The Joker drove through the Narrows, which were surprisingly silent and empty. Oh, they wouldn't be in the morning when they found out about everything, would they? He laughed slightly and glanced over at Raven who sat stiffly in the passenger seat, her seemingly delicate hands were gripping hard at the sides of her seat.

He smiled and clicked his tongue while he raced through yet another red light. "I, uh, I don't think there's an eject button in this car, y'know."

Raven turned her head to look at him. "It's not an eject button that I'm worried about. I'm more worried about your driving, really. Are you sure you have a license?"

He laughed even more now. Of all the things she could be worried about sitting in a car with him, she was worried about his reckless driving? He pressed his foot down against the pedal to speed up to ninety, still laughing. "My driving? I don't need a license to do anything, Tweety. You, uh, you really should know that I've never been one for...rules. Why live your life in the boredom of following rules that everyone breaks anyways when you can be living in chaos and having a hell of a lot more fun. So, uh, I drive however I want and I go as fast as I feel like going. Got it?"

She nodded, smiling at him. He had such a way with words, that it was hard not to be completely enveloped in whatever he was saying. Whether you believed it or not, he had a certain way of making you believe. "Oh, of course. I understand completely."

He shifted his eyes at her briefly, licking his lips. "Good. Guess you're, uh, smarter than you look."

He continued to drive for a few minutes in silence until he got bored of it and decided to glance back over at her. Looking at her pretty face was certainly better than staring at the disgusting wasteland that was the Narrows around him, that was for sure. He noticed she still had her hands gripped to the seat, her green eyes were focused out the window in deep thought. What the hell was she thinking about and why wouldn't she stop gripping the seat in fear like that? More importantly, and more irritatingly, why the fuck did he care?

She saw his dark eyes glancing over at her and she instinctively tightened her grip on the seat. She had been trying to keep quiet, afraid any conversation might cause him to snap and this would all be over. She couldn't risk that.

His harsh, deep voice broke the silence. "Stop. Doing. That."

Shit. He'd noticed her tensing hadn't he? Or maybe he had wanted her to keep talking. She looked at him briefly and then turned her gaze back out the windshield. "Stop what?"

He growled, annoyed, and shifted his eyes over to her again. Her hands were still gripping her seat as she stared back at him. He took one of his hands off the wheel and reached down to hers, his eyes still on the road, and pried her hand off the seat. He held her hand up by the wrist in his tight grasp.

"This," his voice was even deeper now, and more deadly serious. "I'm talking about this. You're gripping at your seat like you think I might, what? I might, uh, press a magic button on the dashboard here that flings you right out the car; sending you flying out to your tragically yet, uh, hilariously ironic death?"

She looked at her arm being held up by his tight grip and then took in his angry face. She noticed that when he looked like that it made his already harsh, threatening features seem all the more dangerous and frightening; almost like a defense mechanism to ward people away from him. He knew what he was doing. He knew exactly how to look at people, to read them, to talk to them and he certainly always knew precisely which buttons needed to be pressed and in the right order, too. Well, she knew what she was doing too. She knew exactly why she was sitting here in his grip and she wasn't going to let a little fear get in the way of anything.

She locked her eyes on his for a moment and licked her own lips before speaking softly. "I'm not worried about any magic buttons, but you're right about one thing I suppose."

Ah, of course he was. He always was, wasn't he? He smiled smacking his lips together in an almost triumphant manner. "Now, now, my little, uh, gosling. Afraid I'm going to let go of you and throw you out to see if you can, uh, fly on your own? Hm?"

She watched his eyes grow darker, with a hint amusement in them, as a smile spread across his scarred red painted lips and he focused on the road again. He let her hand drop suddenly and laughed slightly as he heard it collide with the arm rest. She made sure to place her hand on her leg now instead of the seat.

"I guess you could say that, because, well, maybe you don't have an eject button this time, but that doesn't mean anything, does it? What's to stop you from pulling a gun or a knife on me? Let's face it, what's to stop you from killing me at all? I'm just being prepared for the unpredictable and the inevitable."

He stopped the car then and turned toward her, smiling darkly at her as she backed herself timidly against the door, never breaking eye contact with him. "Hm, yes. Y'know something, Raven? You've got a good point, there. What, uh, exactly is there to keep me from cutting you up into a million little pieces or blowing you up right now? Hm?"

She swallowed hard and forced a small smile at him. "Nothing. I guess you'll just have to trust me and I'll have to trust you."

He shook his head as he reached out to grab hold of her cheek with one hand, pushing her head into the glass window. "No, no. No. See, I, uh, I don't trust anyone. Ever."

"You trusted me to get you out of the Pruitt building."

He laughed a small, high pitched laugh and ran his tongue along his jagged lips. "Wrong. No, I allowed you help me because I was, uh, curious about you. You're alive now because I'm still curious, but I, uh, I tend to get bored fast. See, that is why you should never trust me either unless I give you my word."

"Yeah, well, I think I'll take my chances. I don't plan to let you get bored, you know."

He tightened his grip marginally, the smile gone from his lips. "We'll, uh, we'll see about that."

She swallowed hard and nodded, her eyes still on his. She watched as he licked his lips and half smiled at her before removing his hand from her cheek. In a blur of purple, he glided out of the car. Before she could move to open her own door and follow him, he was already at her door.

She gasped in shock and could still make out his bright red smile in the dark. Didn't take much to amuse him, did it? He yanked her door open and pulled her out into the cool Gotham night air next to him. He slammed the door shut and the next thing she knew he slammed her against the car.

"Your, uh, joy ride stops here."

She glanced around his tall, looming frame at their surroundings. They were in a particularly eerie area just off of the Narrows. The whole area seemed almost deserted. It was lined with what looked to have been beautiful old town homes at one point. Now they were all falling apart, boarded up and far from welcoming. How fittingly quaint.

"Here? Why? Where is this exactly?"

He laughed briefly and then shifted his weight to his good leg, letting a small guttural groan escape. He bit down on his lip, trying to ignore the pain, and placed his hands on either side of her head against the car. "What's wrong with here, hm? Were you expecting maybe, ah, Wayne Manor? Not my style. Too boring."

She shook her head. "No, I definitely wasn't expecting Wayne Manor, but I wasn't expecting this either really. I guess I had you pegged as more of an abandoned warehouse kind of guy."

For a brief second she watched as his features drastically hardened. His eyes narrowed and his lips started to curl up into almost a snarl. She was prepared to be murdered right then and there, but in another quick instant he looked up and shook his head. His green tinged curls shook around in the moonlight and then he brought his eyes back down to her. He let out a snuff of a laugh, grinning as he rolled his eyes. "Did have a warehouse once, but, uh, wouldn't you know it? I went and fucking blew it up."

"Why'd you blow it up?"

He tightened his gloved hands into fists, the material squeaking from the movement, and clenched his jaw. He narrowed his eyes on her and let his tongue snake out across his lips. "I blew it up because I fucking had to. Y'know something? If I was you, I'd stop asking all these questions right about, oh, now. You keep pissing me off and I'm, uh, I'm quite liable to blow you up too, precious."

She was backed as far into the car as she could be now, but he was still so close to her that it was almost suffocating. Every nerve in her body was a live wire when he stood that close to her. "Ok. I got it. No more questions, then. Just tell me which building we're going to. We need to get you off that ankle. You have to be in so much pain right now."

He lifted his eyebrows and smiled before he drew his face as close to hers as he could get it without their noses actually touching. He drew in a short breath, smacking his lips. "Tell me, doll, what, uh, what makes you think I'm taking you with me?"

Now it was her turn to smile at him, despite the shivers running through her body at that moment. She knew how to play her ace, too. "What's to stop me from running to the cops if I don't go with you? Right now, I know where the Joker is and I think that's information that every authority figure all along the ladder in this town would probably kill to know. Of course, I don't actually want to do that, but if you don't let me just help you, well, you'd leave me no choice."

He nodded rolling his eyes and laughing deeply. "Is that so? Well, ah, I have a very simple solution for that, y'know. Bribes? They don't really work on me, sweetness. So tell me, how exactly do you plan to, ah, go flying off to the good cops of Gotham if you're dead?"

Shit. So much for that ace. It seemed like no matter what card you played against him, he always had a better one to play against you. Her lips started to twitch nervously as she felt shivers running through her body. "Look, I've come this far. You need help with that ankle and I want to help you. That's all I want to do."

He laughed then brought one gloved hand back up to her face, clenching at her jaw. "I have a story for you. Do you, uh, do you want to hear it? Hm?"

She wasn't able to reply as he used his hand to nod her head yes for her.

"So, I knew this girl, right? She was very beautiful. She, uh, she thought she needed to help me, like you. I kept telling her I didn't need any help, but she was stubborn. Too stubborn. She never listened. She was always going to do what she needed to do. You, uh, you know what happened to her?"

Her eyes were wide and her body was tense as he used his hand again to make her shake her head no. Even in her fear, she still had to admit that she was actually fully intrigued by his story. She had a pretty good idea how it ended, but she wanted to hear him finish.

"C'mon now. It's pretty funny. Go ahead. I want you to guess. Guess what happened to that beautiful girl that I knew."

He let go of her jaw then and stared at her, waiting impatiently for her reply.

Her voice came out in almost a whisper. "She…she died?"

He slammed his fist hard against the car next to her head, laughing in sheer delight when she jumped. "We have a winner! Not so hard to guess now was it?"

She didn't dare say anything. She stood there as still as she could possibly manage, afraid to move or speak incase she pushed him too far. He was an obvious live wire right now and there was no telling what he was capable of at this moment.

"So the, uh, the morale of the story is that I don't need any fucking help. At. All. Try to help me and, uh, the odds are pretty high that you'll wind up dead."

She looked at him, letting the harsh reality of his words sink in. He was dangerous. That much was always clear to her, but that didn't mean everything. He was certainly going to make this very difficult.

"Do you want to know what I think? I think that there are millions of ways a person could die, especially in this city. So, you know what? I think I'm willing to take my chances with you for tonight."

He smiled darkly at her as he reached inside his purple trench coat to pull out his switchblade, bringing it effortlessly up to her face. He pressed the cool, silver blade lightly along her cheek. "It, uh, it would be easy, y'know? To kill you. Even now. I may be hurt, but uh, nothing really stops me. Ever. I guess I'm kind of like that, uh, that fucking bunny with the batteries and the drum. No matter what happens I just keep going. And going. I don't and will never stop."

She looked at him while continuing to keep very still. She felt the cool blade against her cheek and had to keep her body from shivering against and the cool night air. The air around them was thick with emotion and uncertainty.

A cold wind blew against him, ruffling his purple trench coat against his legs, and he momentarily lost his concentration on her. For a moment he didn't want to be that fucking bunny anymore. For a moment he was just a man who felt a little cold and was in a lot of pain. He was a man who was so fucking tired that he wanted nothing more than to just go up to his room and collapse on his bed. He closed his eyes for a second, letting himself think clearly. He could deal with her in the morning.

He took the blade away from her face, stuck it back in his coat pocket, and stepped away from her. He brought his fist in front of his lips and cleared his throat, then used his hand to point. "The, ah, the green one on the right over there that's missing the stairs in the front."

She looked at him, straightening herself away from the car and then glanced at the house he was gesturing at. It was definitely the ugliest of all the old abandoned houses on the entire street. Of course.

"That one's yours?"

He rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue, sighing. "No, I was thinking of investing in real estate and I just, uh, simply had to have your valuable input on this unique fixer upper."

She laughed a genuine laugh for the first time and for a second she could have sworn she saw him smile a genuine smile back at her before he started limping off towards the house.

She caught up with him and placed her hand on his shoulder, causing him to stop dead in his tracks and turn his head around to glare down at her. "Hey, just let me make this a little easier for you. Please?"

She wrapped her arm around his waist and prepared herself for some sort of fight. He didn't speak this time. He simply let out a small irritated groan as he shifted his weight and put his long arm around her shoulders. He leaned into her slightly and they set off towards the house together.

"There's a, uh, there's a door around back. Right over there. Can't use the front."

She walked with him in the direction of the back of the house. She looked around in the dark night, confused, when she stopped at the back and sucked in a deep breath, clicking his tongue.

"Where the hell is the door, Joker? I don't see any fucking…"

"That's because you aren't looking in the right place. Up. Look up."

She glanced up and saw fire escape stairs leading up the building to a door on the third floor. Damnit. Why couldn't this just be easy, for once?

He was already on the first platform of the fire escape, looking down at her. "What's the matter? Too difficult for you? Hm?"

She sighed and jumped up, grabbing hold of the bars of the first platform of the fire escape, and pulled herself up. She watched as he used the railings to support his weight and lumbered to the top with her following close behind him.

He reached into his purple trench coat and retrieved a small key out of a pocket on the inside. He opened the door with it and motioned for her to go in ahead of him.

She walked into a dark hallway lit only by the sparse light coming in from the opened door behind her. Think goodness for dilapidated old street lamps. Further down the narrow hall she could make out some stairs leading down to the bottom floors. The hall held three closed doors to the right and two to the left. She glanced up to see a light hanging over her head and was just about to walk towards the switch when she heard the door slam shut, followed by his dark, high pitched laughter that made the skin on her neck crawl.

Her breath hitched in her throat as his laughter drew closer to her and then stopped. Before she knew what was happening, she felt his gloved hand clasp over her mouth as his other strong arm wrapped around her, pulling her up against his surprisingly warm body. Her heartbeat quickened as she felt his lips graze her ear, a soft, eerie laugh echoing out at her.

"Sh, shh, shhhh, darling. It's, uh, it's late and I don't want you waking any of my neighbors. Should've known I couldn't just let you go waltzing around my place like that, though. No, no. I'm, uh, I'm not very good with the whole house guests thing. I'm more of a loner, y'know? Having other people around really, uh, just tends to complicate everything."

She could feel him slowly dragging her along with him down the hall and then over to the right before stopping. She was facing away from the door and with no light around there was no way she could tell which door he was now reaching to open.

He opened the door and pulled her closer against him again, a smile spreading across his lips. "Oh, and Raven?"

He let go of her mouth, allowing her to speak. She swallowed hard, trying to recuperate before answering softly. "Yes?"

"You might want to watch out for that first step there. It's a doozie!"

She heard his booming, excited laughter before she even felt his powerful shove, propelling her forward into the dark room. She lost her balance and fell forward onto what felt like plush carpet under her hands. It had a rather musty smell to it, too. Before she could get back up, she heard the him slam the door shut and lock it, still laughing. She was getting back on her feet when he finally turned a lamp on behind her.

He took his coats off and tossed them over on an old black arm chair across from his bed. He was loosening his tie when she turned around to look at him. He looked back at her for a second, his dark eyes narrowing on her soft eyes before he abruptly turned his head away. He hastily pointed over at the opened door leading to his bathroom.

"Listen, uh, Florence Nightingale. You want to make yourself useful, hm? Why don't you go in there and look in the medicine cabinet. There's some Tylenol in there that I could use for this fucking ankle."

She nodded at him. "Sure."

She entered the bathroom and flipped the switch to the light. She was surprised to see it was actually pretty clean except for a few bottles of make-up on the sink counter next to a drinking glass. She smiled at the make-up because it was a pretty comical sight.

"Did ya get lost in there? Hm?"

She jumped and turned around to see him standing in the doorway, leaning his shoulder against the frame. She was certain that her jaw actually dropped open and hit the floor like a wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon when she took the entire sight of him in. He had removed the green vest and his tie and he had his suspenders hanging down against his legs. The top four buttons of his hexagonal patterned shirt were opened, revealing some of his chest. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his elbows, showing his strong forearms crossed in front of his chest. His greasy green tinged curls hung at the sides of his face, clinging to his make-up in some spots. His red painted lips were set in a half, amused smirk at her.

"What? Oh, I, uhm, no I was just thinking that your bathroom was really clean. That is, cleaner than I thought it would be."

His lips stretched into a full smile as he raised an eyebrow in further amusement. "Too clean? Interesting. Well I, uh, I could take care of that if you want me to."

As soon as he started walking near her, the smile and amusement gone from his face, she backed into the wall next to the sinking counter, knocking into it. She watched the tubes of make-up fall to the floor as he slowly drew closer to her.

He stopped directly in front of her and smacked his lips, almost comically. "Y'know something? You really need to relax. Look at you. You're like a fucking deer caught in headlights. What did you think I meant? Hm? Think I meant that I could kill you? Think I wanted to give my bathroom a nice, uh, crimson makeover?"

"No. Well, maybe. I just…I can't predict what you're going to do."

He smiled and patted her cheek roughly. "Predictability is, uh, over-rated. Oh, and besides the fact that I happen to like my bathroom, well, uh, I'm not going to kill you tonight. Not when you still are of use to me and, uh, not unless it's funny and for a purpose."

She eased herself away from the wall, feeling oddly safer now, but still confused. "Funny?"

"Of course. Why bother to kill if it's not going to serve a purpose or at least make me laugh? That would be a real waste wouldn't it?"

She nodded. "I guess so, but if that's true then why didn't you kill Batman when you had the chance?"

He worried at his scars for a moment, his eyes narrowing, before answering. "Simple. Very simple. See, the Batman is the ultimate challenge. The ultimate laugh. If I killed the Batman right now, sure that would provide me with quite the laugh if I did it just right, and I would. But, uh, y'know what's missing from that plan? If you kill him, well then you only get to enjoy one big bittersweet laugh and then it's all over. No more playing. If you keep him alive and continue to push all his buttons and, uh, break him down bit by agonizing bit? Ah, now there's an endless supply of laughs for me every single day and a challenge too."

"So, you've never really wanted to kill him that? At all?"

He narrowed his dark eyes on her, clenching his jaw briefly. He smacked his lips and moved back to the doorway again. "Top shelf of that cabinet there. Bring me a couple Tylenol and, uh, fill that glass with water and bring it out."

She watched him moved back to the bedroom, the mood considerably darker again, and out of sight. She sighed and pried open the small medicine cabinet above the sing. On the top shelf she found a small white bottle of Tylenol. Wow, he must have a high tolerance to pain if all he needed to have that ankle feel better were a few Tylenol and a good night's sleep. She poured two of the pills out in her hand and closed the bottle and put it back on the shelf. She closed the door and grabbed the glass on the counter, noticing a smudge of red lipstick along the brim, and turned the tap to cold. She filled the glass and walked back out to the bedroom to find him sitting on his bed, looking very tired. His back was against the wall and his lanky legs stretched out across the bed in front of him. She smiled when she saw his feet in their odd patterned socks, free of his old brown shoes.

"Here you go."

He snapped his head up to look at her. He used his head to point at the small night stand next to him. "Just, uh, just set them down there."

She set the two pills down on the table and set the glass next to it. She watched him look at her for a moment before he reached over to the table to grab the pills and the water. He tossed them in his mouth and took a big swig of the water, downing the entire glass. He placed the glass back on the table and shifted himself down to lay his head on the pillow.

"Did you need me to get you anything else? Maybe some ice or something?"

He closed his eyes, "No. Don't need anything. Just some fucking sleep. Been a long day."

She watched him get more comfortable and after a few minutes his breathing started to grow soft and rhythmic. Didn't take him long did it? She sighed and spotted the arm chair he had thrown his coats and vest on earlier. She could probably get some rest herself in that. It looked comfortable enough. She was about to settle down when she noticed something on the floor next to the chair. She bent down to pick it up off the grayish carpet and sat back down in the chair to look at it.

The object was a small newspaper clipping. The clipping looked slightly worn and ripped around the edges, but the image staring back at her was still very clear. It was a photo of a young smiling woman with bright blue eyes and beautiful black hair. She was pretty, happy and looked very much…alive. "So, I knew this girl, right? She was very beautiful. Try to help me and, uh, the odds are pretty high that you'll wind up dead."

She looked up from the image, her hands growing cold. She started to ask him who the woman was and if she was the woman that wound up dead. She wanted to know who she was and what happened to her. She wanted to know why he would have this photo lying around. No. She'd have to ask him tomorrow. It wouldn't do any good to ask him now. She placed the clipping back down on the floor and leaned back into the chair to get comfortable.

She glanced over at his almost peaceful frame stretched out on the bed. He hadn't even bothered to wash the make up off and he was still in his clothes. What was he hiding? She could only begin to imagine the sort of deep, dark secrets a man like him could possibly have. Secrets she was determined to uncover because sometimes there are some things that nobody should have to keep locked away forever.

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-AUTHOR'S NOTE-

- To everyone who is still with me after my being gone for so long, and anyone who made it through this ginormous chapter,

I'm sorry I was gone for so long. I really didn't intend to be, but this is life and in real life sometimes things happen that prevent someone from being able to write the way they want. I had quite the bit of family trauma going on and things are winding down a little, but it's still been pretty bad recently. I know that writing, for me, is usually a stress reliever and kind of like therapy, but sometimes things get so messed up that you just don't really have it in you to pick up something like this and really give it your all. That's why I didn't bother to write unless I knew I could pick it up and really concentrate and give it my all. I care enough about my fics that I want them to turn out the best that I can possibly make them.

Which is also another reason why it took so long. When I was able to pick this up I found that this chapter was difficult to end exactly where and how I needed it to. Took me a lot longer than I thought to really get accomplished what I needed to get done. Let me also point out that in the midst of all my family problems my computer decided to take a crap on me and crashed and I had to work on getting that back up (re-installing and starting from scratch much?) before I could even type this up. However, I truly want to thank those who are still with me on this story. I want to give a special shout out to JessLovesTheJoker as she was great enough to send me a review at a time when I needed one the most to make me feel like people cared that I update or finish this or not. Thank you so much for your awesome review and your messages that followed. I really appreciate it.

So, I hope this chapter was worth the wait for all of you. I can't promise how long it's going to take for me to get another one up, but I can promise that like all my other stories I've posted thus far this one will get finished and I will give it my all. Thank you to all the readers and reviewers and even you subscribers who are too shy to leave a review. You guys are the best! Thank you for your patience and your continued reading of my work.

Yours Truly,
foxotr -

P.S.- As always I own nothing except for Raven and Angel.

-edited 3/21/2010