Nightshift 43: Stairwell by Medical Wing

[no-ones-son.livejournal.com]

[from here]

"What do you mean, 'not running'? Don't tell me someone finally blew the place up with everyone inside?" Jason went on as he entered the stairwell. That would be too much to ask for. Arkham was under the Bat's protection, no matter that half of Gotham's problems would be gone if it and all the inmates were just blown to pieces. But Two-Face seemed certain that the asylum was gone. Good fucking riddance if it were, so long as it hadn't been empty at the time.

Comments

[dualistic]

Even now, Harvey still felt like something strange was going on, but he wasn't going to voice his paranoia -- not when he knew that Jason would probably just make jabs at him about it. He tried to forget that chilling feeling as they walked up the stairs, focusing instead on their conversation.

"Not exactly," he replied, finding it strange that Arkham was intact where Jason "came from." He was still very skeptical about how little their stories matched up, but he hadn't been able to sense that the kid was lying when he asked questions or gave his explanations about "his" Gotham. Harvey realized that the rug had been pulled out from under him a lot lately, but he was pretty damn sure he could still tell when someone was lying. It was hard to be a good attorney if you couldn't.

Which meant he had to give Jason the benefit of the doubt for now, even if it made no damn sense. "A man by the name of Jonathan Crane had developed a fear toxin and was using Arkham to release it into the water supply. Things got out of hand and the place ended up leveled, leaving all the inmates to run amok." That had been a mess that had never really gotten cleaned up, either. He was pretty sure Crane was still doing his Scarecrow gig despite Batman's efforts to stop him.

They had almost reached the top of the stairs, and it was when Harvey looked up that he saw her, standing there. Waiting for him. Rachel.

She was almost unrecognizable with all of the burns, a mirror image of his own scars and yet much, much worse. Worse than he could have ever imagined. Her name caught in his throat, but he didn't want to say it out loud because he knew this wasn't her. He was being played with again, but this was so much harder than seeing a gravestone.

He hadn't even realized that he'd stopped in his tracks as he continued to stare her down (or rather, she stared him down). Harvey had forgotten all about Jason in that moment. He was being judged, and he knew that he deserved it.

[no-ones-son.livejournal.com]

"Scarecrow?" Jason turned to eye Two-Face sceptically. "Fucking Scarecrow managed to get the place blown up?" That canned any ideas he'd had about Two-Face's memories being fucked with like Jason thought his might have been. Scarecrow - the one he knew - had never managed anything like that. It wouldn't have changed the fact that Bruce had to be from some stupid 'other world' but it might have helped him work out why his memories would be altered and not Alfred's.

Jason would have pursued the subject but before he could ask anything else he heard Two-Face stop. Turning back he tensed, bringing the machete up in readiness. If they had a tail they could use the staircase to their advantage and catch who or what ever it was off-guard so long as they didn't let on that they'd heard it. But Dent wasn't listening for something following them or trying to warn him, he was just standing there staring at a the empty space at the top of the stairs.

His expression immediately alerted Jason. It was like he'd seen a ghost. Whatever Two-Face thought he could see it wasn't good. And Jason didn't want to just assume it wasn't real or a potential threat. Making sure he could watch both the top of the stairs and Dent in case of an attack, he asked quietly "What do you see?"

[dualistic]

While Jason was one of the people who Harvey knew best here, if only because they were both from Gotham, it didn't mean that he wanted to be dealing with a haunting while the other man was standing right next to him and asking him questions. He sent the quickest of glances at the kid, but once he looked back to where Rachel had been standing, there was nothing.

It was if she'd never been there in the first place (probably because she hadn't), and yet Harvey still felt a chill shoot up his spine. He felt like she might appear again at any minute, and he didn't want that. She was already gone; he had already mentally buried her. He didn't need her confronting him now, when he had already hatched a plan for exacting revenge on one of the people who was responsible for her death.

He gave a small shake of his head and climbed a few more of the stairs, letting out a breath and ignoring the way it made his charred lips sting. "Nothing," he muttered. "It was nothing." Like hell was he going to start sharing and caring with the kid. They were working together because they had a similar goal, but that didn't mean he was going to start having heart-to-hearts.

Was it the institute that was causing this to happen (another creature like that horse, even?), or was it just him? Why wasn't Jason having the same problem? Harvey clenched his teeth, not liking the fact that he seemed to be the only one who was being tormented by a ghost.

[no-ones-son.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I know there was nothing there. That's not what I asked." Jason didn't like getting brushed off like that. He was tempted to get in Dent's way, make him spill what he'd seen. Whatever it was it had unbalanced Two-Face and that was enough reason for him to want to know what it had been and why Dent was the only one who'd seen anything.

But it was gone now and Jason had been seeing things tonight as well, even if disappearing doors or see-through walls wouldn't cause that kind of reaction. It was stupid to waste time over a hallucination when they didn't know how much longer they had to get what they were after. He could make Dent talk later, when they'd gotten the rope for Bruce. With that in mind he started up the stairs after Two-Face, keeping the machete ready just in case seeing things was a sign something was coming after them. You never knew, he might get lucky.

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