Penguin's Majesty

23. Vital

I come to consciousness and I hear faint beeping. I try to open my eyes but I immediately close them again. It was too bright. Once I had gotten used to the brightness I looked around. I was in Gotham General Hospital. There were doyens of bouquets and a pile of balloons. There was a stuffed penguin, a teddy bear, and a little wolf plushie. I instantly knew who the penguin was from. I smiled as I thought of the irony. The teddy bear had a note on it saying:

Dear Isabelle

Or should I call you Lusciana Swann? Quite the name. Word travels fast in Gotham. I wish you well and I hope to see you soon. After all you left without a goodbye. See you soon my little doll.

                      Sincerely yours
                           Mama Mooney.

I smiled at the thought. She really does care. However I couldn't figure
out who gave me the wolf. It bothered me to no end. I mean at least I could take a guess as to who the flowers were from. Especially the one with Ivy in it. The balloons were probably from Ivy's friends or maybe Oswald brought them. But the wolf plushie?... I had no clue.

There wasn't a note or anything. Suddenly a gasp was heard and I jumped startled by the sudden sound.

"Sorry it's just your awake! We didn't think you'd be awake until tomorrow. After all you just came out of surgery not even four hours ago." Said a nurse.

"Yeah I'm a fast healer." I nodded at her.
"So what happened?"

"Well the bullet had pierced a major artery, and nearly punctured your kidney. You had some massive internal bleeding and a little damage to your pancreas. But other than that nothing we couldn't fix."

"Oh... do you know who sent the wolf plushie?"

"Oh no miss. There was a woman however we didn't get her name. She brushed right past security and put it in here then walked right back out without so much as a fuss."

"Oh what did she look like?"

"We couldn't see much but she wore a trench coat, had blonde hair, a bit taller than you, she kept her head down. Sorry miss but that's all I know."

"It's fine."

"No worries miss Lusciana."

"What?"

"Lusciana? Lusciana Swann is your name right?"

"Umm y-yeah. That's me. You can call me Lucy though."

"Oh okay. So I was coming to check on you and your vitals, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to get back in the bed, so I can hook up the equipment." I did as she asked and she plugged in the equipment.

"All right your temperature is 97.8, your heart rate is 120/200. Your blood pressure is       . And you're all good your vitals are normal."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure"

"What is your name?" I asked her with a smile.

"Harleen Quinzel"

"Are you new here? I mean you look to be my age." I asked curious as to why she would be working here at such a young age.

"I'm in a college program. I'm majoring in psychology right now but for some reason they stationed me here."

"Yeah that is weird."

"But I really wanted to be at Arkham working there with all the criminals. I mean you'll think I'm weird but, I just find it fascinating."

"What?"

"The criminal mind. I mean what makes them want to do it? Why? And if I could be the one to help them? I'd be famous!"

"So you just want to be famous?"

"No. Nonono. I want to help them being famous is just a plus. I want to figure them out. What makes them tick."

"Well if you ever need help. I'm your girl. Plus the inmates at Arkham would be lucky to have you. Those other doctors and therapists are shit."

"You sounds like you've been there."

"A long time ago."

"Oh..."

"Yeah, some of them experiment on their patients. They don't really help. All they ask is the same questions. They don't act like they care. And god the food is disgusting. The guards don't care what happens to the inmates. Inmates could die and they wouldn't care. To them it's just another day of taking out the trash. The inmates are human beings too. I mean sure they've done some horrible things but they're still people."

"You sound like you really care. Maybe you should be one too."

"I couldn't. I can't go back there. Even if I wasn't the one behind bars."

"Alright Lucy. Anyway you should be good to go in a couple of hours. The Doctor wants to keep you a little while longer to monitor your progress."

"Thanks Harley."

She looked taken aback. "No one has ever called me that before."

"Oh would you rather I call you Harleen?"

"No keep it. I like it. Call me Harley."

"Thanks."

"What are friends for?"