"Comfort is how well these hands know that body. The temperature of its skin, the dimples, lines, and the curves where one piece ends and another begins".

- Tyler Knott Gregson

Ed layed in bed with the sheets covering his naked body from the waist down. Beside him layed Charlotte, also naked. She had a hand on his chest and brushed her fingers against it lightly. Ed had missed laying with Charlotte in bed like that with an arm around her and the other rubbing the arm she had over his chest. She also had missed feeling his bare skin against hers and the last thing she wanted was to get out of bed and leave his embrace.

Charlotte looked up at Ed to see him staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Wild night, huh?" She asked with a small chuckle and Ed looked down at her with a smile forming on his lips. "We should probably have slept a bit".

"Was that really what you wanted to do?" Ed asked her with a raised eyebrow. "Sleep?"

"Not really, no," she answered truthfully with a smile up at him as she rested her hand over his heart. "Your heart is racing".

"Yeah? Who should I blame for that?" He remarked and stopped rubbing her arm to place his hand over her heart. "Your heart is racing too". He returned to rub her arm softly. "What time is it?"

Charlotte looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand beside her bed. "Six. We're only supposed to go to the meeting with Lee at ten". Charlotte moved to stand on top of Ed and leaned down to kiss him. He couldn't help but smile during the kiss and his hands pulled her more against him by the waist. She pulled away and smirked. "Ready for another round?"

Charlotte bit her lower lip when Ed nodded at her. He honestly didn't know how many times they had sex that same night. He lost count after the fourth time. For six weeks they had been having sex every now and again, but Ed didn't know what they were exactly. Friends with benefits? Lovers? Charlotte hadn't brought up the subject and Ed didn't have the courage to ask. She seemed happy with their current arrangement and Ed just wanted to see her happy. He was afraid, he would ruin things if he started asking questions.

Hours later, Charlotte went downstairs to eat breakfast while Ed went to take a shower. She turned on the TV near the table and to her annoyance, the first thing she saw was Barbara's face. She wore a long blonde wig and danced to the beat of a song.

"Now there's no reason to ever be alone in this city again," Barbara smiled. "The Sirens club is back with a passion".

Tabitha was there too and they both sent seductive looks towards the camera. Selina moved her shoulders to the sound of the beat as well, but she looked annoyed out of her mind.

"Ladies drink for free whilst men... don't," Tabitha informed and sipped on her martini.

"You'll like it," Selina said. "It's nice".

Charlotte drank from her cup of coffee and grabbed the remote control to put the TV on mute. Once she finished drinking her coffee, Charlotte grabbed the orange flask from the pocket of her jacket and took out a pill. The blonde swallowed it with some water and shook her head as she saw Barbara send a kiss at the camera.

"Why so glum?" Lee asked as she walked towards Charlotte.

"I worked my ass off along with Oswald to put that club so beautiful and now look what those three did to it," Charlotte pointed at the TV as the sirens walked away from the camera and the club was shown. They had taken away the two Penguins from each side of the bar that Charlotte had someone make just for Oswald. "They even took the Penguins, Lee. There a place in hell reserved just for them".

Lee smiled in amusement and sat next to Charlotte after preparing a coffee for herself.

"I just wish Oswald wouldn't be in Arkham," Charlotte told sadly. "I would visit him, but he probably doesn't even want to look at me".

Lee understood Charlotte liked Oswald very much and missed him. She had been by his side for a long time and now he had been taken to the one place Charlotte feared. "Why did you leave? You two were so close".

Charlotte looked down at the water bottle in front of her. "My friend Ivy left because Oswald didn't respect her. My ex-boyfriend, Victor Fries, left because Oswald didn't give him the money he promised so Victor could research a cure for his condition. Then came Sofia Falcone". Charlotte's expression hardened when she mentioned Sofia. "She became his new best friend and Oswald didn't need me anymore, so... I left too".

Lee sighed and took a sip from her coffee. "Word is he blew up a kid under the Crown Point bridge and is responsible for Don Falcone's murder. If it's true then he brought it on himself".

"I doubt it's true," Charlotte defended her friend. "You don't know Oswald like I do. He cared about that kid. It must be Sofia's way to keep him away from the underworld".

Charlotte knew Lee had been married to Sofia's brother, Mario. Things ended up pretty bad after he got the Alice Tetch virus and Jim shot him. Lee had nothing against Sofia and still considered her to be her sister in law.

"Anyway, it's better if I stay away from Arkham," Charlotte said as she let out a humorless chuckle. "We don't need me having another psychotic episode, do we?" Then she left to go prepare herself for the day ahead.

At ten, Charlotte, Ed, and Lee went to an old building at the center of the Narrows. There was an abandoned apartment there and Lee invited people from the Narrows to join her there to discuss what had been going wrong. in that part of town. Charlotte and Ed stood on the sidelines while Lee made a speech directed to the people in front of her, who were sitting on chairs.

"I understand times are tough. I understand. You need to make a living," she said as she walked around the room and everyone agreed. "But it's time to stop punishing each other for the situation the city has put you in. Instead of stealing from those hurting as much as you, this community needs to start protecting one another".

"We do what we do to survive," a man told her and the others agreed with him.

"And is that all you want?" Lee asked him before turning to look at the others. "All of you? Just to survive every day? One day at a time?"

"Listen, Doc, down here, it's every man for himself," the same man told her as he stood up from his chair. "That's the way it's always been". There were murmurs of agreement from everyone else.

"I'm gonna punch that guy," Charlotte said with a malicious smile on her lips.

Ed grabbed her wrist knowing she would probably do it if the man said anything else. "Don't waste your time," he whispered close to her hear. "I don't even know why Lee is wasting her breath with these people".

Charlotte nodded in agreement and smirked at Ed. "Better not tell her that or she will kick that cute ass of yours".

Ed looked leaned against the wall with a smirk on his lips just as Lee continued her speech.

"How many of you have kids?" She asked and many people raised their hands. "I've been running a clinic down here for the last nine months. And I have been treating your kids for things like TB, hepatitis, pertussis, pneumonia. Diseases that don't belong in a modern city. But there are no functioning hospitals down here. And the doctors are too afraid to visit. You're not stealing from the rich. You're stealing from each other. You are fighting each other. And you are living in a prison of your own construction". When kids were mentioned, people seemed to calm down and took Lee's words into account. "Give me the chance to prove to you that I can turn the Narrows into a place where you don't have to steal from one another to live".

One man stood up and started clapping at her. The others followed suit, desperate for someone to help them get out of the misery they lived in every single day.

"Maybe I was wrong," Ed admitted and started clapping along with the others.

Charlotte nodded but decided not to waste any of her energy clapping. Lee already knew she was on her side.

All of a sudden, there was this buzzing sound coming from the other end of the room. Ed looked back and saw a toy plane flying towards Charlotte. She looked back when she heard the noise too, but it was Ed who took her out of the way. The plane continued flying its way towards Lee until Grundy came and swatted the plane away. It broke through the windows before it exploded.

After the smoke cleared, Ed worriedly moved his hands to make Charlotte look at him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. You?" She asked equally as worried and let out a cough because of the smoke filling the room. He nodded and she nodded back in relief.

Then they moved to check on Lee and Grundy. The Doc seemed to be all right too and so did Grundy. Ed found it odd how Grundy wasn't scared out of his mind after the fire caused by the explosion. He was scared of fire since the day that thug caught fire to his arm. Ed didn't think much of it and grabbed Lee's arm and Charlotte's hand before leading them out of the building.

"Come on, let's get the hell out of here," he said and lead them to Lee's car. Grundy and Lee sat on the backseat while Charlotte sat on the passenger's seat. Ed drove the car back to Cherry's and they quickly walked inside.

Lee walked directly to the whiskey bottle and poured a bit in a glass before taking a gulp. Her heart was still beating way too fast and her mouth was dry. Charlotte sat next to Grundy and Ed paced around the room angrily. It was already bad enough that the Riddler was trying to get back control over him and most likely hurt Charlotte again, but now there was someone else trying to hurt her and Lee.

"Whoever this was, needs to be made an example of," he stated. "I mean, can't they tell you were trying to help?"

"Maybe it wasn't one of them," she said, wanting desperately to believe what she was saying was true.

"Oh, of course it was," Ed contradicted Lee. "I just think that maybe the best thing for the Narrows is to burn it to the ground, start over".

Lee scoffed at him. "Well, that would certainly suit everyone, wouldn't it?"

"I'm just saying, someone tried to blow you to bits, and I bet they're gonna try it again," Ed told her as she turned her back on him and started making her way out of the room. That didn't stop him from continuing. "So I'm gonna find them, and when I do, Grundy's gonna pull 'em apart, limb by limb!" Ed turned to face Grundy, who was staring down at his hands. "Isn't that right, big fella? Hey, Grundy? You okay?"

Charlotte looked at Grundy too just as he looked up at Ed and nodded. Ed stared at him weirdly and then started making his way up to his room after muttering an 'okay'. Charlotte patted Grundy's shoulder and went after Ed.

The blonde reached the door of his room, which was opened and saw him pacing in front of his bed. She knocked on the door. "Can I come in?"

He stopped pacing and looked over at her. "Of course".

Charlotte walked in and closed the door behind her before stepping in front of Ed, their bodies just a few inches away from each other. "Lighten up. We're gonna find whoever did this," she told him with a slight smile.

"And then what?" He asked.

Charlotte stepped forward to close the distance between them and took one hand under Ed's green suit. He felt her hand travel to his back and calmed down considerably as he stared back into her eyes.

"Then the two of us are gonna kill him," she told him and Ed felt shivers go down his spine. Those words were exactly what he wanted to hear. He stared at Charlotte in awe as she continued. "We don't need Lee or Grundy when we have,..." she paused at the same time she took out Ed's gun from behind his back, "... us".

Ed loved to hear the word 'us' coming through her lips. He took the gun from her hand and placed his hand behind her back while holding tightly to his gun. He pulled her closer to him and rested his other hand on the back of her neck before crashing his lips against hers. Ed couldn't get enough of her. Every time he was away from Charlotte, he missed her and when he was with her, he couldn't stop staring. She was all he needed and being close to her was his cure and at the same time, it was what drove him closer to the brink of insanity.

Charlotte deepened the kiss at the same time her hands ran through his messy brown hair. When she pulled away, Charlotte smiled brightly, which caused him to smile as well and she brought her hands to caress his cheeks. "See? Everything will be all right". Ed nodded as he leaned into her touch, desperately wanting to believe her.

A/N: I live for these two, I swear. Hope you all enjoyed this because more is coming soon. Love you all <3