It was one of the rare moments when Rorschach was truly placated and his voice was content to be silent and allow Walter to rest easily within his own skin for this afternoon. The night before, he and Nite Owl had finally sealed up a case tight on a child porn ring that was both extensive and slippery. It was hard to pin down exactly where the head of the hydra was. The case had opened on accident. They were taking out a small time drug dealer when they stumbled onto his stash of materials. Tracing the items back proved nearly impossible and it seemed that child pornography was even more taboo in the seedy underbelly of the down and out. Criminals were proud of their drug deals, robberies, and prostitution but would shrink away from admitting to having an appetite for child porn.

The case eventually ended up fleshing out from an oblique angle. Clues would turn up every once and again when they were pursuing some other deviance. Every time they found evidence, Daniel knew it ate his partner alive from the inside out. It sickened and angered Dan but Rorschach seemed to take it extra personal. If the perp hadn't already had the beating of his life already, Rorschach was damn sure to give it to him now. Sometimes, they didn't live through interrogation. It didn't matter to Rorschach. A month ago, they landed a real break. Rorschach had run out of fingers and had graduated to wrists. They got a meeting time for the addict's next fix and met the man the perp had called "Honey Maker." It was almost impossible to keep Rorschach off of the Honey Maker long enough to get some answers out of him before Rorschach all but strangled the pervert. The case pretty much unraveled from there. They spent the next week back-to-back knocking out all the connections in the ring and making sure all the victims were accounted for. About half the perpetrators were dispensed to the local precinct but the ones that always seemed to weasel out of the system one way or another were dispatched of in other ways.

Repeat offenders were given no parlay with Rorschach in this matter. Dan wasn't surprised to see Rorschach toss some of them out of ten story windows but he was surprised when some of them were bound and tossed into the corners of the harbor. More than a few times Rorschach had insisted on transporting them there where Dan saw a band of the five typical mafia gangsters that they knew where usually up to no good. When Dan gave him a questioning look Rorschach had explained that one of the gang had a 7-year-old daughter that was abducted by a rival family and sold off to a child trafficking ring. In exchange for these child molesters, the gang boss promised information and so far, the arrangement worked to their benefit. Needless to say, when they tossed the child molester out of Archie's hatch, it was considered taken care of. They children rescued from those situations were a little trickier. It was hard to have faith in a society that had already allowed them to slip through the cracks. Dan had a sneaking suspicion that Rorschach was going to end up with case files of 50 some children that he was personally going to make sure were in good homes. It wasn't a bad habit to keep but Dan couldn't figure out where Rorschach got the energy. Little did Dan know that it was always Rorschach that kept Walter Kovacs wound up tight and keyed up for action. Having thoroughly exhausted this case and made the appropriate corrections, Rorschach eased up a bit and the events of the past week and the months that led it up to it fell down on Walter like a ton of bricks. He felt as if he could sleep for a week.