Little Do I Fear [Crane]

[Nina Stenet]

It took Nina a surprisingly small amount of time to decide to make this visit to the asylum. Within an hour of the morning news broadcast that announced the capture of the Scarecrow she told Shawty to make a call asking if she might be permitted a chat with him, which was apparently granted without much trouble. In other circumstances the question of whether to take the opportunity of that man being somewhere she can find him or not would have been difficult, but after Edward's visit to her apartment... Well, things changed.

One might say that she's grasping at straws (if you'll pardon the pun), but she has reasons now to be curious as to why exactly this insane man contacted her in the first place. She hadn't really cared what his reason was the first time that they met, as she'd been far more focused on the simple fact that she didn't want to be meeting with him regardless of the reason. But now... now she needs to know exactly where everything stands - you can't play a game of chess if you don't know where the pieces are positioned. A game that she intends to win - as Edward is well aware, she's a very stubborn person and keeping her from what she wants can easily become not worth the effort...

But though permission for the visit was granted very quickly and she was eager to both try to get some answers to her questions and get the whole thing over with period, it's now a few days later that she's actually being allowed in. She didn't think much of the delay - she couldn't care less about how the asylum orchestrates things (though like anyone on Gotham she wishes they could hang onto their patients for once), but she figured that immediately after Crane was caught they had things that they needed to do with him. If she'd known that those 'things' included keeping the man in solitary while they made arrangements to make the man's stay as long and unpleasant as possible, she might have suggested that she could wait a few more days... She honestly doesn't like the man at all.

Dislike, however, is not enough to stop her. And neither is the fact that she's still not fully recovered from Edward's attempt on her life. As a guard escorts them to the cell where they're keeping the man she's here to see, Shawty is pushing her along in a wheelchair. It's not that she can't walk, but she's still rather weak. She'd checked herself out of the hospital against her doctor's wishes as soon as she was well enough to sit upright for long periods - that means that she's well enough to work. Though she's stronger still than that by now, she did lose a massive amount of blood and it will take her awhile before she's fully recovered from that. And she doesn't dare speed up the process with her gift this time - she raised enough eyebrows at the hospital with the simple fact that she survived, so she's resolved not to add to it. Raising her blood volume abnormally fast is not something she could hide easily, so for now she'll just have to deal with the symptoms of her anemia, and that includes getting tired easily. To walk through this large facility, talk with Crane for however long it takes, and then back out again is simply too much to expect of herself right now. Even though she can't say that she enjoys being pushed around like a true invalid.

Not that she's likely to be able to present herself very well at the moment even if she was on her feet. Sure, she's as always very cleanly and professionally dressed, but her anemia gives her skin a certain pallor and her eyes are somewhat sunken in due to that and too few hours of sleep. Then again, her eyes would seem to have become sharper now than they had been during her first meeting with this man - the experience of nearly dying for a second time at Edward's hands has woken her up in more ways than one. Though when Shawty brings the wheelchair to a stop in front of the glass wall that keeps in the man she's here to see, she says nothing at first. Instead she stares at him with a somewhat demanding expression, as if he was visiting her and she thinks that he's wasting her valuable time.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane lay staring up at the ceiling from the cold floor of his cell. He had been moved here a short time ago. It was the most he had been moved around since he had been here last and he was beginning to wonder why. He hadn’t been that inclined to misbehave to their orders, he hadn’t struggled more than he usually had at the sight of Dr. Arkham. Speaking of Dr. Arkham….He hadn’t seen him in days. Not that it was a problem. There was a problem directly above him however. Normally he would have knocked out the light by now and been protected by a small grate that was more than difficult to get through. It was the first time he had been unable to figure out a way to bust or turn the light out.

Perhaps it was because there was literally nothing left in his room. He had a slab of his bed left that as naturally bolted to the floor, with a mattress that was strapped down with bolt locks as well and no pillow. His desk had been removed from the cell all together and they had taken his chair years ago, despite that they could have just bolted it to the floor. Apparently their anxieties led them to believe that he could somehow gravitate it from the floor. The light was mocking him from above, blinding him with its light and it was the only thing that he could stare at, since he was given nothing else.

It wasn’t odd to hear doctors walking through the halls back and forth, taking other dangerous patients out of their cell or guards observing their rounds. He knew the sound of all of them and all of their voices with their various pitches littering the echoing walls. There was a new sound coming down the halls however. One hat he could feel through the vibration of the floor. When he heard it stop in front of his cell the doctor stayed on the floor for a long moment, just waiting for whomever it was to speak, but after a moment of silence the thin corpse lifted from the floor.

There she sat in front of his cell, with her partner behind her. Dr. Crane stared at her as she did him for the longest moment he’d think he had taken for another since he had gotten here from solitary. Slowly, the doctor got to his feet and walked to the glass. He stopped just inches before it and looked down at her, observing her injured frame. Something had happened since he had been captured, and she had been injured. Uncomfortable thoughts shot through his mind about the several possibilities but were quickly pushed down and all curiosity was wiped from his face. It was an expression of stone that lacked any empathy or sympathy for her condition. “Dr. Stenet.” He mentioned simply in greeting, refusing to talk down to her regardless of her condition, his greeting wasn’t going to change and he wasn’t going to mention that she was below him either.

He did however, Ignore her partner completely. She wasn’t important and held no significance to him. She was a waste, a vessel, that was only as good as long as she could push a chair. He didn’t need to ask them why they were here…he already knew…

[Nina Stenet]

Though she gives the comparative bareness of Crane's cell a glance in passing, Nina is hardly concerned by it. It's obvious to her why that would be the case - the man is clever and dangerous. If he cares about being comfortable he's hardly managing his life in such a way as to encourage that outcome, so she'll hardly waste the time and emotion to feel any sympathy for him about that. Indeed, when her eyes meet his, there's nothing but intense scrutiny behind them - she's looking for answers, and a few of them might be found in simply the way that he reacts to her.

And though she could never claim to be very good at reading other people, this time she's specifically looking for it and thus catches the slight signs of racing thoughts before the wall goes up and his expression becomes too controlled to be trusted as truthful. So, seeing her like this is a surprise, then? But a surprise in what way? She'd have expected a bigger reaction if he'd expected her to be dead, so the surprise must be that he didn't know she was injured to begin with. And yet the reaction seemed too much for him to simply not have expected to see her in a wheelchair - the fact that she's been severely injured must mean something to him.

Not that she suspects that he feels sorry for her. And even if he does she'd really rather that he didn't - he's one of the last people in the world she'd want sympathy from, actually. No, what she may want from him is far more useful than that, depending on whether he can give it to her or not and whether she decides that she wants it. Though in finding out the former, perhaps she'll be able to answer the latter. And when it comes to that, so far the limited signs are positive.

"Crane," she replies politely, though omitting any title. She doesn't say it derisively as others might - in fact the only reason why she doesn't give him a formal 'mister' is because that might perhaps underline the fact that she didn't call him 'doctor'. And when it comes to that, she simply cannot bring herself to apply that title to a man like him no matter how respectful she's trying to be - he doesn't deserve it after all the things that he's done and it actually somewhat disgusts her that he ever had it legitimately to begin with. But now is not the time to be too concerned about such things, as she's here to have a very direct talk with him if he'll cooperate with that - as equals, or as close as they can come to that.

"It seems that misfortune has found both of us recently," she comments first, "You're here, and I recently participated in a rather intense argument about whether I should be alive or dead. I won, obviously, but it was a close thing." Her voice is perhaps surprisingly light given the subject matter, as if she was making rather uninteresting small talk instead of talking about nearly dying. "Nevertheless, seeing as you've gotten yourself into a position in which I know your whereabouts and you seemed so interested in seeing me again during our last conversation, I thought that I'd save you the trouble of breaking out of here and tracking me down," she adds in the same tone, still watching him for any slight signs of reaction.

But in spite of the hint of fear that may be found in that reason for coming here, she hadn't been that worried when she met with him before. And if anything she's even less so this time - he is, after all, locked up. And while she knows that he can apparently find his way out of this place, she trusts that whatever security measures they have in place here won't happen to fail catastrophically while she's here. And if they do, she'll be able to handle that anyway. No, the fear that she does have is for the future, not for now. And though Shawty had been on high alert about Crane last time, this time she seems to have taken her cue from her boss and is paying just as much attention to him as he is to her - instead she prefers to keep an eye on the hallway for other possible threats. You never know when some crazed lunatic will get away from the orderlies moving them from one place to another and she's still being extra careful about Dr. Stenet's safety.

But really, the only truly nervous one here is the guard who escorted them here, who is now eying the Scarecrow as if the rogue might suddenly find a way to walk right through the glass wall keeping him contained and get to these two women he's supposed to be keeping an eye on.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

The doctor stared through the glass at the mechanics of the chair in front of him while she spoke his name in greeting. A small twitch in his mouth was his only reaction to it, small compared to what he normally would have done. In most cases he would have simply corrected her, but right now his focus was far too narrowed on the wheels in front of him. He made no eye contact with her at this point, simply letting her speak while he stared. His posture seemed dead, almost exhausted as he looked on. She was injured, but who had done this to her?

As he asked himself the question his eyes slowly lifted from the workings of the chair to study her facial expressions and her posture. The possibilities narrowed instantaneously the moment he was able to look at her face. His trained eye could see behind her cold and calculated presence and her clear dislike of being in the chair of even here for the moment. But the ends certainly didn’t justify the means; there was something more to her visit than just saving him time. That was why he knew, he could see the fear on her face and it wasn’t a fear of him.

What had he done?

His hands lifted and placed themselves upon the glass to either side. Slowly his body crumbled and he fell to his knees in front of her. The impact on the ground was nothing with his slender frame. He came more to her height at this moment, a little shorter than her with his posture. With his long legs folded there wasn’t much else to him. What really changed was the distance in his eyes. It was like her partner had never been there to begin with, but it wasn’t likely he would have acknowledged her anyway. His focus seemed so far, like it was on a lonely shore. The cages around him became changing tents that no one ever used. He could actually see the brilliance of the sun melting behind her into the sea of his thoughts.

What had he done?

The doctor’s face remained like stone as his eyes stared through her own eyes. He was lost in his own vision, trapped in his own thoughts of what he couldn’t escape any more than she. His lips pressed just slightly to the glass and fogged a small portion, showing the intensity of his breaths within the world he had fallen into.

But then the world collapsed.

A flicker, a simple flicker of light came from over head. It sparked and sputtered for a moment and made his world crumble around him. Life jumped back into his eyes and made his chest thump against the glass as if he had completely came out of his body previously. His iris darkened as he turned his head and looked up at the faulting lighting system they had installed in his room. Meant to keep him out of it, but of course not nearly functioning as it should. He hated the light, he wanted it out and every fiber of his being showed it at that moment. He stared at it as if he could break it with his mind, but to no avail.

The light that flickered reminded him of everything in this moment that should have been, but could never be. Slowly his gaze turned back to her. “You’re going to need to open the glass if you want me to dress that wound properly.” He stated simply, in almost a dead tone. As if it wasn’t really what he wanted to say, but it was the simple truth.

[Nina Stenet]

The wheelchair Nina's sitting in is very basic and cheap. It's very temporary, after all, and she's only used it when she really has to. Which will hopefully only be for a little while longer. The wound itself is hardly a problem, it's the anemia that's making her feel so weak, and the weakness that makes the chair necessary. Were she anyone else, the pain of the injury would probably make her lean forward a little to keep the pressure off of it, but pain is a problem that's very easy for her to solve. Instead she sits back, as if she was sitting in a comfortable chair, but one that she's impatient to get out of.

Even as he observes her, she observes him. And at first, she's not sure what to make of his reaction. Though at the very least she gathers that he's had a second realization, and there are very few options for what that could be about. Has he guessed that it was Edward? But why would figuring that out make him do... that? Perhaps it was something else? How is someone supposed to guess the mind of an insane psychopath? When he seems to space off entirely, she finds herself wondering if she should have even come here. He seems... worse than the last time she saw him. And he was pretty bad last time. She can handle all sorts of physical illness, but mental illness...

Yet in spite of the fact that she's questioning his mental state, she looks wholly unmoved as she watches him. To some degree she actually expects this sort of thing from him - you expect an insane person to act insane. The question is more whether he's too insane to get what she wants out of this or not. The way that he stares so angrily at the light is not at all reassuring. Nor is his statement.

However, she's not willing to just give up on him yet - no, she didn't come here just to turn around because communicating meaningfully with this man is hard. It's only if it proves to be impossible that she'll leave with nothing. She may yet be able to work with this. "I don't need help with my wound," she replies, sounding almost irritated, "Between my cardiac surgeon and I, I'm in good hands - it will soon be nothing but a distant memory." Not to mention, she wouldn't accept anything remotely related to medical treatment from Crane, ever. Then again, the fact that she's a doctor herself and could theoretically treat herself is a huge factor.

"Though I do have a bigger problem to solve now," she adds, her mood suddenly becoming more thoughtful, "For so many reasons, this should not have happened in the first place." And there, a flash of anger crosses her features - to say that she's upset at Edward for what he did would be putting it very mildly. She doesn't think that she's ever been more angry at someone in her entire life.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

If it were up to him she wouldn’t be in a wheelchair. Dr. Crane was often overconfident about his medical abilities. He wasn’t a licensed surgeon and never was but he believed very much so that he would make an excellent one. He had performed the task on others and even himself at times. There was only one job that was sloppily done, but he still had to take some iota of pride in the work there as well, if it didn’t work, he would have bled to death. But since he couldn’t die, of course it was going to work. But she wouldn’t let him anywhere near her chair it seemed; he couldn’t blame her, why wouldn’t she fear him after something like that. It was already clear she knew more than she should or at least suspected more than he wanted her to.

Despite being on his knees, he lacked all feeling of inferiority in front of her. He couldn’t feel that way even if it was possible from behind the glass. He was always being monitored, he would never give that kind of reaction to Dr. Arkham, whom he was sure was watching from somewhere cushy inside the building. But he had already shown far more than he’d have wanted to from the beginning. It didn’t matter; neither of them were going to understand regardless. Dr. Crane was becoming used to dealing with the ignorant, and being in here that was the only way to pass the time.

If she hadn’t come for her wounds there were only two other possibilities – Neither he’d like to talk about and one impossible. Since the latter was impossible the only other conclusion was Edward. Edward was the only other man in his line of work that he knew she dealt directly with and although he had not seen firsthand what happened to them, he had enough end of the stick to know what probably happened. The question arose if she knew what had happened between them in the first place, but why would Edward go around boasting like that? He had a reputation to keep, one far more precious to himself than anyone else, including Dr. Crane. But if she had come because of Edward, that meant she wanted to talk about Edward in relation to him.

Dr. Crane stared at her broken body as he slowly rose back to his feet to look down upon her again. He wanted to ask her to ask whatever she wished of him. There wasn’t much he could do beyond the bounds of the cell, but information was usually what people came for and Dr. Crane was always willing to give someone a lesson in the truth which they so desired….Even if they didn’t quite realize it. “What can I do for you Dr. Stenet?” He remained professional, pushing those thoughts away as if there was nothing that could be done in the first place to prevent them. He had always remained this way with her. “After an injury like that, surely, you are not coming on their behalf.” He broke his sentence and paced to the side slightly to stand at an angle from her. He hinted as if Edward’s guilt was already suspected, but Dr. Crane bore the cross.

It seemed that she knew of his involvement or she wouldn’t be here. What did she want from him. Information? Some folly of comforting her fear about Edward? The worst had just barely began to pass. Did she come to pass judgment upon him? To blame him for what happened to her? Why would she come here? To toss her blame? Why would she come to a man with no – little – complicated empathy for her?

[Nina Stenet]

Watching as the man gets back to his feet, Nina's patience seems to be rewarded based on his words. Her expression sharpens as she reminds herself what she came here for, now that it seems the proper moment to really talk business.

But even as she's working out where to start, her unhappiness with remaining seated boils over. For whatever quirk of human nature, heightened emotions are more easily dealt with when you're on your feet. Pacing in particular is conducive for thinking, though she hardly has the energy for that at the moment. But she abruptly decides that she'd rather be standing now, even if she ends up getting overtired and has to return to the wheelchair before the conversation's over. Behind her, Shawty reflexively hangs onto the handles of the chair to keep it steady as Dr. Stenet gets out of it, though most of her attention remains on keeping watch over the hallway as she seriously doubts that her boss would be getting up if it weren't perfectly okay for her to do so.

Though the decision proves to have been a bit too abrupt - after she's pushed herself to her feet, a wave of dizziness overcomes her as her heart struggles to keep enough blood going to her brain in spite of the unusually small supply of it. But she's quick to steady herself by pressing her hand against the glass in front of her, and it only takes a few deep breaths for the dizzy spell to pass. She hates being anemic - it's very unpleasant! Once she's shaken that off, her gaze turns back to Crane and she meets his and says, "You can answer a few questions." Well, more than a few, actually, but there's a few primary ones to start with.

"As far as I'm aware, there is only one little piece of rather personal history that would make me any different from anyone else in this city to you," she states, remembering that he'd hinted that he knew during their last meeting. "Why would that matter to you? Why do you care about that? How do you know about it in the first place? And why does this..." her free hand goes to her chest, just over her heart, "...mean anything to you at all?" Her expression grows demanding again as the questions are asked, though she's uncertain if she's actually expecting to get a satisfying answer out of him for any of them.

Her expression relaxes somewhat as she stops for a breath, still feeling weary even though the dizziness doesn't seem to be coming back - yet, anyway. "And if I told you that I want revenge, would you be more inclined to stop me, help me, or stay out of it?" she adds more lightly. There's less emotion in that question because it's purely hypothetical - for now, at least. Though she does hold more hope that he'll be able to answer that one than she does about the others.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane was always thinking. In his world you always had to remain far ahead of everyone else, even if it meant taking all the punishment and torment first. To let them believe that they had it all or were in control of what they’ve done. It would only be to fall back into the inevitable in the end. All succumb to fear and all will bend to its will in the end. In his pace he was thinking about her and why she would be here, each turn of his steps was changing and reforming a gear in his grand design to make it fit and work again. He moved it like he controlled the gears of his world with each turn of his arms, bound and shackled shamelessly with each choice and to each consequence.

He kept his sights on her as he walked; his mind was still wandering over each possibility but still keeping an open mind to what she had to say. She was fatigued, this much was certain from the moment she was wheeled in. She looked as if she barely had the ability to remain awake but somehow persevered do to her willingness to continue or end this conversation. Clearly, something frightened her. When he saw her stand, shaken but gained her footing, he walked to the glass again to meet her. Dr. Crane remained at a considerable distance but enough to meet one face to face comfortably. Dr. Crane was always one for his own comfort but never care much about others. His space was very important to him but anyone else’s was never in his mind. There could be no boundary around fear. What bound tied him to keep his distance? Nothing.

As her body fought itself he took down mental notes of each peculiar way she moved. She was dancing with the aliment she suffered from. Whatever had happened to her, which he could only speculate as she never quite told him. But each symptom she had made the vision of exactly what happened clearer and clearer in his mind. It made his joints stiffen and his bones want to crack. But just as he thought one might in his neck she told him her purpose here. It wasn’t to be fixed, or to seek his council on any matter but instead it was to inquire in a form of interrogation. The doctor almost smiled, a simple twitch from the other side of her pale reflection in the glass, he was used to this kind of treatment.

His eyes became distant as she asked her wave of questions. The doctor was surely looking through the glass and dead into her eyes but they were just that, dead. There was nothing behind the iris that bore into her. Whatever part of the man that was there had been lost to drift into the spire of his thoughts and trapped into the ever spiraling abyss that was the darkness of his mind. It wasn’t until her hand moved to her heart that his eyes finally moved. It was a jolt, like he had fallen back into his body yet he had heard every word. There wasn’t a moment where awareness had left, only in visibility. She was going to bring her heart into this? As if she knew anything about it at all…She understood so little. It made her so fragile.

Revenge?

The doctors suspicions were confirmed, but the strong evidence was already there to support everything that had come to mind. Dr. Crane wasn’t one to jump into the affairs of others unless he had something to gain from it, normally involving his research. Was there something to gain here? He kept asking himself the question with different results each time. There wasn’t any possible way that she had found out what….What Edward and he….

His head tilted slightly and tried to brush off the thought. It didn’t matter. “I could linger here behind this glass and tell you the twist and turns of how I came here.” He paused in his thoughts to roll his tongue over his lips. The doctor was choosing his words carefully. “But it doesn’t matter anymore does it. Is the damage not done?” His eyes never left hers but his fingers trailed up from his sides to rest just over her wound through the glass. Help….Was a useless task, receiving or giving. But in this case in particular, it may turn out to pull in his favor. “As I said before. What can I do for you Dr. Stenet? That is within my reach in these slowly closing walls…” His voice lowered to a whisper as if the walls themselves could hear him lamenting into his dramatics.

[Nina Stenet]

As she watches the man behind the glass, Nina can almost sense him studying her. But does that matter to her? Not really. Why should she care what a psychopath's evaluation of her is? Well, beyond whether or not that evaluation results in him harassing her or not. And that's merely because it makes him become a problem for her.

"If I'm right, the damage has only begun," she mutters darkly, her voice becoming stronger as she adds, "And I'm not in the habit of wasting questions. What you can do for me is answer them, unless stringing a few words together is not 'within your reach'." She doesn't move as she talks, save for a barely perceptible sway of her body as she struggles to keep her balance a bit more than she's accustomed to. There's not enough energy within her to waste on walking around when she doesn't have to.

But though the body is weak, the mind is stubborn. The expression on her face is fiercely determined as she stares back at the man, who didn't seem to like what she asked for when he offered his help the first time and therefore must ask again. A useless thing to do - does he suppose that her answer will change? No, she came here with a purpose in mind, and she's going to accomplish it whether he makes it difficult for her or not.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Stenet obviously didn’t realize how much of a problem he had become for her already. But she would come to know in time. It was unfortunate things had to turn out the way they were but he couldn’t help himself but answer the question he so deeply wanted the answer for….He knew the answer, but he wanted to touch it. He deserved to touch it.

She was a stubborn woman. Obviously she was not going to let her folly of a venture here go until she had her answers. Dr. Crane didn’t have a problem with answering them but only in the manner that he saw they needed to be answered. His eyes turned up for a moment and then landed back on hers as if he was giving thought to answering her at all. He rolled his lips gently and popped his tongue off of his teeth as his mind rolled over her first answer she wanted. “It matters….because I have my own questions I want answered. Question’s that you cannot answer through the simple lies of one’s mouth. How I obtained the information shouldn’t matter to you.” He paused and almost smiled as his mind drifted off.

His eyes seemed to leave him in that instant as his mind looked back on the incident of how he came along Dr. Stenet’s personal affairs in the first place. That first escape with Edward he had made a detour that he was none too pleased with him about. But it was worth the trip as Dr. Stenet’s name fell out of the file near his.

The life suddenly lifted back into the glaciers in his eyes as her next question came back to memory. Her hand had been placed over her heart almost as if she knew more than she should. “It is a vital organ for life in most things…” He drugs his hand up as he spoke and let it rest above here her heart should be but then let it slide to her throat. A twinge of darkness came in behind the cold blue of his eyes and an unstable demeanor took over his features. “It would highly depend on what kind of ‘revenge’ you intended upon taking.” He spoke carefully.

[Nina Stenet]

"I'll be the judge of what matters to me," Nina replies, though she's glad that he's actually answering her questions this time instead of trying to avoid them. He actually seems to be quicker to she the inevitable end of that tactic than Edward ever did, or perhaps he just gives up easily. Either way, at least it saves time. Even if she can't say that she's truly satisfied by such vague answers.

"And what questions are you trying to answer?" she asks curiously, unsure whether she's asking that because she's more curious about whether or not he'll answer or because she actually wants to know.

Either way, when he pauses she waits expectantly for the further answers as she'd asked her question in approximately the reverse order of importance to her. Though his answer about her heart causes her eyebrow to raise slightly as she asks, "And it matters to you if mine is fully functional?" She's not sure how willing she is to believe that...

Though that's when he gets to the answer to the truly interesting question. Her lips purse slightly for a moment as she considers her words very carefully before she replies. "Just like anyone, he needs to learn from his mistakes," she replies cryptically. Two can play at that game, after all.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane had little intention of telling her everything she wanted to know, right now he was only interested in what she needed to know. In her current state, after what he could only assume happened she was looking for answers. Interesting that she would even turn to a man that society deemed for her unstable but he was aware that she had probably heard he had met with Edward a few times. The contents of those meetings he doubted were to her knowledge, but in Gotham anything was a possibility.

“It will become clear in time…” He answered her first question, unwilling to go any further with it than that. The questions that he needed her to answer could not be answered with any words she could speak. The answer would only come from deep within, from her muffled screams in the dark. But she didn’t need to know that right now.

“Of course it matters..” He tilted his head as if he was no curiously questioning why she would doubt it in the first place. “ I am not a murderer despite what the signs and walls on your way here might have advised you. I do not wish you any ill will. It is my job to make sure that you stay in perfect health…” His fingers circled around her injury near the glass. She certainly didn’t seem to be in the best of health and from where he was standing it seemed she was barely holding on to speak, but doing well for someone with that kind of laceration.

Edward making a mistake? He could have enjoyed hearing that. To Dr. Crane Edward made nothing but mistakes, especially in his folly to follow the Batman. But he had caught his interest for more than one reason, though he would never admit it. “You believe it was a mistake for him to do this?” He asked without inserting much of an opinion of his own. Dr. Crane had made it clear how he felt about the situation earlier. “Or are you out to seek something that society would pin on me?...”

[Nina Stenet]

There's a hint of annoyance in her features at his first answer, though it disappears quickly. She didn't really expect that he'd tell her, but it was worth asking to see if he would. And it still bothers her that he's talking like he intends to see her again, though she knows exactly what her options are as far as preventing that and she's made her choices.

At least when she questions him about her heart he actually gives a sensible answer, though her skepticism remains plain on her face as she comments, "No, it's one thing to not wish someone harm, but quite another to care if someone else causes them harm. And even if you want to claim that anyone would matter to you, you seem to think that I matter more. Why me?" Though once she's asked that, in spite of her weariness she straightens slightly to comment almost to herself, "And if I've learned nothing else recently, it's that the only one who can make sure of my health is me and none else." There are some things she simply has to step up and take responsibility for now, whether she wants to or not.

The question he asks her next is so simple to her that she doesn't even have to think about the answer. "Of course! I'm the last person he should want dead, and if he wanted me dead he should have made damn sure that I wouldn't survive. He's killed people for smaller mistakes, and it's about time he learned that he's not immune to the law of the jungle no matter how intelligent and above everyone he thinks he is," she answers, her fingertips unconsciously pressing against the glass in her anger.

But she takes a breath and seems to calm slightly as she adds, "I'm no murderer, if that's what you mean. Death is a poor teacher anyway - its students don't survive to apply its lessons. And it's also too easy: he deserves a greater challenge than to simply slip out of existence. No, he needs to learn that he's weak - very weak - and just how fragile his basis for feeling superior really is. He needs to learn humility - if that's even possible. I question just how teachable a man who already thinks he knows everything is, though I'd take a great deal of pleasure attempting it." While she doubts that he'll learn the entire lesson, he'll certainly be forced into learning something.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane listened to her carefully, interested in what was the reason behind her wants. It was that fear that was buried deep within her heart that she would cover with wanting to teach some lesson of something that the man would never learn. It was quite impossible to teach something correctly if you didn’t have the right answer to begin with. You could shock someone until they believed that 2+2 =5 but it didn’t mean that it did. Only to them did it have some kind of significance. Dr. Crane believed he was entirely capable of changing those numbers for Dr. Stenet but she wouldn’t hear it as of now, it would simply have to wait.

For right now she seemed preoccupied with this folly that she would only come to realize as a mistake after the damage was done. But she still wanted his assistance on the matter and above all began to seek his assistance even from behind glass. What help would he be to her here? Did she simply want him on her side? Did she want some kind of false approval? A pat on the back what says, good job you did the right thing? She would find no comfort or solace in her endeavor here and even if he were to assist her she would find herself even more empty and had lost even more than before. But that was a lesson in itself that she could only learn the hard way.

His eyes darted to the place where she set her fingers, marking it mentally in his mind, he never quite took his vision off of her but only removed it slightly to see where her fingers laid. “I disagree…." He spoke softly, musing to himself about the past. “Oblivion is an excellent teacher, a permanent one to those that fall prey to it and survive it.” It was a teacher after all that he had used in the classroom once. Society didn’t seem to have the same view on it as he did, but it didn’t matter. They just couldn’t see the world for how it really was. Regardless it taught everyone a very important lesson that they all needed to learn.

“Humility?” His focus became quite serious, he suspected at first she might have been trying to insult him with the word. Did she really come to a man so devoid of emotion for a lesson in humility? “Though deception is in my job description I am not one to teach how to use tools to cover up the real reasons behind every day action. I cannot teach humility because humility isn’t real.” He stated quite simply and waited for her imminent reply to either try and convince or leave it there. Her lesson was going to have to be a bit more interesting to get him to just hop on board with teaching Edward Nigma anything, especially from behind a glass window.

[Nina Stenet]

Eventually the ache of her fingertips is enough to cause Nina to become aware of the pressure she's applying to the glass, and she forces her hand to relax until the pain eases though she doesn't remove her hand. It is, after all, helping hold her steady in spite of her weakness. Her palm rests against the glass at the height of her shoulder, the fingers spread to give her the maximum possible grip on the smooth surface.

But even as she's calming herself, Crane seems bent on making that impossible. "No - if a person survives then by definition they never experienced death," she replies, "But I'm not here to argue semantics." He may view himself as a teacher, but she hardly views herself as his student. She doubts that there's a single lesson that he could teach her that she would care to learn. Well, perhaps she would care to learn how to make his various toxins, but then again her only motivation for that would be because it would simplify the process of creating a more effective antidote to each of them. He does nothing but harm, and she does nothing but fix - their work may be similar in a few, shallow ways but at their core they're both fundamentally different and completely incompatible.

When he questions what she wants to do to Edward, she tries very hard to not be surprised, but she can't help but be very frustrated and irritated by his answer. "Of course you don't believe in humility - you have none yourself!" she replies, much of her emotions being reflected in her tone, "But whether or not you agree with it is almost beside the point - I definitely don't need any help teaching Edward a lesson. That's actually the easy part. No, if you want to be involved, what I need is far more basic - there is one important detail that I can't manage myself. But though I do know someone else that could also do it for me, I'd rather not get them involved in this. It would, in the end, be less dangerous for you, I think..."

Pursing her lips thoughtfully, she comments, "And if you object so highly to what I want to do, we could each have our turn if you want - I don't care. Or if there's something else that you want - name it. I only know what I think he deserves, and I intend to give it to him. But I'm not here to beg - I'm only giving your an opportunity because it's a better option for me." Because even if he doesn't agree to do anything she wants, that would hardly cause a break in her stride. It would mean more risk to people she cares about, but she'll definitely be moving forward with this whether Crane helps or not.