Chapter One: Her
For once, it was silent.
For once, the sound was still and the silence creped in on all fours. It sniffed out the corners of the padded cells and worked its way around the wrought iron bars. For once the screams of the elderly schizophrenic from down the hall and the wails of the young and depressed man who still cried at night were soundless. The page turning, the beeping of wires and cellphones and pagers and heart monitors: noiseless. The scuffing of nurse scrubs, the sounds of a scalpel being pulled off the table and plunged into a patient, the sounds of dread and delirium: all inaudible. Yes it was silent. No one spoke, like talking was against the regulation and everyone here is SUCH a good person. Silence was the law and even he followed it today. Normally at this time of day he would fill the halls with a cackle or a chuckle just to throw everyone off their seats. His laugh was an art that he perfected; with a simple giggle he could send a grown man running from the room. He enjoyed that. He never liked silence. He always called silence a synonym of boring, and if The Joker was once thing it certainly wasn't boring.
But he found it odd that he didn't mind this silence. Not. At. All. It was like a friend, (friend?) yes friend- that visited him with rosy cheeks and stupid optimism. A friendly quiet. Normally when it was quiet it meant that there was a certain bat-themed vigilante stalking him from the shadows—but there were no bats to be found here on sublevel: 6 Maximum Security Wing of Arkham Asylum.
It was silent. And it was all because of her.
The sound was sucked out of the room when she entered it. He couldn't put his finger on it: perhaps it was the black framed glasses she wore even though he knew she didn't need them. Maybe it was the tightly pulled hair in that sock-bun that made her look like a naughty librarian minus the naughty part. No it was something more specific.
Her smile.
'THERE that was it' he grinned to himself as he saw her, as well as about a dozen other inters, shuffle past his cell.
It was her smile that made her stand out. Her pearly whites, perfectly in line: like a Colgate commercial. Her smile was framed with those baby pink lips that pursed into a thoughtful pout: as if she was studying everything and anything inside the halls with eager wonder. She was a smile in a sea of fish: flopping about aimlessly in the wings scared shitless out of their minds. Every student in their pretentious and prim white coats-their eyes constantly moving as if they were afraid that if they focused on something for even a second, something would jump out a seize them.
Good: they should be afraid.
But not her. She was not afraid: she was learning. She was silent. And that made her the play toy of the day.
"And this is the maximum security wing. Normally we don't offer positions to underclassmen on this level, but due to the influx of patients…"
'Prisoners' The Joker thought to himself.
"We have had to make a few exceptions. We are happy to take all of you on if you are still willing to board here." Said Dr. Leland who was giving around the tours. The Joker knew the drill by now, seeing that he was only there for four months and had to see at least 3 of these groups come in. He knew that half of the group wouldn't even come back the next day to start work, and that most would leave by the end of the month: leaving the need to keep constantly hiring new interns. He made it his personal job to scare them all off. It was one of his favorite games to play. That, and 'which guard will I strangle today?'.
Not everyone like his little games, as he would like to call them. In fact, things have been rather boring the past week since the guards that walked his beat were catching onto his ruses. They knew not to stand close to the cell, not to enter, and certainly not to talk to him. Of course, it didn't stop him from talking to them.
"Will we actually be working with the patients, other than doing clerical and nurses' work?" Said the blonde in the back- the silent blonde in the back.
"No, we will try and keep you far from these patients in fact: seeing that most of you are still a year from graduating with your PhD and are most likely unqualified to fit with the mental stress that comes with being a doctor. May it also be noted that these patients are highly dangerous and rather uncooperative with-new meat". Dr. Leland said rather sharply.
"Well perhaps they haven't had the right doctor. One could get rather annoyed if their chewing on the same bone as always". The blonde had said, in a matter-of-fact way.
'Ohhh—she has some bite in her.' He thought as he put his head next to the bars, listening in on the conversation.
"Well then, perhaps in a few years of training you will be ready for something of this level." Leland said curtly. And with that she turned on her feet and made her way back to the only exit door at the end of the hall-passing the cell of The Joker. The students grouped together like the sardines they were and followed her like a lost ducking crossing the road filled with dangerous and zooming vehicles. The blonde turned and followed in pursuit, but made sure to distance herself from the group-taking her time walking back as if there weren't criminals lining the walls. She mocked under her breath as she passed his cell- he took the opportunity and reached out-grabbing her arm rather forcefully.
With a quick turn of the wrist he had her back pressed to the cool bars of the cell-his arm reach all the way out of the bars and rapping itself around her like a mink scarf. She didn't scream, 'she's smart enough not to scream' he said to himself- but she did make a sound as her back hit the metal which drew the attention of everyone in the room.
"Let the girl go!" Dr. Leland stated as she marched her way through the terrified group of students.
"Hmmmm-how about no" He said as he tightened his grip on her neck. The guards at the end of the hall started to draw in, which only made him press his elbow deeper into her skin: her very notable lavender scented skin. She winced in pain and it sounded like music.
"Take another step and I'll have to snap her neck, and I really don't want to do that." He hissed out as his tongue jutted out quickly and wetted the scars around his mouth. The guards halted: they all did.
"Now, that's better" he said as he turned to face the blonde in his arms—who didn't struggle the least knowing that any movement could easily turn her neck in the wrong direction.
"What do you want." said still trying to gain control of the situation.
"Oh, nothing you could give me. But you-" The Joker said as he rotated to face the girl he held—"You could start by giving me your name".
"Harleen. Harleen Quinnzel." She said as she tilted her chin up to break from his arm so she could speak and be heard.
"Harleeeen… HARLeen. Harleen Quinnzel." The Joker hummed.
"Yes, that's my name. Are you going to sing about it or let me go?" She said, almost as if she was already board with this whole hostage situation already.
"I like that. Harleen Quinnzel. Mix around the words and you get—"
"Harley Quinn." They both said at nearly the same exact time.
"Yes, I've heard it before. The French term for clown."
"Your parents sure had a sick sense of humor or something" He added with a sick and twisted laugh.
"Or something" Harleen has retorted back. "Why should you care? Aren't you going to just snap my neck?"
"Or something" he sneered back. He could feel her eyes roll at the comment: almost as if she suspected his reply. "No I'm interested because I like to know what, or who, in this case I'm having. You know, tired of the same ol' meat". He said almost too close to her ear. She could feel his teeth bite softly at the lobe as the words rolled off his tongue. "And you don't taste like the others".
His eyes closed as he pressed himself to the back of her enjoying the scent of her lavender kissed hair. Harleen took the opportunity that was given to her as she tilted her head harshly to the side, banging his face into the bars and with a grunt, he released her. She stumbled forward and nearly skidded across the floor with the force he let her go at- his nose wasn't broken, but it was damaged enough to bleed. The minute she was out of harm's way the guards descended on him like hawks. Dr. Leland rushed to Harleen as she stood and quickly led her to the rest of the student body-shielding her with her arm quiet protectively as the guard tried to put the straight jacket onto The Joker, who now spurted out into fits of laughter.
"It's a compliment! HAHAHA!"
The students scurried into the elevator as Leland gently pushed Harleen into the elevator.
"See you later, Harley Quinn!" The Joker snickered as the elevator doors began to close.
"No. You won't". Dr. Leland said as the doors shut on The Joker's malicious smile.
