Mad Love

Jack Barakat woke up at five o’clock in the morning. He was in and out of the shower by precisely 5:10 AM, and his hair was styled to perfection by 5:30 AM. He stepped into his walk in closet and pulled on a sleeveless, gray button up shirt. He decided on his black slacks and his black dress shoes.

He gathered up all of his paperwork before heading out the door, car keys in hand. He got into his 2014 Jeep Wrangler before pulling out of his apartment complex parking lot and into the real world. His mind was pretty much absent as he made his way through town, the traffic meaning little to nothing to him.

He sighed and got out of the car, opening one of the rear passenger doors and grabbing his white lab coat out from the back and pulling it on before closing the door. He then returned back to the driver’s seat and reached over into the passenger side so he could grab his black leather briefcase that was full of all of his paperwork. He closed the car door and locked it before heading up toward Arkham Asylum.

Jack pulls open the glass front door and steps inside, his shoe clicking quietly against the white marble flooring. The receptionist, Marilyn is sitting at the welcome desk, her brown hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail while her fingers tapped away at the computer keys in front of her. She looks up as soon as she notices Jack.

“Good morning, Doctor Barakat.” She greets with a smile. Marilyn has always had a great respect for Jack. She knew that he always took on the so-called ‘lost causes’ that were sent to Arkham Asylum and that he had always done his very best to cure them. It was known to all of Gotham that nobody was truly ‘too far gone’ until they had met and had frequent appointments with Dr. Jack Barakat at Arkham Asylum.

Governments from all over the world had sent their worst criminally insane to Arkham Asylum just to be treated by the very Jack Barakat himself. But many of these governments didn’t know what Marilyn did. Jack never actually cured his patients, but he fell in love with them. And Jack knew he did this. He burrowed into the minds of them most insane, broke them down, got them at their weakest points through love instead of brute force and punishment. And also Doctor Barakat’s sneaky recovery tactic worked very well, it often took a lot out of him. He was worried that there wouldn’t be enough left of him when he actually wanted to fall in love with someone. He was terrified by the idea of real love.

“Good morning, Marilyn,” Jack answered politely. “Any news for me?”

“Yes, Doctor.” Marilyn says, shuffling through a couple papers on her desk. “Your new patient is arriving today, he should be here around noon or so.”

“Thank you,” Jack says. “When Nurse Dawson gets here would you be willing to send him straight to my office? I’d like to make some pre-determined plans for our patient before he arrives. I’d like to be as ready for him as possible.”

“Of course, Doctor. I’ll let him know right away.” She answers.

“Alright, excellent.” Jack says, clasping his hands together. “I’ll be in my office if you need me, don’t hesitate to call if you need help with any of these files, as they can be very confusing.” And with that, Jack flashed her one last smile before turning and heading down the left hallway toward his office.

Jack’s office was the very last door at the end of the left hallway. The left hallway was pretty much a straight hallway leading right to Doctor Barakat’s office, as it was right in the middle of the wall that ended the hallway. Once more, Jack slid his ID card through the scanner and opened his office door. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him before switching the lights on and setting his briefcase down at his desk.

Jack’s office was quaint, it sort of had to be because of the type of clients that Jack had to deal with on a daily basis. The walls were simple, a plain white in color. His desk was large, and made of a dark wood that sat on top of a tan carpeted floor. Jack’s desk chair was simple black leather, and his many degrees and awards hung on the walls behind him. It wasn’t much, but it was where Jack spent approximately 90% of his time.

He opened his briefcase and looked through his files until he found the one that he was looking for: The Joker. The words seemed to echo in his head, ringing through his ears and haunting the back of his mind. Licking his lips in anticipation, he opens the file and begins to read, despite already reading it thousands of times. There it was, the mugshot staring right back at him. His heart began to race.

Big, piercing brown eyes stared straight back at him, and even though the man in the picture was smiling, there were no wrinkles around his eyes. The Joker had skin that was close to white, thanks to a chemical incident at the local power plant, where he had been hiding out. He had jumped into a vat of chemicals in an attempt to hide from the police. The chemicals inside of the vat had permanently bleached his skin to a sickly pale color. Since his hair had previously been dyed, the chemicals in the vat reacted with the chemicals in his hair and turned it permanently blue. No one knows exactly how he got to be the way he is. No one knows what got into his mind and ate away all of his common sense and sympathy. Now, all he was is a thief, an arsonist, and a murderer.

Jack almost felt sorry for the poor soul, but he held those feelings back. This Joker had no one to blame but himself for his actions, and now it was Jack’s job to attempt to cure him. But for some reason, there was a strange feeling deep inside of his stomach that was telling him that he wasn’t going to be able to do it. He had a feeling that the Joker was going to be his greatest downfall.

There was a brief knock on the door before it swung open, revealing Jack’s best friend Rian.

“You look nervous.” Rian states simply. He pulls out one of the chairs in front of Jack’s desk and sits down, resting his hands on the desk. “What’s wrong?”

Jack sighs and shakes his head. “I am nervous.” He admits. “I have this weird feeling in my stomach that I’ve never felt before dealing with a patient.”

“Maybe because it’s so close to home.” Rian suggests.

“I don’t know,” Jack sighs, running a hand loosely through his hair. “We need to figure something out.”

“Well, our new patient is definitely going to have to be placed in maximum.”

“Agreed.” I say with a nod. “But there’s something more that I need to talk with you about.”

“Anything, man. What's up?”

“Okay, so I don’t want you anywhere near him.” Jack says quickly. ‘

Rian raises his eyebrows. “Oh?” He says in question. “Why not?”

“Look, Rian, this is definitely not anything against you.” Jack begins, carefully picking out his words. “You’re an amazing anesthesiologist, you get the needle perfectly aligned every sign every single time, but I want you to stay away from the Joker.”

Rian leans forward in interest. “Why’s that?”

“Because I’m not even sure that I’ll even be able to handle him myself, and I don’t want him anywhere near you. This guy’s got nothing to lose. He’ll kill you the second he gets the chance and I won’t lose my best friend, okay?”

Rian smiles at his best friend and reaches forward, taking Jack’s shaking hand in his own. “Thank you, Jack. I really appreciate you looking after me.” Rian says. “But if I hang back for this one, you need to promise me that you’re gonna be 100 times more careful than you usually are. I don’t wanna lose you either.”

After a few hours of sitting in Jack’s office, going through office work and talking, the unmistakable sound of Marilyn’s heels clacking against the floor could be heard. Jack’s office door opens and Marilyn is standing in the doorway, looking somewhat distraught.

“Doctor Barakat,” she says. “Your new patient is here.”