Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from the DC Universe nor any recognizable storylines from Suicide Squad. I only own my character(s) and the plot of this story. This is rated T for language, possible gore and violence, and mature scenes.
10. ONE, TWO, THREE
"… according to sources has just recently apprehended notorious villain Harley Quinn who is known for being a regular accomplice to mastermind criminal and resident psychopath, the Joker."
Penny furrowed her brows and adjusted the dial, turning up the volume as a news report on some late night radio station filtered in through the speakers. The roads were wet on this weekend night and though it was late a few cars still cruised through the streets of Gotham, setting Penny on edge. She'd lived in Gotham City long enough to know that its inhabitants rarely knew how to drive on wet pavement and she had no intentions of being pretzeled against a telephone pole at one in the morning on the way home from a party she hadn't even enjoyed attending.
"Field reports say the woman was pulled from a vehicle that had crashed into Lake Gotham. Not many details have been given but rumor has it the vehicle belonged to the Joker himself who had seemingly fled the scene before he could be captured as well. No word yet on if Quinn sustained any injuries but most likely they'll make a pit stop to Gotham General Hospital where they'll assess both her physical and mental state. Again, nothing's confirmed, but I'm willing to bet if she's unharmed they'll keep her under a 48-hour psychiatric hold and then it's off to Arkham Asylum. As you know, the Joker is a regular patient at the infamous psychiatric hospital…"
Penny frowned, eyes flickering from the radio to the road in front of her. As she was a full-time resident of Gotham and had been for most of her life, Penny knew about Harley Quinn and the Joker because it was impossible not to. Most high-end crimes in the city were committed by one or both of them and they'd been in and out of mental institutions ever since Penny learned how to drive. As the two maniacs didn't concern themselves with lowly townsfolk like her, she wasn't too afraid of running into them. Their sights were mostly set on banks, rich businessmen, and drug cartels. Typical.
She wondered how long it'd be before Harley Quinn escaped this time.
Penny stopped at a red light and rubbed her eyes until her vision was blurry. She couldn't wait to get home and sleep the weekend away. The party had been a mixer for some of the new people at her company. One of the new recruits was a guy named Mark Fletcher who seemed to take some sort of interest in her on his first day. He was a nice enough guy but he talked her ear off for most of the night and she didn't even get to raid the snack table before she was exhausted and ready to leave. The main reason she went was to please her boss who 'didn't require, only encouraged' her teammates to attend which roughly translated into 'I won't make you go but if I don't see you there I'm knocking ten points off the participation section of your year-end review'.
Of course the mixer ended up moving from the quaint little hotel ballroom to the nearest bar and Mark insisted she tag along. She did so reluctantly but didn't let him buy her a drink. Unlike most people, Penny wouldn't consider herself friends with anyone she worked with. She got along with all of them but she couldn't imagine spending time with them outside of business hours. Despite working with most of them for close to two years she didn't really know anything about them. Her team worked under a department of scientists that specialized in technology research which left little time for chats near the water cooler.
(In her nearly-three years of working in an office building, not once did she see anyone actually meet up at the water-cooler for a session of juicy gossip. So why was it a cliché in movies and TV shows? She didn't get it.)
The light turned green and she turned left down a more deserted road that she knew was a shortcut to her apartment building's parking garage. There were less streetlamps down this long stretch of road, leaving various sections of the road completely black. In the past the darkness made Penny anxious, afraid that an animal would dart out in front of her car and she wouldn't see it soon enough to stop, but she'd yet to have any issues so it didn't really bother her anymore. The news report eventually faded into music and Penny lowered the volume again, humming along to the tune as she drove.
She made it about halfway down the road when she spotted a figure looming on the edge of the street. She squinted her eyes, not really believing what she saw was an actual person until she was only about fifty feet away. They were hunched over, teetering from side to side as they blindly stepped out onto the road right into her lane.
She barely had time to think before she was yanking the wheel, jerking her car away from the stumbling person and veering across the opposite lane where her car squealed its tires and smoke billowed up from the back before eventually slowing to a stop. Penny's heart was hammering in her chest as she recovered from the initial panic of almost running someone over and possibly killing them. She swallowed when her throat felt dry and when her brain finally started to work again, she spun around in her seat to try and get a good look at the person to see if they were harmed at all. She couldn't see them from where her car now faced away from the direction they were heading and without thinking she unlocked her car door and climbed out.
She stumbled a bit from vertigo and had to clutch the door handle to steady herself. She turned to face the other lane and breathed an internal sigh of relief at the person who continued to stumble and sway down the middle of the road as if the last minute never happened. They seemed to be muttering to themselves, occasionally clutching their head and then punching the air directly after. They had a cream-colored coat on that must've been white at some point but their clothes and hair seemed to be drenched. The lack of light made Penny squint, unable to distinguish any real features of the person especially with their back turned. They could've been homeless.
Despite Penny's better judgment of actively not talking to strangers, she took a careful step forward, unable to quench the guilt that she may have scarred this person for life by almost pancaking them to the pavement under her car. By the way they were walking in a diagonal she couldn't help but think with sympathy that they were mentally handicapped in some way. What were they doing out here alone?
"Um," she cleared her throat after it cracked. Her heart was still thrumming in her ears. "Um, excuse me? Sir, are you okay?"
She had every intentions of calling the police in hopes that maybe they could get this man home or to a hospital. He didn't acknowledge her question but after about ten seconds of silence he halted about thirty feet away from her. Penny stopped when he did, breath hitching in her throat in anticipation. She opened her mouth to repeat her question but something about the way he was just standing there, stock still like a statue, made her think twice. She furrowed her brows and watched him, waiting for any sort of reaction, and when he just continued to stand there silently warning signs began to flash in her mind.
She could almost physically hear the voice of Admiral Akbar screech, "It's a trap!" as she inched back towards her car. But as her shoe scuffed on the damp pavement and echoed softly in the open air between, it seemed to snap the man out of his trance and he turned. Penny straightened her spine, hair rising on the back of her neck. His front was cast entirely in shadow, once again making it impossible to see what he looked like, but there was a flash of silver in the general area of where his mouth was and suddenly all of Penny's senses were screaming at her to run.
She only made it about a foot or two back towards her open car door when he stepped into a ray of light from the dim streetlamp behind them. And Penny almost choked on her tongue and nearly tripped over her own two feet at the sight that awaited her.
The Joker, the Clown Prince himself, was staring directly at her only a hundred feet away, dripping wet and looking as deranged in person as he did on TV. He was looking at her. Not through a camera but in reality. He was actually there—a mass murderer and notorious psychopath—and there was no one else around. Just them.
She was going to die.
Penny sputtered, opening and closing her mouth like a fish as the green-haired clown squinted at her with his piercing dark eyes. His footing was still unstable, still murmuring beneath his breath, and Penny couldn't see this ending in any way that wasn't bloody. Judging by his body language, not just the uneven footing but his stiff jaw and squared shoulders, she could tell he was mad. And possibly even more off his rocker than usual. Briefly her mind filtered back to the radio broadcast she heard not five minutes ago and realized exactly why he was there. Harley Quinn was captured by Batman. His car was totaled in Lake Gotham after careening over the edge, probably because Batman was already in pursuit of them.
However pissed off he must have been, she was in his way of parading down a deserted road angrily. She interrupted whatever zone he'd locked himself in, a whirlwind of resentment and bloodthirst over losing his precious Queen, and now she was going to feel the brunt of it just because she was a good samaritan.
This only proved what she already knew but was too stupid to follow: don't stop for strangers. Even the ones you almost run over by your car.
"Shit," Penny cursed to herself. She rarely cursed but she figured for once the situation demanded it. "Shit, shit, shit."
"Did you know…" the Joker began, speech slurring through his gravely tone, "that bats can eat up to 1,200 mosquitos in one hour?"
Penny stood still, eyes wide and frozen.
The Joker made a swirling motion with his hand. "Those fuckers eat like twice their body weight in one day. They keeping eating and eating all these bugs and that's why the world isn't full of 'em, it's why they haven't taken over our planet. B'cause the bats eat 'em all…"
He continued stumbling towards her, eyes narrowing further on her shivering form. His words were mostly going through one ear and out the other; she couldn't bring herself to focus much on what he was saying exactly but she had a feeling he was making some sort of reference to Batman.
"Of all the bugs in the world," he lifted a finger, pausing about ten feet away from her as his brows hardened, "of all the fuckin' parasites this piece of shit planet has to offer, he has to take her."
Penny swallowed. Her palms felt sweaty and she shook her fingers out, glancing both ways behind him to see if she could make a run for it. He seemed out of it just enough that she might have the advantage of coordination to get away from him.
"I wanna squash him," the Joker said. His golden rings glistened under the streetlamp, casting disco balls over his pale cheeks. "I wanna stick 'im under my foot and feel all his bones crack, see his eyes pop outta his skull, listen to him scream…"
Penny grimaced at the imagery.
"You know?" he tilted his head. "You ever been so angry you just wanna destroy everything? You ever have sumthin' taken away from you and it makes you feel like you're missing a finger or a toe or some shit. Like you can still walk but it feels fuckin' weird?"
Penny only knew how to shake her head.
"No?" he tilted his head the other way, a strand of damp green hair falling down into his eyes. His skin looked luminescent under the moonlight and she spotted a few white scars along the flesh with black ink. His lips were crimson and if she didn't know any better she'd say he just finished sinking his teeth into someone's neck. His eyes trailed down below her neck and she wanted to feel affronted by the way he openly looked her over, only to realize that his gaze was trained solely on the badge clipped to her breast pocket from the company mixer. "Pen-ell-oh-pee Wy-zz… Penelope Wise… Pennywise," he grinned, his silver teeth flashing.
"Penny Weiss," she correctly, voice chopped and rigid.
"No," he shook his head. He took another step forward and Penny immediately took one back to keep the distance between them. "Pennywise. You a little clown, hm, Pennywise?"
"No, I…"
"Are you scared?" he asked, ignoring whatever she was about to say. She wasn't even sure herself.
She licked her lips. "Um."
"You are," he answered for her, eyes lightening. They were a soft blue, Penny realized. A cold color. His grin sharpened. "I can tell. Your pupils are dilated. Either you're really turned on or you're really scared. Can't complain about either…" he continued to advance on her and Penny kept stepping back until she felt the back of her legs hit the base of her car. "What's a pretty little thing like you doin' out here? Didn't your mommy ever tell you not to stay out after dark?"
He was close enough that Penny could feel his warm breath on her face. He reached a pale hand forward and prodded one of her blonde curls with his finger.
"You naturally blonde?" he murmured. Penny was trembling as she carefully glanced up into his eyes, noticing that his pupils were also dilated.
"No," she answered, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice. "Please..."
"I'm gonna get her back," the Joker said, venom lacing his tone. His face was stoic aside from his blown eyes and she could feel the vengeance radiating off of him like a hum on the air. "Just you watch, Pennywise, I'll get her back… I always do. They'll regret it."
Penny was close to passing out from how fast her heart was beating. His pink tongue ran over the silver teeth in his mouth, jaw rotating, and she almost wanted to scream until she spotted a pair of headlights on the far end of the road. It was coming in their direction. The Joker noticed her gazing wide-eyed over his shoulder and he turned around. The second he was distracted she quickly tumbled into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut. She saw him whip around, his white suit jacket flailing from the force. With a gasp she locked the door and not a second later he slammed his palms onto the roof of her car.
"Oh god!" she jumped. She tried remembering how to work a car, the gearshift and gauge cluster blurring in and out of focus.
"Come on now, Pennywise, I just wanna have some fun!" he taunted, slamming his hand roughly into the window a couple inches from her head. She jolted again and stuffed her head into hands trying to calm herself down enough so she could think.
She heard the screeching of tires and she pulled her head out of her hands, spotting a large black vehicle that had skidded to a stop adjacent from her car in the middle of the road. The Joker cackled at the person, digging his fist a few times into the side mirror of her car until the mirror cracked down the middle.
Penny regained enough of her bearings and smashed her foot on the brake so she could put the car in drive. She gave one last look at the Joker's hunched form, barely seeing as a man in a black suit stepped out of the vehicle to greet the clown and usher him into the car. The Joker seemed jolly enough to see the man but that didn't stop him from watching as she peeled away from the scene, burning rubber as she floored it down the road.
"I'll catch ya later, Pennywise! Betcha I'll never forget! You'll see! You'll all see!"
His maniacal laugh echoed hauntingly in her car's wake as she slowly watched his form grow smaller and smaller in her rearview mirror. Her hands were unsteady on the steering wheel and her breathing was ragged as her speedometer hit 90 mph.
She never thought she'd actually see him again.
And she certainly never thought she'd come to owe him a debt.
This was the first encounter out of three in total she'd have with Gotham's very own Clown Prince and only the beginning of the dark path of corruption and toxicity he would soon lead her down.
The first thing Penny felt when she came to was searing hot pain in her left arm and the cold, clammy nighttime air of Midway City, Illinois.
There was smoke in the air threatening to clog her lungs and as she regained more of her senses, she realized her mouth was already open in a shriek of agony as she rolled over onto her back. The pressure released from her arm felt better but also worse as the pain was now exposed to the bitter cold. She clutched the arm to her chest, squeezing her eyes shut in a tight wince as she groaned. She flexed her fingers experimentally and thankfully didn't feel sore from it. She was pretty sure her arm wasn't broken, just really banged up, and as she finally tried blinking her eyes open she realized she had a massive headache to make up for it. She groaned again and with the last bit of strength left in her, she carefully lifted herself up into a sitting position.
She was huffing and gasping afterward, unable to tell if she was going to pass out again or throw up at the way her head was swimming. It took another minute for her to regain her bearings and when she finally made an attempt to look around, her heart skipped. There was wreckage scattered all over the main road they landed on, continuing a few hundred feet down to the intersection where the chopper had crashed and gone up in flames. To her immediate right was Frost who was also hunched over his own lap and assessing the damage. He had a deflated parachute attached to his back and Penny's mind finally made the connection that she must've hitched a ride with him when the chopper went down.
"Fuck!" she heard someone shout. She whipped around, wincing at the vertigo she gave herself, and saw Mister J pounding his fist into the pavement repeatedly. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"
Penny watched with wide eyes as he pulled his hand away, blood spilling over his knuckles from the force. He didn't seem to notice. He kicked his legs out, screeching and pulling at his hair, smearing in red with green and Penny felt the screams all the way to her core. It was almost like watching a kid throw a tantrum, except this kid was bloodthirsty and snarling like an animal with a few knives tucked into its pockets.
"Those fucking—fuck! They fucking took her again!"
He breathed deeply, chest heaving as he clutched his head and stared up at the sky, still sprawled out on his back. It looked like he was trying to regain his composure, like he was having an all-out battle with his own mind. Even from where Penny was sitting she could see the whites of his eyes flashing as his eyes flitted from left to right as if he were trying to follow a heated argument taking place inside his head.
"We gotta scram, boss," Frost spoke up, his voice rough. "I figure this crash gotta attract some sort of attention and we don't wanna be here when it does."
"They took her again. Fuckin' took her from me again – fuck, fuck, fuck," he slammed the heel of his palms into his forehead. "I'm gonna fuckin'…"
"I know," Frost said. He didn't sound sympathetic but instead authoritative, glancing around for signs of any onlookers. Most seemed to be huddling down by the crash and though Penny was certain someone had to have seen them by now, they weren't looking to make themselves known yet. "Let's go. We'll figure something out but right now we gotta find some place to lay low."
Maneuvering past Penny, Frost stood close to Mister J and waited for him to move. Mister J's jaw was clenched, the sinew stretching in his neck as he forced himself to his feet with a stumble. Penny was reminded of when she first saw him, fumbling and uncoordinated as he lost himself in his own torrid thoughts of getting his Harley Quinn back no matter what the cost. Except this time she had a feeling it would cost more lives.
Penny was suddenly hit with the reminder of Dr. Van Chris and her heart shuddered as she pressed forward on her knees, spinning around to see if she could spot him anywhere. Her eyes darted around them and down the street, the swimming in her head getting worse the longer it took her to find him. He wasn't there. He wasn't there. Had no one helped him? Did he not get a parachute? Did he fall out of the chopper before it hit the ground or was he trapped inside when it landed?
Penny slumped back until she was sitting on her feet, feeling the harsh reality of the scientist's death as it consumed her like a fever. Her blood turned to ice as she thought of his wife, the woman Mister J's men were no doubt still tormenting and would probably never release now that her husband was dead. She felt even sicker to her stomach and the pain in her arm lessened into a dull ache as this pain was pulled to the forefront. This was her fault.
She heard a snarl and turned numbly to face Mister J who had just spun on his heels to look at her. His blue eyes were sharp and cold, skin even more translucently pale than before with a jagged red cut lining his temple and dirt on his cheek. His nostrils flared as he continued to breathe heavily, holding eye contact with her for reasons she didn't know. The tenseness of his brows and the intensity of his stare slowly faded until his face was nothing but a blank slate aside from the snarl curling his upper lip.
"Let's go."
Even though his eyes were on her when he said it, Penny could sense that the words weren't directed to her and it made her stomach feel hollow.
Mister J turned with his shoulders stiff and began stalking down the edge of the road and Penny's mind had almost completely shut off before it began to work in hyper drive. She scrambled to her feet, wincing as the cuts and gashes in her arm pulled the skin. She fell to her knees before she was able to push herself all the way up and she tried to protest without knowing what to say.
"W-wait, where are you going, what—"
"It's your lucky day," Mister J drawled, voice sounding far away as his back was still to her with Frost in tow. "You're free to go."
Penny mouthed wordlessly. "What do you m—? We're in Illinois!" she cried, waving her arms around. "You can't just leave me here!"
"Can't I?" she saw Mister J tilt his head as he kept marching forward and Penny felt a drop of rain hit her cheek as she followed him. "You have no obligation to me anymore and therefore I have no obligation to you. You did what I wanted you to do and I kept you alive. That was the deal, wasn't it?"
"B-but…" Penny's eyes were wide and she couldn't get the words out fast enough. "That's not fair, you can't just leave me here! I don't know where to go! I have no way of getting back home!"
Mister J whirled around and Penny's once determined footsteps towards him faltered. The rain began to come down hard and Penny could vaguely hear police sirens echoing down the road where the chopper was still aflame. She stumbled backward and braced herself as he set his deadly glare on her instead.
"Fair? Is that the game we're playing? Because I've got a few things going on right now that aren't exactly fair," he backed her into a building wall and sneered in her face, eyes wide and piercing as he lifted his hand to tightly wrap his cold wet fingers around her throat. "You're useless to me now. Useless," he spat and Penny recoiled as if she'd been slapped, grappling onto his wrist to try and lessen the grip on her airways. "Unless you magically got some tricks up your skirt that'll bring me my Queen then you're wasting my time," he paused expectantly, nails digging into her flesh. She choked and her eyes stung with unshed tears from the pain. "Well, do you?"
Penny was shivering from the rain and wind and she spotted Frost standing behind Mister J keeping a watchful eye on the red and blue flashing lights down the road where a crowd seemed to have gathered. She could faintly hear police ushering civilians away from the debris.
She shook her head no with what little room Mister J left her to move her head and his black eyes narrowed.
"Thought so," he replied quietly, words poisonous. "So find your own damn way home."
With one more forceful push against her throat, he dropped his hand and disappeared around the corner. Frost was quick to follow but not without sparing Penny an unreadable glance. There may have been some sympathy there, there may not have been. She couldn't bring herself to care if there was.
"Keep your head down," he advised lightly before he was out of sight, too.
Penny stared blankly at the spot they once were, still able to make out the imprints of their shoes on the damp pavement. For a few moments she couldn't feel anything. Her mind was white noise and her ears rang from the static of emptiness before her heart started to thrum painfully in her chest.
She was alone.
She was in a state completely new to her, hundreds of miles from home, and she was all alone.
She couldn't even remember the last time she rode a plane by herself. It had to have been years. But at least then she had a destination. There were people waiting for her at both ends. Now she had no one. She was utterly alone and had nowhere to go.
Penny slid down the wall, the roughness of it scraping against her back and bunching up the lab coat on her way down as her chest heaved. Her lungs contracted, inflating and deflating too fast for any oxygen to flow to her brain and she cupped her hand to her mouth. Her vision blurred as the tears flowed freely down her cheeks, blending in with the drops of cold rain that sprinkled her face. Her body spasmed as she cried, unable to breathe but unable to stop either. She curled her legs into her chest, wrapping her arms around her bent knees. Her hands were shaking, either from the chilly moist air or the adrenaline. Maybe both. She wanted to bury her head into her knees and cry until she didn't have any tears left, almost did just that, but then she heard the police sirens again.
Eyes red-rimmed and swollen, she lifted her head in the direction of the wreckage. It was starting to attract even more attention and through her sorrow and exhaustion she knew she needed to leave. Or at least find somewhere else to hide where she could cry in peace. The last thing she needed was to get caught now. After everything she'd been through, after everything he put her through, she wasn't going to let it all go to waste by being thrown in a jail cell.
If that happened, he would've won.
He would find out eventually, whether it be from a news broadcast or through the grapevine, he'd hear about it one day and he would do absolutely nothing about it. Because she was useless to him. He used her. She knew he used her. She wasn't stupid. It'd probably be the highlight of his day to find out that good ole Pennywise got snuffed by the fuzz all because he left her behind to rot. He'd toast the television screen with a cup of grape soda, Harley Quinn curled against his arm, at the flash of her mugshot. He'd get the last laugh. He always got the last laugh.
She couldn't let that happen.
Wiping her nose, she haphazardly pushed herself up and away from the wall, shivering from the breeze as the rain soaked her head. She whipped her head from left to right to see if she could find a clear path to run without being recognized. As her eyes roamed over the road in front of her, she squinted at something black that flashed on the pavement. With furrowed brows, she checked to make sure no one was heading her way before she scrambled out to the middle of the road and snatched up the pistol Mister J had given her before they boarded the chopper. She'd yet to use it. And she'd be damned if one of the policemen found it with her fingerprints pasted all over it like paint splatters under a black light.
She lifted her head again and scoped out the perimeter. There was loud chatter by the wreckage, a few vehicles roaming the streets on all sides of the intersection. Occasionally there was a patriotic flash of red and blue followed by a high-pitched siren, alerting those in the area to remain vigilant and keep their distance. Penny licked her lips and dropped the pistol in the lab coat's pocket before making a dash across the street to an alleyway that led out of sight. She pressed her back against the brick wall, a very cliché move, as she paused to catch her breath. Her heart was still beating unevenly and it was making her legs feel like jelly. The panic had passed for the time being but she knew it was only a matter of time before it'd resurface like an active ticking bomb.
She hated to think that she was the bomb this time.
She leaned forward and ran her trembling wet fingers through her hair, repeating it's going to be okay like a mantra inside her head even if she didn't believe it was. She just needed to get somewhere safe, preferably somewhere far away before police started to patrol the area. For a split second she had a dark, hopeful thought that they'd linger on the charred remains of Dr. Van Chris long enough for her to get away. She'd feel properly guilty for that later when the rest of her sanity crumbled down.
She raised back up and tilted her head back, squinting up at the sky as it continued to pelt the world below it with water. It's not like anybody up there would actually listen if she begged for help, begged for someone or something to help make sure she made it out of this alive. It wouldn't have been fair of her to ask in the first place. It's not like she'd ever been on speaking terms with the man upstairs, even if He did exist. Plus she was a felon, wasn't she? Pretty sure that meant her access was revoked anyway.
With a deep breath, Penny kicked away from the wall and jogged down the other end. She peered her head out to see if she could spot anyone of authority. Her white lab coat had to have been like a beacon in the dark light but she couldn't rid herself of it yet. It was one of the few things keeping her warm, or as warm as she could be in soaked clothes. She couldn't find anyone and slipped out onto the sidewalk, walking in the opposite direction of the crash with sirens echoing mockingly behind her. She kept her head down and dropped her hands inside her lab coat pockets, flinching at the cool metal of the gun against her right hand's knuckles.
She wasn't sure how long or far she walked. She kept heading straight in hopes of putting as much distance between her and the chopper's wreckage as possible. She didn't pay much attention to where she went, only turning when the sidewalk curved. At some point she knew she crossed the street and it's a wonder she didn't get run over but the streets seemed surprisingly empty. Or maybe not so surprising. Most of the roads downtown were most likely closed.
Her mind was working in overdrive as she walked. She felt the soreness in her feet even after she removed her shoes and held them limply at her side but she didn't focus much on it or how weird she must have looked to passersby, who were few and far between but were still there nonetheless. The world still carried on even after she felt like her life had stopped. She didn't know where to go from there. Didn't know what her plan was. So far the first and only thing on her mental list was keep your head down and keep going.
She found that the further she walked the angrier she got. Somewhere between leaving the alleyway and crossing the road her sorrow faded into resentment. At first she was angry with herself for allowing him to string her along. How could she have been so weak? So foolish? She should have stood up for herself. Or moved away to where he could never find her. Something. She could have done something. But she didn't. Stupid. He may have been the Clown Prince of Crime, Gotham's most infamous, but that didn't mean he was impenetrable. Unstoppable. Everyone had a weakness. She should have tried to figure out what his was. She was around him enough. She was supposed to be smart. Top of her class, second in line for valedictorian. To use his words, she was supposed to be a fucking genius.
Yet she didn't even know how to get back home.
But none of this would have happened if it weren't for him. She just had to run into him, had to meet him, had to let him royally fuck up her life. That's all he was—chaos and destruction. He left everything behind him in ruins. He had no compassion, only tunnel vision for things he wanted. He manipulated everything around him, bending things to his will, to satisfy his needs. He didn't actually care about her. She knew he didn't; knew all along that she was just playing his game. But even still she felt let down. And it made her so mad. So fucking mad. He played her like a fiddle and she was bitter about it. Because of him she saw people die, she was pushed to her breaking point, she was deceived… she was made a fool.
A jester, if you will. Someone to entertain him. How ironic.
But even after all that anger she still felt tired. The anger only succeeded in making her more tired and every few seconds she considered curling up on the sidewalk beneath her to just sleep. With any luck she'd wake up to find out that all of it had been some hideous dream. She'd shower, go to work, and return to a life of normalcy, and only hear about him through news reports and late night radio stations. The way it should've been. If only she hadn't turned down that street all those months ago. If only she hadn't stopped the car when she saw him stumbling into her lane. If she just kept driving forward… if only.
Penny didn't stop until she felt like her feet were going to break. She leaned against a tall white building with intricate carvings, probably a couple decades old by the architecture. She rested her head against the exterior and breathed in slowly through her nose. Her brain felt fat inside her head like it was going to explode out her ears, the beat of her heart thrumming agonizingly behind her eyes. Her stomach, on the other hand, felt like it shrunk a few sizes. Her hunger was to the point of heartburn but the thought of actually eating something made her feel nauseated. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open and she realized that she really should've been looking for a place to curl up at least a mile back.
She spotted a small staircase a few feet away and hobbled over to it, plopping down on the second stair with a pained sigh as she took the weight off her feet. Her lips felt chapped as she licked them and she almost wanted to kneel on the ground to lick up the leftover moisture of the rain that had stopped a good half hour ago but she wasn't quite desperate enough yet. She rested her body against the side of the building, slouching back against the stairs. The edges dug into her spine but only left her feeling mildly uncomfortable in comparison to everything else that had happened. She let her eyelids fall shut and slowly her breathing evened out. She was cold and sore and anxious but just sitting down made her feel loads better and before she knew it she was asleep.
The sleep didn't last for long. At some point a car drove past her, the tires kicking up a puddle and spraying her feet as it sped down the road. She jolted at the sudden noise, her head throbbing and mouth feeling like cotton as she grimaced at her soaked dirty toes. She lifted a hand from her pocket to clutch her temple, feeling her stringy hair as it plastered itself to her forehead and cheek from the angle. She couldn't imagine what she looked like right now with her dirty lab coat, blackened feet, and ripped slacks. People probably thought she was some nutter who lost it at work and made a run for it, some sort of midlife crisis thing that had been building up over the past few years. It's almost what her day felt like, to be honest.
She arched her back and groaned as her spine cracked in a few places. Once she slouched again she felt the cramps in her muscles from sitting in such an awkward position for who-knows-how-long. It was still dark outside, the streetlamps reflecting off the wet pavement as it was too cold for the roads to dry. She couldn't be assed to know what time it was and wasn't very good at guessing. She didn't even know what time the chopper crashed, only that it happened not long after sunset. It had to have been at least two or three in the morning by now.
The question was: should she leave or stay? She was sure if someone caught her napping on a public property come morning time they'd usher her up and to the nearest police station or hospital given the chance which wasn't something she wanted to risk. She had no means of identification and a loaded gun in her pocket—not a good combination. The odds of leaving were more in her favor and she made to stand with a wince, only to have something catch her eye in the building across the street.
There was a window lit on one of the top floors, curtains pulled aside with a figure standing between them. The orange light behind them hid all of their features aside from a tall, strong silhouette but as Penny narrowed her eyes she felt her heart skip. It felt almost too good to be true and she wanted to believe that she was just seeing things; that her eyes were playing tricks on her or maybe she was still asleep. Because she knew that silhouette, knew the stature of the person it belonged to very well, but it couldn't have been him, right? There's no way she could happen upon him hours later in the middle of a large city, could she?
She watched closely as the silhouette's head tilted down, seemingly in the direction of where she sat, and for a moment she was convinced their eyes met even if she could see nothing but black on their tiny face. Then they were gone, backing away from the window and pulling the curtains tight until the orange light was dulled behind a thin veil. Even as they were turning away she could almost swear she saw the strap of a parachute jutting out from their torso.
It was Frost. She was positive it was him. It had to be him.
Penny wasn't much of a believer in fate. She couldn't see how the world had plans set in motion for every person, how it could intertwine your fate with someone's else's and make you "destined to meet", if you will. But she did believe in coincidences, knew they happened all the time, and this was one of the best ones she'd encountered yet. And maybe fate did have a play in it, probably some sick sense of humor, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
She considered waiting it out outside. She could keep an eye on the building, front and back, and wait for them to leave and then follow a few paces behind without being spotted. If they snagged a private jet or something then she would probably be out of luck but if she was stealthy enough she could maybe try smuggling herself inside. But something told her it wasn't going to be that easy. She was almost certain Frost saw her.
It was almost funny to think that she unknowingly walked straight to them. A small part of her wondered if they had been keeping tabs on her the whole time but she quickly brushed that aside. Obviously there were more important things to deal with but when she spotted Frost's form in the window, it was almost as if he'd been waiting for her to see him. Could he have maybe thrown her a bone?
She wanted to believe it. Even though Frost wasn't exactly on the straight and narrow, he was the closest thing to civilized she'd seen in Mister J's world. And every now and then he would slip that he cared about her, at least in some way. Like when he warned her at the club or just tonight when he advised her to keep her head down. She couldn't have imagined all of that. But he was also the closest thing to a friend Mister J had and everything he did seemed to play into the Joker's cards one way or another. So really, how could she know if he was trying to help her or not? She couldn't.
With pursed lips she stood shakily from the steps, grinding her teeth at the soreness returning to her feet. She dropped her hand into her pocket, feeling the cool metal of the gun that was still nestled inside, and scaled the building with her eyes. It was an older building, much like most of the buildings tucked away on this street, and there was a faded sign in cursive print that stated it was a hotel. It didn't look horrible but it wasn't the best either. Penny was easily able to find the window Frost disappeared in, the orange glow of the light still glimmering inside. She counted silently to herself. They were on the sixth floor out of seven, third window from the left not quite in the middle but close.
After scanning both sides of the street, she made her way across to the steps leading up to the entrance. She paused before entering and glanced warily down at her ensemble. Even though most hotels below four stars didn't require any sort of identification or key card to enter, she knew she still looked a bit out of place and would not doubt catch some unwanted attention. Her left arm was starting to feel sore again and she lifted it up, grimacing at the tears in the coat sleeve that were stained with red. The gashes on her arm were still fresh and glistening red and she had to look away before she dry heaved. She quickly ran her fingers through her hair, digging her hands through the tangles as she watched through the door at the front desk where two well-dressed woman stood talking amongst themselves.
Penny slinked back into the shadows and waited until the two of them were well enough distracted that she could open the door without alerting them to her presence. She stepped inside unnoticed and walked silently around the lobby, sticking close to the wall and out of sight as her eyes searched for the elevators. They were to the right. She waited a few more seconds until one of the woman disappeared into the back and the other leaned down beneath the desk. She took the opportunity and walked quickly to the elevators, thankful that the floors were carpet to muffle her shuffling feet. It was hard to make herself appear "casual yet rushed", knowing that the lobby had to have cameras propped up somewhere. It was highly unlikely anyone would check them but still, she needed to dot all her I's and cross all her T's.
She rounded the corner to the elevators with no issues and released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as she pressed the up button. The elevator dinged immediately and she stepped inside, pressing the number six. She felt her stomach coil anxiously as the doors closed and the elevator lifted. With the buzz of each floor number she felt her heart slowly work its way into her throat and by the time the monitor by the door flashed "6" she almost lost her nerve. The elevator jolted before the doors slowly slid open and she half expected to see Mister J waiting for her with a sneer. Luckily there was no one aside from two vending machines and an ice maker that hummed in the quietness of the hall.
It felt like ages before Penny stepped out of the elevator. She almost called it back when the doors closed but instead she clenched her jaw and tried making sense of where she was in the building in comparison to what she was looking at outside. She glanced out a nearby window and recognized one of the buildings. If she had been standing on the steps outside, the building would have been to her right. She was on the wrong side of the hotel.
Heart thumping wildly behind her ribcage she made her way down the far hall. She couldn't tell if she was thinking too many things or not enough but either way her brain was only registering static. It felt like years before she reached the end of the hall and then she counted the doors. The window was third from the left.
One, two, three…
She stopped in front of a door. It read 133. Her throat ran dry and she tried swallowing a few times but there wasn't enough saliva in her mouth to coat it. She grinded her teeth and remembered the way it felt to walk down a deserted road, cold and tired and hungry, and know he was the cause of it. She remembered the resentment and bitterness he made her feel, emotions that she hadn't felted in years and never as strongly as she did tonight. She remembered what he brought out in her. Hatred, distrust, anxiety, terror, confusion.
Face stony, she reached into her lab coat and wrapped her fingers around the pistol. She pulled it out and tested the weight of it in her hand, slipping her finger towards the trigger. The foreboding was doing a number on her sanity and she took a few deep breaths. There was a click as her thumb turned off the safety. She lifted the pistol. Her skin felt like ice and she could hear nothing over the blood pumping furiously in her ears. She needed to do this. She needed to.
She raised a fist and knocked on the door three times.
At first there was nothing, no sound of any activity inside the room. She waited long enough that she almost considered running down the hall in case she got the wrong room but then there was shuffling behind the door. She heard a dull thump, like someone placed their hand against the surface of the door, and then there was a pause. She stared ahead at the peephole. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, knowing that someone was watching her through it. Then the sound of a chain being pulled rattled against the door and Penny squared her shoulders, stiffened her jaw, and the second the door opened she lifted her gun to their head.
The barrel was aimed directly at Mister J's head.
He was leaning against the doorframe, arm propping him up as he hunched forward with a blank look on his face. His eyes were bland, the angry cut on his temple red and irritated, and the sharp set of his jaw made his face narrower. He lost his black suit jacket and was dressed in a style more familiar to her with a white unbuttoned shirt and dress pants. His green hair was in disarray, framing his face and making him appear younger than he was. Even still with a gun pressed against his forehead he looked severely unamused.
"Look what the cat dragged in," he drawled, voice scratchy like he hadn't spoken in days.
"Take me home," Penny said steadily through clenched teeth.
"Why do all the pretty ones have to put a gun to my head?" Mister J called over his shoulder, not removing his eyes from hers. Penny spotted Frost watching from inside the room, standing straight as his eyes darted between them.
"Take me home," she repeated, words wavering. She already felt tears stinging her eyes and it pissed her off that she couldn't control them.
Mister J didn't say anything right away. He tilted his head.
"Didn't we already go through this?" he squinted as if he couldn't really remember.
"I don't care," Penny said, feeling a tear fall down her cheek. Mister J watched it in interest. "I have no phone, no wallet, no anything. It was all lost in the chopper. I have nothing here. Just take me home and you'll never have to see me again."
Mister J's face gave nothing away and he was startlingly unaffected by the hard metal still resting against his head.
"You know what our mission was today?" Penny opened and closed her mouth. Mister J's eyes flashed like sapphire knives. "I want to hear you say it."
Penny breathed heavily through her nose. "Rescue Harley Quinn."
"Right," Mister J nodded slowly as if speaking to a toddler. "And did we accomplish that?" he crooked his head as Penny considered what to say until he lost his patience. His bland eyes were suddenly aflame as he repeated louder, "I said, did we accomplish that?"
"No," Penny replied shortly.
"No," his lips turned downward. "We failed. Everything we did was for nothing. Everything you did to help me was for fucking nothing because they still have her. I don't have her. Do you see the problem?" his nostrils flared as he glared at her, shoulders tense. Penny could feel him vibrating with anger and knew she needed to turn the conversation around before it escalated to proportions she wasn't prepared to deal with.
"Look," she lifted her head and readjusted her grip on the gun. "I know you're upset. I'm upset that you're upset," she attempted to stress this through her eyes. It didn't faze him. "But things need to move forward. I need to go home. You need to go home. I need you to take me home because there's no one else that can. I don't have anyone else."
"Why should I?" he breathed after a moment of tense silence. Penny cocked the gun in hopes that it would be answer enough. Something about this must've humored him because Mister J flashed his silver teeth. "S'that supposed to scare me, Pennywise?"
"That's the idea," she replied, attempting to sound light.
"This your plan?" he taunted quietly, looking at her with that intensity she could barely tolerate like he was peeling her apart layer by layer. "Threaten me into taking you back? Killing me if I don't?"
"More or less," she said stiffly.
He tsked, his fingers tapping against the doorframe. "Not very creative, Pennywise. Think you've gotten a little rusty."
She pressed the gun further against his forehead and he paused, taking in a deep breath as his mouth opened wide. He waited for her to do something, the twinkle in his eye suggesting he wasn't feeling at all threatened by her or her gun even if the anticipation thrilled him. That made her angrier.
"You won't do it," he mocked. He made it sound so nonchalant, like there wasn't even a fleeting concern of her blowing his brains out, and she bristled.
"I will."
"You won't," he said easily. He pulled his arm away from the doorframe and rested it at his side with the other one. "You wanna know why? Because what if the second you pull the trigger, our neighbors come running out and see you with a weapon and me with a bullet in my head. What do you think they'd do?"
"Everyone knows who you are," Penny said, shrugging a shoulder. "I'd like to think they'd thank me."
"Feisty," he grinned. He adjusted his footing, still allowing the barrel of the gun to press against his flesh. Penny imagined there was a ring imprinted into the skin there now. "What happens when they call the police? Would you be able to get out fast enough? Let's face it, Pennywise, the world is full of sensitive fucks and even if they hate me, they'd hate you too because you'd be a killer. Like me. The world's pretty biased against killers. And I don't think you'd survive very long in prison. You're too nice."
"Me putting a bullet in your head is nice?" she asked, eyebrows raised. Her hand that was holding the gun was trembling and she'd be stupid to think Mister J hadn't noticed.
"I mean, I wouldn't complain. Rather you choke me or something you know," he lifted a shoulder with a wry grin, "make it interesting but whatever tickles your fancy, Pennywise. I just don't think you got the balls to do it. See," he leaned forward, bending her arm as he applied pressure to the gun. Penny made a face, her stomach quivering. "If you really wanted to kill me, you would've done it a long time ago."
Penny's nose twitched and her lips shook.
"Please," she said quietly, eyes watery.
"So polite," he sang, voice almost a whisper.
"Please just take me home," she begged. The gun slipped down between his eyes and he went cross-eyed looking at it. He licked his red lips and returned his eyes to hers.
"Why would I? You've just threatened me," he bowed his head a bit, voice ringing deeper. "I don't like threats. Who's to say I won't kill you the second you have your back turned? You've been very naughty."
She bit the inside of her cheek, tears freely falling down her cheeks and leaving streaks in their wake.
"I just want to go home," her voice cracked. "That's all. That's all."
Mister J was quiet. His eyes skimmed her face, tracing over the tears and down to the dirt marks along her neck and the way her lab coat was ripped and slashed. The edges of her clothes were still dripping with water and she smelled like mildew. He looked at her the way someone would look at an injured dog they felt pity for but didn't want to bother helping. She was gasping now, breathing coming out in spurts as the arm holding the gun wavered until it fell limply to her side. Her face contorted and twisted as she cried, hating herself for being too weak. Hating herself for not being capable of murder, of all things.
"What do you think, Frost?" Mister J spoke up. Penny didn't cease her crying and her shoulders shook as Mister J's lip curled at the spectacle. "She's a sopping mess, ain't she?"
"I'd say so, boss," came Frost's weary reply.
Penny felt a cold hand cup her cheek and she flinched violently. Mister J had a hard grip on her chin, making her wince at the pain in her neck when she tried pulling away. His thumb brushed over the wetness of her cheekbone, pulling her close until their bodies were only inches apart. She felt his warm breath fan her face and she sucked in an uneven breath.
"Lost little bird," Mister J taunted lowly, tracing the features of her face with his thumb. "Got her wings clipped. Can't fly home."
"Please," Penny tried pulling away again, feeling disgusted both with him and herself. He didn't let her move, instead pinching her chin between his thumb and forefinger. His soft face hardened into something more lethal as he forced her to look him in the eye.
"You need me," he stated with a swell of conniving pride. His eyes narrowed into slits like a snake. "You have no one else."
"That's what I said," she agreed rigidly, hating that it was being repeated. Hating how much he loved to see her break.
"Say it," Mister J's lips curved into a dangerous smile. "I wanna hear you say it."
"I already did," Penny said through another wave of tears.
"Say it again."
He waited eagerly, head bowed as his eyes bore deeply into hers. The smile had gradually fallen off his face as he stroked the soft skin below her lower lip. She wondered if this was his way of coping with the loss of Harley Quinn all over again, his restitution, or if he really enjoyed making her dive deep into herself and pull out the secrets she would have otherwise never said aloud. It frustrated her more than she could ever admit how easily the tables were turned, how effortlessly he managed to turn everything around until he was dominate over the situation. Then again, she figured he always had been.
"I need you," she choked the words out, feeling herself wither up inside at the admission. It was vile hearing the words spew from her mouth and even worse knowing that at the moment those words were true. "I have no one else."
"If I agree," he began slowly, pleased with her confession, his words flowing like poisoned honey, "then that means you owe me. You really wanna be in my debt again, Pennywise?"
Another stray tear fell from one of her eyes as she stared at him, unsure of what to think or say. Her stomach was still spasming from the aftereffects of her crying and she clenched the gun tightly in her hand, wishing she could just lift it and pull the trigger. He was in control. She was too nice.
"I asked you a question," Mister J hedged warningly, gripping her chin tighter until his nails dug into the flesh.
She had no choice. And it made her feel even sicker.
"If you'll take me home then yes," she agreed weakly, tears burning her eyes again. He won after all. "Just please. Please take me home."
His thumb rose a few inches to caress her bottom lip that trembled. His jaw moved as he grinded his teeth and then his eyes brightened.
"Then come inside, doll. You must be freezing."
I know. It's been over a month. I feel like it's a cliche thing to say but honestly January was a shitty month and February is turning into an equally shitty month. A lot of personal things have decided to explode in my face at the same time and I've just been trying to clean up the mess. It's mostly been financial stress which is the worst and trying to make up for it by working extra hours, leaving me little to no time to myself. But I just wanted to let you guys know I never forgot about this story. I actually spent a lot of time thinking about it and how awesome you guys are for still favoriting, following and reviewing. Your responses keep me going and make me excited to write new chapters even if they may take a while to finish sometimes.
Hope you guys liked this one! I'm glad I was finally able to show you all how Penny and the Joker were introduced. They end up meeting one more time before the events you saw in chapter one which will be disclosed in due time! And how about that ending? Poor Penny. I sometimes feel bad about the way she gets treated and how much of an inner battle she has with herself. If there's one thing the Joker is good at, it's helping people discover their inner demons especially if they're around him enough.
Huge thank you like always to the following people for reviewing: Angrypancakegoddess, IFoundHopeInYourHateForMe, inspiredbywho, Fire and Ash, inperfection, Fallen1019, Guest x3, GimmiepizzaPlz, Love Fiction 2016, GreenHoneyTea, shelbygrace, Mistress Of Yours, TheGhostWriter91 and Lilly's mommy. Hopefully the story is continuing to meet your expectations! I can't wait to venture further into the world of PennyxJoker and eventually bring Harley into the mix for good! That ought to toss things up, eh? That little bit we got of her in the last chapter was such a tease.