The Joker's Harlequin pt 3

Dr. Quinzel left behind The Joker with a certain sadness. She couldn’t help it. Despite what Commissioner Jim Gordon had told her and her colleagues about what he had done and how he couldn’t be trusted, looking back, he seemed almost……sad. Regretful. Very likely she knew that it could be a ruse, but a part of her felt sorry for him just the same. As she turned to walk back to her new office, she couldn’t help glance back. The door was shut, but through the plastic window he could see his face looking at her, those dark eyes longing for freedom and he looked positively innocent, despite the huge scars of each side of his face, long since healed yet still baring years of pain and humiliation. She shook her head.
<Damn it Harleen….you know you can’t keep falling in love with creeps on first sight. Just look happened with Ricky….>
A sudden memory flashed through her…..Ricky…..the man she thought was the one. The one who betrayed her, took advantage of her. Humiliated her. Harley looked down to see her fist tightly clenched, her nails digging deep into her flesh like a cat’s claws. Miraculously, she managed to reach her office without having to think about her old lover and her new patient. As she opened the door, she was met with a surprise. Standing in the doorway was her supervisor Kellen Samson.
“ So, Miss Quinzel, how was your first taste of psychiatry?”
She shrugged. “ It was okay, I guess. I honestly don’t know why I was chosen for Arkham, though. Why not Leslie Burke? She more qualified.”
Her boss smiled.
“ But she doesn’t have the charisma and elegance that you have. I offered her a position, and she turned it down, saying that she wasn’t going to waste time handling sickos. So, I turned to you.”
“ But Kell, I still don’t feel comfortable. I mean, I just got out of talking to The Joker!”
“ Oh, that reminds me. How was your session with out clownish friend?”
Harley sighed deeply.
“ He was a very interesting fellow. But I feel that him being cooped up in that tiny prison is a little much. Poor guy looked heartbroken when I had to leave.”
Her boss snorted.
“ Well, it seems to me that Joker has taken a fancy to you.”
Harley was shocked.
“ You mean to tell me that a convicted psychopath has the hots for me? Isn’t that a little unethical?”
“ You did say he was sad when you left the room.”
Well, considering what had happened, that seemed logical, albeit disturbing.
She stretched, suddenly feeling cramped and tired despite the hour of the day.
“ Listen Har, take the rest of the day off. You deserve it. Not very many people can  talk to the Joker and come out sane.”
“ Thanks Kell; I’ll see you and Joker tomorrow, ‘kay?”
Later that night, Harley found that she couldn’t take it easy. She couldn’t sleep; every time she closed her eyes she saw The Joker’s face, so sad despite the massively stitched smile carved into the sides of his mouth. His eyes, so big and dark, yet so filled with emotion, so filled with pain. She had half a mind to march down to Arkham and spend the night with the clown, but she quickly squashed the notion.
What was going on with her? Was she…no, that can’t be right….she barely knew the guy! Yet….his hair, so long, reaching his shoulders and slighty curled at the ends…a dark blonde, like her own with a faint tinge of green….his youthful face, prematurely aged yet handsome none-the-less. She heard herself sigh at her thoughts and calmly accepted them. Maybe tomorrow she’d get The Joker a toy….just to cheer him up…..and with that thought, she passed out.