Another chapter down, I'm really hoping this means that you really like this story. Happy reading and I'll see you at the end!

Not The Good Kind of Punishment

I was woken up by screaming coming from down the hallway, dammit Will every fucking night! The first time he had done this shit when I came here Joker was awake as well and had screamed right back at him. I was extremely pissed at both of them, Joker had told me that it was a random thing but it had been happening like clockwork for the past three days and I was losing a lot of sleep over it, and my sleep is in direct correlation with my sanity, so it's not doing so well right now. Obviously his sessions aren't helping him. There were still a few hours left until the guards would come in to give medication and take the inmates in for their "treatment", I had my second session with Harley today and I was ready to get the hell out of this cell.

Standing from my cot I paced the floor for a few minutes with my arms laying on top of my head before sitting back down to braid my hair, when I was done with my fishtail it fell down to my shoulder blades. I stared ahead at the bars of my cell door and a bright idea popped into my head, my feet slapped against linoleum while I walked to the bars after hopping up from my cot.

Wrapping my hands around the poles sectioned off at the top I pulled myself up, my feet walked up the pole until they reached the bar right below my hands. I slid my legs through the spaces one at a time so that they were laying in the divides of the door. My hands let go of the bars and I slowly let myself fall backwards until I was completely upside down, my arms extended to the ground in a very satisfying stretch, when my back gave a resounding pop I crossed my arms over my chestand began to pull the top half of my body into in an upside down sit up. I continued to do this until the muscles of my abdomen felt like fire and my forehead was soaked with sweat. I knew it was time to stop when my head began to spin, however I knew that I could do this all day if I wanted to.

Since my impromptu workout was now finished I continued to let myself hang with my back against the bars,, I could feel my chest heaving, my legs were starting to fall asleep from lack of blood circulation. I was preparing myself to get down when I felt someone give my ass an incredibly hard pinch through the thick jumpsuit. I jerked my body up and looked down at a pair of guards in front of my cell, they were both laughing as if what they did had been the highlight of their day.

"Down from the bars beautiful." Okay asshat sure thing. I gave him a smirk while I curled my body into a ball to pull my legs from the bars and dropped down in front of him.

"Do you really think I'm beautiful?" I spoke in the most innocent sugary southern voice that I could fake. He smirked at his buddy while giving him a wink, then he took a few more steps towards me and leaned against the bars.

"Oh definitely sweetheart, you know most of the loonies can't make the jumpsuit work, but you darlin', you are most definitely making it work" he spoke to me as though I were a child while his eyes ran across the length of my body, if it weren't for these bars he would find his baton shoved up his ass.

I gave him a shy giggle while looking down to the ground, "aw, now don't flatter me sugar." Then he made the stupid mistake of putting his hand through the bars and tilting my chin up.

"Well a beautiful girl like you deserves all the compliments I can give doll." Maybe I'm going crazy or maybe the guards adopted dogs but I swear I just heard a growl coming from somewhere, I gave him another smile while I grabbed his hand and held it to my face.

The look on his face when I flipped the tables on him was priceless, I let my knees fall to the ground, pulling his arm with me, then I pushed his arm to my left so that it pressed against the bars, not releasing the pressure until I heard a satisfying crack and a loud yell come from his mouth. He ripped his broken arm away from me and cradled it to his chest while his partner began to open the cell door, a few other guards came running from down the hall to help.

'The bastard's partner came towards me and pushed me against the wall with his forearm against my neck, I stomped the heel of my foot into his toes, granted it didn't do much since I was barefoot, but it distracted him while I brought my other leg up to knee him in the stomach. Once his body doubled over both of my hands grabbed the back of his neck and brought it down to connect his nose to my knee. While that guy recovered a few other guards came into the cell and grabbed both of my arms successfully restraining me, the guy whose nose I hopefully broke punched me in the face as retribution.

My head whipped to the side at the force, motherfucker, he busted my lip! I turned back to him and smiled, I could feel blood smear across my lips and chin, "is that the only way you can land a punch asshole?"

He looked at the first guard that was holding me, then to the other, what do they have some secret telepathy? "Take Neal to the infirmary, then take this crazy bitch to solitary." I lunged at him, just to see if I could scare him and what do you know, I did, yay for me, he jumped back while I gave him another bloody smile. Over the sound of the commotion a loud laugh was coming from the Joker's cell.

The guards all looked over at him, "she's just a scream isn't she boys?"

My chin was grabbed by the bastard in front of me whose nose was now severely bleeding, "you need to tell your boyfriend to shut his happy ass up." I shook my head out of his grip while the Joker let out one of his low growls, "take her away."

I was dragged out of my cell and on my way down the hall I heard Joker call, "solitary isn't as bad as you think doll."

"Easy for you to say!" His laugh followed me until door we walked through slammed shut.

Joker was right, solitary confinement surprisingly wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but to be honest I had no expectations of what it was going to be like either. It's not as if I woke up one day and thought, hey, I wonder how those in solitary confinement feel, it really can't be that great of an experience. One downside was of course the straight jacket they stuffed me in, my arms had started to cramp up within the first fifteen minutes of being in here.I didn't really know how long I had been here by myself, that was the worst part about it, I could have been here for minutes, hours, and it bugged the hell out of me that I didn't know.

The time I spent in here consisted mostly of singing, humming random songs and roly-polying around the padded place. I figured that if anyone was watching on some hidden camera then they would be annoyed by the variations of classics that echoed throughout the room.

I was laying on my stomach in the middle of the room, my unbruised cheek pressed against the padded floor. The door to the room opened and in walked none other than Harley Quinzell ladies and gentlemen.

"Nice outfit Doc...uhm quick question, can you tell me how long I've been here, I lost track after twenty minutes.

She shook her head at me and looked at her wristwatch, "for about an hour, I was sitting in my office wondering why the guards didn't bring you in for your session and then I heard that this happened. Honestly, do you have any idea how stupid that stunt you pulled was? This is exactly the kind of behaviour that's going to end up keeping your ass locked up in here."

I just shrugged my shoulders while I brought myself to my knees, "right now I'm just kind of concerned with getting out of this room."

"Why would you do this Scarlett, you had to know nothing good would come out of it. Not only that but you've set us back months in your progress and you haven't even been here full month."

I rolled my neck to the side, "a girl sometimes has to defend her honour Harley, nobody else is going to...and frankly I don't appreciate having my ass grabbed by sleazy guards whose only pastime is to stare at the female patients while they're changing. Oh and trust me I know because I've turned around plenty of times to catch them ogling them, and you know those women can't defend themselves. I wholeheartedly believe that he got what he deserved and I for one am certainly glad that I did it, I'm pretty sure you are to, even though you won't admit it."

She sighed and brushed away a part of her bangs that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear, "I'll have the guards bring you to your session, and I expect answers today Scarlett."

"Alright Scarlett I'm willing to ignore what happened this morning and focus on some other things, so let's start with how your week has been since I last saw you." Harley was in her normal psychiatrist's position, clipboard in lap and legs crossed.

"You know my daily routine Harley, I don't know why you even bother asking." They left the straight jacket on today, guess the handcuffs and restraints just wouldn't cut it today.

"That's not what I meant Scarlett, how have you been feeling since being here in Arkham these past two weeks?" She pushed her glasses up on her nose and rolled her chair closer to me.

I met her gaze head on, "trapped, angry, annoyed, and pretty damn sore. Does that answer your question?" My jaw hurt every time I spoke but I didn't let it show, I've dealt with worse pain before, that small punch was nothing in comparison to what I've had.

"I bet you feel sore, but the other guy probably feels a lot worse, and I can understand feeling trapped and angry, but why annoyed?" She made a few notes on her clipboard, today she had chosen a bright pink pen to write with, a hideous choice in my opinion, but to each his own I suppose. Those type of pens had always irritated my eyes when attempting to read something written in that bright of a color.

"I don't belong in a nuthouse Harley so of course I'm annoyed that I was put here."

She stood from her chair and went to her desk to pull out a file from one of the cabinets, she grabbed a packet from the folder and brought it back with her. "Your neighbour, Liz, said that you would constantly make threats to her, she said that and I quote "she would practically force me into keeping her secret, I was pretty much threatened on a daily basis, she's completely insane. She would leave to go and rob some random place and leave me to look after her stupid dog, she said that she would kill me if I ever told anyone about her, I didn't want to die so I could never go to the police." So you see Scarlett the reason why you are here is not only because of your crimes but because of the fact that you have basically kept a human being hostage for the past three years. Violent tendencies need to be treated, otherwise you are considered a threat to society, they had no other option but to send you here."

I don't think that anger is an adequate word for what I feel at the moment. The only fucking reason she never went to the police is because she was getting a generous check every fucking week! Did she even mention that to the fucking GCPD?

"It's so hard to find decent friends nowadays isn't it?"You could practically taste the malice and sarcasm that fell from my mouth.

"You and I both know that you never considered Liz to be a friend Scarlett, you don't have friends." There was no spite in that sentence, it was simply stated as a fact.

"That hurts Harley," I mean it's true but still very rude.

"That's not what I meant, you don't trust anyone enough for them to be considered a friend. I can't say that I blame you of course, the way that things are now a days it's hard to trust anyone."

Good for you Doc you cracked the code, and yet you still expect me to trust you blindly, "what else did Liz say about me?"

She jotted down a note, "I'm not at liberty to say Scarlett."

I scoffed, you had no quarrel with telling me police secrets just now.

I could hear her let out a sigh, "they told me about you Scarlett, when I told them that I would take you on as a full time patient after the initial diagnosis, they told me, how you were the one responsible for the robbery of several different banks here in Gotham. Apparently you've even stolen a few million from the Falcone Industry. I have to admit that's quite an impressive feat, the GCPD can't access your bank accounts however, nobody can, so they are unable to get the money that you stole back." Oh trust me I know, I made it that way.

"Tell me Harley, do you really believe that Falcone deserves even a cent of his money, everyone knows that he has the GCPD under his thumb, not to mention the "suspected" drug dealing that he gets away with, courtesy of the corrupted officials that he's buddies with. That man came to power through some of the worst ways and yet I'm the bad guy here, I only steal when I need to, and only from those that can live with a little less in their bank accounts. I'm like a modern day Robin Hood, only I'm female and I don't give the money away."

She wrote a whole page of notes before talking to me again. "I'm fairly certain you have more than enough yourself and you should care a lot more than you do Scar, the news has already broadcasted your arrest and it's only a matter of time before Falcone decides to do something about you. You know you have quite a reputation for someone who has never been seen or heard of until now. There are a lot of people out there who know about you now, your recklessness just made you a lot of enemies Scar."

Well shit, looks like I'm going to have to move again. "I'm touched by your need to look after me, really, but Falcone doesn't scare me, oh they didn't leave out the part where I robbed Sionis as well right, that one wasn't easy."

She clicked her pen a few times, "no, they included that "success", but they also included the murders of several men that were found at the crime scenes. Just like everyone else in this place you've killed people Scar, what makes you different is the fact that I can't diagnose you with a simple disorder, and that's only because you don't have one."

"Well don't I feel special? Just so you know it's human nature to try and preserve ourselves, it was either me or them, so please forgive me if I choose myself. They got in my way, not only that but I gave them the option of leaving yet they were too stubborn to care about themselves, I may have put the bullet between their eyes but they signed their own death warrants. Now two options here, we can either move on from this subject or you can continue to state what I already know."

She looked like she was contemplating on whether or not to drop the subject. Pulling out a slip of paper from her clipboard she scanned it while speaking, "alright then, I have a few questions, pretty basic ones too, you won't have to go into too much detail but at least try to answer them truthfully. First one, where were you born?"

"Well I could have been born in Gotham, or I could have been born in Texas, California, Minnesota…"

"For the love of God Scarlett…"

"Ok fine New Orleans." Just trying to lighten the mood up.

She looked relieved at finally receiving some answers, "really, never would have guessed that, you don't have an accent."

"I didn't want one when I left so I practiced speaking without it, same way an actor would do an accent for a movie."

Her pencil made a continuous circle around something on her paper, "any reason why you didn't want the accent?"

My eyes narrowed onto hers, I'm pretty sure I wasn't as intimidating as I would hope, mainly because of this straight jacket. "It was annoying."

There is this thing called multitasking Harley, I really think that you need to work on it, the long periods of silence while you are making notes is starting to annoy me. "Interesting, do you have any siblings?"

"No." Mommy didn't want anything else screwing up her life. It would have been nice to have someone there, but she took that away.

"Alright short and sweet, have you ever travelled outside of New Orleans and Gotham."

Even a criminal needs a vacation Harley, "of course I have, my money just doesn't sit in its bank account, I do actually use it." She nodded and hummed softly to herself while standing from her chair, guess that ends the questionnaire.

She went back to her desk to return my file to it's cabinet, I made a mental note of where it was exactly, "I was told that you had been put across from the Joker, what's that like, I know it can't be easy."

I looked at her and noticed that she was fidgeting with her bangs while she came to sit back down, is someone a little curious about the Joker? "Are you asking me because you want to know if I'm comfortable being near him? Or, are you just asking to learn more about him?"

She refused to look at me while she answered, and her legs continued to cross and uncross, it was a tell tale sign of nervousness. "No, o-of course not, this is coming from a professional view I just think that he's mentally interesting, that's all...I only did his initial exam though, I-I haven't seen him since. I've read all the files on him and seen all of his news stories, and I know that he, he can be intimidating. I just wanted to know if you felt that there should be some more boundaries between you two, we can't have anything hindering your progress."

I gave a small smirk, oh now this is oughta be good, "aw that's really sweet of you sugar," my voice was overly sweet with sarcasm, "there's no doubt that he's interesting, we talk just about every day, but that's mostly cause I'm the only one who will actually listen." She perked up at that statement, well there's definitely some interest there. I should feel used but honestly who wouldn't be interested in the Joker?

"Really, w-well what do you two talk about?" She poised the pen above her paper and clicked it a few times, anxious for any information that she could get. If Joker only knew that he had a secret admirer.

"All sorts of things really, he's actually a great conversationalist once you talk to him, ironically funny too. He's one of the few people who can tell when I'm lying, it pisses me off to no end, I figure he knows because it's second nature to him. I can never tell what the day's conversation will consist of…but I can definitely see why you find him so fascinating."

She scribbled on her notepad, "does he...ever talk about himself?"

I gave a scoff at that, "of course not, neither of us do, at least not about anything that is important." She gave a look of defeat at the fact that she couldn't get any information on him. "How about you and I strike a deal Harley. Let's just say that word gets out there that I'm getting so much better, and by some unearthly miracle the Joker suddenly want you as his one and only psychiatrist." I could tell that she was tempted by the offer, the way her hand ran over her hair, unnecessarily smoothing it out while her pen fidgeted in the other.

"That's ridiculous Scarlett, I would lose my licence. Not only that but for you to even suggest that would only set you farther back than what you already have."

I let my head fall back in an exaggerated sigh of frustration, "honestly Harley, would you rather be scared of the idea of losing your licence? Or, do you want to be the only out there to have info on the King of Gotham, for me it's really a no brainer. Just think about it Harls, you could be the first person to ever crack the crazy nut that is the Joker...hell you could probably write a book, just think of the reviews that would get, you would probably be at the top of the bestseller list with that story. 'The Man Behind the Face Paint', you could probably come up with a better title but still."

She took off her glasses and rubbed the lenses against her blouse, but she didn't put them back on right after, instead she continued to hold them in her hand. "Do you really think that you could convince him to let me be his psychiatrist?" Score one for Scarlett.

My mouth was curved with a small smirk, "oh I couldn't convince him to do anything, however, persuading is another story."

Joker was waiting for me when I was brought back to my cell, he always is. He was leaning against the bars, eyes trained on me the entire time, the guards certainly were not gentle today while they were putting me through the door.

I could hear the Joker's low growl from across the way, "easy boys, you don't want anything else to get broken today do you?" The guards turned to him and he simply stood there smiling, Charlie would have said he's wreathed in smiles. The two men locked my cell door and left, he followed them down the hall, it was scary that his eyes never blinked until he turned back to me, "how's the cheek doll?"

My eyes had never left him so when he turned back I tried to play it off that I wasn't being a complete creep. I reached down and started to slip off the gray socks they issue us. I'm pretty sure they are the same type of socks you get at the hospital, "trust me I've had worse."

"Oh I'll bet, I've seen the scars to prove it...tell me, did you enjoy your first time in solitary?"

I started to put my hair up into a bun after I tossed my socks into a corner, "it was dull and boring, but I didn't get to skip out on my session today which I have to say I'm glad about. I believe that I have a little opportunity for the both of us."

His chuckle echoed down the hallway, "details please doll."

Today was Joker's first official session with Harley and I was laying on the floor with my legs propped on my bed waiting for him to finish. It's only an hour session it shouldn't be taking this long, however Harley probably extended it for him. I usually always have Joker here with me when I'm in my cell so it felt strange not having anyone to talk to. I could have talked to demented Devon, Joker's nickname not mine, but he didn't really make for good company. The plan was for Joker to work his magic over on Harley, and the rest I left in his pale but capable hands. I was just hoping that he didn't fuck it up.

I heard the sliding doors open from down the hall along with the wheels of a gurney that was being pushed. Swinging my legs down from the bed I rested my back against the frame with my knees pulled up to my chest. I saw Joker being wheeled in accompanied by not two but four guards, guess the king needs his knights.

Once he was pushed into his cell and unstrapped he called back to the guards, "send Dr. Quinzel my love will you." He stripped the shirt that they made him wear outside his cell off as soon as the door was closed then he looked over at me, "miss me?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "like crazy," that earned me a short burst of laughter, "how did it go?"

He placed one finger against his lips that were still smiling, "a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell."

"When have you ever been a gentleman?"

It was sometime during the night that I was woken up by a light tapping against the bars of my cell, I uncurled my body from its sleeping position and turned away from the wall to look at what the hell was making the noise.

"Care to go for a little stroll in the moonlight doll?"

Soooo what did ya think? As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to message me. Happy reading!