Many hours later, the inmates finally got their meals…In time for lunch. Not breakfast.
The disruption in routines made the guards cranky. Administration not being able to figure out who the Joker's accomplice was or exactly how the people involved managed to contaminate the food in the attempted poisoning made them irritable. Having to wait extra long for their food made the inmates unhappy.
And they all took their feelings of hostility and irritation out on poor Harley Quinn. Logically the person they should have blamed for the delays and problems was the Joker but…It wasn't healthy to get on the Joker's bad side. As Harley herself was now finding out.
Harley stumbled along beside Ivy as the inmates were ushered into the 'recreation room' of Arkham. The guards glared at them and the inmates pushed and shoved Harley. Those that Ivy's glare didn't frighten away.
Harley was doing her best not to shed tears as the lunatics in Arkham turned on her. Loyalty wasn't high on anyone's list in Arkham but she knew most of her fellow inmates quite well and their turning their backs on her had deeply wounded her.
"Harley you have to snap out of it!" Ivy said to her friend as she felt Harley sidle closer to her side to avoid a passing loonie.
"But Ivy even the doll guy spat at me!" Harley whined.
Ivy shrugged. "I still say he brought it upon himself. If the ventriloquist hadn't had that Scarface puppet of his say, "I saw him laughing earlier after taking a bite of his scrambled eggs." They wouldn't have pumped his stomach."
Harley gave a half shrug of her own. "Maybe, but if I hadn't antagonized Mr. J. none of us would be having these problems."
Ivy pulled to a halt and grabbed Harley by the arm. She barely managed to resist the urge to shake the smaller blond woman. "None of this is your fault Harley! It was only a matter of time before that maniac clown decided he was tired of you and tried to kill you!"
Harley didn't reply but Ivy noticed her shoulders slumped even more. Ivy steered Harley over to a couch in front of the television and placed her against the arm of the couch and took the spot right beside her to insure no one else could.
"Watch the cartoons Harley and relax. You are too tense." Ivy said and mentally tried to tune out the awful cartoons the guards had turned on the set.
Ivy could feel as Harley slowly began to relax next to her as she became enthralled with the mindless cartoons.
Suddenly they both heard the sound of someone laughing a high pitch annoying laugh. One they both knew and dreaded all too well.
Harley's head slowly turned till she was looking over her shoulder behind her. Ivy too turned to look.
A few feet away at a card table sat the Joker. His eyes glittering evilly and his always maniacal smile firmly in place. Noticing that he had Harley's attention he held up a card with its back towards Harley. Slowly rotating the card he showed that it was a Joker.
"Damn! He's not supposed to be in here at the same time as you are." Ivy hissed in alarm.
Grabbing her arm Ivy hauled Harley to her feet and made a beeline towards a glass walled enclosure off to one side of the Recreation Room. A guard was sitting at a desk inside the protective box. He had something spread out over the surface of the desk and was studying the objects intently. As Ivy made her way over she thought they looked like photographs but the guard becoming aware that she was nearing him swept them up and stuffed them into a pocket of his jacket.
