Disclaimers apply as usual

enjoy and please review :)

Nessa

Chapter 4

The next day Harley woke up feeling even more exhausted than she had when she went to sleep. The same nightmare was swirling around her head as the night before, the image of the joker branded onto the inside of her brain. His blue eyes were there constantly whenever she closed her own, she just couldn't escape him.

She got up and made herself a cup of coffee, deciding that her day could not start until she had her caffeine fix, whilst she was drinking her steaming cup of energy she flipped on the television and absently watched the news. Politicians were arguing as usual and batman was fighting some crime somewhere, she was really starting to hate that guy for turning her patient the way he was, if she only she knew how.

Once she was certain she was awake enough to function she carried on her morning routine, brushing her teeth and showering in a blur. When she looked at herself in the mirror she decided she wanted to make more of an effort than normal, she knew it was because of a certain green haired patient but she pushed that thought from her mind. Her makeup took her much longer than usual, perfect winged eyeliner and carefully lined pink lips took a while to achieve. Then she blew out her hair and tied it up into bun, a braid wrapping itself around the hairband to hide it. She pulled two pieces of hair out to frame her face and smiled at her reflection. Her blue eyes sparkled with the extra definition and her face looked slimmer, sexier. Her lips were plum and shiny from the lipstick. Her blond hair looked professional and yet pretty at the same time. She found her favourite pencil skirt and a baby pink shirt to match her lipstick, once again smiling at herself in the mirror when she was finally finished with her look.

She slipped on her comfortable heels, grabbed her bag from the kitchen table and headed into work, walking with a new resolve. The buildings all looked beautiful again, vines twisting up some of the building edges and the rooftops sparkling with the morning sun. They all stood high to attention and demanded to be adored by those around them, intricate designed painted onto doors every now and then. The people of Gotham really were very artistic.

She smiled at the iron gates of Arkham Asylum, admiring the cursive script written above them and looked down the drive to the doors. The building looked beautiful in the morning sun, the blackness of the walls acting as a silhouette against the sunrise. Harley finally understood why everyone loved the asylum so much: it really was beautiful.

She beamed at the guards as she touched her thumb to the sensor and nodded happily in the direction of every patient and worker alike as she made her way to her office. Once she arrived she swiped her ID card and turned on the light, freezing in her spot, the good mood she was in suddenly vanishing.

Sitting on her desk was a bunch of flowers in a red vase that she knew wasn't there yesterday. This would have been a pleasant surprise had all the flowers not been dead and wilted. She walked slowly over to them and tore the note from where it was stuck on the vase.

Sorry I couldn't get you anything nicer, pretty things die in here.

-J

Harley's blood ran cold, how had he managed to send her flowers from his cell, how had he managed to contact anyone to get them to the asylum, and into her office without her key card or a master card? How had he managed to do any of this without being caught? What did he mean by the card? Was it a threat? She decided this would be something they discussed in their session later on.

She glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost time for Mary's session and Harley went about getting everything set up, throwing the flowers very aggressively into the bin by her desk. She got her normal glass of water for Mary and the fan going to keep the room cool so she felt comfortable. Harley turned on the stereo and let a soft piano album play in the background so that the office felt calm and neutral, which would help Mary relax enough to tell her everything she needed to know. She smiled when Mary entered and ushered her over to the couch, explaining what they were going to be doing in their session and then getting straight into it.

…

Two hours later, Harley was typing up her notes from Mary's and Lilah's sessions, going over the information she gathered and feeling optimistic with the results of the sessions. Her foot brushed her bin absently and she felt the crispy edges of the dead plant. She sighed and looked down, wondering again what the joker's intentions were with his 'gift'.

She heard a rumble from her stomach, reminding her it was lunchtime and she got up from her chair, stretching. She made her way down to the canteen to pick her lunch, with the intention of heading back to her office to eat as she worked on her questions for her session with the joker later. She was glad that she only had three other patients, it meant that she could spend more time focusing on him, he really was fascinating.

She smile at her colleagues and made small talk with them as she waited for her turn to order, getting her soup and then heading back up to her office to eat. She robotically ate as she read through the jokers file for what felt like the 60th time and composed a list of questions to ask him later, hoping he would be willing to divulge her.

One o'clock came round and she made her way to the meeting room to see Liam, her third patient. He was very attractive in a boy next-door kind of way, he reminded her of Bruce a lot. Today she was planning on making him retell her the events of the shooting backwards, to see whether she could pinpoint the moment when he snapped and killed the other thirty-eight people he allegedly had not intended to kill. He had told Harley he had only wanted to kill the boy who had bullied him for four years and had only planned his death, but after killing him something inside him wanted to do it again and again. He told her he felt more alive when taking another person's life than he had ever felt whilst playing sport or competing. She always felt somewhat uneasy around him, like she was worried he would get the itch to kill again. Liam was, however, always handcuffed and bound to his chair so he was never a threat, he just made her feel a little queasy when he talked about his enjoyment for killing.

Once their session had come to and end, Harley decided to take a small break before writing up her notes from Liam's session and take a walk through the courtyard. Sometimes when the weather was nice Harley would take her patients outside to enjoy the sun and do their sessions out there. It was coming towards autumn now and the wind had a bite to it that made sitting out there for long periods of time unbearable. But today Harley felt as if the cold air could do her a world of good, she could clear her mind a little.

She sat crossed-legged at one of the picnic tables and watched as a bluebird nibbled at the dropped bread someone had left behind, warning off any other animal that dared to come near. It didn't look like an aggressive bird, in fact it looked to beautiful to hurt anything, but as a squirrel came near to its lunch it spread it's wings and squawked in warning at the creature, causing it to scurry away. The bluebird reminded her of the joker, beautifully dangerous.

She checked her watch and saw that it was two thirty and felt the familiar butterflies in her stomach, it wouldn't be long and she'd be laying her eyes on the pale face of her clown.

…

Harley looked into his eyes and saw nothing of the passion she had yesterday as he talked about the bat, she saw nothing in his eyes at all. It was as if the light had been switched off and someone had forgotten to pay the electric bill. He was unresponsive to most of her probing; only giving one-word answers here and there.

"Mr Joker, are you okay? You don't seem yourself today?" she grimaced; she didn't like him like this.

"I thought I told you to call me J, Harley girl." He hummed, his eyes finally lighting up with amusement as he saw her blush spread across her cheek.

"And I thought I told you to call me Dr Quinsel." She snapped back, fed up of his mood swings.

He laughed violently, tears running down his cheeks and then all at once stopped, giving her a very serious look. "I don't do as I am told doc, I make my own rules." She sighed, deciding she would take doc.

"So are you going to tell me what you meant yesterday, about batman?" she prompted.

"I suppose I really should give you a little insight into my mind, but you have to give me something in return, tit for tat so to speak." He smiled madly.

"What would you like to know?" She was surprised he wanted to know anything about her.

"Lots of things, would you like to play my game with me doc?" his grin widened and his grill gleamed in the fluorescent light. Her heart fluttered at the sight.

"I suppose, why not?" she muttered and his cackle reverberated around the room.

"Fantastic. So the batman. He was once a young boy who was damaged from witnessing the death of his parents and then with a little help from his friends he became batsy. Anyway when I started to make my jokes on Gotham, batsy didn't like the disorder and made it his mission to stop me. You see the thing is, I was always one for a good punch line, I thought the best one would be to kill the batman and so I led him to my newest hideout, Ace chemical plant. We got in a little tiff and batsy got a little handsy, pushing dear ol' me into the chemicals below. It burned like hell but it was the most wonderful feeling, and the way I look now was totally worth the burn. I am as pale as a mime and isn't that just amusing, the loudest man in all of Gotham representing a silent creature." He cackled and then stroked his chin. "Then batsy got all stroppy and began to try and hunt me down, numerous times he had the chance to end me, to have the final joke but he doesn't, he has this pesky thing called a conscience. Ya see, folk like you and batman, you all have this inner voice that says no, where as mine just says 'do it'. So I continue to try and make the world laugh and batman continues to try and end my joke. Batman thinks too much, I live by action. We are two sides of the same coin my dear Harleen, and that is why he made me who I am today." Harley couldn't speak, this was the most anyone had ever got out of the joker and she almost felt bad for having to document it, knowing he trusted her so much.

"Now I want to know something, did you like my gift?" he looked serious, watching her carefully to read her body for any sign of lying.

"I would have preferred if they weren't dead, how did you get them in here?" Harley asked, being too open because she was still trying to process everything he had told her.

He chucked and looked into her blue eyes, "I have my ways pumpkin, I can be anywhere I want."

"Ya promised me honesty Mistah J." She spat and then realised her mistake, she had let her accent slip through, she had let his stupid pet names get to her and had let her own slip out. This was not good, she was playing right into his hands.

"Ah a girl from my own heart, are you a Brooklyn baby? And I never promised to be honest, just to answer your questions. I did answer." He looked smug whilst she was having an eternal argument.

Harleen took a deep breath and worked on keeping professional. "My apologies Mr Joker."

"No, no keep Mr J I liked it, or you could just call me God and we could save so much time." He grinned.

"What do you mean?" she cocked my head to the side.

"I can see it in your eye, Harley. The insanity is eating you up from the inside out. You think that I am trapped here, that all of the patients are the one dying to get out. But you are just as trapped as we are, you are chained in society's expectations but you don't belong there. You are so much better than that. I can see the fire raging in your soul Harls, just let it out." He lent closer to her and she could smell the musky scent of him, he was intoxicating. "Come closer Harley, let daddy release you from this cage." He whispered, her body being pulled towards his like a magnet.

Suddenly Harley knocked her cup over and the noise awoke her from the daze she had been in. she snapped back in her chair and her back stiffened, she had almost kissed the joker. His laugh was insane and he threw his head back, screaming to the ceiling.

"You're a real wild card pumpkin, I can't wait to let that demon out." He stared into her eyes and Harley felt as if he was burning a hole right into her heart.

A/N I know this is not how the joker and batman began their story but I wanted to make my own reasons up so deal with it :P

Also I know this was a really weird place to end it and I was going to write more but I felt like this was also kind of the perfect place to finish this chapter... tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!