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Dr. Harleen Quinzel. That was her now, an actual doctor. She almost couldn’t believe it, but she was finally here! She made it and the next step was Arkham Asylum! She couldn’t wait to get into more practical work, and in Gotham Arkham guaranteed that work. There was just one little problem.
“We need you to take this case. I know it’s not the assignment you were expecting, but it’s still important, and I don’t have anyone to cover it.” The case worker was tired looking, stressed and working with an understaffed clinic. “And Arkham would like for their newest doctor to have some clinical hours logged before they start.
That’s honestly fair, work experience and all that but “But I’m not a child psychologist. I studied to work with adult clients. A child should be given to someone who has more experience with them, and who’ll know how to react.”
“I don’t disagree, but we don’t have any here at the moment and the medics that picked the kid up think he should be checked, and the social worker would like to ensure the kid is okay before giving him to his uncle. I just need you to make sure there’s no emergency or urgent issues, and if you think he needs some therapy but it’s not urgent he’ll get a child psychologist as soon as we can book him with one.”
Harleen still wants to argue, she’s not qualified for this and it’s not the first job she was promised, but she bites her tongue. It’s really not that big of a deal, and the longer she argues it, the longer that poor kid is sitting in a room by himself.
She takes the case file, looking it over quickly to get an idea of what she’s getting into before talking to the kid, Garfield Logan, huh what an odd name. He’s young, not quiet to the double digits yet, and there were barely any notes about his previous history until recently when he was picked up wandering around the streets of Gotham. He hadn’t said much about where he was before, and yeah, she can see why they’d want someone to give him a checkup.
She walks into the room and pauses because the file left out one pretty important thing that would’ve been nice to know. The little boy pauses from where he’s stacking the block shapes they placed in the room, staring up at her with wide eyes, and he’s completely green from the tips of his hair to she assumes his toes.
Well, now she’s staring and sees him start to shrink back into himself, so she quickly shapes up, closes the door behind her and takes a seat. “Hello Garfield. My name is Dr. Quinzel, and I’d just like to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”
Garfield stares back at her for a moment more, looking between her and the blocks before nodding and turning in his chair so he’s facing her.
She smiles back at him and clicks her pen, ready to get her first session started.
About an hour later, Harleen walks out, waving slightly at Garfield before shutting the door and walking to where she was told his social worker was waiting for her with the soon to be new guardian.
She finds them, and the man in a suit is immediately up, hands wringing in a way that looks nervous. “You must be Garfield’s uncle. Mr. Galtry?”
“I am. How is he? Can I take him home now?” The man seems like he’s trying to look worried, but something just seems, off about him. She can’t quiet put her finger on it, but she also thinks she may be overthinking it and considers the fact this man is both suddenly becoming a parent and lost his own family in such a short time span. It may not have settled yet, or grief has a weird way of presenting itself at times.
“I can’t tell if you can take him, that’s more her job.” She makes a gesture to the social worker standing by and watching the interaction for her own opinion. “But as far as if he’s okay, it’s a little hard to tell.”
“Oh?” Mr. Galtry straightens up at that, surprise coloring his expression as he glances between both professionals “How so?”
“He’s seeming perfectly fine. He was a little shy when I walked in, which is expected given everything that’s happened in the last few hours. After he opened up though, he was very talkative, energetic, and seemingly a normal happy and healthy child.”
“That should be a good thing though, right? Isn’t that what we’d want?”
“In normal circumstances? Yes.” Harleen flips to a page on her clipboard, referencing her more detailed notes “However, Garfield hasn’t had a totally normal life until now. He’s lost his parents, which he barely mentioned, and somehow ended up here despite having no logical way to do so and didn’t explain it even when I asked. There’s a chance he’s suppressing trauma, or he hasn’t had a chance to process it. When he starts processing it, he may start acting up, he may experience nightmares, or other behavioral issues.”
She’s addressing both of them, but she looks more at the social worker who perks up a little “I think he’ll need therapy sessions for a few months at least to help deal with both the new changes he’s going to be experiencing and to help with whatever he may not have processed yet.”
She glances down, staring at the name on top of the file and makes a decision “And I’d like to be the one to continue those sessions. I’ve already got a rapport with him, and he should have an easier time with a bit more stability right now.”
The social work nods, making her own notes while Mr. Galtry looks like he’s trying not to frown. She’s hoping he doesn’t have reservations about her recommendations and she’s hoping she’ll be allowed to keep to her own recommendations.
She may not have wanted to do this as an assignment, but client and patient compatibility is important, and besides what could it hurt to have a more normal work schedule for a bit before going into her dream job?
Mr. Galtry listened to her recommendations after all, keeping Garfield on a once a month visit schedule. He always seemed begrudged and put out when he came to check in for Garfield’s appointments, but Harleen did her best to focus on her client more than him. Some people didn’t like the idea of therapy or doctors and that was fine, as long as Galtry was bringing his nephew in she couldn’t complain. He’d only agreed to do it for a few months though, saying he wanted to return to his home soon.
Garfield, he insists that she calls him Gar instead of Garfield, turned out to somehow be both a chatterbox and tight lipped. He told her a hundred things; his favorite color, food, and things to do, and he told her about random things from the days in between his visits; he’s starting school, he went to a park, and he found out he doesn’t like lima beans much, but he still eats them.
He doesn’t talk about his parents though, or how he managed to somehow get from Africa to the United States with no parents, and what he was doing before the police found him. He’s showing more signs of nervousness though, a bit more fidgety and hesitating a bit more when he realizes that he’s straying from the fun topics and going to the serious ones.
She tries to encourage him, gently nudging him towards those topics to get him talking about it. He gives her tidbits occasionally, but he’s not budging much on it. She’s beginning to worry that she made the wrong choice and Gar should’ve been given a child psychologist closer to where they’d be moving. Just as she’s doubting her skills, he gives her something.
“I don’t really like blocks anymore.” Gar says from where he’s dutifully stacking a set of blocks while he talks. He opened up more when he had something to handle or play with, like he was working out excess energy.
She sits up a little straighter, latching onto it “Oh? Why not? You usually use them when you’re here.”
He shrugs, staring for a moment at the pyramid shape he’s made and adds “I hid the blocks with Mr. Stokes and Mr. Kurt. It...didn’t end well.”
“Mr. Stokes and Mr. Kurt?” Harleen asks, going through her notes again trying to see who the names belonged to. “Who are they?”
“They were my friends. I think?” He doesn’t seem too sure of that, more like he was choosing the word that best fits the situation because he didn’t know what else would work. “They’re the ones that brought me here.”
“They brought you back to the states?” She’s sitting more forward now, ensuring that she writes those names down and whatever else Garfield may offer. They’ve been trying to figure out for months now how he made his cross-continental voyage.
He nods, frowning at the structure again. “Yeah. They asked me to do alot of stuff, and then I got to play with the blocks and other trinkets for a bit.”
“And where are they now?”
That makes Gar curl up, shaking his head a bit and somber. Which means whatever happened to them or wherever they were now, it hadn’t been a good separation more than likely. She jots that down to ensure it’s given to the police either way before focusing on him again. “You don’t have to use the blocks then; we have plenty of other activities to play with. You don’t have to talk about them anymore today either.”
She mulls over the topics they’ve covered in their sessions and comes to a startling realization. He hasn’t mentioned one particular person that should have been brought up at least once “How about your Uncle Nicholas? How have things been with him?”
Gar scrunches his nose and tenses up a little at that question. “He’s... okay. We don’t spend a lot of time together.”
“Oh? Is he working a lot?” Okay can be workable, and it's possible if the man is working long hours to provide for Gar he may just not know the kid is feeling a bit lonely. Not ideal but possibly fixable.
Gar shrugs though and doesn’t look anymore ready to talk. “I guess. I don’t really know what he’s doing. He mostly leaves me at home if I’m not at school. He doesn’t like being seen with me much.”
“What makes you say that?”
“A lot of things.” Garfield pouts, picking at the edge of his sleeves. “He tells me to head to my room whenever someone comes over, or whenever he’s doing something and doesn’t want me in the room, or... a lot of different times.”
“I see.” Harleen is trying to be fair, to keep any judgements out of her voice as she tries to logic out what that could mean. It’s possible Mr. Galtry just don’t want to risk Garfield getting caught up in the middle of his work, or any other number of reasons. But she can’t help but be concerned given a few other facts, such as how disgruntled Galtry looks when he brings in Garfield, and Garfield’s general demeanor about the fact.
She makes a note to send a message to the social worker and continues their session while trying to also perk him up again before their time is up.
Garfield misses his next appointment, and she’s worried about that but she can’t do much more than what she’s done so far. She can only wait until she hears about a reschedule or some other update and must carry on with her day to day.
That is until about a week after the missed appointment, she comes into the start of her shift to be pulled aside by the front desk lady who tells her that Gar is sitting in her office waiting for her and had been there since they opened.
She hurries, concern welling up as she opens the door to see Gar curled up in the chair. His head snaps up when she enters, and he stares for a moment. He’s disheveled, looking like he hasn’t changed his clothes, and he’s got a few scrapes and bruises.
“I-I didn’t know who else to go to.” He admits, wringing his hands together “It just kind of happened and I-it was so quick, and I didn’t think the police would believe me.” He starts rambling looking more and more distressed as he continues.
That’s what prompts her to act. She shuts the door behind her, moving to kneel down to his level to see eye to eye with him. “Garfield it’s okay. It’s perfectly fine you came here.” She’s careful, telegraphing her movements before putting a hand on his shoulder “Are you okay? What happened?”
He takes a deep beath, nods and wipes at his face. “I’m fine. I managed to get away okay but Uncle Nick he... He tried to, he hired someone to-.” He keeps starting and stopping like he’s trying to process what happened still and pauses. He stares at the floor, collecting himself before meeting her eye. “He hired someone to kill me.”
“What?” Harleen rears back, that’s not the accusation she was expecting. She’d had concerns but the felt like a bit more of an escalation than she believed would happen. “How do you know that?”
“I overheard it. I heard him hiring the guy, and then I snuck out of my room and waited. When the man showed up, I ran. I stayed out all night and came here. I-I didn’t know who else to go to.”
He’s staring at her, begging her to believe him. She wants to, she does because she knows that Garfield hasn’t made up wild stories in any of their sessions and she can’t think of a reason why he’d suddenly come up with something like this. Her problem is getting proof, getting other people to believe that it was true, and just figuring out what would even prompt such a reaction.
She can work with him, start the process and get some answers. “Why would he do that?”
Gar scowls at this “I caught him stealing. He’s got my parents’ books, and I caught him writing in them and muttering about funds. I saw him doing that more than once, and he’s been buying a lot more fancy things.” He does turn just a bit sheepish as he admits “I may have mentioned that I noticed it to him.”
Well that answered that question, and it would hopefully be something that the police could track. It’s going to be messy, and a long process but she’s going to go with it. She doesn’t really have much of choice, but that’ll have to wait because first things first she needs to make sure her patient is taken care of. She can make phone calls once he’s cleaned up and calmed down.
“Ok. I’ll work on handling that; I promise I’m going to do what I can for you. But,” She smiles at him, trying to look as comforting and reassuring as possible “first things first, how about we get you a nice shower, some clothes and how do you feel about hot chocolate?”
Gar searches her face for a moment before a small smile grows on his face and he nods. She grins and pages one of the nurses to get the clothing and drink and takes the boy out and towards one of the showers out of the way of other patients.
Starting the process of getting Mr. Galtry looked into was slow, the police said they had to investigate and gather evidence, the social work had to have evidence Gar was in danger to actually remove him from the home because for some reason his fear wasn’t enough at the time. It’s not a comforting thought, and Gar isn’t exactly okay with it either but he’s got her number and knows he’s welcome back to the clinic if anything else happens. That’s the one security that he can keep.
She’d like to say it's the only time he had to use that security, but it’s not. He’s outside he clinic doors at least three more times after the first. Each time he swears up and down his uncle has hired someone else to come after him.
She questions how he managed to avoid these people, but Gar says that he just learned how to sneak out and how to hide. It’s likely that part of the delay, because Garfield himself can’t provide any evidence and the way he mentions getting away doesn’t seem as convincing to the police. She does still report each time he appears though, even if everyone else thinks she’s just humoring him.
Galtry also apparently is a better lawyer than he appears on paper. He manages to answer every question in a way that disarms, and the character witnesses give him glowing reviews. She never would’ve taken him as the type, but if Gar is right about his suspicions well, money talks loudly to some.
It’s an ongoing issue spanning at least a month, until it escalates to the point of Nicholas Galtry himself donning on a metal suit and attempting to handle the matter himself. Thankfully the Dynamic Duo are around and managed to subdue him, and Gar gets out of it relatively unscathed. It’s a lot more damning when the helmet comes off and Galtry’s face is under it, and Gar himself isn’t far from the scene of the crime. All that combined with the previous reports certainly influences the verdict.
Nicholas Galtry gets put behind bars, a restraining order is placed, and Gar is finally free from attempts on his life.
It’s both a relief and a stone in Harleen’s stomach when she hears the news. He can’t hurt Garfield any longer, but that means his life has been ripped up all over again. She can’t help but to ask what’s going to happen to him.
“We’re going to have to put him in the foster system. His other relatives gave up their rights to him when Mr. Galtry took him in, and they didn’t seem willing to take him in now. It’s unfortunate, but it’s what we’re left with.”
That draws Harleen up short for some reason. Realistically she knew it was a likely outcome, but she had hoped it wasn’t going to be. She looks back towards the green kid sitting alone, thinks about the sentencing for Galtry that he’s going to have to deal with, and about how he’s going to lose every sense of stability he’s gained.
“But he’s going to have to process all of this. He’s going to have to go to court again about all of this and what about his potential health concerns? His skin color is due to a disease that no one knows the potential long-term effects of. How are you going to find someone to manage all of that?”
“Plenty of families take in kids with health complications and they’ll be made aware of those and the potential court issues. He’s not likely to get moved out of Gotham anytime soon so there shouldn’t be any concerns.” It’s delivered matter-of-factly, a skill for the job she’s sure and not one she envies but it doesn’t help at all.
She doesn’t know why, but an idea pops into her head and she doesn’t over think it. She straightens up and looks over the social worker and asks a question that’ll likely change her life forever. “What if I took him in?
It was a long process to get the paperwork and approval to keep Garfield. Her apartment was inspected, her credentials and income, her reasons for taking him in, and everything in-between but she managed to win custody and was officially Garfield Logan’s foster mother.
She’s not allowed to be his psychologist any longer, but she’s going to ensure he still has a good one and one properly trained to handle children. She’s got to work now to ensure that she’s up to the task of parenting and taking care of a whole child herself. Good thing she’s willing to read those parenting for dummy books.
The amount of paperwork that came with Gar though was also dizzying. She really was not ready to suddenly become in charge of all the things Gar would inherit when he came of age. So, when he’s down for the night, which reminds her that she needs to take him out shopping for room decorations and more clothes now that he lives here, she grabs all the files she was given and decides to go through them all.
Her eyes widen a little a bit when she sees exactly what Gar will be inheriting when he’s 21, which leads her to looking more into his parents and wow she did not look into the kid’s background nearly enough when she took him on as a patient. A famous doctor and his most common research partner as parents explains a lot. The fact Gar is also getting all of Galtry’s assets as a part of the current sentencing certainly isn’t hurting, even if Gar doesn’t want to touch it much right now.
That thought leads her to look at the other potential relatives, and she’s disappointed at what she finds. Each parent has a sibling that they named to take care of their son should something happen to them, Nicholas Galtry was his mother’s brother and isn’t that a kick in the teeth, but his father also had a brother somewhere on the west coast. There’s at least one surviving set of grandparents, and none of them wanted to take Gar. If they hadn’t wanted to after Galtry’s attempts she’d understand, but they fully waived their ability to even visit the kid before anything happened. She can’t believe that Galtry was that charming or that good of lawyer, but the more rational part of her tries to justify it as maybe he was, maybe they couldn’t afford to take Gar, and a slew of other reasons but she still can’t fathom why they wouldn’t even want to talk to him. It’s more enraging than it should be, and she briefly questions what his parents could’ve been thinking.
But she takes a breath, calms down and then just feels sad about it all. It’s clear how much Mark and Marie Logan loved their son. They made sure he would be taken care of in every conceivable way they could have, they did everything in their power to make sure their son survived an otherwise deadly disease and had fully intended to keep him close. No one is a perfect parent, but the fact Gar speaks of them with so much fondness and love proves they were at least good in the time they were together. It’s easy to miss certain things about family members because you don’t want to think the worst of them.
It’s their loss really, and it’s Harleen’s gain. Gar is a wonderful kid, and she knows it’s going to be a lot of work, but she’s got faith they’ll make it out alright.
Especially since she’s just gotten news that she’s been accepted to Arkham Asylum as their newest psychologist, her dream job and a pay raise to help with becoming a single mom. She can’t wait.