It would be a lie to say that any night is a good night in Arkham, but this one in particular was. Well, eventually. It started out by the lights flickering on around 1:00 AM, causing most of the other prisoners to moan and groan and whine like little babies. I, however, was interested to see who would be joining us in the cell block this evening. I pressed my face against the glass, and I saw several guards escorting the Joker through the long hallway.

Ugh. After seeing him I turned away and moved back to my bed before the realization hit me. I turned back around and practically threw myself against the glass. "Harley?!"

There she was, beautiful as ever. But she had bruises and cuts all over her. More than she usually did when she first shows up at Arkham. Something happened to her, and I don't think it was caused by Tall, Dark, and Gloomy, who was as silent as ever. Harley took notice of me and barely smiled, waving at me. "Hiya, Red." Calmly, she walked into the cell across from mine as the guards continued to drag the Joker passed her.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! My cell is always next to Harley's! What the hell is going on here?! I'll kill all of you!"

"Quiet, freak!" yelled one of the guards. His mistake. Joker broke free from the other guards' grasps and begin choking the guard who yelled at him. To nobody's surprise, Batman intervened and punched the Joker in the face, allowing the guards to regain control over him. Batman then tells them to get the Joker to solitary confinement, which they do.

Harley gulps and says "Thanks, B-Man." Sigh. I love how she always gives people nicknames. Batman nodded at Harley and proceeded to walk away, glancing at me on his way out. Once he was gone, I saw Harley sitting at the end of her bed, with her arms around her chest. It hurt to see her like this. I barely managed to choke out "Harley? Harley, what happened?"

"Please, Red, I don't wanna talk about it."

I gulped and asked again. "Harley, please."

I could tell she was reluctant but she spoke anyways. "Well, for a while me and Mista J had it good. We were hiding out from Bats, the usual, you know? But about two weeks ago, Mista J started getting… angry."

"You mean more than usual?" chimed in the Riddler. It hadn't occurred to me that everyone else would be eavesdropping.

"Yeah, I guess so." Replied Harley. "But that wasn't the worst of it. Mista J came up with a plan to… Pammy, he was gonna try and blow up Gotham. I couldn't let him do it so I… I called Batman and I helped him take down Mista J but he hurt me. He hurt me really bad, Pammy." She was in tears. She had her knees tucked into her chest and tears were streaming down her face. I just wanted to run over and comfort her and tell her everything was going to be okay. But I couldn't do that.

"I won't let him touch you, Harley. Ever." It was all I could do.

"Thanks, Red."

"Harley?"

She looked up and wiped a tear from her face.

"Get some sleep."

She nodded and lied down.

"I'll see you in the morning."

She didn't respond, but I can't blame her. I'll make that yellow-toothed freak pay for hurting her. In the morning I can hold her during free time, but free time isn't until after lunch and right now that seems like an eternity.

I didn't sleep that night. For the rest of the hours I just sat in the corner of the cell and watched Harley. I guess I must have dozed off because my eyes hurt when the lights flickered back on in the morning. I smiled as I watched Harley stretch and groan as she woke up. Hopefully she'd be a little happier this morning.

As they started passing out our breakfasts I said "Good morning, Harley."

"What's so good about it?"

So much for her being happier this morning. I noticed her wincing in pain as she moved her arm when she tried to eat breakfast.

"Harley are you okay?"

"I guess."

She wanted to cry again, and I wanted to hold her.

The hours dragged on by until the guards finally opened our cells and began escorting us into the commons area. I practically ran over to Harley after they opened her cell. She didn't say much as we walked into the commons area, and when we arrived she just sat down on the couch. A very small part of me wanted to go over and play poker with Scarecrow, Riddler, Two-Face, and the Ventriloquist, but every other bit of me wanted nothing more than to sit with Harley.

I reached for the remote but she said "I don't really feel like watching TV."

"That's okay. What do you feel like doing?"

"I just wanna talk."

"Talking is good. What do you want to talk about?"

"What have things been like since I've been gone?"

"No different at all. Well, they've been duller, but now that you're back it feels more like heaven." Shit. Think before you speak, Ivy.

Harley grinned, so I guess that's a good sign. But then she hugged me and it didn't even take a fraction of a second for me to hug her back.

"Thank you, Red." I smiled as I felt her tears fall onto my shoulder.

Our hug was interrupted by the Riddler whistling at us and his fellow poker buddies laughing, except for the Scarecrow. I don't think he really finds anything funny.

I flipped off the Riddler but Harley gets up and asks me "Do you wanna go somewhere else?" She extends her hand and I take it. She pulls me up and holds onto it as we walk away. We walked over to a table on the opposite side of the commons area and I asked her "So what do you want to talk about now?"

She sighed. "I don't know, Red. I'm just getting really sick of this."

"Sick of what? Arkham? Join the club."

"No, not Arkham. At least in here I'm safe from the Joker."

"Then what are you sick of?"

"Two words: Harley Quinn." She held up her hand and held up her index and middle finger with each word.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm tired of being the Joker's door matt. I just want to go back to being Harleen Quinzel. I don't want to be one of the bad guys anymore." In frustration, she puts her head on the table and moans. No matter how hard she tries she'll always be the goofy little Harley Quinn that I have come to love. I started rubbing her head, trying to comfort her.

"Then let's do it."

She instantly raised her head up from the table and asked "Do what?"

"Stop being criminals. You and me. We can get out of here and leave Gotham behind!"

"You would do that for me?" she sounded so touched, and I knew this was the right decision.

"I would do anything for you Harley."

When she cried this time, it was tears of joy, and she pulled into yet another hug.