A/N: Well, here it is! This one isn't very exciting, but it explains Jesster's background, how she got her name, and why she is the way she is, I guess. Fortunately for you guys, it's going to be a multi-chapter fic all within a few days of each other. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't review every chapter! ha ha. I'd like to send a quick thanks to lizziefarfelo, breadwhatwhat, Lavendersalamander, A, togo65, elturron78, Sammie, WiseGirl-AC, Yancha Kitsune, WitchBitterRose, and Penny Tortoiseshell for their support because without any of them, this definitely wouldn't even exist. Review please!
"Robin, where are we going?" I laughed as he eagerly tugged on my hand, leading me down a street in Who-Knows-Where Gotham City. He looked absolutely elated to be taking me somewhere instead of hiding out all the time. We were both dressed in our normal clothes: sweatshirts, jeans, and converse. We were like normal people. Imagine that – me, normal! "Would you quit running?"
"We're almost there!" he called back, turning a corner. I tripped slightly over a rise in the sidewalk, but thankfully righted myself just in time for me to slam into him. "Here."
I rubbed my eyes from the blinding sun reflecting off the snow around us – today was one of those rare days when the city wasn't covered in a thick blanket of fog, and the sky was relatively clear save for a few wispy clouds – before I looked up to see what Robin was so enthusiastic about.
"A diner?" I questioned, turning to him with my hands on my hips. "This is what you dragged me ten blocks to see?"
"Not just any diner!" he insisted, before eagerly pulling me inside the clanging double doors.
It was like stepping into the 50s. There were those atrocious red booths placed around the walls of the tiny dining area, with some small tables scattered here and there. Some construction workers were chatting up an older waitress wearing a poodle skirt at the bar with a steel countertop that jutted out from the kitchen, where the cook could be seen flipping burgers on a grill through the window. A few people were sitting down, but seeing as it was 2 o'clock on a weekday, there weren't many. "Wow, Robin, this is...really cool."
"I knew you'd like it. C'mon, I'm starving!" I allowed him to lead me to a booth farther away from the door, and slid across the vinyl to glance out the window. Robin caught my eye and gave me an impish grin, obviously smug about my reaction to the place after doubting him.
The sound of roller skates on tile flooring distracted us for a second, and we both turned out heads to see the waitress from behind the counter was skating over to us, yellow notepad in hand. "Hi, my name is Beth, what can I get you two lovebirds to drink today?" she asked, eying us both with a sly grin, obviously figuring out what was going on between us.
"Are we that obvious?" I blushed, this time with no paint to hide it from Robin's view.
She laughed, pointing at us with the blunt of her pen. "Well, you two are holding hands under the table."
We both coughed quickly and moved our hands to our own laps, averting our eyes from each other. "Uh, coke please," Robin muttered, accepting the menu from her. "Thanks."
"Make that two."
She winked at us, before stuffing the notepad back in her apron pocket, "Be right back."
The silence between us was deafening.
"So..." he began listlessly, glancing at me from behind his dark sunglasses.
"Robin, am I your girlfriend?" I asked, setting my menu down, before putting my chin on my interlaced hands and staring at him with the most innocent expression I could muster. Okay, yeah I know I'm being really blunt about this, but all last night I had been sitting there in that stupid hospital bed thinking about it. Robin was laying next to me, and he had fallen asleep with his arm around my waist, something "friends" don't do. And they also don't kiss, for sure. At least, I think they don't do that. What would I know, I've never had friends before.
The look on Robin's face would've been comical under any other circumstance, but the suspense was killing me and the only thing I could do was stare at him in anticipation of his answer. "I..."
"Here you go," the waitress – Beth – smiled, setting down two drinks in glass cups in front of each of us, placing a tall glass with some sort of milky substance in between us, with two stars sticking out of the top.
"But we didn't order...that..." I began, eyebrows knitting together in my confusion.
She simply laughed and winked at us, "On the house. Now, what can I get you?"
"Uh, cheeseburger without the tomatoes, and fries, please," I ordered, still eying the strange drink. What was that?
"Same. Thanks." He handed back the menus, and gave her a nod, to which she returned, before skating off behind the counter. "Why do you keep looking at the milkshake like that?"
"Oh, is that what it is?" I gasped, instantly grabbing at the straw and swirling it around in the cup. "Cool."
He laughed incredulously, taking a sip from his glass. "How could you not tell? Haven't you had a milkshake before?" I shook my head, confused. "It's like you've been living under a rock, Jess."
I froze, watching him over the rim of the milkshake glass, which I had leaned over to examine. "I never told you?"
"Told me what?"
"Well, how I got this way of course! My life story!" I took a sip of the milkshake and instantly got a brain freeze. Clutching at my head, I winced and squeezed my eyes shut. "Didn't I ever monologue to you about my childhood?"
"No," he began, raising an eyebrow from behind his dark glasses. "I don't think you did."
"Really?" He nodded, and I averted my eyes to my hands, which were in my lap again. "Would...would you like to hear about it?"
Robin placed his hand on the table, palm up, and I placed mine on top. He squeezed it tightly, offering a comforting smile, "Only if you're willing to tell me."
"Yeah, I think it's time someone knew...
"Well, I was born in 1997 to my parents, Thomas and Elena Houghs. My mother died giving birth to me, so it was just me and Dad. My dad, he was a psychologist, and not a very nice man...according to some accounts, I suppose. He was absolutely convinced he could tell the beginning signs of schizophrenia in infants. He began to make a checklist of these "warning signs" and decided to observe me for a change. The day finally came, when I was five, where dad came to the conclusion that I was a schizo, and shipped me off to Arkham. As –"
"Wait, wait, he put you in Arkham?" Robin repeated, completely bewildered.
"Mhm, he had some friends within the system who were just as much of loons as he was. Now can I get back to my story, please? Thank you." I brushed some of my hair out of my eyes with my free hand before carrying on. "Like I said, I was put in Arkham as a "special" patient, and one of the staff was hired to take care of me in addition to their usual duties. One guard offered, and I shadowed him for a while, meeting a lot of the inmates. Joker in particular had taken and immediate interest to me...
..."Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a sly voice caught my attention as my guard, whom I called Joe, and I passed by a cell with a strange man inside. I turned, looking over my shoulder, to see lanky man with shaggy green hair, powdery white skin, and red lips; pressing his face up against the glass. Making sure Joe wasn't looking, I skipped over to stand in front of the clown man, innocent blue eyes wide. "Hello, girly."
"Hi," I beamed, waving with the hand that didn't have my raggedy bear's paw occupying it. "I'm Jessica."
"Nice to meet you kid. Call me Joker. Now, what's a little kid like you doing in a big, scary place like this?"
"My daddy said I was a ska...schizo-fuh..." my face screwed up in concentration as I tried to recall the word.
"Schizophrenic?" the Joker offered in his gruff tone, laughing at my poor attempts at coming up with the right pronunciation.
"Yeah, that. So he put me here so the peoples here could take care of me."
"JESS! JESS! What are you doing?" the loud voice of Joe startled me, and before I knew it I was being picked up by my caretaker, a team of guards crowding around us. "You stay away from her, you freak!"
They began to walk briskly away, and I twisted around in Joe's arms to stare over his shoulder at the Joker. Still grinning, I waved enthusiastically at my new friend, and he waved back, before throwing back his head and laughing...
"Your burgers," Beth offered, setting down the plates in front of us. She turned to me. "Can I get you another Coke, hun?"
I glanced down at my glass. It was completely empty, much to my amusement. I must've drank all of it during my story. Nodding, I offered her a sheepish smile and handed her the glass. She accepted it happily, "Well, I'll be right back then."
"Do you want me to continue?" I asked, watching him through my lashes as I bit into a fry. At his nod, I took a deep breath and pursued. "Well, a little while after that incident I was in my room when the entire Asylum went on lock down. Lights flashing, loud yelling and heavy footfalls, all very frightening for a little girl in a building full of crazies. And then, after a couple minutes, everything got really, really quiet, I remember, and dark...
"Ring around the rosie/ pocket full of posies/ ashes to ashes we all fall down," I sang to myself, huddled up in the corner of my bed as the lights everywhere shut off. My knees were drawn up to my chest and my bear was tucked in my arms. I was absolutely terrified of the dark at that age, and singing seemed to be the only way to comfort myself. "Ring around the rosie/ pocket full of posies..." I buried my face in my knees, feeling tears prick my eyes as I trembled.
"Ashes to ashes we all fall down," a voice that wasn't mine finished the song, and my breathing quickened. A flashlight flickered on, and the light wavered about the room before it illuminated a twisted, pale face. I couldn't help it, I screamed. Joker jumped a foot in the air, the flashlight tumbling out of his hands. "Whoa, whoa kid! Shh! Shut up! You're gonna get me caught!"
"Sorry," I blushed, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Please don't be mad at me."
"Oh, I can't be mad at you," he chuckled, and I smiled a little, thankful for his forgiveness (Of course, I didn't know it at the time, but he was simply mocking me). He sat down next to me and wrapped a thin arm around my shoulder. "You're just too cute, kid."
"Can...can you tell me what's going on, Joker?"
"This..." he waved about his arms for emphasis. "This is called a lock down, kid."
I stared at him, confusedly, before slowly asking,"Why are we having one?"
"Because the people here don't like it very much when I come and visit you, my little Jesster," he joked, ruffling my hair. I giggled, slapping my hands on my head to stop him.
"My name isn't Jesster, silly!" After I felt I sufficiently fixed my hair – really I just messed it up even more – I looked up at him. "My name is Jessica."
"Oh, but Jesster is my nickname for you," at my blank face, he rolled his eyes. "You know, like how that guard calls you Jess?"
"Oh, you mean Joe..." I nodded, staring off into the dark. The room was silent, before I turned to him with an excited look. "Guess what? All of our names start with Js! Jessica, Joe, and Joker! We can be one big, happy J family!"
"Ah, I don't think so, Jesster."
I pouted, giving him the look that usually made the nurses give me candy. Sniffling, I shifted on the bed to face him completely and put my hands together. "But...but why not?"
"Remember how I said the Asylum doesn't like it when I come visit you?" I nodded. "Well, that Joe guy, he really doesn't like it. He doesn't want me to see you at all."
I gasped, "That's so mean!"
He snickered in that weird way of his. "It is, isn't it?"
"So...if we both don't see Joe...can we be a happy family, Joker?" I pleaded, jutting my lip out further. "I've never had one of those, and they sound nice!"
"Well, sure, kid."
Beaming as wide as I possibly could, so much that it hurt my cheeks, I threw my arms around his waist and held tight. "Yay! We'll be the happiest family in the world. I'll be the daughter, and you can be the daddy, and...well, we can find a mommy later."
The lights flickered on again, and Joker stood up, pushing me off of him just as the footsteps came and went again. "Well, Jesster, that's my cue. I'll see you around." He saluted me with a grin, to which I returned, before opening the door and creeping back out into the hallway. Squealing, I picked up my bear by his paws and swung him around.
"Did you hear that, Teddy? We're going to have a family again!"