Harley was absolutely miserable. First it had been freezing, and then suddenly, the temperature rose. At first it felt nice to warm up, but before long, it wasn't just warm, it was almost boiling. She wished she hadn't taken her hair out of the pigtails. Now it stuck to her face, as she was sweating. She tried again to look for the button to call the doctor, but again, she only found it wasn't there.
Finally, she wasn't sure how much later, but the temperature seemed to stabilize. For a while anyway. Maybe these cells weren't insulated? But was the temperature outside really that extreme? What was oddest was that there had been no breakfast. If it had been that warm outside, wouldn't that mean the day would have started? And surely, it'd been nearly breakfast time when she'd been put in?
Bolton thought the day would seem longer to Harley if she had a late breakfast. Very late. He didn't want to mess up the schedule, but he did have to think that this scum needed to be taught a lesson, and only he was the one who could teach them. No, they would never go out and bring chaos to Gotham anymore. He would have them bring her something to eat, just after lunch. Unfortunately, he thought, she had been too upset, and said she wasn't hungry. That would be the perfect excuse for it. And that was just what she was going to say, if anyone asked her.
It was one of the longest days, if not the longest, in her life Harley thought. The worse too. She hurt everywhere, and was cramped from sitting on the floor in the tiny room all day. She couldn't fall asleep, either. And time seemed to have stopped, it seemed to her. There was no way to tell. At least sleeping would have made time go faster. Apparently, the only way she could tell the time would be when they brought her meals.
She thought she wasn't going to survive the entire day here. Or maybe it wasn't going to last all day, she thought in relief, when the door opened.
Harley had never been so eager to get out of solitary before. But that didn't last long. If she thought she had gone blind when she'd been in that dark closet (she couldn't think of it as a room), now she thought she would definitely go blind for sure. Lyle had turned on all the lights before letting Harley out. The glare from the lights burned her eyes, accustomed to the pitch darkness of solitary, as she tried to shield her eyes with one hand. Bolton had grabbed her other arm to pull her out. She couldn't stop her eyes from watering in the brightness.
Not just the lights, either, but everything hurt her. After being still so long, walking was painful. Pins and needles competed with cramps in her arms and legs but Bolton didn't slow his pace for her. Her spine cricked as she moved.
Normally, the sounds wouldn't bother anyone in Arkham as it was a pretty noisy place anyway, but now every little sound seemed to reverberate in her ears. She wanted to put her hands over them. When she tried to talk, even the sound of her own voice deafened her and the tread of their feet was like a drumbeat in her skull.
Bolton was pleased to see Harley's discomfort as he pulled her back to her cell. It had been a good idea to turn on all the lights. After being in the dark so long, and suddenly in the bright light, it was obvious that it was painful. The same for the sounds.
Everyone seemed to be getting ready for bed, she noticed when she managed to open her eyes a bit. Already? But it was only just past breakfast! Well, she would have to sleep anyway. Her head was throbbing from the lights and the sounds.
Bolton ignored her, as she asked for an analgesic for the pain, and threw her back in her cell. Harley would have thought she should have been thrilled to be back in her own cell, and could actually move, but that didn't make up for the terrible headache she now had, and the way she ached all over. As she collapsed onto the hard bed her eyes welled up once again but this time not from the light.