A/N: Alright, so here's what happened. This whole thing was supposed to happen in the last chapter. BUT. I've been trying to shorten the lengths of my chapters by about three pages (in Word) So this is supposed to be the end of the last chapter but it didn't quite make it. And I'm already three pages into the next chapter so it shouldn't be too long before I've got the (real) new one out. THIS DOES NOT MEAN I DON'T WANT YOU TO REVIEW THIS SHORT CHAPTER. LEAVE ME YOUR LOVE/HATE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE! = ] -QoM

Once the Joker felt as though he had established enough chaos and fear to hold him over for another night, and once the limousine had carefully wound its way through the city and out onto the interstate, Dotcom rolled down the partition that had been separating the driver's and passenger's seats from the long cab of the car and now he, Joker and Tre were chatting amiably about plans for the evening.

"Well, I'll make something tonight but someone else has to clean up." He bargained, glancing in the rearview mirror at them as Tre, Joker and Jayde glanced at one another. When both of the guys ended up staring down at her with identical raised eyebrows, Jayde finally sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Fine, I'll do the dishes." She eventually offered, turning her head to glare up at Joker as he grinned, bringing his arm from the back of the seat to rest around her shoulders.

Finally, after nearly a half hour, the limo pulled up into the gravel driveway toward the garage, but it was not until Jayde stepped out did she notice Detective Mitchell's navy blue police cruiser, parked in the grass off to the back side of the house. She paused over at the edge of the pavement, frowning at it until she felt Joker and Tre step up on either side of her. Her hands met her hips before she turned slowly to look up at the Joker, frowning when she noticed him grinning at the car.

Without even turning to look down at her, his grin expanded. "You didn't actually think I would waste a perfectly good police car, did ya?" he tsk-ed, furrowing his eyebrows as he finally glanced down at her. "And I thought you knew me…"

As he pushed his white, painted nose in the air to march inside indignantly, Jayde smirked at Tre when they glanced at each other, following him in through the garage. Dotcom was not far behind them and immediately walked to the kitchen to wash his hands to apparently start some sort of long-cooking meal. Jayde was just sitting down at the table when he closed the fridge, turning to the rest of the room.

"Dinner wont be ready until about eight." He announced, glancing at his watch. Both Jayde and Tre jumped when Joker let his hands fall onto the table heavily with a loud, exaggerated groan as though he were really annoyed by this piece of information. Luckily, however, Dotcom was fully trained and certified when it came to detecting the Joker's sarcasm, so he ignored it, forcing himself not to roll his eyes when he turned from them.

Jayde had just turned back to the table across from Joker, just opened her mouth to speak when he suddenly stood up, sliding his chair across the marble floor loudly. Her eyebrows immediately furrowed when he stepped out from behind the table, clearing his throat as she looked up at him. One of his hands raised, held out for her to take.

"Jayde, darling, Tre and I need to have a little meeting in the office upstairs. Wont you let me walk you to your room?" he asked charmingly, winking down at her as she allowed him to stand her from the table and lead her toward the stairs. She glanced back at Tre as though she expected him to explain further for Joker and cut through all the polite shit. Of course, when Tre did not reply but simply followed, grinning, Jayde turned back to Joker, looking up at him as he led her up the stairs.

"Only if you tell me what your meeting is about." She bargained, pausing on the top step as Joker squinted, licking his bottom lip pensively.

"Recruiting." He finally answered, smirking as he turned to keep leading her up the stairs after she had groaned. "Boring stuff, Jayde, very dull. Consider this a favor…of sorts."

They reached her closed door and there, Jayde stopped, resting her back against it as she tilted her head to look up at Joker as he did the same down at her, smirking as his gaze bounced between her eyes a few times. His left forearm met the door next to her head as he took another step closer, leaning down slightly when she dropped her eyes from his to the loosened neckline of his blue shirt. A second later, she jumped vaguely when the back of his right hand's pointer finger came up to trace her jaw line, tilting her head up to look at him once again. Jayde sighed, smacking his hand away playfully.

"Stop it, I'm mad at you." She was clearly joking as the half grin on her face was hard to hide and kept slipping into view as Joker poked out his bottom lip, touching one finger from each hand to the black makeup under his eyes, dragging them down his cheeks to form fake, gray tear trails. She let out a reluctant giggle as he smirked; he had almost forgotten how much fun it was to make her laugh.

"Now, we both know you're not actually mad at me." he began, raising his eyebrows as he brought his forearm to rest on the door next to her again. "So I'm gonna kiss you, then I'm going to go down into my office and speak with Tre." He paused, taking a deep breath as he rolled his eyes. "And then, I'll come back down here and let you in on what we were…chatting about. Deal?"

"Deal." Jayde answered after quickly trying unsuccessfully to find a loophole in his offer that he would not expect her to pick up on. His left scar twitched in his smirk as he leaned down, closing the distance between their lips to connect them deeply, immediately sliding his hand underneath her hair to the back of her neck. Jayde tilted her head back, leaning into him, opening her mouth ever so slightly so Joker could let the tip of his tongue just lightly grace against her top lip. Goosebumps erupted all over her forearms, forcing her to arch her back against her door slightly, and she had just reached out to let her fingers slide inside his unbuttoned green vest to hook into the straps of his suspenders over his hipbones. A second later, Joker grunted, pulling away from her lips as his hands wrapped around her elbows, taking a step back. He growled, squinting down at her as he cocked his head to the side.

"None of that now, ma'am. Gotta let me work before we can play." He cooed, his eyes watching Jayde's bottom lip as she let her tongue slip out a bit to lick any remaining tastes of him from it. A moment later, he looked away, turning to walk down the hallway toward his office, leaving Jayde to smirk after him before opening her door to step inside.

The moment Jayde let her body fall comfortably into her bed, she closed her eyes, sighing contentedly when she imagined crawling into bed with the Joker later. She was almost one-hundred percent positive that he would make it obvious he wanted her to sleep in his room again that night and Jayde was currently the furthest from saying no that she had been in a long time. His bed had been so perfectly warm and comfortable the night before, although Jayde had been fairly confident that having him laying there next to her had a lot to do with how well she had slept.

For some reason, ever since Jayde was in her teens, she had absolutely loved the HGTV channel, the 'Home and Garden' television channel, and had just gotten excited that her favorite show had just come on when her door swung open and Joker appeared in the way rather dramatically, bracing himself against the frame. Jayde smiled from the middle of the bed, pushing herself up onto her elbows to lean on them.

"You gonna tell me now?" she asked, watching as Joker now crossed the room, climbing onto the foot of the bed to crawl up and lay down next to her, forcing her to lay back down so he could rest his head on her shoulder.

"Did I tell you I would?" he asked in return, raising his eyebrows to look up at Jayde as she sighed, glaring at the canopy over the bed, smirking to herself. The answer was obvious, as was the fact that Joker was simply stalling and being an asshole so Jayde refrained from an answer, waiting for him to go on. "Tre and I are going into the city tonight to do a little team-building…recruiting, if you will…" He paused, where in Jayde felt her stomach drop slightly.

"What time-…" she began to ask but Joker cut her off, nudging her neck with his nose as his chin rested on her shoulder.

"All night." he answered with finality. "I wont be back until morning, more than likely." A second later, his makeup wrinkled in his frown as Jayde sighed, closing her eyes. "Don't be sad, Jaybird. It's just for one night." he put as soothingly as he could. Her shoulders shrugged.

"I know," she answered. "I was just excited to sleep in your bed again."

There was a pause before Joker raised his head, turning onto his stomach next to her to rest his chin on her chest. "Well, you can still sleep in my bed…" he paused again, shrugging with a somewhat guilty grin as his arm draped over her side to slide his hand under her back. "I just wont be in it." Jayde laughed, closing her eyes again to tilt her head back.

"Yeah, kinda defeats the purpose…" she grumbled, only to sigh when she felt Joker's lips press lightly against the underside of her chin, leaving a soft kiss before another, just below the first.

"I'm terribly sorry…How ever will I make it up to you…" he growled sarcastically, smirking against her skin as she shivered slightly from his warm breath against her neck. A soft sigh left her rather reluctantly and after another second, her hand had reached up, sliding into the back of his hair against his scalp. At least if he was going out for the night, Tre would be with him. For some reason, the thought of him being alone out there all night made her slightly anxious…even though he was obviously completely capable of looking after himself.

Joker had just made it to her lips where he kissed her, bracing himself with his forearm just next to her head, but after only a few seconds, Jayde pulled away abruptly.

"Can't I go with you guys?" she asked, frowning when Joker sighed, closing his eyes as he lay his head down on his arm.

"No." he answered flatly before his eyes opened again, apparently joining Jayde in noticing how adamant and quickly he had answered. A second later, he shrugged, reaching out to let his finger start tracing patterns on her stomach. "I need you to stay here and keep my bed warm." He paused, looking up at her. "And I need you to protect Dotcom if someone breaks in." His partially concerned expression softened into a smirk when Jayde finally giggled, turning onto her side to face him. His makeup was getting all over her bed and his shirt, but obviously he didn't care and neither did Jayde for that matter.

"Alright, I'll stay here. Will you be here when I wake up?" she then asked, raising her eyebrows at him as he shrugged again, closing his eyes.

"More than likely. Depends on how cooperative our recruits are tonight."

For nearly an hour, Joker and Jayde lay in her bed upstairs, quietly watching that show she had wanted to watch on HGTV. Joker lay next to her on his side with his cheek against her shoulder, mindlessly twirling one of her curls around his middle finger on the other side of her. Jayde was just thinking to herself how peculiar it was that he would lay here and watch a show on garden and back yard renovations when her right ear started to pick up the faint sound of growling and his finger had ceased its movement. She took a slow, deep breath in before she exhaled gently, closing her eyes to enjoy a grin with herself.

A loud bang woke Jayde nearly another half hour later, and although the moment she took a breath in, the smell of Dotcom's cooking forced a growl from her stomach, she was more interested in what that tremendous bang had come from and where the Joker now was. Aside from her, the bed was completely empty and almost appeared as though no one had ever even been there, if it hadn't been for the pinkish and black smudges on her comforter, pillows and the shoulder of her shirt. She sighed, rolling her eyes as she stood up from the bed to go find the probable cause of the disturbance.

Out on the balcony, Jayde stopped short, mildly unsurprised that she hadn't needed to go far or even ask to find out what had happened. Joker was laughing, Tre was shaking his head and Dotcom stood by the sink in the kitchen, hands on hips, looking pretty annoyed.

"Uh…" she began, walking down the stairs toward them, glancing between all three of them. "What happened?" she then asked in reference to the loud bang and the now quarter sized, fresh bullet hole in the wall between the kitchen and dining table, where she now noticed Joker's fifty caliber Desert Eagle sitting at the edge. Tre decided to answer first.

"Well, apparently, he needed to 'test-fire' just to-,"

"-To make sure it was working!" Joker cried in defense, tossing his hands as Jayde walked past them, copying Tre by shaking her head. "Plus I had to make sure Dotcom's reaction-time was still top notch…Since I'm leaving him at my house…unattended…" he now growled, glaring from Tre to Dotcom to Jayde and back again. She rolled her eyes, walking over to Dotcom by the sink to place her arm around his shoulders with her other hand on her hip.

"Dotcom stayed here for three months without your supervision. I think he can handle it." She defended him, grinning at him as he nodded in agreement once, folding his arms over his chest. "In fact, I think we'll make a really good team."

Joker rolled his eyes heavily, turning to the table to grab his newly fired gun to stow it into the pocket of his coat and only then did Jayde notice that both of them had changed their clothes and that Tre was looking really nice. His long brown dreadlocks were still pulled back in a low bundle but he had changed his attire to wear a pair of black slacks, shiny black shoes and a crisp, light blue button down Oxford shirt. A black coat that closely mimicked the one Joker was wearing was draped over the back of one of the chairs. Jayde had a feeling that Dotcom was secretly drooling all over himself, hence the way he had his back to them over by the stove now.

She was just noticing that Joker had changed from purple to black, pinstriped pants and was now wearing a white Oxford shirt and black vest when he walked over to get the keys to the Escalade from the box on the counter. He brought a wave of newly applied cologne with him, sending a vague trail of it her way and she took a deep breath and another step closer to him. Tre had followed over and was now stepping out into the garage, clearly aware that his best friend would possibly want to say goodbye and Joker glanced over when he heard the door close. Jayde slid closer to him where he stood over by the corner of the counter, scowling down at his small black notebook. Once she was close enough, she slid between the front of his body and the counter, smirking up at him as he sighed, setting the notebook down.

"I sure hope you're gonna say bye to me." she murmured quietly, fully aware that Dotcom was still on the other side of the kitchen, even though it looked like he was about to slide from the room hastily any second now. Joker's eyes squinted as he placed his hands on either side of the counter to lean on them, putting him more at eyelevel with her. His head cocked to the side.

"And if I don't?" he asked, glancing between her eyes, half-expecting some sort of sarcastic answer, although it looked as though she was searching hard for something to say. A moment later, she gave up, rolling her eyes with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I dunno, I'll be really bummed out." she answered honestly, but grinned when Joker let out a genuine laugh, the corners of his eyes wrinkling slightly. His lips met hers a second later, obviously uninterested in the fact that Dotcom was standing ten feet from them but he only kissed her for a few moments before he pulled away, leaving one last peck on her lips as he stood to his full height.

"Don't forget to lock up, ya hear me?" he barked at Dotcom, but then turned back to Jayde when he realized he couldn't put it off any longer. His left eye winked quickly as he smirked down at her. "Bye."

"Bye."

The moment the door had closed behind them, Dotcom turned to her, shaking his head. "You guys are such fags…"

*Hope it was everything you dreamed and more.* -QoM