The young woman woke up the following morning, sunlight beaming down on her face. She stirred and moaned and rubbed her forehead and sat up slowly. She looked down and found a blanket was covering her. When she looked up again, the young woman nearly gasped at the sight of a man sitting in a chair in the corner. His head was leaned over to one side and he looked to be asleep. The young woman didn't remember much about last night, let alone the strange man sleeping in the chair. She slipped out of the blanket and started to head toward the door, but then stopped herself and looked back at him. He was sleeping peacefully, like an angel almost, but with a certain tragedy to his pale, gaunt face. He didn't look dangerous, though she could never be too careful. The young woman looked down at herself, making sure he had not violated her in any way. She didn't think so. She looked at the sleeping man again and carefully thought over the situation. He had obviously brought her into the safety of his home because she needed help. If she left now, he might have thought that she was ungrateful. Wanting to return her gratitude and thank him properly, the young woman quietly moved away from the door and went back over and sat down on the couch and waited for him to wake up. She didn't have to wait long.

Arthur woke up a minute later and sat up straight and rubbed his forehead and brushed back his hair with his hand. He looked over at the couch and found the young woman was awake.

"Are you all right?" He asked her.

"Yes, I'm all right", said the young woman.

"What's your name?"

"Wendy", she replied.

"That's a pretty name."

"Thank you", said Wendy. "What's your name?"

"My name is Arthur. Arthur Fleck."

Wendy looked around the place, seeing that it was an apartment, no doubt his own. She had lived in one identical to this, only not quite so homely. It all came flooding back to her: the fighting, the argument, her being thrown out of the apartment next door. More importantly, she remembered a voice. A soft, masculine voice asking her if she was all right. The kindness of a stranger. She looked at Arthur again.

"Did I spend the night here?" Wendy asked him.

"Well, I couldn't just leave you out there, especially after the way that man treated you", Arthur answered her.

"How much did you hear last night?" Wendy asked nervously.

"I heard enough", said Arthur.

Wendy lowered her eyes, biting her bottom lip in embarrassment.

Arthur noticed her discomfort and asked her, "Did you know him, the man you were with last night?"

"I'm sorry to say that I did", said Wendy. She blinked and looked at Arthur. "His name is Mark. He's my boyfriend, though ex-boyfriend is more like it."

Arthur raised an eyebrow at her, a curious expression on his face mixed with mild surprise. "Oh?" He asked her.

Wendy focused her attention on a pen that was lying on the coffee table in front of her and fidgeted around with it, avoiding his gaze for a reason.

"How did you meet him?" Arthur questioned, hoping he wasn't prying too far into her private life.

"Through bad luck, I guess", Wendy answered.

"Do you have a family?"

Wendy leaned back on the couch, still not looking at Arthur. "Not really", she said. "I'm suppose to have an Uncle Jack somewhere in this city, but I haven't been able to find him. I came here about a week ago to look for him, and Mark came here with me to...have a good time, for lack of a better word. We rented an apartment together and I've been trying to look for work, but it's been difficult. Mark hasn't even made an effort to help out." Wendy paused momentarily, shaking her head. "I don't want to be there anymore", she said. "After what happened last night, I..." Her bottom lip trembling, Wendy sniffled and wiped away a tear that was about to fall down her face.

"Wendy", said Arthur. "If you don't want to talk about it-"

"No, I do." Wendy looked at him. "You have to understand, but what I did last night is not something I normally do. I only did it to defend myself."

"What happened?"

"I came home after a job interview and found Mark in bed, drunk. I went over and sat down with him to try and relax, and he started coming onto me. I told him I wasn't in the mood and he got mad at me. I started arguing with him and the next thing I knew, he grabbed me and started forcing me down on the bed. He tried reaching under my dress, so I scratched his face. He hit me in my shoulder trying to go for my face, but he missed. At that point, I kneed him in the groin and told Mark I was through with him. He came at me again and I tried to run out of there, but he started cursing and throwing stuff, threatening to kill me. He told me he was going to kill me, and he...he...I'm sorry."

Wendy stood up and walked over to stand next to the door, hiding her crying face from him. She hugged her arms across her chest and let out a sob, her body trembling from her emotional outburst.

Arthur rose up from the chair and walked over and tried putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, but this only made her cry harder. "Wendy?"

"Don't touch me", Wendy whispered, her voice breaking.

Arthur pulled his hand away and looked toward his mother's bedroom, hoping she wouldn't wake up. He looked at Wendy again and stepped closer to her. She kept her back to him, quietly sobbing.

"Wendy, listen to me", Arthur begged her, his voice gentle and soft. "I'm sorry you got hurt. And I know you're angry and upset, but you can't let him make you unhappy like this. You didn't deserve to be treated like that. No woman should ever have to go through that."

Sniffling in response, Wendy shook her head and told him, "It doesn't matter, Arthur. It's over now."

"I wish there was something I could do."

Wendy turned around and looked at him with watery eyes, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face into his shirt.

Arthur was unsure how to handle it at first, but then he slowly wrapped his arms around Wendy and allowed her to melt into the warmth of his embrace, seeing how much she needed it. Until then, he had never been this close to a woman before. It was strangely new to him. He rubbed small circles on her back, feeling her breath hitch in her throat as she tried to get her crying under control. His other hand rested on the back of her head, his fingers curling themselves into her mass of red tresses.

Wendy continued crying, though they were mostly muffled by the cotton fabric she was feeling against her tear-stained face. She felt Arthur rocking her gently, and then, for some reason, heard him starting to sing softly.

"Smile, though your heart is aching. Smile, even though it's breaking...When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by...If you smile, through your fear and sorrow. Smile, and maybe tomorrow...That's the time you must keep on trying...Smile, what's the use of crying? You'll find that life is still worthwhile...If you just smile."

Wendy listened to him singing to her, trying to cheer her up and easy her suffering. She eventually calmed down and took a deep breath, her crying finally ceased.

Arthur released her from the hug and lifted her head up and brought Wendy's gaze to look at him. He gently put a hand to her face and brushed away a tear from her cheek. Something about the way she looked at him made his heart swell, unlike anything he had ever felt before. Wendy looked at him the same way, and that's when she noticed the strange marking on his upper lip. A scar or a birthmark, perhaps? She never asked him. She stared into his beautiful green eyes, which grew soft upon meeting her own brown ones. She studied his face and took careful note of his features. He was handsome, in his own way. He certainly wasn't ugly. He had a boyish charm about him, a soft aura that radiated from his smooth-skinned face. His hair was long and disheveled, but she didn't mind. He seemed so shy and quiet, someone who was not very social with other people. Perhaps he didn't care for it. Maybe they didn't care back. He looked like the kind of man who lived a life of isolation, though he dared not let her in on why.

"Happy?" Arthur's mother called out.

Arthur and Wendy jumped a bit at the sound of her voice and clutched onto each other, looking over toward her bedroom.

"Happy, are you awake?"

"Yeah, Mom", Arthur answered.

"Could you run me a bath?"

"Okay, Mom." Arthur turned back and looked at Wendy and she looked at him, slightly confused.

"That's your mother?" Wendy asked him.

"Yes, that's my mother", Arthur answered, adding in a whispered voice, "And she doesn't know about you being here. I don't want to be rude and rush you out, but-"

"No, I understand", said Wendy.

Arthur turned to the door and opened it to let her out, but Wendy did not move. She just stood there and stared at him, as though she were thinking about something.

"What is is?" Arthur asked her.

"Well, I was thinking", said Wendy. "If it's possible, could I see you again?"

Arthur looked at her in bemusement, his eyes widening a bit as he asked her, "You want to see me again?"

"Yes", Wendy answered. "Once I find my uncle and get myself settled, I can come back here and we can get to know each other a little more. So far, you're the most decent person I've run into in this miserable city."

With a little smile on his face, Arthur chuckled lightly and ran a hand through his hair, telling her, "Well, I don't really...I mean, I'm not..."

Wendy frowned unhappily at the tone of his uncertainty. Arthur couldn't stand to see her like that, and so he thought it over real quick, seeing how he couldn't say no to the scarlet beauty. Nodding his head, he answered, "Okay."

"Great!" Wendy exclaimed, rewarding him with a laugh and a grin. She took him by the hand and kissed it. Then she looked at him and said, "Thank you for taking care of me, Arthur. That was very sweet of you." She walked out.

Arthur shut the door and locked it and latched it with the chain. He turned and leaned his back against the door, looking at the hand that she kissed. He whispered her name under his breath. "Wendy."

Through the smog and grim of the wretched streets filled with crime, Wendy sat quietly in the backseat of a taxi cab, allowing the driver to take her to where she needed to go. She remembered something about a chemical plant called Axis. Other than that, there was no other clue as to who her uncle was or who he worked for or where he lived in Gotham City. She had heard about him once when she was twelve, but had never actually seen him, let alone a picture of him. Her Uncle Jack, being the younger brother to Wendy's mother, was considered by many to be the black sheep of the family. When asked why, Wendy was told never to bring it up again. Her mother died five years ago. And no less than two weeks ago, her father went to join her. Whatever it was, the secret mystery of her Uncle Jack went with them.

The taxi let her off at a factory that had a giant neon red sign above it that read Axis Chemicals. This is where he works? Wendy thought to herself. She walked over and placed a hand on the chain-link fence blocking her entrance, looking over the place. There was a pipe coming out of the side of the factory. Thousands of gallons of toxic green sludge were being dumped into the Gotham East River.

"Hey", said a masculine voice.

Wendy gasped and turned around and was confronted by a man in his forties. He had brown eyes and brown hair with touches of gray at the root. He was wearing a dark purple suit. "Can I help you?"

"Yes. I'm looking for a Jack Napier", said Wendy.