Summary: On one unfortunate night, Rachel is attacked and then saved by someone who isn't Batman. As if things couldn't get any worse, she finds herself being stalked by a madman, and all she can think about is how she owed her life to him. Joker/Rachel.
Setting: This chapter is set after the fundraiser. Yes, I know, there's been a lot of time skips, but this is the last one as far as I know, so everything after this chapter goes on as the story goes, unless I say otherwise.
Author's Note: Yay! Finally got this chapter up! I suppose I should tell you that this was originally going to be a shorter chapter, but I decided to join chapters three and four together because chapter four would've been too short alone, so yeah. I can't quite make my mind up whether I'm satisfied with how this chapter turned out, but I decided its about time I give something to you guys, so here it is! Oh, and thanks to Kendra for helping out for, well, I don't want to spoil it, so she knows what she did!
Oh, and I had a dream about the Joker! It was really funny. Wanna know what it was about? Well, I'll assume if you're reading this, then you wanna know! Alright, so I got home from school and stuff, and I was on my way to the study because thats where out computers are, right? But there was a pretty white pony there in the hallway before the door! And guess who was sitting at my computer on my computer chair! Mistah J!! He like, got up, all jumpy and all and told me that the pony was a gift to me, and then patted the pony, and then my head, and went back to whatever he was doing on the computer. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep the pony because my mum said it was eating all the grass. Darn. So there you have it, wacky dream, ain't it?
Warnings: It gets a bit descriptive in one part, but nothing too horrific.
Disclaimer: I do not own Batman or any other recognizable character in the following story. However, I do own this poster of the Joker which I bought recently...which, unfortunately, is ultimately owned by it's creators. Darn. Can't blame me for trying.
Chapter Three: Complications
"Rach. Hey, Rachel!".
The clacking of her heels on the floor stopped as Rachel turned to look at Harvey, who she hadn't seen since Bruce had taken him from her sight at the fund-raiser. She suddenly found herself being enveloped in Harvey's embrace, and was too shocked to move. It was only when the shock left her that she awkwardly attempted to put her arms around Harvey, but he'd already let go of her.
"God..I was so worried" he breathed quietly.
"Harvey, you called me last night, you knew I was alright".
"Not physically. Speaking of which, how are you holding up?" Harvey asked, and then proceeded to look at the visible skin on her neck, her hands and her face.
"What are you doing?" she laughed, pushing Harvey away gently.
"Making sure he didn't damage you".
"He didn't do anything, Harvey. Just calm down, I'm fine".
"Yeah? Well, it sure didn't seem like that when he threw you off the building".
A short silence passed between them.
"Harvey..." Rachel started, "It's okay, Batman saved--".
"Well what if Batman hadn't been there? Who knows what he could've done to you? You could be dead for all I know!".
Rachel's eyes diverted from his to the floor.
"Rachel...what were you thinking?" He whispered to her, his eyes hurt. "He's a criminal, Rach. He's not the kind of person you can just walk up to and have a conversation with. He could've killed you--"
"He was going to hurt someone else--"
"And I understand that all you wanted to do was help. But right now, Gotham needs both of us...I need you, and if that..that monster gets to you, I don't know what I'll do".
He reached out to cup the side of her face with his hands. "Rachel...just promise me you'll be careful next time".
Rachel looked up to Harvey. She knew that he was only trying to the best for her, but sometimes, she couldn't help but feel he treated her like a child who'd just disobeyed her parents.
"Fine, I promise.." she said quietly, making sure he would hear her so that she wouldn't have to repeat herself.
Harvey smiled at her, reached out for her hand and dragged her along to their office. They'd passed many people, all of them looking at Rachel, as if they knew something she didn't. She wasn't one to get paranoid easily, but the way they were looking at her made her want to hide behind the nearest object in hopes they'd divert their attention somewhere else.
It wasn't that she wasn't used to the attention either, after all, she did speak at conferences and spoke to the media every now and then, but it was when she wasn't expecting the attention, the attention from acquaintances who knew her well or she saw every now and then; that was what made her nervous.
Harvey seemed to notice this and sighed. As they finally reached their office doors, Harvey said, "I'm assuming you didn't read today's newspaper?".
Rachel shook her head, "No. Why, am I in it or something?".
Harvey moved over to his desk, grabbing the newspaper, and flicking it's folded form open, flashing the front page. Rachel gasped and her hand flew to her mouth with a single thought running through her head: 'The press is going to have a field day with this one..'.
"Rachel, you're not just in it, you made the front page" he said, placing the newspaper on her desk. There she was, standing dangerously close to a skyscraper window as the arm of Gotham's most notorious criminal was crushing her body against his, all the while holding a gun to her head.
Rachel collapsed in her chair, her eyes scanning the photo. "How did the press get this?" she asked Harvey, but he only shrugged.
"Could've been anyone at the party.." he trailed off, looking at the photo. He'd read the article over five times, taking in every detail, not believing that the worst had almost happened because he simply wasn't there. He knew that Rachel could handle almost anything, after all, she was helping him put the mob away for good in Gotham, but he knew that she wasn't superwoman either. Harvey quietly sighed and sat at his desk, checking over the files and documents for the upcoming trials once more.
Rachel's eyes, however, were stuck to the photo as she relived the moments once more. She remembered being there, silently moving through the crowd as she heard a voice speaking over the silence, and then finally emerging from the crowd, stopping him before he killed the old man. And then he'd stalked after her. She had to admit, he wasn't all that scary from a distance. In her opinion, he almost looked like a harmless, innocent circus reject, key word being: almost, but, as he came closer--
"Well hello Be-au-ti-ful--"
She found herself terrified, and by the time he'd closed the majority of the distance between them, she couldn't help but immediately freeze as she stared at him. His eyes, not the scars, but his eyes. They were the things that both captured her attention and scared her the most. They were so dark and empty and haunting, and yet somehow they seemed to glow with excitement at seeing her, seeing the fear in her eyes. And then he'd grabbed her face, forcing her to--
"Look at me--"
And then she'd kicked him after being forced to listen to his story, though whether it was true or false she didn't know, and he'd laughed it off. And he'd started dangerously walking to her once more, pointing the knife at her and smiling, always smiling--
"A little fight in you...I like that--"
She didn't know what he would've done if Batman hadn't come at that point. She could only imagine there would be blood, all for the sake of hurting Harvey, all for the sake of satisfying a certain sadistic clown's blood lust.
And before she knew it, she was in his grasp once more, struggling against him, his clothes emitting a metallic smell: blood. He was a lot stronger than he looked, or perhaps she was just a lot weaker than she thought? Perhaps it was a sense of deja vu that distracted her, being pulled back into the alley, being assaulted, her life hanging from a thread?
What it was, she didn't know, but as she felt herself being flung from the shattered skyscraper window, the only thing keeping her from falling deciding to finally--
"Let her go--"
She couldn't help but feel that this had happened before, but strangely in a different situation. And then she felt the warmth of the room suddenly leave her as she fell through the air, the chilling wind of the night biting into her with nothing to cling onto, and no memory to hold but the insane cackle drowning out her screams as she fell further and further--
And then something just seemed to click into place, like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
'It can't be...can it?'
The night she was thrown off, she'd recognized something, but she just couldn't put a finger on it. She knew that something felt or sounded somewhat familiar, that feeling of terror as the sound of his cackle pierced into her soul, and in turn tearing away her hope from her; she'd felt that before.
It was a situation that'd been on the tip of her tongue in the seconds that'd passed when she fell, a situation where she'd forgotten what it was she wanted to remember at that moment, only for it to return to her after the ordeal.
She remembered when she'd heard that cackle, on the night she was attacked. She knew there were only two others in the alleyway, a dead man, and her 'rescuer'. And since she knew that dead men certainly could not talk, or laugh, or even breathe for that matter, she'd come to the single conclusion...
'I owe my life..to the one man who tried to end it just a day ago'.
Her brow crinkled in her thought, but then relaxed once more as she added an afterthought; 'What is the world coming to?'.
"Hey Rachel, are you done with those papers there?".
"Almost, why?".
"Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out for lunch, you know? Get some fresh air, I mean, you know how crowded this office can get".
"Sure, just let me finish up".
Rachel looked at her watch, not believing the amount of time that'd passed when she finally decided to start working. In fact, she would've started working a lot later if it wasn't for Harvey who'd pulled the newspaper from her desk, declaring that she'd spent too much time looking at a picture that would mean nothing in time.
Not that she needed to overwork herself, after all, she knew just about every brief backwards. She knew, however, that Harvey thought that she was still troubled about the night, even though she was far from it, and that he only offered to take her out to make her seem somewhat more comfortable. The truth was, she didn't feel hungry nor troubled at all, just a little annoyed at the fact that Harvey thought she couldn't handle it.
He'd seen her, after all, questioning various mob members and come out alive, yet one little encounter with a criminal and an accident off the skyscraper sent his mind reeling. Why? Because he wasn't there. He wasn't there when that monster put a knife to her mouth, a gun to her head, and sent her falling to her death. He knew that the Joker had been looking for him at the fundraiser, not Rachel, and for that, he felt guilty that he put her life at stake. And so, he found that the only way to make it up to her was to take her out and spoil her, to make her forget.
Harvey saw Rachel stand up, and held out her coat for her.
"Thanks Harvey, but is this really nec--?"
Rachel's sentence was cut off as Harvey looked at her in confusion, her face looking puzzled as they both registered that the screaming coming from the first floor wasn't imaginary. They both rushed out of the office, pushing past the people who had also heard the screams, and found themselves taking the stairs to the first floor.
They were met with a crowd of people, all raising their heads, trying to see what the fuss was all about. It was hard to see anything from the stairs either, because the circle in the middle of the crowd was just about filled with officers, who were also looking up. Investigators and witnesses were the closest in the middle, their stories being taken by the officers, while the investigators took photos of the scene, their cameras aiming up at the ceiling, which made many people who couldn't see, like Harvey and Rachel, curious.
Harvey's patience was running thin, and he pushed through the crowd, dragging Rachel behind him. The crowd of people were hard to get through, as they were also as eager to see what was going on as much as Harvey was. Rachel, however, simply had a bad feeling about it, but let herself be dragged around by Harvey, her curiosity overpowering her.
"..alright people stay calm, we have this under control..." Rachel heard an officer say, and she looked at him. He was sweating slightly, his face sickly pale, but his arms were tan. He was gently holding back the onlookers when he felt they were getting too close to the scene.
'He's nervous' Rachel concluded, and her head snapped back to Harvey as she felt him stop, almost bumping into him. He was looking up.
Rachel's eyes widened, her heart starting to beat faster as fear and horror and disgust ran through her, consuming her, her heart clenching as she fought the urge to scream or vomit. Her hand came up to her mouth, gasping before breathing out; "Oh my God...".
She started to tremble slightly, as she saw a young woman, no older than twenty-eight, maybe, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. She was bony, pale and thin, her head covered by a wig of brown hair, and dressed in a clean expensive suit and heels, and she was dead.
But that wasn't what really scared Rachel, no, what scared her was the fact that the woman's face was painted snow white, with black around her eyes and a smile drawn in a deep red over her lips, yet behind the make-up she could see the cuts and deep gashes by the way the woman's skin seemed to hang off her bones, as if her face had been used like a pumpkin to be carved on Halloween.
It scared Rachel that the woman also almost looked like her, and--
'Hold on a minute,' Rachel thought. 'That actually looks a little like my suit'. Upon squinting slightly to focus the image, Rachel concluded; 'That is my suit!'.
There was no doubt that Rachel knew who it was that did it, hell, everyone around her seemed to know who was behind it. Not that she didn't feel sorry for the unfortunate soul who was finally being pulled down, but she couldn't help but cloud her mind with the thought that Gotham's most wanted criminal could possibly know where she lived, and had possibly gone through her wardrobe to steal one of her expensive suits.
'Of course,' Rachel thought, 'Its only a possibility. There could be over a hundred women who own the same suit. Calm down'.
The corpse had been laid out onto the floor with the rope removed from the woman's neck, and it was only after that when Rachel and Harvey were spotted by an officer.
"Mr. Dent, Ms. Dawes, apologies for the mess here".
"It's alright officer. What happened here?" Harvey asked, glancing around the scene.
"Well, from what we can piece together, the body was pushed off the roof where that open space is," the officer answered truthfully, pointing to an empty area of the building's foyer's ceiling where it should have been filled with glass, which completed the large dome over the foyer. "We don't know how the bastard removed it without anyone noticing, but he did".
"And the body? Do we know who she is?"
The officer shook his head. "Its hard to tell under all that make-up, and even then we've still got ourselves a Jane Doe (1). Here's the funny thing, and I mean that in a strange way; our investigators are supposed to estimate the time of death, right? Well, when they checked the victim, they estimated a time of death at around six months ago".
Harvey and Rachel both exchanged glances. The officer got a tap on the shoulder from another man, who was unmistakably an investigator on the scene, and whispered some words in the officer's ears. Over the noise of the growing crowd, Rachel could only pick up few words from the whispers spoken: "Looking for...I.D...Found this...Blood...".
Rachel looked towards the body once more as the officer turned his head towards them once more, except only this time, a bloody card was held gently in his gloved hands. Harvey looked towards it, and then back to the officer.
The officer held the card closer, his eyes carefully reading over the typed words, and his look quickly turned from seriousness to that of confusion.
"Is there a problem, officer?" Harvey asked, as he tried to peer over the card to see the writing. The officer lowered the card down and flipped it so that the words faced Harvey, Rachel and other people standing nearby. Harvey read over the four simple words and shook his head in disbelief.
" 'Have U Seen Me?' " Harvey exhaled. "Is that some sort of joke?".
"Well, Mr. Dent, he is the Joker..."
Harvey sent a look towards the officer, who put his hands up in defense, but Rachel wasn't paying attention to them, no, her mind could only think of the words written on the card, and the woman who was dressed like her, who fairly resembled her, the woman who the Joker had kept lying God knows where for six months, lying dead, rotting and fading away.
"...and you know what the strangest thing is, Mr. Dent? Is that our Jane Doe over there looks somewhat like our Ms. Dawes over here!".
Harvey, in disbelief, looked at Rachel, and then back at the body, and back to Rachel again, but his face was different. It almost looked defeated, or perhaps was it shock, or the fact that Rachel did resemble the dead woman lying at the crime scene? Was it dread? Dread for Rachel's future, worry for her life?
The officer felt the air suddenly go tense as Rachel and Harvey became still and quiet, and he looked between the two, and then held his gaze on Rachel, then turned his vision to the dead woman, and finally rested his eyes upon the card in his hold, finally realizing why everything seemed to stand still.
"Oh...".
"...And you're sure you'll be alright? I can stay with you tonight if you want".
Rachel gave Harvey a small smile as she reached her apartment door.
'Thanks, but I'll pass. I just need some time to myself, its been a rough day" she answered him, holding his hand as he nodded understandingly.
"Alright then..I'll see you tomorrow then, but if you need anything--".
"I know, I know, I'll call".
Harvey, pleased with her answer, kissed Rachel and left without uttering another word. Rachel opened the door to her apartment, stepping in and immediately relaxing as she felt at home. It was then that she remembered her assumption that the Joker had been in her apartment, implying he knew where she lived. Of course, that was only an assumption.
Rachel turned on the lights, and was met with the usual, clean and tidy sight. Not a single item was out of place. Cautiously, she approached her bedroom door and turned on the lights, but nothing. Nothing was there to prove that the Joker had been in her apartment. There was no unfamiliar smell, no misplaced item or even the slightest sight of blood anywhere.
It was just as she left it.
'Alright Rachel, calm down, stop being so paranoid and pull yourself together!'
Rachel looked towards the fire escape; the window before it was closed. Rachel had her fair share of horror movies, and she always knew that coming home to see a window open, the curtains blowing wildly as the wind entered the apartment was certainly not a good thing. With that in mind, Rachel calmed down slightly.
'But what if he closed the window after entering?'
Rachel's heart started beating faster with that thought.
'Alright, there's only one way to end this' she thought, and she approached her closet.
She hesitated, however.
'What if hes behind those doors, waiting to attack?'
Rachel thought for a moment, her hands on the handles, before suddenly swinging the doors open to find...absolutely nothing.
Rachel exhaled in relief.
'Well, what were you expecting to find? Gotham's most notorious villain sitting cross-legged in your closet and playing with your shoes?'
Rachel smiled at that thought, and shifted through her suits.
'There it is!'
Rachel held out a suit in her arms, the suit she thought was on the dead woman, and she knew that she only had one other suit similar to it, and that was the one she was wearing.
"So all of it was just paranoia..." Rachel said to herself as she sighed and placed the suit back in it's place. She looked to the clock: 5:57pm (2).
Walking back to her living room, she turned on her T.V to the news, preparing herself a cup of coffee as she watched silently with interest. It was no surprise to Rachel that the first story was the one she'd experienced only hours ago at her workplace.
"...where a body had mysteriously fallen from the roof. It has been confirmed that the criminal known as 'The Joker' was behind it..."
"No surprise there..." Rachel said to herself out loud.
"...woman has been identified as 'Rachel Adams', who, according to investigators, has been dead for six months. An anonymous source tells us that a dug out grave has been found at Gotham's local cemetery, where Gotham's Police Force believe the body was taken out and used for the Joker's..."
Rachel stopped listening after that, and turned off the T.V, taking a seat on her couch and sinking comfortably in the leather. With her coffee cup in her hands, she lifted her legs and was in the process of comfortably tucking them beneath her, when the phone, lying innocently on the table in front of her, started ringing.
Slightly frustrated that she had to lean over and pick up the phone, she pushed the 'talk' button and answered, "Hello?".
"Rachel, its me".
"Harvey?" she asked incredulously. 'What could he possibly want at this hour?'
"Yeah. Look, I know its late, and you don't have to give me an answer straight away, but I wanted to ask you if you'd like to go to dinner with me sometime tomorrow. And before you even say it, I know its of short notice, but I just wanted you to keep it in mind. I already booked the reservations at this nice place, but I can cancel anytime".
"Oh, Harvey, you shouldn't have..".
"Yeah, well, I just thought that we'd take a break from all this work on the trials and just spend some time together, just you and me, no talk of work or anything. So, are you up for it?".
Rachel shook her head disbelievingly, knowing that Harvey couldn't see her. She knew they hadn't been spending as much time together as they used to, and she missed it, but the trials were supposed to be the top priority. Of course, she didn't want to break Harvey's heart; what else could she say?
"Alright, what time will you be here?".
"I'll pick you up at around seven" Harvey replied, elated at the thought of spending more time with Rachel.
"Alright then. Is that the only reason you called me up for?" She asked, a smile tugging on her lips.
The other end was silent for a moment.
"Harvey--?".
"Alright, alright, so maybe I wanted to check if you were fine, and now that I've heard you're perfectly safe, as far as I can tell..."
Rachel had a grin stretching on her lips as hew spoke,
"...I can now rest knowing you're not in the captivity of--"
"Harvey!" Rachel laughed, "Everything is fine" she emphasized. "Now go before I change my mind about dinner!" she threatened playfully.
She heard a laugh from the other end, before hearing an amused, "See you tomorrow, Rachel", and the connection closed.
She thought she'd heard the last of it that day, but it was far from it. She'd just placed the phone back in it's place when it rang again, and she sighed.
'What does it take to get a bit of peace and quiet around here?'
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey Rachel" the voice on the other end answered.
It was Bruce.
Rachel found it funny that Bruce called or showed up in some way after Harvey had; first the hospital visit, and now this.
"Bruce," she started. "Do you..need something?" she asked hesitantly.
"You never told me about what happened earlier today" he said bluntly.
"I...didn't think it was that serious" Rachel lied, then almost immediately regretted it.
"Rachel, you know that's not true, don't you realize what this means?".
She remained silent.
"Rachel?".
"I'm listening".
She heard a sigh from the other end.
"Rach, you don't know this guy like I do. I've been there, at the crime scenes. I've seen the kind of clues he leaves behind, I know how he picks his next targets" he told her, worry etching in his voice. "What was on the news today..." he paused. "Rach...you're his next target; you know it, I know it, the whole of Gotham knows it".
Rachel could almost imagine him now, pacing around his expensive penthouse, trying to find the right words to say to her, although, she could probably guess what they were going to be.
"Just...promise me you'll stay safe, and that if you need anything, anything at all--".
"Call you, I know".
Bruce smiled from the other end.
"Alright, just...stay safe, Rachel".
"Don't worry, I will. Bye Bruce" she said, before ending the call once more.
She could've sworn that was at least the third time in a day that someone's told her to stay safe and out of trouble, not that she ever did look for trouble, it just came with her job.
Rachel began to relax as she managed to turn and take a few steps back, only to groan as the phone rang yet again, and she answered it with a hint of impatience and annoyance in her voice.
"Just forgot to say goodnight, Rachel".
She rolled her eyes as she replied to Harvey, saying goodnight and then ending the conversation.
'Just hope its the last...'
Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side.
To say that Rachel was frustrated was an understatement, and she contemplated leaving the phone ringing, however, decided against it. Angrily pushing the 'talk' button, she furiously answered the phone.
"Harvey, if that's you again, I swear to God I'll--".
If there was anything she could take back doing that day, it would've been answering that phone call, for no one, not even her, expected what was going to happen next.
"Well, hel-lo be-au-tiful".
End Chapter Three: Complications
(1) - For those who don't know, a 'Jane Doe' is a term given to a woman whose identity is not known.
(2) - I don't know if its the same thing for America, I'm hopeless when it comes to comparing things, but usually the afternoon news is on at 6pm for us Australians, and its probably the same in America too, but I just wanted to clear that up.
Well, what did you guys think? Was it worth the wait? Oh, and I promise there'll be more Joker/Rachel goodness in the next chapter, and by that, it doesn't mean they're going to have hot phone sex. :Cough Cough:. Oh, oh! A Did You Know for you guys!: Did you know, that originally, I was going to make the Joker smell like grilled cheese and gunpowder for the randomness of it? I decided against it, because although I'm familiar with the smell of grilled cheese, gunpowder is a mystery to me..that, and I didn't know how the combination would work hehe. Anyways, please leave a review. Reviews make me happy! Next chapter should be up whenever its ready. Thanks for reading!