What Goes Around, Comes Around

Pairing: Joker/OC

Rating: K+

Warnings: Canon typical violence.

A/N: College has started again and it's my last year. WHOO-HOO! Another good news is that I'll be updating more often because my friend got married (I tried so hard but, turns out, they're made for each other even though he's mean to me-.-) so no more best man duties to attend to, no more work or internship... just me, the computer and my books. And potential college rejections. And SAT prep. Joy. :'(

Anyway, this is a fun chapter. I liked it.

Chapter Fourteen- The Therapist, The Joker And The Crazy Duo

Their life resumed routine.

True, there were criminals out there looking for Jack but Bruce had been right: Wayne Tower was the safest place in the city- if not the whole country.

Misha went about work with Bruce, Jack stayed in their guest room playing the guitar or reading books; sometimes- and this happened more often than not- he'd help Alfred with the chores or dinner preparation. Everything was fine.

Except for the frequent crime reports on television and the fact that they could no longer leave the building without either Alfred, or Bruce, or the police.

A fortnight into this routine, Jack was bored out of his mind.

And then it started to him.

It started off quite normally- like a sort of an itch in his subconscious. Usually Jack was able to ignore it and go about his daily routine. He could ignore it while reading Homer and Shakespeare; he'd ignore it while cooking a complicated three course meal that Alfred had showed him how to make, and he'd be able to ignore it while he watched the evening news and easily point out the flaws in the many, many, many 'organized' acts of terror the Joker's allies were committing to make Gotham tremble.

And it was trembling.

The police was overworked. There was mistrust between the civilians and the police. A sort of tension in the year as though rioting might break out any moment.

Gotham was trembling. It just wasn't...squealing.

And the Joker wanted it to squeal.

Jack could control that feeling because of the glaring difference between good and evil that had penetrated into his mind. He just couldn't deal with the fact that the Joker was egging on his conscious, just begging to come out.

In the end, Jack decided to pay his old therapist a visit. If only just to be the Joker, and in control of it, for a few minutes.

And that was easier said than done.

So he decided to find out if there was a way to see his therapist without getting into trouble. After all, wasn't there a clause in his assignment that whatever he told his therapist would stay between them? Surely, no one would be inside with him. Even if a cop went with him, they'd have to stay outside.

That seemed highly likely.

So, after carefully weighing his chances and all, he decided to talk to Misha about it.

"You know," he spoke to her one Saturday morning after breakfast, "I was thinking. I should probably start seeing my therapist again."

Misha, who up until now was busy reading a book, put it down and said, "Really? Hmmm, you've been doing quite well without him."

"Yeah," Jack agreed, "but I want to be done with my allotted time and move on."

Misha went quiet for a moment. "Well, that's a good idea," she said, "I guess we could talk to someone about it and, well, see if you can visit Dr Abbott again."

Jack smiled. "Thanks," he said before hugging her.

Misha simply frowned, wondering what on earth was wrong with her husband. Like, he never did that.

A couple of days later, Jack was standing in front of his therapist's office-building. From the corner of his eyes, he looked around to see if the undercover police Gordon had assigned were stationed in their designated spots. Sure enough, there they stood- one by the park entrance, pretending to be interested in photography, and the other underneath a tree with his mobile phone out.

There were others, Jack knew, but they were either in the building itself or simply out of his sight.

He took a deep breath, wondering if it was the right thing to do. He had to visit Dr Abbott- he had to. So brushing aside any doubts he had over the issue, Jack went inside the building.

It was strangely deserted in the building, he noticed as he went to reception.

"I'm here for the-" he started speaking to a very nervous-looking receptionist.

"I know, Dr Abbott, right?" he interrupted him.

Jack nodded, frowning a little. "Yes, I'm here for Dr. Abbott."

"You know the way, right?" the receptionist asked him.

"Of course, I know the way," Jack replied, "What's up, man?"

The receptionist said nothing, only smiling weakly.

Jack reckoned it probably had something to do with the police inside. Maybe the staff were made aware of the situation and that's why he was nervous.

Yeah, that explained it.

He made his way to elevator and found that it was empty as well. Normally there was a doorman or someone like that. The police sure is paranoid, Jack thought as he rode it to the fourth floor. He finally arrived at the good doctor's office.

"Jack, come in, come in," Dr Abbott greeted him at the door.

"Hey doc," Jack responded, "great to see ya."

"You too," the man went on, "here for the usual, I reckon?"

"Yes," he said, "it's been really strange but I've been having an itch in my head. To be the Joker again."

"Ah, so you have been in the loop with what's happening," Dr Abbott observed. Jack nodded. "I thought something like this might happen," he explained, "the Joker, as you put it, is an agent of chaos. Gotham's practically crumbling right now. It'll only make sense if the Joker wanted to destroy it completely. Don't worry, it's just a trigger. I'm sure you'll still be able to control yourself."

"Thank god, I thought I was going insane again,"Jack said as he sat down on his chair.

Over the course of the lessons, Jack had stopped using the strange contraption Dr Abbott owned, and had mastered the power to summon the Joker at will. Which is why it seemed perfectly natural for Jack not to use the device and instead, close his eyes and focus.

He remained frozen in this position for a moment, then two, and then three. But no Joker appeared.

Jack opened his eyes to see the doctor staring at him expectantly.

"I can't do it,"Jack informed him, "maybe it's because it's been such a long time..."

Abbott agreed and Jack wore the helmet before the device was turned on.

Still nothing.

They tried it twice, thrice and then for well over an hour but nothing happened.

"I don't get it," Jack remarked at the end of it, "why isn't it happening?"

"I don't know," his doctor responded, looking very pale suddenly, "it's almost as if... the Joker's gone."

Something strange crossed his face and Jack was only beginning to decipher it when someone walked into the room.

"Well, well, Dr. Abbott," Harley Quinn stated, "you were wrong. The Joker can't be brought back, now can he?"

Jack's eyes widened. Wh-what?

"He's gone forever now, isn't he?" she inquired.

Jack didn't turn around; he was frozen in his spot. From where he stood, he could see his therapist's facial expression shift to one of horror.

"I...it worked!" he informed her. "It did! I- I saw it myself! You have to believe me!"

"Oh, I will," Harley informed him, "but I'm afraid I'll have to try something out for myself. Isn't that right, Jack?" she whispered in his ear. A shiver ran down Jack's spine as his brain processed just how close she was to him and a primitive survival instinct took over.

He had to get out of here.

And so Jack ran. He ran as fast as he could, fast enough for Harley to be taken by surprise and not do anything about. He ran out of the room- distinctly hearing Harley's loud, shrill laughter- down the stairs since his head told him that waiting for the elevator was not a good idea in this situation, and he was almost out of the door when...

...When he saw just who was standing near the door.

Poison Ivy.

And even though he did not remember much from his time as the Joker, Jack did know one thing:Poison Ivy hated him.

For a number of reasons.

One of them being that, well, he wasn't good at making good on his promises.

The Joker had made a lot of enemies.

It was one of these times that Jack wondered if he'd had a death wish when he was the Joker.

He could see where he was coming from though- his life had been at an all time low and all that- but still.

He'd basically signed his own death warrant.

At present, Jack had no idea what to do.

The elevator opened and Harley stepped out.

"Well, well, look who we have here," Poison Ivy exclaimed, "The Joker... or is it Jack now?"

"It's Jack alright," Harley snickered.

"Does he really not remember anything?" Poison Ivy asked her.

"Nope, though I don't really believe that," she answered. "Isn't that right, Jack?"

Jack didn't know what to do.

"What's the matter?" Ivy said. "Cat got your tongue? The Joker loved talking, didn't he?"

"He did," Harley said, "I really miss him at times. Mistah J was soo much fun."

"Let's see if what that doctor said is true," Ivy suggested, "let's try to bring the Joker back."

Jack didn't know what was going to happen but he had a really bad feeling about it.

He slowly, cautiously walked away from the duo, hoping to find some way of getting out of his current conundrum.

He just hoped he could think of something before anything-

KRRAAASSH!

All three of them turned around to see Batman standing behind them, glass all around the floor, leading to one obvious conclusion: Batman had broken the glass.

"What're you doing here?" Poison Ivy hissed.

"To make sure that you're not here," he informed her, before punching her.

She crashed to the wall near Jack.

"Run!" Batman told him and Jack complied. He did, after all, value his life too much not to.

He ran towards the door while Batman dealt with the two of villains. Unfortunately for him, the door was sealed shut.

"I can't open it!" he told Batman.

Batman turned to look at him, looking mildly annoyed before took out what looked like a grenade (but really, it couldn't be that- he was the Batman after all) from his belt before throwing it at them.

Immediately, smoke filled the room. Jack couldn't see properly but the next thing he knew, the Batman was beside him, opening the door.

"Come on," he told him and Jack, once again, obeyed.

They ran out of the building, Jack only looking around to see where the undercover policemen were, but only found a lot of ambulances and people around. Apparently, the building had been under siege.

He kind of felt stupid for not noticing the obvious signs- the receptionist behaving strangely, no one being around and all that, and briefly chastised himself for not doing so.

He followed Batman to the Bat mobile.

"Go home," Batman told him, "Quickly. Don't you dare stop anywhere. Or talk to anyone." With that he got into his vehicle of choice and sped off.

It took Jack a moment to register what he'd said and when it did, he made a beeline for home.

"What's happening?" Misha was on him the moment Bruce entered his penthouse- still dressed as Batman but that wasn't a problem. Jack wasn't home yet and he'd change in a moment. After all, if the IA was to be believed, it would take Jack approximately fifteen more minutes to get home.

Bruce took of the Batman mask to answer her. "Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn took Jack's therapist's office hostage. I think they wanted to talk to him or something. They were pretty hostile to him."

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed in horror. "Is he alright? I knew he shouldn't've gone there!"

"He's fine," Bruce told her, "I made sure of that. He should be home any minute now."

"Oh well, why'd you leave him?" she immediately asked.

"Well, I couldn't well let him find out-"

"But you could've dropped him off and then showed up."

"That'd be too suspicious."

"Yeah, right," Misha scoffed.

"Misha."

"What?"

"I don't have time for this."

"Well, excuse me if I'm worried about my husband. Why is it taking him so long?"

"It should take him at least fifteen minutes to be here."

"Really, what makes you say that? I swear if something happens to Jack, I'm gonna kill you!"

"Nothing's going to happen to him," Bruce informed her, "he's fine. Gordon's got undercover cops following him. Why do you think I was able to get to him before those two crazies did anything?"

"Because you're Batman," she retorted.

Bruce sighed. "Yeah, I'm Batman," he said, looking down at his suit. "And I need to change."

"Indeed."

Unfortunately for them, Jack entered the apartment at that very moment.

And he saw red.