Around the time that the next weeks therapy session started, I was more relaxed. Why? Because Joker wasn't at all the person he appeared to be on TV and in News Papers.. Videos.. He wasn't the criminal that people made him out to be. Who he made himself out to be, oh no. He was so.. Quiet. Very quiet and he seemed to be a rather.. Kind guy, actually. Hell, he hadn't so much as blinked until I helped him off the floor. Maybe he just needed someone to be nice to him, for someone to go that extra mile to show him a little kindness, a little heart and then, he'd be okay. I was under that impression, at the very least, that, that was the whole issue going on. The poor fella just needed a friend... I could use a friend, so I didn't see any harm in showing him these acts of kindness that would allow him to feel, to be more than a vegetable sat around doing absolutely nothing, but being locked inside of his own mind and that horrible, uncomfortable looking straight jacket. Poor, poor Joker.. This was around the time that I was growing well, curious. Was the lack of a companion what had made Joker this way? Had he been outcasted in his last- not his last. In his normal life. Had he been set aside and treated like a nobody? Was neglectence and being alone had been what drove him to act out and go crazy? Well, it wouldn't be uncommon. Those who grow up with limited positive contact often turned out as serial killers or rapist or other forms of criminals and, were usually people who had lots of illnesses, and some were just plain crazy. Just like Joker..

I'd been lost in my own mind, in fact, for the entirety of the time leading up to this very moment. I didn't have many important things to do, anyway, just bring around medicine and that didn't require a lot of focus, just enough to match meds to names. Easy peasy. But I'd been so focused on him, who he really was and what had to have made him the way that he was now. Ever since our last encounter all I could remember was that smile. The way that his lips curled back in that.. That manner. Was there a way to describe how it happened? No, she didn't think so. It was so slow, and so intense that moment with him. And the smile made it all the more better, or maybe worse? Who knew, most said Joker was typically smiling but he wasn't smiling until that moment so what did that imply? Was that a good sign, or a bad sign? I wasn't entirely sure at the time, but, it was gorgeous none the less. That man was.. He was beautiful when he smiled. Though of course, Smith would have to disagree with me. She did however, agree that he was attractive. For a psycho maniac killer clown. Understandable, of course.

Entering the room, it was Emily first and then me, I trailed over and sat myself down on the designated chair, tapping my pen to the pad once more. A nervous tick, I noted. I was always hyper aware of myself and my doings and my emotions, or at least, I thought I was. Nobody knew me like I do, I liked to pride myself on that. I still hadn't asked Emily why she requested that I sit in on all the meetings from now on, I didn't much care for her reasoning, the important part was that I could! Though I did find it strange. Emily was usually a very rule-abiding lady. She was an elderly woman, with whitening blonde hair, little fibers of grey and white hidden inside of her blonde bun, and the cutest pair of pink glasses sat on the tip of her nose at all times. Unlike me, she actually needed hers. She said it came with old age, and reminded me I should always eat my carrots. Sometimes, Emily reminded me of my mother. I'd actually been looking at her and assessing her.. Grandma like appearance. "I'm getting to old for this job," She had mentioned to me once. She'd been Jokers TENTH psychiatrist, and she had been the longest lasting one, I recall during one open lunch spent together, Emily had mentioned to me that she had nightmares about him. She'd watched him bite a guards throat out. Literally, ripped the guys throat clean out. With his teeth. Truthfully, I was glad I hadn't been there to see the sight. No Harleen. You are not.

Joker entered the room with flare this time, straight jacket gone and throwing the door open, entering with arms spread out and a smile on his lips like some kind of performer. I suppose, in a sense, he was a performer. He definitely saw himself in that light. He always needed to be in spotlight, it seemed. It shocked me though how he entered, glorious and amazing and tall and definitely filled out more. Emily had mentioned she'd taken him off the pills again because he was agitated by the lack of sleep and had lashed out against a guard after our session, but it seemed he had been well behaved since considering, well, he was jacketless and strolling across the room with so much purpose in his step. Stanley, his usual orderly, rolled his eyes and strolled into the room behind him with good ol'Frankie trailing in. Stanley was the bold one, Frankie was quiet. Frankie was scared of Joker, I knew already that he definitely reveled in that information. Joker seemed, from his file, to love installing fear into peoples hearts.

"Gooooooood afternooooooooooon lah-ADIES!" He cheered as he pulled out his chair and sat in it, dragging it once more when sat, back to the table. The sound of metal on the floor wasn't a pleasant one, and I found myself flinching. The notion had brought his attention to me, his eyes slowly trailing over. That smile was back. The one he had gifted to me in our last encounter. It was delicate almost, something to be treasured. Surely a woman could easily fall in love with.. That smile. I would be surprised if someone hadn't. "Loookie what we have heeeereee..." His voice was much better today, I noted. Dark and deep yet it had a bit of a whine behind of it. He seemed to be more than lively now, sure he was bouncing off the walls! Metaphorically of course, the orderlies wouldn't stand for him literally bouncing off the walls.. Though it did seem like a very Joker centric thing to do.

Like our last encounter, I didn't know what to say to him. A little smile came to my lips in greeting, and I nodded my head slightly, pushing a strand of the blonde hair out of my face with the hand holding the pen. I still didn't know what to call him aloud, so I just kept quiet with formalities. However, he didn't seem to want to keep it that way, and extended a large, white hand across the table, his head tilting to the side slightly, lack of eyebrows raising slowly in anticipation to what I assumed was me to take his hand and shake it. I leaned over a little, shaking his hand carefully, my eyes sliding across to rest on Emily questioningly. She simply smiled as she watched the interaction. Before I had really noticed it, Jokers grip was tightening and he was speaking slowly.

"Haaaarleeeeeen... So that's the darling little bit of heaven's name huh? Harleen..." Did he just refer to me as a bit of heaven? What kind of criminal does that? "Haaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrllllll...eeee...nnn..." He dragged out my name, testing it on his tongue and rolling it around his mouth like he'd been tasting a new wine, trying to discover if he liked the taste or not. "I bet your friends call you, uh.. HARLEY, huh, Harleeeeeeen?" His lips were still pulled back in that gorgeous grin of his, head starting to sway slightly side to side again. I couldn't help but let myself laugh a little, shaking my head slightly and releasing his hand, sitting back carefully in tune with him. "I don't have many friends..." I admitted. Wait, why was I admitting something like that to a criminal? That was something he could easily use to manipulate me, and with a man like Joker manipulation was always an element present in the equation after all.

"Well.. HARLEY ... You've got a uh... Uh FRIEND now," Joker had cooed slowly, his body still bent across the table ever so slightly. He was sat hunched over it, elbows on either side of him, propping up against the metal table with his hands clasped in front of his person. Even with his informal posture, he still had this aura about him that demanded respect and attention, the aura of a true king. He may have called himself the Clown Prince of Crime, but god knows he was the Clown King of Gotham. No.. Prince just did not fit the way that he came across. And for a moment, with his charismatic behavior, I found myself blushing despite my better thoughts. Shaking it off though quickly with a little giggle and pushing my glasses up onto my face, I simply replied with, "Thank you uhm..."

That's when he cleared things up and began to laugh. Oh my god, there it was. The laugh. The laugh. It was terrifying, utterly bone chilling. Blood freezing. It was loud and soft all at once and it was violent. The sound screamed for you to run, to get out of this situation with this person and run, but yet.. It was.. Soothing. It was a beautiful sound and I found myself smiling at it, while I noticed that Emily began to tense up, as if waiting for him to leap across the table and start strangling her, and Stanley reached for the taser on his hip. Was he truly that bad? Truly so bad that his laughter made his psychiatrist cringe? Well, no, that was a stupid question. Perhaps he had disclosed to Emily that he only laughed when he was about to do something violent, after all she was his therapist. But the guards? Well maybe they noticed the laughter was usually followed with violence. I had to remind myself, that I was new here, I was new to the Joker and I did not know him in the way that these people did. I didn't see him bite out a guards throat. Poor Stanley was probably standing right next to.. Robert, when it had happened. Poor Stanley, probably knew how violent Joker could be. Poor.. Poor Stanley was probably the focus of his violence, quite a bit.

"J, call me J, Harley-girl." He cooed finally after the noise slowly dulled to his voice. At that, Emily seemed to relax and so did Stanley. Frankie stopped looking like he was about to piss himself. Why did that guy work here, work with ... J if he was so scared of him, huh? Wasn't the point of this job, being appointed to JOKER, was to be brave? Strong? Courageous? Frankie seemed like a pussycat!

"Thank you, Mister J." I nodded and Emily cleared her throat to cue herself into the conversation. My eyes went to her, but I could still feel Jokers.. Or J's, on me. I could feel them burning into the side of my face, that intense, electric stare that he had, and I could still feel the aura of his smile, that gorgeous.. Beautiful.. Smile.. He barely even acknowledged that Emily was there, that she was speaking. In fact, he didn't. He swayed his head a little, I could see that out of the corner of my eye but, he was constantly swaying his head. Maybe it helped him focus? Who knows. I would, eventually.

"Well, now that you two have become well acquainted, can we get on with the session? We're already twenty minutes in and we haven't even properly started, although I can see that you're feeling much better now, J. How are you feeling? Sleeping better?" Emily inquired and tilted her own head in the same direction that J currently had his tilted.

The man completely ignored her. Disregarded her existence like she wasn't even in the room. Maybe he tuned her out or maybe he just chose to purposely ignore her and not answer. I turned my eyes back to him and found his eyes still locked on me. This time though, his lips were a bit slacker, not much of a smile but his mouth was open and his eyes looked kinda hazy as he just stared at me in that fixated way. I found myself growing squirmy underneath his gaze, it was so intense and uncomfortable it left me with a feeling of.. Violation. Like my privacy had been breached. He knew too much about me and yet he knew nothing more than that I don't have friends, a truth, and my name, which he disregarded and placed a new name on me. The fact that he was ignoring her, seemed to make Emily annoyed and she sighed, pushing her glasses up again. "J, did you hear me?" Still no response. Still just staring. At this point, we were just staring into each others eyes. I could see so deep into his soul like this, I found myself thinking. I could see that there was still a sane man deep, deep, deepdeepdeeep down in him. Somewhere kept under lock and key like he didn't even want to be sane, though, every insane person wants to be helped, they just don't realize it until after they've already been helped, for the most part. "Mistah J?" I questioned him quietly, eyebrows furrowing slightly to see if I could get a response out of him at all. His face lit up instantly at the sound of my voice, his eyes crinkling with his gigantic grin. "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss Harley?" He purred back.

Okay, so he answered to me. Emily had raised an eyebrow and simply reached her hand out to take my notepad, and the pen, gesturing for me to go ahead and start the proper session with him. It seemed, after all, that he only seemed interested in interacting with me. "Shall we start the session now?" I asked him, to which he seemed to hum and toss his head around like he was physically tossing the thought around his mind before he let out a boisterous laugh and tossed himself back into the chair, arms flying out only to land happily behind his head. "Gooooooo right aahhhhead, Harls!" Oh. Okay, more nicknames. Pleasant, I thought. I supposed that would be what this was made up of, nicknames and ignoring Emily. I could already tell she wasn't at all interested in the fact he wouldn't talk to her, but it seemed to intrigue her how interesting he became with me, and oh so quickly.

"Alright, how are you feeling, J? Have you been able to sleep more?" I asked the same question that Emily did and he let out a low groan. "Oh, oh ohohohoohh Harls, I'm AHHHLWAYS good with you around! Little beam of SUNSHINE ain'T SHE STANLEY?" He finally addressed someone other than me, and Stanley snickered under his breath. "Well theres a lot of things I could say about her," He shot back simply under his breath.

The comment seemed to anger Joker and the smile dropped instantly. "I'll have you KNOW, Doc.. That I uh.. I hAVE been sleepin a HELL of a lot better yknow but.. I've been havin these.. Dreams.." He started, leaning closer to the table the more he spoke. "Daaahhhreeaamms... about.. about killing olllllll STAAANLEY here..." He spoke so slowly, so darkly. I couldn't bring myself to actually look at Stanley to assess his face, my eyes were stuck on Jokers, and his seemed to be stuck on mine. "He doesn't uh.. RESPECT people, you know? Makes me pretty... MAD.. You wanna know what I do when I get mad, Harls?" His words were formed into the stature of a question and I found myself itching to answer it, but I couldn't bring myself to let any words leave my open mouth, Emily simply writing down what was unfolding before her. "Do ya?" He asked, a bit harder this time and I nodded my head quickly. "Tell me, please." I requested, and the grin was slowly starting to come back to his lips.

"I get real vvvviiiolllent.. And these uh.. DREAMS.. I see myself strangling poooor ol'Stanley to the point where he passES out! Then, you know what I do?" Another question, but he didn't leave time this time to answer it. "I get this knife, and slowly start stabbing him in the stomach. I rip at him until his internals become outernals. Until his organs are poooooooolin out over my hands, then... Then I cut a beeUUUTIFAL smile into that PUG FACE of his, and cut the entire thing off! Of course I gotta make it into a uh.. A waRNING for the other guards that they gotta.. RESPECT me.. You know what I do with his cUT OFF FACE?" I was listening intently, even leaning closer to the table, hell I was leaned over the table by the time that he had popped the next question. My eyes were wide, wider than they had been in a long time with.. Lots of curious intent behind them. Joker seemed to revel in that too.. "What do you do?" I asked quietly, my voice nothing more than a breath. He smirked then. "Why.. I hang it up in the staffroom so everyone can see what happens if you disrespect me or my uh.. TOYS." He stated simply, then, he leaned back, sat up straight in his chair, turned his head, oh so slowly, towards Stanley, who I could now see, was quaking in his boots, and jerked towards him, which caused Frankie, in a fit of fear and adrenaline to taser the poor fella! I could tell he hadn't actually been planning to well. GO AFTER STANLEY, he just wanted to SCARE him a little!

Joker fell from the seat he was on, shaking on the ground and laughing, that evil, maniacal... Captivating laugh. I was quick to jolt from my seat, Emily yelling something at me to sit back down, but I ignored her and rushed over to his side, swatting away the two guards. "FRANK! Couldn't you see him starting to sit back down and FACE ME?!" I barked, eyes narrowed in slits at him. "Go stand by the door." I told the both of them, Frankie still fumbling over words in an attempt to apologize. Unneeded.

My hands carefully steadied him on the floor from his rocking once the shock finished, gazing down at him and raising my eyebrows carefully. "Are ya okay, Mistah J?" I asked him slowly, hoping that he wouldn't break into a fit of violence with me knelt on the floor there next to him. His hand reached up, and I could see Stanley drawing up again, but instead of hitting me or choking me, he slowly trailed those cool finger tips up over my jugular and up across my chin, brushed his fingers against my lips before he traced them along my cheekbone.

"I knew you were different, Kid."

"Alright then, I think thats enough excitement for today," Emily started, standing and moving to tug me onto my feet, the notion causing Jokers fingertips to brush me again and he continued to lay there for a second and watched as she tugged me to the proper side of the room again. "Boys, escort J back to his cell, and for gods sake, Frankie, don't touch your taser again unless he HITS someone!" She ordered.

Emily was a scary lady when she wanted to be. But Joker looked scarier right now. He was staring at her, eyes like daggers as the two guards, both standing further away from him than needed, helped him off the floor. His blue gaze flicked to me before he was tugged out of the room, and he shot me a wink, and tapped the side of his nose like he knew something. Like we shared a secret that no one else was clued in on, but the issue was.. I don't think that even I was clued in on it..

A month went by, and our sessions were usually much the same as that one, J would only talk to me, ignore everyone in the room and grow irritated each time Stanley addressed me.

Stanley had a habit of flirting with me apparently, J pointed that out, and apparently, he did not appreciate it.

I wonder why?