Harley

The Loner: Harleen Quinzel

The meeting room clamored with chatter as all the doctors of the famed Arkham Asylum took their seats at the long table. The chatter mostly consisted of discussions regarding their day to day lives, a patient's confidential information, and the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Everyone was still reeling about the Joker riots and the aftermath was just as terrible, the streets of Gotham were vandalized and fires were still being out from that night.

In the midst of all the chatter, a doctor sat alone at the end of the table, not engaged in any conversation mostly likely because no one wanted to talk to her.

Harleen Quinzel was always alone off in her own little world.

"Okay everyone quiet down!" head doctor Mavis shouted as he wheeled a box tv into the meeting room. The chatter ceased almost immediately as the doctors sat in their chairs and gave their attention to the man at the end of the table.

"Alrighty, I'm sure you've all heard about what's going on outside and I hope you and your loved ones are okay. As you all know we here at Arkham have been put to the task of holding and interviewing the psycho who started the chaos."

The meeting room was full of whispers as Mavis droned on, the TV played a news broadcast from the night before. Images of the talk show host getting shot in the face played over and over, all of which Harleen shielded her eyes from.

The sight of blood was always ghastly.

"And one of you lucky bastards has the privilege of being interviewing this creep as his personal psychiatrist." Mavis grinned devilishly as he held up a manilla folder, the doctors in the room eyed the folder like a pack of vicious dogs.

Whenever there was a high profile case, everyone who was anyone wanted to be the sole doctor. It gave the person more status among the sea of Arkham doctors.

Harleen scribbled on her notepad, she drew stick figures and wrote silly little lines to keep herself amused through this pointless meeting. She knew she wouldn't be chosen, ever since she arrived at Arkham she was seen as less than.

She was only the second black woman to be hired there after all.

"Dr. Quinzel this one's for you." Mavis said as he placed the folder in front of the distracted woman.

It took her a moment to grasp what was happening, she would finally be working a high profile case and with the Joker nonetheless. Everyone would have to take her serious now, or at least invite her to the dinners that everyone but her were invited to.

In her moment of pure bliss, she looked out onto a sea of vultures, vultures that hungrily eyed the manilla folder she held in her hand. Birds of prey that were just waiting to take a bite of her.

"Dr. Quinzel you are to report to the receiving ward in thirty to meet your new patient. Meeting Adjourned." Mavis said.

A sea of doctors rose from their seats and swarmed towards the double doors. Most of them huffed about the pointless meeting, while others took this time to resume on their gossip.

"Who did Quinzel blow to get a case like this?"

"Did you see that stupid smile on her face, fucking idiot."

Harleen gathered her belongings and waited at the end of the line to leave. Behind her, the firm footsteps of Dr. Mavis inched closer until he was close to her. A little too close even, Harley swore she could hear the man's breathing sync with hers.

"Don't fuck this up Quinzel, the board chose you for this one for whatever reason. Even Gordon at the police station had a say." he said quietly.

Harleen simply nodded "Of course sir, I'll do my best."

With that, she walked out of the room that grew to be more uncomfortable than before since it was just her and Mavis. She always felt strange around him and Mavis wasn't shy about his remarks on her legs in her skirt.

Harleen walked throughout the white halls of Arkham with her documents pressed close to her chest and her head held high. She felt the evil glances and heard those hushed whispers as she sped up to get to the receiving ward.

They were a sea and they all wanted nothing more than to drown her or so she thought. Ever since she arrived she was outcast for whatever reason. She guessed that it was because of her brown skin color but a lot of the other doctors loved the other black doctor.

Either way, she was alone in Arkham.

"Quinzel?" a man asked.

The receiving ward was crawling with security, the number of guns that Harleen saw made her uncomfortable. She flashed her badge to the man and he allowed her in as long as she was accompanied by a guard.

"You're fuckin nuts, you know that?" the guard said, his hands firm on his automatic weapon.

"How is that?" she asked, her Brooklyn accent was present each time she spoke.

"You actually want to see this creep?" the man asked.

For Harleen it wasn't that simple, she wanted to help those with issues. Too often in Arkham doctors could care less about what happened to those who suffered from mental illness.

"I gonna fix em'" she said with determination present in her tone.

The receiving ward was louder and more crowded than it had ever been. At the end of the hall was the source of all the commotion, a man with green hair and face paint.

The man himself: The Joker.

Harleens breath quickened, flashes of the night show footage replayed in her mind. The man that had become known worldwide in just hours was right in front of her.

She caught a glimpse of the man while they roughly put him in the receiving room and locked his handcuffs down to the white table. The Joker did not look as he did on the television where he appeared to be this larger than life entity. He was frail, tired, and from the looks of it beaten.

They pushed him into the room with a roughness that she had not seen before, well it was common but not to this extreme. The two armed guards acted as if he was armed and dangerous but by the looks of it he was harmless to anyone, especially these guards with guns.

"Tone it down with the roughness alright?" Harleen said this caused her to receive many strange looks.

The guards left the room and stood outside the closed door. Harleen placed the documents on the white table and sat down at the table across from the Joker himself.