Something a little different, I hope you enjoy it.
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The drawings, sketches and artwork that adorned the walls of his cell were colourful, cartoon-ish and graphic. The scary characters that thrived in his mind as a way to justify what the world had thrown at him, were too alive on those pieces of paper. But he continued to draw, he continued to write and every new person that he met became a new character in his world of stories. His mind was fractured, it was halfway between sane and completely insane. He would go for weeks, months, without uttering a word and then he couldn't stop talking for days.
This was not one of those days.
"Good Morning," a bright voice said from the doorway. The young women was eerily familiar thanks to how he had depicted her in his pages. "How are you feeling today? We sorted out some new bedding and clothes for you, but you refused lunch and dinner yesterday. You need to eat, sir, or your medication will hurt your stomach. Trust me, the hospital wing isn't nearly as nice as your suite. The nurses in there are far less forgiving too."
She approached slowly, making sure her hands were held open and slightly in front of her. She was calm and gentle, her demeanour was pleasant but the monster in his mind made him glare at her. She produced a comb from her coat pocket and very carefully started to sort his hair out. He just sat and let her, his body too weighed down by exhaustion and heavy drugs to keep him calm.
"We'll have to talk to your doctor about visitation," she smiled. "I think you're well enough now. Your sons and partner would be so happy to see you. It's been a while, it must be at least a year. The last time you let them come and see you was just after I started working here. They ask how you are all the time. Do you not want to see them?"
He stared straight ahead at the wall. In his mind, he was being taunted by a she-devil. She was evil, she was one of the people keeping him trapped here and her boss was far worse. He'd defeated them a hundred times, but they still kept coming back with their drugs and their shocks and their games.
"Would you like me to wash your face?" she asked gently. "Yeah? That'd be nice wouldn't it? You've got your morning appointment shortly and then you're going to see Dr Nashton and Dr Isley for your programs, today."
Her hands were gentle as she smartened his hair and made him look a bit more presentable, but he didn't trust her. He didn't trust any of them here. They were all devils and demons and he wasn't about to try and entertain them. She was a witch in sheep's clothing, this one, she looked friendly but she was an accomplice to the worst of the doctors.
"You should leave him."
"Say again, honey?" she asked gently, a little surprised to hear him speak.
"You should leave him, he's going to kill you."
"He won't, I won't let him," she replied with a smile. She didn't understand, she didn't see what he could see and it didn't matter how much he tried to stop her, to save her, she just didn't understand.
"Would you like to brush your teeth today? Or would you like me too?"
Her voice was agreeable, but he knew it was all a lie. Deep down, she was evil, but there was a side to her that could be saved in the right circumstances. He didn't answer her and fell into a stubborn silence, so she proceeded to take care of morning duties. Finally, once she'd coaxed him into letting her clean his teeth, he relaxed as she stepped away. He looked up at her and saw that warm welcoming smile that often preceded more drugs or one of the others arriving. She moved to the doorway and opened it, she pulled in a trolley with various breakfast foods on it and she pulled it to him.
"Your choice today, anything you like. I've managed to wrangle you coffee too," she chuckled and poured out a cup for him. "Your notes say you like a drop of milk and two sugars, I'm a black no sugars girl myself. I drank way too much coffee at school, my professors used to tell me that my blood was 98% caffeine. But I got straight A's, so something worked."
He picked up a croissant and eyed it carefully before he pulled it to pieces and checked thoroughly for any pills. He ate slowly, savouring it, but he kept an eye on her, making sure that she didn't slip any medication into anything he was about to consume. But she just set to tidying up a few of the things he'd scattered around his suite during the night. She insisted he had the nicest rooms here, he had a separate bedroom to the living room and a bathroom of his own. He thought it still felt like prison. He downed the coffee, ate an apple and then set on eating a bowl of very sugary cereal before he was disturbed again.
"This is what I mean about the Interns interfering with my patient!" a man snapped from the doorway. "She's not qualified to wash his underwear, let alone provide essential basic care!"
"Dr Carr, she's almost finished and months from getting her licence," another shorter more portly man said as he followed. "She's trusted by all the other doctors, especially Doctor Isley, but you treat her like she's some volunteer for the kitchens."
"I don't trust her with a patient like this," Dr Carr said flatly. "She's not experienced enough, if anything she'll aggravate his delusion further."
"Now isn't really an appropriate place or time to discuss this," the fat man said lowly.
"No, you're right," Dr Carr sighed. "Miss Quinzel. Please leave."
"But I was just-"
"I want to discuss this in my office, I'll see to my patient first," Dr Carr said angrily. "It's your licence at risk, not mine. The other's may have given you an easy pass thanks to your hair dye and blue eyes, but I expect so much better from a straight A student who apparently passed on her own hard work and not on her back. Go to my office and wait there."
There was a look that passed between them that only he seemed to notice, and as they melted into the villains of his delusions and drawings, he made a note of that moment of silent communication between the pair. So much for 'professional relationships'.
"Sorry about this mornings… unnecessary complications," Dr Carr said calmly once the other two had left. "Just can't get the staff these days, the students are getting worse and Sharpe just worries about results, not the actual care or planning. She's probably upset you enough already with her incessant chatter and I don't want to make you feel anymore under pressure than you already do, but we do need to talk about some of these drawings."
He opened the file that had been under his arm and he pulled a few sheets of paper that had been sketched over and then coloured in perfectly. The scripture was that of a comic book and the panels showed a lot of emotion for a still cartoon image. Dr Carr looked at one particularly graphic image a little longer than strictly necessary, it was of himself and the blonde intern in a damning situation. But of course, that wasn't what they strictly looked like. In the drawings, Dr Carr had green hair, pale white skin and bright red grinning lips. The Intern wore a ridiculous black and red jester outfit and often had two hyenas accompany her. In this image she was holding a large carbine-like gun at his head, her finger perched on the trigger, the green-haired character was partially covered by a parachute and a frown on his face at the 'rat-tat-tat' sign that hung from a metal rod from the gun's barrel. A joke gun. How… immature.
"These are very good, before your accident did you ever consider taking up graphic novel illustrations?" Dr Carr asked with a smile. "You've got a knack for giving cartoon's life. I just wonder where you got the idea for that useless intern to be the sidekick to my clown counterpart."
There was a long silence as Carr spread the papers and scribbles on the trolley. He tilted his head as his patient studied each pen stroke with great interest, as if seeing them for the first time. Dr Carr kept some distance, but took his time to monitor each of Wayne's interactions and reactions with the papers.
"Your creativity is… astounding," he said slowly. "But it is just fiction. You should be learning that now thanks to your therapy and different sessions. Your work with Dr Isley-" He said that name like it was poisonous "- is coming along very well and its very important for you to be able to function on such a basic level. We want you to go home and be fully independent and sane, not leave you in this place for the rest of your life. I will consult Dr Isley and Dr Nashton as to whether it would be a good thing for you to see your wife. They've been asking to see you for months, but you haven't been stable enough to cope with that."
He looked up at the doctor and almost sneered at him, but he kept a neutral face. This was the evil one, the one closest to the devil. He had tried to take him down so many times, but every time he thought he'd finished with this demon, it popped back up to tear him down again. He couldn't hear what the man was saying, all he could hear was crazed laughter and it filled him with fury and hatred. He didn't want to kill the man masquerading as doctor, but he needed him to be locked away for good.
After almost an hour of trying to coax a few words from his patient, Dr Carr decided that today wasn't going to be a progressive one. He stood up from his chair and collected his pieces of paper together. He left a wad of paper and fresh pens on the desk and made sure the patient took his medications.
"Dr Isley will be along later after lunch time, Mr Wayne," Dr Carr smiled. "I'll check on you before I leave this evening and I'll see you again tomorrow morning. Have a nice day, Bruce."
"Don't call me that, Joker," Bruce Wayne growled.
Dr Carr paused for a second, he chuckled and bid Bruce a farewell. He walked from the room and closed the door behind him before setting the safety lock. He strode through Arkham Asylum, cheerily greeting other doctors, interns and orderlies as he went. He ignored Sharpe's shouts for his attention and headed straight to his office. He opened the door to see the blonde Harleen Quinzel sat on his desk.
"What have I told you about interfering with my patients?"
"That there's only one person I should be interfering with?" Harleen smiled innocently, her big blue eyes fluttered gently. He smirked and slammed the door behind him. He walked quickly too her and leaned on the table, his hands either side of her hips and his faces inches from hers.
"Don't play games with me, Harley," Jonathon said lowly. "You will lose."
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A/N: leave a review if you'd like to see more of this. It's not a typical origin story and a little bit of a slow burn.
Updates for this will be purely based on the reaction this story and each chapter gets :)
