The Joker lept out of bed that night and ran over to the sink. He left the lights off as he splashed water onto his face hundreds of times. He stood in the puddle, letting the water drip from his hair and face into the sink. He felt like he was back in the hole. Back underground. Alone.
There was some comfort in it. Maybe it was where he belonged. When he was there..he saw her...regularly. He now knew it was all a hallucination. But he wanted it back. He wanted it back so badly. He looked around the dark room and saw it again, the concrete floor, the sink and shower, the enormous black box machine that dispensed his food. It almost felt like home. He looked around for her...
And then he saw her. She was almost transparent...he created her in his mind exactly as he had remembered her.
"Adriana," he said aloud. He rarely said her name, even to her. It was a beautiful name, and it had fit her perfectly.
She walked closer, a small smile on her face. She touched his cheek, her palm warm against his skin.
"Please...say something..." he said to her.
Instead of speaking, she kissed him softly on the cheek. It felt..different. He turned to the mirror behind him. He looked as he did before. Thick scars on his face, long crazy wavy hair, black paint around his eyes, red smeared along his cheeks. Bright white making him almost glow in the dark.
He turned back, afraid she would have disappeared but she was still there.
"I'm sorry," he said. "For everything.."
She frowned a bit, as if wanting him to say more.
"I...I will never kill anyone..." he said to her. "I thought I was done..with killing, with terrorism...but now I know it. I..."
She touched his cheek again, encouraging him to keep speaking.
"I will never put anyone through this.." he said.
He had always though death was a bit funny, he could never relate when he saw people crying over their loved ones. He felt nothing. But now...he saw the truth. It was unjust..it was wrong. He had thought she was dead before, after the Batman had shot her with the poision he had created..but now..he could feel that it was real. It felt like the universe had been broken, thrown off balance. She was his balance.
"I swear it.." he said to her and she nodded.
He swallowed. He had messed up. The last few weeks they were together, they were both so polite but so cold to each other. Denying what was true for the sake of decency.
"I love you," he said for the first time ever.
She smiled and kissed his lips, the sensation almost powerful enough to wake him from his dream.
"I love you too," she said. Her voice making his chest heavy irregularly. He felt something about to spill out of him, overwhelming emotion.
"What do I do?" he asked. "How do I fix this..."
"You can't," she said calmly, as if accepting everything.
"Do...do you want anything from me? Please? I will do anything.." he asked.
"Kiss me," she whispered and pulled him back in.
He knew it was a dream state but it felt impossibly real as he made love to her. Her skin felt warm and smooth, feminine softness surrounding him. When he was inside of her, he felt himself being pulled into another realm..another world...one he never wanted. It felt like something was consuming him, an energy that took him away from his sense of control. He rejected it every time. He did not know it, but he had been the only man to reject it. He did not want to bask in and absorb her gift. He only wanted her. Control and determination held him in the physical realm where he could see her, hear her, memorize every second.
When they were done, he continued to tell her that he loved her over and over again and she just smiled. She looked down, laying beside him, at her abdomen. She appeared pregnant. It was the strangest dream he had ever had but he loved every second.
She took his hand and placed is on her stomach. She was trying to tell him something.
"Adriana.." he asked, wanting her to speak again..at least one more time.
"He's yours.." she said, her voice becoming translucent as she faded away.
She disappeared and for the first time ever, he allowed the emotion to spill over. She was gone and he tried his best to bring her image back but it wouldn't return. He fell to his knees on the floor in front of the sink as he returned to reality and sobbed his heart out. How could people deal with this? How could they deal with death? He had caused countless people this same sorrow, and now he couldn't understand how they survived it. It wasn't fair...it wasn't right...
He opened his eyes and remembered her words. He is yours.
He pulled himself to his feet, barely seeing the hall he went through as his eyes were filled with tears. He went to Dr. Kapoors office and put in the code he had seen over Dr. Kapoor's shoulder once. He went in and went to his desk and opened up a file cabinet. He saw his file and behind it..Adriana Wayne, Arsenio Wayne, Bruce Wayne. The office was too dark so he turned on the lights and opened the file of Arsenio.
Born in September.
There was no picture of the child..just impressions of small hands and feet..tiny fingerprints.
He opened Adriana's file and saw it all.
He saw the blood transfusion after her poisoning. He saw that she had come in with the poisoning..the same date..pregnant. He had his suspicious, the last weeks they were together. It was true..and she had the child.
Bruce Wayne's file was the thickest of all. In fact he had four other files, still in the drawer.
Out of curiosity the Joker opened the file, needing a distraction from the fact that he had a son. He was someone's father. As he flipped thorough what appeared to be a folder full of trauma treatments he began to realize...
The one who had taken her away, saved her life after the poisoning...it was him. Bruce Wayne was the Batman.
