A/N: Sooo here we go. Getting close to being finished now and I don't want to stop!

Love you all, thank you so much for the reviews. I'm still looking for inspiration for the next story I may write and any ideas would be wonderful. You can send me a PM or talk to me on Yahoo under oc1971jn if you have any suggestions or just want to chat. Thanks again!

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lies and Truth

"Just listen to me. Please." the male voice on the other end of the phone told Gordon. The caller had his personal line, a line that very few people had. Gordon had a good idea how this guy had gotten his number.

"The woman, Samantha Knight. This is about her, but I guess you already know that." The voice was young and sounded very frightened.

"What about her? Do you know where she is?" Gordon felt his chest tighten in fear.

"Yeah I know. The Joker has her and I can tell you exactly where but you have to hurry."

Suspicious, Gordon asked pointedly "Who are you and why are you giving me this information?"

"I'm one of his men, okay? And I'm sure you know he'll fucking kill me if he knows I'm talking to you. But he's crazy, he's going to kill her and I don't want to see that happen."

"And why do you care?" Gordon snapped. "You expect me to believe that someone who willingly works for that monster would give a damn what happens to her?"

The man hesitated, Gordon could hear him take a shuddering breath before he spoke. "I don't like to see women hurt, okay? He's already tortured her, cut her up and probably raped her. And he videotaped a lot of it. I have the tape, I snuck it out. It's not finished. When he was done with it he was going to mail it to you so you could see what he's done to her."

Christ. Gordon ran his hands through his hair anxiously. "Okay. Tell me everything you know."

"The tape is in a trash can at the corner of Ninth street, right near a pawn shop. It'll be wrapped in a white trash bag. If you don't believe me you can come and get it and take a look. Better hurry before the garbage collectors get it."

"I hope for your sake this isn't a trap."

"I swear to God it isn't. Send someone to get the tape and decide for yourself. And I can tell you right now he's gonna kill her soon. He's already said so. But right now I have to go. I stole his tape, I'm ratting him out and now I'm getting the fuck out of town. I'll call you back as soon as I can. Just look at the tape, then you'll know I'm for real. And one last thing..."

"Go ahead."

"This was his plan: Make a video of himself doing all kinds of sick stuff to her, and then send you guys the video. Then he was gonna kill her."

"Yes and you've already told me that."

"There's more. After that he was gonna bait you guys to some warehouse by the docks. Only it was gonna be an ambush. Grenades, snipers, the whole nine yards. But if you get him where he is now he won't be expecting you. He's in The Narrows, at the old Pinnacle apartment building. He's been staying on the twelfth floor in apartment 908. You can either believe me and trust me or you can sit back and let him rip her to shreds. It'll be on your conscience."

Before Gordon could ask him anything else the voice was gone, replaced by silence.

--

The conference room at GCPD was filled with a handful of men and woman he could trust. A couple of detectives, the new Lieutenant, and Batman. He didn't want everyone seeing this. If the existence of this tape were leaked the news media would be baying for it, using the excuse of the "public's right to know". Gordon didn't want Samantha's suffering to be exploited for ratings.

It was glaringly obvious something had went on between her and the Joker, just as the note he'd left in her bedroom that night had indicated. That had always been his suspicion, thrown aside in shame, but now he couldn't ignore it. The deeply personal way the Joker spoke to her, the things he said to her as he cut into her leg...

'Oh my God Sam, what have you done?' Gordon thought sorrowfully. And despite his disbelief at her actions his heart broke for her.

Her screams pierced through the cheap speakers on the tv, the knife doing its work on her. She was trying so hard not to scream, he noted, but she couldn't quite manage it. Gordon ran his hand over his mouth, trying to quell his anger and revulsion.

"Ya know...this reminds me of doing oth-er things to you."

"Sick fuck." someone in the darkened room muttered.

Gordon paid no attention. His eyes were on the tv screen. When it was obvious what the Joker intended to do with Samantha next he felt ill, not wanting to see it. And then, thankfully, the Joker jumped away from her.

He couldn't do it, Gordon noted in surprise. He had thought the Joker capable of anything but for some reason he was unable to to rape her.

"I want you to know this Samantha. I could do things to you right now that your ah, very worst nightmares couldn't even begin to touch. But I won't. Not right now."

The Joker stalked towards the camera, eyes wild, and the screen went to static.

Jim looked over at the dark figure seated in the corner. Batman's fists were clenched before him on the table, his tension evidenced by his thin lips and clenched jaw.

"When are we doing this?" he asked Gordon. "We can't wait too long."

"Soon. I've got men watching the apartments. We can't afford to rush into this, I still don't trust that kid."

"Has he called back?"

Gordon shook his head. "No and I doubt he will."

The static on the screen abruptly changed into a picture and everyone snapped to attention. The screen showed a tiny room, a utility room by the looks of it. Two people were present, the Joker and Samantha. Both were sitting on the floor and Sam's hands appeared to be handcuffed behind her back.

The audio on this one was hard to hear, the picture fuzzy. Everyone moved closer to the tv.

Gordon listened to their conversation intently and with each word his heart sank more. He saw the Joker take her handcuffs off, saw Samantha doing what appeared to be drugs. It was apparent she had no idea the camera was there.

They talked some more and he took note of the Joker's comment about knowing her years before, figuring that could be crucial information in the future. If he was even telling the truth that is. And then...

"I can't...ah...I can't destroy you."

"You know why? We're addicted to each other. And we'll end up destroying each other because of it."

After that it only got worse. When the Joker kissed her a few people in the room shook their heads in disbelief.

What they saw next sent murmurs of shock and disgust throughout the room. Gordon blinked, hardly able to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. She was letting him do...that to her. And she was enjoying it.

"What is this Gordon?" one of the detectives snorted. "He's going down on her for Christ's sake and it sure as hell doesn't look like she's hating it. You sure she even wants to be saved? Hell, is she even worth it at this point? She could be in on..."

"It doesn't matter" Batman interrupted gruffly. "We still have to get him." He was hesitant to even say the name of the man he hated, not since Joe Chill had he felt so much rage towards one person. The Joker brought something out of him he liked to think didn't exist.

Gordon merely shook his head. He had no words anymore. Seeing her like this, someone he considered a friend, was one of the worst moments of his life. He felt betrayed and yet a sharp pang of pity for her pierced his heart.

The screen went black again but only for a second. It came back on to show the Joker alone in a room of one of the cramped efficiency apartments. He leaned towards the camera, smirking. His greenish blond hair was wild and he was smiling broadly, exposing rows of yellowed teeth. As always he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

"Soooo Comm-iss-ioner...what do you think of your little, ah, pet victim now? You really have a thing for befriending freaks, don't you?"

He bit the corner of his lip coyly, bubbling with sadistic mirth.

"Would it depress you Commissioner to know how many times she's let me do...thingsss to her and how she loved...every...second ...of it? She begs for it Commissioner, time and time again. And I bet you thought she was a good person, didn't you?" The Joker shook his head, making a tsk tsk sound.

"Oh, and if you think you can save her...come and try it. See if you can rescue her before I kill her. And I am gonna kill her. It's been fun but I'm just not interested in a relation-ship right now."

With that the Joker burst into gales of hysterical laughter. The camera shut off, for good this time.

For a long moment Gordon stared at the television screen.

"We're going in tonight." he said. Hearing the edge in his voice, no one dared question him.

--

Samantha dreamed of the night of her car wreck. It played out like a movie. She watched herself get into the car, she tried to call out to stop herself. It did no good, now she was driving down the treacherous road, the snow so thick she could barely see.

"Pull over!" she tried to scream but her voice was silenced and there was the curve, the fateful curve that brought David into her life, who in turn had brought the Joker.

And suddenly she was back at her old job at the seat-belt factory, no longer watching herself. She was standing in the break room talking to one of the supervisors and a few new hires.

"Introduce us." she told the supervisor and even in the dream she knew this was something that had really happened. She looked down at the faces seated at the table.

The faces...

"I know you." Samantha murmured in her sleep.

--

"Wake up!"

Someone was shaking her roughly. Dimly she realized it was the Joker and she wondered what he could possibly want. Well, there was that but they had stopped only hours before and then he had left.

So why was he back?

"What?" she asked groggily. Glancing at the window she saw it was still dark outside.

"We have...visitors. Now get up, we have to go...now." He was short of breath and practically jumping out of his skin with excitement.

"Who exactly are these visitors?"

"Who else?" he hissed, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "The, uh, the Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and an entire SWAT team."

--

A/N: So the Joker has tricked Gordon by having one of his men call in pretending to be a rat. The tape was to make Gordon and the rest a little more emotional and also to taunt Gordon with what he's done to Samantha. The idea is to have the authorities come in thinking they'd caught the Joker off guard. Of course Gordon is suspicious but at this point he's forced to act.

Also, his man on the phone intentionally told Gordon the Joker is staying on the twelfth floor when he is actually on the tenth. That's so they won't be expecting to run across him so soon.

And the dream...well that has to do with what he told Sam earlier, that they'd met before the semi truck incident.