Title: I Love You…I'll Kill You

Fandom: The Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: Joker/OC

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own the Joker or Batman.

A/N: Thanks to those who have reviewed! Comments (both good and bad) are welcomed!

Chapter Thirteen

About an hour later, after being interviewed by the police and assuring them that she would go down to the station tomorrow to sign their statements, Bruce and Lacy were allowed to leave the ballroom. Bruce had insisted on walking her up to her apartment door, even though Lacy protested it wasn't necessary. They rode in the elevator to the sixth floor together in silence, both caught up in their own thoughts about the night's events.

Lacy was mad at herself for going to the fundraiser. Why couldn't she have just given in to the Joker's demand and not gone? At the time she defied him because she didn't want to let him have any more control over her life than he already did. But at the worst she thought he would just have men spying on her. She never imagined that he would show up and kill an innocent person.

This whole night was her fault. She should have known that if she defied him he would retaliate, but up until now he had always retaliated by directly punishing her. She could now add this to the growing list of things that were weighing on her conscience. Every death, every torture, every crime he committed only added to the internal struggle she felt.

On one hand, he was evil and needed to stopped. She knew that and understood that. But on the other hand, she just couldn't bring herself to tell anyone. As crazy as it sounded, she just couldn't do it. She couldn't stop him. She knew that most people would never be able to understand that.

They'd wonder how she could let him do the terrible things he does and just stand back and watch. They would never be able to understand how she could feel any kind of internal struggle about what to do. Hell, half the time she didn't fully understand it herself.

But over the years he had broken her. Manipulated and tore her down until she was merely a shell of her former self. She used to be decisive and assertive, always willing to call people out on their mistakes. She was a strong woman who never would have stood by and let the Joker do the things he's done to the citizens of Gotham City.

That woman was gone though. He slowly and meticulously chipped away at her until there was nothing left and then rebuilt her exactly the way he wanted. He had manipulated her mind and body into thinking that she needed him around.

And she hated him for everything he had done to her over the years, but not as much as she hated herself for letting him.

Perhaps it was time to finally stand up to him and break the cycle that was ruining her life. Maybe it was time to look him in the face and tell him exactly what she thought of him.

She knew that telling him what she thought of him wouldn't do any good though. He would just laugh it off because he didn't care what she thought. No, if she was truly going to stand up to him she would need to do it by hitting him where it counts.

Bruce was lost in his thought, thinking back to the last fundraiser he threw for Harvey Dent before all hell broke loose. The Joker had showed up then too and almost killed Rachel. It was always a part of the Joker's modus operandi to at least threaten, if not hurt, those who get in his way. Yet he did absolutely nothing to Lacy tonight. That made him wonder why and he was determined to find out.

What was so special about Lacy to the Joker? A couple of days ago the Joker's men tried to kill her and now when he had a perfect opportunity to kill her, he didn't even leave a scratch on her. It didn't make sense to him yet. Was he playing some kind of cat and mouse game with her? Was she somehow involved with his schemes? He decided that he would keep an extra watchful eye on Lacy in the next few days just in case.

Bruce was the first one to speak as they stood outside Lacy's door. "You know aside from the Joker portion of the evening, I had a nice time."

"Me too." Lacy nodded. "But maybe you shouldn't throw any more fundraisers for awhile."

"Yeah, I was thinking that too." He admitted. "Although I doubt many people will want to come to a fundraiser that I throw. I'd probably have to pay people to come."

"And that would defeat the purpose of a fundraiser." She pointed out.

"Exactly." He smiled.

"You're head is still bleeding." She grimaced at the wound on his head. "Does it hurt?"

"A little," he admitted, lightly touching it, "but I'll be fine."

"I still think you should have gone to the hospital. What if you have a concussion or internal bleeding?"

"The paramedics seemed to think that I would be ok. I trust them." He told her. Besides, he had experience with this kind of thing and knew that there wasn't anything seriously wrong with him.

"Ok." She sighed. "But take care of yourself."

"I will." He assured her. "Are you ok?" He asked, noticing the far-away look that had been on her face for the past hour. "You look really shaken up. Are you sure the Joker didn't say or do anything else to you?"

"Yeah." She lied. "I'm fine. He didn't touch me. I just feel so bad for Mr. Newman's family. I still can't believe what happened to him."

"I can." Bruce argued. "The Joker is definitely twisted and evil. He will do anything just to create chaos, even if there is no other reason than that."

"I'm surprised Batman didn't show up." Lacy commented. "I wonder why he didn't come."

"He was probably taking care of other business in the city." Bruce lied. He knew now that he should have found a way to disappear at the fundraiser and change into his Batman suit. Maybe then things would have been different. Maybe then Mr. Newman wouldn't have been brutally murdered.

He decided to talk more about the Joker in hopes of getting Lacy to reveal her opinion about him. "You know, most people who encounter the Joker are really scared. You didn't look afraid of him though."

"He doesn't really scare me." She admitted.

"Well forgive me, but if he doesn't scare you, then what does?" He was curious.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I'd like to think that I'm not afraid of anything but that would be a lie. I guess I'm more afraid of myself than him."

He thought that was weird but didn't get a chance to ask any follow-up questions.

She didn't want to get into a discussion about the Joker, especially since he was probably waiting for her in her apartment. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I am exhausted and just want to get some sleep."

"Oh of course." He smiled even though he was disappointed that he wouldn't get to ask her anymore questions. "Goodnight then."

"Goodnight. I'll see you on Monday."

"Yeah. Bye Lacy." He turned to leave.

She entered her apartment and closed her door, leaning against it. When she was certain that Bruce was no longer in the hallway and able to hear her, she spoke. "You can come out now. He's gone."

"Thank God!" The Joker exclaimed throwing a basket of fruit that was on the counter into the trash as he made his way over to her. "What is it with all the healthy foods in here? Your kitchen's so boring. There's no ice cream, potato chips, nothing even remotely close to junk food. Just wine and healthy foods."

"Well I'm sorry that my kitchen can't entertain you the way you would like it to. Maybe you should leave and find a kitchen that will." She spat out angrily.

"Whoa." He held his hands up in mock surrender. "What is your problem?"

She looked at him strangely. "You really have to ask?"

He just nodded and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. I do."

"You came to the fundraiser tonight and killed a man! And he happened to be a very nice man that I had just met and was going to hire me." She explained.

"Ah. I get it now." He smiled and laughed. "You're mad that I caused you to lose a client. I see. Well, you can always get new clients. You're very good at your job…"

"Damn it, it's not about my work!" She yelled. "Why did you have to show up tonight?"

"My pet, you had to have known that I had to teach you a lesson." He explained as he walked around her, eying her body as he stalked her. "I did not give permission for you to go out with Bruce Wayne, but yet you still went."

"It wasn't a…" She started to protest but was interrupted.

"Yes, yes, yes. I know. You say it wasn't a date. That point doesn't really matter. What matters is I told you to do something and you did the opposite. So you had to be punished. Now hopefully you know that when you go against me, people will die." He waved his finger in front of her face. "If you don't want any more deaths weighing on your conscience, I suggest you start obeying me."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The anger and hatred continued to mix inside her until she couldn't contain it anymore. It bubbled over like an erupting volcano. "You really are fucking crazy." She said, very matter of factly.

"No." He shook his head repeatedly and pointed his finger at her again. "No, I…I'm not. I'm not crazy."

"Yeah you are." She insisted. "You killed an innocent man tonight for no reason and now you're saying you did it to send me a message? That's crazy."

"Stop calling me crazy." He warned, grabbing a hold of her chin.

"Ok." She agreed, breaking out of his grasp. "I'll just start calling you a freak instead. How do you like that, freak?"

He was losing his patience quickly but found himself tempering it for the time being. "Look, I understand that you are probably a little angry about my methods…"

"Angry about your methods?" She repeated, interrupting him. "I'm beyond angry. I've crossed over from angry into royally pissed off!" She shouted in his face. "You're such a bastard! I hate you! Do you hear me? I hate you!"

She started punching him in the chest as she shouted. "I hate everything about you! I hate the stupid games that you make me play! I hate the way you just show up in my life anytime you feel like it! I hate the way you make me feel about myself! I hate the way you manipulate me! I just hate you! I hate you so much!"

She started to breakdown and cry as she punched him, each punch losing strength. Suddenly she found herself in a place she hadn't been in a long time. She was being embraced by the Joker in an almost tender way, or at least as tender as the Joker could be.

"Ssshhh ssshhhh sssshhh sshhhh." He cooed softly, letting her head rest on his shoulder as she continued to cry.

As weird as it may sound to others, she found it strangely comforting to be in his arms like that. For a moment she could close her eyes and almost believe that Jack was holding her and that everything was going to be ok. But the illusion lasted for mere seconds before being shattered by reality. Jack didn't exist anymore, at least now in the way she wanted. She broke away from him and wiped her eyes. The last thing she wanted to do was cry over him.

"I was just showing you that actions have consequences." He shrugged, pacing around the living room. "Just be glad I didn't kill Bruce." He almost added 'yet' to that statement, but thought against it.

"You mean 'just be glad I didn't kill Bruce yet', right?" She pointed out. "Cause isn't that your grand plan? Kill every rich man in Gotham until you smoke out Batman?"

He simply smiled, amazed that she knew him so well that she could predict what he wanted to say but didn't. But he shouldn't have been amazed. She was the closest person to him, the closest thing he had to family…

He suddenly felt nauseous. Thinking of Lacy as family was not something he wanted to do. It was then that he realized it was getting close to time to get rid of her. She was becoming a liability.

Earlier, when she called him crazy and a freak, he had done nothing. He tempered his anger. He didn't hurt her, or even yell at her. If anyone else in the world had spoken to him in that way, they would be hanging out the window right now by their intestines. But she was getting special treatment. And why was she getting special treatment?

It was because he was actually starting to like her.

Granted he wasn't starting to love her. He was incapable of loving anything other than his knives and chaos. But he really was starting to like spending time with her, even though most of the time she wasn't nice to him.

Maybe that's what he liked. Maybe he just liked someone calling him out on his tricks. Until lately, she had been docile and held her tongue most of the time when she disagreed with him. Now though, she was extremely vocal about everything he did.

A wider smile broke out on his face as he realized that he didn't like Lacy so much as he liked having someone to banter back and forth with. He felt better about that and he could live with that distinction.

"Are you just going to ignore me now?" She asked when he didn't respond to her question.

He realized she had asked him about his plan to smoke out the Batman. "I will find out who Batman is one way or another."

"Then what are you going to do?" She asked with a chuckle. "You told me once that you didn't want to kill Batman because he was too much fun to mess with."

"Who said anything about killing him?" He laughed. "I just want to know who he is so I can kill everyone he cares about. I figure I'll start with any ladies he likes to entertain, and then move on to his family and friends. Batman is fun to mess with, but can you imagine how fun he would be if I started killing everyone he loves? His misery would be delicious!"

She was horrified by his plans and realized that something had to be done about him. The only question remained was who would be able to do what was needed to stop him.