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JACKIE POV

Ace rushes me down into the basement, I just keep getting pushed from one place to another and I can't even fathom the last hour or so. My dad isn't a cop, he is a criminal, I don't know what he did, but Ace must know about it…

Ace opens up a latched door under a pile of boxes in the corner of the basement. I've been here my entire life, living with my dad, his partner and brother, Ace. Turns out my dad is a liar and there is a bunker in the basement. Ace helps me down into the concrete room and turns on a light switch that is on the main level. The fluorescent lighting flickers on in the concrete room. "Stay down there and be quiet, if we're not back in 2 hours, wait it out a few days then sneak out of here. It locks from the outside." He tosses me an old fashioned key, "This will unlock the door. There is food and water down there for a few days… We will be back as soon as we know it is safe for the night, okay, we will leave in the morning if all is going good…" He gives me a faint smile and shuts the heavy door. I hear the locking mechanism slide into place behind him and the boxes slide being pushed over the door.

I am almost grateful to hear him descending the steps back up to the main floor, I am finally alone with my thoughts. I have never been very emotional, this time is no different, I have always been to sensible to get upset about things I can't change, although this is still playing in my head like a bad dream or a really bad joke. I survey my prison for the time being and start to worry that they may want to keep me here indefinitely, I wouldn't put it past them, and apparently everything has been a lie. I climb up the stairs and put the key in the lock. When I turn the key I feel the hinges inside move apart and unlock. I re-lock the door and breathe a sigh of relief. The room is about 10 feet by 10 feet with a separate door that when I open it leads to a small separate room with only a toilet in it, no shower or sink. The larger room has a small cot, a few cockroaches, and a bench with 2 boxes of supplies on it. Whatever is happening, they were prepared for it, or my uncle has a rather irrational fear of tornadoes or the apocalypse I didn't know about. I fan out the wool blanket that was folded on the cot to make sure no bugs were living in it, and then I checked the pillow for the same reason. After smashing the bugs I could find I laid down and tried to make sense of everything.

The white lighting is giving me a headache, so I shut my eyes and try to focus on the facts that I know. I know that I am loved, I am either loved or Ace and my Dad have been very good actors for almost 15 years of my life. My dad is not a cop and neither is Ace. Well I guess I don't know that about Ace, he could just be a very twisted cop helping out a wanted criminal, but I doubt it. I know that it must be pretty serious and that this has been going on awhile, otherwise Ace wouldn't have been so unsurprised by Dad bringing me here and getting found out, and they have a bunker to hide in… I try to calm myself and not think about all the things I do not know.

Ace said we would leave in the morning if everything went well. Leave where? What about our life here and my schooling? What about my friends and Gotham? Would we come back or just hide out until the heat dies down, and do I want to stay for this… Maybe I should open the door, push the boxes aside, and leave now-

I discount the idea immediately, that doesn't even make sense, I can't leave my dad or Ace. They're the only family I have. Right as I resolve myself to staying put for now I hear the boxes slide off of the hidden door and the heavy door creaking as it opened. I open one eye and look up to see my dad, but it doesn't look like him, he looks angry and has deep scars carved into his normally perfect cheeks. I gasp as I realize the absolute magnitude of what I am seeing, My dad is the Joker!

I stare up at him as he descends the stairs and stands in front of me with look on his face like a puppy that got caught digging through the trash. "Jackie, are you okay?" I continue to look at him with the same thought reverberating in my mind over and over again: My dad is the Joker.

"Yeah, I'm okay…"

"Jackie, what are you thinking?" He looks at me the same way he always has, with the same love and devotion he has always shown me as my father since I was to small to understand it. Then I remember that it has all been a lie, every smile, every hug, and every laugh we have ever shared as father and daughter is now tainted by this lie that he has shrouded my life in, and bile burns my throat and I am angry.

"I'm thinking that you lied to me! Everything I am and everything we have ever been, Dad. It's all a huge lie!" I feel bile come higher and into my mouth and it is all I can do to make it to the bathroom to throw up the contents of my stomach. I feel my dad's hands cup my curly hair at the nape of my neck and as soon as I stop retching I shake him off and wipe my mouth. I turn to face him, "Why dad? Why did you never stop this act, not even for me. This has been going on since before I was born. You're the Joker and you never bothered to even stop it! I've never asked you for much, Dad. I've always been a good daughter to you and you couldn't even return the favor to me! We had one rule in our house, Dad! And you broke it. We don't lie to each other!" The look of pain on his face doesn't make me feel any better because I know it is nothing compared to how I feel right now looking at the only family I've ever known and trusted with all of myself and know that it was all a huge lie.

"Jackie, I am so sorry about this. I wish I could have told you, but I couldn't!" I laugh, mirthless at his plea.

"Dad, don't give me that. You could have stopped, you could have at least told me! I can think of a million things you could have done but didn't! Don't lie to me and say you did all you could because you didn't!" I push past him without a backward glance and run out of the room, I hear a quiet, "I lied to protect you," but I don't stop to look if he is following me, and when I hear Ace turn and yell my name I don't even flinch. I'm getting out of here and no one will stop me. MY resolve for staying is over and done with, I can leave this "family" because it isn't my family. What's back there are two men who lied to me my entire life. After a few more feet I have to force myself to keep going forward. Fight the voice telling me to stay, that I'm ruining everything, that I could stay here with a mirage of a family and pretend I never found out this secret. I run to the back door so fast I almost can't stop myself before running into it. I yank it open and run to the fence and leap over it. I don't know where I am going, but I know it is somewhere that they will never find me. Gotham is a big city with lots of shadows to hide in.