"Yeah," Adriana murmured sleepily into her phone without checking the caller ID.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Navarro," she heard Commissioner Gordon say.

"Oh..Gordon, hi," she said feeling the skin on her face separating from the melted ice pack that she had fallen asleep on. "How are you?"

"Pretty good, and yourself?" he replied.

"Um...been better, but fine," she answered. "Do you need my services?"

"Yes," Gordon answered. "I'm aware this is short notice and that you were taking a break-"

"No...I could use the distraction," she told him honestly.

.

.

.

Adriana arrived at the police station in a black hat and sunglasses. She thought perhaps she was being a bit paranoid but the Joker had eyes all around the city and she was sure that going to the police station would be suspicious to him if he found out about it.

She went to Gordon's office and then told to go to Observation Room 3.

"There he is," Gordon said as they looked at a young man seated alone at a table, looking around nervously. She and Gordon were the only ones watching him from the observation room.

Adriana closed her eyes and focused on the man's thoughts for only a minute or two.

"He did it," Adriana said. "He broke into Mr. Wallace's apartment...robbed him..stabbed him. There's a dumpster behind the Berkeley Apartment Complex on 33rd...He threw the wallet and his mask and gloves in there. His prints should be on the wallet. He stuffed everything in a cat food bag that was in there."

Mr. Wallace was a retired police officer and had been Gordon's superior over a decade earlier.

"Can't thank you enough, Navarro," Gordon said and handed her a check for $300.

"Thanks," she said. "Anytime. So, Mr. Wallace is going to be okay?"

"He's stable," Gordon said. "Thankfully."

"That's a relief," Adriana said. "Well, I'm glad I could help."

"Enjoy the rest of your day," Gordon said to her on her way out.

"You too."

Adriana hadn't been in the main precinct in a while. Every time that she was here she couldn't help but admire the beauty of the building. The 1920's architecture, the large glass windows and exposed brick on some of the walls in the interior of the building. It was quite stunning.

"Adriana?" she heard a familiar voice behind her as she made her way to the front exit.

"Oh..hello, Damien," she said to him after she turned around.

"Hi," he said, looking at the hat and sunglasses she was wearing. "How have you been?"

"Been okay," she said, trying to be polite even though she just wanted to leave. "You?"

"Why are you talking like that?" he asked, his steel grey eyes behind black lashes searching her face. "Something wrong with your mouth?"

"Just a little dental issue, nothing to worry about. In fact I have an appointment is 20 minutes so I should go-" she started talking but he grabbed her by her upper arm and pulled her into a nearby office and shut the door. "Damien what the hell?"

"Take off the glasses," he ordered.

"Why?" she asked him, even though she knew.

"Do it," he repeated and she slowly removed the glasses.

"Happy?" she said.

"Had to make sure you weren't hiding a black eye too," he said a bit angrily. "Who did this?"

"Did what?" she asked.

"You know what the hell I'm talking about," he said, noticing the small amount of swelling along her jaw. "This isn't a dental issue. I'm a cop. I can recognize abuse. Who hit you?"

"No one hit me," she said. "I just had an accident, and now a tooth problem-"

He grabbed her face and pulled her chin down to look into her mouth.

"Open your mouth," he ordered.

"Get off of me!" she said and pushed him back.

"You're missing a fucking tooth!" he said. "Are you here to press charges and didn't want me to know about it? You know I would find out eventually."

"No, I'm here because Gordon needed me for the Wallace case," she said. "I'm not pressing charges against anyone. I'm leaving."

"No!" he said loudly and stepped in front of the door. "You didn't have an accident. Someone hit you... hard."

"And? It's none of your business-" she said.

"It was Wayne," Damien said. "You've been dating him. He hit you. Adriana, just because he's rich and powerful doesn't mean you can't take action against him. He has money and lawyers but you have evidence. At least let us photograph this swelling. You can at least get paid to settle out of court...we're talking millions."

"Wow," Adriana said, listening to how he had turned the conversation. He was thinking about money.

"I'm serious, baby," he said. "We could make a killing off of this."

"We?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "You know I would never hit you. We can do this. Taking him down is-"

"No...we can't" she said. "Because it wasn't him."

"Then who the hell was it?" Damien asked.

"No one," she said. Obviously she couldn't tell him that she was Shade and had gotten into a fight with the Batman.

"Why are you protecting him? I am good at reading people, Adriana and you are protecting Wayne. As soon as I mentioned him, I saw it in your eyes. It was him who beat you-" he said.

"I'm leaving-" she said and went to push past him.

"If you don't report it, I will-" he said.

"You can't do that," she replied firmly.

"Why not?" he asked her. "It was Wayne."

Adriana had to think quickly. There was no way that she could allow Damien to press charges against Bruce. As soon as Damien went to Bruce with these allegations or showed told him that she had been hit and was missing a tooth he would put the pieces together. Bruce would know that she was Shade.

She needed to make Damien forget about this scheme.

She grabbed him and kissed him.

She could feel the tension of surprise in his body as their lips met, and felt it relax after a few seconds.

"Please...I don't want to make a big deal about it.. I just want to forget about it," Adriana said softly. "I mean..technically I could have pressed charges against you too for what happened at Savannah's but I got over it." She was lying to him and herself. She wasn't sure she could ever get over him forcing himself on her. She had forgiven him, but somehow she still felt hurt.

"You're really bringing that up now?" he asked. "I'm sorry about that, Adriana. I really am...it's just...you make me so crazy sometimes and I just have to have you. I can't stop thinking about you..I wish I would have never-"

"Okay," she said, not wanting to hear his apologies. "It's okay, I forgive you. So let me forgive Bruce too."

"You're a very forgiving woman," he said, wrapping his arms around her hips. It was working. He was dropping it.

"Yes," she said. "I am."

"So..." he said, smiling. "That kiss. Does that mean..."

"Damien," she said seriously and after seeing his expression change, she softened her tone. She needed to do anything to get him not to go after Bruce.

"Can we start over?" he asked her. "Please. Just...hear me out. I love you and I just want to prove to you that I can treat you well and take care of you. Truly-"

"Okay," she said quickly, knowing that she was not sincere, but didn't see the harm in leading him on for now. She was sure he would do something to mess things up before it got too far.

"Seriously?" he said, beaming. "I promise you I'm going to make you happy. Just like you've always made me."

'Yeah," she murmured. She had nothing but built up rage for Damien. Hatred..anger...things that she could never let out. But she needed to be convincing now. "I already broke things off with Bruce. So.."

Damien smiled and kissed her.

"We should go out to celebrate," he said. "Celebrate our new start. How about Saturday?"

"Oh..umm...I'm pretty busy.." she said. "I have..a thing.."

"I know," he said. "The masquerade ball."

"What?" she answered, not knowing what he was talking about. "Oh..right... The Halloween thing was rescheduled. The governor invited me. How did you know about that?"

"I've seen the guest list. Some of our guys are working the party as security. A number or important politicians will be there and we can never be too prepared," he told her. "Not with the Joker still at large."

"Right," she said. "So you want to go with me? As my guest?"

"Well," he said. "Unless you've already chosen your plus one."

"I haven't," she said with a fake smile. She didn't want to go to this party at all and especially not with him, but she had to fake it for the time being. "It's a date. I can't wait."