The trio returned to the roof on nearly a daily basis over the next week and, fortunately, Joker didn't seem to notice Harley's absence. His indifference bothered her, but target practice helped keep her mind of it. She knew that the lessons would help her bring something more to the table and she hated the thought of being a burden to her Puddin'.
Surprisingly to White, teaching her had been kind of fun. Watching her improve gave him some vague sense of accomplishment and it was hard not to get caught up in Harley's excitement. When she hit her first bottle off the table, they all did a victory dance despite themselves.
White and Henshaw got to know Harley pretty well over this small period of time. It was her own fault really. In their field, people tended not to talk about anything of consequence. It was too dangerous to give people information to work with and it was better not to become too attached to people that may not be there the next day. Harley did not seem to understand this concept and spouted off about everything in her life, be it from school, her brief period working in Arkham, or funny stories from her childhood. Henshaw chalked this up to her being a woman; skirts were known to be rather gabby. White, however, knew that it had more to do with her naiveté. All the same, he was thankful that she was discreet enough to avoid the subject matter of her relationship between her and his boss. That would have been uncomfortable.
The simple fact was they were getting used to each other. The intention was to keep everything business, but Harley's constant sharing of her personal life was making it rather difficult and her bubbly personality was infectious. White noticed that Henshaw was able to distance himself better than he was, probably because so much of her did remind him of his sister. His sister always had such a positive attitude no matter the situation. Because of this, White would occasionally begin talking about her to Harley before catching himself and changing the subject. The ease in which he'd find himself falling into these conversations was disconcerting to say the least. She was just so easy to talk to! He imagined that had helped her out back when she was a shrink.
They found themselves slipping into obvious familiarity even at the hideout, which was dangerous to say the least, but Harley was quicker than most people gave her credit for. There was an incident where White caught Harley's hand placement on the gun while she practiced at the hideout. He instantly went to correct her by taking the gun from her and demonstrating the proper way to handle the weapon.
"You push against the handle with this hand to better brace the shot," he explained. "You won't feel the backlash as much and it'll help your aim." He then signaled for her to sit down. "Let's try something. You're gonna hold the gun like I showed you and I'm gonna push from the opposite end. You try to keep it as steady as you can."
"Okay," she responded eagerly.
White emptied the gun and handed it to her. She ready herself as he placed a hand on the barrel and started to apply pressure. Her arms and the weapon quickly went to the right.
"What the hell was that?" he criticized as he threw up his hands. His tone wasn't as condescending as it used to be though, amusement clearly ringing through. "How do you expect to shoot someone if I can just slap you around?" White playfully began smacking he weapon in her hand to left, up, and down gruffily claiming, "You can't take me! You ain't nothin'!"
"Cut it out!" Harley laughed. "Let me try again." She pushed against his hand on the barrel, which shook a bit but stayed basically where she intended it to.
"Good!" White congratulated her. "Now think about how much this will do for your shot when my hand isn't messin' you up."
At that moment, Joker had stepped into the room. Harley flawlessly switched on her acting skills, and her face became hard as she started threatening White with the gun in her hand. "You're lucky I don't take you out right now!" she screeched. "I'm surrounded by morons!"
Joker didn't know what her fit was about nor did he care. He simply rolled his eyes at the scene and continued on through.
Once he was out of sight, White smiled at Harley while she mockingly wiped her brow. "Shit, that was close," he stated.
"It's so silly," Harley whispered, as though Joker may overhear her. "It only makes sense that he'd want me to improve my shooting skills and I have no reason to think this would make him upset…but I just think it would."
"Everything upsets him," White confirmed. "I think he just likes being pissed off." Harley giggled and put a finger in front of her lips, signaling him to quiet down. "I think we should probably separate for the rest of the day, unless you go out. Remember to let either me or Henshaw know."
"Yeah, I know," Harley nodded in confirmation and waved him away.