Chapter 25:
"You…" Bruce began, than stopped. "You were…"
"Awake? Yeah." The Joker finished for him, rolling his eyes. He folded his arms across his chest, turning his head to look at the wall beside him, as though bored.
"For how long were you awake!" Bruce pushed, unwilling, maybe even unable to believe that all his soul pouring had just been heard by the lunatic.
The Joker looked back to him, his eyes bright, and he smiled.
"I never wasn't awake." He answered.
"You…"
The Joker sighed, again turning away.
"I heard everything, if that's what you're asking. Really Batsy, I'm touched." He looked back. "To finally hear you acknowledge our co-dependent relationship, it's almost too much for me to bear."
Suddenly he began to fan his face with his hand, as though he were going to cry. But quickly his show of emotion morphed in to a face splitting grin and he laughed loudly.
Alfred stood staring at him in astonished disbelief, and when the madman began to laugh, his expression changed in to one of disgust.
"You devious, vile creature!" He huffed. "You have no concept of what it is to feel, do you! To sympathize and care for anyone other then yourself!"
"Alfred, stop." Bruce put his hand on the older man's shoulder, but the butler shrugged him off.
"No. Master Bruce, you just made what was probably the most difficult confession of your life to me, in confidence. A confession involving him!" He pointed angrily at The Joker. "And all he can do is laugh at you!"
The Joker by then had ceased in his mirth, and he glared at Alfred, an all too familiar hate flashing in his eyes. Bruce recognized it quickly and without even thinking he pushed Alfred behind him, standing between the two men.
Still, The Joker addressed him.
"You old fool!" He spit. "It's not sympathy! It's empathy! There's no one else in this world who can understand him as I do! No one! Certainly not you." He chortled. "You, who hides behind your supposedly well-meaning façade of loyalty. Why don't you go on and tell him? Tell him what I told you. Why it is you're so unwaveringly devoted to him. You know I'm right."
Alfred said nothing, feeling rage boil up inside him, wanting desperately to explode out. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt such anger.
The Joker smiled.
"You don't care about him." He said, nodding towards Bruce. "You care about what it is he gives you."
"And what is it you care about!" Alfred hissed, stepping to the side of Bruce to look The Joker in the face. "You're nothing but a sick, perverse, sorry excuse for a human being, unable to exercise restraint. You're completely without control. Without will."
"I CARE ABOUT HIM!" The Joker shouted, his voice rising uncharacteristically, causing both Alfred and Bruce to jump. And then, suddenly, he stood atop the cot, and Bruce felt himself tense, preparing for what he was sure was going to be an attack.
"He knows it!" The Joker's voice went back to a normal volume, and he waved a hand towards the crusader. "He only just now confessed it. But he's always known. We have only each other with whom to commiserate, to share in what we and we alone know. You never couldunderstand."
Alfred could feel his fury consume him, and he could no longer restrain himself as suddenly he ducked past Batman, charging for the lunatic.
"ALFRED, NO!" Bruce yelled, reaching out to stop him.
But it was too late, he'd already gone out of reach, lunging for The Joker, overcome with the urge to hurt him. Something he hadn't ever, really felt before, not so strongly.
Bruce ran forward, but by then the butler had already reached the madman, scrambling on to the cot, not thinking. And when he'd reared back his hand to strike, The Joker had waited for it, and then ducked underneath when it came, coming up an instant later and sinking his fist in to Alfred's stomach.
Immediately the older man doubled over, chocking out and falling to his knees.
The Joker snarled, ready to kick the butler across the face when he was slammed from the side, in to the wall, so hard it knocked the breath straight from his lungs. An instant later and someone had gripped hold of his hair, smashing his head sidelong against the concrete wall, and the room spun. And then again it happened and he felt his legs go out from under him as he slumped down, on to the cot.
Bruce turned then, towards Alfred, picking him up underneath his shoulders and lifting him carefully from the bed.
"Alfred, are you alright!" He questioned frantically, bringing him to the rooms center.
Alfred continued to chock out, sucking air sharply to get it back in to his lungs.
He nodded, though his face was contorted in pain.
"Jesus Christ…" The detective said lowly, kneeling down beside him.
And then he started suddenly when he heard an enraged scream from behind, and turned just in time to see The Joker coming fast towards him, a look of pure hatred in his eyes.
A moment later and he'd crashed in to Bruce, and sent the both of them flying across the floor, past Alfred.
The Joker had landed on top, and he wasted no time then as he began to hail down punches across the detectives face. And though he hit mostly Kevlar, protecting Batman from his blows, and in turn doing The Joker's own fists more damage, splitting the skin covering his knuckles wide, he kept hitting him regardless, over and over.
"J-Joker!" Bruce tried. "Joker s… Stop!"
But the madman wasn't listening, and he cried out in rage with each punch he threw.
Finally Batman reached up, catching hold of one of the his wrists.
The Joker tried to pull free. But it was in vain against the vice like grip of the vigilante. And then Bruce reached for his other wrist, taking hold of that with the same strength.
The Joker screamed in fury, sounding more animal then human. Unable to get his arms loose, he resorted then to smashing his forehead in to the crusader's own. But just like it had done to his hands because of the armor, his own head took the greater damage and he again at once felt dizzy.
Bruce took the opportunity then to push up and back, and he rolled them, so that now he was on top.
Still the madman struggled violently, jerking his knee up in to Batman's abdomen. The detective felt it, but only slightly.
"Joker, STOP!" He screamed before quickly standing, lifting the lunatic up with him and fast spinning him around, wrapping his forearm around The Joker's throat, and twisting one of his arms behind his back. "STOP!" He again shouted.
But The Joker wouldn't listen, continuing to fight.
Bruce fell then to a sitting position, leaning back, tightening his hold on the madman.
"STOP!" He again shouted.
"NO!" The Joker spit. "LET ME GO!" And he struggled more fiercely, even trying to bite Batman's hand through his gauntlet.
"Joker, listen to me!" The detective tried again.
"No! Let me GO! You're a fool! As great a fool as he is!"
"Joker, LISTEN!" Bruce said, his voice pleading. "I know I hurt you and I'm sorry! I didn't want to. But you were going to hurt him and I couldn't let you do that! You have to understand!"
Still The Joker pushed against his hold, shaking his head vigorously.
"Just let me go!" He spit.
"Are you going to attack Alfred if I do?"
"LET ME GO, GOD DAMN YOU!" The Joker screamed.
Bruce frowned.
"I will." He said calmly. "But if you so much as look at Alfred the wrong way, I will hurt you." He hissed.
The Joker said nothing, but Bruce could feel how tense he was.
Finally he loosened his grip, first letting go The Joker's arm and then unwrapping his forearm from his neck.
The moment he did, the lunatic fell forward and scrambled to his feet.
Batman wasted no time in getting to his own, standing ready for another outburst.
But The Joker just stood there, his back to him, his hands clenched in to fists and his head bowed down.
By then Alfred had recovered and was now standing as well.
He cleared his throat and Bruce glanced back towards him.
"Forgive me Sir." He began. "That was foolish of me. Reckless. And I should have known better then to lose my head that way."
"It's alright Alfred." Batman answered him.
"Having said that," Alfred continued. "I feel, Sir, that it is only right for me to inform you that, for as long as that madman is kept here, I myself will be unable to offer you my services. If and when he is removed, I shall return. Until then, consider this my resignation. I have endured a great many extraordinary situations in relation to what you feel is your duty, Master Bruce, and I have endured them willingly. But this I will not tolerate. I refuse to stand idly by while you harbor a mass murdering psychopath who belongs no where else but a facility for the mentally insane. He is sick, Master Bruce. Deranged. He needs help. Help which you yourself cannot provide. So long as he is here, I will not be."
Bruce said nothing for a long moment, just staring back at the older man.
He breathed in.
"That's alright." He suddenly heard The Joker speak, and turned, seeing that the lunatic hadn't moved from his position. "I was done here anyway. Like I said. I was done."
And then he turned.
"You choose to suffer fighting against what you know is true. You deny what is for no reason other then stubborn stupidity. You are misguided and foolish. I've gotten you to acknowledge you see the world as it really is, just as I do, beyond phenomena. You're continually trying to force moral order where there is none is your own choice. I can't help you any more."
He moved towards Bruce then.
"Take me back. Or let me leave."
Bruce stared at him hard for a moment.
"You know I can't just let you leave." He answered.
"Then take me back." The Joker reiterated.
"Is that what you want?" Bruce asked.
"Since when did you ever care about what I want?" The Joker answered angrily.
"Just tell me." Batman pushed. "Is that what you want?"
"I want to leave."
The vigilante shook his head.
"You're too dangerous for me to just let you leave Joker."
The Joker snorted then, and smiled.
"Too… unstable?" He half laughed.
Bruce didn't answer.
The Joker shifted his eyes to Alfred then.
"I wish I'd had a knife in my hand when I stuck you in the stomach." He said, no hint of amusement in his voice.
Alfred's expression faltered, but only for a moment and he cleared his throat, straightening his jacket.
"Joker!" Batman spit.
The madman looked back to him, and suddenly he held his hands out and together.
"Well go on…" He said. "Cuff me."
Bruce hesitated, staring at him.
Alfred's expression changed to one of incredulity.
"Master Bruce!"
The Joker smirked.
"If I bring him back, he'll just escape again."
"And the same won't happen with him here?" Alfred argued.
"I don't know." Bruce shook his head.
"You… you don't want him to leave." The butler said in astonishment.
The Joker laughed then.
"You're not a complete moron I see." He said. "So what's it gonna be Batsy? The supposedly faithful man-servant, or the only other person in the whole, wide world who sees what you see?"