"Madam, are you ready?" Alfred called through the guest bedroom door
"I might need some help" she called back
"May I enter?"
"Silly question Alfred, who else is going to help me" she laughed, he opened the door with one hand over his eyes
"What is it you need help with Madam?" she turned around, and laughed
" I am decent Alfred, you can uncover your eyes. All I need is for you to zip me up" she giggled, he sighed relieved.
"I was hoping that was all"
"Alfred, I'm a big girl I can pick my own undergarments" she smiled
"I would hope so" he laughed. "All the guests have arrived and Master Wayne is waiting at the stairs for you"
"Thank you" he nodded and left her. She looked in the mirror and sighed her black dress seemed to be making her scar stand out as if it were fresh against her pale skin. 'You're mine' ran through her mind over and over taunting her. "No" she whispered "Not anymore" tears slipped past her thick lashes "Never again". 'You are mine!' the voice was livid this time as if she had actually been arguing with him. "No, that all changed when you left me, broken and bloody. You have no control over me anymore" she whispered staring at the mirror, a hand grabbed her shoulder "Harley?" a worried voice pulled her from her torture, she looked up at Bruce with watery eyes, "Hey, what's wrong?"
"I cant go down there" she whispered, her eyes trained to the floor, "They're going to stare and whisper" tears slipped past her lashes and splashed on her hands. He picked up her chin
"Babe if they cant see past the cruel act of someone else that happens to be with you forever now, they can leave. We don't need them anyway" he smiled
"I'm just so tired of the looks and whispers" she sighed
"Want Batman to kick their asses?" he laughed, she smiled
"Well, if he's offering" she giggled
"That's better" he held out his hand to her "Shall we?" He led her down the main staircase as everyone clapped, "Alright settle down you hooligans!" everyone laughed and continued with the party.
They were just an hour in to the party when Bruce called every ones attention to where he was standing on a chair in just about the center of the room "Where is Dr. Quinzel?" he asked, everyone looked around and moved from her vicinity. "Ah there you are, well most of you know from the news Dr. Quinzel and I have been dating behind the scenes for a year now?" he looked towards her and she nodded, he dropped off the chair and moved towards her "Well Dr. Quinzel, I'm tired of dating you" the room filled with almost two hundred gasps, even Harley looked surprised "I think Harley Quinzel, its just about time I married you" he smiled dropping to one knee "What do you say Harls, be my wife?"
"That's Mrs. Wayne now, Mister," she laughed pulling him up into a kiss. Everyone clapped. Throughout the night just about everyone congratulated them and demanded to see the ring. Finally when everyone was gone, Harley flopped down on Bruce's bed, he laughed emerging from the bathroom in just his dress pants. "What's so funny Mr. Wayne?"
"Nothing, Mrs. Wayne" he smile, "You sure you wanna do this Harls?"
"Why wouldn't I want to marry Bruce Wayne, most wanted bachelor?"
"I heard he's a jerk"
"Oh not only is he a huge jerk, I've heard he's Batman" she giggled, Bruce sat beside her with a look of mock hurt, she laughed and kissed his cheek. "So Mr. Wayne, are you going to drive girl home or make her sleep on the couch?"
"Now, now Mrs. Wayne, no need to hurt a mans pride. Why would I make such a beautiful woman sleep on the couch when my bed is clearly big enough for the both of us"
"Daring, Mr. Wayne" she smiled "What would my soon to be husband think?"
"He'll get over it" he laughed, pushing her over.
"Boss!"
"What?"
"I got the pictures you wanted Sir" the clown extended his arm holding a folder; a purple leather clad hand grasped the folder and ripped it away from the clown. "I don't think you'll be very happy Sir"
"Get out" he growled opening the folder, a smiled graced his scared face. The top picture was of Harley, alone, walking to her car from what he remembered as Arkham. The smile soon left his face as Bruce Wayne became more frequent in the photos, his anger skyrocketed with the last picture, Bruce Wayne with his am around his Harley, her hand on his chest and an engagement ring glaring in the flash. He stormed into the room his clowns frequented "These are wrong! Shopped!" he growled grabbing the clown by the neck
"I promise Boss! No funny business!" the clown pleaded. His hand tightened, crushing the mans windpipe, making him gasp and sputter
"It's the truth Boss" another clown said throwing the news paper on the table, the headline read 'Bruce Wayne to wed Harley Quinn' he was seething now. "They have the wrong Harley then, my Harley didn't smooze with the rich or fancy Bruce Wayne!" his teeth were clenched so hard he felt one chip.
"Whadaya gonna do Boss?"
"I'm going to remind little miss Quinn, just who she belongs to!"
Harley looked at the front page of the paper and sighed, "Do you always have to be on the front page?"
"Helps my ego" Bruce laughed
'Joker said something similar' she thought then shook her head slightly, she wont start thinking about him today "What would you like for breakfast, darling?"
"You don't have to cook Harls"
"And just why not? Afraid I'll burn the place down?" Bruce put his hands up
"No, Alfred made breakfast before he left this morning"
"Oh, sorry. Touchy subject, he used to whine about my cooking all the time"
"I understand"
"I'm going to go get dressed" he nodded. She pulled on a pair of black jeans and a red tank top, before heading to the vanity to deal with her mass of messy brown hair. Just as she sat down her cell phone began ringing, she grabbed it 'privet number' flashed on the screen, figuring it was the hospital she pressed answer "Dr Harley Quinzel"
"You looked better blond"
"Excuse me? Who is this?"
"Look down the answer is right there" her eyes widened
"This isn't funny who ever you are!"
"You never did get the joke, did you Harley-girl?"
"How did you get this number?" she whispered
"Enough games!" he growled, "You come home now and Daddy might play nice" a snarl ever present in his voice
"You don't have any control over me anymore! You lost that when you left me broken and bloody. When you left me for dead! All I ever wanted was for you to love me, now I see it was never possible"
"Call off the engagement or I'll kill both of you" with that he hung up. Her knees gave out and she hit the floor with a soft thud, she stared at her phone for a minute before breaking into tears. She sat there for almost a half an hour sobbing uncontrollably, but soon she just couldn't cry anymore, she had no idea how he had gotten her number or that he was even back in Gotham. What she did now was that she needed to deactivate the number and she needed to talk to someone who wasn't Bruce. Her phone could wait, she needed to talk now, she grabbed her keys and a sweater before rushing down the stairs and almost pushing Bruce over. "Hey what's the rush?"
"I need to go, I have to talk to someone I haven't talked to in almost a year" she held up her hands so he wouldn't touch her
"Harls, your doctor retired months ago"
"I don't need my shrink Bruce" she pushed him and ran for the door.
She all but ran down the main hall of Arkham, "Dr. Quinzel you have the day off what are you doing here?" Dr Arkham questioned, taking hold of her arm
"I need to see her Jerry, I just need to talk to her" she played with her sleeves and shifted her weight from foot to foot. Jerry Arkham didn't like it at all, he hadn't seen her this worked up in almost three years. "Are you sure Harley? You know what talking to her might do" he was looking right into her eyes. Panic, shear blind panic was all he saw in her icy blue eyes.
"Please Jerry!" she was pleading now
"Alright, I'll call. She'll be ready when you get there" Harley nodded and almost ran to the elevator. She made her way to the 5th floor, aptly nicknamed the 'Bat wing' as everyone Batman locked up was thrown up there. She had giggled when a nurse told her what they called it. The nurses looked almost scared when she ran up to the desk, the last time she had shown up in street clothes was when she had helped Joker escape. "Jerry was supposed to call and have a patient prepared"
"S-she is" the nurse stuttered, she gritted her teeth and pointed a finger at the nurse, she slammed her hand down on the desk and walked away. She stood outside the room she wanted and tried to calm herself down, once she felt sufficiently calm she made her way into the room. "Poison Ivy, was it? Lame name" she laughed, the red head looked up form the table "Harley, is that you?"
"In the flesh" she smiled, this woman had been like her mother throughout her and Joker's reign of terror.
"No costume? No make-up?"
"I'm done with all that babe, I'm down here too" she confessed, she hadn't been able to say goodbye to the woman in front of her because he release was sprung on her and she was hauled away by Bruce who was still clearing her name then. "That's why I haven't seen you all week" she smiled
"Red it's been just over a year" she sat down in front of the older woman
"Ah, yes Batman brought us in"
"Batman brought you in Red. I spent a month in Gotham General on life support"
"Right I remember now, J thought you were the reason Batman got away, and busted you up good then dropped you right out the window" Ivy recalled, Harley cringed and the blunt recall of the memory, she still had scars from landing on the glass and rocks.
"Yeah"
"You all right, kiddo" Ivy asked suddenly, Harley cringed again at Ivy calling her kiddo, Joker had called her that all the time.
"No, I'm losing it Ivy"
"You look pretty sane to me Blondie…who's not so blond anymore" she speculated
"Yesterday I heard his voice, clear as day, in my head. Told me I was his, I felt the need to fight back so I did, said he didn't have control over me anymore and wouldn't ever again, the voice argued back angrier this time, Red. Just before coming in here, I almost snapped on one of the nurses the way he would have. I'm losing it, soon I'll have to readmit myself" Harley put her head down on the table, the metal cool against her heated forehead, she debated on telling her about the phone call this morning.
"You always were the better one of us Harls. Yeah J was an abusive prick towards you but you never let it get your spirits down, you were always the most sane" Pamela Isley shone through her ever present mask of Poison Ivy. "J's beyond help, Crane's beyond help and me, well I'll never be the same and I doubt I'll ever get out of here alive. But you" she smiled "You got out, got better even after everything that happened. You put your head back on and got out"
"He called me this morning Red" Ivy's smiled dropped instantly
"Joker?" he voice sounded almost hateful "I thought he was gone for good?"
"Well he's back and he knows my cell phone number and about my engagement to Bruce"
"Wayne?" Harley nodded "Right heard about that on the TV this morning"
"He told me if I didn't call it off he was going to kill Bruce and I"
"Well Blondie, I cant help much in here and they're not about to let me out for good behavior. Most I can do is be someone to talk to"
"I know. I just figured you would understand better than Bruce" they were quiet for a minute or two. "Do you love him?" Ivy questioned
"Bruce is amazing, everything I wanted with him without the abuse"
"I didn't mean Bruce" Ivy said looking up dead serious
"Joker?" Ivy nodded, Harley bit her lip and stayed silent thinking, even with all her sessions she still missed him everyday, little things would make her think of him, she would always love him he was the first to show her the world and set her free. She bowed her head in defeat "Yes" she whispered
"Then I suggest you follow you head not your heart, your heart landed you in here your head got you out"
"I don't know what to do Red. If I dont call it off he'll kill us, if I do call it off I'll hurt Bruce and he'll probably kill me, if not both of us, anyway" Harley was on the verge of tears again when the door opened "Dr. Quinzel, Ms. Isley has recreation time now"
"Alright, thank you" the nurse left them "It was nice to see you again Red. I'll try to come back soon, depending on how things go… I might just be sitting with you for lunch again" Harley kissed the older woman's cheek and walked out of the room.
Flame if you like, criticism is welcome