A week came and went slowly, but things at the 'Joker residence' were everything but uneventful. The last licks of winter had disappeared over the past ten days, leaving the weather in Gotham and it's surrounding towns warmer and beautifully sunny. It seemed that, like the weather, the energy at the house had become much lighter and warmer, even though half of the time lately, Joker was either on the phone or up in his office with Tre and Dotcom. It even seemed that Officer Linman was over more often than he had ever been so far and although he was always pleasant with her, always said hello, Jayde was starting to feel as though Joker had told everyone not to mention anything to her about what was now obviously being planned.

She was starting to feel left out, so one night, nearly ten days after dying Joker's hair green and spending countless hours alone in the house, the four guys had just come downstairs after several hours of being locked up in the office when Jayde stood up from the couch with her hands on her hips. Tre and Dotcom were walking toward the porch, Linman toward the kitchen counter for his gun and Joker was trotting down the stairs behind them, a smug grin on his face. As he passed her, he did a slight double-take and frowned, pausing mid-step.

"What's your problem?" he asked rather rudely, now placing his own hands on his hips, mimicking the way she was standing. His head cocked to the side when Jayde stammered for a few seconds, obviously very flustered. By now, the other three guys had turned and were watching her struggle to find words.

"Well, I feel sort of left out, if you must know." She finally admitted, crossing her arms indignantly with her nose in the air a little. Joker blinked once, immediately moving to copy her new pose and he huffed sarcastically, tossing a bit of his hair from his face.

"Do tell." He requested, glancing over at Tre and Dotcom to nod as though they should be as excited as he was to hear what she had to say. When he looked back to Jayde, she was trying hard not to grin and several long moments passed before she answered.

"Well, you guys have been upstairs for hours every day for like a week now!" she cried, tossing her arms. "And I've been down here all by myself, just wondering what's going on and…I think I deserve to know what you're planning!" Her chest heaved slightly as she took a deep breath after her miniature rant. Joker raised his eyebrows at her before turning to glance at Tre and Dotcom again. He shrugged.

"Guys? I'm not planning anything, am I?" he asked, cocking his head to the side as they both shrugged in return and he turned back to Jayde when they stepped outside a second later, murmuring between them and laughing under their breath. Jayde gritted her teeth as her eyes squinted at him. Joker simply smiled, walking over to place his arm around her shoulders and tug her closer forcefully until she was right up against his side, tightly. She cringed trying to push herself away from him, but he was too strong and just held on tighter.

"Don't worry, Jayde." He said in a very assuring, fake tone. "You're not getting left out of anything. Trust me. Now, say goodnight to the police man." he then told her in a voice that suggested Jayde was either three years old, or severely mentally retarded. She looked up at Officer Linman with a blank expression on her face as Joker had walked her right up to him at the garage door. When she did not move or say goodnight like he told her to, Joker reached down, picking up her wrist to move her hand up and down like a parent would to an infant. "Goodnight, police man." he said for her, in a clowny, high-pitched voice and Jayde rolled her eyes at Officer Linman as he laughed and turned to leave. The moment the door closed behind him, Joker breathed a wheezy laugh when Jayde pushed him away from her playfully and stomped over to the sliding glass doors to go join Dotcom and Tre, who by now were halfway through their cigarettes.

That night, Jayde had just turned off the tv and was rising from the couch with a groan to arch her back when Joker rounded the corner into the living room with a glass of water. She brought her arms down quickly, bringing her shirt with them but it was too late; his eyes had glanced quickly at her exposed midriff and he looked away a second later, clearing his throat casually.

"Going to bed?" she asked rather loudly in a bad effort to cover up the previous occurrence and to her surprise, instead of calling her out on it, Joker nodded, proceeding to the stairs as she followed him.

"Yep." He answered as he paused, allowing her to go ahead of him up the stairs. Jayde smiled at him as she went ahead and obviously had mistaken the gesture for courtesy, meanwhile Joker was now trying not to stare at her hips as they rocked from side to side in his face. A second later, he looked straight up at the ceiling when he felt an achy throb from one of the lower areas of his anatomy.

Jayde reached the top just a moment before he did and she turned to face him, leaning against the railing to tilt her head to the side and put on her best puppy eyes, relaxing her lips so they puckered just a little more than usual. "You still wont tell me what you're planning, huh…" she asked, grinning when Joker shook his head, smirking down at her.

"No way, kiddo." He answered, turning to walk down to his room, but he paused after a few steps and turned to find Jayde still standing there, watching him go with that annoying grin on her face. His hand raised to point a finger at her and he cocked one eyebrow. "But I will say that tomorrow is gonna be a big day." Jayde gasped as he laughed over his shoulder, turning to continue on his way down to his bedroom.

"Please tell me!" she cried after him but he simply waved one hand over his shoulder lazily as he turned the corner.

"Goodniiight."

Surprisingly, Jayde woke abruptly the next morning to sounds reaching her room from what seemed like all the way down in the garage. She could hear muffled voices coming from some unknown origin but the longer she lay there, she began to realize that they were not coming from the garage, but from outside of her window. Rising from the bed quickly, Jayde felt like a little girl on the first day of snow when she ran to the window, pressing her nose to it. A grin slowly tugged on her lips when she found the source of the noise; finally things were starting to happen

Down on the street in front of the mansion's gated driveway, a huge semi-truck sat, rumbling faintly and two men that she did not recognize were getting out to open the back hatch of the enormous vehicle. Joker and Tre had just walked out into the gravel driveway and were walking over to the taller of the two strange men, reaching out to shake his hand as they approached. Jayde watched as Joker laughed, bouncing on the balls of his feet a few times; he looked the most excited she had seen him in…ever.

After prying herself away from the window, Jayde threw on some clothes and started out into the hallway to find Dotcom just coming out of his room, yawning. Despite the rather excited buzz to the atmosphere in the house, Dotcom seemed perfectly groggy and shrugged at her when he noticed Jayde frowning at him.

"Stayed up late." he explained.

Downstairs, Dotcom walked over toward the porch for a smoke but Jayde was far too curious and excited to find out what was happening outside so she continued to the garage door to step out. The sound of the semi truck was much louder on the other side of the door and was now accompanied by a low whirring, mechanical noise of the lift going down. Her hand came up to shield her eyes from the sun as she approached Joker and Tre.

"What's going on?" she asked animatedly but frowned a second later when Joker laughed, glancing at Tre.

"I said ten, you said twenty." He said to Tre, who groaned with a roll of his eyes as he slapped a twenty dollar bill into Joker's outstretched hand. "Hello, Jayde." He finally greeted her, not bothering to take his eyes off the huge sheets of metal now being unloaded from the monstrous truck. "Tre and I were just having a wager on how long it would be before you came out and started asking questions." He glanced down at her, bouncing his eyebrows. "I won."

She rolled her eyes and was about to just go back inside and give up on being included when Joker took a deep breath, turning from the truck to face her. "I'm having the truck and the Escalade fitted with all bulletproof material." He explained, but paused when Jayde's eyebrows slowly started to raise. Her next question was immediately obvious to him, so he answered it before she could open her mouth. "Because I wanted to." He stated bluntly. "And besides, who doesn't want a bulletproof car? Better yet, who doesn't want two of them?" he then went on to ask, more of Tre than Jayde and she sighed, rolling her eyes again as she turned to walk back up to the house.

"Boys…"

Dotcom had just come back inside from the porch when she stepped in from the garage and raised her eyebrows at him as he looked over.

"Did you know they were doing that to the cars?" she asked, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb at the garage door. When he nodded with a grin, she whined, stomping slightly as she walked over to join him on his way up the stairs. "See, I knew something was going on. I wonder why he doesn't tell me stuff." She asked with a slight pout as they reached the top of the stairs and Dotcom rolled his eyes, turning to her.

"Because he says he likes to divulge things to you in private, whatever the hell that means." He answered, but then paused, frowning slightly as something dawned on him. "Ya know, maybe he tells us first to double check that it's a good plan before he tells you. Like a rehearsal…I think it's so he doesn't make himself look stupid and like he doesn't have it together in front of you...Hm."

Jayde's jaw had gone slightly slack trying to keep up with his reasoning but Dotcom was now shrugging as he turned to walk down to his room. He paused halfway down the hall and turned to her again. "Any cute mechanics out there?"

"Eh, kinda." She answered, grinning when Dotcom nodded an understanding and disappeared into his room. Once he had gone, her grin faded rapidly into a frown. If he had asked about the mechanics outside and was going to change his clothes, then Joker was probably expecting him outside helping with the cars…which meant she was destined to be inside by herself…all day…again.

The thought of that was not even the slightest bit tempting and after quickly debating on whether or not it would be a bad idea to go ask Joker if she could help, she trotted down the stairs to cross the house and go out. The sound of birds chirping immediately met her ears, telling her that someone had obviously shut the semi off and now she could hear voices coming from the end of the long driveway.

As she rounded the corner toward the noise, random pieces of sample questions shot through her mind while she tried to imagine the best way to ask him. 'Hey, I don't wanna be bored all day again so…can I help you guys?" This one sounded horribly pathetic to her and she was just in the process of thinking up a new one when Joker spotted her and turned to walk up the driveway toward her, smirking. His arm reached out as he came within closer distance but just when Jayde was about to hope he was going to drape it around her shoulders like he had been doing more often lately, he instead raised his elbow to rest it on top of her head as they continued to walk.

"So I have a job for you." He said, looking down at her. Jayde's heart leapt a little as she smacked his arm off her head, grinning.

"Really? What is it?" she asked a little too excitedly than she had meant to and felt like a huge idiot when Joker's smirk expanded slightly.

"I need you to take the Escalade and go pick up one of my minions in the city." He explained a second later, but poked his bottom lip out when Jayde's face fell dramatically.

"What? That's not a fun job at all." She whined and Joker shook his head, raising his eyebrows as he leaned down slightly.

"Well, you don't really have a choice, ma'am." He answered, sliding his hand in his pocket to produce a set of keys belonging to the Escalade. "So uh…Go."

Jayde was halfway to the SUV when she suddenly realized she had no idea where she was supposed to pick up this 'minion' but she figured Joker would not let her leave without specific instructions so she waited until she had backed out of the garage to ask. But of course, the truck had just about reached him when she noticed him start to walk over and he moved one finger up and down a few times for her roll the window down.

"Drive carefully." He said at first, resting both arms on the door of the Escalade to lean slightly. "I cant afford to have you get pulled over, ya hear me? Alright, now…"

After Joker had seemingly given her enough instructions to fill a dictionary, Jayde was finally pulling out of the driveway, slowly and carefully maneuvering the huge black SUV past the small junk yard of metal sheeting and glass. The two men she didn't know were standing at the back of the semi-truck, just out of view from the lawn where Joker stood and Jayde had to fight to not roll her eyes as they both stopped what they were doing to turn fully and watch her through the windshield as she passed. Typical guys, she thought, shaking her head once the truck had made it out onto the street. Over the years, since she had turned seventeen, Jayde had noticed the increasing amount of stares she got seemingly wherever she went, from all different kinds of men. At first, she had found it fairly creepy and it often times made her incredibly uncomfortable being stared at like that, but the older she got, the more annoyed she grew with it. Now, she just ignored it whenever possible, but it never failed to humor her when she caught a guy staring…Unless it was the Joker. Then, it became a whole array of emotions at once- excitement, a small flush of arousal and maybe even a tiny bit of fear.

Then again, all of that had ended rather abruptly but Jayde was somewhat surprised to find that she wasn't really upset about it anymore. The past week had been somewhat fun without having to worry about things with him and there was a definite difference in the way they had been treating each other. Jayde felt she had done an excellent job of forgetting about the way he used to kiss her and about how sweet he could be when they were absolutely alone. Now, they could actually enjoy each others company…sometimes.

The ride to the city seemed shorter than usual, which was somewhat disappointing to Jayde, as the weather was simply beautiful that day and soon the lush green trees began to give way to concrete and noise. Joker had told her back at the house that she should not take the usual exit to enter the city but instead stay on the interstate for another few miles until the one after, so she obeyed his instructions and waited to slip into the far right lane to exit.

Joker had also said something about a gas station on a corner near some public library, but he had given her so much information that his steps were starting to become jumbled in her memory. A slight sense of panic began to work itself up in her and Jayde was in the middle of praying to god that she would not have to call him to have him repeat it when she suddenly gasped upon spotting the Lucky Green convenience store and gas station up ahead on the right.

His directions from this point were easy. All he had told her to do was park along the far side of the store and that a younger guy wearing a red shirt would come up and get in the passenger seat after ten minutes; his name was supposed to be Matt. But as Jayde parked the car in the shade where Joker had told her to, a weird feeling began to flutter in the pit of her stomach. If she didn't know better, it almost felt as though she were being set up and that this 'Matt' person was about to rob her or worse…She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, convincing herself that she was just being paranoid and that she was about 82% sure that Joker would not do that to her.

Ten minutes later, exactly, Jayde jumped when the passenger door opened and a tall, younger guy in a red t-shirt got in, smelling a little like sweat and cigarettes. Jayde was about to put the car in gear when she felt him glance over at her and she did the same, figuring she might as well double check.

"You're Matt?"

"You're Jayde?"

Once she had said yes, the guy nodded, leaning back against the seat to exhale heavily.

"Cool."

There really was no more awkward a situation than being in a car alone with someone you didn't know, Jayde was realizing as she pulled back onto the interstate and she was just about to reach over and turn on the radio when 'Matt' finally spoke up, turning slightly to look at her.

"So, what're you, the Joker's girlfriend?" he asked rather abruptly and Jayde was so thrown off by his question that she laughed loudly, glancing over at him from the road.

"No, not at all." She answered, still laughing to herself as Matt nodded. "We're just friends." She then added a second later, just to see how weird it felt leaving her mouth. It was Matt's turn to laugh.

"That guy has friends?"

The Escalade had just bounced into the driveway back at the mansion when Jayde noticed that all of the sheets of metal, glass and tires had vanished from the lawn and now part of it was being ushered into the garage while the other half stayed out in the driveway. At first, Jayde could not see Joker and hated herself for looking for him first, but Tre was smoking a cigarette while he talked to the two guys. He glanced over when the truck approached, then held up his hand for her to stop before entering the garage and he walked over to her door as she stopped the car.

"Ki wants to start on this one first." He explained in his deep voice once she had opened the door and he reached inside to pop the hood, just as Joker appeared coming from the garage, tying his swamp green hair up into a small ponytail.

"Matt, how nice of you to join us." He growled with that raspy voice in his falsely polite manner. "I'm sure you and my lovely assistant Jayde had just heaps of interesting conversation…" he mocked, grinning at Jayde as she made eye contact with Matt to roll her eyes as she passed him into the garage. Over her shoulder, she heard him say "What an angel, huh?"

Most of that day, Jayde floated in and out of the house, spending a little time out in the garage, watching the guys completely dismantle the Escalade, before she would find herself back inside, watching TV. As bored as she was, after watching the guys struggle in certain areas to take apart the metal frame of the car, she did not find the thought of helping them at all alluring so she stayed clear for the most part, hanging back in the garage to sit on the tailgate of Tre's truck and watch intently. At first, she had hesitated in doing this, knowing that Joker did not particularly enjoy being watched, but to her mild surprise, he either didn't seem to mind or was ignoring her. Then again, she had a feeling he was little too preoccupied to even notice that she was outside.

Finally that evening, the sun had just gone down when Joker stood up from leaned against the Escalade's door to bring his forearm up and wipe a bit of misty sweat from his forehead. His neck, shoulders and back were somewhat killing him and as he walked over to Tre, he rolled his head from side to side, groaning when he felt it crack a few times. Tre nodded an understanding, handing him a cigarette as they watched the other four guys pull the Escalade into the garage.

"Yeah, man, I feel ya." He commented on Joker appearing a little sore. "We haven't done anything like this in a while. Kinda makes you realize how much older we are now." Joker tutted, frowning indifferently.

"Speak for yourself." He answered, leaning against the black truck to exhale the smoke in his lungs. "I feel great." When Tre looked over at him with one eyebrow arched and a disbelieving expression, Joker shrugged, grinning out at the driveway. "But I am probably going to need a little shoulder rub from my…assistant."

Once everything had been put away and the driveway was clear again, the sound of thousands of crickets in the dense forest behind the house's backyard began to fill the air and Joker called out to the three guys.

"Go home and be back here tomorrow to finish it." He said simply, grateful that he did not need to go on as the guys instantly understood and walked down the driveway to disappear in their semi. Dotcom had already gone inside and was presumably in the shower as he could hear the water flowing through the plumbing of the house while he and Tre walked through the garage to step inside.

The television in the living room was on. Joker could hear it as he stepped inside and it wasn't long before he noticed Jayde laying there on her side, watching it, apparently unaware that her shirt has risen several inches, exposing that damn dip in her side that he so often admired. True, he had been really good about keeping his word to himself and had not touched her anywhere below the neck for near on ten days, but that did not mean that she was any less of a fox to him. Tearing his eyes away from the curve of her side, he walked around the edge of the couch, plopping down in front of where she lay, only to turn and grab her free hand to place it on his shoulder.

He waited for several moments but when she did not move, he turned again, frowning at her when she slowly pulled her eyes from the television to narrow them at him. For several seconds, they glared at each other, Joker's eyes beginning to squint slightly in his scowl but finally Jayde decided he was serious and sat up with an exasperated sigh.

A second later, Joker groaned deeply, letting his head fall forward when Jayde began digging into his achy shoulders with her thumbs and a massive fit of sudden goosebumps caused him to shiver unexpectedly. Jayde must have noticed as he heard her laugh through her nose to herself but he didn't care and was beyond trying not to react. It felt fucking good.

After a few minutes, the goosebumps had almost gone away, along with many of the knots in his muscles when Jayde's hands moved from his shoulders down onto his upper arms where she squeezed, then relaxed, squeezed, then relaxed in a slow, soothing rhythm and Joker fought off another moan by biting down on his bottom lip hard. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

He was just in the process of focusing his mind elsewhere and had almost given his attention completely to the TV when he felt Jayde stop with his arms and reach up to pull the hair tie from his small ponytail. A moment later, all ten of her fingernails raked up under his hair against his scalp from the back of his neck and Joker shuddered hard, his knee immediately starting to bounce. Behind him, Jayde laughed quietly, leaning to the side as she gently kneaded the back of his neck with her fingertips.

"Feel good?" she then asked in a painfully soft voice right in his ear and Joker cringed, sliding his eyes closed when he felt himself react to her tone. Whether or not she had meant to do it, he wasn't sure but Joker was starting to realize quickly that this hadn't been one of his best ideas lately. He needed to get away from her, fast.

Another low groan escaped him and he leaned forward slightly, tilting his head back to rock it to each side and crack his neck a few times. Jayde let go of him but was now watching the tv absentmindedly, so Joker took advantage of the situation and stood up, stretching with yawn that he did not need to fake. He glanced down at Jayde when she lazily pulled her eyes from the television to grin up at him and she blinked sleepily a few times.

"Goin' to bed?" she asked but Joker turned abruptly and walked away toward the stairs. Since when did her voice sound like that? All soft and sultry…She's just tired. He thought fleetingly before turning his head to look down at her as he climbed the stairs.

"It appears that way, Jayde." His clowny voice called over his shoulder and Jayde frowned to herself when he continued on down the hall until she heard the distant sound of his bedroom door closing. Weird…

Upstairs, on the other side of Joker's door, he stood with his back against it, staring at the knife stuck in the far wall of his bedroom, without really seeing it. His mind was too busy replaying everything that had just happened to think quite properly and only once his eyes started burning did he realize he was forgetting to blink. Truly, just fifteen minutes before, he had seen absolutely no issue in asking his friend to rub his shoulders for him since he was quite incapable of doing it himself but reflecting back from now, he could not believe how stupid he had been. He could have guessed that her touch would have done that to him, easy, and could not imagine what possibly possessed him to attempt it in the first place.

The past week had gone almost perfectly, save for one small bicker between them, and if he were being honest with himself, he would admit that the past ten days or so had been kind of fun. Granted, he had been upstairs with Tre and the others a lot of the time, but when not locked in the office working on his latest shenanigans, it came as such a relief to be able to sit around and annoy Jayde. He just had to tighten up and try to forget about the way her nails had felt raking up the back of his neck like that…

When Jayde rolled over the next morning, the first thing that popped into her mind was not wondering what everyone was doing, or even what was going on downstairs, but that she really needed to do some laundry. Over the past two, almost three weeks, she had worn nearly everything she owned and was about to put on her last clean pair of underwear once she got up. Fortunately, laundry detergent had been one of the things she had gotten at the store when she went before and knew exactly where she had stored it in the laundry room. So without further ado, she got up and went over to her closet to try and find one last clean outfit to wear while she washed her clothes.

However, upon looking, she was disappointed to find that every pair of pants she owned were dirty and pretty much the only thing she had left to wear was a somewhat short denim mini-skirt and a dark green v-neck top with elbow length sleeves. She never wore these two articles of clothing for a reason but after searching for another ten minutes and finding only an old pair of ugly sweatpants, she decided the skirt and top was better than that so she put them on before scooping all of her dirty clothes into one of the large black duffle bags sitting in the back of the closet.

The bag was incredibly heavy once she zipped it up so instead of trying to carry it and breaking her neck, she pulled it to the stairs before pushing it down, watching it tumble to the bottom with an amused grin. She followed suit shortly, listening for noises to indicate where everyone was. But of course, once she approached the kitchen and garage door, the sound of voices and a loud drill on the other side gave her the answer.

The detergent was exactly where she left it and after heaving most of her dark clothes into the washer, she set it to run and left the room, deciding that it would probably be interesting to go see what the boys were doing for a little while. The sound of the drill grew louder as she opened the door and she grinned when Joker and Tre both looked over at her. Her smile fell when he noticed them glance at each other and smirk before going back to what they were doing. Jayde rolled her eyes; it had to be because of her skirt. She was just about to go back inside to put on the sweatpants when Dotcom walked away from the Escalade, pulling his pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and he held it up, raising his eyebrows at her, so she went over to join him.

"Morning," he greeted her with a friendly smile and Jayde took a cigarette from him, lighting it as she took a seat on the tailgate of Tre's truck under the shade of the garage.

"Morning," she answered, looking over at the seemingly destroyed Escalade, now laying in scattered pieces all over the driveway. "What are you guys doing now?"

Dotcom took a deep breath, then exhaled the smoke. "Well, we have to take all the old metal off temporarily so we can fit the frame with the bulletproof metal. We're almost done with that. Next we gotta take the old glass out and-…" Jayde was trying to listen but was finding herself incredibly distracted when her tall, slightly sweaty friend came around the back of the Escalade, wiping a bit of grease from his neck with the bottom of his black tank top undershirt. He had it raised to his neck, slightly hunched as he leaned over but as hard as she tried to look away, his momentarily visible stomach muscles were hard to miss.

Joker did not notice her staring at first so she continued and was just cocking her head to side slowly when she felt Dotcom smack her lightly on the arm. She jumped looking over at him but rolled her eyes with a grin when he mouthed the word 'stop'.

Although she could no longer see his stomach, Jayde was so busy admiring the slight glistening mist of sweat on his shoulders and upper arms that she failed to notice that Joker was walking toward her. Seconds later, she blinked a few times when he walked past her, his eyes trained on something mounted to the wall on the other side of the truck. At first, Jayde was not sure where he was going, but when he walked past her again, she noticed a metal baseball bat in his hands.

Completely intrigued now, Jayde watched with interest while Joker walked over to the frame of the Cadillac, pulled himself up onto the old hood and moments later, both she and Dotcom jumped when he swung the baseball bat hard at the windshield, shattering it into a million tiny pieces with a loud 'CRACK'.

As he jumped down from the frame, Tre tossed his hand at Joker. "Damn, man!" he shouted. "What are you-…" His voice was drowned out by the sound of more glass breaking when Joker swung again, this time at the driver's window, shattering it too. Joker did not respond to Tre but instead turned to where Jayde and Dotcom were sitting, grinning widely as he held the bat out.

"Jayde?"

She did not need to think twice about it and in two seconds had crossed the driveway to take the bat from him, gripping it with two hands. Joker smirked as he watched her take aim at the large rear window and he backed up to stand next to Tre, crossing his arms over his chest with a somewhat proud grin when she swung it back only to bring it forward in the strongest swing she could muster. A second later, the glass shattered but stayed in place, held there by the dark tinted film and Jayde looked over at Joker somewhat disappointedly. He smirked in return, glancing at Tre as he stepped forward to take the bat from her.

"It needed to come out anyway."

Again, as was becoming routine at the house, the boys spent most of the sunlight hours outside working on the car and normally, Jayde would have been moping around, wandering inside and out, but that day, thankfully, she had her laundry to keep her busy. It was not surprising that it took her nearly all day to complete it and was transferring the last load of white clothes into the dryer just as the sun dipped below the tree line, dousing the huge house in evening shadows. She had just reached for a pair of jeans to fold when the garage door opened just outside the laundry room and Joker and Tre stepped inside.

From where she was standing, Jayde could smell the sweat and dirt on them and wrinkled her nose slightly when Joker stepped into the doorway, taking his hair tie out to shake down his hair. He watched her fold for a few seconds before stepping into the room. Jayde looked up, glancing him up and down once before turning back to her folding. Joker noticed this but did not comment.

"Ya know…I've got a few things to wash…while you're at it." He remarked finally with a snide grin and Jayde laughed, shaking her head.

"Hell no. This took me all day." She replied, now picking up a pair of underwear to fold them. At the moment, Joker had a couple different responses floating around in his brain but he was currently too busy staring at the black, lacy boy cut underwear in her hands, wondering if he had ever seen those before. He could not remember it, but then again…he hadn't seen her undressed in over a week…they might have been something new…

Quite suddenly, and he wasn't really sure how it happened, a flashback or vision of some kind flew into his mind and he had just reached down to the bottom of her skirt to let two fingers glide up the inside of her thighs, all the way to the place they met…he bet it was warm and more than likely covered by a very thin piece of material. His brain showed him another quick image of Jayde pressed up against the washing machine before he blinked several times, turning his head away to shake it slightly. I am losing it…

Jayde was speaking but her voice sounded somewhat muffled, as if through a radio, for just a second before it cleared up.

"-Now go away." She was saying, reaching out to push him away carefully with one finger. "You stink." Joker frowned down at her, recovering quickly from…whatever had just happened to him.

"Fine." He said, turning to leave, although he was quite glad to be getting away from her. "See if I don't go up to your room and rub my stink all over your pillows, hm? See if I don't go up and-…" his voice followed him as he rounded the corner and Jayde rolled her eyes once he had gone.

It wasn't long before all of her clothes had been folded and now Jayde was left with the unforeseen dilemma of getting it all upstairs without unfolding it or making ten trips up and down the stairs. So after evaluating the situation for a few minutes, she decided it would be easiest to just scoop as much of it up into her arms as neatly as possible and carry it upstairs quickly.

This was easier said than done and just when she was about halfway up the stairs, random articles of clothing began falling from the pile and she swore loudly several times while she ran to her room, finally dropping the clothes back onto her bed. Unfortunately, most of the previously folded clothes were now not even remotely neat anymore so Jayde stayed to tidy them back up before going to fetch the few things that had fallen on the stairs.

Twenty minutes later, nearly everything was put away. Her jeans were now folded in the dresser drawers, her undergarments, tops and shirts now hanging in the closet and Jayde was just about to go and get the others when she jumped. The Joker was standing in her doorway, twirling a very skimpy thong of hers around his index finger. His scars stretched in a Cheshire cat-like grin that wrinkled the corners of his eyes.

"Missing something?" he asked, now dangling the thong from his finger. You have no idea…Jayde thought, now noticing how clean he looked. She stepped closer and realized why- he had shaved.

Her own scar twitched slightly in her smirk as she reached out to snatch the thong from him, wadding it up quickly to tuck it in her back pocket. She had been ready to give some sort of smart-ass remark but was caught slightly off-guard when she caught a wave of that subtle cologne he wore and could only manage a weak 'thanks'. Joker must have noticed this as his smirk expanded.

"I assume I smell better." He stated, watching with a full-on grin now as Jayde blushed vaguely. She played it off a second later, shrugging with a half roll of her eyes when she turned her back to him to walk back over to the bed.

"I guess so, I mean it's not saying much since-…" she was saying, but when she turned to look at him again, her voice stopped short and a frown jumped to her face. He was gone.

The following morning when Joker trotted down the stairs, he was somewhat surprised to find that Tre and Dotcom were both up before him and were outside smoking, chit-chatting. As cute as he thought that was and as tempting as it was to go make fun of Tre, a glass of freezing cold orange juice sounded even more alluring so he made for the kitchen, cracking his neck with a groan as he went.

The previous night had not been very kind to him…It seemed that the vision he had in the laundry room carried over to his unconscious mind and he had woken several times in the night, either burning alive or with a massive, inconvenient hard-on. But even after he had taken care of the…problem at around three in the morning, he found it incredibly hard to go back to sleep, even though in his dreams, he was fucking Jayde cross-eyed and she was loving it. Come to think of it, that may have been the reason he was hesitant to go back to sleep…

Standing at the fridge now, he felt somewhat sleepy but knew that there was still so much work to be done on the trucks and that the three guys would be there before too long to get started again. A long sigh heaved his chest after he had drained the glass and his forehead met the cool stainless steel of the refrigerator door as his eyes closed. He could feel all of the tension from not sleeping well floating around his body and was just on the brink of nodding off standing right there against the fridge with the door open, when Tre's voice came out of nowhere. Joker jumped with such force that Tre started as well, frowning at him as he sighed, running a flustered hand through his hair.

"Damn, bro. You alright?" he asked, watching Kieron's face as he shook his head roughly, blinking a few times.

"Yeah. What did you ask me?" Joker asked in response, walking over toward the dining room table after refilling his glass. Tre followed and they were both sitting down when Tre was about to re-ask the question, but he stopped short when the sound of a door opening upstairs broke the silence.

Tre immediately turned to glance up at the second story, but Joker hesitated at first, not wanting to lay eyes on her this early in the morning after such an eventful night's sleep. But a second later, Joker heard Tre murmur 'damn…' under his breath…so of course, he had to look.

Jayde had already made it to the top of the stairs when Joker glanced over and was walking down toward them, rubbing one eye sleepily while her other hand slid along the railing. Come to find out, it wasn't what she was doing that made Tre react, it was what she was wearing…or wasn't wearing. Joker looked away quickly but the image was burned into his mind already of the way her hipbones moved with each stair she descended. Apparently, she had been experiencing the same sort of hot flashes in the night that he had and was now making her way over to the kitchen in a very thin pair of baggy white pajama pants that sat extremely low on her hips, exposing all of that wonderfully long, curvaceous torso of hers and those perfect hipbones. If that wasn't enough, she had obviously fallen asleep in a tight sports bra of some sort that hugged her breasts to her chest, causing all sorts of cleavage that had no business being there.

She did not seem to notice Tre laughing at Joker as he buried his eyes in his hands with his elbows on the table until she had passed into the kitchen. Even then, he kept his head down until he heard the soft shuffling of the extra long pant legs of her pajamas dragging on the floor. When she passed them the second time to go back up with her new glass of ice water, Joker couldn't help but look up and now he and Tre watched the back side of her retreating figure as she climbed the stairs. Joker could almost swear she was rocking those hips a little more than usual.

Once she had disappeared back into her room, Joker let out a heavy breath as though he had been holding it and across from him, Tre looked over, raising his eyebrows.

"So…since you're not hittin' it anymore…"

"No." Joker immediately answered, shaking his head. "If I'm not having that, nobody's having that."

A/N: Kids, I feel like I ought to warn you. The next chapter or two could end up being fairly…adult. And when I say adult, I mean somewhat graphic. And when I say somewhat graphic, I mean don't say I didn't warn you. There may be some things that you might not be a fan of reading so proceed with caution. SEND ME YOUR LOVE/HATE IF YOU WANT THE NEW CHAPTER.

-QOM