Neither of them is really looking for an escape when they meet in the middle of chaos unleashed by Gotham's Crown Prince of Crime. But when they notice that neither of them is really eager for a fight and that there's no one around to stop them... the decision to leave, for just a little while, doesn't seem like a very bad one.

OR!

The continuation no one asked for in which Vigilante and Harley Quinn bond over emotional distress.

This takes place around a year after the events of the last few installments in this series- specifically a year after Batman and STRIPE throw Green Arrow out the airlock. Just know that this is very much crack treated seriously and I have no regrets.

~..~..~

~"Batman, I think we've got a problem."~

Batman frowned, more than aware that if it was Jason saying this that there truly was a threat involved, and made quick work of tying up the unconscious madman that had unleashed hell on Gotham just a few nights before Halloween.

"What can you see, Hood?" the Joker's limp body crumpled into itself once he had finished making sure he would not be able to hurt anyone else for the night and he straightened up to survey the scenery around him.

~"It's not what I can see- it's what I can't. Have you had any visual on Vigilante?"~

No, he had not. Not ever since he had arrived on the scene to fight one-on-one against the Joker while the rest of his family held the rest of the villains off. Vigilante had been focused on Harley Quinn and watching his back- and he'd clearly done a good job of it because their fight had not gotten interrupted.

But now that Jason had called his attention to this... he couldn't find his partner.

He frowned as he began to move in the direction of Vigilante's last known location.

Amusement Mile was a decrepit, broken down place that ranged for miles. There were plenty of nooks and crannies that Joker had taken advantage of for a troublesome albeit creative battlefield- the last place that he had seen his partner had been not too far from him, fighting near an overturned and completely dilapidated hot dog stand.

There had been explosions caused by the Joker that had thrown them all out of sorts and Batman had lost visual contact with both Vigilante and Harley Quinn, but he had not thought much of it. Vigilante was more than capable as a fighter; while Harley Quinn could be a challenge, there was not a single doubt within his head over who would win such a bout.

Still, he could not see anybody around him other than the knocked out Joker.

"Has anyone seen Vigilante or Harley Quinn?" he spoke into the general line now, glaring down at a destroyed patch of ground that could have been caused by Quinn's preferred form of violence.

Every single hero that had joined him in quelling this most recent threat to Gotham's safety answered in the negative. For a moment, he allowed himself to feel relief upon knowing that everyone else had made it through the fight and had responded. After that brief moment, he allowed worry to enshroud him for just a few seconds.

And then he frowned heavily as he stood up from the ground, "Oracle, comb through all security recordings within a ten mile radius of Amusement Mile. There aren't that many exit points Quinn could have taken."

Because there was no possible explanation to Vigilante's disappearance other than it having something to do with Harley Quinn.


As soon as Batman had asked about Vigilante's location, she had set about bringing up all nearby camera feeds to attempt and find any trace of him. By the time he had asked her to do just this, she had already found the location of where Vigilante and Harley Quinn were currently in.

She was, admittedly, dumbstruck as soon as she was able to understand the image that her eyes were attempting to relay to her brain.

She had been about to attempt to explain to Batman what she was witnessing when her communicator pinged- a communication from Vigilante himself.

"Vig?" her tone was cautious, her speed slow. Even though she was sure that what she was saying was not some illusion conjured up by any of their enemies... she could not properly believe what she was seeing.

~"Howdy, Oracle. Now, I ain't gonna mince words 'cause I know y'all're probably already searchin' fer me."~ in the footage she was seeing, she saw the way in which Vigilante helped Harley Quinn settle on the motorcycle's seat, right behind him. As he continued to speak, she witnessed the villain carefully, prudently, wrap her arms around his waist and make a point of keeping some distance between her and his back. ~"I ain't been kidnapped an' Harley Quinn ain't blackmailed me or nothin'. She an' I are just goin' for a bit of a ride."~

Batman's comm line beeped, signalling his attempts to get into communication with her again.

In the video feed, she saw Vigilante revving up the motorcycle. On his line, she was able to hear the tell tale rumbling of it coming to life.

"Vigilante." she struggled to think.

~"I'm aware it might sound like someone's stolen my rudder,"~ Tim had mentioned at one point that he had a bad habit of not speaking English, this was the first time she had witnessed such a thing, though. Somehow, it was easier to try and figure out that phrase might mean that trying to really understand what she was witnessing. ~"But I know what I'm doin'."~

The bike was ready to roar off.

Batman was trying more insistently to get a hold of her.

~"Think you could keep the rest from huntin' us down 'til I ask y'all to come over? Think I need a spell of solitude for a while."~

Barbara blinked at the computer screen before her- only to gasp when the man in the feed looked up directly in the camera she was using to look at them. Vigilante knew what he was doing; knew that he was looking directly into the camera she was using to observe him.

~"Ain't really solitude if you ain't alone, cowboy."~

After many years in this game, Barbara liked to believe that she knew what most of the villains in Gotham sounded like. After going toe-to-toe against Harley Quinn on countless occasions, she had thoroughly believed she had heard every variation her tone of voice could adopt.

She was proven wrong.

Harley sounded small.

"Do me the favor and keep the rest o' the family from sniffin' out my trail for now, Oracle. Please. I'll keep in contact with you an' ain't 'bout to shake your trackers." with one hand, he adjusted the brim of his hat, then turned to look forwards and prepare himself to drive off. "Just please make sure the rest ain't 'bout to chase us down 'fore we're ready."

And then the roar of was motorcycle was deafening.


"I dunno, ma'am... if it's yer anniversary... what're y'all doin' tryin' to get Batman's attention?"

She had never met a real life cowboy before.

Sure, she'd seen plenty images of them in her old school books, just like she'd seen a couple of movies where some romanticized version of them appeared. Her particular favorite cowboy up until this night had been Jedediah from Night at the Museum- his friendship with that cute Roman guy had always sent her giggling whenever she'd rewatched those films.

"what're y'all doin' tryin' to get Batman's attention?"

Harley huffed, crossing her arms over the knees she had pulled up to her chest. The denim jacket Vigilante had lent her smelled of the kind of rich and thick perfume she had never seen the Joker even contemplate wearing. It was helping her warm up and the scent, although strong, wasn't... bad. It smelled a lot better than the nauseating, artificial cologne her now ex had never even attempted to replace, no matter how many times she'd gotten him new scents to try out.

She preferred her mind replaying Vigilante's most heartrending question, admittedly. That kept her from replaying all of the horrible things it would undoubtedly supply her with once the shock of a hero giving her the time of day subsided.

Right now, with her heart shattering into a million pieces, it was kind of nice to not have the Joker's final words to her playing on repeat in her brain.

Her eyes burned now, but she had no more tears left to cry. Her nose had finally cleared up from all of the snot that had accumulated when she had finally allowed herself to collapse and sob. Her face was still too hot and her body too cold, but at least Vigilante's jacket was doing a good job of warming her body up. The cool night sky was helping mellow her face.

Tonight had been a night of revelations.

Yesterday had been the most cursed day of her existence.

And tomorrow... she wasn't quite sure what was going to happen tomorrow.

Tomorrow was technically going to be today within a few minutes... but that wasn't something she was going to think too much about.

"If it's yer anniversary..."

Their tenth anniversary, to be accurate. It had been a decade since she had decided to dedicate her whole life to what had been the love of her life.

It had been a decade she had lost.

When she heard the soft jangling of spurs, she immediately knew that it was because Vigilante had finally come back with the cheeseburger and fries she had disinterestedly asked for.

When she glanced over in the direction of the sound, she found that the hero that she had just met a few hours ago was, in fact, coming back with a greasy, tall, brown paper bag clasped in both hands. The lighting in the beach was dog-shit, but they had decided to sit beneath one of the few lampposts that actually had a functioning light, so she could at least see as much.

"Hope the wait wasn't too long."

This was supposed to feel surreal to her.

The very idea of spending her midnight hours beside a superhero was crazy enough to make even her question such a possibility. Throw into that hypothetical weirdness that she wasn't under active threat to be thrown in the slammer as soon as this guy got bored of her... and... well... this was all supposed to feel like a dream that could turn into a nightmare at any given second.

But it just felt... like... nothing.

This may just be the dissociation talking, granted, but Harley didn't really feel like much at the moment. The undercurrents of shame and pain, along with the biting of rage and hate, were still there, at the back of her mind... but mostly, right now... she was just... numb. She knew that the things that were happening were happening, just like she knew this was odd... but it still felt as if this couldn't be happening.

What else was she supposed to feel, after all? She'd thrown herself into the arms of someone that had never loved her for the past ten years... and now it amounted to absolutely nothing. Because before, at least, the bastard had been able to make it seem like he actually did care for her. But now? Now there was no way for her to deny herself the truth. And, in a way, she would much rather think that this couldn't be happening rather than it wasn't happening...

Her brain wasn't making any sense.

Vigilante pulled out a styrofoam container from within the bag and offered it up to her. She looked at the bright white container for a second before reaching out for it, noticing how off it felt in her hands. As she pulled the container closer to herself, she heard the softest rustling of the paper bag.

"They didn't have any soda- ran out, 'pparently. Hope you don't mind plain water." spurs jangled as he moved once again; she looked up in time to find him circling behind her and then he was gone from sight. "I'll be sittin' behind yuh while we eat- if'n you don't mind."

"Secret identity." she sighed softly, immediately catching on to the reason why he wouldn't want to sit beside her while they eat. "Right."

"Wouldn't be much of a secret if you saw my face, I reckon." the thing was, she found herself thinking as she opened up her container and her nose was hit by the mixing of a cheeseburger's grease with the ocean's breeze, that there was absolutely no bite to any of the cowboy's words. His words could have been a mean-spirited joke, could have been said to insinuate that she was too stupid to understand by herself that his secret identity needed to be protected... but they had felt like he was really just pointing out that fact.

She could feel some of his body heat radiate behind her, alerting her to the fact that he had, in fact, sat down behind her. She felt a tap at her shoulder and shifted slightly to the side, only to find a bottle of water offered her way. She took it with a mumble of gratitude, quickly turning back to face the ocean.

Gotham's beaches were usually ugly things with too much litter strewn all around and jagged rocks lining the whole shore. The spot that Vigilante had chosen for them lay in public land that crested against rich people's apartments, though, which meant that the scenery was much less trash riddled and a lot more like normal, non-Gothamite beaches.

It was... a nice change of pace, really.

The languid lapping of the waves was a soothing sound when accompanied with the soft, barely audible chatter coming from the apartment's behind her, along with the steady, soft breeze.

When she took a bite of her cheeseburger, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually tasted pretty damn serviceable. Her fries were a bit on the soggy side, but the taste was still good enough. All in all, the makeshift meal the cowboy had managed to scrounge up from a foodtruck she hadn't even been able to get a look at had been a pretty good one- especially considering the time he had found it.

When she finished her meal- damn, she had been hungry, huh?- she couldn't stop the heavy yawn that escaped her lips. She swore she heard something behind her, like a soft hum, and then Vigilante was breaking the silence between them.

"If you wanna lean on back, you can. Y'can use my back."

A part of her was trying to scream and shout at her that this was all some cruel trick being played on her. Superheroes would, very probably, give her a free meal if she didn't seem like that big of a threat. But no person, no matter how charitable and soft-hearted, would ever let her lean against them as if they were something like friends.

But a much larger, much more tired part of her won out. She'd been awake for more than twenty four hours at this point and most of that time had been spent nursing a broken heart without properly being able to take care of it. She had needed to hide her true feelings away for so long that she deserved some kind of reprieve... even if only for a little.

She didn't control her descent as much as she would have liked- which wound up with her own back thudding against Vigilante's broad, incredibly sturdy own. A small huff of surprise left her and not much later, the cowboy was chuckling softly.

"Everythin' alright back there?" once again, she took note of the true lack of bite to his words. Right now, she was starting to find that more refreshing than worrying.

She really was tired.

"Well, considerin' I just found out the love of my life's been harboring a crush for our greatest enemy for the better part of a decade and I am now effectively homeless... yeah, you could say I'm doin' pretty alright all things considered." her head fell back in the space between his shoulders and she rolled her shoulders so she could properly relax against him.

His sharp intake of breath immediately alerted her to her words having struck something within him.

And even though she understood very well under which parameters they had both agreed to this, she was still not ready to really talk about it. Jokes were one thing. Snide remarks were another, even easier thing. But actually talking about the thing that she was joking about? No. Not yet.

"Anyone ever tell ya you're built like a fridge?"

It took a bit, but eventually his own shoulders relaxed against her. And then they were just two people, leaning on each other, sharing a meaningless conversation about Vigilante's strong frame.

Again, this was probably supposed to feel surreal to her. But right now, it was only just starting to feel real.

"You gotta see my partner. Now he's built like an ox."

Partner.

Romantic partner, without a doubt.

She knew who he was talking about, of course, because he had been the reason they had even managed to speak to each other before really trying to beat the shit out of one another.

Think what she might about the coldness of the Bat... but apparently... he believed in her.

"How tall are you two, anyhow?" she prodded, only marginally invested in keeping this conversation alive. But, well, if she did, she could continue stalling. And that was a victory in and of itself.

"You know, I ain't rightly sure. Upwards of the six feet, I'd guess." he shrugged, then he pressed back against her as she heard sand sliding behind her. After a few seconds of readjusting, he sighed softly. "Miss Quinn... you know neither of us is 'ere to ponder 'bout mine or Batman's heights."

She wanted to groan loudly. She wanted to scream, too. And she knew she was building her energy back up to, eventually, feeling like punching someone in their face.

She only sighed softly as she really allowed all of her weight to rest against the man's broad back.

"What's there to really talk about?" she frowned, staring off into the calm ocean that teased her. How dare the world remain unchanged even as her whole life shattered right before her eyes? "My now ex-boyfriend decided that our anniversary was the perfect date to attempt to destroy your boyfriend on. He didn't even remember that it was our anniversary- hence his newest title. I was an idiot and he took advantage of that."

Silence.

Now she heard the creaking of styrofoam being closed up.

Then she felt his arms moving about for a few seconds.

And, finally, Vigilante was speaking once again.

"I'm real sorry you had to go through that."

And she wanted to laugh at the absurdity of him sounding like he actually meant his words.

Because who could ever feel sorry for her? She had been the Joker's lover and partner in crime for so long that all of his misdeeds were basically hers. Every single crime he committed was, tangentially, related back to her. And he was a horrible person- always had been, really. She had just made herself believe that he was a horrible person to everyone but her.

"I wasn't exaggeratin' when I said that Batman thinks there's a spark of good in you. He ain't the kind of guy to ever really speak much 'bout his criminals, y'hear, and yet... he ain't never thought you unreachable." she scoffed at this because that was such a goody two shoes thing to think. Vigilante simply huffed, a sound that registered as more humored than annoyed to her. "Well, as long as the clown wasn't 'round, I mean."

And Harley... closed her eyes now.

It wasn't like Vigilante had seen her, so it's not like she even had to lie about why. But the stinging that suddenly began to bite at her eyes came from tears rather than from salty sea breeze and she didn't like that.

First, she was well and truly alone for the first time in so long.

Second... she'd thrown her life away for a total loser that had been pining after someone that would never love him like that like a complete buffoon.

But, third... The Bat had believed in her?

He'd never... she sighed now, heavily, at herself. Even if he had attempted to make her see reason, she never would have until today.

She was such a walking cliché.

They lapsed back into silence at that, Vigilante allowing her to roast in her own thoughts while she continued to lean against him.

She beat herself up some more for every single bad decision she had ever made, starting with taking that stupid job at Arkham so long ago. Vigilante allowed her, only really interrupting her at one point to ask if it was alright for him to put on some music- she'd agreed without even really thinking about what that could have meant.

By the time they were on the fifth old song about heartbreak- the kind of music she had once heard her grandparents listening to-, she noticed how... not uncomfortable she felt.

Her heart was breaking into a million different pieces, she was fully coming to understand how badly she had screwed her whole life over, and all she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and never come out... she was well and truly alone because her ex had done an exemplary job of completely isolating her from anyone that had shown any ounce of care for her well being... and yet, she was leaning against this cowboy's back with clichéd and soothing tunes about heartaches and breakups because he had put it on.

She didn't really have friends- at least, not now that she could clearly see that the people she had been surrounded by up until only a few hours ago weren't real friends.

But she was struck by the sudden thought that this was, very possibly, something she would have done with a real friend if she had managed to actually keep one around.

Because wasn't running off to the beach at midnight to listen to depressing tunes and eat food truck food something that friends would do?

And in that stupid second... Harley could see herself actually becoming friends with this stupidly kind cowboy that had done nothing but be there for someone that he shouldn't even like.

It would never happen... of course...

As more tears began to burn in her eyes, she cleared her throat.

"So, what's your anniversary related sadness 'bout?" her voice was rough and she could feel her nose slowly becoming congested once more, even as she fought off the tears. She hated the fact that this bout of tears only had a tiny bit to do with her stupid, selfish, asshole of an ex.

Vigilante sighed heavily, "It's a long story, really."

And now it was her that was shrugging, then she pressed the center of her head steadily against his back for a second before relaxing, "Ain't like we ain't got all the time in the world."

She felt him shift a bit more, then he was speaking up, "I had a son many years ago... his death happened on November first. An' e'erytime that date rolls 'round..." his voice lowered, taking on a regretful tone. "I ain't myself. It... it still hurts a lot."

So he had run from his precious Bat family to spend some time with an aching Harley Quinn because... he was sad?

No, that couldn't be it. Not only was that too small in the grand scope of everything that had happened, that didn't really include the number one reason they were both here.

Harley remained silent, though, and waited for him to continue talking. She could tell from just his voice that saying this much was affecting him. She wasn't about to figuratively bite the hand that had literally fed her by being impatient.

"Batman wants ta propose to me on that day."

And that came out her from such nowhere that she jolted forward at the absolute shock. Quickly, she turned to the side to get a look at him, just to make sure that he wasn't lying, but shifted her sight away as soon as she remembered that he was supposed to have taken off his mask while they had eaten.

"You alright there?" and a few seconds later, Vigilante's masked face was in her line of vision, looking down at her with narrowed, worried green eyes.

The guy had pretty eyes, too.

"Yeah, yeah." she waved him off, settling herself back onto the sand, before breathing out heavily- her heart was going to be hammering in her chest for a little while, so it was best to just ignore it for now. "Did he really think of that?"

The reason why they were both here was no big surprise... then again, maybe that was just the dissociation speaking again. She hadn't heard about Batman having a romantic partner in his life until a day ago, when Donnie had brought the news to the rest of their goons. Ever since he and Selina had split, she had thought that he would continue living his life of almost-solitude, only surrounded by his army of Robins and ex-Robins.

She had heard of Vigilante before. She'd seen evidence of him in Gotham a handful of times, too. But she had thought that he was just another friend from the League. It wasn't farfetched for Superman or Wonder Woman to appear in Gotham every once in a while, after all.

Vigilante had confirmed that they had been together for a while before they had agreed to take this miniature vacation from their real lives. But he had just now confirmed that the Bat wasn't nearly as smart as she had once believed him.

Who even did that sort of thing?!

A villain, that's who.

It sounded like exactly the kind of thing Joker would have tried to do at some point, after all.

Vigilante sat down beside her, bending his left leg at the knee while bringing that foot closer to himself, even if he left his right leg splayed out in front of him. With a heavy sigh, she saw him nod his head slowly from her periphery vision. "Yeah, he did..." with nothing short of regret, he admitted, "It ain't outta malice, I know. He just wants ta give a new meanin' to one of the worst days of my life."

That was no excuse.

Harley found herself huffing as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Vigilante, what I'm about to say, I say in the role of the kind of friend I know I'm not but I also know you need," she wasn't about to say anything as a psychologist or therapist, more than aware that she was not in the right frame of mind for such words, but she could at least say this much. Vigilante had basically treated her like a friend, she could return the favor. "His intentions don't matter. That's fucked up."

"But-"

"No buts mister." it came much too naturally to her to turn to him with an accusatory finger pointed, "How could he think he could possibly give 'new meanin' to the anniversary of your son's death?"

Vigilante winced and his whole body shriveled, somehow becoming small- a true feat for someone so big. His head lowered and his shoulders hunched and she didn't have to be any kind of mind reader to know that this shit had really hit him hard.

Hell, it had to have hit him hard if he had thought that the only solution available to him had been to run away for the night with Harley freaking Quinn of all people.

"All he sees when November rolls 'round is me hidin' away from everyone." she witnessed him exhibit even more self-conscious, self-minimizing behaviors in the way Vigilante pulled both of his long legs up to his chest, then hugged his knees to himself... in exactly the same way she had done some time ago. "I ain't like that most o' the year. An' I'm real good at handlin' most things... it's just... I haven't moved past my son's death."

She found that hard to believe.

As up in her own ass as she had been for the past few years, she could see someone that wasn't coping adequately with these kinds of situations from a mile away. And while it was clear to her that this guy was still hurting from his son's death, it didn't seem like he was crippled by it.

"Would you say your relationship with the Bat is strong?"

Sue her, she was pulling a bit of a psychologist moment on him. But it was literally the least she could do for a guy that had treated her with more humanity than her ex had for the past decade they had been together.

"Huh?" he took a moment to contemplate this, turning his gaze onto the ocean she had been looking at for so long. "Reckon so. He's thinkin' 'bout marriage, after all."

"And are you thinking about marriage?"

He didn't respond immediately. She kept quiet, allowing him to find his voice, just watching his body language to see what it could tell her. Most of what she could glean from it, admittedly, was guilt. It was odd, really, seeing someone she had begun to see as larger than life within only a few hours of knowing him like this. "Next step in a relationship like ours. An' it ain't like I got a reason to not want to marry him... he's just 'bout as perfect as a human can get."

Her body was slowly beginning to feel like her own again. Her mind was focusing specifically on the task at hand. And while she knew that focusing on someone else's issues wasn't going to solve any of her own... she quite enjoyed being able to give herself a reprieve from her own sadness to instead try and help someone else.

Huh. Batman had had a point.

"But I hear hesitation and I don't hear eagerness." he sighed heavily, but didn't argue. "What's going through your mind when you get to worrying about marrying Batman? What's making you think it wouldn't be a good idea?"

It took some coaxing and a lot of work around questions, but, eventually, after hours were spent with Vigilante trying to convince her that he didn't feel nearly as bad about the whole issue as he did and the sky was beginning to glow the faintest of orange, signalling the coming of the sun... eventually, she was able to get down to the root of his issue.

And she told it to him as she saw it as soon as she found it because of a plethora of reasons. Mainly, though, it was because this was a guy that had reached out to her when she had needed it most who wasn't capable of asking for his own help, which meant he would have stewed in these issues until he fully drowned in them.

"Vigilante, you ain't afraid of marrying the love of your life. You love him, don't worry about that." his eyes were closed but his body was stiff- that was alright, they had been going at this for hours now and she was only really being held awake by her drive to try and do some good in the world. "But you're afraid of erasing your past- by extension, you're worried that by marrying Batman and opening up that new chapter in your life, you'll somehow be erasing your son."

He had gotten around to telling her he had once called him Stuff, but she hadn't gotten a proper name. It hadn't felt right, really, calling the boy by anything other than 'your son', though.

She was supposed to be a great big supervillain that should have jumped at the chance to destroy any superhero.

She didn't quite feel like causing much destruction and mayhem today, though.

"But change is a normal part of life. You getting married ain't gonna change the fact that you had a son; just like it ain't gonna change how much you still love him." Vigilante hid his head beneath his hat- she would never mention how she saw a tear rolling down his left eye before he had completed the movement. "An' I think you should talk to the Bat 'bout this. You ain't stuck in the past and you should be proud of yourself. But you're beating yourself up over livin' and that ain't right."

Once those words had left her mouth, Harley felt lighter.

Her eyes were incredibly heavy, her whole body was aching, her throat was uncomfortably raw, and she was sure that her hair would not be very fun to get through once she got her hands on a hairbrush.

"Miss Quinn." Vigilante's voice was just as raw as her throat felt and she could hear he was fighting back tears.

"Yeah?"

He cleared his throat, relaxing his body out of the tightly knit ball he had managed to create of himself. He crossed his legs to sit up, all the while offering his left arm out to her. "Could I please hug yuh?"

For the first few seconds, she just stared at the arm, waiting for something to happen... but when nothing did, she noticed that there was no danger around her. This was just a hurting man offering her the chance to say no if she didn't want to hug him.

The smile that came onto her face was a small one. "Yeah." and she scooted closer until he was able to grab her and pull her in. She did gasp out slightly at the suddenness of the motion, having expected much slower movements, but still melted into the embrace within milliseconds of their bodies connecting.

The position was kind of awkward, with her still on her knees as most of her upper body was plastered into his side. But she really didn't feel like she would have put up much of a fight to change anything. She just wrapped both of her own arms around what she could and... stayed there.

If Vigilante's shoulders began to shake and his voice gave out from all of the sobbing... well, it's not like anyone would ever know.


"Angel Eyes, I've said it before an' I'll say it again- you ain't gotta apologize."

He frowned down at his hands, unable to force himself to look Greg in his eyes.

He hadn't come here to apologize again. He had simply offered his partner to not bring up the topic of a marriage proposal until they were both fully sure that this was the right relationship for them to continue. That had not been an apology.

"I love you." Greg had been standing a few feet away from him when he'd spoken; now he was near enough to touch. "And I want to marry you. Just... November one ain't a day to mess around with." he couldn't see the soft smile he could just imagine was on his partner's face, but he knew it was there. It was the kind of smile Greg gave him when he understood.

When calloused hands landed on either side of his face, he contemplated for just one moment to be a petulant hard-ass and not allow them to lead his face anywhere. But the warmth that seeped into his cheeks was soothing and when they pushed ever so slightly, he gave in without a second's thought. Eventually, he found himself looking into Greg's softly smiling face... and it was the exact kind of smile he had been imagining.

Greg's eyes weren't nearly as expressive as he would have liked sometimes. This was a man that could keep a poker face at all times- he only ever really allowed emotions to be clear on his face when he wanted them to. He was a challenge to read when he really wanted to be... so, now that he could see the way that his eyes were shining with unshed tears... the tight way his smile was held... the pain on his whole face.

"I love you." he repeated and Bruce felt the immediate urge to wipe away the tear that fell from his left eye. "But I can't keep actin' like Stuff never happened."

"I never meant-"

"You didn't." Greg moved quickly, enveloping him in a tight hug. Bruce didn't hesitate to hug him back. "You never did. I made myself think I needed to act like he hadn't."

His arms held onto Greg tightly, terrified of the day that if he were to loosen his grip for just one second, he would be gone once again.

"But Harley Quinn helped."

Greg's hair tickled his neck as he quickly nodded beside him, "Miss Quinn helped." he whispered back and Bruce didn't allow himself to contemplate, even for a moment, to let Greg go.

He had always hoped that Harley Quinn would be able to move past her infatuation with the Joker. He had never held his breath, though, because he hadn't been blind.

It was just a testament to the kinds of miracles only Greg Saunders could work that within the span of a night, he had managed to set her on the path of true redemption he had failed to get her on for years.

When he had heard that Greg had made a deal with Harley Quinn that would eventually wind up with her moving into his ranch, he had tried to put his foot down and tell him that such a thing would never happen. But Greg had just... talked. And, eventually, the idea hadn't seemed as horrible as it had initially.

If in the year, Harley Quinn could prove that she could behave while in prison, if she was able to keep herself out of any unnecessary fights and was able to leave a good impression on the workers, she would prove to the League that she had meant what she had told Vigilante. With their testimony and countless hours of supervised volunteer work of the superhero kind, she may just be able to begin to pay her debt to society.

It was going to be a long, arduous road. Most things out of his hands would be set up in a way to push her to fail. Bruce highly doubted she'd be able to see everything through and eventually become a free woman.

But that didn't matter. Because Greg believed in her. And, quite frankly, that was all he needed to know.

~..~..~

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