Chapter 5

"What are you doing here?" I asked apprehensively, slowing my pace to find out her motives.

"Can't a mother visit her daughter?" She asked, playing the innocent card.

"You have fifteen minutes, Raven." Steele told me. I nodded and sat down at the nearest table.

"So, honey, how have you been?" She asked after Steele left

"In an insane asylum. What about you?" I replied sarcastically. "Cut to the chase mom. What are you doing here? You wouldn't risk your hoity-toity reputation to visit your daughter in the looney bin."

"Well, I got a good lawyer and if you'll change your story a bit and act like it was self defense, and we can get you out of here with a few community service hours. And there's a nice young suitor who just moved in down the street who's wanting to meet you."

"Oh god mom. We're not starting this again. Because the first guy you set me up with worked so well?" It's true. The first guy she set me up with ended up getting drunk with his friends and came home smelling like a whore and smoke. I got mad and yelled at him and he hit me. And how do you explain to your mother that you have an ongoing infatuation with a criminal? And an insane criminal no less? And the Joker just to add icing to the cake. "And what makes you think that a guy who lives in your neighborhood would want to meet up with someone like me?"

"You used to live there to you know." She told me

"Exactly. And I moved away because everyone in that neighborhood was too obsessed with money and their own stupid materialistic lives to actually care about the other side of town. Which is exactly why I moved there. To prove that even someone like me can survive down there."

"You know you're not like those other people. You're more headstrong."

"But they don't know that. And I'm not about to back into the society. I hated every minute there."

"Oh, because life in the narrows is so much better. Look where you ended up. You're not living some fantasy. You'll be in here until you're a middle aged saggy thing." She said, starting to get pissed off at my attitude.

"Thank you. Because I didn't know that already, thanks for bringing that back to my attention." I said to her. Who was she to come in here and talk to me like this? "You know what, I'm done with this conversation. Can you take me back to rec time please?" I asked Steele.

"We're not done here Kara."

"Oh, I think we are." I told her walking off. I wish I wasn't aloud visitation rights.

"What was that all about?" Steele asked curiously, leading me back towards the outside.

"Nothing. My mom's just crazy."

"Maybe she should be in here then, huh?" I laughed awkwardly, sure, my mother was a crazy psychotic bitch, but I still have that moment where you feel really bad for disrespecting her.

When I got back outside, I went back to the tree only to find Jack wasn't there. He popped out from behind the tree, scaring me half to death.

"Hi." He said in his usual tone.

"Jack, you scared me. How come you decided to come down from the tree?"

"You looked upset when you came outside." He paused, I waited awkwardly for him to finish. "Thought you might wanna talk, and I wanted to see your face, so I came down." Blushing at his sudden concern to see what was wrong, I sat down across from him. "So what was that all about in there?" He motioned towards the door.

"It was my mother. She's a socialite, from upper-class neighborhoods. It's not good for her reputation that her 'rebellious' daughter moved away into the narrows only to land into Arkham seven years later. So, she tried bullshitting me into changing my story into one of self-defense to get me out of here, and continued to try to set me up, which didn't work so well the first time it happened."

"Why didn't you leave when you had the chance? And what happened with this other guy?"

"Because, believe it or not, this place is better than my old apartment and living with my parents. In the society I grew up in, girls stay with their parents until they marry them off and then they move in with their rich husbands. It was too old fashioned for me, so I left. Ever since then, I've been hating where I'm living, and dreading going back to my parents house. I just feel stable here. Call me crazy but, that's what I'm in an insane asylum for. As for my mother playing match maker, she set me up with a wealthy man from our neighborhood and it seemed as though he felt the same way about the lifestyle as I did but he took care of it a little differently. We only went out for a couple months but he always wanted me at his house. The last day I saw him he had gone out with his friends, our neighbors, and gotten drunk. They told me he went to a strip club and got a lap dance and gotten smashed, as if they hadn't done the same. I got really mad and yelled at him and he got defensive and hit me. I don't remember going back home after that, everything was just kind of a blur. I didn't have the strong facade I have now and I remember being upset for days. I guess that's just why I went a little crazy when I found out my husband cheated on me. And my most previous boyfriend was just an ass and I did everyone a favor of getting rid of him."

"It's all just a bad joke." Was all he said to me after a few moments. I don't know if he meant it like that, but I took it as his subtle comforting.

After a while I simply laid down in the grass and thought about it, did I really just spill my entire life story to the Joker? I'm screwed.

A/N: I know I've been pretty M.I.A. since the last time I updated and this chapter probably sucked and not what you're all hoping for but, 1. I've probably had the crappiest week this past week that I've had sine I started highschool and 2. I couldn't think of anything to put into this chapter so I just kind of dumped this onto you. I just wanted some background information for Kara/Raven and some character development possibly as to why she is the way she is. So there. lol explained.

Another thing, I know that some people like to type out the way Jack/the Joker talks in their chapters, (I.e. separating some letters by hyphenating, italicizing some letters etc.) and I know I did it a little in the first two chapters, but I realized, frankly, if Jack/the Joker is in character in the story, you're going to read it in his voice anyway so why ruin it by chopping up his dialogue?

Okay, yes, I have been rambling and you've probably been tricked into thinking that this is a longer chapter but it's a lie, and I just wanted some specificity when I published this, but I met my 1,000 word quota (Because that's all the brain span I have, to be honest) so, here you go.

Hope you enjoyed, and hopefully, this week will be better so I can update on time next week.

Thanks for reading my rambling!

Good? Bad? Lemme know!