“No, but I am your doctor,” Jonathan said softly. He raised an eyebrow as they ventured down the forbidden hallway, looking around curiously. “Maybe I want to be your dog,” he muttered, not even realizing he had spoke, too distracted.
“Where has all this come from?” he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“I don’t want a dog,” Eddie answered, a little too harshly. “It’s hard enough having a doctor around.” Further down the hall, the concrete walls were no longer plain grey, but were painted a Riddler shade of green, with black question mark stencils in random places. Eddie froze at a place where a bold, yellow line was drawn across the floor and he dug down the front of his shirt, at the neck. “It was here, before. Before I came.”
From inside his shirt, Eddie pulled a chain with a flashdrive at the end, like a pendant. Ignoring that Jonathan was even there, Eddie stuck the flashdrive into a port that was carefully camouflaged inside one of the question marks, and then waited. Moments later, a panel opened up in the wall, revealing a handprint security scanner. He placed his hand upon the pad; a small light on the edge of the panel came on and there was the sound of gears grinding, mechanics turning, coming from inside the walls all the way further down the hall. Eddie removed his hand and replaced the flashdrive, then stood with his hands thrust into his pockets, waiting patiently until the light on the panel turned green.
“Let’s go.” He strode down the wall without any problem: had anybody attempted to do so without disabling his security system, he would’ve been faced with a series of Death Traps. Upon the edges of the ceiling, mounted upon the wall in locations, were more security cameras. At the end of the hall, there was an elevator, and Eddie pressed the down button.
Jonathan flinched at Edward’s words, his thumb immediately going to his mouth so he could chew on the nail. He had no idea why Edward of all people affected him, but every time the other man spoke harshly, Jonathan retreated into himself,remembering his grandmother and her words.
He followed Edward through the security, taking it all in as he stepped into the elevator next to Edward, eyeing the man next to him for a second before looking away. He felt rather...honored that Edward was sharing this with him.
Though he doubted Edward would see it as something worth the feeling.
The elevator door slid open with a ping and before Eddie stepped inside, he warned Jonathan, “Don’t say anything until the voice recognition system is over.” He gave him a poignant look, then went into the elevator. The door closed and Eddie spoke out loud, “Riddle me this.”
A moment passed, and a soothing, electronic voice replied, “Voice recognition, affirmative.” Instead of a simple Up and Down button, there was a numerical keyboard. Eddie glanced suspiciously at Jonathan, then leaned forward to shield the keyboard from Jonathan’s view as he typed in the code, then stood straight. The elevator started going down.
“It took me years to put this security system into place,” he confessed, in a surprisingly meek voice. “This is the only place where I feel safe.” Which was why bringing Jonathan here was a huge leap of faith, and why he was so cautious about letting Jonathan come and go as he pleased. It was confidential and private, as intimate as his own body. Possibly more, for it represented his psyche, with all its twists and traps and defenses to keep himself protected from the outside, as well as in.