CHAPTER 10

GOTHAM GENERAL

Buffy buttoned the white doctor coat. She watched Joker adjust the red wig on his head. "I can't believe we're doing this." Buffy muttered they walked down the hall and into Harvey Dent's room.

Joker said picking up Harvey's charts. "Tsk, tsk, no whining."

A police officer entered Harvey's room. "Ma'am, we're going to have to move him, now." Joker turned and fired his silenced pistol.

"Jack!" Buffy slapped his arm and rushed to the officers side.

"He's still alive." Joker went to sit at Dent's bedside.

Harvey opened his eye. This stained cloths covering half of his face slipped down exposing his severe burnt skin. "Hi." Joker said meekly as he took off his wig. "I don't want there to be any hard feelings between us, Harvey."

"What did you do?" Buffy eyed Joker furiously.

Joker waved her away. "When you and Rachel were being abducted I was sitting in Gordon's cage with her." Harvey followed Joker's index finger pointing at Buffy. "I didn't rig those charges-"

"Your men. Your plan." Dent said sharply.

"Do I really look like a guy with a plan?" Joker licked his lips. "I don't have a plan…" Joker ran his fingers through his green hair. "The mob has plans, the cops have plans. You know what I am, Harvey?" Harvey's hand trembled with fury. "I'm a dog chasing cars… I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it. I just do things." Buffy scoffed. "Not now, sweet pea." Buffy's eyes narrowed on him angrily. Joker smiled apologetically. "I'm just the wrench in the gears. I hate plans. Yours, theirs, everyone's. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I'm not a schemer, I show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control-"

"You're pathetic." Buffy muttered as she broke the soft leather cuffs around Harvey's wrists.

Joker ignored her and continued, "-Control things really are." Joker thought for a moment then took Dent's hand. "So when I say that you and your girlfriend was nothing personal, you know I'm telling the truth." Joker opened Dent's hand placing his pistol in the injured man's hand. Harvey held the pistol to Joker's head.

"It's the schemers who put you where you are. You were a schemer. You had plans. Look where it got you. I just did what I do best," Joker's eyes shifted to Buffy. "I took your plan, and I turned it on itself." Joker looked at Harvey. "Look what I've done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the pan is horrifying! If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics."

"Because it's all part of the plan." Buffy thought aloud. A slow smile crept across Joker's red lips. Buffy looked at Joker. "Then you go threatening Mayors and you got everybody going crazy." Buffy wouldn't dare admit that though Joker was crazy he was fiercely smart which scared her.

Joker continued, "Time to introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos?" Joker smiled pressing his forehead against the barrel.

"It's fair." Buffy finished astounded that the Joker made sense.

Dent's eyes shifted between the Joker and Buffy. He took out a coin and turned it over. "You live." He turned it over. "You die."

Joker smiled admiringly. "Now you're talking." Buffy rolled her eyes and stepped back. She sat in the chair against the wall waiting for this to be over.

Dent flicked the coin in the air then caught it. He looked. Dent looked at the Joker. Buffy strained her neck slightly to see the coins verdict. "You live."

Buffy jumped to her feet. "Great. Can we go now?"

"Reese is still alive. I blow up hospital."

"Which means, you escape." Buffy went to Harvey's bedside to help out.

Joker and Buffy walked down the deserted hallway. He pressed the button for hand sanitizer. Buffy rolled her eyes. Joker went into the pocket of his nurses uniform taking out the detonator. As they strolled down the hallway, the Joker pressed the button. Explosions to burst behind him like demolition blasts. Buffy and the Joker walk out the main door.

Joker took Buffy's hand as they walked down the steps. The glass behind them shatter.

The explosions stopped. Joker halted. He pressed the red button confused. Suddenly the hospital explodes. Joker's eyes widened. He took Buffy's hand and climbed into the back of a school bus.

Buffy and the Joker sat in the back seats of the school bus. Joker looked over at her. She stared straight ahead. He knew she was more than angry. Buffy was furious.

Joker struggled to find the words. "Don't even." Buffy said holding up her hand stopping him. "I don't want to hear it." Joker comically glowered and sat back.

Buffy's cellphone rang. "Hello?… Giles… Uh, yeah. He blew up a hospital…" Joker listened interested. "Time I got to the hospital… Ja - He was already gone… I'm tracking him now… Yeah, I'll call you later with more information… Bye, Giles." Buffy hung up and placed her cellphone into her pocket. She felt Joker's stare. "What?"

"You lied." Joker smile widened.

"Anything else?" Buffy asked sarcastically. The Joker didn't respond. Instead his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Buffy looked at him bemused. Joker pressed his red lips tenderly against hers.

He broke his quick kiss. "Don't be mad."

"What are you going to do with these people?" Buffy asked looking at the bus full of frightened innocent people.

"Greetings, innocent people aboard." Joker stood from his seat. "We're gonna go on a boat ride." The hostages gasped with horror. "Except for you Anchorman Engel." Joker grinned wildly.