Falling in Love with a Homicidal Maniac
(Written and first published elsewhere in 2016, I thought I should share it with a new crowd. I hope you Suicide Squad fans will enjoy it. After seeing the movie I was obsessed with wondering how a woman could fall in love with a monster like the Joker. I needed to write out their twisted love story, and the inevitable fall of Harleen Quinnzel.)
Chapter 1: The News
I pulled through the front gate of Arkham Asylum and my good morning mood began to deflate at the prospects of facing my patients again today. It was Wednesday which meant I had Henry the child mind, and Gilda the broken. Both of them had been abused pretty badly as children and their adults minds hadn't been able to cope. Henry had chosen to stay in his childhood before his abuse had begun at the age of five, he was easy to talk to. I haven't been able to reach Gilda yet, only make her sessions enjoyable by playing music. Sometimes we would even dance. I, Harleen Quinnzel, am the only psychiatrist that has Gilda liked in the whole five years that she has been here.
I have only worked at Arkham for two years but I am already getting tired of it. Yet I still have three more years before I will have enough experience to start working with the Gotham P.D. That is my real goal after all, becoming a criminal psychologist and profiler.
I slowed down on my way up to the asylum, taking the snakey drive way up at a leisurely pace. I am paid a small salary, and no one really cares when I show up as long as it was in time for my patients. They were very strict about patients schedules, less so about the psychiatrists.
As I pull up to the front of the asylum and the parking lot I can see a news van and an army of guards and caregivers swarming around a, presumably, new patient that was being wheeled into the front doors. With all the people flowing around the gurney I can't see the new patient, only a tiny glimpse of the color green before they are swallowed up by the doors of the asylum. I parked far out and started walking towards the building. I watched as the reporters tried to press inside the building and the guards were pushing them back. The caregivers were slowly making their way back inside and making sure not to let any reporters through with them.
As I got closer one of my work friends spotted me and walked out to meet me before I got to the crowd outside the door. It was Jed, one of the caregivers that was especially gentle and nurturing. His sister was one of Arkham's patients and he had become a caregiver to be close with and protect her. He was a really nice guy. Now it seemed he wanted to protect me, as he met me he put an arm around my shoulders. Not something he usually did.
"They are here because of our brand new patient Dr. Quinnzel." He spoke quietly in my ear.
I smiled. "What? Did a football player get one too many smacks on the head today?"
Jed shook his head. Only half heartedly smirking at my joke."No doctor, you'll see."
My smile disappeared, I didn't like his mood. A sense of dread wiggled its way into my heart. I got this feeling that something bad was happening here, something that would be bad for me personally. Like a thunderstorm directly over my home. Or, office.
Jed pulled me along and inside the building. The reporters yelled at me like a pack of dogs barking. "Doctor! Doctor! What will you do to him! What room number is he? Will you lobotomize him? Will you be personally assigned to the Joker? Do you think he is attractive! What medication will he be on?" All these questions I had no idea how to answer were flung at me and it was very relieving to get inside and out of that swarm of reporters.
Judy our front desk secretary looked at me critically. "Good luck with that crazy Doctor Quinnzel." I came out of my confusion fog to frown at her, I have told her dozens of times to stop calling patients things like that. "Judy." I growled at her, she knew, I didn't need to spell out my feelings again.
Jed just pulled me along. "Dr. Lisbon wants to talk to-" Jed was interrupted by the person he had just talked out, Dr. Lisbon's voice echoed through the whole place over the intercom. "All doctors report to the meeting room ASAP! All doctors must be briefed."
Lisbon had never said anything like that over the intercom before, and it immediately made all employees worry a little. As I stepped into the main corridor with Jed's arm still around my shoulders, I saw other doctors walking quickly towards the meeting room. I pulled Jed's arm off of me, he didn't argue or react at all, he just watched as more doctors appeared from around corners, all heading our way.
" I gotta go Jed." He nodded, but I hadn't waited for his permission, I was already following the others down the hall. It only took a minute or two to get there but my mind wasn't focussing on the movement. I was just feeling complete confusion, what was going on?
I entered the meeting room with five other doctors in tow, there were about twenty five of us in all, plus Lisbon the hospital's head doctor. He was a big fat man who ran the hospital like a business, I guess it was really. His three major underlings were the one's who really cared about our patients. They were always very busy and working into the night, Dr. Lisbon was not he left sharply at 4pm everyday like clockwork.
We all sat down at our seats around the grey particle board table. Lisbon was at the main end and some of us started pulling out paper and pens to take notes on what's happening. It was force of habit for psychiatrists. The others were all murmuring to each other nervously. But I kept my eyes on Lisbon who would tell us what was going on.
"Quiet!" He ordered, his chins wagging abit. A tiny bit of resentment and loathing leaked out of me, he was as awful inside as out. He had delusions of grandeur, greed, and I knew he accepted bribes too. I always took everything he said with a grain of salt, today though, I was paying absolute attention.
"We have an especially interesting new patient today, I am sure you all noticed the hub-bub outside a few minutes ago."
