"Daddy?" Vera's tiny voice asked. As usual, her voice was thick with tears and she was crying.

Jonathan glared at her from across the room. He hated when she called him that. Jonathan Crane had no use for a daughter. He wasn't supposed to be a father. Maybe if he acted the way he did, Vera would just run away and his problem would be gone. No such luck. Yet, at least.

When he was a child, Jonathan's father treated him just as terribly as he treated Vera. When he was around, which was rarely. At least Vera even had her father around. That was more than he ever got. Why should she get any better than what he had?

"Daddy?" Vera called again.

"What?" he barked at her, making everyone in the room flinch.

"What did I do?" she whimpered, her voice shaking.

Jonathan was calm, completely calm. No emotions whatsoever. He turned to her and answered her question.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Her father's words chilled her to the bone. Even though for once he wasn't yelling at her, this was somehow worse. Somehow, it was scarier.

Jonathan's ice blue eyes bore into her soul, picking apart every aspect of her mind. He loved her fear more than anyone's. She deserved it most of all.

"Vera, baby, will you come here for a minute?" he asked, still calm. He seemed almost happily calm. Which scared her even more.

Everyone in the room was frozen. They knew what was going to happen.

Vera got up and walked toward Jonathan. He held his hand out for her to take. She did, not knowing what was going to happen next. If she did, she would turn and run. She would never turn back.

He brought the girl down to the basement, where he worked on his toxin.

"Sit right there, sweetie." Jonathan said and pointed to a chair.

She did what she was told without a word. Maybe he could see how much she wanted him to love her and be proud of her.

He didn't bother to use the straps to hold her down to the chair. He knew she would stay there no matter what.

Jonathan turned to his daughter, a creepy smile planted on his face.

"Would you like to see my mask?"

He sprayed the toxin into her face and she screamed. Scarecrow chuckled darkly and waited a few minutes to ask her the next question.

"What do you see, Vera?" he asked.

"THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"

"What's everywhere, Vera?"

"THEYRE ALL OVER YOU, DADDY! THEY'RE ON ME TOO!"

"Vera, I'm going to ask one more time. Whats everywhere?"

"SAVE ME DADDY! PLEASE!"

Vera clawed at her face and arms and legs but remained in the seat. She was covered in blood everywhere she scratched. She took Scarecrow's hand and clawed at his arm and hand until it bled. Jonathan made a mental note to clean up after.

After a while, Vera went limp. She looked like a doll. Her eyes were barely open.

Jonathan looked at her with distaste. The thing he really hated about her was that she reminded him of himself. There was no denying it. She was the spitting image of her with wavy, dark brown hair and incredibly thin. But she was tiny, and very short. The one thing she inherited from her mother. He didn't know who that was either. He was a bit of a heartthrob when he first moved to Gotham when he was 18. That was right after he graduated high school...

It was too early to tell if Vera inherited his brains, but he didn't care either way. It didn't matter to him. Even if she did have his brains, he would never love her. She was too much like him to deserve any better than what he had. If she did prove to be better, she would have to work every grueling hour for it like he did. Maybe then she would learn her lesson that love isn't just handed to you on a silver platter automatically. Even when that love came directly from your father. Especially when that love came directly from your father. But there was no love here. Not now, not ever. She could never earn it no matter how hard she tried.

"What do you see, Vera?"

"Spiders."

"What do you fear, Vera?"

"Spiders."

Vera's eyes closed as she sank into unconsciousness. He went to his notebook and wrote down the results of his favorite, by far, experiment.

He heard a faint moan of pain in the corner of the room. Brushing it off, he returned to his work.

"Daddy, aren't you proud of me?"

"For what?"

"Listening to you."

"No."

"Daddy, don't you love me?"

"No."

A/N: Remind me to think of a better name for this than Author's Note haha

This is the official first chapter of Daddy, Don't You Love Me? Last chapter was a prologue. I will give a shout out to anyone who reviews. So please review! It makes me happy! :)

So, poor Vera. Jonathan is a meanie pants. He'll get what's coming to him. In a chapter or so, it will be her later in life. This is just setting up Vera's situation and past so you understand it as if it were happening in the present. In later chapters she will be 13.

I hope you enjoy the story so far! Tell me what you think. I'll try to update as much as I can but sometimes I get busy. But school gets out on Monday so that shouldn't be too much of a problem!

-Harley

Shout Outs:

Unquestionably Unhinged

Thanks for reviewing! :)