The Joker And The Fool

1.(3) The rainy days of Gotham city

1.3 The unwanted ally

At the end of January, she was still alive. Against all the odds (at least according to her colleagues). Diana had been more careful with the Joker since she spoke to doctor Swan and doctor Thompson. She wore more "appropriate" clothing, all to her malcontent, yet in time she began to look the same as she had before the interview, and nobody said a word, in fact the guards complemented her more when she was dressed her way. She chose never to fully believe what the Joker said, she chose to doubt the smallest and simplest words. Diana noticed that Joker grew more interested and more obsessed, such as others noticed it just as well, but again, she chose to believe T' was a fake. Another façade it was. He came to ask her more about her private life and then also threatened her more, which to her made no sense at all. It seemed as if he wanted to woo her but also warn her, not to mettle with him. It was a play. He meant for her to become upset, he meant for her to not understand.

Diana laid in her bed on a Friday night, it was around three o'clock, nearly morning. On her Fridays, she would see the Joker again. That was part of her routine: on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she had her sessions with the Joker and on Tuesday and Thursday she spoke most often to Crane. She had completely taken over Doctor Carter's position, as he had officially resigned just after the holidays. She had visited her old ward, the c-ward twice in the last weeks, for she knew her patients had always depended on her there. The C-ward remained a place where less severe mental illnesses throve. It was full of society's misfits. Girls who lied, girls who stole, girls who disobeyed their parents, girls who were considered tramps. She knew that some of the girls looked up to her.

Diana, at that time, lived in a small apartment in a flat near downtown of Gotham City. From her skyline view she could see everything that happened on the streets, all the terrible things. Though she still lived in a more proper part of town, for the real crime fuelled streets were those of the Narrows preferably. But much like other citizens of Gotham City, she chose to ignore whatever happened in that underworld. Her apartment existed of one bedroom, one laundry room, a severely small bathroom and kitchen and a living area, which was nearly a small office. But apart from that, she had a closet filled with luxury clothing. Her purpose? To seem wealthy naturally. But in secret, there was not a soul that she had ever let into her home. It was a messy place, she rarely cleaned. Very rarely did she have any maintenance done in her apartment, sometimes she even let the caretaker clean her apartment. but she trusted him not. She was always examining the apartment after he had cleaned, to see if he had taken anything valuable.

Back to the matter, however, it was around three o'clock. For some reason she had been awake at the time. She was on her way to the kitchen to get herself a bottle of water when she was suddenly awoken by a ringing sound. The cable phone in the apartment went off, which would mean that either someone was downstairs trying to get into the building, or someone was calling her. At first, she presumed to let it go, it happened more often that some sort of homeless person would attempt to enter the lobby of the building. Last month it had happened at least three times. But then she suddenly received this cold-like feeling, that something was wrong. And she did go to pick up the phone. It hung in the small hallway where she would find several doors that lead to the laundry room, the bathroom, and her own bedroom.

"Diana Watsons residence" Diana sighed tiredly, "this is Diana Watson speaking on the phone".

She answered as if she was a secretary to herself. As if the phone was normally picked up by some maid of sorts. It was part of her act. She felt that she needed to act rich, for people assumed that she was rich. And from her youth she could recall all the things her nanny's and other caretakers had done. They always picked up the phone by saying: Watson Residence. Then proceeded to introduce themselves before taking a message.