A Misled Lamb 38. Give Up

38. Give Up

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were certain things that completely angered Doctor Penelope Young, and chief among them were those who stood in her way. Be it an idiot who caused a car accident and was slowing her down on her way to work, or a coworker desperately trying to stop her from treating a patient any further, Young hated them both for standing between her and what she was working towards.

This was the latter case.

Exasperated with the stubbornness of his fellow Doctor, Kellerman sighed as he argued with Young, "I insist that you do not try and see this out. He is a danger and menace to society, and he is merely using you to achieve one of his own twisted ends."

Young shot the man a look, otherwise barely holding back her anger at what the man was insinuating, "And what do you mean by 'twisted ends', Doctor Kellerman?"

Kellerman could not stand working with Young at times, but that didn't mean he wished her any ill-will. Keeping this in mind, he continued to try and persuade her of her folly, "What I mean is he may be using you to escape in a perfectly legal manner, only to then humiliate us when he would then-"

Young was not at all pleased with the stubborn fool who kept bringing up this exact topic, and cut him off curtly, "Doctor Kellerman, if my patient wanted to escape he could have easily done so when the Joker did so. He isn't this 'sinister Scarecrow' you paint him to be, nor is he insane," giving off a smug smirk, Penelope added, "I completely believe that if you were to give him some of his old fear formula he wouldn't use it."

Frustrated beyond belief, Kellerman decided to bring up a darker aspect of the topic, "And what of the various guards and orderlies who we find dead every week? We cannot trace what is causing their deaths, but that's his genius! The man may not be insane, but he is evil and I am absolutely sure that he has found some untraceable formula to use on us. Stop deluding yourself Young!"

Like a switch, any willingness that Young had to listen to Stephen Kellerman vacated her and was replaced with even more defiance. Speaking knowingly, Penelope held one hand to her chest, "I am not delusional. He has shown improvement in every regard possible, his only trait that is somewhat lacking being his antisocial tendencies, but those are easily explained by his prior social encou-"

Letting out a gasp of disbelief, Kellerman followed up on it by shouting, "Listen to yourself! You are literally walking right into whatever he has planned. From what I've heard, he can be as manipulative as the Joker! Think of that, as manipulative as a man who can pull everyone's strings, without being one-tenth as crazy! Crane is a major threat, and you just aren't seeing that!"

Leaning against her desk, Young had a deep frown plastered on her face as she responded, "Well then why do we treat these 'Rogues' at all if we have the belief that they cannot be cured? I am behind cutting Joker's sessions, but there are those like Jonathan and Dent who are-"

Kellerman continued to yell in frustration, despite the fact that he was merely feet from the stubborn woman, "That's my point entirely! We should be focusing on the low-risk, not Rogues! The men and women who comprise the Rogues can't be helped! And even if they could, they wouldn't want to be helped either. You want to know what happened the last time a doctor tried very hard to help their patient?"

Young gasped, not believing what the man was implying, speaking in a jittery and disbelieving way, "You better not compare me to that idiot Quinzel! Jonathan is my best patient, but I haven't developed an obsessive fixation on him! How dare you even compare me to tha-that strumpet!"

"Well you are showing all the signs that she did before she became known as Harley Quinn, and I don't want to see that be repeated. You contribute to much to this facility to-"

Kellerman would have been wise to have said that from a few steps away, because he didn't have the time to prevent the harsh slap that he received.

A pregnant pause followed the slap, Young taking a step back but still standing with anger emanating from her, "I dare you to say that to me again. Tell me, how am I acting like she did?"

Kellerman rubbed his cheek ruefully, talking venomously, "A, you spend hours some days talking to him. Much longer than your allotted time. B, I've noticed that you've begun bringing in two lunches to work, and unless you have gained an insatiable appetite recently, I would say you are eating meals with him as well. C, you have begun letting him help you on your research team. D, you are spouting nonsense about him being sane, just 'not understood' and 'distressed'. I agree that he is sane, but no-one but you misses the fact that he is a twisted human being. That is if I can even call him that, given what he does."

Silence permeated the room once more, Penelope caught off guard with her co-worker's statement. She literally had no way to respond and not prove one of his suspicions or by lying…even if she said she got her patient food for his own health it would come off as being attached to him. Him being on her research team may not make sense from his point of view, but if it didn't make sense to him then Young wouldn't be able to make him see from her perspective.

Speaking slowly and carefully, she responded, "Just because one woman deluded herself into thinking that the Joker was sane does not mean that I am making a mistake in believing that Jonathan should not be here in Arkham."

Kellerman scoffed, "Even if that means letting him loose on the general population, where dozens are sure to die?"

That…wasn't something she had put that much thought into. What if this were all some complicated plan of Jonathan's? Then that would mean she would be placing a murderer back on the streets of Gotham, and putting everyone at risk. Not to mention herself…

Shaking those thoughts away, Penelope looked away from Kellerman and towards the floor in the corner of her office, "If that were to be the case I would not be against having him be sent to Blackgate, but my point is that I have helped him move on and without a doubt I know he would not return to his old life given the chance."

Her fellow doctor hung his head in defeat, seeing that nothing he could do would change her stance or what she was going to do, "What would it take here to prove to you that he is just tricking you? A murder right in front of your eyes? From what I heard happened the other day, Crane fought three other inmates and one was sent to intensive treatment for third degree burns."

Recounting the Firefly incident was easy for Penelope. It was a prime example as to her patient's willingness to change, for he didn't need to stop the other inmates, "He didn't start the fire, and he was protecting another inmate from being lit on fire along with the building they were about to commit arson on. Why does no-one believe that, even with Drury's testimony alongside my own?"

A condescending tone replaced Kellerman's previous tone of defeat, "Maybe because you are seen as too attached to your patient and Drury is easily influenced, given the fact he is the bottom of the totem pole here amongst inmates. A simple threat could make him say anything for or against any other inmate."

"Walker is more honest than that, and you have to be joking about me being too attached. If it will absolve me of any of your suspicions, I will admit that I only started treating Jonathan with the hope that I could get famous for curing a Gotham Rogue. Since he was already sane, I'm just trying to prove it-"

"Do you know why Harley Quinn wanted to treat the Joker? Same exact reason that you just-"

The previous statement infuriated Young, both personally and professionally, "Stop comparing us! She and I are nothing alike! I wouldn't throw my life away for some convicted criminal patient of mine!"

"I'm sure she would have said the same-"

"Shut up and get out of my office! I won't listen to this a moment longer!"

Nodding, Kellerman said one last thing before he turned and hastily left Young's office, "I will leave, but I will reiterate my point. Don't see this through. Nothing good will come from it, and Crane sure as hell doesn't deserve to leave Arkham."

Standing up fully, Young stalked across the room and slammed the door behind Kellerman.

"Paranoid bastard."