"I'm afraid every day. I'm afraid I'm going to die in an alley. Bleeding out while some scumbag goes through my pockets and laughs at me," Harvey admitted as he sat in the circles of phobics. Up until that point, Harvey never thought he'd open up to anyone about his inner conflicts and deepest fears. He portrayed such a rough and jagged man on the outside, but on the inside, there was a lot of trauma buried beneath the surface. Some of it he was willing to talk about, while others he might take his grave. "And I try to speak, but nothing comes out. And I just lie there, staring at a small space of sky between the buildings. And then I die alone. I don't want to die alone in some gutter. I want to die in a warm cozy bed in the arms of a beautiful woman,"

"Thank you for sharing, Harvey," Ms. Mullens smiled sympathetically. "Would anyone else like to share?" She turned to the rest of the group. Across the circle, the man Harvey briefly spoke to raised his hand, and when Ms. Mullens ushered him to go on, he took a deep breath as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "My name is Tod, and I've never spoken here before, but I have a horrible terror of failure," He trembled. "I torment myself and those around me. I'd crawl on broken glass to avoid failing. About anything. I inherited this illness from my father, but I'm afraid I'm passing it on to my son,"

The circle remained silent while Tod tried to compose himself. But sometimes, opening up about your inner struggles is just too powerful of a wave to handle. "We're here for you, Tod," Ms. Mullens broke the silence. Tod nodded appreciatively before continuing. "When I came home from work yesterday, my precious son was crying, and he said to me that he... I'm sorry. I can't speak," Tod sobbed as he ran out of the room, and Ms. Mullens went after him, her voice echoing through the room as the rest of the circle looked at each other concerned. Minutes went by, and there was still no sign of either Tod or Ms. Mullens. Harvey glanced over to the staircase, he could feel his stomach twist itself into a knot. Something was wrong.

"Is it just me, or have those two been gone a while?" Harvey asked the group, but no one said anything. "This has been real and fun, but I got to go," Harvey excused himself as he grabbed his coat and ran out the door. But just as Harvey ran into the parking lot, the doors of the black metal van slammed shut and drove off. Ms. Mullens was trapped inside, and if Harvey didn't find them in time, Tod was going to kill her.

~~~~~~~~~~

There are security cameras all over the school. There's bound to be some in the cafeteria as well. Holly glanced around her as she walked through the halls to her classes on Thursday. And sure enough, when she went to the cafeteria for lunch, there were cameras on every wall in every corner of the room. Cara, as a result of her outburst, had to serve two days of lunch detention, so Holly sat by herself at their usual table, scanning the room intently. Remembering the paperwork she had been given when she started attending the school, she reached into her backpack for a folder, fishing out the crumpled-up school map.

Anders Prep was like a maze, and you could get lost for hours if you didn't know which direction your class was. Smoothing it out on the table, Holly started marking the exact number of security cameras in each hallway, the auditorium, and of course, the cafeteria. One here, one there, one over there. And... "Excuse me?" A soft voice asked. Holly looked up from her work, and she saw Natasha. "Am I interrupting something?" Natasha asked. "Ah no, it's fine. Come sit," Holly patted. Natasha complied, setting down her tray and taking a drink from her iced coffee. "What's all this?" She asked. "It's the map of the school. I need to gather proof," Holly briefly explained. 

"What kind of proof? What's going on?" Natasha inquired. "Everyone's thinking that me and Cara bullied you into dropping out of the art contest, and until I can prove this was a misunderstanding, I've been disqualified," Holly sighed. "Oh my god! Are you serious?" Natasha's eyes widened with shock. "Serious as a heart attack," Holly shook her head. "These people really can't keep their noses in check, can they?" Natasha glared around the room, noticing people were still staring at her.

"That's what Cara said, and she's serving lunch detention," Holly said. "Look, I can clear this up with Mrs. Scherer, if you want. I didn't mean to be so vague in my reasoning. I just... you know I didn't want to bring my family's drama into it. I didn't think about how it would affect you," Natasha offered. "It's not your fault, Nat. Someone's obviously trying to paint me and Cara as the villains, and I intend to find out who. Now, if I can find where they keep the camera footage, I can-"

"They keep it in the main office," Natasha cut in. "Okay, that's a step forward. Do you know where exactly?" Holly questioned, looking up again. Natasha paused in thought for a moment as she looked at the map, her finger tracing one of the corner areas of the office. "There's an announcement room right in here. I used to help do morning announcements before the scandal. They have security monitors set up, but hardly anyone checks through them unless you know, something bad happens," Natasha said. "Okay, then all the footage has to be saved to a flash drive. If we get our hands on that, then we can prove no bullying took place," Holly planned.

'

Natasha nodded in agreement with the plan. Now, the only question was how were they going to get in when so many staff members worked there? "They have meetings every Thursday from 4:30-6:00 in the conference room. If we're lucky, everyone will be too busy to notice what we're doing," Natasha added. Perfect, seems like we've got a plan. And right around the time they finished planning, the bell rang, and without missing a beat, Holly stuffed the map back into her backpack while shoving down the rest of her sandwich and milk. And as they walked out into the hallway and to the horse stables, their plan was set in stone. All that was left was to successfully execute it.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Other members say our abductor's been coming the last month. Said his name was Tod, but group protocol requires they remain anonymous. So no real I.D," Jim and Essen stood outside her office. "And the guy you shot, the one with the pigs?" Essen inquired. "Prints came back: career criminal. Probably just the muscle. The other guy was in charge," Jim answered. "He knew there was a cop there at the meeting. He still took her. That's either cold or crazy," Essen spoke. "Either way, he's almost sure to follow the same M.O. He'll confront Miss Mullens with her greatest fear," Jim stated.

"Which is drowning," Essen recalled. "Specifically in a pool," Jim clarified. "But there's hundreds of pools in Gotham. We can't possibly get to every..." Before Essen could finish her sentence, Harvey got off the phone with Ms. Mullen's mother and dashed to them. "That was her mother. When she was seven, Scottie almost drowned in Lemmars Park pool uptown," Harvey quickly explained. "It's a start, I guess," Essen reasoned. "That's where he took her. I can feel it," Harvey insisted.

He and Jim quickly drove to the long ten minutes to the park pool, and all Harvey could think about was worry he was too late to save Ms. Mullen's life. She didn't deserve to have her life cut so short like that, nobody did. The ten minutes felt longer than they actually were. In Harvey's mind, it must've felt like hours. And the second they pulled up to the pool, Harvey grabbed his gun and dashed out of the vehicle with Jim trailing right behind. Harvey ran to the pool area and saw Tod standing hunched over the pool with a satisfied and evil smirk. "GCPD!" Jim's voice echoed throughout the room. "Don't move!" Harvey shouted. Gunfire echoed throughout the pool as Tod tried to make his escape through the back.

"I'm on him! You get her!" Jim instructed as he went after Crane, and Harvey stayed behind and dove into the water. Jim chased Tod down the steps into the darkened boiler room, and for the briefest moment, he could see Tod standing underneath the red light before pulling out his gun and firing at Jim. The detective quickly ducked down behind the pipes as Tod continued to unload his gun. One of the bullets hit a pipe, and a wave of air shot down at the ground as Jim got up and followed Crane through the boiler room. Tod then ran through another door, this time locking it behind him.

Jim struggled to pull the door open, but as he met Crane's crazy-filled eyes through the door's window, Jim refused to let him get away. Jim tried slamming into the door and shooting at the knob, but it was no use; it remained intact. He watched with defeat as Crane ran out the entrance and back into his van, with no choice but to return to the pool. When Jim met up with Harvey, he found Harvey cradling the soaking Ms. Mullens in his arms, and she cried and coughed out water while Harvey whispered she was going to be okay. Their suspect may have gotten away, but at least they saved the young woman's life.

~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the precinct, Jim had logged in the newest information regarding their case against Crane, and at this point, they had enough to put out wanted posters throughout Gotham. The search for him wasn't as huge as the one against the Electrocutioner and his electrode minion, but they did warn civilians to stay alert. "Here's the case files you gave me about that man who was thrown from the roof," The soft and sweet voice of Lee made Jim turn around and see her bright smile as she handed back the folder.

"Did you catch his killer?" Lee questioned. "Uh no, he's still out there," Jim answered as they walked back to his desk. "I followed up, and I had a quick look at his corpse," Lee explained. "A quick look at his corpse?" Jim quirked a brow. "Yeah, it's just downstairs at the morgue. No trouble. So, the killer removed his adrenal glands," "Adrenal glands? That's strange," Jim commented. "They have no value on the black market, do they?" Lee shook her head, explaining that while kidneys and liver were valuable, the adrenal glands were not. "It produces cortisol, the hormone that gives us that adrenalized fight-or-flight reaction. Essentially, it's the fear gland,"

"And our man wants to take it from the victim when he's most fearful. Why do that?" Jim asked. "All I can think of is that at the moment of death, the victim's adrenals would produce a massive, highly elevated form of cortisol," Lee predicted. "Fascinating, huh? This is one weird dude. The doctor or a nurse, most likely. Takes some skill to remove adrenals as cleanly as they did," "You really like this kind of work, huh?" Jim questioned. "I do," Lee nodded. "Good. Maybe there'll be more for you. A full-time job, even. Our M.E. has been fired for stealing body parts. Can you believe that?" Lee shook her head in surprise. "Only in Gotham," she replied.

"So, what do you say we discuss this potential job over dinner?" Jim could feel the smile forming on his face as he asked that fateful question. "Nice segue, Mr. Smooth," Lee chuckled. "Dinner sounds good. Are you gonna bring your case files?" Jim leaned back in his seat, the smile still playing on his lips. "Go ahead, mock my crude dating skills. I'm doing my best," he said. "You're doing fine," Lee assured. "I have the powerful urge to kiss you right now," Jim admitted, a daring look in his eyes. Lee scooted a little closer to his desk. "Why don't you?" She smirked. "Because I'm on duty, and there's about 50 people watching us," Jim stood up, looking over his shoulder and gesturing to the main floor.

"Scaredy-cat," Lee teased. "Damn straight. I have an image to keep up," Jim admitted. "The heartless, by-the-book, hard man. On the count of three, I'm gonna lean in, so that it's subtle. Then you're gonna kiss me on the cheek or no dinner," Lee stood up, reaching for his hand. "Come on," Jim shook his head. "I'm serious," Once again, turned around to make sure nobody was watching them, but he could hear a few people whispering. "One... two..." Lee slowly inched closer. 

And before she could reach three, Jim filled the gap between them and kissed her. Not on the cheek like she requested, but on the lips with just the same amount of passion he had back in the locker room. Lee didn't hesitate as her lips moved alongside his, and sure enough, everyone in the GCPD witnessed the sweet exchange, especially Ed, who stood at the bottom of the steps with a big grin.