"So what's the situation, doctor?"
The Commissioner rubbed his temples, eyes closed as he waited for Doctor Bloomfield's response.
"Well, as I'm sure you saw, she has two very nasty cuts on her cheeks. They would have turned into scabs by now, as some surprisingly efficient stitching has already been done; however, somewhere along the line they became infected. I can't be sure about the timeline, she didn't exactly respond to any of my inquisitions regarding her injuries," she gave Gordon a pointed look, but continued.
"But I would guess them to be around two to four weeks old.
I also noticed that this wasn't the first time this has happened to her...there was some swollen scar tissue around the wounds that looks to have been there for at least five years." The Commissioner's eyes widened at that. The Joker had been terrorizing Gotham for almost six years...how were they only now hearing of this girl? Harley had been disposed of barely two months after she helped him escape the asylum…what about this girl made him keep her around, and hidden?
Maybe he did have some sort of sick, emotional attachment to her.
"Has...was there any sign she'd ever suffered any...ahem, sexual abuse?"
Doctor Bloomfield nodded.
"Yes, but not recently. When I performed the physical, I noticed a lot of scars on her body, including the genital region. These, however, look to be quite old…she looks to have been quite young when it was happening. All evidence suggests her sexual abuse ended at least seven years ago, maybe longer."
Jim shifted, his conscience nagging at him to feel some sort of sympathy for the girl, while majority of his being told him she deserved the abuse and worse.
"She also has two bullet wound scars, one in her leg, and one in her shoulder. There's a scar that looks like it was made by a rather large knife on her lower back, inches from her spine. Looks like someone may have tried to paralyze her or at least, threatened to. Her nose has been broken at least five times."
Despite knowing what her patient had done, it was clear the doctor felt bad for the young girl.
"She has brown eyes, stands at 5'1, weighs 80 pounds, and I would guess her age to be somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five, however the girl is extremely underweight and obviously malnourished, so she could even be older. A basic inspection of her mouth shows her teeth are in reasonably good health, though she's never had her wisdoms removed and I don't think she's ever picked up a brush in her life. It's a miracle her teeth haven't rotted out of her skull.
I've tested for allergies, and I've taken blood samples to see if there are any diseases we should be concerned about. The results will be here by Monday. She seems to have a very high tolerance to pain, and psychologically it does not disturb her, so I think it's safe to assume she's had a lifetime to get used to it."
She closed the file she was holding, and held it out to Gordon, who took it rather pensively. This girl very likely knew The Joker before he became The Joker…and she did make a sardonic reference to him being a "family man"…
Meanwhile, back in the interrogation room, Evey was scrutinizing herself in the two-way mirror, unhappy with the doctor's decision to bathe and clean her. Her once vibrantly green hair was now a dull, near yellow colour, and though her skin was still slightly stained, her features were not covered to an extent that she considered acceptable.
She felt too exposed.
She tugged at her hair, deciding when Jacky came to get her, she'd give it another trim. Once it got past her chin, it became rather unmanageable, being that she never bothered to brush it. She turned her head from side to side, admiring her cheeks.
He'd really done a beautiful job on them. She made a mental note to praise him later.
The door opened, and the commissioner walked back in. She gave him a slight frown and started swinging her legs again.
Thump, thump, thump.
"Where'd Batsy go?"
Gordon said nothing. He was looking at the girl in a new light, finally thinking he had some understanding, and hope of discovering the real origins of The Joker.
"Are you related to The Joker?"
No reaction. No smile, no frown…but her legs stopped swinging for a split second.
Bingo.
"How are you related? Is he your brother? Your cousin?" She started swinging her legs again.
Thump, thump, thump.
"Life must have been pretty bad, huh? For you both to turn out like this…I bet he protected you a lot."
Thump, thump, thump.
"We…we saw the scars…down there." He watched her carefully, eager to spot any sort of emotion, any flash of humanity, something that indicated he'd gotten under her skin.
"Did…did he do that to you?"
Finally. A flash of something; disgust. The thought of The Joker doing that to her filled her will disgust. She was still silent, but that was still progress.
"No, definitely not, he's the one who protected you from all that…and he still protects you I bet." He leaned forward, every hair on his body standing up on end, his entire system rejecting the empathy he was showing towards her. "I bet he protected you from your parents too?"
At this, he lost her again. Her eyes glossed over, and his irritated face once again disappeared from her vision.
"Dad stop, DON'T-" Evey's words were cut short as a beer bottle smashed into the side of her face, knocking her to the ground in a daze. Her mother, passed out from pills and booze, heard none of her daughter's cries. Not that she would have done anything about it anyway. She never did.
Even in her concussed state, Evey could still feel her father's slimy fingers at her pants buttons. She tried to bat them away, and instead received a hard punch to her nose. Pain blossomed, and she felt a familiar warm, sticky fluid flow down her face.
She didn't exactly know when he'd undressed her, but she felt the pain when he entered her. It overwhelmed all the other agony she felt, and she began to cry, and scream, wishing she could die…
No matter how many times this happened, every time felt like the first, horrible encounter.
Suddenly, he was off her, way more abruptly than usual. She could hear some smashing, and what sounded like a scuffle, followed by some weird, squishing noises. She slowly sat up and wiped the blood from her eyes.
Someone was on top of her father; because his assailants back was to her, she couldn't see who, only that he kept bringing his arm into her dad's side, rhythmically matching the squishing sounds.
Squish, squish, squish.
It took a moment for her to realize he was stabbing him.
"Who-who're you?" Her words were strained, her broken nose and smashed head making it quite difficult to speak.
The man stopped and turned around. Evey gasped
It was Jacky.
"JACKY!" Forgetting all about the pain, she lurched forward and threw herself at him, tears flowing freely and stinging her wounds. But she didn't care.
Jacky was back.
It wasn't until he began stroking her hair with a wet and sticky hand, that she opened her eyes to look at their father. A large knife was sticking out of his side, and though he was gurgling, he was not yet dead.
"I told you I'd come back for ya, didn't I? Didn't I promise?" He pulled her back, and though he was covered in blood, he'd never looked so angelic before. Military life had suited him. His hair was short and formal, and his physique had bulked up impressively.
"Jacky…it got so bad when you left…dad-" Jacky shushed her, and gently grasped both sides of her bloody face in his equally bloodied hands.
"Don't think about that Evey; You don't have to worry about him ever again. We're leaving, and we're not coming back." Evey nodded and allowed him to pull her to her feet.
"Let's get cleaned up, then uou go wait for me outside, okay? I'll clean this up." Evey thought about it but decided against asking. Probably better she didn't know.
Once cleansed of all the blood, she went outside, and sat on the front porch, remembering all the days she'd sat there, staring at the bus stop at the end of the street, praying Jacky would finally come off the bus…
She eventually heard footsteps and turned around. Jacky shut the door, but not before she saw the flames. Jacky turned to her, and grinned.
"Looks like mom and dad are gonna have a heat warning!" He let loose a hysterical, high-pitched cackle, chilling Evey to the very bone. That didn't sound anything like her Jacky.
He must have noticed her look, because he crouched down next to her, and she allowed him to envelope her in a big hug.
"We're finally free, Evey. Just you and me." She wrapped her arms around his waist, tightly clasping her hands together.
"Please don't leave me again, Jacky. Promise me you'll never leave me again."
Jacky pulled her head back from his chest and tilted her face up to meet his unflinching gaze.
"It's you and me, Evey, no matter what. Wherever I go, whatever I do, you'll be there. I'll never leave you, and I will always, always come for you."
They left town quickly, though not before paying a special visit to each of the boys who'd helped carve that smile onto Jacky's face. After finding out they, as a group, had been the ones to destroy Evey's innocence, he even convinced her to join in on the fun.
Despite the violence, she'd never felt safer. She'd never felt more loved.
All thanks to her Jacky. The only one who'd ever kept his promise.
A small, genuine smile was sitting on Evey's face. While she didn't have a lot of happy memories, the ones with Jacky always made her feel warm and secure. A feeling she'd never really experienced in abundance.
Gordon saw her content look and took his chance.
"I can't fathom the bond you two have…I can only imagine what he did when anyone would come after you!" Evey's smile grew slightly, and Gordon felt encouraged.
"It's hard for me to imagine The Joker as anything but a villain…but…maybe you can help me understand a different picture? If he looks after you the way he does, he must not be that bad of a guy." She shrugged, but said nothing. He was convinced he'd have her soon.
"I'd like to know more; I don't want to believe he's a monster."
Evey raised her eyes to meet Gordon's. He thought he'd finally broken through, when her lips stretched even wider into a painful, deranged smile.
"Oh, he is…and you've taken something very important to him." Despite his anger very quickly returning, Gordon couldn't help the eerie feeling creeping up his spine.
"Are you talking about you, little girl? Because news flash, that psycho clown doesn't give a shit about anyone!" His entire facade was gone, and he was using every last ounce of restraint he had in order to refrain from hitting the girl.
Her eyes glittered maniacally.
"Ohhhhh trust me… he gives a shit about me."
The words sent a chill through his veins. He opened his mouth to respond, but a loud BANG shook the entire building. Alarms started ringing, and Evey began cackling.
"Uh oh! You've done it now Commish!" She was practically bouncing out of her chair in excitement, the cuffs on her wrist jingling loudly, her fresh stitches painfully straining with her unrestrained smile.
"He's not gonna be happy!"
Unable to help himself, Gordon spit at her, before drawing his gun, and rushing out into the chaos of smoke and screams, which were remarkably loud through the sound proofed room. The door locked, and Evey waited patiently.
It felt like hours but was really only about fifteen minutes. The door once again opened, and this time, a large, purple clad figure stepped into the room. As soon as he saw her, alive and unharmed, his shoulders slightly loosened, imperceptible to anyone but her.
Evey's entire soul hummed in elation.
"You came for me." Her smile was so wide, straining the stitches to their absolute brink.
But she didn't care. The pain wasn't even registering. All that mattered was he was here, for her, ready to bring her home.
Wordlessly, he shot the link that attached her cuffs to the table and grabbed her elbow roughly. She bounded alongside him, not even trying to suppress her delight. No matter how much chaos, and instability surrounded them, they were always a constant. Nobody would ever take her away from him, nor him from her. Nothing would ever come between them. It didn't matter what happened, he would always keep them together.
He promised.
