Disclaimer- I do not own Batman or any character associated to Batman (the movies and comics). DC Comics and Bob Kane own all rights to our favorite clown and everyone involved in the Batman mainstream. The only thing I own is the plot and the characters that will surface later on in the story.

The Tide

No Love

"You learned the hard way to shut your mouth and smile.
If these walls could talk, they would have so much to say.
Cause every time you fight, the scars are gonna heal
but there never gonna go away.
There's only hate, there's only tears.
There's only pain, there is no love here.
Oh so what will you do?
There's only lies, there's only fears.
There's only pain, there is no love here.
Oh no, so what will you do?"

-No Love by Simple Plan

The black thread of his stitches made his skin seem redder than it really was, the area still swollen not only from the stitches but from the wound itself. Jack combed back his hair, spraying some of his cologne as he tucked in the silk material of his purple dress shirt. He hated going to his father's dinner parties for work, they were looked on as the perfect family and it tugged at Jack's heart.

"Don't you look spiffy?" Jeannie asked, straightening the dress their mother had given her for these occasions.

"Please," Jack scoffed as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his black slacks as he leaned against the counter's edge. "I can never compare with my baby sister."

He smiled as her eye roll, there was never a better way of entertaining himself than embarrassing Jeannie. The two siblings stayed in their bathroom for another few minutes before their mother called them down, Jack taking his time walking down the stairs. Once the sixteen year old entered the kitchen, only his father was left in the house.

"What the hell are you wearing?" his voice was harsh as he eyed his son.

"Does it matter?" Jack asked, adjusting his sleeve. "I like this shirt."

"Do you want everyone to think you're a faggot? Get your ass back upstairs and change your shirt,"

"No! Who the hell gave you permission to tell me what to wear?" Jack challenged, drawing himself to his full height as his father walked up to him.

"What did you say to me, boy?" he growled.

"I said I'm not changing. Just because I look good in purple doesn't make me gay, Dad."

There was a blinding pain in his left ear and his father was soon digging his fingers into Jack's flesh, the grip on his jaw crushing. The teenager's face was turned so his stitched cheek was facing his father.

"Do you want a matching scar, Junior? Because I won't hesitate to make that God damn smile of yours permanent. Understand me?"

"Yes," Jack spat out, rubbing his jaw as his father pushed him into the kitchen counter. "Sir."

"That's better," his father smoother out his shirt before staring at his son. "You better smile to everyone and be the polite little bastard you aren't,"

Jack scowled as his father pushed him out the door and into the car. The sixteen noticed his sister look at his face, her look telling him there was a bruise forming already. His dark eyes looked out the car window as his father backed out of the driveway, the atmosphere in the car one of fear.

"We are gonna be the fucking happy family everyone thinks we are, am I understood?"

Everyone but Jack answered, the blonde sixteen year old ignoring his father when he heard his name called. When he continued to ignore the older man, the squealing of tires filled his ears as he was lashed forward, the seatbelt digging into his neck. Jack looked at Jeannie, his fists tightening when he saw the red mark on her neck and he knew there was a matching one on his mother. He opened his mouth to say something, but the pleading look in his fourteen year old sister's eyes made him close his mouth.

"Do you want to say something, Jack?" his father sneered before driving again.

"No, sir." He forced a smile and went back to looking out the window.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

They were fighting again, his father looking from the road to his mother. It wasn't uncommon for Jack Sr. and Sara Napier to fight in front of their children, but the Napier children didn't like their father driving during the fight.

"I'm scared, Jack." His sister whispered.

"It's okay, Jeannie." He gave her a smile.

"Promise?"

Jack opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of flesh smacking flesh cut him off, a loud thud following the hit. The teenagers turned their attention to their parents, a speck of blood on their father's ring from where he hit their mother. Jack felt his heart skip a beat as his namesake wrapped his fingers around his mother's neck, the headlights of oncoming traffic lighting up the freeway as they drove by.

"What did I tell you?" his father yelled, his voice covering up his wife's choking sounds. "Don't you ever raise your voice to me again, you little slut!"

Jack continued to watch his parents fight, his mind reeling to the moment he knew things had fallen apart for his family.

They had never fought before, not even when Jack wasn't around. The ten year sat at the kitchen table and watched his parents yell at each other, his eight year old sister taking a nap in her room. He didn't know what they were yelling about, but it didn't matter; he knew what their yelling meant. His dark eyes grew wider with every use of a bad word he heard, his mother's green eyes shinning with tears as his father stood mere inches from her face.

Jack's hand gripped the crayon he was holding, his grip growin tighter with every heated second that passed. What amazed him the most was how they didn't notice that he was only a few feet away from them, watching the whole thing. His jaw tightened and his crayon snapped in half when his father's fist connected with his mother's jaw, her body crumpling to the ground.

The ten year old bolted out of the kitchen and to his room, listening to raising cries and yells from his parents. The house went silence after a few minutes, the sounds of his mother's sobs following the slamming of the front door. Jack slowly crept out of his room, only to stop to check on Jeannie. The blonde eight year old was still sleeping in her bed, her worn stuffed dog clutched to her chest as she slept. The boy found a small second to stare in awe at his sister, he always knew she could sleep through a nuclear war. He shook his head and walked back to the kitchen, his gaze landing on his mother's figure.

"Mom?" he whispered, edging closer to her.

She looked up, wiping at the silent tears before giving him a strained smile.

"Hey, JJ." She choked out, ruffling his hair when he sat next to her.

"Are you okay?" his voice was small, but that didn't take away from the seriousness of his question.

"Of course I am, Sweetheart." Jack could tell she was lying, but he wasn't going to say anything. "Why would you ask that?"

"Because Dad hit you."

"It's nothing to worry about, Jack. Your father was just...having a rough day today at work and..."

"I won't let him hurt you again, Mom." The ten year old cut her off, his dark eyes looking right into her green ones. "And if he tries to hurt Jeannie too...I'll hurt him worse."

"What makes you think he's going to hurt us, JJ?"

"Grandpa told me you don't hurt the people you love and you stand up for what you think is right," Jack repeated his grandfather's words. "Dad hitting you isn't right, Mom. And I'm gonna protect you and Jeannie from him, because if he hit you who says he won't hit her too?"

His mother pulled him towards her, holding him close as she sobbed into his shoulder. Jack wrapped his arms around her, knowing his mother wouldn't leave his father like she should.

"I promise Mom," his whispered. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep him from hurting you and Jeannie. Does Dad still love you?"

Jack pulled back and looked at his mother, her silence saying more than she could ever voice.

"Does he still love me and Jeannie?"

His dark eyes looked at the tile when he was met with the same answer, his head falling on to his mother's shoulder. Jack closed his eyes as tears filled them, fear and panic flooding his body.

He knew he had signed himself up for a losing battle.

A small sob brought Jack out of his memory, his dark eyes looking at Jeannie as her hand covered her mouth. There was fear shinning in her green eyes, trying her hardest to not let their father hear her sobs. The sixteen year old unbuckled his seat belt, moving into the middle of the back seat, his eyes narrowed in determination.

"What are you going to do, you little shit?" his father's eyes stared at him through the rear view mirror as his choke hold ended. "Did you forget about the last time you stood up to me?"

Jack's fingers grazed over his right cheek, the black thread of the stitches bringing back the event from three weeks ago. His mind flashed to the memory, the pain he felt as his father sawed through his skin returning to him. The teenager pushed the memory back as he lunged to the front seat, his hands gripping the steering wheel and turning sharply to the right. His father tried to swerve back on to the road, but it was too late.

Jack watched the exit barrier smash into the car's hood in slow motion, no sound reaching his ears as his heart pounded against his rib cage. Jeannie's screams cut through to his hearing as he felt his body hurl through the windshield, the stinging of glass cutting into his exposed flesh as his yell tore open his stitches before his head smacked on the edge of the concrete barrier. He heard the sound of metal impacting metal before his world went black.

A/N- You would think I would learn to not post fifty million stories while I'm still working on some...but I don't. Anyways, I thought I would take a stab at writing TDK's Joker. But I was afaird that I would botch him up, so I thought it would be best if I wrote an orgin story for everyone's favorite mass murdering clown. And just people know, I have nothing against homosexuals...I thought you might get the picture of how disgusting and foul Jack's father is if I included that scene. I'm sorry if I offended anyone with that sentence, that was not my intentions.

But let me know if this worth continuing through a review, or if you have suggestions tell me cos I love knowing what you guys would like to see. And I know this seems slow right now, but I wanna establish Jack's home life and so on. And yes, I know I only mentioned one scar, that's because he only has the one right now. But don't worry, by the end of the story he'll have both of his wonderful scars that makes Mistah J.

Next Chapter- The fate of Jack's parents and his sister will be revealed, but is it something Jack wants? Jack must learn to cope with the consequences of his actions and deal with his life in his own special way.

S.