"Well..." Gigi said under her breath to her friend. "Maybe in a few weeks. He'll be up for it."

"I don't know.." Angelique said. "This looks bad. I mean..I didn't know he would be this bad.."

They were at the wake of Adriana Wayne. Many friends of Bruce Wayne and some of her family were present. Gigi wanted Bruce and her friend Angelique knew it. It was the only reason Gigi was there. A new widower. Once again the most eligible bachelor in Gotham. She was expecting him to be sad, but generally fine. He had been with countless women, and she thought he would likely get over this quickly.

But when she saw him, she was shocked. It seemed that in a little over one week since his wife's death he looked completely different. It looked like he had lost half of the weight in his body. He was dressed incredibly well on this day but his suit looked a few sizes too big. He had aged almost a decade in just a few days. His face looked gaunt, long, gray. He accepted condolences, handshakes, embraces..but she could see he was completely different. He had always appeared well built physically, muscular and strong, but his musculature seemed to have wasted away. His posture was slightly slumped.

Alfred had noticed the rapid decline as well. He watched Bruce with a heavy heart. He had never seen him so devastated. Alfred could not get the image out of his mind..the sounds of Bruce and Adriana arguing, the sounds of Bruce breaking through a door, Bruce's cries. Alfred had made his way to their room and bathroom that morning.

What he saw before him was something he would never be able to forget. Bruce over her, giving her CPR. Alfred called an ambulance immediately and told Bruce he had done so but he didn't seem to hear him. So many minutes were going by and Alfred could see that she was not breathing. She was gone. But Bruce kept going. Both she and Bruce were not dressed, so Alfred ran to gather things to cover them. When he came back, he saw that Bruce had stopped CPR and was looking at her. In the few short seconds that Alfred had left the bathroom..Bruce had developed several grey hairs. And an entire thick patch of hair behind Bruce's left ear had gone white. Alfred threw a robe over his shoulders. Bruce lept forward again, proceeding with CPR even though it was obvious that she had died. Alfred did his best to contain him, to calm him. Bruce had to be pulled away by paramedics.

"This is pretty miserable, seeing him like this," Gigi said. "Maybe we should get out of here."

"Agreed," Angelique said.

.

The Joker was stopped by security but Lucius happened to see him attempting to come in. Security was extremely tight to avoid any members of the press from coming in.

"He's been invited," Lucius told them as the Joker came in with him.

"Thanks," the Joker said.

The Joker was told by Lucius that he could attend if he wanted to. He had given him a black suit if he decided to come. The Joker did not want to go..he knew he would feel out of place. But he needed to have some closure, otherwise he would never believe that she was actually gone. The energy of the people around him, the energy of grief, it was dark and heavy.

"Who are these people?" the Joker asked Lucius quietly.

"Many friends to give support to Bruce," Lucius answered. "A couple friends of Adriana's"

Lucius and the Joker looked at two women. They both looked incredibly sad..and somehow disappointed.

"Sidi and Aymara," Lucius said their names. "They were very close to Adriana."

The Joker nodded. The sadness in the room seemed to confirm for him that she was gone, even though he could see the casket in the distance, surrounded by huge bouquets and soft lighting. He could not see her though, there were people in the way.

"Those are her parents," Lucius told him.

The Joker looked at the sadness in their eyes. The woman who he assumed to be Adriana's mother was holding another younger woman with both arms who looked like she was seconds away from falling from her seat down to the floor. The Joker couldn't see her face, but could see her body shaking from crying. Her face buried into Adriana's mother's chest.

"Who is she?" the Joker asked Lucius.

"Her name is Harriet," Lucius answered. "Adriana's sister. That's her husband beside her."

The Joker could see the man beside her rubbing her back, trying to comfort her. None of it seemed to be working. He felt horrible for the woman. Feeling horrible for others wasn't something he was used to.

"I...I need to see her," the Joker said about Adriana.

"I know," Lucius said. "Follow me."

He and Lucius began to walk up the front of the room. There was a small crowd of people, looking at though they may have been surrounding one person who was sitting. This is where most of the attention of the room was. The Joker didn't care about anything but seeing Adriana but he happened to glance in the direction of the small crowd.

Bruce Wayne.

The Joker had remembered him being young..a pretty boy...healthy looking. But the man he saw before him looked as if he had just come from war. He looked broken, weathered, dull. The skin of his face appearing to sit limply on the bones of his skull. Dark circles under hanging eyelids. He was looking forward, seemingly mentally absent from the people around him who were regularly placing hands on his shoulders, looking like they were giving him encouraging words. He stared blankly ahead in the direction of the casket.

The Joker had become afraid to look at what Bruce was looking at. He stopped walking, unable to look away from Bruce. The desolation on Wayne's face made him freeze. Lucius had turned back to him.

After pulling himself together, the Joker continued walking. He nodded to Lucius. He still needed to see her.

They had reached the front of the room, a few other people ahead of this forming a line to go by the casket. The Joker looked at the framed picture of her, alive, happy, and smiling. His teeth began to chatter as though he as freezing cold as he began to realize what he was about to do. He blinked away from the photo, gradually moving forward with the line. Pink, red, and white flowers surrounded the beautiful box she was in. It was happening to fast..he was already looking at her.

He still had to take a few more steps forward to where people were standing beside her face. His body was shaking and his teeth were still chattering as he looked down at the body. Lucius held on to his arm, which he was grateful for. He felt that his knees would give out. It was over so fast, he and Lucius were already walking away.

She was truly gone.

As they reached the other side of the room, the line of people seemed to be pausing in front of Bruce Wayne to say something to him, but Lucius began to guide him away from Bruce. At that moment, Bruce glanced away from the casket and at Lucius and the Joker. It was as if he was looking at glass, the Joker thought. The man looked completely vacant and empty. He looked right through them.

They walked a bit more, over by Adriana's family. The Joker still could not see her sister's face. Her body was no longer heaving from crying, her body was completely limp as her mother rocked her. A crumpled tissue fell from her dangling hand and her husband leaned forward to pick it up. His wife unaware of any of it.

Once they had reached the back of the room again the Joker spoke to Lucius.

"I should go sit somewhere..in the back.." the Joker said, and found a row of seats by a back wall that were empty.

"Of course," Lucius said. "I'll be over there if you need me."

The Joker nodded and sat. Once Lucius was gone, he felt himself space out. Now what? He didn't think he understood the world without her. He looked around the room again, which was mostly peaceful..tranquil..though sad. The most grief, everyone could immediately sense, was coming from her sister and her husband. The Joker closed his eyes for a moment. He could relate to them both but he could not let it show. He could tell by their expressions that they were just as saddened as he was.

He tried to focus on his breathing, or something less tragic. He saw someone move past him and sit in the seat next to him but didn't look in their direction at all. But out of the corner of his eye..he recognized them. He turned his head slowly to the man who lifted a glass to his lips. The man looked both sad and angry. He knew this man...the cop.

He saw the Joker looking at him and turned to him. He nodded in greeting and the Joker did not nod back.

"Damien Ricard," he introduced himself and extended a hand but the Joker did not shake it.

He remembered the man beating him, starving him for days. His old self would have been planning this man's demise, how he would kill him. But now..he let it go as best he could.

"Have we met? You look familiar?" Damien said, retracting his extended hand after the neglected handshake.

"Don't know," the Joker answered.

"Excuse me," Damien said after a woman came over to him and reached out her hand. "This is my girlfriend, Barbara."

The Joker nodded and looked away quietly.

"Sit here dear," Damien said. "We'll stay in the back, I'm sure Wayne doesn't want to see me on this day."

"Okay sweetie," the woman said and sat on the other side of Damien.

The Joker stood without saying anything to them and walked away. He needed her back. There had to be a way...there had to be a way to bring her back. But there wasn't. He wandered aimlessly through the halls of the Victorian building and found himself in a small garden, flowers in full bloom.

He found himself hating their beauty. The sun was still shining, flower petals bright and colorful, butterflies moving through that garden. Nature continuing in all it's splendor, as if the most devastating loss of life had not happened. It seemed only appropriate that the world should end. It should be permanent night..no more sunlight. Only darkness, cold, grey colors. Bright sun and a soft summer wind felt like a slap in the face..an insult. He walked through the garden and found a wall of pink roses, and beautiful gate decorated with them. Spontaneously, he felt himself crying. Crying outside, under the bright daylight, it was something he never thought he would do. He leaned against the gate weakly, crushing some of the flowers and he slid down to the ground.

After sitting for a while, trying to accept that the world would go on, the sun would still keep shining, the flowers would still bloom every year, he heard footsteps. Then he heard them stop. He was on the ground and he hoped whoever it was would just go away. They couldn't see him. He looked over at a caterpillar on the ground. It's little life..so far removed from the tragedy above. He heard a man's sobs which broke him from the caterpillar's rippling waves which were hypnotizing him.

The sounds of agony seemed contagious and he began to cry again, trying to be as quiet as possible. He didn't want whoever else was in the garden to know that he was there. But it was too late. He saw the man's shoes a few feet away.

He looked up and saw Bruce Wayne. Both of them with tears streaming down their eyes.

Once they saw each other they pulled themselves together and wiped their tears at the same time.

"Excuse me," Bruce said, seeming to apologize for nothing.

"Yeah," the Joker said, pulling himself to his feet.

"Bruce Wayne," Bruce reached forward to shake the Joker's hand, gathering and composing himself very quickly.

"I'm..." the Joker said remembering what Adriana had told him. "Jack."

Wayne nodded.

"Did you know my wife?" Bruce Wayne asked.

The Joker looked down and away, and then back at Wayne. Somehow both he and Wayne could see the concealed pain each other was hiding. They maintained composure in the exact same way, borderline tears but holding it together.

"Yes," the Joker said and nodded. "I'm...very sorry for you loss."

"Thank you," Wane said. It was the most sincere condolence he had felt all morning. "My wife was..."

Bruce was unsure of why he felt himself opening up to this stranger. Maybe because he felt genuine grief from him that matched his own. He couldn't contain himself...he wanted to sing her praises.

"She was..an amazing woman," Bruce said. 'Who deserved so much better than me."

The Joker looked down again. "She..was a very kind person."

Bruce nodded, tears in his eyes again. The Joker then remembered..this was the Batman. Or so he assumed. He could have been wrong..but who else could afford to be the Batman? It added up...No one would believe this sad, broken man was Gotham's dark knight. Maybe he was wrong? But the folder of treatments for fractures, stab wounds...everything in Dr. Kapoor's office.

They were enemies, but right now...they were the same. Holding the same love and emotion..the same loss and grief.