Yes, another chapter of "Rise of Harley Quinn Jr." and it's a very interesting chapter. Let's just say that Barbara might start to realize that her Harley aren't so different after all.
As always, big thanks go to JakeBlock for beta reading and big thanks go to everyone else that has read and followed the story. It only gets crazier from here and the character of "Joey" will show up more often. So, stay tuned for that.
Without further ado, please enjoy the newest chapter.
"Are you finally ready to speak?" Harleen asked. She was taking notes about her patient. Her eyes were glued to the notepad, only looking up briefly to ask the ex-heroine a question.
Barbara didn't say anything. She had nothing to say. Joey's words just kept repeating in her mind, the only thing she was paying attention to. She couldn't listen to Harleen. None of this was real. It was a trap, a trick to break her psyche. She was prepared for anything. Nobody was going to break her.
But then Harleen said something that broke Barbara away from her thoughts. "I was quite like you when I was younger," Harleen said. "I was very different from my classmates. I worked harder than them," Harleen pushed up her glasses, as they were beginning to fall off her face. "I strived for something more ambitious, I strived to understand people."
Barbara looked up at the doctor. She had heard Harleen's story countless other times before. It was a case that was very confusing, a case that even Bruce couldn't quite understand. Nobody was able to understand it. How a doctor was easily corrupted by The Joker to become his loyal follower was unbelievable, it was ludicrous. And yet it happened.
Harleen continued. "I admit that it has been troubling at times. There is the occasional person that can't be helped, even if you give them the best treatment, the best attention, there are some people that can't be cured. However, that's just part of the job, it's part of the program. But I don't want you to be one of those patients, I want you to open up to me." Barbara looked up. "I want to help you."
"You want to help me?" The ex-heroine asked.
Harleen nodded her head, smiling. "Yes, that is my end goal. I want to fix you, make you better. I want to make you an individual that society can be proud of, somebody I can be proud of." She looked down at her notepad. "So, tell me your story. Can you do that for me?"
She didn't expect to hear that. Typically a psychiatrist keeps everything behind closed doors. Very few would get down on your level and try to relate. At least at a mental institution because it was company policy. There was something strange about this because a normal doctor wouldn't say anything like that. It just further enforced the idea that none of this was real.
Baraba wasn't going to fold. Just like Bruce, Tim, Drake, and Jason, she was relentless. She was hard to break. Jonathan Crane would need to try harder than this to even hope to make a dent in her psyche and break her emotionally and psychologically. She wasn't one of the many doctors he has broken down, imprisoned beyond these walls.
"You want a story?" Barbara asked.
"Mhmm." Harleen nodded her head. "Start whenever you're ready, but if you are not comfortable, we can try this at a later date."
If Harleen didn't open her mouth, Barbara would probably choose the latter option, but if she wanted a tale then she would weave her one. It would be a tale that was going to show Harleen's true colors. That was one-hundred percent guaranteed.
"Okay, I'll tell you a story. This story happened long ago, eight years ago." Barbara said.
Harleen was jotting notes down. "Childhood memory?" She asked, her face buried in her notepad.
"No," Barbara replied.
"School or job memory?" Harleen asked, trying to guess what it was that Barbara wanted to say to her. "Is it perhaps something deep?"
"Not exactly, but it is something deep." Barbara told Harleen.
The doctor looked up for a second and then went back to her notepad to jot down notes. Barbara began speaking. "There was this girl that truly did work harder than everyone else. She got good grades and had good friends, or maybe it was zero friends. Anyway, this girl finally landed a job, an internship at a local asylum." Harleen stopped writing down notes. "Now, she could've had any patient she wanted, but she chose the most dangerous one, the one that smiles. It was the only patient that made smiling foreboding and dreadful. He was the kind of man that everyone avoided. But the girl couldn't keep her eyes off him. Something about this man gave off a presence, an inner desire." Barbara explained.
"What happened next?" Harleen asked. She did her best to act like none of this bothered her or was familiar, but Barbara knew that she was getting somewhere. It could be seen all over Harleen's face.
"She set up a session with him because she thought he could be fixed. But that wasn't the case at all. It was the other way around. He saw her as somebody that could be fixed, remolded. The man knew there was something, something hidden deep within her and he was determined to make that come out." Barbara leaned back in her chair. "Over time, he began to succeed. He started to open her eyes. This girl eventually started to see the world as he saw it; giggling in a corner and bleeding. And every moment they shared together afterward became exactly that. It was funny to them, but not to their victims. They spread disorder and terrorism upon Gotham City." Barbara explained, finishing her story.
She waited to hear what Harleen would say. How would she react now that she brought up the doctor's former past, the future she threw away for a life of chaos and destruction? A life with her "puddin".
"Tell me," Harleen began, instantly grabbing Barbara's attention. "Why bring up a tale that has nothing to do with your own life? I find it odd that you decided to talk about somebody else." Her expression changed, almost like she was studying Barbara, no longer doing the best she can to help her. "Unless," Harleen said. "Maybe this tale of yours has some kind of purpose. Maybe it has some inner meaning to your own life."
Barbara shouted at the doctor. The ex-heroine was talking about Harleen's past and what ultimately happened to her, not anything regarding herself. It was terribly wrong on so many and inaccurate. None of what Barbara had said was related to her own life. It was all directed toward Harleen.
Harleen motioned for her to sit down. Barbara didn't even realize she was standing up, she was so angry at being compared to a supervillain when they were nothing alike. After all, she was the polar opposite. A supervillain does the most within their own power to cause crime and start chaos, while a superhero fixes the messes that are created. She was a defender, a protector of Gotham City, just like Bruce and Tim.
"Calm down," Harleen told her.
Barbara obliged. The last thing she needed was to actually act crazy. That would just give Harleen more of an incentive to try and fix her, as well as keep up this charade, a charade that Barbara was sure would come apart and fall if given enough time. One way or another…Harleen was going to show her true colors.
Barbara took a deep breath, thinking about what to say. Her tone became calmer, more relaxed, but behind her voice, Barbara was still very mad. And very much still plotting about how to stop Harleen, just like Bruce would've done if he got captured by the Joker or any other supercriminal.
"How could you assume such a thing, Harleen?" Barbara asked. "I'm nothing like that girl in the story. We don't share anything in common."
Harleen started to write down notes in her notepad again. "Throughout your tale, I have found some similarities."
Barbara was confused. What kind of similarities was the psychiatrist talking about? How could she find any similarities? There none. The only similarity is that they were two people that attended some higher form of education. The only difference; Barbara is planning to finish hers and make something out of herself.
Harleen continued speaking. She looked up at Barbara, giving her eye contact. "Why don't we take a step back?" She started to write on the notepad while she talked. "Maybe it wasn't the same high school as the girl in the story but you both tried harder than anyone else to change things, change the world, as you would say. I have read your file. Your grades were at the top of your class. You could get yourself into any university or school you wanted after graduation."
"I did choose college," Barbara argued. She was going to fight tooth and nail to prove that she was nothing like Harleen.
"Yes, you did. Once again, you applied yourself more than anyone else to do the best you possibly could. However," Her tone changed, almost like she was disappointed to say what happened next. "Like the girl in the tale, you threw it all away and landed yourself behind these walls, just like the girl."
Barbara's face was beet red. "None of that is true!"
She had gone to college and was going to make something out of herself. Where in her file did it say that became the kind of person that Harley had become?
"No, it is, I have your file. I've read it a couple of times. The similarities are hard to ignore. It's almost like two halves of the same coin. Ying and Yang."
Great. Now she was comparing Barbara to Two-Face. What else was she going to say? Barbara was like Poison Ivy, Catwoman, The White Rabbit, Magpie?
"Tell me about your past, Barbara," Harleen spoke softly. "What was your early childhood like? What caused you to snap?"
"Go to hell, Harley," Barbara said quietly.
Harleen rubbed her chin, mumbling the name. "Harley," She said. "Harley. Now, there's a name I haven't heard in a bit. That's what my friends in high school used to call me."
Barbara wasn't listening. Her plan wasn't to fall for this ruse. "You're going to have to try harder than that to break me or fix me. I'm not like you, Harley."
Harleen chuckled. She got up from her seat and walked over to Barbara. "I don't know what fantasy world you live in, kiddo, but I'm going to make sure your fit for society once again. I will make it my duty as your psychiatrist to make it a reality." She smiled, fantasizing about the possibility. "I just know we'll make good progress."
But Barbara wasn't very pleased about the idea. Harleen sighed. "I suppose you won't tell me the truth about your childhood yet?"
Barbara remained silent. She didn't need to say anything about her childhood. Harleen didn't deserve to know anything.
"I won't ever be like you."
Harleen sighed. "I wish you would stop talking to me like that. I'm not the bad guy or anything. I'm here to help you, I'm here to fix you. And like it or not, that's what will happen. It may take years, but rest assured you'll be a whole different person once we are done."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Barbara asked.
But Harleen didn't say anything. She summoned a guard and had Barbara taken back to her cell. Nothing that Barbara had said to Harleen made any sort of impact. She was going to have to up her game just a little bit. It was the only way she was going to be able to escape this nightmare.