The song "White Liar" by Miranda Lambert is one of my favorite songs if not related to this story or this new chapter, but a line in it goes "Truth comes out a little at a time" which became the chapter title and conveys what goes on in here now.

Chapter Nine

Coming Out Little at a Time

6 years ago...

She awoke in the bedroom that had been her dead mother's, now hers. A month had passed since Maria was found murdered in this house. Iris did not have it in her to sell anything that was left to her. But a lot of Maria's old clothes and accessories she pawned off and gave to others who needed them. And today she would start her new job at Arkham Asylum, where she would have the best of luck with the mentally unstable. She had the utmost confidence they might confide in her more than any of their doctors given to them, not that she expected all of them to look up to her. Nothing was ever free from imperfection.

It was also the same place she learned where he was now.

She had not seen Professor Crane - Dr. Crane, now that he was at the insane asylum as one of its primary physicians - since he was fired and sent away from her, forbidden to ever come near Gotham University again, but that didn't mean he couldn't keep in touch with her. No one, not even Dr. Long, found out that he remained in contact with her via phone and letters, except Alice. Crane had been the one to recommend her to Arkham and even forwarded the application for her. He had saved her life and helped her. All she could think about was being near him, not for the sake of her career but for her happiness. She was a woman now, ready to make her own decisions, and she knew it.

She had donned a casual professional garb - a form-hugging teal turtleneck sweater paired with a polished black pencil skirt and heeled boots reaching her knees - and chose to go for a newer updo for work that took days to practice over the last month. Her jewelry was kept to a minimum with the diamond-and-pearl studs in her ears, Grandma Sylvia's ring around her middle finger...and finally her opal pendant from her beloved college professor. Not Dr. Johannes who had taken over last year, but the one who saved her life and opened her mind to new wonders. The one who was cast out like Lucifer was cast out - all for his strong love for God.

The entire drive to the Narrows did nothing to her nerves. She wasn't worried in the slightest; Dr. Iris DeLaine had long ago given up any worries.

Arkham was described as decrepit, but upon coming into the main lobby, it was worn away, but it was also clean and white. It just lacked proper care. There were visitors waiting to be received, some doctors in white lab coats coming around as well as nurses and orderlies in white. People were known to get stressed at Arkham, from what she was told, but who wasn't stressed out amongst staff at any hospital or big corporation in the world? Not that she ever would be; she was sure of it. She was prepared to face competition, but the Empress handled anyone who got in her path.

"Hello, I'm Iris DeLaine," she said to the pretty redhead woman at the receptionist's desk, who looked up from her computer and smiled most sweetly at her.

"Oh, Dr. DeLaine! I must say, you're younger-looking than I thought you'd be."

She ought to have expected it, but she was the youngest doctor in existence, right after Jonathan Crane, the man who recommended her, which the redhead did not expect. Iris gave her a pointed look which she did not seem to notice. "Well, there's a first time for everything," she said suavely. "Like one of your own already here who recommended me for the job?"

"Oh, yes. Dr. Crane." The girl, whose name was Barb according to the tag on her blouse collar, gave a twitching grin. "He's one of the youngest doctors here, and it seems you'll be topping him. I heard him talking to Dr. Leland and a few others about you, how you used to be his student before he left the university, and your credentials. He's very...fond of you, Doctor. Will it be nice to be working alongside him instead of under him now that you are no longer professor and student?"

Now it sounded like she was mocking Iris, which made her angry. But she bit her tongue and nodded without a word. "Indeed," she said after a moment of pause, and then another voice surprised her altogether.

"Well, Dr. DeLaine. You're early."

She spun around to her side and saw him standing there, along with another doctor, a young black woman of about his age and in a lavender blouse with a gray suit jacket and skirt, very lovely. Her ID clipped to her lab coat read "J. Leland, Ph.D.". And she was smiling, welcoming her, but it was the wonderful, powerful young man standing there that took Iris' breath away most of all. The face she wanted to see ever since before her arrival.

Iris' vivid sapphire eyes locked with icy blue glacier ones in return.

Behind silver rectangular glasses were those piercing eyes which she stared into, his black raven hair parted down the middle as she remembered and softly curled behind his head. He was dressed in a black suit with a charcoal gray tie and a light blue shirt matching his eyes. She had not seen him in over a year...and he was captivating as she remembered. Her eyes then fell to his ID badge: "J. Crane, Ph.D.".

Something else inside her wondered how he managed to get his position here at Arkham, but she never asked him, nor did it occur until now. Not that it mattered now. All that mattered was that she was by his side again and she was ready to make him proud again.

"Joan Leland, Doctor," the woman said, extending her hand which she took.

"Iris DeLaine. I'd love to skip formalities if you appreciate it."

The other woman laughed heartily. "Of course, Iris. It makes it that much more pleasant. Jonathan, should I leave you two alone to get to work now? Dr. Arkham requested a meeting with me and Mr. Garfield. His trial is coming up next week, and it's likely he will be joining us here."

Crane looked her way and smirked at one corner of his mouth. "Highly likely, indeed, Joan. I'm ready if the judge calls me in." He returned his attention to her. "Are you ready for your first case with me, Iris? Your first in court."

She loved a challenge when she faced the corrupt judge, but right now, she wanted to prepare for this Mr. Garfield's case and study him - as well as reconnect with this man in front of her. She'd missed him terribly.

"Iris." He breathed her name as soon as they were alone in his office, which hers was right next door to him. Their surroundings were modern and sleek, black and white with a vast collection of knowledge on the walls.

She threw her arms around him for a hug, burying her face into his shoulder. "I've missed you," she whispered back.

He pulled back to look her over once more. "You've grown," he noted. "You're even more beautiful than I remember you. You've become a...fine woman, Iris DeLaine."

"I came to where you got me," she told him with a grin. "I'm permanently finished with Dr. Long and GSU…and Maria." She'd figured he'd read the stories of Maria DeLaine's death in the papers, or perhaps GCC on the news. Either way, he must have gotten the word of it. He gave her a knowing look.

"You did exactly what I always knew you would. And I'm very proud of you." He brought his hand to her face, caressing her cheek. Warmth flooded through her face, from the warmth of his hand and her own. "And now here we are again…and we have much to do."

~o~

She was wearing a smooth black satin dress that stopped at her ankles when she approached the bed and saw the pale figure in the teal silk sheets. His back was smooth and would have been one hundred percent if not for the various patterns of scars over the surface of his pallid complexion. His smooth, firm backside was covered with the sheets that irritated her because he was unclothed underneath, but she wanted to see him. However, to go straight for it was never wise, so as she approached the bed, she began to formulate a plan to get him riled up.

She climbed onto the bed, on her knees, and reached for him, turning him over gently, one hand on his shoulder and the other on his arm, but as soon as he lay on his back and looked up at her, smiling...the face was not the one she was looking to see. This face she did not recognize at all.

He was an older man, on his body. The face wasn't bad-looking, but it chilled her to the bone. The eyes were a venomous shade, like her late mother's. His hair was dark, like Jonathan's, but in a fringe over one eye and thin to the scalp. And his smile was cruel and sardonic - his voice was very unpleasant to the senses, soft and lethal.

"You really think he'll have you so easily after I had my good times with him?"

~o~

She jumped up in bed, crying out in horror at the same time Into the Light was playing. Never mind her bare breasts exposed, she was screaming internally as she did before. This was it; enough was enough.

The man in her dream, his face on Jonathan's body...could this be the man Jonathan dreamed about?

And then her memory bolted when she recalled what Jonathan had told her, all those years ago, after Mina Rosenberg and her pack assaulted her and he held her by the fire...about his former college professor who was said to have retired not long before he took his place:

"My friend, and housemate, tried to protect me from him, but it ended in vain. You do not want to know the details - not even a brilliant young mind like yours can even comprehend what I endured at his hands."

Iris doubled over in the bathroom, releasing the contents into the toilet as her mind swam in a whirlpool of colors, the swirls blinding her senses, and she collapsed before the receptacle on her knees, the ground cold beneath her skin as everything her mind had absorbed and tried to control overtook all reason and ignored how Jonathan might feel because something had to be done if she wanted to help him rid of his demons once and for all.

After going through her bath routine and a rush to the closet - both times without grabbing her robe - she dressed herself up in a blue satin blouse that accentuated her torso and bust in a V-neckline with the black pencil skirt, and black pumps. This time she let her hair run wild and free and paired her pendant and ring this time with a pair of Titanic-inspired sapphire earrings; these were the only sapphire studs she owned. She bolted out of the room with her purse in hand, ready to get this over with now.

~o~

14 years ago...

"Edward, where were you?"

Jon was at his desk studying, textbook open, when he came back. His mind was in too much turmoil because he had to be forced to tell his friend this; he was supposed to keep him safe, but now he would be forced to stand by for the next four or five years and let Jon become prey to that monster who knew the truth about Edward's father's demise.

Another dirty secret he never told Jon and had no idea how to now.

"Ed?" Jonathan repeated when he watched the other man sit down on the foot of his bed numbly, staring at the floor. He heard his heartbeat pick up its pace. "Damn it, would you answer me?!"

Edward's head jerked up. "Jon, don't yell at me. Tonight wasn't good as it was, and you won't like it when I tell you that I was at Dr. Warner's house."

Blue eyes widened behind the glasses, and the lips parted a little in a soft gape. "Edward..." Jon said slowly after a lengthy pause. His voice was low, demanding, and suspicious. "...what were you doing over there?"

"I was looking for proof behind his eyes on you, but I wasn't careful no matter how much I wanted to be," he answered bitterly. "Now we both paid for it. He has leverage on me so I can give him what he wants - and we both know WHO that is."

"Me." Jon's voice was soft, barely audible...and helpless. Despaired. Because his own future as well as Edward's was at stake.

"That's not all." Edward swallowed. "I never told you this...about my father..."

~o~

Today

"Jon, this has gone on long enough."

"And for the last time, Edward," he snapped, "I don't know how or when. Now's not the time because we're not you and Joan where you can slip off and bang in every room you can think of. And don't presume to think you can force me to tell her who is in -"

"You never FORGOT what happened in college!" Edward shouted as he stood up from his side of the cell and over Jonathan who remained laying on his side, facing the wall and refusing to look at him. "That man would have ruined our lives, and not a day goes by that I don't hate myself for letting him get away with what! It's the Bat I hate most of all for putting us both in here, but it was Warner who started it all for the both of us!"

Jonathan finally turned around and lay on his back, looking up at him furiously. "Drop it, Edward," he warned, his temper snapping when his friend would not let it slip.

"Jonathan Crane, you got to stop denying you love Iris, and you GOT to tell her about Warner! Because the longer you keep this to yourself and between us only -"

"That will be my turn to have now, Edward. I'll take it from here."

"Iris!" Jonathan sat up and looked at the doorway, horrified. She looked stunning in blue and black, but her face was another matter. She was firm and emotionless, not letting this slip past her as Edward had not. But Ed had done enough already; it was her turn. Jonathan himself felt defeated. His darkest secrets of all were coming to the surface because she pieced it together...and now he knew Edward had played a part in slipping to her that Jonathan might be in love with her.

He wanted to say yes, but his best friend had no right to get in the middle of all of this. This was between him and her alone! But it was too late to turn back now. His fate was about to be sealed. "Come on, Jonathan," Iris said softly, helping him stand. Her heels clicked softly as she led him, unescorted by orderlies, down the hallways until they reached her office where it would just be the two of them. "I think it's time now. But this has nothing to do with Eddie..."

His head snapped up, and he glared at her. "Iris, it has everything to do with Eddie!" he rapped, pulling his hand from her soft grip, stalking over to the chair in front of her desk, and plopping down in it like a child. "He interfered long enough!"

"And for good reason!" she returned, standing in front of him. "You're not making this any easier on either of us! Why don't you start by telling me who the man in your dream is, because last night I saw his face myself with the both of us involved!"

Jonathan stopped himself and stared at her in shock, shifting as far as he could go. She - Iris had a dream? How did she even know it was Warner? "Did he say who he was?" he asked carefully. She shook her head, raven curls swishing side to side and her hands on her hips.

"Well, not exactly, but here's what he said loud and clear that gave me enough of what I know: 'You really think he'll have you so easily after I had my good times with him?' He certainly implied what I thought he did. You never once told me about your old professor. Dr. Victor Warner. I WILL say his name for the sake of it. Now, tell me about him, Jonathan." Her eyes were hard and her jaw clenched, bearing down on him intently. Burning into his very soul. Jonathan lowered his eyes.

"When Edward and I were roommates in college, we had three classes together, as he told you: psych, chemistry, and pathology. It wasn't easy in the beginning for either of us until we revealed each other's scars. I don't remember any time having someone like him in my life..."

She interrupted him softly. "Jonathan, I know that, but what about Warner?"

He sighed; he knew she was going to ask him to cut right to the point. "Before I learned I would be in his class, and before I learned I would share it with Edward Nygma of all people, I admired Dr. Victor Warner, a renowned doctor of psychology who had a teaching position at Gotham State University...but I ended up in that much deeper and didn't know until it was too late. I let myself be caught in a web of gluttony and sin. And there was nothing Edward and I could do about it." He lowered his head as the memories came back with full force that he voiced to her in the process: those looks Warner gave him, the few times he brazenly tried to kiss him and touch him, Edward trying to be the hero and break into his house only to get blackmailed, their futures in jeopardy if they thought they could beat the old man...

"For the next four, almost five years, I had no choice but to..." He couldn't finish it, so she did.

"He made you share his bed."

The force of his shame returned that he fell out of the chair, wracked with trying to keep the cries in. He hadn't cried since he was a child, and he wouldn't now. But he could not stop the words from pouring from his mouth. He wasn't even sure if he was aware of what he was saying anymore.

"I'm sorry, Iris! I'm so sorry; please, forgive me! I had no choice, and I needed what I came so far for! I had enough abuse to last a lifetime, and I wanted to live when others tried to deprive me of it! I had nothing and no one if I lost everything! All those nights for over four years in bed with that monster, humiliated and facedown, on my knees - I can go on! But I don't WANT to remember! I want to forget so much, but I CAN'T! I still dream about him sometimes, how I think he's right that I am a monster and threw it all away, but he's wrong! I hate him as much as I hate my grandmother, my mother who abandoned me, the other children at school, and Batman! Here I am in this place, reliving everything and rotting away...!"

Hands grasped his face and forced him to look into pale sapphire eyes cold and determined, fiery and crystalline at the same time. "Jonathan...listen to me. You do not disgust me, do you hear? You can't let him win; he is not here anymore. Understand? I'm here to help you put all of that behind you, take you away from this place, and help you regain all you lost. Those people before him are dead and rotting in the ground, and Batman is no better than anyone in this place or even at Blackgate. You're stronger than you were told, and you know it. You taught me that a long time ago, Professor," she said passionately and heatedly. "And that is why I love you more than anything else. I love you, I'm not afraid to say it, and I know you do love me, too."

Whoo! (wipes forehead and tears from eyes) Jonathan pouring everything out into the open did a number on me. In "The Boundaries of Friendship", the actual sex scene between him and Dr. Bramowitz was in detail, slashy, and intriguing at the same time. It even shows WHAT Scarecrow did in revenge in the end. ;D Bramowitz got what he deserved. That whole scene and chapter of Jonathan telling Bruce his story in Arkham was the foundation from the beginning that made me turn it into Jonathan and Vytina's Iris. I convinced her to take a look at it for herself, and she told me she hadn't been on Livejournal in a while, but it pleased her to know it. :)

Anyhoo, brave little Iris told Jonny boy her feelings. Let's see his response in the next chapter.

A little later we will see what Jonathan did to Dr. Warner to get his revenge in the end. Scarecrow comes out then, too. ;D

I could have probably done the whole danger with Dr. Warner from the start at the beginning of the senior year for the boys, but the start of freshman year like in "Boundaries of Friendship" (that was the start of the second semester of freshman year for both Bruce and Jonathan), but a few months into the first year seemed more logical if anyone agrees. I don't see anytime in sophomore or junior year, and no idea how it'd have been possible to happen then.