His Own Harley Quinn

There was a harsh knock at the door of Crane’s apartment, he put down the wrapped item and walked to the front door.
“Who is it?” he asked loudly, reaching for the lock as he waited for an answer.
Crane looked in the peep hole to see who it was. The Riddler stood patiently at the door waiting for Crane to answer.
He opened it, and The Riddler happily walked inside his apartment with curious eyes.
“Nice pad, Crane…better than what The Joker holed you in, yeah?” The Riddler asked, turning to Crane with a pure smile on his face.
Crane cocked an eye brow at him. “How did you find me?” he asked.
The Riddler smiled, he walked towards Crane and adjusted his vest as he looked at him in almost a sympathetic sort of way.
“I saw Jackie…the poor thing, she’s torn to pieces,” The Riddler remarked softly.
Crane looked at The Riddler in shock. “Where is she?” he asked anxiously, ready to grab his jacket and go retrieve her from wherever she was.
“She’s in Arkham, Crane. Diagnosed Schizophrenic. I don’t know what you did to her, but I think the girl you knew isn’t coming back,” The Riddler said softly.
Crane sighed heavily, letting what The Riddler had just told him sink in a little. He could almost feel his heart break at his words.
“…I’m sorry,” The Riddler whispered.
The Riddler walked out of the apartment to let the former Dr. Jonathan Crane think for a moment in silence.
Crane looked at himself in the mirror, he didn’t care; he needed Jackie back with him, even if that meant the end of the world.

Jackie tried to fight with the orderlies as they strapped her to her bed, trying to get the other sedative into her arm even with her straight jacket on.
She was fighting extremely hard that day and the orderlies were frightened by the small girls’ strength and will power over the six men who were trying to pin her down the stretcher.
“I got her!” an orderly yelled, injecting the sedative into Jackie’s vein.
She was still after the shot, her pupils nearly dilated as she looked up at the concrete ceiling from her bed.
Jackie couldn’t move. She every inch of her body was paralyzed as she looked up at the ceiling.
The voice was gone; the vision of Jackie was nowhere to be found and once the orderlies left Jackie really needed to speak to her.
A nurse slowly came into her room, Jackie attempted to look at her, she didn’t look familiar as the nurse looked down and smiled at her.
“Alright, Ms. Jackie, I’m giving you something to help ease the delusions and hallucinations, alright?” the nurse said.
Jackie felt a pinch in her arm, immediately she felt woozy once the entire thing was inside her. She wanted to ask if it was normal, but she couldn’t open her mouth at all to ask.
The nurse left, leaving Jackie alone with a strange unknown, but frightening, feeling. Jackie couldn’t put her finger on it as she continued to stare at the ceiling, but she knew it wasn’t good.

Meanwhile, Crane had been brewing a plan. He sat outside the Arkham Asylum in his new car.
He had been planning since the Riddler’s visit nearly two weeks ago. Crane didn’t care about the consequences of his actions so long as Jackie was in his arms, even if it was just for a second.
Crane looked at his mask that was in his passenger seat. He grabbed it and took a deep breath. He didn’t know why he was nervous; he had done far worse things than this.
One of his thugs knocked on his window, Crane sighed as he rolled it down and looked at his thug. “Yes?” he asked.
“We’re ready whenever you are boss!” the thug remarked.
Crane nodded. “I’m ready,” he said, almost nodding to himself as he forced himself out of his car.
“Hey,” the thug said, Crane looked at him. “…we’ll get her,” The thug assured Crane.
Crane nodded. “Alright, boys…lets do this!” he yelled, putting his mask on and walked towards the back entrance of the asylum.

The violent screams throughout Arkham shook Gordon to his core as he tried to get a hold of Batman.
Gordon hid in a small corridor as patients and doctors scurried past him; yet all Gordon could think was “…where the hell is he?”
Another round of screams broke out just as Gordon heard a window break off in the distance.
“Gordon!” the big booming voice of Batman roared, walking up to Gordon.
“I don’t know what happened, they just stormed in!” Gordon remarked, following Batman through Arkham.
Batman nodded. “It’s Crane…”
Gordon thought for a moment before he looked up at Batman. “Jackie,” he whispered.

Crane had searched the index for Jackie’s room, Ms. Jackie Gibbard was in room 278B and all alone.
He blew the door right off, and he thought Jackie would simply come rushing to the open space, but she didn’t.
Crane walked into the room, she was in a straight jacket, eyes empty while foam came from her lips.
“Oh, shit.” Crane muttered.

She was missing, her bed empty and her door blown right off, Gordon and Batman glared at each other.
Batman huffed “Get everyone out, I’ll take care of this!” he said, walking off as if he knew where Crane had taken Jackie.

Crane walked into the Lobotomy room, he glared at the two nurses as they searched for a medicine while talking to each other.
They all met eyes and the two nurses were petrified as Crane held the limp Jackie in his arms.
“Clear the table, and get out.” Crane said, remaining calm while Jackie was clearly dying in his arms.
The nurses cleared the operation table and left the room swiftly. Crane placed her on the table and quickly unbuckled the vest before throwing it on the floor.
“Don’t die on me, Jackie!” he said, rushing to the medicine cabinet and looking for something to jump start her heart, or to just help give him more time to think.
Crane knew he should know this, he WAS a practicing doctor for quite awhile; and he couldn’t believe it had slipped his mind how to revive an over dosing patient.
He breathed heavily, letting it all soak in for a moment until he remembered exactly what he was supposed to do.
“Of course!” he whispered to himself, pulling out the adrenaline and a needle from the cabinet.
“Stop right there, Crane!” Batman said, Crane slowly turned around to see the great Batman in front of him and he didn’t look too happy about what was going on.
Crane put the adrenaline down and looked at Batman, he was furious, Jackie was going to die on the table and Batman was probably going to be at fault; or that’s how Crane wanted it to play out if it went that way.
Batman took one step closer and Crane pulled the pistol from the waistband of his pants and pointed it at Batman.
“She’s dying! You’ve got to let me save her!” Crane remarked, he pointed the gun at Batman and stood his ground.
Batman eased up, he took a step back; he didn’t say anything but his glare pretty much said the entire thing.
“Do you want me or do you wanna kill her? It’s up to you!” Crane said softly.
Batman sighed. “Save her,” he remarked softly.
Crane put the pistol on the table and began to fill the needle with the adrenaline; he looked at Jackie who was still fading slowly.
“Alright, baby…” he muttered softly to Jackie as he pushed her hair away from her face before he grabbed her arm and looked for a strong vein to inject it into.
Crane found one and wasted no time injecting into Jackie’s vein, both Batman and Crane held their breath as Crane hold onto the needle tightly.
For the first time, Jackie took a deep breathe.
Crane dropped the needle as he smiled brightly, he had saved her life and was so proud of himself.
He grabbed the gun and pointed it at Batman, who was just as relieved Jackie was alive.
Batman looked at Crane, he had saved a life, but he was still the villain in the situation.
“You follow us, I’ll kill you…” Crane muttered softly, picking Jackie up off the table and out another door towards the back where the van was waiting for him.
Batman stood there in shock, he just let Scarecrow get away, and with Jackie none-the-less.
But Batman knew this was almost over, he knew something would change between both Crane and Jackie, he just had to wait for the right moment.