Harleen sighed as she sat at her desk, the Joker was meant be released three days ago. The asylum seemed unusually quiet except for the occasional screams coming from the inmates. Harleen would usually read The Jokers profile if she got bored but by now she felt like she could revise the whole thing backwards, she knew his habits like the back of her hand. She decided that with her spare time she would go to Joan's office and have a talk with her about the way The Joker was being treated. Harleen walked into Joan's office to find her frantically look through the file she had on the Joker, it didn't take a genius to realize what she was looking for, the missing pages from The Jokers profile that were now in Harleen's possession.
"Looking for something?" Harleen said as if she had to ask.
Joan looked up in shock and quickly put the file in the draw of her desk out of Harleen's view "No, everything is fine nothing to worry about. Is there something you need?"
"I wanted to talk to you about something that has been bothering me" Harleen said sitting in one of the chairs in front of Joan's desk.
"Oh, that's ok you know you can talk to me, are one of the inmates treating you badly? One of the guards perhaps?"
"Not so much so much me but the inmates, one in particular" Harleen replied.
Joan sighed in response "This is about the Joker isn't it?'
"Yes I believe that he is being mistreated and-"
"Dr Quinzel I can assure you that the inmates at Arkham are treated with the up most respect, you can look through his records and you'll see it is quite clean of abuse or mistreatment"
"I did have a look and I think it's anything but clean" Harleen said as she placed a piece of paper on Joan's desk "Tell me Joan, why do you let him get treated like this?"
Joan looked at the file in disbelief "I-I've never seen this file before in my life"
"Oh don't give me that innocent bull shit! If you haven't seen it before then why did I find it in your filing cabinet?!"
Joan sighed "The Joker is being treated with care and we would not stand for this kind of behaviour towards an inmate"
Harleen stood up not believing what she was hearing "Oh but The Joker is some kind of exception hm?"
"I am telling you right now that the Joker is being well looked after!"
"Then why has his sentence to solitary confinement been extended?!"
"Officer Frank reported The Joker being violent and aggressive toward the guards of his cell"
"And you just believed him?! He is the one who's been torturing The Joker this whole time! I want the permission to release The Joker from solitary confinement and I'm not asking for it, I'm demanding it!" Harleen slammed her hand on Joan desk in anger which seemed to convince her.
Joan nodded her head reluctantly and picked up her phone from her desk, dialling a number to one of the solitary confinement offices asking for The Joker to be released early. Harleen had managed to get a session scheduled with him an hour after his release and was now waiting in her office for the orderlies to bring him in. About five minutes later they dragged him in as usual and threw him onto the couch, also a regular occurrence. Officer Cash removed the sack and jacket exposing multiply cuts and bruises and a cast on The Jokers right arm. This hurt her deeply to see him in this condition but she had expected it due to what she had read in the missing files.
"What happened?" she asked looking at the Orderlies.
"He inflicted self-harm while he was in solitary" Frank said casually as if he had said it a million times before which would surprise her if he had.
"I find it extremely hard to believe that a patient would to this to themselves" Harleen retorted but all she got back was a shrug from Frank.
She was about to argue with Frank until The Joker intervened in a low depressing voice "Leave it Harley" He was not his usual bright self which made Harleen even more mad but she managed to resist the urge to jump at Frank and beat his face in. She watched the orderlies leave glaring at Frank who had a stupid smirk on his face then turned to The Joker.
"You ok J?" she asked with genuine concern for his wellbeing.
"This isn't the first time this has happened, I appreciate the concern but you should just forget it"
"Forget it?!" She asked slightly aggravated by the way The Joker could just ignore the problem just like everyone else "The way they treated you is unacceptable!"
"You think you can get Dr Leland and Dr Arkham to give up their 'staff therapy' methods? You can try but-" The Joker began but Harleen cut him off.
"Staff therapy methods?" she looked at him in confusion.
"Oh it's their way of letting the staff let out their stress and anger so they don't go looney themselves"
"So what you're say is that they let the staff use you and the other inmates use you like punching bags"
He nodded in response "But there's not need to worry because-"
"Take off your shirt" Harleen said all of a sudden.
The Joker looked up at her unable to believe what he heard "Excuse me?"
"Take off your shirt" she repeated.
"Come again?" He leaned towards her grinning.
"Just take off you god damn shirt J" she said.
"I can't exactly do that with these cuffs on" Harleen stood up and took off his hand cuffs as she was quite confident that he was harmless towards her. He stood up and took off his shirt showing long cut going down his back. Harleen gently ran her fingers over the cuts, observing them. What did they do to you? She remained silent as she moved her hand to his wrists where there were two rather horrific scars.
"How could you let them do this to you J?" she asked running her hand of all his injuries and scars.
"You get used to it" He said as if it was a regular occurrence, then again it probably was.
"I'm calling the GCPD, this is unacceptable" Harleen said in a stern voice
"With my luck the GCPD would be in on the gag like everyone else in this shit hole" he retorted
"J, don't be like that, I promise that I will fix this. Just have little faith in me ok?"
He nodded as he put his shirt back on.
2 weeks later
Harleen had managed to get the commissioner, James Gordon, to come to Arkham to look into the way the patient were being treated. They had set up a meeting with Dr Leland, Dr Arkham, Commissioner Gordon, Harleen and The Joker. She walked into the interview room where there were extra chairs to accommodate the 'guests'. She then noticed a familiar dark figure sitting in one of the chairs, she then realized that Commissioner Gordon had brought the batman with him.
Why is it that whenever something concerns the Joker they always bring batman into it, like he's some expert on the Joker?
"What is he doing here?" she asked gesturing to the Batman
"He's here because he knows the Joker like no one else" Gordon replied.
Harleen sighed you've got to be fucking kidding me
"I don't think it is appropriate to have him here"
"Well I think it is" Gordon retorted
Harleen then noticed that the batman was looking through the Jokers profile from her office, she quickly grabbed it off of the batman "These files are classified" she said.
"And I'm batman, you can trust me with the files"
"Ok then let me just see your psychology degree and you can see the documents" the batman just stared at her "didn't think so" Harleen said as she put the files into her bag. At that moment the orderlies brought in the Joker and sat him down next to Harleen. He looked at her.
"Morning Harl" he said politely he then nodded toward the batman, Gordon and Dr Arkham "Ladies" he smiled. He then turned to Dr Leland "Can't forget the heartless bitch either can we?" he chuckled.
"J, please behave yourself" Harleen ordered and The Joker sat back in his seat grinning.
"So, Dr Quinzel what did you want to discuss?" Gordon asked taking of a notepad.
"I wanted to discuss the way the inmates are being treated in this institution"
Joan sighed with irritation as Gordon nodded "I see, can you give me an example"
Harleen grabbed the Joker's broken arm and held it up so that Commissioner Gordon could see it "Is this good enough?"
"And how did this happen?" Gordon asked taking down notes.
"Our highest ranking authorities" she said gesturing to Dr Arkham and Dr Leland "Let the staff do it to the inmates to release 'stress'"
Joan was getting fed up and blurted out "Dr Quinzel, I hope you realize that this is completely absurd and-"
Gordon stopped her by saying "I hope you realize what you've done here is extremely illegal and you could be put in prison for this?"
Joan looked at him astonished that he was actually considering taking them to court, Harleen could subdue the smug smile that was sneaking onto her face. She turned to The Joker to see him smiling much it looked like his face might be stuck that way forever, not that she'd mind she found his smile incredibly attractive.
"Oh oooohh, looks like Joan's lost the fight, looks like the bitch got me with a zinger in the end" Joker chuckled
"Please Joker he need to discuss this professionally" Batman said glaring at The Joker
"So you're saying that you're a professional on the criminally insane's basic rights?" Joker teased him, all of a sudden Batman grabbed Joker by the shirt pulling him across the table.
"If you don't be quiet I'll make you be quiet"
"Batman, put him down this instant!" Harleen yelled as she stood up to defend her patient.
"You betta' listen to her batsy" He didn't seem frightened one bit. Batman finally lost his temper and smashed the Jokers head into the wall behind him, he then picked him up by his shirt and held him against the wall. Harleen noticed blood running down the Joker's forehead and a splatter where the Joker was hit against the wall.
"Ahh so you've decided to lash out at me huh? Oh and FYI your breath stinks, what do bats eat these days? Sheesh!" He laugh manically.
Batman head-butted the Joker so hard Harleen thought that I might have killed him. Harleen rushed to her patient who was now unconscious on the cold floor. Even Gordon was shocked at Batman's behaviour.
"Batman I want you to leave Arkham immediately and I'll discuss with you later if Gotham city will require your services any more" Gordon said as he walked out the room with Joan and Dr Arkham, Batman then jumped out the window leaving only Harleen and Joker alone in the room sitting on the concrete floor. Joker regain consciousness and Harleen was relieved to see that he wasn't dead. Harleen realized that she was literally inches away from his face but she couldn't seem to back away. Neither of them said anything, Harleen was lost in his eyes, those beautiful pale blue eyes.
The Joker broke the silence as he whispered "You stood up for me" He looked confused as if no one had ever cared about him the way she did.
"Of course I did" she said back slowly but silently as she stared into his eyes, he stared back as they both slowly pulled each other closer until their lips met in a soft kiss.