"We're going to find her, Bruce," Commissioner Gordon assured Bruce.
Bruce was sitting alone in his home office. A sense of grief came over Bruce, he felt hopeless. His home was full of police officers. They had set up all types of monitoring devices on his phones and were listening to everything at all times. They were expecting a ransom call.
"We had a fight," Bruce confessed to Gordon.
When the police had questioned him before, over half a dozen times, he didn't mention the argument. He told her the time Adriana left. Answered their questions. No she didn't tell him where she was going. No she didn't say when she'd be back. No she didn't say who she was going to see.
"I see," Gordon said to Bruce.
Bruce looked up and at Gordon who was standing a few feet away.
"Aren't you going to ask me what happened?" Bruce asked, expecting Gordon to be suspicious of Bruce's innocence in the situation.
"You argued before she left," Gordon said, as though it was obvious. "I know you didn't hurt your wife, Bruce."
"I said hurtful things to her," Bruce said.
"I'm sure she knows you didn't mean to-" Gordon started to say.
"I threatened to take our son away from her," Bruce blurted out. "I told her...essentially that she was a bad mother. I used her past against her."
"Her past?" Gordon asked.
"You know, she was institutionalized...medicated.." Bruce said.
Gordon knew this very well.
"Yes," Gordon said. "She wasn't sick, Bruce. She had...something unreal within her. A gift that we at the police force relied on heavily for a few years. She did excellent work for us. But living with what she had to live with...no silence, thoughts and memories of everyone around..."
"I know," Bruce said.
"The last time I saw her," Gordon said. "She told me that noise had been silenced. Her abilities were gone."
"That's true," Bruce told him.
"I can't imagine she would be an unfit parent, Bruce," Gordon said.
"She's a great mother," Bruce said and looked away. "I was just...drunk and angry. She told me that she hated me before she left."
"Adriana doesn't hate you, Bruce," Gordon said. "She hated whatever it was you said."
Bruce nodded.
"How can you be so sure she doesn't hate me?" Bruce asked.
"I've known Adriana for a long time," Gordon said with a sigh. "Perhaps this is the downside of what her abilities have done for her. She has an unimaginable capacity to forgive. Beyond reason at times, I would say. I've never met anyone less capable of hatred...and believe me when I say, I've seen her go through some things that have warranted it."
Bruce interlaced his fingers and placed the inner sides of his hands over his eyes and leaned forward on his desk. He felt Gordon's hand firm on his shoulder. Bruce knew it was for reassurance, but inside he felt bereaved..
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"Lovely shack you have here," the Joker said.
The masked man nearly lept out of his skin. He had fallen asleep in a chair in the living room. He heard a voice behind him and felt a gun pressed into the back of his head. He raised his hands slowly.
"Who are you?" the masked man asked through the voice machine covering his mouth.
"Why don't you just take a wild guess?" the Joker said, knowing that his voice was distinctive enough for the man to know. "You've spent a long time trying to track me down. Well, here I am."
The masked man froze.
"Cat got your tongue?" the Joker asked. "Ahh...I get it. You weren't expecting me to make an appearance. No...this was never about me was it?"
The man in the mask remained quiet for a moment.
"I knew you were alive," the masked man said.
"Where is she?" the Joker asked. "In one of the rooms here?"
"Go to hell, I will never tell you-" the masked man said and the Joker hit him so hard on the back of the head that he fell to the floor.
The man on the floor held the back of his head, he was bleeding through the hood of his ski mask. He rolled over onto his side and looked up at the man who had just assaulted him.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked the Joker.
The Joker smiled at him.
"No...," the masked man said. "This is impossible. You're...a cop or-"
"Ahh, no," the Joker said. "I'm the one you refused to feed. The one you beat with a baton."
The masked man was inching away on his back.
"You may as well take off that mask," the Joker said. "Go on, Ricard."
Damien tore the mask off.
"Where is she?" the Joker asked again.
Instead of answering Damien reached for a gun that he thought the Joker didn't see by the radiator. As soon as he reached for it the Joker fired a shot into his shoulder.
"Ahh!" Damien screamed and fell back.
The Joker stepped over him and picked up his gun.
"No worries," the Joker said and backed away. "I will just have a look around if you don't mind."
Damien sobbed as blood poured out of his shoulder and down his chest. He watched the man claiming to be the Joker disappear down the hall.
The Joker went room by room in the cabin, opening and shutting four doors to empty rooms before reaching a door that was locked. He shook the handle for a second before kicking the door in.
He saw Adriana tied to the bed, feet shackled and surrounded by what appeared to be a puddle of blood around her hips. He ran over to her after quickly shoving both guns into the back of his pants.
"Adriana," the Joker said and ran over to her.
Her eyes were still closed and she seemed to be asleep or passed out until he tried to turn her head to face him. She woke up so quickly that he was sure that she was in pain. Something was wrong with her neck.
"Jack.." she said. Her voice sounded labored and dry.
He had the knots around her hands undone in a matter of seconds and then looked at the chains around her feet.
"I'm coming right back," he said and left to get a key.
"Where's the key?" he demanded of Damien who was looking pale and sweating profusely on the floor. "Answer me."
Damien looked away and the Joker walked over to him and grabbed him by the collar.
"Okay!" Damien said immediately as his shoulder shifted into excruciating pain. "Kitchen...top drawer by the fridge-"
The Joker shoved him back down onto the floor with an enormous amount of force and Damien screamed in pain. Once he had the key the Joker went back to Adriana and freed her feet. She seemed to be unconscious again.
The Joker picked her up after carefully cradling her head to avoid moving her neck. He kicked the door back open and started to walk down the hall with her in his arms,
"Jack.." she said again.
"Don't worry," he said to her . "We are leaving. You are safe."
As he made his way to the living room, Adriana saw Damien on the floor. Damien's eyes were wide open as he watched the two of them going to the door.
"Damien?" Adriana asked in utter confusion seeing Damien on the floor.
The Joker stopped walking and Damien looked at them both.
"Adriana I..." Damien started to say.
"I don't...understand," she said.
Damien was quiet and looked at the Joker, still unsure if he believed this man was him.
"Why don't you tell her your little plan?" the Joker asked.
Damien swallowed and looked at Adriana, knowing this time he was losing her forever.
"I was...going to rescue you," Damien said and looked at the blood on her pants, not understanding why she was covered in so much blood. "I was...I never meant for you to get hurt. I thought we'd just keep you here a few days and...I'd be the one to rescue you and you'd see...finally how much I love you-"
"I.." Adriana said, understanding before he finished his sentence. "I want to leave."
As soon as she said it the Joker made his way to the door. Damien called out her name several times but the Joker didn't even pause as he made his way to Lucius' car. He laid Adriana down in the back seat carefully. Again she seemed to go out, immediately closing her eyes and not responding when he asked her if she was okay.
He jumped into the driver's seat and began to drive quickly but carefully.
"Adriana can you hear me?" the Joker called out and looked back at her before looking at the road. "Adriana?"
He heard her let out a small noise and then he breathed a sigh of relief. After driving down back roads for a short while he made it to a street with signs. And a short while later he saw a blue sign. A white H in the middle. Hospital.
Police..hospitals...things the Joker was sure he would never think of using, and now he needed them. The hospital was small in this rural town but he knew they could help her. Once he parked in the parking lot he flung open his door and gently removed her from car.
"Wh..." the Joker heard Adriana asked as he walked to the emergency room doors. "What...is happening?"
"You're going to be alright," he said to her and she looked into his eyes for a few seconds before closing her eyes again.
The doors slid open automatically and the Joker entered the lobby. The two women at the desk immediately stood up and two other nurses came over straight away.
"Have you been in an accident?" the nurse asked as a male nurse came quickly with a stretcher.
"No, I haven't," the Joker said and placed her onto the stretcher in front of him,
As soon as he laid her down and they could see her face, they all recognized her. A doctor came up next and the Joker could see the look of surprise in all of their faces upon seeing the woman that had been all over the news.
It happened so quickly. She was surrounded by doctors and nurses and the Joker watched them take her away.
.
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Gordon looked over at the door to Bruce's office. Someone was knocking and opened before they could respond.
"They found her," the officer said breathlessly as soon as he came in.
Bruce stood up immediately.
"She's alive," the officer clarified. "She's in a hospital in Mount Peran."