Bruce sat in his office after Sidi left, contemplating what she had just told him. Adriana's silence about her health struggle..night sweats, nightmares, extremely high fevers. She had kept it all from him and he now knew that it was time for her to finally part with her gift.
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"Since we won't be proceeding with the laser treatment any further, instead of using the enzyme cream to dissolve the scar tissue, you can just use vaseline," the doctor told the Joker. "I assume your scarring won't be reduced by any more than 15 to 20%. You will essentially look the same. Apply the vaseline with clean hands as often as necessary."
"Gotcha," the Joker said the doctor.
"Any questions?" The doctor asked.
"Sure," the Joker said.
"Ask away."
"I need scissors," the Joker said and held out a long lock of his hair which is long enough to extend down to his fingertips. The hair was beginning to irritate him to no end. He could feel dreadlocks that had formed in the back.
"Of course," Doctor Kapoor replied. "You can return to your room for a break for lunch for about an hour before we begin physical therapy. I will let Adriana know to bring you some scissors."
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"What is it?" The Joker asked Adriana as she placed a plate of food in front of him.
"You've never had stroganoff?" she asked him.
"No," he said and took a bite.
She watched him try it.
"Not bad," he said as he began to eat rapidly.
"Scissors, as requested," Adriana said and set a pair of hair scissors beside his plate.
He nodded and continued eating.
"You know," she said. "When you get out of here, if you want to try to live a normal life somewhere in the world where no one can recognize you and you want to live amongst people in society.. "
He raised both eyebrows and looked up at her.
"It might be a bit easier to adapt if you learn how to use a few words," she said to him. "The words are please and thank you. "
"Thank you," he said in a monotone voice and glanced at the scissors.
"You're welcome," she said to him.
At that moment her phone rang in her pocket and she pulled it out. Bruce. She turned away from the Joker and walked out of the room and into the hallway before putting the phone up to her ear.
"Bruce," she said that she picked up the phone
"Hello my love," Bruce said to her.
"How is everything?" She asked him.
"Good," he said to her with a strange pause.
"Sweetheart?" she said into the silence.
"Adriana, I'm sorry but I have to work late tonight. I know I said that I would only be working a half-day as it turns out.. I'm going to have to go to a work dinner and I don't know how long it will go. "
"Well," Adriana said with a bit of relief. "At least it's not another business trip. I can wait up a few hours. "
"No", Bruce insisted. "Don't wait up. I'll probably be back after midnight. "
"Oh.. Okay then. I love you. "
"I love you too and I'll see you first thing in the morning," he said.
"All right," she said. "Goodbye sweetheart. Enjoy the rest of your day. "
When Adriana returned to the room she saw the Joker standing in front of the mirror pulling a piece of peeling skin off of his face.
"Stop that!" she said to him. "What are you doing? "
"What else am I supposed to do?" He asked. "The skin is just hanging there. My skin is peeling off. "
"Didn't the doctor give you instructions? Since we won't be proceeding with any more laser treatments and you want to keep the scars you have to apply Vaseline to the skin. Not peel it off when it starts to peel. Look at that! "
She pointed to an area where the skin looked even more raw.
"When you tear off the skin that is lifting up your also tearing off some of the healthy skin underneath. You want your face to get infected? This peeling is going to happen if we don't use the enzyme cream to dissolve the scars. The first laser treatment really did a number on your skin in the only thing we can do now is to try to soothe it. The peeling should stop in a couple weeks. If you see skin lifting up just apply Vaseline to the area and let it fall off naturally because if you keep pulling it off you're going to make the skin raw. Understand? "
"Yeah," he replied and reached over to grab the scissors. He began haphazardly chopping his hair.
"Let me do that," she said and pulled the scissors away from him. "Sit down."
He walked over to the chair in front of the small table where his empty plate with sitting and set down.
"You want it this long?" She asked and held one of the pieces he had just cut which fell below his shoulder.
"No," he answered. "Same as before. "
"I can do that," she said and begin cutting his hair to a bit shorter than jaw length.
The room became quiet aside from the sound of the scissors against his hair. He looked down at the floor seeing the locks of hair falling as she proceeded cutting.
"So," he said, barely louder than the then the crisp sounds of the scissors slicing at his hair. "What's that stain on your shirt? "
"Huh?" She said and looked down and noticed what he was talking about. She pinched her shoulder fabric with two fingers and pulled it over to her nose. It's smelled like peaches, baby food. "Nothing, just food," she finally answered.
"You must have become an extremely messy eater," he said observantly.
"Guess so," she replied. Standing behind him cutting the top section of his hair, she could hear his thoughts. He was suspicious of her. He had a feeling that she was hiding something but he had no clue what it was. He could always tell when people were lying.
When she was done cutting his hair she put the scissors down and brushed some of the cut hairs off of his shirt.
"All done," she said. He brushed a few more of the hairs off of the front of his shirt.
"Thank you," he said practicing her advice.
"You don't want to take a look to make sure it's okay?"
"It's fine", he said touching his hair to feel the length, then then he touched his face again feeling another small area of skin lifting up.
Without thinking he began to pull the skin off and she quickly swung at his forearm slapping it.
At that exact moment the doctor came into the room, witnessing her slapping his arm. The slight shock on his face was obvious.
"Is everything all right?" The doctor asked them.
"Just fine doc," the Joker replied. And to the doctor, the Joker did not even seem to notice that she had hit him. He was behaving as if it was completely normal which was confusing to the doctor. But of course, the doctor had no clue about their past.
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She could see it in his thoughts. He thought that she was going to give up. But she wouldn't. She felt her feet pounding the pavement as she ran behind him. She had been chasing the man for over 11 blocks and he was sure that she would begin to fall behind or figure that it wasn't worth it. He had been a track runner in high school and college before he dropped out, somehow she was keeping up. He could hear Shade right behind him.
She knew that she would be in pain the next day as they ran for several blocks. But it didn't matter, she was determined. He was beginning to become afraid to look back because it seemed like she was getting closer and closer each time. He glanced over his shoulder but it was too late. She was right behind him and was tackling him as he turned his head. Once he was down on the ground he began to try to roll over onto his back but she had him pinned.
" Come on!" he grunted as he filled his lungs compress on to the ground as her knee pressed into his back. "It's just 200 bucks!"
"I don't care how much it is," she hissed into his ear. "Robbing mom and pop shops is wrong. They need this money. You don't need cocaine. "
"What? How the hell would you know what I'm going to do with it? "
"On your feet," she said that she twisted one arm behind his back. "Would you look at that? "
He was out of breath as she pulled him to his feet but then he saw what she was looking at. Two cops I just walked out of a diner across the street from them.
"I guess this is your ride," she said.
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Adriana wrapped a towel around her head as she walked over to the bed and sat down. She had another towel wrapped around her body and she was too exhausted to put on a night gown. She turned onto her side and laid down on the pillow. She would get up in a few minutes to put on sleepwear. Or so she thought. She drifted off into a deep sleep, she thought of Bruce. He was working late and she missed him.
She fell asleep so quickly it almost felt like her dream engulfed her. Engulfed in flames. She couldn't breathe. The dream was so vivid she knew that she was dreaming but it felt so real. The sound of the explosion it was deafening. Flames filled her lungs burning her from the inside out. She could no longer take a breath, her lungs had been scorched. Not being able to breathe, suffocating, all the while feeling her flesh in flames. A hellish Inferno. Try to get a grip on reality. This was just another dream... she had had this dream countless times already. All she needed to do now was wake up. Wake herself up. Wake up, wake up, wake up.
She felt herself raising up from the bed as she took the greatest inhale of air that she was desperate for. She holds her chest as she leaned forward and she took several more big breaths. The sound of her breathing was the loudest thing that she could hear. Her hands and arms were totally red with fever.
Slowly she looked up and saw Bruce sitting in a chair across the room from her.
She was still heaving and trying to get air as she looked him in the eyes. And then she saw it all. His visit from Sidi that afternoon. But then she saw more. It was strange seeing him at this hour of night still fully dressed in his business suit. His tie was still very tight when his neck. He looked disturbed. Shocked. He had been sitting there for over half of an hour watching her sweating and barely breathing. He contemplated with himself several times, about whether he should should run and get the doctor or try to wake her. But he tried to be strong and patient and waited for her to wake up. It was the longest half hour of his life. Traumatizing. Watching her writhe in pain.
Quickly he stood up and pulled the bottle of water out of the bucket of ice that he had on the table beside him and walked over to her. He unscrewed the lid and put the bottle to her lips.
"She told you," Adriana said.
"She is a good friend," Bruce said. "And she says that she can't take care of this this weekend. "
"Bruce I... "
"No," Bruce said , and she heard his voice breaking for the first time ever. "This can't go on. "
Her will to argue back dissolved as she heard the pain in his voice and saw how disheveled she looked, and how red and inflamed the skin all over her body was. She could see it through his eyes.
"Okay," she said."Okay..."
"You've been Shade without your gift before and you did it successfully. You are capable. You don't need this gift and I refuse to lose you to it. "
"Okay," she repeated. She felt like she was just finally getting used to calling her gift... A gift. Her entire life that always been a curse, or a power.
"Saturday morning," he said.
"Okay," she said the word again not knowing what else to say. Two more days and her gift would be gone.
" We can talk about the rest tomorrow," Bruce said.
" The rest..."
" The fact that you've had your gift back for months and haven't told me. The fact that you knew all along that these fevers were because of your gift and visions you were having.. and you didn't tell me."
"Right..."
"Tomorrow though," he said and touched her hair gently."All the rest can wait. Now you need rehydration."