Her nails have grown long enough to be clipped straight again. She's chewing on them right now, though it's mainly a nervous tic she's relying on to try and not go insane here.

Before, she was a backup to have help out when needed. She was a possible bomb, too; a last resort, or even something to take rage out on. But now, she knows that he's actually trying to make her as fucked in the head as he is. Or maybe he isn't. Maybe she's just being paranoid. There's no way to tell.

Her small room has the scent of chemicals in it, and the air tastes odd. It burns her nose and makes her eyes water if she opens them too wide. The air is acrid and hot, muggy almost, and Michelle has already stripped down to her thin white undershirt, her black coat abandoned in the corner of the room. She wants to take off her shoes too, except she doesn't trust there not to be broken glass or rusty nails or anything else bad to step on strewn across the floor, since the room is dim. That lighting problem is helping her paranoia grow like dandelions; she can't calm down no matter what she tries. More than anything else though, she's worried about her cop friend. His name is Michael, she remembers now, recalling how they joked about him being the male version of her. They were good friends, and eventually, they started pseudo-dating. Now that she's trapped under the Joker's thumb all over again, waiting for whatever's going to happen to her, she likes to sit on the dirty chemical-soaked mattress against the wall (sleeping on that thing can't be healthy at all) and reminisce; reside in her good memories to try and hold onto her sanity.

She thinks she might be in love with Michael. Maybe. She can't tell. He's nice, and doesn't harangue her about her time with Joker, like some people do, and better than everything else, doesn't stare at her scar. They can talk and laugh and they've even gone out on a date or two (they didn't call it a date, of course, but that's pretty much what it was).

It more or less started out when he was the one that interviewed her in the hospital. She told him the scant details that she wanted to, and left out a lot of things just because she was in a horrible mood all the time, and he stayed kind and understanding the entire time. Slowly, she warmed up to him somewhat, and started acting more friendly towards him. They became acquaintances, and then, friends. They continued to talk over her hospital stay, which was practically the real reason that she even kept her sanity over the long hours of sleeping or watching crappy tv talk shows. They didn't like her watching Cops, which she tried to sneak in anyway, because they told her it was bad to get excited in her state. She snuck in Jerry Springer when it came on, too, and Michael watched it with her, not telling on her like he probably should have. She liked him for that. Eventually, it came time for her to be released, and she exchanged phone numbers with him before leaving. Michelle didn't really think she'd ever see the man again, since he probably just befriended her because he had to.

"Michelle, want to go out for coffee?" He called her up one morning, while she was at work, to her surprise. She wasn't expecting to hear from him again. She said 'yes', but at noon when she took her break. They got together for coffee more often after that time, since he said that he worked late and needed it, and Michelle enjoyed the company. He wasn't trying to cozy up to her just because he wanted the inside scoop; he just wanted to be friends. Over time, they spent more and more time together and eventually, they started dating, though they'd deny it up and down if you ever confronted them about it. He didn't seem to mind the publicity that Michelle got, and Michelle liked having somebody to talk to that she could put her trust in. They went out to dinner, to the movies, normal middle-class things that any other boyfriend she'd ever had wouldn't be caught dead doing. They went to normal restaurants instead of classy five-star deals.

One day, at dinner, during a conversation on the crime problem in Gotham (it was nice talking about serious things with people that knew what the hell they were talking about, instead of rich people that had no idea about anything other than the stock market or caviar or other things. Michelle knows she's probably incredibly biased, and they might be nice people, but she just doesn't get what they talk about. Michael though, they can understand each other, and he actually listens to her), Michelle began to talk about Joker and how he was such a menace and a psycho and all the other connotations usually attached to the name. Michael didn't seem to be bothered by listening, however, and listened quite attentively as Michelle went in-depth about what happened in her imprisonment, how the Joker was like, how he used her fears against her (she also told him about her history, though she had done that earlier, and he was very caring and compassionate about it so she trusted him). He asked a question now and then, but it was small things he asked about and then went silent, as she continued to explain her views on the man himself. She told him that she thought that he wasn't a human, not really; more like a driving force, the man that personified the chaotic, dark half of Gotham city, while the late Harvey Dent personified the good people that wanted to save themselves and remain good. When he asked about what she thought the Batman was, she said that he was the very thin gray line right in the middle, where the two meet. She continued to talk the rest of the date, as Michael urged her to talk about it all and get it out of her system, and she obliged. There were another couple dates after that, where he always let her rant and rave and explain things about how she saw it all, and the last date was the most comprehensive. She told him absolutely everything. About a day later was when she was kidnapped the second time.

Michelle puts her head in her hands and wonders about how Michael is taking things. She knows that he's missing her. That he's so sad and wants to get her back. More than anything else, that's what's keeping her going nowadays. The knowledge that at least one person, one measly little person in the millions of people in Gotham City, wants to save her. She wonders if he's hunting for her at this very second.

She's also very tired.

Grabbing her black jacket, she lays it over the possibly deadly mattress and lays on that, closing her eyes. She dreams about him that night, about a wedding.

She wakes up later to hysterical laughter. It rings off the hallways outside her door, a hyena-esque shrieking that sounds almost hoarse, as if the laugher had been laughing so hard for a long time and now their mouth and throat were drying out. It's a dry rattle of a laugh, and it's completely and utterly terrifying. It's also getting closer. She sits up suddenly, tired but now mentally completely awake. The door comes open and it's the Joker, and he's still laughing as he throws another newspaper at her and slams the door shut, howling with laughter. Michelle fumbles the paper, as usual, before looking at the front page.

JOKER VICTIM NOT SO INNOCENT

A new report on the mental state of Michelle King, recent and supposedly 'innocent' victim of the Joker has been compiled recently, by a close associate, a police officer by the name of Michael Keegan. Officer Keegan has spent the last two months compiling information from Ms. King herself, information that reveals King to not be a victim, but a sick woman that may prove dangerous in the future.

"I didn't think she was telling me the entire truth," Officer Keegan states, "And I knew that the citizens of Gotham deserve nothing but the truth."

The articles he has written are first-hand accounts from King herself about her time trapped with the Joker, and what she has revealed blows her entire victim façade completely open. She has been quoted as saying, "I don't think he's a bad person, not inherently, maybe just in need of help", "He is doing at least some good in Gotham", "When I worked with him, he was violent and rough, unpredictable, but I can't say that I didn't have at least a little bit of fun", and other such statements that implicate her in complicit assistance of the Joker's mad cause for total destruction.

"She's a lying –expletive-, that's what she is." Keegan has also stated. "She's as crazy as that clown is. We need to lock her up just like him, if he doesn't kill her himself. Be doing us all a favor, if you ask me."

"What her personal views are isn't a deciding factor in whether we try and rescue her or not," Commissioner Gordon has stated in a very passing comment to us. "She's still a person and she's still in a horrible situation, and we're going to do whatever we can to get her back."

It seems that not even the most innocent appearing of people can be trusted, because, as in Ms. King's case, they may secretly be just as dangerous, if not even more dangerous, than the psychopath in plain sight.

The Joker waits outside her door for a few minutes, having quieted himself down just for this purpose, waiting for it when it hits. Most people wouldn't want to be within a square mile when this bomb drops; he's going to wait right at ground zero. Five minutes pass; ten. No sound. She can't be that slow of a reader, can she? He turns and cracks the door, and sees that she's sitting on the edge of her mattress, hands over her face, her shoulders quaking heavily. When he finally opens the door and she doesn't raise her head, he walks up to her, curious.

"Michelle? Anyone home?"He asks, leaning in as he does, and she gives no answer. The woman's a complete turnip. He leans back, turning to walk away, and feels her barrel into his side, her arms locking around his torso, her face buried into his filthy purple coat, and she starts wailing. He turns back to look at her, thoroughly surprised, and she presses herself against his chest, trying to be as close as possible to him as she starts sobbing wildly.

"He use-used me!!" She wails into his chest, as he holds his arms out to the side, clear of her, and stands there, not sure of what to do. "H-He n-n-never c-ar-cared-d a-b-b-bout m-muh-me at all!!" Her words are garbled as she tries to talk, and as he puts his hands on her shoulders and pushes, she doesn't budge.

"That's a shame. Get off." He gets his hand under her chin and pushes as hard as he can, but she twists her head and gets it free of his grip before burying it in his shoulder, her forehead pressed against his neck, continued to sob.

"I loved him!" Michelle cries, gripping tighter to the Joker, as he sighs and works his hands between her and his chest, pressing against her chest and trying to pry her off and shove her away.

"Love is blind, lust is deaf, psychosis is obvious. Get. Off." He gives a hard shove and she loses her grip, falling to the floor, before latching onto his leg.

"Don't leave me! Please, don't you leave me too!" She's starting to become clearer in her words, but that doesn't make her let go of him any faster, and so he offhandedly begins kicking at her.

"If you don't let go of me, I'm going to stick you like a pig-"

Kick.

"I don't care!"

Kick.

"It's going to be…incredibly painful…"

He's growling his words now, and lands a hard kick to her shoulder. She loosens but won't let go of him.

"You're all I have!!" Michelle wails, and Joker is so surprised that he stops kicking at her for a moment. He wasn't expecting her to say that. He could correct her, tell her that she's dirt to him, a walking bomb that he can use whenever he so chooses, that she'll never amount to him to what gunpowder or gasoline or cold, sharp steel does, but he doesn't. He knows that right now is the deciding factor between her falling into a catatonic state, stop eating, and then die like a sick dog, and her becoming something beautiful.

"Michelle…" He says her name again, and it's almost a coo as she raises her head and sees him opening his arms. She stands up, horribly sore from the kicking but really unable to feel it all that well, and falls against his chest, continuing to cry. She doesn't see that he's smiling, because he knows that he's won.