Chapter Text
“Don’t even think about it,” Piper sighed as she scribbled more notes down. A month in and she’s on the verge of quitting her occupation and running away. Not out of fear, mainly due to pure exhaustion.
As a psychiatrist, her usual cases were major depressive disorders, bipolar disorders and anorexia. In Arkham, it was psychopaths, most with dissociative identity disorders and other schizophrenic patients. Challenging was the understatement of the century. She’d gone through three other patients that day and was ready to head home and collapse on her bed.
“Don’t think about what Ms?”
“Jervis, we’ve been through this before. Stop trying to hypnotise nurses,” Piper finished, finally looking up from her clipboard. Her eyes clashed with Jervis’ dark brown eyes as his face twisted into a deep scowl.
“Come on Jervis, you know the nurses here won’t lead you to Alice?” Piper tried to soothe him, with only a hint of charmspeak in her voice, “What about trying to focus on yourself and your own mind? The key to finding Alice might lie within yourself.”
Jervis Tetch’s eyes glossed over briefly, before quieting down. Piper handed him his pills and he only glanced at her for a moment before downing them in one gulp.
Piper heaved another sigh as the guards took a now drowsy Jervis back to his cell. She looked down at his file, feeling only slightly guilty for what she’d done to him. Then, a stronger wave of guilt hit her for the little remorse she had for abusing her power. She promised herself she wouldn’t use charmspeak on unsuspecting mortals, no matter how cruel they were…but Arkham had to be an exception.
She glanced down at his file, Jervis Tetch, a.k.a. The Mad Hatter. (A slightly more creative name than The Joker)
For an old man with paranoid schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and severe delusional disorder, he was disgustingly obsessed with young girls to find his “Alice”. He was adamant that he was stuck in a fictional universe and Alice was the key to finding his way to true “reality”. (Thank goodness her dad shared Cherokee stories instead of reading her Lewis Carroll books as bedtime stories. It’d be a nightmare to wake up and realise a crazy bedtime story came to life.)
The number of young women he’d killed and the number of minds he’d ruined in his quest to find Alice in reality was…for a lack of a better term, fucked up. He was like a less powerful, more human version of a siren—hypnotising women to their deaths.
Unfortunately, a high kill count seemed to be the norm, along with the intense amount of crazy most patients here seemed to display. No wonder most mortals avoided Gotham much less Arkham.
Even for a demigod, it had an unsettling atmosphere. Kind of like the time they walked into Ma Gasket’s car factory. The same sense of foreboding like something bad was about to take place, and then Jason had—
“Piper, Piper!” Someone grabbed her shoulder and she flinched, but inwardly she was glad someone had snapped her out of it before she started spiraling again. “Nina! What’s up?”
Nina Zenith was another psychiatrist who had started a day after Piper and immediately clung to her, saying something like she was the only one with good vibes. Not that Piper was complaining, it was much easier to survive this workplace knowing there was a friendly face waiting for you at lunch. The same face that was currently glowering at Piper as of now.
“Don’t tell me you forgot our date at the Batburger?” Nina raised an eyebrow, but her ruby lips defied the frown on her face and curled upwards. If Piper hadn’t known better, she would have thought Nina was a fellow cabin mate, with the way she naturally exuded charisma and shamelessly flirted with fellow coworkers, Piper included.
She was by no means unattractive, vibrant green eyes and long wavy brown hair which cascaded down her voluptuous figure. But her confidence was what reminded Piper of Aphrodite the most. The way she remained unfazed, head held high, even as patients taunted and insulted her to lose a few pounds. (She would simply stick her tongue out in response. Piper hoped she wouldn’t lose her playful, somewhat carefree attitude as time would pass.) Her ability to be comfortable in her own skin was something Piper envied.
Although she didn’t envy Nina now, as she grimaced while swallowing another bite of her burger. She had a look of regret as she peeled over her burger to reveal a layer of pickles hiding underneath. Of course, trust Nina to be the adventurous one and try something new.
She was laughing at Nina’s ever changing expressions, when her phone rang. (The one that looked like an ugly brown brick according to Nina.) Celestial bronze technology, courtesy of cabins 6, 9 and the camp Jupiter.
“Piper freaking McLean!”
“Oh my gods, Nina, please don’t spit—hi Annabeth!” Piper perked up as soon as she heard her friend’s voice. She’d expected Leo or Nico to be the ones to call. The last time the girls met up was…probably at Percy’s and Annabeth’s wedding, three months ago.
“First I hear that you’ve moved to Gotham of all places. Next, I hear that you’re working at the Arkham Asylum. And finally, I hear Bruce Wayne’s your dad,” Annabeth took a breath, before lowering her voice “All of this from Nico di Angelo.”
Piper winced at the evident hurt in her voice. To be fair, she hadn’t wanted to disturb their honeymoon season and she really hadn't been in a visiting mood since dad’s death. But a small nagging voice whispered that Annabeth wouldn’t have understood Piper. She didn’t have the right to be angry with Piper. Not when she was living out her happily ever after, starting a family Percy, getting that job at that architecture firm, heck even, spending more time with her estranged family. Annabeth hadn’t had her world ripped away from her a month ago, Piper didn’t owe her anything.
Biting her lower lip, Piper willed herself to calm anger flaring up inside her heart. Annabeth was simply worried, she was being a good friend. “Sorry, I…I had a lot going on, and I didn’t want to bother you…”
She could picture the tension loosening in Annabeth’s shoulders as Annabeth let out a small breath before whispering, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” Just like that, her pent up rage dissipated and Piper wanted to sob all over again. “You can call me anytime, you know? For anything? I…I might not get it…and I’m not the best at this, but please, just call, ok? Promise me when it gets really rough you’ll call?”
Piper nodded her head before realising Annabeth couldn’t see her and hastily replied with a choked up “yes”. After that, they moved on to lighter topics, Annabeth’s new dog, Nope, Piper’s new friend and somehow they’d come back to the topic of Batman.
“Are you sure it’s safe? Gotham?” Piper could hear her underlying question, “are you sure he’s worth staying for?”
Demigods had their fair share of problems, daddy and mommy issues being one of them. Facing monsters on a daily basis was taxing enough, sometimes it felt easier to give in, but knowing that her dad was waiting for her at home had given her plenty of motivation to keep fighting. And now he was gone. Leaving Batman as her bio dad. That didn’t change anything, Tristan McLean was always going to be Piper’s only dad, meeting Batman hadn’t even been her plan. In fact, she was attempted to move far, far away from Gotham and it’s crazy Bat vilgantes.
“But my dad’s tethered to him like a freaking kite,” Piper bit her lip, “It’s the only way Annie.” Nico explained to her that ghosts usually hung around the living when there were strong lingering feelings of regrets.
Piper wasn’t sure which was worse—knowing that her dad still wasn’t fully at rest, or that his greatest regret wasn’t leaving her behind but something to do with a strange man she didn’t know.
But ignoring her dad, even as a ghost was out of the question. Tristan McLean wouldn’t hang around the living for no a reason, and not knowing would haunt her for the rest of her life.
So staying at Arkham to consult a number of extreme crazies on a daily basis it was. At least until she figured out how to confront him, or better yet found a less creepy job.
“Just be extra careful Piper. I’ve sent you files on Gotham’s vilgantes and some villains.”
Piper snorted. Trust Annabeth to be fully prepared to deal with Gotham’s crazy.
“Hey, I didn’t even collate this information. Only factchecked it,” Annabeth argued. “You have Malcom Pace and Connor Stoll to thank.” Speaking of Connor…
“Don’t you and Connor have mortal relatives in Gotham?”
“Huh, oh yes, but I wouldn’t approach Connor’s aunt if I were you. It’s a long story but it’s all in the files.”
Great. Looks like she wasn’t the only one related to a superhero mortal. More homework and all-nighters it is! After saying a quick goodbye to Annabeth, Piper walked back towards Nina—only to find her chatting up some other boy.
“Sorry my call took a while Nina,” Piper apologised as she took her seat and turned to face the guy. He wore sweats, and baseball cap. (LA dodgers, not New York Yankees, she noted) He couldn’t be younger than 20, judging from the dark circles. “Now, who is this?”
“My dear Piper, this man over here” Nina gestured dramatically, “is my friend Alvin Draper.”