Impossible Love

Chapter 6: A Manipulated Promise

Harleen arrived at Arkham just after 8:00 and ran inside.

"Dr. Quinzel, what are you doing here so late? And on a Sunday?" the guard at the security desk asked her, getting up from his desk behind a thick pane of glass.

"I gotta get through. I need to talk to someone right away," she said anxiously, her eyes red from crying. "Can you let me in?"

"No problem, Dr. Q," he said, complying with her request right away. She threw her bag into the X-Ray scanner allowing the guard to verify that she didn't have any restricted items in it. The body scanner beeped as she walked through, but he had never seen her in such a state and he never thought it felt right to wand her anyway. "Here you go," he said, handing her the bag and allowing her through the gate.

"Thank you!" Harleen yelled as she ran down the hallway to the stairwell and up to the second floor, her boots making heavy thuds on the steps. She raced as fast as she could to Joker's cell and was out of breath by the time she got to the hallway in the residential unit.

"Good evening, Dr. Quinzel," the guard said, "What brings you here this evening?"

Her hands shaking with worry, she used her ID card to open the gate and bolt past him, ignoring his question and finding Joker's cell. Cell 16, Cell 16... She finally reached the cell and lifted up the small, metal window on the door, looking inside. He's not here? She moved to the left side of the door where the mailbox opening was located. She opened it and looked around, thinking that maybe he was on the floor closer to the door.

"Where is he?" Harleen called to the guard in a pain-stricken tone.

"Oh, uh, you mean the Joker?" the guard asked, unable to make eye contact. "I'm not sure. I just started my shift..."

"Where the fuck is he?" Harleen roared with anger in her eyes as she approached him. "Tell me right fucking now or I will have your fucking job!!" She screamed her words directly in the guard's face, pointing her finger in the middle of his chest.

He swallowed hard and took a trembling breath. "They, uh, they took him down to the sub-basement, ma'am," he said nervously. He was so terrified that he could not look her in the eyes.

Harleen took off for the stairwell and practically flew down the three flights of steps. She entered the completely dark hallway and was petrified by the silence. Then she heard it. People were talking. Laughing? She followed the sound to the left and then turned right down the wing. She quietly came upon two swinging doors that she pushed inward so she could listen.

"Stand back, boys, I'm gonna get him again real good," she heard the familiar voice say with excitement. "You know, Joker, Dr. Quinzel is just fucking with you. She only wanted you to get better so we could fuck you up some more. You think she likes you. Well, she likes me. Don't you ever forget that." He held the paddles to his brain and shocked him, causing the Joker to convulse while the guards screamed out in a cacophony of laughter.

Harleen burst through the doors in a fury. "What the FUCK do you think you are doing?!?" she screamed at the men. "Get the fuck away from him RIGHT NOW!!!" Her voice was full of strength and anger, completely stunning the guards.

"Oh, Dr. Q, we were just—"

"I don't give a fucking shit what you 'were just.' This is MY patient and I did NOT authorize this. Step the fuck back." She was incensed. She was enraged. How could this happen on her watch? It explained so much about recent events.

The men stood looking at her, shocked into silence. Winston dropped the paddles and stepped out of the way as she pushed past them to reach Joker.

"LEAVE US!" she snarled, her voice filling the old, dusty room.