Harley Quinn And The Joker

A Useful Suggestion

My eyes followed the shadows of the policemen that guided Joker to the medical center. The cool wind stroke my face and I looked down from the open window I was standing on to where Poison Ivy waited for me.

Honestly, I didn't believe her as she told me Joker was in Arkham Asylum again and didn't want to escape - something very odd. But since I've had some time left before I was going to catch Bats, I thought I'd take a look at this by myself.

"Now that you saw him, can we please leave?" She asked with an angry look, obviously not too happy about me making her tell me where she came back three hours later than everyone else. Pamela did say she ran into Joker who got caught by the police later but I felt there was something else she didn't want to tell me. And that is something I never liked.

"Sure." I smiled after I hopped down from the window and stared over to the bridge that connected Arkham with Gotham. It might not have been obvious, but I was really excited for this night. Because in less than an hour I'd start my little game here and it would certainly not end as well as those Joker used to play.

Poison Ivy was awfully quiet during our walk back and I could feel that she felt uncomfortable - the question was, why? She might have missed Harley, but that was understandable. Though the poor girl said she was alright, I highly doubted it, maybe Ivy also knew her best friend wasn't alright. But I couldn't and didn't want to concern myself with this right now, I had a schedule to keep.

♦♦

Joker sat in his cell, his mind dull of the pain killers and his head buried in the pillow he held in his arms. The lights that went off in the hallway told him that the morning began and with it, there came the trouble.

A guard unlocked the door and a psychiatrist called Tara entered - but Joker didn't lift up his head, he had no energy nor the will to look at anybody right now. He just wanted to be left alone because he needed to reevaluate his situation.

The door closed and the sound of a chair being dragged across the floor told him that the psychiatrist sat down about seven feet in front of him. A cold feeling in his heard sent goosebumps down his back and let him take a deep, shaking breath of exhaustion.

"So, Joker, we meet again." Tara said but he didn't react in any way. 'Please, shut the fuck up.' His thoughts were creating a raging storm in his mind and made it even harder for him to focus on what was important here.

"Get out." He mumbled into his pillow with a raspy voice and burning eyes, his hands tightened on it while he tried to catch a clear thought or at least stop his mind from giving him more headache than he already had. "I don't wanna talk to anyone."

Suddenly, his pillow was ripped away from him and Joker opened his eyes to the bright lights of his cell before he glared up at Tara. "The heck?!" Blinking at the cool air and his dry eyelids, Joker jumped up in an effort to make his psychiatrist wince or back off. But instead, she pushed him back down onto the bed with a serious face.

"Shut up, Joker!" Her angry voice actually surprised him and he just stared at her in irritation. "I've had it with you and you childish behavior!" She yelled at him. "You think these sessions are fun for me?! I have two unnerving teenage girls at home and gotta drive almost three damn hours from my house to Arkham only to look at you crying over your small-ass problems! No, not today!" She threw the pillow onto his bed and sat back down on her chair.

"I'm gonna get your troubles outta you, whether you like it or not. But you better deal with me, because I'm not leaving this goddamn chair before you tell me what's going on inside that crazy head of yours!" Her dark brown eyes were locked onto his as Tara grabbed her clipboard and a pen, waiting for Joker's reaction.

Silent and with a frown at first, Joker broke down laughing like a...well. "You're a bit sassy, I like that!" He snorted and leaned back against the wall. "If you insist, I'll talk to you. But don't expect some emotional breakdown or deep childhood secrets."

"Do I look like someone who cares about your past?" Tara spit and stared at Joker with angry eyes. "I'm not gonna sit here and ask you if there's a way to help you because I know that boat sailed a long time ago." Joker tilted his head and opened his mouth to ask what she wanted to know instead but her eyes already silenced him. "Quiet! I get to ask the questions and you'll answer." Since he behaved like a child, she was going to treat him like one.

She finished writing down notes on her clipboard, then leaned back in her chair and asked with a softer voice: "I know this is not easy for you to talk about but in order to help you, I need to know what it is that's going on with you and Harley Quinn lately. It's obvious that you physical and mental health declined since you came to Arkham days ago."

Joker threw his head back and sighed but he knew he wasn't going to get out of this anyway. And why should he care if Tara knew? He'd only have to deal with it for a view months anyway. "We broke up, everybody knows that."

Tara leaned in and put the tip of her thumb and pointer finger together as she glared at him. "I get that. My point is that I want to know why the hell it happened." She fixed her big, pink framed glasses and leaned back again, waiting for Joker's response.

"You know my medical files." He hissed at her. What was she trying to prove here? "Did I ask you about cancer, red-lips?!" Tara wrote down a view more notes without looking away from him. "But since you brought that up, I'm gonna tell you something."

Joker wasn't impressed but kept looking at her, mostly because he kept imagining tearing her face off and wearing it for a mask. What held him back from suffocating her with the pillow to his left side? Maybe he had nothing better to do and annoying her while playing dumb was more fun.

"You do know that brain tumors like yours - under certain circumstances - can develop from consciously or unconsciously suppressed emotions?" Her eyes twinkled with a hint of empathy but Joker ignored that as he locked his jaws together. He knew what she was going to say so he simply plugged his ears.

"I know you can still hear me, Joker and don't worry, I won't say it because I also know that you have no control over you emotions and can't tell what you actually want." Tara played with the pen in her hands as Joker looked at her, irritated but also relieved.

"So I just want to say that whatever it is that's putting you through such an emotional hurricane, whether you know what the reason for that is or not, you need to talk about it to someone you trust. It's up to you if you follow my suggestion. But in case that person is outside of Arkham Asylum, just tell me and I'll get you out of here."

Surprised, Joker smiled. "You'd do that? Why?" He stared at Tara who grinned back at him. "I do what I can to help my patients." Her eyes got that funny twinkle as he looked out through the big window at the hallway. "Just last week I helped my ex-husband getting his friend Clayface into here for a little experiment."