Sorry about the wait! It wasn't intentional by any means. I've been really busy with school and pretty sick for the past couple of days. I'm still up in arms about this chapter I just want to make a couple things clear since the Joker is making his appearance.

I do hope my Joker isn't OOC; however, I think we all need to keep in mind that we never saw the Nolan Joker in a romance, we can only speculate what he would've been like.

Allison and Nathan (and soon Addison) are the closest thing the Joker has to family. When I say family I mean people he actually cares about, so clearly his attitude could be a little different around them. Knives aren't going to be put to their throats a lot if ever.

I hope this goes without saying, but Allison is the Joker's kryptonite. That was never meant to be a mystery in my story. She is his ultimate weakness; this will play into the story on many levels. I will try to really portray that in the way I write, but I don't want a whole bunch of whinny people who don't understand what Allison means to the Jack and then in turn the Joker.

I'm open to any suggestions on how to make my Joker character better, but please offer me some examples. "Your Joker's not that good" doesn't really help me that much.

Now onto my favorite people; my reviewers thanks so much to: alys98, .Rain.x3, Affectionate-Sinner, Lurky McLurker, TheWeirdGirlFromDownTheRoad, creative-writing-girl13, PreciousRaymond, Amanda, Laurel, juicycouturevalerie, and Straight Edge Queen

Happy Reading!

***

Bruce had left just after the movie ended. Addison had fallen asleep in his lap during the last half hour of the movie and it made Allison's heart melt to watch him carry the toddler to her room and tuck her into bed.

It was clear that Addison adored Bruce; she liked him in the first week of knowing him, before even Allison was sure that she did.

The little girl did need a male figure in her life, Allison knew that, but she hadn't known Bruce that long.

She was now relaxing in her bed, taking her time falling asleep. She had her window cracked open as rain poured out into the city streets. The nice thing about this part of the city was that somewhat quiet at night, just a car passing here and there.

When she heard something at the front door, her heart stilled. It couldn't be Bruce; he had left nearly an hour ago.

"Nathan," she huffed to herself getting out of bed. She grabbed a crowbar that she kept by her bedroom door just incase, after all she had no way of knowing who actually was picking at the door.

She stood behind it so when she opened it, the door would serve as a shield. She slowly undid the chain at the top and then quickly unlocked the deadbolt and swung the door open and sure enough her brother fell on the floor over the threshold.

"Ouch, god what the fuck?!" he growled placing his hands on the ground and lifting himself from the floor.

"Are you serious?" Allison hissed hitting him with the crowbar hard enough so he would surely feel it but not to actually hurt him, "you just tried breaking into my apartment…again."

"Well," he began brushing himself off, "I thought you might be sleeping."

"Ok, so the logically thing to do would be to check, and if I didn't answer you go away and come back in the morning. Actually you shouldn't be here at all Nathan."

He looked frustrated and gripped her arm taking her into her bedroom so he could close the door.

"Look there isn't a lot of time to explain all this to you so you need to shut your mouth and listen."

Allison scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "No you listen, Nathan. You might be my brother but today was ridiculous, I can't believe you are robbing banks in clown masks. Is he seriously making you do that? You know what I don't even want to know, from this moment on, you are not welcome here Nathan, I will not have you around me and influence Addie in any way. If you turn yourself in I might consider coming to visit you and bringing her to see you, but do not come around here anymore!"

She tried really hard to keep her voice quiet at the end, but it proved to not work so well. Nathan looked at her amused and slowly chuckled, "Are you done?"

"Get the fuck out of here Nathan."

"Sure thing, Ally, you just get Addison and come right along with me."

Allison's stomach sank, come with him? She didn't know whether to laugh of have an anxiety attack.

"Look, Jack's downstairs and he isn't exactly patient. I convinced him to let me come get you because he was just going to break down the door and drag you both out. I told him that might cause some problems so here I am, but we only got a couple more minutes. Something is going to happen to the city tomorrow it's an airborne toxin through the water supply, but more importantly I need to tell you about what happened to Jack. He's a lot different now Al, he doesn't go by Jack anymore, it's the Joker, he's got two scares on either side of his mouth courtesy of Hector's cousins. He wears face paint to scare the shit out of people and it works. He's just not the same ok? But he's taking you and Addison out of here whether you like it or not so it's best just to grab the kid and tell her something then have him come in her and drag you both out of here."

Jesus, that was a mouthful. He was practically gasping for air at the end as Allison had a dumbfounded look on her face. She finally broke her blank stare and started laughing.

"Is this some kind of sick joke? I'm not going anywhere with you or Jack, thanks for giving me the heads up about tomorrow but I'm not taking my daughter to leave town with her absent father, who you seem to be telling me is some kind of freak. So you can just waltz yourself back to Jack and tell him to fuck off too because I don't need either of your help to raise Addison she doesn't need to be around either of you or your activities."

Suddenly a loud cackle was heard from the bedroom door and the siblings turned their attention to see the Joker stand in the doorway. Fear ran down Allison's spine just looking at him. His head was thrown back as he continued laughing but she should distinctly see the scars on either side of his mouth that were covered in red paint.

Nathan was more worried about how he would react to the situation once he stopped laughing.

When the Joker abruptly stopped he looked at the blonde with his head cocked, "Well now that was exactly the kind of welcome I was expecting from you and ho, ho, ho, do I wish I would've been here for the whole thing. I bet that was really colorful."

Allison found herself completely frozen in place, her eyes locked with his. The two shared a moment together with their eyes but the Joker's face held an amused expression it was basically…evil.

"Hey beautiful," he tongue ran across his bottom lip, a habit he always had but now it seemed creepier with his new getup.

When she didn't respond he let out a low chuckle and walked closer to her, "so what is this about you not coming hm?"

"I-I-I don't need-," the words wouldn't leave her mouth she was till much too stunned looking at the man in front of her.

"Y-Y-You don't need what…you seem uh…nervous is it the scars? I thought you of all people would be able to look past them Ace."

She shivered at her old nickname. Once Jack had learned her full name, Allison Eve Cambelle, he had switched her middle and last initial to come up with Ace, he didn't call her that often usually when he was mocking her…like now.

To be honest she was more concerned with his scars then afraid of them. It must have been beyond painful and although it was irrational, Allison almost felt guilty as though she should've been there for him.

The man now standing nearly a foot from here didn't really look anything like Jack, but she tried to convince herself that it was to settle the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"No," she said softly looking to the ground and then back to his eyes, "you and Nathan need to leave, I don't need your help."

The Joker was immensely annoyed. It wasn't really an option and he didn't understand why she didn't seem to comprehend that.

"Na-than," the Joker sang still looking Allison directly in the eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Go get the kid, oh and try not to scare her I don't need her screaming all the way there."

Without hesitation Nathan turned on his heel and walked out of the bedroom door to get Addison.

Allison didn't miss a beat either, she lunged after Nathan, but the Joker shot an arm out to stop her and pulled her closer to him, "Ah ta ta, be a good girl Ace, now are you going to cooperate or freak out and scare the kid."

"I'm going to fucking kill Nathan," she muttered under her breath. Her body was still facing the door but she was being held back.

"Just wait till we get to the hotel, I don't want blood all over my ride," his voice was serious but he was joking, Allison was used to this kind of behavior.

She hit him hard across the chest, "you better not hurt my daughter."

This brought out a low chuckle from deep in his throat that reminded her of what she used to low, but the dark sinister voice that followed wasn't exactly familiar.

"Your daughter? Last time I checked she was our daughter, unless you became asexual somehow-ah"

With that he hoisted her over his shoulder as she nearly screamed and probably would have if his shoulder didn't cut off her air supply. When she finally could catch her breath she was almost lost for words. Her biggest childhood crush, father of her child, and now seemingly a complete stranger had her draped over his shoulder like a dead fox as he carried her out of her bedroom.

As she was carried to the living room she saw Addison's door open and she was holding onto Nathan's hand as he held her pink Barbie™ suitcase in the other. She looked at the two adults in front of her curiously.

"Mommy, what are you doing?" she looked back at Nathan, "is that the man you said was my daddy?"

The Joker stopped walking and sighed at the little girl's question. Allison's glare to her brother was cut off when the Joker spun around to give his old friend a glare of his own.

Nathan just shrugged, "It was the only way I could think to get her to come without crying and Christ, J, could you please put my sister down."

"I would like to second that," the blonde girl said from over the clown's shoulder.

"Fiiine," the Joker whined sarcastically nearly dropping Allison on the floor, but holding his arm out last minute to steady her. She had her sights set onto her daughter but as she tried to rush to her, Jack captured her with his arm and held her back against his chest, "no, no, no Ace, not yet. Not until we get into the van."

The little girl was still starring wide-eyed at the man with his face painted. This was her dad? She wasn't sure what to think about that, she hadn't seen people with their face painted like that. Of course, three-year-olds were much more accepting of people then adults.

She had already fallen in love with her uncle Nathan; he was easy to like. Probably because he acted much like a child himself, but Addison didn't make that connection. Not at this age.

"Now, you're going to walk on out of here vol-un-tarily, understood?"

Not knowing what else to do, Allison just nodded.

The ride in the van was relatively silent. Allison had convinced the Joker to let her grab a few things and lock up her apartment properly so the cops wouldn't stop by and be suspicious. They were driving to small town 20 miles outside of Gotham. The town consisted simply of a motel, diner, thrift stores, and a very old vintage movie theatre.

Currently they were pulling into the motel parking lot, Addison asleep on Allison's lap. The Joker was driving and Nathan was seated next to him in the passenger seat. Allison would glance up often to look at Jack through the rearview mirror. His eyes were the exact same, it made it easy for her to look past the scars and makeup.

It would completely unrealistic to say she wasn't frightened, of course she was; however, the most dominant thing she felt was curiosity. How in the world did he become this way?

Why the makeup, why the outfit?

Was it simply a direct cause of getting the scars?

She knew that it must have been traumatizing receiving them; he was lucky to be alive.

Jack had looked up at her a couple of times, catching her looking at him and each time an amused smirk would show on his face. The first time Allison blushed and then put her attention towards her daughter, but the second time she was almost annoyed. The look he gave her made her feel like they were kids again. She was suddenly sixteen years old looking at her 21-year-old crush that took advantage of her and played with her adolescent feelings. Finally she was old enough to realize that and was determined that this time would be different. He wasn't going to be able to play her like a puppet.

She was going to make sure of that.

"Alright time for a Chinese fire drill-ah," the Joker giggled and bounced out of the drive seat and slid open the back door, "alright, Al you and Nathan get to play house, won't that be fun!"

Nathan crawled over into the driver seat and Allison gave Jack an annoyed look before carefully sliding past him into the passenger seat. The Joker rolled his eyes at the blonde and plopped himself into the back.

Nathan drove up to the front of the motel to check in, "Alright Ally, just stay here and don't look so depressed."

"I'm not depressed I'm annoyed," she muttered as her brother got out of the van. Addison was still very much asleep. Neither of them saw the Joker looking at the sleeping child. He was taking time studying her and much to his dismay she did look quite a bit like him.

Part of him wanted to reach out and touch her soft pale cheek, but more to just make sure she was real. Instead he just sat in the back growing impatient like always.

Allison could see Nathan talking to the man behind the front desk and all she could think about was getting to sleep. She felt like, if possible, she could sleep for a whole week.

The man behind the front desk looked at the blonde and she gave him a convincing smile before looking down at Addison.

Soon the three of them were making their way into the motel room, which was not impressive. Two double beds with tacky floral sheets, a TV that was at least 20 years old and a less than clean looking bathroom.

Nathan pulled back the covers of one of the beds and Allison inspected the bed before laying her sleeping daughter into it.

"Now neither of you better wake her up or you get to entertain her until she's tired again."

"Are you giving me an order, Ace?"

She looked up at Jack, slinging her overnight bag over her shoulder, "Yes".

He cocked his head to the side as he watched her enter the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Nathan snorted before flicking on the television and sitting on the bed opposite of Addison, "I want to make something clear to you, J, I might be your little pawn now, and that's fine I really don't have anything else to do anyway, but you better not hurt my sister…ever. I'll attack you and you might kill me, but I'll take you down with me."

Not once did Nathan look up from the TV as he made his passive threat. He was dead serious. Let Jack or the Joker or whoever the fuck he was play with him, but not Allison, he always wanted better for her.

The Joker tried to contain his cackling extremely amused, "Oh, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, do you really think I would have gone through all this trouble to hurt young Allison? No, no, no, she's too much fun to hurt and killing her would remind me too much of my father and we both know that I hate him." His voice was dangerously low.

"Alright, man, I was just letting you know."

"Yeah, well you might want to watch the threats because I don't like them. Not one bit. Now get off my bed."

"I'm not sleeping on this shitty ass floor."

"Then I don't know, sleep with your niece."

"Then where the hell will Allison sleep?"

The Joker scoffed as he kicked off his shoes, "She'll sleep with you and the kid, it will be nice and cozy. It's not like she'll want to sleep with a freak like me."

He tried to make it seem like a joke, but it didn't really come off that way and he didn't know that Allison had heard him from the bathroom. She figured that above all else this might be the way to get the upper hand with him.

She was now a curvy beautiful woman, no longer the skin and bones she once was. That was probably going to be the best way to get to him.

When she emerged from the bathroom Nathan was already snoring lightly next to Addison. It was sort of picturesque, the toddler and her uncle were both in the same position completely conked out.

Jack looked to be sleeping, but it was hard to tell. His makeup was smeared and revealed much of his face. Allison ached to wash it all off and see what he really looked like, but that was for another time.

Ready to set her plan in motion she slid under the covers next to Jack. Turning on her side with her back facing him, she was unsettled with how comfortable and at home she felt.

As always, I would really appreciate if you would review.