NightQuinn

The Innocent Psychiatrist

"You did what?!" Tim hissed. Dick had already explained twice what had happened. He opened his mouth to state it a third time, but Tim but him off. "No, I know what you said. I'm just having trouble believing it. I won't tell anyone, but I should."

"No, you should not." Dick said, almost frantically."That's only gonna make this worse."

"Dick, you currently have, in your bed, the woman who has tried to kill us on several occasions and actually helped kill Jason." Tim stopped, frozen solid. "Wait...Dick, you didn't...you didn't sleep with her did you?" Tim still barely moved.

"No, nononono, no, Tim, I did not sleep with Harley Quinn." Dick stuttered slightly. "Look, just let me handle this. When has your older brother, Dick, ever made a regrettable choice?" Tim looked at Dick, almost looking confused. "Should I begin or end my list of your bad choices with your romantic misadventures?" Dick shook his head and sighed.

"I'll talk to you later, Tim." He said and got up from his chair to leave the room and the manor.

Dick parked his motorcycle and headed inside and up to his apartment, as walked down the corridor he could hear incredibly loud metal music playing. In fact, it grew louder when he neared his apartment. He unlocked the door and entered. As he made his way in, the music was even louder, he shut the door, quickly grabbed his mask and slipped it on before heading to his room. Harley was sat on his bed with a handful of CD's by her side. As she was surprised to see him back (mostly because she couldn't hear him come back), she was too busy being shocked by his arrival to stop him turning the speakers volume down. He piked up the Megadeth CD resting atop the stereo system. "So you found my music collection." Dick smiled.

"What's it to you?" Harley shrugged, clearly annoyed that he had interrupted her music. Dick sighed and sat at the bottom of the bed. "You know, just because we're  hero and villain doesn't mean we have to react to each other with hatred and animosity." He said. She inhaled slightly heavily and said "Fine, maybe we can pretend to try getting along while I'm here." As she said this, Dick noticably smiled, whereas Harley wanted to smile, but she couldn't figure out why. The it hit her why. She might make a friend. She realised she hadn't had one of those for a long time. Her only friends were Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Bud & Lou, her hyenas. Then there was Joker who was of course more than a friend...or far less than one. She had contemplated her relationship with him while Dick was gone. Her train of thought prompted her to say: "To be honest, I get enough of that hatred and animosity back with--" She realised what she was saying to one of her rivals. Dick's eyes widened. "With Joker?" He inquired. She nodded, trying not to show any emotion, but she didn't expect having to hold back the feeling of wanting to cry. "You, uhm, wanna talk about that?"

She shook her head. "Not really, no."

Dick bit his lip. "That's fine." He said, he was taken aback by how she was acting. This wasn't Harley Quinn he was talking to. This isn't the psychotic girlfriend of the Joker who had tried killing Dick and most of his family before. He was talking to the innocent psychiatrist who had been manipulated to be someone she wasn't. This was Harleen Quinzel.  "You wanna talk about something else then?" He looked at the CD still in his hand. "So this is the kind of stuff you listen to?"

Harley looked up at him, showing hints of smiling. "Yeah, but I like to mix it up from time to time." She looked over at his shelves of assorted albums. "And clearly so do you."

Dick darted his attention over to his organised collection. "Well, most of it is just for my friends and family, for when they come round, I'll put on one of the albums from their section." Dick was slightly worried about the fact that his family's secret identities were written on the different section, but he realised that if she had figured out anybody's alter ego, she would have bragged about it to him. "Who's name did ya cross off?" She pointed to the scribbled out section.

"That, umm, that was for my ex-girlfriend." Dick said, looking away from Harley and fixing his gaze on the crossed out label. "I should probably move those CD's but I kinda like them, even though they're all soppy love songs. Also I basically made a collection of our favourites on one disc, and I like having that. So I guess that's my excuse." He smiled, which almost made Harley smile, just seeing someone be smiling in any way that isn't maniacal, which she had't seen for a while. "I take it you don't really want to tell me about that?" Harley asked, before replying to herself. "Actually, that's shitty of me to say it like that. You're not obliged to tell me a damn thing."

"No, it's fine, I understand. You're just interested if I'm single ain't you?" He joked, they both laughed at that. Some awkward moments passed. "I am single by the way. Kidding. I mean, I am single but I was joking, I was just--"

Harley laughed at him. "Nah, I know what ya meant." She smiled. "I'm sure you ain't just doing all this to get in my pants." Dick paused for a second.

"I'd hate to shift the tone here, but I did this because I didn't think you needed to get any more hurt than you currently are." He explained. Then he exhaled slightly. "You know what, when you're healed, I can send you back to Joker if you want, it can be as if you were never here, I can try coming up with your alibi."

Harley's smile faded. "Actually, I don't know if I want to go back there." She muttered. "I'm just..." Tears started to well up in her eyes. "Look, this has been fun, but...but can I be alone for a bit?"

Dick nodded. "If you need anything, I'm just in the other room, just let me know." She forced a smile and nodded before he left and shut the door.