Chapter Two

A bright light sat above a single chair sat in the middle of the otherwise dark room, the light blinding Lena as Johnny motioned for her to sit down.
"So Johnny, this is your little song bird?" a voice came out of the darkness, lena had yet to see who it was that spoke but she took note that whoever it was made it sound like she belonged to Johnny.
"Yes sir." Johnny replied with unseen confidence.

"So birdy, would you give us a song?" The voice asked well more like it demanded from her. Lena sat straighter in the chair and began to sing the words came out effortlessly as she closed her eyes imagining musical accompaniment.

'In the land of Gods and Monsters

I was an Angel

Living in the garden of evil

Screwed up, scared, doing anything that I needed

Shining like a fiery beacon'

You got that medicine I need
Fame, Liquor, Love give it to me slowly
Put your hands on my waist, do it softly
Me and God, we don't get along so now I sing

No one's gonna take my soul away
I'm living like Jim Morrison
Headed towards a fucked up holiday
Motel sprees, sprees and I'm singing
'Fuck yeah give it to me this is heaven, what I truly
Want'
It's innocence lost
Innocence lost'

Lena pulled herself from her singing in time to see that the man before her had shocking green hair, piercing blue eyes and had skin paler than porcelain. His lips that were painted blood red curled into a smile as he looked at her, his gaze powerful and his smile persuasive. That was how she had met the joker, it was all very civilised but there was something about him that made Lena think of her father, dark, violent and possibly a little insane.

Lena must have been around 3 years old when she remembered the first time she met her father. He'd been away with the army and had been away for the three years where she had walked the earth already.

"Lena...you get to meet daddy today."Rick spoke softly to the little girl as he braided her hair. That time had come where their father arrived home and he all but ignored the little girl but not for her lack of trying.

"Take the kid for ice cream" their father handed Rick money all but pushing them out the door.

"Come on Lena we can go get ice cream." The little girl followed her older brother from the house, how terrible it had been for her to have been pushed away by not just one parent but both.

"You'lldo it then Eleanor, sing for us here at the club?" Lena had missed whatever it was that had been said beforehand. She had also missed that he had called her Eleanor which was a name she had very rarely used herself so how he knew was only a mystery. She only nodded in response still dazed from her flashback they'd never gone that far back before and it had caught her off guard.

"Good, I'm glad I'll have Johnny boy pick you up Saturday, it has been a pleasure songbird." The joker laughed, Lena felt the chills right down to her bones it was a sound that was uncomfortable upon the ears and she sure that was the response he wanted.

"Thank you for the opportunity." Lena spoke quietly but clearly.

"Well isn't she a darling?" The slightly inane man looked over to her as another light in the room was turned on, a tall lamp stood near a desk.

"Don't disappoint me, I'm not opposed to pushing kids back into the gutter." Joker replied with a smile on his face, what was a child or near adult to him? When he had already killed so many others before?

Lena nodded again before standing to leave, to say she was shaken was an understatement but the man she had met made her feel both uncomfortable and at ease all at once. Once out of the office Lena let out a deep breath, she had been holding it in for most of the meeting.

Her doe eyes scanned the club itself, a strip club, women walking around scantily clad and some in no clothing at all. The blush rose on her cheeks she was convinced that she was the colour of a tomato by now.

"Oh look at this pretty little thing, J seems to be getting them in younger and younger."

"Some of the other men will eat her up."

"Literally." Three of the said scantily clad women had passed Lena talking amongst themselves choosing to stop.

"I... I'm just a singer." She spoke quickly the women almost missed what she had said.

"Sure girly and I'm the queen of England." One of the women cackled.

"That's how it starts for someone of us you know, we came here to sing and next think you know we take our clothes off for old men." Another spoke, it was obvious to anyone other than Lena what it was they were trying to do, but she was still so young and naïve.

"Knock it off girls, come on Birdy." Johnny appeared from the office placing a hand on Lena's back as he escorted her out of the seedy club and into the waiting car.

Johnny opened the door of the black Rolls Royce, she gave him a small smile as she stepped in settling into the seat as she did. She pulled a hand over her mouth and yawned as Johnny pulled himself into the driver's seat.
"Don't worry about them…they're harmless." He spoke softly as he looked over at her, Johnny couldn't work out what it was about her but he felt himself being drawn to Lena.
"How did he…how did he know my name." Lena looked over at him, her vulnerability showing threw as was a little fear.
"I don't know…Eleanor is a beautiful name, you should use it." He spoke truthfully if Joker heard him talking like that he would have probably shot him for being weak.
"Thank you." Lena mumbled as she rested her head against the passenger window as she tried to fight her instinct to sleep right there and then.
"Sleep if you're tired." Johnny spoke more harshly than he had wanted too but Lena hadn't heard as she had already fallen asleep.

It took longer than usual to drive from one side of Gotham, according to the radio there had been a shootout downtown, Johnny laughed it was something that was predictable especially for a Friday evening. He looked over at Lena wondering how exactly he was going to get the young woman out of the car and into her apartment without people thinking he was some sort of criminal…well he was already one of those but for some reason Johnny didn't want Lena to see him that way.

"Lena…Lena wake up." His attempt to rouse her gently didn't seem to work neither did a gentle arm on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry." Lena mumbled as her long eyelashes fluttered open looking over at him with her bleary doe eyes.
"It's fine, I'll pick you up tomorrow." Johnny spoke as he looked at anywhere other than at her, leaning over Lena placed a delicate kiss on his rough cheek before stepping out of the car.

Yawning Lena made her way up the steps of her apartment building before keying her security number into the keypad. The door buzzed as Lena struggled to push it open managing to slip inside she ran up the four flights of stairs to her apartment. She pulled the keys from her pocket with ease her lucky rabbit foot turned keyring attempting to unlock her apartment door. Lena pushed the heavy duty door open slipping inside to her place of safety.

Lena glanced over at the green Bakelite phone expecting it too ring but why would it when no one had her number? A loud grumble emanated loudly from her stomach as she groaned dipping into her pocket to retrieve her keys, before pulling open her apartment door again and heading out into the cold. Upon exiting her building Lena noticed a certain black rolls Royce still stood out front, choosing to ignore it and carried on walking.
"Lena…wait." Johnny shouted out after her immediately regretting his decision, he'd always been told never to get involved with the help.

Lena whipped around to see Johnny striding up behind her, she mentally noted just how good he looked in his suit, shaking the thought away quickly.

"Did you need something?" Lena spoke softly her voice almost lost in the light breeze.

"You shouldn't be walking out here alone at night, there's bad people around." Seriousness laced Johnny's voice as Lena only laughed.

"Well the only stranger that has ever approached me at night is you but thank you for your concern." She began walking again, Johnny smirked he liked to see her cocky side.

"He likes us far more than he should."

"We shouldn't want to get involved with him, he's a thug."

"We like him too don't we?"

"We most certainly do not, he just did us a favour that's it nothing more.

The constant chatter of the voices died down only a little as she stood in front of her favourite bakery, she pushed herself against the door as it opened with a creak and a ring of a bell.

The old lady sat behind the counter didn't even look up from her erotic novel as Lena made her way over, she briefly looked over the menu overhead.
"can I get two slices of coffee cake, a black coffee and a tea with lemon and honey." A voice behind her spoke out loudly, she turned to see none other than Johnny Frost.
"I'd call the police but after meeting your boss, I have a feeling they wouldn't do anything." Lena spoke softly yet her words bit into him like a rabid dog
"a mouth like that will get you killed." He sighed as he watched her attempt at being tough.
"Really, well you better start unloading that gun of yours into my pretty little head." Lena found a table out towards the back peeling off her coat, he followed her taking a seat.

"You're not leaving anytime soon are you? Can't a girl celebrate her birthday alone?" Lena sighed heavily.

"It's your birthday?" Johnny seemed surprised, but from what his boss had found out about her, birthdays weren't a celebrated thing, Lena just hummed in response to his question, having grown tired of talking. The two sat in silence until the cake and drinks arrived when they both murmured a quick 'thank you' before digging in.

"Why are you following me?" Lena looked over at him" a glint of seriousness in her doe eyes.
"Boss told me to keep an eye on you." He responded, it was almost like a pre-programmed comeback and it probably was.
"I'm no one important." Lena uttered softly, it was true she was a nobody.

"Not yet." Johnny replied it's almost as if knew more about Lena's future than she did and it was a little disorientating.

Lena sighed it was obvious he wasn't going to tell her anything and she shouldn't have expected him too, they carried on eating in silence until a ringing phone disrupted the comfortable silence.
"Boss?" Lena showed very little interest in the phone call.
"I'll be back in 10 minutes, just going to walk the girl back." Johnny hang up the phone before standing up quickly, Lena looked up at him before taking another sip of her tea.
"You don't have to walk me back."
"the cars still parked up outside your building so I might as well, come on shift your ass." Lena only nodded in reply as she pulled on her coat before standing. She called a short 'goodbye' to the lady behind the counter who only raised a hand in gesture as they both left the small bakery.

"Well least he's walking us back, that's nice of him."
"Good thing we agreed to go with him, shouldn't have told him about it being our birthday though, he's probably pitying us right now."

"oh shut up all of you." Lena whispered to herself but not quite quietly enough as Johnny turned back to look her.

"I'm fine." Looking over at him as he simply nodded and carried on walking, she really probably should go see a doctor on account of the voices, but she wasn't about to admit to anyone that she was crazy. With a sigh Lena's mind wandered back to her brother and she wondered what it was that he was doing right now.

"Take the kid to the park." Colonel Flag looked over at his children
"You're not coming?" Rick made the mistake of questioning his father although he didn't expect the backhander he got across his left cheek especially not in front of Lena, the little girl stood there wide eyed as she pulled at her older brother's hand.

Once the pair had arrived at the small park in the next street over, Lena looked up to rick and asked him such an innocent question.
"Does daddy hate us?" the five-year-old having not quite understood what happened.
"No, he just expects us to behave, so when we go back home you have to be good and do as your told okay?" Rick told her as gently as he could despite being able to taste blood in his mouth.
"I promise; I'll be good big brother." The younger girl smiled brightly as she ran off to go play with the other kids, the other parents at the playground always assumed that he was her father due to the fact he looked a lot older than he really was. He never stopped to correct them either.

Lena shook her head as she walked straight into Johnny it was almost like she had walked into a brick wall.
"Get your head out of the clouds Eleanor and come back down to earth." He chided her as he turned round to look at her, it was at that moment that he realised just how fragile she was.
"Sorry, you better go, I don't want your boss to get mad." Johnny laughed, it was like Lena already knew about the Joker's odd behaviour but he was also touched that she cared enough about him getting in trouble. Although he knew for a fact that he had seen four or five of his 'rivals' in his walk to find Lena.

Lena leant up and kissed him on the cheek before walking up the steps to her building, waving as she stepped through the door and headed up to her own apartment. Sighing heavily as she got into her own apartment, Lena found spending time with other people emotionally and physically draining.

End of Chapter Two

I apologise for not having this chapter up yesterday, so as I said in my other fic I will be uploading a chapter of each opposing Mondays, thank you all so much for reading, favouriting, following and reviewing I really do appreciate it.