Joker sat in an elegant, gold and white Kassim chair with one ankle balanced on his knee. He rested his elbow on his knee and rubbed one side of his temple with annoyance. Harley had not shut up since he retrieved Bethany from the woods. The resemblance was obvious; she could be nobody else's daughter. But, how she acted, this concerned Joker. She wasn't submissive, which he admitted that he was proud of. But she had enough courage to stand up to him and Harley when she knew who they were. This worried Joker, he need Bethany to trust him.

But, before any of that could happen, Harley needed to shut up.

"Harley!" His voice echoed through the house. He closed his eyes for a moment, drinking in the silence. "Pumpkin, please, for the love of everything evil in this world, do shut up." Harley pouted and skipped over to Joker.

"Alright, puddin. If you do one thing for me." Joker smiled up at her, showing all of his metal teeth.

"Anything for you, Harl."

"Marry me."

"Except that." Joker pushed Harley off his lap, she slid to the floor with a harsh gasp.

"Then you don't love me. If you truly loved me, you'd marry me. And do it proper too, not, like, an….an elope. But, an actual, under God marriage." Joker made sure Harley couldn't see him when he rolled his eyes. When he turned back to her, he knelt down at her level and put both hands gently on her cheeks.

"I love you more than life itself. If I could write your name in the stars I would, but, pumpkin, you know I hate weddings." His grip on her jaw became tighter, so much that it would leave a bruise, yet, Harley sat stationary. "Never ask me to marry you again, understood."

"Yes, Mister J." Harley whispered. Joker slapped her cheeks lightly before kissing them.

"Technically," Bethany's voice came from the hallway, "you're married by legal standards."

Joker held on to Harley, making sure she didn't frighten Bethany. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm guessing you have been together for more than seven years. Living together, I mean." Bethany was hoping this would lead to an argument. It wasn't exactly common knowledge that this seemingly reasonable rule was actually fake. But, perhaps this would give her time to make an escape.

"Cute n' cuddly since 1992!"

"The by the eyes of the law and the United States of America, you two are married. Mozel tov." Bethany tried to keep the sarcasm off her tongue, but sometimes it flows out.

"See, Harley, we're married. And we didn't even need a priest."

"But, I didn't get to wear a dress or toss my flowers. And…and what about our cake…and our vows? We gotta have vows, puddin."

Joker lowered his face by Harley's ear. "Let's focus on our daughter, then we'll have a wedding, I promise." Harley clapped and kissed Joker quickly before running over to Bethany.

"You can be the maid of honor."

"I would love nothing more." When sarcasm didn't seem to effect Harley, Bethany had a brilliant idea. She'd taken a theater class in high school, it was like that, but…more real life.

'If only Anna was here. She loved acting.' Thinking of Anna made that sound of her neck cracking sound off through her hair. Tears started to swell and Bethany tried so hard to keep them in.

But her voice betrayed her when she choked out a sob and fell to the floor.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Joker walked forward calmly, with his hands in his pockets. Harley put her arms around Bethany's shoulders.

Bethany had to remind herself to play along, she couldn't shove off Harley's murderous arms, or kick her "father" in the balls. As much as she wanted to, she just sat on the floor and cried into Harley's shirt with her rubbing her back. Her touch was like poison, seeping through her shirt and into her skin, leaving an invisible mark that read 'mother'. How could Bethany go on like this? She couldn't do this? She wasn't Anna, she wasn't Eveline, she was just…Bethany. And, apparently, not even Bethany.

'Calm down.' Bethany told herself. 'You can do this. Just for a couple of days. Just a couple of days.'

Bethany lifted her head and smiled at Harley. "Sorry, the events of yesterday have me at a fragile state."

"Oh, honey," Harley wiped the tears away with her hands. "We understand, but it wasn't yesterday. It was last week." Bethany jerked back from Harley, out of instinct.

"A week. I've been out for a week."

"You sprained your ankle, so we made sure you didn't have to be bored while it healed."

Bethany tried to keep the anger out of her voice as she spoke. "You drugged me?"

"For you, sweetheart." Joker smoothed the top of her hair down. "Everything we do; we do for you."

"Because we love you." Harley added. She nodded to Bethany, expecting her to answer likewise. But, no, not even with her plan in motion could Bethany say those words to the people who murdered her aunt. "Puddin, look, how did I not notice before?" Harley jumped up and ran to Joker, who was just as shocked at Bethany. Harley pulled Joker over to stand in front of the red eyed, red nosed, daughter of his. Joker confused face slowly turned into a grin.

Bethany didn't dare ask. She knew they would soon tell her anyway.

"She still has the necklace."

Bethany's hand instinctively went to her chest to clutch the necklace. "No, this…this was…oh." At the foster home, they said Bethany was dropped off with nothing but a blanket, the clothes on her body, and the golden heart necklace. She had worn it as a symbol that she had done what most foster kids in her area didn't do, go to college. Bethany didn't let one fact about her life change her plans for the future. This had been her mindset for her whole life, and thinking back on it, Bethany found the courage to speak. "Thank you…mom."

SHOUTOUT: thank you so much to the following people for helping me get over my writer's block, ilookhotinblack, missamerica17, MarvelAssemble19, 221bbuckyst, Kim, and AvacynHope. Also, shout out to anyone and everyone who even decided to READ this story because it was more than I could have ever imagined. Y'all are amazing, beautiful people. Please let it be noted that I am a college freshman who has a 15-hour schedule. Please be patient with my updates. I pinkie promise tomorrows will be long and you can expect an update every day/early morning.