WARNINGS:

*EXPLICIT/GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

*VIOLENCE

CHAPTER TEN

The silence is so ear shatteringly loud between Jason and Gia by the time they get home, that Gia can hear her ears ringing like alarms in her head.

Jason puts the keys on the table, taking his jacket off, not even speaking to her.

She knows she's messed up this time, she knew she had when she saw the expression on his face after paying her bail.

Jim called and explained what was going on and he wasn't shocked in the slightest, being that she was changing so rapidly, from her physical appearance to her attitude.

He just didn't realize she was stupid enough to do what she had done.

The only question he has about the ordeal?

"Why were you at Arkham?" He asks her as she starts to their room, and she keeps walking, despite the slight panic at his question, trying to play it off.

"I had to talk to Dr. Arkham." She replies and he appears in the door way.

"Was it not hard to talk to someone who wasn't even there?" He asks her and she squeezes her eyes together before taking in a breath. "Not to mention the patient you attacked in order for the cops to be called in the first place." He adds.

"Jason—"

"—If it's just going to be bullshit deflecting the actual reason you were there, I don't want to hear it."

"I'm not deflecting, I just don't know what you want me to say." She says.

"I want you to tell me who you attacked and why." He walks closer to her, blue eyes piercing into her, raking a conviction.

"I assure you if you knew who it was, you'd be giving me a pat on the back." She promises him.

"Gia." He states sternly, getting fed up with her stalling.

She knows it's only a matter of time before he goes to Arkham to get to the bottom of it, himself, and she knows if he does that he'll find out a lot more than what she's ready for him to know at the moment, so she decides to keep control over the situation by coming clean...kind of.

"I wasn't honest when I told you it was just Jeremiah who helped me." She starts calmly. "Jeremiah didn't even help very much, he just gave me the lab to use."

"Who helped you, Gia?" He asks her.

"You're gonna be really mad, Jason." She warns him and he clenches his jaw. "But I had to do it."

"Who. Helped. You." He demands.

She balls her hands up, her palms clammy with sweat, before confessing, "You know."

It's like seeing the countdown on a bomb, knowing it's about to go off but unable to do anything about it.

Her hand goes out to try to touch him but he's harshly shoving it away, beginning to pace, not speaking a word.

"Jason, I had no other choice. There was nobody else that even knew where to begin." She says it lowly, sitting on the bed. "And I know that it comes with a price but as long as I get to live and have my life with you, it's worth it, is it not?"

"Live your life with me?" He sharply snaps, glaring at her, tears in his eyes, anger exuding from him. "Gia, he took me out of your life. And I spent years staying away in an attempt to try to come back here better because of it. As a way to prove that him doing that to me—to us—was a mistake. But you're running to him to save your life as if he didn't spend years trying to take it away from you and all you have to say about it is that as long as you get me, you don't mind what it's costed you?"

"I just want you, Jason, that's all I've ever wanted and when I got you back I got sick. We can't have a life together if I'm dead. So I did what I had to do to live."

"You did what you had to do so survive, Gia, and you didn't do it for me. You did it for yourself. Because had you of been doing it for me, you wouldn't have gone through with it."

"So, what, you'd rather be planning a funeral right now as opposed to barking at me for how I got better?"

"I'd rather you be dead than be alive by the hands of the fucking Joker." Jason doesn't hold back and she feels gutted. "But the fact that you've been so off the wall is much better explained by the fact that you got 'fixed' by the slickest bastard who thrives on getting the last laugh." He adds.

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen like this." She softly speaks, knowing he'd strongly be opposed to it, but not realizing he'd rather see her dead than alive with the help of the Joker. "I didn't think it would turn into all of this." She says next.

"What the hell did you think was gonna happen, Gia?!" He outbursts, completely astounded by how naive she's been.

"Not this!" She argues, a tear breaking over her lashes but she quickly swipes it away as he rolls his jaw.

"Why did you go to Arkham to see him, Gia?" He asks next, lowly.

"To confront him about my changes." She replies weakly.

"And what did he say?" He presses, his steps walking closer to her.

"I forgot exactly what he said," she lies, "but I know it boiled down to cross-genetics."

"Shit." He rubs his face, thinking, trying not to fly off the handle despite really, really, really wanting to. "Okay. We can go to Barbara tomorrow, see if she can find anything on how we could possibly try to fix this."

"No, I don't want to be fixed." She shakes her head.

"Gia, you're not yourself. You're not normal."

"Oh, and you are?" She asks him sharply.

"I'm still me! You're you and whatever else he 'fixed' you with! I'm not going to argue about this, we are going to talk to Barbara and see if we can't undo it!" He doesn't even give her the opportunity to continue going back and forth, storming out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

She lets him go, hearing the jingle of his keys and the shutting of their apartment door.

She doesn't know where he's going. She doesn't care.

Dick Grayson furrows his brows at the case files presented before him while Jason keeps his arms crossed, waiting for Dick to say something concerning the current predicament he's found Gia entangled in with the Joker.

"A friend helped me find these in Arkham's computer system, they told me if it's in the system there's a hard copy of it."

"So...you broke in and got it?" Dick questions him, his elbows on the table, his brows furrowing as he looks at Jason questioningly. "I could arrest you, you know that, right?" He asks him. "For trespassing and breaking and entering...possibly endangerment."

"You don't have the jurisdiction to arrest me, prick." Jason shoots back. "I'm not telling you this as a cop. I'm telling you as my associate only because I can't take it to Bruce, not right now."

"I can't make an arrest on Jeremiah Arkham or those assisting in these experiments because that would require me to admit his facility was broken into without a warrant to obtain this information." Richard says. "Besides, I don't have jurisdiction, remember?" He sarcastically adds.

"Fuck that, I don't give two shits what Dr. Dread is doing to those loons. He unleashed his clown to freely experiment on Gia."

"He hasn't done anything to them, yet...as for Gia, maybe he didn't realize exactly what she and Joker were up to."

"Gia wasn't up to anything. It was all him."

"Jason..." Dick starts, doubtfully.

"She was desperate for help and they took advantage of that." He continues, surely.

Richard knows better, though. And he knows Jason does, too, deep down.

"Gia isn't as naive as you think." Dick starts.

"She told me she went to Arkham for help. She said Jeremiah agreed to allow the Joker to offer his genius, but ultimately a lot of shit happened that she didn't agree or consent to. We have a solid case against Arkham if we go to James and tell him what's happened."

"Jason—"

"—Gia wasn't in her right mind when she went to Jeremiah for help. We can prove that he took advantage of an insane person."

"She's not insane, Jason." Dick defends her. "And I can't march into Arkham hurling accusations around without more proof than this." He motions to the files. "Her situation with Joker is up to her. It's her choice. I'm staying out of it, alright? Take it to Jim or Bruce."

"'Up to her'?" Jason snaps, his teeth baring together as the words hiss out, blue eyes cutting at the man who has a legal obligation to protect and serve. "What the fuck is going on, Dick? Any other time you'd be just as pissed and worried as I am."

Richard goes quiet, trying to carefully choose his words.

"I try not to overstep boundaries, Jason." He replies, cautiously.

"Since when?!"

"Trust me. You don't want me involved. You don't want Joker knowing I'm involved. You're capable of handling this all by yourself, I have no doubt in my mind you can't do it. I just can't get into it. I'm sorry." He hands the files back to him and stands up.

"You're scared of Joker finding out you're helping me?" Jason asks sharply, skeptically.

Richard stops, taking in a breath.

He's not scared of him finding out. He doesn't care. But he knows if Joker finds out that he's a part of Jason's justice for Gia, he'll turn Jason against him—and turn him against Gia.

"I'm not scared of him. But I'm not poking the bear, either. You've got this." He assures him. "Lock the door behind you when you leave."

Jason rolls his jaw, resisting the urge to suckerpunch him in the back of the head, balling his fists up tightly, before he relaxes and trudges to the door, locking the door but then loudly unlocking it to make a deliberate, petty point to Dick before he leaves and slams the door as hard as he can.

Days past, a few too many days. So many days that the Joker had almost given up on his predicted visit from any of the masked vigilantes running around the city.

Until the night he was woken up with hands wrapped tightly around his neck, which sparked a certain joy within him at the realization that it could very well be Batman...but then something happened.

The hands were too tiny, too delicate to pack the same daunting punch of reality...although the strength those hands possess surpass their daintiness immensely, causing him to choke out and heave, the blood pushing through him as best as it can. It takes under ten seconds for him to nearly pass out until the hands let him loose and his pounding head aches in sweet relief as Gia stays crouched on his chest, glaring down at him as if a demoness preying upon it's sleeping victim, like those old paintings of depicted succubi feeding from a soul.

"Feel better?" He asks her before she suddenly punches him in the face, cracking his nose, making him laugh and groan all in one breath. "This foreplay?" He sarcastically lets out, holding his nose, grinning and wincing, cackling in a moment.

She stands, causing the weight on his chest to intensify before she goes to stomp on his throat but he moves and knocks her off of him, opting her to catch her footing and stumble back a couple of steps in the cell.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that." He says mockingly, amused by her anger, delighting in the fact he's probably royally fucked her for the rest of her days by simply doing what she asked of him.

Dark red blood runs down his pale lips when he sits up, wiping as much with the back of his hand that he can.

"I take it Birdie Baby didn't come along?"

"No, he didn't...I suggest you get on your knees and thank God for his mercy." She says hollowly.

This knocks the light hearted banter right out of him, his gaze falling darker, discarding the the blood now dripping from his chin to his white jumpsuit.

Gia swallows sharply, finding herself taking a step back when he stands up.

"God's mercy? That who you pray to?" He asks and she keeps her eyes on him incase he tries anything quick, slowly approaching her until her back is against the cold glass. "Your God was letting you rot inside out, little Gordon, lest you forget. It was me who cleansed and blessed you with such healing, was it not?!" His closed fist collides with the glass, not even sparking a blemish in it's strong hold, making her jump just a little, before his blood stained hand from his nose slowly twirl around in her soft hair, turning the curls around his fingers, tangling them purposely, before yanking his fingers to his hand, causing her head to be snatched back, exposing her throat he so badly wants to go ahead and slit.

Gia could easily push him off, and he knows it, but despite that fact, she's cowering in her mind, going to the place she's always gone to to try to block out her reality when their paths cross—more so are forced to intertwine due to his never ending need to off her. Her brown eyes gloss over, making him frown, disappointed.

He hates traumatized victims. They can block it out, force themselves not to feel the pain. It's sick to withhold such pleasures and joy from someone who does so much for his community.

Teeth bite together and he's slowly realesing her hair, his fingers gently pressing to her chin, making her look at him as she slowly comes back.

"You owe me." He reminds her.

"I have the money to pay for your help." She bites out.

"No, no, no, your rich boyfriend you've been leeching off of has the money." He tsks. "It's like you don't know me at all, kid, I don't want money!" He insists performatively. "I told you what I wanted."

"I'm not kidnapping people to bring here and have awful experiments—illegal experiments—done on them." She states harshly.

"Meet me halfway here, toots, you can't swim with the sharks and not get bit if you're not bringing 'em something to eat." He warns. "I don't want Harvard applicants or rich house wives who let daycares raise their kids. You could send me a gutter rat and I'd happily accept."

"I can't play with people's lives like that." She says calmly, shaking her head just a little.

"You know how many creeps in the city kidnap, rape, torture and kill every sing night—in that order, by the way." He informs her, hoping to pluck a heart string. "Sometimes they do it to kids, you know. Innocent children." He adds, letting out a sigh. "Of course, you know that." He continues. "Except he wasn't outwardly a creep. He was a normal guy. A family guy. Best officer on the G.C.P.D..."

This gets his reaction, her brows pinching just a little in thought, and he brings it home.

"You have the capabilities to protect the innocence of so many and bring justice to those whose security and sanity were stolen away and replaced with fear and never ending demons that will torment them until they take their last dying breath and possibly into the world beyond." His final pitch, and Gia looks at him, the pit in her stomach of helplessness, betrayal, and the feeling of being completely overlooked is a feeling she doesn't wish on anyone before she blinks, making her mind up, and asking him, "What do I need to do?"