A Misled Lamb 41. Magic

41. Magic

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Jonathan growled as Frank Boles tossed him into the office of Doctor 'Absonus'. When Boles tried to pick Crane up and place him in a restraint chair, Crane smashed the guard's knee with his head and spat at him. Angered, Boles kicked Jonathan in the chest harshly before grabbing him by his hair and tossing him into the chair.

Absonus looked across his desk at Jonathan's face, noticing the blood trickling from his cheek, "Please settle down Doctor Crane," gesturing to Boles, who was currently fastening restraints on Crane, he laughed, "Make yourself comfortable. I won't be letting you out of your straightjacket anytime soon, so feel free to shift to whatever position you like."

Trying to retain some vestige of power by enacting his normal routine, "What? Are you scared of what I may do to you without this restraint?"

This just caused the bald doctor to laugh even more, taking off his wig as he slowly calmed down, "Why of course not. I have security guards outside, Boles right here, and all the blackmail I need to keep you in line," taking a moment, he added, "Not that I'll need any of those shortly."

Confused what this was all about, Crane spoke in an aggravated tone, "What the hell is all this about Strange? I have better things to be doing than talking to the likes of you, things like wasting away and dieing both take precedence over this meeting."

Standing up from his desk, Strange slowly walked over to his new patient, "Jonathan, you should learn to accept my goodwill when and where I offer it," when he reached him, Absonus brutally slapped Jonathan across the face, "You are going to be playing by MY rules now, so you best not anger me!"

Even more blood dribbling down his cheek now, Jonathan spat more out as he chuckled dryly, "Easy to get under your skin I see. Does this has to do with your feelings of inferiority? Your fear that your aspirations and dreams are unattainable? It's natural to find an outlet-"

Intensely glaring at Jonathan through his shades, Strange bellowed, "Enough Crane! We're not playing your games now, it's my realm!" Taking a breath to regain composure, Strange took something small out of his lab coat's pocket, holding it in front of Jonathan, "Do you know what this is?"

Noticing what it was, Jonathan's eyes grew wide, betraying the neutral look on his face. He was panicking, and Strange could sense it, "Oh you bastard, you wouldn't dare-"

Strange went back to chuckling, "I can and I will. I spoke to our benefactor Ras and he doesn't care what I do with you as long as it doesn't get in the way of our plans, that it doesn't impede your effectiveness," lip shifting into a smirk, he continued smugly, "When I told him that I could return the sinister Scarecrow to his former glory, he gladly agreed to what I'm doing right now."

Retrained, Crane still managed to thrash around wildly, "I will kill you when I get out of here!"

Waving his finger in a scholarly fashion, Strange's countenance became neutral once more, "No, I don't think you will Jonathan," hanging the pendulum in front of Jonathan's face, Strange went back to laughing as the struggling increased and Jonathan shut his eyes, "You see, I'm not going to let you."

Boles grabbed Crane's face, turning it fully towards the doctor but Jonathan forced it away, "No, get off of me! I won't fall for your pathetic magic!" Boles grunted as he used one hand to force Jonathan to face the pendulum while the other tried to force one of the eyes open, "Let go of me!"

Cackling madly, Strange opened the other eye with his open hand, "I'll do what I please Crane. You belong to me now. Now, let's begin the hypnosis."

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Things had been going smoothly with Titan today, but Young wanted a second opinion on some changes to the formula she had made. Of course the experiments were above her colleagues heads and pay scale, so it was only her patient who she could confer with.

Walking into the extreme isolation area, Young called out to her patient, "Hey Jonathan, would you like to join me today on the Titan project?" She felt kind of odd by asking such a question…asking as though he may have something better or something else to actually be doing. As she approached his cell she was met with no response, although she could hear something coming from his cell, "Jonathan?"

Taking a glance into Jonathan's containment cell caused Penelope to gasp, "Oh my god, what's wrong? What happened to you?"

Laying on his cell floor, Jonathan lay bleeding in the fetal position. The blood was emanating from gashes in his straightjacket, from his mouth, and his nose. Fumbling with her key, Young opened his cell hurriedly and dashed over to him before kneeling down next to him. She was surprised to see that he wasn't only harmed, but also in some sort of trance, like he wasn't fully there mentally, "They're all bullies…they're all big, bad meanies…"

Trying to help him up, Young had her hands pushed away. This didn't discourage her though and she kept trying to help get him up, "Who are you talking about Jonathan? The Rogues? Who hurt you?"

Completely delirious, Jonathan kept muttering to himself as if his doctor wasn't even there, "Why won't they just leave me alone? No-one ever leaves me alone…ol' Johnny the Scarecrow…"

Young managed to coax him out of his curled up position, but he still lay on the floor in an almost catatonic state, "Come on Jonathan, I'm going to get you out of this cell. You need help and I know of a few doctors who will fix you up and help you."

His mutterings stopped briefly and Penelope was able to get him to stand up slowly, "Up you go. I'm here to help you."

The word she used felt foreign to him, a word that made him want to cringe, "No one wants to help me…you only see me to get famous…you're just as bad as the others who used me for their personal pleasure and gain…"

Young almost gasped. He…knew about what she had been doing. In hindsight, she wasn't very surprised given who he was and his psychological aptitude. Still, it hurt her to here it from his own mouth, it hurting not because of any slander but because it had been true. But like her patient had been changing for the best, so had she. She didn't want him to get better for her own gain at this point, and that was what mattered in her mind.

Placing one of his gangly arms around his shoulder, she helped him remain standing despite his condition. She could see bruises on his face and dried blood on his face, all of which upset her, "No Jonathan, I'm not like them. You're safe with me, okay?"

He was silent after that, whether he believed her or not unknown to Young. She didn't even know if he could fully understand what she was saying to him. She led him out of his cell and towards intensive treatment.

On their way they passed by some orderlies and patients, all of whom seemed surprised by her patient's status, some downright shocked. Once again Crane began to speak, but it seemed to be to himself rather than to anyone in particular, "No-one's innocent…every last person is responsible…they don't want to own up to it, but they are…"

Cooing reassuringly, Penelope looked up at him, mentally cursing the half foot difference in their stature, "Shhh, it's okay Jonathan. I'm bringing you to the intensive ward, and when you're done there you can rest in my office. Would you like that? Would you be okay?"

His face slightly changed, not enough for anyone to notice from a distance, but the displeasure he showed was not lost by Penelope, "Doesn't matter where I am, they can still find me. I won't be alright no matter where I am…"

The two slowly approaching the medical facility, Young responded resolutely, "I won't let them hurt you again, whoever they are. Okay? This isn't right."

Again, she received no response. Jonathan just kept staring off in front of them, his face contorting as if he were seeing grisly phantoms. Young decided not to pressure him into anymore conversation because something was definitely wrong with him at the moment and she didn't want him to feel threatened by her.

When they entered the treatment center, many of the orderlies looked at her with confused expressions. What was he doing here was what they all were thinking, half of them having had run ins with him as his alter ego and the other half having witnessed the horrors he inflicted upon others. He may be a patient, but the way he slowly had victims die while hallucinating their worst nightmares made him more feared than the Joker when it came to the medical aspects of things. At least the clown's victims didn't spend hours writhing in terror, with almost any efforts to save them being hopeless.

So when Young saw their faces contort in horror like her patient's face was in pain and fear, she yelled angrily, "He needs your help, so someone do your damn job and help him!"

The orderlies and doctors scrambled, all jumping to find some way to help out.

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Once he was settled and being treated fully, something Young assured by terrifying the workers with subtle threats to their jobs, she decided that she needed to talk to someone about this, "I'll be right back, okay Jonathan?"

Fully catatonic, he had no response. His expression was blank and he said nothing, causing Young to sigh. Squeezing her patient's palm, she left him quickly to find a certain doctor.

Dashing into her fellow doctor's room, Kellerman was surprised by the appearance of Young and was more surprised when she stopped on a dime to yell, "What the hell happened to him? Who's been to extreme isolation today? Patients AND Doctors!"

Trying to find out what she was rambling about, Kellerman held his hands up in a peaceful gesture as he sat in his desk chair, "Sorry Dr. Young, but what are you-"

Young slammed her hands down on his desk, causing the seated man to jump back startled, "But what? Who the hell saw him? You know what I'm talking about!"

Grasping what she was speaking of, Kellerman sighed and looked down, "I saw Boles and some guards drag him into Dr. Absonus' office earlier, but I don't know what they were doing nor did I want to get involved."

Growling, Young stared at the man's hair because he refused to look her straight in the eye, "And you didn't think to inform me? He was bleeding and laying in a puddle of his own goddamn blood when I found him! Tell me, what would have happened if I hadn't stopped by his cell?" Kellerman kept silent, the result of which being Young's wrath, "Exactly! He almost died! And that isn't all of it! Oh, no it isn't. What could that bastard Absonus have done to poor Jonathan? He's suffering from a severe breakdown."

Realizing the danger of having a top tier rogue have a mental breakdown, Kellerman sat up completely straight and his eyes widened, "Wait, what? What's happened to Crane?"

Young began to slightly fizzle, but anger still emanated from her, "I have no clue, but all Jonathan is doing now is cry to himself and moan about bullies, while bleeding severely," annunciating the last part slowly and deliberately.

In an attempt to defuse his ticking time bomb of a colleague, Kellerman spoke calmly, "I get it Young. I am sorry I did not inform you of what I saw and I admit to that being a possible life altering error, but how was I to know that he was to be manhandled like that? And besides, how do you even know it was Absonus's doing?"

Young opened her mouth to yell a reply, but her voice fell short. She didn't actually have any proof. Yet, that was.

Driving that point home, Kellerman questioned the validity of her hatred and looked up finally, "Well do you have any proof that it was Absonus who caused this? Crane is a severe case, so it may be coincidental, as in an assault from a fellow inmate, or even a sham-"

Taking a deep breath, Penelope decided that she couldn't help Jonathan if she just stormed everywhere angrily. Instead she now spoke neutrally, "Kellerman, Jonathan is prideful. He wouldn't break down crying in front of anyone if he wasn't suffering severely."

Kellerman may dislike Crane, but this could not stand if it was an act instigated by a doctor and decided to allow that train of thought, "Well what do you suggest we do? Absonus is in Strange's position and that means the only person who can truly confront him is the Warden, who we both know won't take issue with one of his severe patients breaking down to the point that he can't do anything."

Penelope couldn't bear the frustration she felt. She knew that the upstart named Absonus had caused this, she knew it, "But there has to be something we can do, right?"

"Young, I hate to say this, but we're going to have to wait this one out I think. See what happens and try to learn more. My apologies."

"I just want to help him…Jonathan has more of a reason to be in here than any of the other patients, and I actually kind of pity him and what he's gone through," knowing that Kellerman may speak up against any sentiment placed in Jonathan, Young added, "And before you say anything, no, I'm not personally invested in him. I just want to see my patient finally get the treatment he needs."

"This will severely cripple your efforts at letting him out, won't it?"

A glint appeared in Young's eye, although Kellerman could only guess that it was of anger, "Once Jonathan has returned to normal you can fully expect me to pursue that again, but I don't think that he's at all capable of functioning on his own at the moment."

"Fine, but we have to be sure first that he will recover from this breakdown. You need to keep a close eye on him and if he becomes a threat, make sure you call security."

It was Young's turn to look down, sorrow flooding her mind as she thought about Jonathan's condition again, "I will, but I'm not sure Jonathan could pose a threat to me or anyone else like this, even if he wanted to."

Pulling a drawer open, Kellerman sighed, "Better safe than sorry," withdrawing a taser, he lifted it up and held it towards her to be received, "Keep this with you. I noticed that you're one of the only doctors who carries nothing for self defense, so take it."

Recognizing the device that had left Jonathan's face marred with small scars, Young couldn't help but stifle a laugh, "A taser? Are you kidding me?"

Not understanding the incredulous he was receiving, Kellerman continued, "It's useful, and it can save your life in a pinch. So go check on your patient before he decides the best way to deal with Strange is to fear gas him."

"Jonathan would never do that even if we handed him the gas ourselves. He's really gotten better Kellerman."

"So much better that you've trusted him to be left alone in your office in the past."

"Oh shut up, he's not a threat and he isn't the intricate schemer you make him out to be."

"Whatever you say, Penelope. I'm going to go attend to my own duties now. Maybe Bartholomew may be able to help you out more. He's sympathetic to all patients here, so he's your best bet if you're looking for an assistant for dealing with this issue," as an afterthought he added, "Be careful."

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Having been moved into her office as per her request, a heavily bandaged Jonathan lay on the transportable bed he had been brought in on. In Arkham mansion Young believed no-one could touch him, not without a thousand cameras catching it this time. Jonathan was also without his straightjacket, for it was taken off so they could treat them. It may sound creepy or odd, but Penelope was glad to see that her near translucent had gained weight. He was way to skinny, but her meals with him were bringing him to a not pencil thin state. He still looked like Ichabod Crane (she noted the irony in that statement), but that was an improvement (sadly)…after entering her office, she pulled a chair over to him and sat down, shaking away thoughts of the bare-chested man.

Not sure if he was awake due to his closed eyes, Penelope spoke gently, "How are you holding up Jonathan? Are you feeling any better?"

Revealing that he was in fact conscious, Jonathan spoke in a monotone voice without opening his eyes, "Of course not. All that has changed is the time and my location. Why would I feel better? I am trapped on an island of bullies who all want to hurt me, with everyone either scaring me or being scared of me."

Thinking of the prospect of being scared of Jonathan made Young think. Was she actually scared of her patient? He had done some bad things, and his improvement was no assurance that he was cured. But this vulnerable, crushed man? And was he scared of her? Very unlikely. All she had really done was help him, even if a lot of it had been self-serving initially.

"I'm not afraid of you, and I don't think that I scare you. Do I?"

Possibly caught off guard by her question, Jonathan was silent before he stammered out, his head turning away from her, "N-n-no…"

Following up, Penelope beamed, "But I am here to help you, you know that right?"

"No…you're self serving, two-faced. You act nice to me and then take notes about how much my progress is contributing to your fame. You don't want to help me except to help yourself."

Young felt there was no point in arguing against the truth, guessing that she must have left the wrong notes out one day and that he had seen them. Instead she decided to continue being there for her patient…she had a feeling no one had for him in the past, "Is there anything I can do to help you right now Jonathan? Anyone you want to see? Anything you need?"

"No-one to see…no-one likes me."

Trying to think of people she had seen him hang around, Penelope bit her lip. Who did he hang out with? Having mainly focused on him and his problems, his past, she hadn't really learned much about his present…

Trying to respond to him, but still not sure who to mention, she spoke, "No-one? What about the Rogues you usually are around?" Finally, she decided to mention the three Rogues he hadn't spoken too badly about, "Uh, the Riddler? Two-Face? Quinn?" To make it a nice, even number she added the pathetic man he saved, "Drury?"

This did not go over well with her patient. He spoke coldly, although the venom wasn't posed towards his doctor, "Riddler and Two-Face only respect the Scarecrow, not Jonathan Crane. If they saw me like this I would receive no sympathy. Quinn is unbearable, albeit friendly. She causes depression to turn into suicidal tendencies. Drury can't handle himself, not even with inkblot looking after him."

Young blinked in confusion. Inkblot? There was no inmate that went by the name Inkblot. Thinking of the white and black masked vigilante that they had acquired a little while ago, the puzzle pieces fit together, "Oh, you mean Walter? That's why Drury's been out of trouble then…Jonathan?"

Dead asleep, Jonathan's chest slowly rose and fell. His arm even fell and hung off his bed lazily, something that Young remedied by placing it back next to him. Good, Young thought, he could use the rest.

It was a perfectly good Friday, and Young decided that since she wasn't going to be spending it with her father or anyone else for that matter, why not dedicate it to looking after Jonathan? She didn't even have a pet at home that would miss her.

"Rest as long as you like. It's not like I'm not going anywhere tonight."

Before she pulled out some work to go through, she had a nagging thought run through her mind.

Harley Quinn and Kellerman would kill to see her attending Crane and watching out for him caringly. But what's wrong with taking care of a patient in the end? He needed someone right now, and apparently she was all he had.

She didn't want to leave the room unnecessarily in case he needed something, but Penelope swore to give Absonus a piece of her mind when she ran into him.