The sound of the garage door slamming closed behind Joker echoed like a gunshot through the entire house. His heart was racing as though he had just run a mile, the keys to the Escalade clenched tightly in his black leather gloved hand. Joker could feel them shaking a bit as he marched across the first floor to the stairs, but that just meant he needed to clench them tighter to try and steady as much of that anxious energy as he could.

When he arrived at the mansion just minutes before, Joker had glanced at his watch to find it was nearing nine in the morning and he was mildly surprised to find he had been gone for that long. That being the case, the sun had already risen over the top of the distant line of trees, illuminating the bottom story in bright golden light. The second floor remained doused in shadows, however and Joker crept quietly along down the hallway toward Jayde's room, keeping his back as close to the inside wall as possible without actually touching it. He wondered momentarily if she would still be laying there on the floor or if she had somehow managed to free her hands and was now in the bed. Either way, it didn't matter to him; they needed to have a few words.

As he reached the door, Joker's right arm moved out slowly, pushing open the slightly cracked door until it first showed him the vacant spot on the carpet where he had left her. Instead, he found a few brown, now dried blood stains where her knees had been. But now with the door wide open, Joker's eyes flew to the bed where the blankets lay folded down neatly, completely undisturbed and after glancing around the empty room, a white hot bubbling sensation started in the pit of his stomach.

"ANDREW!" Joker practically bellowed as he stepped out into the hallway, his shoulders heaving slightly as he listened to his voice echo loudly in the huge house. All was quiet in response and as the last faint echoes of his voice trailed off, Joker took a deep breath, preparing to shout again. A moment later, he paused when Dotcom's door opened slowly on the other end of the hall and he stepped out, his eyes narrowed at Joker.

"Yeah, boss?" he asked as innocently as possible but Joker was already advancing toward him, quickly closing the distance so his hands could grab the front of his nerds sweatshirt and slam him up against the wall. Now inches from his face, his eyes widened slightly as he glanced back and forth between Dotcom's.

"Care to tell me where Jayde is?" he asked, raising his eyebrows as he glared through Dotcom's glasses. "Hm?" he went on, shaking him slightly when he did not receive an answer right away. Within moments, Dotcom's face wrinkled into a scowl and he brought his hands up to shove Joker away from him hard.

"I took her home last night after you raped her." He answered, standing his ground when Joker rounded on him, towering over him. A breathless, clowny laugh escaped him as if Dotcom had told him a not-so-funny joke.

"I'm sorry?" he asked, cocking his head to the side and a second later had brought out his small switchblade knife from his pocket to place the razor sharp tip on the middle Dotcom's chest. "You did what now?" Again, Dotcom's eyes showed no fear and he held his ground, glaring bravely up at the Joker.

"I took her home." he repeated himself loudly, emphasizing each word as if speaking to a person severely hard of hearing. Joker was momentarily quiet, seemingly stunned for a half-second that Dotcom was speaking to him like this so he noticed the opportunity to continue and he jumped at it, pointing at Joker's chest with one finger. "You're a piece of shit, you know that?" he spat, looking Joker up and down with disgust as he took a step back. "That girl does nothing but worship the ground you walk on. She waited for three months for you to get out of jail and this is how you repay her? By treating her like some slut you picked up?" By now, Dotcom was practically shaking as he released all of that pent-up aggression toward his boss and it seemed to Joker that he did not really care what happened to him at this point as he abandoned all pretense. "Fuck you, Joker. You disgust me."

At first, Joker wasn't really sure what to do but luckily the sound of someone clearing their throat from the bottom floor caught his attention and he turned quickly, scowling down at Tre over the balcony. His best friend stared back up at him as if challenging him to try and intimidate him like he had just done to Dotcom but Joker laughed again, loudly, leaning out over the railing slightly.

"And, Tre! I think I remember taking the Escalade with me last night." he began, walking over to the stairs to trot down toward him. "So how, pray tell, did dear, little Jayde get home?" Joker walked straight up to Tre, standing less than a foot away as he glared at his calm, yet angry, brown eyes. Tre shook his head.

"Man, you need ta back up," he warned but Joker only took another half-step closer, cocking his head to the side tauntingly.

"Or what-" the words were not even completely out of Joker's mouth before Tre threw a punch that connected with the side of his face like the kick from the back end of a horse. It knocked him backward a few steps but he caught hold of a chair at the table and held on tight, struggling hard to stay standing. He laughed, looking over at Tre as he wiggled his jaw back and forth, trying to pop it while he weighed his options here. Although Joker was not usually one to back down from a fight, there was one person in the entire world, and really only one person, who could beat him to within an inch of his life, and it was Tre.

"You don't scare me, Kieron." Tre said loudly, completely bypassing the promise he had made to Joker to not use his real name in front of Dotcom. "And you know, dude is right. That girl is nothing but good to you and you go n' treat her like dog shit on your shoes?" He paused, lowering his voice slightly as Joker stood up straight, looking over at him with a blank expression on his face. "You should be ashamed of yourself, bro. You said you were never going to do that shit again after that one time..."

Joker shook his head fervently as if trying to keep Tre from elaborating and he let out a frustrated growl, glancing over at the stairs uneasily as Dotcom came down towards them. Finally, Joker had run out of things to be angry about and was honestly feeling cornered as his two closest henchman ganged up on him. He tossed his arms, letting them smack against his sides as he abandoned all hope of scaring anyone.

"So what do I do?" he shouted, his eyes wide and mad as he looked from Dotcom to Tre and back again. Over at the stairs, Dotcom tutted quietly, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

"I dunno, I've never raped anyone before." He answered in a quiet mutter. Joker exhaled through his nose as his lips thinned angrily, pointing a threatening finger at Dotcom. Tre spoke up a second later, distracting him.

"You gotta decide if you really feel bad about it. If you really want her here then you gotta be sorry about what you did, and tell her. Otherwise, Jayde ain't never comin' back." Tre explained calmly, staring at Joker as he blinked, somewhat catching his breath until he laughed at the ceiling once, running his hand through his hair.

"I need her here!" he exclaimed a moment or two later, dropping his abandoned knife onto the table to toss his hand again. "I don't even-…I mean, last night-…" Joker tried desperately to find words to explain himself but the longer Dotcom and Tre stood there, watching him struggle, the further his explanation got from him…That, and he wasn't really quite sure what had happened himself.

Across at the stairs, Dotcom stepped off the bottom step onto the floor where he crossed his arms, shrugging as he glanced at Tre. "He's right," he finally said, motioning to Joker's best friend with his head. "If you don't feel sorry for what you did then there is no point in going to try and get her to come back. Jayde is pretty much the only person who can see right through you, you know-..."

The whole time Dotcom had been speaking, Joker had closed his eyes and was nodding impatiently until he finally growled, then snapped, "Shut up! Just…Shut up." His hands reached up to press the heels of them into his eyes, a short sigh escaping him. "Everyone just shut up for a second, I gotta-…" he was mumbling as though there was a whole group of people standing there, talking, but he never went on to say what he 'gotta' do. Instead, he brought his hands down, blinking as he walked over to Dotcom to hold out his hand.

"Give me the key to Jayde's apartment." He did not ask but demanded, staring down at Dotcom as he glanced at Tre apprehensively on the other side of the room. Joker groaned irritably at this, shaking slightly as his mingled confusion and frustration threatened to explode out of him. "Just do it!" he shouted. "I'm not going to-…hurt her, I just need to-…talk…or something." It seemed so pointless to try and explain himself to Tre and Dotcom at the time, only because he still wasn't completely sure what was going on or what this strange emotion was that he was feeling. It made him feel itchy from the inside out but finally, when he felt like he was on the brink of really losing it, Dotcom pulled a single key from his pocket and handed it to him. Without so much as a thank you, or even a second glance, Joker slipped the key into his vest pocket, turning to walk over to the garage door and step out.

Once the Escalade had made it out onto the long, quiet winding road, Joker rolled down the four windows to let in all the brisk morning air, finally feeling as though he could think, now that he was away from Dotcom and Tre's disapproving glares and sentiments. In his 'career', Joker never really let people's looks of disgust and loathing affect him and honestly, he found them pretty funny most of the time…but something about the way they had looked at him, glared at him made him feel very small and very stupid. This sensation to a guy like the Joker was not pleasant in any sense of the word.

Still that one little knot sat in the pit of Joker's stomach when he thought about Jayde…and the way it had sounded when she begged him to stop, cried and even screamed. He growled in frustration as he tried to push the residual sound out of his memory and he sat up straighter in the seat to grip the steering wheel with both hands. As much as he would have loved to pretend like he hadn't known what he was doing or that he had flown into some blind rage and blacked out, it just wasn't true. He had known exactly what he was doing, knew exactly who it was hurting and yet he had still gone so far as to rape the one person that was there for him no matter what, the one person he could count on to bend over backwards for him. I really fucked it up this time.

Now, as the Escalade bounced onto the interstate from the two lane street, Joker shook his head, clicking his tongue once against the roof of his mouth as he shifted uneasily in the driver's seat. If he were being perfectly honest, he was beginning to feel a bit like an animal being sent to the slaughter house and fleetingly, he wondered if Jayde had maybe, possibly just gotten over it and was contemplating her words of forgiveness, since he was not actually planning on saying the words 'I'm sorry' to her. On second thought, both of those hopeful scenarios seemed highly unlikely so Joker just hoped he could figure out a way to apologize without actually saying it, preferably before he got there.

By the time Joker had gotten to the sixth floor of the apartment building, his entire stomach was in knots, to his great surprise, but he fought through it and marched straight out into the hallway and down toward Jayde's door. But once he had come within feet of it, he turned on a dime in mid-stride and started walking back down toward the stairwell to leave, muttering something about 'fuck it' to himself. A small voice that sounded an awful lot like Tre echoed in the back of his mind a second later, so Joker turned again and finally forced himself back to Jayde's door.

As quietly and stealthily as he could, Joker inched the key into the lock until it was all the way in, but as he turned the knob, he noticed the deadbolt was not on. He found this somewhat strange but was not left much time to dwell on it when he opened the door slowly to just peer around the edge. His eyebrows furrowed when the hallway appeared empty, so he stepped inside, frowning, unsure of what he had been expecting. A second later, Joker jumped when a something heavy and glass collided with the wall just over his head, exploding into a thousand tiny pieces that rained down into his nappy green hair. Across the hall, at the far end of the kitchen stood Jayde, another glass clutched in her hand as she prepared to throw it. Joker had never seen an expression on her face that even nearly mimicked the one there now, but despite the sinking feeling he had experienced upon looking over, he grinned somewhat sheepishly.

"Hey-," he began to say but ducked out of the way, into the living room when Jayde threw her next glass with all the strength she could muster. "Jayde!" he called out, once the loud shattering sound of glass had died off. "Now, really…I just came to-" he tried, but once again, Jayde cut him off, leaning into the counter toward him on the other side of the breakfast bar.

"I don't give a FUCK what you came to do. Get out of my house, now." She shouted, her voice still somewhat raspy and strained sounding and Joker could not help but wonder to himself if that was from screaming the night before or from crying so much, as it was obvious that's what she had been doing. Her eyes were slightly puffy and rather red and for some reason or another, Joker could not stop staring at her as she walked around the edge of the kitchen, into the living room and over to the couch. She had just reached out to pick up her cell phone when Joker's eyes noticed the ugly bruises around her wrists. Another small voice told him not to do it, but he reached out, placing his hand on her shoulder lightly…this was not a good idea.

Jayde spun so quickly Joker did not have time to react and a moment later, her hand connected with his face in a slap so hard, Joker saw stars for a few seconds as he blinked several times. When his vision adjusted, he found that Jayde had plopped down onto the couch, picking up her phone to dial three numbers.

"Get out or I'm calling the cops." She snapped, but at this point, Joker could only laugh as he dropped onto his knees, kneeling down in front of her spot on the couch. His hands reached out, moving to grab her wrists and at first Jayde let him, although a moment later, her eyes narrowed onto his in the most hateful glare Joker had ever seen from any girl he had ever…accosted.

"You're not going to call the cops, Jayde." He said with a laugh as he rolled his eyes. Jayde thought it was awfully rich of him to tell her what she was or wasn't going to do and a moment later, he paid dearly for his impudence when she spit in his face, shoving him away from her as hard as she could.

Joker groaned, reaching up to wipe her spit off of his cheek but with him momentarily distracted, Jayde saw her opportunity and could not stop herself. Her right arm pulled back as far as it would go before she released it, throwing her shoulder into it the way her dad had taught her all those years ago. Her fist connected with Joker's jaw so hard, Jayde felt one of her fingers break and give a great jab of pain, although she hardly noticed from the amount of adrenaline now pounding through her veins. It seemed she had almost knocked him out with that punch as Joker fell onto his side, groaning as he blinked hard, shaking his head to try and clear the fuzziness away.

'"Jesus, Jayde-" he went to say but Jayde had already jumped up off the couch and was taking one step forward to bring the top of her foot hard against his face as he rested his now throbbing head on the carpet. Blood spilled from his nose almost immediately and he brought one hand up to wipe some of it away, holding it out in front of him to look at the bright red liquid now coating his skin. A low, raspy groan escaped him as he closed his eyes to turn onto his back to try and stem the flow of blood but Jayde was not finished yet.

Mimicking Joker's exact action from the night before, Jayde placed one foot on either side of his waist to sit on his chest and lean forward to try and push the air out of him. Of course, he was also much heavier than her so it didn't quite work the same way. Joker still grunted, opening his eyes but only to squeeze them shut in a cringe when Jayde reached out to grab a thick tuft of his hair and pull his head back as hard as she could. Behind her, she could feel and hear the heels his shoes scraping the carpet as she yanked on his hair hard enough to pull it right out. Jayde knew that this probably hurt him far worse than anything she had done yet and she complimented herself on remembering his weakness when she needed it most. His jaw dropped slightly when she pulled even harder, leaning down.

"How dare you show up here, just hours after you rape me and try to act like it was nothing…" she snarled in Joker's face, just the way he had done to her. "I don't know if you remember, but you put your belt around my neck." Jayde had to pause before continuing when she felt her voice begin to quake and she sniffed angrily when those hot tears began to gather again. "You called me a lying slut." She finished, finally giving in to let those tears fall down her cheeks. Joker opened his eyes a moment later when he felt the two drops of warm moisture on his neck only to find that she had stood up, releasing his hair from that machine-like grip of hers.

Joker felt a rush of cool air against the wet blood underneath his nose and running into his mouth when Jayde walked away, but when he opened his eyes to find her still standing there, his arms instinctively curled in just in time for her to bring her foot back. For not wearing any shoes, Jayde's kick was incredibly powerful, knocking most of the wind out of Joker as he rolled onto his side, panting. A sharp, throbbing pain had started in his side but he only had a second to groan about it when Jayde kicked him again, this time in the side of his face. A second later, Joker coughed with a defeated moan when he finally held up his hand somewhat weakly before it dropped to the carpet in front of him.

"Alright," he wheezed, blinking slowly. "Ok…"

Jayde breathed somewhat heavily as she stared down at the Joker, laying there on the floor, bleeding and semi-conscious, and found that she needed to walk away before she kept going. She was not sure at the time why she couldn't keep on until she knocked him out or seriously injured him but as she stepped into her bedroom to close and lock the door behind her, she leaned against it, taking a deep breath to steady her heart rate. With shaking hands, she reached up, pushing her frizzy curls away from her face as she looked down, her eyes now trained on the smear of blood on the top of her foot from the side of Joker's face. After a few seconds of being unable to tear her eyes away from it, she stepped into the bathroom to run some water in the bathtub, holding her foot out to rinse it off as her options began to run through her head.

Obviously, Joker had either come to get her because he genuinely regretted what he did or else simply came to see the aftermath of his rage since not many of them lived to tell the tale. Jayde wasn't really sure which one yet since she hadn't given Joker much of a chance to say anything when he had gotten there. At this, a small grin crept onto her face- beating him up had felt really good. There had been something so satisfying about watching his brown eyes roll back slightly and the way he squirmed when she grabbed his hair.

All of this was running through Jayde's mind when something else began to dawn on her…A while ago, she could remember she and Joker getting into another little fist fight and she had definitely not come off better in that situation. Beating up Joker had been surprisingly easy this time, almost as if he hadn't been defending himself at all. Jayde was certain if he had, she would be the one laying on the floor in her living room.

After rinsing her feet and hands, Jayde stepped out into her bedroom, wondering if Joker had left yet. There had been no noise from the other room since she had left it and Jayde was half way through opening her closet doors for something to wear that didn't have bloodstains on it when she sighed, her eyes falling onto the complete emptiness. Oh yeah, she thought with a heavy roll of her eyes. All my stuff is at Joker's house. Deciding to ignore the slowly drying stain on the very bottom of the leg of her pajama pants, Jayde grabbed a small hand towel from her bathroom to wet it slightly and step out into the living room.

The Joker was still laying there on his side on the carpet, his hands stretched out in front of him like some wounded animal. It seemed at first he did not hear her door opening so Jayde took a cautious step closer- any second he was going to jump up and she was going to pay for what she had done. Her back bent slightly as she leaned down, trying to see through Joker's messy hair if his eyes were closed and on closer inspection, she found that they were and a few of the ends of his hair moved slightly as he took deep, even breaths. Jayde sat down a second later, figuring he was harmless at this point and she crossed her legs to sit Indian style a foot or two away from where he lay, watching him.

For several long moments, Jayde sat there, debating on what to do until finally, she reached out to place the cool damp cloth on his face. Joker jumped at the contact, taking a deep breath in to clear his throat and groan as he exhaled. His eyes opened a moment later, blinking up at Jayde as he rolled onto his back, only to cough with a slight gag and roll back over onto his side to push himself to a leaning position with his elbow. For a second, Jayde backed up, thinking he was about to be sick. Instead, he coughed again, reaching out to catch it as he spit one of this back teeth into the palm of his hand. His eyes slowly moved up from the tooth to meet hers and as much as Jayde truly wanted to grin, she fought it back to rise from the carpet abruptly to walk to the door.

"Let's go," she said shortly over her shoulder as she picked up her phone and the Escalade keys Joker had dropped near the broken glass. "All of my stuff is at your house." With that, she stepped out into the hallway, deciding quickly to not wait for him but she changed her mind halfway to the stairwell and stopped, leaning up against the wall.

A few moments went by before Joker stepped out of her apartment, limping slightly as he wiped dried blood from his face and neck with the washcloth. His eyes met hers as he started following her at a safe distance, keeping his expression blank until she had rolled her eyes to turn and walk ahead of him and only then did he grin to himself with a quiet, breathless laugh. Totally worth it…

By the time Joker caught up with Jayde at the basement level of her apartment building, he was cringing and wincing as he walked down the stairs after her. He was almost positive by now that Jayde had broken or bruised a few of his ribs as his side kept throbbing with almost every move he made. Luckily, Tre had become incredibly good at diagnosing injuries over the years so Joker made a mental note to ask him to check it out when they got home.

When they reached the Escalade, Joker quickly patted his pockets and was about to frown but winced when he found that his face was a little too sore for that expression just then. A moment later, he looked to Jayde, remembering now that she had taken them from the floor upstairs. He held out his hand toward her as she looked over.

"I need the keys, Jayde." He said somewhat quietly. An exasperated sigh left him when Jayde took the keys out of her pocket to throw them at him, not to him, and they jingled lamely as they hit the side of his hip and dropped to the ground when he failed to even try and catch them. Jayde continued on her way to get in the car as Joker tilted his head back to close his eyes, praying for patience.

After groaning and wincing as he bent down to pick up the keys, Joker was finally inching into the driver's seat carefully to glance over at Jayde and find that she was glaring out the passenger window with her arms folded. A short laugh attempted to escape him but he caught it in his chest, passing it off as a cough when Jayde glanced over. As the wheels of the Escalade pulled out onto the street, Joker looked over to find her glaring off again and he sniffed a few times when he felt his nose start bleeding a little again.

"By the way, how did you know-…" he began to ask but Jayde cut him off, rolling her eyes.

"You don't think Dotcom didn't call me the second you left the house?" she snapped back so Joker resigned himself to silence, figuring that she just wasn't ready for conversation yet. Then again, neither was he…his jaw hurt really bad.

The moment the Escalade had come to a stop in the garage back at the mansion twenty minutes later, Jayde got out quickly to walk ahead of Joker to the door. He was taking his time, trying to nurse his injuries the best he could until he could make it upstairs to his office. The garage door swung open before him as Jayde stepped through so he followed, cringing when he moved to take the step up to go inside.

Both Tre and Dotcom were seated at the table just across the room and looked up when Jayde stepped inside briskly followed shortly by Joker who glanced at Tre to make eye contact. Dotcom had stood up from the table and was holding his hand out to Jayde who took it, following him up the stairs until they both shot Joker highly disapproving looks as they stepped into her bedroom to shut the door. Joker sighed, after he had watched them go, resting his hands on his hips once he dropped the keys onto the table with a clatter. Tre was looking up at him, squinting slightly as he took in the sight of Joker's bruised face and the way he was leaning slightly to one side. He was about to ask a question but Joker was already speaking.

"C'mon, you gotta tell me what she did to my ribs."

He had been debating on whether or not to ask Tre for help since they had somewhat gotten into it earlier that morning but he felt slightly better about being hurt and vulnerable around his best friend when he immediately stood up and followed Joker to the stairs and into the office. With a groan, Joker closed the door behind them, walking over to the long metal table to take his vest and shirt off and flip on the examination light that hung over head. Tre glanced down at his side but hesitated.

"What did she do?" he asked but frowned when Joker suddenly growled.

"She beat my ass! What's it look like she did?" he snapped loudly, feeling slightly irritable from being in a bit of pain. A second later, he scowled as Tre laughed, shaking his head.

"I wont lie to you, bro. I'm glad she did, you had it comin' to ya." He replied, finally leaning down. Joker sighed, closing his eyes.

"Tre, shut up. Just…tell me if they're broken or not." He snapped again but practically cried out in pain a second later when Tre jabbed him with one of his knuckles right where Jayde had kicked him. A murderous scowl met Joker's face when Tre laughed again, reaching out once more to press firmly but gently on Kieron's wounded side. Joker bit his lip, trying to withstand the pressure until Tre brought his hand back and he sighed, opening his eyes. "Well? Broken?" When Tre shook his head, Joker sighed in relief.

"They're not broken but they're probably bruised pretty bad. Just…take it easy for a few days and heal up." Tre explained but it did not appear that Joker was listening as he walked over to pick up his previously discarded vest to dig in the pockets. He returned a moment later, holding out his hand to Tre, still frowning.

"She knocked one of my teeth out," he muttered, showing it to Tre as he laughed, glancing at Joker in surprise.

"Did she really? She doesn't look that-…" Tre went to reply but Joker laughed loudly, shaking his head.

"Yeah, she doesn't look it, but that girl is strong." He said, wincing as he leaned down to pick up his shirt. "-Has a mean right hook, too…" Just then, they both shared a loud laugh and privately, Joker took a moment to be grateful that Tre wasn't still acting disgusted by what he had done and as they both left the office to go downstairs, Joker spoke up, shaking his head. "Funny how I got punched by two different people in less than twenty four hours." He mumbled somewhat off-handedly and couldn't help but grin when Tre laughed.

Once both had made it back downstairs, Tre disappeared into his room, only to reappear moments later, holding a plastic bag and a cigar. Joker looked over from the kitchen, groaning when Tre sat down to start rolling a blunt. He shook his head, walking over with a slight limp.

"No, Tre…C'mon, I don't think my brain can handle-…" he began to say but let his voice trail off when Tre held up his hand.

"Trust me, you're gonna want to hit this." He answered wisely but it seemed Joker was still on the verge of saying no when from above them, both Joker and Tre turned to look up at the sound of Jayde's bedroom door opening. A moment later, she appeared up on the second landing, holding something in her hand before she threw it down to the bottom floor. Both Joker and Tre's eyes followed the path of Joker's belt through the air until it landed with a fairly loud clank on the floor across the room. The door slammed again as Jayde went back into her room and Joker let out a short groan, sitting down slowly at the table to rest his head in his hands.

"Fine, light it up."

Another five minutes passed before Tre had finished rolling the blunt and was now standing up from the table to follow Joker as they filed out onto the back porch. Of course, Tre moved to sit down with no problem and at first, Joker tried to do the same, but gasped slightly when his side smarted sharply. Across the table, Tre laughed, shaking his head as Joker finally lowered himself into the chair with a low groan.

"She got you good, bro." He commented, laughing as Joker rolled his eyes, reaching up to press two fingers against his nose, testing to see how tender it was.

"I let her do it." Joker stated bluntly, reaching out to take the now lit blunt from Tre as he passed it across the table. "I had to…let her know I felt bad or…whatever it was I was feeling." Tre grunted a laugh, watching Kieron take a hit from the blunt.

"Don't you think you should have actually said you were sorry?" he asked but arched an eyebrow when Joker shook his head fervently, holding his breath only to exhale a few seconds later and cough once.

"No…" he began, frowning at his knees. "I let her beat the shit out of me, that's enough of an apology." Joker then added, wincing when he shifted to try and find a comfortable way to sit with his bruised ribs. It grew quiet for another few seconds before Tre spoke up.

"At least Jayde is still alive…" he said in an undertone but looked up when Joker's head turned quickly to glare at him. His lips smacked once before he shook his head.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked in a rather nasty tone but Tre ignored it and tilted his head to the side to squint at Joker.

"Yeah, remember Katie? Didn't exactly give her a chance to beat your ass, did ya?" Tre said, glaring back at Joker as he growled, closing his eyes, wishing desperately that he hadn't brought that up. If there was one memory that Kieron found truly hard to think about, it was that one. "That's why I was so surprised when I heard that going on last night. You swore you would never do that to a female again, Ki."

Joker growled, leaning forward slowly to rest his face in his hands as Tre brought up that one time. Katie had been nothing but a fuck buddy and although Joker had liked to pretend that that was all Jayde was to him, she was so much more…he just didn't like to admit that he had made best friends with a girl. He sat up a few moments later, blinking as he handed the blunt back to Tre.

"Yeah, Tre. I did. Ya know? I raped Katie." He finally stated, then shrugged. "Yeah, I raped her. And then I killed her! An hour later, I went back to her house and killed her. And you know? I didn't regret it at all. I still don't. But what's…freaking me out is that I actually feel bad for doing what I did to Jayde." Across the table, Tre was nodding wisely.

"Well, it makes me feel better to hear you say that, bro." He replied, taking a deep hit from the blunt before handing it back to Joker. "Doesn't that mean you're regretting it?" Joker huffed, rolling his eyes but after a second, his face grew serious again and his eyebrows furrowed.

"You know somethin'?" he started, squinting off across the patio. "I think I am. I think that's what I was feeling earlier. I think I regret…doing that to her." Finally, Joker felt a bit of tension in his chest fade away at saying the words, but he still could not bring himself to actually say the words 'rape' and 'Jayde' in the same sentence. It made him feel truly sick.

After finishing the blunt, Joker and Tre stood to go back inside, but only to find that Dotcom and Jayde were in the kitchen, speaking in somewhat hushed voices as they watched something cook on the stove. As the sliding glass door opened and Joker stepped inside, Jayde looked over her shoulder across the room at him but turned away quickly, looking back to Dotcom. Tre stepped in behind him so Joker took a step closer to where they stood, noticing now that Jayde had put her bushy hair into a bun on the back of her head, exposing a dark ring around her neck. His stomach turned over and although that increasingly intelligent voice in the back of his mind said not to do it, Joker walked over, wanting to get a better look.

However, when Jayde noticed him approaching, she backed up slowly until she was right against the counter, between him and Dotcom and Joker couldn't help but notice the look in her eyes as he moved closer. She looked slightly terrified for a second or two so Joker softened his gait until he had reached her.

It seemed Jayde was hesitant to make eye contact with him at first, which was perfect since all he really wanted to see was how deep and dark the mark around her neck was from his belt, as if trying to gauge how tightly he had it pulled. Up close, he could see that it was a fairly faint bruise, lined with a raw red mark that made him feel somewhat nauseas when he realized it had rubbed from his movement. His hand reached up a second later to just barely touch his finger to her neck, but he jumped when Jayde gasped, shoving him away from her before she turned on a dime and walked over to the stairs to go up and back into her room. Joker sighed, hanging his head as he leaned against the counter once she had gone and Dotcom looked up at him, shaking his head.

"You better give her some space, Joker, I'm serious. She has half a mind to pack all of her stuff up and move back to her apartment." He warned, giving Joker a stern glare over the tops of his glasses and he rolled his eyes, folding his arms over his chest as he stared up at Jayde's closed door.

It seemed so unfair that she had to be hating his guts when all he wanted was to go kiss it and make it better, try to make her forget about what he had done. Jayde was absolutely essential to Joker's upcoming plans but what was more, he couldn't really wrap his mind around not having her there at the house with him everyday so it was crucial that he play his cards right and win her back over. As luck would have it, Joker could be very charming and persuasive when he wanted to be…but then again, Jayde was pretty much the only person who could see right through him.

A/N: LEAVE ME YOUR LOVE/HATE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER! = ] I love your reviews!- QoM