"Joey? Do you mind taking the block around 45th street to get to the comic store?" Harley called to the front seat of the Cadillac.
"No problem, Miss Quinn", he responded, turning the wheel slowly.
The Joker glanced down at her, "Leave somethin' at your old apartment?"
She smiled maniacally as she stared out the tinted window, "I want to see how much damage I did."
He gave a boisterous laugh and threw his head back, "Joey! D'you hear that?"
The bald henchman smiled into the rearview mirror, "Sure did, Boss. Sounds like she's finally crossed over, eh?"
She looked up at her boyfriend and watched his boyish smile fade into something more sinister, "Not quite", he whispered.
Harley focused past his face as they drove by the parking lot of her old place, "Damn", she whispered, and The Joker looked out the window. The building still stood, only singed slightly in black around the door and windows of her apartment; she was disappointed.
"Don't worry, Sugar, you'll get your opportunity for mass destruction while you're with me, I guarantee it. He and Joey shared a chuckle as he turned the car into the alleyway that passed behind Chino's comic store. In the distance up ahead, Harley could see a man step out from the open doorway of his loading area and quickly check the street as he took off running in the opposite direction. Her heart started to pound and The Joker sat forward in his seat.
"That's one of Cobblepot's men, I recognize him", he mentioned to Joey, and the thug pulled a gun from his suit coat, resting it in the passenger seat next to him.
"You want me to check it out, Boss?" he asked as he parked.
Her boyfriend started to tell him, "Yeah", but Harley had already flung the car door open on her side and begun running around to the building. He opened his door and pulled the gun free from his suit coat, screaming at her, "Harley! Get your ass back in this car!"
She ignored him, leaping inside and observing the wreckage that was now the back room where Chino had slept. Frantically, she began searching for him; under the bed covers, under the overturned table, in the sell room of the store.
"CHINO!", she screamed in a hysterical voice that didn't sound like her own. She ran to the front of the store and gasped in horror at the long streak of blood that painted the floor, leading to behind the cashier's counter. Following it quickly, she could hear raspy breathing and cringed at what she would find laying behind the wood panel.
She let out a startled scream when a large hand gripped her arm tightly and yanked her back painfully, "You stupid girl! I told you to get back to the car, you wanna get killed? You never run into an unknown area like that!" her boyfriend scolded her, holding the gun in his other hand. She struggled in his grip and pulled herself free, but he grabbed her again.
"Get off me!" she yelled without thinking, but the swift sting of his palm on her cheek brought her back to her senses and she cupped it with her hand as she stared angrily up at him.
"Calm down", he warned, "Panicking is another good way to get yourself killed."
The rasping echoed again from behind the counter and the two of them turned to look before cautiously walking over toward it, The Joker extending a long arm to hold his girlfriend back as he approached with the gun. As they peered around the edge of the wood, Chino's blood covered face came into view, his body crumpled in a heap on the floor, clutching his neck with both hands as blood streamed through his fingers. Harley pushed past her boyfriend's arm, and he let her pass as he stood, lowering the gun.
"Oh my god!" She kneeled down next to him and put a hand behind his bloody head, "No no no no, Chino, no. Hold on, I can, I'm going to…Puddin', we have to call an ambulance!" she screamed as she placed her hands on top of his, trying to apply an added pressure to stop the bleeding.
"Can't do that, Precious", he said softly.
"We have to! He's bleeding too fast, I can't, there's nothing I can do!"
"They'll take us in", his tone was sympathetic.
"I don't care! Please!" she stood from the floor and reached toward the store phone with blood soaked hands.
The Joker grabbed her wrists, "They'll separate us, Harley! I'll go to Arkham and they'll send you to Blackgate's women's compound 'cause you're not crazy!"
A cascade of hot tears was streaming down her face as she tried to lash out at him, hating him.
"Nnggoo", the gargled voice below her sputtered.
She looked down to see Chino staring up at her, desperately attempting to communicate. She quickly kneeled back down next to him and he lifted one of his hands away from his neck, causing the blood to drip down faster. She reached down and clasped her palms against the cut again while the tears blurred her vision.
He placed the bloody hand to her cheek and stammered between gulps of gargled air, "No…cops….you…run."
"I won't let you die", Harley cried as her body shook, and she lifted his back to cradle his head in her arms, still applying pressure.
The Joker came around the side of the counter and stood over them. Chino looked up at him and stuck out his hand, beckoning him to come closer. He kneeled down reluctantly, and the dying man grabbed him by the hand, wrapping his bloody fingers tightly around his thumb.
"You…you…love her…like I do", it wasn't a question or a request; it was a command, "You…do it...promise me."
The two men stared into each other's eyes and Harley watched as an unspoken understanding was passed between them. Chino then reached up and placed his hand softly onto the back of Harley's neck, looking into her eyes as his breath began to slow and his lids became heavy.
"Te quiero, Mija…Siempre", he whispered.
['My Love' by Sia]
His focus blurred and his hand slid down her shoulder. His breathing ceased and he stared past her as his muscles went limp and his mouth drooped slightly. Harley let out a heart wrenching wail and pulled his face into her, rocking his lifeless body in her arms. The Joker removed his fedora and sat onto the blood soaked floor next to her in his expensive suit. He tried to reach out and touch her, but she jerked away from him and threw her head back, releasing another painful scream.
He leaned over toward her and gently took her arms, "Let him go, Baby, he's gone", but she clung tighter to him, squeezing his head into her chest.
Her body shook violently as she sobbed like a young child; crying without sound before finally taking in a gasp of air and releasing it in a high pitched wail. The Joker stood up and leaned over her, pulling her up and away from the body. She struggled and turned to face him, tearing into him, pounding his chest with the pads of her fist.
"You…stupid…selfish…it's your fault…your fault!"
He let her do it, taking the blows and waiting for her to extinguish the heated blame that needed to be purged from her pores. She knew it wasn't his fault, but someone had to pay, someone had to hurt as much as she was at that moment. After a while, her pounds lost their intensity and her legs became weak. She crashed her face into his chest and sobbed loudly as he wrapped his arms around her and laid his chin on her head.
"Anythin' I can do, Boss?" she heard Joey ask from the back doorway where he had been standing this entire time.
"Get the car ready, we're going home", he answered.
Harley's cries were quiet now, but the tears still streamed heavily down her face and she felt The Joker lean down and tuck an arm behind her knees, lifting her from the ground. He carried her to the car and set her down in the backseat, shutting the door and walking around to the other side where she heard him tell Joey to call the cops from a payphone and hurry back. She stared blankly at the back of the passenger seat as he opened the door and slid in beside her, reaching an arm around carefully. She allowed him to pull her close to him, burying her face into him again while the white hot agony gripped her chest. The door to the driver's seat slammed shut and the car began moving again.
"They're on their way, Boss", Joey said quietly.
The ride home was silent, not even any music played on the radio while Harley stared out the window as if in a trance, head resting on The Joker's chest. He was the only person left in her life now. The only other person she had ever cared for, and who had ever cared for her. "Love her like I do", Chino had said. She wondered if he was even capable of such a thing, if he even loved her at all, whether this whole thing had been a terrible mistake, a mad man's sick game. A part of her wished she had died on that floor next to her foster father, no; her Father, her Padre, te quiero siempre.
Joey pulled the black Cadillac into its spot on the first floor of the parking garage where two more vehicles were now also sitting. He got out and opened the door on The Joker's side and he grabbed her hand gently and pulled her out of the seat behind him, following him sluggishly back inside the dark building. She hated it at that moment; dark and quiet, like a tomb. Joey lead them by flashlight back into the foyer where Harley released her boyfriend's hand and walked slowly back to the cigar lounge, flopping down into a large armchair in the chilly darkness.
"Here, go get us some dinner from that Italian place", she heard him tell the henchman before the sound of his expensive dress shoes made their way toward the doorway. His dark silhouette peered into the room and walked slowly over toward her, brushing his fingertips lightly over her arm before taking a seat on the couch across from her. He slouched into the furniture and crossed his arm in his stomach, but she couldn't make out the features of his face even though the fedora was removed. She wanted to climb into a hot bath, but realized that wasn't possible, and she hated the place even more. There were so many things she would never be able to do again, then a thought suddenly hit her; she wouldn't be able to attend Chino's funeral. She was his only family, and he hers. Except for a couple of high school kids that ran the counter on weekends, no one would be at his funeral, he would be laid to rest completely alone. The tears pushed their way from her eyes again as she stared across the dark room at the only person left in her life. She couldn't decided whether she loved him or loathed him; he had done this to her, and while part of her regretted it intensely, another part couldn't imagine life without him. He was imbedded in her very core now, and there was no going back. She wondered again if he felt the same way, if he could feel at all. Then she remembered the unspoken promise she had watched him make to Chino, she had seen it; it was there in his eyes, and he was a man of his word.
"You're not crazy", she heard the words escape her lips, but she hadn't spoken them; someone else had.
"Aren't I, Doc?" he asked her.
"No."
He paused for a moment, then spoke slowly, "I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us."
She sniffed, "Kahlil Gibran."
He nodded.
"Great wits are to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide", she retorted quietly.
"Alexander Pope", he indicated and stood up from the couch, striding slowly over to her and kneeling at her feet, taking her hands in his. She could barely make out the shape of his dark eyes.
"Am I crazy?" she heard the voice ask through her mouth.
His scars lifted as he smiled at her, "There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness."
She returned his smile as a few tears escaped her eyes, "Friedrich Nietzsche", she whispered.
He stood and pulled her up into him, she rested her cheek against his strong chest and breathed him in.
"Did I ever tell you", he hesitated for a long time, "that I had a wife?"