New Horizons and Faded Diamonds
Harley always believed that everyone deserved love. Psychopaths, sickos, murderers, and hell even the Bats should be loved. And that's how she ended up falling for her Mistah J. She knew he wanted love, and she was just the girl to give him it. Even if he's never show it, he needed her love, or at least that's what Harley always thought.
But not anymore. Her clown had gone too far this time, and she wasn't going to crawl back to him ever again. He wouldn't be able to grin his way back into her heart this time. The Joker was the cause of all her tears, tears that wouldn't stop coming, huge racking sobs followed by bouts of anger. He didn't deserve her love.
Mistah J was heartless, soulless, a menace to mankind. Worst of all he was a murderer, a murderer of her babies. Last week when Bud and Lou were being especially snippy, he just pulled out his gun and shot them. He didn't even blink, before going back to work and forgetting about her babies.
Yes, he shot them and walked away like nothing happened. He even had the nerve to ask her to 'take care of the mess'! Right then, her heart shattered and her mind cleared. She saw the Joker for what he really was, not a comedian, a killer.
And that was the last time she saw her Mistah J. Right after, she packed up her bags, her hammer and gave the Joker a few whacks on the way out. The satisfaction of seeing his ever present smile get slapped off his face by her hammer would stay with her forever. After all the bruises he gave her over the years, he deserved at least one from her.
"Lost?" a deep voice asked from the shadows before materializing into the Bat. He stepped closer to Harley, his cape drifting slighting in the wind. How he managed to be so silent would always escape Harley.
"I'm not in the mood Batsy," she said shaking her cap. Bats looked at her almost disgusted and she knew why. Her make-up was streaked with tears; she had a knapsack over her shoulder and well basically looked a mess. He had witnessed her crying over the Joker hundreds of times and this time was probably no different.
"Joker kick you out again? When are you gonna-" he started to say before she interrupted with a screech.
"Don't you ever mention that, -that murderous rat around me again!" Harley yelled, tears racing to her eyes. She didn't want to cry, she'd spent years crying over Joker already, why should her earn more of her tears?
But he was the thing she loved most for longer than she cared to remember. She couldn't just forget that in just a couple of days. As crazy as everyone thought she was, she'd always had a practical head for matters of the heart. What was she saying? She was crazy when it came to that.
"Trouble in paradise?" Bats attempted to joke, maybe even to get her to smile. He'd always had a soft spot for the poor Jester. He just wished she wouldn't have attached herself to the Joker. She deserved better.
Not that he would ever admit it.
After hearing the B-Man say that, tears just flooded to Harley's eyes, and rather than cry in front of her long time enemy, she ran. Her red and black clad legs leapt from roof top to roof top. She felt her tears drying more and more as she ran faster and faster.
Harley made it across six rooftops before Bats caught up to her. His iron arms clamped around her and that's all it took to finally break her. Harley went limp and sobbed into the caped crusaders chest.
"He killed my babies," she wailed, "He knew how much they meant to me and he shot them," her voice dropped to a whisper "I wish I could hate him."
The Dark Knight didn't say anything, just let himself hold her, let her cry. Finally, she stopped and was wiping her baby blue eyes with her sleeve. She let out a sniffle and looked at him, really looked at him.
"You're a real sweeto Bats, you'll make a girl a real catch one day," Harley said feeling lighter than she had in days. And she had the Dark Knight to thank, that was the first time she had been held tenderly since she was in college. It was something she never had known she'd missed.
"You fishing?" Bats asked, a teasing tone slipping into his usually serious, gravelly voice.
Harley felt a smile slip on her face, a small, very real smile, the first in a really long time. Who knew B-man had a sense of humor?
"Maybe… One day," she said wistfully, before getting on her tippy toes and kissing Bats gently on the lips. He deserved someone better than a broken Jester, and maybe just maybe one day she could become the kind of girl he deserved. But right now romance was on her mind, she needed to find herself.
Then with a wink for Batman, she grabbed her bags and dashed off into the night. Her head full of stars and the future, no turning back. She would leave Gotham and all the memories that were held there until she could come back and face then. Until she could come back and smile, a sane citizen of Gotham.
But if she turned, she would have seen Batman standing there with a small smile on his chiseled face. His head full of blue eyes and red diamonds.