Harley slowly rubbed her eyes, and felt a movement beside her. She looked up, and J was hovering over her. "Welcome to the land of the living, Harls." He flashed a grin. "You're home. You didn't wake up when the plane landed. I had to carry you."

Harley sat up and looked around. Sure enough, she was in their bedroom. She was home. Her heart felt like it could have exploded at the joy she felt. Of course she had wanted to be home more than anything, but she didn't realize how much. J reached out and flicked a tear off of her cheek. She shook her head, looking at him. "Sorry, I jus' realized how much I missed this." More tears dripped down her face. Harley bit her lip, trying to control herself.

J looked at her with a strange intensity, watching the tears dripping off of her chin, her white teeth digging into the soft skin of her bottom lip. "You didn't think you were ever coming home, did you?" When Harley slowly shook her head, he felt the heat of anger flare up in his chest again. "You thought I'd fail to get you?"

Harley shook her head again. "I didn't mean that, I just...I didn't think you would."

"Why?" He demanded.

"I didn't think I was important enough to you. Arkham, yeah, it's cake for you to get me outta there. But I was in a hole inside of a hole that didn't exist. You've always told me I'm more trouble than I'm worth, so I didn't think-"

"That's right, you didn't think." J placed two fingers on each side of Harley's head. "You didn't think. You rarely do. You didn't think that maybe I can't function without you."

"I know, and I'm sorry, Puddin', but then I saw you die an-"

"And what? And whaaaaaaat? You didn't think that I'd tell the devil himself to fuck off? That I'd go to hell without you at my side where you belong? You belong to me. What's mine was taken and I wasn't going to stop until I got it back." Joker took her hair in his hands and yanked her head up to look at him. "I will always get back what's mine." He swept down to capture her mouth with his own, barely giving her space to breathe, only pulling away after biting down on her lip. Harley felt the coppery tang of her blood fill her mouth. She reached up to rub her sore lip, but his hands forced her own to be still.

"You are mine, my little harlequin." J grinned, that wide, taunting smile that dared her to prove him wrong. Harley's first instinct was to snap back, even though he was right. No matter how cruelly he got his point across, she did belong to him. She knew the crown he had placed upon her head was his to give, and the price was his collar around her neck, puppet strings on her limbs. She held his gaze firmly, her eyes acknowledging his words in lieu of her own, her silence a subtle submission.

Suddenly her stomach growled, and he dropped her now-sore wrists. An amused grin spread slightly on his face. "When is the last time you ate?"

Harley's eyebrows furrowed in frustrated concentration. "I'm not sure. The days blur together at Belle Reve, and you don't always get three meals a day every day…" Joker growled, anger flaring at the new information about the further mistreatment of his harlequin. He twisted his fingers with Harley's and pulled her to her feet.

"Let's fix that." She allowed him to pull her gently along. She felt the slight warmth of happiness she always felt when he showed that he cared about her and her well-being. He could get angry if she didn't take care of herself.

When he pulled her into the living room, though, her feet came to a halt and she nearly fell onto her face. Joker stood in front of her, attempting to dissect her facial expression as she took in the mess he had left on the living room floor. His little circle of horrors. The glint of the metal blades flashed in her eyes as she took in the arrangement of objects, her gaze lingering slightly longer on the infant jumpsuits. "Mistah J…" she breathed.

"I'll have someone clean it up later," he said softly.

"Puddin', what…" She shook her head, unable to understand what she was seeing.

"Come on, Harley, let's-"

"No," she cut him off sharply. "What the fuck is this, Puddin'? Part of a heist plan or something goin' on while I was gone?" She could feel her attempt to explain this room was weak, but it's all she could come up with. She could feel her knees growing weak.

Joker threw his head back and laughed. "Harley, Harley, Harleyyyyy…." His voice changed to that sweet note of insanity Harley had learned to recognize in him long ago, but this time it made her take a small step back. This new revelation unsettled her. Of course he saw her movement. He saw everything. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders. "It'd be stupid of you to consider that my mind could have been focused on anything but getting you back," He forced her backwards until her back hit the wall, his breath hot against her ear. "Dangerous game to play, baby." His tongue darted out to trace the side of her ear.

"Then explain it ta me, Mistah J." Harely barely breathed, knowing that J was in a dangerous mood.

Joker's hands slid to hold either side of her face as he spoke. "It's all you, baby. You did this to me. I couldn't do anything but prepare to get you back. Thousands of miles away, and you still had power over me. You stole my ability to think of anything but you. Every blade on that floor is one I used when I rescued you in my mind, one I used to slit each throat of your prison guards. Every gun was used to shoot them, and I swear I could feel their blood running down my face. You took my fucking power, Harls."

Harley's eyes slid unthinkingly to the baby clothes. J, of course, knew exactly what had drawn her eye. His hand slid under her jaw, jerking her back to meet his eyes. "I will get my revenge on them, Harley. They took what was ours. I will take what's theirs."

Harley bit her lip. "Puddin'...what would have happened? If I hadn't lost it? Would you…" she gulped and took a breath, "Would you have wanted to keep it?"

"That choice was taken away, Harls." His voice was deathly quiet, sending a chill up her spine. "It doesn't matter what the answer would have been. That choice was ours, noone else's. That was taken. The answer doesn't matter."

Harley forced her hand from her side, touching the hand that held her face. "J, I know how you get when you're planning something. You get obsessed. This room, this is what I'm talking about. You get so wrapped up that-"

J took her and slammed her into the wall again, sending her breath whooshing out of her. "I couldn't fucking breathe right without you, Harley, don't you fucking get it? This wasn't me obsessed with getting you back, this was me trying to save my own fucking life, because I can't live without you at my goddamn side."

"All I meant," she gasped, "was that I didn't want you getting wrapped up in revenge and leave me alone ta deal with the rest. I need to work through what happened ta me and I don't think I can do that if you check out."

J let go of her and turned his back on her, but she could see his bare shoulders heaving, his chest expanding with his heavy breaths.

"Puddin'?" She reached out to trace the skin of his shoulderblade. Suddenly, she was slammed against the wall again, both of her wrists pinned above her head, the nails of Joker's other hand digging into the flesh of her hips. Her head hit the wall harder this time, and her vision blurred slightly.

"You forget who calls the shots, Harley," Joker said. "You may have consumed me these past months, but you do not hold the power. Revenge will be mine and it will be sweet. You can join me or you can stand back and watch, it makes no difference to me. But you will do as you are told. I hold the power." His hands slowly let her go. "Now, you will come and eat something." He turns and walked away from her into the kitchen.

Her hands went to her throat, feeling her pulse pounding underneath her skin. J had always been unstable in his emotions and reactions, but something was different now. He felt more dangerous, if that was even possible for someone like him, who was already the most dangerous man in Gotham. But not to her. Not until now.

She had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach about this man she loved. He had been right that night he had taken her to the chemical warehouse, standing high above the heated vats. "Desire becomes surrender, surrender becomes power." She had thought he was talking about his own desire to own her, her surrender to him, and his power over her. Now she realized it could be entirely the other way around. She had desired him, she had made the choice to surrender her life to him, and that meant she held some semblance of power over him. He had realized this while she was gone, and he didn't like it. He had never been under the power of anyone else. Any time he was captured or cornered, he still had the power and gave his captors the illusion of it being the other way around. It was how he had manipulated her love for him as Doctor Quinzel into becoming an accomplice in his escape from Arkham. He always held the power.

Slowly, she peeled herself off of the wall, feeling the deep throbbing in the back of her head, and walked to the kitchen. J was leaning casually against the countertop. He held out a box of take out, and she took it. It was cold, but she was so hungry that she didn't care. Joker watched while she shoveled cold lo mein noodles into her mouth, once again noting how much smaller she was than before. Another jolt of anger shot through him like electricity, sparked by the knowledge that his Harley hadn't just been taken from him, but she had been hurt and mistreated. The only person allowed to hurt her was himself. He had made her, and she was his masterpiece. Noone was allowed to touch her and get away with it.

Harley turned her back to him, and he noticed an odd red circle in her platinum blonde hair. J reached out to touch her hair, and his fingers came away wet with blood. "Harls, you're bleediing."

"Mmmm?" She turned around, a piece of green vegetable hanging from the corner of her mouth, oblivious to the wetness seeping through her hair.

"The back of your head is bleeding," J said again.

Harley reached up and flinched. "Fuck. I need a shower to wash this out."

"Take some meds first for the pain," J said, walking over to the cabinet where they kept the regular array of medicines.

"Nah, I feel a bit sick and don't think I can stomach meds right now."

J ignored her. "You're taking pain meds. Ibuprofen should suffice."

"Puddin', I'm fine, I just wanna go wash off-" J spun around and smacked her. Her head snapped to the side, and her fingers went up to the burning spot on her cheek.

"Fine, Harley. But don't you fucking say one word when you start feeling the pain an hour from now. One word, and I'll cut your fucking throat. I'm not listening to it. Is that clear?" Harley gulped and nodded. She threw away the now empty takeout box and practically ran to the bathroom, feeling the prickling heat of tears and wanting to get away before J noticed and became angrier.

As soon as Harley left the room, Joker felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out to see a text from Jonny. "Main guard assigned to Harley, name of Griggs. Found location. Home off Belle Reve campus. Lives with wife and two kids.:

Joker felt a smile spreading across his face. This revenge thing was going to be just too easy.