Not Quite Human

Thinking

Alternate/Mask Speech

Speech

Chapter 15: Welcome to the Gang

Oh god I was in the Rogues Gallery. I started to hyperventilate as I looked around my cell. There was an air vent above me but it was bolted shut and too narrow for me to squeeze thorough. I ran my hands through my hair and rocked on my bed softly. Who was going to protect my family? Who was going to watch my back? Oh god I think I'm crying. I touched my finger to my cheeks and sure enough my eyes were leaking.

"Oh no Miss D!" Jervis's voice seemed to echo in the hall. I looked over and Jervis's cell was across from mine. His eyes were wide with worry and I wrapped my arms around myself.

"Hi Hatter." I took a shaky breath and looked down at my feet. What was I going to do now?

"Miss D. My Alice. What happened?" I looked over and he was pressed up against the glass with an almost pleading look on his face.

"Robin was in my apartment. Apparently Batman decided that I was dangerous and put me in here. Robin knocked me out." My voice was quiet. I never wanted to work with the Batman at all. If he hadn't forced me into it I'd still be free jumping around the city. But then I'd have never met Edward, Jervis or Jonathan. Well maybe I could have gone without meeting Jonathan.

"The fiend! The cad!" He was raving and raising his voice as he paced around his cell.

"Shut up Jervis people are trying to sleep!" Jonathan's tired voice echoed in the halls.

"Jonathan this isn't the time for sleep! Miss D, my Alice has been locked up by the bat!" He slammed his hands against the glass wall and his face seemed twisted in anger. He looked scary when he was mad.

"Wait what!" I heard someone fall out of bed with a thump.

"D are you here?" Edward's voice came from far down the hall. I hung my head in shame.

"Yea I'm here." I hugged my knees to my chest and rocked softly again.

"My poor foolish child." Jonathan's voice was closer he was in the cell next to mine. I sighed and bit my lip.

"She's not yours Jonathan!" Edward was screaming in rage.

"That's not what she said in the showers earlier today." Jonathan snapped and I could almost hear the entire gallery listening in now.

"What!" I could almost imagine Edward plotting to kill me and my family. There was no way the Batman would save them or me.

"Will all of you shut up?" Joker's voice rang out like a shrill siren. "The kids probably freaking out and you're all screaming at her."

"My poor Alice." Jervis was staring at me and stroking the glass with one hand. "Hatter will save you. We'll go to wonderland and escape all this." He was actually crying and moved away from the glass to curl up on his bed. The entire gallery went silent and moments later the lights went out. I curled up under the blanket on what was considered a box full of rocks and tried to fall asleep.

When I woke up again the lights were back on. I fell out of the bed and stretched and felt my back pop back into place. I sighed and just sat there on the floor. Thankfully they had small alcoves for the toilets and they were soundproof, cramped as hell but soundproof. I didn't want anyone to hear my bawling my eyes out. I cleaned up and went to the bathroom before walking out and washing up in the sink. I wrung out my damp hair and searched my cell frantically for a way out. There had to be a way out. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the doors to the cell block all slid open. I was terrified. Sure I could break these guys in half but just the fact that I was in here was messing with me.

"Come on Alice, its time for breakfast." Hatter was at my door in an instant and holding out his hand to me. He looked so innocent so I walked over and took his hand. He patted my hand gently with his free hand before walking me out into the hallway to the group of waiting guards.

"Come on girls lets get you fed." One of the guards barked out and the door swung open. I let hatter lead me to the cafeteria and I kept my eyes on the floor. He helped me pick out the foods that weren't drugged and we sat together at a corner table.

"You really need to eat Alice." His voice was soft and I tried to spoon some coffee colored mush into my mouth. It actually wasn't that bad, tasted kind of like oatmeal. I slowly ate the mush in front of me and Hatter relaxed to eat his own. A tray was set down next to mine and I felt the heat of a body relaxing into the seat next to me. I just concentrated on trying to keep the food down and I was really wishing I had some coffee.

"You can relax you know. We all knew you were working with the Batman." My head snapped up in alarm as Jonathan scooped some pancake colored mush into his mouth.

"Is it really considered working with him when he holds the fate of your family against you?" I turned back to my food and poked at it. I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.

"Why do you think we didn't try to kill you the first day?" Another tray slid into view and Two Face sat down next to Hatter. I blinked in surprise before poking at my egg blob on my tray.

"You guys aren't going to tie me down and stab me to death with your sporks are you?" I clutched the plastic spork in my hand tightly. Hatter looked shocked and his eyes grew wide.

"Why I'd never stab you Alice." Jervis dropped his spork into his eggy blob on his plate before reaching over to grab my hand. "Never in a million years would I hurt you." A spork shot out and stabbed Jervis on the back of the hand. He yelped and pulled his away, rubbing it and making sure he wasn't bleeding.

"Don't touch what's mine Jervis." Jonathan's voice was dark and he leaned over until his lips were brushing my ear. "If he touches you again I'll kill him." His voice was whisper soft and my eyes grew wide. Then like nothing happened he was back to eating off his tray.

"Fancy meeting you here." Edward showed up and sat to my right. He was still limping and I couldn't meet his eyes. He reached out with his casted arm and took my hand gently. His thumb traced along the back of my hand and he made no move to stop. His good hand started scooping a green paste into his mouth with his spork. The tension melted off my shoulders and I could hear a collective sigh of relief from the men around me. Had they been scared of me?

"Hi Edward." I finished off another bite of my oatmeal mush and sipped my apple juice. Edward laced his fingers with mine the best he could but I could feel his hand twitching with pain. Jonathan sat stiffly at my side just watching everything that was going on. A slight frown crossed his face before he looked back down at his plate.

"I'm just glad your safe D. Batman isn't usually gentle when it comes to bringing us in." Edward looked down at his cast then our eyes locked for a moment. They looked possessive and I quickly looked back down at my plate.

"So how long you in for toots?" Harvey had cleaned his plate and was twirling his spork with his good hand.

"I honestly have no clue. One minute I'm at home the next I'm drugged and brought here." I sighed and Harvey sat up straight.

"Wait you haven't been mirandized? No trial? Nothing?" His eyes were narrowed with anger and I remembered that he'd been the district attorney for Gotham before his accident.

"Nope nothing." I finished off my apple juice and looked up to see all four men staring at me. "What?"

"Doll face usually there's a trial before you're tossed in here. When the bat throws you in without it you end up getting lost in the system." Harvey sighed and shook his head. "Fucking bat."

"Oh my poor Alice." Hatter wanted to reach for me but Jonathan raised his spork. Hatter flinched and pulled back.

"It seems I have yet another reason to kill the bat." Jonathan clenched his jaw before looking over at me. His eyes were as black as ebony and trapped mine in their gaze. It was almost like someone else was trying to jump free of them to get me.

"My woman Crane." Edward growled.

"I think she's mine." Jonathan gave Edward a glare and I looked back down at my food. It had become oh so interesting. I had just finished my mushy oatmeal when a guard grabbed me by my hair hard enough to make me squeak.

"Time for therapy princess." He just yanked me out of my chair and pulled me off like this was perfectly normal. I looked back at the guys and saw that all four of them were seething with rage. I tried to keep up with the guards pace and soon enough was shoved into a small office and locked up.

"Glad you could make it." There was an older woman sitting at the desk and she motioned towards a chair at the side of the room. "Please sit." I walked over and sat down.

"What's going on?" She made a note in a file before her. My file, and by the looks of it I had quite the record.

"Just an interview to see how we can best help you Miss D." She looked back up at me again; her brown eyes seemed dull and tired. Her gray hair was frizzing out of her tight bun and her lips were held in a tight line.

"I don't need help; there is nothing wrong with me." I narrowed my eyes at her and flashed some fang. She sat up straighter.

"So I see you have some body dysmorphic disorder." She scribbled into the file again.

"No I don't." I was confused.

"You had your teeth capped into fangs." She stated as if it were a fact. "And you had your eyes dyed."

"No if you checked my files you'd see that I was born with the fangs and eyes." I don't like her.

"Of course you were Miss D." She totally ignored me and set her pencil down. She had a wicked grin on her face and leaned back into her chair. "I also see here that you think you're a super hero. You've been seen running around in a suit and terrorizing people."

"I think if I were terrorizing people I wouldn't be a superhero." I was getting angry.

"Then there was a claim that you lifted a car and threw it at someone." She pulled a syringe from her jacket and my eyes grew wide. I hated needles.

"What are you doing?" I quickly stood up and looked around the room hoping for a camera to stop her.

"Guards please come in here the patient is becoming aggressive." She pushed a button on her desk and suddenly four guards were in the room and forcing me onto the floor. I was about to flip them off me and do some awesome ass kicking moves but I felt a sharp pain in my thigh and the bitch pulled the empty syringe away. "Put her in isolation. Get a jacket on her and cuff her feet together."

"How long will she be in there for Doctor Williams?" One of the guards clicked some restraints onto my legs.

"Hmm I'll inform you all of that later." She just walked back to her desk and sat back down like nothing had happened. I couldn't move but I could still see and think. I was dragged off and strapped into a straight jacket that made it difficult to breathe. They carried me down a dark hallway to a maze of small padded rooms and threw me inside one of them. Then they left and the lights clicked off again just leaving a pale yellow glow from the sun outside.

"You know when they say isolation they really should make sure you're isolated." Joker's voice whispered in my ear but I couldn't move to see him. I could only make a whimpering noise in my throat. "Oh they gave you the good stuff, I'm jealous." He started undoing the jacket and I was able to take a deep breath again with a wheeze. "Yea they really don't make these things for the female form." He chuckled and a moment later the cuffs clicked off my ankles. He dragged me up against one of the padded walls and pulled my head so I could look into his red eyes.

"Now don't you worry your pretty little head. Papa J is here to take care of you." He snickered and sat down next to me. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled my head to his shoulder. "You married kid?" He grabbed my hands and looked for a ring. "Oh lucky me a single lady." He laughed then loud and shrill. "Congratulations baby you're now the proud owner of the title of Mrs. J." He leaned down and grinned at me, his yellow teeth shining in the light like a crescent moon. It kind of reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, how far down the rabbit hole had I fallen. Oh god don't go there D. Keep your sanity don't throw it away just yet. I blinked, hey I could blink again.

"Ah you're something else, that shit usually knocks them out for days and you're already up and blinking." He giggled and shook me, my head rolling around like a rag doll. "I knew there was a reason why I married you." He squeezed my shoulder tightly and lowered his voice to an almost demonic pitch. "But don't you worry my dear; we won't consummate the marriage until we're back out on the streets of Gotham. I do love a good explosion to get the loins all fired up." He smirked and leaned back against the wall. I wished that I could move again, I wanted to crawl to the furthest corner of the room and hide.