*J* (the continuation)

Part Forty-Six: Chapter 354: For J

Jester's POV

The doctor in me feels the need to explain a thing or two about the effects on a human body while being suspended upside down. And seeing as how spinal neurologists sometimes use the technique to aid in spinal decompression, let's call me an expert of sorts. But you see one can only do this in short intervals safely. Hanging upside down too long can actually be fatal.

Turns out, your lungs evolved to sit atop of all the other organs for a reason. Delicate organs that they are, it doesn't take them long to get squished by the bigger, heavier organs like the liver and intestines that usually sit below them. This isn't as much of a problem when you're lying on an incline with your feet slightly elevated above your head, but when your head is directly underneath your feet, your lungs simply can't absorb enough oxygen given the available space they have to work with.

But it's not just the lungs you have to worry about during extended periods of reverse suspension. Our bodies are set up to circulate blood around when we're standing upright, and our blood vessels are customized to make sure blood doesn't pool up in our feet. But that system is a one way street. Our bodies didn't evolve to keep blood from pooling in the brain. When this happens, all sort of things could go wrong, including ruptured blood vessels, which can lead to brain hemorrhage.

And don't forget about your heart! Medical professionals think heart failure is the cause of death in most upside down fatalities, for much the same reason our brains can suffer. When you're head down, your heart slows down its pumping and starts receiving more blood than it has the capacity to manage at one time. It begins to have a hard time maintaining blood pressure, and eventually loses its ability to move enough blood around to maintain all the body's essential functions.

There doesn't even seem to be a difinitive rule about how long it's safe to hang out upside down. For instance, people with heart conditions die a lot faster in situations like these, and young, healthy people can survive longer than the old or sick. So the rule of thumb seems to be, if you're upside down and start to feel like you should stop, then stop.

Bruce has been hanging upside down close to four hours now. While he might be healthy and "hang in there" a while without severe damage, the neurologist in me simply can't stop thinking about all the brain hemorrhage cadavers I studied in medical school. A brain hemorrhage is a type of stroke. It's caused by an artery in the brain bursting and causing localized bleeding in the surrounding tissues. It's something akin to a bomb going off in your brain. And boy what a mess it makes of the inside of your skull...

So the doctor in me can't help assessing Bruce as I draw blood from his jugular vein in his neck. He seems to be alright for now, but I have no idea what Jason's intent is now, given this new and compelling information. I mean, come on, there can only be one reason the piranhas didn't attack. Obviously for the same reason they didn't attack Jason...the chemicals. I haven't even run the tests yet, but I know I'm going to find chemicals in Bruce's blood.

I assume it's pretty safe to say that Jason had every intention of killing Bruce. I assume he probably still plans to. It's just that Jason tends to be more vicious than J. Maybe because of everything he's been through. Maybe because he has this need to out Joker the Joker. But whatever it is, I'm pretty sure Bruce won't be walking out of here on his own two feet.

This...I don't know...triggers something inside of me. Something beyond the guilt I feel for my role in my twins death. Despite knowing what I was doing to him, J still saw fit to leave me a final parting gift. Julia. He knew I'd never have the balls to turn her into a monster like us. So in a final act of benevolence, he did it for me. He gave me a woman who he knew I'd fall in love with. He changed her to make us more alike. Why would he do that for me, knowing that I had betray him? Was it to make my guilt even greater? Was it some form of brotherly love? Maybe forgiveness?