Scaring The Crows

Chapter Eleven

That's it. I grabbed my mother's file from the desk and stormed into Jonathan's office, breaking the lock in the process. "What the hell is this?" I screamed, looking at the dishevelled figure behind the desk. With a huff I slammed the file down to the desk. He looked up at me, a smile teasing at the corner of his lip despite his sleep deprived state.

"What do you" he croaked, then cleared his throat with a cough. "Mean?" He smiled, finishing his sentence. He looked up at me expectedly, not able to wipe the now widening smile from his face. I could feel my anger radiate from within me.

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN JONATHAN!" I yelled, spitting in his face. He calmly took off his glasses and grabbed a tissue, wiping the lens clean with a simple flick of his wrist.

"Oh the file? I thought I was missing one" he stated. "I thought the pile seemed a little light" he smirked lightly. I couldn't take it anymore. I reached across the desk and slapped him sharply across the cheek. He barely reacted from the head, his mouth twitching with annoyance, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He leaned forward on the desk an rested on his hands, raising his eyebrows. "Did you find anything of interest in the file? About your family perhaps?" he asked in a particularly patronising tone.

"You know exactly what was in that file. You know exactly why you left that file for me to find, so cut the bullshit and tell me why?" I replied.

"Many reasons, I was going to break it to you gently but I figured you weren't in the mood" he smiled.

"What makes you think that?" I sneered through my teeth. It took every ounce of patience in me not to hit him again. My hand twitched. I smiled to myself: two could play at this game. "So how are you getting on with your paperwork?"

His face straightened in confusion. "Well, I'm getting along fine, thank you" he said, his eyes wondering as though he don't actually know what to say. I was getting to him. He reached for a large metal bucket by the side of his desk. Raising the bucket to his lips, he took several long gulps. It was obvious that he could read the confusion on my face. "Oh. You see, after a recent session in here the patient got a little out of hand and well…" he said, gesturing vaguely to the broken coffee maker on the floor.

I looked at the contents of the bucket, and it was what I expected, cold coffee. My face scrunched up in disgust. "How could you drink that?" I muttered under my breath.

"You get used to it after a week" he shrugged. "The only reason I've had to put up with it is because I've spent so long sorting out my files" he said, a vicious undertone to his reply as he bitterly flicked his hair from his face.

"Well I wouldn't know anything about that" I replied cooly.

"Oh of course, seeing as you've never been wrong in your life" he smiled, taking another few sips from the bucket. I noticed how truly tired he looked. His eyes were surrounded by dark circles, and his usually piercing blue eyes were dull. His face seemed paler from lack of good food, and his hair was messy and unkept. The suit he usually kept pristine was now frayed and looked as though it hasn't seen a wash for weeks.

"Jonathan? Have you left this office at all?" I asked, looking him up and down. He looked kind of homeless.

"Duh" he sighed, grabbing a bottle of whiskey from a draw in his desk. He eyed it up and down. "Well I don't know about you, but I need a nightcap" he smiles, unscrewing the top of it.

I ripped the bottle from his hand. "Honestly, I don't think you should be drinking at all. Not after last time, in the elevator" I sighed, replacing the top to the bottle. "And I don't want to be having words with Scarecrow again. I could see his ham inch towards his drawer and without hesitation, I slammed my fist onto his hand before he could get the mask. I did not want to deal with scarecrow today.

Harley knocked on the door softly, and opened the door without waiting for an answer. I grabbed Jonathan from the chair and threw him towards Harley. "Look, make sure Jonathan has something to eat, something to drink and gets a long shower. I have thing to do" I sighed, slamming the door.

Standing on the chair to reach the top of the cupboard I found a small key. Bingo. I hopped down and opened the locked draw which contained my laptop that had been confiscated when I arrived here. I decided to research the address in my mother's file to see if it was true. As the information loaded, I messed with the bottle of whiskey in my hand, rolling it.

Maybe Scarecrow was just a front for Jonathan to be confident. He was so used to hiding his feelings that a whole new persona had been created. I took a swig of the whiskey and coughed as it hit the back of my throat. This stuff was strong! It was kind of nice though, made me think of him.

I sighed at the thought of him, he looked so much of a mess. I tried to feel guilty, but I just couldn't. But for Jonathan I could see the effect it had on him. He'd locked himself in his office for seven days just to try to get things back on track. Maybe it was because he took so much pride in his work, or because it set him apart from the other crazies.

I took another swig of the whiskey and rested my head on the desk. I hate you Jonathan…