I still do not profit from DC comics, in case anyone was wondering haha

Chapter Two: Hideaway for Castaways

Harleen woke with a start in an enviroment she did not recognize. she began to lean up, but quickly jerked in pain from wounds she had gotten the previous night. nothing like pain to bring back memories.

She had been running behind her puddin, away from Batsy and Kid Bird. Their plan to kidnap the bank manager to get a few million had gotten foiled by those two. As soon as they showed up Joker blew the managers brains out onto her and started running. After she threw up, she followed suit. As they went through the back door and out into the alley, the Bat Brat had jumped out the window above and landed on the Joker. However, he quickly got a crowbar to the head, knocking him out, and Harleen and her darlin continued down the way. But thats when Batman came from around the corner, somehow ahead of them. With little chance of escape, the clown had grabbed her and put a gun to her head.

" If you come any closer, I will blow her brains out Bats." He snarled, his white face a visage of pure anger.

That's when batman threw a batarang and hit the gun, deflecting it... however the bullet still grazed her temple, inatantly dropping her to the ground holding her face.

The Joker had run away while batman checked on her and Robin. Leaving them both behind he followed his old nemesis onward.

As Harleen held her head she kept crying out for her puddin, her man. But he did not return. The next time she awoke was in the arms of...

And with all of those memories coming back she suddenly looked up, eyes wide, at the room around her. She was in a queen sized bed, one of the only pieces of furniture in a dusty, poorly lit room. To her left was a dresser, badly damaged, with a crack running down the side of it, scarring the worn varnish. Atop the dresser was an alarm clock, it's green numbers telling her she had slept through the morning amd into the afternoon, if the sunlight through the damaged draperies was any indication. Next to the clock stood an antique lamp, its light barley teasing into the shadows of the room. Next to the dresser sat a desk, without a chair. Scattered along the top of the desk were what looked like pictures and letters, half-hazardly mixed together as if thrown about in anger.

Past that lay a door with a single hole at about eye level... "Must be the exit", she muttered.

A few feet to the right of that was another door. Light glinted out from underneath as a baritone voice was muffled by running water.

When the water turned off, and the knob began to turn, she quickly closed her eyes, and tried to slow her breathing.

Soft footsteps from bare feet crept across the floor until they stopped beside her, followed shortly by the creak of a worn office chair that must have been to her right.

She began to believe she had convinced this person she was asleep when suddenly a male voice cut through the silence.

"Harley I know you are awake. Your muscles are tense and every noise i make makes your eyes flutter under your lids."

Frowning, she turned her now open eyes to look upon the other resident of the room. What she saw made her catch her breathe.

Damp black hair fell down on a strong forhead covered in lines of past anger and laughter. One brow arched higher than the other, with long lashes over... dear God... beautiful grey-blue eyes. A freshly shaven face surrounded a half smile that just screamed cocky. His face lined with a strong jaw, and a thick neck leading down to a well muscled and... naked torso. Water droplettes slid down into a pair of black jeans slowly as...

" Ahem", he coughed, a smile in his voice.

Blushing, she said coyly " Didnt have to look so good for me kiddo. Besides i have a man and he is a bit older than you."

Looking down on her grinning face, he shook his head. He was glad to see how quickly she popped back up into a good mood, but was dissapointed that she was still thinking about that bastard that had left her behind with a bullet wound.

"Sorry gorgeous. Your "man" left you with a bullet wound to bleed out on the ground. If i hadn't decided to bring you somewhere safe and bandage you up, you would have died. Welcome to my hideaway. In this home i will always be honest. and honestly, he is garbage.

Thats when it dawned on her. This was Red Hood. Fear and anger made her draw back, causing her head to feel dizzy.

" Screw you!", she yelled, as tears welled up in her eyes, " My puddin loves me! He has too! He just needed to escape, thats all... He wasn't gonna actually shoot me, until Batsy threw his toy. "

That made Jason's eyes go wide. "Harly! He was the one who shot you? Not Some goon, or a ricoshe or anything?"

" She paused and looked up at him, bawling... then nodded. " He didn't come back for me. Every time, i come back for him. B-but he never comes back for me!!!!!"

With that cry she pulled her hands over her face, feeling the bandage from a wound her clown had given her. He had thrown her off buildings and slapped her and put a knife in her throat. His endangering her was nothing knew. What was knew, was the gun. And the fact that he pulled the trigger. She knew this was different. And with that kowledge she suddenly knew that they were all different.

And Jason knew that she knew that. He knew it last night when she was ready to die. The one man she had loved left her to die.

" Harly, we both know he doesn't care. We both know that he left you to die. However, just because he does not believe you have worth does not mean you have to feel that way. He failed you. You did not fail him.", at that last sentence his voice lowered to a whisper. Jason stared down at her, waiting for her to meet his eyes. When she did he continued, " You are a strong, beautiful, and brilliant woman who deserves better than him!"

She KNEW he was right. she just did not want to believe is. But she remembered the feeling of abandonment last night. she remembered crying in the arms of an old enemy and wanting to die. However, as this twenty four year old man dropped wisdom on her, she thought about her Mistah J and all they had gone through together... and instead of death, she began to desire something even more... Vengeance.