Session 6

Harleen was sitting at her desk and as always the Joker was sitting on the couch hand cuffed. The Joker looked like he hadn't slept in days. This lead Harleen to suspect that he had stopped sleeping altogether and she thought that sleeping on hour on average was bad.

"So what do you have in store for me today, doc?" Joker asked casually, he had been going to these sessions with Harleen for quite a while now. As far as Harleen knows he has not had any psychologist for this long, he would usually scare them away after the first session but something about Harleen was different and he liked that.

"I was wondering if we could discuss your habits" Harleen replied

"What sort of habits?"

"It appears to me that you haven't been sleeping a lot, if at all. How long do you think you sleep each night currently?"

"Well my sleep schedule is very…erratic" He paused as he tried to find the right word to describe it "Sometimes I sleep for an hour other times I don't sleep at all" Harleen was right he hadn't been sleeping, this was very concerning.

"Is there something stopping you from sleeping"

"Oh no no…no, there's just too much goin' on up there" he said tapping his index finger on his temple. Harleen took down some notes, something she hadn't done since their first session.

"So your saying that your over thinking and that's causing you to lose sleep, would you like me to prescribe you sleeping medication?" she asked looking up at him.

"Oh no, god no, I'm drugged up enough as it is" he answered hastily

"According to your file you're only on two medications" she said frowning as she read his profile again.

"Looks like Dr Arkham lied to you again" he said chuckling

"Ok then" she said putting his file down "how many medications do you think you're on?"

He sat on the couch counting silently with his fingers until he got to ten "whoops ran out of fingers" he chuckled.

"Are you saying you're on more than ten medications, because if you are that is a major health risk"

"You found some of my missing files in Joan's office maybe you could find my medications in Arkham's. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he had them" as crazy as it seemed it wasn't that hard for Harleen to think the same. She had trusted Joan and she had kept secrets from her. All of this made Harleen want to go to Arkham's office then and there but she had to keep the session going.

"It says in your profile you have trouble keeping your hands still"

"Oh if it's in the profile it must be true!" he replied with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well is it true?" she asked

"Way to ruin the joke!" he chuckled, Harleen had been his psychologist for a while now and she knew this was his way of saying yes it is true. After the session finished Harleen gave him permission to have a wad of clay to keep his hands busy, Joan had warned her to not let the Joker keep anything in his cell that could be used as a weapon but Harleen somewhat trusted the Joker and she certainly didn't trust Joan anymore. Harleen was on her way to the door when she passed Joan who was talking to some of the other doctors but that didn't stop her from noticing Harleen as she left. Joan glared at Harleen and she responded with a smug grin.

After the GCPD's visit Dr Leland and Dr Arkham had the choice to either go to court with a high likeliness of going to prison or to pay a fine of 15,000 dollars. They chose to pay the fine and they had started treating the patients with more respect, of course Frank wasn't very thrilled to hear about it. Harleen could distinctly remember what she had said to Frank…

Frank glared at Harleen with utter hatred, Harleen smiled back at him

"What's wrong Frankie?"

Frank didn't respond, he just walked away muttering something that Harleen didn't quite hear but she knew it couldn't have been a compliment

Harleen couldn't help but giggle on her way out to her car remembering how angry Frank had been.

Harleen's apartment – 2am

Harleen woke up to the sound of her phone ringing, she didn't answer because she thought that it had probably been her dad who had been trying to contact her for weeks and she didn't particularly want to speak with him. But when the phone rang for the fifth time she knew something was wrong, she then leaned over to the side table to pick up her phone and realised it was Dr Arkham.

"Hello?" she said sleepily

"I'm sorry to wake you Harleen but could you come back to Arkham, it's Joker"

She immediately sat up "Joker? What's wrong?"

"We're not exactly sure but we were hoping that you could shed some light on was is happening"

"Uhh sure I'll come as quick as I can"

"Good, thanks again"

"You don't need to thank me" she said hanging up the phone. She quickly got dressed and hopped into her car driving off towards the asylum trying not to speed. She was very distraught due to the fact that she was woken up at 2am, told there was something wrong with her patient and being told to hurry down to the asylum without knowing what the hell was going on.

About ten minute later she arrived at Arkham and Dr Arkham was standing at the front door waiting for her. He started lead her toward the Joker's cell.

"Can you please explain to me what is going on here?" She said almost jogging alongside him.

"The Joker was told to come out of his cell for dinner in the cafeteria but he didn't budge, he's been completely unresponsive since" His reply worried Harleen even more if not scared her. He started rushing ahead of him to get to the Joker's cell faster, when she got to his cell there were at least ten guards outside and even more doctors. Dr Arkham ordered them to make way for Harleen to get into the cell. She went into the cell to find the Joker sitting on his bed staring straight forward at a wall.

"J?" she asked but got no response, he didn't even show the slightest sign of acknowledging her presence. She walk over to him and kneeled down in front of him as he was obviously in a harmless state. She noticed that his eyes were blood shot with large bags under then.

"When was the last time you got any sleep?" she asked slightly shocked at his state. Again he didn't reply. His eyes are so absent and glazed over, almost was if he was…drugged…of course, why didn't I see that straight away "Dr Arkham how many medications is he on?"

Arkham immediately sounded uncomfortable and nervous "Um two why? Didn't you read that in his file?"

"I'll ask you again, how many medications is he on? And tell the truth this time" Harleen said sternly.

He hesitated before answering "twenty two" he said almost so quietly that Harleen could barely hear him.

"We need to get him to a hospital now" Harleen said dragging the Joker off of the bed.

"We can't take him to a hospital! He could hurt someone or worse kill"

"He's not exactly very dangerous while entering the primary stages of a drug overdose"

Two of the guards carried the Joker to one of the transportation vans, she sat with him in the back of the padded van. Dr Arkham got into the driver's seat.

"Harleen are you sure about this?" he asked

"Just drive you asshole" she yelled back at him in panic.

She gave the Joker mouth to mouth to try and get him to come to. After five minutes he quickly lean over and vomited on to the floor breathing heavily, he looked around at his surroundings and started to panic with confusion.

Basic symptoms of drug overdose, nausea and confusion Harleen quickly revised the basics of drug overdoses in her head, the more she thought about it the more she worried about Joker. They were at least an hour away from Gotham general.

This was going to be a long drive.