The Rain Never Bothered Me Anyway [Open]

[Deleted]

As Iris leaves the courthouse, she's breathing a sigh of relief that that is over with. No, she's not in any sort of legal trouble, but one of her patients was having a competency hearing and she was called in to testify. And even though the results of the hearing don't really have much of an impact on her own life, they do on the life of her patient - the man is a bit of a borderline case as far as sanity is concerned, and since he stands accused of murdering three people and possibly faces the death penalty this hearing was quite consequential. She just has to tell herself that her only role here is to provide information and her professional opinion to the judge and that what the judge does with it is really out of her hands. Not for the first time she's glad that her role is rarely to pass any sort of a judgment on anyone - all she need do is attempt to improve their mental health.

Distracted by such thoughts, she makes her way through the collection of government buildings to where she parked her car. In the middle of the day finding parking can be a bit of a challenge, so she'd been forced to use the library's parking lot which is a little bit of a walk from the courthouse. And to make that even more pleasant, the weather has been kind enough to provide a light drizzle. Fortunately, she'd thought to check the weather forecast and has her large, teal umbrella to protect her.

[Joan Leland]

Joan brought coffee. Perhaps it was in the attempt to promote the idea that it was a friendly gesture that resulted in her spending some of her day off hanging about a short distance from the courthouse, waiting for Iris to get out. She didn't predict that Iris was likely to take it that way but that wasn't any reason not to do it anyway and this was important.

Years of experience told her how long the competency hearing was likely to take and when to turn up but she stopped short of actually going in to watch and opted instead to sit outside on the edge of a raised flower bed, newspaper in hand providing some shelter for the drinks as she read it. She could have done without the rain, her paper was slowing getting unsuitably wet and she had less foresight with the weather. A baseball cap was the only thing she'd had on hand to keep at least her head dry, she'd confiscated it when she was looking after one of the neighbours kids and apparently completely forgotten to ever take it out of her bag again. Dressed down and casual it was an unusual look for the usually very professional woman who was hardly ever even without a lab-coat at work but then it was her day off.

She quickly spotted the other woman coming out of the courthouse above the newspaper but gave it a moment for Iris to get closer before she straightened up and folded her paper, purposely waiting until she would be within earshot and it would be too late to pretend she hadn't seen Joan and go some other way "How did it go?" She questions, trying to sound as polite as possible as she selected one of the drinks and offered it over.

[Deleted]

Now that Iris is fully licensed, the mere fact that Dr. Leland is no longer her supervisor actually improves her feeling for the woman quite a bit. Not enough to put their relationship into the green - she still has her opinions of people who have been in their profession for as long as Dr. Leland has and that's not going to go away - but at least it's a marked improvement. Perhaps even a step on a path to an actually good relationship? Well, she's skeptical, but that's mainly because she's assuming that they just don't have that much in common.

Which is why she's a bit caught off guard when she sees the woman apparently waiting for her as she exits the courthouse. No, wait, it could be just a coincidence... No, she's being greeted and offered coffee so it wouldn't be. Well, alright then. A calm smile crosses her face and, after an instant of mental debate, she walks over and accepts the coffee while shifting her umbrella to cover them both. She doesn't sit as the planter is damp from the rain and she's wearing some of her better clothes - wanted to look especially professional for the hearing - but that's no big deal since she'd been seated for most of the hearing so standing actually feels better.

"It's hard to say at this point," she answers honestly, "The judge was rather neutral and hard to read the entire time and didn't give an immediate verdict. But it should come within the next day or so." Taking a sip of the coffee, she adds, "As much as I'd like the suspense to be over with, I'm glad that he's taking the time to think it over carefully - I'm sure that I would too." Even being the so-called expert in this case, she's not sure what the right thing to do would be. But, then again, she's the expert on psychology - not law and how to apply it.

[Joan Leland]

Joan has noticed the slight change in attitude. She gets it. Iris is young and keen to prove herself in the field, she's full of her own ideas and believes they're revolutionary. Joan still disapproved of her disregard of more experienced opinions but that doesn't mean she doesn't understand it. Honestly there were worse personality traits a doctor at Arkham could have, so long as she wasn't putting the patients or staff at risk Joan could put up with the arrogance and wait for the inevitable let down when long term patients were not suddenly cured.

On a personal level Joan has done very little to really get to know Iris though, being actively friendly runs the risk of becoming attached or giving away too much. At least she was aware of how Iris took her coffee, that was a comfortable level of familiarity.

Joan remained seated for now as took the other coffee for herself and tucked the newspaper under one arm with a grateful nod for the shelter of the umbrella "I believe it was Judge Nickleson today? He tends to let you know quite quickly when he's decided to stop listening. Pen tapping, very bad habit when he's bored" Joan commented thoughtfully before sipping from her coffee. It was rare to have a new judge suddenly pop up in the city, she knew most of their quirks by now.

Even dressed down on her day off Joan still acted exactly like she was at the office, thoughtfully pausing only for a fraction of a second as she careful considered her words, trying to pick the right ones to predict and avoid a bad reaction. Yet when she speaks it's always a light tone as if she means nothing more than politely inquiring "What did you think of the patient?" as if it's simple small talk. Though among their field perhaps it was.

[Deleted]

Iris isn't arrogant enough to assume that she can cure the longer term patients at the asylum - what she assumes is that if everyone did things her way it would simply increase the odds of that and also be a positive influence upon even those patients who can't be cured. And unfortunately for anyone waiting on that idea to be killed, she doesn't believe that she can, working alone, achieve the needed turn-around - the main faults that she sees are on the level of the way the entire asylum is run rather than the exact methods of the individual therapists. Though she doesn't think that the individual therapists aren't entirely not at fault either. Point is, unless she somehow finds herself in charge of the entire asylum so that she can test out that assumption, it's not something she's likely to lose any time soon.

Nodding to confirm which judge was handling the case, the fact that she's now mentally rewinding her memories of how the judge responded in light of Joan's insight is practically visible. She, still being relatively new to her job, hasn't met all the judges yet, let alone know their quirks. "Well, he didn't tap his pen for me - he did for the lawyers on both sides, though. For me he simply frowned like he was disappointed that my expert opinion didn't make the choice easy," she explains thoughtfully.

"My opinion is that he actually believes that anyone would have done what he did in the same situation - he's been completely consistent with that. The fact that it's highly abnormal for someone to shoot three family members does not dissuade him. Yet he knows that murder is wrong, in general - he just believes that it was justified. He's convinced that no jury in the world would convict him as long as all the facts are explained properly, which is just..." she shakes her head, not knowing how to finish that sentence, but continues by adding, "Personally, I'm just glad that it's not my call. Either way he'll end up locked up somewhere, and he needs to be, and either way he'll get further mental health treatment, which he clearly needs." And she suspects that it's possible that he'd get better treatment at the prison than the asylum, though she keeps that disloyal thought to herself.

[Joan Leland]

"He was probably hoping for an easy day, having to think to do his job really puts a dampener on that" Joan responds, somewhat with humour, mostly with a sigh. At least he was one of the judges who was actually willing to think on occasion but that was a rather sad thing to think on the state of their legal system. On the other hand it was unlikely anyone was getting bribed over this case so perhaps it would proceed properly.

A small glance back to the courthouse and Joan calmly stands, gesturing to move on and hoping Iris will join her in walking away. She'd seen a lot of the lawyers even more than the judges and given she's clearly looked into the details of this case it isn't hard for her to know that that is the lawyer for the prosecution. If he comes with family members of the victims she doesn't want to stick around and see if they're upset with the idea of an insanity plead. She especially doesn't want to make Iris deal with that particularly as she's the one who delayed the escape.

She continued on as she walked as if she'd seen nothing at all, if Iris didn't see anything she didn't want to worry the younger doctor "His consistency at least helps his case, attempting to fake insanity to avoid jail is more uncommon in Gotham than most major cities" A lot of the criminals agreed with Iris' when they compared Arkham to Blackgate. Both were unpleasant but the rumours about the prison were less disturbing "I imagine he'll be at Arkham for treatment soon. How he responds from there will largely depend on him" It was a safe bet that he would likely be under Iris' care, as she had yet to show any sign of going insane that was one less concern for the man.

"How is Nathaniel?" Joan smoothly changed the subject before taking a sip of her coffee. Her mind was really thinking of Jeremiah but it was a genuine curiosity anyway.

[Deleted]

A small, amused smile instantly appears on Iris's face at Joan's crack about the judge not wanting to have to think. Unfortunately for him and all the other judges trying to decide insanity cases, there is no cut and dry way to determine whether or not a particular person is insane and therefore it ends up being a judgment call. And while sometimes that judgment call is obvious one way or the other, this particular patient is one of those hazy borderline cases.

At Joan's gesture, Iris promptly begins walking alongside the other woman without much thought, shifting her umbrella to ensure that it continues to provide decent coverage to both of them. Making a thoughtful sound of agreement to Joan's further words on the case, she comments, "Well, of course the man thinks that he's perfectly sane - and I even think that his lawyer isn't sure but is simply trying the plea because he thinks it might work and keep his client off of death row. He, naturally, doesn't share his client's optimism that there will be an innocent verdict." No, not with that much damning evidence...

Having spent far too much time today having to mull over the particulars of one particular person's psyche, Iris is quick to welcome the change of subject. Especially if that subject is Nathaniel. She loves to talk about Nathaniel. "Nathaniel is perfect!" she says instantly, a grin popping right into place. She knows that she probably sounds like any infatuated woman still in that phase where she's completely blind to the flaws of her boyfriend, but since that's exactly what she is she doesn't mind giving off that impression.

Figuring that Joan is interested in hearing about things beyond that fact, she adds, "He's handling his father's disappearance as well as could be expected - thrown himself into his work and into me, probably to keep his mind off of it all. Which is just as well - keeping the asylum running is no easy job, and what can he do if he does think about it besides worry?" She sighs, because she's in a similar boat to him about the whole affair. Though she tries to remain optimistic for Nathaniel's sake, realistically she has to assume that his father is probably dead. Poison Ivy isn't exactly known to spare people, after all. Still, nobody has found a body either. Then again, the only people killed by Poison Ivy's whose bodies were recovered were those few people who died of the plague the woman released just before the FBI left. "Of course, I've been as supportive as he needs me to be, but he's honestly been a real trouper about the whole thing," she continues, smiling a little as she finishes by saying, "Like I said, he's perfect."