Harley had showed up to work a bit early, going straight to the medical ward and into her office. She swiped her badge and the door unlocked. She moved inside and booted up the computer. She started to work on the medical records with no issues. This was basic data entry. She had a good portion done when she stopped for coffee at nine.

She walked to the small break room in this ward. It wasn't as nice but it would have to do. She got a cup of coffee and added enough sugar to make it taste less like poison. She left to head back to her office.

She was at her door when an orderly called out to her.

"You Harley?"

She looked at him, she was pretty sure they hadn't met before. "Yea."

He looked around and then handed her a folded sheet of paper, and walked away without another word.

"Thanks," she called after him.

She moved to her desk and set the coffee down. She unfolded the piece of paper.

Harley Girl,

I don't like seeing you and not being able to talk to you.

-J

She was shocked. He sent her a note to tell her he missed talking to her. She looked at the small envelope that was inside. She frowned. It was unsealed, the stamp was on it and the address was on it. She moved to open it, and stopped. Should she? He left it unsealed.

She pulled the paper out. It was just a small note. She was confused. All it said was "How's the pooch?" and he'd signed it J.

She was assuming she wanted her to mail this. She shouldn't this was absolutely against Arkham policy but what harm could it do? She tucked the letter away and decided she'd think about it.

By lunch, Frankie was looking for her. She had sneaked into the lounge and got a bag of Skittles and went back to her office. He found her there, coffee untouched, and Skittles opened on the desk.

"You look busy."

Harley nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Sorry, zoned out for a second."

He laughed. "What do they have you doing?"

"Catching up the medical charts." She sipped her lukewarm coffee. "What about you?"

"Pushing med carts for nurses, inventory, basic bitch work."

She laughed, "Well I'd rather do that, than update medical records. It's so boring. Who cares if this patient has a foot fungus?" She shuddered.

He laughed at her. "You aren't in your secret nap area. I figured you'd be in dream land by now."

"Not today." she frowned. She didn't want to explain that she was afraid she'd see have a dirty dream and see Joker.

Frankie looked at his watch. "Well, at least tell me you know some gossip around here?" He leaned on her desk. "The nurses wont tell me anything good."

She chewed her lip, before deciding. "I saw the Joker yesterday."

"What?" he leaned forward, lowering his voice. "When?"

"Joan was showing me the computer and I looked up and he was sitting right over there handcuffed to the bed." she pointed across into the medical procedure rooms.

"No shit?"

She shook her head.

"That's the most action here so far." The jealousy was clear in his voice.

Harley knew if she had told him the rest he would have died from envy.

Frankie stood up. "Well, I should go, if you see him or anyone else cool, text me immediately."

She couldn't help but smile, "Sure."

She looked down at her phone, She still had an hour and fifteen minutes left of her lunch break. She got up, grabbing her Skittles and left her office. She was walking around aimlessly when she heard a strange grunting, followed by whispered talking.

She followed the sound, to a door with a small window. She looked inside and couldn't believe what she was seeing. There were two guards kicking someone who was on the floor. This was not right. She opened the door, startling the men. They both turned and looked at her.

"What the hell is going on here?" She voice surprisingly steady.

"This isn't your concern, turn around and go." The shorter of the two said to her.

She moved further into the room and let out a gasp when she saw the Joker on the floor. He was restrained in a straight jacket and his ankles were shackled. He had a busted lip and a gash along his eyebrow. That was all that was visible.

She looked for something that would help her. She found a large book on one of the shelves. It was heavy, She swung it as hard as she could at the man who had spoke to her. He fell with a groan. The other man moved towards her, Joker moved his shackled feet tangling with the guards. The taller man fell forward and his chin hit the floor.

Harley dropped the book and rushed to Joker.

"Are you okay?"

"Yea kid, I'm fine. They don't do that much damage. You shouldn't have gotten involved."

She frowned. Was he worried about her?

"What are they gonna do? Fire me?" She scoffed. "I'll sue their asses." she pulled him up to sitting, then helped him stand. He was so close to her. She looked at him, he wasn't as tall or as scary as he was in her dream, but still taller than her.

"I'm taking you to medical." she said.

He looked at her, his head cocked to the side, then nodded. She moved, she put her hand around his arm, thankful the straight jacket kept her from touching his bare arm. He watched her as she pulled him through the hallways towards the medical ward.

This tiny girl, unafraid of him, worried about him. She pulled him past the nurses station and into the exam area. He allowed her to push him onto the gurney that was pushed against the wall. She moved, sure of herself, confident that she knew what she was doing.

She pulled on gloves and grabbed a small suture kit. She spread them out on the rolling tray. She grabbed the alcohol wipes and gauze. She turned back to him.

"I don't have any pain killers, this may sting."

He looked at the nurses on the phone, calling whoever they were reporting to. His eyes locked back onto hers. "Goodie."

She smiled, hopefully hiding how nervous she was. She knew basic first aid, and she had passed all of her clinicals. Stitches should be a breeze.

She could feel his eyes on her as she cleaned the wound above his eye. She pulled the pre-threaded needle from the pack and started to fix him up. She made the stitches tight and small, it wasn't a big wound but it wasn't a slap a band aid on it and call it good type either.

He watched her face, chuckling as he saw her pink tongue sticking out as she finished the last two.

It was ridiculous how the sight gave him a jolt of arousal. She finished with his eyebrow and cleaned his bloody lip. The sting of alcohol didn't even register. He couldn't remember when he'd let anyone touch his mouth. Not until she came along.

She was nervous touching his so openly. It was strange when she had fed him. This was ludicrous.

"Your lip is a bit swollen, but looks fine." she said looking back up at him.

She moved away from him, taking a deep breath as she cleaned up the mess. She dropped the bloody items in the bio-hazard bin and the needle in the sharp bin. She looked towards the nurses station, deciding to wait for the back up guard that she was sure was on the way.

She reached into her pocket and grabbed her Skittles. She turned to look at him. "You like Skittles?"

He laughed, "Who doesn't?"

"You know," she smiled, "For most of my life, I thought the green ones were lime and wouldn't eat them." she picked through the bag. "Turns out they are green apple and they are so tasty!"

She found one, "Here try it." She lifted her hand to his mouth. He opened it and she put the candy inside. She blushed as her finger touched his lip again.

He chewed the candy as he thought about how pretty she looked when she blushed.

"You're right, Apple."

She smiled.

The room was suddenly filled with people.

"Harleen, please move away from the prisoner."

"Patient." she corrected.

Two orderlies stepped forward to pull Joker out of the room. Joan rushed forward,

"Harleen are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she looked at Joan's worried face.

"Let's go, we need to discuss what happened."

Harley looked at the two guards who had assaulted Joker. "Yes, Joan, we do."

They sat in Joan's office as Harley told her the entire thing. Only leaving out that she and Joker had met before.

Joan was looking at her in shock. "He let you stitch him up? No fighting?"

Harley was confused, why wasn't Joan upset about the two men beating on a helpless patient.

"Yes, he let me stitch his eyebrow and clean the busted lip."

Joan leaned back in her chair. "This is fascinating. He didn't threaten you at all?"

"No, we ate Skittles after."

Joan looked at her in disbelief. "Skittles?"

Harley nodded.

"I will write up the entire incident for the board." She ended the recorder.

"Harley, my official stance on this is; You should have grabbed another member of staff to help take care of this. You are still technically just an intern here." she paused to take a breath, "Now, you realized what you did was brave but stupid. He is a murderer. You put a lot of lives at risk transporting him through the hospital."

Harley nodded, not trusting her voice.

"Well, take tomorrow off, we will see you back Friday morning. Come straight to my office."

"Yes ma'am." Harley was proud she had held her tears in until she got home.

Harley must have told a pretty convincing story. Joker was in his usual cell. He figured they would have found away to blame it all on him. He had figured at least a few days in solitary. But here he was laying on his horribly uncomfortable cot, staring at the cracked ceiling.

He had been thinking about her. He didn't like that he had grown somewhat attached to her, She had a steady place inside his head. No, that wasn't right. She lived there and today she had put her physical well being on the line for him.

The absurdity of her taking on two large men. Davis and Pollard were large and stupid. The fact she had, made him feel weird inside a strange mixture of pleasure and anger. Those me would have broken her small fragile body easily. She had rushed to his rescue like she was Batman.

Then, she fixed his face, she didn't flinch, just stitched him up. She had offered him candy and small talk, like they were friends, pals. She talked to him like he wasn't a mass murderer. He liked how she was nervous around him, but not really scared of him. He wanted to push her, to see how far he could push her. He wanted to see how far she would bend until she snapped.

He growled, not liking how erotic it all felt. She was very, very dangerous.

A throat being cleared pulled him out of those thoughts. He looked through the plexiglas door, and there stood old Dr. Joan, the ultimate boner killer.

"Yes, Doc?"

"You didn't hurt her." It didn't sound like a question.

"Obviously." he said, his tongue moving over the new split in his lip.

"Why?" Her eyes locked on his.

"It wouldn't have been funny." he lied.

"Bullshit."

His eyebrows shot up, The tight stitched pulling slightly. "Dirty mouth, Doc."

"I want the truth." she was wanting to know Harley would be safe.

"She amused me. That tiny kid barged in and rescued me from the routine beating from those idiots. She took on two full grown men, for me. It didn't seem right to hurt her after that."

Joan was looking at him like he had grown a second head. She finally nodded. "Okay, I can accept that answer. It's good to know."

She walked away leaving him there confused. He couldn't very well tell the doc the whole truth. The doc would lock her away if she knew he had started to like the girl. He moved back to his bed and waited for dinner to be served. He laughed, his mouth still tasted like green apple.

Harley was forcing herself to enjoy her day off. She had woken up and remembered the note in her pocket. She had sealed the letter and dropped it in the mailbox. Then she went and got a mani/pedi. She relaxed as her nails dried under the UV lights. Once dry she texted Frankie.

"How's work?"

He texted back almost instantly. "Boring, the whole place is talking about you."

She wasn't surprised. "BOOOOOOO!"

"Yea, it's not all nice either."

Harley frowned. Who was saying mean things?

"Yea well, it doesn't matter."

"Nope cause you're gonna tell me all the details at lunch tomorrow...right?"

"Maybe."

"Deal."

She laughed. He was a moron. She spent the rest of her day relaxing. She'd done two good deeds in two days. She was well on her way to sainthood. Her dreams hadn't been weird again and she woke up in a good mood.

The ride to work was enjoyable, she felt like she was on top of the world as she made her way to Joan's office. She knocked.

"Come in."

She opened the door and stepped inside the office.

"Harleen, good to see you came back."

Harley was confused, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Never mind that, I have a great idea and even got the board to sign off on it."

"What is it?" She felt nervous again. Joan seemed a bit too excited about whatever this was.

"I wanted to ask you, are you tired of the grunt work you have been doing?"

Harley was confused now. "Well, I guess so, but I figured I had to go through it like everyone else." she shrugged.

Joan smiled. "I am putting together an arts and crafts therapy session. I want to see if some of the more aggressive patients will do better in this type of therapy. I need an assistant. I think it would be very good jump start to your career here."

Harley felt her stomach drop, what was Joan asking her?

"I'm offering you hands on experience here Harleen."

Harley fought not to squeal out loud. "Yes. I was born ready."

"Good, we start this afternoon. We will start small just two patients at a time. If it goes well, we may add more later."

"Okay, but I have to warn you, I'm not very artistic."

Joan laughed, "You'll do fine. It's mostly free range art and then we talk about it. It will give you tons of practical experience."

"I won't let you down."

"Harleen, you handled yourself very well, with the incident on Wednesday, continue to show me you can do it and we will be fine." she smiled. "I'm going to get some patient files ready, then brief you on them. While I do that, you should get us both a coffee, it will be a long morning."

"Sure, how do you take it?"

"Black."

Harley hurried to the lounge and got them both a coffee and got herself a cookie. When she got back, Joan had a stack of files spread around her desk. Harley handed Joan the coffee and took her seat.

"Okay, we will have two tough cases. While they aren't chummy, they do tolerate each other."

Harley sipped her coffee and nodded.

"The first is our very own Jonathan Crane. He is extremely grouchy about being here and will probably take a while to warm up to you. He's been very resistant to many types of therapy.

Wow, Harley couldn't believe she would be working with The Scarecrow.

"Our other candidate you have already met. We don't have a lot of info on him. Just what he has told us, which isn't much, and probably all lies. He has told up multiple stories on how he received his scars and each was told with such conviction, you really want to believe him. He's tested very high on every type of IQ test he's taken."

Harley was impressed. "Why these two?"

"If we can get any kind of results from either of these two patients, I am sure we can get this approved for larger groups as well."

Harley smiled. "This would look very good on any resume."

Joan sipped her coffee, watching the blonde across from her. She was terrified this would be too much for the young woman. But she hadn't panicked when Joker was in the room with her. She might be able to pull this off.

"Here, study up, we have." She checked her watch "Three hours to prep." She handed her the files and stood. "I'm going to go check on the room we will be using and our supplies."

She realized that this session could keep her from her lunch chat with Frankie. She pulled her phone out and texted him.

"Rain check on lunch, I'll explain later."

"You better."

Harley was alone in the room, she read quickly through Jonathan's file. She knew he was smart, but the level of experiments was pretty genius. He was practically a mad scientist, in every sense of the word. Harley couldn't believe he'd gotten away with so much, for so long.

The big surprise was he'd tried to dose the entire city at once. That was wrong on several levels. For one, the poor people. It would have been horrible if he had succeeded. Secondly, how would he have even documented the results accurately. He seemed pretty maniacal. He'd fallen so low that he'd been brought in by Batman for selling drugs on the street. So sad.

He was on a few anti psychotics and sleeping pills as well. They still didn't have a solid reason for his sudden split personality. He seemed like he would be fun.

She slid the folder back onto the desk and grabbed Joker's file. She was nervous to open it. It almost felt like she was betraying his trust by looking inside. She chewed her lip in her indecision. She must have been contemplating for a while.

Joan had made her way back. "Have you looked at the files?"

She smiled up at Joan. "I got through Crane's, haven;t started Joker's yet."

"That's fine, you can catch up later, there's not a lot in there. I believe we should go ahead and get the room ready before they get there." Joan looked at her watch. "We can grab a quick bite to eat before we go."

"Perfect." Harley agreed.

She stood and downed the last of her overly sweet, now cold coffee. They both grabbed a salad. Harley was nervous, she ate the small salad in silence. Her stomach churning with her nerves. She finally tossed the last half of the food and grabbed another cookie. She stashed it in her pocket with the forgotten morning treat.

She was nearly sick to her stomach as they moved to the new session room. It was brightly lit, and clean. If it weren't for the obvious restraints and bars on the window, it would look strangely like her high school art classroom.

There were easels along one wall stocked with either paints or crayons, paper and pencils. Other seats had glitter, glue and macaroni noodles. There was a table with what looked like small tubs of play doh.

The knock on the door nearly made her jump.

She and Joan stood and watched as the two men were brought into the room. Joan was already speaking.

"Thank you, unshackle them please, then you boys can wait outside."

The guards didn't look happy, but complied. When Harley had the nerve built up to look, both men looked surprised. Crane was tall, he had dark hair that needed a trim, and light eyes. He also looked like he'd never smiled a day in his life. How sad.

Joker was the shorter off the two, but he resonated power over the room. His hair was a much lighter shade, almost a dirty blonde in the light. His eyes dark.

"Gentleman, we are going to try art therapy today. I would appreciate you cooperation on this."

The men didn't speak, just watched Joan.

"This is Harleen, she will be assisting me through this entire process."

Suddenly both men were staring at her. Harley felt terrified. Crane had the clear look of agitation on his face. His eyes quickly shot back to Joan. Joker's eyes were on her. His tongue shot out to lick along the scab on his lip. Harley felt like she was standing in a sauna. She wiped her palms on her pants, getting rid of the sweat.

"There are a few options to choose from. You each can choose a medium. Today's topic will be draw, paint, or create whatever fuels you." Joan sounded excited.

Crane frowned and moved to the table with the crayons and paper. Harley was mildly surprised at his choice. Joker walked from table to table looking over every option. He circled back and chose paint at the easel.

Joan looked at Harley, smiling like she had just won the lottery. They worked separately and somewhat quietly. Joan moved to Harley.

"Are you comfortable enough to work with Joker alone?"

Harley had to work hard not to laugh. Oh, if Joan only knew. She nodded.

"Good, engage, ask light open questions." Harley nodded again.

Joan moved to Crane and set down. Harley walked over to Joker 's side and looked at his painting.

She couldn't help but smile. "Is that what fuels you?"

He didn't look up from the painting. "It's what they feed me every day." he said, continuing to paint a sandwich. It was crude and looked like a five year old had done it.

Harley chuckled. "I don't think that's what Joan meant."

He looked at her now. "I know." he turned back to the paper. "She should learn to be more specific."

"Can I sit with you?"

He chuckled. "Mi casa es Su casa." she smiled and set down in the hair next to him.

He looked over at her, sneaking a peak through his hair at her face. Her big blue eyes looking at him. She just watched him. He felt strange under her gaze.

"You, uh, got any goodies today?" he asked as he looked trough the small tubes of paint.

She couldn't help but smile. "Yea, I do actually." she grabbed the cookies from her pocket. She put one on her lap and opened the other for him.

She held the cookie up to his face. He chuckled and reached for the cookie. She turned a deep shade of red.

"Sorry, I'm not used to you having your hands free." She whispered.

He didn't speak, just looked at her face. So open all the emotions flying freely across her face. "It's fine." he said as he shoved the cookie into his mouth.

Harley looked over at Joan, who seemed to be in deep discussion with Crane.

"Are you friends?" she nodded towards Crane.

Joker almost choked on the cookie. Once he'd swallowed it, he answered.

"No, The, uh, former doc, is a complete nut job."

Harley covered her mouth to quietly laugh.

"So you're a doctor hmm?"

"Interning here." she said.

He grunted.

"You don't like the doctors here?"

He frowned, "Not par-tic-ularly."

She made sure not to show the disappointment she felt.

"Though I have grown fond of an intern."

Her stomach flipped, had he just said he was fond of her? She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. She watched as he pulled the first paper free and set it aside. He grabbed the couple of tubes he had found and opened the first.

"So, what's your deal?" he asked.

"My deal?"

"Why a shrink? Daddy issues? Addiction issues? Abused as a child?"

Oh, that kind of deal. "No, none of that. I've always been attracted to more extreme personalities. If I enjoy it, why not get paid too?"

"Oh, I see, an adrenaline junkie."

She thought about it for a second. "Maybe."

He smiled. At least she was honest.

"I mailed your letter." she said.

"Thanks doll."

Harley opened the cookie she'd kept for herself and nibbled at it, not really hungry. She looked up from the cookie and nearly choked. Joker was smearing acrylic paint across his face. She turned to see what Joan was doing, thankful she looked like she was in a deep conversation.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

He turned to face her and her breath caught in her throat. He looked like the Joker now. The smeared paint distorting his features slightly. A chill crawled up and down her spine. He grabbed the blank paper from the easel an pushed his face into it. When he pulled the paper back , his face was almost clean of the paint.

The face transfer onto the paper was eerily beautiful. She loved how awful it looked, needing to hide it away from Joan. She knew the older woman would flip out.

Joker had grabbed a pencil and was scribbling on the bottom of it. Harley stood slowly, to keep from making a scene. Harley pulled her shirt from her jeans, without thinking she grabbed his face and used the inside to slowly wipe the excess paint from his face.

He was startled at first, but let her, it gave him a wonderful view of her lacy bra and the smooth skin on her belly. He leaned into her, pressing his cheek into the soft flesh. He felt her freeze. Joker liked this. His dick was currently throbbing in his pants. She was soft and warm and her skin smelled clean and almost sweet.

He moved his face, letting the rough skin of his scars drag across her, let her feel the slight stubble along his face. He pulled back before he lost control, the urge he felt to bite into the soft skin felt painful to hold back.

She pushed her shirt back into place, her face and neck blotched with the blush she seemed to sport constantly around him. He moved to toss the paper down, but she snatched it from his hand. Tucking it back behind the easel.

Joan stepped up behind Harley.

"What did you come up with?" he eyes excited at the possibilities.

Joker handed her the picture of his sandwich. Joan frowned.

"I see you took my words literally."

Joker shrugged, Joan looked down at his hands covered in paint and the few missed smudges on his face. "You seem to be a messy painter, maybe markers next time."

Harley almost laughed, Joker just stared at her. His mind was scrambled with everything that had happened the last few minutes.

The guards arrived to to help escort the two back to their cells. Joan and Harley cleaned up the bulk of the mess. Once it looked mostly tidy, Joan sat down and gestured for Harley to do the same.

"Well, you are still alive."

Harley was a bit upset with how surprised Joan sounded.

"What did you two talk about?"

What should she tell? Deciding to keep it light, she hedged around anything that Joker would consider private talk.

"He painted the sandwich on purpose, and he doesn't like doctors much."

Joan laughed. "That sounds about right. I'd like to continue this Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This went really well."

Harley smiled. "Sounds good."

Joan stood. "Go home, enjoy your weekend, you can write up and observations you think would be useful and then you can read his file. We will meet back her on Monday and try it all again."

Joan got up to leave and Harley lagged behind, using the excuse that she left her cookie by the easels. Once she assured Joan she would be right behind her, Harley booked it over to the stashed paper. She was happy the paint was dry and looked at it again before rolling it up.

Joker had written her name in the corner. No she looked closer, He had written Harley Quinn inside a lopsided heart. She rolled the paper up hurried to catch up with Joan. She grabbed Joker's file and excused herself. She needed to get to her apartment quick so she could stare and over think this entire thing.

She made it home in record time and had the picture tacked to the wall. The smeared face of Joker and his nickname for her. Written in a fucking heart. She replayed the entire session in her mind, her hand tracing where he'd rubbed his face on her belly.