Chapter12: The Cruelest Way

A/N: WARNING: Child Abuse NON graphic, but still upsetting. Thanks for all your reviews :)

This is falling in love in the cruelest way

(Taylor Swift – Come back, be here)

"Pop it, lock it, polka dot it
Country-fy then hip hop it
Put your hawk in the sky, side to side
Jump to the left, stick it, glide

Zig zag 'cross the floor
Shuffle in diagonal
When the drum hits, hands on your hips
One-footed 180 twist

And then a zig zag, step, slide
Lean in left, clap three times
Shake it out, head to toe
Throw it all together, that's how we roll!"

"Yeah!" Catherine cried out. "You did it Harley!"

I had done it. Miley Cyrus was nothing against me. I had been shot and had mastered her Hoedown-Throwdown.

"Let me sit!" I sighed as I fell onto the bed next to the child.

"That was a new record!"

"Yeah!" I gasped and the tiny blonde handed me some water.

"Is it my go now?" She asked with large eyes.

"Yes." I leaned back breathing heavily.

It was a week later and my leg was much better. I could walk without limping and I had danced Mileys dance until perfection. Yvette had spoken to her family. I didn't have the slightest idea what she had said, but this much I knew: No one was looking for this child.

The familiar song started and Catherine began the quick movements. She smiled brightly at me and I smiled back. I was proud of her. She was doing this so well.

The Joker and I had spent some nights together, but we hadn't had sex yet. It wasn't that I didn't want to. I was just so nervous. And I was sure his house had ears and eyes.

Now more than ever I missed Quinn with all her quirkiness and advice. Right now my only friend was five years old and wouldn't be much help in this department.

And I couldn't talk to him about it, because I knew he wasn't nervous. That conversation would be even more embarrassing than the awkward silences at night.

"Oh no!" Catherine cried out as she threw herself onto my bed. "I got stuck again!"

"You were great." I said and immediately she brightened up.

In the past week I had spent a lot of time with Catherine and I had noticed some things. She loved being praised and she wasn't afraid of any of the men. She reflected her fears onto her unicorn. She was very affectionate. Her parents had never hugged her, at least that's what I thought. And there was something about her...whenever she laughed I could see a darkness in her eyes. She was a very troubled girl.

Mr. J and I had stuck to our Honeymoon-Phase behaving very much like teenagers with a surprising amount of kissing, cuddling and watching TV together. When we spoke, we made jokes and teased each other (he had heard of the nickname "Pooh" and seemed to think it was cute even though I had promised I would kill him, if started calling me that), but we never actually spoke about anything real.

But we didn't have to. I knew he wouldn't send Catherine home. It was too risky. She would know all of our names and faces. And he used her to control Yvette. And he controlled Yvette to protect me. I couldn't even ask him if he would send her home. He was doing all of this for me.

So I spent time with Catherine and became her friend.

"Harley?"

I had to smile at the fact that my old nick-name was becoming my new one.

"Yeah, baby?"

"Do you think we can watch the film again today?"

I closed my eyes for a second. Without work and without Mr. J I was very bored, but I could not watch Miley Cyrus be Hannah Montana one more time.

"Let's watch something else, Catherine."

Another thing about the happy little girl was that she asked a lot of questions, but she never asked when she would be going home.

She began to hum and play with Mrs. Fluffy-Snuggle-Kiss and as I watched the little girl I knew I had to ask her. I owed her this much.

"Catherine?"

"Yeah?" She bit her lip and looked up at me, looking very cute so that I had to smile.

"Why aren't you scared of Mr. Joker and his friends?"

Immediately her blue eyes moved to the toy in her hands and I wanted to ask her again, but decided against it. Catherine was such a bubbly, talkative girl. I just had to give her some time.

"Because..." She grinned up at me. "My Daddy is much worser than all of Mr. Jokers friends."

I ignored her grammatical error and felt my blood run cold. He was worse? Whose child had he taken?! Mr. J pulled all of the strings in Gotham City. He was the King.

And now there was someone worse?

I tried to swallow, but my mouth was completely dry. Yvette was going to take revenge on us. All of us. That's why she had followed all of my Puddins commands. Because she knew she would win in the end.

Next to me Catherine began humming and brought me out of my trance.

"What do you mean?"

She shivered and continued playing with her unicorn. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I'm your friend." I tried my best to keep my voice controlled. If she heard how panicked I was, she would never tell me the truth. "You can trust me. We can talk about anything."

Next to me Catherine nodded, but I could see the difference. The darkness in her eyes returned and her face paled. She was shaking.

"Catherine." I whispered. "Why is your Daddy worse than Mr. Jokers friends?"

The little girl looked up at me and she didn't have to say one more word. I could see it all in her face. Sharleen had worn the same expression. Guilt. Shame. Disappointment. Fear. Pain.

It was all there.

"He says I have to be a good girl and do all he says. He takes pictures and makes videos of me. And then his friends come and give him money and I have to do what they say!" She began to sob. "They hurt me and I hate it!" I wanted to comfort her, but she stood up and began walking up and down in the room, wiping her face. "I told Auntie Yvette I wanted to be a poilicewoman when I grow up so I can kill Daddy, but she laughed and said I'm funny."

"She didn't know." I realised in a whisper.

Catheiner shook her head hectically and finally stopped walking through the room.

"And your mummy?" I asked, as I slid of the bed. "Did she help you?"

"She's always standing in the door and counts the money Daddys friends give to her."

A hard heavy rock of sickness piled up in my stomach at her words.

"Mummy hates me!" The little girl cried out. "She says I'm only good for making money and no one will ever love me! But that's not true, right Harley? You love me, right? You do?"

"Of course I love you!" I blurted out and hurried to hug her. "I love you Catherine and I promise you never have to make such a horrible video ever again!"

The little girl pressed her face against my stomach and soaked my blouse with her tears, but I didn't care. I held her and soothed her and was so disgusted and so happy at the same time. Because we had gotten her out of there.

"You're going to be ok, Catherine. I promise." I sat down on the bed and continued to hold her, until she fell asleep.

I put the blanket over her and crept outside. Normally I never left the rooms up here. I was either in the other bedroom, where Catherine slept or in The Jokers room. But after hearing her cries like that I knew I couldn't just sit in the room upstairs and wait for him. He needed to know this now and we needed to take care of it right now.

Come home now. Something happened.

After texting this I went downstairs and sat down in the living room. Two men were sitting there and were watching TV. They looked up when they saw me and I could see the fear in their eyes clear as day.

But I didn't care about them. The only thing I cared about was the terrified little girl upstairs and the fact that we had to save her. The men looked at each other, turned off the TV and left wordlessly. I couldn't care less.

Silence wrapped itself around me and I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them. We would have to send Yvette away with Catherine. Explain the situation to her that her sister and her brother-in-law were greedy pedophiles. We had to give them money and then the two of them could start over somewhere together.

And maybe we could kidnap the parents. Get them here and torture them. I shivered although their was a fire burning in the fireplace and the living room was cosy and warm.

Could I do this?

Our Honeymoon-Phase would be over eventually and Mr. J was right. I had said I'd live for him. Torturing people, killing people, was what he did. If I truly wanted to be with him, then I'd have to be able to be ok with these things.

I took a deep shuddering breath. I knew he hated people crying and tears would get me nowhere I knew that.

Catherine had to be given back to Yvette. Then The Joker had to kill her parents. It was that simple.

The door to the large mansion suddenly burst open my Puddin' burst into the living room, closely followed by Johnny. Both men had their guns raised and hectic looks on their faces. In that moment he looked so sexy with his usual bare chest, purple leather jacket and dark trousers. And that fierce look on his face.

"What happened?!" Mr. J hurried toward me and behind him Johnny dropped his gun with an annoyed glare, seeing no sign of obvious danger.

"We need to talk about Catherine."

My boyfriends blue eyes turned dark, as he also realised nothing bad was going on.

"Johnny." He sighed. "Go upstairs and make sure none of the boys are down here."

"Yes boss."

There was a smallest of silences and Mr. J put his gun away. He was pacing through the living room rubbing his temples as if he had a headache.

"Harley." He said and turned to me. "Do you realise I was in the middle of sealing a deal with one of the richest men in Gotham?"

Oh he was angry. I could see it in his eyes. The blue was darker and there was a passion inside of them that was not meant to be positive. So I decided to be honest:

"No."

He began to laugh hysterically although there was nothing funny about the situation.

"That could have been the deal of my life and I read one stupid message from you..." He groaned. "How did this happen? One message and I drop everything..." Mr. J looked up at me. "You! You did this to me. This is your fault!"

"I'm sorry." I shrugged my shoulders but had to fight a smile from sliding onto my face. He had dropped everything for me. And I was prepared to have people killed for him. We were serious about this relationship - both of us!

"Don't ever do that again." He paused and then added: "Unless there really is an emergency, but then say what it is. Hi Honey, I'm locked in the bathroom and guys with guns are robbing the house. You know that sort of thing."

I nodded. "I'm sorry about your deal."

Mr. J sat down beside me. "Honeymoon-Phase, right?"

I had to smile. "Right."

"So." He ran his hand through his green hair. "What is it you want to talk about so badly?"

"Catherine's Dad is a pedophile." I said straight-out. "He's been raping her, making videos of it and lending her to his friends." I sighed deeply. "Her mum's in on it too, she takes care of the money."

My Puddin' leaned back in the sofa with a shocked sigh. He shook his head at my words and I was glad to see this emotion in him.

"Do you get it?" I asked and moved closer to him, taking his hand in mine. "You didn't kidnap this little girl." I paused. "You saved her."

"I don't save people." He said clearly, pulling his hand from mine. "It doesn't change anything."

"It changes everything!" I snapped. "We can't give her back to those disgusting people! We need to make sure she's safe. So. This is my plan: We need to tell Yvette and then send the two of them away. And then we kill the parents."

During my words Mr. J had burried his face in his hands.

"Harley." He muttered into his hands, before he dropped them. He was obviously already tired from this conversation, even though it hadn't really started yet. "We need Yvette to find out who is after you."

How was that of any importance? I shook my head. "I don't care about that! They are raping her! We cannot send her back!"

"We can't send her and Auntie Yvette on their merry way, you know that!" His sarcasm fed my rage and I snapped:

"They are raping her!"

His annoyance was coming of him in waves. "There are worse things than being raped, these women were hired by someone who wants to kill you!"

"There's nothing worse." I muttered as I stood up. "Nothing."

He noticed his mistake immediately and also stood up. "Harley-"

"Leave me alone." I went upstairs. Catherine was still sleeping peacefully, so I went into the bathroom, sat down on the floor and bawled my eyes out.

After what felt like an eternity I stood up from the bathroom floor and went back outside into Catherine's bedroom. It was just the same really with a large bed and adjoining bathroom. I went inside and splashed water in my face. I looked horrible. My eyes were red and puffy and my hair a mess.

There was no way that girl was going back home.

And if Mr. J didn't send her and Yvette away, we'd have to find a different solution.

When I stepped back into the bedroom, Mr. J was sitting on the bed. He had been waiting for me.

"Honeymoon-Phase?" He asked with the sweetest smile.

I closed my eyes and sighed. "You can't Honeymoon-Phase yourself out of this one."

He didn't say anything.

"I'm leaving tomorrow." I told him, as I sat down beside him. " And I'm taking Catherine with me."

"Don't be stupid, you can't do that."

"Why not?!" I shook my head. "I can look after her."

A bunch of monkeys could look after her and she would still be better off than going home.

"Someone is out to get you." Mr. J explained calmly. "And her parents will want her back for the money which is worse than anything else because they will hunt you down. You won't be able to protect her or yourself."

Tears burned in my eyes and I tried my best to blink them away. He was right. Catherine needed to get out of Gotham City and I was the wrong person. I couldn't help her the way she needed it. But his smugness was bringing me to my edge, so I snapped:

"Do you have any other ideas?!"

Mr. J smiled. "I'm glad you asked. As a matter of fact, I have." He paused and I almost groaned in frustration. "We are going to give Catherine to Julia. She's on her way, ready to pick her up tonight."

"Julia?" I repeated unable to connect the name with a face.

"She's the woman you helped when we first met."

I snorted. When we had first "met" he had pulled me into a van and told me to work for him.

"Wait." I said. "Do you mean the drug-addict?!"

He lifted his shoulders questioningly. "It's not like I have the numbers of any upstanding citizens Harley."

I pressed my lips together as I thought about my next suggestion. We had only touched upon this topic once and he hadn't said much about it. I knew there were mortal enemies. But I didn't know why.

"What about Batman?" I finally asked. "Do you think he can help?"

We were in our Honeymoon-Phase. I hadn't seen him angry on many occasions yet. But the look in his eyes was so livid I slid away from him. He lifted his hand to hit me, but then pulled his hand back.

"Honeymoon-Phase." He reminded himself, before he turned to me. "Never talk to me about the stupid bat again. And don't you dare think he could help with anything. Ever."

"I'm sorry." I moved closer to him and hugged him. I should have known better. Batman was a bad topic.

"Julia will take care of the little girl." He said as he hugged me back. "She's wanted a child of her own for a long time now..."

"Why hasn't she got one?" I asked as he let go of me again.

"Well turns out taking drugs isn't very helpful for a pregnancy." He didn't elaborate on that. "It's perfect timing actually. I'm going to tell Yvette I gave her little niece to a child rapist because she still hasn't figured out who hired her group. Maybe that will get her talking."

I nodded absentmindedly. "I need to get Catherine ready, they need to leave tonight."

Without waiting for a response I stood up and went to his room she was sleeping in.

The little girl was already awake in bed, clutching her unicorn.

"Harley?" She said confused. "What's going on?"

"Catherine, my friend Julia is going to come and take you with her, ok?"

"No!" She cried out and hugged me tightly. "I want to stay with you!"

"You can visit." Mr. J said behind us in a surprisingly gentle tone. "But you're not safe here. Your daddy and his friends might come looking for you."

"That would be bad." She whispered in an understanding tone.

I wasn't sure where all of his men were, even Johnny wasn't around to witness the next half an hour in which Mr. J wasn't The Joker, but merely a human being with compassion. The two of us helped Catherine get changed into a new dress, combed her hair and braided her pigtails (I braided them, he stood beside me watching my work with fascination) and packed up her things.

I gave her the small kitten he had given me and she was so happy, she called him Mr. Fluffy-Snuggle-Kiss and it was the shortest second ever, but I swear I saw Mr. J smile when she gave her new toy that name.

I hugged her tightly and then he led her outside to a car that was waiting for her with Julia inside of it. She wasn't allowed to see her aunt, but she hadn't asked to say goodbye to her anyway. I was sure she hated all of her family, because her family had never given her any reason to feel anything else.

When Mr. J came back he held out his hand to me:

"Do you want to continue the Honeymoon-Phase at your house?"

The amusement in his eyes was contagious and found myself giggling: "Yes!"

Hi Guys, so this was the hardest chapter to write. I have some personal reasons as to why the topic of child-abuse is in here:
I've read a lot of books written by child-abuse victims. I feel like by reading what they had to endure they aren't alone and as a reader I am listening to their voice - now that they can finally talk about what happened to them. Harley telling Catherine she loves her is me telling all those (now grown-up) children I love them. And it's an upsetting topic that no one really likes to talk about so it was important for me to give it a voice in here.

And from a writers point of view I had a lot of fun pushing Harley&Joker to their limits with this topic. I honestly wasn't sure if they were going to recover from their discussion, but it was one that was important for the plot of the story. Up until now The Joker has no understanding of how hard the topic of sexual abuse is for Harley to deal with.

Anyway, please tell me what you think! :)