Hello readers! I am proud to say that this chapter is quite long and quite good. I think your guys will like it. I recently had spring break so I had quite a bit of time on my hands (much to my own delight.) Please read, review and enjoy. Thanks. ~ELA

I held the towel closer to my body as I poked my head out of the Joker's bathroom. The room was vacant of any one but I still was cautious as I walked into the room. At least he's thoughtful. I thought sarcastically, peering down at my bag. The sound of the zipper to my duffel bag pierced through the silence, making me jump slightly. The back of the towel hung low on my back, fully exposing my scars for what they were. I think hideous was the best word to describe them. When Jack had first seen them, they nearly made him run from me. Granted, that was when they were open wounds that were still stitched up poorly. Nevertheless, I still hated them. Shuffling through my bag, I threw on a pair of jeans and a long t-shirt that covered up everything. I let my hair air dry, only to get out my things from his bathroom.

Knock, knock. The sound was loud and high pitched as the Joker strode in easily. "Well, well, well! Someone looks very, uh, plain. Ya mind tellin' me why, love?"

His tongue flickered over his lips as he leaned in the door way and eyed me like I was something to eat. "Sorry." I said with a shrug. "I don't have anything that isn't casual."

The Joker cocked his head to the side and watched me like a hawk, only to stalk closer to me who was still rifling through her bag. "That can be arranged very, uh, easily. In fact, size two. Right?"

"And if I say yes?"

"Well, let's put-t it this way, Shall we? What is strong but easily broken?"

With each word, The Joker trudged closer and closer to where I was standing. I lifted my chin up and squinted my eyes at him. "Joker, just let me see it."

"See? I knew we would see eye to eye."

He was gone in a flash. Although, as soon as I started to relax and calm myself from his very presence, he was back. I caught the piece of fabric easily as he threw it to me. However, there was one thing that caught my attention. It was not only the sly look on his face that could easily make blood curttle with just a mere look, but also the fact that in his hands were a pair of simple black pumps.

"Try that on. It should fit, but in case it doesn't, I have other dresses."

I didn't even want to know where he had gotten them. Though I could think of many ways that were the most probable. I closed the door behind me as I went into the bathroom for the second time. The dress was a deep plum color that was darker but still similar to the Joker's infamous suit. Taking off my jeans and shirt, I slipped on the dress hoping to god that it was a closed back. However, much to my dismay, it was quite the opposite. The back of the dress was fully exposed and showed off my back entirely.

I almost felt bad for giving her the only dress that gave on lookers a full view of her scars. However, I wanted to see them. They made her well, herself. I could tell just by the first time I had tried to touch them that she didn't want me to see them, and this was just the thing to set her and I off. I knocked on the door leading into the bathroom after she had been in there awhile. "You alright in there? Haven't killed yourself yet, have you?" I said mockingly, as I leaned on the door frame.

"I have too much pride to kill myself, besides. I'm not wearing it, Joker."

Her voice was more panicked that I had intended it to be, and though I knew that she was going to refuse to wear it. I still felt a ping of annoyance as I bit the scars that lined the inside of my mouth. My fingers drummed a soft beat on the door frame as I felt a small growl erupt from the depths of my chest. "And why, pray dear, is that?"

"I-I'm, just trust me Joker. I can't wear it."

I could feel my temper start to rise slightly as I glared at the knife marks in the door way. "You can't tell me?" I said, my voice sharper and more disoriented than normal.

"No."

That was when I lost it. White hot anger rushed through me to the point where my balled up fists were shaking. A low snarl roared in the back of my chest as I opened the door as calmly as I could. She had on the dress but a towel was covering her shoulders like a shawl. "Whatcha doin'?" I said glaring at the old towel wrapped around her shoulders.

"Is there another dress I can use?"

Her voice was smaller than usual as she tried not to make eye contact with me. "Ah-ta-ta-ta-ta. See, no answering questions with questions."

I could tell that she was holding back some of her emotions as she shoved a hand through her hair. It was then when I saw a glance of what I wanted to see. It was the mark that I has saw awhile ago, just when it was fresh. My eyes traced the clean white mark that snaked past her shoulder and down over her fully exposed collar bone. "Hmm... Now what is this?" I said stalking over to her as her eyes grew wider.

"Stop." She said, flinching back as I stormed over to where she was standing.

Not even she could stop me though, I was so angry that I could have easily overpowered the small women. I grabbed her arm roughly, only to let out a small growl a second later when she tried to push me away. "No, I know that you were hiding something when you freaked out the last time. Now, show me."

Leila's eyes narrowed just as her jaw tightened. "No. No one, and I do mean no one is ever going to see them. I vowed that no one would, understand. The last person who saw them was utterly repulsed by them, no one is ever going to see them."

I didn't mean to anger him, but I hadn't let anyone see them since Jack. Nonetheless, I had struck a nerve. Joker's large boney hand wrapped around my neck as he pushed me against the wall. "Wrong thing to say." He said his face inches from my own.

"Wanna know how I got these scars?" He asked in a serious face, his eyes narrowed like a cats.

I gulped, my eyes locked on his. He nodded, a deep frown still on his face as he leaned forward. Our noses were almost touching when I heard the sharp sound of his knife being flicked open. I felt my breath hitch in my throat just as he softly touched the switch blade to the corner of my lips. It was then when a malicious smile enveloped the monsters face.

"My father was a man high up in power and mama, well, she just loved to gamble. But, ya see, my parents well, they didn't care much about lil' old me. My old man would, uh, would come home and beat me just for stayin' out too late-ta." The Joker licked his lips just as his eyes trailed over my face.

"One night they come home and I had the girl I liked over. They weren't to happy about that. Not. One. Bit. I made her leave, of course, but that night when I went to sleep, oh. I had a real surprise. Daddy came in with a box cutter a little tipsy. He was a little bit on the crazy side you see. He came at me with the razor, a true sneer tugging at the corners of his lips. He held me down and said."

The Joker started to caress my hair as his lips hovered over my ear. "Son, your mother and I think you're a bit too serious. So, I came to lighten ya up." He whispered in my ear as I tried to pry myself from him. "Leila, look at me." The Joker grabbed my face and made me look at him. His fingers gently rubbed my chin and neck as I looked deep into the black holes that served for eyes. "He sticks the blade in my mouth and gave me these. Now, I see the better side, now I'm always smiling."

The Joker kept his eyes locked on me as he traced my jaw line with his knife, his head tilted to the side just as he noticed the tears welling up in the crevices of my eyes. He glared at me as the first tear slid down my cheek. "Now, why are you crying?" He asked sharply.

"I-I don't know..." I said, but the truth was that we were similar.

Though we got our scars in different places and we came from very different back grounds, we were similar. Maybe that was the reason why I was crying, because I didn't want to be like a monster that was terrorizing most of Gotham. The Jokers tongue flicked out from beneath his lips just as he got closer to my face. "You owe me." He said as he walked out of the bathroom, leaving me leaning against the wall.

I walked after him in a hurry, curious as to why. "Why do I owe you?" I asked as I whipped away my tears.

The Joker fell onto his bed and picked up a book that was sitting on his nightstand. He stared at me for a moment and then went on to reading it. "I could have easily killed you, but I didn't. As to why, no clue. Nonetheless, you owe me."

"Then kil~"

"Ah-ta-ta-ta-ta! As for my payment, I will decide that later. But I'm still gonna make you wear a dress."

"Does it have to be this one?"

He looked up from his book and stared at me for a moment. "Go to the closet to the left of you and pick a dress. I don't care, just wear a dress."

I was still fuming from Leila's little expedition, but I let it go. Seeing her cry was something that I loved and hated all at the same time. Nonetheless, It didn't help that she had looked like a model in the dress that I had made her wear. I sat on my bed reading American Psycho as she got ready for our evening. This book got my mind off of a few things and yet also made me think of her even more. She was the one to introduce me to such a grim book after all. It was then when I heard the bathroom door swing open and small footstep pad out. "There are a pair of heels next to the bed. You're a size six yes?" I said without even looking up.

"Yeah." She said as she sat down at the foot of the bed.

When her back was turned is when I looked up from the painfully beautiful novel in my hands. She wore a little black dress that clung to each of the right curves but was a full back. Her hair cascaded down her back as she bent over to put on the low black heels. She looked more classy than slutty in something that other women would have looked terrible in. However, not her. She looked good in just about anything.

"Are you reading American Psycho?" She asked as she buckled the shoe around her foot.

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. So she had noticed. "Yes, have you ever read it?"

She nodded her hair bouncing around her head. "Yeah, the authors writing style is brilliant is it not?"

"Oh, yes. He certainly is."

I watched as she turned to me, her face void of any emotion what so ever. "Was the story about how you got your scars true?" She said a moment later, her voice quivering slightly.

"What do you think?" I said as I licked my lips.

"I'm not sure. It sounds right."

"I am a man of my word."

I could see the curiosity on her face, one of her eye brows had rose as we had another one of our silent staring contests. She, of course, was the first one to look away. I heard a deep sigh well up in her chest just as she looked down at her hands that were idly folded in her lap. It was when I moved slightly when she flinched. "You're afraid of me." I said, smirking.

Leila shivered and looked up at me just as she shoved a hair through her already frazzled hair. "Who isn't?"

A small chuckle escaped my lips as I sat next to her, though she moved away slightly. I watched as she glared at me behind the curtain of hair that fell over her face. Her eyes always reminded me of ice, ever since I had met the girl. It had always been the same thought. Nonetheless, the more I knew the real her, the more the eyes began to brighten up. The way her eyes looked now was just like when the first time I had spoke to her. They were dull and seemed like they were frozen in the form of a glare, just like in the middle of winter. Though the bright, almost liquid way her eyes were when I left her were gone. I still remembered it just like it was yesterday when I had last saw it.

"That is a good point-t. Buut, youare a bit different than most of my, uh, victims."

I watched as she looked at me cautiously. "What do you mean? Why am I different?"

"You stand up for yourself despite how, uh, how afraid you are. If were gonna play 22 questions than isn't it my turn?"

Leila tried to answer only for me to cut her off. "Remember that time when you said that you weren't afraid of me? Were you telling the truth?"

Her eyes glazed over slightly as she puckered her lips and sighed. "I was."

My smile grew wider as I heard this. "Then why are you, uh, afraid of me now? Too much liquid courage?"

"No, at the time you didn't seem very scary. Now isn't it my turn?"

The Joker's eyes were intently watching me as the words escaped my lips. "Alright-t what do you want to know? How dashing I look in a tux? Or maybe what my favorite book is? Hm?"

Truth was I did have something on my mind, and though my brain told me to hold the damn thing back. I couldn't choke it back down my throat. "How do you know so much about me and how do you know who Jack Napier is?"

It was when a slow rumble of laughter erupted from his throat when I knew that I was in trouble. A mischievous sneer bloomed from his face like a hideous flower that soon after wilted, and that was when in dawned on me. I was in serious trouble.