"You shot me!" Charles fell to the floor and began screaming.
"I didn't shoot your femoral artery Charles. Stop being such a little bitch about it." As the Joker was still trying to stop his bleeding nose, and Charles was incapacitated, I quickly bent to Richard.
"Are you ok?" I asked quickly, he nodded but put a shaking hand on mine.
"George?" He asked.
"He's safe, don't worry." I whispered and stood back up. Pointing my gun at Joker as he finally looked back at me.
The door burst open and two of the Jokers men filed in. Taking in the scene they quickly pointed their guns at me. I ignored them and kept my gun trained on the Joker.
"You shouldn't have given me a gun Joker. That seems like a really bad decision on your part. Did you really think I would kill Richard, for revenge?" I asked, aiming between his eyes.
He was watching me with a grin as he wiped the blood pouring from his nose.
"I wasn't sure, thought you might." He cackled and nodded to his men. "They'll shoot you ya know?"
"But can they shoot me before I shoot you?" I reached behind me and pulled out the gun I had tucked in my waist band before. It only had one bullet, but they didn't know that.
"You think your aim is that good?" He asked, stopping trying to stop his nose bleeding, letting it drip down his lips and chin.
"I know it is. I'll walk you to hell myself." I narrowed my eyes as he turned his men and held out a hand.
"Give me a gun." He ordered, but before he could receive one. And before I could fire off a shot myself.
The huge window behind the Joker smashed into a thousand tiny pieces. Not knowing what was happening I dropped to the ground and covered Richards body with my own. Shielding him from the shards of glass that rained down on us.
Guns were now firing, and I kept Richard down with my body, shuffling us further back and under a desk. I finally turned around when Richard was safely under and took in the scene happening before us.
Batman had come crashing in through the window and was fighting the Joker and his men. The Joker was laughing manically as his men were firing at the Batman, who was trying to shield himself. I took out the gun I still had and fired at one of the men shooting, taking out his kneecap with a precise shot. One dropped to the ground and the other hesitated when his companion stopped shooting.
That was all Batman needed and knocked the gun out of the others hand, sending him flying into the wall. Where he slid down now unconscious. I took out the other gun the Joker had given me, aiming at the clown himself. As I fired off a shot though, it only clicked.
It only had the one bullet in it.
The Joker wasn't as foolish as I thought. He didn't trust me with a full ammo clip, had given me one bullet and one chance. He grinned at me, as I threw the gun to the side, it being utterly useless. But the Batman soon turned on the Joker and tackled him to the ground.
I could hear whimpering to my side and Charles was dragging himself across the floor. Trying to get to the door. I immediately got up from under the desk and went over to the worm. Crushing his bullet wound with my foot. Stopping his escape attempt.
Rats will always try and flee a sinking ship. But not this rat.
He screamed in agony, drawing the attention of the Batman who was handcuffing the Joker on the floor.
"Katie?" He asked, seeing me for the first time.
"Hey Bat's." I smiled as I began to shake glass shards from my hair. Still crushing Charles legs under my foot, his screams music to my ears. "How you doing?" I asked.
He only shook his head and smiled. Going back to handcuffing the Joker.
Richard managed to pull himself out from under the desk just as the police stormed into the room. We both held up our arms, it would really have sucked to get this fair and be killed by the police. They quickly herded us off to the side and began to arrest the men who were on the floor.
One of the police men attempted to help Charles up before Richard stopped him.
"Officer, arrest that man for attempted murder!" He pointed to Charles who was quickly handcuffed also. I put a hand on Richards arm as he watched his son being dragged from the room. We stayed in the corner until it was only the Joker left to be taken out.
The Batman was pushing him out, but the Joker stopped in front of me first. Batman was about to force him out, but I held up my hand, stopping him.
"It's fine. Let him say what he wants." I turned my eyes to the Joker who grinned at me, through a bleeding lip and the blood still dripping slowly from his nose. The painted bleeding lips now covered in his real blood, it only served to look even more chilling.
"I'm sure we'll meet again doll." He swayed slightly on his feet from his scuffle with Batman.
"I wouldn't count on it Joker." I smiled slightly, maybe from relief that it was all finally over. "But if we do, I'll be ready." He began to laugh, and the Batman finally shoved him forward and out of the room.
We could hear him laughing all the way down the hallway, when it finally stopped I turned to Richard.
"I'm so sorry Richard." I said, holding back tears. He shook his head and enveloped me in a bear hug.
"Why are you sorry, you saved me. Again." He laughed weakly.
"I'm sorry about Charles, I didn't know until the Joker took me. If I had ever though he would, do something so, so…" I could finish what I was saying. I just sank further into Richards arms and buried my face in his chest.
"I know one thing for certain, I'm taking him out of my will." Richard joked, I laughed despite the situation.
"Let's leave, I think the police will want to talk to us." He finally released me, and I nodded in agreement. I bet they would have a lot of questions for me in particular. How exciting for me, I could hardly wait.
Don't be so pessimistic, maybe we'll get a hot police man?
Still here?
Never getting rid of me honey.
I thought maybe the trauma would bury you somewhere in my mind.
Unlucky ducky, I'm here for the long haul.
Richard and I walked out of the office together, he was leaning on me for support, although we were both in pretty bad shape. Gordon was in the hallway directing his men when he spotted us both hobbling towards him.
"Richard." He nodded respectfully and then turned to me. "We were looking for you." He smiled and I smiled back.
"You found me." I joked and then nodded to Richard. "Can we get him a wheelchair?" I asked, my legs threatening to give out at any second.
"I don't need a wheelchair." Richard protested, but after a slight stumble he relented. "Ok, maybe I do." Gordon signalled to one of the paramedics who had one for casualties. But thankfully no one was seriously injured. The Joker had kept his word. Although he hadn't managed to kill Richard.
But I guess it didn't matter anyway, if Charles had already paid him or not. Charles was heading to prison and the Joker was most likely heading to Arkham. Who knew? Right now I didn't particularly care either. I was tired, too tired to worry about either of them anymore.
I needed a fucking drink.
"Katie?! KATIE!" I could hear my name being screamed and turned just in time to see a frantic Jessie rushing over to me. She tackled me in a tight hug before I could even say hello and crushed my ribcage in her arms.
"How did you even get up here?" Gordon asked, looking around to see where she materialised from.
That's the thing about Jessie, she just shows up. Crashing into your life like a pretty pink glittering wrecking ball.
An out of breath police officer turned up 5 seconds later. "Sorry sir, she ran right past me." He pointed the Jessie and Gordon waved him off. Letting the crazy woman crush me like an anaconda.
I immediately felt her shoulders shaking with tears as she held onto me.
"I was so worried!" She wailed into my shoulder.
"I'm sorry Jessie." I held onto her, rubbing her back as she cried. Smiling slightly at her antics. A normal person would have waited downstairs, not Jessie, she just runs in and tackles me.
"I do need to breathe though." I gasped slightly, she really did have a strong grip for such a small woman. She let me go but gripped onto my arm like a clamp.
"I think we need to have a chat." Gordon sighed, looking towards me once more.
"What do you want to know?" I asked him.
I spent the rest of the night at the hospital. Richard insisted I go with him to get checked out. Even though I told him I was fine, he wouldn't hear it. Gordon asked me a few questions about the Joker, just where we were, what we spoke about if we did. Why the Joker took me, if there was anything of note I had seen.
I told him everything, I wasn't going to protect the Joker, I owed him no loyalty. I was just lucky to still be alive. I don't think my smart mouth would have kept me alive much longer around him. It just doesn't know when to shut the fuck up. I told Gordon about when he took me, where we went. I told him about Charles and how he was paying the Joker to kill his father, so he could take over the company.
I didn't tell him about our conversations, they were too private to me. I didn't want to talk about Lilly or Caleb anymore. My heart couldn't handle it. They weren't important to Gordon anyway, it would only make him look at me with pity and I didn't want that. So, I stayed quiet about that, but told him everything else. When we finally finished I was sitting in Richards hospital room.
He was asleep in his bed and Jessie was asleep on the chair next to me, head in my lap while I brushed her blonde curls. George appeared in the doorway a little later. He was about to speak when I held up a finger in front of my lips.
He came further in and could hear the snores, from both Richard and Jessie. I would never tell her that she snores though, she would kill me.
"Crazy night." He said in a hushed whisper. He brought over a chair to sit closer to me.
"Tell me about it." I sighed, I was beat and wanted my own bed. But guess my apartment was pretty fucked. No door and an active crime scene still. Figures.
"What happened?" He asked, and I realised he was under the desk while everything went down. I hope he wasn't under there for too long. I did tell Gordon about him, and he said he would send an officer to find him.
"I think it's best if your dad tells you. When he wakes up, it's... a lot." George didn't press me about it, simply nodded with a small smile.
"I'm just happy everyone is safe. You know, no one died. Some people are injured but not one fatality."
He leaned back in his chair, looking over to his dad with relief.
"I guess we are only further in your debt." He chuckled, making Jessie stir in my lap.
"Don't you start with that too." I smiled.
He looked to her and then back to me.
"Who is that?" He asked, and I remembered these two haven't met yet.
"My friend Jessie." I whispered back.
He nodded and after a beat asked. "Is she single?" He blushed slightly although he tried to act cool.
"She is kind of seeing Bruce Wayne." They weren't exactly dating, but I'm sure in Jessie's head they were. George rolled his eyes good naturedly.
"He gets all the girls, doesn't he?" He smiled.
"He does have a certain charm with the ladies." I conceded.
A few minutes later I was asleep. I was exhausted from the past few days but finally it was over. I hadn't died, even though I was so sure I was going to. Who the hell gets lucky enough to keep running into the Joker and walk away every time with only some cuts and bruises?
And for once, my smart mouth and sarcastic ass was to thank for it.
Yeah Mrs Woolwich, my smart ass and back chat came in handy after all. Take that you old mathematics teaching hag.
I don't think I would have survived with the Joker if he hadn't found me so intriguing, with a seemingly total disregard for my life. It wasn't that I wasn't scared, because I was all the time around him. I mean ok, mostly annoyed, but scared too.
And I don't think I would ever know for certain what the Joker found so intriguing about me, if anything. Maybe he did it because he was bored, maybe he was really going to kill me in the end.
I'll never know, and I don't think I want to.
I'm just happy the craziness is over with. I can finally go back to my life.
***Authors note***
Next chapter is the final one, the epilogue. But there's still a little twist you don't want to miss...