Disclaimer: Batman, all his associated worlds and the characters within them are not mine.

Warnings: Violence, swearing, slash, rape and the Joker is in this fic. Though this chapter is pretty tame.

A/N: I'm so sorry I haven't updated in ages. I've had at least three pieces of coursework (if you don't know what that is read as 'big ass project') to do since my last update. And medical problems and no desire to write this story. I have to kind of force myself. This chapter is a bit short and filler-ish but I thought I should put it up for the sake of updating. Hope you enjoy it anyway, sorry for the long wait.

Chapter 3

Waking up was very painful. His head hurt a lot. He kept his eyes shut, sat up slowly and put his hands tentatively on his head, feeling a large bruise at the back. His hair was its normal length, which relieved him momentarily, before his newly remembered memories came flooding back into the fore front of his mind.

He'd been raped in high school. By some jock. He opened his eyes and immediately saw the Joker on the bed across from him, heavily strapped down and sleeping. His gaze set and his face fixed into a scowl. He found his own restraints had been taken off, he was only a low security patient and they'd probably expected him to be out for longer. He slipped out of his bed and walked over to the Joker's, still glaring intensely at the sleeping clown. He shook the Joker and muttered

"Wake up," This had no effect. Jonathan shook him harder this time. "Wake up," he spoke louder. Still nothing.

Jonathan went to the nurse's desk and took a glass of water. He returned to the Joker, grabbed the front of his Arkham overalls and tipped the water over his head, shouting "Wake up!" in the mad man's face.

That woke the Joker up, his expression flickering through confusion and anger for a nano second before he burst out laughing. That just made Jonathan angrier. He smashed the top of the empty glass against the metal cabinet beside the Joker's bed, breaking it into a jagged point which Jonathan held an inch away from the Joker's forehead. The Joker stopped laughing and stared cross eyed at the glass before looking at Jonathan. He smiled.

"Is this how you say good morning?" Jonathan brought the glass closer.

"Shut the fuck up clown, I don't want to hear anything except answers from you," The Joker frowned but miraculously kept quiet, staring at Jonathan and waiting from him to ask a question.

"You knew what you were making me remember didn't you?" he spat.

"That depends, what did you remember?" The Joker's smiled was back for a moment before Jonathan fixed a hand round his throat. He tightened his grip and felt the Joker's pulse beneath his fingers.

"Don't play games with me clown," he said darkly "You knew exactly what you were doing," He relaxed his hold to let the Joker breathe and answer properly though still kept his hand at the clown's throat.

"If you mean I 'made' you remember being fucked in the high schools showers then I definitely knew what I was doing," he growled, the teasing edge to his voice causing Jonathan's anger to rise higher and his hand to clench tightly around the Joker's throat. He watched the Joker turn purple then let go again.

"Why?" The Joker coughed and his breaths were harsh but he smiled again, his voice rasping,

"I wanted to know for sure what that guy did to deserve such a severe punishment. You didn't hide it very well, I'm surprised the GPD didn't guess it was you," Jonathan's confusion showed on his face as the Joker laughed slightly before breaking out into a coughing fit and continuing. "Didn't you remember what you did to him? We'll have to knock you out again..." Jonathan glared and the Joker quickly said "All the strangling doesn't help me talk," Jonathan's mouth twitched up into his best cruel smile.

"I know, I just want to strangle you," The Joker let out a week, wheezy laugh.

"Oh I like you Jonathan, you're much more fun than you look,"

"What did I do to him?" Jonathan asked, not as angry now, he sounded more curious.

"I hear doctors coming our way," The Joker spoke just before Jonathan heard footsteps approaching. He pushed the broken glass under the Joker's bed with his feet, throwing the piece he'd been considering jamming through the Joker's head there too and returned to his bed. He knew the doctors would notice the Joker had had water poured over his head but he could pretend he hadn't menaced him with a glass or strangled him.

The infirmary door opened and in walked the intern Jonathan's psychologist was looking after. She looked nervously around and spotted Jonathan. She looked pale and worn out. This madhouse must be getting to her, Jonathan had seen it happen hundreds of times over his years as director. He'd also prompted it a few times. He smiled at her as she stood by the door and resembled a startled deer. It was his well practised business smile, the one he'd used when he'd been forced to meet with people he disliked and needed to convey his displeasure at talking to them politely.

"Miss Quinzel I believe?" he stated when she continued to just stand motionless by the door, staring at him. She seemed to snap instantly into action, smiling broadly and walking over to his bed.

"Hi Doctor Crane, I'm here to check on you for Doctor Shield," Jonathan narrowed his eyes at her.

"That's unusual. Shield doesn't normally send anyone to 'check up' on his patients in the infirmary," The Joker chose this moment to fake snore really loudly. Quinzel jumped.

"I-I just needed to be useful in some way," she stuttered, standing by Jonathan's bed and looking out the corner of her eyes at the Joker. Jonathan noticed a hint of a Brooklyn accent in her voice that hadn't been there when she'd spoken before. Was she hiding her accent? Jonathan noticed she had one hand behind her back.

"Don't lie to me," Jonathan knew she was up to something. He didn't move in case she really was sent by Shield and this was some kind of test. She stared at him and looked terrified then muttered

"Sorry," before quickly lent forward and placed the hand tightly over his face. Chloroform! Jonathan thought before slipping back into the darkness.

Strange had been very surprised to see him back at school after what had happened yesterday. He had taken Jonathan into his office when he spotted him in the corridor.

"Are you sure you're fit enough Jonathan?"

"Yes Doctor Strange,"

"You must be in physical pain at least..."

"I'm fine Doctor Strange," Strange lent back in his chair and sighed. In truth Jonathan was in pain, a lot of pain, but he was ignoring it the best he could.

"Alright my boy, just... be careful," Jonathan stood.

"I will," He said as he left the office. He didn't have long until class started and he was going to be late.

He decided to take the quick way instead of his normal route, turning into the main corridor where the lockers were. He only made it a few steps before a voice made him freeze. He saw the group of jocks and quickly backed towards the wall at the side of the corridor, slipping into the small space in between two sets of lockers, hiding himself from view. He breathed erratically and stayed hided in the shadows, his heart beating fast.

Jonathan had seen Carter amongst those jocks, heard him laughing and talking with his friends just as he always had. They must not know anything. He heard the voices and the footsteps of the jocks getting closer and he stopped breathing. He heard the footsteps stop a few feet from his hiding place. He could hear them talking clearly.

"Great weekend man,"

"Totally. We totally crashed that car!"

"And we found out Carter's afraid of corn!"

"I am not!"

"Okay then, corn fields, sheesh,"

"It's not the fields, it's the scarecrows. They freak me out,"

"Yeah, whatever, you're just afraid of corn,"

The slamming of lockers and the bell for class ringing drowned out any further conversation and the jocks walked away in the opposite direction from Jonathan's hiding place. Once the corridor was silent, Jonathan slipped out from between the lockers... and straight into Strange.

"Jonathan, go home. I'm ordering you as head school councillor, you are not ready to be back at school yet," Strange said sternly, taking Jonathan by the shoulders and steering him towards the closest exit. He knew he should be embarrassed that Strange had seen him hiding so pathetically but an idea was forming in his head, pushing everything else out of his mind.

When Jonathan got home he went straight to his room, ignoring the confused look his mom gave him. He pushed his wardrobe to the right then pulled up the carpet that had been underneath it, revealing the loose floor board. He worked at the floor board with his fingers, managing to wrench it up after a few seconds of prying. He rummaged through the stuff he'd hidden from his father until he found what he was looking for: "Phobias and Fears: A Guide to your Nightmares" It was an old book, the cover was falling off and the pages were yellowing but it was still readable. He sat on his bed and carefully opened the well thumbed text, finding what he was looking for instantly.

Scarecrows: Although intended to scare birds away the scarecrow is an object of fear for many, some fearing it is 'watching' them, as if it is alive.

It was a short section, but it fuelled his idea. He left his room and entered the kitchen, pausing for just a moment to read the note his mom had left on the kitchen table. Seemed she'd gone shopping for a while so he'd have the house to himself. He opened the closet under the stairs and used a torch to search through the jumble of items. He found an old hat he knew must have once been a part of a terrible costume for some fancy dress party his parents went to and an old potato sack. He took his mom's sewing kit from its place beside the couch and returned to his room.

Jonathan lay out his findings on his bed, along with the over sized clothes Strange had given him yesterday. He set to work altering the potato sack so it would fit over his head and look like a 'real' scarecrow's face. He ripped off his glasses and pulled it over his head to check to eye holes were in the right place.

He instantly loved it, the feel of it, the slightly rough material against his skin, the way it covered his face entirely. He put on the baggy clothes and hat and went to look in the full length mirror in the hall. Jonathan didn't recognise himself. Good. He tried holding his arms out straight and letting his head fall forward, replicating the pose of a scarecrow attached to a piece of wood. The costume worked. He looked just like a scarecrow. He checked the time and his excitement rose. He had enough time to get where he needed to go before school ended. When the final bell rang and Carter tried to go home he was going to get a big surprise.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. I love reviews, I become pathetically excited and euphoric when ever I recieve one... okay I've got to cut down on writing Jonathan POV, it's infecting my brain and making me type in his 'voice'. Please review.