Title: Control

Fandom: The Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: OC/Joker/Harley

Genre: Drama/Angst

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own the Joker or Batman.

A/N: Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-Six

As Lacy drove to the docks she let her mind wander. Everything was going to end tonight. One way or another, there would be finality and her plans would be no more. Either the Joker would succeed in killing her or she would succeed in killing him. It all depended on who gained the most control over the other.

So far, she had been the one in control. She had been the one controlling him like he had puppet strings. She prevented him from killing numerous people and causing countless dollars of destruction. She had controlled the perception the citizens of Gotham held about him. Also, she controlled his relationship with Harley.

Harley was the only person who actually loved him for who he was now. While she had loved him for the man he used to be, Harley loved him for the monster he had become. And now she was going to have the pleasure of telling him that he killed Harley for nothing.

She wasn't completely sure how much it would devastate him. He would probably play it off and pretend that it didn't bother him at all, but she would be able to know the truth. She would be able to see just how much he had actually cared about Harley. Even if he didn't care about her too much, he would still be angry that she was able to manipulate him in that manner and that would be enough for her.

Her thoughts settled briefly on Bruce and Alfred. Her relationship with Bruce was a complicated mess. Even she didn't know how to describe it. The normal labels of friend, boyfriend, ex, and protector didn't seem to explain it thoroughly enough. They had been through a lot together and she cherished the fact that she had gotten to know him.

She had feelings for him; however, she didn't think it was love—at least not in the romantic sense. There were times when she thought she loved him, but she wasn't in love with him. While she was attracted to him she was also a realist and knew that a relationship with him would never work out. There were too many obstacles in their way.

Alfred had been incredibly supportive to her these past years. Although they hadn't communicated everyday, it was always nice to know that she had someone in the world that cared about what happened to her. She hadn't had that in a really long time and it felt nice.

But as nice as it was to have people who cared about her, that made what she was about to go even harder.

She realized she was almost to the docks and knew she had to put on her game face. She had to stall him long enough for Vincent's men to take out the Joker's men. That meant she had to make sure that they stayed on the docks talking for at least fifteen minutes. It wasn't a hard task to undertake, but would still require her to be on guard the whole time.

She arrived at the docks and got out of her car, shutting the door and shoving the key into her pocket. Before leaving Vincent's office she had made sure that her gun was securely tucked into her jeans in the back and that she still had a knife tucked away in each of her boots. They were her insurance policies.

She took a quick glance at her watch and saw that it was 7:58. She was two minutes early, but figured that he was already there so she started to walk towards the back of the warehouse. She was acutely aware of her surroundings, watching everything around her.

After a few moments she turned a corner and saw the Joker standing there, facing her with a huge grin on his face. She took a deep breath and the slowly released it. This was what she had waited a long time for and felt ready. Still, she couldn't help having butterflies in her stomach.

She walked up to him, leaving about six feet of space between them. Standing there stone-faced, she crossed her arms as she stared at his face.

"What?" He acted hurt. "I don't get a hug and kiss? It's been so long since we've seen each other. You're really ruining this perfect reunion moment."

"Sorry." She smirked and chuckled softly. "But it hasn't been that long since we've seen each other."

He looked confused. "What do you mean?"

She didn't hesitate to explain. "Did Harley seem different at all during the Halloween party? Almost like she was two different people?"

He stared at her, remembering that night. Harley had seemed different during the dance they shared. He had just chalked it up to her trying to be more aggressive before settling back into her submissive role. But now that he thought about it more, he realized that it could have been Lacy he danced with. "You mean…"

"Yep. Sorry." She replied, closing the space between them and slowly walking around him as if stalking her prey. "That dance…those kisses…it was all me." She whispered into his ear before moving back to where she had previously been standing.

He laughed. It all made sense to him now. He had no idea how he could have been that blind. Of course it was Lacy! That's why Harley seemed so different—because it wasn't her. He felt like a fool. "Oooh. That's clever."

"Thank you." She smiled. "I knew I had to find some way to sneak that ring and the card into your pocket."

"I have to hand it to you, I'm mildly impressed." He admitted.

"Only mildly?" She questioned.

"Well you're not as clever as I am." He boasted.

"I wouldn't bet on that." She rolled her eyes. She doubted he would continue to be only mildly impressed when she let him know everything that she had been up to since coming back to Gotham.

"That argument is subjective anyway, but it's not why I wanted you to come here tonight." He told her.

"So enlighten me then." She commanded. "Why did you want me to come here tonight?"

"I would like to end this thing we have going on between us." He told her with a smile on his face. "I know you're probably angry about the whole 'attempted murder' thing, but that was two years ago and we need to move past this. There's no reason to bring the police into our personal problems."

He had decided that he would try to appeal to her and get her to believe that he wasn't trying to kill her before he made his move. He figured that with a few select words he would be able to get her eating out of his hand again.

She knew what he was doing. He was trying to get her to lower her guard by making it seem like he didn't want her dead. Well she would play into it for now. "Who says I'm mad about the 'attempted murder' thing?"

He raised his eyebrow as he looked at her. "All I have to do is look at your face and I can see it in your eyes."

"Fair enough." She conceded. "I am still mad about that. But it's only one of the many things I'm still mad about."

"And what I'm suggesting is that we both simply move on." He replied. "Don't you think it's time we both moved past this whole thing?"

"And just how would you suggest we do that?" She asked.

"You stop working with the police and I stop trying to kill you." He explained. "You know, it broke my heart having to kill you before. I almost couldn't do it."

She chuckled. "That's not how I remember it. I remember you were having the time of your life, basking in the fact that you were ending my life."

"Well I am a good actor." He pointed out. "Look, I understand why you went to the police for protection. I wasn't being nice to you. I don't blame you for wanting to protect yourself. But times have changed and you don't need protection from me anymore. In fact, if you wanted to, you could come back to me and we could start over."

She tried desperately not to laugh at his offer. There was no way in hell she would ever get back together with him, not after everything he had done to her. But she had to play along and pretended to consider his offer. "There's only one problem with that offer. I don't trust you."

"I don't trust you entirely either." He admitted. "But I'm willing to try and trust if you are. I've missed you and I think that we can make a good team. Imagine what we could do if we joined forces. You probably have more contacts with the police than I do now and we could cause a lot of chaos together."

She stared at him for a few moments. He was good, she had to give him credit for that. A lesser, more naïve woman would have fallen for this by now, but she wasn't naïve and she knew what he was doing. Still, she would play along for now to keep him talking. "See, I don't know if I could ever trust you."

"I know I've done some things to you that you haven't necessarily liked…" He started.

She laughed and interrupted him. "Well let's see. You killed my boss, my friend Chris, almost killed Alfred and Bruce, almost killed me and carved up my stomach. And that's only a fraction of the things you've done to me."

"Ok." He conceded. "So I may have done a lot of things that you haven't liked. I'm not apologizing for it."

"Of course you aren't." She rolled her eyes. Her gaze fell to behind him, where three of Vincent's men were slowly making their way closer to them. Obviously Vincent's men had been able to complete their task of disabling the Joker's men and were now working on phase two of her plan.

After seeing that, she knew she only had to keep him talking to her for a few more moments. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to reject your less than generous offer though. While I do agree that we need to settle this thing between us, I won't be coming back to you. Why don't you just admit the real reason why you tracked me down and had me meet you here tonight?"

"And what would that real reason be?" He asked. He should have known that she would be too smart to fall for his act this time. But he had hoped she would.

"You want to kill me," she announced, "just like you killed Harley."

He figured he might as well drop his act and admit it. "Ok. You've got me. I might have lured you here with the sole intention of killing you."

She saw that Vincent's men were almost right behind the Joker and smiled. "It's just too bad you won't get the chance to do it."

He laughed. "And why would say that? My men are crawling all around this area and you are all alone here. You, my dear, are outnumbered and outsmarted."

"I wouldn't bet on that." She quipped as two of Vincent's men grabbed on to the Joker's arms. The third placed a black hood over the Joker's face and she moved quickly to inject him with a special tranquilizer that she had Crane manufacture for this occasion.

The Joker struggled against Vincent's men for a few moments before going limp. "Good work guys." She praised. "Now let's move him to the warehouse."