Jonathan sat in his office that afternoon doing paperwork. There wasn't much to be done, just some release forms for some of the less dangerous patients to other asylums. He finished them quickly and put them in the outgoing stack to be sent down to the secretary. He wondered how Amber was doing in Dr. White's care. Dr. White was a respectable doctor at the asylum, who usually dealt with the patients in minimum security. He knew that she would treat Amber like a child and disrespect her, which was exactly why he had sent Amber to be placed under her care.
Dr. White had joined the asylum when it had opened; leaving her own private practice that was quickly going bankrupt. Crane had given her a job due to the lack of other more qualified candidates for the position, and now regretted doing so. Dr. White made it painfully clear that she thought that she would be a much better Administrator of the asylum than himself. But so far, she had not given him ample reason to fire her yet, and he hoped that Amber would finally cause her to resign.
He sighed as he thought of what she had said to him in the car yesterday. They angered him of course, but they also saddened him. Something would need to be done about her, and soon. As much as it killed him to admit it, Scarecrow did make a valid point when he mentioned that she could destroy his delicately fabricated life here in New York. And there is a definite shortage of dirty cops here that could be bought off in the event of another emergency, Crane thought. He opened his desk drawer and removed the ball that he had taken from Amber. He rolled it along the length of his desk while thinking on these things. His thoughts were interrupted though by a gentle yet brisk knocking on his door.
"Come in." He said tiredly, knowing who would open the door. Dr. White stepped in the room and looked disdainfully at the small colourful ball before turning her attentions back to him. "Is there a problem, doctor?" He asked her shortly as he put the ball back in the drawer.
"I'm so sorry to bother you, Dr. Crane, but we really must talk about this new patient that you've assigned me." She looked at him with slight nervousness. "I'm not really sure how I can tastefully ask you this…" He looked at her with a touch of annoyance and she hurried on. "Well, Ms. Larks made a rather, how shall I say, interesting comment today in therapy." Jonathan felt his stomach plummet as he masked his nervousness perfectly. She said something about the medication, oh god. He smiled at Dr. White warmly, praying that he was wrong.
"Amber says many very interesting things, Dr. White. What has she said this time?" I'll have to kill her for this; it's the only way I could possibly start to cover this thing up. Dr. White will connect the dots between Gotham City and myself too easily… He thought with growing despair. Dr. White looked at him oddly.
"I suppose that I'll have to be blunt here, Dr. Crane, have you encouraged any particular, umm, unreasonable fantasies with Ms. Larks?" Dr. White said quickly. Jonathan blinked in astonishment and then relief flooded him.
"Of course not, Dr. White! Amber is simply playing with your head; some of mind games can be quite entertaining if you know how to handle them. I would advise you disregard anything that she says about me of that nature immediately from now on." He told her in a calm tone. Jonathan was pleased to see that his backhanded comment of knowing how to handle Amber's games did not escape her. Dr. White smiled with false cheerfulness.
"Well, thank you Dr. Crane! You've certainly put my mind to rest." She said quickly as she walked out of his office. After the door swung shut, Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. So Amber hadn't said anything about the medicine to her after all. But he would need to have a talk with her soon nevertheless about the matter, and soon. He couldn't risk her saying something; as ridiculous as Dr. White could be sometimes, there would be no telling where her ambition and cleverness could lead her. He would love to just fire her, but he knew that she would take legal action against him, and that would only bring him under closer scrutiny by the general public, something that he definitely didn't want to happen. Thinking about Amber made him remember something that he had told her that she could have when they were standing outside in the rain that night; he had promised her some books. He decided that she didn't deserve the music just yet, and slowly got up from his oversized office and looked through his large bookshelf. There really wasn't much that would be considered good reading material by most people's standards, but there were a few novels that he had left at the asylum for his own personal reading. He selected a few of them and put them in a pile to give to her tomorrow.
"Amber, how are you feeling today?" Dr. White asked Amber in a falsely warm tone as she stalked into the office and flopped down on the couch. It was the next morning and even though she had clung to the bed, the table, and anything else that she could get a proper grip on, she was still sitting in the office with Dr. White for the second time. Despite having to be here at all, Amber felt quite proud of her efforts to try and stay. No doubt Dr. Crane was informed, she thought with an odd pleasure. For some reason, she had been having deeper and deeper feelings of guilt about what she said to him and was now slightly desperate to apologize for them, of course, there was also the small part about having to do this to try and ensure her safety at the asylum.
Looking up at Dr. White in response to her question, Amber treated her to the same emotionless blank stare that she had on occasion given Crane. It seemed to mildly irritate him, so it should really get under this new doctor's skin, she thought. As she glanced down at the white shirt and dark blue skirt that Dr. White was wearing she said "Your outfit doesn't match."
"I disagree Amber. But that is not what we are here to talk about." Doesn't that last bit sound familiar… Amber thought with amusement. Her comment had obviously annoyed Dr. White though, as she was tapping her fingernail lightly on the desktop.
"You know, Jonathan used to tell me that too when I was talking to him…" She said in an airy tone. Inwardly, she grinned at the look of disgust and annoyance that Dr. White gave her.
"I think that you should be referring to him as Dr. Crane, Amber." Dr. White told her in a stern voice. Amber sighed.
"But that sounds so, distant… Could I see him again?" Amber asked, smiling lazily at her. The look of annoyance deepened and Dr. White narrowed her eyes.
"Not at the moment. Instead, why don't you fill this out for me?" Dr. White asked her in a slightly hopeful tone. Amber got a sinking feeling when she saw the thick white sheaf of papers. It seemed as though this woman wanted to give her some kind of test. Amber gave Dr. White her best reproachful look as she took the papers from her carefully, and then took a pencil out of the holder on her desk.
Examining the questions, she nearly rolled her eyes when she read them. Pointless questions such as 'What is your favourite colour?' were placed slyly among other obviously relevant ones such as 'Do you have frequent suicidal urges?' in the test. Looking through the first page, she saw that the empty questions greatly outnumbered the significant ones. This was obviously something that Dr. White had invented so that she could simply administer this long test and use up her hour with Amber quietly and without having to do any work. It would have been quite a clever strategy with someone much dumber than Amber. Instead, as she eyed the test, she saw yet another opportunity to drive Dr. White closer to dumping her back on Crane.
"I broke the pencil." Amber said, looking up at Dr. White with wide innocent eyes. She had just snapped the pencil's graphite on the underside of the tray that she was given to write on. Dr. White held out her hand and Amber handed her the pencil. Impatiently, Dr. White sharpened it in the automatic sharpener on her desk and handed it back. After writing a few sentences on the test, Amber broke the pencil again.
"It broke again." Dr. White gave her a suspicious look this time, but still sharpened it for her and handed it back. After this process had repeated itself for around four times, Dr. White hesitated before giving the pencil back.
"Let's see what you've written so far." She said. Shit! She wasn't supposed to see this until it was finished! Oh well… Amber thought grimly as she handed the papers over.
"This is quite interesting, Amber. 'I think that you're plates on the wall look silly, your outfit doesn't match, I'm not crazy so I should be let out of this insane asylum, I want to talk to Jonathan again, this is so pointless.'" Dr. White said in a bored tone as she read off a little of what Amber had written on the papers. Amber grinned and nodded.
"That's what I wrote Dr. White! You should get to the part about how I complain about the food here. Have you tried it? It's awful!" She told her cheerfully.
"Amber. How am I supposed to help you if you aren't going to cooperate with me?"
"Did you miss the part about how I'm not insane?" Amber asked her in a dry tone.
"Then why are you here Amber? Why did Dr. Crane bring you?"
"Because I'm writing an article about him. He didn't really like that idea, so he pushed me in front of a taxi. I didn't die though, so he locked me up here!" Amber said to her.
"Don't you think that sounds a little strange to you? A bit, I don't know, paranoid?" Dr. White asked her slowly.
"Of course it sounds strange! You forget who we're talking about here." She replied coolly. Maybe, Amber thought with sudden hope, just maybe this stupid woman will take me half-seriously, seriously enough to look into the possibility… She knew that she couldn't say anything else on the topic though, otherwise it would just be too obvious that she wanted Dr. White to investigate. "But I do grow weary of this discussion. It's so negative, and I need to dwell on positive things!" Amber said cheerfully. She could tell that Dr. White was considering what she had said previously. She didn't want Dr. White to move too quickly though, otherwise Crane would catch on to her plot for sure. Instead, Amber knew that she would have to get the good doctor's mind off the subject for now. Looking around the room, she finally spotted the perfect tool for this.
Amber got up suddenly from the couch, setting the tray on Dr. White's desk. She hoped that the graphite would leave marks on the desk as she stalked over to the large shelf with the antique plates.
"What are you doing Amber? Come sit back down and talk to me." Dr. White said from her desk. "I'll show you the plates at the end of the session if you're good today." Crash! The first plate came down, shattering on the hardwood floor with a pleasant noise. Dr. White gasped and leapt up from her office chair. "What are you doing? Those are antique! They're worth a fortune!"
Why on earth keep them here then? Amber wondered as she knocked another plate off the shelf. She wasn't going to break all of them, just the particularly tacky ones; Amber thought that she was doing Dr. White a favor by cleaning out her collection for her. Dr. White was half screaming into a phone, probably for an orderly to come down and restrain her from breaking anything more. After two more plates broke, an orderly rushed through the door and pulled her roughly away from the shelf.
"Thank you for coming so quickly! I don't know what came over her! But I didn't want to injury myself by trying to stop her of course…" Dr. White said quickly. The orderly didn't answer as he held Amber's squirming hands behind her back easily. "I do believe that we need to have a talk with Dr. Crane, now." She said while leading the orderly down the hall to the office. Dr. White didn't bother to knock as she unlocked Crane's office with her own master key and looked at him expectantly.
"Yes?" Crane asked her with an annoyed air. He looked at Amber and narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion. "Is there a problem?"
"There is a large problem, Dr. Crane. Your patient here has decided to break four very valuable dishes from my collection. I simply cannot treat her any longer!" The orderly released my hands with a nod from Crane and walked out silently. "She is constantly talking about how much better of a job that you do and wanting to talk to you again. I think that you should be her doctor again, as you are the only one in this asylum that could possibly handle her."
"Really? She says that I do a better job?" Dr. Crane asked with slight amazement.
"Of course you do a better job, Jonathan! You're the best doctor I've ever had!" Amber gushed while trying not to laugh. He glared at her and sighed.
"Has she really been that problematic, Dr. White?"
"Yes."
"I suppose that I have no choice than to continue her treatment then. You may leave now." He said, dismissing Dr. White. She smiled, grateful to be rid of Amber so easily and walked out.
"I think that we need to have a talk though, Dr. Crane." She said sincerely. He looked at her expectantly and with slight interest. Perfect, she thought as she continued quickly. "I just have to confess!" He leaned in slightly, watching her intently as she batted her eyelashes at him and widened her large hazel eyes. "I believe that I have fallen completely and totally in love with you! I mean it's such a turn on when a guy goes to all this trouble just to shut me up! I know that it probably isn't normal, but somewhere between the attempted murder, kidnapping, and threats on my life, not to mention those gorgeously cold blue eyes of yours, I just can't seem to get over you! I think that this warrants a serious discussion, don't you?"
He leaned back in his chair and looked at her, obviously extremely annoyed. "Amber. You are going to get us both in all kinds of trouble if you keep that up."
"That's why you need to help me get over you! I just can't get enough of those icy sapphire eyes! And especially when you're glaring like that! So creepy, and yet so sexy!"
"Stop it. We do need to have a serious talk, but that definitely is not what we need to discuss." He said, sighing.
"Killjoy. What is it then?" Amber asked. Crane looked down at his desk and sighed again while taking off his glasses. "You do look a little upset, did I do something wrong?" She frowned at him.
"No, not yet that I know of at least. It's about the medication that you picked up for me…"
"Oh. You want to know if I told anyone, especially Dr. White, right?" He looked up at her with apprehension, as though he was preparing himself for the worst. "I didn't." Amber told him.
"You're sure? You didn't make any obscure hints at all?"
"I'm very sure. The only thing that Dr. White found out is that I have a supposed fixation with you. As a reward, how about letting me out?"
"You are so amusing sometimes Amber."
"I'm serious!" Amber said in a dignified tone. "I've been a good girl so far! Why can't I leave?"
"'A good girl'? Honestly, you call painting the walls in your room, an escape attempt, fighting the orderlies, yes I heard about your little scuffle," Amber smiled, pleased that Crane was informed of her desperate attempts to stay out of Dr. White's office. "And driving another doctor to the point of refusing to treat you being good? There are more examples of misbehavior; would you like me to state them for you?"
"No. Alright, so maybe I haven't been an angel…" Crane raised his eyebrows at her and she scowled. "I want out. I'm sick of being in here. I already told you I wouldn't write my article if you were to let me go."
"I am not going to let you out right now Amber. I can't trust you not to publish yet." He said.
"About that, since I'm not going to publish anything, what exactly was your role in the whole Gotham City deal? I'm curious." She asked him. He looked at her warily.
"Very rarely are reporters 'curious' without a very good reason. And this is another one of those things that you don't want to find out." Crane said quietly. Amber frowned and met his eyes.
"I am sorry about what happened with the medicine. You didn't deserve to be called those names…" Listen to yourself! You have pity and feel guilty for calling the man who tried to kill you names? You do belong in here. The sarcastic voice in her head said.
Crane looked at her with a strange expression. "Why not?" He asked, echoing the voice inside of her head.
"I…I think that underneath it all, you're a good person." She finally replied. He smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"And that is where you are so very wrong, Amber. I am far from a good person." He said, meeting her eyes.
"I don't believe you." Amber said, not flinching away from the intense blue gaze that was currently fixed on her.
"You don't want to believe me. There is quite a difference. But I think it's time for you to return to your room now." He looked down beside his desk and saw the large pile of books. He wasn't in the mood to give them to her today, but he decided that she could have one. "Take this." He said, taking one off the top of the pile. She accepted it from him and followed him out of the office.
"Dr. White always had an orderly walk me back to my cell. Why do you go to the trouble of taking me back yourself?"
"Honestly Amber? I have nothing better to do." He replied. To her confused expression, he explained. "The secretaries take care of most of the paperwork, and I don't see any other patients than you."
"So what do you do all day then?" She asked. Amber was finding it rather hard to believe that the Administrator of an asylum in New York had nothing to do all day. But then again, she supposed that he was right, if the secretaries did take care of the paperwork and there weren't any patients, what was there left to do?
"I sign off on orders and prescriptions for patients, answer my phone, and listen to complaints from the other doctors."
"And you're my new therapist." Amber added.
"And I'm your new therapist."
"That sounds really boring, except for having to deal with me of course."
"That might be because it is really, really boring." He said. Their conversation was interrupted though by a screaming. A patient in an orange jumpsuit was looking at them with wide eyes, fighting an orderly.
"It's you! Scarecrow! Scarecrow! And the Truthseeker is with him! Be warned Truthseeker, you take your life into your hands by consorting with the Scarecrow!" The patient screamed at them. Amber froze and stared at the man with wide eyes. She was horrified to see the orderly shove the man forcefully into his cell and look at Crane, obviously embarrassed by the show put on by the patient. Amber could hear the man's screams faintly even through the walls. Crane smiled warmly at the orderly.
"Has Josh been going on about that again? We need to screen his medication to see if it working properly." Crane said in an amused voice. Amber could see him tense. The orderly nodded and walked away. "Well, come on Amber." Crane said in a light voice that didn't hide his nervousness. Amber didn't move and stared at him in horror. Suddenly, a lot of things that she discovered in her research made sense. Crane had done an excellent job of hiding his tracks, large amounts of money had to be put into the right hands to purchase the alibi he created, but it had all become undone to Amber with one insane patient's screams.