Author's note: Yay chapter 5 is all done! I'm so insanely tired so sorry in advance if there's any major errors….ekkk…. I tried my best. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so I really hope you guys like it! Also, a big thanks to everyone who's shown this story interest so far…. Your review, favorites, and follows are what keep me going!
Much to his irritation the Joker found he could not help but let his usually focused mind unwittingly drift back towards the first session with his dearest new Doctor. He chose to blame it on the new information he had gained about her through one of the many moles he had inside Arkham Asylum. Perhaps, it was wrong to pry into her personal life, but what else was there for a man to do inside such a dreary place? He couldn't summon any shame for what he'd done, had never been able to fathom the concept of remorse. Although, he had been disappointed to learn that no one seemed to know very much about her, then again, she was about half the age of all the other Doctor's within the walls of Arkham. He had, however, learned that she only began working at the Asylum nearly five months ago. It was apparent that she had a knack for keeping a low profile, and was not close with any of the other Doctors. He also had managed to discover that the blonde beauty had caught the eye of Gotham's most notorious womanizer, Bruce Wayne a few months prior; he had been more than pleased to uncover that the relationship had ended abruptly, and that the two hadn't been seen together since the split. He rolled his eyes at himself, he was not remotely accustomed to the feeling rooted far within his sadistic core. Yes, something certainly would have to be done about his perfect Doctor Quinzel, but for now he would simply bask in the dazzling splendor of her ill-advised attentions.
'Tick-tock, tick-tock' He thought darkly, as he broke out into laughter waiting for his next session to commence.
The guards had made a point to be exceptionally aggressive that day, he surmised that it was some subconscious attempt to indirectly impress his Doctor. He seemed to be late for their session. Again. He rolled his neck in one fluid moment. Sometimes he felt as though Arkham and his merry band of ground kissers had no intention of actually healing any of their patients. That would explain why they kept him in the constrictive straitjacket for far longer than necessary. He could practically kill to get out of it...no pun intended he giggled sharply, the sound cutting like a dagger in the otherwise silent room.
"Something funny Mr. J?" Her divine voice swept through the modest room.
He mentally scolded himself for not having heard her enter sooner. After all, he should have known immediately, just from her scent alone, as it was far too mouthwatering to have ever belonged to any of the unhygienic lumps stationed on the other side of the door.
"Why, good afternoon beautiful." He growled, smiling far too broadly. Something was definitely up, and Harleen wasn't exactly confident that she wanted to know quite what it was.
"What did you do?" She asked slowly, as if she were speaking to a child.
His grin somehow seemed to crack even wider, obviously delighted that Harleen was playing into his games for the second day in a row. "You know sweets I like what I've learned about you... especially the name: Harleen Quinzel." He grinned, watching as realization dawned on her perfect face: she hadn't told him her first name. "Rework it a bit and you get Harley Quinn." He squirmed in elation, waiting for her to make the next move in his little game.
"Like the clown character Harlequin… I know, I've heard it before." Harleen tried to remain collected, however, she found herself on edge pondering what other information he could have gained about her since their last session.
The Joker sat back for a moment, simply relishing in the look that had clouded over her angelic face. "Why, it's a name that puts a smile on my face." He crackled. "It makes me feel as though there's someone here that I can relate to."
"You say that to all of your Doctors." She challenged, not falling for his blatant attempt at manipulation.
He giggled, enjoying their banter. "Perhaps, I mean it this time… after all you aren't like the other Doctors."
A silence fell on them, and the Joker found himself mesmerized by the subtle way her pearly teeth bite down slightly on the corner of her sultry lips. He found himself imagining the lush veins underneath, pumping around a liquid darker than the blush that had appeared on her virtually colorless cheeks. And he found himself wondering just what those very lips would feel like pressed roughly against his own, how they would feel between his own metallic teeth.
Harleen, for her part, was equally enamored. She couldn't seem to look away from his mischievously gorgeous face. Couldn't stop herself from falling further into the rabbit hole with every word he spoke, admiring the different angles he granted her with every faint tilt of his head. The way his shoulder's tensed angrily under the white straitjacket. 'What the hell am I thinking?' She screamed to herself, before suddenly shattering the pleasant silence that had floated into their compact little expanse. "That's merely because I lack a certain appendage that your previous Doctor's had."
He snorted at this, reluctantly pulling his opaque emerald eyes away from her enchanting lips. "I suppose that could have something to do with it. Arkham's Asylum was starting to resemble one giant boys club." He delighted in watching the spark behind her eyes at his statement.
"Doctor Arkham is the epitome of a misogynist, stubbornly backwards man." She giggled softly, and it sounded like the soft drops of rain on a roof, and the Joker found himself wanting to hear it again and again.
Harleen was irked by how easily she forget herself when she was around him. One minute he was driving her up a wall with annoyance and the next he was someone else completely… and for some odd reason she found both personalities equally debilitating. She had to fight to stay focused around him, and she found herself grateful that Leland had insisted that she stick to basic questions when conducting his sessions.
"So, Mr. J is there anything specific you'd like to begin discussing today?" 'Anything besides my personal information.' She thought bitterly as she abruptly diverted the conversation away from her boss.
'This could be fun.' He mused before proceeding in a honey coated voice. "You know...Doctor Quinzel they just didn't understand…" His smile widened as she assumed the 'they' he was referring to was his previous Doctors, however he knew it applied to every single airhead that worked within the Asylum...hell maybe he even was directing it towards everyone on the whole fucking planet. "No one does Doctor." He growled, raising his pale face to look at the small blonde across from him.
"Help me understand Mr. J." she said with her lips opened slightly. Harleen could not tell what he was going for at this point, but she knew she shouldn't trust him, yet it seemed that she would have to play his game in order to gain any kind of information.
"Hmmmm?" He purred, enjoying how easy it was to get her to eat out of his hand.
She did not want to rush him, figuring it was best to approach him like he was a scared animal that would take off at the first sign of trouble. But she found herself silently and desperately begging him to continue in that dark silky voice of his.
Giggling slightly the Joker grinned, "Where to beginning…" he pretended to ponder. "Ahh." He murmured as Harleen leaned closer. "You wanna know how I got these scars?" He could barely contain himself as he felt Harleen's sapphire eyes dance across his pale face, glancing at the dark mark that went down over his right eye and the second located on his forehead.
She didn't dare make a move, let alone breath, silently imploring him to continue. Closing his eyes and rolling his neck in one fluid movement the Joker continued, sighing quietly at how easy it was to trick the young mind of Doctor Quinzel. "My father, was a drinker, and a fiend. And one night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself…" He trails off laughing before he can even finish the story.
His laughter continues, but Harleen finds herself propelled out of her chair by some unnameable force, and before either of them really register what she's doing her soft fingertips are gliding over the scar on his forehead, tracing its harsh imprint. Harleen is startled by just how warm his pale skin is under her gentle touch, but she is suddenly pulled out of her musing by a deep growl that surfaces from deep within his concealed chest. Yet she doesn't pull away. Slowly, her fingers brush over to the scar running down his right side, sliding lower onto his face. Eventually, Harleen ignores the scars all together, and simply savors the silky feeling of his skin beneath her own. She watches mesmerized as his tongue darts out to wet his crimson lips. And a whimper, that Harleen barely recognizes as her own escapes her lips, and she brazenly draws her fingertips across his lower lip. Within seconds his grill is gently biting down on that same finger and Harleen feels her breath quicken and considers that she may actually faint.
A deep laugh slides out from behind his mouth and Harleen jumps back in shock, finally realizing what she just did. "You just can't keep your hands to yourself, can you Doctor Quinzel?" He giggles, trying to brush away the unexplainable tightness in his chest.
She ignores him, and pulls away. "You know…" She began, swallowing harshly, while not quite understanding what compels her to speak the next part of her sentence "My Mother was a drinker, not like your Father, but just as rotten I suppose." She turned to glance at the wall behind him. "And my Father, my actual Father, he left us as soon as he got the chance." The Joker watched as her eyes clouded over with all the emotions she refused to let herself feel. And he felt something click then, something deep inside him reaching out for her, and he wanted to murder it, needed to murder it. But instead he started to laugh, taking sick pleasure in how her face crumbled, and just as suddenly as it broke, she hardened back into her dispassionate doctorly persona. It was in that moment that he caught a glimpse at something he'd never seen behind her eyes before. Something dark, something that screamed to be let out, that wanted to hurt the world just as carelessly as it had hurt her.
"This session's over for today." Harleen spoke in a voice that resembled a calm before a storm, and the Joker lost sight of that look behind her eyes.
"Always a pleasure, Doc." He stated after she had shoved her way out of the large metal door, promptly dismissing him.
Harleen was annoyed to find that she could not stop thinking of her most recent patient.
She couldn't name what had gotten into her, what had compelled her to share some of her darkest secrets with him of all people, but she had. And now it seemed as though she had opened a gate that had been locked for too damn long, however she was going to fight like hell to ignore the feelings rushing towards her, had already managed to do so for eight long years.
Therefore, the best distraction at the moment seemed to be her work. She had more patients than just him she reasoned, but her mind refused to agree with that logic. So, she let her thoughts engulf her, because she seemed to be drawn to him for some inexplicable reason.
If she aimed to get anything more out of him she needed a different approach, one that would not hurt her in the process. The only sizable snag in her current plan was that it would require her to step outside the strict red lines Doctor Leland had drawn around how she should conduct her sessions. But it was necessary, after all playing it safe would only get her so far… eventually he would grow bored of their very vanilla sessions. 'Excuse that slip up in the last session.' She corrected, still seeing stars whenever she allowed her unruly mind to deliberate back to what had occurred earlier that day. No, playing it safe would not cut it if her aim was to gain any kind of leverage over him. But first, she needed him to trust her and though she knew exactly the kind of danger it would cause, she reckoned that the easiest way to get him to trust her was to get him out of the straitjacket. So that was how Harleen found herself, taking several deep breaths in front of Doctor Leland's door before knocking gently and entering the warm room.
"Doctor Quinzel, hello." Joan greeted Harleen cordally.
"Hello, Doctor Leland." Harleen hesitated, but only for a moment. If she was going to get what she wanted she couldn't be her usual meek self. "I'm here because there's something I desperately wanted to discuss."
Joan's tired eyes glanced up from her desk, giving Harleen a quick up and down before sighing and expelling the words "Go on."
"As you know, I just finished my second session with Mr. J early this afternoon."
Leland gave her an odd look at the mention of the Joker's pseudonym. "Yes? And did it not go well?" She said, concern leaking into her usually indifferent voice.
"The opposite actually… I'm very pleased with how things have been progressing." She began, obviously choosing to omit what had occurred behind the metal door. "However, I believe that the sessions could progress at a swifter rate if... " She paused for only a moment. "If Mr. J would be permitted to attend without the straitjacket." Harleen's voice was stern at the end, and she hoped it would convince Doctor Leland of her certainty in the entire notion.
Leland sat unmoving for a second before gruffly running her hand down her face. "So let me get this straight Doctor Quinzel. You want me to grant you permission to have a therapy session with Gotham's worst psychopath, while he has no restraints on?" Leland scoffed.
"He'd still be handcuffed and strapped to the chair." Harleen reasoned.
Joan sat for a long moment evaluating Harleen. "Fine." She barked out, and Harleen broke into a smile that had a surprisingly similar quality to someone else's. "But you have to play it safe Doctor Quinzel, only the questions I approved, and if anything remotely dangerous happens that straitjacket is going right back on and it will not be coming off."
Harleen could barely believe her own ears, but managed to nod a bit too enthusiastically for Leland's liking, but the older women chose to remain quite. "Is that all?" She barked out.
"Yes, thank you so much Joan, I really think this is going to make a world of a difference on him."
Leland simply nodded and watched as the young blonde bounced out of her office. 'Christ, that girl has some serious guts. Everything will be perfectly fine, Joan' Leland thought, in a futile attempt to reassure herself. 'Just as long as those same guts don't end up spilled all over that therapy room.' Leland groaned rolling her eyes, and proceeding back to work as usual.
Author's note: I hope there was enough interaction between the Joker and Harley to keep you guys satisfied for now (lol), trust me I cannot wait for this story to get into the sexy stuff…. I just need to make sure the character's are in the right place for that. Anyway, hope you liked it!