Grace
do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one's presence.
If Satan ever did take human form, it was in that if The Joker, Hadlynn was sure of it.
She'd been called from Arkham, at first thinking it was Harleen, but when she answered and Dr. Arkham's voice came through the other end, she knew something had happened.
"What's wrong?" she asked him, getting up to find her shoes.
"There has been an incident down here, we believe your sister had a panic attack." he replied and she grabbed her keys and ran to her car.
When she got there, the second she got clearance from the front desk, she ran all the way up the stairs to her sister's room number.
Harleen was on the floor, breathing heavily with a nurse at her side, with a glass of water. She wasn't just breathing heavily, she was gasping for air. She almost missed seeing Joker with guards on either side of him. He had cuffs on but a satisfied smirk caught her eye, but she ignored it for now.
"She's not responding to anyone," Arkham informed her. "she's almost in her own little world, has she ever done this before?"
"Only once." Hadlynn told him, immidiatly rushing to her sister. "Harley?" she asked calmly. Harleen kept gasping for air, her eyes closed and shook, tears streaming down her face. "What happened, who did this?" she looked up to them all and Arkham looked to Joker.
"I was just leaving after a daily session and she started losing it." he said smoothly.
Hadlynn's brows furrowed and she looked back to her sister, her arm wrapping around Harleen's back.
"Harley." she said calmly. "Harley, it's Hady." she said even quieter. "Harley, why are you so upset, huh?" she asked her gently and Harleen shook her head. Ok at least she was somewhat responsive. "Harleen, please tell me." she took her older sisters shaking hand in hers. Her sister shook her head once more. "Okay..." she nodded slightly, trying to think. "Harley, I know this place is wonderful," Hadlynn remembered what she told her the last time she went into melt down mode. "but I'm leaving in ten seconds. Now, you can stay here and be scared, or you can leave and come with me and be safe." she told her as if she were talking to a child. "I'm going to count backwards from ten to zero, and if you do it with me, all of this will go away, okay?" she asked her. Her sister nodded slowly. "Okay, ready?" Harley nodded again and Hadlynn took a deep breath. "Ten, nine, eight, seven," Harleens voice was a whisper as she said the numbers with her sister but Hadlynn could see her slowly calm down. "six, five, four, three, two, one..." it was several seconds before Harleen said "zero" but when she did she snapped back into herself and looked to her sister.
"Hady?" she sobbed suddenly, wrapping her arms around her sisters neck.
"Hey," Hadlynn hugged her tightly, looking up to Dr. Arkham.
"I'm sorry." she told her sister. "I'm so sorry, Hady. I didn't know what to do I just-"
"Hey, hey. It's okay, Harley." she assured her. "It's okay."
"I wanna go home, I don't want to be here anymore." she croaked. Hadlynn looked up to Arkham and he nodded slowly.
"She can leave her car here tonight. I think it'd be best if she took a couple days off, it's very stressful it seems." he told her. Harleen's eyes flicked to Joker and he winked to her with a grin, the guards taking him back to his cell.
Joker had done it this time. He truly had screwed with Harleen in a way that left her in her own personal hell within her mind until her amazing sister pulled her out of it.
Harleen was in bed. A glass of alcohol on her nightstand, a pillow hugged to her chest. Her body ached from the fight her and the mad man gotten into. He eventually threw her on her desk after she tried to stab him with her scissors. He deserved it, of course. He didn't try to actually fuck her, he only spoke, more like threatened her with what he would do if he were to of fucked her. She felt helpless, being forced to listen to every detail of how'd he make sure her whole body was covered in blood, how he'd have her on her knees practically begging for him like a bitch in heat, how everyone in that facility would know she was his before long. After he was holding her legs down by placing one hand on each thigh, he had settled between her legs, taunting her with his threats, making it like childs play. Throwing around some of her fears of him as if they were nothing. She lost it when he leaned down to snake an arm under her back and pulled her up to him, his hand had run down her thigh to the crook behind her knee and pulled her closer to him. Not because he had done so but because at this moment she could've easily kicked him away from her, screamed (because his hand no longer covered her mouth) or hit him because her arms and hands were free, but she didn't. She just breathed heavily, looking up to him. She could very well feel him hardening against her inner thigh but still, she didn't try to move away from him. He had grinned, his lips only a few centimeters as his annoying and cruel taunts became whispers. She was so tempted to finally break the ice between them in that moment. He was literally not even inches from her lips, whispering in one of the most erotic and sexiest ways what he would do to her body if guards weren't outside the door, she could cut his intoxicating tension with a knife almost. He was starting to slowly close that space between their lips when she snapped back to her normal self and started fighting him again.
He told her that she would get in trouble just as badly as he would if she told Arkham because she liked what he had said to her, the way he was so rough and handsy with her. She then commenced to blaming herself, and melting down.
Her little sister hadn't asked her anymore what happened but she was wanting to tell her. She had to tell someone. The fact she was keeping it to herself made her want to burst. Was it really as bad as she made it out to be? Surely it was, right? Her whole head swam with rights and wrongs and she was so tempted to go back to Arkham and set the clown straight in his shit. He was a cocky bastard and it was starting to annoy her completely.
She sat up in the dark room, running a hand through her long, blonde waves and thanked god her head ache was gone finally.
When she left her room to go to the kitchen she saw the guy Hadlynn had been with for three years. Never had she really seen him very good, but now he was smiling to her sister, Hadlynn's laugh filled the apartment like a melody and Harley stopped at her door frame, the two not noticing her yet. She furrowed her brows slightly, seeing the way he looked at her little sister. It made her feel a little better about the situation. He didn't look like a hit man, truthfully. Most the time they're usually really big men with stone cold looks, and nothing but anger fueling them. He wasn't very big, well...he was built a bit like Joker muscle wise, which was expected of a gangster really, he wasn't as tall but close. She for once noticed his dark brown hair and fair skin, she could see his blue eyes from where she stood, he had a few tattoos of his own, nothing like Joker had though. His looked pretty normal. Harleen didn't quite know what the two were cooking until Hadlynn dipped her hand into something and smeared what looked like chocolate frosting down her lovers face, without hesitation, the man reached across the bar and grabbed her sister, dragging her across it and into his lap with her struggling as he tickled her, he finally got a handful of the chocolate crème and rubbed it down her face. She cursed at him, which only made him laugh. Harleen smiled seeing her sister being in a good mood for once. She cleared her throat and the two looked at her and froze as if they were caught doing something they weren't supposed to do.
"Hey, Harley." Hadlynn took deep breaths and Nathan let her go, coughing awkwardly.
"What are you two doing?" she asked them with raised brows.
"Baking a cake." Hadlynn wiped the icing off Nathans face with a napkin, kissing his cheek before wiping her own face off.
"Is it going to be safe for me to eat?" Harleen raised a brow to her younger sister.
"The brownies were two years ago, Harleen."
"They fucked me up, Hadlynn. I had to go to the ER."
"Because you're a pussy."
"Is this safe to eat?" She now looked to Nathan.
"Yeah, it's alright." he assured her and she looked to Hadlynn.
"Have you heard back from GU yet?" she walked to the cabinet to get a bottle of wine.
"What?" Nathan now looked to his girlfriend but her gaze remained fixed on icing the cake.
"She hasn't told you?" Harley furrowed her brows, pouring her wine into a glass and setting the bottle aside.
"It never came up, I was going to tell you when things calmed down some." Hadlynn still didn't look at him.
"She applied several months before her senior year but they didn't accept her," Harley started. "she pulled her GPA up somehow and applied again a few months before she graduated."
"You never told me about tryin' for GU, Hady." he said almost as if he were getting onto her. "In fact, you never mentioned wanting to go to college."
Hadlynn looked to Harleen as if her older sister opened the biggest can of worms, and she practically had.
"Nathan." Hadlynn gave the man warning in a tone Harley had never heard her use. Ever. She looked back to Harley and sighed. "Yes, I have."
"And?" Nathan raised a brow.
"And I was accepted." Hadlynn snapped sharply and a look Harleen was very used to flashed across his features and almost sent her backing away from him. It was the same look she'd seen Joker give her; when he wanted nothing more than to snap her neck in rage.
"I think that's wonderful." Harley tried to lighten the mood. "Don't you, Nathan?"
"I'm just wondering why the hell she told me she wasn't going to college...which is why I've busted my ass the past two years trying to save up money so I'd be able to support her one day." he chuckled without humor and Hadlynn's hand tightened around the butter knife she was using to ice the cake. "But clearly that was a waste of time because she's going to have a nice paying job and there'll be two incomes after all. Thanks for the heads up, Hady." he patted her back, no, more like hit her back and she gritted her teeth, her eyes watering from the sting of the hit.
Harleen was about to say something when Hadlynn shook her head to her.
"So, what are you going to do?" he asked her smartly and she slammed the knife down.
"A nurse."
"Mmm...at the hospital?"
"Nope."
"Pediatric clinic?"
"Nope."
"OBGYN?"
"I was thinking Arkham." she told him.
Harleen almost choked on her wine and dropped her glass all at once. The room was so quiet you could hear a pen drop.
"What?" Her sister looked to the two of them.
"Arkham Asylum?" Nathan asked in a chuckle and she furrowed her brows.
"Yes?"
"No you aren't, really."
"Yes, Nathan, I am."
"You? At Arkham? Oh, Hady. Hady, Hady, Hady." he ran a hand through his hair and Harleen could tell he was about to say what she thought as well. "You won't last a week, a month at the most, in Arkham. They will chew you up and spit you out; inmates and doctors."
"Excuse me? You don't think I can handle Arkham Asylum?"
"Baby, you can barely handle Jeff."
"Jeff's a cannibal." Hadlynn retorted and he laughed.
"There's people worse than that at Arkham. And you'd be handling them everyday. What if one of them tried to kill you?"
"I carry a firearm."
"Oh really? And where exactly did you get it?" Harleen interrupts the two.
"Nathan." Hadlynn shrugged.
"You gave my sister a gun?" She now turned to him angrily.
"She's had it since we started being together. All our guys get guns for their families too, you know this isn't the safest job in the world."
"Oh how kind of Joker to make sure my fifteen year old baby sister had a gun."
"Hey, he does try a hell of a lot more than any of y'all cocky psychiatrists give him credit for."
"Yeah, tries to fuck anybody he can up." Harleen felt her blood heat up at the mention of the clown.
"They make it too easy to." he cut his eyes at the blonde and she arched her brows.
"Are you seriously defending the man?" Harleen takes a step to him and he holds his hands up.
"I'm just saying it's not hard for him to get under people's skin, only if they let him."
"I sure as hell haven't let him." she hissed. "I'm too tired for bullshit, goodnight, Hady. Nathan." she seethed his name, already hating him.
Joker sat in his cell, very, very pleased with himself. He didn't give the blonde too much, but also got his point across. He was only a few steps away from his goal, and he was smiling more than he ever had at the thought. He'd sent his little Harley into hell for a few minutes, not to mention her sister had showed up so he finally saw what Nathan was so head over heals for. He had to admit, pure beauty and grace had to be lined very thickly into the Quinzel's gene pool, though one thing he noticed was how polar opposite the two were. Harleen had fair skin, blonde waves (which a part of him knew was out of a bottle, but even in a picture of Harleen and her parents when she was younger her hair was more of a dark blonde rather than light), and baby blue eyes. Her sister on the other hand had jet black curls, her skin was tan and her eyes were what really caught him off guard a moment. Her left eye was a deep brown while the other was light green with dark green specks. They both had full lips and weren't short but weren't tall either...
Physical traits weren't the only difference. If Hadlynn were with Nathan, even after finding out what he did, then clearly she was a lot more open minded about the more dangerous and exciting things than Harleen was, well he was changing that slowly but still. Ten years ago he might've been more interested in the youngest of the two, but now he had his target on Harleen's back, although he'd still have to ask about the darling baby sister sometime.
He laughed to himself, thinking of how long it took Harleen to snap out of his spell she was under in a way. He'd counted the whole time.
Four minutes.
Four minutes of him of torturing her, knowing every word practically made her weak to her knees, but also knowing she'd never admit it. He could see the struggle in her eyes, a part of her wanting him to act on his words, the other part wanting him to rot in hell. He had the woman right where he wanted her, and she still thought she was in control of the situation.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
He'd have to show her she wasn't. If it had to take more than him telling her what she would eventually be letting him do to her to change her then he'd do it. He knew he wasn't the smartest there was, but hell, if he couldn't be one of the most manipulative people of Gotham...but she could be, too. This made him cringe. Oh, no. She wouldn't get rid of him as easily as she thought she would. She clearly didn't understand that the only thing an Asylum would hold back were the people who wanted to get better. He didn't have anything to get better from. He could break out in less than a minute, he had plenty of times. If she wanted to continue to ignore the side of her that ached for freedom, then he would have to get free in order to free his suffering Doctor.
He laughed to himself quietly, seeing the eerie glow of green emergency lights throughout the halls. He took his shirt off and got into bed, crossing his hands over his stomach and continuing to laugh.
"Soon, J." He assured himself. "Soon."
At ten o'clock the next morning, Joker was taken down to the most empty part of the facility, the visitors room. He only rolled his eyes when his advisor was notified he had a visitor and allowed the guard to lead him to the small, almost vacant room. His eyes lightened with excitement when his visitor was his good ole' pal Nathan. Once the guards left them to talk, still waiting outside the door, though, his grin widened and Nathan even smiled a bit.
"What brings you here?" he sat down in front of the young man.
"You've been in a long while, I figured 'why not go see what J's up to?'" Nathan sighed and Joker cut his eyes.
"You know I'm not that dumb, Kid. Cut the shit."
"Alright...I need you outta here." he finally told him and Joker raised his brows.
"Really?" he put a cuffed hand to his heart. "I'm touched."
"I need you outta here so that I can get paid again, you in here and not out there? We ain't workin' or gettin' paid." he rubbed his forehead.
Joker pursed his lips.
"So you selfish bastards just want money."
"I need money. Jonny needs money, these guys that have families and kids need money, Joker. While you're in here rottin', we out there confused as shit cause we ain't gettin' any job's to do." Nathan says somewhat angrily.
"How is it grown men are so lost without me?" Joker cut his eyes to Nathan.
"Cause whenever we try to do somethin' on our own you kill us for it." the young man replied. He and Joker stared at one another for a good minute and the clown prince finally cleared his throat.
"I wouldn't go that far with it, Nathan Boy." he smoothed his sleeve and the man looked to him with furrowed brows.
"What do y-"
"Save it. Barbie Quinzel already told me about you knocking boots with her baby sister for a good three years now...thought we were close enough friends for you to tell me when such as this happened."
"I was goin' to but I never had the opportunity." Nathan said looking down, really wishing Harleen would've kept her mouth shut.
"Well now you do...care to explain?" The mad man waited patiently for Nathan to finally fess up, an eventually he did.
"Okay..." he started quietly. "Three years ago a couple of my old buddies from high school showed up and surprised me for my birthday, one of them brought their little sister to the party and she brought her friend Hadlynn." He shrugged.
"And that was it? Just showed up and the next thing is you two sneaking around behind my back?"
"We talked a while, she was only fifteen at the time so I told myself not to be too overbearing, cause she was just a kid."
"But you couldn't control yourself could you?"
"You taught me control was for the boring." Nathan looked to him with a smirk. "We didn't do anything, we still ain't."
"Bull shit."
"I'm serious! She's scared she'll get attached to me and then I'll die or we'll break up or something. She wants me to marry her."
"Of course she does!" Joker exclaimed. "It's every girls dream to be married with dozen's of children and a cute little house in the suburbs."
"Can you really see me being the Brady Bunch, J?" Nathan asked sarcastically, Joker could tell this whole thing was stressing the kid out.
"Women are so selfish, Nathan. They will suck you in, take all your money then throw you out on the streets to fend for yourself, taking all your pride and dignity with your wallet, too." Joker warned him. "But I have a way for you to get what you want without giving her what she wants." Nathan furrowed his brows, suddenly interested.
"How so?"
"You make her think she's in control...when really, you are. She'll be so distracted with boasting about being on top she won't even notice you really taking charge."
"And how do you suspect me to do that? See I know what you're doin' to Harleen, I can't do that to Hady."
"Yes you can! It's simple." Joker furrowed his brows. "Man up, you've fought with Gotham's deadliest but yet you can't set the record straight with your little girlfriend."
"I don't know how to without-"
"Take what's yours." Joker finally grits through his teeth with a sinister smile. "If you want sex, take it. You deserve it! You're a man, it's our God given right." Joker leans back.
"You want me to have sex with my girlfriend...against her will? That's what your advice?" Nathan crossed his arms.
"It won't be against her will. If she's anything like her sister, she's been wanting it this whole time, just won't admit it to herself. It's your job to show her that it is what she needs." Joker chuckles. "First one to corrupt a Quinzel wins." his eyes shined and Nathan smiled, finally understanding the one of the mans philosophy's of manipulation.
"Deal." He reached across the table, both men chuckling as they shake on it.
This was going to be fun. Oh yes, Joker knew this was going to be fun.
