No less than three minutes after stepping in through Arkham's gothic front door, Doctor Crane had been called to two different locations within the hospital. Daria had walked into the building a few seconds after him, to keep their situation professional.
"Ah, Ms Morrison, thank you for joining us this morning, a perfect timing," Jonathan send a subtle smirk her way. "The north ward on the third floor needs an expert opinion on a patient's behaviour and I am needed elsewhere, could you please go with Hayley to assess the situation whilst I go approve a medical intervention in the ER. I'll send a pager to the doctors present, so they can come to you as soon as possible,"
"Of course, Dr Crane."
Daria followed behind the fellow female worker, admiring the long honey brown hair bouncing with her every step. Without consultation, Hayley began ascending the stairs rather than opting for the elevator. She took one last glance at Jonathan who was striding down the foyer. His hair bounced subtly with his walk. She thought it was cute.
Jonathan watched as the patient, who had been shaking violently moments before, went into an immediate relaxed state. The young paramedic gently withdrew the small needle from the patient's left arm and quickly replaced it with a cotton ball to soak up any blood. The ER had five bedridden patients managed by two paramedics. There was not a single nurse or doctor present – excluding himself.
"Where is the doctor that is supposed to be on duty?" His empathy did not extend to the whole ward, but Jonathan was surprised and disappointed by the lack of authority in the Emergency Room. It was almost 10am and the department was not ordered at all. "In fact, why is there such a shortage in doctors this morning?"
"He just didn't show up this morning," The unprofessional paramedic lightly shrugged on his way to assessing the next patient.
"You didn't think to notify anyone?"
"We notified you Doctor Crane,"
"Warden Sharp will be haste to remove you from medical duty upon hearing that you haven't notified anyone of the situation,"
The cocky attitude melted away from the paramedic's face. Jonathan took one final minute to check the patient's vitals and current state before heading for the door, aiming to pass by Dr Sharp's office on his way to his own.
Once on the top floor, Jonathan knocked on the Warden's door.
"It's open!"
Without a hello Jonathan opened the door, stuck his head through and, although with characteristic emphasis, told the Warden about the paramedic being highly unprofessional and the ER being 'a complete mess'.
The sound of paper being scrambled cut off his rant. Warden Sharp lifted a paper in front of him melodramatically.
"The calendar says that Doctor Price is supposed to be on duty today,"
Jonathan recalled personally last seeing Dr Price giving Daria her induction tour. He wasn't one to be late to anything. "I'll call his phone immediately and page him."
"Give me an update in an hour," Jonathan would check the doctor hadn't fallen to the mercy of any criminal activity whilst awaiting the Warden's update.
Doctor Crane's office smelled of coffee and vanilla. He was clueless as to where the latter of the scents came from. Daria claimed that some old books gave off a similar scent. There was no shortage of books and paper stacks in the office. They were stacked at the farthest wall from the door, diagonal to the small red armchair kept for patients and visitors. The only off side to the room was that the walls were uncomfortably bare. Jonathan was no decorator and had no ambition to alter the room's appearance.
Daria did not immediately pull herself from the floor. The punch she had recieved had resulted in a dull cracking sound in her upper back and shoulders. She had been forcefully hit on her left shoulder and collarbone. Her body ached.
The patient was shouting at her. Telling her that she couldn't take him from 'the throne'. He was the 'rightful king'.
Hayley's first instinct was to wave to the hallway cameras to get security's attention.
Absolutely gutless. How did she end up working here? Arkham seems to have a terrible admissions officer. – Oh wait, that would be Warden Sharp.
Despite Daria's internal complaint, a guard nearby rushed into the room and threw the patient into the wall. Knowingly breaking the Asylum's 'law', Daria sedated the patient via a vein in their neck. Even wrong still, she had not fully read the bottle that she had snatched from the medicine cabinet. After the action had been completed, Daria refocused on the script wrapped around the bottle.
Everything was sorted. It was a sedative after all.
Except for -
"You were going to drag Doctor Crane all the way here so that he could diagnose the obvious Delusion of Grandeur that this patient was having?" Hayley was wide-eyed at the door. Hopefully realising how foolish she'd been.
"I'm not a psychiatrist, how was I supposed to know," The woman defended. Not as upset at Daria wanted her to be.
"What are you exactly?" The tone of voice was unusual for Daria, she found it... addictive? Empowering? She'd felt like a fly on the wall for the last few months and needed a power trip.
"I'm the eating disorder group therapist," She explained, furthering invalidating her rights to be dragging a doctor around. "I only work with individuals with disordered eating." She shouldn't be in the inpatient wing.
There was a moment of silence. Daria starred sharply, biting on her cheeks so not to string curse words.
Daria leaned in, feigning the cool calm colleague. "It's 'cause he's got a great jawline and hypnotic blue eyes isn't it?"
Hayley bit her lips together, caught.
"But the patient was in distress and you did just violate the Asylum code," She defended. "You're not even a fully trained therapist for anything yet. Do you even have training to administer medication?"
Daria let out a sardonic laugh, "Oh please, blackmail will not work. I have successfully managed to sedate a patient who is clearly unwell and not being appropriately cared for, it is good that he was seen to, but you should have called a paramedic or doctor who was already on the premises."
"I'm... sorry, I -"
Daria cut her off, "He's in a relationship and he actually value his work and hates to have it disturbed, as do I. Please excuse me," Whilst walking away, she realised her recording device was still on. "Cut off last four minutes. Now, as I was saying, patient was experiencing an intense delusion of grandeur: he believed that someone was trying to take him from his perceived 'throne', by entering the room to attempt to speak to the patient, he associated me as the perpetrator and lashed out, Patient has been sedated with his medication as per Doctor Robertson's instructs."
Once at the top floor, Daria knocked on the Warden Sharp's door.
"It's as open as it was half an hour ago!" He called.
The irked woman swung the door open a little too forcefully, snatching it before it scuffed the wall. Wincing at the vibration it caused in her shoulder.
"Ah it's you...Is everything alright Ms Morrison? I've received a page that you were attacked. Shouldn't you be in the infirmary?"
"Hayley, that ED group therapist," Daria tattled, "-was trying to waste Doctor Crane's time to hang out with him during working hours, when we could have called anyone with a licence to administer medication. I have the whole incident on recording and will file a formal complaint today."
"I see, I see," He sighed, "Organisation of staff is not at its best today. In fact, could you go let Dr Crane know that there is still no response."
Daria nodded. Jonathan would explain Warden Sharp's vague message in more detail.
Jonathan's hand reached for the brass doorknob the moment it was opened from the outside. He was immediately shuffled back by a grumpy Daria who shut the door and plopped down in the red armchair. Jonathan twisted the door lock in case.
"Are you free right now?"
"Yes I was going to speak to Dr Sharp about -"
"He said to – Ah!" Daria pulled off her sweater, "tell you that there's 'no response' – Ah," With her free hand, she gently touched her left shoulder, A red fresh bruise with purple splotches had made an appearance. "I can't really see, is it big?"
"What happened?" Jonathan ran a cold finger over the bruise. "Do you want me to get an ice pack?" Before she could reply he had left the room and come back a minute later after going to the staff kitchenette on the floor.
"You have an infantile admirer who likes wasting people's time," Daria explained. She then pulled the recording device from her back pocket. "I caught the whole event on record, but I need to edit out certain bits before handing it to Warden Sharp,"
Jonathan snatched it from her hand and began playing it. At first Daria was describing the patient's symptoms and clocking it up to a delusion. A loud bang is heard when the device fell to the floor and Daria was seconds afterwards. Then a squabble between the women.
"It's 'cause he's got a great jawline and hypnotic blue eyes isn't it?"
Daria blushed and laughed at hearing herself say the statement.
Jonathan laughed loudly at the pettiness of the conversation but loved Daria's protectiveness of him.
He was also admiring the anger and authority in Daria' voice when speaking to the other person. He was surprised by her lack of hesitance in using the needle on the patient. Her laugh and response to the blackmail had given him hope for her new life amongst the rogues.
"Anyway, what's this 'no response' business?"
"Doctor Emmanuel Price is missing." Jonathan explained.
"I may know where he is," Daria pulled her phone from her other back pocket. "I got this text from a blocked number," She tipped the screen towards Jonathan so he could a text stating: If you want to know the Price, come to the Warehouse Sale. We have some CRAZY deals! – We're not clowning around!!
"My conclusion was that the Joker randomly took him for no reason I can think of, I going to come tell you after the patient examination but that went slightly sideways,"
"Oh well, it's batman's thing to rescue distressed civilians, not my jurisdiction, or interest."
"Jonathan, the message was addressed to me," Daria reminded him. "Are you suggesting I contact Batman or the GCPD?"
"That's not wise, especially since you've joined the anti-batman league." Jonathan thought aloud. "You can't go there yourself, just drop it,"
"It feels wrong to drop it. Besides, the asylum is struggling with the lack of staff right now,"
The Doctor sighed in agreement, "I'll get Eddy to send some of his over to the Warehouse from the party to see if it's worth any fuss."
"Okay, I'm going to go to the out-patient corridor on the first floor to actually do my work."
They exchanged a long-held parting kiss before her departure.
"And Daria?"
"Yes?"
"It's... nice that you care, but be careful,"
Don't be too emotional or it will result in your downfall.
Whilst in the confinements of the elevator, Daria called the GCPD. "I need to speak to Detective Gordon, it's an emergency."
The voices changed on the other side of the line. Daria had heard James Gordon's voice before. She'd met him in the past. She knew he had a direct line to batman.
"The Joker has taken a doctor Emmanuel Price from Arkham Asylum, he is being kept in a warehouse south east of the outskirt of the narrows,"
"how do you know all this?"
"The joker called the Arkham telephone line from a blocked number saying all this," Daria lied.
"What is your name?"
"Hayley," Daria tried not to snort at her obvious choice.
"Thank you, Hayley, we will find the doctor as soon as possible and bring him back to you."