EIGHT

"Two days." Hank, along with two other burly men, follow her into the familiar cell. Harley saunters over to the chair in her pencil skirt; to her Joker. The chair squeaks when she sits in it. "I leave you for two days, and you murder two fill-ins."

"You didn't miss much Jeanette, if that's what you're concerned about."

Harley desperately tries to keep her temper from boiling over. "You killed a woman with her own stiletto shoe," she reminds him straightforwardly. "And suffocated the other with a can of Diet Coke."

Joker giggles. She's adorable when she's angry. "So your name is Jeanette!"

"I thought, for some unwise reason that you were beginning to change. I thought that by some miraculous turn of events, you were at least pointed in the right direction. I thought that you would be able to handle two days without me." She paused for a breath. "And no, it's not."

"Oh, don't get yourself all worked up. These things happen."

Harley bores her eyes into his. "I have blood on my hands."

She's absolutely ridiculous. Utterly impossible to peg. "You're really blaming yourself for this?"

"Yes I blame myself for this!"

"Why?!" In all his years of observing the human mind (in the most extreme of ways admittedly), Joker has never been more perplexed by one person.

She rubs her temples in a circular motion. Then she abruptly stops and stares at him confusedly.

Joker looks to his left. Then to his right. "What?"

"What do you think of me?"

"Huh?"

Joker watches her hands. She's fiddling uncomfortably with them. Doesn't she know that's not lady-like? "You haven't tried to kill me since my first day here. And now all of a sudden you've killed two people in the past two days."

Joker cocks an eyebrow. "Everybody slips, love." She remembers when she used those words. "I am especially aware of that fact."

"What I mean to say is–" She starts fiddling again. His hand collides with the hard chains as he jerks it. Blood secretes. "Does that mean it's my turn?"

His eyes flash with life. "Are you scared?"

She only shrugs. "Yes and no."

"Hmm…" Joker begins to hum loudly when his hand finally slides free, but she has stopped fiddling. What to do, what to do with this free hand? The chains drip, drop Joker juice and he wonders if the guards will notice. Doesn't seem like it. He hums louder. "Are you scared or not?" he continues eventually.

"Terrified."

"No you're not," he tells her instead. Harley doesn't understand. "You see, fear is only the beginning. Terror is the end. And if you really were terrified, you would have at least run out by now." Her face freezes. "You know." Her eyes flicker down to the pooling blood and then back to his Glasgow face. He is smiling widely.

"Yes."

"And you aren't saying anything."

Hank is distracted with his own hammerhead thumb. The others are enthrawled with his tumb as well. Stupid, stupid guards. They really should pay more attention.

"No."

Joker mulls over this, letting out a, "Hmm…" and flashes her a toothless smile. "I thought you said trust wasn't black and white."

"It's not."

He nearly rips a chunk of her hair out of her head as he heaves her over the top of the table and onto his lap. In a flash, Harley manages to wonder what her father would think when he finds out this is how she died. He always disapproved of her job choice, and the danger it entailed. She imagined he would probably say, "Told you, Harl," over her grave.

But she isn't dead. What is he doing? Is he suffocating her with his lips? No. He isn't killing her. He's kissing her.

But before she has time to provide him with any kind of response, Hank loudly shrieks, "Harley!" and the guards pull her out of Joker's too, too tight grip. Within seconds, he is restrained again. Pain and punishment. Pain and punishment.

"Harley?!" is all she hears him say (or laugh), before she is escorted out of the room and into the safety of the outside world.

And you thought it wouldn't happen, didn't you?

I am eternally greatful for all the wonderful feedback you've been giving. I love it so much! It makes me smile. And if this chapter puts anything into your brain at all - any thoughts on anything! - then please, please put it into a review. It's right down there... Look down, you'll see it. Twenty seconds out of your life - that's all it takes! Enjoy.