ElseWorlds™: Saving James
Chapter 2
By: Christopher W. Blaine
e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: Refer to chapter 1 for the disclaimer for this entire story.
"Get rid of the damn thing."
Barbara looked at her father through tears that refused to stop coming. A life was growing inside of her and all her father wanted to do was kill it. It went against her religious upbringing and touched down towards something even deeper. Something primordial. "I don't believe in abortion, dad."
He shook his head and rubbed his face. When he moved his arm, she could smell the smoke on his clothes. He had started drinking again as well according to the Batman. She didn't need the services of the World's Greatest Detective to tell her that, though; she recognized the signs. He was irritable and given to raising his voice even in the most casual of conversations.
He had not spoken of his ordeal under the Joker's less than tender care and the Batman remained closed-lip about it as well. One of the cops on the force who once had a crush on Barbara had been assigned to guard her and they had discussed it. The cop had revealed, in very close whispers that James Gordon had suffered greatly. He, too, had been sexually assaulted by the Joker, tied up nude in the midst of criminals and shown the pictures of his daughter's rape.
Gordon had refrained, however, from asking the Batman to kill the Joker when the Dark Knight had rescued him. Many would have seen that as the mark of a good cop, but Barbara suspected otherwise. There was the chance that her father simply wanted to do the job himself. "You're a damn liberal! How can you be against abortion?"
"I believe it's a woman's right to choose; I choose not to. I can't, dad," she said. It was turning into the conversation she had so badly wanted to avoid. It was bad enough when Dick had told her she was pregnant, but when she realized that the cold feeling that had enveloped her insides after the Joker's rape was the beginning of her child's life, a thousand nightmares came to mind.
The Joker was human; there was no doubt about that, but a human whose mind was shattered by unknown tragedy and chemical exposure. There was nothing to tell her that her baby was going to be anything close to normal. Several specialists, paid for in secret by Bruce Wayne, had already been flown in to examine her.
It wasn't how she imagined her first pregnancy was going to be like.
"Then choose differently," he demanded. "Kill the little parasite and kill it now. I can't stand the thought of that thing growing inside of you."
"Dad," she pleaded, "I can't do it."
He got up and she saw the trembling in his hands. "This is not the legacy I want to leave behind when I die. I don't want the Gordon name to be forever related to that son of a bitch, don't you see that? When they do television specials about the Joker after he's dead, they'll always talk about his kid, the grandson of the cop who put him away!"
She buried her face in her hands. "This is not about you, dad! This is about me and what happened to my body and to me! It's my choice!"
He cursed and then stomped out of the room. She knew he would be back later in the day and they would have it out again. His hatred for the Joker grew every time he looked at his daughter's face. That hate was threatening to consume him and she was worried for him. The Joker had kidnapped him with the intent of driving him insane, to bring him over to the dark side of humanity.
She dried her eyes and went through several meditation exercises to calm her. She had been receiving several visitors but one kept returning time after time. Dick and she had always been close, but never close enough. They had always been friends, even lovers now and again, but they had never been able to cross the line from friend to partner.
It was obvious that they had feelings for each other, but neither had ever thought that a relationship was possible. Yet, everyday he was here and she was sure that every night, Kory was waiting for him in New York, fuming. The alien had never liked Barbara and she wasn't exactly fond of her either.
Donna Troy had stopped in; she was another member of the Titans and the one person Barbara always thought Dick would marry if not her. Kory just didn't seem right for Dick; he was a private person and Kory was someone very happy in the spotlight. Dick had lost his love for adulation with the death of his parents.
Papers were being delivered to her, a variety from all over the country, though she always picked up the Gotham Gazette first. The current headline was talking about a membership shake-up at the Justice League International. Both Black Canary and Batman had left, though the report stated that Batman was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Nobody believed that someone without super-powers could make it on the League.
"Hey, Red," Dick said as he came in. She saw he was carrying flowers again, just as he did every day. She was beginning to get spoiled from all of the attention she was getting from him. It was still a mystery to her why he even cared at all.
They weren't an item, after all.
"I passed your dad in the hall; he looked pissed." He set the flowers down next to her and pulled up a chair.
"You know, if you keep visiting me, people are going to talk," she said with a smile. She found it important to put on a brave face in front of him and she wondered if that were the maternal instinct kicking in? Was she now accepting pain in order to make others happy, just as any mother would? Did she feel some sort of motherly connection to him?
"I doubt it," he said in the semi-serious tone he was not using when he was with her. "The entire floor is for you only."
"Is that why it's so quiet up here?" she asked. "Bruce went all out."
"Yeah," he said quietly, his face turning away slightly. He couldn't lie to her but his modesty prevented him from telling her the truth. Dick Grayson was wealthy in his own right and it was obvious from his demeanor that he was paying for everything.
She wanted to protest, she wanted to assault him verbally for his chivalry. He had no right to be doing such a thing. "Yeah," was all she said and the matter was dropped.
"I guess your father wants you to have an abortion," Dick said.
Barbara nodded and her hands went to her stomach. Somewhere in there, according to her father, the spawn of evil was growing. "I told him no."
"Good," he replied.
She arched an eyebrow and he explained. "I don't recognize a woman's right to choose. There's nothing greater than children and I refuse to believe that God would allow a woman to get pregnant if it wasn't meant to be."
"That's a pretty Neanderthal attitude, Mr. Grayson."
He shrugged. "Kory believes the same thing."
There it was, Barbara thought, the big reason why they had been kept apart. She had believed in a woman's right to choose and he hadn't.
It was deeper than that, though, and she knew it. As much as she wanted to get married and have a big family, it was nothing compared to how much Dick did. He constantly thought about being a father and at the same time was afraid of becoming one. Had she given the impression that she would not be interested in having children?
It was possible, she assumed. She was a career-oriented woman and always had been. Even when she had been running around as Batgirl, her eyes were towards the future and how she could succeed in the world. Dick had never had to think about that because he was rich, plain and simple. Maybe people who had to work hard for everything frightened him?
Whatever the reason, she was beginning to see that boy was becoming a man. She could no longer remember what he had looked like as a teenager when they had flirted and skirted the boundaries of good behavior. There was a hollow look to his eyes and she wondered if his separation from the Batman, a rift caused when as Robin, Dick had been ordered to surrender the identity.
In that time he had drifted from identity to identity and had somehow lost contact with Barbara. Now she had been raped and was pregnant and here he was, looking sadder than ever. It wasn't pity that she saw in those blue eyes, though.
It was regret.
What he regretted she couldn't begin to know. Was it that he hadn't been there that night when it happened? Did he regret not killing the Joker sometime in the past?
Did he regret that the child she carried was not his?
"He won't give up, you know," he said.
"Who? Dad? Yeah, you're right. I'm thinking it might be best if I went away for awhile." She looked out the window at the city skyline. "This is too much stress for both of us."
"Where will you go?" he asked. She knew what he wanted her to say.
"Metropolis," she answered, not looking at him. He would stay in New York with his alien super-model girlfriend.
They weren't an item, after all.
* * * * *
The Joker received the news from the television. It was a major story and the reporter had the look of Pulitzer as he delivered his well-rehearsed script.
"Reliable sources within the Gotham City Police Department have told this reporter that Police Commissioner Gordon's daughter, twenty-eight year old Barbara Gordon, is pregnant with the child of the Joker."
The camera zoomed in and the Penguin gasped at the revelation. His nose, often the punch line for the jokes of residents and staff alike, was a pointer for the others in the room. Several people in grey coveralls were simply staring at the Clown prince as he picked up the remote and adjusted the volume.
The scene switched to an outside view of Gotham University Hospital. "Reports indicate that Ms. Gordon, who is still recuperating from a gunshot wound received during the commission of the rape, has undergone several tests to determine whether or not the child is healthy."
The Joker arched an eyebrow, considering the ramifications of this latest news. He vaguely remembered the sexual aspect of the rape as he tended to concentrate more on the pain than the pleasure and he realized that he had indeed left something of himself behind. As long as that was the only thing…
The he realized something else. He had gotten Batgirl knocked up. Sudden paranoia set in as he suspected everyone in the room of being Batman in disguise. Several voices in his head laughed at him for his foolishness; Batman wasn't about to kill him, especially for something as trivial as rape. After all, hadn't he killed Batman's partner Robin a year or so before?
The Clown Prince settled back and enjoyed the stares. His standing among the villains of Gotham City just shot to the moon. As the story progressed, Two-Face began to clap, followed by the Riddler, Penguin and Mad Hatter. Even Poison Ivy joined in, surprised that the Joker would have been so daring. It was a crime worthy of praise; no doubt Jim Gordon was contemplating eating a bullet right then!
The Joker stood up and took a bow, but said nothing. He did not trust his own lips from revealing even more information. If his peers were to find out exactly who Barbara Gordon really was, the Joker would not doubt be elected "Dictator for Life" over the underworld. It topped killing the Teen Wonder, not that any of these fools realized it. Batman kept so many partners that it was simply no fun trying to keep track anymore.
A guard escorted the Joker back to his cell and he entered without saying anything. He quickly searched the room, something he often did, looking for any hidden cameras or listening devices. Afterwards, he would look up at the big black security camera mounted on the wall and wonder why he even bothered. "If I knew the answer to that, then I wouldn't be crazy," he murmured.
Finally, he sat down on his cot, picking at lint and other things on the thick wool blanket. A memory stabbed at him, something from before the time of his turning, back when he was a sap and a failure. Something was reaching out to him from before Joker-time and he wasn't quite sure what it was. He knew that at one time he had been Jack Napier and he seemed to remember a wife and a child.
A child was something he had never had. A little Joker. Maybe a daughter. Something he could groom to inherit his criminal empire.
He looked around at his cell. Perhaps the word empire did not exactly fit at this point in time. It mattered little, though; no sane court in the land was ever going to let him near the little bastard or bitch no matter what. It would be something, though, he thought. "Joker named Father of the Year," he cackled, imagining a future newspaper headline.
He wondered if he and Batman were related now? Wouldn't that be rich?
"I wonder if she'll sue me for child support," he said, rubbing his chin.
It was then that the Joker had an epiphany. He suddenly saw the world in a whole different light; a new purpose was laid out before him like the Yellow Brick Road. He got up and pressed the buzzer for the guard. The burly orderly came up with a bored look on his face. The Joker liked this guy. "Fred, I'd like to go back to the Rec Room."
"Whatever," was the reply. The Joker could have slaughtered the Pope in front of this guy and he wouldn't care.
Back with his compatriots in crime, the Joker started to make the rounds. He was given handshakes and pats on the back. Some of the female inmates even offered him sexual favors and he thought that they must have been insane. Joker didn't have sex for pleasure; it was just a means to get a little closer so he could really wallop you! He didn't flat out turn down the invites because every once in awhile, as with Barbara Gordon, he'd get that itch that had to be scratched.
He finally found himself sitting at a card table with Two-Face and Maxie Zeus. "Max," the Joker said, "run along."
"Zounds! Do you not know to whom you speak? I am a god…"
"Go or I'll stuff your nuts into your eye sockets," Two-Face said. Maxie smiled and made a comment about seeing to other Olympian affairs. "You want to talk?" Two-Face asked.
The Joker regarded the half-ruined face of Harvey Dent. Once, he had been the District Attorney for Gotham County, but that had been before a criminal threw a vial of acid in Harvey's face. Half of his face was horribly scarred and green in color, while the other half was as pristine as the day Harvey had been born.
The doctors at the Arkham Asylum were convinced that Harvey's personality split that day the acid hit him, but the Joker wasn't quite sure. There was a true evil side to Harvey Dent that had to be manifesting long before he ever became Two-Face. "I got a legal question," the Joker asked.
"Ask your lawyer," was the gruff reply.
The Joker snickered. "I killed my last one; impaled him with a Chevy."
"That had to hurt."
"No, I'm fine now," the Joker said, not understanding the statement or simply not caring, "but I was hoping to get some advice on some family matters."
"Family? Oh…" Two-Face smiled and flipped his trademark coin. It had two faces of heads, but one had been purposely ruined. It came up on the good side. "I'll listen."
The Joker then spent the next fifteen minutes explaining his plan, but managed to keep out the details about Batgirl. It was tough and he actually had to take his fist and punch himself in the groin in order to keep the information in his head. Most people were used to the way the Joker kept himself amused and so Two-Face was not distracted.
The former district attorney listened and nodded, but it was only for show. He had been one of the finest lawyers in the world at one time and within the second sentence of the Joker's story, he had already determined a proper legal assault. "Before you can do any of this," he started, "you need to get declared sane."
"Oh, is that all?" the Joker asked. He resisted the urge to cackle madly and Two-Face could see the strain on his face.
Two-Face leaned in close. "I'm going to help you only because I want to see Gordon go down. He should have put a bullet in you the last time. I would have."
"Harvey! I never knew you cared," the Joker responded. For a criminal, Two-Face had a really weird sense of right and wrong. "So, how do I get declared sane?"
Two-Face shrugged. "I can't help you there, nut-head; if I had a doctor on the take, I'd be out of here."
"Bribery? Maybe blackmail?"
Two-Face grimaced. "For what? Even the orderlies here are squeaky clean. I heard that Ivy stood in her cell butt-naked and tried to get one of the doctors to give her a little weed treatment, if you know what I mean…"
"She wanted someone to pluck out her pubic hairs?"
Two-Face gave him a look like he was the dumbest person in the world. "How the hell did you ever manage to rape a woman? A duck I could see you doing, but a woman?"
"A duck?"
"Never mind; like I said, if I was Gordon, you'd be in a box six feet under by now. You ain't and like it or not, we other criminal have to deal with you." Two-Face stood up. "You get a doc to play ball and then we'll talk. Until then, you're pretty much screwed."
"Screwed? The Joker is never screwed, my friend," was the cold reply. "If anything, the Joker does the screwing."
