Author's note: OH MY GOSH I really really love this chapter, I have no idea why but I hope you guys like it too. Sorry it took so long, things are just getting a little busy for me. Thank you so much for all the support you've shown, it means everything to me! Enjoy!
Harleen remained motionless in their session room long after the guards had left, and the Joker's unhinged laughter had faded from her foggy consciousness. She was more lost than she had ever been before, it felt as if she were being pulled deep beneath a frigid wave of water and despite how hard she was kicking and struggling to keep her head above water, it was all no use. There was a heavy weight wrenching her small frame back down, and Harleen was no longer sure that she wanted to keep fighting it. There was some kind of calm that had spread over her when she fell below the surface of the wave, that fell over her when she was in his presence, something that screamed for her to see that life was better in its darker currents.
Shaking her blonde head quickly, she pushed herself out of the session room, and headed for her office, deciding to, for the first time ever, leave work early.
Meanwhile, hours later the Joker still found himself musing over what had occurred during his latest session with Doctor Quinzel. A smile pulled at the corner of his crimson lips as he thought about what she had unknowingly revealed to him. His blood boiled whenever he recalled the panic that had clouded her bright eyes, and again he felt an uncontrollable fit of giggles escape him. The panic was all the more sweeter because it revealed a darker truth about his little Doctor Harleen Quinzel. Oh yes, his laugh became louder. Poor Doctor Quinzel seemed to be more like him than she cared to admit; for underneath that stiff exterior was a part of her just waiting to be freed. And he knew that if there were anyone who could unleash her inner monster it was him. His plan was working flawlessly, and it was all about to get even better.
'Only a few more minutes until the guard change.' He acknowledged with glee, while his green eyes twinkled with villainous mischief.
As soon as he caught sight of their grotesque frames trudging reluctantly down the dim hallway, he was practically shaking with eagerness. And luckily, it only took several minutes for one of the wardens to send the other's off in the opposite direction; although they would never admit it, they were beyond relieved to able to evade the laughing lunatic behind bars for even that much longer.
"Boss?" Came an unsure voice, and the Joker could make out the shape pressed hard against the freezing glass barrier. He watched as the man's tiny eyes hurriedly inspected the inky cell, in a hopeless effort to located the man behind the glass.
The Joker lets out a severe laugh, and the guard springs back from the transparent panel. "Thomas, what a surprise...did you bring what I asked for?"
The pudgy guard Thomas nods, inhaling and exhaling obnoxiously in a fruitless struggle to compose his quivering nerves, while immediately, digging in his deep pockets for the two items. "Here you go Boss." He said, producing a collection of keys bound together and a dark purple rose.
The Joker snarls, and the sound ricochets off the solid walls, before growing softer as it dances off down the empty, black hallway. He snatches the items out of the guard's clammy hands. "So reliable Tommy." He spoke softly, shoving his large, cuff hands onto opposite sides of the guard's fleshy face.
Thomas let out wobbly, forced giggle, and the Joker could feel the condensation on his face beneath his hands, slapping his elegant fingers roughly against the man's cheek he pulled away abruptly. "I'm going to need one more teeny little favor Thomas."
"What...whatever ya need Boss." He answered, and his voice shook like a flag in the wind.
"You see the other guards will be back soon, and they're gonna want to know that someone's inside the cuckoo's cope." He gestured his restrained hands around the unlit cell theatrically, and then broke into sadistic laughter.
"I don't think..." He sputtered.
"Don't worry" The Joker began trailing his milky finger down Thomas cheek. "You won't have to do any thinking." And suddenly the Joker jerks Thomas' head hard against the glass, knocking him unconscious in one hard blow. He watches happily as Thomas' hefty structure plummets to the hard floor with one loud splat.
"Sweet dreams." He mouths before breaking into laughter and exiting the dim cell.
When Harleen arrived at Arkham the next morning she ignored the roaming eyes of the guard, not even gracing them with a smile. She effortlessly glided down the halls of Arkham Asylum towards her office, with her head stuck deep within the files she already knew like the back of her own hand. Flicking on the lights to her barren office, Harleen's head snapped up from her reading, as an uneasy feeling sank into her. She could not place her finger on it, but something was drastically off. And as she treaded deeper into the white haven she saw it. Sitting on her desk, the mauve petals contrasting marvelously with the silver desk and pale walls. And she knew without a doubt that there was only person who would have dared to put it there.
Harleen rushed through every session that day, waiting for the clock's hand to near 2 o'clock. She wasn't sure what she planned to say to him, but knew that she had to confront him. To make it clear that it wasn't right.
And so when the clock finally struck 2 she was already seated in their little piece of heaven, waiting for the guards to bring him in. When the door did jump open to reveal his well built frame Harleen saw the smug smile that pulled at his gorgeous red lips, and her hunch was rapidly confirmed. Once he was seated in the cold chair and the guards had taken up their residence in the hallway, she slide the delicate flower out from beneath her white lab coat. "Care to tell me how this got in my office?"
"I put it there." He said charmingly, while grinning like the Cheshire cat.
"I think the guards would be interested to know you've been out of your cell."
"If you were going to tell, Harley girl, you already would've." He said confidently.
She was annoyed to find that he was right, she had never had she the intention of telling the guards, however she refused to give him the satisfaction. "I didn't ask for this. Why are you doing this?" She hissed.
"Because you're mine now Harley." His leg rested firmly against her's and Harleen felt the heat jumping off of him.
"Don't call me that: that isn't my name. I'm Harleen, and I'm not your anything." She threatened.
And he merely laugh. "Beautiful, you've been Harley since the very moment you met me."
"I'm not like that J, you can't control me. Can't buy me off like everyone else. I'm not anyone's puppet."
"Harley isn't, but Harleen….Harleen's only ever been just that. Some doll on strings, being pulled whatever way society tells her to go." He growls. "And when the chips are down, Harley, when she goes against them, those…those same civilized people you will eat Harleen alive, without a second care for what she did for them."
"Not everyone's like that. Not everyone is out to hurt each other J." And he understood her insinuation.
He laughs a dark laugh, that sounds more like a sob at the end. "I'm not a monster beautiful, I'm just ahead of the curve." And Harleen cannot hear the sound of metal clicking out of place over his hysteria."Don't you want to be ahead of the curve?"
"If you're not the monster then why are you behind the glass?" She tries to make her words cut, but his eyes remain the same, completely unaffected by her harsh words.
"I may be the one behind bars Harls, but you're the one that's actually trapped. And it's a construct of your own making. Doesn't matter where the hell you go Harley…New York, or Gotham, because you're always going to be stuck in your own way."
"Stop." She hisses at him, trying to remain calm. "These sessions are to help you, not some excuse for you to manipulate me."
"Oh yes, sweetheart, do go on… help me. Tell me...tell me how I should feel. Tell me that I should be overcome with shame. Guilty, for all the perversely wrong acts I've committed. They all have." He challenges.
"No." Harleen states firmly. "Because I know you better than them, I know you don't feel remotely sorry." She spat back at him.
The Joker raises his bare brow bone at her and growls. "So you think you fucking understand Doctor? You think you know what makes me tick?" His voice darkens and he waits for her to cower in fear like his precious physicians, but she doesn't react in the slightest.
"I have you figured out pretty well." She answers coldly.
He laughs, and continues, wanting to remind her who's in control. "I see right through you Harley, right to the core, and you're no different from me, you're just as rotten, my dear. We see the world for what it is. We both know this place doesn't follow a moral code, doesn't have order, that there is no justice for injustice." He rambles on.
"Shut up." She smacks her dainty hands against the cold table.
"Seems I've hit a sore spot Doc, allow me to...work it out." He grins. "Let's start with an example: hmm? There's this sweet little girl, and she is beautiful, young, and untouched. But her step Daddy doesn't like that one bit, so one night he decides he's going to change things. And get this Harls, he actually gets away with it."
His eyes flicker as water clouds Harley's pretty blue orbs, and her chin quivers slightly. And he finds himself torn between stopping and going.
"And you know the true injustice of it all? No one bats an eye as the beautiful little girl crumbles before them."
Then suddenly, her hand is connecting with his pale face, in one smooth, sharp movement.
He merely giggles. "Never start with the head Harley. The victim gets all fuzzy. He can't feel the next…"
Harleen jams her heeled foot into his shin, just wanting him to stop talking.
"See?" He challenges, lifting his cold eyes up to look at his Doctor, watching as she tries to calm her erratic breathing.
"Shut up! Just shut up!" She jeers, tears sliding down her flushed cheeks.
It seemed she was forgetting who was in charge during these little sessions, 'So why don't we remind her?' he smiles in an inhuman way, before sliding the chains off his wrists and dropping the key that Thomas had ever so graciously supplied him with the night prior. And before Harleen can process what has happened she finds herself aggressively pinned against the wall behind her, with his white hands around her slender throat. "You know sweetheart...that file that you've been hankering over missed a few key points. It didn't mention how they each begged to be put out of their misery… how every one of them tried to break free of their weak little minds." he growled, tightening his grip on her pale neck. "You should have kept me locked up Doctor Quinzel." he sighed in a soft voice that surprised her.
But instantly his piercing eyes cloud over, and his grip tightens on her throat. "Now, I want to hear you beg Harleen… I want to see the life leave your lovely eyes." He purrs in a dangerous voice. He squeezes harder and waits to see it: that delicious look of fear spread across her fragile features but he sees nothing: it was as if she had nothing to hold onto. No, instead he finds something darker, something he'd only seen behind one other person's eyes. Someone so far in the past that he barely even remembered it. Unexpectedly, his hands drop from her neck, though he remained pressed against her small frame, holding her against the wall as she gasps for air, her body begging for life, doing what her mind had refused to do seconds ago. And laughter appeals from his chest.
Within seconds, his body is ripped away from her's as guards filtered into the room. Harleen slide to the floor and the color returned to her cheeks, contrasting beautifully with the red marks that his hands left imprinted on her thin throat. However, she smiles smugly as his eyes make contact with the panic button in her small hand. And then the tasers are pulsing against his flesh and he shocked madly on the ground, his laughter mixing with groans.
Harleen doesn't hear any of it, only the blood pumping in her ears. Her eyes lazy shift across the floor, trying to find something...anything to focus on, anything but him. And then she sees it, the key he used to escape only a fraction of an inch from her heeled foot. While gasping for air some unknown force compels Harleen to shift her foot, concealing the key from the distracted guards. Hiding, the truth of his escape.
Author's note: I'll try and update as soon as possible but things are about to get pretty crazy in my life as I'm moving into my dorm for school this Friday. Also please, please, please let me know how you felt about this chapter and if there's anything you want me to write about in the upcoming ones. I'm really hesitant to post the next chapter because I plan on including some sexual content… sooooooo ekkk!