When he arrived on the scene, the plant seemed abandoned. He quietly snuck inside and… Nothing. Joker was bluffing.
He laughed until air was hard to get before he finally pulled himself back up to his feet. Sure, the blood was rushing to his head, making him stumble around a little. He looked at the face in the broken mirror on the wall, all stained red thanks to the hero. It made him giddy to know he'd gotten to the Bat so easily. Evidently, while Joke had been staring at white walls pondering all day,
Batman had gotten stupid.. rusty. Joker would need to get him into shape. He laughed again and headed out the way Harley had left. A second encounter with the Dark Knight wasn't needed tonight.
Harley was beginning to get worried. She sat in the passenger seat, her eyes darting from the alley to the second exit. What if he was right and Batman was beating her poor Joker and hauling him away right now? She was just about to get out of her seat, to help him, when the trapdoor opened and he came swaying out, blood dripping all over his swelling face.
Then she did get out. "What…?" She asked, her sentencing falling flat as fresh tears stained her eyes. He looked so pitiful… How could he possibly get better if people kept doing this to him. But here he was, coming back to her even though he looked like he should be on a hospital stretcher.
He grinned as he saw her eyes water again. So sensitive… But he was far too giddy to bother with her for now. He patted her on the shoulder before shoving her back into the car and shutting door.
"He'll be back… And I need somewhere to stay.." He said, walking around and getting in the driver's seat. How far would she be willing to go for him?
"But you need-" Harley didn't even finish her sentence once she took a good look at him. Others wouldn't seem him the way she did; hell, they wouldn't even see her as his doctor, would they? For them, they'd be freaks. Criminals. Dangerous. He couldn't set foot in a hospital or he'd be sent back to Arkham, just like that - and she would be shipped off to Blackgate for helping him.
"A place to stay?" He tilted his head. He knew exactly what she had meant to say and this time she had been so… predictable. But it was quite alright, she was naïve and she was just worried about him and his well-being.
She nodded slowly. He didn't have anywhere else to stay and she couldn't leave him here or Batman would come back and finish the job – whether it meant taking him back alive or nor she didn't even want to think about it. Right now he could only count on her and she couldn't abandon him. It wasn't like her to do it, she wasn't going to hurt him too.
"My house…" She started slowly and then whispered her home address to him, almost like it was a secret. "It's only me and, well… Me." She laughed sheepishly. "My neighbors are too loud and worried about themselves to care about who comes in and out of other people's homes. I doubt that there's anyone going in and out at this time, it'll be easy to get you in there." She paused. Something was not right; it felt like she was assuming leadership
"Unless you have a better idea, of course." She added as an afterthought.
He smiled wider as they drove off. He was going fast, but not fast enough to leave a trail behind for his nemesis. Not this time. "Your house…?" He asked, calmer now. So interesting that she was willing to still take him home, as if he was a stray dog in need of care. She must be mad herself.
"Sounds fine for tonight," he said, ultimately his curiosity to see what conditions she lived in was more a factor than him actually wanting to go to her place. It was a bold move, if anyone had seen her helping him escape. If not, perhaps questions wouldn't be asked until she didn't come into work.
Tomorrow they'd ditch the car and steal something a little less traceable and find a proper place to stay. Oh how Batman would completely lose it, when he found out that the Joker had something he didn't. Someone who cared about him…
. He laughed out loud, sparking a curious glance from Harley as they drove down the road. She did care about him, and she had so many questions to ask… But she knew not to barrel into things.
"All that just for an abandoned building?" she commented. "… He should have been the one in a cell," she said quietly. She was just glad it was late. The streets were empty.
"There's no one madder," he told her, his eyes glancing her way a moment. Bats really was crazy… Repressing his behavior like he did. Except with the him. He liked to think of them as kindred spirits.
They pulled into the little apartment parking garage and he got out of the car, humming quietly. She was going to ask for the keys, to lead the way inside, but he found the house key easily enough on his own and started up the stairs. Harley followed behind, smiling slightly. If anyone knew him like she did… He was inspiring.
He had his flaws, yes. But after everything he'd been through it was remarkable he still had any sense about him at all. He was just strong spirited. She followed him in the door, looking behind to make sure no one had noticed before shutting it.
"I'll get something to clean you up.. make yourself at home.." she said, slipping off into the washroom for the first aid kit and a wet rag.
--
On the other side of Gotham, Batman was very annoyed to find that Joker had left his little hideout, leaving nothing but blood on the floor. With nothing to go on, he headed back to the bat-cave and stowed his uniform, transforming back into Bruce Wayne for the rest of the night.
--
Once in the washroom, Harley took a moment to examine herself in front of the mirror – but not out of some narcissistic tendency, no; something about her current look made it seem like all she had before was fake, like cheap plastic reproductions of great masterpieces sold as souvenirs for outsides. Dressing up as the next good citizen to hide herself to the point when the mask became her reality. But this was different. She was different now. And she sort of liked it.
"Focus, Harley, focus." She shook her head and walked out of the room holding the items she had gone to get. But once she returned, Joker was nowhere in sight. She frowned, but ultimately decided to look for him. The apartment was small anyway, so he couldn't have gone far.
And surely enough, the Joker was found in the kitchen. One would have thought he was looking at the bowl of fruit like a child too shy to ask for something. But no, what caught his attention was something completely different. Something made of metal, shiny and with a sharp end. Harley had a most beautiful set of knives, some smaller, some bigger than others… He couldn't wait to apply better use to them.
"You don't need to ask, you know?" His gaze shifted to Harley and had he been anyone else he might have widened his eyes; she had caught him by surprise. But he dismissed that thought and sat on a stool when she motioned for him to do so. With this light Harley could see just how much of a mess the Batman had made. It almost made her start crying, to see just how hurt he was. But instead she carefully started cleaning his face, forcing that mask out of his face. And when she got too close to one of the scars her heart nearly stopped at the thought that it might still hurt him in some way and she hesitated before cleaning over them as well. But aside from shifting nervously as he always seemed to do now, he didn't move to try and stop her.
"Look at this mess…" Harley whispered with a sigh. "How could he…?"
He laughed a little.
"He's not really the hero of storybooks," he said. "As long as he's out there… free on the streets.. I'm never going to be safe. And you're not going to be safe either," he said. Oh, that was a good touch.
The wounds were still bleeding a little, but they had slowed enough so that Harley could put an antiseptic on them. "It'll sting," she warned quietly, but he didn't budge at the application. "If they could find him, they'd have to lock him up after what he did to Mr. Dent," she commented, chewing her lip. But how does one catch a masked man like that? No one knew who he was.
Still, she had promised to help him. "There…" she said, pulling away, faintly aware of the light blush on her cheeks. Something about those green eyes that watched her so unblinkingly.
Joke had to admit that it was strange to have someone so interested in sharing his personal space. It wasn't a very safe place to be for anyone, even though (or perhaps because) he was in a fantastic mood thanks to the evenings events. Not really the fireworks he normally went for, but it was easily counted as a success. He reached for an orange and a knife, picking a long thin blade from Harley's stand to slice the fruit.
Not that he really wanted the orange, but he did enjoy the feeling of the knife penetrating the fruits skin. "Lock Batman away… If only…" he said with a giggle. That would be no fun… But getting that mask off of him might be. He took an orange slice and offered it to his little accomplice, gripping it gingerly between his index finger and thumb, the knife still held tightly in the other hand.
If only, indeed. Harley had to nod in agreement. Everyone always spoke so greatly about Batman, how he did this and that and protected people. But no one ever stopped to think that perhaps Batman wasn't all that good… That perhaps the people he hurt in the process were just as human as anyone else that they had feelings – and like the Joker here, some had gone through a lot in their lives – and he went against his own beliefs by hurting them. In a way it was all too confusing but she felt like it was very simple.
And right there, right then, she couldn't help but to agree that the Batman was the craziest in the bunch. Just look at the Joker… Not once did he try to hurt her and he was even being nice to her! If anyone else could see him now, could they really say he was the ruthless murderer that everyone thought he was? Of course not. But no one would ever see him like this. They would always insist that he was like that, evil and calculating and unable to hold back violent impulses.
Harley smiled softly at his gesture and her hand moved to take the slice from his. But she was still in her own little world thinking of the man's good sides and took no notice of the knife.
Joker could have cut her fingers off right now; a part of him urged him to do so, too, but he didn't, instead allowing her to take the fruit and eat it with a soft 'thank you' of appreciation. She still had to adjust to this world of madness he had brought her into; let the pieces of her old broken self scatter around. If he hurt her now she'd only pick them up twice as fast and betray him. And he certainly wouldn't want her to do that.
"Say, Harley…" His face was contorted into something like a frown and he was now examining the knife like it was a harmless toy – and indeed, it was harmless until he decided to make it dangerous. Calling for her now was a random action, he had acted by impulse. And he could have asked anything he wanted, told her anything he wanted. He could have even had her explain what might have gone on in her life to make her so easy to snap. But he didn't do any of those things; it just wasn't the right moment. "You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"
He looked up to see her confused expression and chuckled.
"Never mind." He looked back down at the knife, a grin planted on his face. "Must have picked that one from an old movie."