The water Jayde had put to boil on the stove an hour ago had all evaporated by the time she made it back to the kitchen, her eyes red and slightly swollen. The burner was still on so she switched it off before placing the now scalding pot into the sink, along with the other dishes she had abandoned. Her appetite had disappeared altogether and although she did feel slightly stupid for crying, she really could not help it and had only just pulled herself out of it to finish cleaning up from the meal she never made.

Something about wearing Joker's jacket after hearing the news made her angry and she had thrown it back into her closet only to slam the doors with such force, one of them nearly broke off.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Jayde stared at the carpet between her knees, begging herself not to start crying again. It felt like every time she thought of Joker now, it was one step backward versus forgetting about him and moving on. When she thought about it deep enough, she had really only known him for a month or so but somewhere along the way, she had formed a bond with him that went beyond friendship. Sure they had sex a few times but Jayde felt like Joker truly understood her, like she never really needed to convey exactly how she was feeling because she clearly did not need to. The Joker was someone around which Jayde felt like she could truly be herself and something in that alone made him comforting, even though he was very difficult to be around half the time. But all of that was gone; Joker was going to be executed.

For a few moments while she sat there, crazy plans of revenge on the police department began to form in her brain, plans of blowing up something or shooting someone. Jayde brought herself back to reality quickly, however, knowing it would not do anyone any good to get herself locked up.

It was not long before Jayde felt too mentally exhausted to keep her eyes open, too worn out to wonder what was going to happen now. She supposed she would hear from Dotcom within a week or so and maybe he could actually be something of a real friend to her now, someone she could go out with and laugh with, someone she could talk about Joker with.

After turning off the television and making sure the kitchen was straight, Jayde locked the front door before trudging into her bedroom, not even sparing a second thought on wearing Joker's sweatshirt to bed. She brushed her teeth without looking in the mirror, knowing the sight of her scar would once again remind her of how his hand had felt holding her face when he sewed the cut back up and how his brown eyes had looked just inches from her own. Instead, she closed her eyes tight, trying to somehow suck the tears back in that had started to mercilessly gather again.

Every light in the apartment had been switched off, leaving nothing but the orangey glow from the streetlight outside her balcony, the only sound being the soft breeze rustling the tree's empty branches. At first, Jayde's eyes would not stay closed, as every time she tried, the only thing she could see in her mind was Joker laying, strapped to a table, wearing an orange jumpsuit. She wasn't sure how, but she knew Joker would have a peaceful grin on his face as the police officer administered the lethal dose to the tube leading into his vein. He would probably take a deep breath and sigh contentedly as he felt the injection meet his bloodstream and from there, he would drift off to meet death with open arms; no fear or thoughts of remorse would be present. Jayde hiccupped slightly at imagining all this but forced herself to keep her eyes closed. The next day would probably be immensely difficult to get through but at least she was not expected at work again and could take a day to mourn properly, although she knew that Joker would not want her to be sad.

Finally, after nearly an hour of lying awake, Jayde drifted off into a deep, dream-filled slumber. First, she was running along the streets of Gotham toward a destination she could not name. It felt immensely far away at the time and no matter how far she felt she was running, that finish still seemed farther and farther out of reach. Gotham dissolved rapidly from under her feet to form steps too innumerable to count, climbing, reaching upward toward a huge, stone building marked 'COURTHOUSE'. In her dream, she could feel an indescribable need to make it inside that building but no matter how hard and fast she climbed the steps, the doors never grew closer.

Her dream then changed forms to have Jayde laying in her own bed, rolling over sleepily when she felt part of the mattress vibrating. She blinked a few times, trying to adjust her eyes when her cloudy gaze fell onto the side profile of a man sitting just on the edge of her bed only a foot or two away from her. It was still pitch black in her bedroom, just as it had been when she was awake and the amber glow from the streetlight outside was causing the man's clothing to appear a thick, bright orange.

However, as Jayde sat up, she felt her heart begin to bang rapidly against her ribcage, just as the man sitting on her bed turned his head and her breath caught in her chest. If she had been dreaming, she was positive she would not be able to feel her heart beating so hard. Rising onto her knees, Jayde's mouth hung slightly open and she held onto the breath in her lungs, knowing if she exhaled, the extremely lifelike mirage of The Joker sitting just inches from her would disappear.

"J-…Joker?" she put hesitantly at first, knowing this dream was about to come to an abrupt halt. Any moment she would wake up alone in her bed.

"Y-yes?" a raspy, clowny voice answered and Jayde exhaled, moving forward on her knees slowly until she could reach out, but she paused at first, bringing her hand back.

"Am I dreaming?" she asked in a whisper, her face only a foot away from this fake-Joker sitting on her bed. He shook his head quickly, swallowing hard.

"No."

Jayde let out a soft gasp of mingled pain and absolute disbelief before she threw her arms around his shoulders, although a second later, she gasped again, jumping up from the bed. In all her doubting and 'dreaming' she failed to notice that the bed had been vibrating because Joker was shivering violently and only now did she notice he was soaking wet from head to toe.

"Oh my god! You're freezing! Get up, come in here." Jayde was wide awake now and grabbed his arm, pulling him up from the bed toward the bathroom. He followed her lethargically, squinting hard when she threw on the bright bathroom light.

As Jayde started the water, it came out at first as cold as ice so she held her hand under the streams for a few moments, giving her a few seconds to turn around and have her heart stop beating. There he was, he was really standing in her bathroom, his arms folded tightly across his stomach as he tried hard to stop shivering. His eyes were closed against the light but as Jayde spoke, he came back to.

"Get in here, its only lukewarm right now so it wont hurt, go on." she urged him, watching as he stepped into the shower, shivering more violently than ever as the water began to hit him. Only a second passed however before he sighed, moving to sit in the bottom of the tub, still in his ugly orange jumpsuit as he let the water wash over him.

Jayde was still in such shock that she just stood there for a few moments, gaping at him until he noticed and frowned up at her, one eyebrow cocked.

"Well, aren't you getting in too?…Or are ya just gonna stare at me…"

Without hesitation, Jayde stepped into the shower, sitting down in the tub facing him, still unsure of what to say as the water began to mat her hair down. Across from her, however, Joker was sitting indian style and was now grinning at her from behind half-lidded eyes.

"Hi."

"Hi." Jayde answered, smiling back although she had to try hard not to let her expression show she had started to cry. She sniffed slightly as water dripped down her face, thankfully camouflaging her tears; crying felt stupid to her now more than ever. Across from her however, Joker was not fooled and he reached out, wrapping his fingers around her forearms, pulling her closer so their legs locked.

"Why are you crying?" he asked, peering into both of her eyes individually as she sniffed again, harder. "I thought you'd be happy."

Jayde laughed, reaching up to wipe her eyes, even though she was completely wet. "I am happy, I just can't believe you're here!" she answered. "I mean just a few hours ago, I thought you were going to be-…" she paused, shrugging. "-…you know." Across from her, Joker raised his eyebrows, nodding his head.

"Yeah, I know!" he exclaimed, looking rather proud. "Pretty…a-maze-ing of me to escape like that, huh." His eyebrows bounced twice and he leaned back in the tub, obviously very impressed with himself.

Jayde brought her knees up as she turned sideways in the tub so her back was against the wall. Looking over at Joker, she leaned slightly toward him, waiting. "Well, tell me how you did it, you know you're going to." He gasped, bringing one hand up to indicate himself.

"Oh, well, its really not that interesting." He began, but then launched into a fairly detailed explanation of how he was apparently transported to and from the courthouse in an armored truck of sorts, complete with one, lone officer riding in the back with him.

"And it's just purely thanks to Officer Linman that he happened to be the one guy that had to ride in the back with me. Sooo, for making sure he would get placed in that position, I decided not to kill him and merely knocked him out when we were leaving the courthouse after the trial." Joker shrugged, combing a bit of his hair with his fingers. "And I knew which route the truck took to get back to the prison so I counted the stops until I knew they were stopped at the light at 18th and Maine street. Then I jumped out the back, closed it reeeeal quiet and ran here through back yards and…one… unexpected swimming pool." He finished his story with a stony expression as he looked away bitterly. Jayde tried not to laugh at first.

"Wait, you…fell in someone's pool?" she asked rather gently, but gasped when she noticed Joker's lip twitch.

"No." he answered, but Jayde was already laughing and Joker reached out to catch her hand as she swung to smack his knee.

"You did! So that's why you were soaking wet, hm? That sounds very heroic." She was commenting but could barely keep her lips together as Joker pulled her closer until she was up against him, leaned against his chest as he rested against the back of the tub.

Jayde glanced up at him as he closed his eyes to lean his head back against the wall behind them. She hadn't noticed it immediately, but every ounce of green dye had faded from his hair over the past three months and it was now as dirty blonde and normal colored as it had ever been. It had grown too, so that it reached his shoulders, his curls now relaxed into thick, messy waves. Everything about his face was the same, the two scars on either side of his mouth and the one fairly deep mark that went down his chin from his bottom lip. It was only then, as she looked up at his face that Jayde realized how much she had truly missed him. She considered telling him, but a second later decided that he probably already knew that.

For several minutes they sat there, Jayde leaned against Joker, Joker against the wall, with the shower still running, now warm and pleasant. The entire bathroom was full of steam before Joker opened his eyes with a slight jerk as though just waking up. Jayde glanced up at him just as he yawned so she sat up to turn off the water.

"You look exhausted." She commented as she stood up. "Wait here so I can go get a towel and some dry clothes for you." With that she disappeared, leaving Joker to roll his eyes as he too stood up. If Jayde was about to return with a tiny pair of shorts and a girly tanktop, he would be completely satisfied to sleep totally naked and he was just about to tell her this, when she returned, holding two articles of clothing he was immediately familiar with. She grinned sheepishly as he took the grey, cotton pajama pants and white thermal long-sleeved shirt from her.

"They were some of the last clean clothes you had in the bags from Montana." She paused, suddenly feeling slightly ridiculous for still having them. "I just…always figured I would see you again."

At the moment, Joker could not really explain to himself why he did it but after he had tossed the dry clothes onto the counter behind her, he reached out with both hands to grab her face and kiss her lips firmly. He felt Jayde sigh against him but just as she was about to relax and reply to his kiss, he pulled away to step out of the shower. He tried hard not to grin at how flustered and thrown-off Jayde was now.

"I'll just, uh-…I'm gonna-…" she stammered for a few seconds but never did say what she was 'gonna' do before she abruptly left the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Out in her bedroom, Jayde changed quickly into a dry set of clothes for herself, shivering slightly before she slid in between her sheets, sighing deeply. A huge, ridiculous smile had crept onto her features at some point and just laying there, Jayde couldn't believe how different she felt without a heavy weight of sadness on her shoulders.

It wasn't long before the bathroom door opened and the light clicked off, the rest of the steam emerging with Joker as he stepped into the room. Jayde closed her eyes and turned over to face the balcony as he lay down heavily, immediately yawning again. As he rolled onto his stomach, his arms slid up the bed until they crossed underneath Jayde's extra pillows and she watched as his back rose then fell in yet another yawn.

Through the darkness, Jayde could see that his eyes were closed and as tempting as it was to just lay there for a while and watch him, she could feel the sleepiness creeping up on her, tugging on her eyelids. She had a feeling he was not going anywhere so she allowed her eyes to close, feeling the most comfortable in her bed that she had felt in a long time.

She was just about asleep when beside her Joker cleared his throat sleepily, turning his head the other way. "I missed ya, kiddo." He grunted and at that, Jayde grinned herself to sleep.

It was not very long however, before Jayde was wide-awake again. Her mind almost seemed anxious to see if Joker was still there when she woke up and sure enough, he was in the exact same position he had been in when they fell asleep. Her bedroom was now filled with sunlight and for the first time in months, Jayde welcomed it, taking a deep breath as she stretched her arms out above her. Beside her, Joker was still on his stomach, his face half-buried into her fluffy pillow. His hair was all over the place and as she listened to his soft, growling snore, she grinned upon remembering how she had thought seeing him was a dream. It really did seem too good to be true but as her eyes took in everything about his appearance, she noticed one of his long-sleeves had been pushed up slightly in his sleep, revealing that tattoo he had around his wrist.

'I guess it really is him.' she thought happily.

Just as she was turning over onto her back, Jayde's stomach gave an enormous, rumbling growl as though she had not eaten in days, and indeed upon reflection, she kind of hadn't eaten in days. It felt amazing to have an appetite again. So figuring that whenever Joker woke up, he too would be starving, Jayde rose gently and slowly from the bed to go and find some clothes to put on.

Jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt seemed fine so after locating her heavy black winter coat, she slid into it and grabbed her purse to head for the front door. At first, she hesitated with her hand on the knob, wondering if leaving her apartment with an escaped convict asleep in her bed was such a good idea. A second later, she figured he would be able to handle himself if anyone were to show up and she stepped out into the hall, locking the dead-bolt behind her.

The grocery store across the street from the back of her apartment building was bustling with customers, practically alive on that brisk Friday morning. As she stepped out to cross the street, Jayde couldn't help but feel surprised at how much less she hated everyone.

A half hour later, Jayde emerged with two bags at her side; one carrying a couple apples and oranges, the other carrying a loaf of her favorite multi-grain bread. She looked both ways and after making it across the street, she felt stupid for the tiny butterflies that swooped into her stomach at the thought of getting back to her apartment. Part of her really hoped Joker was awake, but the other half of her hoped he was still asleep so she could get the opportunity to wake him up if it came to that.

Jayde had just thrown open the door to the stairwell of her building when someone came bursting through it, chattering loudly on a cell phone. It was Ms. McCarthy and the moment she saw Jayde, she poorly stifled a gasp and whispered audibly 'Oh my god, hang on. I'll call you back.' Jayde smiled none the less and held the door open as her neighbor and her dog stopped on the top outside step.

"Boy, am I glad to see you, honey!" she exclaimed, reaching out to pat Jayde on the shoulder. Jayde immediately knew what was coming but decided it would be more fun to play dumb for a minute. Her face remained pleasant but blank, encouraging Ms. McCarthy to go on. "Did you not hear? Oh no, probably not, I forgot- you youngsters don't really watch the news. Well…The Joker, he…" she paused, possibly for effect; either way, Jayde thought it was a nice touch. "-he escaped last night. He's…out here."

"Really?" Jayde asked, her eyebrows raising slightly. "Oh, then I should probably stay at home for a while, huh? Excuse me, I gotta get upstairs!" she cried over her shoulder as she took off up the first flight of stairs, leaving a startled but seemingly delighted Ms. McCarthy in the doorway.

Jayde giggled to herself up most of the flights of stairs until she reached her front door and unlocked it, still grinning. The apartment, upon entering was as silent and still as she had left it, her bedroom door open only a crack. She walked over to it, peering around the edge to where she saw Joker still asleep but having changed positions to face the windows now. Her eyes consulted the digital alarm clock on her nightstand; the time was only ten o'clock. So figuring that Joker still needed at least another hour of sleep, she moved the door back to it's original, slightly-cracked position and left him be.

In the living room, Jayde walked over to the sliding glass doors and threw back the sheen blue drapes, inviting all the crisp, morning sunlight into the apartment. At first, she hesitated with her hands on the edges of the drapes, considering closing them again. What if someone was watching her place? Someone like a detective or police officer. Her eyes scanned the surroundings outside of her living room balcony and when she found that there really was no place for someone to hide with binoculars, she left them open, again grinning to herself.

Upon entering the kitchen, the dishes from the night before caught Jayde's attention so she went to them first, stowing them back into their rightful places in her cabinets since she had not cooked anything. Now, with the kitchen clean, she felt ready to make herself some toast and grabbed an orange to start peeling it.

While the bread toasted in the oven, she thought vaguely of the newspaper she had passed on her doorstep when she had left a little bit ago and wondered if that was how Ms. McCarthy had found out about the Joker's escape. So as soon as her toast was adequately toasty, she stepped outside to retrieve it before sitting at the table with her breakfast.

Her orange gave a satisfying snap as she dug her thumb nail into the peel as her eyes scanned the front page although she did not need to look very hard. The headline read in huge letters 'Joker Escapes After Trial: Mayor Urges Gotham To be Vigilant'. Underneath this sat a large color picture of Joker sitting in a vast courtroom, smirking from the defense's table, next to a very smug, mob-ish looking man who she gathered to be his 'attorney' of sorts. She grinned when she noticed a cool calm about the way Joker was grinning, even with the immanent punishment he was facing.

She was about halfway down the page, reading the article when she heard the door to her bedroom swing open slowly. Looking up, she grinned when a very groggy Joker appeared in the way, rubbing one of his eyes while his other hand braced the door frame. He brought his hand from his eye to the front of his hair, pushing it away from his face as he blinked at the bright light in the living room with a yawn. A low groan escaped him as he trudged over, dropping into the chair next to Jayde at the round table.

"Morning," she greeted him quietly at first, still grinning when his eyes slid over to hers from staring dazedly at the white wood in front of him.

"Hello," he answered, his voice gravely and raspy with residual sleep. A second later he must have spotted the newspaper as he smirked, pointing at his picture. "Who's that handsome lookin' cat?"

Jayde laughed, sliding the paper toward him so he could read it while she finished her orange. She watched his facial expressions while he read, watching that scowl change into a satisfied smirk and by the time he looked up, he was fully grinning, completely proud of himself and the chaos he had once again managed to arrange.

"Looks like I made quite a uh-…stink. I bet old Jimmy Gordon was nice 'n pissed when he found out I had miraculously escaped-…" he paused, shrugging. "-again."

She nodded, rising from the table to take her plate into the kitchen and retrieve a cup of coffee while Joker raised his arms in a stretch. "Yeah, I guess it's a good thing no one saw you fall in that pool, though. That might not have been so good for your public image." She taunted, laughing when Joker sighed, standing up from the table.

"Ya know, it's not even as funny as you're imagining it was." he began, stepping into the kitchen to lean against the counter opposite her. When Jayde raised one eyebrow, he rolled his eyes, continuing. "I had just made it across someone's backyard and had just jumped a fence and…instead of landing on the ground on the other side, I just happened to land in someone's partially frozen, above-ground pool." He paused again, glancing upward. "It's really not that funny. I think I might've had a heart attack."

Jayde laughed, taking a sip of her coffee. "Actually, that's even more funny than I had imagined it. I'm glad you cleared that up for me." She snorted into her mug at the look on Joker's face. "Alright, calm down. I wont tell anyone. Look, there's apples and toast. Orange juice is in the fridge so help yourself. I'm going to take a shower."

Joker nodded, opening two cabinets before he found the glasses. "Good idea. And leave your phone on your bed." he instructed, glancing at Jayde as she paused in the doorway to her bedroom. He knew she was about to ask why so he continued, rolling his eyes. "I'm going to call Dotcom to have him come pick us up. I'm a little…anxious to get home."

So Jayde left him in the kitchen and went over to her purse, sitting on the armchair in the corner of her bedroom to retrieve her phone. After tossing it onto the bed, she meandered into the bathroom while stripping off her shirt as she went.

The bright orange jumpsuit Joker had been wearing the night before was hanging over the shower curtain rod and was now only slightly damp and stiff. She took it down and held it out to get a better look at it while she called his name.

"What?" came that snappy response she had missed so much and she grinned to herself before stepping back out into her bedroom to hold out the jumpsuit so he could see.

"What should I do with this? I don't really think I should throw it away, I mean what if someone finds-…" Joker cut her off as he walked up, holding an apple and a small sharp knife.

"No, no, don't throw it away, I want to keep it!" he said as if she ought to have known that. He went on at the confused expression on Jayde's face. "I've never had one of these before and I always wanted one. So we'll just put it in one of those bags to take with us." It seemed he had only just noticed Jayde did not have a shirt on and was standing there in her bra as his eyes traveled downward slowly before they came back up to meet hers. The tip of the knife he was holding came to rest on the thin middle strip of fabric of her bra just over her sternum. "Go shower. Now." With that, he left the room to finish his apple and Jayde ventured into the bathroom for that shower.

When she emerged in a towel, twenty minutes later, Jayde found Joker sitting on her bed against the pillows, with the newspaper, now in jeans but still wearing the white long-sleeved shirt he had slept in. A half-finished glass of orange juice sat on the far nightstand and Jayde couldn't help but notice just then how handsome he looked in her bed; she was definitely liking the longer, dirty blonde hair on him. He looked up only to let his eyes flicker over her figure in the slightly small white towel before he looked back to the newspaper.

"Dotcom should be here in about a half-hour in the basement, so you might want to, ya know…hurry up." He commented, turning the page.

As Jayde went to the closet, rolling her eyes with a grin, she found the doors open and the black duffle bags had been re-packed and organized. "I take it you found all your stuff in here." She said, grabbing a pair of underwear, clean black jeans and another warm long-sleeved shirt. Joker did not respond but she figured he had nodded so she went back into the bathroom to put on her clothes, not sure if she was quite ready to be completely naked in front of him after three months.

After changing into her clean clothes, Jayde stepped back out to find that Joker was now pulling those bags from her closet to place them on her bed. He glanced up when he heard the door open.

"So how about we try this again?" he asked. "Lets try and fit as much of your shit into these bags as we can so we don't have another…fiasco like we did when we tried this the first time." Jayde laughed, marching back into the bathroom to take out a makeup bag to cram as much of her female necessities into it as she could.

In no time at all, it seemed Joker and Jayde had managed to fit everything essential into the black bags although Jayde had made sure to sneak a few things in that Joker did not notice. Among them, her hair straightener, makeup and several of those little dresses that she only wore when she actually had a night-life back in Montana. She was anxious to have an opportunity to pull them out and surprise him with them.

By the time she had crammed all of this into their bags, her cell phone was ringing, indicating that Dotcom was calling. Joker picked up the phone as he swung two of the heavier bags over his shoulders.

"House of the Lord, this is Joker speaking."

A few moments later, he replied "Alright, sit tight. Here we come."

At the front door, Joker told Jayde to go ahead of him and look up and down the hall to see if anyone was out there. When she turned around and told him the coast was clear, he stepped out, leading the way down the hall toward the doors to the stairwell. The entire way down, Jayde prayed silently in her head that no one would decide to take the stairs while they were headed down, partially because whoever it was would recognize Joker, but partially also because Joker would probably end up killing whoever it was.

They met no people, however, and Jayde breathed a sigh of relief when they stepped out into the basement garage. Joker apparently knew exactly where Dotcom had said he was going to be and as they paused in the threshold of the doorway, she heard him counting parking spaces under his breath. When he stopped at fourteen, both of them spotted the black Escalade parked in between two trucks so they made their way over, bringing the bags down off of their arms as Dotcom stepped out of the car.

He and Jayde made eye contact and shared a private smile at each other as she and Joker approached. She knew he too was happy that Joker was no longer in captivity.

With all the bags now safely in the back of the SUV, Joker and Jayde both climbed into the back seats while Dotcom started the car. Beside her, Joker sighed, rubbing his hands together anxiously.

"Right, now get me home." he started, but then turned serious. "Dotcom, that house better be fucking spotless or you're dead." He added, glancing at Jayde as she grinned.

From the back seat, Jayde could see Dotcom roll his eyes. "I missed you too, boss."

**See? I wasn't going to leave you guys hangin'! The uh-…fun is about to start, ladies and germs, so hold on tight and stay tuned. Next update within a week. - QOM