Hearts
I do not own Jervis Tetch (aka the Mad Hatter), Alice Pleasance, or Dr. Cates. They belong to DC Comics and Batman: The Animated Series. This was written purely for fun.
Alice looked up from her typewriter when she heard Dr. Cates's angry voice sound from behind the closed door. Her eyes fell to the piece of wood that led to the laboratory of Jervis Tetch. The redhead supervisor had stormed into the lab and slammed the door shut a little over fifteen minutes ago, and she had yet to hear Jervis's voice.
When the angry shouts of Dr. Cates had lowered again, the secretary continued her work, her fingers moving nimbly across the keys as she typed up his notes. She could just imagine the conversation the two were having, Dr. Cates talking in that low, hostile voice that seemed to grate on anyone's nerves after an amount of time had passed. The redhead had a way of ticking people off…
The young blonde's eyes rose to the door again when yelling could be heard again. She fiddled nervously with her hands, her blue eyes never leaving the threshold. Why did she always have to yell at Jervis the way she did? Sure, she really didn't have the slightest clue as to what he was actually working on, but she knew that he was making progress. These sorts of things took time. The more Dr. Cates yelled at him, the longer he seemed to take. How would yelling speed up his research—?
Alice jumped and let out a quiet squeak of surprise when the door was suddenly ripped open. She began typing furiously when she saw Dr. Cates standing in the doorway, glaring back into the lab at the unseen Tetch.
"I swear, Tetch, it will be your head if you don't have something to present to Mr. Wayne by the end of the month!" she shouted into the room before storming out toward Alice's work desk.
"Perhaps if I spent more time actually working instead of receiving your harassing lectures, I would get more done," Jervis replied testily, appearing in the doorway and glaring after the redhead.
He looked more annoyed than anything, Alice noticed, but he wasn't speaking in a raised voice. His brow was hard, his normally gentle eyes hiding beneath his angry eyebrows. His usual smile was contorted into an irritated frown.
Dr. Cates whirled around to face the sandy-haired technician in the lab coat. "If I didn't come down here more often to monitor your so-called "progress," you'd be off in your daydreams, playing with those rodents in hats!"
"Those "rodents in hats" are my test subjects, I'll have you know," Jervis shot back after he straightened in the doorway and raised a finger in opposition.
The two hardly noticed that the rapid sound of the typewriter had slowed to a stop. Alice sat in her chair, her eyes moving back and forth between Jervis and Dr. Cates as they continued their heated argument. Her fingers nervously ran along the edges of a file-folder sitting on her desk.
"You were hired to work, not to play with mice!" Dr. Cates shouted.
"Be on your way, and I just may get back to work!" Jervis snarled in response, now pointing down the narrow aisle that led to the exit. "On your way! Shoo!"
The redhead woman's eyes widened in shock behind her thin glasses. "H…How dare you address your superior in that manner!"
Jervis's growing irritation was quickly replaced after her exclamation; he looked almost as shocked as her. "My superior?!" he repeated loudly. "Dr. Cates, I hardly—"
"…Um, Jervis?" Alice tried to intervene quietly, cautiously lifting a finger.
Dr. Cates glared down at the secretary, as though she had just now noticed the girl's presence. "Are you slacking off too?!" she roared.
Alice let out another fearful squeak and grabbed the folder off the desk. She lifted it to her face, her eyes just over the edge, as Dr. Cates screamed "Get back to work!"
"Hey!" Jervis finally yelled, storming out of the doorway and straight up to his supervisor. "If you're angry at me, make sure it's me you yell at!"
Dr. Cates' hostile eyes returned to the scientist. "You want me to yell at you? Fine." She lifted herself until she was eye-to-eye with the sandy-haired man. "If you do not have something ready for Mr. Wayne by the end of this month, it will be your head! Do you understand me?! Now get back to work!"
Alice's eyes followed Dr. Cates as she turned and began walking toward the exit before she gazed back at Jervis.
The man stood there like a rock, his clenched hands mildly shaking. He glared after the redhead, a murderous look in his eye. That look didn't frighten the blonde secretary as much as what he did next.
Jervis Tetch broke into a wide, toothy grin, but all that hostility remained fixed and clearly evident in his eyes. He looked absolutely mad, and that deeply frightened Alice; she kept the lower half of her face hidden behind the folder.
She felt herself press back against her chair as Jervis's hands unexpectedly unclenched and went to the sides of his lab coat. He brought the coat out away from his body and swept one foot behind him, lowering himself into a curtsy. "Yes, your majesty!" he suddenly half-screamed after Dr. Cates.
The redheaded woman stopped dead in her tracks, a shocked and confused look slapped onto her usual bitter face. She turned around just long enough to shoot Jervis a death-glare before continuing to storm out.
The "slam" of the door signified her leave. Jervis brought himself back up into a standing posture and his grin instantly melted into a cold sneer. His infuriated eyes remained locked on the doorway for a few lingering moments before he glanced over at Alice.
When he saw her still hiding behind her folder, his features relaxed. "Are you alright, my dear?" he asked in his normally gentle, English-accented voice.
She slowly lowered the manila folder and stared at the scientist with concerned eyes. "…I should be asking you that, Jervis. I have never seen you that…that way before."
Jervis cracked a small, timid smile, feeling horrible for frightening his poor secretary that way. "I am fine, Alice. Dr. Cates just knows how to push my buttons, is all." His anger renewed when his eyes returned to the door at the end of the narrow aisle. "How are we supposed to work with that harpy hanging over us?!"
Alice let out an insuppressible giggle at the insult, but quickly regained her composure. "She does seem rather difficult to work with."
"'Rather difficult', indeed," Jervis muttered. His eyes fell to his trembling hands. "What's more difficult is trying to work with this shaking…" He sighed deeply, his shoulders lifting and falling. "I need a steady hand to continue what I was doing before I was so rudely interrupted. How am I supposed to keep working with this shaking—?"
He stopped short when her hands slipped into his, her fingers wrapping around his palm. His tremors seemed to halt as his eyes shot to his blonde secretary.
She stared up at him, a soft smile on her face and her eyes focused on his. "Why don't you take a break? I'll make some tea," she said, her voice sweet and warm. "That should help."
Jervis could feel himself blushing. He could only stare after her as her hands left his, the warmth slowly being replaced with the coldness in the air. He brought his hands together, trying to keep the feeling for as long as possible.
As she disappeared behind the door, he felt himself break out into a smile. His eyes closed as he brought his hands to his chest. He stood there, alone and silent, savoring the moment.
He opened his eyes and looked at the doorway Alice had vanished behind. "No matter how angry that harpy will make me," he mused quietly to himself, slowly moving toward the door, "I am so very lucky to have an angel to make things right again."