Life and Death: Chapter 27

Sometimes Harley imagined it - what it'd be like if she had returned home to see her family after she graduated and got her degree. Instead, she had moved into the depths of Gotham City, eager to make a life for herself - before she got the internship at Arkham, before stumbling into him.

She had pictured it, coming back after that first year of her internship, with J on her arm, another version of him, a brown-haired man in a nice business suit who drove a black SUV, who smiled only at her and leaned in to kiss her with smooth lips and clean hands. An up-and-comer from a violent neighborhood, with a dark past. She couldn't imagine that her father would have been happy. She didn't remember her mother much, but she knew. They wouldn't have cheered for her, even then.

Now she had returned, sixteen years later, standing outside her father's home in the outskirts of town, repeatedly pushing the doorbell and peeking in through the window when nobody answered.

Jaylie studied the worn grey wood surrounding the front porch, frowning at the strange state of it – she had never seen a real house so close. There was a small garden behind the house, surrounded by a picket fence with vines. She thought of Aunt Ivy, wondering where she had gone. Lou was standing next to her, pressed against her leg, slightly hunched forward as if he was preparing to pounce on the unlucky resident. Bud was crouched on the other side of Harley.

At last, the door opened and an old man came into view. His silver-grey hair was brushed backward. He was shorter and thinner than Harley remembered, with deep lines on his face. He looked at Harley, with her hair in pigtails and colorful makeup, then at Jaylie standing next to her, wearing her old t-shirt with the I Love Lucy print and jeans, her green-tinted hair surrounding her expressionless face.

His frown deepened. "I don't know what you're selling," he said with a thick Brooklyn accent, "but I ain't buying it."

"Hi, Dad. It's me." Harley stopped him from closing the door with her heel. The situation was too absurd, she wanted to laugh. He didn't show any sign of recognition.

"It's me. Harl…een." She tried to smile friendly, not showing teeth, as she approached him. He looked suspiciously at her.

"It can't be you," he said at last. "My daughter was a psychiatrist, not a Ronald McDonald employee."

Harley's smile faltered. Her fingers twitched around Bud and Lou's leash, and Jaylie took a step forward. She forced herself to smile wide, turning on all of Lucy's charms, making her voice brilliant and bright as she tilted her head to the side. Cute as a button. She hated playing nice, but it usually got her what she wanted.

"This is my mama, Harleen Quinzel. I've always wanted to meet you, Mistah."

At this, he looked like someone who just found out that their lottery success had been canceled. He looked between them again, and his mouth was agape.

Harley laughed nervously. "Yeah, this is my Jaylie."

"So you're a hooker now," he said at least, then looked at the hyena dogs. Bud and Lou bared their teeth. Jaylie smiled at him, then stepped past him into the house, grasping a sharp candy cane.

.

They sat in his small kitchen in the wooden house, while the dogs rested on the floor. Jaylie studied every detail of the picturesque room, the embroidered curtains, and the porcelain on the shelves. The kitchen was simple but robust.

Harley played with some sugar cubes, putting ten of them into her cup and then taking a sip, then adding a few more until the sugar rush made her legs shake. Jaylie took one sip of the black coffee with a straight face, then put the cup aside.

Nick Quinzel stared into his cup. "So what brings you here after all this time, Harleen?"

Jaylie picked up a few sugar cubes of her own, aligning them in straight lines in front of her. "I made her come here. I wanted to see if you were real."

"I'm not a hooker, Dad," Harley said.

Her father scowled. He glanced at the gold jewelry on her arms and around her neck, the hyenas' diamond-studded collars, the crystal bracelet on Jaylie's wrist, with the two diamond-encased letters glimmering in the light, JL. A silent, yet bold mark showing off money.

Harley placed an arm around Jaylie's shoulders. "If there's anything you need, pop, I can help you out."

He snorted. "I can see you're not struggling to pay off car loans. Does she even have a college fund?" He pointed accusingly at Jaylie.

"I've never been to school," Jaylie said.

"Never?" He looked between them. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

Harley bit her lip. "She's… home-schooled. We have a good tutor."

"Frost is the worst. He knows math but he can't explain it," Jaylie continued despite Harley's not so subtle grimaces.

Nick laughed dryly. "Sounds like the teachers I had back in my day. But if you've got any of my genes, you're bright, kid. You'll do well."

Jaylie's face lit up.

"What do you want to do when you're grown up?" he asked her bluntly.

"I don't wanna be a drug dealer or run a business right now," she said casually, throwing a sugar cube to Lou who jumped up and drooled slobber on the floor, followed by a greedy sound from Bud as he tried to snatch it from him.

Nick almost choked on his coffee. When he had collected himself, he shot a glare at his daughter. "I knew you got yourself into bad company. So where's the dead-beat father?"

Harley suddenly rose, slamming her palms on the table so the tableware shook. "Don't you speak like that of Mistah J!"

He looked calmly at her. "Sit down, Harleen. I always knew of your bad habits, all those boys hanging around you. After what happened to your first boyfriend... Your mother couldn't stand it. At least, we thought you were wise enough to keep yourself from ending up in bad... predicaments."

He glanced over at Jaylie who was watching them, surrounded by lines of sugar cubes.

Harley's face turned white and her red nails dug into the embroidered tablecloth. "Fuck that," she spat. The dogs were roused by her, standing up and barking. She leaned over the table and grabbed his shoulders. "Ya don't know anythin' 'bout me. What I wanted."

"I do," he answered calmly. "A quick lifestyle, money and men."

Her hand snatched out, reaching for the sugar bowl on the table, but Jaylie pulled it away from her.

Harley let go of him, panting, then glanced back at Jaylie. She straightened up and dusted some prickles of sugar off her t-shirt. "It's time to go, honey. Come on, boys!" With the hyena dogs eagerly surrounding her, she ran her hand through their manes.

Jaylie didn't move, studying her grandfather closely with her palms placed flat on the table. It was sturdy; the texture felt strange, completely unlike all the coffee tables in glass and smooth black marble she'd seen before.

"Where's my grandma?"

"Sharon died many years ago."

Jaylie leaned forward. "What do you do for work?"

"I'm an accountant. I'm retired now."

"Come on, Jay." Harley's voice was harder.

"I wish I could have met you sooner," Nick said, ignoring his daughter who was impatiently tapping her heel against the floorboards. "You seem like a good kid. You just need a better influence."

Harley turned to her father. "Ya ain't seeing her again. You an' mom hated me. You wanted me to be some subdued, boring stay-at-home wife with a picket fence and kids and a husband who only came home for dinner! I was never good enough for any of you! But you know what?"

She leaned in, smiling wide, staring him in the blue eyes. "You just wanted me to cover up for your failing marriage and feeling of being a lousy father! But now you're sitting here." She glowed as she said the last words.

Jaylie got to her feet, moving to pick up her sparkling sneakers, and Nick touched her shoulder. "Hey, Jaline… what was your name again?"

She emphasized the name.

"Come and visit me again, if you'd like."

Jaylie glanced at Harley, who was still glaring at him and shrugged.

Nick took a good look at the girl that in a way was similar to a young Harleen. Yet she looked unfamiliar, her features were clear signs of someone else. She didn't look as lean and well-trained as Harleen had been in that age, competitive and athletic - his granddaughter looked as if she hadn't quite grown into her body yet, a scrawny build, with something childish and distant in her eyes. Yet, when she focused her gaze, it was hard as steel.

He saw the scars on her face, across one of her eyebrows, her cheek and the ones on her bared arms, some fading into a bright pink. She looked as if she had fallen into a thorn bush on multiple occasions and her skin had barely started healing.

"What happened to her?" he asked quietly, now blocking the way for her to leave.

"She fell on our ski trip to the Alpes," Harley hissed back, then reached for Jaylie.

"I guess this 'Mistah J' paid for it as well?" he retorted.

Jaylie squirmed past him before Harley would end up using physical violence to get to her, and tugged at her arm. "Let's go, Mama."

Harley didn't even hear her, standing tall in the face of him, teeth bared. "Yeah, and so what? He's my man!"

"Your hallick, Harleen? Be honest with yourself."

"Shut up!" Harley was about to throw herself at him, spurred by the growling of Bud and Lou, when they were interrupted by a tapping on the front door.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

They both fell silent, too stunned to open the door. Harley had aimed the sharp tip of an umbrella at her father and Bud and Lou started barking louder. The person on the other side didn't have enough patience to wait, as evident by the sound when someone shot at the lock, then simply pushed the door open.

Harley's father picked up the metal bat he had stashed underneath the plush pillows in the kitchen sofa and gestured to Jaylie to get behind him. She shrugged and let him step in front of her.

The intruder waltzed into the kitchen, cast a glance around the room and grinned. "The little piggies are supposed to open the door," he said, wagging his finger in disappointment. "How rude."

"I've called the cops!" Nick had the baseball bat raised with steady hands, but his face was white as ash. "This is illegal!"

"What?" Joker made a gesture with his hands, his face a mask of innocence. "Can't a man visit his father-in-law?"

Harley giggled. "Hey, honey." The hyenas lay down by her feet again, yawning.

"Don't come any closer to me or my granddaughter," Nick wheezed. "You're a madman."

Something shifted in the Joker's eyes, the corner of his lips twitching into a grimace.

"Your daughter wouldn't agree." He made a gesture towards Harley and she threw herself into his arms. He made a show of kissing her obscenely. His hands wrapped around her waist, digging into her skin and she gasped, her face turning a shade of pink. She pressed her hips against his black slacks as if she was back in the club and not in front of her elderly father.

Jaylie squirmed, turning her eyes away. Out of all places, they chose to show off in a place where she had no way to escape. She considered climbing out of the window.

"This is Mistah J," Harley breathed, her mouth smeared with his lipstick.

"Your loving son-in-law," he cackled. "She calls me Daddy now."

"You're not welcome here," Nick said, his voice stern. "Remove yourself from the premises." Jaylie made a movement to go but he stopped her. "Stay here. I need to have a word with Harleen about this."

The Joker tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing as if someone had just told him that he couldn't park wherever he wanted. He stepped over to Harley's father, standing right in front of him. They were the same height, yet the Joker still seemed to tower over him.

"Nice and cozy lil place you got here. Would be a shame if something happened to it." He smiled as he lifted a fire poker from the fireplace in one sudden movement, twirling it and testing the weight of it in his hand.

Jaylie moved to stand in front of her grandfather, only reaching to his chest. She looked at the Joker. "Don't."

"Don't be such a bore," he drawled.

"I wanna keep him."

This was hers, one of the few things they had not already claimed and played with until they grew bored of it, broke it, and threw it away. This new bond was hers to explore, and she was there first. She wouldn't let him take it from her.

Nick made another attempt to shield her, which only made Joker's gaze darker. He stepped over to Jaylie until he was standing right in front of her. His hand curled underneath her chin, too hard, she could feel his nails digging into her skin for a moment.

"You're in the way, Pumpkin," he breathed before tightening his grip, then let go and tapped his index finger against her cheek. She knew it was a warning - to get out of the way or face the consequences.

Then, he turned his attention to the matches on the table. He picked up a cigarette from its package, lit it and took a deep breath. They all waited and watched him. He exhaled slowly, savoring the drag as if he was contemplating the color of the wallpaper.

Jaylie knew it was only a game. She turned to tell Nick to leave but the Joker slowly shook his head. When he was done he flickered the still-lit cigarette into a corner.

"Are you the father?" the elderly man asked.

The Joker lit another match and dropped it casually on the embroidered tablecloth, with the letters a clean home is a happy home. The fire spread to the curtains, quickly climbing up the window and smoke collected in the room.

He grinned. "You bet I am."

They watched the house be swallowed by flames from a few streets away, as they walked to the car. They left Harley's father in his garden, despairing, screaming as all his family heirlooms were quickly consumed. Harley laughed all the way back, clinging to the Joker's arm, but Jaylie glanced back.

"My history is gone," she said, sitting in the backseat with the hyena dogs around her.

The Joker turned to look at her, his gaze still dark. "This is your heritage."

They sped away back into town, and she saw the fire spread accompanied by her parents' laughter. The sounds of sirens in the distance came closer, but it would be too late to save the place.

"Let's order pizza!" Harley asked as they passed through the streets in a blurring speed. She leaned over to press a kiss to his neck. He made a sharp left, obliging her, making pedestrians jump out of the way.

.

.

Jaylie lay on her bed, idly glancing around the room. The months that had passed had left it dusty, smelling strange. They had just moved back to the old penthouse, and she finally had more space again.

Her collectible katanas were there in their glass cabinet, all her clothes in the wardrobe, half of which she had never even worn once – Harley got her new sparkling items all the time. The jewelry and hair dyes, nail polish and knives on the desk where she left them, the window in the direction of the streets far below. Her old books about hyenas and wild animals in the closet, together with stuffed toys and baby clothes that Harley never wanted to throw away. Lou slept on a fluffy blanket on the floor. She had lost her hammer, but she had another, customized just for her. Harley's old bat, with her lullaby scribbled on the wood, was placed against the wall next to her bed, next to her newest addition, the metallic bat from her grandfather.

She studied her body, an artificial heritage.

She looked at her pale hands, fingers stretched out, fading marks on her skin. Her fingernails had the same shape as the Joker's, her hands the same shape as Harley's. That was only hers, something that no one could take away.

The acid coloration of her skin, the green that sometimes came back to her hair when the local water supply was affected, making it tinted green when she had showered. Her entire body was a testament of everything she had done, everything she was. She liked it.

Almost two weeks had passed and the headaches were less frequent now, the haze had lifted. She had been dead once already, it was boring. She wanted to live now, shred the past. She would live for her brother, and do the fun part.

She needed to see Zoe.

.

"Have you ever watched anything besides horror movies?" Zoe asked. They sat on the floor in her mother's new apartment in a pile of blankets.

Jaylie shrugged. "I watch cartoons sometimes."

Zoe's face lit up. "Do you like Studio Ghibli?"

"What's that?"

"I'll show you." Zoe smiled and picked up a movie from a bag. "Me and Dad used to watch this."

They lounged among pillows on the floor, watching Spirited Away on the small tv-screen. Lou slept next to them. This kind of familiarity felt strange. The last months were a blurry streak in the back of her mind, a sharp contrast to this. Zoe's mother wasn't home. She was still absent but she had left Darren after he got arrested.

Zoe was looking at her. "I never thought I would see you again," she said quietly. "I was so scared for you."

"I missed you."

"I've been seeing Dad again, he's out of prison. He says I can't see you anymore." Zoe glanced at the screen, where the end credits were starting to roll. "I don't care what he says. You're my best friend."

Jaylie leaned in, resting her head on her shoulder. "He's right. You might get in trouble, ya know."

"I still wanna see you." Zoe wrapped her arms around her and they stayed like that for a while, leaning into each other. "I don't want you to go."

When the screen had turned dark, Jaylie looked at her. "Wanna see something cool?"

She took her hand and led her outside on the street. She had been in this part of town several times before. She led Zoe up a fire escape alongside a nearby building, following the routes she had walked so many times when she was playing with Lou or waiting for her parents to finish something. They stopped several times as she caught her breath – her body didn't have a fraction of the strength she remembered but she tried to hide it. They eventually made it to the flat roof of a tall building.

Gotham was spread out in front of them, a myriad of tall buildings that seemed small in comparison to where they were standing. The height didn't make her dizzy anymore, but she smiled at Zoe clinging to her, her face paling a bit. The afternoon sky was flat blue, clouds assembling in the distance and the view was unrestricted from this angle, a jungle of grey and black.

Zoe eventually relaxed a little bit, slowly and carefully loosening her grip on Jaylie's arm. She followed her closer to the edge, still tense.

"So these places are where Dad works."

"You can be like him." Jaylie grinned. "Ask him for 'bring your child to work' day."

Zoe laughed. "Is that even a thing?"

Jaylie shrugged. "We can share this place. I don't want it, it's so boring nowadays. Haven't seen Robin for ages."

They stayed on the roof for a while, watching the sky turning a shade of dusty pink from the pollution, and the cars passing by down below. Jaylie remembered the things they used to talk about - and she could imagine the two of them in the future - when they were older and free to go wherever they wanted. None of them had ever been outside of Gotham's borders for their entire lives. Would she ever want to leave this city behind? It would mean leaving her parents and the thought alone made her uncomfortable.

Later that afternoon they wandered around, looking for an ice-cream stand. Jaylie managed to steal two cones from the stand while Zoe distracted the owner.

"Damn brats!" the ice-cream man shouted after them.

They ran, laughing, and Zoe thought that maybe things would be better from now on. They would be together. She wouldn't have to worry about being alone, about men who beat and mothers who screamed and fathers in prison. She held Jaylie's hand as they wandered along the river, drank in the carelessness in her smile, the scar across her cheek and her hair that swept into her face, and she felt content.

Jaylie noticed her staring but turned to look at the river, the sparkling grey, always polluted, and this was the way she liked it. Running free along the docks, just the two of them and nothing could ever separate them. Zoe would be with her always, and they would play underneath the bridges, watch the stars from the rooftops, running from young boys in Bat costumes and mix soda drinks in the clubs, skate through the streets and it would be just for them. When they got older they could do what the henchmen did, get high together and laugh the way her parents did.

Zoe dared to play with the hyena dogs now, no longer afraid of their jaws. She braided Jaylie's hair – it had grown wild without being brushed for too long. Jaylie sat impatiently on the dock, watching the water as Zoe tried her best to tame her locks, not even grimacing when she tried to untangle it.

No costumed women deciding her fate, no armed guards or glass cages and no one to tell them what to do.

For the first time, the world was truly hers.

TO BE CONTINUED. Review!