"Mr. Bailey's office..." a snarky woman's voice said. It was obvious she was smacking bubblegum. "How can I help you..."

"Hello, Edith, it's Celia Bailey." Celia said with fake brightness. She simply pretended she was at work, and even forced one of her fake smiles as she spoke out of habit. White watched this intently, taking in her businesslike features. She was able to switch so quickly. It was almost scary. "Can I please speak with my father?" Celia went on with her faked voice.

"Uh..." Edith said, and Celia and White waited for her to reply as they listened to her gum smacking. "I think he's doing something right now..."

"Well, I'm sure he'll be able to speak with me anyway. I am his daughter." Celia said, mentally strangling the receptionist.

"Um, what's you're name again?" Edith asked.

"Celia, Edith. Celia Bailey." Celia said. White shook his head slowly, feeling an ounce of respect for Celia's ability to not explode at the woman. He'd have already made at least twelve death threats...

"Oh, yeah. Um, okay, I'll transfer you." Edith finally said, and both White and Celia exhaled in relief.

"Thank you, Edith..." Celia said before the phone went back to ringing as she was transferred.

"How did he even hire that idiot?" White asked.

"He figured that someone as annoyingly lazy as her would make people frustrated enough to hang up and leave him alone. A brilliant plan, really..."

"I'd say. I wanted to rip her tongue o-"

"Hello? Celia? Sweetheart?" Mr. Bailey's voice boomed from the cellphone, snapping their attention back to the task at hand.

"Hey, daddy." Celia said.

"Hello, my dear! How is your day going! Mine's not so exciting sadly! Being the CEO of a high-profiting company sadly requires-"

"Work on weekends. I know, daddy." Celia said, keeping her voice pleasant. He laughed.

"Of course you do! You need to if you're going to be taking my position someday!" he said. White barely noticed Celia's smile drop by the slightest, and his eyes narrowed as he stored the gesture away in his memory. He'd bring that up later...

"Yes, of course daddy." Celia said. "But to the reason why I called."

"Ah, yes! What is it, my dear?" Mr. Bailey asked.

"Um, I just wanted to inform you that I'll be going on vacation." she said.

"Oh, really?" Mr. Bailey said in surprise. "It's only May. You normally take time off in August and December!" he said.

"Yes, I know it's...highly unusual of me, but that's what's happening."

"For how long will you be away?" Mr. Bailey asked. Celia glanced at White.

"A month, daddy." she said.

"An entire month?!" he asked, shocked. "That's a long time to be away! You'll be using all of your vacation days!"

"Yes, I know, but-"

"Why the sudden need to go away for so long? Celia, are you quite alright?" he asked.

"Um, yes. I'm fine." Celia said, and paused. Why was she on vacation? She and White never covered this. Dammit. She needed to think quickly. "I've...uh...I've...met someone?" she asked slowly, looking to White for approval. He shrugged. It worked for him.

"What's that? You've met a man?" her father asked, and was very silent for some long moments. Celia begged the heavens that he wouldn't catch on to anything.

The boom of his voice nearly made her jump as he said a number of words of happiness, and she sighed in relief.

"I'm so happy, to hear that! Who is he? I expect only the best for my daughter! The perfect suitor!" he said.

"He's perfect alright..." Celia caught herself muttering sarcastically.

"What's that you say?" her father asked. Her eyes widened, and she sputtered.

"Oh, um, he's just wonderful, daddy. A real charmer." she stammered. She saw White cover his mouth. Not to wipe away any spittle, but to hold back a laugh. She kept her smile up, but her eyes shot daggers at him and he only smiled wider in amusement at her discomfort.

"Is he a real looker?" Mr. Bailey asked.

"Well, he's got a face you wouldn't be able to forget. That's for sure." she said, tilting her head innocently when he shot her a look.

"I like the sound of that!" he father said. "So this is why you're on vacation?"

"Yes, he and I would like to get to know each other more." she said.

"Saying that makes it sound like you just met." Mr. Bailey said.

"Oh, uh. We did. Just a few days ago, actually." she said. White rose a brow, and she shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she's having to work with what she's got.

"...Who is he? What's his name..." Mr. Bailey said, sounding slightly suspicious.

"Uh..." Celia tried to think while White went back to being amused with the situation. She noticed his smile, and smirked. "His name is William Doe, daddy." she said. All amusement drained from White's face immediately, and he stared at her with a look of complete anger. "You know him." Celia went on.

"Oooh!" her father said, ad she could hear the relief in his words. If only he'd known what was really going on. "Oh! The kindly fellow from the Metropolis company! Yes, he was rather polite. Very charming!" he said.

"He's been told." Celia said.

"So you got a look at him, eh? Poor fellow, having to deal with that sun allergy. It's not been an inconvenience, has it?" he asked.

"No, it hasn't." Celia said, knowing her father was asking about the convenience for her sake.

"Well, good! Is he there?" he asked. Celia saw White's eyes widen as he shook his head.

"Yes, yes he is." she said. White looked like he wanted to strangle her, and he mouthed the word 'why'. She undid the button on one of her sleeves and showed him the bruises. She mouthed the word 'payback', and he glowered.

"Hello, Mr. Bailey..." he said, altering his voice to that of his created character. It was his turn to shoot arrows from his eyes, and Celia leaned back, feigning ignorance.

"Now you better take care of my girl, son!" Mr. Bailey said.

"Oh yeah...you can count on it..." White said, hinting at something dark with his words. It made Celia feel uneasy, and she mentally questioned her decision to mock him.

"Anyway, so you'll be gone a month, Celia?" Mr. Bailey asked.

"Yes, daddy." she said.

"Alright, someone will have to take up your job while you're gone." he said.

"Everything they would need is in my office in the cabinets, daddy. Everything is labeled, so they should be able to find it all easily. Don't worry." Celia said. She felt slightly uncomfortable at the thought of someone else going through her office and moving things around. For someone with her level of OCD, the idea was almost repulsive.

"Alright! And don't you fret! I know how orderly you are with your things! I'll make sure to have them place everything back exactly as it was!" Mr. Bailey said, as if reading her mind. Celia blinked. Was she really to predictable. She couldn't be so transparent, could she?

"That's a relief." she said, her smile wavering once more as she began to think on White's past words. A slave to routine. A robot. Before any of it could sink in, her father's voice called her back from her thoughts.

"Good! Now, I'll leave you two be! Much work to do, you know! Not all of us can take such a relaxing vacation! I'll see you in a month, dear!"

"Yes, daddy. I'll see you next month." she said, and the call ended. She slid the phone back over to rest in front of White, and he took it up, his expression disgruntled.

"You play too much, bringing me into the conversation." he said, tucking the phone back into the drawer. Celia noted the drawer it stayed in, and looked back to White. Useful information that would come in handy later on.

'To hell with this deal...' she thought to herself. 'I'm getting the hell out of here...'

"At least the story is more believable now." she said to White. If I named a different name and he wanted to speak with them, he'd be out of luck, wouldn't he?"

"True..." White said after a moment.

"So, what else? What now?" she asked.

"Glad you asked, Miss Bailey." he said. "Now that we have our cover, let's get on with the real business. Starting with that 'web' you mentioned while we were at lunch the other day."

"The web?" Celia asked. "Where on earth would we start there?" she asked.

"The beginning, Miss Bailey. The start point for it all."

"Well, that would be the company building."

"How many major partnerships do you have?" White asked.

"Why would you be interested in that?" she asked.

"Like you, I like to have all the details." he said. Celia sighed, massaging her temples with her forefingers. If he wanted to be that specific, then no wonder it would take a month to cover everything. This was going to be a while.

"Alright, Mr. White...pay close attention."

...

"I think that'll be all for today, Miss Bailey." White said after three hours of Celia feeding him information. Celia nodded, her mental voice thanking heaven that it was finally over. That entire ordeal was exhausting, and White didn't let up for a minute. Fore every explanation and answer she gave, he had more questions. A complete arsenal of queries set up for her that he fired at every moment she took a breath. It was madness.

"Thank God for that..." she said, tucking a loose strand of her white hair back behind her ear. "You really know how to wear a girl out..." when she heard what she said, her eyes flew open, the size of saucers. She clapped her hand over her mouth in disbelief at what she just said. She looked at White. "I-I didn't mean anything like th-"

"Let's just ignore that sexual innuendo you made, alright?" he said, smirking. "Wouldn't want you getting flustered, Miss Bailey." she blushed furiously, and shook her head.

"S-so when will I be getting Monty?" she asked, changing the subject. White checked his watch.

"Hmm. I can have Marc go get it now. Really, so worried about a simple fish." he said.

"He hasn't eaten all day." Celia said, mostly to herself. She almost felt as if she betrayed her little pet. He was all alone, with nothing but his little plastic castle to keep him company. The entire thought was absurd, but since Celia had already been through a number of absurd things and more, the thought of her fish being lonely seemed relatively normal.

"You have a major attachment to that thing." White said. "Why?" Celia raised her shoulders once.

"Just something to take care of, I guess. Plus, being so small, he doesn't make a mess. A good choice of pet for someone such as myself."

"I'm going to ignore the last remark, since I can tell that your oaf of a father had a lot of influence behind your words." White said. Celia frowned at his jab at her father, and went to give an agitated retort, but White held up his hand to silence her before she could, his eyes casting her a look of warning. Grumbling, she tapped the arm of her chair with her fingernail impatiently. It wasn't fair that he was able to say so much and she wasn't even able to defend herself afterwards. Then again, he had that authority. Just like her father did. "So," White continued, "let's focus on the first part of your answer."

"What about the first part?" Celia asked. Great, he was going to make fun again.

"You said the fish was something to take care of, and I understand just from the contents of your cellphone that you live a relatively...quiet life." he said. Celia chewed the inside of her cheek, knowing that the word he was at first going to choose was 'lonely'. She gave a short breath through her nose. At least he had the decency to try and make her social life sound less depressing.

"Yeah, so..." she muttered. The response automatically seemed childlike to Celia, and she stopped chewing her cheek to look at White. His expression clarified that he had the same thought about her reply, and she straightened herself up to return to her businesslike appearance.

"It's obvious, Miss Bailey," White said, "That your social life is lax, but you claim to not even care about something such as that. And yet, even though you claim to be content in your tiny world with no friends, you cling to something as meaningless as a fish and even make a deal with a mob boss just to have it brought to you. Why do you reject society while at the same time pour your heart out to something so minuscule?"

Celia masked her utter shock to his words, and bit her tongue to hold back her resentment. First, this guy has her kidnapped, then he threatens her, and now here he is pretending to be some sort of twisted shrink. Keeping her composure, Celia coughed awkwardly, and White waited patiently for her response.

"Mr. White," she said, forcing her voice to keep its standard tone, but in her ears, it seemed more robotic than usual. Was it the situation making her sone so monotonous, or was it always like that, and she was just too busy to care until now? She remembered his words.

'Makes me into a robot...' she thought before continuing on with the point she wanted to make before he could try and delve deeper into her personal life and pull something she wanted to keep put away to the surface.

"I am strictly here for business, and business only." she said, looking directly into his eyes. "Therefore, our relationship is going to remain professional my entire stay here. I will not ask you any questions about your personal life, and I would like you to respectively not try and dig into my own. We will not swap stories or go out drinking or whatever people do on their free time with friends because we simply are not friends. We're barely even colleagues. And you will not be acting as some sort of psychiatrist for me when our business is done with. I'm not interested in anything but giving you the numbers, keeping from harm, staying alive, and going home."

White seemed to contemplate what she said for a matter of minutes before shrugging his shoulders and waving his hand in dismissal.

"Yeah, fine," he said, "your position is understandable. I had no right to pry into your life like I did. But I'll admit your reaction was interesting..." his eyes narrowed in curiosity and Celia felt them bore into her skull, as if White was attempting to figure everything out just by staring at her expressions. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat ad cleared her throat.

"May I leave now, if we're done?" she asked, her voice becoming smaller as he continued to gaze in thought. He blinked at her request, and nodded.

"You can go. Be here same time tomorrow unless I call you and say otherwise." he said.

"Alright. Tomorrow then." Celia stood from her seat and walked toward the door. She eyed the shark circling in the large pool and quickened her pace, holding her breath until she was close to the door.

"Have a comfortable evening, Miss Bailey." White called as she reached to open the door, shocking her. She turned to look curiously at him, and he noted her surprise and smirked. "And try not to clean anything, will you? Too much organization makes me edgy..." he said. Celia rolled her eyes and opened the door before walking out and closing it behind her.

"Edgy, huh?" she muttered, walking out to the living area and towards the stairs to her room. "I should make this place spotless and watch him squirm..." Once she reached her room, she sat roughly at her desk and stared hard at the white wall with such a fierce intensity that she was a little surprised that it didn't burst into flames. What the hell was with this Warren White character. Earlier he had choked her, and now he was wishing her a pleasant evening.

"I did threaten him with a knife..." she mumbled in an attempt to reason, but she shook her head. It wasn't just the kitchen incident. Her entire stay here she had been afraid for her life. He was a criminal, after all. And not only that, he was considered insane. Celia had no idea about his psychological record, but had a good idea of what he was capable of. She couldn't help wondering why he was considered insane though. He was abusive, and cruel, yes, but he never showed any signs of actual craziness. Exactly what was the reason for him being sent to Arkham instead of Black Gate? She imagined him snapping and going on a murderous rampage, and shivered. He was a cold-blooded killer, and even admitted to enjoying taking people's lives. A total disregard for human life. Perhaps that was it. It certainly made sense to her, but she felt that it was a little more than that. There was always something else when it came to White. Something else to completely shock the young Miss Bailey once again.

"Hmph, like I should care anyway..." she muttered, folding her arms on the desk and laying her head on them. She suddenly felt the weight of the day press down on her, her eyes becoming heavy. She considered moving over to the bed, but found her body was too heavy, and she sighed slowly in defeat as she surrendered to a restless sleep.

...

When she awoke, she was greeted with a stabbing pain in her neck. Groaning, she slowly lifted herself from the table, the pain in her neck becoming worse before finally fading out. She rubbed her neck groggily, and glanced over to the alarm clock on her night stand. It was two forty-six a.m. Frowning, she stood, angry at herself for sleeping so long.

"I didn't even eat dinner..." she said, her stomach replying with a low rumble. She grimaced, and headed for the door to raid the kitchen for a light snack.

As she reached the kitchen, she left the lights out and headed straight for the refrigerator, remembering she'd made a fruit salad while cleaning the kitchen yesterday morning. Once she'd opened the fridge, however, she'd noticed it was gone.

"The hell?" she whispered in annoyance.

"Lookin' for this?" the sudden voice asked her, and Celia jumped violently before spinning in the direction the voice came from. The light from the open refrigerator revealed White sitting at the dining table one elbow propped onto the table, fork in hand. The bowl of fruit salad rested before him. Celia frowned, and closed the fridge before walking over and turning on the light over the dining table. White blinked a few times at the sudden light as they adjusted, and he smirked at her obvious annoyance with him.

"You couldn't get a plate?" Celia asked. He shrugged.

"You wouldn't have noticed." he said, stabbing a piece of pineapple with his fork and popping it into his mouth. He seemed to have swallowed it whole.

"Perhaps not..." Celia said, keeping herself focused on the argument. "But still..." White gave her a look and sighed.

"I may look like a monster, Miss Bailey, but it's not like I'm diseased. I'm not contaminating anything..." he said. Celia flushed.

"I-I wasn't meaning that! I just...it's not..." she sputtered, trying to put together a proper sentence. White sighed at her again as she continued her attempts and dropped the fork.

"It's fine. I'll leave you be." he said, wiping his mouth with his napkin standing briskly to leave, but Celia raised her hands.

"No! It's fine, really. Forget I said anything!" she said quickly. White regarded her with a look of shock, and Celia felt her own amount of surprise at what she had said. Her eyes hooded. "It's just..." she said, tapping herself on the head with her forefinger, "the OCD. I'm not used to sharing food in such a way...it's nothing, really. I didn't mean to offend you..." her voice was little, and she noticed it. So did White, and he quirked a brow at her.

"You're weird when you're tired..." he said to her. Before Celia could speak, her stomach growled again, loudly. She blushed furiously, and White's smirk returned.

"You not eat dinner or something?" he asked. Celia shook her head.

"Slept through it..." she said shyly, crossing her arms over her stomach. White noticed she was still in her day clothes.

"Long day in the office?" he joked, and Celia scowled at him.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you?" she snipped. He shrugged and sat back down.

"It's not all my fault. I'm not used to working with little ladies." he said, retrieving his fork and eyeing the bowl of fruit chunks. Celia huffed and sat down across from him as he took another pineapple.

"Aren't you hungry?" he asked her. Celia looked to the fruit bowl and back to him.

"You're eating what I want to eat..." she said.

"Here's a thought..." White said after eating the pineapple chunk, seeming to swallow it whole once again. "Get a fork and dig away..."

"I don't usually eat like that..." Celia mumbled.

"Then lose the force of habit or starve." White shrugged his shoulders and went back to the fruit salad. Celia furrowed her brow at him, and considered leaving, but her stomach growled again, making her grumble in agitation. Defeated, she stood and retrieved a fork from one of the drawers. She then snatched a plate from the cabinet and walked over to the table to sit once again. She scooped some fruit into her plate and picked at it gingerly. As she stared she noticed something missing. She peered back into the bowl, and frowned.

"You should stop doing that with your face," White said. "It'll freeze like that." Ignoring his comment, she looked up at him.

"Did you eat all the pineapple?" she asked. He searched the bowl.

"Hm, seems so..." he said with a hint of sadness. Celia leaned back in her seat and huffed.

"That's the best part..." she mumbled.

"I agree." White said, taking a chunk of pear from the bowl and examining it before eating it.

"And you ate it all..." she said.

"I guess I did." he said.

"I hate you..."

"We've established that, yes."

Celia went to speak again, but as she stared at the plate of fruit in front of her, she found that is was steadily becoming blurry. The familiar prick of tears startled her and she shook her head in an attempt to be rid of them. They persisted, however, and in a matter of moments the tears were falling down her face. White noticed her wiping them away and his eyes widened.

"The hell?" he asked. "Are you crying over fruit?" Celia shook her head quickly.

"I d-don't know why I'm crying!" she said in confusion. "It just...happened, and it won't stop..."

"God, you're fucking weird." he said, resting his chin on his hand. "And you're a crybaby..."

"Shut up..."

"At least you're showing you're human..." he said in amusement. "Who knew you just had to be tired and hungry to show that..."

"I thought I was a robot..." she said bitterly.

"Only when you remember to be..." White said. He looked out the window to the lit up city below, leaving Celia to think intently on what he had said.

'This person...' she thought, 'truly is strange...'