Jayde woke the following morning with a start, jumping slightly as her eyes opened, ending her nightmare abruptly. She sighed, closing her eyes again, thankful to have woken up and now be separate from reliving the events of the night before last in her mind for what felt like the hundredth time. Hearing herself called a lying slut over and over was getting really old, really fast.
Unsurprisingly, Jayde had not eaten much the day before but now, as she rose from the bed to put some clothes on and brush her teeth, her stomach was practically talking. After glancing at the time to find it was still rather early, Jayde walked over to the door but paused, her eyes again falling onto those two dark red stains on the carpet. She stood there for a few moments, staring at them until she finally walked away, making a note of it to tell Joker.
Out on the landing, once she had made it there, Jayde glanced down at the bottom floor, only to roll her eyes and start to turn to go back into her room. A second later, she stopped, frowning. Why should she have to hide in her room every time she wanted to go into a room that Joker was in? After all, she had nothing to feel bad about. If anything, he should be the one hesitant to enter a room with her in it. With a new resolve and her nose in the air slightly, Jayde walked over to the stairs to go down.
Down at the table, Joker and Tre were seated, both reading, both silent and both eating cereal with a glass of orange juice. At first, it seemed they had been so focused on reading that they failed to hear her bedroom door open but as she approached, Tre glanced over before Joker copied him a moment after. Jayde tried hard not to look at Joker and she succeeded for the most part, even though she could still feel him watching her. A second later, he looked back down at the folded newspaper in front of him as though she were not even there. Tre, however, nodded his head at her.
"Ay, girl." He greeted her in his usual manner, taking a sip of his orange juice as Jayde walked over toward them.
"Hi, Tre. Good morning." She replied, her tone casual and friendly and by then, she had walked right up to the table, glancing at Joker as he continued to read. When she moved to pick up his glass of orange juice, however, he looked up slowly, watching with squinted eyes as she brought it to her lips only to spit in it and set it back down in front of him. Joker let his hand fall onto the table with a thud as she walked away, looking over at Tre with his eyebrows raised as if to say 'See?' His calm best friend was grinning but shook his head at Joker as if silently communicating that he was supposed to just take it.
A moment later, after Jayde had stepped outside onto the porch to join Dotcom, both Joker and Tre looked over when the sliding glass door opened again and Jayde stepped back inside with one hand on her hip. Her eyebrows raised when she made eye contact with Joker.
"Oh, and you need to take care of the bloodstains on my carpet," she snapped before turning abruptly to go back outside again, leaving Joker to clench his fist with an aggravated groan while Tre laughed at his friend being punished.
Outside on the patio, Jayde had just lit a cigarette when Dotcom looked over, exhaling a thin stream of smoke through his lips as he leaned back in the chair, chuckling quietly.
"Joker told me this morning that you knocked one of his teeth out." he said, only to laugh harder when Jayde nodded, grinning proudly at him. "You should ask him if you can keep it." He went on to suggest only for Jayde to roll her eyes.
"I know, I should have it mounted on a trophy or something."
The porch fell silent for several long seconds after their attempt to make some sort of humor from the huge riff in Jayde and Joker's now broken 'friendship' until finally Dotcom looked over, clearing his throat slightly. If Jayde hadn't been staring off into space, she would have noticed Dotcom watching her but once she finally did and looked over to meet his stare, he asked, "So what are you going to do?"
A slight frown met Jayde's face. "What do you mean, 'what am I going to do'?" she asked, and Dotcom shrugged in response.
"I mean, are you going to keep staying here? Or…" he finally asked and for several moments, Jayde paused, trying not to grin when she felt her heart warm slightly at Dotcom's apparent sadness at the thought of her 'moving out'. A second later, she shrugged, looking back out over the patio.
Truthfully, she didn't want to move back to her apartment, and yes, she would like to keep staying at the house, but now that things were so broken and useless with the Joker, it seemed as though it were rather pointless now. In all honesty, the only reason she had moved in there in the first place was because deep down, in the very bottomest bottom of her heart, Jayde had started to let herself believe that she and Joker could end up together. That had been the main drive behind her wanting to live so closely with him. But now, it seemed as though the close quarters had driven them away from each other in the most drastic way possible. For the time being, Jayde nodded at Dotcom.
"Yeah, I'm going to stay here." She said at first, but then continued. "But I do not trust him anymore and I don't really know if I ever will again, to be honest, Dotcom."
Several minutes later, after both cigarettes had gone out, Jayde and Dotcom stood from the outside table to head back inside. Joker and Tre were still seated at the table, but as Dotcom walked over to the stairs to go up and change his clothes as he was still wearing pajama pants, Jayde went into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
Even though she had yet to make a pot on her own at this house, Jayde knew how to use an electric brewer so after locating the already ground coffee in the cabinet, she started searching then for the coffee filters. She had never seen where Dotcom kept them but after looking through a few cabinets, her eyes finally showed her the small blue box, high up on a shelf above her. Without even trying first, Jayde knew that there was no way she could reach them without a chair.
A noise over her shoulder told her that Joker had just entered the kitchen and was now dumping out his spit-laced orange juice in the sink behind her. She ignored him and rose onto her toes to reach up as high as she could toward the box, only to groan slightly when her fingers fell short by about four full inches. Her eyes rolled when she realized how stupid she had probably looked even trying to reach a box that high but the moment she went to turn to go get a chair, she jumped when Joker appeared next to her, looking up, scowling at the box.
His arm reached up a second later, easily grabbing the box of filters to bring it down and hand it to her without a word. She took it from him somewhat slowly, a bit distracted by this random act of kindness and for a half of a moment, she considered telling him 'thank you', but she held it back and looked up, only to find that Joker had already walked away and was now trotting up the stairs to disappear into his office.
For most of the day, Jayde stayed clear of Joker, although she didn't see very much of him, surprisingly. For several hours that morning, he remained locked in his office and only came down once to get a glass of water, then returned promptly, closing the door behind him. Jayde had rolled her eyes at this, knowing that he was trying to give her some space and although the sight of him still made her blood boil, she appreciated the fact that he was being somewhat respectful of her and the distance she so obviously needed from him.
So when Jayde wasn't outside smoking with Dotcom, she spent most of her time that day in her room until about five o'clock that evening when she had just come back inside from out on the porch. She had just made it to the top of the stairs and walked down her hallway when she jumped with a short gasp as she turned the corner into her room. There was the Joker, sitting Indian style on the carpet, just staring at the dried blood stains with his chin in his hand and his elbow on his knee. He looked up as she appeared in the door way.
For a split second, Joker tried staring at her eyes, hoping she would accidentally make eye contact with him but she was now too busy watching the stain-lifting chemical bubble and foam away on the bloodstains. When Joker spoke a moment later, Jayde jumped again slightly, blinking several times to look down at him.
"It's probably going to be a while before you can have your-" he had started to say but Jayde turned abruptly in the middle of his sentence and walked away down the hall, leaving Joker to toss his hands dejectedly. This was proving to be more difficult than he had originally estimated.
The sun had just gone down when Joker finally left Jayde's room, sweating slightly but feeling accomplished and even a little bit proud of himself for mastering the art of making blood stains disappear. This skill had come in handy over the years and Joker grinned to himself as he walked down the hallway toward his bedroom. He could remember so clearly the man who had taught him all about crime scene clean up, the same man that the police paid to come to old crime scenes and do all the dirty work. Among his memories of the experience, Joker's mind had stumbled onto his favorite and he laughed out loud as he reminisced. Once Kieron had learned just about everything there was to know, he stabbed the man to death then used his methods on his very own crime scene. The memory still made him giggle quietly at his own cleverness.
After a shower, Joker found himself sitting outside on the back patio, staring off into the dark field and further forest out behind the house, wondering fleetingly if there was anything out there, watching him back. This thought forced the hair on the back of his neck to stand up and he leaned forward with his elbows on the table to rest his chin in his hands, blinking several times when his eyes and the distant trees started playing tricks on him. He was positive there was nothing out there watching him, but just pretending to himself that there was made him feel anxious and he liked it. It made him feel less human in a sense, and more like a predator when he thought like this. It made him want to go hunting…
When Joker was in this sort of mode, it appeared that his mind was ready for anything and when Tre suddenly slid open the glass door behind him, he did not jump, he did not even move nor take his eyes from the distant field and trees. Tre stopped just next to him, leaning down slightly as if to see if Kieron had fallen asleep with his eyes open and sitting up but Joker blinked a moment later, bringing his gaze up to meet his friend's
"Everything alright there, bud?" Tre asked a second later, taking out his pack of cigarettes to sit down across the table from him when Joker grunted a laugh, accepting one when it was offered. He lit it, shaking his head.
"Jayde hates me." he blurted but looked over at Tre a second later, instantly wishing he hadn't been that honest. But he really couldn't help it; there was something about his best friend that just pulled honesty out of him, even if he didn't want to let it go. Across the table, Tre nodded slowly, taking a deep drag from the cigarette he had lit.
"For good reason, man. Girls don't appreciate what you did, and thats the truth." He said in a rather sage sort of way, then pointed at Joker with the cigarette in his fingers. "You're a lucky son of a bitch that she's even still in the same house as you, to be honest, bro." At this point, Joker abandoned all pretense of feeling like he had this situation under control so he leaned forward on the table, looking across to Tre.
"So what do I do?" he asked earnestly, glancing inside to make sure no one was approaching. It made Joker uncomfortable to even think of asking someone for advice, but seeing as to how this was practically his brother, he shook off the nervous anxiety he felt at appearing vulnerable. On the other side of the table, Tre was shrugging.
"There's nothin' you really can do, man. Just gotta let her…heal or whatever. I guarantee all she sees and thinks of when she sees you is what you did to her. I mean, its only been a day, Ki. It's gonna take longer than that for her to come 'round again." Tre shrugged again, ashing his cigarette. There was a long, silent pause where Joker apparently thought that Tre was about to continue. When he did not, Joker shrugged his own shoulders, tossing his hands at Tre's 'lack' of help.
"So I should just-…" he went on to say but Tre cut across him, shaking his head.
"Man, you're the smartest cat I know, but I swear to god, you are so stupid with this girl..." He began but then went on. "Leave her alone." Tre continued, placing his two hands on either side of his mouth to magnify his voice in Joker's direction. With that, Joker rolled his eyes with another toss of his hand as he leaned back in the chair, shaking his head slightly at how Tre was making this seem like the most simple task when to Joker this was truly uncharted territory. He had never tried to make amends with one of his victims, especially not with one of his…female victims. Even though Joker could count on one hand the number of girls he had 'taken advantage' of, there was only one who had lived through the experience and that girl was currently upstairs in her room with the door closed. What Tre was saying made sense but that didn't necessarily mean it was going to be easy.
But over the following week, Joker made himself as sparse as possible at the house, and when not out meeting with different people regarding matters of interest, he was either in his office or lurking about outside in the garage. He rarely saw Jayde lately but he had learned quickly that she was one of the best players of the 'silent game' he had ever met. Several times, when he had gone to say something to her, no matter what it was, the moment he opened his mouth, she would either turn and walk away or get up and leave the room. So by now, four or five days after their 'incident', Joker learned to just keep his mouth shut when she was around and to ignore her when she spoke to the people in the room in general.
Even though she was not speaking to him, Jayde had also mastered the art of giving dirty looks and always spared one when she caught Joker looking at her. So from this, he had then learned to just not look at her, unless she wanted him to lose his shit again and go grab her to tell her to fucking stop it. Every time this thought crossed his mind, Joker had to take a deep breath and close his eyes, knowing that if he were to go tell her to cut it out with the eye rolling or he was going to cut them out, it would set their 'road to recovery' back dramatically.
Now, nearly a week after that one night, Joker found himself seated at the table downstairs, leaned over a stack of papers and blueprints that he had now spread over almost half of the long eight-chair table. His head was bowed as he jotted down a few things in that black notebook but he could still hear the movie playing on the other side of the room although he was not exactly listening. His three 'roommates' were sitting on the double jointed couch across the room from him watching what sounded like the Godfather. When he had come downstairs, he glanced down to notice that Jayde was sitting in the corner of it comfortably and he had to try hard not to grin when he remembered her telling him once, seemingly ages ago that the corner was her favorite place to sit. Of course, he had chosen to ignore this instead of thinking for the thousandth time back to how she used to…well, talk to him.
Jayde had glanced up when she heard the rustling of papers over behind her at the table but refrained from looking over her shoulder as there was a fairly good chance he was staring over at the back of her head just then. She could safely assume that he was doing what he always did now a days and working on that monster plan of his that Jayde still had yet to hear about.
Truthfully, Jayde had seen to it personally to do everything she could to avoid direct contact with Joker over the past week and it seemed as though it had finally worked as he had given up completely on trying to make any sort of conversation with her. Sure, she caught him staring a few times but then again, that was nothing unusual from the way things were before everything had happened. It just seemed like Joker was waiting on tenterhooks for the day when she turned and finally said something to him.
Jayde could feel her eyes beginning to grow heavy as she stretched her arms out over her head, groaning slightly. The movie was not over yet, but she had already seen it and figured Dotcom and Tre would not miss her presence all that much if she got up and went to bed. So after waiting a few more minutes through her favorite part, she stood up slowly, stretching again with a yawn.
"I'm gonna go to bed." she stated, glancing at Dotcom as he looked up from the tv. "Good night, Tre. 'Night, Dotcom." She then said to both of them and although Jayde normally would have just said something like 'goodnight, guys,' she had started developing the habit of saying it to both of them individually so Joker wouldn't get the idea that she was speaking to him as well.
As she rounded the couch, she noticed that Joker had not lifted his head to watch her walk up the stairs, but that he was still hunched slightly, scowling down at his notebook as he wrote something. Mildly surprised at this, Jayde started to climb the stairs, yawning again as she did, figuring that he had finally gotten the point. The hallway was dark and Jayde could feel sleepiness begin to creep up on her as she walked toward her room, but as she reached the door, something, and she wasn't quite sure what, made her turn and look down at Joker at the table one last time.
To her great surprise, Joker was now looking up, staring at the exact spot where she stood and she noticed his eyes squint slightly when he brought his hand up. At first, Jayde wasn't sure what he was doing but a second later, he held up a piece of paper from his notebook that he had written the words 'Good Night' on in large, black letters. Before Jayde could even catch herself, a small grin jumped onto her face and even though she was upstairs and him, down, she was absolutely positive he had seen her smile as he went back to what he was doing, smirking to himself.
When Jayde's eyes first opened the next morning, she immediately noticed a difference in the way she felt but at first, upon thinking about it, she wasn't sure what it was that was making her feel that way. In a sense, she felt more rested, more refreshed than she had in a while and just as she was rolling over to the look at the time, it dawned on her- it had been the first night she had slept through without having a dream in over a week. At first, Jayde wondered why it had been that she didn't dream the night before, but after thinking about it too hard, she rose from the bed, grinning, deciding quickly that she didn't care why. For the moment, she was just happy to feel rested and not immediately cranky upon waking…that was until her eyes fell onto a piece of paper pinned to the inside of her door with a small, short knife.
A long, slow sigh escaped her as she crossed the room, tilting her head to the side slightly when she drew close enough to make out the small, messy slanted writing. The words had been written one line at a time down the middle of the page. It read,
"I know you're still mad, I would be too.
And you hate me, but I miss you.
I've got an errand to run and it might not be fun
But I need a hot date and you're just the one.
At eleven o'clock, on the dot,
Meet me downstairs, wearing the best that you've got.
We don't have to speak, but it would be neat,
if you would agree to accompany me.
-Joe Kerr"
Another great sigh left Jayde when her eyes reached the bottom and for several long moments, she stood there, staring at the words 'Joe Kerr', blinking slowly as she weighed out her options. As much as Jayde would have loved to have just crumpled up the note and go find him to tell her she wasn't going, Joker was still kind of her boss…of sorts…in a strange way…maybe not really. But Jayde had a feeling that if she were to march downstairs and tell him to fuck off, his patient streak would wear off instantly and she might severely regret her former pride. And besides, it was going out somewhere and Jayde could definitely use some fresh air and time away from the house…She just hoped there wouldn't be much conversation involved.
By the time Jayde had finished dressing, brushed her teeth and forced herself to put some makeup on, the time was approaching eleven so she figured it was also time to face the inevitable and walked out into the hallway. Upon leaving the room, she had pulled Joker's knife out of the back of her door and was now folding it down when she stepped out onto the upper landing. Her eyes flew to the bottom floor where Joker had his back turned, leaned over the table as he looked down at what appeared to be a large map. Apparently, he had not heard her door open so Jayde paused, watching him from the shadows of the second floor. After a few moments, he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, tossing some of his hair away that had fallen in his face.
Apparently, Joker had meant it when he said to wear some nice clothes as he was now dressed, waiting for her, in black, pin-striped pants and a long black coat that nearly mimicked his purple one. Jayde had only seen this ensemble of his once before and that had been the fateful day when he had been arrested nearly four months prior. Fleetingly, she wondered how he had gotten the coat back. Jayde continued to watch, holding her breath when Joker half-turned, scowling at the rest of the room as if he knew someone was watching him. A second later, Jayde felt her stomach twist up when she noticed that, for the first time since the day he had been arrested, the Joker was finally wearing his grease-paint makeup again and looking more evil than ever.
Jayde jumped with a soft gasp when he suddenly turned, the black rings around his eyes now staring right up to the corner of the hallway where she stood, leaned against the wall as if hoping to blend in. The red makeup on his scars shifted slightly when he smirked, turning completely to lean against the table behind him, practically sitting on it as his arms crossed over his chest. Luckily, since Jayde was wearing heels, she could look down at what she was doing instead of having to watch him stare as she started walking to the stairs.
Joker felt his stomach disappear completely when Jayde rounded that corner at the top of the stairs and he found quickly that he had to look away for a moment to warn himself to behave over the next hour or two. He looked back a second later, guiltily letting his eyes wander while Jayde was focused on not falling down the stairs in those oh, so tall heels of hers. It almost seemed as though Jayde knew exactly what he had hoped she would wear and was now walking…strutting toward him in that curve-hugging, knee-length, black dress of hers, the somewhat modest one with criss-crossing straps in the back that came down just low enough to show the top of that perfect dip that ran down her back along her spine. Goosebumps broke out all over his arms when Jayde's eyes rose from her feet to meet his gaze as she reached the bottom step but Joker shook it off, amazed that this girl still had that effect on him, even after everything that had happened between them.
At first, as Jayde stepped off the bottom stair, Joker felt a slight pang of panic shoot through him when he realized he wasn't really sure what to say and had been too distracted by watching her to think of something. Before he had the chance to even open his mouth, however, Jayde had walked up to him, only to pause for a second to place his knife in the palm of his hand. His eyes glanced down to see what it was but by the time he looked back up, Jayde had already moved on and was walking to the garage door, her heels clicking softly on the floors. He frowned, but stayed put, turning his head to look over.
"Ya know, Jayde, if you want to go with me, you gotta talk to me at some point..." He said, surprised by the change in his own voice when he finally found it. Across the room, now standing by the door, Jayde turned, her wave of bouncy curls following her movement as she looked over to arch an eyebrow at him. Joker felt those previous goosebumps come back to tickle his arms again.
"Who says I wanna go with you?" she answered with a question only to turn and step outside, closing the door behind her as Joker laughed, trotting over to follow her out into the garage.
Once the Escalade had bounced out onto the street in front of the huge house, Jayde glanced over, letting her eyes fall up and down Joker's side profile a few times, trying to decide if she disliked him any less with the makeup on…she wasn't quite sure yet. Her eyes rolled as she looked away, suddenly remembering what she had decided to ask him.
"So I noticed your poem was on the inside of my door." She commented rather blandly, continuing to gaze through the passenger side window at the passing trees and fields. In the driver's seat, Joker blinked, looking over from the road momentarily.
Fuck. He cursed silently at himself for nearly forgetting how observant and smart Jayde was. In all honesty, he hadn't even thought of a lie to tell her when and if she noticed the location of his note. He cleared his throat, looking back to the road.
"I figured you wouldn't miss it if I put it there." He said, and this part was true, however he elaborated with an extravagant falsehood moments later. "I wrote it downstairs and snuck into your room after you were asleep and put it there. And then I left." This was a lie. He had not actually written the poem downstairs, but rather in his mind when he had snuck into her room at around two that morning, creeping over silently to her bed to sit down on the carpet next to it where Jayde's sleeping figure had been facing. He could remember resting his chin on the bed as he sat indian style, facing her, watching her sleep for almost an hour. Her face had been so peaceful, her lips parted ever so slightly to show off her perfect white teeth just behind them. Joker had found himself willing to trade just about anything for her to let him kiss her again, even just one time.
At the present, the now fully awake Jayde was nodding slowly. "Mmhmm…" she hummed as if she did not completely believe him and Joker couldn't help but grin as he switched hands on the steering wheel.
After nearly twenty minutes of silence, with nothing but the sound of rushing wind, Jayde began to notice that as soon as they had entered Gotham, Joker had turned down a side street and suddenly, she had no idea where they were. Through the windows, Jayde could hear the wailing of seagulls and before she could ask a question, they reached and crossed a small bridge that led them to a large dock over looking the bay. An absolutely massive warehouse loomed up to the right of the car, casting the small road in shadow as they drove along somewhat slowly.
Beside her, Joker was scowling through the windshield, wrinkling lines into his previously perfect makeup as he was obviously looking for something, only to spot it a few moments later and smirk to himself. After swinging the truck out, Joker backed up into a makeshift parking spot still well within the shade of the massive warehouse behind them before putting it in park to look over at her. Jayde tore her eyes from the massive semi truck pulled up to the warehouse off to the side to look back at him as he reached into the inside pocket of his black coat to produce his phone. After glancing at it, he grinned widely at Jayde, leaning toward her slightly.
"Ready?" he asked rather excitedly, but when Jayde only rolled her eyes, he shrugged, opening the door. "Of course you are!" he then answered for her enthusiastically, pausing to take off his coat and place it on the driver's seat when he noticed how warm it was outside by the water. Jayde was rounding the edge of the Cadillac carefully in her heels, cautious not to step in even a small crack and trip. As she walked over more confidently to join him once the ground had evened out, Joker had been debating on whether or not to offer her his arm to hold on to but took a gamble on it anyway and extended his elbow out slightly, hoping she would slip her hand into the crook of it. However, she did not but instead let her hand come to rest on his forearm, gripping from the outside with one hand in some sort of classical old fashioned sort of way. Fleetingly, Joker was reminded of a classy mobster couple wearing their black 'business' clothes on their way to a hit and he smirked a bit harder to himself.
With the Joker walking next to her, Jayde noticed from the corner of her eye how much taller she was with her heels on and part of her wondered why she didn't wear them more often. Of course, in another hour or so, her throbbing feet and legs would probably be reminding her loudly. A soft jingling sound came from Joker with every step he took and at first, Jayde wondered if he had change in his pocket or something, but upon glancing down, she noticed a silver chain hanging from Joker's dark gray vest pocket into the pocket of his pinstriped pants and it clanked quietly against his hip every stride. She rolled her eyes slightly, not even wanting to know what was attached to either end.
After walking along the water for a ways, Joker steered Jayde to the right slightly, walking over to that huge semi-truck where a short, balding man in a suit came striding around the edge of it, laughing to someone unseen. The moment his beady little eyes fell onto the Joker, Jayde noticed them shift to the right slightly before flickering up and down her curvy frame. He beamed a second later.
"Ah! Mister Joker!" he called out, extending one chubby hand as he walked up to them. "So glad you could make it, I've got business to talk with you." The short man explained as he shook hands with the tall Joker. A second later, his gaze had shifted to Jayde but a moment after that, he looked back to Joker as if she had been a figment of his imagination. His eyebrows raised. "Shall we?" he then asked, motioning toward a small door off to the side of the huge warehouse but Joker shook his head, grinning that shitty, evil grin of his.
"Anything you have to offer me, you can do so right here," he growled in return, but dropped his arm a second later to catch Jayde's hand in his, only to bring it to his lips and kiss a few of her fingers lightly. "Dearest? Leave us for a few minutes, wont ya?" He released Jayde's hand grinning widely at the way she was glaring at him. His head turned again to glare down at Mancino Celini. "We wont be long."
Refraining from another hefty eye roll, Jayde turned, holding her shoulders straight to accent that curve of her back, knowing without even looking that both men were now watching the back of her as she walked away. As she stepped down toward the edge of the dock where the water met concrete, Jayde sighed when a gentle breeze blew by her, moving her hair just slightly and she had no problem admitting then that Joker could not have chosen a better day to come to this particular place. The sun was high in the middle of the sky as the time reached noon and it was warm, but not hot; the breeze made it absolutely perfect. Jayde stopped at the edge of the water, leaning on one of her heels as she stared out across the wide channel to the tall, peeling water towers and old shut down factories with broken windows on the far bank. It was not beautiful in any sense of the word but something about it, possibly the derelict aspect of it, Jayde found irresistibly comforting in a way. A few seagulls soared by over head, screaming, adding to the atmosphere nicely and Jayde couldn't help but take a few more steps along the edge of the sea wall, gazing down into the water hoping to see a few fish…But then again, how could anything live in this polluted, dirty city water?
Mancino Celini was so busy running his mouth about how much he would require for the use of thirty of his trucks and about eight tons of his…product that he failed to notice that the Joker was only half listening anymore and was half busy watching the back of Jayde as she slowly ambled along the dock. Celini had just said something about wanting an extra thousand for the use of his men as well but Joker was now admiring the way Jayde's heels made her appear so tall and lean and the way her legs looked so delicate from the knees down. He was just about to imagine how they looked from the knees up when he suddenly blinked, turning his head back and tearing his attention from his super model of a 'date'.
"Listen, all I know is that I need everything right here," he pointed at the ground, raising his eyebrows as he leaned down slightly toward the short man. "- on April the fifteenth and if you'd be so kind as to meet me that night, we can discuss payments and…things like that." He then finished with extra emphasis on the end of his word. After reaching into his vest pocket, Joker produced his small silver pocket watch on the end of the long chain, flipping it open to glance at the time before stowing it away again. His hand reappeared a moment later, holding a joker playing card. "Here's my card, in case you have a change of uh…heart."
Their meeting was coming to such an abrupt end that it seemed Mancino wasn't quite able to keep up and was just stammering a few words when Joker reached down to grab his hand to shake it a few times.
"Until the fifteenth, Mancino." Joker finally said and turned to walk away, sliding his hands into his pinstriped pockets with a grin stretching that red line across his face. Jayde was still down at the water, now stopped and leaned on one of her heels with the other propped just gently against the other, showing off the red underside of the shoe. A breeze ruffled his hair as he approached and he just had enough time to reach up and move it away from his face before he reached out, letting his black glove slide gently onto the small of her back. To his great surprise, she did not jump but simply turned to look up at him, taking a half-step back, away from his touch. Joker ignored this for the time being, smirking down at her when he noticed a thousand questions lurking behind her eyes. He held up one finger when she opened her mouth to start asking.
"You get one question and one answer." He suddenly said, his smirk expanding when he noticed Jayde's eyes narrow and one of her eyebrows arched. There was a prolonged pause after his words during which Joker was absolutely positive Jayde was trying to think of the most general, broad question she could possibly ask. A moment later, she crossed her arms.
"What was that about?" she asked finally in reference to the meeting Joker just had and he grinned, mimicking her by folding his arms. The black rings around his eyes widened slightly when he leaned down only to glance to both sides as if making sure no one was listening.
"I'm gonna turn water to blood." He answered as simply as he could knowing how it would infuriate Jayde and sure enough a second later, she huffed, tossing her arms.
"Well, how are-…" she went to say but Joker cut her off, shaking his head.
"Ah! One question, 'member?" He laughed when Jayde rolled her eyes, slumping her shoulders a bit when he offered his arm to her to continue walking along the sea wall. Luckily this time, she fit her arm in between his elbow and right side, gripping his upper arm. Joker felt like drowning himself in the water just off the pier when he felt his stomach flutter uncomfortably, but he resisted the urge, realizing it was leagues better than her spitting in his orange juice.
It fell quiet for a few minutes, both of them just walking along, Jayde busy watching a few boats go by on the water, wondering if they could see her walking on the arm of the Joker, and he, busy wondering if it was a horribly stupid idea to bring up what he had been meaning to tell her. He glanced over, watching Jayde's half-squinted eyes from the sunlight and found that there was probably no better a time than this to say it since she had only just started talking to him again. This way, he wouldn't have gotten used to the sound of her voice again and therefore would not miss it as much if she put him back on silent treatment. Luckily, Jayde had stopped walking and was now watching a few seagulls diving at the water before them, so Joker stopped as well, releasing her hand from his arm to slide his own hands into his pockets.
The moment Joker turned to face her, Jayde felt her stomach twist up into tiny knots and she sincerely hoped he wasn't about to bring up something that would make her upset. Their current surroundings were really so relaxing and strangely beautiful and Jayde had almost gotten over the fact that she was really walking next to him with her hand on his arm. She turned to face him when he took a deep breath.
"Ya know, since you haven't really been speaking to me lately, I haven't had it in me to tell you this but…" he paused, glancing to the side out at the water and Jayde tried hard not to grin even with her nerves. She loved it when he didn't know how to say what he was thinking. "I just…I don't make promises, Jayde." He finally went on to say, reaching up to comb some of his acid green hair from his white grease painted face. "But if I knowit's something I'm perfectly capable of doing, then…I'm not as…hesitant." He paused, arching an eyebrow down at her as he shook his head. "Does that make sense?"
At first, Jayde wanted to flat out say no, but she was starting to follow his line of reasoning so she encouraged him instead. "So…" she started back up for him, leaning forward slightly with her arms still crossed as Joker tossed his arms, glancing all around as if thinking that something else could say it for him.
"So…I'm trying to say that I promise I will never do what I did to you again." He finally admitted as honestly as he could, exhaling once the words were out and he felt a weight lift off of his mind. "I just-…" he went on to say but stopped when he found that there really was nothing else he could add; he had said everything already.
Jayde stared up at him, glancing from one of his dark eyes to the other, admiring momentarily how controversial this seemed. Here was the Joker, in full intimidate-mode with his crazy evil makeup on and yet basically swearing to Jayde that he would never hurt her like that again. Was this his version of an apology? Glancing down at her feet, Jayde finally unfolded her arms to link her hands together in front of her. When she looked back up, she found that Joker was watching her, scowling down and only once her eyes met his again did his expression soften slightly.
"My feet hurt." She finally said, grinning a bit sheepishly when Joker laughed, reaching out to drape his arm around her in that somewhat friendly way with his wrist rested on her shoulder.
"Let's get outta here, hm?" With a gentle tug, he turned her away from the water, glancing down at her. "But just for the record, I think you look stunning today." He added, laughing breathlessly when Jayde rolled her eyes, swatting at his side with the back of her hand.
"Please, Joker. You know sucking up doesn't always make things better." She chimed, glancing up when she noticed that he had walked her all the way to the far side of the Escalade and was now opening the passenger door for her to climb in.
"It's not sucking up if it's the truth, doll." He then answered, winking quickly with his left eye, flashing that strangely charming smile of his before closing the door to walk around.
For the rest of that day, Joker and Jayde kept safe distances from each other, both feeling the slightest bit awkward about their conversation earlier. Upon arriving back at the house, Jayde had immediately taken her heels off and trotted over to the sliding glass doors to go out and join Dotcom when he looked over his shoulder eagerly as if dying to know where she had been with the 'boss'. This left Joker by himself to make a decision.
Since he hadn't been to sleep yet, having been up all night plotting and scheming, writing his stupid poem and watching Jayde sleep, he could feel a huge wave of drowsiness threaten to overtake him. The thought of a nap was tempting to say the least, but now that Jayde was away from him, Joker could now reflect upon the figures Mancino Celini had given him. Eventually, the staggering amount of work and planning Joker still had to do threatened to consume him, so without giving himself time to change his mind, he trotted upstairs to disappear into his office and shut the door behind him.
At around seven that evening, Jayde frowned when she glanced up at the second floor for what seemed like the fifth time in ten minutes. Dotcom was making that romesco sauce again for a pasta dish and by now, Jayde was growing a little surprised that Joker had not surfaced from his office yet. Normally, or…usually, Joker would have come downstairs at that point, sniffing the air when the scent of Dotcom's cooking started to permeate the entire house, but surprisingly, he had not come out of his office now in almost four hours. Earlier, he had come downstairs, for a can of Dr. Pepper from the fridge which struck Jayde as odd even then; the Joker was not normally one for soda. All of this Jayde was wondering when she realized that it was pretty stupid of her to even be thinking about him in the first place so she hopped up onto the counter to watch Dotcom cook for a while.
Before too long, Tre came into the kitchen from the living room once his show had ended and was now reaching into the freezer for some ice when he glanced over at her. Jayde caught him a second later and he looked away only to walk over to retrieve a glass.
"Where did you two go earlier?" he asked so randomly that at first, Jayde wasn't sure he was talking to her. But he was looking right at her so she glanced at Dotcom before back to him, shrugging.
"I don't really know. He met up with some guy at these docks and said something about turning water to blood…or something?" she practically asked as if afraid of giving the wrong answer but she noticed quickly that Tre had glanced at Dotcom momentarily.
"Hm." He responded, taking a sip of his water to walk away and leave Jayde more confused than ever. She turned back to Dotcom, raising her eyebrows.
"You gotta tell me what he's planning." She practically whispered but frowned when Dotcom shook his head.
"No way! You tryin' to get me killed?"
After a perfectly delicious dinner that Jayde was positive Joker would have loved, she frowned when she noticed that his office door was still closed and he had been up there for so long that it was getting somewhat weird at this point. Again, after thinking this, Jayde scoffed at herself, rolling her eyes as she trotted upstairs to her room with Dotcom. She didn't care what Joker was doing in his office. Just because they had spoken earlier that day did not mean she was in any way over what he had done. She just didn't find him quite as awful…
After both she and Dotcom had settled on a movie from his collection, they popped it in to her dvd player and climbed onto her bed to watch. Admittedly, Jayde was a little tired and Dotcom kept yawning but it was still rather early and neither of them wanted to be up at the crack of dawn when Joker was at his most irritable. So they sat up against the pillows, knowing that laying down in her comfortable bed meant falling asleep.
Nearly an hour later, the movie was about three-quarters of the way through when Dotcom yawned again, stretching his arms out. Glancing at her alarm clock, he blinked hard a few times, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes. Jayde looked over, watching as he stood up.
"I think I'm gonna go to bed, hun, I can hardly keep my eyes open." He admitted, half-grinning at Jayde when she caught his previous yawn and brought her hand up to stifle it.
"Yeah, I'm probably going to pass out pretty soon." She replied, sinking further into her pillows. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Goodnight."
"'Night."
With Dotcom now gone, Jayde felt as though there were no point in finishing the movie, especially when she was honestly pretty tired, even though she had not done much that day. Earlier, she had changed out of the black dress into jeans and a t-shirt but was now over at her closet, pulling from it a pair of pajama pants, thinking fleetingly of how much she missed her thin white ones that Joker had…destroyed. After dressing in the pants and a long-sleeved shirt, Jayde brushed her teeth but was halfway through when her mind again took her back to Joker to force her to wonder if he was still in his office. The time was nearing eleven o'clock and it seemed strange for him to still be in there, after all this time. It seemed like a bad idea at first, but there wasn't really anything he could do to scare her anymore so she ventured out into the dark hallway, glancing down.
A small sliver of blue light was peeking out from underneath the door to Joker's office as it remained closed and Jayde frowned. So he was still in there…but what was he doing with the lights off? That familiar sense of foreboding curiosity began to sneak up on her but Jayde beat it to the punch and started walking down the hallway until she was close enough to reach out and turn the knob of the office door as slowly and silently as she could. The element of surprise was absolutely crucial with the Joker, even though he was incredibly hard to sneak up on.
Upon first opening the door, Jayde was not sure what she was looking at since the lights in his office were off, the only thing lit being the computer screen on the other side of the room on the desk against the far wall. Jayde squinted slightly, trying to make out what the giant lump was just in front of the light, but after taking a few silent steps into the room, it happened so fast, she couldn't even try to stop the grin that jumped to her face. The Joker had fallen asleep with his face on his desk and was now snoring fairly loudly.
The closer Jayde got, the harder she grinned until she was right up next to him, staring down at his peaceful features rested on top of his arms on top of his cluttered desk. If it hadn't been for his lanky arms folded under his head, blocking most of the papers, Jayde would have had the perfect opportunity to try and find out what his plans were but it seemed Joker had planned for this in particular and was guarding his notebook just under his slowly rising and falling chest. Next, options began to run through Jayde's mind. Either she could scream right next to his ear and startle him, or she could be somewhat nice and wake him up gently. She chose the latter of the two for fear of being strangled.
Her hand reached out, resting as gently as possible on Joker's shoulder so not to cause him to jump up and luckily, he did not and instead took a deep breath in to exhale slowly as he sat up, blinking dazedly. The first thing he noticed, and what he must have thought woke him up was the computer screen so he quickly reached out, turning it off to fold his arms again and move to put his head back down. Jayde laughed quietly, reaching out to touch him again and he jumped a tiny bit, turning his head to look up, scowling. Another sigh escaped him when he noticed her and he groaned, resting his elbows on the desk to rub his face, including all the makeup still on it from earlier. It smeared all over the place until his entire face looked gray but he obviously didn't care.
"Oh…it's you." He grunted, opening one eye to glance up at her as Jayde scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Well, don't sound so disappointed." She answered, watching as Joker grunted a laugh, closing his eyes again.
"Oh, I'm not…I'm not." He defended. "But I am really tired so I'm just gonna…" When he moved to lay his head back down on the desk, Jayde laughed, wrapping her hands around his upper arm.
"No, c'mon. Come get in your bed." she said, pulling on his arm until he finally stood up, groaning deeply as his arm wrapped around her shoulders. "You wont sleep well in here and then you'll be cranky all day tomorrow." She then explained, glancing up at Joker as she guided him across the dark room to the door, one arm behind his back, the other rested on his side to try and keep him standing in his half-conscious state. Above her, Joker grunted a laugh, closing his eyes as he tilted his head back.
"Good point, Jaybird." He groaned in that deep, sleepy voice and at first, Jayde wasn't sure if she had heard him correctly or not but was too busy not walking herself into the wall as she led Joker out into the hallway and over to his bedroom.
At his door, Jayde was hesitant to enter his room, thinking he might get the wrong idea, but the moment she let go of him, he swayed dangerously. She laughed, wrapping her arms around his middle again to keep him standing until she could get the door opened.
Once inside, Jayde was careful not to let herself get too close to his bed while she was still holding onto him, just in case he decided to take her with him when he fell, so she let go of him about a foot from the bed and took an immediate step backwards. A second later, Joker had fallen backwards onto his bed with a grunt and was now sighing contentedly as he lay there on his back. Jayde watched him for a moment or two, ashamed of herself for secretly wishing a very tiny bit that she wasn't still mad at him and could climb over there and lay with him. But she had to remind herself of what he had done for nearly the one-hundredth time that week. Over at the bed, it seemed Joker was thinking something along the same lines as Jayde was as he reached out to pat his hand against the empty place next to him. He must have realized what he had done a moment later and brought his hand back to rest on his chest with a long, somewhat disappointed sigh.
"Goodnight, Jayde." He said, rolling onto his side with his back to her and with that, the low growling snore filled the room, so Jayde crept to the door, sparing one last glance over her shoulder at the sleeping monster on the bed.
A/N: Another long chapter, guys. = ] More to come in the near future. And let me give a big shout out to my best reviewers. You guys keep me going with this story! I appreciate it more than you know! LEAVE ME YOUR LOVE/HATE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER! -QoM