Chapter Three:
She'd been his therapist for a full six months now, and to this day he still captivated her attention more than any other patient she'd ever talked to. All over of her bedroom were notes on him plastered to her wall with tape. She was completely obsessed in solving the riddle of his mind that it almost seemed she was losing her own in the very process. It was killing her trying to piece together the incidents in his life that would have left him scarred like he was. All the while she was also so captivated by those dark brown eyes that held so much knowledge of his world, that allowed her to see into the dark pits of his mind as he raged about Batman to her when he'd be returned to Arkham after an escape that would leave her trailing the news headlines like her life depended on them. She by now even grew fond of the pale face-paint that he constantly wore, even when he was jailed in Arkham, and the bloody red painted wounds that still looked like a wire-mesh fence had been dragged through his lips. Oh, those scars! They kept her mind buzzing and constantly frustrated her trying to find the truth behind them!
Harley pounded her fists against her dresser once again as for the millionth time she scoured her notes from the day's session with the man that managed to make her so damned angry and so damned intrigued all at the damn time! She cursed and wiped the papers off her dresser in a frustrated swipe of the arm. She had been so busy pouring over them, she never noticed the appearance of a rose standing on her bedside table. She turned towards it, her curiosity sparked by the odd coloration of the carefully painted petals and leafed stem. The petals were black and the stem was a deep red with a black satin bow tied around it. It smelled strongly of drying paint.
Harley moved it aside and looked for a note anywhere around it. She was rewarded with a small slip of paper buried into the black petals. As she dug it out, some of the drying black paint smudged on the edges of her fingers, but she could hardly care as she opened the folded paper.
For the harlequin in my life, - J
The next day as Harley reported to Arkham Insane Asylum at seven am as always. She went to Doctor Leland's office, the head of psychiatry at the asylum, and knocked on the door twice. "Come in, the door's open," was the response that Harley received. She opened the door and took a seat in the wooden chair opposite of Doctor Leland's desk. "Good morning, Dr. Quinzel. As you know, you are here for your biannual assessment." Harley nodded and placed her briefcase on the floor beside her, straightened up her back, and folded her hands neatly in her lap.
"Well, Miss Quinzel," Dr. Leland continued onward, "I do believe you were doing fairly well these past six months with our patients. You've made somewhat of an improvement in Edward Nigma, and most of your other patients seem to like you as well, however," Dr. Leland folded her hands on the desk and leaned forward slightly as she continued speaking to Harley, "I've noticed that you've been spending an exemplary amount of time on just one patient." Harley looked down slightly, she knew exactly where this was going.
"Dr. Leland, I know I've been spending more time than I should on the Joker's case," Harley started in her defense, "But the way that all of you talk about him around here, you make it seem like he'll never change. You make it seem like he's some man caught in between a child and the devil in his soul, but I see otherwise. Dr. Leland, he really seems like a person to me." Harley raises her eyes to her boss. "Dr., I think he can change, and I think I can help him. I believe in him, and I think that's all he's ever wanted was someone who would take the chance and listen to what he had to say." Harley takes a breath before continuing on. "And maybe because the world was just too blind towards him, he felt like he had to make them look, and maybe the only way was to blow things up... or give himself a permanent smile." With that, Harley stands up, gathers her briefcase from the floor, and leaves before Dr. Leland can even finish her assessment.