Deja vu

More pretty ladies tonight lol and another take on the Jokers past

I wondered once again why I held these balls. No one ever caught my attention at the gatherings; no one was interesting enough for me. Too much time spent with the insane seemed to be driving me nuts.

"Bruce Wayne?"

I turned at the soft voice. She was quite beautiful, long silvery hair cascaded down pale shoulders, smoldering green eyes peered through thick lashes and a beautiful blue dress with no sleeves and sparkles of green jewels sprinkled at the bottom.

"Yes?"

She gave me a small smiled with full pouty lips. Hm, she was new and beautiful to boot.

"I'm Joana Helmsmen. I was told that you have donated a lot of money to Arkham, The boss thought it would be great if I introduced myself tonight."

The new employee at Arkham, she was pretty and young. Much like Harleen Quinzel, let's hope she didn't get bagged that way too.

"I know the one before me couldn't hold a candle to the people there, but I'm not stupid. I asked not to go to high security, they of course denied me that, but I have been placed on the case of the Riddler as of yesterday."

Good to know she didn't want to be near them, Harleen had been too eager.

"So Joana, enough shop talk. How do you like Gotham so far?"

She gave a quick smiled;

"Like it, it's drearier then I would hope but well choosers can't be beggars."

She was smart and quick. Maybe she would survive Arkham.

"I noticed you came from California. San Jose right?"

She batted her eye lashes.

"Oh, I didn't realize you did background checks on people. Yes, you're right. But I was in Tacoma before that and before that France."

She told what the records had told me. Better not give it all away, nothing to play with if I didn't.

"How was France?"

She looked distance for a moment.

"It was less than I thought, I hated it there. People were unkind to me."

Unkind, she was an attractive young woman. Why wouldn't people like her?

"I must add I have been very...Alone for years. People may interest me but it is hard to- to play nice."

The stutter reminded me too much of Joker. Gods that was shocking enough for me.

"Your parents?"

She gave a sad smile.

"Mother left me a year after she left my father. Father is very ill; He is violent and very unbecoming."

I was sorry to hear that. She had lost her parents due to things they did or had no control over by the sounds of her father.

"Where is your father?"

She gave me a look, I couldn't tell what she was thinking, again reminding me forcefully of the joker.

"In Arkham last I knew. In high security."

The place she hadn't wanted to be. I sighed.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to drag up the unpleasant."

She nodded her eyes wandering;

"Unfortunately he's escaped."

I looked up at her. What the hell was she talking about? A bang and a few screams caught my attention. I saw clowns, oh gods the Joker. I dashed away from her. Not again! He really knew how to crash a party.

When I returned as Batman, Joker was kicking someone. I punched him square in the jaw. I looked down, an old man. Joana rushed to the man's side. I still had the Joker to deal with; He grinned at me as normal and taunted me. I rushed, feeling the Adrenalin rush through my veins. I hit him again. The others tried to team up on me, I knocked each one out before getting back to the Joker, and he wouldn't harm anyone else tonight!

I stuck to the shadows in Miss. Helmsmen's apartment. She was hiding something, and she had told me her father had broken out of Arkham, who the hell was her father.

"You know entering a person's apartment without consent is breaking and entering."

She flipped the lights on. She wore a night gown soft green, it went to her ankles.

"What are you hiding?"

Not one of my better moments.

"Not a thing bats."

He called me that too. Would this woman keep reminding me of the Joker?

"Really then explain who your father is."

She rolled her eyes.

"Come back tomorrow when I don't have work Bruce."

I gasped what the hell?

"You're the only one I told about my father. I wanted to know if you were batman or not. I know now, I will not tell on you. Can't because if I don't keep it safe Gotham will burn."

I nodded; I needed to find out about Joana's past, a way to hold something on her.

I returned and came the right way, I was still dressed in a suit from the meeting I had been in. She answered the door in one knock, I wondered if she had been waiting for me.

"Coffee?"

I nodded and thanked her, sitting in the living room I now had a chance to look at the place and at once I realized she was into Music, Jazz mostly.

"I collect, I like it. Soothing after the day at work."

I took the cup she offered. She wore a nice brown cardigan and some brown lose slacks.

"I take it you still want to know who my father is."

I nodded, I wanted and needed to know, her mother had been a gambler. She got in too deep and the sharks had cut her up, she left her husband who was a technology designer than she had committed suicide while a ten year old Joana had been asleep in another room. Joana had found her mother in the tub and called 911.

"The thing is I hadn't known it was him till I saw him. I knew his name, Mother had yelled at me his name plenty of times. I. I just wanted to know, I took the job at Arkham. If he wasn't there then, then I would move on. He was, The Joker as he is called now..."

I stared in abject terror. The Joker? He was a father? He had been a meek thin man married and with child...And became what he did?

"I don't know what to say."

She gave a little smile full of sorrow.

"Kill him, which is the only way to make him better. My mother broke the man. He is no longer Jack... He is a monster that needs to be put down."