Vacation has begun! I will do my best to update at a constant rate, and I hope you guys will enjoy the upcoming chapters! My goal is to get to chapter 50 by the end of my vacation, the halfway point of the story. Don't worry, I won't be rushing anything, I have many of the chapters planned out already and some are already partially written. So the update or two a day begins...now.
Special thanks to Me-Ladie and Bashlei for the reviews, Lady Ano and and also much thanks to Lady Ano and dragonofdarknedflame for adding the story to your watch list, Vandgard for faving the story, and Lady Ano for adding me to your favorite authors list! It really means a whole lot to me, and it is support like that which will help me update so quickly this break.
I hope everyone enjoys.
27. Foreign
Young sat in her office alone, organizing notes and writing down things that she had missed during her sessions. While this was a mainly thoughtless task, with many of the notes being repeats of prior sessions, some of the notes she was writing down were new…particularly those pertaining to Crane.
He had showed a level of caring for a fellow inmate, putting himself in harms way to prevent another man from being tormented and killed…
Was his behavior linked to his previous issues with bullies? Very likely. He mentioned that he was unable to stand by and watch it, meaning that it must have been effecting him on some level. Jonathan's behavior prior to being put in Arkham would seem to show that he wasn't the most humane of people, so that factor was out of the equation. But he still saved someone's life…just as he saved her earlier from Zsasz.
Was a small bit of humanity still left in him? If there wasn't he wouldn't feel any compulsion to help others, and he wouldn't feel so tortured over his past…a past that not anyone deserved to go through and would no doubt warp anyone put through it. Penelope had little doubt that Crane's experiences greatly influenced the man riddled with anxiety disorders today, and not at all in a good way.
The poor man had been through an awful lot in his life, and this asylum wasn't the right place for him Penelope said to herself. He had committed crimes, but he had been carrying out his stretch faithfully ever since he had changed doctors months ago and a week in Arkham was the equivalent to a year in any other place…being locked away never could be seen as easy, but when you are isolated with the Joker for extended periods of time you were bound to go insane.
If one needed evidence, then they need look no father than the staff of Arkham. Harley Quinn was a working example of that, just as the dozens of psychologists who quit at Arkham were after spending no more than ten minutes with the man.
Abandoned by his own mother…beaten senselessly by other kids…an abusive caretaker …verbally spat upon by his collegiate peers…thrown in a mental asylum alongside a mad clown…
Should he receive an award for somehow retaining his sanity…at least the majority of it?
While she was sure that Crane had never truly been insane, Young was also sure that he would have fared worse in Blackgate Prison than he had in Arkham. Even with that in mind, Arkham was not the place for him…Penelope would have her patient declared sane if not for certain circumstances concerning a certain stand-in doctor…
With Crane declared perfectly safe and sound, as well as not being a menace to society anymore, Young would be seen as having cured the 'sinister Scarecrow', and her opportunities would be boundless. And it all stemmed from helping a troubled man who was mistaken as being insane. Her hard work would be paid off in full and Jonathan…
Jonathan would be out in the world again, free of safety, free of the protection that Arkham offered…any recovered victim of his, any family member of one who was bent on revenge…Jonathan Crane was simply a dead man if other people were a fraction as prone to revenge as him.
And what if somehow no-one wanted to hurt him for what he had done? It wasn't as if he could resume his everyday normal life. No-one would hire him. No decent apartments would allow him to board. No friends or family…
Was it worth boosting her career if it meant Jonathan would suffer in the end? The polite patient who was willing to open himself up and be treated unlike her others…the man who saved her life from a psychopath…on the other hand, he was a man guilty of many crimes and would it be wrong for her to trade his life to better her own?
Her conflicting thoughts resulted in Penelope massaging her temple as if to relieve it of the pain that was brewing between her ears. Young hated feeling guilt, almost always feeling sure of her decisions and often overriding the amount she did feel with rational explanations.
Struggling to find an answer, Young decided that if she could find an adequate way of assuring Jonathan's well-being after Arkham she would do so. Not that she would have to be bothered with finding such a solution yet, with the circumstances surrounding him-
As always seemed the case, her thoughts were interrupted by someone else. This time it was an oaf of a guard named Jenks rapping his chubby hand on her open door, "Doctor Young? Your father is here to visit you."
Glancing up from her notes, Young's expression lightened from the downcast look it had undertaken during her mental struggle moments before, "Tell him I'll just be a minute. I need to finish what I'm doing."
Penelope was glad to hear that her father was stopping by. She enjoyed meeting with him, and even unexpected visits like this were music to her ears. Her enhanced mood did not last long before the mustached buffoon remembered another tidbit of information "Oh, and Dr. Absonus said he wanted to meet with you tommo-"
Glaring intensely at the guard, Young snapped, "I don't care what that man said!" Realizing how she had reacted, Young took a breath in to calm down. Looking down at her work again, she waved a hand to shoo the guard away, sighing as she said, "Leave me to my work."
The guard nodded and left wordlessly, leaving Young in complete silence once more save her own thoughts, something that she was actually not all the comfortable with given the route they had recently taken.
One thing was for sure, as uncommon as it was to her, as uncomfortable as it made her…Penelope knew she pitied and actually felt a slight bit attached to Jonathan Crane. She was going to see his treatment through to the end, and she vowed that nothing would change that.
"Hello Father," Young greeted her Father, who seemed younger than the last time she saw him. His work seemed to do that to him, seemingly taking years off of him whenever he went across the world to go work for months at a time.
His face was unbefitting for a man with gray whiskers on his chin, moustache and highlighting his dark hair. It appeared youthful, although that was again unbefitting of the experienced man it belonged to, "Hello Penelope. How are you doing?"
Deciding to push out her annoyed thoughts of Absonus, Young grinned, "I am well for the most part. Are you going to be in town for long?"
Henri Ducard's face assumed its natural look, a serious expression that one would use in business dealings, "As unexpected as my visit is, I will actually be staying for some while," A long term project has arisen and I need to plant its seeds so that it can go right."
Penelope nodded, her dark haired ponytail bobbing, "I see. Do you need a place to stay while you are in Gotham?"
Turning down the query, he shook his head politely, "Why no dear, I will be fine. I have some associates that I will be boarding with for the time being. Old friends you could say."
"Well I'm finished here, care to go out to town?"
A faint smile forming on his lips, Ducard nodded, "That sounds fine. Anyplace you have in mind?"
