The remainder of the evening was still a blur by the next morning. The Joker had fitted Mardi Gras style masks over both their faces. Hers had been the type that only covered her eyes, whereas his covered his entire face, concealing the scars that she knew were there. He'd also pulled a pair of gloves over her hands.

Five minutes later, they were not in a coffee shop but a jewelry store. 'Jack' had kept to his word, however, and performed quite the magic show.

Harley felt her stomach drop anew at the things he'd done. With a flick of his wrist and a swoosh of his sleeve, he'd picked the store clean of its diamonds, sapphires and rubies. The entire process had left the shop owner unconscious- or at least that's what Harley hoped. But underneath the surface of her quickly slipping sanity, Harley knew the truth; Joker had killed the man. And Harley had let it happen, if not helped. But somehow, she didn't really feel guilty. It wasn't as though their actions were somehow justified, it just didn't seem wrong. Especially while they were racing down the streets of Gotham, covered in millions of dollars worth of jewelry with country music blaring out of the Camaro's speaker system.

As she lay awake in her bed the next morning, Harley giggled as she remembered the police chase they'd been in.

The whole time, the fear of what would happen if they'd been caught hadn't really bothered her. It seemed impossible that her new…friend was capable of capture by the police. Especially since she knew he was dubious enough to garner the attention of the one and only Batman. Harley had mixed feelings on the masked vigilante. Yeah, he'd done a lot of good, but Gotham always seemed to slip back to worse than it had been before Batman.

She looked over at the clock beside her bed. Clarissa had already gone out, since her class had started an hour ago. As Harley stretched, she realized that she must have gotten a little more exercise than she'd realized-her entire body felt heavy from soreness. But then she stood up-and at least fifty pounds of jewelry slid off her chest, neck, wrists and waist.

"Ohhhh my god"

She basked in the glow of wealth for a moment before realizing reality. Quickly, she hid all the necklaces, bracelets, earrings and other paraphernalia in the storage boxes under her bed. Then she found the bag from the fabric store. Wrapped up with the receipt was a playing card. Harley smiled as she turned it over to see the now familiar face of the Joker. Written in a crude hand was the phrase,

"Hope it was good for you, too"

It left Harley pondering for the rest of the morning. How had she finally gotten home? She had no recollection of going into her dorm room, or even being driven back towards campus. The thoughts so consumed her brain power that she had to restart the stitching on the alterations for the gown four times. She also had no idea how she was going to explain to the director why she hadn't been at last night's dress rehearsal. Maybe he would accept the good old family emergency story? My grandmother was in the hospital. Maybe not.

She was able to finish the alterations ten minutes before her first class, which left Harley just enough time to swing by the commons and grab some oatmeal to eat in class. She forced herself to pay attention, and take more than enough notes in history of theatre. Set design was a little more difficult, given everyone wanted to know why she'd missed rehearsal the night before,

"My dad called not twenty minutes before eight, and told me his mom was in the hospital. I guess she fell or something. But they think she's gonna be ok"

A couple of students offered their condolence and wishes of 'grandma' getting well soon. Harley accepted these, displaying no sentiment of guilt for telling falsities. Luckily, that introduction to acting class from high school had finally paid off.

Rehearsal that night was torture. Alison donned the gown, with some difficulty, and kept complaining about the roughness of the fabric. Harley wanted to remind her that chiffon was not in any form rough, but the prima donna wouldn't have listened anyways. Fortunately, other than that, only the Banquo costume had a malfunction with the hose,

"You'll have to be a little more careful with your saber, Devon. Nylon tears really easy"

"Alright, alright, Har. I get it. Keep the blade away from the knave. Hey, so I heard you and Redgie broke up, does that mean you're available?"

Harley suddenly looked up shocked and caught off guard. Devon was interested in her? He was attractive and charming-but they had nothing in common. No less in common than she and Redgie had had in common, answered another voice in her head. But she wasn't really available. While the conventional definition of a date did not encompass her actions from the night before, she felt a strong attraction to her secret companion all the same.

"Sorry, Devon, but not really. But I'm really, really flattered"

"That's cool. Not a big surprise that someone beat me to the punch. There were quite a few of us waiting for you to catch wise of Redgie and dump his ass. Do you mind me asking who got to ya first?"

"Um, you wouldn't know him. He doesn't go here"

"Oh, well, home team gets zero points. Well, I hope he's a cool dude. If not, you know my number"

He winked at her before going into the men's dressing room. Harley felt her face get warmer as the blood flooded from blushing. Why had she wasted so much time with Redgie? And had everyone but her known he was cheating?

"HAAAARLEEEEYY QUINN!"

Harley nearly jumped out of her skin as Alison screamed.

"Oh great. This oughta be fun"

Harley walked quickly into the women's dressing room to find Alison. The blond beauty stood in the center of the room, tapping her foot.

"Yes, Alison?"

"Where have you been? You know I can't take this monstrosity off by myself. I could break a nail. And besides, you made it so tight, I can't even turn around"

"Sorry, I was helping Devon with his hose"

"Oh, I bet you were"

Harley ignored the smug tone of Alison's voice, and proceeded with unzipping the gown. She wanted to take her time, being careful with her masterpiece, but she also wanted to spend as little time as possible with Alison Bates.

"Alright, all unzipped. Want me to help you step out of it"

"No, thank-you, I think I can manage that much on my own"

Harley grimaced as Alison stepped on the fabric instead of daintily stepping clear of it.

"You said it was too tight-do you need me to let the fabric out some?"

For once, Harley saw Alison look nervous. She licked her lips and furrowed her brows in concentration.

"When's the last night of the show again?"

Harley didn't really get the significance of that, but she answered all the same. She had every show date memorized for the rest of the season.

"The final showing of Macbeth is March 27th, 5 weeks from yesterday"

"Five weeks…I shouldn't get too much bigger…Um, no, for now I guess this is good"

"Alright, just lemme know when you wanna be able to breathe"

"Yeah. Um, Harley? Could you not tell anybody about this?"

"Um, sure. Ok, no problemo"

"Thanks. Otherwise, I'd have to make your life incredibly miserable"

Harley stood there for a couple seconds, dumbfounded, before realization dawned on her. But by then, Alison had already walked out. Alison Bates-Gotham's School for Fine Arts number one actress was totally prego! This would ruin her career.

"How smashing"

Harley hung the gown up carefully, as though it were the Mona Lisa. Smoothing out the folds in the skirts, she thought again of the night before. Jack was mysterious and charming, whereas his alter ego the Joker was dangerous…and still somehow charming. Harley Quinn indeed had it bad, really bad, for Gotham's most dangerous criminal at large. And if she had her way, which was something she planned on growing accustomed too, he's have it bad for her too.