"Puddin'!"

Lowering her knife from the Batman's throat, Harley squealed like a giddy child and ran to him; her arms open wide for an embrace. The Joker let out an angry snarl and whacked her straight in the face, sending her tumbling backwards onto the floor.

"What. Are. You. Doing?"

She stared up at him nervously, her white-painted face turning even whiter. "I w-was planning on s-surprising you, Mr. J. I was gonna k-kill the Batman for ya so that you w-won't have to be bothered by him no more."

"You idiot!"

Mr. J growled and aimed a kick at her, making her shriek and roll away in fear. Shakily, she got to her feet and blinked in confusion, trying to understand why her beloved was so angry with her. In the background, the Batman was shifting around in his chains, almost as if her were trying to get loose from them.

"What do ya mean, Puddin'? Don't you want to finally rid yourself of the only guy that can stop you? I mean, isn't he the one who's been ruining your plans and everything?"

He snarled and licked his lips, glaring icily at her. "I don't make plans, my dear." He tilted his head slightly and looked over at the chained man. "And I have no intention of killing off dear old Batsy just yet. Where would I be without my incorruptible greatest opponent, hm? Where would I be without the very man who makes everything I do just so damned fun?"

A low whimper escaped Harley's throat as she stared from Mr. J to the Batman. Her baby-blue eyes were filled with confusion, trying to piece everything together. This was not going how she had planned. She had never expected her Mr. J to be so infuriated.

She offered him an uneasy, sheepish smile, trying to find warmth in those cold eyes of his. "But don't you want to claim Gotham City as your own? Don't you want to no longer have to get beaten up by the Bat every time you try to do things your way? Puddin', if I kill him we can end everything."

His glare seemed to get even colder. "The Batman is the other side of my coin. The yin to my yang. Why would I want to plunge Gotham so beautifully into chaos right now when I can have the perfect adversary to tango with?"

"But—but what about you and me? Aren't we going to rule Gotham together, Puddin'?"

He licked his lips again. "You've disappointed me, Harley. You were going to ruin everything."

Her eyes grew wide and welled up with tears. "I'm sorry, Puddin'! I didn't want to make you mad!"

"I once told the Bat that we were bound to fight forever. And here you are about to kill him off. And what's more, it looks like you were actually going to bother with seeing who he is," he gave a nod at the cracked cowl. "That's a stupid move. I'd never want to find out. It makes things more fun. But you were really about to do it. I'm so, so disappointed."

Harley was in despair. Her eyes stared at the chained man leaning against the wall, almost pleading with him to just disappear and make everything normal again. Her hands were balled into fists and were trembling. Her lower lip was quivering and tears were streaming down her cheeks. She looked like she was on the verge of going into shock. The knife she had been holding had dropped to the ground.

With shaking knees, she came forward slightly. "Please don't be disappointed in me, Mr. J. I just wanted to make you happy."

"You were going to kill him," Mr. J said in a quiet, rage-filled voice. "You were about to end all my fun. You stupid, impulsive twit."

"I'm s-sorry!" she sobbed. "Please, Puddin'! I'm so, so sorry!"

He came forward; his eyes red with fury. She took a step back, unknowingly getting closer towards a giant window of glass behind her. The building they were in was three stories high.

Very slowly, he took out his knife. "I'm sorry too, my girl."

Seeing the knife, her eyes widened and she took another step back, trembling as he came closer. "Puddin'—please!"

"You've disappointed me, Harl. And you know what happens to girls that disappoint me."

"Mr. J…I love you. Mr. J…" Another step back.

"I thought you were special, my pet. I thought I taught you well enough about the joke. But it looks like you just didn't get it after all." Another step. The window was only inches away.

"Puddin' PLEASE!"

"Don't call me Puddin'!"

With a violent shove, he pushed her into the window.

For a moment, everything went quiet. The sound of shattering glass was as silent as the scream she made when she began to feel herself falling. As the world whizzed past her in her plummet down, voices whispered to her in her head, calling out to her from her memories.

"A smile makes all the bad things go away. Come on, doc. Let's see a smile on that pretty face of yours."

"We've both been outcasts, you and me. We've been hiding in the shadows and scrounging around for something to live for. We've both lived empty lives."

"Why don't you ever feel like talking about yourself? Don't you know that you're not going to be rejected here? What you say matters to me."

The tears in her eyes stung as she felt herself falling. Her body was limp and couldn't move. The pain in her chest burned like fire.

"You're my sweet little harlequin, my favorite hostage, my dearest pet."

"Don't ever lose that laugh of yours, Harley. It's just too pretty of a thing to lose. Always keep that laugh with you 'til the day you die."

"Harley…my Harley-girl…"

A loud crash was heard as her body collided with the earth, falling on top of some trash cans that riddled the alley. A trickle of blood ran down the side of her mouth and her left arm twitched. Her eyes were shut and a low moan escaped her lips as she felt the agony of her poor, broken body.

She felt like such a fool.

XxX

The Joker stared down at the wounded girl below for a long moment, breathing in roughly through his nose. Briefly, he shut his eyes and paused, almost as if he were drinking in what he had just done. Then he turned back towards the Batman and grinned.

"Hey, Batsy-boy. Long time no see. Sorry about that mild inconvenience."

The Batman, in that horrible witnessing of violence, had frozen, staring at the incident with wide eyes. With the Joker now grinning at him, he felt almost frightened. To her credit, Harley had actually gotten really close to killing him. The chains were hard to break free from and she had had him trapped and helpless to fight back. In a strange way, she had actually come closer to defeating him than anyone else ever had.

The Joker skipped over and inspected him, poking at his cracked cowl. "Looks like ole Harls roughed you up pretty good. Now what do you think I should do with you?"

"Why did you do that to her?" the Batman said in a low voice. "Why did you hurt her like that? You went to all the trouble to make her your most devoted follower and then you shattered her as if she meant nothing to you."

The Joker frowned and pulled out his knife, flicking it in front of the Batman's face. "Harley is an idiot. She doesn't know how to play with you properly. And really, I'd say that you're more reserved for me than you are for her. She really shouldn't try to do my job if she doesn't know how to do it."

Then the Batman smirked, making the Joker pause and step back a little. "It's funny, Joker. She came a lot closer to killing me than you ever did. You say that she doesn't know how to be as dangerous as you when in fact she was doing your job even better than you."

"Shut up…"

"I'd say that she deserves some credit for being the one that came close to actually finishing me. Don't you think, Puddin'?"

The Joker slammed his fist into the Batman's face. Roaring like a wild animal, he threw the man across the room. It was just what the Batman was hoping for. The impact had caused the chains around his arms to loosen. If he worked at it without the Joker noticing, he could get free.

The Joker towered over him, gritting his teeth in fury.

"Bastard. I'm going to kill you." The knife in his hand seemed to be itching to tear through the Batman's flesh.

But then, to the Batman's surprise, the clown's face grew calm and a grin returned back to his lips.

"No, I don't think I'm going to end it all now, Batsy. It's too soon. I'd be a hypocrite to Harley if I did that now. And besides, my ride is on the way as we speak. They're awfully concerned about me and I know that they've been searching high and low for me."

The sound of a helicopter began to drift closer and closer towards the open window, making the Joker cock his head and chuckle slightly. "And speak of the devil…"

"Boss! Let's go! Come on! The cops are on their way!"

"Be with you in a moment, boys," he said, giving them a wave. He patted the Batman on the cheek. "Sorry I've got to run, Batsy. Looking at those chains of yours, I'd say that you're close to breaking free. So I'll just leave you to do your own thing. Let's meet again sometime, 'kay?"

With a laugh, the Joker walked casually away from the fuming man, climbing aboard the helicopter where an anxious Cutter was waiting for him.

"Where's Harley?"

"…"

"Boss…please tell me you didn't…"

"She was going to ruin everything, Cutter. She didn't get the joke."

"No…not Harley…no…"

"Come on," the clown snapped at Rocco, who was piloting. "Let's go. Can't you see that Batsy is beginning to break free over there? Come on!"

The copter began to lift higher until they were decidedly away from the building. Cutter was massaging his forehead in his hands. "Boss…why did you do it? Didn't she mean something to you?"

The war-painted scarred man stared silently into the distance, almost contemplating.

"She did it all for you, boss. She did it because she loved you…"

"Hush," he replied. "I don't want to talk about it." There was something sad in his voice. "Besides, she's still alive."

XxX

The caped man with the cracked cowl lowered himself into the alley-way, finally free from the chains that bound him. It was dark and the moon's light felt cold and depressing.

He cursed himself for not breaking free in time to stop the Joker from escaping. Now that the clown was healed, it meant that they would be seeing each other again very soon—costing many innocent lives in the process.

A low groan was heard at the end of the alleyway and he ran towards it instinctively. He could smell blood on the ground and he squinted in the darkness.

And there she lay: Harleen Quinzel on top of several trashcans, bleeding and whimpering.

He rushed to her side and stared down at her. Her blonde pigtails were now free and her hair spilled in a mess. Some strands were red from the blood. Her eyes were shut and wet with tears, causing the dark markings under her eyes to stain her cheeks. Reaching forward to inspect her, he discovered that she had broken her right arm and both her legs. She probably had also broken a few ribs as well. But despite this she was still miraculously alive and breathing.

He stared at the girl in sympathy, gently lifting her head to face him. Most of the war-paint had smeared off her face and it was as if she was a completely different person. She was now just a poor, wounded girl that was shivering and whimpering from the pain—both physical and emotional.

One of her eyes opened a fraction of an inch and he blinked, staring into it and reading the sadness that lurked within it.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

In the distance, he could hear police sirens coming closer and closer. Without a moment's pause, he scooped the girl up in his arms and placed her further out into the light where he knew they would see her. Then he went up to the roof and watched in the shadows as they all ran to the girl's side.

There were many voices, some saying things like "Call an ambulance!" or "Oh, Jesus Christ, look at her!" or "What the Hell happened?". He even heard Gordon's voice, stern and soft, telling his men to inspect the area.

And that means that I must leave now. Perhaps I can try to pick up on Joker's trail now.

So he vanished into the gloom of the night, taking one last look at the broken harlequin that was now being lifted onto a stretcher as the ambulance's lights flashed. He hoped that she'd be alright. This was a lesson to all who chose to follow the Joker. He just prayed that this was enough to finally bring her back into the light.

As they lifted her towards the back of the ambulance, her lips parted slightly and her eyes opened half-way.

"Lie still," the medic told her gently. "You'll be alright."

"My fault," she murmured softly. "I didn't get the joke…"