The Joker rolled over in his bed the next morning, completely unsurprised to find himself wide awake and without even thinking of wasting more time laying there, grinning stupidly to himself over the surprised look on Jayde's face when he kissed her, he stood right up to start the day. It was still pitch black in his room, which was normally how he liked it, but as usual, the moment he opened his bedroom door, the bright sunlight that met his eyes forced him to squeeze them shut, stepping blindly out into the hallway.
He took a few steps out, reaching out for the railing as one of his hands came up to rub his now pounding eyes but the longer he stood there, the more it began to dawn on him that he was being watched. Turning his head, he opened one eye ever so slightly to look down at the bottom floor and notice that both Tre and Dotcom were downstairs, had currently stopped what they were doing and were now staring at him. A short bark of a laugh escaped him before he turned, leaning over the railing slightly.
"What are you faggots staring at?" he snapped, looking from Tre to Dotcom and back again as they both glanced at each other before Dotcom's eyebrows raised when he turned to put a few more dishes away and Tre rested his elbows on the dining room table, watching as Joker now walked down toward them groggily. At first, he hesitated in going to the table and veered off to the right as if going to the living room, glancing at Tre rebelliously almost as though a little kid would to their parent when told to come back. However, a second later, from the look on Tre's face, he changed directions again, trudging over to the table to slide into the chair across from his best friend. His hands immediately met his eyes and leaned on them with his elbows on the table, partly because it still hurt, but also because he could tell Tre was doing that best-friend eye-contact conversation thing again.
"So I guess you and little miss thing are on good terms again." When Joker refused to look up, Tre took it upon himself to verbally ask about it, smirking when he looked up quickly, blinking. He immediately glanced over at Dotcom in the kitchen, listening, before raising his eyebrows back at Tre, holding out a hand. His messy morning hair bounced a bit when he shook his head, frowning as he shut his eyes against the bright spring sunshine poisoning the room.
"What are you talking-…" he started but Dotcom cut in now, leaning on the counter toward them.
"Yeah…Tre n' I were both downstairs when you…said 'goodnight' to Jayde last night." he explained, the effort not to grin now wrinkling the smile lines next to his eyes as Joker sighed with a slight growl, fisting his hands into the front of his hair and his elbows came back to rest on the table. "No, don't be embarrassed." He then added, glancing at Tre. "We're just glad you guys aren't trying to kill each other anymore."
Joker looked up as Dotcom turned his back to put a few glasses away and his eyes shifted to Tre before he looked away again, doing a thoroughly horrible job of hiding the stupid, boyish grin on his face. Of course, his best friend knew exactly how he was feeling and Joker felt like an idiot for even trying to hide his happiness from the one person who understood him. Tre smirked at Kieron's inability to process this new emotion before he looked back down at his magazine.
As highly embarrassing as Joker found it, being seen acting all mushy-gushy by his team, the emotion was just not strong enough at the time to really bother him. However, as he sat there, staring at the upside down magazine in front of Tre, he found himself a little surprised to be feeling this anxious about seeing her. There was a good chance that she might wake up regretting what had happened last night and in that case, they would probably have to take a few steps back and retreat to being awkward around each other. Joker hated that…He had grown attached to the sound of her voice again and didn't think he could handle another dose of the silent treatment.
Any second, he expected the sound of that door opening on the second floor and just as his knee started to bounce anxiously, Dotcom finished unloading the dishwasher and was now walking over toward the sliding glass door for a smoke. Tre jumped slightly as Joker stood up abruptly, causing his chair to skid across the marble floor with a loud scrape.
"I'm coming with you." He stated to Dotcom, following him out onto the porch only to plop down into the chair across the table. His hand reached out a second later, wiggling his fingers until Dotcom had slid his pack of cigarettes across the table. It seemed, from the way Joker could feel him staring, that Dotcom was apparently waiting for something before speaking so Joker took control of the impending conversation once he had lit his cigarette and inhaled.
"So I need to set up a…'command central' of sorts." He stated, turning his head to look at Dotcom when he could practically hear his eyes lighting up. He shrugged, taking another drag of smoke. "You need a set-up where you can have your eye on everything…all the teams…be in contact with everybody." Joker went on to explain, again glancing at Dotcom to make sure he was following. "So today you need to write a list of the equipment you would need for such a thing and have it to me tonight when Jayde and I get back from Gotham with our…subject." From the corner of his eye, Joker could see that Dotcom had nodded so they resumed their silence, both staring off in opposite directions, smoking quietly until the sound of a door opening from inside caught their attentions. Joker immediately looked to Dotcom who had done the same at him and now both were having a quick silent conversation. From the look in his eyes, it almost appeared as though Joker were asking for some sort of hurried advice so Dotcom obliged, nodding once with a smirk.
"Just be nice," he offered, watching Joker's face as he stood up, putting his half-smoked cigarette out in the ashtray. He turned from the table, to open the sliding glass door.
"Shut up…" he snapped and Dotcom rolled his eyes behind his back as he stepped inside.
The moment Joker closed the glass door, dread immediately filled him like the feeling of being sick and for a half-second, he considered going back outside when he noticed Jayde coming down the stairs in her pajamas. Surprisingly, she looked over, with her eyebrows raised in preparation to speak to him so he crossed his arms, smirking at her.
"You see this?" she asked, her voice somewhat raspy with sleep, and she turned to show him her left arm and the bright purple and yellow bruise around the welt he had put there yesterday. Tre had looked over and was now chuckling quietly to himself as Joker let out a laugh.
"Yeah, I see it." Joker answered, taking a few steps into the room as she stopped, glaring at him. "So?"
It was obvious she was trying really hard to have a reason to be mad at him, but she could not fight the joking grin that attempted to sabotage her plan. Joker laughed again when she huffed irritably, turning her back to him to go and sit on the couch. Her arms folded over her stomach a second later as she tried to act annoyed but now that Joker was positive she was anything but angry with him, he felt emboldened and little more like himself when that nervous anxiety drained from his body.
From her peripheral vision, she noticed Joker rounding the edge of the couch so she looked up and away quickly, only to groan loudly when he took a heavy seat on her lap. After getting comfortable, Joker grinned down at her, giggling through his nose as she attempted to avoid eye contact with him, playing up her act of being mad but to little avail. His arm reached out, wrapping around her shoulders as he leaned against the end of the couch.
"Jayde…" he started, his voice clowny and raspy as he cooed to her. Quiet snickers escaped him again when she turned her head all the way to the side, completely avoiding him.
"Stop," she warned, smacking away one of his hands when he attempted to bring it up to turn her face. "I'm mad at you." At this, Joker made a small noise of disappointment although the grin on his face plainly revealed that he was enjoying this thoroughly.
"Jaayyyyde…" he cooed again, putting on those infamous puppy-dog eyes when she continued to look at everything in the room but him, so after glancing over to find both Tre and Dotcom were outside, he leaned forward, lightly pressing his lips to the curve of her neck. He didn't kiss her yet, but simply hummed in his chest against the soft skin there before speaking in a low, quiet voice. "Jaydie…" he practically sang, finally puckering his lips to leave a kiss when she turned her head back to face him. "How-…" he started, leaving a light peck a little higher up her neck, before switching to the other side. "-can you-…" he left another kiss. "-be mad…" he kept going, this time moving to place another soft kiss on her right cheek. "-at me?" His nose nudged her other cheek before one last kiss was placed there and he pulled back, admiring her eyes from mere inches. She was finally staring up at him, only remnants of her glare still evident on her face and Joker's scars stretched in a smirk. Her blue eyes watched his brown ones for several soul-searching seconds before she whispered.
"You kissed me last night."
At first, Joker felt his stomach clench up when he could not find a smile on her face but a second later, he went on, praying his suspicions were correct. "I'm bettin' you're glad I did, hm…" he murmured against her cheek, grinning when she exhaled heavily, leaning her head back on the couch to close her eyes.
"You're so…" she started but Joker cut in.
"Charming?…" he supplied, cocking his head to the side when she opened one eye to look up at him. At first, she looked incredibly annoyed by his antics this morning, but once he had winked at her, her lips pursed to keep from grinning. "Let me see your arm." He commanded a moment later, nodding toward her left arm in order to keep things moving; it was all about avoiding awkwardness at this point.
Slowly, Jayde raised her head and her arm at the same time, looking up at him as he leaned forward, frowning at it interestedly. She whimpered when he pressed gently on the bruise with his thumb and he hmm-ed as he released the pressure, apparently very intrigued by this wound.
"Alright, I have a good trick for making these things feel better," he said, glancing at Jayde's eyes with his eyebrows raised. "Ready?" When she nodded, Joker slapped his hand hard against the welt, pressing his whole hand on it firmly when she squealed in pain. "Stop being a baby." He said sternly, glancing back and forth between her eyes a few times while she narrowed her glare at him. "Now…today we have a little…thing to do. Sooo, I need you to go and get dressed, do whatcha gotta do, then come back down here." He paused, before nodding once. "Yes?"
"Yes."
Once her bedroom door had closed behind her, Jayde exhaled heavily, closing her eyes to rest her back against it. When she had rolled over in her bed, not even an hour earlier, she could remember sighing to herself, wondering wildly what had possibly come over her to let him kiss her like that, and to respond, none the less. And yet she had still gone right downstairs and let him…be cute around her again. She had always known that Joker was incredibly good at morphing himself into some perfect, charming, smart, funny young guy only to act like a complete asshole the next second but she didn't think he could go so far as to actually make her feel weak from the way he had kissed her neck so lightly like that. She could still feel the light, scratchy stubble on his chin against her skin like a shadow and a slight shiver flowed through her from the top of her head to her toes. No, she could not let him gain control over her again…She still had the upper hand at this point. With this in mind, Jayde went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and do something with her hair before going over to her closet to find something to wear…preferably something to catch his attention and remind him who he was dealing with.
In a pair of tight, black skinny jeans and a cotton, somewhat low v-neck gray shirt, Jayde finally emerged quietly from her room, closing the door behind her as silently as possible, hoping to spot the Joker before he spotted her. Miraculously, the sound of her door had been so faint, neither Tre nor Joker nor Dotcom had heard it and all three were still actively discussing something at the table downstairs. Jayde paused on the landing, watching from above.
Joker was showing a piece of paper to Tre and Dotcom, who both listened quietly, nodding or agreeing every now and again. As curious as she was in finding out what he was saying, her desire to stand there and stare at Joker's shoulder blades through the somewhat tight, white long-sleeved shirt he was wearing was far greater. Her eyes had just fallen onto the dip that followed his spine between his muscles when his voice raised.
"Jayde? Care to join us?" he asked loudly without even turning from the table although Tre and Dotcom looked up a second later, apparently unaware that she had been standing there. Jayde rolled her eyes at them behind Joker's back as she approached, rounding the table to pull out a chair and sit down. His eyes fell onto hers for only a second before he looked back over at Dotcom, raising his eyebrows as he squinted slightly.
"So you think you could be there at say…nine? She'll be unconscious so all I'll need you to do is just pull up to the curb outside the stairwell in the basement and help me get her in." he was saying, but Jayde now cut in, frowning as she held up a finger.
"I'm sorry but…are you talking about me?" she asked, glancing between the three guys. "Because I don't want to be unconscious…" she added a second later, crinkling her nose slightly. Tre laughed while Dotcom grinned sympathetically at her and Joker buried his face in his hands with his elbows on the table.
"No, Jayde…I'm not talking about you…" he answered in a falsely patient voice so she shut her mouth, resigning to silence as he finished explaining things to his guys. From the vague way he was speaking, it seemed as though Joker was withholding details now that she had joined them. But as was his way, she felt confident that he would explain the whole days plan to her once they were alone.
After a few minutes, Jayde had drifted out and was now staring blindly at a spot in the wood of the table as Joker spoke. His voice was deep and quiet at the moment, and she was just about to close her eyes sleepily when his hand smacked down heavily on the table close to her. She jumped with a gasp only to frown at him as he stood up from the table, sliding a set of keys from his back pocket.
"Let's get outta here," he said, holding out his other hand for her to take as she stood from the table. For a split-second she hesitated but then reached out, decided there was no harm in placing her smaller hand in his larger one to let him lead her over to the garage door. As they reached it, Joker turned, releasing her hand momentarily to hold up one finger at Tre and Dotcom. "'Member, fellas…Nine o'clock…" his shoulders hunched slightly as he whispered excitedly, "See ya then!"
As was customary with Jayde, only a fraction of a second passed after Joker had closed the driver's side before she turned to him and asked brightly "Where are we going?" Joker let out an amused laugh when his mind quickly took him back to the times when her curious, constant questions used to annoy him to the point of wanting to push her out of the speeding car. It now made him feel like throwing himself out of a speeding car when he realized he had gotten used to it.
"Well, dearie, we are going to your apartment," he growled, his voice raspy and low as he grinned at her from the corner of his eye. "Have a little…crime scene clean-up to do." The moment the words left him, he reached over, placing his hand over Jayde's mouth in an effort to keep her next question in. "Shhhhhh…No more questions." He then whispered, glancing over at her eyes as she glared at him from the top of his hand. A second later, he tsk-ed with a sigh when she stuck her tongue out from behind it, licking his fingers. "How very childish of you." He scolded with a frown, wiping her spit from his fingers on the shoulder of her shirt as she laughed, smacking his hand away.
"You're lucky I didn't fucking bite you." She answered, smirking through the window with a heavy roll of her eyes and a fold of her arms.
Twenty minutes later, the Escalade had just bounced into the basement level of Jayde's apartment building, leaving behind it the bustling, busy Monday morning traffic. The entire ride through Gotham, Jayde had kept glancing at Joker subtly every time they stopped at a light or stop sign, wondering why he was not more worried that someone was going to spot him through the windows. He had just sat there, scowling at all the people, looking into the passing cars curiously as normally as anyone would have and as they parked, Jayde turned to him, watching as he turned in his seat, reaching into the back.
"You aren't worried that someone is going to see you?" she asked abruptly and Joker's scowl deepened as he laughed through his nose.
"No," he answered flatly. "People are so oblivious, Jayde, ya wouldn't believe it." He turned back around a moment later, holding a black cloth messenger bag as he opened the door to get out. She followed him, figuring that he was right. Besides the scars on his face, there was not much out of the ordinary about him currently. What was more, he had his hair tied back into a tiny bun at the back of his head and from a distance, since the green dye had faded a good bit, Jayde couldn't see how anyone would look twice at what appeared to be a normal guy. Her lips twitched in a smirk when she noted how she kind of liked that about him and yet how dangerous and misleading that seemed.
At the door to her apartment, Joker paused to pull the keys from his pocket, glancing down the rest of the hall before turning to look down at her with a confused frown on his face. "Ya know? The last time I stood right here, I got this really weird feeling that I was about to get my ass beat…" he said as though the phenomenon had been something foreign to him but his confused look faded quickly into a scowl as Jayde laughed.
"You're psychic!" she supplied, laughing harder when Joker rolled his eyes, stepping into the apartment as the door finally opened. She followed him in a few steps but both looked down simultaneously when something hard crunched underneath their shoes against the wood floor in the hallway. The forgotten shattered glass glimmered at them against the mid-morning sun and as Jayde watched it, smirking to herself, she could practically feel Joker glaring at her. Her eyes slowly rose to meet his before she burst out laughing at the expression on his face. She doubled slightly placing her hand on his arm to keep herself standing but he sighed, walking away into the living room.
"Oh, please." She called after him, following to watch as he set the bag down on the couch. "You know you deserved it." After a second, to her great surprise, he nodded with a shrug and slight roll of his eyes.
"Yeah," he admitted fairly, nodding his agreement as he sat down next to a few dark red stains on the carpet before he grumbled, "I just didn't expect you to hit me so fuckin' hard…" Jayde could not help the grin that spread across her face when his eyes just barely shifted to hers from under the ridge of his eyebrows and he looked back down to the stains a moment later, smirking to himself.
Being that Jayde had not really been feeling up to much of anything the last time she was there, she was now walking through her apartment, noticing how dirty and dusty everything looked and how it made her feel somewhat gross just being in there. Joker had now put a few chemicals on the stains on the carpet in the living room, giving off that bleachy ammonia type smell that instantly made her feel like cleaning. So after locating a cloth and wetting it at the sink, she walked through the kitchen and hallway, wiping dust from different surfaces as she went. The hallway was wretched as was most of the furniture in the living room and bedroom, but as she reached her nightstand, she hesitated, memories from months prior flooding her mind like some gate had been opened.
Quickly, she pulled the drawer open, immediately reaching inside to move several papers and random objects aside before her fingers faltered and she stood up straight. In the other room, she could hear that Joker was now scrubbing the carpet lightly with some sort of brush, so after grabbing the picture and necklace, she set the cloth down to walk back out to the living room.
He did not look up until she had sat down but the moment he had, his eyes immediately flew to the objects in her hand and his scrubbing ceased. Jayde watched his eyes for a moment or two until he looked back up at her and she blinked, stammering slightly.
"I uh-…still had these from when, you know…" she went to explain, handing him the somewhat crumpled picture and the necklace. He set the brush down next to him, taking the picture from her to stare at it and at first, Jayde got a feeling that she was about to be in trouble for having these. However, he smirked a second later, holding up the picture for her to see as if she hadn't looked at it every night for three months.
"That's me n' Tre." He explained although it was plainly obvious that she had seen it before and she could swear, as she nodded at him that Joker was feeling a little bit of genuine heart-felt warmth toward his best friend. Without even looking at it, Jayde could picture very clearly how both of them had been caught mid-laugh, both captured in their characteristic stances, Tre with his head thrown back and Joker half bent double, his nose wrinkled slightly. After gazing at it for a few moments, Joker looked back up, handing the chain back to Jayde with a blank look on his face.
"And that is yours." He specified once she had taken it back from him although he reached out a second later, holding the small bullet charm in his fingers to inspect it. "I'll never forget that as long as I live." He went on to mumble, releasing it to return to scrubbing as Jayde frowned.
"What- getting shot?" she asked but he shook his head.
"The way you looked at me when I told you to get it out." he answered, laughing to himself as she grinned.
With the powerful-smelling chemicals now slightly over-powering the apartment, Jayde watched from the kitchen as Joker walked over to her balcony doors to open them wide and pull the curtains back, taking a deep breath of the outside city air. Her eyes were no longer watching the pot she was scrubbing as she somewhat guiltily watched him step out onto the balcony, where he bent slightly, resting his forearms on the railing to peer out over Jayde's portion of the city. It was obvious this was where he felt most at home and was probably absorbing all of the honking horns and car alarms and sirens, the sight of all the people walking around. The longer she stood there, the more she wanted to go and stand next to him, but there was a good chance he just wanted to enjoy that moment by himself.
The pot she had been scrubbing was now perfectly clean and sitting in her dishwasher and Jayde was just about to finish the next one when she heard Joker step into the kitchen at the far end. She hesitated in looking up at him, and instead continued what she was doing until the smaller pot was clean and only then did she look up, once she had dried her hands.
"So, you gonna tell me why were really here?" she asked of him, hopping up onto the counter next to the sink as he leaned against it, cocking his head to the side, blinking blankly at her.
"If I told you now, what fun would that be?" he asked in return, arching an eyebrow. "Don't you like surprises?" Jayde shrugged.
"I've been getting a lot more surprises than usual lately." She explained, looking away when she felt Joker lean in. Her head turned back a moment later only to find his eyes inches from hers and she stopped short; he had gotten awfully close over the past two seconds.
"Like what, pray tell…" he requested politely, his voice quiet and low now. One of his eyebrows arched as his gaze dropped from her eyes to her lips and back up once or twice while she hastened to find an answer. Her own eyes slid down until she found the scar on his bottom lip. Joker blinked when she met his gaze again.
"Like you apologizing to me…" she answered, going slightly cross-eyed when Joker rested his forehead against her, looking down at her from that small distance. He blinked a few times, obviously thrown off a bit by her candidness.
"I didn't know what else to-…" he had finally been in the process of defending himself when Jayde cut him off, closing just the few inches of space between their faces to kiss him lightly. A moment later, her brain seemed to kick back in and she pulled away with a soft, nearly inaudible gasp while Joker's eyes narrowed and the tiniest of smirks pulled the top corner of his lip up, showing off a few of his teeth.
Jayde immediately felt her cheeks begin to warm as she fought to look at something else in the kitchen. "Sorry, I-…" she began, but Joker's hand was already up, turning her face back toward him.
"No, why?" he asked although he did not give her time to answer before he returned the kiss, taking a step closer to be in front of her knees at the edge of the counter. Jayde felt that melting, warming feeling return to flood through her and it took over her mind once again, preventing her from putting up any sort of defense. She responded to him immediately, not even giving second thought to it as she let her hands come to rest on his chest. Through her palm, she could feel his heart banging away, closely matching the way hers had started racing…she wondered foggily if he was feeling lightheaded as well...
Joker's hands had come to rest on the curve of her waist, placed there lightly, one closer to her ribs, the other down closer to her hipbone and Jayde felt his grip tighten only slightly when she leaned closer to him. Their lips moved slowly and gently against each others but Jayde could feel a rather dusty yet familiar, overwhelming need to taste him begin to creep up on her. It seemed Joker could tell what she was about to do, so he pulled away only slightly, opening his eyes a bit to gaze deep into hers, hoping she would understand without making him explain. If she were to let her tongue out just a little, just to taste him even only slightly, the action would most definitely trigger certain…chemical reactions in Joker's brain that he wished to keep subdued for the time being. He was honestly enjoying this and didn't want to mess anything up by doing something she wouldn't agree with. Moments later, to his immense relief, it appeared as though Jayde understood and just slightly, she leaned forward, reconnecting their still innocent kiss, hmm-ing contentedly against him when he replied.
Seconds built upon moments which turned into decades and Joker had just pulled back a bit, either to catch his breath or say something but Jayde found herself thoroughly unable to stop as she leaned forward slightly, catching his lips up again. Joker now growled against her mouth, causing the hair along her arms to raise and a second later, she felt him use his hands at the small of her back to pull her along the counter until she felt the edge on the very tops of her thighs. Her knees were forced to separate and Joker took that as an invitation to step between them, bringing his hands from her back to either side of her hips, pushing his thumbs against her hipbones firmly. As hard as Jayde tried not to let herself make a sound, whimper or moan, the soft, staggered breath that left her against his lips was completely natural and unstoppable. Instantaneously, they separated quickly as though some sort of electric shock had pushed them apart and now Jayde was looking down at her lap while Joker cleared his throat, glancing at something behind her.
Things had gone from perfect to unbearably awkward over the span of about a second and a half, leaving both of them completely unsure of what they could say or do to make this sort of feeling go away. Normally, by now, Joker would have found something funny or charming to say to break the tension but it seemed as he took a step back, that he was just as thrown off as Jayde was. It was obvious, sensations that neither of them had intended to feel had started to take over the moment Joker pulled her hips closer to his and now Jayde was hopping down off of the counter to walk over to her couch, unsurprised when Joker passed her to step out onto the balcony without a word.
He had stopped at the couch to pull a pack of cigarettes from his messenger bag and was now outside, seating himself in one of her patio chairs to rest his feet comfortably on the small table across from him. Smoke soon clouded the air around him and it was obvious that he intended to stay there for a while so she got comfortable on her old couch, flipping on the tv to yawn somewhat sleepily as her eyes grew heavy.
Behind him, Joker could hear the faint sound of the tv although he wasn't listening and did not care what she was watching. It seemed his entire body was tingling slightly from the pent up anxiety floating around it and although the cigarette he was half-done smoking had done wonders to calm the blazing rush of testosterone he had felt when Jayde kissed him that last time, he was still itching to make this anxious feeling go away. It had been so long since he had even seen Jayde without her shirt on, and now, as he sat there, watching over the busy street below with hawk-like eyes, all he could picture was that first time he had ever seen her naked. He could remember thinking how lucky he had gotten to get her to the point where she trusted him enough to be intimate with him. All he could do now was hope that he could get Jayde back to that point before he lost his mind from lack of…attention from her.
For several hours, Joker sat outside on Jayde's balcony, musing quietly to himself, watching closely the busy goings-on on the street below, wondering wildly if someone was about to look up and spot him. He could almost hear the panicked scream let out by some horrified woman. "Oh my god! It's the Joker!" The sound of this in the back of his mind triggered a laugh that left him quietly.
He was just in the process of convincing himself that nobody even noticed that there was somebody sitting on a balcony high above them when he realized that the sun was starting to go down and Jayde had not made a noise on the couch inside in quite some time. The blank noise behind him explained that the television was still on so he sat up, turning slightly in the chair to peer into the apartment. A second later, he sighed, rolling his eyes; Jayde was asleep on her side facing the back of the couch. Turning back around again, he reached up, running his hands along his scarred cheeks slowly, figuring that there was no better time to do it than while she was practically unconscious.
So after standing over Jayde for several long moments, as if testing to see if she was actually asleep and convincing himself that she was, Joker knelt down, quietly pulling his bag toward him to retrieve the smaller black bag from within it. Still crouched, he turned, sliding the remote slowly from the edge of the couch to push the volume button up a notch or two before putting it right back and slinking silently out of the room.
It was not the sound of the television that woke Jayde, although she did notice that it was on somewhat loud, but rather the loud echoing scream of several police cruisers as they sped by on the street below. The sound had been magnified double by the closeness of the buildings and now Jayde lay on her back with her hand over her chest, breathing deeply. There had been some horrible wrenching feeling she felt at that sound, that flew her body into a panic and woke her from a dead sleep with a loud gasp.
Sitting up to try and shake it off, Jayde looked over to find that the Joker was no longer seated on her balcony and for several moments, she paused, staring at the empty chair, remembering the police sirens just then…Her head looked over toward the door to her bedroom when a noise from her bathroom reached her ears beneath the sound of the tv. A smirk met her lips a second later when she stood up to go find him.
By the time she reached the doorway to her bathroom, Jayde was grinning stupidly to herself, wondering what on earth he was doing, but the moment she turned the corner, she stopped short, her eyes immediately flying to his face. He had turned at the same time and was now grinning down at her widely, tightening the fresh, black rings around his eyes.
"Oh…" he started. "Heeeey…" his voice was raspy and low and despite herself, Jayde could not help but grin, shaking her head from left to right, slowly.
"Bad time?" she asked with an eyebrow arched as she took a step from the door frame. Joker laughed in reply, reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulders.
"Perfect time. Have a seat." He growled in a very bouncy, clowny voice, pointing at the top of the back of the toilet. "So here's the deal," he started once Jayde had sat and he proceeded to apply his 'war paint' as though she were not even there, tilting his head to the side slightly to see better in the light. "Linman was kind enough to find out that your 'bff' Detective Oh-livia is done with her shift at nine. So I need you to call her and tell her that you got another letter and that you just want her to come here to pick it up when she gets done with work. Very casual, alright?" Several seconds of silent passed while Jayde watched him apply white greasepaint in long even strokes.
"Then you're going to kill her…" she supplied and ending to his instructions for him, forcing a loud short laugh from Joker that seemed to somewhat burst out of him.
"No," he answered, shaking his head. "I'm going to knock her out here then take her back to the house…and then I'm going to kill her. So…yes, actually."
"Why though?" she probed further, although it was obvious Joker was growing a little tired of being examined at the moment and he sighed irritably as he set down the brush he was using.
"She's an example-kill, Jayde." He started, raising his eyebrows as he leaned toward slightly. "Know what an…example-kill is?" He paused, waiting for her to answer. When she merely shook her head, he went on. "In every great diabolical…'plan' there is an example-kill…A person you kill to make an example out of them. When people hear of or see a dead body, they immediately imagine if it was them or if it was one of their loved ones, how they would feel. So making an example of somebody prominent is a good way to kinda...ripen people up a bit, ya see?" When Jayde continued to stare at him, he slowly grinned, stretching the half-finished red lines on his face. "Its all…part of the plan, Jayde."
Before too long, Joker had finished the rest of his makeup and was now walking over to the living room carpet to soak up what was left of the bloodstains. By the time Jayde had swept up all the glass by the door, by his request, he was taking a seat on the couch, tossing her phone into her lap once she had sat down next to him.
"Alright, remember." He whispered as though she were already on the phone. "'I'm super scared, here's this letter, aaaand…action." Jayde rolled her eyes, smirking when he winked at her with a point of his finger.
After dialing and putting in on speaker, the phone began to ring and ring and ring and at first, it did not seem as though she was going to answer and Jayde was just about to hang up when the detective's voice came through the other end. Joker's eyebrows slowly started to arch in a very sinister glare at the woman's voice and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck start to tingle.
"Hey, Jayde!"
"Hey, Olivia," she tried to sound somewhat nervous as Joker watched her now closely, his eyes narrowed, aiding her attempt to seem anxious. "I um-…got something else in the mail today…I was wondering if you could come by and pick it up."
There was a pause on the other end of the line, giving way to the busy city sounds behind the detective; she must have just stepped outside. "Oh!" she finally said. "Yeah, I'll be right over. Like ten minutes."
"Ok, thank you."
With that, they hung up, and Joker immediately stood from the couch, shaking his head with a laugh as he swung his messenger bag across his chest. "Silly, gullible detectives…" he practically sang, tilting his head to each side as he lead her over to the door, holding it open for her to walk through. "…-Always getting into trooouble…"
After locking her house behind them, Jayde followed Joker down the hallway to the stairwell, where he paused to pull a small walkie-talkie from his bag, turning it on before pressing the button on the side. "Alright, girls, where are we?…" he asked in a raspy, low voice, releasing the button. A soft 'csh' came through before Tre's deep voice.
"Ay, dog, enough with the 'girls' shit, man." he said. Joker grinned to himself. "We're in the basement, it's nine now, she's not here?"
"No, but she will be soon. She's in a navy blue, unmarked P71. Start backing up when you see her walk into the stairwell."
With a nod of his head, Joker started trotting down the stairs, glancing at his watch as they went. "Alright, Jayde," he finally stopped at the top of the last section of stairs leading down into the basement and turned to face her, taking his bag from over his shoulder to place it over hers. "Hold onto this. All I want you to do is stand right here and get her attention when she walks into the stairwell. Say…'hey' or something, I don't know." Again, he glanced at his watch before reaching into the bag at her side to pull out a plastic bag, containing a folded, damp rag. "Remember, get her attention so she's looking up at you."
With that, he trotted down the last few steps before he disappeared into the shadows underneath the stairwell, watching, waiting. For over a minute, Jayde stood there in total silence, her heart pounding away loudly against her chest. Any second, the detective was going to come through that door and Joker was going to come flying out from the blackness like some ghost. Her mind was so busy imagining this that Jayde jumped with a few blinks when she heard the distant closing of a car door and her stomach twisted up into knots. Any second…
Several very key things happened almost all at the same time, so quickly, Jayde barely even knew it had. Outside the door to the stairwell, a loud rumbling engine started up, just before the tall, somewhat broad shouldered detective walked through the door. Jayde had just opened her mouth to say something distracting when Joker slid out of the shadows behind her, just as she had noticed Jayde at the top of the stairs. She had just looked up and smiled, a split second from opening her mouth to say hi when Joker's hand, complete with chloroform-soaked rag closed over her nose and mouth. Instantly, her eyes rolled back and closed, her body went limp from head to toe and Joker groaned slightly when she fell back onto him.
Out of nowhere, Tre was beside him, as if he had just appeared there and suddenly both of them were carrying the detective only about five feet to the back of the Escalade that Dotcom had driven right up to the curb. As soon as they had rolled Olivia into the back, where the seats had already been folded down to make a flat surface, Joker jumped in, holding out his hand to pull Jayde in along with them. Within seconds, they were pulling away from the apartment building as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. Jayde allowed several long moments of silence to go by before she exclaimed, "Holy SHIT!"