Chapter Two
The Magician and The Fool
Julia didn't know how long she lay on the floor of the apartment, only that the sunlight that streamed over her shoulders from behind the blinds slowly grew weaker as her limbs grew numb from lack of movement. At first, her mind had raced, trying to come up with some way to escape, but eventually she had realized that she could come up with nothing that gave her the chance she needed. She had no way of reaching the weapons the Joker had dumped in one corner of the room and she could hear nothing from the room into which he had disappeared, which meant she had no way of knowing where her kidnapper was. She thought she could hear muffled voices from the room into which he had disappeared but could not tell if the voices were real or simply the product of head trauma.
By rocking to build up momentum, she was eventually able to flip herself over, but she did not have much time to observe the other side of the room before the Joker reappeared, slipping his phone back into his pocket and walking over to the desk to hang his coat on the back of the chair. He sat down, leaning back to prop his feet on the desk and fold his arms behind his head, sighing with what sounded like contentment.
"Soooo, I see you finally decided to quiet down. I miiiight even kill you quickly if you keep up the good behavior."
Julia mumbled behind the duct tape. With a grin, he hopped up and, flipping her onto her back, ripped the tape off her mouth with a gleeful flourish. "Does someone have something to aaaaaadd?"
She held in a shriek at the burning pain when the Joker ripped off the tape and cleared her throat. "You…you're not supposed to kill hostages."
"Well, do I seem like the kind of person that does what he's supposed to do? Hmmm?" He brought his face down inches away from hers and met her gaze with a wide-eyed stare.
"I…suppose not. But…it would be nice if you could, er, make an exception?" Julia trembled, dreading his reaction to her impertinence.
This sent the Joker into peals of laughter that had him doubled over for several minutes before he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes. "That's a GOOD one!" Suddenly his hand flashed out and Julia was sent sprawling across the room to slam against the wall. She felt her wrist snap and let out a moan of pain. He strode across the room and lifted her by the throat to dangle in his strong grip, a deadly serious look now in his shining brown eyes. "I don't think you should be telling me what to do."
She felt her vision begin to fade as she lost consciousness, but was awake enough to feel herself be dropped back onto the floor in a heap and hear the Joker's laugh. "The cavalry's HEEEEEEEEERE!"
–
The Joker stepped out the shadowy corner of her bedroom, gun in hand. He looked more worse for the wear since the last time Julia had seen him, which was saying something considering the circumstances under which they had parted on that occasion. The sleeve of his massive purple coat was almost ripped off and his vest was more or less in tatters. Blood was smeared in his hair and dripped steadily from a gash on the side of his forehead and she could see another wound covering most of his thigh that looked like a combination of burn and cut.
"If you scream again," he said in that nasally, high-pitched voice that had haunted her dreams for almost a month, "I'm gonna have to shoot you. You know that, Jules."
She backed away from him, keeping her eyes on him as she searched for a way out of the room. But the Joker was blocking the only door out. "W-what do you w-want?"
"I need some medical attention, and you're going to play doctor, 'kaaaay?"
"What?" She could not believe what she had just heard. Did he honestly expect her to help him, after what he had put her through? She eyed his wounds, trying to figure out if she would be able to fight past him in his weakened state, assuming that she could avoid being shot.
"You mean, why should you help me, when I'm clearly injured and too weak to pose a threat? Don't UNDERESTIMATE me," he growled at her in that nightmarish voice.
She knew from experience how deceptively strong he was. Julia was not heavy but not light either, yet he had once picked her up singlehandedly and raised her several feet in the air. He smirked as she trembled, mind racing, and she knew that he knew that he didn't even need the gun.
"A-all right. I have a first aid kit in the bathroom."
The Joker clapped his gloved hands together. "Lead the way, Doc."
Julia brushed past him into the hallway and walked quickly to the small bathroom, which felt even more cramped with two bodies inside. Once inside, she knelt to grab the kit from underneath the sink, fighting the voice inside her head that said what she was doing was crazy, arguing with it that she didn't really have a choice if she wanted to stay alive. When she straightened and turned around, the Joker stripped off his coat, vest, and shirt, and when she the amount of blood that has soaked though the latter two layers and now dribbled on her formerly clean bathroom floor, she could see why he had needed someone to stitch him up.
–
By the cavalry, the Joker had meant almost the entire Gotham police force. Julia watched in horror as they issued their ultimatum, demanding that the Joker surrender or they were going to bomb the now-evacuated building. It was then that the Joker had hauled her over to the window, tightly pressed to his chest, one of his guns pressed to the side of her head. Even from five stories up, Julia could see the panic that this revelation sent rippling through the police force; a lone crazed psychopath was one thing, but a hostage situation was something entirely different.
The Joker let loose a peal of laughter as, while the police force were attempting to come to some consensus about what they would do, the Joker pulled a small remote from his pocket with his free hand and pressed a red button. Seconds later, three buildings housing several of Gotham's major businesses exploded. Julia could see the pillars of smoke rising from only a few blocks away.
"It's always so much more FUN with an audience!" The Joker snickered from behind Julia. "And you know the bessst part? Those goons won't do a thing while I have YOU!"
The new worst part of the situation, Julia realized with an icy feeling, was that she wasn't entirely sure the Joker was right. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, the Gotham justice force was going to realize that by sacrificing her, they might be able to save more lives.
And at the very moment, unbeknownst to either the Joker or Julia, the force's IT members were using software developed by Wayne Industries that used sonar to map out the building in which the Joker was hiding and pinpoint his location. As SWAT members crept up the building's stairs, the police chief switched the megaphone back on to ask for surrender one last time. "This is your final chance, Joker. Give up the girl and surrender, or…"
"Or what?" The Joker chuckled to himself. "I think Gotham's finest have pretty much made clear that I'm going to be walking out of this little rendezvous alive, don't yooou?" he asked Julia as he dragged her back away from the window.
"Please, just let me go!" she screamed suddenly. If the Joker was rejecting this last chance, then she was probably going to be caught in the showdown between him and the police. She struggled against his grip but could not even come close to freeing herself, even though she was truly fighting for her life, heedless of the throbbing pain in her injured wrist and her more minor wounds.
Suddenly the door imploded and the room flooded with SWAT members, who instantly trained their weapons on the Joker and shouted at him to freeze. But they were blocked from a clear shot yet again by Julia, whom the Joker was yet again using as a human shield.
"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise!" The soldiers were unnerved by the ghastly smile on the Joker's mangled face. "How did you like my little fireworks display, gents? I gave the commissioner a ring so he wouldn't miss it!"
No one responded, so he gave a mock sigh of disappointment. "If you're all going to be so dreary, maybe my next surprise will cheer you up, hmm? I figure maybe since you're all here, I should invite some friends of my own!"
When twenty or so men in clown makeup burst through the door to the room with the weapons, toting shotguns and other firearms, Julia realized that the voices she had heard earlier were not imaginary. I should have warned them, she thought as one SWAT member after the other fell with a burst of blood to the floor, only managing to shoot a few of the clowns. I don't know how, but I should have been able to warn someone…
Once the police chief lost communication with the SWAT team shortly after hearing one of the men scream into his radio about being surrounded by clowns, what ensued was a truly epic firefight. The Joker dragged himself and Julia out of the building, which was now being consumed by flames from grenades and firebombs thrown by both the police force and the clown army, who were both still dueling somewhere inside almost half an hour after the secondary team had been sent in.
They were almost far enough away that the sirens from the opposite side of the building had faded away when a huge dark shape fell from above to land on the Joker, crushing him to the ground. Julia shrieked and tried to crawl away, though her hands and feet were still bound and the pain in her wrist had increased to an almost unbearably sharp searing, then froze when she realized who had just tackled her captor. Batman dragged the Joker upright before slamming his fist into his face, which threw the Joker soaring into the wall of a nearby building.
"Sorry I'm late, Joker," he rasped, and stalked over to where the Joker lay grinning. "Glad you could make it, Batty. Wouldn't want you to miss the celebration." He stood and wiped a smear of blood from his face before lunging at the Batman.
The two began a hand-to-hand battle in which neither, it seemed, had the upper hand. Julia tried to loosen her restraints frantically, desperate to get away while the Joker was occupied. Batman had finally managed to restrain the Joker, after landing a powerful blow which sent the latter in a dazed sprawl, with thick wire bonds from his utility belt by the time the police had finally arrived in the alley. When he saw Commissioner Gordon, one of the first to make it past the fire, Batman nodded but did not stick around to chat, turning with a flourish of his cape and disappearing down an alley while the police now pouring onto the scene were still distracted.
A well-meaning officer tried to help Julia up but knocked against her wrist, eliciting a noise of pain that had three other officers running to her side. Nice to see that they're so gallant, she thought through the haze of adrenaline, fear, and exhaustion that clouded her mind. I wonder if they knew I was in the building they just torched when they set it on fire?
"Ma'am, an ambulance is on its way…" She ignored the drone of the typical victim speech about how it was all going to be okay and watched as several officers also surrounded the Joker and many more trained their guns on him as an armored prison car was prepared to transport him. The commissioner appeared to be having a heated conversation with the man, although the Joker remained calm, even seemed to be enjoying his effect on Gordon.
The ambulance arrived and Julia was loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled to the back of the van. Simultaneously, the SWAT team loaded the Joker into the back of his transport. Julia's eyes met the gaze of her kidnapper, whose mouth cracked into a smile distorted by the hacked scars on his face as he winked at her before disappearing into the back of the truck.
–
"Try anything with a needle or those scissors, and it'll be the last thing you do, got it, Jules?" His eyes, deadly serious, did not leave hers until he was sure she understood. She nodded her assent, and he turned his back to prop his hands against the bathroom door, blocking her exist while also exposing his worst injury. A half-inch deep slash was carved from his right shoulder blade down almost to his left hip, and was oozing blood at a rate that made Julia wonder why he had waited for her to arrive home rather than threatened a more skilled medical professional into treating him. It dissected a large, intricate tattoo in black ink which she could not see clearly since it was covered in bloody smears.
"Holy shit."
He snickered quietly at her exclamation. "Don't worry, I won't kill you if your stitches aren't perfect. Your mother was a nurse, Jules, isn't that right? I'm sure you inherited some of her skills."
Another wave of shock went through her. "How do you know about my mother? And wait a second, how do you know my name?"
The Joker turned to look at her, hands still braced on the door. "Look, I really haven't got all night here, so I'll cut you a deal: you stitch, I bitch."
Like she could be distracted from the gore that was right in front of her. "S-sounds good." She rinsed a washcloth in cool water and hydrogen peroxide but hesitated right above the wound. "Just so we're clear, this is probably going to hurt."
"More than getting this papercut in the first place?"
He was right, she had to admit. "Okay, here goes. Hold still." The hydrogen peroxide instantly began to sizzle as it touched the wound, and she concentrated more on clearing the blood from the rest of his back before focusing on the wound itself. Years of first aid training from her mother and various middle and high school classes took over, and she found herself focusing solely on the wound, forgetting for the time being – as much as was possible, anyway – the patient. Julia quickly realized that the bleeding was not going to stop unless she could stitch up the wound…but she could only stitch so fast, and he would lose too much blood through the rest of the wound.
"I need you to hold this cloth on the bottom half, okay? It's bleeding too much." She handed him a second water-dampened cloth when he reached his left hand back, giving her a warning glance as he did so.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Her hands were shaking as she threaded a needle with thick black thread from the kit. Julia closed her eyes and focused. "Okay…" she breathed, unaware of the grimacing smirk that had appeared on the Joker's face at her attempts to calm herself.
"Need a pep talk, sweetheart? 'Cause I'm sure I can come up with somethi-"
"Hold still." Never in a million years would she have thought she had the balls to interrupt the Joker, and even he seemed to be stunned into silence at her commanding tone. Not waiting any longer, she pierced his back and began to stitch him up.
–
Author's Notes
I already had this chapter planned out when I wrote chapter one and I'm pleased to say it turned out pretty close to what I had planned, although the actual confrontation between the Joker and the Gotham police force was a bit tough to write; I knew that the Joker was going to kidnap Julia but had to think about what would happen between then and when he was captured. Then again, it seems like the Joker doesn't really mind random acts of violence against the city of Gotham. I'm having a lot of fun writing this story so far; please review and tell me what you think!
Cheers,
Katrina
