Chapter 11

The smell of black coffee momentarily pulled J from his dark mood.

"That better be for me," he mumbled. With Harley barely sleeping, J was barely getting any sleep himself as he wouldn't fall asleep until she was. And then if she woke up, J was right up with her.

"After hearing Harley, I knew you'd be up for a while," Frost said, handing the black mug to the clown.

"Smart man," J muttered, taking a sip. "You and I should talk. My office."

J was ready to slam his head into the desk as he sat down. Between dealing with Harley and trying to torture Griggs for information, he was getting nowhere. Frost shut the door, not needing any of the other henchmen to hear what J had to say. He knew this conversation would be about Harley. Nobody else needed to know what was going on with her.

"How's she doing?" Frost asked.

"Rough. Really rough. I..."

J didn't want to say he didn't know what to do but that's exactly how he felt. He didn't know what to really do with Harley. Making her talk about what happened wasn't going to fix things. Killing those responsible wasn't going to either.

"You know she's pregnant, right?"

"I'm not surprised," Frost said.

J glared at his right hand man. The way he said so casually rubbed the Joker the wrong way.

"She was raped every single day, and sometimes more than once a day. That footage doesn't lie."

"Don't know what to do about the baby. Don't know what to do about her. Never thought someone would be stupid enough to put their hands on her. Have you found any of them yet?"

"I've been able to locate one. Murray Ramirez. He lives a few hours outside Gotham. Paperwork is in the top drawer of the desk. I'm still working on the other one in the video. All I have is a last name of Harrison and it's unfortunately more common than anything. No hits on the third one yet."

Frost had been taking over a lot of the work since Harley had been home, mostly because J didn't want to leave her alone. While that also meant Frost had seen a lot of the footage Griggs had on his computer, it did help alleviate some of the stress for J. But like J, Frost also didn't know how to deal with Harley and this incident. J had seen a lot of horrible things in his time for working under the Joker, but this hit close to home.

"This is taking too long," J muttered. Harley was getting worse. He took another swig of his black coffee.

"I'm working as much as I can on it, boss."

"No, not you. But there is someone here that does have names."

"Griggs? We've been trying everything to get anything out of him."

"Then we need to up the ante. He has kids, doesn't he?"

"You know how Harley feels about you hurting children. It's one of the few things she refuses to do."

"Don't you dare tell me how Harley feels about things. Just because I'm letting you help me, which believe me is hard enough for me, doesn't mean you have the right to voice your opinions. I decide what the moves are, not you."

Frost nodded his head, understanding what the Joker had laid out. This catastrophe with Harley had wrecked her and affected more things they could have ever imagined.

Griggs coughed up more blood from the punches that had been delivered on his face.

"You said you had names."

"So?"

"I want those names," the Joker ordered, his voice dark and deadly.

"Well, I want my arm back," Griggs complained. "But that's not gonna happen, is it?"

"Do you want to lose the other one?" J quipped back.

"Like Harley lost her sanity when she ran off with you? Face it man, she's not coming back! She's gone."

Was Griggs responsible for why Harley thought she was crazy? Or was it the voices and Griggs had merely just seen the aftermath?

"Hey, how are those videos doing? Are they giving you a good show?"

J growled. "Got it off the first site. Located on two others and we're working through the firewalls."

"Are they popular?" Griggs asked, earning him an ice chisel in his thigh.

"Did you really think you were going to get away with this?"

"If you're gonna kill me, just get it over with."

"That desperate to die? Maybe killing you is too easy. I wonder how your children feel about death," J taunted.

"Leave them out of this! They're innocent!"

"Harley was innocent before you hurt her!"

"Harley's never been innocent. You should know that."

J wrapped his hands around Griggs's throat. "Choose your next words very carefully. I may not have gone after your kids yet but that doesn't mean I won't. Now, give me the names that I want."

"You're bluffing."

The Joker squeezed tighter. "I took you from your home. How hard do you think it would be for go back and grab your kids. Maybe even inflict the pain you caused Harley onto your wife."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Do you have any idea what you've done to Harley? Why should I even consider leniency against your family?"

"Alright! Alright! There was...um...Murray! Murray Ramirez!"

"I already know about Murray. How about the other two?"

Griggs was hoping to keep those names to himself, to buy him more time. J noticed his reluctance and pulled the ice chisel down his thigh, making the man scream in misery.

"And Mr. Harrison!" Griggs shouted. "Stop!"

J growled. It wasn't quite the information he wanted, since he already knew it, but at least he knew that he could get Griggs to comply.

"This doesn't mean I won't go after your kids. Right now, you've just bought them some time. We'll see about their freedom," J said, flipping the light switch and leaving Griggs in the dark.

The sun had just begun to rise when the Joker sped out of Gotham City. Speed limits meant nothing to the Joker. His Lamborghini could easily hit two hundred miles per hour. Good. The sooner he got to his victim, the sooner he could start to hurt him. He wasn't sure how he wanted to hurt him yet but he had time.

Perhaps hurting Murray right off wasn't the best idea. While J was angry as ever, Murray might actually be able to give him some information. Besides, it wasn't as if Murray giving him information would spare his life. By even touching Harley, Murray had earned himself a death sentence.

When J arrived at the apartment complex, he found it mostly empty. Good. He found Murray's building and parked on the backside of it. When he broke open the door to the apartment, he heard Harley screaming. It had to be from a video. He knew Harley was safe at home but hearing her screams still did not sit well with him. He followed the noise until he stood in front of a bedroom.

"Yeah...yeah...just like that...oh man! Yes! Yes! YES!"

If Murray hadn't earned a death sentence before, he certainly had now. Masturbating to Harley's rape...unforgivable.

"Loud, are we? You didn't even hear me break the lock," J announced as he flung the door open.

"Holy shit! How did you get in here?! Who are you?!"

"You hurt Harley. I'm not happy with you."

He decked Murray in chin, knocking the young man off the bed. As Mistah J prepared to do it again, the man held his hands up in defense.

"Whoa! Whoa! Who's Harley?"

The Joker growled. He wasn't in the mood to play games. This was about revenge. Harley needed to be avenged.

"Wait...she was...the um...the crazy blonde that was locked up, right?"

Mistah J's patience was wearing thin, if it could even be classified as that. He had no patience with anyone who dare hurt his queen.

"What, you wanted a turn with her too? Man, let me tell you: she's an amazing fuck. Best present I've ever gotten."

"You really don't know who I am, do you?"

"Friend of Griggs?"

"You could say that."

"Let me tell you: he knows the best people if you need something. Can't tell you how many times he's gotten me and Master laid. That Harley chick though...best one I've ever had! Who knew the crazy ones could be the best?!"

Yes, Harley was crazy. It was one of the things that made J fall in love with her. But she was broken and damaged and J was mad about it. He was mad that he still didn't know how to deal with it. How to fix it.

Murray's cell phone going off shook J from his thoughts.

"Answer it," J instructed. "It'll be the last conversation you have with another human."

Murray looked at the caller ID before answering. "Yes, Master?"

J pulled his gun and held it to Murray's forehead, telling the man not to give anything away. If J's suspicions were right, this other person was also responsible for Harley's breakdown.

"There's uh...there's nobody here. I'm tired. Our um...our session yesterday was more painful that I thought. I won't disobey you again."

"Get rid of him," J quietly ordered.

J clicked the safety off, giving Murray his last warning. Within a second, Murray had ended the phone call.

"I'm gonna be in a shitload of trouble for what I just did. I'm not allowed to hang up on him like that."

J laughed. "You're already in a shitload of trouble. You should be more scared of me than anything."

"Who are you?"

"You really don't, do you? Wow. Who doesn't know who I am at this point?"

Murray backed up until he was in a corner. There was no way out of this room. His bedroom would be the death of him.

"Where does he live?" J questioned as he marched closer. "Your master as you called him?"

"I don't know."

"Bullshit!"

"I don't! I swear! Look, I'm really sorry about Harley. I had no idea. I was just doing what I was told!"

"Harley is my girl…and I don't share."

J spent the evening carving up Murray's body. He thought it would be cathartic, letting the blood get everywhere. But it did absolutely nothing. He was still just as angry. He was angry that he couldn't protect Harley and now she was an empty shell of who she used to be.

From what Frost had gathered on Murray, the now corpse lived alone. Not that it mattered. J could care less if someone stumbled upon the body. He didn't even bother to try and clean up the mess that now desecrated Murray's apartment. Murray deserved to found in pieces. After all, he was a piece of trash for what he did to Harley.

Half covered in blood, J crashed on the couch. He was exhausted, not just from dismembering the body, but from everything. He hadn't had a good night's sleep since Harley had been back. He made a mental note to not be so difficult on her about sleeping since he realized just how tired she had to be with to be with everything going on in her head as he drifted off to sleep.

"This better be important," J mumbled, not bothering to look at the caller ID when his cell phone woke him up. The only two people that would dare call him were Frost and Harley. He looked at the clock: he had gotten a couple of hours of sleep. It was something.

"You need to get back here," Frost stated.

J's heart started racing. Frost only called if there was an emergency and the only possible emergency that could occur involved Harley.

"Is Harley okay?" he asked.

"She's...awake. And very angry. She also broke into your office and has her gun."

J growled. He purposely left Harley's gun in her trunk, in his office, to keep it away from her. She knew better than to go in his office. He didn't even tell her where the trunk was.

"Try to talk her down and get the gun away from her. I'll be back in a few hours."

If Harley had her bat, he wouldn't have cared. But he didn't trust her with a gun right now. He knew the voices were rattling in her head and he didn't them to give her any ideas. What bothered him most at the moment was how the hell had Harley slipped into his office?

He pushed the thought aside. He'd figure it out later. Right now, he needed to get back to Harley.

When he arrived back to his penthouse in Gotham, he immediately took notice of the lack of cars. He scoffed. Were all his henchman afraid of Harley? Maybe he had his monster back by giving her some space. Still, Harley was unpredictable and J wanted her protected until he could assess her to see if she could really take care of herself. Right now, that answer was no. So the fact that Harley was no where in sight when he entered did not sit well with the clown.

"Where is she?!" he hissed.

"She's on the roof," Frost said, knowing well that no matter what the response was, the Joker wasn't going to like it.

"Alone?!"

"Tried to go up there with her and she killed three of your guys. Been watching her on the camera all night. Mostly been walking around, staring into space. She's made it very clear that she wanted to be left alone."

The voices. What were they doing to her now that they had her alone? The Joker sighed heavily. Time to do some damage control. He made his way up to the roof, trying to prepare himself from what was to come. If there was anything he learned over the last week or so, is that anything could happen when it came to Harley.

But the last thing the Joker expected was to be shot at as he opened the door.