Thank y'all so much for the reviews! Miss Crane, Miss Riddler, Keysie, I AM the Batman Dag Nab it, PureDarkMagic, nicole napier, , ya'll are all totally awesome!!!!! nicole napier, thanks for the MULTIPLE reviews, they made me laugh.

This chapter was shorter than I would have liked, but the next one will be amazing! So review and tell me how I'm doing!



11: A Piece of the Action

Crane avoided me like the plague, and Edward would only talk to me in riddles so I finally told him if he couldn't say anything without encrypting it just not to talk to me at all. To top it all off, Jervis had started calling me "Alice." I was prepared to spill my guts for the first time ever to Harley about all this, but when I reported to my guard, or 'courier', he told me that I wasn't going to have a session with her today! On the one day I actually wanted to talk!

"Well, where is she? I really need to talk to her."

"She's meeting with the other doctors in the asylum about a new patient."

"They aren't allowed to schedule things that interfere with their patient's consultations and… things. Can you take me to her?"

"I'm not sure…" the normally in-charge guard was waffling.

"You can just take me and I'll wait outside. I won't interrupt or anything. I just –I need to talk to her as soon as she gets out." I brushed my brown hair off my orange shoulder and waited impatiently for his answer.

"I suppose…"

The words were barely out of his mouth before I grabbed his arm and yanked him down the hall. "Good, let's go." He didn't have to point me in the right direction; the interns and guards were all whispering and walking in the same direction. Must be some prisoner they're bringing in, I thought. Pretty soon we hit a wall of people. Why am I so short? I asked myself as I stood on my tiptoes, trying to see around the heads. Scanning the crowd, I picked out guards and orderlies I recognized… there was Harley! I could see her in her grey business outfit topped by a white lab coat. Her blond hair accented the expression on her face: something between longing, excitement, and a hunting dog on point. I would have bet money she was wearing her red high heels; otherwise I would have never seen her.

I elbowed the guy. "Hey, I see her. I'm going to go stand by her. You don't have to stick around." He hesitated, but eventually let me go, watching to make sure that that's where I really was going. Inching past people, I finally pushed my way through to her. "Hey Harley," I panted, finding a space not occupied by a person. "I need to talk to you."

"Tierney!" She looked utterly amazed to see me. While she stared at me, I again realized that our ages were not too far apart. We could have been friends in another time. "What are you doing here?"

Didn't I just tell you? "I said – "

"Shh! You aren't supposed to be here. Keep quiet and don't call attention to yourself."

As soon as she had said that, an old man with grey hair and the complexion of a cadaver boomed over the throng, "Haven't we got things to do, people? Go do it! Move on, there's nothing to see here."

Wasn't that what cops said when a crime had been committed? Most people walked away reluctantly to do their jobs. The only people left were the asylum doctors and I.

Lo and behold, the cadaverous man caught sight of me. Orange didn't really let you blend into the awful yellow walls very well. "Dr. Quinzel! What is that patient doing here?"

"Dr. Arkham, this meeting is interrupting my counseling session with her. She will in no way interfere with the proceedings, I promise." Harley's hands were clenched behind her back. That's Dr. Arkham? Whoa. He looks …well… like a cadaver. Harley took my arm and pulled me along behind her. She parked me by a water cooler and said, "Stay here. Don't move until I come and get you. Okay?"

I regarded her, my brown eyes staring into her blue ones. "Sure. Thanks for not sending me back to my cell." She looked confused. "You could have, to save face in front of your boss."

She waved my thanks away. "Oh, Dr. Arkham's just full of hot air. Just don't move."

"I won't." She walked back to the huddle of doctors. There was one good thing about standing by this water cooler: it had a good view of the action. And the action began happening pretty fast.

A bunch of police-looking people came first, packing guns and looking as edgy as anything. Then came someone I remembered: Sergeant Gordon, from the night I was arrested, the first night I remember anything about. I strained to hear. Dr. Arkham was calling him commissioner. Wow! He had moved up fast. Then the fun really started. Three guys, who wore police uniforms but looked more like body builders, all had a tough grip on a slimmer figure in a straightjacket. They were strong-arming him past the group of doctors. I heard hysterical laughter drift down the corridor toward me; it jangled on my nerves and I winced. They passed on down the hall and I couldn't see them anymore. Anxious feet tapping on tile followed the Gotham policemen. Harley dashed toward me, grabbed my arm, and tugged me along wordlessly.

First thought: how does she run in those high heels?

Second thought: who was that guy?