An Unhealthy Obsession

CH 6: A Reminder of the Past

"How are you feeling, sweetie?"

"Like hell, although I did just have a bullet removed from my spleen" Harvey joked.

Laughing at his brutal honesty, Rachel took his hand in hers before revealing, "The doctors said you're going to be alright, so I expect you to stop complaining post haste."

"What, and give up on my right to bitch about politics and my clients? Never!"

Rachel smirked. "Wow, has anyone ever told you you're a complete smartass? If you weren't bedridden right now, I definitely would've smacked you."

"Well don't let that stop ya" Harvey urged, grinning as he held up his fists. "C'mon, put up your dukes!"

Rachel laughed. "Oh my God, you're more doped up than usual...what are you on, goofy juice?"

"Nope, just morphine and I little bit of love for my favorite girl."

Rachel groaned, but amazingly this did not prevent her from giving him a kiss. Smoothing his hair with her fingers, she smiled before whispering, "I never got to thank you for being so brave yesterday evening. If it weren't for you, I very well could be dead right now."

"If it weren't for me, the Joker wouldn't have used that game of chance against you" Harvey bitterly insisted. "I don't know how he figured that coin thing out, but it's scary how well he knows us."

Rachel bit her lip. "Harvey, please don't talk about that right now...all you should be focusing on is your full and speedy recovery."

"Yeah" he agreed, "'cause then I can put a bullet through his spleen."

Rachel wasn't entirely sure why, but Harvey's heated words instilled her with a sense of panic. Gently touching his hand, she hurriedly shook her head before arguing, "Now I know you don't want to hear this, Harvey, but you've got to let it all go. I'm not going to lose you over something as petty as revenge."

Harvey scowled. "Rachel, are you completely blind? He's watching your every move, yet you don't even seem to care!"

"Well of course I care!" Rachel shouted. "Why do you think I'm trying everything in my power to keep you safe? Your going after him just isn't worth it!"

Harvey snorted. "You know, it's almost as if you're trying to protect that creep, Rachel. You're getting a little too bent out of shape over all this."

"Me? You're the one accusing me of having some sick, twisted love affair with a madman!" Rachel screeched. "Some women may find the jealousy thing appealing, Harvey, but I do not -- you're so worried about getting revenge on the Joker that you're not willing to see reason!" Shooting up from her chair as if she'd been burned, Rachel grabbed her purse before snapping, "When you're finally ready to grow up, have an orderly call me...until then, we have absolutely nothing to discuss."

"Rachel, wait! You don't understand!"

Promptly ignoring him, Rachel stormed out of the room and left Harvey to his own devices, a rush of air escaping her lips as she realized that some of what he'd said was true.

--

America Cromwell was a beautiful young receptionist, but observation had never been her strong point. The moment she gazed upon the tall, curious man bedecked in a hat and trench coat, she thought absolutely nothing of it and got up from her seat in order to escort him. She didn't normally abandon her desk, but there was something so intriguing about the man that she found herself playing 'little miss tour guide'.

Leading him to room G59, America chirped out her farewells before she reluctantly left the stranger to his own devices. With two meditative glances in either direction, the figure quickly entered the hospital room and shut the door behind him, a gleeful grin cracking his lips when he noticed Harvey nodding off in the far right-hand corner of the room. "Evening, Dent."

Startled, Harvey looked up in order to see the Joker taking off his disguise, his bottom lip quivering as he hissed, "You! What in God's name do you think you're doing here!?"

"Well what does it look like I'm doing? I'm here visiting my good friend, Harvey Dent" the Joker condescending explained, a chuckle escaping his lips as he pulled up a chair. "Aside from all that good cheer, I figured we could discuss your oh-so-charming girlfriend, Rachel Dawes." Upon saying the attorney's name, he gave a low bark before lewdly panting like a dog.

Positively infuriated, Harvey growled out, "And what the hell do you want to know about her? By God, haven't you already done enough!?"

Grinning, the Joker cocked his head to the side before asking, "Now why would you assume I'd want to learn anything about Miss Dawes? If anything, I know far more about her than you ever will."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I know her secrets, Dent...I know what makes her tick." Now scooting closer to him in his chair, the Joker mockingly contemplated his answer before sustaining, "In fact, I know her biggest hopes and dreams, her fears and her nightmares; all the things that compose the enigma of the illustrious Rachel Dawes. I originally wanted to break her spirit and make her a God-fearing woman, but now I've decided to develop a new goal for my game."

Harvey's blue eyes flickered with fear, yet the curiousity within him urged the lunatic to continue. "Go on" he pleaded. "What do you intend to do?"

Moistening his lips with his tongue, the Joker retrieved a pocket watch from his coat before dangling it in the light, his finger pushing the watch open as he patiently explained, "Time was created to bury the failures of the past, Mr. Dent, and because of this, most people tend to move forward opposed to reliving their past mistakes. Each man is the architect of their own fate, yet our very own Miss Dawes has built herself a prison instead of a home. She never actually learned the lesson that men aren't prisoners of their actions, but by their own minds, so she's spent all her life trying to make up for her past sins and transgressions." Now swaying the pocket watch back and forth like a pendulum, the Joker's lips cracked into a smile as he cheerily sustained, "Fortunately for Miss Dawes, there is a very simple way in which she can save herself. She can either accept her faults, or brood and brood and brood, which will inevitably lead to her downfall. I've been waiting to find someone with Miss Dawes' sense of darkness for quite some time, so now that I've discovered the black seed within her soul, I intend to rectify its dormancy by bringing it to light."

Harvey listened to all of this with a great sense of incredulity, for no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't wrap his head around what the Joker was trying to say. With a disgusted shake of the head, Harvey dismissed him before declaring, "You're far more insane than I originally thought, Joker -- Rachel's the sweetest, most pure individual I've ever known."

"Is she, now?"

Sending the Joker a reproachful look, Harvey moved to give a resounding affirmation when he suddenly found that he couldn't. He'd only met Rachel within the past few years, after all, so perhaps she wasn't being as truthful as he thought she'd been?

As the Joker watched several emotions darken the contours of Harvey's face, he leaned forward within his seat before revealing, "Unfortunately for you, Harvey ol' boy, we've reached the part that I've truly been dreading. I can't have you interfering with my plans for Miss Dawes, so I'm afraid I'll have to make you MIA for a while."

"What? Wait a minute!"

In a flash, the Joker retrieved a syringe from his pocket and stabbed it into Harvey's thigh, the attorney giving a pained howl before snarling, "What did you just inject me with, you sick son of a bitch? Morphine?"

The Joker giggled. "Morphine? Come now, do you really think me that amateurish? I've given you a coma-inducing drug called gamma hydroxybutyrate...definitely not a common criminal procedure, but since I wanted you out of the way and not dead, I found it quite ideal."

"Well that was very sweet of you" Harvey quipped. "Was this for my health, or just your own general amusement?"

"Neither" the Joker smugly assured him. "Since I need Miss Dawes' full cooperation, I can't have her getting distracted by something as inconvenient as your death." Now rising from his seat, he gave Harvey a cheerful "Pleasant dreams!", the attorney watching after him as he felt his eyes beginning to grow frightfully heavy.

--

When Rachel finally returned to her apartment, it was closing in on one in the morning. Aside from the occasional pit-stop at a bar, she'd been walking around the city with the hopes of clearing her head. She didn't like to admit it, but Harvey had been right about one thing: when it came to the Joker, she somehow felt that she could always forgive him. He was just a troubled individual, after all, so didn't he deserve a second chance like everyone else?

With a sigh, Rachel removed her overcoat and hung it onto the rack by the door, her teeth chattering once she realized that the room was cold -- unbelievably so -- and that it appeared as though all of her belongings had been touched. On the dresser sat a tiny jewelry box, and on the far end of the room stood an open bureau, several of her gowns tossed haphazardly about the room as if someone had been searching for something.

Approaching the dresser out of panicked curiosity, Rachel lifted the lid of her jewelry box and gave a start, a small smile painting her lips once the familiar medley of "Feelings" began tinkling within the air. When she took a closer look, however, she soon discovered a weathered photograph at the very bottom of the box. Lifting it out with careful precision, she gingerly lifted it up to the light before realizing that it was her father and herself twenty years ago.

Furrowing her brows, Rachel found herself flipping the picture over due to some red ink bleeding through the front, her eyes widening in horror once she read the words: PRE-SLUMBERLAND.

Just when Rachel thought she couldn't take anymore, one of her dresses slipped off its hanger and to the floor, the attorney crying out before she turned and slammed the jewelry box tightly shut. She had to get out of there, and fast!

Racing toward her only means of escape, Rachel couldn't help but gasp the moment the door blew securely shut, a sob catching in her throat as she tugged on the knob and discovered it was locked.

"Let me out!" she wailed. "Oh, somebody please let me out!"

The musical jewelry box began to play in answer, Rachel screaming as she began to beat on the door amidst her hysteria. When it finally opened, the attorney staggered back in alarm due to the sudden intrusion, her hands flying to her face in horror when she discovered the familiar figure in the doorway.

"Well hello there, beautiful...looks like we've got quite the discussion on our hands."

With a pitiful moan, Rachel weakly swayed about before collapsing in a fainting fit on the floor, the Joker cackling as he entered the room and shut the door securely behind him.