Professor Fear (the sequel) - Jonathan Crane

Chapter 10

Jonathan had asked Daria to spend a night out of the house whilst he worked on his newest chemical adaptation. Perhaps it was because of the hazard or because he needed to focus. After a good amount of time spent both living with Jonathan and working in the same building, Daria thought it would be good to get some time away. She had gone back to her special cafe and confidently suggested to Almasi that the two have a girls night in.   

Almasi said she rarely had people over and figured spontaneous friendship was worth celebrating. A middle shelf red wine had been bought and cracked open to drink.
Having not drank since Jonathan had overdosed her in fear toxin, the effects of alcohol were interesting to her. You're safe here. Almasi isn't going to use your fear against you. She told herself reassuringly.

For the next hours after that, the two women had been telling each other stories, laughing giggly and behaving like long-time friends who hadn't seen each other in months. Daria felt comfortable in a way that she hadn't felt in a while with April and Ethan. She had felt they saw less to life than she did, than Almasi seemed to. 

When Daria next woke up, she was on the sofa. Almasi's head rested on her left shoulder. Using her free right hand, she reached for her mobile which was on the small table beside the sofa arm.

"What's the time?" The drowsy voice beside her mumbled.
"9:15,"
"Crap," She sat up, almost knocking heads with Daria in doing so. "Wait its Wednesday, I start at 11," She lowered her head onto the couch again.
Daria had brought a change of shirt and underwear with her from the house for the sake of hygienic comfort. While Almasi got changed into her clothes for the day, Daria went into the bathroom, pulled on a dark green tank top and wiped the excess smudged makeup from under her irritated eyes.
That's what you get for not washing your eyeliner off! She scolded herself. 

The two women had walked to the café together where Daria had been gifted a free cappuccino and a day-old croissant. With warm brew in hand, she bid her friend farewell and walked towards Arkham. It was the day that she was supposed to sit in on sessions to see how they were carried out.

"Dr. Crane is away on business this morning. He would be the one showing you the ropes since you've been assigned under him. I'm lucky today I guess!"
The flattery fell on deaf ears. Daria's mind was still focused on Jonathan not texting her last night or telling her he wouldn't be at work that morning. Her instincts told her to attempt to make contact with the Riddler again. The short conversation from days before had shown that the man knew Jonathan relatively well. She was curious to talk to a Gotham Rogue (she hardly managed to see Jonathan as one) and wanted to know Jonathan's 'friends'. 

"We've recently re-caught Harley Quinn," Dr Price announced.
"You make her sound like a fish," Daria mumbled. She wanted to find a phone to call the Riddler's number. He'd probably used a burner phone but it was worth a try.
"Ha, so funny Ms Morrison! Unfortunately I can't let you sit in on my sessions because Dr Crane is your supervisor while you are in training. I can have a nurse talk you through how she conducts her group therapy sessions?"

Daria sat through one group therapy session, led by a young nurse. Immediately afterwards, she was talked through the differences between the different wings of Arkham. She and Dr Price met once again for a brief lunch in the Arkham Cafeteria before discussing forms of therapy which Daria would have to go through training to be able to administer. The training in totally would take four months. It would be almost like going back to school again.

Daria finished her day at 6pm. It wasn't until after she'd stepped outside of Arkham's front door that she realised she didn't know where she wanted to go. Jonathan had still not replied to her. 

So she gave that phone number a try.

It rang for ages. Not even stopping to offer the possibility of leaving a message.

Then it was picked up.

"I don't receive calls, I make them," The sentence imitated a long sigh.
"You know Jonathan better than I do. How long may I not hear from him while he works on the toxin?"
"How should I know? he doesn't usually have a romantic interest coming between his work. He didn't really use a mobile phone until you came along."
Daria was surprised and intrigued by the information.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a man tied up in front of me who can't even answer ONE little riddle,"

And he hung up.

Now that sounds a little bit more like a phone call with a criminal.

Daria got the shuttle and walked to Jonathan's house. After two deep breaths, she knocked on the door. She hoped he wouldn't be mad at her interrupting. She still had no key to the home so entry to the house was on his terms. 
Abandonment trauma kicking in much? She asked herself.

The door lock clicked and began to open up for Daria to be able to enter.