Hi everybody. I just got released from the hospital and I'm readjusting to my hometown after a long time away. Once I recover, I'm going back to job hunting and hopefully have time to write then. Here's more of my Batman story. I'm focused on this more than my other story as it's allowed me to think more clearly. Anyway, on with the story.

For the next few weeks, the inmates spent their days undergoing psychiatric evaluation sessions. Most failed or refused treatment and remained locked away when finished.

The only person who succeeded in treatment was Harley Quinn. She was easy to interact with now that her sanity was recovering. Dr. Leland treated her sometimes, but some days Harley went through sessions with different doctors to see how well she responded and like with Leland, Harley did rather well. She didn't go crazy, she didn't get angry, she wasn't impatient, spoiled or nervous.

The only time she showed anger during one of her sessions was when she addressed Joker as a "two-timing career-wrecking, woman-abusing son of a bitch" when asked about her thoughts on him. It didn't affect her rehab process and the doctors understood how she felt about the man, but she never became violent.

When asked about her thoughts on Batman however, her mood changed immediately and she made a dreamy face and spoke good things about him. Besides Leland, the doctors discovered through these sessions that Harley Quinn was in love with Batman. They feared she might be stalker-obsessed with him like she was with Joker previously, but Harley assured them that her crush on the Dark Knight was not the same as she had with the Clown Prince. She had no stalking urges in her this time and that she wanted to find love and fun the right way this time.

Harley believed that her chances of regaining parole were climbing very high due to her new and improving behavior as her insane side was starting to die out slowly. The staff had no problems with her like they used to. She was less stressful to be around with. She obeyed whatever instructions she was given and never started fights or any sort of chaos inside Arkham. While she retained some parts of her Harley Quinn personality, the bubbly crazy type, it wasn't in a bad way this time. She still spoke in her Brooklyn accent and no longer called the Joker by pet names, just "Joker" or "Clown". As with Dr. Leland, the staff started calling her by her real name after she told them why she referred that.

In no time, she would be released from Arkham again and be free to live her life in peace, obtain a new job that doesn't involve crime and getting arrested and, from her eyes, score a shot of romance with the city hero. Or if not him, then with someone else. Someone who doesn't dress like a clown and beats the shit out of her whenever he felt like it. Harley wanted a man who would treat her with honor and respect and not as a punching bag.

But like with all good things, it had to end sometime.

Just recently, Arkham Asylum hired a new employee, a man named Lyle Bolton, as another security guard for the facility. Everybody in Arkham assumed he was just like any other security guard, but he was proved them all wrong on his first day on the job. In time, his methods of dealing with the inmates earned him some respect among fellow guards but were also deemed so harsh that the inmates started to fear him except for Joker and Two-Face.

Even on good behavior, Bolton still mistreated the inmates very badly like a school bully.

Dr. Leland was not too pleased with Bolton's actions because he was frightening the soft inmates of Arkham like Harley Quinn and feared her crazy self would resurface from the trauma of being around Bolton. Harley couldn't go through a psychiatric evaluation without freaking out whenever she heard Bolton's booming voice somewhere in Arkham screaming at an inmate for who knows what.

Attending a session with Joan Leland was the only thing that calmed Quinn down and when it ended, it was back to being scared. If Bolton continued his bullying ways, then Harley's progress would come to an end and not in a good way.

For Harley's sake, Poison Ivy tried to stop Bolton with her plant hypnosis, but Bolton was too mentally strong for that and he extracted her from her cell and literally threw her in a new shady cell to "cool her off" as he called it. The cell lacked sunlight and that weakened her. It was kinda her Kryptonite.

Ivy begged to be released from her cell and she was ignored, by him at least. The other doctors were kinda friendly to her even though her mental health was not as close to Harley's.

Joker and Two-Face were the only ones who were not afraid of Lyle Bolton for they were too insane to handle reality, but even that didn't save them from cruel and unusual punishment the man dished out. He once stole Two-Face's coin, rendering him unstable and he had a freak out. He even threatened Bolton into giving him his coin back and Bolton simply responded by putting the coin in one of the trash containers in the facility which enraged the former D.A. much to Bolton's amusement. Joker was too lost to notice Bolton. He was still lost in though after Quinn broke off their partnership with him.

While rough, Bolton did not stir up any trouble with the staff as he was one of them. His targets were the inmates only. To him, fear was the only way to run things and keep the inmate population in the asylum under total control like a dictator mad with power. He even preferred to call them things like "prisoners", "dirtbags" or "waste of life" rather than "inmates" or "mentally ill patients" because he viewed them as unworthy trash who deserved harsh treatment. While Arkham Asylum was technically a holding facility, it was no prison, but Bolton made sure to make the lives of the inmates a living hell and he succeeded with all except Joker.

His personal policy when working was a "Shut Up and Do As I Say Or Else!" type of persona.

The only inmate who avoid Lyle's wrath was Killer Croc. He spent all of his time in the underground sewer section of the asylum and refused to go anywhere, not even for rec time. He wasn't afraid of Bolton, he just found him annoying as hell. The stench in his domain was so foul, even Bolton himself refused to venture there again after he was sent to deal with the reptilian inmate for the first time and didn't like what he found and saw. Foul stenches were his one weakness, but he refused to allow anyone else to know that in order to maintain his dominance of Arkham.

One night, Harley was taken down by Bolton just for taking long in the showers. Her long hair took time to wash. She told him this to justify her prolonged bathing time, but Bolton told her to either cut her hair off or he would if she took long again and after she got dried and dressed, he forced her out of the shower and chucked her inside her cell and slammed the door shut loud without any regrets. It was so terrifying for her.

"Where are ya, Bats? I need you!" Harley whispered as if she were talking to him telepathically.

"NO TALKING CLOWN WITCH! STAY THERE AND KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT NOW!" Bolton yelled and Harley fearfully complied. Her eyes swelled with tears. This man was similar to Joker minus the makeup and clown-themed gadgets and he was just as abusive as Joker.

Batman has ta come sometime! He promised he would! Harley thought, hoping he would save her from Bolton.

One day, Jonathan Crane, having enough of Bolton's antics, planned an escape from the facility just to get away from him and he did when Bolton was taking a break and unaware of Crane's activities. The so-called "god of fear" was afraid for his life by a man who was just as menacing as he and the other inmates.

"Take me with ya!" Harley begged when she saw him making a break for it.

"Me too!" said Arnold Wesker, a.k.a. Ventriloquist. His dummy spoke for him.

Scarecrow was too focused on escaping to hear them and made his way to freedom. But this time, in order to avoid detection by anyone, Batman included, Scarecrow decided to lay low during his time out of Arkham Asylum. He didn't commit a single crime in the city aside from his escape. He's rather hide all day and all night than be found and sent back with Lyle haunting the facility.

Eventually he was caught by Batman and Robin and was escorted back to Arkham territory where Batman and Robin had their first meeting with Lyle Bolton and learned who he was and why Scarecrow escaped.

The two heroes soon learned what's been going on in Arkham ever since Bolton started working there and even they were disgusted by his actions. Batman/Bruce Wayne feared for Harley's safety and mental health. She was making progress until Bolton made himself at home in Arkham. Who knows what that man's been doing with her. He had to do something and save his victims, even Harley.

One day, Lyle Bolton was summoned to a small court hearing when he was reported and he complied. The person who reported Bolton to the judge was Joan Leland after she saw what happened to Harley.

As Bruce Wayne, he helped get Bolton dismissed from Arkham after the latter had a freak out about the inmates during the trial. Harleen Quinzel, Arnold Wesker and Jonathan Crane were at Bolton's trial when he faced accusation charges and inadvertently caused the man's attitude rampage by telling the truth about him after at first covering for him out of fear for their lives.

During that time, Harley looked at Bruce and mentally thanked him for standing up for them.

She decided to go talk to him.

"Hiya Brucey! Long time no see!" said Harley.

"Greetings Miss Quinzel."

"Did Batman talk to ya? Because I asked him to tell you how sorry I was about what happened at the store when he dropped me off back at Arkham."

"He did and it's alright, ma'am. You just panicked just when you were readjusting to life outside Arkham Asylum."

"Did I leave a bruise on ya or somethin'?" Harley asked and examined his face where she struck him.

"No. I'm alright."

"Good. How's yer girlfriend doin'?"

"Veronica's doing fine."

"Glad ta hear that. When ya see her, tell her I said and thanks for not stickin' them charges on me."

"Will do."

Harley hugged Bruce as her way of thanking him for saving her today and for having no hard feelings against her for hurting him at the store.

"Ya know. She's ain't bad at all. You're lucky to have her." Harley said.

"Thanks Miss Quinzel. I am lucky to have her."

"You're not the only one to find romance, rich boy. I've got my eyes set on someone different than Joker. I'm talkin' about the Bat! Once I prove myself sane, I'm hopin' ta make a move on him, assumin' he's single, that is!"

Bruce was surprised by Harley's words, but he kept his emotions under control.

"Really? You have feelings for Gotham City's protector?"

"Of course! He's much better than Joker ever was! I even kissed him when he brought me back to Arkham and I loved it! Between you and me, I think he did too because I remember him grinning at me before leavin'." Harley said, remembering that night.

Bruce remembered Harley kissing him that night.

"Are you obsessed with him the way you were with Joker?"

"Nah. Well, maybe a little, but believe me, it's nothin' like how I felt for that stupid clown. This time, I want it to be real love, not a fantasy, fake one I had with him. The next time ya see Batman, can ya set me up on a date with him?"

Bruce thought Harley's kiss to him was just out of gratefulness for helping her, but now that he knew the jester woman's kiss was more than that, he was both shocked and joyful. He admitted to himself that Harleen Quinzel was kinda attractive if one saw past the craziness and yes, he did kinda enjoy kissing her. Even when she was a doctor, she was still beautiful. But he was with Veronica Vreeland and, unless they went their separate ways, he could not have any romantic involvement with Quinzel. But that was when he was Bruce Wayne. As Batman, that was a different tale and he just couldn't say no to the new Harley Quinn. Now that she was single again and looking for love from a new man, why not make her happy? He had no intentions of breaking up with Veronica, he just wanted to make good on his word of seeing Harley while she was recovering.

"I'll see what I can do when I see him again."

"Yay! Well, I gotta go now Mistah W! Good luck with Veronica!" Harley said as she was escorted away with Crane and Wesker.

So she has a romantic interest in my other self. No wonder she was excited when I promised her a visit as Batman. If nothing happens tonight in Gotham, I'll make good on my word and see Harleen. She's not so bad after all. Bruce thought to himself.

There, finished. I hope I'm not sloppy with this story. The romance theme here is from Harley's pov only. since she's still the crazy type, but in a good way this time. She's like Mai Shiranui from the Fatal Fury games., in love with someone who does not actually love her back. Come to think of it, that's how she is around Joker in the show and other DC-related media. I've just started reading the New 52 Suicide Squad books and I'm starting to express interest in writing a fic on them.

I should be fully healed by the end of the month and back on my feet . . . literally. The traveling was great, but it's so good to be back in my hometown where I belong. No more traveling for me, except vacations and nothing else. I hope everyone had an excellent Xmas and a happy 2015 as we roll on to 2016. I can't wait for the Suicide Squad and Batman Vs. Superman films to come out this year! Both are gonna kick so much ass! Are you not entertained? Are ye not excited? Will ye keep reading me story? Why am I talkin' like a pirate, yarr?