AN: Takes place shortly after 'Thong'.

Christineoftheopera-One little slap isn't going to change the world. Maybe it would. Maybe there'd be dinosaurs! You've had daytime cold medicine. I was stuffy and coughing! Oh, lord... Or maybe there'd be elves! Holy crap, what if it opened a portal to Middle-earth? Now look what you've done.

The Puppeteer Patient 120402-It's not nearly so fun in real life, unfortunately. ...you frighten me at times. What? I wouldn't have poisoned you or something to make it happen. And I'd outgrown it by the time we met. What kind of childhood did you have? My teddy bear got the plague once. Never mind, I'm happy not knowing.

Just-Me-and-My-Brain-I never had them. You're an odd duck, that's all. They're not fun. I mean, don't get me wrong, that one wasn't so bad, but...I look back on all those little stories and wonder why they were so amusing. You wrote them down? Yes! Shut up! I don't want to know, do I. Probably not.

It wasn't that he particularly cared that the clown had come back and needed his jaw wired shut. If anything, it was cause for celebration.

(Joker disagreed and after one too many snickers from the guards, had landed himself in solitary. This incident led to the banning of jigsaw puzzles from Arkham.)

But, with the clown silent (and now not even around), the theories as to what happened were getting a little outlandish. Crazy he may have been, but the likelihood of him breaking his jaw trying to give Batman…anyway.

It quickly became apparent that the only one talking would be Harley Quinn. The doctors, for whatever reason, were more concerned about protecting his precious feelings than quelling the rumours, but Harley…

Once she was allowed in public and the guards were satisfied that nothing was going to be torched, they descended upon her like a pack of hyenas.

"Hey, Harley."

"Hi."

They probably should go easy on her. She hadn't come back in pristine condition, either.

Eh. She'd live.

"How are you?"

She sniffed. Typical. Depressed. Separate her from the clown and brace yourself for tears.

"He'll be fine." Hopefully not. "Harley…what exactly happened out there?"

"I don't wanna talk about it, Eddie."

"We need to-!"

"What Edward means is that it might be therapeutic." And entertaining. Very entertaining. "Why don't you tell us about it?"

"I don't…"

"Come on, sweetie. We won't breathe a word."

"'Kay."

Perfect. They took another glance to make sure the guards weren't getting too upset and crowded round.

"Bats didn't like the Tribute." she said. "We got into a spotlight and Mistah J thought he'd show him…yah know."

They all knew, but it wasn't voluntary knowledge.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I guess he didn't like it, 'cuz he grabbed him and sorta…went to town."

Oh.

Ohh.

Apparently he wasn't the only one who thought the thong was a bit much.

"Stop laughing!" She hit him in the arm and he moved away.

"Play nice, Quinn!"

"Fuck you!"

That got her dragged off to solitary.

Worth it.

THE END