He had boyish laughter and excitement when he showed her. Like children have when they show their mother the cup they made in school, wanting only praise for their trials. He jumped up even, clapped his hands, and went "Weee!" like a boy. She briefly remembers why she loves him before he ruins it. He stops his cheers and then from all that jumping stands. He stands straight over the table, his hands behind his back, and his head lowered, looking at her with an evil grin no man should ever be able to do. The child likeness leaves, leaving that madman she remembers he is.

"Well?" He asks.

"Oh, right."

She looks down at his plans, but she doesn't see anything. She sees white scribbles over blew papers. Arrows leading across the page pointing to more scribbles. There appears to be writing, vague things that look like letters, but the words blend together, and follow and invisible slope as the flow across the page. Numbers align crooked graphs and there's a money sign somewhere in it. And at the very center a funny cartoon of a Batman with Xs for eyes.

This is how all his plans look.

She laughs a fake laugh for him.

"Looks great, puddin'! I think it's the best one yet! Do I get a gun this time?" She smiles.

"Well of course dear, what are you without your bazooka?"

"Oh!!! The bazooka this time! How hilarious!"

"I know, right!?

He laughed and she laughed for him.

"Okay!" He slammed his hands down on the desk with a serious tone, that of a murderer. "I need you to go to the store, you need to get me a hundred dozen eggs, some cake mix, but not for the eggs. Some Sun Laundry Detergent, coat hangers, lots and lots of coat hangers, a book of exactly 421 pages no more no less, twelve get better soon cards, apples, baking soda, and more laundry detergent."

He knew she could not read his plans, and he knew she had no idea what he meant by all these things. Sometimes he'd forget but remember, this was the way he worked, the method in all that madness, things firing off all at once and he is left to interpret it all. A thousand voices called forth and all of them were his own. He even made those voices sing sometimes, when his thinking was most clear. Often times however these voices in his head argued, and he quite enjoyed this, it was a funny thing to listen to. He sometimes wondered how he ever thought with all those voices speaking out but he forgot about that thought and moved on with his life.

About an hour later Harley was robbing a store. Like a wife she mused going to the super market. She threw some bombs around to make everyone leave and sooner or later she was riding down the aisles on the shopping cart humming a song she'd heard on the radio. And often as shopping wives do, thought about her life. She smelled smoke in the air and wondered if that was all she was going to have.

She found a book of 422 pages, she ripped out one page.

The actually creation of the trap was the most tedious part of the entire thing. Often times she'd be sitting in the corner as the Joker disguised himself as a rather eccentric normal sane person to boss around his hired hands. He used to be able to do this without the disguise but less and less people were willing to work with a man who killed out of whim. But the hands, the workers were necessary. Joker was an artist with big art pieces, he could never accomplish it on his own. He actually liked pretending to be sane, confessing sometimes it was like getting back into an old pair of really comfortable shoes, joking then he'd never actually felt that feeling as he doesn't own any old shoes.

Currently the Joker sat with Harley on a balcony of a warehouse they had obtained through unseen methods by Joker. He took on such a serious face during these times very worried somehow the help wouldn't listen to him and mess everything up. He sat one leg over the other, elbows resting at his sides, and fingertips meeting before his face. His chin leaned up and a grin came over his face as he stared down at them, at his creation. Slowly and ever now and again he'd chuckle.

"You're quiet." He said with spite. "Why are you so quiet? Come on, speak up!" He turned to Harley.

Harley turned afraid, and frowned then quickly smiled a fake smile but found nothing to say.

"Urgh, fine. You be that way." He told her.

"Puddin…" She tried.

He smiled really joyful and turned back to her, glad she had something to say.

"Yeah!?" He asked.

"Nothing…"

She got scared and couldn't finish. He seemed really disappointed but scooted his chair closer to hers and smiled.

"You know, I think you're really going to like this one." Joker tells her. "I can feel it!"

"Yeah?"

He nods enthusiastically.

"If Robin comes I want you to really knock it to him! The little brat, really give it to him, okay?" He nods and laughs.

"But he's just a kid, puddin', I always sort of roll my punches with him."

"Blah! Don't! Little bugger doesn't deserve it, trying to get the Bats attention away from me! How could he, you know? Ah, well, when the show begins I'm the one with Batman's attention!"

He throws out his arm and laughs.

"You know it's the time between these things that just kills me, just really kills me." He says, lying his chin on his hand. "You ever wonder 'What is Batman doing right now?' I do, I do all the time, he's probably off doing something with somebody else, thwarting someone else's plans! Blah, it just makes me sick."

"You think?" Harley asked shyly.

"Well of course! What else would Batman be doing? I'm always trying to kill him! Stupid kid, of course, of course." He nods.

He seems to oddly get quieter when times are quiet. He gets more excited as excitement heightens. And when the bullets start flying he enters that crazed set. He seemed a slave of the current events, only able to react to the now. It was an exhausting thing to go through for her, she often tried to just copy him but her attempts were failing. He'd laugh and she'd be sad from something that happened a few hours ago that he had by then completely forgotten. She couldn't understand it, she didn't get it. It was this that made her so afraid that at times he'd have the ability to kill her forgetting that at another point in time he loved her, or whatever it is he feels for her that isn't negative.

"Puddin, remember that joke I told a few nights ago?" She asked crossing her legs in nervousness.

"Hm, no? You told a joke?"

"The one where I asked if you could make me like you…?"

He stared for a moment and laughed. Laughed harder and harder until the help below them gave notice. He coughed and told them to continue, yelling at them.

"No, I don't, but that's a good one!" He told her.

"What if I was serious?"

Joker stopped his laughing and for a moment actually seemed to think about it. But before he could interject she spoke up again.

"Did you ever love somebody Mr. J?"

He smiled but not in a crazy way not in that usual way. It was a smile rarely seen on his face, it was a small smile, a content smile. A smile as if he was in a nostalgic moment remembering something that was nice. His eyes closed and he turned to her with that content smile, and smacked her in the face, causing her to fall out of that chair. She rose up with him leaning his chin on his hand again with that smile.

"Kid, you just don't talk about those things." He told her. "Love's a complicated funny thing, you'll learn that someday."

He chuckled under his breath and turned back to watch the help.

It wasn't long before the trap was set. This was his favorite part the taunting of Batman, the luring, like a fish in water. It was a game they seemed to play that Harley was often let out to watch. Some sort of sign was put in the sky the equivalent of a proposal for a date, meet me here, at this time, and such. And like any good gentleman Batman follows through and comes.

He laughed louder and louder as the hours ticked by and it came closer and closer to their little play time. He held Harley tighter and tighter in a manner that was almost lovingly. He put his arm around her hip and made her rest her head on his shoulder, and bit her ball at the end of her hat and pulled it down causing her to fall off balance and laugh. He played with her then, closer to fun time, he tickled her, and kissed her forehead like one does to a child. She loved it, she loved every moment of it, she sucked it in knowing it would end soon, knowing abuse would come after all this. A part of her knew this was unhealthy, sanity peeked once more and told her as she wrapped her arms around him and put her leg around his waist, that this was not the way one should be loved. This is not how you love a person. But these moments, where they were like two children on summer break, these moments filled her with so much hope.

Batman fell from the sky, the trapped was started. Laughing gas, smiling poison, fire, guns, the works. This one was a big one, this one was huge, and Joker was right, she did like it. She really did and a part of her did not like that idea. Their love making began steadily, slowly, the violence intensified and grew, he held her tighter, he laughed with her.

"Darling!" Joker cried out to Batman. "You've come at last!"

But something went wrong. She shot her bazooka and it missed, and something went wrong. Batman went into the darkness and the fires spread outside their parameters. Until all around them there were flames. The trap failed, the death of Batman would not come that night, relief would not come that night. If only she thought, if only he were dead, if Batman were dead she'd have the Joker to herself then. There'd be no more obsessions, there'd be nothing but she and him and left, he'd have to love her then.

Heat from the flames made her face sweat off the white make up and she ran up to Joker and watched as he smiled. She wrapped her arms around him and he stood stiff not moving and not moving his eyes from a point in front of him. He didn't want to look at her, he didn't even want to look at her without that white face.

But then his smile shortened and he leaned his head over hers, still not looking at her.

"I always liked you, kiddo, in that crazy 'I'd kill her last' sort of way." He told her. "I just wanted to use you when we first met, but your name put a smile on my face, truly, and you just kept sticking around. You know I lied to you. About my childhood I mean."

With that he pushed her aside somewhat gently, just pushed her away and began walking into the darkness. He went deeper in until she could no longer see them and she started after him, coughing as she ran, crawling under the smoke.

And then she stopped. Before she saw her Joker, the Joker standing in front of the Batman, a giant black shadow with white glowing eyes. Joker was talking to him about something, finally pointing and laughing, resting his head on Batman's chest. Batman grabbed his hand and appeared to break his wrist. Batman lifted him into the air and began choking him. Joker punched Batman causing him to drop the Joker, who kicked up causing Batman to stumble. They went further into the dark and then she heard a gunshot and she smiled.

It was over, it was finally over, Batman was done.

But then she shivered, she knew Joker didn't want to have the Batman go out like that, he said it lacked theatrics, substance, depth.

She screamed and ran towards the noise and found Joker lying on the floor, bleeding. She grabbed him and lifted his head but could not tell if he was breathing or not in all the chaos. She felt the blood on her knees and touched his lip sand felt the blood even through her glove.

She began to cry but you couldn't hear from the fire. She felt for his chest and found it rose and fell with heavy weight to it and after a while it stopped. She screamed and put her lips to his to breath air into his lungs but she was crying too much to get a good breath. She was left then, to hold him in her arms. Hold him tightly. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to feel. The man she loved laid there, but the man who had turned her into something she was not was there too. A great joy was taken from her as well as a great weight. But over all emotions overtook her, a love she had so depended on filled her, and all she could do was cry.

Joker was dead.

Batman took his body right out of her arms.