"I met him!"

Evey's eyes left the rather bloody bullet wound she was tending, raising to land on the very animated, green haired man in front of her.

"Who?" She gave him a slight, encouraging smile, resisting the urge to call him Jacky; the wounds only just recently turned scars on her cheeks painfully reminding her of what happens when her tongue slips while he's experiencing an episode.

He bounded towards her, and though she felt obligated to return her attention to her critically injured patient, the excitement she saw on the Joker's face was not something she could only give half of her attention to.

He stopped only when his hips met the table, and he leaned over, balancing on his hands, leaving barely an inch between them.

"Well, you see, I was at the fundraiserrrrr, looking for uh, Haaaarrrvey...I was just getting frisky with his lady, and BAM!" The Joker slammed his hands down hard on the table, the slight jostle jolting a pained cry from the man lying on it.

His boss seemed oblivious, excitedly licking his lips before continuing.

"The Batman shows up to save the day!" Lip lick. "We fought and uh, I have to say...he was good. A lot better than I uh, originally, an-tic-i-pated-uh." He leaned back, giving Evey a very mischievous grin. He began doing an odd dance around the table towards her.

Evey gave him an amused, slightly unsure look.

"So...what does that mean?" She readjusted the sewing equipment in her fingers, only focusing on her patient enough to not yank the stitching she'd already completed.

The Joker's smile only widened, and as he reached her side of the table, his hands slowly extending in front of him.

"I uh, might have a new playmate-uh." Evey's eyes widened slightly, before narrowing into a confused expression at the strange, raspy growl his words were suddenly spoken in.

"He said I was gonna love him...and he was right!" He licked his lips again and went to playfully grab Evey's sides, who giggled and swiftly blocked him by bringing her elbows down, momentarily forgetting about the needle in her left hand.

The man's agonized scream was cut short when Joker started slapping his face.

"Shh shh shh sh sh sh shh shhhhh...don't be rude." He turned back to Evey, who'd transferred the needle to her right hand to alleviate the pressure on the thread, and pressed her left firmly against The Joker's chest to keep him back.

"Why, are you talking like that?" She didn't to know whether to laugh or slap him upside the head.

"He talks like this." Ignoring her unimposing attempt to keep him distanced, he grabbed her waist, dipping slightly and tossing her over his shoulder, aggressively tickling her sides.

"No, he doesn't!" The pitch of her voice was very high, and her squeals were almost enough to drown out the shrieks of the goon, and though Evey eventually remembered to let go of the instrument, he was now bleeding a great deal, and his critical condition seemed to tip a bit more on the scale toward fatal.

The clown couple took no notice. The Joker was bouncing, jostling the tiny Evey up and down, laughing at her attempts to kick and struggle.

"Ohhh Evey, he really does!" His voice was back to its regular high, nasally tone, and he let out a loud cackle, both from excitement and the sight of his henchman bleeding out on the table. Unable to hide her amusement from his infectious happiness, genuine laughs that were not from the tickling started coming from Evey, despite the pain in her cheeks. She loved it when he was like this.

She missed her Jacky.

When, after hearing so much about him, he finally walked into the room, Evey could not contain her excitement, and finally broke her long silence.

Batman looked at the girl for a second, rendered momentarily speechless by the ease in which she started speaking. Perhaps he wouldn't have to resort to bullying the young girl into submission after all.

He cocked his head, giving her a genuinely concerned look.

"You shouldn't be doing this. You shouldn't let someone like him destroy your right to a happy life. Let us help you."

She giggled, bringing her legs up underneath her, so she was now cross legged on the chair.

"You know, whenever he imitated you, I always thought he was exaggerating." Her words, due to the stitches, were slightly muffled, yet still sounded so...cute. She had a very soft, feminine voice, with such an innocent tone, it was almost as if one was addressing a child. She continued.

"But you actually sound like that!" A shrill laugh escaped her, and though she brought her cuffed hands to her mouth in pain, it didn't seem to faze her.

His look of concern disappeared quickly, her rude, childish manner reminding him too much of the man she seemed so hellbent on imitating.

"Tell me where he is." His voice, though nothing more than a raspy snarl, held more of a dangerous edge to it now. Evey made a dramatic, shocked face.

"Or what, Batman? You gonna beat me up? Was this the room you beat him up in?" She looked around excitedly, before shaking her hair out of her face, eyes glowing with glee.

Batman took a couple slow steps towards her, flexing his fingers.

"I don't wanna hurt you."

She threw her head back and laughed, lips pinched forward to lessen the discomfort. She leaned towards him over the table.

"Oh, ya never know…I might give ya a pretty good fight. I can be real feisty when I need to be." She winked and wiggled her body suggestively.

He barely repressed his shivers at the inappropriate act she'd taken on. Taking a deep breath, her interrogator placed his hands on the table, leaning slightly across it, ignoring his repulsion.

"Like when the officers found you with that man?" He looked like he had something disgusting in his mouth.

Despite it being a very legitimate question, the look Evey gave him had him feeling like an idiot for asking it.

"Well, what would you do if some stranger broke into your house? Invite him for dinner?"

Batman glanced at where he guessed Gordon's eyes would be through the glass, before clarifying, "Stranger?"

Evey bit her tongue, not wishing to right away insult the man she'd waited almost a year to meet.

"Um…yeah. Nobody knew where we lived...I mean, I know you think the Joker seems like a real family man, but," her words cut off briefly with giggles, before she said, "he really does prefer his privacy."

He was already on edge from having such a young girl make a pass at him, but something about her facetious tone really triggered something in him. Batman went quickly around the table, his cape swooshing behind impressively. He roughly turned her chair towards him, so they were nose to nose, her arms bent in an awkward angle due to the cuffs. Her flippant attitude was giving him a strong sense of déjà vu. It was almost eerie how much of his personality had influenced the girl.

"Tell me where he is." His hand was on her face, holding it to face his. He roughly jabbed one of her cheeks in a silent threat, and though she flinched slightly, she did not cry out. Frustrated at his almost reflexive response, he removed his hand and straightened.

"Like I said, I don't want to hurt you."

The laughter had diminished somewhat, though there was still an energetic sparkle in her gaze.

"Oh, come now Batsy...we both know that's not true." Her voice had lost it's taunting tone and was now sounding rather...inviting.

"We both know you want to… hit me."

Ignoring the part of his brain screaming at him not to do it, Batman grasped her cheek once again, pushing his thumb firmly onto the swollen wound. Evey hissed, but other than another, somewhat stronger flinch, she did not attempt to wriggle free.

"Do your worst, Batsy."

He was going to poke his finger right through her slashed cheek. He'd smash her head into the wall. He'd knock her around until she cracked, told him everything he wanted to know.

He was going to; as soon as his heart ceased to pound so aggressively, and his hand lost the slight tremble that had developed.

Evey stared, wide eyed, with that small smile just barely there.

"You can't, can you? Wow...he really does know you so well. You're everything he said you were." She spoke so softly, her eyes so shiny and excited looking, like a child seeing a rainbow for the first time.

It fired up his anger, and he pressed his thumb harder into her cheek, felt the thread begin to stretch...and stopped. He yanked his hand back, kicked the table, and stalked out.

With a slightly hysterical giggle, Evey leaned back, facing the ceiling.

Gordon didn't have to say anything when Batman re-entered the small viewing room. His look said it all.

"I'm not beating up a child, Jim. There has to be another way."

Jim's jaw was clenched, and it looked like he was having a great deal of trouble containing himself.

"We've tried everything. We've never stopped him, and we've never been this close. We need to take care of this now, before it's too late!" His voice had risen slightly by the end, and the vein on his temple was beginning to pulse.

"She just admitted that they live together, so she's close with him…she's finally talking, you need to go back in there NOW and get what you can out of her!"

Batman looked at him levelly, not wanting, but needing to make the Commissioner see sense.

"She's a child, James...a CHILD...not much older than Barbara, by the looks of her." Gordon's eyes flashed, and he gave Batman a biting glare.

"Don't bring her into this. She has nothing to do with it."

"The Joker killed her, James, she has everything to do with this...and you never grieved, you never took the time you needed off-"

"Enough!" Gordon was breathing very hard, keeping his eyes stubbornly glued to the young girl.

"She's no child. Whatever age she happens to be, I'll see she's tried as an adult. She's a monster and I'll make sure she's treated like one."

"Listen to yourself!" Batman grabbed the man's shoulders, forcing eye contact, his grip almost bruising.

"You need to remind yourself of who you want to be; who your daughter knew you to be. You want to end up like Harvey?"

The Commissioner said nothing, but he did lose the slightly mutinous look in his gaze.

"We need to try this another way. This girl is not normal… she's too similar to him. Pain never worked for the Joker, and it won't work for her. They like it too much." He backed up, letting go of the commissioner's shoulders.

"Maybe, if we show her what it's like to be treated like a human, she'll help us."

Gordon scoffed.

"Ya, and maybe we can get her to talk to her boss and he'll come round for a friendly game of poker!" He threw his hands in the air, before looking at Batman exasperatedly.

Batman, who'd been looking at him intensely, began to turn away.

"She needs medical attention. Have her properly sorted out. Send me all the information you have on her. She's important to Joker and we need to find out why."

Gordon gave an exaggerated huff. "Well, what are you going to do?"

Batman stopped, and slightly turned.

"If she's important to him, he'll come for her...and likely soon. I'm going to search the perimeter and see if anything looks suspicious."

He left swiftly, and though Gordon had a lot more he wanted to say, he kept silent. He knew Batman was right, deep down...but he really didn't care. He wanted to...but he didn't.

He hit the intercom for a guard to come in, and requested the girl be moved to the infirmary.

Though the doctor was not exactly thrilled to treat a patient of such notoriety, the two guards keeping close eyes convinced her to concede.

Evey, acting oblivious to her surroundings, even though her cheeks were being cleaned and restitched, closed her eyes, once again placing herself far away from where she was.

"Jacky, we need to get you to a hospital." Evey was close to hysterics, her cheeks already gleaming from tears. Her blood-stained hands were fumbling with a first aid kit, and her whole body was shaking in fear for the young man in front of her.

He was laughing, holding a once white now red towel to his face.

"Ohh Little Evey… you need to learn how to loosen up." He himself was soaked head to toe in blood, only some of it his own.

Evey was terrified. She'd never seen him like this before.

"This is serious...I, I'm not- you need someone… a doctor-"

"Oh come on doll face, you've done stitching before, it's not that hard! Just clean and sew." He lowered the towel and grinned, Evey giving a horrified gasp at the sight.

His cheeks were split open, giving a very clear view of every tooth sitting in his head. The bottom portion of his cheeks were dangling, the insides of his cheek flapping in plain view. There was so much blood.

"I...I can't." She squeezed her eyes shut, body starting to heave from sobs.

The abrupt snap of her head to the side, followed by the mean sting she felt afterwards had her freezing in shock.

That was a slap.

She looked back at her assailant, stunned. He'd never hit her before.

"Smarten up now Evey. I need medical attention, and you're the only one who's going to give it to me. So do it." His voice made it clear he was no longer amused.

Her frozen body began to slowly thaw, and she carefully grabbed the sterilizing equipment. Cautiously, she began to clean his wounds, her mind numb to everything except the task at hand.

She worked in silence, while her patient hummed a rather off key tune, occasionally bobbing his head slightly, which didn't make the stitch job any prettier. Once finished, she gave the wounds another cleaning, and bandaged them.

"Don't talk a lot. We have to change it twice a day or it will get infected." Before she could finish putting everything away, Jacky grabbed her head, pulling her to him in a very suffocating hug.

"Ohhh Evey, my Evey...what would I do without you?" Evey sighed, and closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around him. That warm, safe feeling filled her, pushing the slap far to the back of her mind. Despite her earlier advice, she couldn't help but ask him.

"What happened?" Her words, muffled by his chest, were barely discernible with her already gentle voice.

"I uh, decided to go have a word with your...admirers. They didn't like that too much." He giggled, giving her head a little kiss, despite the fact that it must have hurt him.

Evey said nothing. The boys in question were not on her favoured list. It was because of their constant harassment she rarely left their depressing, moldy old apartment without Jacky to escort her. She'd always felt protected by him, but now...now she'd gotten him hurt.

He shushed her tears, not even acknowledging her apology.

"They did me a favour Evey...I was much too serious about things before...now...now I'm always smiling!" She hiccuped a small sob, and tightened her grip around his waist. He patted her back comfortingly.

"Don't you worry little one, I'll take care of them." The words were spoken in a light tone, but a heavy promise weighted them into her heart.

"Things are gonna change around here Evey." He was swaying from side to side, her head squeezed into his chest, his arms wrapped firmly around it.

"Ohhhh yes, things are gonna change."