Chapter6: Monsters

Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep
Before the monsters caught up to you?

(Taylor Swift – Innocent)

Anna: Thank you for your review! Glad Marley was a surprise :)

Hailey: Thanks! Yeah he's kind of desperate :D

all: Thank you all for your kind reviews! There seems to be a lot of hate against Marley :D But you'll see how that goes on :) From now on I'll be posting new chapters every Tuesday!

"Harleen, I'm so sorry." I had told Quinn the PG-version of what had happened: I'd decided to follow her advice and had contacted him and now he had a girlfriend. Puddin' jumped onto my lap, purring loudly and I stroked her tiny head with a sad smile.

"I swear she looks just like me and he calls her Marley."

"He's a jerk!" She said supportively and I fell back onto my bed with a loud sigh and Puddin' made her way up to my chest, nudging her head against my body.

"I'm not so sure Quinn, maybe I'm the jerk. After all I'm the one who invited him back to my house and then sent him away again."

"Well, he could just grow a pair and get over it!" She snapped and I had to laugh at her bluntness before I admitted:

"Well, he did. He has Marley now."

"He has Marley, because he can't have you, even though he wants you." Quinn explained in a tired tone and then added: "I also think he has her just to smite you."

I rolled my eyes, "Please. He didn't even know I was coming." I sat up straight, poor Puddin' almost fell of me in the process. Quinn was talking, but I couldn't hear what she was saying. What if he had planned the entire thing? Gotten himself shot, arranged for me to come? Just to throw me out and parade his little Harley-wanna-be in front of my eyes?

He was a jerk!

But on the other hand...that would have been a lot of effort and a lot of thought he'd have put in just to make me jealous and somehow that was sweet.

"Harleen? Are you still there?"

"Yeah." I shook my head, trying to rid my mind of these thoughts. "Sorry."

"Did you hear what I said?"

I blushed, "No. Sorry."

She didn't seem to mind. She just jumped right back into her story: "I overheard something today, I didn't want to tell you at the parkinglot, but on the phone it's ok. You know Dr. Turner, right? So the lady Turner? She was talking to that redheaded nurse about her husband and she sounded pissed." She paused for dramatic effect and although the name Turner made my stomach turn I gave in and did her the favour of asking:

"Why?"

Afterall she had really been there for me lately.

"Well I didn't hear a name, but apparently there's some doctor who is always in his office and acts all slutty around him..." Quinn giggled: "I swear! She made it sound like her husband needed protection because this insecure young woman was clinging to him and apparently he was all like no Babe, I swear nothing's going on! She's just really lonely that's all!" She laughed again: "I wonder who it is!"

Hot, painful raged stirred in the pit of my stomach. How dared he make it out to be like that?! How dared he say he needed protection? How dared he say I was clinging to him?!

"Harleen?"

"It's probably someone from Peads." I muttered. "Quinn, there's another caller in the line, I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok." She sounded taken aback and without saying goodbye I hung up and threw the phone across the room.

And then, as if he had been watching me a textmessage appeared on my cellphone.

Dear Dr. Quinzel, tomorrow, 10 o'clock, my office? I have something HUGE to show you ;-)

I pressed the phone tightly in my hand so that it hurt. I didn't fling it across the room though. Things had been going wrong a lot lately. I'd messed things up with the Joker and I'd just have to get over him. I'd been blinded by my own desire for revenge for years and had stopped letting people other than Shayne get close to me. I'd become withdrawn after Sharleens death and had turned into a pathetic person. Into a victim. But enough was enough. Tomorrow, my life was changing.

The police department of Gotham always felt like kind of a joke to me, because they never really seemed to catch any of the bad guys. They just seemed to be waiting around for Batman to do their job.

But my problem with Dr. Turner was a bit too much for Batman to solve so the GPD would have to do. I had called them half an hour ago and was told I could come in and speak to a female detective. I felt empowered by what I was about to do. After stating my name to a young man and my concern I was led into a separate room and shortly afterwards a woman with red hair came inside. Her face was freckled and she looked pretty. Her smile was friendly.

"Dr. Qunizel?"

"Yes." I smiled. "I'm here to file a complaint. I'm being sexually harassed."

She nodded in an understanding way and my courage grew. This was nothing new to her. Sexual harassment was part of her job, of her everyday life. She could take care of this.

"When did it start?"

That was all I needed. I told her everything. About his first day, the ball and the entire last week and I showed her the text message. I knew while I was telling her all of these things that it was enough. He was done, for real this time. The detective had been taking notes while I'd laid out the facts and once I'd finished she looked up at me.

Her smile was gone.

"Dr. Quinzel. With all due respect, I don't think you should go through with this complaint."

"But..." I didn't understand. "I have evidence! And there are witnesses – he keeps calling me into his office!"

"Trust me." A cold look suddenly appeared in her eyes and when she spoke I felt the air in the room change into something colder. "You do not want to press any charges – Doctor."

An ice-cold shiver ran through me as I leaned back, putting distance between her and me. A fake smile was plastered onto her face.

"Susanne and I are very good friends. We've been friends since high school and our husbands play golf together."

My heart sunk. Was this some kind of punishment for hurting the Joker? I had broken his heart, had rejected him and now the entire world was against me? Was this my life now?

"So, Dr. Quinzel, can I help you with anything else?" She smiled up at me and fluttered her eyelashes.

I wanted to kill her.

"No. Thank you, doctor."

I left in a hurry. When I was in the car I started to cry. I hit my steering wheel with both of my hands, sobbing loudly. How I wished I could be someone stronger, how I wished I could have the power to go into that police department and hit everyone. How I wished Sharleen was here.

Maybe it was time to call Shayne. Maybe it was time to leave.

And then what?

How could I give up after all these years? I had spent my entire life getting ready to find Sharleys rapist, had concentrated on becoming a doctor and now one man was making my life miserable and no one was helping me.

I wiped my tears and drove to work. I ignored everyone but my patients. I did my work as best as I could and apparently the entire world hadn't conspired against me, because Dr. Turner didn't call me into his office once.

When I was home I tried calling Shayne, but I wasn't able to reach him. Just as I had finished feeding Puddin' there was a knock on the door. For a split second my heart stopped, because I thought it could be the Joker or Dr. Turner or Johnny. I reached up to touch my hair, because I wanted to look good. If it was the Joker I was done playing games, I wanted to be with him.

"Harleen! Open up!"

I sighed in disappointment and relief at the same time. It was Quinn. When I opened the door I was surprised to find her with her hands full of bags.

"What's all this?"

"This is our girl's night out!" She cried excitedly as she pushed herself past me into the small apartment.

"What?"

Before I could stop her she dropped the bags on my kitchen table and started unpacking makeup, lipstick, eye-liners, mascara and other cosmetic items I wasn't entirely familiar with.

"Sit." She said clearly and I knew I had no other choice but to comply.

Sighing I did what she said. She took off my glasses and went to work: She shadowed my left eye blue and my right one red. Then she applied the mascara and I was surprised at how long my eyelashes were.

The lipstick was blood red.

"Where are we going?"

"Out. Partying."

Apparently the short answers were her thing tonight. She took her hands from my face and handed me a mirror. I had to admit: I liked it.

"And now we're going to curl your hair." She reached up to undo my hair from it's bun and went to work quickly.

When Quinn was finished with her work, I was astonished by how beautiful I was.

"Do you even need these?" She asked as she lifted my glasses from the table and looked through them.

The truth was I didn't really need them. But I was used to them. Instead I said: "I have nothing to wear."

A smile appeared on her face as she reached into the bag lying on my chair. She pulled out a short black dress with glittering stones attached to it.

"I don't think I can wear that."

"I don't want you thinking tonight." Quinn said in a serious tone, which left no room for discussion. "You think too much anyway. Tonight we are screwing the consequences, we are having fun and we won't be thinking about anything. No Joker and no other men, is that clear?"

"What other men?"

"No one." She said in the same tone and handed me the dress. "Get naked."

I rolled my eyes and took the dress to the bathroom to get changed. In front of the mirror I turned my head looking at my face from all sides. I liked this blue and red. And the curls in my hair were nice too. Maybe I ought to think about getting contact lenses.

Obviously there was another man that had made her determined to go out with me tonight. I couldn't imagine she would be so motivated if it were only for my sake.

I put the dress on and went back outside to meet her and was surprised to see that she was wearing the same dress as me in purple. When she saw my expression she shrugged her shoulders casually.

"It's a nice dress."

She handed me a pair of my own black shoes which she had probably taken from my closet.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Dancing." She replied as she put on some red lipstick. "Let's go."

Before I could ask any more questions she turned around and left my apartment. I still managed to grab my keys and then hurried after her.

"What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" She asked almost innocently.

"Why are we going out tonight? Are you upset?"

Quinn spun around to look at me and I could see a desperate look in her eyes. "Why does everything have to have a reason?! Can't we just go out and have fun just for the sake of it?"

We stared at each other for a long moment and then I finally said: "Fine. But you can talk to me about anything, you know that right?"

"Sure Harleen, I know. Now get into the car."

I didn't ask where we were going, because I had a feeling she wouldn't tell me anyway. It wasn't that I liked staying in. I used to go dancing a lot when I'd been younger, especially after Sharleen's death but somewhere along the line I'd stopped. When we stepped into the club, all eyes were on us. Male and female. There were poles in the middle of the room and I saw girls sliding around on them. But when Quinn made her way to two poles next to each as if it was the most natural thing in the world I gripped her hand.

"Quinn! I'm not stripping!"

She rolled her eyes. "It's not stripping if you're wearing clothes, then it's just pole-dancing. Come on! It will be fun!"

I hesitated.

"Harleen." She muttered. "Seriously – stop thinking."

And that's what I did from that moment on.

"Bye!" I waved at Quinn, stumbled and laughed hysterically. I wasn't drunk. I was just...happy and maybe even reckless and I'd had a few cocktails. It was amazing how many drinks men bought for a girl when she swinging her hips around a pole. I'd never really thought about it, but pole-dancing was fun and according to all of our viewers I was pretty good at it.

I was still giggling when I unlocked the door to my apartment and when Puddin' meowed loudly I cried out: "Hey Baby! Did you miss me?!"

My amusement faded however, when a male voice answered: "More than you can imagine, my Darling!"

My blood froze. It was him. Dr. Turner was in my apartment. I turned around to the door immediately and that was my mistake. Once I'd turned my back on him he lounged and I was on the floor with him on top of him. He'd grabbed my shoulders and turned me around.

"No!" I cried out, thrashing at him, trying to hit his face.

"So, I heard you had a nice visit to the police department!" The Chief of Surgery backed away from all of my feeble attempts and managed to smack my across the face so hard I felt dizzy for a moment. He began to tear at my dress, allthewhile with a stupid grin on his face.

"Get off me!"

"Make me!" He shot back and suddenly he held a knife in his hand, directly at my throat. "Or I could make you do some things for me..." The monster on top of me cut open my dress, revealing my black lace bra and began to kiss the exposed skin there. I shuddered and tried to push him of me but the knife at my throat prevented me from moving a lot.

When I heard the unmistakable sound of him unzipping his trousers I froze. I knew what was going to happen. He knew it too, he was eager for it to happen. His hand went under my dress, grabbing at my panties to pull them off and I began to cry silently.

He was going to rape me. He was going to have his way with me and there was nothing I could do about it.

Harleen! I suddenly heard a voice and blinked confused. He hadn't heard it – he was busy fondling me. The voice was familiar. I would have recognised it anywhere. It was my dead sister Sharleen.

Fight him. You can do it!

I'm scared. I thought and sobbed quietly. He has a knife.

Use it! She urged. Use it on him. Come on! You can do it! You have to fight, Harley! No one is going to save you!

His hand had roughly pushed away the satin of my underwear and was touching the most private part of me. He chuckled, because he thought he had won.

I sat up pushing the knife against him, into his chest.

"Ah!" He yelled out as I stumbled to my feet, reaching for the first weapon I could find: A medical dictionary. I hit him over the head with hit and blood splattered everywhere. I hit him again. And again. And again until he stopped moving.

The book fell to the floor with a thud.

Dr. Turner was dead.

This was a really hard scene to write. Please tell me what you think! So... if you were Harley who would you ask for help? :)