I'm alive! And so it this story!

Chapter 17: Unraveling

"Gordon, it's Serena. Angela Benedetti is safe, but she's got a slight head injury. I'm taking her to the hospital right now."

On the other end of the line, Gordon anxiously replied, "What about Monica? And any word on Lindsey?"

Serena sighed, casting a glance at her semi-conscious passenger, "Monica slipped out with Ray. He doesn't know it's her though. I put the bug in his truck yesterday, so if it's activated now you should be able to catch him."

Bruce watched Gordon press a few buttons until a map of the narrows displayed on a wide computer screen, a bright blue dot traveling further into dangerous territory. He caught the mention of a "bug" through the phone conversation with an informant that had placed in the Narrows when the Joker first arrived in Gotham. Without a word, and without the preoccupied Gordon's notice, he slipped out of the station, calling up one Lucius Fox.

If he had to break the law to save Lindsey, so be it.

Ray didn't suspect a thing. If he did, he was a damn good actor. Although he looked more like a model than an actor…

'Stop it!' Monica berated herself, 'You are not attracted to him. He values money more than you life.'

As Ray finished telling her the story she'd only been listening to parts of, he flashed her his heart stopping smile.

'Maybe he'll change his mind when he finds out…No he won't. Stop sounding like Blondie. Shit, the old lady better be getting Blondie to a hospital. She was bleeding last I-'

"Alright Jess," Ray announced, the slight edge in his voice not going unnoticed, "This will only take a few minutes. People in the Narrows are shady, so just sit back and don't make eye contact."

Monica suppressed a snort, "I thought they were your friends."

Ray grimaced. "Not those kinds of friends."

As Ray pulled up alongside a boarded up building, Monica complied with Ray's orders and pressed back into her seat. Two men were waiting outside of the building. She almost snorted when she saw the men were predictably in clown masks. When Ray pulled shifted into park, Monica forced herself to stare outside her own window rather than glaring at the henchmen.

"Boss is getting antsy," one of the rasped, "He needs you to deliver. Now."

"That's too bad. I need cash."

The other man hissed, "We paid you already. You're not the one making demands here."

Monica dared a glance as the exchange continued, quickly ducking away as the second man's beady eyes met with hers as if he'd been staring at her the whole time. Ray just chuckled, "We agreed that the chunk of change you threw at me was only a partial down payment."

The first one seemed ready to pull out his hair…or Ray's, "You don't even have the girls-"

The second one interrupted him, catching Monica's eyes for a second time, "Yeah he does."

Monica swore under her breath, but luckily she was already sprinting away from the truck.

Calling the Joker a bastard as he literally dragged Lindsey out of the room and up to the roof of the building proved to be on her list of dumb ideas. He was currently pacing the perimeter of the rooftop, still dragging and swinging her with him, but now he had a knife dangerously close to her face.

"You wanna know how I got these scars, Leslie? There was a football player I went to school with. He was a druggie. I knew that," he suddenly shouted, "Hold still!"

Lindsey froze as the tip of the knife was pointed to her eye. As soon as she complied, the Joker repositioned it so it was ready to carve the traditional smile.

"So I made a bet with him, right before he nearly overdosed. He claimed his face was numb. So I did something like this," he traced the blade along her cheek, enough to scratch the surface but not to draw blood, "And he told me I could cut him and he wouldn't feel it, that he cuts himself all the time out of depression. Now isn't that sad, Leslie? Wouldn't you say that's a cry for help?"

Lindsey hoped her squeak would suffice as an answer. Luckily it did.

"I thought so too. So I said, 'Let's put a smile on that face,'" he bent over slightly to hiss in her ear, "He felt every bit of pain."

So what if the story was bullshit? It freaked Lindsey out enough to kick and elbow her way out of his grip. He had swung her so that a fire escape was in her field of vision and she made a break for the rusted metal stair case that in any other circumstance she would avoid. But if she was going to die, she decided she'd rather it be by pavement than this man.

"Keep going, keep going," she mumbled to herself as she practically slid down two of the stairways. Three. Now four. She lost count of how many floors she'd managed to descend to when she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun firing a bullet ricocheting off the ancient metal. The sound alone was enough to startle her into slipping down the stairs and landing awkwardly on one of the platforms, her right leg bending in a way she'd never seen or felt before.

The Joker fired another bullet, though it must have just been for fun or to scare her, which was undoubtedly humorous to him. She looked up and saw he was at the beginning of the fire escape from the roof.

"Look what you made me do!" he hollered as he leisurely made his way down the surprisingly significant amount of staircases Lindsey had managed to cover. She whimpered as she tried to move her right leg, instantly sending torrents of pain up through her hip.

"It's not like I want to hurt you, Leslie."

Lindsey emitted a throaty gargle of distaste, both from the pain still shooting up her leg as she used the rail to pull herself to a semi-standing position and the fact that his tone clearly proved that he actually quite enjoyed inflicting pain on her.

That, and he kept calling her Leslie.

"I didn't want to kill your father either."

"What. The. Hell?" she muttered, wincing as she put a slight amount of pressure on her right foot.

"I never imagined this would all boil down to killing my own brother, but James was about to reveal himself."

Lindsey hadn't noticed the Joker approach her until he had her chin in a vice grip. The mirth, that sadomasochistic gleam in his eyes was gone. She thought she saw a bit of…remorse.

James Kinkirk, the man whom the Joker had seemingly done some extensive research on and pegged as one of his next victims, was the man who brought her here. He was also the man who tried to save her. He was also the man the Joker had just killed. And he could have possibly been the Joker's brother who threatened to reveal the identity of the Joker himself.

Did Lindsey and her mother remind the Joker of James's wife and daughter? Joan and Lindsey would be about Jillian and Leslie Kinkirk's ages if they were still alive. Maybe Joan was at one time connected to the case. She worked with Carlo and Elvira Benedetti in the past and they were from the Trenton area…

In an instant, all traces of humanity evaporated from the Joker's face. He broke out into a grin, made excessively eerie by his scars. Behind him stood the Dark Knight, ready to pounce.

... Hi...