SCAR TISSUE
"Mr. Dent, you have a call."
"Tell them Ill call them back."
"Its urgent apparently, its Lt. Jim Gordon from the GCPD."
"We have to do something about this. Its time to get our guys out there and crack down. I mean, the covers off of man holes are being stolen now. Some women on the east side fell into one this morning."
"I know where your coming from Lieutenant, and I know, it seems like you cant go one day any more with out hearing about something new. It is out of control, defiantly, but believe me, Im doing everything in my power to fight this, just like you." Gordon was becoming frustrated with Dent's tone. It sounded too rehearsed or like he was just trying to get him off the phone.
"We could really use some of your help right now." Gordon's tone was polite but firm. "Being that your Gotham's DA."
"Like I said, I've made it one of my primary goals and promises to this city to clean it up; to crack down on the mob and crime in general, I appreciate your concern though." Gordon felt his temper flare.
"Thats what Gotham needs, a pied piper to coax to mob out of the woodwork..." As soon as the words had left his mouth Comm. Gordon realized how it must have sounded. Harvey was silent on the other end. Gordon held his hand over the mouthpiece and cursed quietly.
"Well, thank you for your time Mr. Dent and Im sure we will stay in contact throughout this ordeal. Let me know if theres anything more my unit can do. "
"I will lieutenant. Oh, by the way can you look into the new arrival at Arkham, from what I've heard it could be a lead." Gordon hung up the phone.
"I don't believe in Harvey Dent." He sarcastically said to himself.
--
"What do you think?"
"What do you mean "what do I think?" I think there had to be some reason for him to just be dumped off out on the front drive."
"What did the nurses say?... the ones who found him."
"One said she heard tires screeching so she got another nurse to go see what was going on. When they walked out they found him lying in a pool of blood unconscious. They didn't see the vehicle... They called in a code blue given the condition he was in. He went into shock by the time they got him into surgery." Both doctors stood quietly as they looked through the two way mirror at the still figure lying in the bed. He wore nothing but white cotton pants, a bandage covering his stomach and the corners of his mouth and sides of his face laced back together with black cris-crossed stitches.
"They moved him to this room this morning, hes been here for about three days; the nurses say hes woken up a few times but nothing big." The doctor glanced at the clock hanging from the wall. Dr. Arkham should be here in a few minutes and uh... he said something about bringing a "newbie" with him, says its better to hit 'em hard at first so their not so shocked when they actually see what this place has to offer, patient wise that is."
The door opened and the two Doctors turned. Dr. Arkham nodded in silent greeting, his lanky figure ducking slightly as he entered the observation room. He was followed by a young woman dressed in a typical white overcoat. She had blond hair and opulent blue eyes. Dr. Arkham spoke in a low murmur.
"He has no matching prints and no DNA match has been made. He had no ID either, so he is our mystery man at the moment. We currently had him on a morphine drip with a dose of antibiotics to keep any infection down." Dr. Arkham glanced up from the notes on his clip board into the room.
"The facial scarring is however going to be a problem. "Extreme" is the word that the surgeon used..." The four of them stood quietly for a moment then the woman who had come in with Dr. Arkham spoke up.
"But as of now we don't have any reason to believe that he belongs in a mental institution. Couldn't the people who dropped him off have thought that this was just a hospital?" Dr. Arkham gave a half hearted smile.
"Unless they recently moved to town, maybe, but otherwise everyone knows that this is not just a hospital. We'll have to see how this pans out and make our diagnosis from there." The other three nodded in agreement. Dr. Arkham spoke again.
"Erm, by the way this Harleen Quinzel, she's joined our staff as of last Wednesday." The other doctors shook her hand.
All four left the room simultaneously. Ms. Quinzel's heels clicked on the tile floor as she walked with Dr. Arkham.
"Im going to send you over to Dr. Joan Leland for a tour of the institution. Her office is on the fourth floor room 408. Just show the woman at the gate your badge and she'll buzz you in."
Harleen flashed a shy smile.
"Thank you doctor."
Commissioner Gordon sat across from the two nurses in an unused conference room in Arkham.
"Did you catch anything? A licence plate or the type of vehicle? Distinct sound of the engine? " His tone had a stressed edge to it. Both women shook their heads. Gordon could feel himself getting frustrated. These nurses had been nothing but a head ache. They sat like two overfed hens and told him the same thing over and over. Gordon sighed, and decided to let them go. He had a feeling that they really hadn't seen anything and were probably not smart enough to lie if they had.
Dr. Leland was an older woman with distant eyes and a slim but homely physique. She spoke deliberately and didn't mince words as she lead Harleen around the endless corridors. After about half an hour her crassness started to wear on Harleen's positive attitude. Her descriptions of the different facilities was harsh and emotionless. When they had passed through the "frankenstein ward" she made a comment that more of Arkham's patients should undergo this procedure. Harleen knew by the vacant look in the eyes of the people in there that they had all had frontal lobotomies. She introduced her to several other doctors that work in her field and gave her the employees map of the entire building. The map had everything, right down to what kind of security was in certain wards. Harleen noticed that her ward was highlighted in red. Highest security ward... well, you got what you worked for Harl..." Dr. Leland's abrasive voice interrupted her train of thought.
"Yeah, the red ward. Your in with the best of the worst. Nothing but Gotham's finest in there." They continued to walk until they got to Harleen's designated ward.
"And this is where I leave you. I could go in with you but I've seen enough of that ward in the time I've been here to last me into retirement."
"Which should have been years ago." Harleen thought to herself.
"Thank you for the tour Dr. Leland." she said holding out her hand.
"Your welcome, oh, Ill send over a message to Dr. Arkham telling him that you've completed your mandatory run down."
As Harleen passed through the double metal gates she realized almost instantly how quiet it got. The red ward consisted of three hall ways connecting at the ends. The first hall was all offices and therapy rooms. When you came to the end you made a right turn through a heavy swinging door that lead into the temporary holding cells. If you walked past all the temp. cells you made another right turn and ended up where the actual holding cells are. She continued to walk until she got to the swinging door leading to the temp. cells and went inside. It was still quiet except for the hum of the old air conditioning unit. She was intrigued by the long narrow rectangular shaped windows that looked into every cell. It was like some form of a human zoo. She peered into one with a man sitting peacefully on his wire frame cot. Unlike the permanent cells, these didn't have two way mirrors, so here the patient could see out into the hall. She started to look through her clip board to see about the different conditions that existed in this ward. When she looked back up she jumped back in surprise. The man had come right up to the window and was looking at her with milky blue eyes. Apparently her reaction wasn't received well because he started to cry. A few seconds later he threw himself against the glass, yelling at her in indecipherable sentences. She immediately started to walk quickly back down the hall and didn't stop until she had arrived in front of her new office. She walked inside taking a deep breath and laying her clip board on the desk. This is all part of the job experience, calm the hell down. She thought to herself. She checked her e mail, her inbox was empty; no assignments yet. No voice mail either. She sat back in the orthopedic chair and took her hair out of the banana clip that had held it in a wavy fountain shape.
The man from the medical ward floated back into her mind. While Dr. Arkham was going on about conditions and treatment she had watched him. His breathing, how one of his wrists has been bound to the bed just as a precaution, courtesy of the Gotham police dept. How he had looked, even in his current state, as if he was perpetually grinning due to the cuts running up the sides of his face. It had intrigued her to the point where she wasn't listening to Dr. Arkham at all. He was truly a mystery.
As she got up from her chair the grabbed her clip board and straightened her skirt. She had to have another look. Her first day was turning out to not be so bad after all. Hopefully they would grant her access to the room again.
"Excuse me, is there still a patient in room 225?" The nurse at the front desk looked up at her from her magazine.
"Yes I believe so."
Have they admitted any new patients to that room?"
"No, that room is stable." Harleen got the feeling from this nurse that she was just being standoff-ish because her reading had been interrupted..
"Can you let me go through please? I need to view the patient again to..." Think quick Harley, think quick.
"To watch for any new behavioral developments, that is, if his recovery has been as quick as expected." The nurse raised an eye brow.
"Your badge please."
A few moments later Harleen was walking down the white tiled hall towards room 225. She swiped her ID and the door clicked open.