The sound of the garage door sliding up on it's tracks had, at one time, been a source of excitement and happiness for Jayde. That noise, that one simple auditory sensation had brought her a sense of comfort, eagerness to see the man she loved, and almost always pulled her to a standing position, no matter where she was in the house, in preparation to launch herself into his arms, peppering kisses all over his scarred face, whether he wanted them or not. Over the course of just a few hours, however, this had changed dramatically. The sound of the garage door had just sent a sick feeling of dread into the pit of her stomach, laced with residual anger and resentment.
If she had not been so overwhelmingly exhausted, Jayde's eyes would have been wide and slightly panicked as she glanced over at Dotcom, who was seated across from her on the couch. But she could barely manage to keep her head in an upright position, much less force any semblance of fear onto her face. Just minutes earlier, she had expressed to Dotcom a vague desire to flee the house and go back to New York with him. When he had asked her why she felt the need to do that, when she and Joker had only argued, she had replied, 'Because I think he might kill me.'
Dotcom's lack of a verbal response had only deepened Jayde's notion that her fears may not be totally unfounded. But seeing how Joker knew exactly where Dotcom lived, had even been there before, it seemed the idea of hiding out there was just a bit too optimistic to seem sane.
But the longer Jayde and Dotcom sat there, perfectly still on the couch before a low volume television, listening to the noises beyond the house out in the garage, the more they noticed how long it seemed to be taking Joker to get out of the car and come inside. Vaguely, Jayde wondered if he was attempting to kill himself by means of carbon monoxide poisoning as she could now hear the garage door being put down while the low rumble of the Corvette's engine was still audible. Glancing over at Dotcom, she noticed that his eyebrows had furrowed above the top rim of his glasses as he stared over at the closed door leading from the kitchen to the garage.
A moment later, the sound of the engine died off, leaving nothing but a dense silence. Jayde felt that swarm of confused butterflies explode to life in the pit of her stomach, almost out of habit; mentally, she was not excited to see him, but it seemed her body had developed a slightly 'Pavlov's dogs' reaction to hearing the familiar jingling of keys, just on the other side of the door.
However, again, it seemed Joker was either stalling or having an extraordinarily difficult time getting into his own house, as Jayde and Dotcom could both hear several things happening at once. At first, a key seemed to make contact with the lock on the other side of the door as they could hear the knob attempt to move...which it did not. This sound was followed shortly by a quiet, muffled curse word as they heard the key being withdrawn from the lock. More jingling of the keys, followed again by the grinding sound of metal being inserted into the knob lock on the door, and again followed by a slightly louder curse.
A third time, the keys tinkled on the other side of the door as Joker seemed to try yet another key, though vaguely from inside the house, Jayde heard a soft clinking noise, of what she assumed had been caused by the sound of keys hitting a concrete floor. Despite her exhaustion, she jumped when Joker's voice barked loudly from the other side of the door.
"Dammit!"
Jayde wondered when Joker would realize that the door was already unlocked.
Moments later, the door swung open, and in stepped the tall, violently green-haired Joker, who swayed slightly on the other side of the round, carved table, squinting sourly at the inside of the kitchen as it seemed the lights were a bit too bright for his taste. From her place across the room on the couch, Jayde remained perfectly still, watching with mingled confusion and apprehension as Joker turned his head to the side, reaching out one hand to haphazardly drop his set of keys onto the very edge of the table. Trapped under a heavy hand as he moved to walk away, the keys slid from the elevated surface and fell to the hardwood floor with a resounding clank. Pausing, Joker gave another precarious wobble as he glanced down to where the keys now lay abandoned at his feet. A quiet snort of a laugh escaped him as he shrugged and once again moved to round the table toward the living room. As he moved further into the house, his tall figure coming into greater prominence, Jayde's blank gaze traveled down his side; one of his hands was loosely gripping a bottle of Jack Daniels by the neck. He gave a hearty hiccup as he came to a teetering halt, his bleary eyes finally coming to rest on Jayde and Dotcom's staring, uneasy gazes. His eyebrows furrowed as he lazily waved one hand at them.
"...'s what're you queers starin' at...?" he growled, his words just barely discernable through his raspy, slurred voice.
Though Joker was finding it increasingly difficult to force his eyes to focus on any one thing at the moment, he somehow managed to notice the way Jayde glanced quickly over at Dotcom, who was still staring at him with a heavy, furrowed brow. Shifting slightly on the couch, Dotcom sat up a bit straighter, clearing his throat as he nodded his head toward the bottle that until then, Joker did not realize he was still carrying.
"Um-..." he started hesitantly. "How drunk are you?"
At this, Joker let out a noise that sounded like air being released rapidly from a tire, and with another unsteady wobble, he shrugged, raising his left hand to hold the bottle up. One of his eyes closed while the other squinted, and with his other, empty hand, he used his thumb and pointer finger to reach out and measure the amount of empty space in the bottle, between the base of the neck and the line of amber liquid. To his partial surprise, this left about four inches of space between his two fingers. Shifting his gaze again to Dotcom, he held out his measured fingers demonstratively.
"This much," he answered, giving another deep hiccup. Across from him, Dotcom glanced quickly to Jayde, before he gave a very subtle roll of his eyes and moved to rise from the couch.
"I'll go get the trashcan," he grumbled quietly. "It's about to be barf-city in here."
From where Joker stood before the television, he waved a lazy hand, scrunching his face up in protest as he staggered toward the couch, leaning down slightly to drop the partially full bottle of whiskey onto the coffee table.
"No, no," he argued in a raspy voice, reaching out two hands to brace his fall as he dropped heavily onto the couch beside Jayde. "I'm fine, really. 'm fine..." he then finished, glancing to his right, to focus his eyes blearily on the side of her face. Vaguely, through the deep drunken haze floating about his brain, Joker managed to wonder if he had ever been less 'fine' in his entire life. Thankfully, the liquor was helping to numb this overwhelmingly strong sense of confusion and dread, two emotions with which he was wholly unfamiliar. At the moment, he opted to pretend that nothing had happened, which he demonstrated by patting Jayde's leg sluggishly with one hand. "Miss' me, din'cha...?" he asked, grinning toothily at the side of her face while Jayde made quite a point of avoiding his gaze, instead, keeping her eyes trained on the TV across from her. A frown wrinkled the creases of Joker's forehead and the corners of his mouth struggled to turn downward against the upward trajectory of his scars.
"Hey..." he grumbled, turning slightly on the couch to face her more fully. "Hey, look a' me..."
Somewhere behind him, Joker heard Dotcom rise from his newly acquired place in the arm chair at the corner of the couch, but he refrained from looking back at him, merely listening as he announced, "I'm gonna go to bed. Jayde, come get me if you need me." At this, Joker turned his head to look over, but had clearly done so a bit too quickly as his vision swam sharply. Blinking hard, he fought through the wave of slight nausea and dizziness by scowling at Dotcom's retreating back. Why would Jayde need him? If she had any need for someone, wouldn't Joker be the person she sought? Pushing this thought away for the time being, Joker turned his attention back to Jayde, who, to his surprise, had finally turned her gaze to meet him, her eyes dull but glossy and still slightly red, as though she had spent a good portion of her night crying. Again ignoring this and despite knowing that his breath likely smelled like the inside of a dive bar, Joker leaned toward her, frowning as he reached out with one drunken hand to push some of her hair away from her face.
"Jaydie, tell me what your problem is," he asked as politely and gently as his foggy, sluggish brain would allow, though from the flicker of anger that flashed behind her blue eyes, it appeared as though his choice of words had not been his best on record. Normally, he would have tried again, attempting some different tact of asking her to talk to him, but he was awfully tired and his brain was barely staying functional as it was. Across from him, Jayde let out a slow sigh, reaching up one hand to very gently take his and remove it from the side of her neck. She shook her head gravely as she gazed up at his dull, brown eyes.
"If you really have to ask me what the problem is, then you don't deserve to be told," she finally answered, releasing his hand only once she had placed it back on his own lap. Even this drunk, Joker had to admit privately that it was rather impressive how gifted she was at sounding so sweet and kind while being so condescending. He had barely finished registering what Jayde had said when she suddenly pushed herself up from the couch, using her hands to pull down the bottom of her shirt and turning to look back down at him. "I'm going to bed," she said, still using that maddeningly quiet, gentle voice. "Are you coming?"
With a deep, groaning sigh, Joker glanced about himself at his surroundings, observing just then how heavy his legs and arms felt and how very far the bedroom was from his current location. He glanced back up at Jayde, cocking his head to the side. "We'll see if I can get there, yeah?" he answered, before holding both of his arms out above him like a stubborn toddler. "Can 'get a lil' help here?"
Regardless of how angry she still was, despite how badly she wished to slap him again, Jayde stared down at him, wondering if she had ever seen him look so painfully handsome, dangerous and yet boyishly adorable. Every part of her mind and body had been present in the kitchen just hours ago, listening to him accuse her of doing the one thing she had sworn to him she would never do, listening to his libelous questions about who she had been screwing behind his back, and those same parts of her were now screaming at her to walk away from him right then, leaving him sitting there on the couch to fend for himself...as it was nearly the same thing he had done to her for the past several days. There was something so symbolic, yet simple about that moment, right then, with him sitting there, both hands outstretched for help. Jayde longed to point this out to him. But he was indeed still the Joker; she had already cheated death once earlier by slapping him in the face then shoving him into the wall.
Reaching out both hands, she gripped his forearms and pulled, leaning back to use her body weight as a counter balance. Joker gave a deep groan as he slowly rose from the couch.
"Ah, ok, this i'n't so bad..." he mumbled lazily, finally reaching his full height and moving one arm to drape heavily around Jayde's shoulders, just as she did the same around his back. However, just as he took one step, she felt his left knee buckle. He gave another grunt as he began to slip sideways away from her. "Nope, never mind...Man down..."
At that, Jayde released her grip and let him fall, turning to watch as he narrowly missed the edge of the coffee table and landed almost face first on the fluffy deep purple area rug before the TV. A low, muffled groan escaped him as he lay on his stomach with the side of his face buried into the material of the rug and most of his messy green hair splayed across the visible side of his head. The one arm that was not currently trapped beneath his body lifted slowly, before it dropped back down heavily onto the floor beside him.
"Second thought...Imma jus' stay right here, 'kay?" he announced, the deepness and slur of his voice signaling to Jayde that he was rapidly losing consciousness. So with a roll of her eyes, she turned away, shaking her head as her mind showed her a quick flash-forward of the following morning, where she could very clearly envision a morning-sick version of herself and a hungover, murderously cranky Joker fighting for the bathroom. As she turned the corner toward the bedroom, she paused, hating herself for casting one last look into the living room where her supposed 'husband' lay face down on the floor. One last sigh escaped her as she gazed down at him. "Goodnight, Joker," she told him quietly, only to receive a deep, incoherent grunt in reply.
…...
Something was tickling Joker's nose. Something Joker didn't want to be tickling his nose was tickling his nose. Every exhale, every inhale, the thing would move against the most sensitive part of his face, causing a burning, itching sensation to travel up to his sinuses, until his closed eyes squinted hard, he took a deep breath and sneezed. Then his head exploded. Blinding, excruciating, white hot pain nearly cleaved his entire head into two clean halves, from the place where his eyes met, on back over his head to where his neck met his shoulders and across his forehead to his temples. Fighting against the howl of pain that threatened to escape him, Joker moved to bring both of his arms up, in an effort to push himself into a kneeling position, but found that only one of his hands would move. It appeared that the other had been trapped beneath his full body weight and was now numb, tingling painfully from a lack of circulation.
With an almighty groan and a huge effort, Joker managed to slowly roll himself onto his side, forcing his eyes open to focus on identifying his surroundings, as he could scarcely remember where he was, much less how he had gotten there. A very small part of him expected to find that he had passed out on some unknown surface, in some unfamiliar place, as he could not exactly recall his return to the house. But as his blurred vision managed to sharpen slightly, and a small expanse of fluffy purple material came into greater relief, stretched out before him beneath his extended hand, he let out a somewhat relieved sigh. He knew this rug...but how he had come to be there, versus tucked away in his bed, still remained something of a mystery.
His spine gave a sudden, painful pop as Joker used his one, functional hand to push himself further onto his back, where he lay completely still, taking one deep, slow breath after the other, struggling simultaneously to send enough oxygen to his brain to hopefully subdue his splitting headache, but also to quell the overwhelming nausea that was creeping up on him. And as he lay there, flexing his left hand's tingling fingers to bring feeling back to them, snippets of the previous night began to fire through his memory at a more rapid pace than he would have liked, though it seemed the order of events had been reversed.
Jayde was sitting on the couch next to him, glaring off in the other direction. Joker was annoyed by this.
Dotcom was asking how much he had drank. Joker could remember thinking, 'not enough'.
"P-please! I have kids!" a trembling, terrified voice was pleading with him, though Joker was not there to hurt her.
Jayde had slapped him.
"SO JUST WHO WAS THE LAST GUY YOU FUCKED IN MY BED, HUH?!"
"Joker...I'm pregnant."
As this last memory went flying through Joker's mind, that nausea doubled it's grip on his insides and a loud, gagging cough escaped him as he suddenly sat up, fully prepared to vomit into his own lap. Though just as he did this, his glossy, itchy and burning eyes managed to catch sight of a single, male figure sitting on the couch just a few feet from him and he stopped mid-gag, the surprise of discovering that he was being watched having caught him off-guard. Slowly closing his mouth, Joker raised his eyes to the slightly blurred outline of Dotcom, sitting across from him with a very blank, almost bored expression on his face, as though he had been watching a particularly dull TV show. With a groan, he rolled his eyes, leaning forward to rub his face heavily with both hands. Dotcom took a nonchalant sip of coffee from the mug he held with both hands in his lap.
"Good morning," he said somewhat brightly, once he had brought the mug back down from his lips. Although it was on the very tip of Joker's tongue to ask him just why the fuck he had been sitting there staring at his unconscious form for who knew how long, he feigned deafness instead, keeping his face firmly planted behind the cool darkness his large hands provided. A moment later, his croaky, raspy voice broke his silence.
"What are you staring at..." he asked, sparing just a moment of lucidity to feel amazed that he was still feeling slightly drunk, even after sleeping for what appeared now to have been over six hours. Without even looking up, Joker could see Dotcom's expression in his mind's eye. He had likely just rolled his eyes and lifted one leg to cross over his other knee.
"You..." he answered simply a moment later. "Drunk...on the floor." There was a pause, where Joker finally brought his hands down from his face abruptly, dropping them heavily into his lap, to glare up at Dotcom, who went on quickly. "Did it work?" he asked, raising his eyebrows as he absentmindedly wiped a drop of coffee from the rim of his mug. Now glaring hard enough to burn holes through his former employee, Joker allowed a very small scowl on his face in confusion; frowning too hard made his head ache more severely.
"What the hell are you talking about..." he asked flatly, the inflexion in his voice barely indicating a question. Dotcom shrugged again.
"Getting drunk," he explained lightly, before continuing with another pair of questions. "Did it solve all your problems? Is everything back to normal?" At this, Joker looked up again, but before he could reply and ask just what Dotcom meant by this, he paused when the redhead across from him leaned forward suddenly. "Wait...Before you answer, listen..." he said quietly, holding up one finger.
The living room fell momentarily silent as they both listened for something that was not immediately obvious to Joker. But just a moment later, that silence was broken by the somewhat distant, echoing sound of sickness originating from the hallway leading to the bathroom and Joker's bedroom. Groaning, he leaned forward, once again burying his face into his hands as Dotcom shook his head with a soft tsk-ing noise of his tongue against the back of his teeth.
"Of course it didn't solve anything, Joker," he said quietly. "Jayde is still pregnant. And you're still the father, but now you have a splitting headache to deal with on top of that. And you know what? Compared to what Jayde is going through, I'd say you deserve it."
And with that, Dotcom stood up from the couch and walked away, leaving Joker sitting there alone on the floor, his head pounding, his stomach churning and that burning in the back of his throat telling him that he really ought to get up and make haste toward the bathroom or he'd have much more than just his act to clean up. Swallowing hard, he quickly pushed himself to his feet but staggered sideways as though his body was having a difficult time parting ways with the floor. Luckily the couch braced his fall and caught him before he fully hit the floor, but without wasting any more time, Joker attempted to walk again, this time succeeding and crossing as quickly as possible to the closed bathroom door.
Jayde let out a soft squeak of surprise from inside the bathroom as several surprisingly quiet knocks sounded from the other side of the door, causing her to look up from her place on the tile floor in front of the toilet. Her stomach was already completely empty as she had been up for nearly two hours by that point, being sick and whimpering pathetically to herself about being alone. Earlier, Dotcom had come by the bathroom to ask if he could sit in there with her, but she had said she was fine, that she didn't need anyone; this was a lie. She just didn't have the heart to tell him that it was not his company she wanted. Now, she figured he had simply come back to check on her. With a slight roll of her eyes, she lifted her head from where it had come to rest on the side of the tub.
"I really am fine, Dotcom, I'll be out in a minute," she said wearily to the back of the closed door, where she could just imagine him standing on the other side with one ear pressed to the wood. However, when no answer came at first, Jayde lifted her head again, this time frowning. Then, a raspy, wonderfully familiar voice came muffled through to her.
"It's Joker," he said simply. Jayde could not help the smile that jumped her face; she loved it when he said his own name. "Let me in."
Without hesitation, Jayde rose quickly from the floor, to walk over and open the door, where she had to immediately tilt her head back to look straight up at him. Though the moment she did, her vague smile faded rapidly from view; he looked like hell. Dark rings had formed themselves beneath his eyes overnight, his hair looked matted on one side from sleeping on the floor, and at the moment, was not the only thing that looked green. He swayed slightly as he stood there before her in the doorway to the bathroom.
"Ya done?" he asked rather impatiently, raising his eyebrows as he motioned with one lazy hand at the inside of the bathroom behind her. "'Cause I'm 'bout to puke and I'd rather do it in the toilet than all over you."
Crushing disappointment threatened to overcome Jayde as she nodded and shifted to the side, allowing him to move into the bathroom around her, but she fought it and instead turned back once he had passed her, opening her mouth to ask him if he wanted some water. But the door met the frame with a resounding snap behind him, the wood coming to rest just inches from the tip of her nose, only a moment before the deep sounds of retching reached her ears. With a sigh, Jayde turned away from the door, amazed that she even had the ability to feel disappointment anymore. For just a split second, she had tricked herself into thinking that Joker had come to wrap his arms around her.
As the steaming hot water rained down over Joker, matting his green hair against his head and upper shoulders, he sighed, tilting his face upward against the streams. He counted it as something of a miracle and yet slightly ominous that he had only managed to throw up once after his night of binge drinking...but then again, his stomach did feel empty and he had sort of vomited really hard. Though he had to admit, he could not be entirely sure that his recent bout of sickness had been entirely attributed to the alcohol. There was something about the thought of a miniature version of himself growing inside of Jayde that was truly nauseating to him.
True, the night before, upon leaving Dr. Miller's office, Joker had sat downstairs in the driver's seat of the Corvette, twirling his knife between his gloved fingers, watching it's movement as he contemplated his options. To his mild surprise, his first thought had been to go home and kill Jayde. He had no problem admitting that. But the longer he had sat there and thought in greater detail about how he would do it, how he would trick her into coming out into the garage, how her eyes would grow wide with fear when that knife made contact with her neck, the more he began to realize what killing Jayde truly meant. It meant losing Tre all over again. He could not go through that a second time, much less at his own hands. No, Jayde had to stay.
Then, he thought dreamily about killing himself. Sure, that would solve the problem of having to deal with such a huge upset to his life, having to claim sole responsibility for his predicament, but then where would that have left him? Sitting dead in the driver's seat of a gorgeous car, a car he had fought to get back from the police, with a huge gaping hole in his forehead with most of his brains splattered against the rear window. They'd probably throw a parade in Gotham...he had thought with a grunt of a laugh. No, he could not kill himself. Besides, that would leave Jayde all alone and...could he really do that to her? She would have likely only found out about his death by hearing it on the news, seeing how no one knew where the Joker lived or hid out, or knew where to find his only surviving 'loved one' to inform her that he had been discovered dead by suicide. He could just hear her scream, could envision perfectly how she would likely crumble into a hysterical mess and perhaps even plot to kill herself. Joker thought it may have been a little egotistical to assume that she would not have any will to live if he were not with her anymore, but then again...hadn't she already told him that once before? Hadn't she said those exact words, 'I don't think I'd want to live without you'? Suicide was too easy and once again, he found that his decision against it hinged solely on Jayde. Are we sensing a pattern here? He thought dimly, shaking his wet hair out of his eyes.
With his hair and body now clean and feeling leagues better than it had before his shower, Joker stepped out of the bedroom in a fresh set of clothing and his favorite purple high tops, wondering once again if he was finally at home alone. The living room was barren, but as he passed through it and rounded the corner toward the kitchen, his movement halted as he found Jayde and Dotcom seated closely together at the far side of the carved table. Both looked up as he appeared. A plain notebook sat in front of the male of the two, a pen rested lightly in his hand, while those two, life-altering pieces of paper from the previous night sat unfolded and smoothed out before Jayde. Whether he was being paranoid or not, Joker noticed that she had just moved her hands from where they were rested in her lap, to the table, atop those papers, as though to hide them from him. He ignored both the papers and the two humans for the time being and instead moved to the cabinets to retrieve a glass for water. Behind him, despite his attempts to tune them out, Joker heard Dotcom and Jayde resume their conversation.
"Well, let's say you did decide to go through with it..." he was saying in a very hushed voice. "We've started a list of things you'd need. Bottles...clothes...diapers...a carrier..."
Joker's teeth met together and began gnashing away in the back of his mouth. Had the word 'diapers' really just been uttered in his house? It took everything he had to not throw his partially full glass of water against the wall, just as he had the pregnancy test the night before.
"I could probably take some time away from work toward the end so I could be here for the...ya know...delivery..."
He had to get away from there. His stomach was already grumbling and growling with another wave of sickness. Jayde...giving birth...Joker getting up in the middle of the night to walk around the house with a tiny baby in his arms, trying to get it to go back to sleep...Joker...being called 'daddy'...He could not handle this. Suddenly, he turned, setting his glass down on the counter behind him.
"I have some stuff I gotta do today so..." he began, suddenly wishing he had not interrupted them, as they were both now staring at him. "I'm gonna go. I'll be back...ya know... later or whatever."
At the table, Dotcom glanced sideways at Jayde, who did not do the same but simply nodded at Joker, forcing a strained smile onto her face as he walked over to pick up his set of keys from the floor.
"Please be safe," she said lightly, watching him from behind weary but loving eyes as Joker stood up, unable to keep his face blank of the panic that was rapidly swelling inside of him. He nodded quickly, exhaling heavily as he made a beeline to the garage door.
"You betcha," he finally answered absentmindedly, and with that, he practically flung himself through the door and out into the asylum of the garage, where the talk of baby-things was at a minimum.
The confines of the Escalade had never felt so inviting and soothing, a welcome respite to what he had been facing at home. He knew, without a doubt, that if he had waited there at the kitchen counter long enough, Jayde and Dotcom would have somehow managed to rope him into that conversation and before he knew it, he would have been sitting there discussing the next seven months of his life, before he officially became a father. He would have been wrangled into agreeing to change Tre's room into a nursery, on which hospital they would use, how Jayde was supposed to be looked after if anything went wrong. And for the life of him, Joker was just not mentally nor physically able to have that conversation. Up until that point, he had not allowed himself to even speak the word 'pregnant' aloud, much less discuss names for the damn thing. A loud groan slipped past his scarred lips as he stopped the SUV at a red light, and he leaned forward, resting his forehead heavily on the steering wheel before him. God damn, he hadn't even thought of that part...Names...picking out toys, carriers, car seats...
"Oh, holy shit," he said abruptly to his knees as though someone had just punched him in the back of the head. "I really am about to be a-..."
His lips would not even form the word. There was no way. He could not do this. Sitting up suddenly, he opened his eyes, blinking up through the windshield at the stop light before him. This intersection was familiar to him in so many ways. Just beyond the traffic light was a huge six-lane overpass, underneath which lay two options: left, led the driver east, toward New York, Massachusetts and the like, while to the right was a ramp leading west, back toward Gotham. Many years ago, he had taken that exact right turn, in a car much less comfortable than this, with every intention of traveling to Gotham and changing his life. And he had done exactly that, for the better...which he supposed 'better' was an objective, relative term. It was there, four years later, that he had met Jayde...Well, not really 'met', but all the same, she had crossed his path.
Now, and Joker was astounded to admit it, he was in the same position as he had been all those years ago. At just shy of thirty years old, he was once again unhappy with his life, with the way things had turned out for him. His mistake had been so dire, so severe that he had, in essence, ruined his own life for both he and Jayde. And now, once again, he was faced with a literal splitting of the roads, a division in the paths which he could take to either accepting his fate and living with his mistake, or doing what he had done so long ago and changing his entire life for the better.
Perhaps...he could do it again. Maybe he should just take that right turn, head back to Gotham and pick up where he left off, though...on a more celibate course of action. Gotham had always been his home away from home as it were, where he could play with Batman, find out what happened to Jim Gordon...find out if he had ever rebuilt his house atop the ashes of the Joker's brother...He could so easily leave Jayde and the child behind. It would be all too simple to just make that right turn and escape, start his life over again, without a woman to weigh him down, hold him back and without a baby to drastically change the very fiber of his being. He could do it.
"No," he said aloud to the emptiness, shaking his head decisively as he brought his hands away from the steering wheel to fold his arms across his chest, as though the very car itself was tempting him. He could not leave Jayde. She loved him, she cared more about him than any other person ever had in his life, and it would kill her if he were to leave her behind. And besides, if Joker were being perfectly honest, he also loved her. He too cared more about Jayde than any other person in his life. She was made for him, fit so perfectly into his life, even superficially into the curve of his body when he lay behind her in their bed.
And yet...Jayde was not really just Jayde anymore...She was now 'Jayde, plus one' and Joker did not think his already limited supply of love could stretch any further than just his woman by herself. He had never planned for a woman to be in his life permanently, much less a baby too! Which would be exactly why he had gone through a vasectomy...so he would never have to deal with-
A loud horn broke through Joker's conversation with himself, causing him to jump and glance around through the windows, to where cars on either side of the Escalade were now passing him through the green light and leaving him looking like that one idiot who makes everyone behind him sit through the next red light. But as Joker looked up, his eyes falling ahead to the splitting of the interstate ramps, his heart began to bang away at the inside of his chest. He could do it...
…...
"So let's just say..." Jayde began slowly, watching from her place at the table as Dotcom stood at the stove making dinner. "That I did...decide to...have the baby..." she paused here, unable to really grasp that those words had even come out of her mouth. She still could not adjust herself to the idea that she was pregnant. "I think Joker would probably have some place that he could take me to actually...you know...deliver. I just can't see him walking into some random hospital," She concluded, though admittedly, she couldn't see him being a father in the first place, much less going with her to the hospital to have the baby. Jayde was careful not to express this idea to Dotcom, but as he turned slowly to face her, it appeared as though he was sharing some of the same concerns.
"Actually..." he started. "I'm glad you said that...and I'm glad he's not here because I wanted to talk to you about him," Dotcom eventually finished, placing one of his hands on his cocked hip, while Jayde took a deep breath in through her nose and stared over at him. A long pause followed his last words, before he finally went on, tossing his hand. "Are you really sure he's ready for this, Jayde? I mean, look how he's been acting-"
At this, she interrupted, rising abruptly from the table to gather the pieces of paper and notebook from earlier that afternoon, purely in an effort to prevent him from continuing on to comment on how poorly he had been treating her over the past three days. "Of course he's not ready for this, Dotcom. I'm not ready for this either and yet it's happening!" she exclaimed, walking toward him to place the notebook and fateful papers in one of the top drawers of the kitchen counters. "And yeah, he hasn't exactly been here much since yesterday but think about it- I sprang this news on him out of nowhere. He thought that he wasn't able to have kids and so did I. But...some way or another, he got me pregnant and now I'm expecting his child. That news would be hard on anybody." She finally finished speaking and came to rest with her hip against the counter across from Dotcom, exhaling the last of her breath in a quiet sigh as he shook his head.
"Yeah, but...I'm just so afraid that I'll get a call from you in a few weeks or months, telling me that he up and left you," he rebutted, his features contorting into a rather panicked and fearful expression. "I just can't see-" he went on, but Jayde cut in, holding up one hand as a sickening ball of apprehension dropped down into her stomach. Defiantly, despite whatever private fear she felt, she shook her head.
"Don't say that," she told him quietly. "He wouldn't do that to me. I know he wouldn't." Here, she paused, but only long enough for Dotcom to open his mouth in preparation to protest and she went on hastily. "And I know what you're about to say. But he told us before he left that he was just going out to do a few things today and that he'd be back later. I'm not worried."
As her words trailed off, the kitchen grew silent, save for the sound of the skillet sizzling on the stove, and as Jayde watched his face, she noticed that Dotcom's formerly fearful expression had just morphed into one of confusion. His head cocked to the side, furthering this appearance.
"What do you mean? That's not what I was going to say," he said, his voice raising slightly as his brain seemed to comprehend what Jayde had said and how easily she had let slip her most private concerns. She felt her heart sink down to somewhere behind her bellybutton. "Wait, do you think he's not coming back?"
Despite what her subconscious had just forced her to say to the contrary, Jayde shook her head, rolling her eyes as she turned away and moved to leave the kitchen.
"No, I'm not worried," she lied, giving it every ounce of effort she had not to glance at the time on her phone for the fourth time since Joker had left over three hours earlier. "He said he just had some things to do today so I'm sure he's just...doing that or...whatever." It certainly sounded as though she were reassuring Dotcom, but if she really got down to the truth, she supposed her words were really more to comfort herself than her best friend. She was the one who stood to the lose the most if the Joker did not return. That sick, nervous feeling became slightly overwhelming as this thought passed through her mind, so with Dotcom still standing there staring at her uncertainly, Jayde forced a weary smile onto her face and nodded her head toward the distant hallway.
"I'm going to lay down for a bit, alright?" she told him. "Come wake me up when dinner is ready."
With that, she walked away, leaving a highly concerned Dotcom in the kitchen behind her, leaving her to trudge heavily toward the bedroom alone, wondering all the while when, or more importantly if, the Joker was coming home.
…...
Nearly four hours had passed since Joker had made that right turn, and finally, his nerves seemed to have settled. At first, he had been jumpy, almost as though he had expected some alarm to go off in the Escalade, screaming at him to STOP! TURN AROUND RIGHT NOW AND GO BACK! But he was already past that turning point. He had long since passed the last of the exits off of the interstate that would take him back into Chicago, and had long since made up his mind. He was leaving; there was no going back.
Deep in the back of his brain, he knew that Jayde would likely never forgive him for this, if he were to ever see her again...not that he planned on letting that happen. Jayde was better off without him in this situation. He was not a nice person, not a good or even decent guy, and there was no way in hell he would make a good father. The idea of forcing Jayde to have a miscarriage had been entertained already but once again, he felt that she would never forgive him and would resent him for the rest of her life if he were to do that. Of course, there was also every chance that throwing her down a flight of stairs or sneaking harmful drugs into her drinks could not only end the fetus' life, but Jayde's as well. Joker didn't think he could live with that possibility. His decision to leave was entirely justified, and for Jayde's sake only...
Trees and empty fields slid past the huge SUV on either side of the interstate while Joker mentally ran through the Escalade's contents, checking off the things he already had and the things he would need to acquire. Fortunately, he had always kept a neat stack of one-hundred dollar bills beneath a stretch of carpet under one of the back seats, so he could at least stop and fill the tank with gasoline at some point, perhaps rent a nondescript motel room along the way to Gotham. He could also look into having another purple suit made for him, just so he could wear his usual greasepaint smile without feeling mismatc-
Just then, Joker let out a quiet groan as the back of his head met the seat behind him...His greasepaint...That familiar black bag containing his favorite makeup and brushes was currently sitting in the medicine cabinet in his bathroom, in the house he had left behind. Hell, now that he thought of it, everything, except the clothes he was currently wearing and a few of his favorite knives and guns,was in the house on the corner of Lincoln and Platt. Vaguely, Joker wondered whether Jayde would eventually throw his clothes and possessions away...perhaps burn them in the dead of the night like the body of someone she had killed. Joker grunted, scowling in surprise when a sudden throbbing ache coursed through his chest, forcing one of his hands from the steering wheel to his sternum, where he used two of his fingers to rub his skin deeply through his shirt. Still frowning, Joker glanced at just his two brown eyes in the rear view mirror. It had been quite a while since he had experienced that particular pain and part of him sincerely hoped he was about to have a heart attack versus what that sensation had signified last time.
…...
Jayde had not yet been to sleep.
There had been something...dare she say it, exciting about sitting there at the table with Dotcom earlier that day, writing out all the things she would need if she were to go through with the pregnancy. Picking out cute little clothes and tiny, mismatchable socks, choosing a pretty color for the bedroom and crib all seemed so exhilarating and yet horribly terrifying at the same time. She had never really given much thought to whether or not she would like to have children, but after meeting the Joker and deciding to set up her life with him, this choice had really been made for her. She was not supposed to be having a baby. And yet there she stood now, in front of the long body mirror on the back of Joker's bedroom door, staring at her belly's reflection. Despite her instinct not to tease herself, Jayde had lifted her t-shirt and was now staring at herself with her head cocked to the side, attempting to imagine what she would look like in another three months' time...assuming of course that she did decide to have the Joker's baby. Fleetingly, a scene from the old movie Rosemary's Baby flashed into her mind's eye, and a short snort of laughter escaped her. Please, Jayde...she thought, rolling her eyes at herself. This is Joker's baby...not Satan's...right?
Against the effort she had been putting toward not doing it, she could not stop herself from pressing both palms to her momentarily flat tummy and turning sideways to the mirror, turning her head to look over at her new position. She just could not picture herself with a giant, pregnant belly and another quiet giggle left her lips as she allowed her mind to imagine the sort of rude nicknames Joker would come up with once she began to show. A moment later, that giggle had left her face with a silly, girly smile as she struggled to picture Joker's reaction to being allowed to hold his son or daughter for the first time. That grin doubled when she imagined the way his nose would likely wrinkle in an expression that would mimic disgust, but she just knew, without a doubt, that if she were to go through with the pregnancy, despite whatever hesitation and anxiety he had felt early on, he would eventually grow to feel excited about the prospect of having his own offspring...though she knew he would never admit that aloud.
Jayde jumped when a gentle knock came through the door just a foot in front of her and Dotcom's voice broke the silence just a moment later. She hurriedly pulled her shirt back down.
"Jayde, honey?" he called quietly through the door. "If you're awake, dinner's ready."
"Yeah, I'm awake," she answered, reaching out toward the knob, to turn it and pull, revealing Dotcom in the way. His eyes scanned her face as though examining her for any sign of previous, hidden tears, though she had none to hide. Instead, she smiled, nodding at him as she turned off the light, leaving the bedroom behind her completely dark, as the sun had gone down nearly a half hour earlier. "C'mon, let's go, I'm starving."
…...
The trees and fields that Joker had been ignoring earlier were now no longer visible, as the sun had already long since disappeared beyond the horizon. The world beyond the Escalade was now dark and seemingly lifeless, which left Joker feeling very much alone and rather itchy from the silence. The only light around him originated from the in-dash touch screen, which had been automatically dimmed to a lower level once the sun had gone down and which was of no interest to him; he had already abandoned his attempt to drown his thoughts with music.
That ache, that resounding pain in his chest had done nothing but intensified over the past hour, making it not only difficult to ignore, but also impossible to dismiss as nothing more than a side effect from his recent hangover. He knew exactly what this pain was from, but he fought it, knowing it was only normal for him to feel some strange form of remorse over leaving Jayde and his unborn child behind. But he also knew that while this pain was rather impossible to ignore right now, it would grow easier to cope with over time. Joker was even prepared to wager a bet with himself that come morning, once he had driven all night and reached the outer limits of Gotham, he might not even remember what he had abandoned. Besides, just as he had reminded himself countless times since making that right turn onto the interstate, he had made this decision not for himself, but for Jayde and her baby. He knew that both of them would be better off without a monster in their lives. They would be safe without him- something he could never have promised if he had stayed. He would gladly play the martyr if that meant that Jayde would be safer and happier without him in the long run...despite how badly his heart was hurting him at the moment.
Martyr?...or coward...
Martyr, Joker argued with himself. I'm leaving so she has a better shot at being a decent parent. She doesn't need me around, risking her safety at every turn, because she knows I wont change my life for some accidental kid. What Jayde needed was a normal guy, with a normal life, a normal job, someone who deserved her, who would love and provide for her and her child. Someone who-
'State line- 1 mile'
Joker's eyes slid over the passenger window as this sign passed on the right of the SUV.
His chest gave another sharp pang of ache.
He was leaving, saving Jayde from what was likely a life full of nothing but pain and fear, regardless of how much it hurt him to do it, regardless of how badly he wanted to just crawl back into his own bed, in his own house, and wrap his arms around her.
Since when have you not deserved something? Since when has Jayde ever needed someone that wasn't you? Since when have you cared enough about someone to sacrifice yourself?
Joker thought Joker had made a valid point on that and he frowned, once again absentmindedly bringing his right hand up to his chest to massage his sternum deeply.
No, he wasn't playing the martyr, he realized. He was not abandoning the one person he truly cared about because he wanted what was best for her. He was running away, fleeing like a whipped dog, to avoid confronting his fate head on.
The idea of a baby terrified him, he could openly admit it now. The Joker, The Clown Prince of Crime, beaten into submission and forced to run by something that was likely still smaller than his pinky finger, something that, at that point, he could not even hold in his hands or see with his own eyes.
"Coward," Joker said aloud to himself from between gritted teeth, his knuckles now practically glowing white against the tan material of the steering wheel. "Fucking coward."
And with that, the tires of the Escalade squealed and protested as Joker's foot slammed down on the brake, billowing clouds of burnt, acrid rubber into the street before him. Several off-tune car horns blared at him as he sat at a complete stop in the middle of the interstate, breathing heavily as though he had just run a marathon, his eyes wide and burning as he watched the residual clouds from his abrupt stop drift away into nothingness, clearing away and leaving Joker's gaze to jump quickly over to a sign on the right of the road, that until then, he had not noticed.
"You are now leaving Illinois!"
Another car passed on his left, it's horn blaring noisily. Joker blinked at the sign.
"No I'm not."
…...
Dotcom looked up from his place at the workbench in the garage as two bright headlights bounced into the driveway of the house on the corner of Lincoln and Platt. He stood up, hastily putting out his cigarette as he watched the massive Escalade pull into the garage, coming to a stop just a few feet from him, the Joker visible in the driver's seat just beyond the windshield. A strange look was upon his boss' face, one he had not yet seen there before, and if he were not much mistaken, it was one of fear; this would explain why he had never seen it before. Placing his hands on his hips, he waited, watching as Joker climbed out of the SUV, locking it behind him as he moved determinedly toward the door leading into the house.
"I know what you did."
Joker stopped dead in his tracks as Dotcom's voice broke the silence of the garage like the crack of a whip and he looked over, feeling that lead weight in the pit of his stomach drop to somewhere around his ankles. He had been so hoping to just walk past without any confrontation. His former employee was glaring at him, watching as he turned to face him. Joker sighed, hanging his head.
"Look..." he began, tossing both of his hands, but again, Dotcom spoke, interrupting him.
"I know you tried to leave her today," the redhead clarified, his eyes flashing dangerously behind his glasses. "How dare you even think of leaving that girl, Joker. Do you have any idea what she's been going through since she got the news yesterday? Do you know how hard she cried on the way home from the doctor's office? Any idea how scared she is? Do you have any idea-"
All this time, through all his words, Dotcom's voice had been raising ominously, making Joker feel more and more on edge until he finally snapped and held up both hands, his eyes wide.
"Yeah!" he exclaimed. "I do know because I'm just as scared, alright?! Is that what you want to hear? That I'm so fucking scared, I tried to run away?" He asked, taking a step closer to Dotcom. He paused, his dark gaze bouncing back and forth between the lenses of his glasses. "You wanna know how far I got?" Joker suddenly asked, raising his eyebrows as he tilted his head to the side. Dotcom shook his head, taking a careful half-step back, as he could clearly see that Joker was bristling.
"Boss, I-..."
"I didn't even make it past the state line," he cut in. "I couldn't even make it two hundred miles away from her without feeling like I was gonna have a heart attack, without realizing what a fucking coward I'm being. So if you want to call me an asshole for being a total bitch, then go right ahead. I'm all ears."
Whatever angry, chastising expression that had been lingering on Dotcom's face faded slowly away into something that very nearly mimicked sympathy as he watched Joker swear again loudly, bringing up one flustered, confused hand to the front of his messy green hair. Sighing, Dotcom shook his head.
"Joker, all Jayde wants to hear is that you understand how scared she is," he explained quietly, his voice now finally level and calm once again. "She knows how unexpected and...well, scary this is for you. Don't you think she understands that?" At this, Joker tossed his arms, turning away from Dotcom slightly.
"No," he stated. "I think she expects me to be all happy sunshine and rainbows about it..go pick out all this stupid shit and-" Again, Dotcom cut in when he sensed Joker about to lose his very small semblance of composure.
"Listen to me..." he began placidly. "Jayde hasn't even decided whether she's going to keep the baby or not. She was actually waiting on you to...get a grip before she talked to you about it." Joker stopped dead, his eyes widening slightly as he focused on what Dotcom had just told him, but of course, he was continuing, skating past the very obvious look of hope that had just appeared on his face. "All she wants to hear is that you'll support her and be here for her, no matter what she ends up deciding." Again, he paused, exhaling through his nose as he slowly shook his head. "It's your baby too, Joker...She wants you to have a say in what happens. So please, for the love of god, stop being such a drama queen and go talk to her?"
Although it was Joker's first, immediate response to warn Dotcom never to call him a drama queen again, he ignored this comment and instead stepped inside the house, before closing the door behind him and taking a deep, calming breath. His head instinctively turned to the side where his eyes fell onto the memorable, carved wooden table beside him; how could he have ever wanted to leave this place?
Seeing how the kitchen and living room were both empty, it became immediately obvious to Joker, upon checking the time to find it nearing midnight, that Jayde had likely already gone to bed and was probably laying there in the dark, wondering, hoping, praying that he would be coming home. His stomach gave an uneasy clench as he imagined her reaction to seeing him. She could either be thrilled to death to see him, or like Dotcom, have realized that he did not intend to return, and be beyond angry. He supposed there was only one way to find out.
Rounding the corner into the hallway, Joker found himself face to face with his closed bedroom door, underneath which he could just barely make out a small strip of faint blue light, where Jayde had likely turned on the television. His stomach was now in full blown knots, making him feel uncomfortably close to being sick, but again, he fought past this by taking a deep breath, and he reached out for the knob, turning it slowly.
Just as he had predicted, the inside of his bedroom was completely dark, save for the off-rhythm flickering of the muted television, the light from which illuminated the bed, where Joker could now make out the still, peaceful form of Jayde. He sighed, shaking his head as he took a step closer and finally noticed the way she was laying; half on her side, half sprawled on her back, with both of her hands rested delicately over the lower half of her stomach, almost as though she had fallen asleep attempting to feel her three month old fetus growing inside of her. Joker hated himself for finding this the slightest bit cute.
As quietly and gently as he could, Joker moved toward the bed, using every ounce of stealth that he could to pull himself up onto the mattress, onto his hands and knees to crawl up to where Jayde lay. He watched her face the entire time, watching for any sign that she might be waking up, but to his surprise, her countenance remained peaceful and still, seemingly unaware that he was now sitting down with his legs crossed just beside her.
Strong arms reached out toward her, one fitting behind her neck, the other sliding beneath her knees, and he pulled while lifting at the same time, gently moving her closer to him until she slid comfortably into his lap, cradled against his chest. He heard her inhale deeply through her nose against his shirt, and her hand moved from where it had fallen from her tummy to the place where his heart was once again banging away at his ribcage. A moment later, she exhaled with a quiet hum, having seemingly identified his scent as one that was familiar and comforting. Her fingers tightened slightly around a small bunch of material from his shirt.
"Joker..." she murmured sleepily, but he interrupted, reaching down with his one free hand to cup the side of her face and tilt it upward, so he could press his lips against hers, kissing her gently in an effort to help pull his next words out of him with more ease. Despite having just been asleep, Jayde responded instantly, her grip on his shirt tightening as she allowed her lips to gently and innocently move against his. Joker knew he felt familiar to her, knew she loved the deep gash on his bottom lip that traveled down to his chin, but vaguely he wondered if she realized how much he adored the feel of her mouth on his as well. He hoped she knew how good and comforting her plush, perfectly formed lips felt against him, how her smooth cheeks brushed his jagged scars and sent shivers down his spine. But now was not the moment to ask her if she knew all this. Pulling away slowly, Joker kept his eyes closed at first, licking his lips in nervousness. However, before he could speak, Jayde beat him to it.
"Joker, I never meant to make you upse-"
"I tried to leave you today."
A dense, heavy silence filled the bedroom as these words left Joker, and as he slowly and cautiously opened his eyes, he felt his stomach sink when he found Jayde's face close to his, her eyes open and big fat tears welling up along her bottom lids. He forced himself not to look away but instead kept his gaze firmly on hers. As was usual when she was trying hard not to cry, Jayde's bottom lip was quivering, but when she spoke, her voice was quiet though almost unnervingly level.
"Why?" she asked simply. Joker sighed heavily, looking down at Jayde's lap so that his forehead came to rest softly against hers. He felt her hand reach up to lightly trace his jawline.
"Because..." he started, once again closing his eyes. "I...wasn't ready for all this. I couldn't accept that it was really happening and...I guess I thought I was saving you from something." Here, Joker paused, unsure how to go about wording this to her. "But then I realized that I was just running away, that I was..."
Finally, Jayde interrupted him, using her hand at his jaw to very gently tilt his head up, but she remained silent at first, waiting for him to open his eyes before she spoke. Joker realized that she was doing this so he reluctantly obeyed, raising his gaze to meet hers, only to find that a very soft, characteristically sweet smile had appeared on her face and her tears had vanished. Her thumb brushed against his right scar unabashedly.
"Joker, I'm scared too," she told him baldly. "Neither of us expected this to happen, but it did and now we have to deal with it. I just need to know that...you'll be alright with whatever decision I make. I can't do this without you."
At these words, Joker lifted his head, his gaze bouncing back and forth between her eyes and slowly, he nodded a moment later, reaching down to thread his fingers between hers over her lap.
"I'll be here," he finally told her. "I'm not going anywhere. But-...I mean..." he hesitated for just a moment, wondering how he could most easily and delicately word this so as to keep her from being offended. "Let's say...you did decide that you didn't want to do this..." Jayde's eyes flashed, but not in anger. "I could get you a doctor, at a safe clinic. You'd be well cared-for and-..." Just then, Jayde looked away from him eyes, her gaze falling to the line of his shirt against the base of his neck; Joker felt that weight sink further into his body. A moment later, she looked back up at him.
"And...what if I decided that...I wanted to do it? That I wanted to keep it?" she asked rather sheepishly, her eyes intense and rapt with apprehension as she watched the expression on Joker's face very closely, and for a long moment, he stared back at her. This was exactly what he had been hoping against. And yet Jayde was still there, waiting for an answer from him. A long, heavy sigh passed through Joker's nose as he brought one hand back to her face, to lightly grip her chin with his thumb and forefinger.
"If that's what you wanna do, kiddo, then I'll be right behind ya," he finally answered, and just a moment later, a massive grin split Jayde's face as she suddenly flung her arms around his shoulders and hugged his neck tightly. Joker rolled his eyes from the top of her head as she let out a quiet sniffle against his shirt, just before she spoke one last time.
"You're going to make a great daddy..."
.
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The Joker woke with a loud gasp and a sharp start, his shoulders and chest lurching up off the couch with such force, he nearly flung himself onto the hardwood floor below him. His green hair was stuck to the sides of his neck and jaw, damp and stringy, as sweat beaded along his skin, his heart racing and pounding almost painfully hard inside his chest. With unfocused, blurry eyes, he lifted his head groggily, glancing at his surroundings until, with a relieved sigh, he recognized that he was still at home, laying on his back along the couch, lounging in the last bit of afternoon sunlight like a lazy, particularly aggressive cat. Lowering himself back down onto the couch, Joker took another deep breath, bringing one hand to the front of his shirt to grip the material between his thumb and forefinger and begin fanning himself, attempting to cool off from the confusing bout of cold sweat in which he had just woken. His mind then began to piece together the nightmare he had just been having.
"Hey!"
Joker gave another start as Jayde's voice suddenly came out of nowhere. Opening his eyes, he turned his head toward the sound, dropping his sticky shirt back onto his chest as his eyes found his woman, standing over by the kitchen, a perfectly sweet smile on her face. She continued once she saw that he was listening.
"I'm glad you're awake!" she exclaimed happily, placing one of her hands on her curvy hips. "Dotcom will be here in about an hour and I wanted you to go get Tre's room cleaned up."
With a groan, Joker pushed himself into a sitting position on the couch, glancing down at his chest, only to find that he had literally sweat stains into the blue material. Without hesitation, he peeled the damp shirt off and used it to continue fanning himself.
"Jayde, when was the last time you threw up?" he asked bluntly, finally raising his head and looking over, only to find that her face had gone from bubbling with excitement to confused in the most radical way possible. She frowned slightly, clearly thinking that this was not a very appropriate response to what she had just asked him to do. Her shoulders shrugged heavily.
"Um, I don't know...About three years ago, I guess? Why?" she asked, once again displaying her knack for being obnoxious with her desire to know every reason for every little thing Joker asked her. He had long since learned to not be annoyed by this. With another groan, he stood up from the couch, draping his previously discarded shirt over his shoulder.
"Nothing," he answered, heaving a highly relieved sigh as he walked toward her. However, as he grew closer, Jayde stepped to the side, into his path, holding out both of her hands to stop him before he could pass her, and she stared up at his face, frowning.
"Joker, what's wrong? You look really white and...are you okay?" she asked, her voice playing at just a hint of urgency. Joker smiled the most genuine smile he had ever let onto his face in his entire life, just as he leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips.
"I'm fine, Jaydie..." he murmured once he had pulled away. "Just had a really, really bad dream..."
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A/N: Yes! It WAS just a NIGHTMARE! Oh, I love you folks but did you honestly think I could really do that to poor Joker and Jayde? Anyways, I wanted to announce that I will be starting a brand, spanking new Joker/OC fic, titled The First Responder and I sincerely hope that you'll all give it a read once I get the first chapter up! I also hope that you enjoyed this one-shot as it will be the last from Jayde and Joker for quite a while. = [ Thank you so much for reading, and for heaven sake, PLEASE leave me a review! Just be careful not to spoil the surprise for anyone who reads the reviews before they finish the story. = ] I love ya'z! -QoM