Harley felt her life start to spiral out of control in the next few weeks after hearing of Sophie's death. The sun still shone, the rain still fell, the wind still blew, but Harley couldn't feel any of it. When she and the Joker would rob banks and do other various jobs, she simply went through the motions, but she wasn't the same person she used to be. There was no way she could be. Never a laugh escaped Harley's lips again after that, and nothing in the world seemed funny, anymore. When Harley would dream at night, she always dreamed of Sophie, alive and well, hysterically giggling and bouncing around in her bright and cheery costume, running and tightly hugging Harley every time they met. The cruelest parts of her dreams were the sheer vividness of them. When Harley would start awake, she swore she could still feel Sophie's sweet, warm embrace around her waist, and most of the time, Harley would then burst into gut-wrenching sobs when she realized it was all just a dream, and that Sophie was never, ever coming back again. That in itself was pure torture, and she could barely handle it.

One particular day had been a rough one, and unfortunately had caused Harley to feel extra depressed. She had taken an afternoon nap to try and make herself feel better but was again visited by a cruel, vivid nightmare where Sophie had entered the hideout just as she always used to, full of loud and happy giggles as the hyenas bounded to her for pats and licks. But, as Harley dashed to her for a hug, Sophie slowly disappeared into thin air before Harley could even touch her. When Harley had woken up, she saw she'd been gripping Sprinkles tightly in one of her hands, and she began weeping loudly into her pillow for an hour afterward, completely in despair over never being able to hug her sweetie pie again.

That same evening, the Joker sat at a table, vigorously writing and scratching on a large piece of paper, trying to come up with his next big plan. Harley had not been helping him at that time. The fire of rogue enthusiasm inside of her was dead. It had died with Sophie, and even if Harley had tried as hard as she could to at least pretend to be normal in front of her puddin', on that specific evening, she hadn't been able to fake it at all. So, she simply quietly sat on Sophie's bed in a trance, gently but absentmindedly rubbing Bud and Lou's heads as she cradled Sprinkles in her lap. Both animals knew their mother wasn't feeling well, and they hated it. They too had still noticed the lingering absence of Sophie, and they had often used her bed as their own, taking in her faint smells, just waiting for their "little sister" to come back home again, but unfortunately, to no avail.

Despite her neverending sadness, Harley was smart enough to remain silent as she sat near the Joker as he worked up on his mini "work platform," but after a while, he glared down at her.

"I'm going to take a nap," the Joker snapped, throwing a pencil down at her. "If you're just gonna sit and mope around all day holding that stupid stuffed rabbit, at least I won't have to look at you!"

Harley didn't say a word, nor had she flinched when the pencil had ricocheted off her shoulder and fell to the floor. It wasn't as if she had anything to say, anyway. She just stroked her two fur babies still in a quiet trance, thinking about the vivid dream she'd been cursed with a few hours earlier. Harley was in such deep thought that she didn't notice when the door to the hideout creaked open, but Bud and Lou were on their feet in a heartbeat. No stranger dare enter their house as long as they had anything to say about it. They both growled and whined, making a beeline to the front door. In half a second, they bounded on whatever it was that had intruded.

Harley slowly stood up off the bed, still in a confused daze. She started to walk over to the door, thinking the wind must have opened it and a stray animal had wandered in. "What are you two doing?" she asked her fur babies.

As Harley walked closer, she suddenly heard loud, hysterical, high-pitched giggles.

"Hey, stop it, you guys! That tickles! Get off me!"

Harley saw nothing but Bud and Lou "attacking" something, and she was sure she was dreaming, again. "Knock it off you two. You're gonna piss off Mister J if you wake him up!"

"Harley!" cried the voice again. "Harley, make 'em stop!"

Harley ignored the voice as if it wasn't there. "Hey, babies, c'mon! Enough! Come here!"

Upon hearing Harley's stern voice, the two furry animals stopped their attack and happily trotted away. Harley blinked her eyes a few times when she looked down at the ground. Her eyes must have been deceiving her because she knew there was no way she could possibly have been seeing what she thought she was seeing. The tiny figure which had been pinned to the ground by the two ferocious beasts wiped her face with her sleeve and stood up with another giggle, gently kicking her backpack in front of them.

Harley just gaped at the person once her mind registered who she was staring at. "S-sophie?" Harley stammered, gulping loudly. After all the times she had been fooled before by crazy hallucinations, she didn't believe what she saw, and figured she would wake up any second from the horribly realistic nightmare. "No, it can't be you. Ya know how I know? 'Cause Bratgirl told me there was an accident, and...th-there was an explosion, so...how could...how did...?"

Sophie just giggled and shrugged her shoulders coyly.

"There's only one explanation. You're not real. That's all there is to it. You're not real," Harley said finally, with a loud, heavy sigh as she slumped down to the floor. "You're just an...incredibly real figment of my imagination."

Sophie giggled louder and more intensely, sitting down next to her. "Yeah, but, the only thing is...is that I am real, Harley!"

Harley shook her head. "I don't believe it."

"But, you have to believe it! I'm here!" Sophie cried as she snickered. "It's really me!"

Harley stared at her, quizzically. "I'm not so sure. Ya know, I've had dreams that made it seem like you were real, but you weren't. I bet I'm gonna wake up any minute and this will all have been just a fake, terrible nightmare."

Sophie shook her head, still laughing. "Don't be silly, Harley!" She threw her hands up into the air. "Look, it really is me! How can I prove it to you?"

"Well, there are a few ways to find out," Harley said, pointedly.

Before Sophie knew what was happening, Harley shoved her backward onto the floor and began her usual, albeit surefire torture of her tiny, ticklish friend, digging her hands deep into Sophie's ribs and squeezing as tightly as she possibly could, to be certain this really was Sophie, and not just a cruel, vivid prank.

"N-no, wait!" Sophie shrieked under the pressure as she dissolved into the loudest, most intense giggles she'd ever experienced as she was pinned to the ground, squirming as she tried and get away. "Listen! It's me, Harley! I-it's me!" Sophie squealed and snorted as tears fell from her eyes. "I p-promise!" she gasped loudly as Harley refused to stop, simply digging her fingers in even more deeply, making Sophie cry and snort in hysterics. "Y-you really are just a c-crazy clown, Harley Quinn!"

In an instant, Harley stopped her torture and gasped, remembering that sentence was one of the first things Sophie had said to her when they had first met. She pulled Sophie up from the floor to a seated position, her eyes wide as she shook her head in disbelief. "No, but...but it can't be! You're...you're supposed to be dead!"

Sophie's cheeks were bright pink from her laughter, and she giggled as she wiped her eyes. "Sorry to disappoint you, darling, but I'm not! I'm back!"

Harley stared at her, the look in her eyes as if she still didn't believe it, as if she couldn't believe it. She still had one last test. She slowly and carefully reached her hand out and stroked Sophie's flushed cheeks a little, making Sophie grin, widely. Harley bit her lip and shook her head again as she gently pinched one of her cheeks, then took both hands and pinched them at the same time, taking in a deep breath. Finally, she cupped Sophie's face in her hands and rubbed her cheeks with her thumbs, making Sophie giggle. She herself put her hands on top of Harley's, Harley gasped as she felt the unmistakable warmth that only came from one person she knew, and she gazed directly into Sophie's eyes, getting lost in them like as if she were out in the ocean. Harley swore she saw a tiny sparkle glimmer back at her, the glimmer of her one and only beloved Sophie.

"Oh...oh!" Harley gasped, her eyes wide with realization as she put the two pieces of the puzzle together. "It...it's really you!"

Sophie burst into giggles and grinned as she nodded. "I told ya!"

"Oh, sweetie!" Harley suddenly cried out, as if she was woken from a dream. "You're alive! You're really alive!" She felt tears streak down her face as she kissed Sophie's forehead, then her nose, and pinched her cheeks again before she kissed them three times. Harley couldn't help but wrap her arms around Sophie, suddenly feeling all of the bottled-up emotions getting the better of her for the millionth time as she wept with pure joy. "Oh, you're back! You're back!"

Sophie couldn't move an inch under Harley's tight grasp, but she didn't mind. She just simply returned the hug, holding on tightly as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sweet embrace of her friend once again, wishing she never had to let her go.

"Hey!" the Joker's voice boomed from behind them. "What's all this rack-" began the Joker in an angry rage as the two girls quickly jumped up as they saw him come in. He stopped short when he noticed who was standing in their presence. "You?" he gasped, loudly, jabbing his finger at Sophie. "But, you're supposed to be dead!"

Sophie giggled loudly and shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry to disappoint ya, darling, but I'm not. I came back!"

The Joker fumed beside them. "Now wait just a minute, Little Miss Ocean Eyes!" He bellowed angrily, making both girls gasp. "What do you mean, you came back? We gave you away, remember? Harley said she didn't want you, anymore!"

Sophie's grin slowly fell, and she glanced nervously at Harley. "Oh, but, I-"

"Aw, Puddin', would you just shut your trap?" Harley suddenly snapped, startling both the Joker and Sophie at her quick outburst. "I didn't mean a darn word of what I told those people!" Harley turned to Sophie and took her face in her hands, seriously. "I only said that stuff so you would want to leave, little bunny! I...I didn't mean anything I said that day! Really! I didn't mean a single word of it! I promise you, I didn't!"

Sophie giggled and took Harley's hands in hers. "Ya know what? Instead of just high-tailing it outta the orphanage the first chance I got, I just decided to stick around for a little bit, and I used some of the cool tricks you taught me, Harley!" She giggled and put her hands under her chin. "I was just as cute and sweet as I could be, and I got myself adopted by a real nice family just like you said I should. A real...rich family," she said, slyly. "One that lived so far away from Gotham City that I'd never even heard of the place before! They didn't know a darn thing about my shady mom, so they adopted me on the spot! And wow, they had everything you could imagine! They were completely loaded! I was just like, "Annie," but like, a million times better!" Sophie smiled a little. "But...but the whole time, I missed you so much, Harley, and even if you...even if you said you didn't want me, I..." She looked up at Harley with her huge eyes. "I...I just had to come back Gotham as soon as I could, 'cause..." She gulped as she felt tears form in her eyes. "'Cause I...'cause I wanted to tell you that I was sorry for being so mean to you that last day...and to tell you that...that I do love you, even if you said you didn't love me. And..." she sniffed and wiped her eyes. "And...I wanted to tell you that even if I said I did...that I...I don't hate you, Harley Quinn. Not even one teeny weeny itsy bitsy bit!"

Harley burst into tears again and hugged Sophie once more, kissing her on her wet cheeks. "Oh, sweetie! I'm never, ever, ever giving you up again! You have no idea how much I love you! I love you more than anything, and I'm so happy you came back to me!"

"Me too! I'm the happiest person ever!" Sophie wiped her eyes and giggled so happily and intensely that she snorted a little. "Oops," she said, blushing and covering her mouth with her hand, embarrassed again. She dropped her hand from her mouth, shaking her head. "Oh, I hate when that always happens if I laugh too hard! I gotta get that under control and stop laughing so much all the time!"

Harley, on the other hand, thought she would die of happiness the moment she heard it, and she kissed Sophie's forehead. "No way, cutie. You're never allowed to stop laughing like that. That's an order!" She grinned, her eyes filling with happy tears as she pulled Sophie into another hug. She would have hugged her forever if she could have. "Just stay the sweetest, happiest, smiliest, laughingiest girl I know, and you can laugh as much as you want now that you're finally back home!"

Sophie couldn't stop the giggles that escaped, again. "Well, okay, I think I can manage that!" she cried, hugging Harley tighter. "Oh, I'm so happy to be home again, I could laugh forever, now!"

The Joker clenched his fists tightly and glared at the two girls. "Back home again?" he asked with a little chortle. "Oh, wait just a minute! Listen up, Rat. You can't just disappear for so long, die, and then suddenly come waltzing back in here completely empty-handed! That's not how membership in this gang works! You gotta earn your keep! That's how it works around here!"

Harley's face fell, and she gasped. "But, but Puddin'!"

"Don't 'But Puddin' me! Who the heck does she think she is?" the Joker spat.

Sophie smiled a little, completely unphased by the Joker's sudden angry outburst. She let go of Harley without a word, and her smile faded as she turned serious. She slowly picked up her tattered backpack from the floor and held it in her hands. Looking square in the Joker's eyes, she spoke. "I'm Sophie Michelle Pieska, formally known as Miss Sophie Thurston, who unfortunately died alongside her loving and doting adoptive parents in a tragic and freak boating accident." Sophie blinked her eyes, never taking her gaze off of him. "I'm otherwise, and preferably known as Sweetie Pie. I'm the newest, and undisputed official member of the Joker's Gang. And I believe this," she said, unzipping her backpack. "Belongs to you."

With one quick flourish, she dumped the contents of her bag onto the floor at the Joker's feet. Diamonds, rubies, jewels, necklaces, bracelets, rings, pearls, and cash of outrageously high denominations collected into a nice, neat pile. Harley was speechless, and she gasped. The Joker bent down, reaching his hand into the pile of precious and obviously highly expensive items. He didn't speak, he just relished in what he saw before him as he let the objects fall between his gloved fingers. He couldn't even calculate the price of the things Sophie had just supplied them with.

"After all," Sophie continued, a small, evil smile creeping onto her face as she unzipped the second compartment of her backpack and pulled out two sticks of dynamite and a pack of matches. Sophie casually tossed her "toys" onto the floor, and the Joker and Harley gaped from the explosives to each other, back to Sophie, their eyes wide, in awe. "You guys really didn't think I'd come away from a job empty-handed, did ya?"

Fin