I"M BACK FROM BOOT CAMP! :D

I'm at my school in Florida now and finally had time to write. Thank you to all my reviewers and followers while I was gone. I hope this chapter isn't a total disappointment after 4 months of silence. I'll make sure to try and update soon. :3

I could hear screaming, shrill and piercing. It took me a moment to realize I was the one doing it. Guards and nurses were converging on all sides. Someone was dragging a thrashing Mariana away. I was aware of all this, but I couldn't take my eyes away from the crimson rivulets snaking down my calves. I bent forward and started swiping at my legs frantically. There wasn't as much as I had originally thought, but my hands were soon smothered in the sticky stuff.

Get it off get it off not my baby it's my baby's blood nonononono…

The nurses took my distraction as the perfect opportunity to sedate me. It's probably better that they did.

I awoke in the hospital wing of Arkham. White walls, white sheets, a white hospital gown. I hated it all. White just like Dr. Cora's teeth. White can't be trusted.

A male doctor entered the room wearing a bright white lab coat.

Speak of the devil.

He waited for me to say something; to hysterically interrogate him. But I was unusually calm. I felt hollow. Usually when I bleed it makes me more hyperaware of my womb as if something new has developed. This blood seemed to have the opposite effect. I felt like everything inside of me was gone. My poor baby…

The doctor began to speak. He rambled about vital signs and other nonsense; all the while beating around the bush. He finally got to the important matter.

"As for the baby, as far as we can tell he or she is doing just fine."

I think my heart stopped.

Fine?

How could anything be fine after all that blood?

Spotting the doctor said. I had been bleeding while I spoke with Mariana and hadn't realized it till I had fallen and gravity pulled it all out. The same way you don't realize you're bleeding at night until you get out of bed and it all comes rushing out. But they'd keep me overnight just in case.

Spotting spotting spotting SPOTTING.

All that blood and I had just been SPOTTING.

I couldn't help the frenzied giggles that poured from my throat. Everything seemed to be pouring today; blood, laughter, sanity.

The doctor silently left me to my hysteria. He's probably used to worse than this. A giggling woman must seem like a walk in the park compared to the other "patients".

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Wadding my hands in the gown and trying to wipe away phantom blood. A manic Lady MacBeth trapped in an everlasting cycle of insanity.

But I'm innocent. I've never killed anybody. My baby's still alive.

Suddenly the blood's not just covering my hands but I'm up to my elbows in it and I can feel the warmth soaking through my top. I can still feel the heft of the frying pan in my hand. My muscles straining as I brought it down again and again. I could've stopped, but I didn't. Then I had gotten the knife.

I laugh myself to sleep that night; smoothing my hands over my tiny beautiful baby bump.

If only Joker could've seen me like this.

Whispers woke me up. The alarm clock next to my bed read 1:16 AM.

The voices were distinctly male and right outside the door. There were only two speaking, but who knows if there were more. One had a thick accent; Russian maybe? They spoke quickly and softly.

"You said you'd do it. Hurry up and kill her."

"I didn't know about her condition."

"What difference does it make? We had a deal."

"What's so special about her anyway?"

"You remember that guy she mutilated? He was my brother."

"No matter. The deal's off. I'm a criminal, not a monster."

"Fine. I'll do it myse-" The words cut off as the steps of a nurse could be heard coming down the hallway.

I hadn't moved the whole conversation and now after they were gone I was still frozen with fear. I'm on someone's hit list. Someone who has access to the hospital after dark. A doctor, a nurse, a guard; I had no way of knowing who I was safe with. What if they sedated me one day and I never woke up? I had to get out of Arkham. I spent the rest of the night awake and waiting for the men to come back, but they didn't. In the morning I was cleared and escorted back to my cell. I felt so safe behind the cool iron bars. But when I was lead to my meals I was jumpy and afraid. I sniffed my pancakes in case they were poisoned. No poison. Just butter.

The Joker was back today, but didn't feel the need to explain his absence. I didn't feel the need to ask.

In fact, the Joker was eerily silent all day. Maybe he had heard about the incident and thought I was grieving. Nobody had been informed of my results. Any other day I would've been thankful for the reprieve from his teasing and bad jokes and speech impediments. But today I need a distraction from my thoughts of impending doom.

That night I initiated our conversation between the cells.

"Joker." … "Joooker… Please answer me."

"Yesss mah dear?" His voice was quiet; more contemplative than cautious.

Now I blanked. I hadn't known what I wanted to say to him, just that I needed to speak. "… My baby's alive."

"Ah GOOD. Goody good good good. That explains why you weren't a, uh, blubbering mess today. I had hoped you weren't that heartless." He snickered after 'heartless', though I don't know why.

"Joker, I-I need help. I'm really scared." I wasn't crying, but I was ashamed of the slight tremble in my voice.

"What could you possibly be afraid of dearie?" He was mocking me. "Big bad Mariana is in solitary confinement right now." Hmm. I hadn't known that.

"It's not her. Somebody else wants me dead. But I don't even know what he looks like." I told Joker about everything that had happened the night before. Well not everything; I left out my laughing fit.

"Sounds like you've got a pre-dik-ee-ment missy. So what're you gonna do about it?"

"Won't you help me Joker?" I tried not to sound desperate. I wasn't so delusional as to believe he was my friend, but he hadn't tried to kill me yet so maybe he held a certain fondness for me.

"I'll, uh, help you. But I have conditions."

"Anything. I'll do anything." To save my baby.

"Semantics dear."