Part 21:
Raven sat in the theater writing down notes on her script while absently listening to Ruby and Lucy talk about Valentines days which was coming up next week. They both talked about their plans and gifts they've received in the past.
"Hay Raven," Lucy poked her to get her attention and Raven looked up at them.
"Huh?" Raven said and Lucy sighed.
"We asked what your plans were with that mysterious boyfriend of yours." Lucy said while Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"Oh I'm not into that stuff," Raven said, "neither is he."
"Speaking of 'him," Ruby said, "when are we going to meet this boyfriend of yours?" Raven's heart skipped.
That would be one hell of a meeting.
"Oh he's not a people person." Raven said and they both raised their eyebrows.
"Wait!" Ruby said and leaned closer to her, "could it be because he's in the mob? That's it isn't it! That's why he's never around." Raven bit her lip. Well one could consider Joker a mobster, but he was more like the king of mobsters.
"Something like that." Raven said and Ruby smiled.
"Damn girl," Ruby said, "I never would've expected you to get a guy like that. Is he rich?"
"Does it matter?" Lucy interjected on Raven's behalf, "as long as they're in love and he takes care of her."
Raven plopped down on the couch in the living room when she got home. She was exhausted from the long day at the theater. She wasn't tired from rehearsing. She was exhausted from all the questions Ruby kept asking her about her boyfriend. Luckily, Lucy had finally stepped in and got Ruby engaged in more Valentine's Day talk.
Max hopped up onto the couch and curled up on Raven's lap and she pet his head as she stared out the large windows at the covered pool. Her eyes moved to the gazebo that was attached to the back of the house with the hot tub in it. Giving Max's head one more scratch, Raven stood up and went to the bedroom and changed into a bathing suit. Max was asleep on his bed when she came back downstairs with a towel in one hand and grabbed a wine glass in her other after filling it with red wine. Raven let out a long breath as she settled into the hot tub with her hair pulled back into a messy bun. She closed her eyes, listening to the peaceful piano music she put on. She jumped when cold hands were placed on her shoulders and she looked up to see Joker smirking down at her as he sat on his knees behind her. He was dressed in his typical black pants with a very dark green, button up shirt.
"Enjoying yourself Mouse?" he purred as he gave her shoulders a light squeeze.
"It's been a long day." She admitted while looking away from him and taking another sip of her wine.
"Must have been," Joker said, moving away from her and walking over to the small bar in the gazebo, "for you to willingly drink alcohol." Raven blushed a little and looked out the window at the distant city.
"Well are you going to tell me?" he asked while taking a seat on a chair close to the tub.
"Oh just rehearsals," Raven said looking down at her glass while spinning it in her hand, "and Lucy gave me a schedule for her wedding dress shopping. She wants to go to three stores."
"Sounds boring," Joker muttered, looking out at the city.
"I don't think so," Raven had a small smile on her lips, "picking out a wedding dress is every girls dream. I hope I can help Lucy find her dream dress. Every woman who gets engaged has their ideal dress in mine."
"It's stupid," Joker huffed, "spending all that money on a dress you'll wear once, and people call me crazy."
"Just like how you spend all your money on guns that'll just be taken away by the cops when you get caught." Raven said while rolling her eyes. Joker burst out laughing before setting down his empty glass and walking over to kneel behind her again.
"But I get them back," he smirked while placing his hands on her shoulders again, "and I get more than one use out of them." Raven pressed her lips together then let out a loud squeak when he pulled her out of the hot tub.
"And speaking of weapons," Joker smiled brightly as he carried her into the house and up the stairs after she put a robe on for warmth; "my room is done!" Joker set her down in front of the closed door and opened it. He ushered her into the room and followed so he could close the door before Max could get in. He turned on the lights and smiled brightly while standing in front of her with his arms spread out.
"Ta-Da!" he cheered and moved aside so she could see. Just like the last room, there were guns and knives hanging on the walls above cabinets. The sand area was in the middle like last time with a built-in bed in the center with dark purple sheets. Raven raised an eyebrow as she looked at Joker who smirked.
"Comfier than a cushion," he said, "since I fall asleep in here a lot, or want to have fun with a certain mouse." Raven's cheeks turned tomato red as she quickly looked away from him while he chuckled.
"Oh but that's not all," Joker smiled and pushed her over to the opposite corner where there was a long u- shaped couch with a coffee table in the middle and a TV hung on the wall opposite.
"See now you have a place in here," Joker said with a smile and her heart skipped while her eyes went wide as she looked at a built-in shelf under the TV. The shelf was stocked with Disney movies, musicals, and a bunch of other movies and some books.
"Is it really ok?" she asked shyly and he wrapped her up in his arms.
"Only for you." He said before leaning down to kiss her.
"Mr. J?" Raven asked as they remained cuddled under the sheets in the now dimly lit weapon room.
"Hm?" was his response while he played with her hair with his eyes closed.
"Why the sand?" she asked looking over the bed at all the knives placed around the bed.
"Keeps them in place," Joker muttered, "and it doesn't dull the blades." Raven rested her head back on chest after a minute. Raven opened her mouth to ask another question, but Joker's phone started to ring then. He huffed as Raven moved off him so he could roll onto his stomach and pull his phone out of his pant pockets with the bed sheets still draped over them.
"What?" Joker grumbled and Raven sighed. Well at least he didn't snap like he normally does.
"And this can't wait?" Joker growled while Raven stood up and pulled on her robe. She picked up her bathing suit as Joker dressed, still on the phone with, she assumed, Frost.
"I'll be in soon." Joker said then hung up the phone.
"Everything alright?" Raven asked as she followed him out of the room and shut the door.
"Frost just needs to speak to me." Joker said while putting on his gun harness and Raven blinked, a little surprised that he told her.
"Alright," she said, "drive safely." Joker turned to look at her with a 'did you really just say that?' expression and she sighed.
"You know what I mean." She muttered and he chuckled a little before kissing her on the forehead.
"Get some sleep Mouse," he said, "you have a busy day tomorrow."
"What was so important that you had to call me all the way back here?" Joker grumbled as he walked into the private lounge, shutting the door behind him. He grabbed a glass of whiskey from the bar before turning to look at Frost who was holding an old looking file.
"Josh and I were going through all those documents from that room on the island," Frost said while walking up to Joker.
"You were right most of them were tax files and documents for accounts, but stuffed among them was this." Frost handed Joker the file.
"It's a file," Frost said, "of adoption paper." Joker glanced up at him before setting down his glass and opening the files.
"This is from Gotham city," Joker stated as he skimmed over the paperwork, "they adopted Raven?" he muttered when his eyes landed on her name that was above the child's name.
"When she was one." Frost said, "but here's the interesting thing that I found." Joker looked up while Frost opened his laptop.
"We know that her mother was related to the Queens," Frost said, "when I found the adoption paperwork I did some digging since it didn't list her birth mother. Apparently, her father had a sister." Frost looked up at Joker then, "she's Raven's real mom."
"So they adopted her when she died or something?" Joker huffed and tilted his head when Frost shook his head.
"Apparently her parents couldn't have kids of their own. According to all the documents I found, if her 'father' wanted to keep his company; then he would need a child that could take over it. When I dug even deeper, I found out there was a court hearing that occurred so they could get Raven. Her birth mother, according to the hearing documents, had abandoned her."
"I sense a but in there." Joker muttered and Frost nodded.
"A woman under a different name, but similar appearance was checked into Arkham by the city around that same time." Frost turned to computer screen to show Joker a photo of when the inmate first arrived at Arkham.
"Their Jane Doe looks an awful lot like Raven." Frost said while Joker took a sip of his whiskey. He hated these people more and more and wished he had gone to kill them in person. They separated her from her birth mother all for money, even he wasn't that cold. Joker stared at the photo of the woman, he's seen her before at Arkham. Recently, she was still there.
"Alright," Joker smirked while pulling out the custom guns Raven gave him and setting them on the bar; "I want to go meet her." Frost blinked in shock watching his boss causally walk out of the lounge to go get caught by the bat simply telling Frost to 'make sure to break me out before valentine's day.'
Four days later, Joker was lying on the stiff bed at Arkham extremely pleased with how well things were going. First, batsy took him directly to Arkham and avoided the whole transfer from prison hassle. Then, with some money, he got a corrupt guard to tell him where Raven's birth mother's cell was. Like he predicted, it was at the opposite end of Arkham where lesser criminals were kept; but they still considered them to be 'mentally unstable.' None the less, he had a route planned out to the cell to grab the woman and escape with her during a planned power outage Frost would cause.
Right on cue, the power went and Joker smirked. He pulled out a key card he snatched from a guard and unlocked his cell. Arkham's backup generators only powered the locks on the cells, but all security and lights would be out until they fix it. After knocking out a guard, Joker grabbed his gun along with a silencer. He normally didn't use a silencer, but he didn't want to attract attention if he crossed paths with someone.
After a long walk, and a couple dead guards, Joker finally reached the cell where the woman was. He stepped in and paused as the backup lights from the hall lit up the small cell. Hell, the cell was smaller than his if that was even possible. The bed was empty and the walls had scratch marks in them. He knew that occurred to those who went under the electro shock therapy one too many time. A movement caught his eye and he walked over to a corner where an older woman sat on the ground. Her hair was long and tangled up. Her fingernails were split and broken from where she probably scratched at the walls. Her Arkham uniform was torn and very worn out. Joker stared down at her as she rocked back and forth. She was holding a small pillow the way one would hold a baby as she swayed it back and forth while humming. Her voice reminded him of Raven.
"Hay," Joker muttered while kneeling in front of her. The woman paused and looked up at Joker who froze to the spot. She looked like an older version of Raven, but that's not what made him freeze.
Her eyes, he recognized that look from other patients that had been experimented on one too many time. They were the same blue color of Raven's eyes, but they were empty and lifeless. Joker leaned back a little as he stared into those empty eyes. She was a lost cause and to Arkham, she was a lab rat; doomed to suffer until she dies.
"She's a beautiful girl, isn't she?" the woman said while looking back down at the pillow and rocking back and forth again.
"Very." Joker muttered as he watched her. She clearly never forgot about her daughter after all this time. Joker looked at his watch then noting that his time was running out. His plan was to take this woman back to her daughter, but now…
Joker looked back up at the woman. He couldn't let Raven know or see the truth, but he wasn't going to leave her real mother here. The mother who clearly loved Raven more and who probably would've given her a better life.
"You should put her to bed," he finally said.
"Oh you're right," the woman replied and stood up on shaky legs before slowly walking over to the bed. Joker followed and stood behind her as she laid the pillow on the bed as if it were a baby. He pulled out his gun and placed a hand on her cold, bony shoulder. She didn't even react to his touch.
"She'll be taken care of." Joker said to her before pulling the trigger and catching the woman as she fell. He laid her on the bed gently before exiting the room and escaping Arkham.
"That bad huh?" Frost said as he and Joker stood in Joker's lounge room on the first floor of the mansion. Raven was fast asleep when they got back and Max was with her, so the two could be alone. But still, Joker made sure to close and lock the door just in case Raven were to come down.
"Get rid of everything," Joker said as he set all the files of Raven's mother and any evidence of adoption on top of wood in the fire place; "make sure she'll never find out." Frost nodded before leaving and closing the door behind him. Joker lit a match and placed it on top of the files. He sat there watching them slowly disappear under the flames. He took off the shirt he was wearing that had some of her blood on it and threw it into the fire as well. Joker leaned back against the couch behind him and rested one arm on his bent leg still holding the gun with the silencer on it. He wondered what Raven's life would've been like had she been raised by her real mother. Would he still have met her?
Everything was now ashes in the fireplace as the fire slowly started to go out. He would keep to his word. He will take care of Raven for that woman who suffered all those years, still loving her daughter.