A/N: Read & Review my lovelies hearts

Revised: 15/12/2013

It had been a week since that incident, and four days since the Joker had escaped and disappeared into thin air. For days I'd been trying, relentlessly, to find him, pulling all-nighters and even skipping my Bruce Wayne daily routines.

Where are you, Joker? I really can't find you if you didn't want me to…

What he did before his escape, and the recording that I had seen a thousand times already, left me worried. I had never fully understood the clown's actions, but this was the first time that I had found myself scared of what he might do the next time he decided to strike.

The recording from Arkham Asylum's database, which had been playing on the central computer's widescreen, and which Tim obviously helped me hack into, was showing the Joker's cell.

Recording - Day one

On the night that I had left him, he remained in the same exact position that I had last seen him in, up to the following day. Merely staring at the wall with an impassive expression, his sight had sent a shiver down my spine.

Recording - Day two

Few hours to the next day, the clown was still sitting in the same position, except then, he was clenching to the left side of his chest. It was barely noticeable, but he kept clenching harder and harder as time passed by. Consequently, almost an hour later, a red spot started forming under his clench. I felt my throat go dry and I could barely swallow, when I had realized that his chest was bleeding.

Fortunately, minutes later a team of medics came in. The one who had unbuttoned the Joker's jumpsuit to treat his chest gasped in fear when he saw the damage the Joker had caused. While the Joker, on the other hand, meekly sat there, staring as the frightened man patched him up. The wound the clown had inflicted to himself was deep and required a number of stitches, but his facial expression had shown no sign of pain or any other emotion at that matter.

One of the medics gave the clown a shot of sedative, and as soon as the team had left, he shifted his position, giving his back to the camera. After a couple of hours, with his back to the camera, he buried his head deep into his lap and placed a shaky, white hand over his head. He remained like that for a few hours, but within every few seconds I had noticed that his body was giving prompt, soft jolts. If this happened a week ago I would have thought that those jolts were caused by his laughter and I wouldn't have even dared to think otherwise. Sadly, the moment I had seen his shaky hand, I remembered that tear and couldn't help but think that the Joker might have been crying as well right then and there.

Recording - Day three

On the third day, the Joker had been carefully restrained before he was taken out of his cell, and to Dr. Ruth Adam's office for a psych evaluation. Beyond this part, the recording was useless, since the Joker never came back to his cell. Therefore, I had decided to go down to Arkham to investigate the rest of what had happened that day.

Arkham Asylum (Dr. Adam's office) – Day four

As I spoke to Dr. Adam, I had clearly seen that she was still shaken by the incident. She tried her best to keep on a brave facade and a steady voice, but I could still hear a hint of anxiety in it.

"I'd been planning to prepare the Joker for a psych evaluation the moment you brought him in. But his rare, silent behavior had intrigued me. So, I decided to examine him a little bit further from his cell before bringing him down for an evaluation." Dr. Adam stated as calm as she could, "But when that unfortunate event took place, you know the bleeding chest, I had to quit the examination and hast the evaluation preparations."

Dr. Adam stopped for a moment to take a mouthful of water, followed by a deep breath before she continued, "The Joker was scheduled at mid-noon, and when he reached my office he had an impassive expression. He took a seat and kept staring at me. I'd waited for him to speak, to shoot a smartass remark like he usually does, but he remained silent. He had always been the one to speak up first and at that rare moment I was forced to break the silence. So, I choose a simple question and I asked how he felt."

At that point, the brave act had finally crumbled down, and a dash of fear wrapped around her face as she spoke, "A creepy grin replaced his emotionless face. He started giggling, and then laughing hysterically, jerking his head backwards. A minute later, he lowered back his face, glaring at me madly as he hissed, 'Do you want to know how I feel Doc, hmm? Why don't you tell me? Why do you think I asked dear Ol' Batsy to bring me here?' He then, somehow broke his restrains, jumped at me pushing me hard on the floor and snapped, 'If I knew how I felt, why would I come back here?! Aren't you supposed to be the fucking expert! I've been in here for three fucking days! So, oh please! Do tell me! Do enlighten me on why do I still feel this stabbing pain in my damn chest!""

Her breathing pattern was getting heavy and shaky as she continued to speak, "He started punching me on the chest as if trying to explain his pain. His punches were hard and I could barely breathe, that's when I had started to gradually lose my consciousness. After that I woke up in the hospital, with a harsh bruise and the news of the Joker's escape."

"Thank you doctor." I said empathetically, "I'm sorry for taking your time."

"It's always a pleasure to help you, Batman." She replied with a smile, "Hope you find the Joker soon."

I do hope so too.

She was a brave one, I admitted, to face such an awful incident and yet manage to show such a reassuring smile.

"Master Bruce! I implore you to rest for a while." Alfred pleaded, "You have been going through these recordings for the past twenty four hours!"

"Please Alfred, I can't rest until I figure out the location of the Joker! He has already attacked two doctors, aside from Dr. Adam that is!" I argued, "He might have left a clue somewhere during this recording, which I might have been missing."

"Master, I worry you might be driving yourself to exhaustion." Alfred stressed with utmost concern.

"I know Alfred, I'm sorry." I replied with reassuring smile, "I promise you, I will head back to my room to rest as soon as this recording ends."

Alfred nodded with a smile, knowing that pushing the matter any further would be fruitless.

A half hour later, I still ended up clueless.

Dammit… Where are you Joker?

I clenched my chest as the stinging pain hit again.

I really am getting old… I should seriously listen to Alfred and take a better care of my stressed out body.

As I promised Alfred, I stood up, climbed up the stairs that lead to the secret passage and up to the manor, and then headed to my room. And as soon as I reached my room, I slammed into my bed, totally exhausted from the lack of sleep for the past four days.

Damn you Joker… Please let me hear that crazy laughter of yours…

My eyelids shut down slowly, and I gradually drifted away with my hand still clenching hard to my chest trying to suppress the pain.

,,

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TBC