WARNINGS:
EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
CHAPTER NINE
"...Miami?" Jim asks as he furrows his brows as he holds the phone to his ear, questioning whether he heard his sister correctly.
Gia raises her brows and winces on the other end on the line, knocking her head into chipped white brick of Arkham Asylum's outward shell a couple of times in silence.
"Yeah." She says to him. "We're um...having fun and just trying to catch our breath from Gotham."
"You've been having fun and catching your breath from Gotham for two weeks now, Gia." Jim chuckles, trying to mask his worry. "Not to mention your lack of phone calls and check ins, despite me constantly trying to get ahold of you."
"I know the first few days were spotty with that but I had bad service, I guess." She shrugs.
James sighs, rubbing the back of his neck as he leans back in the chair seated at his kitchen table.
"How're you feeling?" He asks next.
"Not too bad, not too good." She lies like she has been this entire conversation.
"I don't like you being down there so far away. If anything happens…" he starts, unable to finish, just shaking his head, and Gia rubs her lips together.
"...Jason's here." She says optimistically, hoping to reassure him. "I'm not by myself. He's looking out for me."
Jim stays quiet for a moment.
"You there?" Gia asks.
"Yeah, I'm here." He answers. "Just, please, get home safe...whenever you do come back."
"I will, I promise." She replies.
"Alright, I'll talk to you later. I love you."
"Love you, too."
"Bye, Gia."
"Bye."
Something, a little itch of doubt plants itself in Jim, not certain doubt—but an inkling that something isn't quite right.
He shakes it off, deciding he's so high strung over the situation at the moment that he's paranoid.
If something were wrong, Gia would tell him.
He decides that and sits back up, pulling the breakfast his wife made, back to his attention.
Gia just lets out a loud groan, her hands grabbing at the hair on her head, already exhausted with lying to people.
Jason's under the impression Jeremiah Arkham is the one who helped her do all this to herself, Jim's under the impression that she and Jason are still out of town...two weeks after Jason actually came back home, and Gia has nearly lied to herself enough that she's beginning to huddle under the impression that nothing odd is going on with her.
Rambo's back home, sort of.
He refuses to get close to Gia unless Jason's in the room.
He whines and growls at her, confusing her, and himself. It's like he misses her, but doesn't want to be around her, either, and Jason's not acting much different than the dog.
Gia tucks her phone into her back pocket before stepping into the Asylum, going through security check before stepping to the front desk of reception.
"Here to see Dr. Arkham, again?" She asks calmly, raising her brows.
"I actually need a visitation form." Gia replies.
"Okay, and who are you visiting today?" The woman clicks a couple of times on the computer and the printer beside her fires up.
Gia hesitates to respond as she hands her the form and a pen.
"The Joker." She finally says it, an ill tension smacking back at her as the receptionist and security officers look at her.
"...Fill that out and I will let Dr. Arkham know." The receptionist says back to her as Gia fills out the visitation form that requires the visitors name, date of birth, the name of the patient they're visiting, the patient's doctor they're under at the institution, and proof of I.D..
Once it's completed and she shows her her license, Gia's putting her things in the plastic bin that's handed over to her, and waiting.
"Dr. Arkham's left early for a meeting out of town," the receptionist says next, "He oversees the visitations with our high-risk patients. Is there any way you can come back another time?"
"That's not an option." Gia tells her, honestly. "I'm only able to see him today."
The woman blinks at Gia, seemingly irritated, but fakes a smile.
"I will see if Dr. Leland is able to do it." She says next.
"Great." Gia passive aggressively smiles back politely, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the woman's demeanor.
The Joker walks his fingers up the wall of concrete beside his rinky "bed," an arm behind his head, his mind at as much ease as it can be.
Until he hears the familiar clicking steps of Leland's unnecessarily loud heels.
What is it with these doctors wearing heels to work?
Do they not understand how tempting it is to not use the damn things as stabbing mechanisms to some of these kooks?
"Joker," she says to him neutrally, his eyes glancing at her from their corners before looking up at the ceiling the way he had been. "You've got company." She adds.
"If it's Harley again, I'm going to barbecue you." He states in a promising tone.
"Harleen's not here. You know that." She replies.
"Oh, Joanie, then whoever could it be?" He asks sarcastically, fingers crossed that it's Batbrain.
She doesn't even bother to answer, taking a step back as his door is unlocked with a loud buzz, guards immediately pinning him when he steps out cooperatively, smiling slyly at Dr. Leland as they shackle him down in wrist and ankle chains.
"Behave." Leland warns him as they start towards the corridor that will take them to the visitation room.
"You gonna spank me if I don't?" He asks and she glares at him as they get to their destination, chairs and counters partitioned from one another, plexi glass separating visitor from patient, phones on the partitions…
"Ms. Gordon, they're ready." The receptionist tells her and she nods, an orderly stepping to her to lead her back.
Her feet feel cemented to the floor when she sees leery eyes taking her in, a knowing, smug smile, exposing a toothy look of pride.
He always looks proud of himself when he can make someone squirm, and right now he's got her in a position that makes her appear like a nightcrawler—those wiggly, cowardly worms that hide as much as they can in the daylight and panic when they're remotely exposed to predators in the light.
That's always been Gia.
He whistles at her, further egging on her discomfort, taking a sharp breath inward.
She cautiously sits down, picking up the phone as he does.
"Got all dolled up to come see me?" He asks her, taking note of her dedication to her lie, shadow cast around her eyes as if she were still sick, but he knows better.
They don't.
Another thing he notices is her heels...that's one of the reasons she's always been easy to catch—she's had to take her shoes off to properly run from him and it's always given him time to catch her before she could.
"You feel any better?" He adds knowingly, and she tries to swallow the lump in her throat.
"You did something." She states, trying to sound as solid as she can. "And you know you did."
"Exactly what did I do?" He questions, raising a brow.
"I'm not playing games, Joker." She tells him.
"I told you exactly what I did, little Gordon." He replies, his features sinking to mock her, corners of his mouth pulling downward. "I worked hard to get you all better and you're not happy with it?"
Gia rolls her jaw at him, and he decides to loop her in on her part of the deal they made.
"There is something taking place here, as I've mentioned before…" he says quietly, nearly mouthing the words, the echoing hissing whisper following slightly behind in the receiver of the phone, and she has to concentrate to hear what he's saying. "Arkham and his patients." He adds, recalling to her what he had informed her about Jeremiah's potential malpractice.
"What about it?" She questions, careful to attempt to be quiet like him.
"My attempt to get in his good graces for personal gain has put me in a compromising position that leaves me with no other choice but to ask a favor of you." He informs her, leaning forward and she fights the urge to lean back, feeling he's too close despite the glass separating them.
"You try to stay in people's good graces?" She asks, raising a brow, the concept not matching up with Joker's usual chaotic philosophy.
"Did you not hear the bit about 'personal gain'?" He cuts his eyes. "Just as dense as big brother, I see." He adds and she rolls her jaw. "I have assured the doctor that I can get him some new test subjects. And I can. But, as you can see, I'm somewhat compromised."
"You can get out whenever you want to."
"Yeah."
"So, get out and do it yourself."
"No, no, people know me. They know I'm coming, they run, and I don't have the time to chase after them, but the ones stupid enough to stick around aren't any fun to catch." He raises his brows, slowly smirking at her. "You, however," he puts his fingers across the glass in a square as if taking a mental picture, closing one eye to capture the vision, making her shift uncomfortably in her seat. "Have a way of reeling in the really mean, lean, bored machines." He points.
"Like you?" She questions gruffly, referring to being in his top five people to reign hell down on for years now.
"Like him." He turns it around on her, bringing her trauma back up and striking her in the same tender, bruised spot in her being. "And those like him."
"I don't do sting operations." She states.
"Oh, yes you do." He argues. "Do we really need a play by play on how exactly loverboy came to be pureed in the first place?" He explains, glad he decided not to slash her face when he considered it the night he got rid of Jason because it was about to come in handy, now.
Her face falls at the recollection, a heavy sickness, pungent, rising in her throat.
"I've already gotten some arrangements prepared for this. Some friends will take care of the cargo, you just deliver it to them." He goes back to his main point.
"And if I decide I don't want to do this?" She asks him bitterly.
"There's no option." He tells her. "You're on a leash until I see your debt has been paid in full."
"I'm not intimidated by you, anymore. I've got my own protection now, remember? Pretty pissed of protection, especially to you."
Joker takes in a breath and runs his tongue along his teeth, seeing that Gia clearly thinks she's got a one up on him by hiding behind her vigilante just like she always has.
"You think he'd waste his energy covering you if he knew the truth, little Gordon?"
It's clear he's not talking about her going to him for help.
"He wouldn't believe you."
He blinks for a few moments, quickly taking a breath and changing the subject so suddenly it gives her mental whiplash.
"You know why Arkham was so willing to let you have your go at it?" He asks in reference to Jeremiah allowing them to run their experiment. "He's been harking on and on about genetic mutilation and rebuilding through the use of cross-genetics and your little reckless endeavor had him nearly blowing his load in his pants at the opportunity because he's already fantasized about getting to put Serpentes DNA where it doesn't belong. Had a whole case prepared and everything—even some other species' DNA samples on hand." He explains to her and she furrows her brows in confusion. "Now that I think about it," he says next, looking as though he's thinking, but she knows he's not. He's being dramatic to further impact the blow he's about to land. "When I put you to sleep, I needed some extra guidance, and you weren't awake to tell me what I needed to know so I looked at a few of your notes from your case file."
Another pause passes.
"...Come to think of it, dear, I do believe I accidentally looked at Jeremiah's instead, though…"
In less than the blink of an eye, Gia's punching the plexiglass, causing the unshatterable solid to indeed shatter, her hand going straight through to grab Joker's collar on his Arkham jumpsuit.
Yells abrupt from the guards, Gia screaming profanities at the clown as orderlies attempt to pry them apart, but her grip is unwavering, until the taser comes out.
Joker is pleasantly surprised...joyously surprised...completely and utterly tickled with the realization that he's created yet another monster to be unleashed.
His usual cackle that begins quietly before moderately escalating to a shrieking hyena's squall, is skipping the build up altogether, his signature shrill sharply echoing off the walls abruptly as Gia's body spasms due to the electrical voltage that was shot through her, the metal darks clasped into her skin through her clothes.
She lets out a tired breath from behind the bars of the holding cell in the precinct as Jim slams his car door after being called in by Renee on his day off.
He gets inside and furrows his brows at the detective.
"Where is she at?" He asks.
"Holding." She responds, walking him to the bondsman's desk.
"I don't think that was necessary, Montoya." He replies.
"We don't give special treatments here, Jim, you know that. She committed a crime, she's treated like she committed a crime. Even if she is your sister." She replies.
He doesn't argue because he's the one who's cracked down on them giving too much leeway to people that they know personally, coming in.
"Just let me talk to her." He says next.
"You're the boss, you do what you want." She shrugs.
He grabs the keys and steps to the hallway that the holding cells are in.
She's laying on the little bench, staring up at the ceiling, and he rests his arms on the bars, exhaling.
Gia just glances at him from the corner of her eyes before tears skim her eyelashes.
"Miami, huh?" He asks and she closes her eyes, swallowing the lump in her throat. "What the hell were you doing at Arkham, Gia?"
She doesn't answer.
"Why did you lie to me about being out of town?"
Again, she doesn't answer.
"Something has happened." She says next, her heart hammering in her chest.
"You call and tell me you've been in Miami the last few weeks, then I get a phone call saying you're in town, you've been locked up—having to be tazed beforehand for assaulting a patient at Arkham Asylum, so yes, Gia, I completely agree. Something has happened." He nods, trying to keep his cool. "So, you tell me exactly what has happened and I'll consider not calling Jason to come bail you out because I'm sure he would love to know exactly what's happening right now." He threatens.
She doesn't say a word, keeping silent.
"Gia." He snaps, getting angrier as she mentally blocks him out.
He shakes his head, biting his teeth together before turning.
"You have one phone call." He informs her. "Let us know when you want to use it."
CHAPTER NINE