Hi, guys, I'm back! Thanks again for your support with the reviews. Seriously, it's an amazing thing to look at the story statistics and see that people from everywhere are reading my story. There are access from Hong Kong! How awesome is that?
By the way, I'm glad to say there are four more chapters ready to go with some dark plot twists in them.
If there was one thing the Joker had never expected about his life, it was Harley Quinn. When doctor Quinzel had walked in his cell at the Arkham Asylum, he did see some potential in her and used it on his favor in order to break out of that place. Then he intended to let Johnny Frost kill her. He was about to leave, but something changed inside him and he stopped his most trusted henchman with a waving finger. He decided to let her creation live. He didn't want her to be part of his life or anything, but he had created her and no one should kill his creations.
Then she had started following him and he tried to make her life difficult by throwing impossible challenges, missions, initiations and tests at her. She had passed them all. When she finally faced him after the last time he had tried to leave, the Joker had decided to kill her himself in the place he was born. For absolutely no reason, he decided it would be more fun or maybe poetic than just shoot her in the face. After she had jumped in the vat, he intended to leave her to drawn in the acid. But as he walked out, something told him the world wouldn't be fun enough without her around. So Harley Quinn had been born and the Joker decided he couldn't have been more right about her. She brought more fun into his private world.
When the Bat took her away, he regretted being unable to save her, but there was no time and she had only shouted that she couldn't swim seconds before the car crashed into the water. He had to choose between risk being arrested as well and leaving her so he could come back with a rescue plan. The Joker being arrested wouldn't do Harley any good.
It had been months of a odd disgusting feeling until he found her. The clown felt terribly fragile, lonely, broken. She had left a gap in his life.
When the chopper crashed, after he managed to jump out of it right before it exploded, the only thought that kept him alive was his mission to rescue his queen. Now his efforts had proven to be worthy as she was back in his arms.
It was around 5am when they finally made it home. The hideout was no longer the same, the clown had now moved to a mansion with lot's of escape routes, just in case the Bat or the army decided to pay a visit. The helicopter had landed on a nearby building and they finished the trip by car, with him driving and she asleep on the passenger's seat.
Even the Joker was tired when they finally got in the house, so he simply laid her down on bed and put his arms around her. As he laid beside her, waiting for the sleep, he felt Harley's head on his chest, the heat of her body against his and the slow rhythm of her breath and he purred as an unknown feeling took over him. Relief? Happiness? He didn't know what to call it, it just felt good.
J knew she loved him and he enjoyed her company more than anyone else's. Somehow, she made the world brighter and every robbery or murder he perpetrated felt more exciting when she was with him. Harley was the most important person to ever cross his way. He had created Harley Quinn and it made him proud enough to make her his queen. his only regret was being unable to love her like she loved him. She was attractive and clever and funny, of course, but the joker wasn't someone who loved or was loved. He knew she was aware of that and whenever she said she loved him and he couldn't answer, something collapsed inside his chest.
They slept until evening.
When Harley woke up, she expected to see her cell and find out it had been just another dream, but then she realized the mattress beneath her body was too soft to be her bed in Belle Reve. And the smell of the warm arms around her body could only belong to the Joker. She smiled to herself when she turned around and met his pale face. All the pain resulting from missing him seemed to disappear.
Then she felt a different smell. A pretty disgusting one, in fact. It was her smell after spending weeks without more than a wet cloth to clean herself. So she headed to the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the shower so it would warm up while she stripped off her prison uniform and the mirror in the wall reflected her body.
" Shit. "
She hadn't seen all of those bruises and cuts before due to the lack of a mirror in Belle Reve, so she had no idea they looked that bad. The colour spectrum of her skin varied from a purplish black to pale yellow, going through all those shades of purple and green bruises go before healing. At least her face was alright, except for the nearly invisible scar on her brow. She ran one finger over the large scar on her belly and her face twisted in pain, though this one had already healed.
She was suddenly hit by the realization that the Joker would lose his temper when he saw those marks.
Harley felt a tear roll down her cheek and her body started shaking. She went in the shower, hoping her sobs would be muffled by the running water. The queen sat in the shower with the pressurized hot water hitting her body and relaxing her muscles as she hugged her knees and cried. As soon as she managed to pull herself together she took a deep breath and washed her body with more shampoo and soap than she actually needed, trying to wash away the pain. The thing was that the pain wasn't only in her memories, it was there, physically, constantly reminding her of what had happened. The marks were proof that she had been raped and tortured. Harley had never felt so hopelessly fragile and exposed.
When she left the bathroom wrapped in a towel, J was entering the room with a tray on his hands. Apparently it was supposed to be dinner in bed, but he dropped everything to the floor as soon as he saw her. Of all things in the world, he didn't expect to see all those bruises and cuts on her perfect porcelain-white skin.
He gritted his teeth to the sight and his blood as suddenly filled with a homicidal rage.
" Who did this to you? " His voice didn't sound like a cat purring like before. Now it was like a rabid dog growling before the attack.
He'll be so disappointed at you for not defending yourself… One of the voices said maliciously. He won't want a fragile little girl like you.
Threatened by that thought, she didn't answer. Instead, the tears filled her eyes again.
" Puddin'... " She sobbed.
" Don't call me Puddin' right now. " He barked, but soon realized he shouldn't have spoken to her that way. She was crying.
" I'm sorry. " Her voice wasn't more than a strangled whisper. It hit his heart in a way it had never been hit before.
" Oh, no, no, no. I am sorry, baby. I took so long to find you… " He walked towards Harley to hold her body and perhaps make his queen feel safe in his arms. "I promise I will kill all of them. Just tell me the names and I will teach the world to never touch Harley Quinn".
" I don't want you to do this. " Despite her tears, she still could say this.
" Pardon? " He couldn't understand what she meant. Did she not want the people who harmed her to die?
" I want to be the one to kill them. They are mine. " She was no longer crying. Rage replaced despair for a few moments and the Joker could spot a dark flame in her gaze, something he had never seen before. Belle Reve had changed Harley in more than one way, for better or worse.
" Okay, Honey. "
Then she gathered all the strength she could to say what else she was hiding.
" I also have one more request: When I'm strong enough, we are going to break into Belle Reve again and rescue my friends. "
Friends. She had made friends. Something burned in his stomach. He knew the name for that feeling was Jealousy. He didn't want her to be with anyone else but him and he also knew that the one called Deadshot had a thing for her. But how the hell was he supposed to deny it to her? After two years stuck in that place, she would have whatever she wanted.
" Alright, cupcake. "
He'll leave you for that. You don't call the shots here, he does. He'll be angry that you are making requests now.
He doesn't even love you, he's just angry that the guards touched his property. It's about pride, not about you.
You failed to protect the only thing that could ever matter to him.
That fucking voice had started again, taking away the little control she had gained over herself in the past minutes. They were too loud to ignore and, once again, their content was unbearably painful. It was all it took for her to start crying again, so the Joker held her tighter. He had never seen her so disturbed about something, crying all the time like that and hearing voices, not even when she miscarried.
" Make 'em stop saying that, Puddin', I can't take it anymore. "
" They are lying, baby. Whatever they might be saying, it's a lie. "
Harley had her hands covering her ears and she seemed to have lost the strength in her knees and all her weight was on his harms.
J carried her to their bed and laid down beside her, holding her tightly to try and make her feel safe. He kissed her cheeks, her wet hair, her shoulders, her hands and stroked her hair, curling it around his long fingers. The clown wanted to know what the voices were telling her, but he knew better than to ask at that moment.
" I'll make them go away, Harls. I'm with you now and I'll take care of you. " That feeling that had reached him the night before attacked again. It was the same feeling, but this time it hit him like bullet to the chest. It was painful in a way he had never experienced before. Was that what Harley felt at the time he used to beat her? What the hell were those feelings?
" FROST! " He shouted and the henchman almost immediately showed up by the door. "Bring me some morphine. " Harley had started scratching her own arms and her hands were covered in blood. The Joker had to hold her hands in a tight grip to avoid any worse damages.
In a moment Johnny was back to the bedroom bringing a syringe, trying not to pay attention to the fact that Harley was naked and she had a beautiful body. Looking at the queen like that was like flirting with death, so he focused on the area he was applying the injection. In a matter of minutes she was asleep again and both men knew it would take a while for her to wake up, so they left the room.
" Oh, and Frost? "
" Yes, boss? "
The Joker pushed him against the wall and stared at him with his ice cold gaze.
" Don't you even think of looking at her like that. Ever. Again. "
He had noticed it and Johnny knew that if he wasn't the Joker's most trusted man, he would be dead by now.
" S-sure boss. Never intended to. "
J let him go and went downstairs to get a broom and a dustpan to clean the mess he had made by dropping the tray.
Harley looked like an angel when she was asleep. But a bloody angel after all those scratches, so he took her towel and moistened it with some hot water to clean her. Then J dressed her with a nightdress while he thought of how to stop those outbreaks she was having.
So, see you again next week, or maybe sooner if I manage to finish more chapters.
Please, leave your review so I know what you are thinking about my fanfic!