Chapter 3: The Laughing Monsters

A/N: Hi guys! I am back with this story and will upload every Wednesday so stay tuned. The chapter titles are new and stem from novels. Chapter 1 (The Man Who Laughs) is by Victor Hugo and Chapter 2 (Beyond a Joke: The Limits of Humor) is a book written by Michael Pickering. Todays book is by Denis Johnson.

Enojy!

"So, doctor, how was your weekend?"

"Great, how was yours, Mr. J?"

"Oh, just peachy." He muttered and sighed dramatically.

"Thank you for your call." I said it right at the beginning of the session. I wanted him to know that. "It meant a lot to me."

He flashed me his happiest smile, but I could see a darkness in his eyes.

"So, how are you doing, Mr. J?"

"I'm ok."

I pressed my lips together. He was not ok, but I didn't want to pressure him. I was about to ask him for a joke, because that seemed to be the number one ice-breaker, when he suddenly said:

"When I was seven I found a puppy." I looked at him and waited for him to continue. "I named her Toots, because you know." He made some movement that was probably a shrug underneath his straight-jacket. "I was seven. Anyway, Toots and I were really happy, she slept in my bed, we went on long walks, that dog was the best friend I ever had."

There was a silence.

"What happened?"

"What do you think happened?"

His eyes bored into mine. The were so blue, so clear and in a way I couldn't decipher, they made him seem vulnerable.

"I think..." He'd been seven. Had he already started harming innocent creatures back then? Had someone else killed the poor animal? His father perhaps? "I think this little dog left an impression on you."

"Yeah." He sounded bored and stared at the table before him. "She did. She was the first?"

"The first?"

The first one he'd killed. The first taste of innocence being stolen. The first taste of power.

Mr. J nodded and continued to avoid eye-contact. I didn't pressure him, after all the fact that he was talking to me was already a huge step in itself.

"One day I wake up and the bed is empty." My heart went out to him. The small boy whose dog was murdered. "So I get up, barefooted you know and pad along the wooden floor of my mothers house, calling out to Toots, other and other again." He chuckled and the sound is cold. "At first I thought she was playing a game, wanting to be found, wanting to scare me." He paused. "Turns out she ran away." Although this incidence was almost 30 years in the past I could clearly hear the pain in his voice. "She left me."

He looked up suddenly and his eyes tell me what his voice had already betrayed. That he still grieved after this friend.

"I'm sorry, Mr. J. That must have been very difficult for you to cope with as a little boy."

"Hmm." He muttered.

"How did she get out?"

"Someone left the door open, or maybe she opened it herself, I don't know!" His harsh voice did nothing to unsettle me. The fact that he wouldn't look at me made me realize he was being honest about his anger.

"Did you search for her?"

"I tried." He muttered now, once again staring at the table.. "I was just a little boy, you know."

"Didn't your parents help?"

This made the Joker scoff and I wrote down parents and underlined it.

"It wouldn't have mattered if I'd found her or not." He finally said and looked up at me again. "She left me. She saw an open door and ran off." He shook his head. "That was the first bitch to ever disappoint me." He grinned a broken grin. "Did you see what I did there?"

"I did." I had to smile too. "But, Mr. J. I'd like to circle back to your parents if that's ok."

"Sure, Toots. Go ahead."

"Were they happy?"

"Who is happy?" He asked now, sitting up straighter in his chair. "I mean, people grow up, realize life is a lie and their parents suck and that adulthood is just like childhood, except it's even more shitty and they get married and have their own kids and mess up their lives." He looked at me with wide eyes. "Tell me, doctor, what kind of sane person is happy on this planet? Are you?"

He caught me off guard and I curse myself for it, because this has happened too many times.

"Were your parents in love?" I tried again.

"Love." The Joker rolled his eyes. "Please, don't tell me you believe in something so ridiculous as love."

"Do you?"

He began swaying in his seat again and I knew he was enjoying this back and forth. At least one of us was having fun then, because this session was getting me nowhere.

"Mr. J." I leaned forward, putting my hands on the table, hoping that would stop his swaying. "Why did you tell me about Toots?"

He cocked his head to the side, studying me and I pulled my hands back.

"Because I dreamed about her last night, I mean she's dead now, you know? That's sad."

I nodded. "It is sad." When he didn't respond, I decided to push it: "Holly, your ex-girlfriend, is dead too."

Seeing right through me he rolled his eyes. "That's not the same."

"Why not?"

"Because..." He groaned, obviously frustrated. "Because I enjoyed killing Holly, I made that happen, but Toots died somewhere, someday because that's what everyone does. We all die eventually and that's downright depressing, don't you get that?"

"I do." I said and pushed away all the thoughts about Daniel and the baby. "But don't you think that might be inspiring? That we should live every moment to the fullest, because it might be our last?"

"Well, baby, if you want to make that happen, you're going to have to get me out of this straightjacket right now."

I had to laugh even though I knew it was unprofessional. "Mr. J. I'm worried about you. You seem...sad."

"I am sad, doctor Quinzel."

"But why?"

"Because my dog ran away when I was seven and everyone is mortal. Have you not been listening to anything I've said?"

"Oh I've listened." I put the clipboard down. "In our last session, we talked about limits and you said my colleagues overstepped your limits with their questions and–"

"That's not what I said." He interrupted.

"You hurt them." I said, maintaining eye-contact. "Because they pushed your limits too far."

"Yes."

"They asked you questions that–"

"No."

"Mr. J." I sighed and he chuckled, swaying back and forth.

"It's a riddle!"

"Yeah." I massaged my temples. "I got that."

Everything was fun and games and quizzes with this man. But he had a deep sadness radiating off of him and I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to know what had hurt him so badly that he had stopped fighting therapy, had stopped trying to harm us. I wasn't naive enough to think it had anything to do with me personally.

"The session is over anyway." I said, standing up. "I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. J."

Once I was home I poured over my notes while drinking huge amounts of coffee. The caffeine had stopped working years ago, but I liked the ritual of it.

Holly he had murdered. He'd strangled, stabbed and almost killed one of my colleagues. There was a rage inside of him. Obviously there was something different about my approach. Something that seemed to be working.

The ringing of my phone interrupted my thoughts.

"Hey!" It was Hailey and my smile grew large. "How are you?!"

She was sobbing.

"Hailey?"

I gripped my cell tighter as if I could reach her that way. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." She hiccuped. "I'm just...so overwhelmed, ya know."

I did know.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Hailey rarely talked about herself, she only ever wanted to know about me. So I told her about the latest session, how he had proposed a riddle. She stopped crying and was her giggle self again pretty soon and the thing was, when Hailey laughed and smiled, so did I.

Just as I made my third cup of coffee and had set aside my notes, another call came in onto my phone, disrupting my and Hailey's conversation.

"Dr. Quinzel?" It was David and I hadn't heard his voice this panicked since the day of the accident. "We have a situation. With the Joker. You need to come to Arkham immediately. He needs you."

I should have asked questions, should have tried to figure out what was happening, but I didn't. I hung up and raced from the apartment.

The drive was crazy, I sped along every street, driving over red lights. I didn't care. He needed me. I shouldn't have left. I should have made sure he was ok. He'd openly talked about having abandonment issues and being sad.

David was waiting for me outside even though it was raining.

"Harleen! Thank you for coming so quickly!"

"Where is he? What happened? Is he ok?!" My blond hair was plastered to my face due to sweat and rain, but I didn't care.

"He had a bad reaction to the shock therapy." David held on to my arms in an attempt to calm me down. "He's in the medical ward."

"Shock therapy?!" I repeated and backed away from him, ripping my arms from his grip. "What on earth are you talking about?!"

"The shock therapy you ordered." He said calmly as if I was the crazy one.

"I didn't order any shock therapy!" I pushed myself past him to get inside. I didn't want to discuss this any longer, I just wanted to see Mr. J.

The medical ward was on the other side of Arkham, opposite the wing of the patients cells. I rushed down the hallway, not caring about the flickering lights or the stale air.

I had to get to him now.

I had almost reached the large double door when I heard crackling laughter. My first thought was that it sounded monstrous, demonic. My second was that this was one of Mr. J's jokes and he was fine.

I spun around and found myself standing face to face with a woman. Her lip was bleeding, her hair was a wild, curly mess. Although she was wearing a white lab coat, she looked more like a patient than a doctor.

"Who are you?"

She laughed again, her creepy laughter echoing off the walls. I could hear a man yelling in pain from inside the medical ward and tears appeared in my eyes.

"You did this to him?"

The woman grinned, blood trickling down her face. "I am Keith Pearson's wife."

My heart sunk as I recognized the name. The last therapist Mr. J had attacked; the one that had pushed him over the edge.

"I work here." She laughed. "No one cares that my husband is basically dead." She pointed towards the hospital ward. "That piece of shit is still alive and well and no one cares about Keith."

I could hear Mr. J yelling out in pain again and felt torn all the way down to the core of my soul. I wanted to burst into that room, wanted to be with him.

But I couldn't leave this woman here roaming the hallways in this state.

"He thought he was helping him, you know." Her eyes were full of a passionate rage I had rarely seen in a human being. "Just like you think you can help him, but you can't. He's not a human, he's a monster and he needs to be eliminated. Kill him, Harleen, end this madness."

"Harleen!" David had caught up to us and looked stunned. "I...what is going on here?"

"Call the police." I said, not taking my eyes off the woman whose name I still didn't know. "This woman is married to Keith Pearson. She had an agenda to purposely hurt the Joker." I looked at my former father-in-law. "I did not order any shock therapy. She did this." David grew pale and I glared at him. "I'm going in to my patient now and I do not wanna be disturbed."

With that I turned around to the double doors, following Mr. J's screams of agony and still hearing his abuser's laughter loud and clear. Arkham Asylum is the place where Monsters laugh, I thought and pushed the doors open. Laughing Monsters are my every day life now.

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