"We should go," murmured Harley, lying in Jack's arms on the floor of the diner. "The day shift people will be here to open up soon, and they can't find us like this."

"Well, it's one way to get tips," chuckled Jack, kissing the top of her head. She giggled, gazing up at him adoringly. "But they are gonna be surprised to find Sal's car outside, and Sal…" he said, trailing off.

Harley twined her hand with his. "Should you go move it?" she asked.

"Nah, they'll call the cops, and the cops will identify him, although probably only by his dental records after the state I left him in. But once they do, they'll assume it was a mob hit," said Jack, shrugging. "They never look too closely into the murder of gangsters – we all have so many vendettas it would take up all the police's time."

"I want you to teach me, Mr. J," said Harley. "Teach me all about your world, and the way things work in it. I'm so fascinated by it, and I want to learn everything."

He smiled. "Well, that might take a little while, kid."

"I ain't going anywhere," she replied.

He kissed her. "Let's get dressed, and I'll take you home," he said.

"I don't wanna go back to my dorm – my roommate will be there, and she'll wonder why my clothes are all torn," said Harley. "I don't wanna tell anyone about it, I don't wanna remember it…" She trailed off, tears coming to her eyes again as she embraced Jack. "I was so scared," she whispered. "I wanted to save myself for you, and he was gonna…"

Jack shushed her, holding her close. "Don't think about him anymore," he murmured. "I made him pay for what he did."

"Yeah, it all ended ok," she murmured, smiling up at him. "And it was so much better than I imagined it."

He kissed her again. "If you don't wanna go home, I'll get you a hotel," he said. "You take today off school, rest up, do some shopping for some new clothes, and I can take you home tomorrow."

"Why can't I stay with you?" she asked.

"Because my apartment's a dump – it's why I started coming here in the first place," retorted Jack. "No heating or nothing."

"We wouldn't need heating – we could warm ourselves up somehow," she murmured, running her finger down his chest.

"Greedy little minx, ain't ya?" he chuckled. "Daddy likes that. But I can't stay with you all day – I got work to do."

She kissed him tenderly, and he smiled. "But I guess since I murdered my boss, it can wait," he chuckled, reaching for his clothes. "Let's beat it."

They dressed and headed to Jack's car, and he drove them back to his apartment. "Boy, you weren't fooling when you said it was a dump," commented Harley, as he opened the door.

"I'm not in it much except to sleep, and I don't usually have visitors," he retorted.

"Not entertaining many ladies, huh?" she asked with a grin.

"Only you, in my mind, for a long time now," he replied. "I'd dream about you lying in bed next to me basically every night."

"Mmm, let's make your dream come true," she said, pulling him down on the bed.

"You don't know how many times I fantasized about you being here," he murmured, as they lay together. "But you're not a fantasy," he whispered, embracing her. "You're real."

"I'm very real," she replied, smiling at him. "And very tired," she added, yawning. "Long night at work, and then my day has been full of…the worst kind of experience, and the best. Feel like I've been on quite the roller coaster, but with a perfect ending - safe and warm in my lover's arms," she murmured, cuddling closely against him.

He held her tightly. "I never thought you'd want me," he murmured. "Especially when you found out what I am. I'm not worthy of someone like you, someone young and pretty and just starting off in life…"

"Why don't you trust me to know what I'm worthy of?" she asked. "And it's you. All of you. Everything about you. I love you, Mr. J."

He kissed her. "You're crazy, kid, you know that?" he murmured.

"Maybe I am," she agreed, smiling. "Doncha like it?"

"I like it a lot," he whispered, keeping his arms tight about her as she yawned again, and fell asleep.

She awoke to the smell of fried food, and sat up slowly. "Good morning," she said, as Jack brought a tray into the bedroom.

"Good afternoon," he corrected with a smile. "You've been asleep all morning, not that I blame you."

"You've been up long enough to cook, I see," she said, nodding at the breakfast on the tray.

"I don't really cook, which is why I spend a lotta time in diners, but I've been up long enough to head to the greasy spoon across the street and get you breakfast," he replied. "And to the mall around the corner to pick up some nice dishes, and a new dress for you," he said, gesturing to the dress lying on the other half of the bed. "And a rose," he added, placing the tray in her lap, where Harley saw a single red rose bud in a small vase. She beamed, and kissed him as he sat down next to her.

"You're sweet," she murmured. "How did you know my dress size?"

"Well, I've made a very thorough study of your body," he murmured, grinning at her. "Enough to estimate. And I think this style is close enough so your roommate won't notice that you've changed clothes. But you are gonna have to tell her why you didn't come home this morning."

"I'll tell her the truth – I was staying over at my boyfriend's," she replied, tucking into the breakfast. "I hope I'll be staying here a lot with you now, so she might as well know that. I really hope I won't be spending much time in the dorm anymore – it's about as much of a dump as this, if you can believe it."

"Well, this is quite a way from the university," said Jack, slowly. "I don't want you to start skipping your classes. It's important that you stay in school."

"I know, and I don't intend to skip classes," she replied. "Except today, but I think I deserve a sick day in light of what happened. But there are buses and cabs down here, aren't there?"

"Of course, and I'm happy to drive you to campus," he said. "I just…don't want to interfere with your education at all."

"I don't see why you should," replied Harley, puzzled. "I mean, you were already distracting me from my studies when I was fantasizing about you – at least now I can satisfy those fantasies," she added, kissing him again. "And I think you can only help me with understanding criminal psychology, so you'll really be adding to my education."

"Yeah, I guess," agreed Jack, uneasily. "I mean, I didn't help with your psychology paper."

Harley sighed. "I almost forgot about that," she murmured. "But I still have a couple weeks to work on it. Since you and Professor Crane seem to have got off on the wrong foot, I guess I'll have to rewrite the whole thing, and try and focus on the fear angle, like he wants."

"I don't see how you can respect a guy like that," said Jack. "He's completely unethical."

"What do you mean?" asked Harley, confused. "He's a brilliant mind…"

"He's a psycho," interrupted Jack. "But I guess if you love a guy like me, it makes sense that wouldn't bother you about him. I just expect better from people who are meant to be respectable – otherwise I would have been on my guard and wouldn't have let him drug me."

"Drug you?" repeated Harley. "What are you talking about?"

"He's invented this drug which he puts in the coffee – it makes people hallucinate their deepest fears," said Jack. "I hope he hasn't tried it on you, but in case he does offer you coffee, don't take it."

Harley was too stunned by this revelation to respond. "You don't believe me, do you?" asked Jack, studying her.

"Of course I believe you," she said. "It's just a difficult thing to believe about Professor Crane. He's always been so helpful and supportive with me…"

"Well, even psychos have their favorites," he replied, shrugging. "But I wouldn't get on his bad side if I were you. He's clearly pretty unpleasant to people he doesn't like."

"He shouldn't have revealed that you were Jack Napier like that, but I'm glad someone told me the truth," said Harley. She said it in a sharper tone than she meant to, and instantly regretted it when she saw the pain in Jack's eyes. "I didn't mean it like that…" she began.

"No, you're right," interrupted Jack. "I shouldn't have lied to you."

He stood up. "I'll leave you to eat – I got some work to do…"

"Let me come with you," said Harley, putting aside the tray. "I'd like to see your work."

"You wouldn't, not really – this is a boring crime," said Jack with a smile. "Well, the execution won't be boring, but the planning can be kinda tedious. With Sal dead and the guys in jail, I'm all that's left of the Valestra gang at this point, and that's bad for business. So I gotta organize a jailbreak and let the guys know there's a new leader in town. And organizing a jailbreak is a lot of research and meticulous planning, nothing to interest a gal like you."

"I'm good at research – that's basically what I do as a college student," replied Harley. "You could let me help you with that."

Jack shook his head. "I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"You could let me case the jail for you," interrupted Harley. "There will be cops everywhere, so I won't be in any danger, and they won't be suspicious of me asking a lot of questions if I tell them I'm a college student doing a paper."

"Harley, really, I'd like you not to get involved…" began Jack.

"Please, Mr. J," she begged, gazing at him with her big, blue eyes. "Let me help you out with this one little thing."

He sighed. "You know I can't refuse you anything when you look at me like that," he murmured, kissing the top of her head. "All right, I'll let you help out this once, but that's it. You need to focus on your classes, not on crime. You should be spending your time rewriting your psychology paper, not aiding in a jailbreak."

"This will help me get hands on experience of crime," replied Harley. "It's useful for my education to experience everything, both practical and theoretical. That way I'll really know what I'm talking about when I become a criminal psychologist."

He nodded slowly. "Well, finish your breakfast and I'll drive you to the jail. And then back to your dorm."

"And then back here?" asked Harley, hopefully. "You'll let me stay with you until I need to go to work tonight? And you'll pick me up afterward so we can come back here?"

He chuckled. "What is it about my apartment that fascinates you so much?"

"Because it's yours," she replied. "And it's where you are. Anywhere you are is where I want to be."

He sighed again, embracing her tightly. "I don't know what you see in me, kid," he murmured. "But I'm glad of it."

He was, but he also wasn't, he thought as he held her. He didn't like involving Harley in his business like this, and he hoped this one taste of it would satisfy her. The last thing he needed was to ruin her life by getting her involved in crime.