I really must thank my reviewers. Everyone says their motivation is the fans. They certainly don't lie about that one. To keep everyone happy, I definitely will keep writing. Thanks again!

Chapter Two;

At the Joker's frighteningly jolly greeting, Elise felt her hopes for getting out sink even lower, if that was possible. She had heard stories, sure. But after the Batman had taken down, the once untouchable, Carmine Falcone and stopped Gotham from destroying itself, Elise felt confident that she could move back into the city to work on taking the place of corrupt psychiatrist, Jonathan Crane. Elise was always stubborn and never tuned out what her heart and head told her. She also almost never regretted anything. This was one of those rare occasions. The Joker, again, shook her out of her thoughts, literally. Before Elise could even notice he had moved, the face-painted clown has inches in front of her. He picked her up by her shoulders as to straighten her out and sunk down to his knees to get eye to eye with the scared stiff Elise.

"What, no hello? No good morning to you?!" He was getting angry. Elise could tell by the way his hold on her shoulders tightened. But he knew there was tape covering her mouth. Even if she wanted to respond back to the killer, she couldn't. Eerily reading her thoughts, the Joker then added, "Oh, yeah. This might be a problem," referring to the tape over her mouth. Instantly, he grabbed for a corner of the tape and ripped it off her mouth. The moment the duct tape was off her skin, Elise yelped out. She could feel her lips and the skin around it burn as if it were on fire.

At the sound of her pain, the Joker burst in maniacal laughter, giggling in her face and motioning to his henchmen around him to laugh with him. When the laughter came uncertainly and timidly, the Joker's laugh immediately stopped. He turned towards the first masked clown to Elise's right, his semi-automatic still pointed to her. The thug's eyes, however, were shifting nervously towards the Joker. He then roughly grabbed the thug's face and forced him to look at him, muttering quietly, "Look at me, chap." Without taking his eyes off his henchman, the Joker grabbed the semi-automatic from his hands and turned it against him, pointing the barrel at the man's gut.

"What did I tell you when you first came into his job?" the Joker asked carefully, yet evilly. Elise knew what he was going to do; something to her own gut screamed at her the inevitable. When the now trembling man said nothing, the newly enraged Joker bellowed, "What did I tell you!?"

The anger shook the henchman into some sense as he slowly slurred out, "Do exactly as you say, boss."

The Joker shook his head in agreement and replied, "Ah yes, do exactly as I say. And did you laugh when I clearly motioned for all of you to laugh? Did you!?" Before the man had a chance to defend himself with either motions or words, the Joker let loose a round of bullets into the masked man's gut, bringing him to the ground in a matter of seconds.

Elise had shut her eyes tight, much like she had did when the light first came on. She could not sit and watch a man die simply because he wouldn't laugh because she was in pain. Now Elise couldn't control her trembling. When Rachel had told her that this man had robbed five banks and killed the entire group of henchman he had with them, she thought she was exaggerating the villain's cruelty and malice. Certainly nothing could have compared to the death and destruction she had seen not even six months prior. Bitterly, Elise laughed to herself.

'No,' she thought, 'this is man doesn't even compare to what I've seen before. And I thought I had seen it all…'

Suddenly, the Joker turned away from the lifeless man and knelt down next to her, grabbing a switchblade from out of his shoe. At the sight of the blade, Elise froze, itching closer to the wall as she possibly could. When she moved, the Joker filled closed in on the gap and whispered to her, "I'm a man of my word, Elise. Listen to me and you will be fine. Disobey me and well," he giggled crazily away from her ear, "You know what I'm capable of." In a strange twist of fate, the Joker, instead of hurting for acknowledging her own pain like Elise thought he was going to do, cut the bindings around her wrists and ankles.

Swallowing her fear and rubbing her wrists as she decided the words to say, Elise also decided that being a bitch wasn't going to get her anywhere. If she wanted to escape alive, she would have to work her way into the Joker's good graces, somehow. She knew she was going to hate herself for showing kindness to Gotham's most feared criminal, but Elise really didn't want her family and friends to find her at the bottom of the river or wherever he would put her if he decided to do her in like the man next to her.

"Thank you," she said quietly. All she got in response was a grunt as he motioned for his group of now nine men to round up the body of their dead comrade. So, she spoke again, "What do you want from me?"

Slowly, the Joker turned his head to her and grinned widely, showing his set of slightly yellowed teeth. He grabbed her roughly by the arms and pulled her up to stand. Elise felt like an ant compared to his man. He was somehow around six feet two inches tall, while Elise was always called "the midget," coming in at five foot four. He wrapped a purple gloved hand around the back her neck and began to press as he quietly asked the now slowly fading Elise, "Does it look like I have a plan, Ms. Conway?"

The last thing Elise heard before she completely blacked out was the seemingly never ending sound of the Joker's laughter. It seemed to stretch forever through her head, even as she completely faded away.