A/N: Smiele: Sorry this took so long to get out! But you know what they say; you can't rush perfection!

Joker: Or you can procrastinate like Smiley did and use an old idiom to try and cover it up.

S: Shut up.

J: Just trying to be of assistance, dearest.

S: Before I murder him, here's the chapter!

Just wanna spend the rest of my life with you
Be your Bonnie, be my Clyde
Make these cowards run and hide
And I just wanna spend the rest of my life with you

Bonnie and Clyde, Haystak

"See I thought the, uh, 'it's a circus' phrase was just a metaphor, but…I was apparently wrong."

The giant red and white tent was huge, with bleachers circling the main area and trapeze overhead.

"Isn't it great?!" Sofia yelled out, hidden from view. Seemingly out of nowhere, she appeared next to him. "The old Haly circus. It used to be a big hit here, but then some of the trapeze artists died, "The Flying Graysons" I think they were called, and it shut down. Thought it'd suit you." She explained, patting his grease-painted face.

"Ya know, Rosie-girl, I'd thought you were past your cliché phase." He sighed playfully.

"Not quite." She murmured in response, fiddling with a small metal remote. She shouted joyfully when she found the correct button and the circus lit up. Smiling she looked over to her companion, who raised his eyebrows at the brightness of the room.

"Cool, huh?" she asked.

"Adorable." He remarked sassily, and then huffed when she smacked the back of his head.

"You could at least pretend to like it. It wasn't easy finding a good hideout. I had to meet with some… undesirable people."

He pouted at her. "Did poor little Rosie-girl have to talk to creepers just to find me a suitable place?"

"You would not believe what kind of people I've had to deal with! One of them tried to cop a feel in the middle of the negotiation."

"Oh did he?" Jack asked sharply.

"So I broke his nose." She finished, causing him to burst out laughing.

"That's my girl." He ruffled her hair and she grabbed his coat, pulling him close.

"Oh yeah?" she murmured to him, their breath intermingling. "Prove it."

He chuckled. "Don't tempt me, darling. If I prove it, I may get distracted for several hours."

"Hours, huh?" she asked, nibbling on his ear. He let her continue for a few moments more.

"Jackkkkk." she whined when he pulled away.

"I've got some questions, and you've got some answers, so I suggest we just get it over with so we can do something a bit more… exciting."

"Fine," she acquiesced, plopping down on one of the bleachers while he followed suit. "I'm gonna tell you the whole story, from the night I was kidnapped by Crane- the second time- to now. Any unanswered questions, may be asked after, but don't interrupt."

He nodded at her and she started her tale.

"When he kidnapped me, I woke up tied to a chair in the warehouse. We bantered a bit before I remembered that there was a knife in my pocket, I'd put it in there earlier. I had started sawing the ropes when he sprayed me with something that I thought was fear gas, and then he injected this blue liquid into his arm. But the fear gas didn't affect me, he said it was because he wanted me "sober" for whatever I was gonna see.

"Then I saw… I saw you. Except it wasn't you, but I didn't realize that at first. He made me think that you were working with him to drive me insane by use of the fear gas, but then the illusion vanished and he explained it to me; microbes in the gas I inhaled and in the stuff he injected himself with, and he could control what I saw, it was a new concoction. And then he tried to spray me with fear gas, but Bruce-"

-she tried not to notice how he twitched when she said that name-

"-had inoculated me with the antidote already so I pretended that it was affecting me and when his back was turned- I attacked him. And I tried to kill him, but Bruce showed up and stopped me-"

"What a shame." She glared as he spoke.

"Hush! I'm talking." He shrugged and she continued her story. "He stopped me from killing Crane, and then you showed up. Crane had told me that the new gas lingers in the air for a few hours so while you were busy with Batman I injected myself. And then when I ran up to the walkway I knew one of you would end up killing the other and I needed to find a way to stop it.

"So you had all breathed in the gas and I made you see me get shot. And I did fall out the window, which nearly killed me, but someone found me, and I stayed with her until the search for my body was over. And then I had nowhere else to go so she let me stay, and she helped me get you out of the asylum. The guards didn't actually think I was a stripper, that was just a quick explanation to keep you from asking questons. She poisoned the guards.

"And that's where it gets a little more complicated, so I have to give you a bit of her backstory. Pamela, that's her name, used to be a botanist, and worked in a lab with this guy named Jason Woodrue, who was a total creep. And one day she saw him performing experiments to make this thing called Venom, which sorta mixed plant DNA with people DNA. I'm a bit fuzzy on that part but there was something with a League of Something needing it for some guy who had been in prison, I think his name was Bane.

"So Woodrue caught her viewing the experiment and she told him it was wrong and he tried to kill her so she wouldn't call the cops or whatever. But apparently he sucks at murder because he just knocked over some chemicals on her, which gave her plant powers and-"

"Plant powers?" he interjected, causing Sofia to roll her eyes.

"By this point, telling you to stop interrupting is useless. Yes, plant powers. She's immune to all poisons, she can control plants, and she can secrete toxins."

"Sounds gross."

"I swear you are a three year old."

"Four, actually." He mock corrected her with a goofy grin that she hadn't seen since high school. She couldn't help but smile back.

"She can kill people with kisses, her lips are poisonous. And she can release pheromones to control people and probably do a lot more. She didn't give me the whole spiel. Anyway, I needed to lay low for a while, so Bruce would think I was dead."

"And me." He said quietly, staring down at her. She reached out and placed her hand on his cheek, rubbing her thumb back and forth.

"I'm sorry, Jack." She apologized again, standing and wrapping her arms around his neck. They stayed like that for a while.

"Why didn't you tell me, Rosie-girl?"

"I needed you to believe it so he wouldn't get suspicious."

"Why would it matter if Brucey-boy knew you were alive?"

"Because of what I'm about to do. He'd never forgive me."

"Oh? And what are you about to do, Rosie-girl?" he asked, with an eyebrow raised.

She inhaled deeply, and turned him around to face her.

"I'm gonna be your partner in crime."