Harley Quinn couldn't feel her fingers or toes no more. She should have packed that coat in her kit like they told her too; it was like they were always saying there was a reason why Mr J never got sick. He always wore his coat. Well.......Harley had never seen Red wear a coat and she was never sick but maybe that was because Red had acid for blood. Maybe having acid blood was like having you own personal supply of anti-freeze or something like those aliens on 's no such thing as safe sex with aliens. Think acid-for-blood. Think mate-then-kill.

She was beginning to miss Red again. "You should watch your back" Red was always telling her - "not when I got you watchin it for me" thought Harley Quinn. Harley missed the old days when it was just her and Red living on the lam roughing it out in one greenhouse or other. She wondered what happened to "It's just you and me, Harley" or "Thank you, Harley". Mistletoe could be deadly if you eat it. But a kiss could be even deadlier if you mean it. Cross my heart and hope to die. Why was it that people were always forgetting about her? Anyways it sure was getting cold, she better just hurry up and make her way back. Her teeth were beginning to make beautiful music together.

Quinn was half frozen by the time she ran back to ground zero. Mangled arm, a slab of ribs over easy and now the start of hyperthermia. Way to go, Harley Quinn.

Her lungs burning, she deftly scaled the fire escape and entered the sealed apartment via the smashed window. The cops hadn't even bothered to seal it properly with a plank, that was police procedure and going by the book in Gotham for ya. Quinn was looking desperately for her blanket when she noticed the familiar figure sitting alone in the shadow just to her right.

"Whatcha lookin at......cat got ya tongue?"

"No, just your blanket"

Quinn lowered the long barrel of her Luger pistol as the other woman tossed the blanket at her as a peace offering. Putting the Luger aside, Quinn grateful wrapped her frozen body in its woollen warmth and went to work rubbing the life back into her hands and feet.

"Nice gun. Collector's item. Go green gift from someone?"

Kyle had picked up the Luger and was now admiring it. Limited edition release. Kyle liked shinny expensive things. She found it strange that Quinn would own a solid piece as sleek and beautiful as this. A sawn off shotgun or a dull knief would be more in line with what she knew of Quinn's taste and duties. She was beginning to wonder how much she actually knew about the clown girl.

"How did ya get in?"

"Same way as you"

"Should have sealed it down good and tight when i was goin' out"

"Should have...........so what's a nice clown like you doing in a place like this?"

Quinn was regarding her unwanted guest in a strange light. Selina Kyle was a paradox in Gotham. Jewel thief extraordinaire and the only person with the exception of the Boy Wonder that Batman actually liked keeping company with. Kyle put on the cat suit and kept it on because she liked the thrill of the chase. There was something really yummy about adrenaline. Playing with the Bat was one of the soft peaks of the job. After all a girl needs her guilty pleasures along with her exercise.

So if Kyle was here, where was the Bat? Was he hiding in the dark back there so he could jump out at her again and made sure this time round he cracked her neck good and finished what he started? Quinn lowered her head, she needed to calm down and think this out. She was letting the pain and the cold get to her. Think Harley what would Mr J do in a situation like this? Simple. Smile and the whole world smiles with you.

"The Bat sent ya didn' he?"

"I don't do errands for Batman"

"Sure ya don't and I'm the tootin tooth fairly. I'm askin nicely Cat - Where's the Bat?"

"Around. In the few hours since he took out the Joker, the rest of them will now be fighting to eat up the left overs"

Quinn thought about it and it was kinda true. Bats probably had more pressing engagements to attend to right now. Tuff wars in the Gotham Underground are usually sparked by Bats taking out one of the Crime Gods and Mr J left behind some rich pickings. Mr J would have loved it. She could just hear him now crackling away – "Fill the suburbs with murder and rape! Divine madness! Let there be ecstacy, ecstacy in the streets! Laugh and the world laughs with you!".

Mr J had dreams, that was what she loved about him. All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night just wake in the day and continue with their dreary lives: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. Mr J had big dreams of blood and fire and desperation and hate. He was the most brilliant mind she had ever met. She found his pysche disturbing, his dementia alarming and his charm irresistible.

"So how ya find me?"

"I didn't. I saw you in front of the Wayne City at Third and Main."

"So ya followed me?"

"In a way I let myself in."

"Why?"

"I was curious."

"Bout what?"

"I was curious how you managed to slip the cops and Batman."

"No biggie. Bats threw me out the window and I ended up in the dumpster below. By the time I got out everyone was gone. Must be Gotham's funniest home videos on the TV night"

"Mangled an arm. It's such a waste when pretty things get broken."

"It'll grow back."

"Say you went to Wayne City to ............."

"Wanted to check if Mr J was ok."

"Why?"

"Why so serious?"

Because thought Harley Quinn he is more myself than I will ever be. They were a single soul residing in two bodies, but she can't see that anymore. All she sees are the flaws.

People think Mr J's an obsession with her. A compulsion. But she's never consider it to be like that. She knows what's she's doing. She chose this life and on any given day she could stop. Today, however, isn't that day. And tomorrow won't be either.

See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum and one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. They decide they're going to escape! So they get up on to the roof, and there, just across the narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light.

Now the first guy jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Y'see he's afraid of falling. So then the first guy has an idea. He says "Hey! I have my flash light with me. I will shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me." But the second guy just shakes his head. He says "What do you think I am, crazy? You would turn it off when I was half way across."

Continues in Chapter 5 –