Disclaimer: Batman, all his associated worlds and the characters within them are not mine.

Warnings: Violence, swearing, slash, rape and the Joker is in this fic. Though this chapter is pretty tame.

A/N: Sometimes I wish I'd given Jonathan a past that involved less sex. You know the drill, enjoy and review.

Chapter 6

"I don't feel like it tonight,"

"Why not?"

"I just don't, I'm tired Ichabod. I'm really tired,"

"You don't do anything! How can you be tired?"

"Don't shout, Jonathan's in the room,"

Jonathan looked up from the thesaurus he had been pretending to read, surprised to be mentioned. He was sitting on the floor beside the bookcase while his parents sat on the couch. His dad didn't look at him, just continued leaning over his mom.

"He won't remember this," His dad dismissed. Jonathan made a note to 'remember this' just to show his dad he could. He went back to his pretend reading so he could continue watching his parent's argument without them noticing.

"You still shouldn't," His mom crossed her arms. His dad sighed and slumped back on the couch.

"You were more fun before we had the kid," Jonathan winced and his mom glared at his dad. His dad rolled his eyes at her before catching sight of something across the room and grinning. He got up from the couch, kneeling on the ground and picking something small off the floor. Jonathan's dad sat back down on the couch and his mom started screaming. Jonathan almost dropped his thesaurus at the abrupt sound.

She suddenly went quiet and stared with wide, horror filled eyes at the outstretched palm of his dad's hand. Jonathan craned his neck to see what his dad was holding. It looked like a small black dot... no, it was an insect. No. A spider. Neither of his friends liked spiders, they were 'icky' according to Sarah, but his mom's reaction was extreme.

"Well?" His dad cupped his other hand over his palm, trapping and covering the spider, then jerked his hands forward without opening them to mime throwing it into her face. She squeaked and nodded. His dad smiled, clapping his hands together and squashing the spider between them. His parents got up from the couch and his mom gave him a weak smile as they left the room, saying

"Don't come into our room for a while honey," as they passed. Jonathan nodded once. When they were gone he put his thesaurus back in its place in the bookcase and pulled out the biggest, most un-used book instead. He crawled across the floor for the next hour searching under the cabinets, the couch and it any cramped dark places for spiders, squashing any he found.

The next day, as Jonathan walked around aimlessly on the simple instructions "Go and do something outside, be a real man for a change," from his dad, he spotted a group of older boys picking on a boy around his age near the trees around the park. He kept to the shadows and considered turning back to avoid being the older boys next target. Curiosity got the better of him and he climbed a tree as quietly as he could to watch.

"Stop it!" Jonathan recognised the younger boy as Tommy, a nasty kid who picked on him and his friends from time to time.

"No way, this is way too much fun,"

"Your brother's a total wimp,"

"Yeah, I can't believe he's so scared of these little things," One of the older boys held a wriggling spider between his fingers. They went off laughing towards the park, Tommy following them after a second of looking around, like he was considering running off. Jonathan stayed in the tree for a while after Tommy left, just thinking to himself.

Jonathan awoke to see the Joker standing a few feet in front of him, holding a canister like the one Harley had poured chloroform from earlier. He could hear sobbing coming from the corner of the room. Through the haze that often comes with multiple head injuries, Jonathan could see the Joker giving him a slightly surprised look.

"You shouldn't be awake yet," he came forward, lifted his arm and smashed the container into Jonathan's head until he blacked out again.

"Wha's wrong Sarah?" She'd just run over to where he was poking a insect infested rock with a stick, tears running down her cheeks and a very sad look on her face.

"Tommy stoled my ribbon an... and threw it up in the big tree and now I can't get it back and it was my favourite ribbon!" She cried. Jonathan growled. He hated that Tommy. He was always pushing him and Sarah around.

"I'll get it back," Jonathan spoke, looking at the rock he had been poking, an idea forming in his head.

"Really? Can you?" Her face lit up and she smiled at him.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm sure I can," he quickly smiled back at her then returned his attention back to the rock "Can I use your bag? I need it to get your ribbon back,"

"Okay," Sarah beamed brightly and handed over the little bag she took everywhere with her.

"Tommy!" Jonathan called as he walked towards the boy under the big tree. Tommy was taller than Jonathan with brown hair that he always gelled into spikes. Jonathan stopped when he was a few feet from Tommy, his hands behind his back.

"Yeah?" Tommy saw Jonathan and smirked "What do you want Specky?"

"You threw Sarah's ribbon up that tree. I want it back," Jonathan spoke calmly.

"Or what Specky?" Tommy sneered and came right up to Jonathan. Jonathan held out his hands. He had one large spider in his left hand and a bunch of smaller spiders crawling all over his fingers and up his arms. Tommy yelped and jumped back.

"Or the spiders will get you. Go get the ribbon," The white faced Tommy scampered up the tree and brought the ribbon down, dropping it on the ground then running away screaming and crying. Jonathan put the big spider in a bush and brushed the others off his arms. Then he picked up the ribbon and left to find Sarah.

School was never very interesting but Sarah always tried her best to make things 'fun'. Jonathan watched her leap around with her rescued ribbon tied onto the end of a stick. He had no idea what she was doing but he tried to look as happy as he could when she looked over at him. He didn't notice the man approaching him and jumped when a low voice suddenly spoke.

"Hello Jonathan... do you prefer Jonny or John or..?" Jonathan took at step back from the man and looked up at him. Oh, he was just the man who had been in the classroom earlier, Mr Strong? The teacher had called him something like that.

"He's Jonathan, he won't let me call him Jonny," Sarah had suddenly appeared by his side, answering the man's question for him.

"That's because it's stupid," Jonathan mumbled to her, still not really trusting this man. Maybe it was his beard...

"Okay, Jonathan it is then. Is your daddy called Ichabod?"

"Yes," Jonathan replied shortly, putting his hand on Sarah's shoulder and pushing her back slightly, away from the man.

"I knew him when I was just a little older than you. Now, what is your mot... mummy's name?" Sarah took Jonathan's hand from her shoulder and held it, giggling slightly. Jonathan didn't answer the man, still wary of his odd questions, until Sarah nudged him and said,

"Go on,"

"She's called Katrina," Jonathan finally spoke. The man smiled at him and patted him on the shoulder.

"Well done for remembering such long names," With that he left.

"Weirdo," Jonathan muttered, Sarah giggling. Then he saw she was holding his hand.

"Ger'off," He took it back quickly before anyone noticed them. Sarah pouted and crossed her arms.

"Finally. You wake up early then won't get up for ages!" Jonathan saw the Joker's face inches from his own. His hot breath wasn't pleasant and Jonathan felt slightly nauseous already.

"Did you ever think that might be from hitting me over the head?" Jonathan replied groggily. His vision was slightly blurred even though he was wearing his glasses and his head throbbed intensely. The Joker laughed and grabbed Jonathan's head, sticking his thumbs under the edges of his cheekbones and pulling them up.

"It almost looks like you're smiling," Jonathan didn't react "Now I want you to tell me everything," The Joker moved his thumbs but kept his hold on Jonathan's head, staring directly into his eyes with a challenging look. "Ev-ery-thing," he growled. Jonathan quickly considered his options; he could tell the Joker everything, putting himself in an even weaker position but avoiding the full extent of the clown's wrath; he could keep quiet and prepare for whatever punishment the Joker could dream up or he could lie, possibly being found out later and having to face the Joker then. Overall, his options were not good. He resisted the urge to sigh and made a quick decision.

"Um... Joker?" Harley spoke nervously, stepping into the light and standing a few feet from the Joker and Jonathan's chair. She was holding a piece of paper and a parcel wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. The Joker sighed, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against Jonathan's. Jonathan didn't have the energy to protest, though he knew he must have a white smudge of face paint smeared across his forehead now.

"What Harleen?" The Joker mumbled, his voice low and... different. He looked different too, Jonathan could swear this man wasn't the Joker. When he blinked the Joker was back.

"They say they've got everything ready and that this is the thing you were asking for," The Joker's head snapped up and he laughed. Jonathan assumed he must be pleased about something.

"Thanks Harleen!" he called to her before looking back at Jonathan and grinning "We'll have to postpone this for now, we have work to do," He stood up and walked over to Harley, taking the items from her hands and holding them under his arm as he twirled her around like they were dancing. Harley looked scared at first but started giggling as she got caught up in the Joker's enthusiasm. Jonathan was immediately suspicious of anything that made the Joker so happy.

The Joker stopped twirling Harley suddenly and shoved the parcel back into her arms, pushing her towards Jonathan and stepping into the darkness. "Untie him and give him our little gift. You know what to do after that," Jonathan heard a door open and close, signalling the Joker's departure from the room. Harley beamed at Jonathan and he gave her a fake smile back.

"You have impeccable timing Harley," Jonathan kept up his fake smile as she approached him and pulled a knife from her pocket. She spoke as she began cutting through his bindings,

"Don'tcha' wanna know why I'm untying you?" She continued before Jonathan could answer "We're escaping Arkham today!" Jonathan didn't reply, mulling this over in his mind to figure out if this was a good thing or not. Harley seemed happy about it but she's rather simple. She hummed tunelessly as she worked and Jonathan slowly began to move the parts of his body she had untied so far. He was incredibly stiff from sitting in the chair for so long.

When the last of his bindings fell to the floor he stood shakily and stretched upwards, tying to ignore the painful protests his muscles gave from being abused like this. Harley handed him the package as he stretched one of his arms out. He looked at it for a moment, unsure whether to open it or not in case it was a trap of some sort.

"Don't worry Jonathan, it's nothing bad," Harley saw his hesitation and grinned. He decided to take her word for it and opened the parcel, smiling for real as he saw the familiar worn fabric. His mask.

"Put it on! You want me to keep your glasses for ya, lord of fear?" The title amused Jonathan, he was so elated from being reunited with his mask he didn't mind Harley's overly cheerful attitude. He took his glasses off and handed them to her, pulling the mask over his head and smiling underneath it.

"Come on, we have escaping to do!" She went to the door and Jon... Scarecrow followed her. He felt ready to face whatever was on the other side of that door.

A/N: I'm slightly unsure about the use of break lines to seperate the flashbacks from Jonathan's present. Thank you to the reviwers from last chapter. Please review, I'll try and update as soon as I can.