Authors Note:
I'm on a roll tonight I think. The Joker is finally making an appearance next chapter! And yes to those that are wondering, the Scarecrow does have a major part to play in this story. And it has nothing to do with love triangles because I hate those. Read and review. If you like it, give it love!
Enjoy!
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Harley sat on her living room floor, legs crossed, pen and open notebook balancing on one knee, a mug of coffee in one hand as she poured through the contents of the two boxes that had been delivered to her house three days ago. Of course she hadn't opened the boxes until that morning. Harley liked to conduct her own research into a person online before looking at their files. It gave her a starting point, a skeleton of her patient's life before getting into the nitty-gritty speculation. She was after all, learning about a person here. And to learn about a person you had to understand where they had come from, what their lives had been like, the choices that they'd made and how they'd grown up before she could understand what went wrong.
The information from the Internet had been refined into the usual basic outline of his life. And the bones of the man she hoped to construct, in dot-point.
'Born out of wedlock.
Raised by his great-grandmother
Grandmother died in his senior yearPursued a career in psychology – eventually specializing in the study of fear.'
Harley paused. It seemed her and Jonathan Crane had something in common. She too, had been drawn to becoming a psychologist after the death of her parent.
'Employed by Gotham University as Professor of Psychology.
Fired a gun at his students during a class to prove a point
This results in the university firing him.
During his time at the university he develops a hallucinogenic gas that induces deep phobias in victims.'
Besides this note she had a clipping of a news article titled 'STUDENT TERROR AS TEACHER BRANDISHES FIREARM' stuck onto the page.
'Adopts the Scarecrow persona for the first time and kills reagents responsible for his firing.'
This one dot point left Harley with a lot of immediate questions. All of which she scribbled down hurriedly. It seemed very odd for a man to make a leap from classroom teacher to a costumed-killer. Even if discharging a firearm in a classroom was obviously unacceptable behavior, it didn't necessarily mean he was mentally unstable at that point. You'd be surprised what enthusiasts will consider a good idea at the time Harley had the insistent feeling that there were gaps in this story. It didn't make sense.
'why a scarecrow?'
she wrote her last question next to the original dot points. Of all the things he could have dressed up as, or used as a disguise… why had he chosen a scarecrow? He hadn't lived on a farm, so why would he identify with this figure? Only time might give her answers.
'Transfers to Arkham Asylum and becomes a psychiatrist.
Conducts fear-inducing experiments on his patients.
Specializes in Psychopharmacology: The study of drug-induced changes in mood, sensation, thinking and behavior. Main studies are conducted for the modification of behavior and alleviation of symptoms, particularity in the treatment of mental disorders.
Allies with criminal Ra's Al Ghul and paid crime lord Carmine Falcore for smuggling the hallucinogenic drugs into Gotham
Paid to declare Falcone's thugs wrongfully insane in court – preventing them form serving jail time.
Is caught and fails psychological examination, which results in him being committed at Arkham.
Escapes during the mass breakout.
Re-captured by Batman 4 months later.'
It seemed his murder of the university regents had opened the floodgates for corrupt behavior in Jonathan Crane. Harley had skimmed over the 'basic' notes again before she'd opened the boxes and begun sorting the contents into files, reading though each and making notes.
She'd been right in her statement to Whitman that Jonathan's rehabilitation wasn't making much progress. Jonathan had been an inmate for several months now since his recapture, yet his doctors had made little progress with him. Harley could highlight several reasons why this was probable. Firstly, being a prior doctor at Arkham, Crane probably already has history with most of his doctors. Even minor history like that can seriously undermine a chance for a patient to connect with the doctors treating him. Ross had mentioned most of the doctors felt unsettled around Crane. Being an astute student of fear he would have picked up on this, and no doubt exploited it.
Pulling out a record sheet, Harley could confirm Crane had gone though an unusual number of 'doctors.'
In the recordings she listened to, he sounded bored with the probes into his childhood and past. Harley supposed she'd be bored too if she were forced to under go therapy, when that was her job. She could psychoanalyze herself anytime she wanted. Maybe if the doctor was interesting enough to allow the examination to go a little both ways…. you know, just to add some interest on her part…
She paused, and jotted down a note at the corner of her page. The beginnings of an idea perhaps.
Looking out the window and acknowledging the set sun with a kind of resigned admission that she'd been at this too long, Harley set down her pen and closed her notebook. There was only so long she could throw herself into dissecting a psychiatrist who used drugs and psychological tactics to exploit the fears and phobias of his adversaries before she felt the need for some normality. Getting up from the floor and hobbling into the kitchen on her protesting legs, Harley dumped her cold coffee down the sink and flipped on the kettle with the goal of making a replacement. Picking up the remote she turned on the television and channel flipped until the News came on.
10 o'clock already? She hadn't even started dinner. Taking off her glasses, Harley pulled on her apron and took out the pasta sauce she'd cooked up yesterday. Pouring it into a pot to simmer she filled a larger pot with water and set it on the hot plate, waiting for it to boil while she leaned on the counter, watching the television.
'…still unable to make contact with either of the ferries to know what demands the Joker has made or if there is any immediate danger to the passengers."
Harley's heart froze for a millisecond. Since warning the people of Gotham to either play or get out, Harley hadn't heard anything on the Joker's movements. She'd been engulfed in her own work and hadn't been watching the news or listening to the radio. She, herself, had never entertained the idea of leaving town. She wasn't going to just leave Arkham, not now she was exactly where she wanted to be for a start … but also there was the far less admitted idea that she didn't want to abandon the Joker. She'd been here for the start of the game and like everything else she wanted to see it through to the end. She wasn't running scared. She was staying curious. He was the reason for her recent success and he wasn't really real to her in the platonic sense. Like many of those that stayed, she didn't feel immediately threatened by him. One of those 'he could choose any place to blow up why would he pick my flat' type reasonings.
Harley turned up the volume on the television as it played video footage of the two ferryboats unmoving and unresponsive on the water. As the story continued and the facts slowly undressed themselves Harley found herself eating her pasta on the floor directly in front of the television; listening to the faint echoes of the same broadcast that indicated her neighbors were also currently seated, transfixed by their respective screens.
'… the Joker's ultimatum to the two ferry boats has sparked an instant response as police desperately search to take the Joker into custody before the alleged midnight deadline. Contact is still impossible between or to either boats. The public has been advised to stay in their homes, though hundreds have gathered at the harbor to stand and hope for a miracle to divert disaster. Back to you Daniel."
Harley's chest felt constricted and she suddenly put her bowl down on the coffee table, unable to eat. Children and citizens in one boat, criminals on the other. Make a choice, or both of them go? She checked her watch. 11.55. Five minutes until the deadline and both ferries were still in the water… intact. Those questions again… could she blow up the boat? It's easier to imagine blowing up the criminals to save the children but… still there are no answers. After all, the criminals hadn't blown up their law-abiding counterparts. She hears the sound of someone crying up stairs. The elderly couple in 14b have family on that ferry… grandchildren. Harley found herself staring at her watch as Daniel vanished and the TV displayed aerial shots of the two ferries, while Harley voiced a tentative countdown
"5…4…3…2…1… "
Harley stares, unblinking at the television. Not breathing or moving until finally… 12.01… 12.05. Nothing had happened. Everyone was alive.
Instead of relief her immediate reaction is confusion. A bluff? The Joker's never bluffed before! She's momentarily annoyed at this change in his behavioral pattern because it doesn't fit the profile of him she's already locked away as 'done and dusted' in the back of her mind. She picks up her pasta again and starts to eat.
It didn't make sense, why would the Joker carry out every threat he'd made to the press, insisting on the premise that he always would, just to fall though now? Had he suddenly grown a conscious? He'd lived by the principle of spare the rod and spoil the child with city of Gotham up until now. Nothing like that happens spontaneously. He can't just go from ruthless sincerity to a merciful poker face, there had to have been something that happened inbetween, something… between.
Suddenly she's choking and thumping her chest like a wild thing, dumping her pasta bowel back on the table, Harley hit mute then dived for her laptop and began logging onto the newspaper archives, typing in key words and scrolling through the results.
No WAY did Jonathan Crane get fired and decide to murder three people off hat. He was too controlled. Like any psychologist he was all too aware of how the mind can snap under emotion pressure. His job was everything to him yes but he was not an extreme personality, everything Jonathan Crane did was composed, and planned. He'd never allow himself the option of an action he knew nothing about, which ruled out spontaneity and ruled in….
She suddenly stopped scrolling.
'MASKED GUNMAN TERRORIZES SENIOR PROM: TWO DEAD'
Prior incidents.
'Senior Prom at Reedington High ended in tragedy on Friday night when a Caucasian male armed with a shotgun appeared in the school parking lot, terrorizing the students present. The gunman is described as tall, thin and wearing what appeared to be a scarecrow mask and dark clothing. An attempt to escape the gunman by car lead to the fatal crash, which resulted in the tragic death of Sherry Squires, age 17. Bo Griggs remains in hopistal in a serious condition. Anyone with information on the identity of the gunman is urged to contact police.'
"Well blow me dead."
She double-checked her dates, but they were dead on. That was Crane's prom night. And she'd marry Whitman if that hadn't been Crane under that mask. Reading later news articles revealed that Griggs had survived, but remained completely paralyzed from his broken back, and confirmed that the gunman had never been apprehended.
So the Scarecrow identity had in fact been first adopted around the age of 18. A situation like that, a masked kid with a gun usually exhibits a young man starved of control to a point where he'd to anything to achieve some. Armed, when no one else could know who he was would have given him an intense rush of power. It makes sense that when he felt powerless again, years later he reverted to what he knew had worked in the past. If he'd aimed to terrorize Griggs or Squires specifically (and they certainly seemed to have been given special attention) then he'd already exhibited violence towards those who perhaps caused him grief. Looking at Griggs' burly photo, he certainly looked like a bully. Maybe he pushed Crane too far? Failing that, maybe his Grandmother's death had hit him harder then anyone had known.
Harley browsed though obituaries but discovered his grandmother died a mere 4 days after the incident. So more questions arose.
What had set Crane off that night?
Had he meant to get Griggs and Squires killed?
How had his grandmother died?
Impressed with her own detective work and enjoying the after current of her breakthrough, Harley saved her work and closed the laptop, only then realizing that the television was still on, a grainy freeze frame of the Joker's face plastered up beside the newsreader. Watching it on mute for a moment, trying to lip-read, Harley eventually turned up the volume.
'…finally apprehended by police and taken into custo-'
she turned the television off with finality…..
Caught… caged, outsmarted.
She was relieved, disappointed and /or indifferent…
Taking her bowl to the sink and deciding to leave the dishes for the morning, Harley padded down into her room, pulled on her pajamas and crawled into her bed, her blankets toasty thanks to her electric blanket. Best invention to man, and the only way to battle a winter chill that ran bone-deep.
She lay there, in the dark, listening to the clock tick, reasoning with herself.
The Joker, taken into custody.
Apprehended by police. HOW???!! How did he allow this to happen?
Custody… pending trial. Trial meant a jury of people who'd lost family and friends to him. Trial meant electric chair or a quick prick to the arm that fucked you for life, or a rope tight, tight about his neck! How was she meant to get to him? How was she meant to meet him, her star, her protagonist if he was dead?
Her pasta-filled stomach churned as dreams of a complete and finished book slipped just out of reach.
Suddenly a thought occurred to her. Pending trial… Regarded as the worlds biggest sociopath by the ignorant, pending trial meant a psychological examination to see if he was fit to stand trial… which meant taken into custody was really taken to…
Arkham