Title: I Love You…I'll Kill You

Fandom: The Dark Knight

Rating: M

Pairing: Joker/OC

Genre: Drama/Angst

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

A/N: Glad to know that people are enjoying this story! I have some twists and turns coming up so I hope they don't disappoint!

Chapter Fifty-Two

"So, let's see." The Joker said, examining Lacy's exposed stomach. "I have to make sure that I plan everything out perfectly or I'll run out of room and that would really suck." He looked up at her. "What's wrong? Are you scared?"

She wanted to scream and tell him to go hell, and then run away from him but she was trapped. There was no way for her to move. The drugs he had given her completely took away all mobility she had. All she could do was watch and listen.

When she didn't respond he smiled. "You know, I love it that you can't talk right now. It means that I can finally say everything that's been on my mind lately and you can't interrupt me."

He placed his hands on her stomach, roughly measuring and trying to figure out the best way to do what he was planning. "I've had a lot of fun lately killing your boss and then also Chris. Planning Chris' death was the most fun I've had in years, although I think tonight will top that."

He smiled as he thought about what he was planning for her. "The only problem with Chris' death was that it was so tiring. I had all this planning to do and of course none of my men seem to be smart enough to follow directions. I had to spell everything out for them step by step, and even then some didn't know what the hell they were supposed to be doing!"

He shook his head and stopped what he was doing for a moment. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find henchmen that are actually intelligent! I mean, except for a few, most of my guys are idiots. And I know what you're thinking. But it's not because I'm not selective enough when hiring them. It's just that the smart criminals end up becoming bosses themselves. There are few intelligent criminals that don't try and be bosses."

He looked over at her and patted her shoulder. "Sorry. I'm rambling and getting off topic. Where was I?" He thought for a moment. "Oh yeah. Chris's death. It took a lot of planning and effort to make sure that you would enter that elevator at the correct time. I didn't want you to get there too soon or else he might not be completely dead yet, and I didn't want you to get there too late or else all of his blood would've already spilled to the floor. Part of the genius of the plot was timing it just right so that you would end up getting blood all over you from above."

He went over to a nearby file cabinet and pulled out a couple of tools that would be necessary for what he planned to do to her. "Of course, early on in the planning I realized that I would need a lot more blood in that elevator than just Chris' if I was going to truly traumatize you. So, being the gentleman that I am, I sacrificed a few of my own men for the cause. But it sure was worth it. Wasn't it?"

He laughed as he looked at her, almost expecting her to answer but knowing that there was no way that she would. "Your boss' murder, well that was done more on the spur of the moment. It wasn't my best work, but I think it got the point across. You should have seen the looks in their eyes right before I killed them. It was priceless. Strangely enough, no matter how many people I kill, I never get tired of seeing it."

He pulled out his knife, examining it to make sure that it was sharp and clean enough. "Chris was the best of the two. You know that he actually believed that you were going to save him by getting him out of the country? It was so great being able to show him just how wrong he was."

He was finally ready to begin his work and grinned. "Ok. I guess it's time to get this show on the road. I bet you're beginning to wonder what I'm going to do." He looked her in the eyes and noted the panic as she stared at the knife. "Well I could tell you, but it would ruin the surprise so I'm going to do it and then show you."

With precision skill, he started cutting into her skin, digging deeply and causing blood to flow from the wounds. Slowly and methodically he made the incisions, constantly having to wipe away the excess blood with a cloth so that he could see what he was doing.

"You're being a very good patient." He praised with a chuckle. "You haven't said one word throughout this whole thing, even though I'm sure it must hurt like hell."

She wanted to cry out, scream in pain, then jump up and stick the knife into him a few thousand times, but she was stuck. She couldn't even grit her teeth, but she could feel every slice he made into her skin. Every cut seemed to hurt worse than the one before and for a few moments she wished for death to escape the pain. But she wasn't gong to be that weak.

She refused to give in to the pain, because if she did, she would be giving up. And she wasn't a quitter. She could endure this.

He hummed softly as he finished his carving. "There!" He exclaimed happily. "That part is done. Now let's do something about the bleeding because I don't want you to bleed to death. You deserve much better than that."

He picked up the small blowtorch that was sitting nearby and turned it on. "You know I am always amazed by the ways that people used to do things before there were advances in technology. Take, for instance, the wounds that I just inflicted upon you."

He held the blowtorch close to her face, close enough for her to feel heat but not be burned by it. "Now we have procedures to stitch them up and repair any damage to the skin. But in the old days, people didn't always have access to a needle and thread. A lot of people ended up dying because they would bleed to death."

He shook his head and bowed his head. "It's really sad when you think about it. But then someone clever realized that if you heat the wound, it clots the blood and prevents people from bleeding to death! I believe it is called cauterization. Cool name, huh?"

He chuckled. "I would love to know just how someone found that out. I wonder if it's too much to hope for that it's a gruesome story…Anyway, I was thinking about it, and I would love to know if it actually works. So I'm going to try it out on you!"

She couldn't believe that he was going to do that to her. She knew a little about cauterization, having seen a documentary about it on the history channel once. It had been primarily done on soldiers in war zones who had lost limbs on the battlefield. They would put direct heat on the wound, but the heat usually damaged the tissue surrounding the wound, sometimes completely killing the tissue.

She also heard that it was extremely painful and usually only done after giving the patient something to counteract the pain. But she had a feeling he wasn't going to be generous and spare her the pain. He seemed determined to make her death as painful as possible.

He had been busy getting the metal cauter that he would use to clot her wounds out, examining it and making sure it was ready. Then he stuck it in the path of the flame from the blowtorch, making sure that it got nice and hot.

"I don't know if this will hurt or not so I'm going to rely on you to let me know if you need something for the pain. Ok?" He asked, knowing that there was no way she would be able to tell him how much it hurt. He was well aware that it was going to cause her a lot of pain and relished the fact that she couldn't scream.

"Ok. Here we go!" He joyfully squealed as he placed the hot cauter on her skin. He left it there for about fifteen seconds before pulling it away again. "Well that is cool!"

As he heated it up again so that he could continue cauterizing the rest of her wounds, he explained why it was so cool looking. "It completely clotted it! And it did it so quickly. I wonder why we bother stitching people up with a needle and thread. This is just so much more fun!"

She certainly didn't think it was fun. Although the cuts he made into her stomach hurt like hell, the cauterization seemed to hurt ten times worse than that. She felt so helpless and wanted nothing more than to give into the pain and sink into the abyss that was calling her name. But she couldn't. She couldn't give him that satisfaction. She had to fight for as long as she could, even though it hurt more than anything she had ever experienced.

"Well that wasn't so bad." He commented when he was done cauterizing her wounds. "You didn't make a peep. You're such a good patient!" He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the lips and stayed close to her face for a moment. "How are you feeling right now, my dear?"

He looked into her eyes and saw the pain and suffering mixed in with hatred. "Wow. If looks could kill I have a feeling I would be dead right now." He laughed. "Too bad for you that you can't even hurt a fly right now."

He sighed, pleased with his work. "Well do you want to see the finished product?" He grabbed a digital camera from nearby and took a picture of her stomach. Then he cued up the camera so that the picture was displayed and placed it in front of her eyes. "See? I think it's beautiful, might even be the best work I've ever done."

She would have started to cry again if her tear ducts hadn't been paralyzed. Now that the wounds had been cauterized and weren't bleeding anymore, the cuts he had made were clearly visible. He had carved the words 'Mrs. Joker 4-ever' onto her stomach. It was enough to make her sick to her stomach and she wished she could close her eyes to escape having to look at the picture.

After a few minutes he removed the picture from her view. "We have to get going now." He pulled out his cell phone. "Get in here. It's time to go." He barked into the phone.

A few seconds later he saw Chip and Dale come into the room. "One of you, pick her up. The other one, grab that bag on the floor. Both of you follow me."

Dale chose to pick up Lacy and carry her to their next destination, which wasn't too far away. He looked down and saw what the Joker had carved into her, feeling bad for her. While he was aware that the Joker was going to kill her tonight, he wasn't aware that there was going to be such gruesome tactics used.

He wondered how the Joker could do this to Lacy. Apparently they had been married, which meant that at some point he loved Lacy. Right? So how could he do something like this to her? He had always known the Joker was crazy but somehow held to the belief that if the Joker ever was in love with a woman, he wouldn't do this kind of stuff to her. Maybe it was naïve of him to think that, but he couldn't help it.

The Joker, Chip, Dale and Lacy all left the warehouse out the front door, unaware of the intruder sneaking in through the back door and just missing them by a few seconds.