Harley, Jake, Ivy, Frost, and Ace all stood in complete silence and don't seem to breathe as they stare at the Joker on a gurney.
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There were tubes going to him to keep him alive as he thawed out. The Joker has been on ice, so to speak, for over nine months. Seeing him out of his cryogenic tank again was a surreal moment for all of them. Truthfully, they never really thought they would see this day. It felt like they were welcoming the patriarch back home again.
But the Joker wasn't out of the woods just yet. It would still be a long road before he was in the clear. Complications could still arise from the hypothermia. It would probably be several days before Jake could take him off life support machines. There was a chance that he wouldn't function on his own. It depended on how the surgery went. The Joker would need the function of his brain for survival without the machines.
If the brain function wasn't there, he wouldn't get a chance to recover. He would die. But if he came through it all, it would still be several more days before his eyes could open. But that was when the real battle would begin. Thats when they would know how much recovery there would be for him. At that time Jake would be able to assess how much brain activity J had, and how much of a recovery they could hope for.
Jake had told them that the Joker would definitely have muscle atrophy. They would have to exercise his muscles for him several times a day. After that's seen to, the real therapy would begin. The Joker would be equivalent to a newborn infant. He would be very weak with almost no control of his muscles. Things as simple as raising an arm or head would be impossible in the beginning. It would take a lot of physical therapy to get him back on his feet again.
But that was only part of his therapy. He wouldn't be able to speak or communicate at all. He would completely have to relearn how. Jake warns them that this would most likely be very frustrating for J. Jake would show Ivy how to do the speech therapy and he would handle the physical therapy.
The Joker's recovery time would depend entirely on how things went during the surgery. One wrong slice with the scalpel could make the Joker retarded or worse, a vegetable. Things were very tedious when dealing with the left frontal lobe. But Jake was hopeful. He knew that his twins surgery went far better than he had expected. Operating on frozen tissue made the procedure about fifty times easier. And Jake has confidence in the work he had done.
But for now, they all had to play the waiting game. Their breaths were bated. Their fingers were crossed. They each pray to a god they've forsaken. Their minds try to stay positive. They all try to comfort one another. They all keep one another reassured. They knew the Joker would fight his way through this. He had to. Things were falling apart without him. And no one but the Joker could unravel what had been done. Only he could deal with Jason.
Sal Maroni had once told the Joker that one man couldn't couldn't run the crime in Gotham. That was why there had been the five families. But the Joker did control the crime in Gotham, and he did it solo. He did it because they told him he couldn't. He had proven to every criminal in Gotham that he had something none of them did. He had unprecedented power because he knew which hands to grease, and which ones to blackmail. His genius level intellect couldn't be surpassed. Only the Riddler's intelligence rivaled the Joker's.
