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42. Tomorrow

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My alarm clock screeched through my final phase of REM sleep. My eyes groggily opened. I could feel the haze of exhaustion that clouded my brain. After all of my deliberating the day before, I had neglected to realize just how exhausted I really was. If only Bruce had been there to remind me! As I slowly rolled out of bed, I smiled at the thought of Bruce. It felt like I hadn't seen him in so long. I wondered if I should tell him about the Joker possibly ending back up on my caseload after all—at my request. I thought maybe I should tell him, but leave that last bit out. He wouldn't be terribly pleased with my decision, but I knew at the same time he couldn't stop me from doing what I wanted in regards to the Joker—he knew how I felt for him and that there was no way he could stop my love this crazed clown.

On my way inside the asylum, my heart began pounding. I wondered if Dr. Gerard would be in today and if he had gotten my message. I hurriedly swiped my badge hastily made my way up to my office. I unlocked and swung the door open with a vengeance. I was committed to the hope I would log into my email and find an unread message from Dr. Gerard regarding my new patient, the Joker.

I sat down in my chair and quickly booted up my computer. I had forgotten just how slowly it loads. I sat there and tapped my pencil. Maybe I should go and check on the Joker—just to make sure his room was still there up on the sixth floor, patient 4479 with his name listed as "unknown". I smiled at the thought. I knew his real name. I giggled aloud in my seat.

"Jack Napier," I said aloud finally, twisting in my swivel chair, still waiting for the computer to load. Just as I picked up my pen to begin tapping, the screen loaded and I quickly reached for the mouse and clicked on the Arkham Asylum logo. The system loaded and I typed in my password. I had four new emails. My heart raced at the announcement, but it stopped suddenly as I saw that none were from Dr. Gerard. My heart rose into my throat then plummeted into the fiery depths of my pitted stomach. I could feel the acid devouring it slowly. Maybe it was just acid reflux, but something didn't feel normal to me.

Quickly, without thinking twice, I ran from my office. I flew to the stairwell doors, slid my card and ran up the two flights of stairs to the sixth floor. I checked my watch. I still had time—Dr. Princeton wouldn't be meeting with the Joker for another twenty minutes. I knew he was first on Dr. Princeton's list, which meant first session of the day. If I beat him up there, I could get the Joker out of his room and begin my own session with him—I had to try and do something.

I ran down the hall and turned the corner. I saw the Joker's room. It was clear—a line drive in front of me. I slowed to a brisk walk, trying to catch my breath in an attempt at not showing my hasty desperation at getting to him.

I stopped just outside his door. The lettering on the ID tag next to the door caught my eyes. "Unknown. 4479. Dr. Princeton" I paused for a moment and imaged my name scrawled onto the ID in place of Dr. Princeton's. A small grin crossed my face. I raised my hand up to the door, ready to swipe my badge into the security setting.

"Good morning, Giada," Dr. Princeton said from behind me. I lowered my hand casually, as though I thought nothing of the situation.

"Good morning, Dr. Princeton," I greeted with a friendly smile. He looked irritated and somewhat amused by his finding.

"What are you doing, Miss DiMarco? You do realize that this is against asylum policy—you intruding on my patient like this," Dr. Princeton remarked as a small grin crossed his face. Luckily, the Joker taught me to think quickly on my feet. I hoped he could hear our conversation.

"I don't know what you mean, doctor," I said as professionally as possible, "but I was operating under the information that patient 4479 was on my caseload,"

Dr. Princeton shifted his stance and glared back at the door before us. He then glanced back at me, "I suppose Dr. Gerard failed to inform you he has been switched to my caseload,"

"Well that must be the case, since Dr. Gerard has been absent. Make no mistake, doctor, I have every intention of working with the Jo…Mr…patient 4479 on my caseload, as was planned. I suppose it would be fair for me to allow you to begin therapy with…patient 4479, but when Dr. Gerard returns, I think we need to have a discussion about this, seeing as I never formally rejected this patient from my caseload and Dr. Gerard told me I had until today to make a final decision,"

"You plan on allowing me to assume therapy with this patient?" Dr. Princeton looked insulted. I guess I hadn't chosen my words wisely. If I were him, I would feel just as insulted with that wording.

"My apologies, Dr. Princeton. That was rude of me. I didn't mean for it to come out that way—I know you're a world renowned psychiatrist and truly have every right to want to continue therapy with patient 4479, but I do urge you to consider the legalities of the matter—that patient 4479 was assigned to me…originally—and with all do respect, sir, by having you begin therapy with the patient could ultimately taint my own therapy sessions and the plans I have for the direction for each session,"

"This is an outrage! You're not even a doctor, Miss DiMarco! Why a patient like him would be assigned to you instantly is beyond me! I…I will have words with Dr. Gerard, indefinitely" he sneered.

"What's this? What's going on here?" Dr. Gerard's voice eased my worried mind. I felt my tense body relax immediately.

"Miss DiMarco here was trying to rob me of my patient here and then told me that she would allow me to resume therapy despite the fact he's her patient! This is an outrage, and utter outrage!" Dr. Princeton spat quickly.

"Please, Dr. Princeton, come to my office—I understand the matter of the situation at hand and I think we need to have a conversation. Giada, I understand you have a session with Dr. Crane soon—I think it's best you attend to your current caseload for today. We'll discuss this situation on Monday when I have had time to sort this all out," Dr. Gerard explained to me in calm voice. I nodded my head.

"Thank you, Dr. Gerard," I said and quickly turned and left. How was I ever going to wait until Monday?!

When I was sitting back in my office, I finally breathed a small sigh of relief. That certainly didn't go over as I had planned. At least Dr. Gerard was here, though. Hopefully he was talking to that bitch Dr. Princeton about how he's a pompous asshole and that he needs lay low for a while. I shook my head when I looked at the clock. This was going to be a horrifically long day. I had to put my game face on. I was twenty seven years old—not some petulant child. Acting like one wasn't going to get me anywhere or anything I wanted. If was going to get the things I wanted, I didn't need to act like a child—I needed to act like a criminal—or a psychiatric nurse practitioner; whichever I could get a handle on better.

As I sat and listened to Dr. Crane and my other two patients before lunch, I really started believing I was going to need to be what the Joker was: an agent of chaos. But the one question that plagued my every thought still remained—was he still under Pixie's memory spell? Was that something that could ever be reversed? My heart sank at the thought.

I remained in my office during lunch, sick with anxiety and unable to eat. It was then that I decided to do something else. I called Bruce.

"Giada? What's up? Aren't you at the asylum?" Bruce asked when he picked up.

"Yes—lunch break," I chuckled, "how are you, buddy?"

"I'm just fine—just got out of a meeting, actually," he laughed back with me, "well this was an unexpected surprise,"

His voice brought chills down my anxiety-ridden spine. It was always a beautiful thing to hear Bruce's voice of calm and clear wisdom.

"Yeah, I wanted to hear your voice—I was thinking about you last night and it felt like a while since we'd talked," I spoke finally. There was silence on his end of the phone. I hoped I hadn't offended him or given him the wrong idea.

"I'm glad you called, Giada," he said finally, "I've missed you as well, even though it's only been a few days," he chuckled. I think he knew the real reason I called, aside from the immediate truth, which was that I needed to hear this voice and that I missed him—but that I was stressing out hardcore about the Joker being on my caseload. I couldn't break that news to him yet. He'd probably want to put me through a wall, but I knew he wouldn't.

"Oh Giada, I don't mean to cut you short, but it looks as though I've got another meeting to run to. I'll call you tonight—we can have dinner at my place," he offered.

"Sure thing," I responded with a smile.

"Bye,"

"Ciao bello," I hung up the phone. I sat back in my chair. How the hell was I ever going to get through the rest of the day? How was I going to get through the weekend? I really hoped Bruce and I could have dinner and talk about fun things and watch movies and just forget about work.

That was exactly what we did. Bruce had me over at 6:30. We ate a fantastic dinner and watched Star Wars. It made us both excited to see the action packed lives of other people who weren't us. We joked around a bit about him being somewhat of a super hero and all of the "villains" he had here in Gotham. He promised that we would get together on Saturday and Sunday. I think he could tell I was still stressing underneath my calmer façade on the outside.

"I can tell something is bothering you, Giada, but you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he said finally on Sunday.

"I didn't want to tell you Bruce, but I'm finding it increasingly harder to hide things from you," I released finally.

"Try me," he spoke with a smile.

"As you know, the Joker is in the asylum and he was originally on my caseload but I told Dr. Gerard to change that because there is no way I can handle something like that. Well, on Wednesday, I kind of snapped a bit and went and found the Joker's room and saw that Dr. Princeton was placed on his case. Now, I had until Friday to make my decision final, so I emailed Dr. Gerard and told him I wanted the Joker back onto my caseload—I don't know why—I think I'm going crazy. Anyway, Dr. Gerard wasn't in on Thursday and on Friday, I did something even more idiotic—I went to the Joker's room and went to swipe my card to get in and begin a therapy sessions and Dr. Princeton caught me! In any event, it didn't end well—the conversation—and Dr. Gerard caught us fighting and now he's going to give me his final answer on Monday as to whether I can have the Joker on my caseload or not," I explained in full, nearly breathless by the end.

Bruce didn't look pleased, to say the least. But he breathed in a long breath and released it.

"I can't tell you how to do your job, Giada. I trust you and I trust your judgment—no matter how skewed it may seem to me at times," he said finally with a grin. I smiled back at him.

"Thanks Bruce. You're a real friend," I stated, finally feeling some of my stress lifted. I kissed him on the cheek good-bye and he left. Monday was less than 10 hours away.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

There was a knock at my door. Dr. Gerard. My heart stopped, "hey Bruce, I'm sorry to cut this short, but my superior is here—we're having a small meeting. I'll call you when I get home tonight,"

"Come in!" I called to the door—my favorite inanimate object friend.

"Hi Giada, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything," he said, looking around the room as though he expected someone to be in here with me.

"No, I just was getting off the phone with a friend of mine," I said as I took a sip of water from my water bottle.

"Oh, okay, good," he said as he took a seat across from me. This situation reminded me a lot of Monday when I had discovered the manila folder's dark secret.

"So what's the verdict?" I asked as calmly as possible and tried to remain cool and professional.

"Well, I spoke to Dr. Princeton, and mind you, he was not happy—I'm not entirely happy either with the situation; Giada, you knew patient 4479 was Dr. Princeton's for the time being,"

"No, actually I didn't know until I went up there to check things out and saw his name on the ID tag—you told me had until today to make my decision and I had made my decision yesterday," I responded back.

"Regardless, Dr. Princeton was truly upset by your actions…and words. It was difficult calming him down, but I managed. It was even harder getting him to give up the patient to you even though he was originally yours," Dr. Gerard paused as though he were waiting for my consent to go on. I nodded my head for him to advance.

"I've come to an indefinite conclusion for the matter," he spoke firmly. My heart began to tremble. This was just what I feared—he would either keep the Joker with Princeton or take him onto his own caseload to avoid a colleague feud.

"What is that conclusion?" I asked trying to remain calm.

"As a compromise to keep Dr. Princeton happy…and you happy as well, I've decided to give you both patient 4479—you will be working under Dr. Princeton with this patient. He will meet with him for therapy sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and you will meet with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You will follow his physicians orders but you will also be able to discuss with him treatment plans and medication while also having your own therapy sessions free of Dr. Princeton—those are the Tuesday/Thursday sessions I just mentioned. I'm sorry I couldn't remove him entirely from Dr. Princeton's caseload, but he did make a good point—you are still fairly new here and this patient is quite a handful. He said he will have no problem with you working with him on this case. I hope this pleases you somewhat,"

I nodded my head and forced a smile.

"Well since today is Monday, it looks like therapy begins for you tomorrow," he said finally, standing from the chair. I nodded my head again.

"Yes, it does," I spoke.

"Good luck. If you need anything, you know where my office is. I'm terrible with email," he added on with a smile as he left the door.

I sat back in my chair. It was official. The Joker was mine. Well, half mine. Therapy started tomorrow. Tomorrow I would see the Joker and speak with him for the first time in two years.