(Sequel to 'Games that Daddies Play')

Lions Slaughtered By Lambs

Chapter Eleven: Trust Your Bunny

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Joker awoke to the sound of the metal door opening. The voices that carried seemed distant in his half-asleep state. He opened his eyes just a pinch before hearing Allegra's unfamiliar docile tone. To the doctors and nurses, she normally held such aggravation and sarcasm that the genuine sound of an evened out pity was almost enough for him to wonder if the person entering the room was an impersonator. The temperature in the building had risen since the weather outside changed from fall to winter. Most of the patients on the hall slept in little to nothing.

He, on the other hand, had a hunch they were moving Allegra from upstairs to his cell, so just in case any of the male cops that were more attached to their feminine side decided to get any ideas, he'd be fleeing in pants and underwear, no shirt. But thanks to his lucky stars, the cops left just as soon as Allegra had closed the door, speaking of some beautiful death.

Joker remained quite still, but his other senses caught her movement. In the darkness, for save the dim lit hall that leaked a bit of light in the open window, he opened his eyes to see Allegra being introduced to the warm climate in the room.

When she tripped over her feet, Joker couldn't suppress a giggle. This made her startle, looking at him.

"I didn't realize you were awake." Allegra said pointedly.

"You've already forgotten I'm a light sleeper," said Joker; he threw away the facade and sat up. Dressed as he was to flee from manhandling officers, he was in his pants but shirtless. Being night fall, his makeup wasn't on, the scars left bare to the dimly lit room. Aside from that small light in the squared window on the top half of the door (said window was also covered by jail bars), it was darkness.

"I sleep alone," Allegra explained. "For all I know, it's death."

"Speaking of which," said Joker as an afterthought; he sat on the bed, legs bent at the knee with his back against the wall, "Do you remember Joe?"

"Joe?" repeated Allegra. She looked at the ceiling, as though the heavens might descend upon her a memory. "Joe who?"

"Murklay." Joker responded.

Allegra made a sigh of annoyance—not so much to the name as it was to the heat. She pulled her shirt over her head, throwing it aside. She was already starting to sweat. However, to his question, Allegra shook her head.

"I don't remember anyone named Joe."

"He also went by Joseph," Joker added.

"Nope—brain fart over here."

Joker chuckled: "He kidnapped you from the bar."

Allegra stopped what she was doing (getting out of her pants) and looked at Joker with sudden realization.

"Joseph...the guy that kidnapped me and threw me in the van." Allegra remembered. She smiled: "Yeah, sure. Now I do."

"Good. Well," said Joker leaned forward. "His brother's in this funhouse."

"His brother? I didn't know he had a brother."

"I wouldn't think so," said Joker, chuckling. "You didn't know him for twenty-four hours before a thug dispatched him."

"I remember that; he died in an alley." said Allegra. "Red, the bad-ass fucktard, and his fellow commandos."

"Right," Joker returned. He smiled: "You can't remember Joseph, but you remember them."

"Well, I shot his knees." Allegra said. "And, I remember right after that, I went down on you."

Joker giggled at her direct humor. It was no doubt refreshing compared to the other 'whimsical' bunches he'd been dealing with for the past few days. Most of the patients had no humor, some humor, or didn't even know their own name. Allegra stepped out of the puddle of her pants; she then hopped on the bed, crawling to him on her fours. She stopped and sat on her knees between his.

"So what about his brother?" asked Allegra. "Did you already make a friend?"

"I wouldn't call any of them 'friends'." Joker returned. "Most of them are here for a reason."

Allegra smiled ironically, saying in the same irony, "Well, you know, Killer, as Dr. Leon says, we all need therapy. We're all fixable. You, me...Jake."

Joker smirked at her: "You met Jake?"

"Briefly." Allegra answered. "He pushed a girl, and I choked him for it."

"Didn't kill him?"

"No, the fucking doctors pulled me off before I could do anything." Allegra returned unhappily. "Anything damaging anyway."

"You push girls," Joker responded.

"Yeah, but this guy did it for the hell of it." Allegra said. "Plus, I wasn't feeling my Sunday best."

"I can imagine." Joker returned. He looked at her for a second, looking up and down before he said softly, "Just as well—he has a reputation to uphold."

"What reputation? Being a dick?"

"That too," Joker considered. "You've actually damaged it." He sent her a mocked disappointed expression adding, "You attacked one of the big roosters in this hen house, Allegra; you should know better than to go against someone so big and brutal."

Allegra looked at him, smiling when he licked his scars. Her eyes returned to his.

"I wouldn't have cared if he pushed some other girl," said Allegra. "The one he hurt seemed so..."

"Young?" Joker suggested.

"Yeah."

"Hannah." Joker returned.

Allegra chuckled, saying, "Aren't you the social butterfly. How do you know all these people?"

"I don't. Not personally." Joker stated. He thought of it for a moment, adding, "I prefer it that way too."

"Don't like getting to know people?" asked Allegra darkly. "You know it's always fun. I met Crane."

Joker chuckled, grinning widely, "How were you able to do that?"

"He's explained to me my Miranda Rights," uttered Allegra. She rolled her eyes: "Leon and Arkham were too afraid to tell me all I needed to know. So Crane did. As a patient, of course."

"Of course."

"So there it is," said Allegra.

"I hear something else happened." Joker returned.

Allegra smiled at him. He watched her with a certain glint in his eyes, as though he knew something he shouldn't. Seeing this, Allegra scoffed.

"He told you, didn't he?"

"He did." Joker replied.

Allegra sighed deeply, backing away from him. However, Joker chose this perfect moment to move on her; she gasped with surprise when he lifted her legs around his waist, and pinned her hands on the bed on either side of her face. She looked up at him, a smile beckoning to her lips.

"You kissed him." Joker stated what both he and Allegra knew to be true—and obviously, Crane, for he'd leaked it out with his own egotistical vanity.

"I did." Allegra said honestly.

"Why?"

"Why not?" asked Allegra. She smiled when Joker frowned as she added, "I didn't mean anything by it."

"He told me differently," Joker replied coolly.

"Like what? I kissed him because I loved him?" asked Allegra ironically. "If he thinks there's something between us, that's his misdiagnosis. I was just fucking with his mind—apparently, it worked."

Joker kept her pinned, looking down at her with an isolated gaze.

"Don't like me kissing other men?" asked Allegra softly. "What if I am? If I come back to you every night, what does it matter if I kiss someone here or there?"

Joker's jaw clenched with obvious tension. Allegra saw this. The change of her expression revealed it.

"He brought up something interesting today," she said softly. "Are we lovers? A couple?" She smiled when he moved off her and sat with his back against the wall. Allegra sat up, looking at him pointedly. "Are we business partners that occasionally kiss and wear wedding bands for the fucking sake of a joke?"

Joker continued to stare at her, having an unfathomable expression on his face. Allegra couldn't see through it, what he was thinking, what he might be feeling. It was just a nonchalant, unpredictable stare. Allegra crawled to him.

"Are we husband and wife? Boyfriend and girlfriend?" asked Allegra. "Everything and nothing in between?"

She put her hands on his shoulders, moving them across his chest then down his torso. He took them before they dropped any lower. Allegra gave him a curious, but reproachful glance.

"I would prefer it" said Joker quietly, "if you didn't try to label what we are."

"Oh good," said Allegra ironically, "so there is a 'we'. For a minute there, I thought I was talking to a good-looking piece of wallpaper. I thought I was going crazy for a second."

Joker cracked a grin at her humor.

"Makes you jealous, doesn't it?" Allegra asked.

"What does?"

"Me kissing Crane. Burns you, doesn't it?"

Joker moved his right hand into her hair, pulling it hard so she gasped, her head yanked back, exposing her neck, which he traced with the thumb of his left hand from her chin, over her throat, then to the skin just below her ear. He touched his lips to the start of the center of her collar bone, then moved to her throat; his tongue accompanied two kisses later.

"I don't like it when people share my things," Joker uttered quietly. He brought her head to match the level his, allowing her to kiss him. He broke it quickly as he added, "And I certainly don't like it when you give people a chance to do that."

Allegra smiled innocently; she brought her mouth to his, a simple kiss. Then her tongue licked the scars along his right cheek, bringing it to a full circle when she opened her mouth so he could deepen the kiss; a rough minute or two, Allegra smiled at him.

"He never had the chance." Allegra assured Joker.

"With your sexual deviance—there's always a chance." Joker stated pointedly.

"Then you're just going to have to trust me," said Allegra quietly.

"Mmhm, and why would I suddenly do that now?"

Allegra smiled at him, "Trust your bunny."

Joker smiled with genuine content at her answer. Something flickered in both of their gazes, neither of them understood what had been just been reciprocated but to elude to the paranoia of getting more sentimental than what either of them were used to, Allegra didn't ask, and Joker didn't question.