A/N: OK, so a change in POV here. This should be interesting for you guys to read.
Chapter 12: A Vacancy
Dr. Marcia Cates' pay had often depended on how quickly Tetch would get it in gear on his projects.
However, that was not why she disliked him and always had. It was because he was such a child! A child who merely lived in dreams and fantasies most of the time, careless over his work at times. The day Bruce Wayne recommended that she should watch over the idiot as supervisor, she had felt demoted. Eight years of university, and she had to play mother to this English muffin? Ridiculous!
Also, Cates usually valued strength in a person, a tough-as-nails edge that could rival her own. Tetch had never had any guts, so as far as she saw it, he hadn't deserved any glory. Oh, sure, he would attempt to argue with her but that stuttering...That damn stuttering would ceaselessly get on her nerves!
Truth be told, she'd thought it unfair. The two of them both had had the same amount of schooling, yet he'd gotten the more impressive salary. It had never sounded right to Cates. The sniveling coward hadn't lived up to his earnings in her humble opinion...
Nor would he.
On the tenth floor of Wayne Industries, the respectable technological department, there was a vacancy. An empty office that hadn't been in use for two weeks. Quiet, with no tinkering with microchips or anything of that nature.
It was early April 1992. Those two weeks ago, Jervis Tetch, respectable and genius technological whiz, had snapped at last. After years of bullying and abuse, heartache and anguish, he had caved under the pressure. Couldn't take it any more.
Indeed, the man had gone positively...mad.
Of course, Cates had no recollection as to how Tetch decided to go irreparably crazy. The last thing she remembered before seeing the flashing red and blue lights of police cars was feeling something metallic tucked behind her ear.
Then, a man's menacingly low whisper, "How would you like to be the Queen of Hearts, Marcia? Hm?"
It hadn't been just any man's voice, she'd realized later. No, this voice had the delicate accent of a place only to the south of London. No doubt it had been Jervis Tetch who had done this to her, his method of achieving his revenge at last. When he'd lost it, he'd lost it big time.
From what she understood, according to the police's account of this very odd (more like bizarre) story, Jervis had tried to create his own Wonderland out of Gotham City. To do that, he had slipped microchips behind half the city's ears to trick them into believing the roles they'd been coerced to. She, inevitably, was supposed to play the villain. Which made sense, considering the imbecilic man had never cared that much for her. However...
She shouldn't have scolded him as often as she had. Cates knew this better than anyone in Wayne Industries. It could have been because of her that Jervis was now no longer in the proper state of mind to work. And God only knew what had happened in the man's life to mold him into the basket case he was currently.
As she sat at her own desk, Cates frowned. "Well, my salary depended on his progress. Which—hmph, I'll admit—was fairly well. But only because I prodded him along. And how he took whatever it was that was bothering him out on innocent people...It amazes me he isn't in the penitentiary."
Her frown deepening, she resolved to get back on her current task.
She currently studied the résumé (a very impressive one at that, one that probably surpassed Tetch's) of a young twenty-eight-year-old upstart. Yes, he seemed to her quite promising. A Yale graduate with a degree in technology under his belt and one in physics as well.
This man surely was more of a genius than Tetch ever was in his pathetic life. As for prior experience with his subject, this Harold Fields had apparently conducted research in the university's labs.
Though one of only a handful of them, Cates could undoubtedly say that this was the best résumé she'd glanced at all day.
As a supervisor still, she had been instructed by Mr. Wayne to potentially find an ideal replacement for Tetch. Hmph, that billionaire had acted like her duty would be difficult, arduous even. On the contrary, this promised to be simple work. Though she hadn't come across too many takers for Jervis Tetch's position (as most people thought it cursed), it made her job even easier. Cates could narrow it down to those most deserving of the job.
So, Harold Fields, it was. She would dictate her response and congratulatory letter today...to the same secretary as before.
And speak of the devil, young Alice Pleasance rushed in while still holding her umbrella. "Sorry, Dr. Cates, it's raining really heavy. I could barely see what was in front of me."
With a glance out her window, Cates noted a flash of lightning along with a horrible downpour. "Understood, Alice. You came in just in time, actually."
"Why? What do you need me to do today?" she asked, ready to be of service.
Cates smiled grimly in response. That girl would make that Billy Logan a devoted, good wife since they were to be married in June.
"I want you to type out a letter I will dictate for you," the redheaded woman mentioned. "It is to tell a Mr. Harold Fields that he has been accepted to fill the vacancy."
The eager smile on Alice's face evaporated. "Vacancy? You mean...um...You mean his..."
"Yes, Alice, Tetch's." Cates was confused by the flinching this answer had apparently induced in the girl. Maybe she shouldn't have been puzzled, though. The secretary had been the ploy for what had been a madman's master plan, after all.
Meanwhile, Alice gazed sadly out the window, watching the wind whip raindrops against it. "I can't believe we've found a replacement so soon."
"That's how the business world works," Cates told her flatly in her blunt fashion. "If someone truly is down for the count, we find another one to fill his place. A suitable replacement, mind you. All because we can't have this company be dragged down for too long. Just because one of Wayne Industries', ah, best and brightest went insane..."
"You weren't of much help to him, you know," Alice said in a tone too eerily quiet for her.
"Pardon?"
"You heard me." The blonde turned toward her, blue eyes flashing. "All you did was make him feel worse about himself. Maybe we're all to blame for what he did."
Cates couldn't believe this. "Alice, you're not making—"
"I think you'll have to find another secretary too, Dr. Cates. I'm sorry, but my heart isn't in this job any more."
And Alice coolly walked away from a truly bewildered Marcia Cates.
A/N: Even I didn't expect Alice to quit her job in this chapter. Just thought it would be a chapter or two later. But, no, guess not. It also kind of shows that she might possibly have feelings for Jervis. But, at the moment, she's basically confused. As for the thing I had Jervis say to Cates, he probably said something else to her in the real episode, but I don't remember. Besides, what I put down sounds way more menacing, doesn't it?
Tell me what you think.
