The Intern

Nighty Night

Annie rubbed her eyes. This therapy lark was tough however she felt determined to do well. After all her father was depending on her and she was enjoying seeing the different minds in Arkham. Some were harder to cope with than others. However she had a new inmate on her list which she needed to interview. Doctor Victor Fries aka Mr Freeze. Through reading his file, Annie gained sympathy for the man who had done everything he could to restore his sick wife back to health. Feeling as though this will be an interesting conversation, she opened the door. It lead her to a separate room where she was able to talk to Freeze through a microphone. This was due to Freeze only being able to survive at sub-zero temperatures. However she shivered whilst watching him in that frozen room. His skin was ice blue and that face...she had never seen someone so stricken with sorrow.

"Good afternoon Doctor Fries. You may call me Dr Dr Sharp. I will be leading a short session with you today. She shivered again looking into the cold and expressionless face that he was baring. There was no emotion there. Judging by his files, there was emotion once. Losing the love of his life had reduced him to a cold-hearted, ruthless and vengeful figure. In his eyes, she looked for the tiniest bit of warmth but there was none. He did not answer her question but looked away not interested by her professional approach to get information out of him.

"I have been reading your files. Originally you were at Blackgate as you are not declared insane. However you were transferred her temporarily whilst they adjust the umm...temperatures."

"Nothing warms a cold heart." He muttered. His voice was empty and Annie felt all of the sorrows of the world creep into her body which made her shiver. Only this time, it had nothing to do with the room.

"Maybe talking to someone about your feelings would help?" Annie commented although wish she hadn't when Freeze's face turned angry.

"Feelings? You dare to talk to me about feelings?"

Annie blurted the next words very fast out of her mouth and watched Freeze closely. "I know about Nora. What happened was a tragedy. I am sorry."

There it was. That tiny hint of warmth and light but it flickered quickly back to darkness and pain. That was it. Pain. Annie was confused. This man should not even be here. However she would do anything to help whilst he was. Hopefully they would get Blackgate sorted soon. It was no good for him being surrounded by crazies after all. Instead, Annie tried a different approach. It seemed negative but in all of her memories of pain, she hoped she was doing the right thing.

"You must understand that you are not the first person to lose someone. I haven't. There are many people who have though. Nobody has it easy in life. Some are luckier than others." Whilst saying this, she dropped the professional tone and spoke from the heart. Freeze himself noticed her genuine tone in her voice and looked up finally interested.

"I have not lost her. She is still alive. It is you fools who will not let me find a cure for her." He pointed an accusing finger at Annie who was saddened to see his hatred for people and the world.

"By freezing innocent people? Surely your wife would not want that?"

Mr Freeze lowered his tone. "I do not enjoy what I do. I do not feel. I have blocked all pain, happiness any emotion from my being to ensure my determination for doing right by my wife does not get disrupted again."

Annie nodded kindly. "I understand to some extent anyways."

Mr Freeze glared. "Do you know how many people have said that to me? They fail to understand anything because they feel Doctor. They feel the unknown. They feel because they are desperate themselves for other human emotions: Acceptance, Joy, Appreciation, Peace."

"Is that not what you are craving?" Annie asked.

"I crave nothing but the one person in the world who did appreciate me, who brought peace to my life and accepted me when nobody else would." Mr Freeze turned away from the conversation. It was obvious he did not want to talk anymore and for Annie the session was over anyways. Leaving the room she quickly went to the staff room's fridge and noticed ice cubes. Picking them up , she hurried to Freeze's cell.

"I want to show you something." She told him placing a couple of ice cubes on the table in front of him. She opened a little window flap connecting to his cell and pushed one ice cube through. She waited a few minutes and watched as the ice cube in her room began to melt although in his room it remained a block of ice.

"If you come into accepting warmth and happiness in your life...you will melt. All the weight of the world will lift off your shoulders and you can escape. If you remain cold-hearted, you will be in like a block of ice - trapped forever. I would rather be a person that is free without a cold heart than remain trapped forever in my caged block. Think about it." She left Mr Freeze to his thoughts and was pleased to see him staring at both ice cubes and the demonstration in interest.

Annie returned to Two-Face's cell and showed him the same experiment. He chuckled a little which made her smile.

"I would not be in neither. Chance would show me the way."

"You do not need chance. Take control of your own life and the choices you make." Annie inquired. She took his hand gently.

"You seem attracted to me Doc. You remind me of a certain someone. Harleen Quinzel. Used to be an intern here at Arkham like you until she fell in love with the Joker."

Annie looked shocked. She had heard of the Joker. Who wouldn't? However Harleen did not ring a bell. "What happened to her? Plus I thought interns could not interview the Joker."

Two-Face laughed although it was not mocking. "They changed that rule after she went nuts. Helped him to escape multiple times until she...."

"ANNIE?" Her father's voice rung through the other side of the door. "Time to go home. Our shift has ended. I will drive you as I need to pick up a few things from the shops anyway."

Annie wanted to know about this Harleen but Two-Face shrugged and said zilch in front of her dad. "Coming dad." She waved goodbye to Two-Face and he accepted with a little nod of his head.

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Dr Blackwood entered Bane's cell. She had just started her night shift after arranging it with the warden to do them three nights a week. Since the warden knew most of his staff did not want to do these shifts, he accepted gratefully. However he wish he hadn't if he had known what was going on.

"Why hello there?" Dr Blackwood greeted Bane. She produced a little chip in the palm of her hand. "This is Mr J's idea. To me, it sounds great but I will have to keep you quiet. We cannot disrupt the other patients after all." As quick as a flash, she injected him with a blue serum. His last words made her smile.

"Quinn...you bitch."

"Sticks and Stones my good man. Nighty Night." She watched as he fell into a deep sleep and then got to work.