So this is a small interlude with the Joker, as you can see by the title. I know that I haven't updated in a really long time and have completely ignored my quite rigorous updating schedule. I have a reason for this, and whether you think it's a good reason or not, well, I'm not entirely sure that I care so much. You see, I really appreciated all your advice for my story, and in some ways it was actually quite funny. Some of you were urging me to put in things that my writing class had urged me to take out. One of you talked about how it was okay if description just wasn't my thing. And that's hilarious to me, because I'm the very best at description, that is what I write the best but my class had told me there was too much description in this story.

Anyway, I really wanted to update with your advice implemented, but I was having some trouble getting the juices flowing. I figured you'd rather an edited chapter than an un-edited one. So I didn't update. But last night the RA of my dorm sort of lit a fire under my butt unintentionally and this morning I was driven to write. So thank her!

You all wanted more Joker interaction so this is a short chapter that is entirely in his POV. Its set just before Ellie wakes up in the beginning of chapter five - this is what he is thinking...

[a small interlude with the joker]

I admit. I watched her while she slept. I admit it. I admit it.

I liked to watch her while she slept – it reminded me of the ways things had been. But then again, those times are dead. And I shouldn't dwell on them.

I shouldn't dwell on them because, well, Jack Napier is dead. Gone. Not necessarily buried of course. If a million scientists in big white lab coats stormed the room and tested my deoxyribonucleic acid they would see that I am, technically that person. Jack Napier, I think his name was.

But that person no longer lives here. Elvis crooned it best when he said, "No such person. No such zone."

It makes me want to tell little Ellie – she goes by Gretchen now apparently, that her hubby really is deceased. Just to see what that would do to her.

But then I would also have to somehow explain to myself why I'm doing this to her. And so it seems that Jack really is alive still, but only marginally. Scratch that. Now that I think about this closer, I refute that statement.

When I say that he is dead, I mean it this time. He really is. The only…logical, or is it illogical, solution is that little Jacky rubbed off on old Joker before he died. And I thought I was the one who was supposed to get to people.

And I want to know what the hell happened to the kid too. Where is it? In a filing cabinet under 'O' for 'offspring'? Hitchhiking to Arkansas? Which, by the way, is also Kansas. This is a case for 'Unsolved Mysteries' here. The old one with the guy who smooched Deanna Durbin, not the one with Detective Fontana from 'Law & Order'.

I feel somewhat responsible for the little kiddy. I was the half-pint's father a long time ago. And even I will admit that old feelings take a long while to die. You can hurry the process along if you want, but even then it's a long time before it's gone completely. Kind of like the decomposition of Carbon-14.

I should turn my attention back to the girlie now. She's stirring and we wouldn't want her to wake without a welcoming party now, would we? I don't have any Hawaiian leis though. She won't mind.

I can't resist the temptation to touch her, to run my finger along the length of her arm and watch the hairs as they rise up from my touch. I can see her eyelids twitching and imagine that she must be dreaming about me. Well, about Jack. Same difference. I narrow my eyes and concentrate on her forehead, imagining that in her dreams, there is blood suddenly dripping out of every pore of Jacky's face.

I can hear her screaming at the sight of it in my ears and I can feel her hands as they clutch at me to save her. I feel like Rorschach when I whisper, "No."

I'm telling you, I'm not in control anymore. I can see her writhing in my head as a child is expelled from her body. There is blood and fluids everywhere, even on my hands and face, but instead of reveling in the warmth of the liquid I'm silent. I feel like I should cackle or grin or walk away but I'm not allowed to.

I'm not in control anymore. Her screams keep me here – they do far more to me than any I've heard before. When she was hurt and caught under the bed and crying out her noises tore at me. At Jack really. At the part of the Joker that Jack has rubbed off on.

In my hallucination, in her dreams, she's not moving anymore. She is sleeping peacefully again, her legs curled up and an arm under her head. There is a child tucked into her chest. A child with blue lips and an unmoving chest. I can still feel the blood cooling on my cheeks.

Her eyes are open. They are filmy gray and milky, like the dead. She's sitting up, letting the child fall to the ground, but I push her back down. I don't want her any closer to me.

I'm not in control still, and I really don't want her near me anymore, but I walk towards her again. Ellie doesn't react, just lays there on the ground, her mouth gaping open and the child half under her splayed left arm. Her shirt has been rumpled and pushed up and I place my hand on her hip.

Down the center of her lower abdomen is a line, raised and pale against her flesh. It runs down below the line of her pants and is neat, like a surgeon's stitch or a signature. I place my hand on the mark, press it down, and feel a nudge. A bump just barely there that reacts against my palm.

All in her dream. Or course.

Jack really is gone. You should believe me. I can convince everyone better if you believe me.

The other man in the mirror shakes his head, and whispers, "No." Like I had to Ellie. "No, I don't believe you." He looks like me.

But he is gone. It's only the Joker that lives here now. No duplexes for me. This is a single family unit now. Finder's keepers, losers weepers. I don't share.

I look down. My hand really is on her stomach, on the raised line, pressing down like I'm trying to feel for something. There is nothing.

Thanks everyone to HoistTheColours, Emma, PreciousRaymond, JokersChaosPrincess, Misplaced Levity, and Darkness Takes Over for your wonderful and helpful reviews! I really am trying to follow your advice!

Whatever comes next will hopefully be the next chapter that I wrote awhile ago along with the others. I still haven't implemented your advice but now, hopefully because the writing bug has decided to bite me again, I'll do it soon. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thank you all for your support and please review! Tell me what your think! I was going for kind of a smart Joker, who is still twisted with his Manic Depression (Bi-Polar), Multiple Personality Disorder, etc. Thanks!