The Laughing Stock

Guys, I'm back and so excited about this new story! Enjoy! WARNING: This chapter is filled with crude jokes and language, if dark humor offends you, you might want to skip the end.

Chapter 1

I sighed turning around and reaching out to him with a smile. When my hand reached into emptiness I remembered.

He was gone.

I sighed again, although not at all peacefully and rolled onto my back. This was something I still had to get used to. Being alone.

He's not worth it. This is what my best friend Hailey had told me and I repeated her words in my mind. He doesn't deserve you.

Daniel had left two weeks ago, but our relationship had lasted eight years. I couldn't get over eight

years in two weeks.

My phone rang and I reached out to read Hailey's message.

Good luck today,you are awesome!

I smiled and sat up. Hailey believed in me, but she was the only one. I had already given up on my

life. When I climbed out of bed I caught my own reflection in the mirror. The scar on my abdomen was barely visible anymore, but I would never forget it. The accident replayed itself over and over in my head daily...

"Ah!"

"Ma'am! Can you hear me? You were in an accident, I'm a doctor. You're going to be ok."

Ok. I repeated this in my mind. Ok, ok, ok...

"Pl..."

"We're going to take care of you. The ambulance is almost here."

But I couldn't breathe. The pain was too intense. I wouldn't survive. We wouldn't survive.

"Please."

"If I pull it out, you'll bleed to death. The ambulance is on it's way. Just hold on, ok?"

No. I didn't want to hold on. I knew it then, in that moment. I knew it had all been too good to be true.

"I'm pregnant."

The man who had come to my rescue stared at the large metal pole stuck in my abdomen. He didn't need to be a doctor. We both knew what was going on. That the baby I had been looking forward to for four months was no more.

The phone rang loudly, breaking through my memories. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the images.

"Hello?"

"Hey Baby!" Hailey squealed. This was something she did a lot. "I just wanted to see how you're doin'!"

I sighed, falling onto the bed, "I don't know, if I can do this Hailey."

"Of course you can!" She insisted. "It's just six months, Harleen. And then you'll be finished. You'll be a trained psychiatrist! You've come so far."

"I know."

But I didn't know why I had come so far. I had been a master in gymnastics all through my teenage years, had been close to applying for a scholarship, when I'd met Daniel. He was going to be a doctor and he loved me and he said I had potential, I could do more. I could be a psychiatrist.

We had fallen so madly in love and now he was gone.

"Daniel?"

He'd been crying. I could see how red his eyes were.

"Harleen." He sighed. "I'm so sorry."

I nodded. I knew he was sorry. I knew what he was doing and it may have sounded crazy, but I also knew why he was doing it.

"When?"

He averted his eyes and took a deep breath as if he was in pain.

"When?!" I demanded to know and my voice became louder. "When do you plan on leaving me, Daniel?!"

The man I had planned my life with and who had been my rock for the past eight years wasn't capable of looking at me when he admitted: "Today."

I had to laugh in a non-humorous way and felt tears burning in my eyes, "Today? I'm not even out of hospital yet and you're bailing on me?!"

"I'm not bailing on y-"

"No! You're bailing on us! On eight years!"

He rolled his eyes now with the smallest annoyed smile, "Harleen. You're being dramatic."

And I lost it.

"You are blaming me for something that is not my fault! You're leaving me after all these years...we were going to get married!"

Daniel flinched at my loud voice. He wasn't used to it. Neither was I. It only happened on rare occasions that I got loud with him. There had never really been any reason.

"Harleen. None of this has been easy for me, either ok? I–"

"Oh it hasn't been easy for you?!" The sarcasm shocked me just as much as him. "I'm sorry. Were you the one who had a car accident?! Were you the one who lost her baby?! Are you the one who will never be able to have children?!" I stared at him shaking my head.

"You're upset. We should talk about this some other time. When you're not so hysterical."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I screeched, sitting up in the hospital bed. "We will talk about this now!"

"I can't be with a woman, who can't give me any children!" He finally exploded. "You know how important family is to me!"

"Just get the hell out, Daniel!"

He stood up, palms outstretched towards me. "Harleen. I will not leave. I cannot leave you in this state by yourself."

"Just go!"

"I'm just not sure, Hailey." I explained as I buttoned up my blouse, the phone was on speaker. "Everyone knows about what happened. I'm the laughing stock of the facility. I'm a pathetic looser."

"You are not pathetic and you are not a looser!" She snapped. "You will go there with your head held high, do your best work and–"

"What work?" I interrupted, as I pulled my blonde hair up into a bun, "They gave me the one patient who never talks."

"Get him to talk!" She sounded impatient. "Or you know...take your journal with you and use the time you have there."

Right, the journal.

Hailey had dialed a wrong number while I'd been in hospital and had ended up talking to me. The two of us had talked for hours. We had gotten along immediately and Hailey had helped me through these past weeks. She had told me to start a journal, to write down all the things I was feeling and to hold on to them. She had encouraged me to create a list of things I wanted to change in my life. And after all I'd been through writing this list was one of the hardest thing I'd had to do.

Change had never come easy for me. I was predictable Harleen Quinzel, 26 years old with a plan for my life. I was going to marry Daniel Richard Kendall and together we were going to have three children. I'd work as a psychiatrist part time and he'd be a full time neuro-surgeon. We'd go on holidays together to the Bahamas and our life would be perfect.

But all of that was over now. It was time for a new plan.

Hailey rarely planed things in her life. She just lived for the moment and over the phone she was trying to teach me the same thing.

"Ok. I'll make the best of it." I checked my reflection one last time, "I need to go now, I'll call you this evening."

"Wait!" She whined, "You haven't told me about last night yet!"

I sighed. This was the last thing I needed. I was going to be too late on my first day.

As if she had read my mind she said: "It's a cell phone Harleen, just take it with you."

"It was ok." I give in. "I told him to leave. I didn't want him to stay over night."

"Those are so not the details I am interested in!"

I grabbed my keys and opened the door. "It was just sex, Hailey. Nothing special."

"Harleen, you have so much to learn!"

"What?" I muttered. "It's not like I've never done it before."

"Making love to Daniel in the same position for eight years doesn't count."

Her bitter tone made me laugh. "I'll talk to you later, Hailey!"

I hung up and made me way down the stairs. Hailey had encouraged me to have one-night-stands. She had different views about sex than I did. Up until two weeks ago I had never had sex with a man who wasn't my boyfriend. But I was redefining myself.

Starting with this internship at Arkham Asylum.

"Harleen!" Dr. David Kendall greeted me with a large smile. "There you are!"

"Hi Dr. Kendall."

"Oh please! You can call me David! We're old friends!"

We were. He had almost become my father-in-law after all.

"I'd really rather not, Dr. Kendall."

A smile spread on his old face. His blue eyes reminded me of Daniel and I felt like crying there and then.

"Alright! You're being professional. I like that, Dr. Quinzel." He smiled brightly and winked, ruining all professionalism. He walked ahead and waved his hand at me, so I would follow him.

"As you may already know Arkham Asylum is a very popular facility for internships and you applied very late and it was through my connections..." He noticed that this was a topic I precisely did not want to talk about and hurried on. "Anyway, your patient for the next six months will be the legendary, notorious...Joker!"

I sighed deeply. It was just as I had expected. Time to work on my journal. The Joker was a dead-end and everyone knew it, David was just being optimistic as always.

"Now. The Joker was caught by Batman four months ago and brought here. At first most of the staff was fascinated by him. It was such an exciting time! Every day new doctors tried speaking to him, but well...he tried to kill most of them." Dr. Kendall lifted his shoulders in a helpless manner. "One had a pen stuck in his eye, the other was strangled and the third got his head smashed against the table." He paused, loosing track of his story before continuing. "Finally the Joker seemed to have become bored with us. He stopped reacting to any methods about two months ago. But who knows! Maybe you can lure him out his state, Dr. Quinzel. This could be your big break!"

I had always hated his optimism. After Daniel had left he had called me to tell me that at least we could both start over new now. And that I never what was waiting for me. Great things were going to happen!

I smiled. Six months. I could do this. I had gotten so far, Hailey was right.

"Yeah, maybe."

"Oh look! There's Dr. Leland, she's really nice, she's actually friends with Daniel now! Isn't that great?" He grinned.

Dr. Joan Leland. Tall, dark skin, dark hair and a perfect smile.

"You must be Dr. Quinzel!" She came towards me, "It's so nice to finally meet you!"

I shook her hand and looked up at Dr. Kendall. "Finally?"

"Well..." He blushed deeply, "I might have spoken about you."

"And Daniel too!" The young woman added with a smile that made me want to slap her. "He thinks you're amazing!"

Hailey would have smacked her by now. I smiled politely. "Well I should get going, my patient is waiting."

"Ah yes", she smiled knowingly, "The Joker – he who never speaks. Good luck with that!"

"It will be great." Dr. Kendall nodded with large eyes, "A little light work after...well after everything."

After losing all that had ever mattered to me and being abandoned by your son, I thought angrily.

"Yes. I'll see you around."

I could have just left right then. Give up on everything. What did it matter, really? I didn't know who I was anyway. But it was probably worth a try. At least one try. I had received instructions in a meeting with the chief of Arkham and he had told me that the Joker was in a special room with only a table for the two of us to sit at. Confidentiality made it necessary for us to be alone, but there were two heavily guarded men outside the door and a button I could press under the table, if I felt threatened. But, he had reminded me, the most interesting thing he will do is yawn, so don't be nervous.

I was not nervous. But I'd be bored to death with him. I took a deep breath, tried to remember what things had been like before Daniel. How I had been motivated to help people. How things had been easier. How could he just stop loving me like that?

"Dr. Quinzel?"

One of the heavily guarded men stepped towards me and I nodded, showing him my ID-card. He nodded at me and his partner stepped aside to let me through. There were no other words exchanged, which made sense, because what should we have spoken about?

I pushed the heavy door open and there he was. His hair was green. His face pale and the word damaged was tattooed on his forehead and there was a J on his cheek. He was wearing a straight-jacket and looked up at me with piercing blue eyes. There was something in them I couldn't quite explain, something that made me feel pity for him. He looked like he didn't belong here.

"I'm Dr. Quinzel." I said in as I approached the table. "I will be your doctor for the next six months."

Of course he didn't answer. He just glared at me as if he was bored and I sat down opposite him. I unpacked my writing journal from my bag and stared down at the list.

- have one night stands

- loose the glasses

- change hair?

- paint kitchen

- start gymnastics again

- go dancing

- get a tattoo

I put the list aside and opened a new page.

Today is the first day of my internship. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. David is being overly

nice, his pity makes me sick. I've been

"What on earth are you doing?!"

I jumped at the surprise of hearing his voice. The way he breathed heavily and pressed the words out of him it sounded like it was very exhausting for him to speak.

"What?" I closed my journal.

"You're my doctor, you're supposed to talk to me!"

"You want to talk?" I asked confused. I had seriously never thought he would say a word. And I hadn't prepared any questions for him.

"Just don't ask me about my childhood." He said coldly. "That's what everyone does."

A strange sort of euphoria rose in me. He was talking to me! He was actually talking! I had to be careful not to upset him. I had to strike a topic he would like.

"Tell me a joke." I said and leaned forward.

I could tell he was confused by my proposal, but he only needed a moment, before a light shone in his eyes and he leaned forward.

"A man called in sick to work." He began with a sly smile. "His boss didn't believe him and called him back, asking, how sick are you really?" The Joker paused for dramatic effect and then delivered the punchline with a straight face. "I'm in bed fucking my sister, the man answers, is that sick enough for you?"

And although the joke was so crude and so disgusting I couldn't stop myself from bursting out in loud laughter. I could see the surprise in his eyes, but there was more. Approval was written across his face clearly as he smiled at me.

"Your turn." He said with a smile. I had read his file, I knew all the crimes he had committed, but this smile made my heart flutter in my chest. I wanted to do this right, I wanted to prove myself to him, to Daniel and to all of Arkham. Honestly I wasn't very good with jokes, but as a med-student there had been one that usually got a few laughs.

"Julius Ceasar walks into a bar and says I'll have a Martinus. The bartender gives him a puzzled look and asks, don't you mean a Martini?" I paused. "Look, Ceasar replies, if I wanted a double, I'd have asked for it."

The Joker cracks a smile. "Clever." He says. "Now tell me a dirty one."

I rolled my eyes. "No. It's your turn."

Again, surprise flickered in his blue eyes but he wasn't angry at my refusal.

"Hitler arrives in hell and the bartender asks him, what did you do? He replies, I killed 8 million Jews and three clowns." I pressed my lips together because I wasn't that comfortable with this kind of humor, but for my patient I decided to go with it. "The bartender asks, why three clowns? And Hitler says, see no one cares about the Jews! Why am I even here?"

It's the way he told these jokes and his laughter that made me laugh too. The Holocaust was no joke to me, but I couldn't help laughing.

"Your turn." He flashed me that smile again, the smile that made me forget about the fluorescent lighting and the straight-jacket he is currently wearing. "Make it dirty."

I was suddenly very conscious of my appearance, the blouse, the ponytail, the glasses...and wished I had approached this situation differently.

"What's the difference between being hungry and being horny?" I knew how vital this first meeting was and kept my eyes locked with his.

"What?" He asked, leaning forward.

"Where you stick the cucumber."

The Joker burst out in laughter and I knew he had a signature laugh, but this wasn't it. This was actual, genuine laughter at this crude joke and I couldn't help but smile because I had managed to make him laugh and connect with him on the first day.

He leaned back against the plastic chair studying me. "Dr. Quinzel." The way he said my name slowly, musing over it made me hold my breath in anticipation. "This is going to be great, you and I are going to have a lot of fun."

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