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INT. ARKHAM ASYLUM SECURITY ROOM---EARLY MORNING
"He's having WHAT?" Maria demanded to the man next to her. She was pissed, again, ever since she had joined the staff at Arkham she had been pissed, and after last night, well, she wasn't in the best of moods. She had been awake most of last night wondering what the heck Batman was on about, why would he brake into her house to tell her she was going to be in the Gotham News and tell her she had more or less chosen the wrong job, he was so rude! Maria had always thought Batman was a freak but he was "grade A" weird last night, a kind of opposite to the Joker, she often wondered what would happen if either of them died and their war was forced to end…
Without Joker, Batman would probs be in Arkham himself, Maria thought as she stared at surveillance of the Joker's cell last night and sighed.
"He's having hallucinations" replied a young man with deep chocolate brown hair. He was Doctor Daniel Tanner.
Daniel Tanner was a bit of a shit, he wasn't a particularly nice man but he was a great psychiatrist and was apparently coming a long way with Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn. He was a ruggedly handsome man in his early 30's who dressed in a black suit and black tie, he looked a bit more like a CIA agent then a psychiatrist but Harley Quinn had apparently taken to him.
Maria didn't really like Daniel, Danny to his friends or Danny Spanner to his enemies. She knew first hand what a complete utter bastard he could be, Maria did training with him before she came to Arkham, he would always put her down and be a sexist pig, she had also seen him ordering the orderlies to beat on patients and even heard once he almost drowned Edward Nygma, aka, The Riddler in a toilet one time just because he called Danny a "spanner". Maria found it especially funny that rivals and people who shared Maria's view on Danny had taken to calling their enemy "Danny Spanner" whenever they could, people didn't mind Eddie, he wasn't a homicidal maniac, he was just a confused soul and the staff at Arkham truly believed he could be helped with the right therapy so when the rumour went round what Spanner had done to him, the staff thought it right to name Danny after what the Riddler had labelled him. The bastard could flip his lid at any given moment and Maria felt a small amount of pity for any patient that got stuck with him. Unfortunately for the Arkham staff, Jeremiah thought of Danny as like a son to him so he wasn't going to be fired anytime soon.
Maria had been called in early to look at what the security cameras had picked up last night in the Joker's cell, the cameras had picked up the Joker talking to himself…Well at first they thought he was talking to himself but apparently he thought he was talking to a person in his cell. The Joker had mild hallucinations occasionally, hell, he had everything occasionally that's why psychiatrists had never been able to say what was actually wrong with him, he was always just labelled insane and left to rot in the Arkham hellhole. Last night had been different, the Joker was actually talking to someone, he was staring straight into the corner of his cell and looking at someone…At least that's what he believed. Maria was looking at the Joker, laying restrained in his bed, talking to the corner of a cell, nothing was there…It seemed the Joker was getting worse.
"Did he say who he was talking to?" Maria asked and ran a hand through her slightly frizzy hair.
"No, the fucker had no clue who he was talking to, couldn't see his face even though he was just standing a few feet away" Danny scoffs.
Maria frowned.
"Look Maria, I dunno why you took Joker as your patient but you should drop him now…If the bastard's having strong hallucinations after just one session! Bloody hell women, what did you do to him?" Danny laughed.
God, I hate him, Maria thought as she glared at him.
"I don't expect you to understand my reasons Daniel but I expect you to at least respect my decision. Now, the Joker may not have been able to see who was in the corner, its very dark in the patients cells on a night, there's only the light from the hallway outside, maybe Batman was…" she replied.
"Batman? Ha…You think Batman was in Joker's cell last night?" Danny interrupts.
He rolls his eyes, "I don't know if you're trying to protect yourself or what…"
The little rat, Maria thought.
"Protect myself? I haven't done anything wrong Tanner, the Joker is so unpredictable, he has symptoms for a range of different mental disorders! We've had psychiatrists from around the world look at him, he's had brain scans, we have no clue! Your insinuating that it's my fault he may have had a very vivid hallucination last night and that now I'm trying to defend myself? I don't need to defend myself, I've done nothing wrong!" Maria exclaimed, extremely angry.
"Look…" he starts.
"No, you look, I don't actually give a fuck what you think about me, put your chauvinistic ways aside for a minute and let me explain what I was trying to explain before, Ok?" she finished.
He stares at her, his eyes give away what he feels. Surprised, uncertain and most of all, angry. He quickly puts on a smile and looks straight at her with those beady little eyes.
"Go ahead Doctor" he grins.
"Maybe Batman visited the Joker last night and the security camera's didn't pick it up, I mean, from what I've heard Batman visits Joker quite a lot and Arkham don't even know, no one knows how he gets in, he's not always picked up on cameras, the bats like Houdini for gods sake!" Maria exclaims, slightly out of breath from her outburst earlier and very tired.
"Yeah…Maybe, how do you know so much about Batman, has he visited you yet?" he says with the same annoying grin.
Batman's visited him too perhaps? What the heck…Maybe Batty visited us all last night…EURGH I'm so confused, best not to tell this rat anything, he'll probs tell Jeremiah and get me fired, the little prick.
"Nah, I've just been talking to a few of the staff, does Jeremiah know about this?" she replies.
"Of course he does, he wants you to go see him as soon as possible"
This days getting worse and worse…
INT. WAYNE MANOR ---NIGHT
Bruce Wayne lay sleeping soundly as a door slowly creeks open and in walks an elderly gentlemen carrying a tray with some toast on, a cup of coffee and a glass of fresh orange juice.
The elderly man is Alfred Pennyworth, butler, friend and confidant to billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, aka, Batman.
"Your breakfast Sir" Alfred says as he places the tray down on a bedside table next to Bruce.
Bruce stirs and looks up at his friend through tired eyes. He looks exhausted this morning and Alfred notices.
"I must say Sir, you look particularly bad this morning, long night?" he smiles.
Bruce smiles back and starts to sit up "I went to visit Joker's new psychiatrist"
"Another one Sir? If I may ask, what did you go to see him for?" Alfred replies.
He takes a sip of coffee "It's a women, I wanted to see what she was like and warn her about the publicity she's gonna get, I don't understand them Alfred, he's murdered 4 psychiatrists over the years at Arkham and would have killed more, had it not been for me, yet they keep giving him new meat" he frowns.
"Arkham is a mental hospital Sir, that's where psychiatrists work" Alfred replies in a light tone. Alfred would always try and lighten Bruce up, he was always so dark.
"I know, I don't know what I expect them to do…It just doesn't seem enough, just giving him a new psychiatrist to play with every time, he's gotta understand he can't just murder people without remorse, he's gotta understand goddammit!" he shouts and starts breathing heavily, the stress of the past week, the stress of trying to save everyone is taking its toll, Alfred can see it clearly.
A bead of sweat appears on his forehead as he angrily throws the glass of orange juice at the far wall, it smashes on impact. Alfred steps back quietly and glances down at Bruce; a sad expression on his face.
Silence…
"I'm sorry Alfred" Bruce says as he calms down. Ever since the Gordon incident he hadn't been able to think about anything else except Barbara and Jim and the fact Jim's "baby" would never be able to walk again because of him, it was all too much for Bruce and Batman, he felt so much anger for the Joker and he didn't know what to do about it. He had visited Maria Spender because he feared for the women's life; he thought that if he used "shock tactics" she would think more about being the Joker's doctor. The women was strong willed, Bruce knew that from the minute he saw her, but he also saw a vulnerability, and the Joker would know how to exploit that. Remembering Gordon curled up in a ball in total hysterics made Bruce feel sick to the stomach.
"Its okay Bruce, its okay" Alfred says as he places a gentle hand on Bruce's shoulder, Alfred was like a father to Bruce when he was young and still is, he leans in to the touch.
A quiet sob is heard and Bruce buries his face in the older mans shoulder. This was the second time in two days he had broken down and he felt more vulnerable lately then he had done in a long time, the last time he had felt this bad was when Jason Todd had been murdered.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM---MORNING---JAMES GORDON'S ROOM
Police Commissioner James Gordon lay staring up at the ceiling. He was still stuck in hospital after the terrible ordeal he had endured days before at the amusement park with the Joker…The Joker had tortured Gordon horribly, he had stripped him naked and put him in a cage in the parks freak show and then showed him photos of his beautiful daughter Barbara as she lay dying after the gun shot to her spine. He lay perfectly still remembering every detail of the disgusting photos and shuddered. The Joker had wanted to drive Gordon mad, he hadn't succeeded then but Gordon silently wondered what would have happened if Batman hadn't shown up when he did. Gordon told Batman to bring Joker in by the book, send him off to Arkham for the 100th time…Laying in a hospital bed waiting to be discharged and to go see his daughter who he now knew would never walk again try out her wheelchair…Gordon was regretting his decision. The time he had spent in hospital trying to recover from the various wounds the Joker and his band of freaks had inflicted upon him, he had been thinking way too much, what would he do next time he sees the Joker? How will Barbara cope? What would Sarah do? How will he cope back at work? So many questions…
INT. ARKHAM ASYLUM LOBBY---DARK EVENING
Maria walked through the long hallways of Arkham as quickly as she could; she wanted to get this over with.
"Hey Maria! You're famous girl!" A young blonde women squealed as she ran towards Maria. This was Carrie, the ditzy blonde nurse from the minimum security ward. She was carrying a newspaper.
Oh crap, thought Maria as she greeted the young women.
"Look! Your names all over the front page" Carrie beamed as she shoved the paper in Maria's angry face.
"JOKER GIVEN NEW SHRINK, READ INSIDE!"
"You're so lucky" Carrie said as she continued to grin. This women really grated on Maria's nerves, although, everything was grating on her nerves lately.
She opened the paper and saw her picture; the geniuses at Gotham News had manipulated her photo so she had her arm round the Joker and a jokerized face. The caption read "JOKER LOVIN: CLOWNS AND THE GIRLS THAT LOVE THEM"
Great…
She frowned.
"Well I gotta go, off to see Nygma" Carrie winked. Carrie liked Edward, like everyone else in Arkham; it was refreshing to see someone who was actually trying to help themselves while they were inside, even if only a little and he was constantly trying to escape.
"Yeah…See ya Carrie"
Who wouldn't want a bit of Joker lovin? ;) Hope you liked. Lack of Joker I knowwww, he will be appearing more, he's quite hard to write, I hope I'm getting it right! I would love some more reviews to tell me how I'm doing, all WILL make sense in the end!