CHAPTER FIVE

"Har…, Harleen… Harleen can you hear me?" It was one of our nurses. She was a sweet older lady, if I remembered correctly. I had ice on both my head and neck. "You gave us quite a scare. Johnny had you pinned to the floor. No, don't sit up, you might have a concussion. Can you name all the states that start with the letter M?

"Um.." My throat hurt and it was even worse when I tried talking. "Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts, um… is that all of them?" I could barely hear myself whispering. I rubbed my head and felt some of the blood matted into my hair. I don't remember that at all. "When did…" She cut me off.

"After you passed out, he um… hit your head off the floor. A few times. You are very lucky, if Dave hadn't come in, I am afraid we would have lost you." I sat up slowly as possible. She tried to push me back but I held up my hand in protest. I felt like I was going to pass out, but I pushed on. I looked around and saw the men from earlier. They were all lying with bandages and ice on their heads. The ring leader looked horrible, both eyes swollen shut and a fat lip. But Crane was missing, was he alright?

"Where is he?"

"High security solitary but he is heavily medicated. No need to go up there."

"Thanks, Jodie. I'll see you soon." I headed up to Thurman's office. The rooms around me became fuzzy, but with the wall's assistance, I made it just fine.

"Harleen, what are you doing out of bed? You need rest." He had been sweating profusely, about me? Probably not. He was angry that I was hurt, not that I wasn't resting.

"I am heading home, I called myself a cab. I can't trust myself to drive, but otherwise I'll be fine; I just need to rest in my bed. What exactly happened to Crane?"

"Well, as far as I know, they were taunting him, he turned into Scarecrow, and when you tried to stop him, he saw you as a threat. You did the right thing but almost paid dearly for it. When we sedated him. It took two and a half doses to get him down. He kept repeating something about not liking to be teased. Now, enough! Go home and get some rest. Crane and the Joker can wait. We have people to handle them."

" Goodbye, Dr. Thurman."

I had the cabie take for some fast food and swung back to Arkham. I walked up to solitary and had an orderly escort me into Crane's cell. He was still out cold, but I stuck his cheeseburger next to him in the corner. He was heavily restrained and his chin was pressing down to his chest

I finally went home. I took damn near the whole bottle of aspirin to dull the pain in my skull. I had to wash the blood out of my hair, so I headed into the shower. Only then did I notice my neck.

It was completely black and blue in the shape of his hands. I lifted my shirt and my chest was bruised to match my neck, except they looked like a pair of knees dung into my ribs. I felt them, they were bruised too, but to my knowledge, not broken. I was very lucky, thank God I wasn't conscience during that. I hurried through my shower and tried to read some of the Joker's files, but I had a hard time concentrating. I figured it could wait. I dozed off within a few minutes.

I woke up, well rested, got ready and headed off to work. I didn't remember what happened until I went to get my car, which was still at the hospital. Since I was ready, I figured I should just go in. Everyone was surprised to see me, especially Dr. Thurman. I told him I forgot, but he was still angry. It seems like he is only ever angry or changing my cases. How boring.

He was also angry that I went into Cranes cell, but it didn't matter. In the end, he sent me home and told me I could return in two more days. He also handed me some of the taped Joker interviews to keep me busy and a short evaluation. At least I had something to do.

On my way home, I decided I should call Red. I hadn't talked to her since she had taken off.

"Red, it's Harls. Give me a call back when you get this. I worried about you, and I kind of miss you. You won't believe what happened with ScareCrane. Good stuff. Talk to you soon, love ya."

I popped the first tape in, not really expecting anything spectacular, but boy was I wrong. The doctor made sure to note the day, time, patient number, and the like. When he moved from the screen, the Joker sat at his side of the table. His hands and feet were handcuffed together and his chair was bolted to the ground. He eyes looked right into the camera and he gave a smirk and a wink; no gesture had ever made the hairs on my neck stand-up, but this did. The first thing I noticed is how he was sizing up the doctor, eyeing his prey. He had animal instincts, at best. Before he started to talk, his tongue had to be shown. Depending on the situation, it darted out of one side or it would make a long sweep over his top lip. Every tiny thing he did with his body was intentional; he had complete control.

The doctor started with small talk and the Joker began to play along. His sarcasm was heavy, but the doctor misread it as sincerity. He continued to take notes, and the Joker talked and giggled to himself. He even made a few exaggerated hand motions just for the camera, winking every few sentences. Nothing more notable on this one, except how he ended the session. He asked our doctor some very personal questions until he found the nerve he was looking for. Once he hit on to his wife, the Joker would not let up; he knew the perfect thing to say to get a rise. He knew everyone's flaw; their Achilles heel. When the doctor lunged at him, the orderlies had to carry him out. The Joker sat in his chair until they came back for him. The Joker stood up and took a bow for the camera and it turned to static.

The next few tapes followed the same format; he played with his food a bit, chewed it and then spit it out. Most left in tears. Some he even became violent with. He had slipped through his cuffs three times and even watching on tape, I couldn't see that he was doing it. This one had ended in his latest therapist being stabbed.

If the man hadn't been seriously injured, I would kind of find it amusing. The Joker was spinning off stories quicker than I could even understand what he was saying and soon he went silent. When the doctor continued with his notes, he became angry. He slipped from his cuffs, grabbed the pen, inspected it, leaned it, and shoved it as far as it would go. It happened in a blink of an eye, this man had talent. He smiled and said "I advise you pay attention next time, uh, assuming there is one." He sat back in his chair and waited for the monitors to notice. He was back in his cuffs and continued talking. I don't know if this doctor ever left alive.

Author's Note: Yea, this one doesn't have a cliffhanger but It does have a bit of build up for Harley's first meeting with the Joker. It's not as interesting as I would like, but most of ot serves a purpose fpr future chapters. I will be update probably on Sunday. I have actually hit a major wall as far as my story goes. I have plenty of ideas, I just don;t know which way to take it. That is why I wrote my story in advance because writer block will always happen.

Thank you again to all of my reviewers and my followers, I really appriciate it so much. If you do have any suggestions, please let me know.