The doors of the warehouse front entrance swung open as Jack and his merry gang of henchmen trailed in one by one. All of them looked a little worse for wear, but it was a surprise for none. They had all expected something like this to go down but not to the extent that it did. The group lost three guys in total, not a lot but it was still a major loss to the small number of men that they already had. Jack knew that at some point he would have to go looking for volunteers to join his small club of followers. The more man-power they had, the better off they'd be in fighting situations.

Jack himself had not actually received any injuries to his body, he preferred his men to do the majority of the fighting and the shooting. Stretching out his tired and aching muscles, he trod into the kitchen to pour himself a well-deserved drink, so he thought. He gave a huge sigh realising that April had drained the last bottle of whiskey and so settled for a couple shots of vodka. He was going to feel that later on. At some point, he would ask the goons to go fetch him more whiskey.

The building was silent, too silent for Jack's liking. Normally he'd hear movement, the sound of the tv or April talking to herself as she so regularly did. If he wasn't so unhinged himself he would've thought it a bit strange. Nevertheless, he realised that she must be sleeping or something like that, and decided not to disturb her just yet.

Plopping himself down on the couch, vodka slipping out of the bottle, Jack switched on an old tv. Clearly stolen. Flicking channels, he reached the Gotham News station and left it on. A story was being read out on the little screen by a small woman, blonde hair, blue eyes and a little dress which colour did not compliment her greatly, Jack chuckled to himself as the reporter read a statement referring to the events of earlier, all of which he remembered greatly due to the fact that he was there.

A small playback clip was shown, cars were blackened and on fire, and goons in clown masks shot at goons in black masks. The shootout had been great, Jack thought, although he was a little disappointed that the deal had not gone ahead. Black Mask was definitely gonna be after his ass for a while now, but he'd figure a way to deal with Sionis sooner or later. Probably later, but Jack would get around to it eventually. He always did. A goon then presented himself in the doorway.

"Uh, boss?" Jack slowly turned his head to face the guy in a clown mask.

"What now? Can't you see I'm busy?" He returned his gaze to the tv, trying to listen to the reporter tell a tale about a gruesome murder that had occurred just a few days ago.

"Boss, Joey's bleedin' out pretty heavily." The goon spoke with a nervousness in his voice. This time, Jack didn't even turn around to acknowledge the man but this time kept his focus on the small tv.

"Take him to April then, you know she's good with that sort of thing." He took a large swig of vodka, gaze still fixed on the small screen.

"Uh, okay, Joker." With that, the goon left the room once again and Jack was left to wallow in his own company. The story of the murder had interested him greatly. The victim in question had been stabbed seventy three times and he wondered how long it had taken before the guy had died. He also wondered how much the whole thing had hurt. It was a peculiar thing to think of, but that was psychopathic clowns for you.

But then a strange thought popped into Jack's head. Whenever he was around April, he was no longer a psychopathic clown but instead a man with emotions and feelings and who actually had a moral sense. It was a strange feeling but he accepted it for he couldn't change his feeling towards the girl. It was true that he loved her, but he was finding it hard adjusting to this person he had kept suppressed for so long.

He tongued the inside of his scars, never quite getting used to the rough and smooth sensation of the mutilated skin. Licking them had become a sort of habit now, he had done it ever since they had healed years ago. They never used to look as bad as they do now, in fact the previous scars had been near invisible once they had fully healed. But a couple years ago, something inside of him snapped, the Joker inside rose up in anger and later on that evening he had slashed away at the scars himself, opening up the skin once more and letting the blood from the open wound pour down his cheeks. The pain had been unbearable for months, but he dealt with it, got used to it and eventually became Joker. The Clown Prince of Crime, a decent title but now his reputation was beginning to slip and the reason for that was because Jack was appearing for longer periods of time and he wondered how long it would be until Joker met his final demise.

Draining the last of the vodka, Jack knew he'd regret that tomorrow once he woke up with a pounding headache that screamed 'hangover' to him over and over. For the first time in a very long while, he stared around the room noticing the state of the place. He remembered that the walls used to be filthy and the carpet so dirty it was impossible to walk on it barefooted without picking up some kind of bacterial infection from whatever was hiding in between the material. Now the walls were cleaner, still not the pearl-white they had once been but the colour had been lifted greatly and the carpet looked now as if it were finally safe to walk on it without shoes on. All of this was because of April. Jack hadn't noticed it before, but she had been cleaning up the place, presumably whilst he had been out doing business or whatever else he did. Admittedly, the place didn't look to shabby now, Jack thought to himself, it was definitely a lot more inhabitable now and he decided that he may just spend more time at home in the future. The goon that had previously interrupted him before had returned, looking more nervous than ever and appeared to be sweating bullets.

"Uh, boss we got another problem." He spoke shakily.

"If Joey's dead, I don't really care." Jack said simply, dropping the empty vodka bottle to the floor next to him, a gentle thud was heard as it landed on the carpet.

"It's not Joey." The goons replied, looking more nervous as he began to get to prime point of the tale he came to tell. " It's April." Jack sat up quickly and turned his head to face the henchmen. "She's gone boss." Jack stared for a few moments, not really taking in what his goon had just said.

"What do you mean 'she's gone'?" He asked.

"Well, I went to look for her like you said, but she wasn't in your room so I looked all over the warehouse and she's not here." The henchmen appeared to be breathing quickly and heavily, afraid of Jack's reaction. Jack picked up the bottle he had previously dropped and jolted into a standing position. Within a few moments he lobbed the bottle toward the door where the goon was standing who proceeded to duck. The bottle hit the nearby wall, glass flew all over the place.

"God dammit!" Jack screamed, running his fingers through his messy green hair. The goon stood back up and prepared to have something else thrown at him. He proceeded to walk out of the door and look for his girl when he noticed something on the kitchen counter that he hadn't previously seen. Picking up, he saw that it was a map of Gotham, a thick red pen had circled a particular building. That must have been where they took her, Jack thought. He also thought about how few his numbers were, and after his run in with Black Mask's goons earlier, he doubtful that he would reach April alive inside Sionis' Steel Mill. He was going to need help, but the people he was thinking of would never help him. He had to try and convince them, it was for April after all.

Knocking the apartment door, Jack was beginning to sweat a little, a strange phenomenon considering he was usually confident with everything he did. But these people were dangerous especially as a group. He shifted around on the spot, no one had answered the door yet and Jack feared that maybe they weren't home, and he'd have to attempt to save April by himself. To his relief, the door opened, but the person who was now facing him didn't look very pleased to see him.

"Why are you here, Joker? Come to hit Harley again?" Pam asked, clearly not impressed that the clown had shown up on her doorstep. She so wished to suffocate him with her plants, but she knew April wouldn't be too happy about that, and so refrained from doing so.

"Uh, no. Actually, I'm here about April." Jack scratched his head, and Pam looked confused.

"Well, she's not here if that's what you're asking." Pamela proceeded to shut the door in his face, but Jack swung his arms out to keep it open.

"I know she's not here." Pam stopped herself from closing the door, for once interested in what Jack had to say. "She's missing." He said. Pam took a deep breath, trying to process what the clown had just told her. She held the door open, inviting him inside the apartment, trusting that what he was saying was true. Harley was not in the main room, presumably hiding after hearing him at the door. They both stood just inside the door, neither of them sitting down.

"What do you mean, she's missing?" I thought she was with you?" Pam questioned. Jack shook his head.

"I don't know. I went out and she was gone by the time I came back. I found this on the kitchen counter." Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out the map. He handed it to Pamela who eye it carefully.

"Why would she go there?"

"I don't know, Ivy."

"And what, you're asking for our help?"

"Yes."

"Why should we help you, Joker?" At this point, Harley had emerged from one of the bedroom, peeking out from the doorframe. Selina had exited the kitchen and now stood just a couple of paces away from Jack and Pam.

"Look, I'm asking you to do this for April, I'm not exactly in Black Masks good books right now, and I won't be able to get through the building with all his guards there. Not in once piece anyway." Jack was pleading with all three women now, something he had never done before.

"We'll do it." Selina said, joining in with the conversation. Pam looked at her, shocked at how quick she was to want to help Jack. "But not for you. For April." Pam now understood, and nodded in agreement. Harley too was now standing a couple paces away from the three of them, and also had her say.

"I want to help, April too." Jack awkwardly nodded, acknowledging her wanting to help. He turned back towards Pam.

"So, no hard feelings between us?" He asked, already knowing what the answer would be. To his surprise, Pam said something he didn't expect.

"If we get April back safely, I'll think about it." Jack attempted a half smile, surprised at the sudden reconciliation Pam was showing him.