Chapter Three

"Ivy?" I rolled my eyes at the wall before rolling over to peer over the edge of the rail on my top bunk. Lia, a girl I roomed with was stood on the floor looking up at me. Her baby like face with its sweet blue eyes did nothing to portray her scheming mind behind it.

"Yeah?" I asked her, my tone of voice telling her that was I entirely uninterested with what she had to say.

"What was Dr Crane like?" she asked, "I've got an appointment with him tomorrow"

I smirked, I wasn't crazy, but Lia, in the conventional sense of the word was. She had some form of a nervous disposition. I had no idea what exactly it was but it was something to do with an event that had happened to her when she was a child. It meant that she could fly off the handle and go a bit bananas at various times. There was no knowing what triggered it, which is why she, like I, had weekly counseling sessions with the doctor.

"He's alright, not necessarily easy to talk to, but I'm sure you'll be fine" I said

"Hmm, he looked really young" she said

"He's quite young," I said shortly, trying to direct this conversation towards its end so I could get back to reading my book.

Lia didn't give up though, "Leanna said he was quite handsome"

"Leanna thinks every guy is quite handsome" I said, "I suppose he's not ugly, I wasn't looking that closely"

"Yeah right, you can't deny that you like looking at the guys too" she muttered, "Shut up in here without a second of male company other than the wardens…"

I shrugged and lifted my book up to let her know I was no longer interested in continuing this inane chat. She huffed and turned to walk away but her thoughts stuck in my head. I supposed Dr. Crane wasn't bad looking, but I honestly hadn't looked at him in that way. I saw him as someone, who if he signed all the necessary papers, could get me out of here and let me start my life.

Something that I was so desperate to do.

As I was seventeen, I didn't have to go to the school attached to the institute full time. I only went for three days a week to complete my studies. I was currently taking Biology, Biochemistry, English Literature and Latin. A strange combination of subjects I know, but the way I saw it, they all interested me, so I might as well be interested in what I was doing.

I only had a few more weeks of studying to do until I got some form of certification for my work. I didn't know how much use a certificate of education would be in Gotham, I didn't think a huge amount of employers were interested in that. I think they cared more about your criminal record and whether your father was in the mob. I had no father to influence things either way, so the only person I could rely on was myself.

Right now, however, I was in P.E. Regardless of whether we were in school or not, we had compulsory physical exercise every day. Today it was high jump. I liked sport, I was good at it because of my long legs that could move fast and my surprisingly agile body. Everybody wanted me on their team in sport, and it felt good, it felt good to have that physical advantage over these people who I knew I had a mental advantage over as well. I enjoyed feeling the power that the human body had, and the power the mind possessed to urge that body to go to it's extremes. To push itself. I also loved P.E because it was always outside. Regardless of whether it was winter or summer, it was the one time of the day where we were allowed outside. We were supervised of course, but to me that didn't matter. It was nice just to be able to the sky, the trees and the cut back plants, which would oh so soon burst forth into life.

"Hey Ivy" said Lia jogging over to me after I completed a 1.3m jump.

"Yeah?" I asked looking at her dispassionately. I'm not sure why this girl insisted on talking to me all the time; she annoyed the crap out of me.

"Did you hear that Dr. Crane thinks I should be put up to get out of here?" she asked excitedly.

That got my attention, "When did he say that?"

"Apparently he told Mother Watson yesterday that he thought I was alright and because I'm sixteen next month, my getting ready to leave should be set into motion," said she excitedly, her blue eyes glinting with something that could have been malice. She knew that this was a subject close to me and she hadn't come over here merely to inform me.

I opened my mouth to speak but found, for the first time in my life, that I had nothing to say. Why did Dr. Crane think that Lia was alright to get out of here? She definitely had issues and she was a year and a bit younger than me. What the hell?

"What's the matter Ivy?" asked Lia, now definitely taunting me, "Upset?"

I didn't say anything to her just shook my head, "Of course not. There's got to be some reason why they think it's okay to release you. My time will come."

Lia narrowed her eyes because she clearly didn't believe my spiel and a smirk edged its way onto her face, "Sure, whatever Ivy"

She walked away with a skip in her step and it was all I could do to stop myself running after her and bringing her to the floor. I didn't because I didn't want to find myself locked in for the next two days. The only problem with my love of being outside and the sense of feeling free that it gave me; the people here had something over on me. They knew exactly what my punishment was if I did lose my temper and hit someone. The last girl who'd annoyed me so much that I lashed out had had a black eye for two weeks. Well at the end of the two weeks it had been more yellow than black, but you get my point.

"What the hell?" I asked storming into the room with Dr Crane in at my appointment the next week. Lia hadn't stopped rubbing it in my face for the last two days and even though I had held myself back about not smacking her in the jaw, it had done nothing to approve my temper. I did need answers however.

"Nice to see you again Ivy" he said with a relaxed smile on his face, looking completely unperturbed by my entrance.

"Why are Lia's papers on the way for her getting out of here and yet I haven't?" I said without sitting down.

"Lia doesn't belong here," he said softly.

"Neither do I!" I shouted vehemently leaning on the desk, my red hair falling down past my elbows. I was about to lose it big style.

"I know," he said softly, cutting off my next tirade of words that were on the way out of my mouth.

"What?" I asked a lot softer than before.

"Ivy, what are you going to do when you do get out of here?" he asked me

"Uh-," I said stopping short, "I don't know, something to do with natural remedies"

Dr. Crane smiled again and I couldn't help but let a small smile grace my own mouth. I realised then that I was still stood up with my hands on the desk and I felt a little foolish, I pulled the chair out and sat down.

"Do you know what I do?" asked Dr. Crane

"Uh, you're a therapist?" I asked motioning to the other side of the desk.

"I'm actually a pharmaceutical scientist, but I am in training to do psychiatry as well" he said

"You work with drugs?" I asked with a smirk

"In a way" he said, "But isn't that what you want to do?"

"Only natural ones" I said and he grinned at me.

"Miss Reed, most 'artificial' drugs we have these days, come from an origin of plant properties. We looked at what they did and made them better" he said to me.

"Maybe sometimes you didn't have to," I said thinking about my poisoning incident when I was younger.

"Maybe" he said with a shrug, "There is a reason I didn't push forward your papers Ivy. I don't want you tossed out onto the streets like Lia will be, with no way to help or fend for yourself."

"Why?" I said with a suspicious look in his direction; nobody ever wanted something for nothing.

"Because I want you to come and work for me when you get out of here"