Chapter 5

The next day I was running out the door at 6:30 in the morning. I had received a call from Joan before I went to bed last night to let me know we were having an emergency staff meeting at 7 AM and it was all hands on deck. My car squeaked and screeched the whole way to work and apparently my heater was dying on me too because by the time I reached the asylum it was still only piss warm. I wiped the annoyance off my face and replaced it with a smile as I headed to the elevators.

I still wasn't quite sure where I was going but I knew the conference room was on the top floor in the east wing. Luckily when I stepped into the elevator I was greeted by a friendly face for a change. So far I hadn't really had an opportunity to meet much of the staff and the few I had seemed pretty stand-offish. He was young, I'm guessing early thirties with shoulder length brown hair that was neatly tied back in a ponytail. He had wide set eyes in a stunning shade of hazel, a straight nose that had a light scattering of freckles across the bridge, thin lips and a broad jawline.

I stepped into the elevator beside him and before I could open my mouth to greet him he looked at me, gave me a kind smile and inquired

"Dr. Quinzel?" I dipped my head in acknowledgement and replied.

"Yes, but please call me Harley, and you are?" He extended his hand.

"Ben Stone, I'm the lead medical physician. Pleasure to meet you, Harley." He responded cheerfully and I reciprocated his handshake. "So you're the girl genius we've been hearing so much about." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I wouldn't say that."

"So what made you want to come here?" he asked lightly. I pushed a stray hair out of my face.

"The challenge I guess. Why? Why did you come here?" He snickered.

"Eh, well it was either this or the free clinic and a drinking problem." I giggled, then abruptly covered my mouth with my hand. He gave me a broad smile in return. I liked him immediately. "Well, welcome to hell, at least for the first year of your residency."

The elevator reached the top floor and the door opened with a ding. Ben swung out his hand to indicate I should exit before him. I glanced up and down the hallway, not quite sure where I was headed. Ben noticed and lightly placed his hand on my elbow.

"If you're coming to the staff meeting, the conference room is this way Harley."

He led me to the end of the hall to our right and into a room that held a huge oblong table surrounded by chairs and there were additional chairs lining the walls on either side. It was the first time I had seen the entire staff gathered in one place and it was a little overwhelming. Ben was kind enough to introduce me around a bit, not that I was going to be able to keep the names straight. He seemed to be widely liked and I think his influence was key in reducing some of the icy reactions I had previously experienced with the few staff members I had interacted with so far.

I located Joan and took the empty seat next to her and Ben settled into the seat to my right. He leaned across the table in front of me to greet Joan.

"Ben, good morning! How did you make out with the unholy terror?" she said as she rolled her eyes. He chuckled.

"Fully restrained and sedated to the gills. I was able to set the arm without incident, which is a first, but I feel sorry for whoever we call in to replace that missing crown. I know I'm not willingly putting my fingers in that animal's mouth." I glanced at him with interest as Joan replied.

"Arkham sent for Dr. Kemkar, but if I know Jerimiah he didn't divulge who the patient is."

At that moment Dr. Arkham entered the room and everyone started to settle down. The doctors and heads of each department were seated around the table while the rest of the staff took the chairs by the walls or stood at the rear of the room. Arkham cleared his throat as silence settled over the room.

"As I'm sure you all know at this point, patient 0801, The Joker, is back in our custody. As we also have several new members of the staff who have not yet had the pleasure of dealing with him, I felt it was an opportune time to review the increased security protocols that go hand in hand with his committal here."

I blushed as half the room turned to look at me. I heard several whispers and at least one snigger. Arkham continued.

"Aaron if you'd please take the floor."

"Thank you Dr. Arkham," a stocky black man of medium height stood to address the assembled employees.

"For those of you who don't know me, I'm Sargent Aaron Cash, head of Arkham security. With the re-incarceration of the Joker, we'll be adhering to extra security protocols. All non-essential personnel are restricted from the west wing effective immediately. We will be reinstating employee searches for anyone accessing the Intensive Treatment ward. Our security officers will be equipped with metal detecting wands and you will be scanned upon entering and exiting any restricted areas. That means, bring nothing with you that may be used as a weapon no matter how innocuous it seems. No pens, pencils, letter openers, rulers, clipboards, paperclips etcetera." Cash looked around the room.

"Pay particular attention to your jewelry. I won't go into detail, but there have been previous incidents, so my suggestion is to leave it at home. Next, the security key code for patient 0801's cell will be changed three times daily. If you need to access that cell you will need to commit the codes to memory. Anyone caught writing these codes down will be severely reprimanded!"

Aaron then motioned to a few of his men who were gathered by the door. They were each carrying a pile of small plastic boxes that looked similar to pagers.

"What my men are handing you are individual panic buttons. Each one is equipped with a GPS tracker that will zero in on your position both within the asylum and outside of its' walls." I leaned over to Joan and whispered.

"Why would we need it outside of the asylum?" Joan barely glanced at me but replied.

"In the event of an abduction or hostage situation." That made a shiver run down my spine.

"I expect each of you to keep these on you at all times." The security officers spread out handing the devices to each of the doctors and essential staff members, recording the name of the recipient to the corresponding device number on their clipboards. Aaron continued. "You will not be admitted to the west wing without it. Last but not least, for the next four days access to the infirmary is restricted. Unless it is an absolute emergency you will need to check in at the main security hub and you will be escorted by one of the security staff. Any questions?" Silence followed and Aaron took his seat.

Soon after Aaron concluded, Dr. Arkham dismissed everyone but the shrinks.

"Now comes the part of this meeting I know you've all been dreading." There was a collective pause. The apprehension in the air was palpable. "I have thought long and hard about this and I have come to the decision to assign Dr. Young to treat patient 0801." Dr. Penelope Young was a mousy looking woman with short brown hair and brown eyes and right now she looked utterly horrified.

"You can't be serious about this Jerimiah! I have a family, I have kids! You know what kind of position that will put me in with that animal!" Her face was red with unrestrained rage and her whole body shook, "You know he'll use that to threaten me with!" Dr. Arkham looked at her with indifference.

"Penelope, this decision is not personal. You are simply the most qualified doctor to treat the Joker. Gretchen," he glanced at the eldest female doctor in the room "Would be incapable to fend off any kind of physical attack and since Joan is exempt for reasons you know very well-"

"It's those very reasons I don't want this case Jerry!" Dr. Arkham glared at Dr. Young with a vicious glint in his eye.

"Reign it in, Penelope. The board does not want this patient transferred to another facility as it would cripple our funding, so until further notice this is your goddamn case!" he slammed a huge case file down on the desk and pushed it towards Dr. Young. Then he turned and looked directly at me "Dr. Quinzel," he said sternly, "As the newest addition to our staff I am assigning you to observe two of these sessions weekly." I opened my mouth to object but was cut off before I could "Due to the dangerous nature of the patient, his therapy will take place in one of the interrogation rooms. You will study these sessions in safety through the two-way mirror. I expect a report of your observations on my desk on Friday afternoon of each week." Then we were dismissed and I quickly caught up with Joan down the hallway.

"Joan, what the hell was that all about?"

"I don't know Harleen, it's certainly unprecedented, but Dr. Arkham is the director and what he says goes." She looked at me ruefully and opened her mouth as if to speak, but then closed it and remained silent for a few moments. I wanted to ask her why she was exempt from treating the Joker. I looked at her face and could see the pain there as plainly as if it were written on her forehead and decided against it. I had a good idea at the very least, Joker had killed someone she loved.

"Joan I know you were supposed to show me around but if you need some time….." Joan slowly turned her head and shook it minutely.

"No, Harley, I'm fine, really. We've put it off long enough already and you're scheduled to meet with your first patient shortly." she replied as she looked at her watch. "No time like the present."

Forty minutes later I was being patted down and swiped with metal detectors awaiting my first look at what the Arkham staff referred to as the "Zoo", otherwise known as Intensive Treatment. The worst of the worst were confined here. Joan took me slowly through the floor. They were all here. The Mad Hatter, Victor Zsasz, Poison Ivy, The Ventriloquist, Two-Face. I was awestruck but luckily I caught myself before I gaped at them like a complete idiot. When we reached the end of the hallway I noticed the currently unoccupied cell of the Joker. It was just like all of the others, approximately eight feet in length and ten feet wide with a small cot bolted into both the wall and the floor, a small metal partition that offered at least a modicum of privacy when using the dingy metal toilet and a tiny metal sink. In this wing the front cell wall and door were made of thick bulletproof glass and each patient was monitored 24/7 by a security camera. It seemed secure enough, how did he always manage to escape? At that moment I heard my name being called from behind me.

I spun on my heel and was surprised to come face to face with my old mentor and current inmate Jonathan Crane a.k.a. The Scarecrow.

"Dr. Crane, I didn't realize you were confined to this wing." I searched his eyes hoping to see some semblance of the man I studied under, but I could almost see the madness swirling in the depths of his deep blue eyes. He sneered at me.

"Well hello dear child. You still refer to me as a doctor, that's a nice change." He threw a nasty glance down to where Joan was talking with one of the orderlies on duty then brought his gaze back to mine. "I had thought to see you here one day, but you seem to be on the wrong side of the glass." I was slightly taken aback, I caught the allusion he was making but wanted to be sure

"W-what do you mean Dr. Crane?" He bounded towards the glass partition and slammed his hands against it harshly as he snarled

"You know very well what I mean! We know our own, you know. I can smell it on you." He stuck his nose into one of the air holes cut into the glass and audibly sniffed the air. "It's there alright, just waiting to escape." He removed his hands from the glass and stooped to look me directly in my eyes. "I always knew, child. Why do you think I chose to mentor you? You were always...special." he almost spat out his last word. Suddenly Joan came up behind me and placed a protective arm around my shoulders.

"That is quite enough Jonathan!" she began to lead me away, "I thought he was having one of his more lucid days, but apparently not." We were headed towards the special containment units. "Come, we have just one area left to see and then you need to get to your office for your first patient."