DUN DUN DUNNUN! HEYYYOOOO LOOK WHO'S BACK! Only two months in this Senior High business and already my back feels like what Bane did to Batman! Oh that must make Mista J so happy!

Anyways, hope ya'll have been fine and okay while I was gone and that you were able to find ither fanfics to amuse yourselves with ^_^ hope I didn't make u all wait too long.

And with that, let us continue!

9. How far is 9 from 11?

Her lip could be bleeding by now. Though no one might see it since everyone else was busy running around and trying to keep the place in order while the patients were having a loud kerfuffle in their cells from below, Harleen licked on the blood and spent the next 5 minutes contenplating how much it tasted like the pudding her patient gve her. And speaking of...

They had been waiting for an entire hour. That doesn't even count the 26 minutes Harleen spent in traffic to get to the asylum. And as gruelling as the waiting was, the vain torment of her imagination was all the more so.

She hadn't expected to receive a phone call that night, and from Arkham's warden no less. But seeing a quick news flash and a message that the Joker had escaped from the asylum was quick to bring Harleen to her 6 senses. The 6th, being Joker-premonition.

It was painful to think he would escape, let alone even have a reason for doing so. For a moment, she thought that he enjoyed their meetings just as much as she did. And yet, he still yearned for freedom, anarchy and murder in the night. The entire world knows she should be mad. But he could run off into the night and disappear back into his original lifestyle, and Harleen would only feel worried to death, because he'd be alone, away from her and visible to the Knight.

There hadn't been any new developments since she came, and even if there were, she was afraid to know what. All she could do was stand there, shift her weight between her heels, and suck on her lower lip's blood while she waited with the warden. Waited for the Joker.

"Try not to be so obviously worried, Ms. Quinzel. It is very unprofessional." Said the warden at her side.

Had she not been so obviously worried (as the ignorant ingrate said) Harleen would've talked back. But this wasn't the time or place to do it. No. She had a patient she was waiting for and it was best to drain her energy in him rather than worthless co-workers.

Suddenly, in the middle of this rambunctions half-night, the air and orderlies grew louder and more wound up. There was activity going on from outside. Immediately Harleen took a step forward, but 'something" came bursting through the doors.

She wasn't really expecting it to be 'him', because God knows that the guards would have hin tranquilized, if not shot down on sight. Still, it wasn't bad to hope, but the moment the figure camae to her full view, Harleen felt her heart swell with something very very bitter.

It was the Batman that stood there in the middle of the room, with all the nurses and orderlies staring at him as if he were God himself. The way he carried himself seemed to say so, too and it heightened whatever Harleen was feeling.

Trying not to focus on him, she tries to wander her sight elsewhere, still hoping that the Joker would be lagging behind the crusader in cuffs. As shameful that would be for him, she wouldn't care. She just needed to know he was okay.

"One of your people escaped tonight.." The vigilante suddenly spoke, hoarse and low like the fearful creature criminals cowered in the face of the night.

The masked man seemed to be pulling on something from underneath his thick, black cape. He only raised it an inch to reveal what he hid there, and Harleen was the first to bolt out of her place and run across the room to the 'he' that the Batman threw on the floor.

"My God!" She cried with everything her heart had to give. Never mind the eyes that bore down on her with shock, dismay and disbelief. Harleen cried there on the floor, bleeding heart right on her sleeve as she despaired for their returned escaped patient.

The Joker looked horrible! There wasn't much blood, but he was bruised all over. The white uniform the hospital provided him was shredded all over, revealing scratches and black spots where his skin showed. He was clutching onto his left arm, probably broken because Harleen could see the dislodged 'something' there. Her hands hovered over his face, sweaty, dirtied and few cuts where blood streamed down.

He hated himself that way. It was so clear how badly he wanted to break away from her and not writhe like a helpless animal on the floor. But he couldn't do anything, and neither could she, except cry, and call out his name.

Throughout this entire exchange, the Batman stood awestruck, rooted to his spot and unable to tear his eyes from the scene. When Harleen felt the intensity of his gaze standing above everyone else's, her head snapped up, and unconsciously the Batman stepped backward.

The Joker watches this in weakened silence, and everyone else does too. A fire had come across Harleen's eyes, one that the vigilante could almost physically feel, searing through his armor. Very quickly, his darted his eyes to the nearest guards he saw, and when the guard nodded, the Batman turned on his heel and took his leave.

Just as the doors closed behind him, the guards he signaled quickly came over to Harleen. They grabbed the Joker by both arms, not even paying any heed to his horrific howls of agony. The doctor left on the floor wailed like a mother separated from her child, and her lament only grew louder.

She extended her arms in wasted effort to her patient as the guards carried him away to the darkness of this hellish asylum. It was only then that she felt the sting of her eyes and the weight of ignorance her co-workers stormed on her.

Out of everyone in the room, it was the warden's eyes she met with. He looked furious, not that she cared. Whatever everyone in that room-no, in all of Gotham-no, the whole world, even- felt, none of it could hold a candle to what she had boiling in her veins.

"Ms. Quinzel.. My office, now!"