I love my reviewers... so much. I love you guys. Seriously. I'm having a Bromance moment here. All of you, go buy yourselves a drink and pat yourself on the back. I'm going to start on the new chapter.

Bruce dropped into a half crouch and scanned the room for anything he could use as a weapon.

"How did you get in here?"

The Joker laughed and made his way over to a chair. He flopped down and put a drooping purple hat onto the bed.

"I missed you, locked away in that nasty little place."

Bruce stopped, his curiosity overcoming the strange situation. "How did you break out?"

The Joker laughed and lifted his feet up. "They just can't contain my... explosive character."

Bruce nearly smiled, but turned it into a grimace.

The Joker laughed again, he laced his fingers behind his head. "You really are too much fun. I thought that you'd found someone else to play with tonight."

Bruce walked carefully around the room, trying to put as much furniture between the Joker and himself as possible.

"You really ought to take a vacation once in a while. Go to a party, meet some girls." He wasn't watching Bruce but studying his paint smeared fingers.

"I could say the same about you."

There was a choking sound and Bruce whipped up startled. The Joker's giggle was unnerving.

"I'm sorry about your girlfriend, for shame I really did get the addresses mixed up."

Bruce growled, his had clenching unconsciously on the IV pole, his knuckles turning white. Where is Gordon when you need him?

"Really, I was all excited for Harvey's death. I thought bringing you low was fun but I think Dent was my masterpiece. Rebecca or Roberta-"

"Rachel."Bruce interrupted quietly

"Right, her, she was a fine woman, the way she just dangled you in front of each other. I mean that was just cruel."

Bruce threw the metal pole at The Joker with a howl of rage.

The Joker casually reached up and caught the pole, his eyes still on his hands. "You don't seem very sick to me. Are we feeling feisty today?

Batman looked around for something else to throw.

"But all this is beside the point, what I want to know is how you're going to get out of here."

"I'm going to trust you?" There was a medical book on one of the shelves, Bruce reached up and grabbed it. He chucked it at the Joker, who merely deflected it with a casual flick of the IV pole.

"Well, that all depends on what you trust me with. Trust is a tricky word." He scratched his ear.

Gordon sighed down at his hands in frustration, they had just about locked him in a room with guards. He could murder Randall Hughes.

As much as he hated to admit it, good fools were still fools. Why did all the villains and corrupt cops have to be the smart ones.

God Dammit he was the police commissioner for Christ sakes, he could get out of this, tweak a few noses, nod at certain people, maybe even raise a paycheck.

He ground his hands into his eyes. Doing that would go against everything he stood for. But Batman was in the hospital. Batman is helpless, surrounded by doctors and nurses but still ultimately defenseless. What Gordon needed right now was some blue prints, a cigarette and some space. The room was so stuffy and crowded, he was late to make a statement to the press, he was being detained by his own men, and he had to sneak a billionaire crime-fighter out of a hospital with all his limbs and preferably without handcuffs.

"Hey can I get a cup of coffee?"

"You wanna drink the piss they serve here?" Randall asked, a smile on his twitching face. Hughes knew what would happen to him back at the office. Gordon would have him do Narrows duty for a week for putting him in this humiliating position.

Gordon grimaced but nodded, he could really use some caffeine no matter how unpleasant it would be.

Randall opened his mouth and looked as if he wanted to mutter an apology but after a moment he shook his head and walked out of the room, closing it behind him with a soft click.

He stretched his legs, wincing as his stiff neck cracked explosively.

The other guard looked around and smiled at Gordon's obvious discomfort. He turned away again to watch the TV. Outside the hospital doors people were massing together to protest Batman's presence in Gotham's hospital. Most wanted him in the county jail, and a few wanted him out of police custody. It reminded Gordon of the peasants forming an angry mob, ready to storm the castle and find the monster. It was close, Gotham citizens forming an angry mob to storm the hospital and find Batman.

"You know, Officer Hughes hasn't been in the force long." Gordon was shaken out of his thoughts to look at his remaining guard who was still staring at the television screen, his lips barely moving.

"He hasn't... lost friends to the job." The Commissioner stared at him, he didn't know why they were having a conversation about Randall.

"And that... madman took your family." Said the guard, still staring at the screen.

Ah, of course, I was forgetting that Batman was a cop-killer to most on the force.

The guard smiled slightly, talking faster now that he saw that Gordon had caught on. "You know i'm very clumsy this time of the year, and tired. It'd be easy to trip over that chair right there, and it's ridiculous how you could take my gun from my holster and go check up on our 'dangerous criminal'. It's not your fault if he goes for your throat. Call it... self defense."

Gordon nodded, old cops were touchy about the friends that got killed in the line of duty, and after years of watching killers get away from justice it wasn't uncommon for a suspect to go missing before their trial. And finally Gordon had a plan.

The guard, officer Murphy as his badge claimed, went crashing to the floor. Gordon slid out of his chair and fluidly tugged the small handgun out of the helpful officer's holster.

The guard braced himself against the floor and winked conspiratorially at Gordon.

The Commissioner nodded curtly at him and slid out of the door.

He made his way halfway through the hallway before he heard footsteps. He dodged left into a hospital room. Two men were lying side by side, each with various tubes and needles sticking out of them.

Even though Gordon felt angry at Officer Murphy for betraying the law, a traitorous part of his brain was actually enjoying the action. He had seen plenty of gunfire in his day, it wasn't easy, but there was a difference in defending the city and taking offensive action to help people.

The footsteps drew closer, it was Randall balancing two coffee cups in one hand and checking his phone in the other.

Gordon quickly grabbed one of the visiting chairs and slid it into the hall with such force that when it collided with Randall's knees a tremendous crack could be heard echoing in the hallway.

Randall howled in pain and dropped the hot coffee, furthering his pain with the boiling liquid. Hie patted himself frantically, clutching his shins with one hand and trying to sweep the liquid off himself with the other.

Gordon stepped out into sight with the gun pointed unwaveringly at his best officer. He hated to do this but he had a plan now, one that wouldn't work if Randall kept getting in the way.

Officer Hughes looked up at the barrel of Gordon's gun. He froze in a comical position, half crouched dripping coffee and trying to regain some balance, a curse halfway off his lips.

They stood for a moment frozen in time, their eyes locked on each other.

"You-"

"Get in there." Gordon interrupted tipping his head to the door behind him.

Randall chuckled nervously, "Commissioner, you're upset, that's understandable, but-"

"I said get in." Gordon couldn't stop his voice from wavering a bit towards the end. He didn't know what he would do if Randall didn't move.

Slowly Randall stood, Gordon reached forward quickly and took his gun. Hughes started a bit at the sudden move and the contact. Standing he was a lot taller than his commanding officer, Gordon wrestled with the paranoid fear that was creeping up on him.

"Go."

The guns followed Randall's slow progress to the door. The officer tuned as he entered the room. "Commissioner, really there's no-"

Gordon slammed the door and pushed the chair up against the handle.

He turned and ran as Officer Hughes body slammed against the barricaded door, the whole wall shook with the force.

Hallways, doctors, doors nurses, they all flashed by him as blurs. He didn't know which part of the building he was in. Only that he needed to get to Batman soon. They needed to get out of the hospital before someone took the mask off everyones least favorite hero.

At last he arrived at room 17-A and he hurried inside, peering out back into the hallway, looking for signs of pursuit.

He froze at the biting sting of a knife point at his side.

"You really must learn to knock." The Joker's nasally voice whispered from behind the Commissioner. "I'll have to go now, take care of batsy will you?"

There was a hurried pat on the back and without another glance or word the Joker disappeared back into the hallway. Gordon's mind stopped functioning for a second. What the hell... seemed to be stuck on a broken record in his head. He glanced around and ducked instinctively. Batman was holing a plastic chair above his head with effortless ease, what could be seen from his face was livid with rage.

The chair was lowered but Bruce's wrath was still written on his face. Books, pipes, pillows, and various surgical implements were scattered around the room.

"Was that the Joker?" Gordon asked in disbelief.

"Just get me out of this damn hospital." Bruce growled, his breath hitched in his throat and he coughed.

"What did he want?" Gordon asked, his eyes wide.

"Nothing, he gave me some flowers." He pointed at a bunch of yellow flowers, their petals drooping. Inside each was a small spot of red. The plants were melting, their petals breaking off the stems in a flurry of yellow.

"This place gets stranger every minute." Gordon said, shaking his head, there were just too many things happening at once. "How did he get in anyway?"

"The roof I imagine, I think I'll go the same way."

"No, we've got a lot of officers in the hall, It's a wonder I made it here... And there were guards outside the door, What happened to-"

He stopped and sighed, "I forgot about the Joker."

"Why is it a wonder you made it here? They're your cops right? You can call them away."

"Not really, they have a restraining order against me. I'm not allowed within two hundred feet of you. They'd make it more but I have to sign the papers for that distance."

Bruce slumped onto the bed. "Jesus, what are we going to do now?"

Gordon pulled his gun out, "Most of the police force wants me to shoot you and I say I should."

Bruce backed away from the gun his masked eyes giving nothing away. Gordon put the gun down on the bed between them carefully. "Just listen, I have a plan..."

Fifty Reviews? I'm...I'm so-so...so happy. Bursts into tears I'd like to thank blondymc360, Heir to the World, Nyeh Creampuff, and the fanfiction website... sob How about we try for 100?