An: I'm back with another chapter. I decided to watch the dark knight again (like 5 times lol) and read mad love about 30 times to get this set right (or the bet of what I can do). I admit that my Joker in the first chapter is a little off and I might go back soon to rewrite a few of his actions. Critics welcome, I love it when people give criticism (constructive) helps to keep me on track. : )
Chapter two: Joker heart
The Joker slowly paced back and forth in his small room. He normally found himself pacing while he thought about different ways to rather bust out of Arkham or eventually terrorize batman. This time when he paced his mind started off where it normally did, chaos, the destruction on Gotham, an explosion or two, messing with batman, but then his thoughts started to wondered.
It wasn't so much that it happened, but more of what he started to think about. His doctor Harley, she was a good looking but for some reason she was there, stuck in his mind. Joker wasn't someone to have a woman, any woman occupy his thoughts for more than a fleeing second. He didn't like this, she's just a toy to help him pass the time; he had to keep reminding himself of that.
Crane, or better known as Scarecrow glared at Joker has he paced, "Is there any reason why you won't sit the hell down? It's been 45 minutes." The Joker glanced over at him before grumbling and lying down on the bed. Joker normally didn't mind having an intellectual conversation with the other villain, but he wasn't currently in the mood. "Someone is testy." Crane grinned, "Want to share?" Crane waited a few moments before talking again. "Don't you have an appointment with Dr. Quinn later on?"
"Is that any of your business?" Joker snapped back getting ticked off at Crane. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now, he needed to think. He closed his eyes and tried to get back to his previous thoughts.
"She's cute." He added with a smile. It didn't take a genius to figure out that something was bothering him, something about his new Doctor. "I would love to know what she's afraid of." A creepy smile crossed his face. "Maybe if I asked I could get a session with-"
Joker snapped up on the bed and looked him straight in the eye, "You dare touch her, and I'll kill you myself." Crane rolled his eyes at the Joker. Yea, it defiantly had to do with that new doctor. "No one touches what is mine." He possessively added with one of his creepy smiles coming to his face, and Crane felt terror from the look he gave him. Crane gulped before looking away from him. Joker smirked at the power he had over him, before lying back down on the bed and thinking.
Dr. Harleen Quinzel sat behind her desk off in 'la-la land' as another patient went on and on about her past. Ever since she was handled the Joker case she found herself thinking about him, and it was bad. In front of her stood a teen girl with severe case of anxiety and trauma, and she wasn't even really there. Mentally she was going through a conversation in her head on how her appointment with him later on in the day would go.
"Are you even listening to me!" The girl asked with panic in her voice. Harleen snapped out of her fantasy, and looked at her patient. Her patient's hands started to shake. "Is there something going on I don't know about?" She started to ramble on a bunch of random scenarios that started from a little farfetched to crazy out there possibilities.
"No Tasha, I just have a lot on my mind. I'm sorry if that worried you." Tasha nodded her head still in panic mode. "Now I want you to take a few deep breaths. In…" She took a breath, "and out." It took almost ten minutes of continued breathing exercises, but she eventually calmed down. "See you're doing better already." Harleen smiled at the girl, "Last time this happened it took a full hour to calm you down." Tasha nodded still not exactly able to talk. "I know after your unfortunate car crash you feel like you can't control anything, but what you can control is your reactions."
"I know…" she got out, "but that doesn't seem like much. What if I died? What if-"
Harleen interrupted her, "You can't live in the 'what if's', you got to live in the now." Tasha was already going off into another panic attack; she knew that she would have to talk her out of this one as well. "Breathe. In and out, focus on breathing." Tasha did as asked and calmed down. "I think we should call it quits now." Harleen said as she looked at the clock. She was already tired of her and her panic attacks. It wasn't as bad as before when she almost had her put into the institution, but Tasha till had a long way to go before she could be considered functional in the world.
"Thank you Dr. Quinn." She said to her as the two of them got up and walked out of the room.
"You're welcome; I think the progress you're making is amazing. It won't be long until you can go back to school." Tasha smiled. She had been wanting to go back to school for months now. After she had an extreme panic attack the school requested her to get help, and that is how she ended up in the hands of Harleen.
They started to head down to the front. They walked to Tasha's mother. "How's she doing?"
"We're getting there. I think we might need to up her doses to three times a day, but she's getting a better handle on her panic attacks." Harleen answered back. "Hopefully within the next three months she can return back to school."
"That's good. We'll see you next week."
"Bye Dr." Tasha waved as the two of them walked out the door.
"Bye." Harleen waved and turned around to see Dr. Ross standing near the front desk with a smile on her face.
"You seem to be doing well with her."
"Yea," Harleen smiled. "She's just needs some help with controlling her panic attacks. I fear she may never get over her fear of driving ever again though." The two of them started to walk down the hall back to their rooms.
"So how is the Joker case coming along?"
"It's starting I guess. He's just so intimating to be in the room with." She shivered at the thought of his eyes. "It's like the room becomes heavy when he walks in."
Dr. Ross watched her reaction, "Maybe this was too much for you?" She sighed, "Do you think you can handle him this early into your career?"
Harleen nodded half scared that she would take this case away from her, "I think I need something like this. He's a bit of a challenge, but it's good to keep me on my game."
Dr. Ross nodded, "Well I wish you luck. Remember the Joker can be extremely manipulative. Don't show him any weakness. He's the type of person that once he figures you out, he can make you do almost anything for him."
"I saw that he was your patient not too long ago." Harleen added a bit of her wondering what happened for her to leave his case.
"That's right," She added forgetting that she would figure that out, "I worked with him for a few months. He's quite the talker, and he found out how to get to me." She had a distant look in her eyes, as though she was remembering the past, "At that point I knew it was best to get out of that." Harleen nodded back at the other doctor. "I'll see you at lunch." Dr. Ross changed the conversation quickly not wanting to remember what happened and fled into her office before Harleen could ask anything else.
Harleen watched her leave before she went back to her office. She couldn't help thinking about how strange Dr. Ross reacted. If she didn't know any better she would think Dr. Ross was afraid of Joker, but that was stupid to think. Dr. Ross was an experienced Doctor of almost 10 years. What happened for her to react in such a way?
Harleen shook her head at the thought and took out the Joker's file. She smiled at the thought of today's session. She looked up at the clock that hung above her door and noticed that she still had thirty minutes until their appointment.
This time when the Joker was escorted into Harleen office, she was already sitting behind her desk. "Hey toots." He said as the guards put him into a chair and strapped him in. They nodded to the doctor before walking out of the room. "How's my little Harley been?"
"I've been great, how about you?" Harleen said with a small smile on her lips.
"Great now that we got our session in." Harleen blushed at the comment. "I've been looking forward to our little get together all morning."
"You're not the only one." Harleen added in without thinking. Whoops, she didn't think about letting that one out before it came off her lips. "Anyway," she tried to brush off what she said, but Joker heard it and a devious smile crossed his face. Harleen looked down at her notebook, "Is there anything you want to share today?"
"I normally hate that word, share." He grimaced, "When I was younger my mom always told me to share my things, but when it came to her sharing anything it was always no." Harleen started to scribble down more notes, "I don't want this to be like that, so let's play a little game."
Harleen looked up from her notes, "And what would this game be?" She asked a little suspicious and at the same time curious to see what he had up his sleeve. She heard about his notorious magic tricks. She took a quick look at her desk, all pencils, paper clips, all sharp objects and even her stapler was put up.
"Oh, it's quite simple." He leaned a bit towards her, "I share a little something about me, and then you share something about you. See that way we both win."
Harleen thought about it for a moment, "Why would you even care to know anything about me?"
"Oh Harley," he said leaning back in his chair laughing, "if we want this little arrangement to work, you have to open up a bit. No need to be such a board."
"Arrangement," Harleen asked a bit confused. "What arrangement?"
"Yes," he waved his hand at her as though it was obvious, "I promise not to hurt you, as long as you just share a little bit with me." He said it with such confidence that it through Harleen though a loop. Hurt her? How the hell was he going to be able to do that?
"What makes you think you could land a figure on me? Last I checked you were the one strapped into the chair." She pointed to his predicament.
The Joker looked at his restraints as though they were nothing more than a bother. "Do you really think I can't get out of this?" He raised his arms the hand cuffs barley letting him as they yanked on the chair, "I thought Doctors were smart." He raised his hand to his head and gave it a tap of one of his fingers.
Harleen felt a sting as he insulted her intelligence. "Just because you might," She stressed the might in a way that told him that she didn't believe he really could do that, "be able to get out; it doesn't mean that you could get a hand on me." The Joker's eye brow rose at the challenge. "I might not look it right now, but I was a gymnast."
"Really now," The Joker sat up in his seat and leaned back towards her seemly interested, "when was this?"
"College, I got a scholarship and everything."
"You must have been good then."
"I was third overall at worlds four years ago." Harleen said with a little bit of a brag mixed in with it. She used to love gymnastic and still found herself going to the gym and working on her moves even today.
"So why didn't you keep doing that?" Harleen thought about it for a moment with an almost confused expression.
"It's not practical for a long term career or anything." She said with a sigh, "Gymnastics is different than other sports. Once you hit 21 you're basically history in the gymnastic world," She looked off saddened "that and I didn't make the Olympic team two years ago; that was my shot at the big leagues." She sighed as she remembered the feeling of performing on the balance beam in front of a crowd. "Wait…" She snapped out of her thoughts, "This session is supposed to be about you."
"AH-Ah Harley," Joker shook his finger at her, "The only way this is going to work is if you share as well. If you don't then I'll just sit here for the rest of the session."
"You wouldn't, you love to talk." The Joker shrugged his shoulders at the challenge and waited. He was going to win this one; he always won, and she was no exception.
Harleen bit her lip, was he being serious? If he didn't share, what would she write, how was she going to be the one to crack the Joker without him actually talking? Dam it; she knew she had no choice.
Joker watched the Doctor's face, as it showed her thoughts. Some people were open books with their facial expressions, and she was one of them. He looked at the clock, he gave her 10 more seconds… 10… 9….8….7….6….5….4….3….2….1 "OK," She got out right on time. "But I have the right to refuse to answer anything I want to." Joker nodded his head in approval. "Alright, since you got the gymnastics out of me, it's my question now. I bet you've heard this question many times but, how did you get your scars?"
Joker laughed cruelly and Harleen's body seemed to freeze at his laugh, "Oh most of you Doctors are way too scared of my reaction to even ask." He shrugged his shoulders in defeat, "Honestly I don't know any longer, it must have hurt a hell of a lot. I remember the pain." He looked over to the wall and seemed to distance himself from their conversation. "I remember waking up in a hospital with bandages all over my face and I was drugged up beyond repair. I was… 16 at the time? I think that's right." He turned back to Harleen's face and grinned, "I always seem to forget simple things like that."
"Wow… what happened after that?" Harleen asked with concern in her voice.
"I don't remember much after that." He shrugged. "OK my turn, why did you decide to become a psychologist?"
"I want to help people." She answered back half truthfully.
"That's it? You could become a lot of different things and help people." he said back.
"Well… I've always found an attraction to people with disorders. I've always wondered how they thought, how they see the world, and what made them the way they are."
"So… you're attracted to me?" He smirked at her, which made her blush crimson red.
"Professionally, yes." She answered back to him as she tried to calm herself down.
"Oh I doubt that." There was a few seconds of silence between the two as Harleen's stomach flipped in her stomach. She took a few breaths as she tried to calm herself, "I highly doubt that." He added with more confidence as he saw her reaction. She looked straight over into his eyes and saw something she didn't know how to place. It looked dangerous, and Harleen found herself lost within them.
After a good minute of just looking into each other's eyes there was a knock on the door. Harleen jumped at the sudden noise; a second later the guards came to get him. The whole time Joker had a wicked all knowing smile on his face. Harleen felt panic at the way he looked at her, as though he saw something that she herself didn't even understand. "Till next week, my Harley." He laughed as they took him out of the room.
Harleen watched as the door shut and took a deep breath. What was she doing? This was getting dangerous, but at the same time… exciting. Her hands shook a bit in anticipation for next week. She looked down at her notes:
Joker- Sharing might have been a problem when younger. Likes to play games? – Be cautious. Admitted that he doesn't know/remember how he got his scars. Does remember waking up in a hospital… was 16 must have been extremely fragile at the time… still might be over the incident. He seems to have maybe blocked out the trauma from his life.
Look into Hypnotherapy sessions in the future, might help to uncover exactly what happened and allow him closure to that incident.
Then at the bottom of the paper there was a heart… with the Joker's name in it. She was so screwed. Harleen quickly tore out another piece of paper, and rewrote her notes, with the bottom part not on the paper. She put the paper into his folder and looked back down to the heart. When had she done that?
An: ok next chapter, so I hope this helps to show that he is himself outside of the therapy sessions. Right now I see him trying to figure her out to see how he can use her in the future. And it seems like he just found that out : )
