This chapter is for Leslie Lili. It was her great idea that inspired me to write it.
Joker's POV
(After leaving Katy's room)
It was his fault, or I guess Jack's that Katy was so hurt. Since this was the first time he had ever felt guilt for his actions, the feeling threatened to overwhelm him. A heist was the perfect distraction.
"MOVE OUT!" he barked at the men lounging around eating lunch. "You two, stay here and watch the prisoner."
He started out of the room and the rest of the men followed him, running to go start the cars. "Where we headed boss?" asked one of Joker's head men.
"We are going to pay the city council a little, uh, visit. To save he birdies! Ha ha hee hee!" The Joker giggled and clapped as he skipped around to the driver's seat. He opened the door and plopped himself inside. Rolling down the window, he yelled out: "HERE WE GO!"
The Joker was driving like a lunatic causing the men in his car to hold onto whatever they could find. He was bouncing around in his seat and swerving into all the lanes. Red lights and stop signs meant nothing to him as he zipped around the other cars, his men in the other cars following as closely behind him as they could. As they got to the front of the City Council Office, the Joker slammed on the brakes causing the car to spin around. He laughed hysterically as his men stumbled out of the car with shaking legs.
"What's going on with boss today?" one of them, Devon, asked.
"Dunno. Seems more off than usual," another one, Seth, replied.
Usually, despite his claims saying otherwise, the Joker planned his heists a bit. While he preferred chaos, he usually preferred chaos that gave him the advantage. This decision seemed to be completely spontaneous and impulsive, which worried his men. But none of them dared speak up.
They had all put on their clown masks while in the cars and now stormed into the building, guns first. Gasps and screams followed them, but the Joker simply ignored them, looked at the sign that designated the floors, and pushed the elevator up button. He rolled back and forth on his feet humming as if he was heading to a casual business meeting. When the elevator arrived, the clowns piled in and the door shut behind them. The Joker chuckled to himself when he realized how similar this situation was to the whole clowns jamming into a car stereotype. When they reached the fourth floor, the Joker stepped out and looked around. He licked his finger, stuck it in the air, and pointed to the left. "This way gents."
Joker spun around on his feet and skipped off in that direction. The clowns made eye contact with each other and shrugged. They followed the Joker. Seth knew that the Joker's impulsivity might get him in trouble, so he kept his gun and wits at the ready.
They entered an office with a bunch of cubicles, but it was empty. Except in the back of the room, there was a smaller room with glass walls. The council was clearly having a meeting.
Joker went to the back, burst through the doors, and entered the meeting room. "TA DA!" he yelled out. What he wasn't prepared for were the security guards. And those security guards were told to shoot first and ask questions later. It was lucky for Joker that the element of surprise benefited him and only one guard got a shot out before the Joker threw the smoke bomb into the room. A white hot pain in his abdomen caused Joker to fall over clutching his side. Seth shot the security guards before the smoke filled the whole room while the rest of the men dragged the Joker out and slammed the door of the meeting room, trapping the council inside with the smoke as their screams filled the air.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," the Joker laughed loudly and then proceeded to pass out. Seth quickly assessed the damage and motioned for several men to pick up the Joker to bring him out. Most of the men didn't care about the Joker, but knew that he was their source of income. No one else could pull off the heists he did. They couldn't get rich without him. So they two of them grabbed the Joker under the arms and lifted him up while two others grabbed his legs to do the same. The gang of clowns ran out and back to the cars. They threw him in the backseat of one of the cars and some of the men climbed in after him. The rest got into their own cars and they sped off.
When they got back to the warehouse, the Joker still hadn't woken up. They had applied pressure to his wound and his bleeding was slowing down, but he had already lost a lot of blood. The men carried him inside. Seth looked over and saw the hostage standing in the room with a deer in headlights look like she had been caught red handed. Then he realized she probably had. If she was outside her room she had probably escaped somehow. He shook his head and knew that she wasn't the priority right now. He turned back to the Joker. When he looked back, she was gone.
The Joker started to move and opened his eyes. "What happened?" he asked.
"You were shot. You'll probably be fine, but maybe we should get a doctor here to check you out boss," Seth replied.
"Oh yeah. Maybe I should just go to the hospital instead. Or even better, why don't I just go straight to jail?" The Joker rolled his eyes.
"Alright, I'm gonna go find that girl. You rest up boss."
"Girl? What girl?" The Joker quickly sat up and clutched his side pain.
"The hostage girl. I just saw her standing over there. Think she's trying to escape. She can't have gotten far yet. I'll go check."
"YOU LOST HER?" the Joker screamed. He started to stand up.
"Boss I really think it's best you don't move right now," said one of the men.
"Where's my gun so I can shoot him?" said the Joker. Ignoring the pain he stood up and dragged his feet over to the entrance of the building. Opening the door he stepped outside. He was about to scream out Katy's name, when he saw her on the ground a few feet away. As soon as he saw her passed out, he knew what had happened. He ran over to her still body and shook it. When she didn't respond he picked her up, even though the pain ripped through him like he was being shot all over again. "Come on now Katy. You better not die, you hear me? Don't you dare." Seth came outside and the Joker told him to gather the rest of the men. "We're taking her to the hospital. I have a plan. Go get me a hoodie and tell the men to leave hide their masks for now. We're going to pretend to be normal people for now."
Seth quickly went to get the rest of the men and relate the message. The hostage girl had looked pretty lifeless in the Joker's arms. He hoped she wasn't dead or wouldn't be soon. He had a feeling that would set off a madness in the Joker even he had yet to see.
The Joker explained his plan to take the whole wing of the hospital pretending to be plumbers looking for a suspected gas leak. He fought to stay conscious on the ride over. He moved to carry Katy inside, but Seth put his hand on the Joker's arm. I can get her in there with quicker and with less suspicion." he reasoned.
Joker was irritated but knew Seth was right. He still had his makeup on and was easily recognizable. Seth ran inside with Katy and the Joker's heart broke. He prayed it wouldn't be the last time he saw her. As for the rest of his plan, he and the gang headed to the hospital themselves. They would clear a wing for Katy and then sneak her up when she was stable.
l-l
The plan was working and the floor had been evacuated. Several doctors and nurses were being held hostage to attend to Katy when she got up here. However, the Joker suddenly felt the extent of the gunshot wound and the loss of blood. He grabbed onto a table as a wave of dizziness hit him.
"Boss, you should have the doc check you out too..." said Devon.
The Joker didn't get a chance to protest because he collapsed.
l-l
The next thing he knew was slowly regaining sight and seeing Katy looking over him with a concerned look in her eyes. No, that couldn't be right. Unless he was dead. That was possible.
"Joker? You're ok. You're safe." Katy reassured him. Joker needed to find out if she was ok too. Was he dead? Or was she really concerned about him? He needed to know if she was ok, but apparently his voice was gone because she didn't seem to understand him when he asked.
"Don't speak yet. Here, have some water." Katy held out a glass to him. He realized how dry his throat was and drank it all in one gulp. He tried speaking again.
"You're alright."
"What? Me? Oh, yes I'm fine," Katy looked surprised that he had asked. Why would she be surprised though? Why was she being so kind to him?
"How are you feeling?" Katy continued.
Like shit, he thought."I'm good. How long have I been out?" he said out loud.
Katy opened her mouth to speak but then shut it looking like she didn't know how to answer that question.
"About a day," said some mole-like man in a white coat. Joker didn't like him. And he didn't like the way the man came so close up behind Katy. "I'm gonna check some of your vitals if you don't mind."
Mind? Yeah I mind, don't you dare touch me mole, thought the Joker. But the worry in Katy's eyes stopped him from protesting. He was fine, but if it would make her feel better to have him checked over he would do it. He didn't like mole-man though. The Joker was pretty sure that mole-man's unibrow was larger than the rest of his face. The Joker turned his attention to Katy so he didn't have to watch mole-man look him over like he was some sort of experiment.
He had a dream that Katy cared about him. In his dream, she had thanked him for saving the birds. And she told him that she knew that he couldn't feel empathy towards other people and that was why he did what he did. She even told him that she understood. But the best part of his dream was her telling him she needed him. She didn't want him to leave her.
Leave her? Was she ridiculous? Crazier than him, that was for sure. How could he ever leave her again? Even though he hated it, he was trapped and entranced by her. From squirrels to birds to himself, she had always shown kindness. She had volunteered her own life to save that man in the cafe. Someone as selfless as her shouldn't be around such a selfish guy like him. He was probably poison to her. Unfortunately, it was that selfishness that caused him to be unable to let her go. He was confused as to why she was showing him kindness. But perhaps that was just who she was. Kind to everyone no matter how despicable.
"Everything looks good to me," said mole-man interrupting the Joker's thought. Joker hated being interrupted. TIme for mole-man to go. He yanked the hospital machines from his body and stood up. He was irritated when he felt dizzy and almost fell over again. But his irritation melted away when he realized that the protecting arm that had held him upright was Katy's. He looked at her, confused but didn't comment. Instead he reached for his gun and pointed it at mole-man. He was gonna shoot that unibrow apart for him. He'd be doing him a favor, really.
He was stopped when Katy's grip tightened and she yelled out: "NO! He saved your life." Joker didn't care about that but then Katy went on: "And mine. Please don't!" The Joker decided that she was right and he couldn't shoot a man who had saved her life. No matter how annoying he was.
"Let's go," he told his men who obediently followed him. He briefly wondered how he was going to get them home but was distracted by a light pressure on his arm. Since grabbing onto his arm to steady him, Katy hadn't let go. The simple contact sent ripples up and down his entire body.
When they stepped outside, he was still debating whether or not to put is hand on top of hers that was laced through his arm. He looked up at that moment, however, and saw a bus.
The Joker hated to admit it, but he was impressed by his men. They had planned a perfect escape. He got on first and went to sit in the driver's seat but Seth gave him a look and Joker realized it was not the best idea for him to drive right then. At least not with Katy in the bus where she could get hurt. So he sighed and took a seat in the first row. He wondered if she was coming with them because of free will or because she thought she had to. She had to know by now that she was free. If she wanted to leave she could. He wouldn't stop her. But of course, why would she know that? He hadn't told her this. He decided to withhold this information from her so he could keep her as long as he could.
He was shocked when she sat down next to him. She didn't appear to consider it; it just seemed natural for her. She did, however, put some distance between them. Joker wasn't going to force her to sit on his lap or anything, so he just turned to face the front. It hurt though, that distance. That small space she left said it all. She didn't feel like she had free will. She probably was just being nice to him because she was afraid of him. The Joker longed for her to look at him again the way she had in the hospital. Or the way she had when he was Jack. He didn't even notice when a tear rolled down his cheek.
Joker was thrown from his daydream suddenly when Katy grabbed his hand. She looked at him with shock and excitement in her eyes. "Jack...?" she asked slowly raising an eyebrow. From the way his face must have changed, Katy must have realized her suspicions were correct. Because her eyes got wider and she gasped. They were both so lost in each other's eyes that it took them a minute to realize that the bus had stopped and everyone else had gotten off.
Thank you so much for sticking with me this week while I've had my finals. They are finally over (thank goodness) and I can focus more on writing this story. I hope you liked this chapter!
