Multiplicity

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

Five minutes is all it takes. She wanders out into the hallway in search of coffee. When she returns, her midnight patient is gone. The bed is empty. The sheets are twisted and forgotten. The IV dangles, dripping its contents out onto the floor. She stands there in the doorway, staring in disbelief.

Her sleep deprived brain struggles to comprehend the facts. When she left, the Joker was unconscious. His tortured and mutilated body would not have permitted him to move with the speed needed to leave the surgical suite. Someone must have helped him. Or someone must have taken him.

There's only one person she knows who can move that fast.

Another sensation begins to build right along side the acid burn in her stomach. It's a knot. Pure, unadulterated anger. He brought her a patient to care for, regardless of her feelings. He brought her the man who killed Alfred. He expected she do everything possible to save the Joker. He removed that patient without her permission. From her clinic.

Twenty minutes later, she once again lets herself into the Manor. She bypasses the house and makes a beeline for the cave. There isn't an ounce of fear amidst the rage.

Comments

[smiles-everyone.livejournal.com]

He looks even worse. His arm doesn't seem to be bending the right way any more.

But there's still that leer in his voice, as rough as it is.

Doctor, doctor, gimme the news, I gotta - bad case! Of luh-vin -

He breaks off as he spasms.

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

Any other day or circumstance, she'd be keeping her distance. Instead she reaches with both hands to support him. In his weakened condition, he doesn't seem threatening. His wrists and ankles are bound, adding to her false sense of security.

[smiles-everyone.livejournal.com]

Oh my -koff - you're one smooth operator - koff - doc! I haven't even bought you dinner yet and already we're at - koff - second base...

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

Her jaw tightens involuntarily. Part of her wants to assist the wounded. The other part wants to finish the job. She pauses over him, never so torn before in her entire life.

[smiles-everyone.livejournal.com]

Oh, my - koff - are we having a moment of doubt in the princkoffples we hold oh so dear?

He spits out a little blood and his face grows sly.

Before Jeeves kicked it, he begged me not to hurt - koff - "Mawster Bruce." Ya think he realized I was doing him in to hurt Batsy? Surrogate -koff father figure, I mean, it's obvious...

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

He hasn't the slightest idea what he's taken from her. From Bruce. 'Father figure' only touches the surface. She narrows her eyes at Arkham's abomination. "I would never repay violence with violence. But don't think for a second that I'm not sorely tempted," she spits.

She grabs for his wrists. The only way she'll be able to treat the broken arm is to free him.

[smiles-everyone.livejournal.com]

Tempation koff is the mother of invention, doc. I'm sure you'll figure a way koff around those moral precepts -

He pauses as she releases his wrists, and his voice abruptly smooths out.

Well, don't need to do that any more...

[jla-villains.livejournal.com]

The eyes of the ventriloquist's "Scarface" dummy faces her from its display case in the cave. The doll seems almost to be staring at her... eyes boring into her.

Accusing.

[ivy-lady.livejournal.com]

And seemlessy the Joker has been the Joker but is now someone else. Someone who is female, with telltail marks around her light green throat...Someone with bite marks and scratches she's seen on other women beaten and violated within inches of their lives. Some are over the edge when they get to her.

"Why do you bother?" She asks in a voice choked with dirt from the grave. You can't save us. Or him. Or anyone Leslie. You couldn't save a single soul in this city. If you can't do that, what good are you?"

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

There's no transition. No context. She jerks her hands away and scrambles several feet to the rear. Her instincts are screaming for her to retreat. Her heart is traveling a mile a minute.

Ivy's words echo in the empty space and begin to circle in her brain. Unending. Unrelenting. Undeniable. What good are you Leslie? She's telling you the truth. You don't really make a difference.

"You weren't here," she stumbles. "Joker..."

She begins to look around in vain

[ivy-lady.livejournal.com]

"Oh, looking for that someone to save you? don't you just hate that in a man when they don't show." Her eyes bore into Leslie. "He's too busy with other projects, dear. Everyone that hurt him," Her smile is like a slit throat. "And he's saving you for last - the dessert course for a bloodthirsty Bat..."

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

The anger that consumed her is starting to bleed away. In its place is confusion. Most of what Ivy says falls on deaf ears. Leslie is too busy trying to connect the green woman's appearance in the cave to some plausible explanation.

Ivy is bound much the same way Joker was. She's occupying the same spot. Her injuries however are different. "You can't be here," she challenges.

[ten-of-six.livejournal.com]

"Can, can't, can, can't. No room for you here, doctor." Jervis Tetch is now in Ivy's place. His injuries, too, are different. Saliva is practically pouring from his mouth--a mouth deformed and festering, teeth barely clinging to the gums.

"We're all mad here, Leslie. Joker, Ivy, Batsie, even you. But Batsie, he's maddest of all. You've seen what he does. What he can do. And guess who he's coming for, my good madam?

"Beware the jabberwock, my son..."

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

She closes her eyes tightly against the grotesque sight. The smell propelled in her direction is renewed with every word. "I haven't slept in 48 hours," she justifies.

It is enough to explain these strange hallucinations? These strange occurrences? She herself is far from sure.

[ten-of-six.livejournal.com]

"The jaws that bite,
The claws that catch,
Beware the jub-jub bird
And the vicious Banderbat!"

There's another new item now. A knife in the Hatter's open palm, extended to Leslie as if it's an offering. A way out easier than the Bat's option.

"The vorpal blade went snicker-snack, Leslie..."

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

She cracks her eyes to have a look. How a knife ended up in his hand is a complete mystery. The offer? Denied. She shakes her head and takes another step back. "I don't have anything to fear," she states. It sounds almost as if she's trying to convince herself.

[phear-itself.livejournal.com]

"No?" And now it's the Scarecrow, his head lolling to one side sickeningly, the noose around his neck disturbingly tight. "Everything you thought you feared has come to pass. Batman is as violent as you feared. Alfred is dead. They are all lost to you. And Leslie... it will only get worse. You will find new things to fear, and they, too, will come to pass."

He offers the knife again.

"There is only one way out, Leslie."

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

It takes minutes for the cry to fully dissipate. When she removes her hands, an unnatural silence fills the space around her. She stands motionless, drawing in cold air to quiet her racing heart. The body in front of her is completely still. The chest does not rise. No sounds of respiration reach her ears. She doesn't need to further examine the Joker to know that he's dead.

She feels streaks of tears on her cheeks. A life for a life. This is not the way it was meant to be. The abyss is staring back.

There's a slight rustling sound somewhere to her rear.

She turns.

And moves directly into the path of the greatest betrayal of all.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_darkknight_/]

His presence is black, his expression is black, his entire soul, seemingly, is black.

A gauntleted fist snares the Joker's coat. "Bring. Him. Back," is the order, dark as the mood of the speaker himself. "We're not finished yet."

In the unrelenting obsidian-like carve of features comes a thin line of white, a cruel smile bereft of humanity. "Not by a long shot."

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

It only takes her a second to realize. This person is a stranger. There's no trace left of the man she knew as Bruce Wayne. The response, when it finally comes, is flat. "No. You're done."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_darkknight_/]

No trace of the man, no trace of the heart, no trace of the justice. Only hate remains. "You let him die."

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

"No, I didn't. And if you were the man you once were, you'd already know that." Her voice is little more than a whisper. It's hollow, a reflection of what lies within. An emptiness builds in her very being.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_darkknight_/]

"If you were half the doctor you once were," comes his answer, more an animalistic growl than anything approaching civilised discourse, "Alfred would still be alive."

He drags the Joker's body off the table, fist wound in the coat.

[lesliethompkins.livejournal.com]

She knows the statement isn't true. His words gnaw at her anyway. She swallows hard, fighting once again the despair. The two men closest to her are gone.

"No one could have saved Alfred. A man's heart can only take so much."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_darkknight_/]

Like a child with a gruesom teddy bear, Batman drags the Joker's body behind him, not bothering to look back at Leslie. "Keep telling yourself that."