A/N: Much smaller time jump here... eek we are getting close!
~There's nothing to do here
All just lie and complain
In bed at the hospital
Coming and going
Asleep and awake
In bed at the hospital~
~Florence + The Machine~
The next few months flew by, and so much had happened. It was beginning of August, and Gotham was starting to blossom into a new fresh city. The economy was booming thanks to Joker's demolition job. So many of the blue collar workers were back to work.
The yuppie upper class was still a bit highhanded with their ways of handling things, but the people, Oh, the people knew better now. The city had nearly collapsed in on itself, and with out the hard work of the lower and middle class, the city would still be dust and rubble. It was a beautiful thing to see.
Joker had made good with the systematic torture of Bruce Wayne. The guards he had on payroll were all too happy to let out a bit of pent up aggression out on the doped up playboy. He had the guards let slip a small bit of gossip that Bruce Wayne thought he was Batman, and sent the entire High security ward into a riot. Lucky for Bruce, only a few guys made it to his cell, and the guards broke it up quickly, but not before Bruce getting a broken nose. That one made Joker laugh.
Joker had also had Red and Peach go visit Bruce Wayne to help 'Get closure'. That visit had caused Bruce to get thrown into his cell and be sedated. Peach had come home with a smile on her face that day.
Joker had finally 'killed off' Jack Napier, deciding that he didn't like another man being legally married to his wife. Red was happy to go back to being himself again. Peach was happy to be free of Jack Napier as well. She was happily married to the Joker.
Joker was amazed with how fast babies grow. At first it had seemed pretty useless, just sleeping, eating, and shitting. But now, his little Jellybean, could roll over, and tried to sit up. It was funny to watch it try.
The down side, it pooped a lot more. Now that Peach was given the all clear by the doctor to start exercise and could work more, she had started to wean the baby to formula. That caused the shitty diapers to nearly gag him.
On the plus side, he could make it laugh. He barely had to say a word, and his Jellybean would laugh and smile and coo at him. That had to be the most fun part.
Joker was in his home office putting together the plan for the big finale for Bruce. Peach was off meeting with the manager at the bar, trying to figure out who was skimming off the top of her profits. So Joker was on baby duty. Easy enough, right now, it was in the floor on a blanket, snuggled up with Judy. They were both sleeping.
He had been working on the nothing but breaking Wayne. He wanted the man to be in microscopic pieces by the time he was done with him. He was looking over Bruce's Therapy notes that the guards would email to him every week.
Seems like ole Brucie boy was starting to crack. It would only take a few well placed hits to devastate him. Joker was feeling antsy, wanting to hurry and get the satisfaction over with, but the wait would just make it that much sweeter.
Bruce Wayne was losing his mind. He thought the 90 day stay would be a breeze, and they might have been until the beatings started. He had been here about a week when the first guard came in. It was well after lights out and he slept through the low buzzing of the door opening. He was given sleeping pills since he had gotten there.
The first blow to his solar plexus woke him from the drugged sleep. He thought he was dying, his diaphragm had locked down and he couldn't breathe. His arms had wrapped around his torso, while the punches kept coming. All to the abdomen and his sides, some to the back.
It was too dark to see who it was that night. He laid awake until the door buzzed open, signaling them for shower time and breakfast. Bruce had a few bruises, but he had survived worse. Three nights later, it happened again. All of the punches and kicks were aimed away from his face, leaving no marks that wouldn't be hidden by his Arkham issued scrubs.
It happened twice a week, though never on the same nights two weeks in a row. Bruce endured in silence. He could take a few punches as long as he was out on day 91. Bruce had no doubt that it was all Joker's doing when someone let the dangerous inmates, some having been locked away by Batman, that Bruce was Batman.
The riot had been scary. The alarms sounding and red lights flashing on and off in the hallways. The guards were nowhere to be found when two men made their way into Bruce's room. He wasn't scared to fight off a couple of guys, it had actually went well until a guard had walked up. Bruce thought that the guard would help break them up, but he didn't. The guard tossed in a make shift shank and closed the door, walking away.
Bruce had fought for his life for a few minutes, when a different guard had come in and broke up that fight. He'd spend the next hours in the infirmary. He'd lucked out and only had a broken nose. It was terrifying to see this ugly side of people. He hadn't heard anything on the Joker, unsure if it was a good or bad thing. He hadn't been lying when he had sworn off that entire mess, but it was good to stay up to date.
He had right at 4 weeks left. He spent his free time in his room, doing make shift exercises to help his stay fit and sane. Mostly, it kept him out of trouble. Less times getting hurt by the guards, or getting threats from the real crazies. Four weeks or 28 days or 672 hours, he knew he could do this. After he gets out, he's going abroad again. leaving Gotham to its fate. The city had betrayed the one person that had been trying to help.
He was pulled from his thought by the orderly knocking on his door. "Don't forget, you have a session today with Dr. Leland."
Bruce looked at the man, he was one of the nicer people around this hell hole. "I remember, Ill be out there in a minute."
He felt like a child, having to be escorted through the halls to get to the useless therapy sessions. They just escorted him, no cuffs, just walking with him. Like a child needing his hand held to cross the street. Bruce shook his head, trying to manually dislodge that train of thought. He really didn't need to be in a bad mood when he did his sessions. He knew Joan was a good doctor, actually wanting to help her patients. He took a few calming breaths, then headed to meet with the orderly.
The walk was the same every time, thirty steps out from the big double doors, a left turn fifteen steps another left turn, third door down. Three soft knocks on the door and it starts. Joan opens the door and smiles.
"Mr. Wayne, come in."
Bruce steps inside the door and goes to his seat. Joan moves back behind her desk. The small woman straightens a few papers then smiles up at Bruce.
"How are you feeling? Your nose looks better."
"I'm fine, just keeping to myself until I can get out of here." he said, not looking at her but the same knickknacks on the shelf to his right.
"Well, I am glad you are staying out of trouble, but you will still need to participate in therapy or I just wouldn't feel comfortable recommending your release." she said, voice not sounding as warm as before.
"Careful Joan, that almost sounded like blackmail." he said, actually chuckling at the thought.
Joan blushed and let out a scoff. "I would never resort to blackmail, I just wanted you to know you have to be an active role in your own recovery."
Bruce smiled a genuine smile. "I know, I was just messing with you."
"Oh, well, stop it." she smiled back.
After that session, an orderly tracked him down. "Wayne you have a visitor."
Bruce looked up from the book he had been reading. Who would be visiting him? He marked the book and followed the orderly into the room. He looked at the room, the table split down the middle with a room divider. Thick Plexiglas separating him from whoever would be visiting. He set at the table and waited. A loud buzz sounded and the door opened. Bruce nearly vomited when he say Lyra and the imposter stepped into the room.
"Hi, Bruce." Lyra said.
He looked between the two, refusing to talk.
"What happened to your face?" she asked, the false look of concern made him sick.
Bruce frowned. "How's Joker?" he asked.
She smiled, that cruel smile told him all he needed to know.
"I wouldn't know." she lied.
Bruce lost it, he stood, trying to use the chair to hit the divider. It just bounced uselessly. He was tackled by two orderlies and dragged back to his room. The sting of the needle barely registered as he fell unconscious.
Peach was in her old office, pacing the length of the room to keep from shooting everyone and burning the building to the ground. She couldn't do that, she liked having this place, it reminded her of the old days when she was on her own, waiting for Joker to come home.
She stopped abruptly. "I will make a deal with you. I am going to punish everybody in here. I will not stand for skimming. I am a generous boss. If you need money, ask, but taking it. That will not do." she moved to what used to be her makeshift bedroom. It was just storage now, and in a large box near the back was several things she could use for this punishment. She had to decide, what would be a suitable punishment? she smiled and grabbed the medical grade snipping scissors. They were made to cut through all kinds of viscera without fail. Peach would bet they could handle small bone too.
She walked back into the office with the scissors in hand, leaning a hip against the desk. "Now, this is how this is going to play out. The person skimming will confess and be dealt with accordingly, or." She held up the scissors. "I skim from all of you."
The two men blanched but didn't say anything, the two women started to cry. She let out a huff of air and started to point person to person. "eenie, meenie, minie, mo.."
The big guy on the far end spoke up. "I took it."
Peach looked at the guy, he was confessing, but she was almost sure he wasn't the one. He was too calm, he was protecting someone. She frowned and shook her head. "No, I don't think you did. Lets continue." she started to point again leaving the big guy out. "Catch a thief by the toe."
The women were crying big ugly tears, mascara leaving black trails down their faces. She pointed to the girl in the middle. "You first."
She held the woman's hand down, wedging the scissors over the tip of her pinkie. "Last chance."
When no one spoke up, Peach squeezed. The tip of the girls finger came off like play-doh. She screamed as the blood started to pour. She turned to her guy at the door, he was standing stoically, good, squeamish people didn't last long here. She stepped back. Let's see who is next. she eyed each of the two remaining people. seemed only fair to pick the guy next. She stepped up to him and reached for his hand.
The big guy she had already marked off her list of suspects flinched slightly. Interesting. She held his hand steady and put the scissors around the end of his pinky. She looked from face to face and then pressed down. It was a little tougher, but the end came off in a wash of blood and a yell. hmmm. She stepped to the last one, the girl had not stopped crying. Here we go. She grabbed her hand and put the blood covered scissors over the end of her pinky.
"Wait." She cried. "it was me, I'm sorry, please don't cut off my pinky."
Peach leaned down, "Shh, its okay. See that wasn't so hard." Peach shushed her. "I just wish you would have told me when I asked, we could have avoided all of this mess." Peach moved fast, jamming the scissors into the woman's throat. The blood sprayed as she pulled them free. She watched as the girl was bleeding out, lying on the floor. She motioned for her guy at the door.
"Go get ice for them, they can probably have those reattached if they hurry."
The three living workers got up, two of them holding their finger tip in their hands and followed the big man out of the door. Peach looked down at the slightly twitching body of her thief. She kicked it for good measure.