising again and not able to stop herself. "Would you like to...come over to my place?"

Brake tilted his head.

"Just like that?" he asked.

"Just like that," Adriana replied.

.

.

.

As soon as her front door was closed Adriana grabbed Brake and kissed him deeply. He didn't seem astonished at all...he seemed ready for anything, Adriana thought. Or he was used to women throwing themselves at him. Either way, she didn't care. Quickly she pulled off her coat and let it fall to the floor and he did the same, all the while their lips were locked. She felt herself drowning in the amazing kiss as he lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his hips.

"Go that way," she told him and faced the direction of her bedroom before kissing him again.

He smiled wordlessly and grabbed most of her hair at her upper back and pulled on it gently so that she was facing the ceiling. She felt her inner thighs gripping his hips as he began to walk, with his mouth latched onto her neck. She felt her eyes flutter shut while she held his shoulders tightly. She was sure they had spent cumulative a total of five minutes talking to each other, and he knew barely anything about her. And again, she didn't care. All she cared about was the deep and rich color of his skin under her lips.

Although she was pretty sure that he must have been thinking of her as being loose...easy...she still wanted to see his thoughts.

He wasn't thinking that at all. He didn't judge her in the least...but something was wrong. There were other thoughts extremely close by. She picked up on another person. They were inside.

"Stop," she whispered, and he stopped kissing her immediately.

"What's up," he said patiently, in a voice barely above a whisper. He assumed she was changing her mind.

"Someone's.." she said, her arms shaking as she climbed down off of him. "Someone's here-"

"Well, hello there," they both heard the familiar and undeniable voice.

"Yo..." Brake said to the Joker, who stepped out of her bedroom at the end of the hall.

Adriana was quiet as the Joker held up a small tube. The tube of poison she had gotten away with her first night as Shade. Stolen from Club Core. The poison that could burn a hole through the floor.

"Sorry to interrupt your...eh...little party," the Joker made a frivolous hand motion.

He looked into Brake's eyes, and without saying a word, Brake could see he wanted him to leave.

"You sure?" Brake said and looked at Adriana. He was worried and not able to hide it. He didn't understand why the Joker had the poison and was holding it in between his fingers, showing it to them. He did not want to leave Adriana alone with him.

"It's okay," Adriana told Brake. "Just go. Please."

The Joker smiled and raised his eyebrows and Brake turned around with a great deal of uncertainty in his eyes and walked away.

"Look what I found," he said after the front door shut.

She looked quietly. Having him in her home was something that she would have never expected. The paint on his face looked fresh enough that there were no expression lines in it yet. He touched his hair while looking at the tube.

"In a tiny bag, along with a can of red hair spray and disposable contacts," he said and walked closer to her. She kept the poison along with everything she needed to disguise herself whenever the Joker contacted her. Whenever she was around him, she had this poison on her just in case.

He had easily put the pieces together.

"Look...I-" she started. He tilted his head as if waiting to hear an amazing story. There was no way she could lie about this.

"Were you perhaps," he smiled and stepped right in front of her. "Saving this for someone special?"

The impulse was there. She was full of it. But it wasn't making her want to fight. It made her want to speak. She looked into his eyes, it was the first time she had seen them in natural day light. Light brown mixed with shades of amber. Hazel colored.

"Yes," she said audaciously. "That poison is for someone I intend to kill."

His face was motionless for a moment, before his features lifted ever so slowly into a smile. He was...impressed. He knew that the person she had these intentions for was him.

"Well," he said and looked at the poison in his hand. "You're going to need this then, aren't you? I'm extremely curious to see how you make use of it."

There was no way she could hide her surprise as he took her hand and placed the tube in it before walking into her kitchen. It was as though he was daring her to kill him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him after following him into the kitchen. He was looking inside of one of the cupboards.

He turned around and pulled a file out of his deep purple jacket and tossed it onto the kitchen island before turning around and looking through the cupboard again.

"What's this?" she asked and walked over. It was her psychiatric file. "How did you get this?"

He didn't answer her. He pulled out a box of saltines.

"Explain to me," he said and opened one of the plastic packs. "How you know so much about computers. You never went to school. According to this."

"I learned," she said. "Anyone can learn anything with the internet."

"That's true," he said while chewing. "But do you know what I think?"

"What?" she asked.

"I think that you're working for someone," he said. "The CIA? The FBI? Perhaps? Long term deep cover?"

"No.." she said. "I'm not."

"You've been institutionalized on and off for...ehh the better part of the last twenty years," he said. "According to this file, which seems like a fake."

"Fake?" she asked.

"You wouldn't have had time to learn anything," he said. "Other than which how to swallow ten pills at a time. You fight in a skilled way. You know computers. You completed an assasination in ten minutes. You speak... according to that file...Spanish...Arabic..and something else? I'm pretty sure the CIA loves that."

"Anyone can fight," she said. "Anyone can fight or learn to use a computer online."

"So..." he said, waiting for an explanation. "And the languages?"

"I speak Arabic because I have Egyptian family," she said. "I also speak Spanish because I have family from Spain. In case you didn't notice my name. And I also speak Somali, because, yeah I have Somali family as well."

He made a face like he didn't believe her.

"Look," she grabbed the top sheet and pointed. "Biracial box checked. You see my father's last name, Navarro. Mother's Mohamed-Navarro. You know, people speaking more than one language and being able to fight doesn't mean they are a CIA operative."

"Maybe it's not the CIA or FBI. You know I'm on both of their most wanted lists," he said proudly.

"No, I did not know because I don't work for them," she said.

"Well, if not them, then someone else," he said. "Someone who wants you to kill me. You're taking your time. They want information too then?"

"No one's hired me to kill you," she said, feeling impulse rising again. "I want to kill you because I want to kill you."

"I thought you weren't a killer," he said innocently. He was playing mind games. "Well, except for Mateo."

"Please, go," she said. "Get out of my house."

"I was just leaving," he said and brushed the crumbs off of his leather gloves. "You were very convincing when you said you are not a killer. You've already killed Mateo and based on how smoothly that went, it wasn't your first time. You're a contract killer of some kind. I will figure out exactly who you are. Who you are working for. I have a feeling you are just like me. Willing to do whatever it takes. Even if it's...a little manslaughter here and there-"

"I'm nothing like you," she said.

"Everyone is like me," he told her.

She shook her head. He gave her a smile and left.