It had been a long time since Ashley felt genuinely scared. After years of living with the League of Assassins, seeing the dead, and having monsters make attempts on her life, it took a lot to raise her heartbeat even to 90 beats per minute, and that was while she was actively evading stuff easily the size of a lion. It had reached the point where she was immune to fear toxin simply because the hallucinations weren't real enough to get a proper response.

Letting Georgia Madchen live was a risk, plain and simple. The FBI was closing in around her like a thick, unmovable fog. She was hidden from view by Hannibal's lurking form for now. How long would it be before he left her to burn?

That first night she had cried herself to sleep in Abigail Hobbs' arms. When the other girl brought it up the next morning, Ashley evaded questioning and kissed her on the cheek before making a hasty exit. Evading was what Ashley was good at.

She had been doing it for nearly half of her life. She evaded the League when she no longer wanted to kill. She evaded the police and Batman when her godly DNA caused problems for her. Running from your problems and failures was so much easier than facing them, after all.

She buried herself behind work and behind quests because it meant she didn't have time to stop and think and regret. Ashley had a lot to regret.

The second night, Ashley dreamed of a giant wave crashing towards her. All she could do was stand and watch as water crashed down on her. She woke gasping like a fish out of water and drenched in enough sweat to drown someone.

For a split second, Ashley contemplates whether or not her dreams have bled into waking hours as she stands in front of the bodies Abel Gideon left behind. It was almost beautiful in its own grotesque way. Organs neatly tied up with neat little bows. It shared Hannibal's love for the theatrics, but it felt like it was missing ... something indescribable. Conviction, perhaps?

As Will voiced her thoughts, Ashley took a single long sip of her coffee. She hated the taste of the overly glorified bean water, but she couldn't survive without it. Quite literally, seeing as in she rarely ever slept nowadays and her eating disorder — which had started out as a blatant refusal to eat Arkham's food — had socked her in the face full force the night before, causing her to empty her stomach into the nearest toilet.

Ashley felt rather like a rope swing dangling precariously above the deep end of a river. Her perception seemed to be swaying back and forwards until eventually, she will snap. Sometimes her grip on the swing was lost completely and she would be momentarily submerged in the murky waters.

It often started slowly at first. One second everything would be perfectly fine and the next voices would be mere echoes and Ashley would find herself in a thicket of antlers that could easily be mistaken for leave-less trees if she squinted hard enough. Her hand slowly reached for Will and she squeezed his arm.

He looked at her dazed and confused like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. She didn't say anything, but her eyebrows furrowed slightly and she let her hard expression soften as if to ask if he was okay.

"Come on," Ashley murmured softly as she tugged slightly on his arm, "I'm getting you food and then you're going to bed, okay?"

"I'm not a child."

The phrase was spat out like poison and Ashley adjusted her expression accordingly: not too pitying, but not too harsh either. "I know, but you look seconds away from passing out and you're burning up. When was the last time you ate or slept?"

He faltered slightly. "It's... been a while."

She sat in silence as he poked at the food she made and listened. It was all she felt like she could do, seeing as he didn't seem to know about the bond she had forced into existence.

"I feel like I've gradually been becoming different for a while now. I feel like... someone else."

She watched him carefully as she set down her fork. "If you don't mind me asking, who do you feel like?"

He goes uncomfortably silent and still for a moment. "I feel crazy."

Ashley leans forwards slightly. "You said you were having trouble gauging reality, right? Is it just visual and auditory hallucinations or is it other senses too?"

He glanced up and let his fork drop with a clang. "Smell too sometimes."

"Maybe you should try changing your gauge. Really less on what you see and hear and more on what you can touch."

She shrugged slightly. "Can't touch hallucinations. Plain and simple. Trust me, I've tried. Fear toxin's nasty stuff, y'a know."

Will barely even blinked at her casual statement and decided to add it to the mental file labeled 'Just Gotham Things'. His thoughts were cut off by the younger brunette smiling mischievously. "Maybe you should fire Hannibal and hire me instead."

This received a small chuckle in response and her smile grew. "I mean, think about it: Doctor Ashley Al'Ghul." As she spoke, her hands created a rainbow shape in the air. "I'd have to change my first name to something over the top, of course, like Cordelia." 

How tired Will was must've shown on his face, for Ashley smiled softly. "You should head to bed soon. I'll leave some pills on the nightstand. You should take two before bed."

There were moments that felt as clear as a crystal and moments that felt more like polluted water, murky and eerie and impossibly dense.

The second Jack Crawford left them alone in the car, Ashley could tell he had made a mistake. It was a subtle one, granted, but that didn't make it any less of a mistake. Of course, Will wasn't going to listen when Jack told him to stay put.

The older 'Special agent' veered away from the group first. He left gaping uneven holes in his wake as the snow gave way with each step. The footsteps were sloppy and uncoordinated, almost like holes poked into the eraser of a child.

Ashley followed without a second thought. Her footsteps left smaller and more evenly spaced indentations. Each footprint left behind was barely two inches deep. It was a path carved by an experienced apex predator stalking its prey.

If Will was spooked by her sudden appearance by his side, he didn't show it. Instead, his clammy hand ended up on the small of her back, guiding her along as if she was his child. Ashley tensed for a moment but she didn't pull away or slap him like she would have if Will was anyone else. Ashley let him guide her to the car and listened when he told her to get in.

At some point, Ashley must've slipped the gun out of Will's hand, for it was her who ended up pointing a gun at Abel Gideon. It all felt like a blur after the moment she decided to follow Will Graham out into the snow, really.

The next thing she knew for sure was real was waking up in a hospital bed. 'Hyperthermia,' the Doctors said, 'that's all. Nothing to worry about, really.'