It was over half an hour of polite chit chat before Harley managed to get Greg to actually respond to her questions on Tuesday. The responses themselves undefinitive and snide. She put it down to a bad day, or bad nights sleep or something, and let him go that morning without further prying. Still concerned about it by lunch she headed to the cafeteria but by the time she swiped some juice and eyeballed the room to see if Greg was in his usual seat not only Greg, but all of his companions were standing to clear their trays and leave.
"Do I smell or something?" she directed to Juice-man.
"It just proves you're the new girl that you still have a sense of smell, gets burnt right out of you by someones antics sooner or later"
With no real reason to linger with no lunch mates she simply observed for a moment. The seating plan seemed to have moved two to the right. The center table gang was now much closer to the colored-side door, and the two that were on the far end had now rotated to immediately surrounding the downstairs-end door. Interesting. Seizing another juice for the road she left for her office, trying to remember the layout for her notes when she returned.
"You're not even listening!" screeched her 4 o'clock.
"I am listening, I just didn't want to interrupt you. You deserve to have your say."
"Yes. Well... Thats right then... So I was in the..."
She wasn't listening. She had no idea what the woman was ranting on about and she was loathe to try figure it out, considering it may not make sense anyway being crazy and all. She threw out the old, I am paying attention im just respecting your right to ramble on about nothing therapists excuse and returned to doodling on the margins of her form.
Candy and handcuffs. Her professors would have had a field day.
Dinner rolled around and Harley went early. Great minds think alike it seemed because for some reason, Greg was already seated and established. What was strange about it was his company. The twins were in place at his right hand, sure. The rest of the table was nervous looking whites and yellows. In every available chair. Now she was sure something was amiss.
The following conversation went like this:
"Hi Greg, Boys." she inclined her head to them in turn.
"Good evening Doctor, late night for you, hard at work as always"
"It never ends, but I'm almost done for the day" she smiles.
"Id offer you a seat but Im afraid there isnt much room. Don't let us keep you."
"Dont worry about it, I wasn't planning to hang around tonight, just checking in."
"Well, have a good night."
"See you tommorow."
But this is what Harley knew was being said:
"Hi Greg, I see that only the twins are your usuals and you've filled the table with random people you've scared into it"
"Formal impersonal greeting, should'nt you be leaving soon"
"Checking what you're up to is my last job for the day"
"I realised that I couldnt raise the points of the table so you couldn't join us because you reduce them, so I went for quantity which needs lower individual points to work."
"I know what you're doing and can always impose myself another night"
"Go away"
"I'll be back."
She was so annoyed she forgot to swipe pudding.
Planning angry witty responses that she could have said in the moment now that she'd had a minute to come up with them consumed her evening. She didn't bother checking in on breakfast the next morning so it was almost lunchtime before she heard about what happened as she scrabbled for the can of grape soda in the bottom of the staff vending machine.
"Pair of whites, not a fleck of dust on their records started a food fight... what on earth got into them! 'course with the new rules all of em got added points."
"Had the leathers arrived yet?" Harley spun and asked concerned.
"No, thank god or we'd have two fresh bodies this week for sure. As it stands I suspect some of the reds will be arranging "accidents"" the second doctor air quoted.
"I might go out for lunch, I dont fancy the tension in this place..." the first doctor continued, stirring their coffee as they left.
A lunchtime tussle between reds over who got to sit further from the incoming leathers added another set of points to many of the patients, this time including the first half of leathers. To put it bluntly, they werent pleased. A pair of leathers made for the reds with disregard for anyone in the way with such uproar that the rest of lunch was cancelled. And everyone got more points.
Extra staff was on hand that night, points totals strictly enforced, breaking up some social groups. Whites left almost immediately, yellows scoffed their food. The reds, though they had a reputation to maintain, still seemed eager to leave before anything more could happen. Everyone, staff and patient was on edge, so when the last Rogue was unhooked from the concrete and marched away for the night without incident, it seemed somehow even more foreboding.
Harley sat with Krystal in one of the craft rooms on Wednesday morning. She was even quieter than usual but seemed genuinely focused on the foam and glue construction taking form on the desk. Harley relaxed into it, talking softly about what she was making and offering that at least once a week, their sessions could be outings. The sensory room, craft room, the courtyard garden. Krystal even offered the fact that she liked Harley's deep purple blouse without any prompting. When Harley thanked her she almost had colour in her face. Until the alarms went off.
The colour drained from Krystal so fast it was as though a veil of white had been dropped over her face. The sirens wailed and crashes and yelling sounded in the distance.
"I think we'd better end the session there sweetie" Harley calmly proposed, tidying away the supplies they were using in neat methodical motions. She put an arm around the girl as they walked toward the door only to step back as a man ran past screaming obscenities.
"Maybe we stay here for a bit until things calm down." she revises, leaving Krystal by the table and stepping forward to close and lock the door, but too late.
A man stepped inside the room towards them, a chair leg held like a sabre before him. Gunshots rang out somewhere to their left.
"Doctor doctor, and a doctors little pet" the man giggled, blood stained the sleeves of his shirt, as though they had been wrenched free from tight restraints there not long ago. A Leather.
"Hi, I dont think we've met." Harley ventured calmly with a simle as Krystal clung to her hand and tried to stand behind her.
"Have I met her?" he growls, trying to see around Harley "she one of the little... troublemakers starting shit they cant finish in the cafe? HUH?"
"She's new, just got in last night. Im carrying out her entry evaluation." Harley lied smoothly, squeezing Krystal's hand for comfort.
Someone strode past the ajar door and did a double take. Harley hoped it was a guard and tried to keep the leather talking.
"You're welcome to join us, we were thinking of doing some drawing until things calmed down a little..."
The Joker walked in. Walked really wasn't a good enough way to put it. He glided nonchalantly into place beside the leather as though the craft room was his lounge and he was pleasantly surprised to have guests in his home.
"Hello there!" he said cheerily before equally cheerily beating the Leathers head in with a jagged metal object in his right hand.
"Fancy seeing you here Doctor Quin-zel" he offered, arms spread wide as blood dripped from the edge of his makeshift weapon. The colour matching the lipstick he had somehow aquired. "As you can hear someone is throwing a little party! Can't believe I didn't think of it myself."
She felt Krystal shake as she clung to the back of her whitecoat and decided the best thing to do was play along. Reaching back to hold her hands.
"We weren't invited so we decided to make our own decorations and have a little party by ourselves. We'd just finished and tidied up and you've made a mess again, so we'd better stay here."
"A mess? No, no, no. Its just more decoration. This pattern is hard to achieve I'll have you know." he gestures at the splatter adorning the table legs. The leather moans. "Whoops guess I missed a spot" He took another swing. Harley blinked the flecks from her eyelashes and scowled.
"You're scaring my friend."
"I'M scaring your friend?" another patient made to run into the room and the Joker simply held out his weapon and smiled and the man turned around closing the door behind him. "You're scaring your friend"
Some banged on the door and Joker swung it open and stared out for a moment, they left too.
"No, no, no. This is never going to work. I hate. Missing. The party." he growled, punctuation his words by tapping the hunk of metal on the floor and then throwing it to the side. He looked her over. She was curious for a moment until his eyes lingered a little too long on her chest. She glared.
"Well its the only place theyll pay attention to..." he muttered thoughtfully.
He stepped forward and ripped her shirt open, sending buttons flying.
"HEY!" she yelled, trying to free herself from Krystals panicked grasp to cover herself until the Joker seized her throat with firm but gentle pressure.
"Hold still, I don't have time for this"
Taking the blood red lipstick from his pocket, without ever brushing his hand across her, he drew an enormous smile stretching across her cleavage, complete with teeth. He stepped back to admire his work as people stampeded past the open doorway.
"Just stand there like that and you'll be fine." he dismisses tucking the lipstick away and retrieving his weapon. "Time to join the fun before they spoil it entirely. HA" he waits for a break in the traffic and steps in, joining them. The rate of gunfire had increased, so had the yelling.
They stand there stunned into silence for a moment until a man bursts into the room yelling only to cut off suddenly. He gives them an awkward little apology and leaves just as quick as he entered. Krystal breathes raggedly between tears and Harley realises that for a while now, she is the one shaking, not Krystal.
A few more false starts occur, sending them gasping and bracing themselves in fear but the intruder always left almost immediately. The yelling and screaming becomes barked orders and demands and the noise slowly calms. The guards have finally regained control. Harley isnt sure how long they stand there, shaking knees locked in place until guards find them. Krystal surprises Harley by tugging her shirt and coat closed as they arrive, covering her bra and the smile above it and then clutching to her front.
"LET GO OF THE DOCTOR AND HIT THE GROUND!"
"WAIT! she's fine! She's my patient!" Harley yells in defense, hugging Krystal back.
"Your patient do this?!" The guard angrily, seemingly in charge, gestures his gun to the body of the first intruder.
"No she didn't! it was..."
"We didn't see!" Krystal yelled squeakily voice breaking with emotion "We hid while he fought some other man till the other guy left... it was horrible..." she sobbed and clinged a little too much even for Krystal, but the guard bought it.
"Either of you hurt?"
"Just shock, I think." Harley cleared her throat to answer "Once we get cleaned up and a quick check up we should be fine."
"You two head to the medical bay then. Men, call this one in and clear the rest of the hall, we need to finish up and give the boys downstairs a hand..."
Harley and Krystal walked down the hall until out of sight then stopped to button up her doctors coat properly before they continued.
"Wanna tell me why you did that...?" Harley asked gently, adjusting the collar of her top so that it appeared all was well beneath the coat.
"He helped you. It was weird scary and mean but I think from him it still counted as helping... I want to be helped too. I dont want to be decorations" she adds quietly as they enter the ward.