Never Fear

48

Things didn't get much better for the doctor from this point. Willow stood near the barricade while Jonathan took to strapping the poor man to the chair. Stephen was so fear stricken to even bother trying to fight back against the taller man. Putting a hand on a chair, Willow rocked it to see if it was stable before sitting down on it and pulling her legs up and crossed them. Leaning her head in her hands she watched the scene in front of her.

It was sad, if anything. Stephen technically had done no wrong, yet in Jonathan's eyes he had conducted the worse crime possible. Willow knew that Jonathan thought one of the best people to test on, apart from herself and obviously Batman, was the pesky annoying doctor who he had got lumped into talking to.

"Are you all right, Stephen?"

The man looked up and narrowed his eyes. "Jonathan this is madness, let me go."

"But you had all chances to fight back. Yet you didn't, I wonder why. Perhaps because you know it's rather useless?" Stephen didn't answer but watched as Jonathan jumped up to sit on his desk. The only other chair in the room was in the barricade, and Willow was sitting on it.

Willow already had it in mind not to get involved with this moment. It wouldn't honestly matter if she even voiced the fact that she didn't mind Stephen Kellerman. He wasn't an annoying man, he had a habit of asking stupid questions now and again, or repeat himself several times. But he was not annoying, nor did he honestly deserve to be put through this.

"One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive," Jonathan idly hummed. Each time he said a number he stuck a syringe into Stephen's arm. The man yelled and squirmed and fidgeted, he tried to get away but couldn't because he was strapped to the chair. Willow perked up and looked over at the two, both men had forgotten she was even here. Rolling her eyes she took to inspecting her fingernails. Hearing Stephen mumble and scream to himself, Willow glanced over again. Jonathan tilted his head to the side and watched with great interest. "You know, the first time we met like this in that interview interested me greatly. See, I've changed the formula from the toxins I used then. And this time, we can both be sure that we won't get interrupted by Batman." Jonathan smiled lightly and shook his head. "No, no, he's elsewhere, Stephen. He has bigger fish to fry." Jonathan patted the man on the arm.

"Get them off of me!" Stephen screamed.

Willow jumped up from her chair and walked over. Putting a hand on Jonathan's arm she tugged his jacket sleeve. "Let's leave."

"What?" Jonathan looked at her confused. "I can't leave now. It's not professional Willow, to leave halfway through an experiment." He smiled and patted her on the head. "Go and sit down, we're almost finished."

"Stop patronising me Jonathan, Stephen doesn't deserve this."

"What?" Jonathan looked confused again and frowned.

Willow crossed her arms. "You're injecting him with enough stuff to kill him! He may have wronged you somehow, I don't know how, but he does not deserve to die." Willow frowned and looked at the desk. Picking up a photograph frame she waved it at him. "He has a family! Can you honestly live with yourself knowing you've taken away someone's husband, father, brother, son?" Willow questioned.

Jonathan looked puzzled still as he injected Stephen again, Willow narrowed her eyes at him. "Shh," Jonathan said while putting a finger on Willow's lips before she could say something. "We're almost done then we can leave, all right?"

Willow shook her head and turned away. Stephen thrashed some more, and continued to yell the more times Jonathan injected him. Letting out a sigh, Willow moved the chair to the air vent and climbed up. On her own free will, she opted to escape the room. Climbing through the tight space she shut her eyes as the sounds of Stephen's yelling ebbed away. She was grateful, if anything. She couldn't stay in that room anymore. Willow wouldn't be naïve to the fact that she knew Jonathan wasn't going to just inject the doctor once and leave it at that. Reaching the end of the air vent, she pulled herself free. Landing in the quiet office, Willow jumped when a man went shuttling down the corridor. Walking over to the door she opened it and peeked out.