Robert made his way home, stopping for a burger on the way. He sighed and looked out his car window, wonder to himself whether or not he should visit Nancy.

"Bet she's damn lonely," he grumbled. He sighed and turned his car around and headed for the hospital. It was so quiet out that night it was unnerving for poor Robert, so he turned on the radio to an oldies rock station and thought Nancy would like this song. He hummed the tune to himself and drove on, hoping Nancy would still be awake at this hour.

She was.

/|\

Nancy Alexis Webber sat quietly in her hospital room, listening to the groans of the person in the bed next to her. She could only imagine what they were doing. Or thinking. She would be groaning to if she thought to hard about what she had seen the morning before. Not only would she be groaning, but sobbing and screaming and wailing and looking around for something sharp to kill herself with. So she didn't think about it. Instead she thought happy things. She thought of life, which made her think of the sun, which made her think of the beach. Beaches made her think of suntans and sunburns, which made her think of cancer, which made her think of death. Death, made her think of the mach-10s that had been used blow off her friend Jeremy Talos's face, and the way his blood had somehow found its way to every available surface in the classroom: the walls, the ceiling, the shooters, the captives, the desks... Nancy opened her eye and stared at the wall and was glad to find that it wasn't stained with anything but vomit colored paint.

"Better vomit than blood," she mumbled.

" Nancy? Sweety?" a kind voice asked.

Nancy looked up to see one of her nurses in the doorway. Ms. Wicker was her name. She was a nice lady, short, plump, and grandma looking. Nancy expected her to walk in one day with a big batch of cookies with a floral pattern apron.

"Hm?" Nancy asked.

"Your uncle's here sweety, he wants to talk to you," Ms. Wicker cooed. Nancy nodded and sat up a bit.

Robert Maxwell Webber walked into the room and sat down in one of the chairs next to Nancy's bed. It was quiet for a long time until Robert took Nancy's pale hand in his.

"Nancy," he said, "I know you don't want to talk to anyone- but... if ya could, uh. Maybe you could tell someone what happened before the cops showed up..."

Nancy sat for a long time and thought, Robert waited.

"We...," Nancy started. Robert nodded, " We... we were taking notes... in class," she mumbled, "about inequalities... nobody was really listening 'r anything. All of a sudden... we all heard-" Nancy's breath trembled for a moment, "-screaming. We heard screaming, from down the hall... a-a-and then th-these guys with big, big guns walk in a-a-a-and they start screaming at us, t-t-t-tuh' get up against the wall," she stuttered. "So we did, ya know? A-a-a-and then they grabbed some of us and set us back down in desk's a-a-and they tied us up and made us look at the kids on the wall and they said- they said "These f-f-fuckers your friends?" and everyone nodded and was cryin' and everything and shoutin' and screaming...." she stopped a moment and caught her breath, " then they laughed and said somethin' like "W-w-well, you get tuh' see 'em die and they get to watch you cry!"" she shrieked.

"Nancy..." Robert tried to say.

" S-s-s-so they start laughin' again and they take the girl that sits in front of me in first hour and they shove her up against the wall and they step back and pull out th-thi-this double-barreled shotgun thing and they put it in her mouth and they pull the trigger," she shuddered and remembered the way her brains had splattered against the projector screen, "A-a-a-and- and then they took Cody, you remember him? They take Cody and do the same thing-"

"Nancy stop it..." Robert whimpered in horror.

"Then," she whispered, " Then they take Jeremy Talos and put him up against the wall... they put away the shotgun and pull out this machine gun thing and they point it at im' and say, "You got a girlie, jock?" he says, "No." and they say, "Good, cause she'd miss you." Then- then they pointed the machine gun thing at his face and pulled the trigger..." Nancy trailed off then and stared off into space.

Robert Maxwell Webber had heard a lot of weird shit in his life and met a lot of screwed up people, but this... this was worse then anything even the Joker had confessed to so far. Robert looked at his niece in horror and sympathy.

Ms. Wicker walked in then and waited until Robert got up to leave before she said anything.

"What happened?" she asked Robert as they walked down the hall to the lobby.

"To much," Robert sighed, " When can you have her out?"

"I can have her to you by tomorrow if thats what your asking," Ms. Wicker said with a small, sympathetic smile.

"That'd be great, thank you so much," Robert said, sighing in relief.

"It's my job sweety," she said.

/|\

Robert walked out to his car, fidgeting with his keys and mumbling about Nancy. He found his car and looked through all the windows before getting in. Poor Robert had been car jacked once and had always been a little paranoid with cars since. He sighed and started the engine, listening to it purr for a moment before putting it in reverse and driving off.

It was quiet until his phone began to beep at him, he sighed again and picked it up.

" Hello?" he asked.

"Hi Rob," a woman's voice said. Robert knew the voice instantly.

"Monica," he said, "I hope you know your daughters still in shock at the hospital,"

Monica sighed," I know that Rob, I was just calling to ask if you could pick her up whenever she gets out,"

"Why can't you?" Robert asked, getting more and more frustrated with the situation with every passing second, " She's your damn daughter, flesh and freaking blood Monica, why can't you talk to your daughter about... anything?" he said in a louder voice.

"Because it's no good to have a daughter that can't keep herself together under pressu-" she never finished. Robert hung up his phone and threw it into the back seat. He pulled over to the side of the road and sat in his car for a minute and let himself relax. His phone beeped at him again, but this time it was another ringer. He reached back and picked it up and read the caller-ID.

Jim, it said. Robert answered.

"What is it?" he asked expecting the worst and hoping for the best.

"Did you talk to her?" Jim Gordon asked.

"Yeah, Monica and Nancy," he grumbled, rubbing his temples.

"How's Nancy?" Jim asked.

"She's a wreck," Rob mumbled, "One of the nurses says they can let 'er out tomorrow."

"Thats good. She doesn't need to be there," Jim said, he paused and there were some muffled voices, "No Joker, you don't get to meet her."

Robert chuckled a little, "God he's a dumb ass. You need any help down there?"

Jim sighed and thought for a moment, "No... no I think we'll be okay down here. You get home, get some rest."

"You got it Jim, thanks," Robert said.

"Sure thing Rob... shut up Joker," Jim said. Maniacal laughter could be heard on the other line as Jim Gordon hung up.