I changed the ending to match where I want the story to go. I felt I was too quick to do what I did to Jerome and couldn't figure out where to go from there. Here is the new version. I realize it's a lot shorter. I just wanted to wrap up the Arkham City part of the story.
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The Joker was now dead. No one stopped Batman as he walked out of the theater carrying the Joker's dead body. Even the cops were solemn. There was no celebration. No triumph in the fact the Clown Prince of Crime was dead. It felt surreal to everyone to watch Batman carry Joker's body like he had cared deeply about the Joker.
And after it was over and everyone was safe, there was a solemn sad feeling at Wayne Manor despite one of Bruce Wayne's adopted sons returning from his own world. Jongleur and Derek only stayed there for one day before leaving.
"I'm sorry, boss." Jongleur said with an awkward look. "But all this fancy stuff is not really our thing."
"I understand that, Jongleur. It's fine. I feel out of place too now, to be honest." Jerome said. "You take care of yourselves though, ok? Do you have a place to stay?"
"Actually, I hit up my parallel to see if he could help. He's giving us a place to stay. Don't worry about us, boss. We'll be fine. I'm more worried about you. Are you ok?" Jongleur asked with a worried look.
Jerome smiled reassuringly even though he was not ok. "I'll be fine, Jongleur. You don't need to worry. Say hi to Frost for me."
"Will do." Jongleur said before leaving with a smile.
When Jerome went back inside the manor he saw Richard Grayson standing there looking at him with sympathy on his face. Jerome smiled at him with a smile that he couldn't manage to look very happy. "I guess you heard I came back. Did you just get here?"
"Yeah. Bruce told me all that happened. That a few of your friends died in Arkham City when you were trying to help him. How are you holding up?" Richard asked.
"Well, I'm kind of getting tired of people asking if I'm ok. But otherwise, I'm doing as well as I could for the situation." Jerome said.
Richard went over and hugged him. Jerome stiffened in his arms for a few moments before accepting it and hugging him back. To get a hug from the eldest adopted son of Bruce Wayne that didn't even spend a whole lot of time with the rest of the family anymore was just more proof that all of the bat family still cared about him. They still considered him part of the family.
"I'm glad you're back, little brother." Richard said when they pulled away from each other.
"It's good to see you, Richard." Jerome said. "But I don't need you to try and cheer me up. Bruce tries to do that far too much as it is."
"He's just worried about you. He always worries about all of us. It's just how he is." Richard said. "Are you staying? Or are you headed back to the other world at some point?" Richard asked.
"I don't have any reason to go back. It's complicated and I don't really want to talk about it." Jerome said.
"That's fine. I won't ask." Richard said. "It's just good to see you. Bruce was pretty torn up when you left. We all understand why you thought you had to. But none of us are going to judge you harshly for that."
"So Bruce told you who I parallel?" Jerome asked with an uncomfortable look.
"Yeah. After he thought you wouldn't return, he told us why you thought you had to go. It was really surprising to find out but that's not you, no matter what you might have been if you stayed in your own world. You aren't anything like that psycho. I want you to know that."
"You all have much more confidence in me than I do." Jerome said. They all kept saying that he wasn't anything like the Joker. But they were wrong.
"I suppose that is what family is for." Richard said, patting him on the back. "Alfred just made lunch. Come on." Jerome followed Richard to the kitchen where Alfred was setting plates down. Bruce and Tim were already sitting there at the table, both looking rather sleepy. They both probably just got up. Bruce smiled at Jerome as Jerome and Richard sat down at the table.
As they all ate and laughed and acted like a normal family, Jerome acted happy to be there. He acted like it was all ok. But he wasn't ok and them acting like he was just part of the family again wasn't helping like he thought it would. He was happy to see all of them. And he wished he could do more than just pretend that everything was fine. He wanted so much to just have a normal life again with them. Or as normal as having a family full of vigilantes was. But it felt like a lie. He didn't feel like he fit into all of that anymore. And it was devastating to realize that he'd probably never feel like he fit in there again.
"I can tell something's troubling you, Jerome." Bruce sat Jerome down in his study later. "What's wrong?"
"Can't hide anything from you, can I Bruce?" Jerome said with an uncomfortable look. "I know you said you don't care about who I parallel. But I'm having trouble understanding why you don't care."
"I've known you since you were a child, Jerome. I don't see the Joker when I look at you. I see the boy I took into my home and called a son. Whatever you might have done in your world as an adult if you hadn't come here doesn't matter. Because you ended up here."
"But it does matter. I know I still have all of that awful inside of me, just begging to come out. I'm not as good a person as you seem to view me as, Bruce. I do try. For you I do my best to not be as bad as him. But I know I'm more like him than I'd like."
"That's what sets you apart from him though." Bruce said. "Joker didn't care about anything anymore. He had no motivation to not be as awful as he could. He didn't bother trying to be better. You do. You try to be a good person. You don't have to be perfect, Jerome. I'm not expecting that. None of us are perfect. But we all do the best we can. The mere fact you seem so worried about it proves you are a lot less like the Joker than you probably think."
"I get that. But it's hard for me, Bruce. It's hard to be something I wasn't meant to be. I wasn't built to care. It hurts so much. How do you care so much and not feel awful all the time?"
"It's not easy. Even for me. It does hurt. But none of us have to deal with it alone, do we? We have each other. You don't have to deal with it alone, Jerome." Bruce went up and pulled Jerome into a hug.
Jerome stiffened for a moment and then returned the hug with a small happy smile. "Thank you, Bruce. You've always been way kinder to me than I ever expected anyone could act. I never felt like I belonged anywhere until I came here and you took me in. I missed it when I went back to my own world."
"We've all missed you as well, Jerome. Don't blame yourself for anything Joker has done. Jason was not your fault."
Jerome pulled away from Bruce. "I know it's not. But at the time it was the thought that maybe had I stayed in my world, another Jason just like him would have suffered at my hands... I know now that it wouldn't have been my hands at all, but my brother's. That makes it hurt less. But when it first happened, I had these horrible nightmares where I was there in Joker's shoes, hitting Jason with a crowbar… and enjoying it. I hated myself for awhile after those."
"Your brother is the Joker in your world, not you. Maybe you would've been relatively normal if you had stayed."
"I wouldn't have been. I could tell. My groupies were a big hint at that. They seemed like they formed out of nowhere, obsessed with an idea that they were supposed to obsess over someone or something that wasn't there. The minute I met them, they latched onto the idea that I was the missing piece. Like my groupies were some echo of what would have been. It all seemed to fit together in an odd, uncomfortable way that had me thinking that maybe the me that stayed in my world wouldn't have been a good person."
"Like I said, what would have been, doesn't matter." Bruce said, smiling at him reassuringly.
Jerome settled back into the world that raised him. He enrolled in some art classes at Gotham University to pass the time while he figured out what he wanted to do with his life. For the first time in forever, he didn't have any idea what he wanted to do with himself. It felt odd to have that unknown. Bruce let him stay at the manor for the time being. It really did seem like both Bruce and Alfred missed him and were trying to make up for lost time. But Jerome couldn't really complain. He missed them too.
One day, as Jerome was returning from one of his art classes, Bruce walked up to him with a concerned look.
"Hey, Bruce. What's up?" Jerome asked.
"I need your help with something." Bruce said with a worried look. "You may be the only one that can help."
