As the Joker stirred in his bed the following morning, he blinked twice and was suddenly wide awake, feeling remarkably as though he had not even been asleep. Surprisingly, he had found himself lying on his back, which was out of the ordinary for him, since sleeping that way usually turned his muscles into something like frozen rubber bands. However, it seemed that morning, whatever deity he believed in was smiling down on him and his back felt perfectly normal, making it easy for him to sit right up and rise from the bed, glancing behind him quickly to make sure Jayde was still asleep. At some point, she had turned onto her side away from him, her mass of frizzy curls strewn out behind her, spilling onto his side of the bed. It used to be that her long hair bothered him, sticking to his greasepaint makeup or getting in his eyes, nose and mouth, but lately, he had taken a liking to pulling on it and threatening her with taking a pair of kitchen shears to it. He snorted a quiet laugh to himself when he imagined her reaction if he were to actually cut her hair.
After checking the time to be positive it was still well before nine and after visiting the bathroom to make his breath anything less than rancid, he stepped back out into his bedroom, glancing again at the bed to be sure Jayde was still asleep. Fortunately, he was incredibly gifted with moving silently and he praised himself for this skill when he noticed the sound of her quiet, deep breathing and her undisturbed position. For a moment, he paused, admiring the way she looked in his bed; purple was definitely a good color on her…or rather…she was a good color on purple.
His good pair of jeans lay across the armchair in the corner so after stepping into those and locating a black shirt, belt and shoes, he applied all of these before he remembered he had left the keys and his 'birthday knife', as he affectionately named it, on the nightstand. So as quietly as possible, he stepped back over to the bed to slide the objects gently from the black wood table next to it. However, as luck would have it, the moment he moved to straighten back up, a sharp spasm from the muscles in the still healing bullet wound in his leg sent a shock up along his side, sending him bumping into the side of the bed. He cringed, reaching down to grip his thigh then rolled his eyes when Jayde stirred, whimpering quietly as she woke. For a second, he considered ducking down below the edge of the bed and waiting until she was convinced he was gone but she was already turning over with the upper half of her body, blinking heavily when she noticed him preparing to walk away. As much as he had hoped she would assume this was a dream, Joker halted when her fucking disgustingly adorable morning voice asked, "You leaving?"
Doubling back, Joker leaned forward over the bed on his hands. "Yeah, go back to sleep." He answered, planting a heavy kiss on her temple before he stood again. "Big day today." Jayde nodded an understanding, turning back onto her side as she closed her eyes so Joker took that has his permission to leave. However, once he reached the door and opened it, he heard her speak and he paused on the threshold.
"Please be safe," she called gently after him. Joker hesitated. That was a strange thing to say…He felt his entire face morph into a scowl.
"Why?" he could not stop himself from asking, even though the answer was perfectly obvious. His eyes fell onto the carpet when he heard Jayde take a deep breath in through her nose before she exhaled heavily.
"'Cause I dunno what I'd do without you," she answered honestly and Joker cringed when he felt his insides squirm, but not from disgust, rather discomfort when he realized he might feel the exact same way about her, even though admitting that would mean absolute death to his pride. He had a feeling, as he left the room without a word that even though the sentiment had come off sounding sickeningly romantic, Jayde had only said it because she honestly felt that way. She was wanted now; being with him was probably the safest place for her to be at this point. She probably truly had no idea what she would do if something were to happen to him.
Downstairs and out in the garage, Joker found Tre leaned against the side of his truck, sleepily smoking a cigarette, barely able to keep his eyes open. Joker smirked as he approached, withholding from the temptation of scaring the living daylights out of him as he had obviously failed to hear the garage door open and close. Instead, however, he pushed his shoulder as he walked past, nodding his head toward the truck as he rounded the side to climb into the passenger seat…Tre had forbidden him to drive his truck since Kieron had less than accidentally wrecked his last one. With a groan, Tre climbed into the driver's seat, rolling down his window once he had started the truck to let out the smoke from his cigarette.
"So where we goin'…" he asked groggily, pulling the massive truck from the garage, only to frown half-way through his yawn when Joker rolled his eyes.
"I told you…We're going to pick up my decoy, make him look all pretty, then we're going to meet Tweak for the explosives, then we're going to Gordon's house, then we're coming back home to get ready for happy fun times tonight." He explained hastily, pushing some of his unruly green hair from his face when the wind from the open window blew it there. With a huff, he glanced over at the cigarette between Tre's fingers, glaring at it until he noticed and looked over with a scowl. "Bout done with that thing?" he asked, the top of his nose wrinkling while Tre took one last long drag from it.
"Yeah," he answered, just before he flicked the lit butt of his cigarette into Kieron's lap, laughing as he jumped with a loud curse, rising off of the seat as it fell between his legs and underneath him, only to begin melting a hole in the leather.
"Ya know, I should just let it burn-," Joker started to say but Tre reached over, pushing him out of the way when he realized his plan had backfired.
"Damnit!" he shouted, picking up the butt to flick it through the open window next to him before he looked over to where Joker was laughing, leaning forward to admire the brand new burn mark on the seat beneath him. Tre shook his head, reaching over to rub his thumb across the stain vigorously but unfortunately, to no avail. "Damn, man, you're such an asshole…" he added under his breath, shaking his head as Joker laughed, rolling his eyes..
"…Says the guy who just tossed a lit cigarette at my crotch…"
After a short drive into the city, and after giving Tre directions on how to reach Mister Malcolm's apartment building, the heavy, bulletproof truck was pulling into a neighboring parking garage, where they found a good spot near the stairwell between two tall SUVs. They both got out at the same time, Tre following Joker over to the door as he tied his hair back into a tiny bun at the back of his head, groaning when the haircut Maggie had given him allowed for some of the shorter pieces to hang lamely in his face. Tre shook his head as they began trotting up the stairs.
"I don't know how people don't recognize you, bro," he commented, glancing over at Kieron as he laughed, shifting the black duffle bag's position on his shoulder.
"Trust me, I don't either," he answered. "It's like they actually think I have white skin, black eyes and red lips all the time." Bringing his hands up, he ran them along his clean, makeup-less cheeks, rubbing his fingers across his deep scars. "-When in reality, I'm actually a pretty smart-lookin' chap, if I do say so…" Beside him, Tre rolled his eyes.
"At least Jayde thinks so…" he grumbled, smirking when Joker nodded.
"Yeah, I guess I'm lucky she's not into black dudes, eh?"
Up on the third floor, Joker and Tre stepped out into the hallway, walking right down to door number 315, where they stopped, Tre in front of the door, Joker to the side, his back against the wall, out of the peep hole's line of sight. He handed Tre a familiar, black, Fed-ex cap that Dotcom had once used to deliver a human heart to Jayde, seemingly years ago. He watched Tre struggle to fit the hat over his thick head of dreadlocks, rolling his eyes.
"I had a feeling it wouldn't fit on your fat-ass head…" he said quietly, grinning when Tre glared at him, just before he reached out and knocked heavily on Jason Malcolm's door. After a few moments, a young, incredibly familiar-looking man opened the door, looking as though he had just woken.
"Jason Malcolm?" Tre asked. The young man arched an eyebrow somewhat suspiciously before he nodded hesitantly.
"Uh…Yeah?"
At that moment, several things happened all at the same time: Tre pushed the unsuspecting man into his house while Joker flew around the corner, clamping a damp, chloroform soaked rag against his face, knocking Jason Malcolm completely unconscious in a matter of seconds. As his body went limp, Joker let him fall to the floor heavily before he took a deep breath, standing up straight to bring his fingers together to crack his knuckles and glance at Tre. His eyebrows raised as he motioned to the man on the floor.
"Would you like to do the honors?" he asked, but Tre shrugged.
"It's your party, you do it." He answered, taking a step back as Joker exhaled heavily, just before he leaned down, took a seat on Jason's chest and wrapped his fingers around his throat, squeezing tightly to constrict his airway. Normally, he liked for his prey to be alive, squirming, staring up frantically into his eyes as he watched them suffocate slowly, but being that this young man seemed fairly strong and it was still early in the morning, Joker continued until the chest beneath him ceased it's movement and the man breathed no more. He removed his hands after several long moments, bringing up one finger to rest beneath his victim's nose, feeling for any breathing before he pressed that same finger to his neck, searching unsuccessfully for a pulse. Above him, standing in the man's kitchen, Tre was shaking his head, tsk-ing.
"Man, you make that look too easy…" he commented in something that sounded a bit like awe as Joker stood up, tilting his head to both sides to crack his neck.
"It is too easy," Joker answered, shrugging.
For several seconds, the two of them stood there, staring down at the lifeless body on the floor before Tre whistled quietly between his teeth, shaking his head back and forth slowly.
"He looks exactly like you, Ki," Tre stated, glancing over as Joker nodded an agreement.
"Though not as devilishly handsome, I have to admit," he replied, stepping over to grab that black duffle bag from where it had fallen to the floor upon entering the apartment. "But we're about to get him a little bit closer. C'mon, help me get his clothes off."
As they worked together to remove the man's shirt and pajama pants, Tre snorted a laugh, glancing at Joker as he too laughed, both knowing exactly what the other was thinking. Tre started first.
"I bet-" he began but Joker cut across him, nodding his head.
"-Dotcom wishes he was here, I know." He then finished, sharing in a hearty laugh at the gay nerds expense.
After nearly twenty minutes of struggling to redress Jason in Joker's purple garb, after painting his face sloppily in the greasepaint makeup, and after spraying his long-ish, dirty blonde hair green, Joker pulled out his knife and created two cuts on either side of his mouth, aiming to look as closely to his scars as possible. Unless the cops who found this man were complete morons, which was somewhat likely, they would be able to tell from the freshness of the cuts that this was not, in fact, the actual Joker, but at least finding this body would create a good amount of confusion and hold them up a bit.
Joker and Tre both stood up, sweating slightly from the effort of dressing a dead body and they glanced at each other quickly before back down at the 'Joker' on the floor. Kieron rolled his eyes.
"I can't believe I'm sacrificing my purple coat on this guy…" he mumbled disappointedly, his eyebrows forming a small crease as he frowned down at his decoy. Tre clapped him on the shoulder bracingly.
"We'll get you another coat, bro, don't worry," he offered a little too falsely consolingly for Joker's taste and he laughed as he smacked his hand away.
"Shut up, let's go. I've got guys coming to get him soon."
After a short trip through the city into the Narrows, Tre and Joker were once again getting out of the truck to step onto the sidewalk and over to a heavy metal door where they paused, turning to look at each other. Joker knew what Tre was about to say and beat him to the punch.
"Nope, this one's all you," he instructed firmly, nodding his head at the door, leaving Tre to roll his eyes, reach out, and knock heavily on the metal. A few moments later, a tiny slot opened near the top where a set of eyes peered through, glancing back and forth between the two men. A squeaky voice spoke.
"Password?"
Joker tsk-ed, rolling his eyes upward as though trying to remember what it was. "Let's see, um…I think it's…" Suddenly, he leaned forward, pounding hard on the door, once with his fist as he put his eyes right up to the slot. "'Open the fucking door or I'm gonna kill you, Tweak,'." The slot slid closed quickly, only for the sound of several locks clicking out of place to come from the other side while Joker looked to Tre with a shrug at the blank, annoyed expression on his face. "What? That password always works."
In a matter of seconds, the heavy door slid open sideways, revealing a shorter, mousy-looking man with beady eyes who immediately shuffled backward, allowing the Joker and his associate to enter the short, dingy hallway. He seemed to be cowering in either fear or respect, or both, as the tall Joker glared down at him, ignoring the fact that he was not wearing his usual greasepaint smile.
"Show me what you've got for me, Tweak, I'm on a time limit here." he instructed impatiently, nodding his head toward the end of the hallway.
"Certainly," the short man replied, scooting away down the hall, throwing a shifty, uncertain glance over his shoulder every few paces. Joker glanced at Tre to roll his eyes as his best friend grinned, once again sharing in a silent conversation; nervous people like this irritated both of them.
Down the hall and to the right sat a room that very much mimicked the dirty, cramped hallway they had just left, although the walls were hidden by tall, metal shelves, on top of which sat all manner of chemicals and objects used for bomb-making. Huge spools of wiring and fuses sat on the floor all around the room, leaving a small space for Joker and Tre to stand on and they both turned on the spot, taking in the vast array of random weaponry and explosives. The man, Tweak, was pushing a pair of glasses onto his face when Joker finally spoke up.
"So I need something small and discrete-…" he started, but paused when Tweak immediately walked over to one of the shelves and pulled down a small, black bar, connected to several wires. He returned, holding it out as though the thing were moments for exploding but Joker took it from him, scowling down at the thing as he inspected it, picking up the end of one of the wires to examine it.
"This is an equivalent to C-4…Medium-velocity explosion but causes one hell of a fire," he explained in his rather high voice. Behind his large, round glasses, he raised his eyebrows. "Is the home made of wood?"
"Yes," Joker answered, nodding. "The supports are all wood,"
"Ahh…" Tweak groaned, reaching up to scratch nervously at the back of his balding head. "Then you guys are in for quite a show."
After being shown through nearly all of their options, Joker made the executive decision to go with the first device he had been shown but as Tweak handed him a fifty foot spool of cable and fuse, both he and Tre glanced at each other, frowning as they inspected the frayed end and shoddy placement. Joker took a step toward him, feeling empowered even without the help of his greasepaint as the short man took a hasty step backward, the back of his legs bumping into a small metal desk against one wall.
"Now, if I have problems with this, I can come back and expect to uh-…speak with you about your shitty workmanship, yes?" he asked in a raspy, clowny voice, raising his eyebrows as Tweak stammered, glancing back and forth between the Joker's intimidating glare and the one of his tall associate.
"Uh-…Y-yes, of course, but I'm positive it should be more than-…"
BANG
Joker jumped with a cringe as splattered, warm blood hit him square in the face, staining his shirt and exposed neck and arms as he stood less than two feet from the now dead man, missing half of his head. Behind him, Tre was disarming his gun to place it back into the lining of his jeans, looking up with his eyebrows raised when Joker spun to face him, tossing his hands.
"You couldna' waited 'til I wasn't two feet from the guy and didn't have my mouth open?" he asked loudly, spitting several times on the floor as Tre shrugged his broad shoulders, motioning at the lifeless, bleeding body of Tweak that had slumped down to the ground against his desk.
"C'mon, bruh, the guy was 'bout to stiff us for this shitty-ass cable and you even said-…" he started to say, but paused, frowning when Joker shook his head irritably, trying to rid himself of the loud ringing the gunshot had started in his ears as he leaned down to pick up the cable, fuses and the black bar.
"Fail, Tre…Fail." He grumbled, shoving the spool of cable at him as they left the room and ventured back out into the hallway. "Now I gotta find a sink in this dump to wash all this blood off. Go start the car, I gotta-…gotta go…" he was stammering impatiently before he took off down the hall, glancing in each of the rooms while Tre laughed to himself, rolling his eyes as he headed back out toward the street.
Before long, Joker returned to the truck, carrying a long, metal rocket launcher, which he placed quickly in the back before climbing into the passenger seat, where he noticed Tre scowling at him in slight confusion. Joker shrugged, pushing his hair away from his face as he soaked in the cool air conditioning.
"What? I figure if the fuses don't work, we have a back-up plan," he explained, smirking proudly at his sleuthing skills as Tre shook his head, pulling the massive truck away from the curb.
Once making it past the police station without incident and after Tre had jokingly threatened to drop him off outside, the truck was pulling up alongside the Gordon house where they stopped, pausing to watch for a few minutes. Fortunately, both of the family cars were gone, as Linman had informed Joker the make and model of both of them so after reaching into the back for two fake maintenance-worker hats, both Joker and Tre put them on, stepping out of the truck with their supplies, glancing around for any sign of people. It seemed most of the neighborhood had already left for work so once they had carried the fuses, cable and explosives back through the Gordon's car port and into their small back yard, Joker glanced around, feeling a little uneasy about the less than concealing chain-link fence that separated the yard from the neighboring house.
"Alright, let's do this fast," he told Tre, kneeling down to unwind a long length of cable from the plastic spool before he handed it off, feeding extra length as Tre walked along the back of the house to the far side, where he disappeared momentarily from view. While he was gone, Joker glanced at the house behind him, straining to see through the windows. The glare from the sun made it difficult to see anything in detail but as his eyes caught movement from beyond, inside the home, he turned back to face the Gordon's house, trying hard to ignore the prickly, itchy sensation of the hair on the back of his neck rising; someone was watching them.
Kneeling down, Joker pulled a pair of wire-cutters from his back pocket, severing the length of cable from the remaining thirty feet, only to continue working quickly to connect it to the narrow black bar. On the back of the explosive, Joker found a long strip of paper, which he peeled away hastily before pressing the sticky strip to the wall of the house, hidden behind the drain pipe that ran vertically from the roof to the ground, where it allowed for rain water to run off into the grass. Unless someone came around and started snooping, this device should go completely unnoticed…at least until Tre came around the house toward him and Joker looked up, watching his best friend's face as a slight look of concern slid onto his features. Tre's eyes moved to meet the Joker's where they shared a quick silent conversation. Joker understood immediately and rose to his full height, turning to face the neighbors yard, where a middle-aged woman had just stepped out, still wearing a floral nightgown and slippers.
That prickly sensation returned to the back of Joker's neck as their gazes locked and the woman's eyes began to widen as she noticed the scars on either side of his mouth, the dark, evil eyes and short, green ponytail and wispy hair poking out from beneath the black hat. Then, simultaneously, her mouth opened to scream as Joker sprang into action, ripping the hat from his head, taking with it, his hair tie, loosing his hair so it fell down around his face. Like a cheetah that had just spotted it's prey, Joker ran across the yard to the short chain-link fence, which he jumped easily, thrusting his hand into his pocket to pull from within it, his trusty, newest, birthday knife.
"HELP!" the woman screamed, running as fast as she could toward her back door but being that she was still in house shoes and Joker was much quicker, he was to her, practically tackling her as his hand flew over her mouth, muffling her next cries. She struggled hard against him as he pushed her to the ground near her house, hidden from view by her tall wooden fence, but Joker was already laughing, moving to sit on her as he kept his hand clamped hard over her mouth.
"Looks like you were in the wrong place-…" he started, bringing down his knife, to easily cut her throat from one side to the other, forcing her panicked, horrified eyes to widen even further as dark, red blood spilled from her neck and into the lining of her nightgown. "-At the wrong time, my dear." He finally finished with a growl, watching in interest as she began to choke and cough up blood against his hand.
Finally, after nearly a full minute of watching his latest, unexpected victim bleed out, Joker stood up, flinging his hand to spatter some of the blood onto the wall next to him, staging it to look as though she had been attacked a different way. However, as he glanced down at the woman laying before him, the pool of blood beneath her and his already bloodied finger, he 'hmm'-ed to himself, kneeling back down to dip his finger back into the blood.
Tre was just trotting across the yard, shaking his head as he approached and looked from the dead woman to the message Joker had just scrawled across the wall.
'Joe Kerr was here'
"Damn, man, was that really necessary?" he asked, watching his best friend's evil features as he leaned over, wiping the rest of the drying blood on his hand against the wall, leaving a long, smeared print against the pale yellow paint. Joker shrugged.
"She was about to go screaming to the whole street and probably would have called dear Mister Gordon to inform him that the Joker was planting explosives against his house, so…you tell me." he answered, leaning forward to glance inside the woman's house. "Go start the car and keep an eye out, I'm gonna put her inside and make sure no one else is home."
With Tre gone to obey his direction, Joker leaned down to drag the woman up the wooden steps and into the back door of her house, closing it behind him once her slippers had made it past the threshold. The inside of her house reminded him of Maggie's, though not as tidy and as he took a deep breath, he could tell she owned a cat or possibly five. His nose wrinkled as he leaned down, tugging the dead woman's left arm from underneath her body, only to pause when the glint of something shiny caught his attention. On her left hand, on her fourth finger sat a surprisingly stunning silver ring, complete with several small but expensive-looking diamonds, laid into the band. For several moments, he knelt there, staring at it, wondering if this was an engagement ring or if this seemingly lonely older woman was actually married…Either way, she would most certainly not be needing it anymore and upon thinking about it, Joker thought of one person who would probably enjoying wearing it... So he slipped the ring from her finger and tucked it into his front pocket as he rose from the body and stepped over to the sink to rinse his hands and knife, before he went to join Tre in the waiting truck.
Halfway back to the house, Joker glanced over at Tre as he grunted a laugh, shaking his head. "God damn, bruh. Three murders before noon," he commented, passing a cigarette to Joker as he lit his own and rolled down the windows. Joker nodded with a shrug, inhaling deeply as he took a deep pull. "That's gotta be a new record, right?" Tre's eyebrows raised when Joker shook his head.
"No," he answered, but when he did not continue, Tre shook his head again, leaning back comfortably in the seat.
"I don't know how a guy like you landed a girl like Jayde, man, that's the honest to god truth," he stated, but then laughed when Joker scoffed. However after a few seconds, after thinking about what he had said, he too shrugged his shoulders, flicking some of the ash from his cigarette through the open window.
"Honestly, I don't either, Tre." He answered, letting eyes gaze out through the window to the passing fields and the white and black-spotted cows within them, munching idly on the grass. "None of this was supposed to happen…She was supposed to be a game, but…" At this, his voice trailed off so Tre took the opportunity to speak.
"I'm just surprised she doesn't annoy you," he commented, laughing as Joker nodded, his eyes widening.
"She does annoy me, with all those…questions and…kissin' me 'n shit…" Again his voice trailed off and Tre laughed loudly.
"Man, you lie. You like all that about her. If you didn't, she wouldn't be living in your house and definitely wouldn't still be alive," he paused, his notched eyebrows furrowing slightly as he looked over to his best friend. "Ya know, if I didn't know any better, I would say you love that girl." At this, Joker let out a loud, fake laugh, tossing his head slightly as his hair blew into his face.
"Ya know, if I didn't know any better, I would say you're 'bout to get knocked the fuck out."
Finally, after their seemingly long and highly eventful morning, Joker was stepping back into the huge house ahead of Tre, his eyes immediately noticing Jayde over on the couch with a lock of her hair twisted around her finger, watching one of the ridiculous shows she liked to watch. His first reaction was to go over, sit next to her and start bugging her to pieces but fortunately, he remembered that lovely rocket launcher he had found at Tweak's place so he nudged Tre in the arm, moving back toward the garage door to go retrieve it. Without even looking, Joker knew Jayde's forever curious eyes had already turned to watch and he smirked to himself as he imagined the first question out of her mouth.
"What is that?"
Her question flew right out like clockwork as Joker and Tre returned to set the heavy, metal 'toy' on the dining room table but before either of them could answer, they both shouted 'JINX!' at the exact same time…although Joker could swear he had won by a half-second. The arguing ensued.
"Ah! I was firs-!"
"No way, bruh. That was ya boy-"
"Bullshit! I said it way before-"
Joker looked over to Jayde, only to laugh when he noticed that cute, little wrinkle her eyebrows formed when she frowned. From the expression on her face, it was obvious Jayde was about to demand an explanation, so Joker beat her to the punch and shrugged as Tre walked away scowling.
"Tre and I started a game where we say 'jinx' every time you ask something like that." He explained, knowing this would offend her. "First person to say it gets to punch the loser, so…C'mere, Tre…" he called to him like one would to a straying puppy but Tre was already stepping outside onto the patio, rolling his eyes as he lit up a cigarette. Over on the couch, Jayde let out a huff of irritation before she folded her arms, turning back to face the tv, leaving Joker to roll his eyes, laughing as he trotted over to launch himself over the back of the couch and land heavily next to her, bouncing both of them up and down a few times. His hand reached out, practically smacking the top of her head in a less than affectionate way.
"Aw, Jayde, don't be a spoil-sport. We have fun at your expense, what's wrong with that?" he asked, baring his teeth in a highly unfriendly grin. Jayde rolled her eyes, her arms still folded firmly in place over her stomach as she stared pointedly at the tv ahead of her. Joker could feel himself ready to grow irritated and maybe even a little angry with her attitude, but this entire day was supposed to be fun for him. This was the climax of his plans, and nothing was going to ruin it for him. Leaning toward her, Joker took a short breath in of that wonderfully familiar coconut scent before he growled, "Damn, girl, you gonna kiss ya man, or what?"
Jayde seemed to be debating on whether or not she wanted to refuse him but seemed to think better of it and leaned to the side, planting a short, highly unsatisfying kiss on his cheek. She had to have known this would not suffice as Joker could feel her grinning against him when he laughed deeply, crazily, grabbing both sides of her face to turn it toward him again and kiss her firmly on the lips. However, she loved pretending to be mad at him and smacked him a few times on the chest to facilitate this as she tried to pull away. Finally, Joker let her go, but only to wrap his arm around her to stroke the top of her head with much more force than necessary.
"Ah, Jayde, I'm happy to see you too, dear."
He was being perfectly honest.
The rest of the afternoon passed painfully slowly for Joker as he waited anxiously for the sun to go down and hunting time to fall. He could not have forced his knee to stop bouncing if he tried so instead of running around in circles like he honestly felt like doing, he took his anxiety and excitement out on his roommates, turning first to start firing off gay jokes at every turn, followed shortly by making fun of Tre for a while, before sitting there with his arm wrapped around Jayde, only to tap incessantly against her shoulder with his finger. She only tolerated so much of this before she pushed him away, groaning something about 'obnoxious', even though he was absolutely positive she was enjoying the attention he was showing her.
Finally, finally, at around eight, he excused himself to go take a shower and figure out what he was going to wear, since his purple suit was no longer an option. As he thought longingly of it, his heart gave a small pang of angst at losing such a wonderful, appropriate outfit for his personality and persona, but it had truly gone to a good cause and he could always find something just like it along the way. Of course, he did still have his nearly matching, black suit but something about the evening and the warm weather outside called for something less heavy and constricting. The camouflage pants, black boots and shirt would have to work for the night…especially if he planned on blending in and not being caught.
An hour later, after applying his beautiful face, lacing up his boots and arming himself with several knives and his favorite Desert Eagle, Joker bounced from his room and all the way down the stairs, pausing when he remembered that he had forgotten to tell Jayde what her first instructions of the evening were. He turned to face the upper landing and took a deep breath.
"JAYDE!"
His hands met his hips as he waited, but after only a few moments, she appeared on the second story, smiling as she leaned over the railing, looking down at him. He could not stop himself from smiling back at her and admiring the way her long hair fell over her shoulders to frame either side of her face. He cleared his throat.
"You are to leave the house at ten-thirty, not a minute later, and meet us about a half-mile from the dorms." He told her firmly, remaining traces of a grin still evident on his face, giving his upward-curving scars the greater illusion of a smile. "The address and directions are already in the GPS. Follow that then page me on the radio once you reach the intersection of Fifth and Main." At this, Jayde opened her mouth to ask 'what radio?', but once again, Joker cut across her, holding up a finger. "It's in the center console in the Escalade." He paused, his dark, black-ringed eyes focused on hers intently. "You understand?"
Without hesitation, as Joker had trained her to do, Jayde responded, "Yes." And with that, Joker turned to stride across to the garage door and disappear beyond it, without so much as a look over his shoulder.
Ten miles down the road, with Tre driving the newly painted and mildly reinforced police cruiser once belonging to Detective Mitchell, Joker pulled his small walkie-talkie from his pocket, switching the dial to the first channel.
"Team one, are you in place?" he growled into it, his hyper vigilant eyes scanning the passing road and fields for movement. A soft 'csh' came from the radio before a quiet reply.
"Yeah, boss, house number one has been taken care of, but we got to house number two and…someone painted blood over the door." Came the voice of team one's leader. Joker's eyebrows furrowed as he continued to catch every ounce of movement around him with his eyes. The black makeup aided his already superior night vision.
"Is it blood or red paint?" he then asked after his quick mind had processed the information to a certain point. His predatory instincts were kicking into overdrive; it had been a while since he had pulled off a stunt of this caliber and it was calling on every single second of training he had put himself through.
The voice answered, "blood."
Joker nodded, smirking to himself. "Ah, looks like someone's been reading their Bible." He growled. "Leave the house alone. Any others with blood on or over the door are to be left alone. When you've finished the third house, hide and wait for instruction. Zero hour in two."
After being assured by team one that his orders would be obeyed, Joker switched the radio to the next channel, glancing over at Tre as he drove, scowling determinedly. It seemed he was feeding off of Joker's energy and was feeling just as anxious and pent-up as he was. Joker shook his head. "People never fail to astound me, Tre," he commented but did not continue and instead went on to the next channel to get updates on the other two teams and to give the information concerning the blood on the doors. Joker believed strongly that the people who had actually done their 'homework' or were smart enough to connect the Biblical occurrence of the first Passover to his plan deserved to have their child live, as it was in the scripture. If he was going to play God, he was going to do it the right way.
Once Joker and Tre had made it safely into the heart of downtown Gotham and up into one of the four buildings that cornered the intersection of Fifth and Main, Joker went directly to the windows, bringing that same radio out again to press down the button and speak into it as he stared down at the intersection below, watching his goons in clown masks as they strung his 'dead body' by the neck from the traffic light.
"Alright, boys, lookin' sharp. Let's get Mister Joker up then one of you call the piggies and let 'em know we got a dangler at Fifth and Main, yes?"
"Yeah, boss."
And of course, within five minutes after the clowns had gotten the body hung up and scattered, the sound of sirens and the flashing of blue and red lights reached the building. First, it was only two or three cars, but it seemed the news of the 'Joker's death' spread like the flu through the police department and soon, at least six or seven cruisers came to barricade the intersection, followed shortly by one of the long, giant fire trucks and two ambulances. Joker and Tre watched all of this from behind the glass on the third floor, both quietly lost in their own thoughts. Joker had no idea what Tre was thinking about, but he was silently wondering how Jayde was about to react when she came down the street to see what appeared to be his body hanging by the neck from the traffic light. Perhaps she would remember that he had not been wearing his purple suit upon leaving the house, perhaps she would instantly break down and cry…The thought of her grieving over his supposed death brought him a small bit of contentment, and even sent a smile to his face as he imagined the way she would burst in and start slapping him when she realized he was still very much alive.
Fifteen minutes later, the cops seemed to have made little progress in getting the body down, apparently afraid it was about to start speaking or blow up or infect them with some disease but luckily, the time was well past ten-thirty, meaning he was about to notice the Escalade turning down Main street any moment now…With his nose and forehead against the glass, Joker watched intently, ignoring Tre's laughter as he watched for Jayde, only to grab the radio from his back pocket when he noticed the black, heavily armored vehicle down on the street below, turning left as the police officer directed traffic that way. He pressed his fingers to the side of the device, speaking into it.
"Jayde, where are you?" he asked, even though he had just seen her and he laughed as he released the button, picturing the look on her face when she heard his voice coming from seemingly nowhere. After a few seconds, the radio gave a soft 'csh' before her somewhat panicked voice.
"I thought you were dead!" she shouted through the walkie-talkie and Joker looked over at Tre as he laughed, shaking his head as he continued to watch the scene down on the street below. "What the fuck-" she had started to go on and ask what the fuck was wrong with him but she stopped to let out a short squeak of surprise; Dotcom must have found her.
"Get out, lock the car and follow Dotcom. I put your gun and knife into the center console so grab those too." He instructed quickly, giving Jayde no further time to sit there and berate him for faking his own death and not giving her warning. Being that the police were so close, literally right up the street, Joker hoped sincerely that Jayde and Dotcom were being quiet as they left the Escalade in the alley and made their way into the building.
For several minutes, he and Tre stood there, listening for the sound of approaching boots and before long, Joker turned to face the door when he heard Jayde and Dotcom step into the room. Just as he had been expecting, Jayde looked mad and yet totally relieved as she stormed over to him, glaring at him as a huge grin flew onto his face. He took a step back with a loud laugh, having foreseen the cute, wanna-be powerful shove she gave him, pushing him hard with her hands against his chest.
"You couldn't have warned me you were going to 'kill yourself'?" she asked loudly, slapping him girlishly as all three of the boys laughed, and Joker held up his arm to fend off her attack.
"And miss this reaction?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "No way!" Finally, he took control and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer until she relaxed and exhaled softly against his shirt. Once convinced she was not going to keep attacking him, he pulled back, placing one of his gloved hands against her scarred cheek to grin down at her. His eyebrows raised. "I'm bettin' you're glad I'm still alive though, arentcha?"
As Jayde hesitated, obviously still fighting with herself on whether or not she should still be 'mad' or otherwise be relieved that he was still alive, Joker watched, suddenly realizing that besides the one kiss he had forced on her earlier that afternoon, he had barely touched her all day. His hands seemed to gravitate to her hips as he waited for her answer so instead of wasting more time, he leaned down, quickly kissing her lips gently, once again forcing himself to ignore the fact that Dotcom was probably staring at them doe-eyed, and that Tre had probably rolled his eyes and turned away. But as Jayde leaned into him, tilting her head back to meet his kiss fully, Joker grinned against her lips, feeling as though no one else was even in the room with them. A second later, the sound of Tre clearing his throat, forced Jayde to pull away from him, the deepening rouge of her cheeks evident even in the dark of the lightless room.
"Ay, bruh," Tre said to get his attention. "It looks like they might have noticed it's not you down there…"
Quickly, Joker turned back to the windows, just in time to see an officer he recognized as a man named Taylor turn to the crowd of onlookers that had gathered and bring a loud-speaker up to his face. His somewhat familiar voice came through loudly enough for all four of them to hear right through the glass, although the sound was muffled.
"We've just confirmed this is not the Joker," he called to the crowd. "All of you need to return to your homes, immediately. There is a city-wide curfew of eleven while his whereabouts are still unknown. Keep checking online and on the news for updates."
At this, Joker let out a growl of laughter, reaching down into the cargo pocket of his camouflage pants, pulling from within, a small detonator, complete with blinking blue light, circling that one fateful button. Without hesitation, he pressed his thumb down on it hard, watching the police down on the street as the explosion at the dorms went off, rattling the entire building, shaking the windows so hard, he was surprised they didn't all shatter simultaneously. Beside him, Jayde slapped her hands over her ears as the subsequent shock-wave hit the building like a sonic boom and Joker howled with laughter as he wrapped one arm around her, leaning on her slightly as he and his faithful team watched the cops and on-looking Gothamites scatter like ants.
With the crowd of people disappearing into near-by shops or their cars, the police scrambled into their cruisers, apparently of the mind that if they were to hurry, they could assist whoever had been involved in the explosion. Joker knew this to be an extravagant falsehood; it would be a true miracle if anyone survived the dorm bombing. But as much fun and as exuberant as he felt about killing a massive amount of firstborns with just the push of a button, it seemed Joker was ready to switch back into business-mode and move his team onto the next task- Gordon's house.
"Now," Joker began, turning from the windows once the intersection had completely cleared and he clapped his hands together once. "Dotcom, grab that bag for me and let's get outta here." Out in the hallway, Joker's strides lengthened with determination as he led his team down to the stairwell, using this time to explain their next moves. "Dotcom, we're leaving the cruiser where it is over off of Fifth and I'm going to have you come and get the truck in the morning. For now, I want you to get us over to Gordon's taking the back roads through the Narrows. Jayde, you keep lookin' fine and Tre, I need you to use your black-guy radar to keep an eye out for the fuzz." Tre glanced over at Jayde with a heavy roll of his eyes as she grinned at him from behind Joker's back, before he answered.
"Check."
Jayde copied him and responded as well by acknowledging to his instruction with a "Yeah, boss", something she had heard said to him many times, but up until them had not used. She laughed quietly when he stopped half-way between two stairs, his eyes narrowed and his forehead wrinkled in a scowl as he hmm-ed delightedly. His hand slid onto her lower back as she caught up to him, smirking to herself as he slowed to walk down the stairs beside her.
"Hey, I like that…" he growled, grinning when both Tre and Dotcom groaned and rolled their eyes. "-think I'll have you call me that from now on…" he then added, leaning down to say it in her ear, sending goosebumps washing all along her arms.
Downstairs in the alley, Joker, Tre, Jayde and Dotcom all stopped, listening for sounds out on the street, waiting for several long moments before making a move to the Escalade. From the near silence and distant wailing from the sirens of fire trucks, emergency response teams and police cruisers, it seemed the intersection of Fifth and Main had been cleared, along with it, the crowd of on-lookers, who had all apparently decided it would be safest to just return home. Joker laughed to himself as he followed Tre into the middle two seats of the SUV, leaving Jayde and Dotcom to sit in the front.
"I bet Kelly's got his hands full tonight," he commented, turning to glance backward through the window as Dotcom began to back out of the alley. "…Though it's pretty unlikely anyone survived that explosion."
"Did you tell him what was goin' down?" Tre asked, leaving Joker to shrug his shoulders as his knee started to bounce out of control.
"Nah," he answered. "I wanted to leave it a surprise…kinda like the surprise we left for Gordon at his house." An excited, impatient giggle of sorts left him as he imagined the look on the police commissioners face when he learned his house and family had been destroyed. Of course, there was every chance that he had predicted something of the sort and had relocated his family, but after everything Joker and Tre had gone through that morning to get the explosives, wire the house and cover their tracks, he would see this through to completion, whether it was pointless or not…At least Gordon would learn not to speak publicly about things he did not understand. As much as Joker would love to have a nice, sit-down chat with him about his true purpose behind attacking the city so relentlessly, the risk to his freedom was too great; blowing up his house would just have to suffice.
Glancing over at Tre, Joker rolled his eyes. "I hope this thing goes off after all that trouble we had this morning with Tweak and his fuses," he was grumbling, his knee about to bounce a hole into the floor of the SUV. Tre nodded his agreement.
"I just can't believe Tweak tried to dick us over on that weak-ass supply. It's a good thing we caught him." At this, Joker barked a laugh.
"You mean, it's a good thing you blew him half to hell, right?"
Luckily, Dotcom knew exactly where he was supposed to be taking them and pulled off to the side of the road after about twenty minutes, right alongside a row of dark houses, parking the massive Escalade in between two smaller cars against the curb. At night, in the dark, the familiar-looking houses seemed different, almost haunted looking as they sat elevated above car ports and driveways, supported by their wooden beams. It seemed the inhabitants of this row of homes had already turned in for the evening, being that it was rapidly nearing one in the morning and either had not heard the explosion or were already watching the news about the 'attack'. Joker was just wondering if Gordon's neighbor had been discovered, dead in her house yet when he snapped himself out of it and clapped his hands together with a loud smack.
"Alright, we're gonna get out and walk over to that alley across the street from Gordon's place, about fifty feet down. Dotcom, keep it running 'cause we're coming right back. As soon as the three of us are back, you're gonna pull down that side street over there and take us back home. Then it's time for one last smoke at the house, capiche?" he asked everyone but Jayde was frowning from her place in the passenger seat. Before she even opened her mouth to speak, Joker knew exactly what she was going to say and grinned as he and Tre glanced at each other.
"I'm coming with you?" she asked, but only to groan and roll her eyes as they both, again, shouted "JINX" at the exact same time. Even Dotcom, in the driver's seat laughed, looking over with a sympathetic smile when Jayde turned to glare at him for finding their offensive game amusing. From the back seat, Joker and Tre were climbing out of the car, arguing again over who had said it first so Jayde followed, rolling her eyes.
After looking both ways to be certain the street was empty, Jayde followed the two boys to the far sidewalk where they slinked along the long, solid white wall until they could sink into an alleyway, just across from the Gordon's driveway. With Tre and Joker behind her, Jayde turned to face them, watching as Joker pulled yet another detonator from his pocket, flipping open that same plastic latch to reveal the familiar, blinking blue button. As much as she had grown to enjoy being out with them, participating in these crazy schemes of his, Jayde could honestly only be excited that it was seemingly almost over and that they were mere minutes away from being on their way home to celebrate. It had been an incredibly long day and she was really ready to finally be alone with him when he wasn't feeling extraordinarily obnoxious. Since that morning, really all she had wanted was to sit with him and kiss his stupid face.
Now, as she watched him prepare to push the button, Jayde stared up at the Joker, grinning at the determined, excited energy practically pulsating from him. His black outlined eyes glanced back and forth between his hands and the home across the street before he must have noticed her staring and turned his attention to her, his eyebrows arching when he met her silly, adoring gaze. His red painted lips twisted into a smirk as he leaned down slightly toward her.
"Kiss me, fool, for good luck." He instructed, once again completely ignoring Tre as he brought his hand up to pull Jayde's face toward him, connecting their lips. He could feel her trying hard not to grin or even laugh in surprise that he had actually just halted the plan to kiss her, but as Tre pushed his shoulder, Joker rocked to the side, rising to stand up straight and turn to glare at him.
"Man, c'mon, blow this shit up. I got a blunt of some dank at the house wit' our names on it." He explained, nodding across the street at the perfectly in-tact home as Jayde blushed heavily and Joker rolled his eyes. Tre continued to ramble on under his breath in that lovingly, characteristic way. "-Think I'm foolin' witchu…Ova' here smoochin n' shit, tryna blow up somebody house…"
Finally, Joker turned to face the street, pressing his thumb down onto the button. Jayde watched, expecting the light to turn from blue to red like it always did, however, this time, the light remained firmly blue and ceased it's blinking; the house remained in tact. Looking up at him, Jayde watched as Joker's eyebrows furrowed, wrinkling lines into his already creased and smeared greasepaint.
"Wha' happen?" Tre asked, leaning to the side to see around Joker's shoulder to the device. Confusion was obvious through every feature on his painted face and his tongue clicked against his top teeth as he scowled from the detonator to the house across the street and back again.
"Uh…Nothing, apparently?" he answered, his voice raspy and slightly irritated. A moment later, he groaned, smacking the thing against his hand as if that would make it work. Again, nothing happened. At this, he swore loudly, tossing one hand at the perfectly in-tact home. "Those damn fuses, I swear Tweak fucked us over on these andit's not like we can go ask for a refund..." He growled, turning to glare at Tre pointedly as he shrugged, taking a deep breath in.
"Well, I really wanna go home 'n get nice 'n fucked up so I'm gonna run over and put that one fuse back in place. I bet the wind just knocked it out again." He offered, taking a step forward to walk out of the alley, but Joker held out an arm, holding him back.
"You crazy?" he asked, his eyebrows arching sharply as Tre rolled his eyes.
"Nah, bruh, I'm just gonna go put it back in then when I come back, you gotta press the button again and it'll go up." He explained as though this were no big deal, although Joker did not seem convinced and kept his arm in place, scowling at Tre's animated features until he sighed, rolling his eyes. "We done this a thousand times, that shitty-ass fuse prolly fell out again. Imma go fix it."
Finally, Joker moved his arm, allowing Tre to trot out into the street, both he and Jayde watching as he glanced both ways, wisely, before he crossed over to the car port of the house, crouching slightly as he snuck past one of the family's cars. Jayde took a deep breath, the feeling that this might end really poorly beginning to creep up in her as she and Joker watched the far side of the street, practically holding their breath as Tre stayed out of sight. Any moment, the house was either going to go up in a ball of flames or flashing blue and red lights were going to appear from seemingly no where. Joker seemed to be sharing just a bit of this nervousness as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and back, watching closely, glancing up and down the street for any sign of life.
Fortunately, a few moments later, Jayde and Joker both breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Tre came trotting back across the street toward them, grinning proudly. Joker clapped him on the shoulder as he squeezed between them back to his original position within the alley, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead to remove the small beads of sweat that had gathered there.
"Yeah, man, that one fuse slipped out again," he explained, nodding at the detonator in Joker's hand. "Try it now."
And with that, Joker's thumb pressed down hard on the button, only for another, more mild explosion to light up the night sky, illuminating their surroundings as though the sun were out before it all went black again. Several near by car alarms erupted into screams as the force of the shock wave rocked them slightly, pieces of flaming house raining down along the street. Joker doubled over in laughter as Tweaks prediction came to life, putting on one hell of a show as the neighboring homes burst into flames, the wood giving several loud pops as the fire consumed them like small pieces of paper. Behind them, Tre was running out onto the sidewalk, motioning with his head for them to follow.
Back at the Escalade, the three of them bounded in, occupying their previous seats, laughing triumphantly as Dotcom pulled them away from the curb and down the side street that Joker had indicated just minutes before. Tre and Joker shook hands once he had tossed the now useless detonator out the window.
"There you go, bruh. Another one of your crazy-ass plans I helped you see through to completion." Tre was saying, grinning proudly as Joker nodded, sighing heavily as the rest of that anxious energy drained from his body and he took one more deep breath of dirty Gotham air, wondering to himself if he would ever come back to enjoy it again.
"Yeah and I have gold star stickers for all three of you when we get home," he answered, his voice clowny and raspy with sarcasm and all three members of his team rolled their eyes heavily.
Back at the house, once they had all made it inside, Tre disappeared promptly into his room for those blunts he had mentioned while Dotcom ran upstairs to change his clothes, leaving Joker to step forward and twirl Jayde beneath his arm in a very ballroom dance-like way, grinning as she laughed and placed her right hand on his shoulder with the other clamped in his black glove. From there, they rotated slowly, smirking at each other, waiting for each other to say something. Jayde spoke first, shaking her head slightly as she closed her eyes.
"I don't know what I would've done if that had really been you…" she murmured in reference to the Joker-like body that had been hanging from the traffic light. She opened her eyes but only to let them focus on his chest, somewhat hesitant to meet his gaze now as he grunted a laugh, pulling her closer so he could lean down and 'dance' with her cheek to cheek.
"Me either," he answered a few moments later, grinning against the scar on her cheek when she laughed. Her hand released his to link her arms around his broad shoulders and rise up onto her toes, taking a deep breath in when they stopped moving to simply stand there in the middle of the house, their arms around each other. Joker inhaled deeply, relishing in the fact that the night had gone well, and the incredibly few people he actually cared about were still alive and with him. Reaching up, Joker took a gentle hold of her wrists to pull them from around his shoulders and take a step back, smiling when Jayde opened her eyes to look straight up at him. "I have something for you," he suddenly stated, his grin expanding when Jayde's bright blue eyes lit up. "Go sit outside and I'll be right back."
While Joker climbed the stairs, taking two at a time, Jayde obeyed his instruction and stepped out onto the patio, taking a seat at the large round table, only to look up when she heard the glass slide open behind her and Tre stepped out, glancing behind him into the house.
"Where that crazy bitch go now?" he asked, pulling a lighter from his pocket before he sat across the table from her, placing a thin, freshly rolled blunt between his lips to light it and inhale deeply. Jayde grinned, knowing exactly who he was asking about.
"I dunno, he said he has something for me…" she answered, glancing inside over her shoulder as Tre's eyes widened.
"Uh…really?" he asked, his eyebrows tightening into a frown. "Didn't say what?" Jayde shrugged, leaning forward to take the blunt from him as he passed it across to her. She took a small, light pull from it before she exhaled slowly and she was just about to go on and explain that he had not when the glass slid open yet again, revealing Dotcom, now wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. He took a deep breath, only for his nose to wrinkle when he immediately noticed the stench of burning weed and cigar paper. As he sat down at the seat between Jayde and Tre, she held the blunt out to him, but he shook his head, pulling his pack of cigarettes from his pocket to lean back and light one. A moment later, he seemed to notice that Joker was no where in sight and repeated Tre's question.
"Where did he go?" he asked and Jayde was about to roll her eyes and answer the exact same way when the glass slid open one more time and Joker stepped out, smirking to himself as he pulled a silver chain and bullet charm necklace from his pocket.
"Alright, so I found this in your jewelry box the other day and noticed how you haven't been wearing it…" he started, handing the necklace to her as he sat down at the last remaining chair, leaning back to cross his ankle over his other knee. His scars drooped in a slight scowl before he nodded at her, prompting her to take a closer look. "So I figured I would add to it."
As Jayde took the end of the necklace in her hand, eyeing the familiar bullet charm, her eyes widened when she noticed that he had added a charm to the necklace in the form of a silver-coated tooth- the tooth she had knocked out of his mouth when he had come to find her at her apartment, the day after that fateful night up in her bedroom. Joker grinned as Jayde laughed, handing it to Dotcom as he reached out for it, bringing it closer to his face to get a better look at the back tooth Joker had turned into a charm by coating it in molten silver and added a metal loop to the top so it would hang properly.
"Why?" she asked, watching with a smile as Joker shrugged, glancing over at Tre to take the blunt from him.
"Well, because no one, present company excluded," he motioned at Tre with his thumb. "-hits me that hard and lives to talk about it." With another hefty shrug of his shoulders, Joker took a long drag from the blunt, inhaling deeply before he exhaled a moment later. "I figured you would wanna keep it as a trophy or something." Jayde laughed, reaching out to take the chain back from Dotcom and place it around her neck where she was positive it would stay for a very long time. Just the fact that he had taken the time to make something so meaningful for her meant a great deal.
"Thanks," she finally said, smiling at him. "I really like it." He winked in response but looked to Tre as he huffed in a jokingly irritated way.
"And where's my gold star, bitch?" he asked somewhat loudly, glancing over at Jayde and Dotcom as Joker frowned but then nodded, passing the blunt to Jayde so he could reach into the pocket of his camouflage pants.
"It's right here…" he answered, slowly pulling his hand from the confines of the pocket, only to reveal his middle finger held up in a very rude way, leaving Tre to roll his eyes and Jayde and Dotcom to laugh.
Being that it was nearing two o'clock in the morning by the time the blunt went out, Joker leaned forward, blinking slowly as he admired the fuzzy, warm feeling the high was giving him. Next to him, Jayde was yawning heavily, Tre was finishing up his cigarette and Dotcom was looking about five seconds from passing out, so Joker sat up, resting his forearms on the table, taking a deep breath to exhale with a groan a moment later.
After excusing himself from the table, Joker ventured upstairs, grinning to himself when he imagined the lame sort of excuse Jayde was about to make up in order to follow him and he could just picture the way Tre and Dotcom rolled their eyes when she stood up to go inside. With a deep yawn, Joker reached up to his face, placing his hands over both of his scars to rub them downward heavily, smearing the remaining greasepaint to cover his jaw in one large, pink smear. The night had gone excellently if he did say so himself, but something about the thought that it had been his last, final crescendo in Gotham, his final attempt at tearing the city apart was making him the slightest bit sad and nostalgic. He could remember so clearly his first few weeks after arriving there, of meeting Maggie and starting to make connections, learning where everything was, lurking and stalking around in the dead of the night. His first robberies in Gotham had been almost like a game, so ridiculously easy, he could have easily done it with his eyes closed. Then of course, his first encounter with the Batman…What a joke…Escaping from prison in Gotham was almost too easy. But leaving had always been a part of the plan, once he had run his chaos amok and worn out his name. It was safe to say that no one in Gotham would soon forget the title 'The Joker' and honestly…he really liked it that way. So perhaps he did like the attention a little…
But the more he thought about it, the idea of starting over somewhere new, or even somewhere old, like Chicago, somewhere familiar to him, was exciting and he could not wait to introduce himself to the city, not as Kieron, but as himself- The Joker. He wondered what his first plan would be…He wondered if Jayde would be involved…
After a refreshing, intensely wonderful shower thanks to the remaining high floating around his brain, Joker had just stepped out into the bedroom in a pair of fresh, clean, comfortable pajama pants when he noticed Jayde, already laying in his bed, smelling wonderfully like coconut as though she too, had just emerged from a shower. She had changed into a tank top, revealing that she was still wearing that silver chain. Joker lay down next to her, admiring the way it fell perfectly along her chest, if anything, accenting the curves of her breasts. He turned onto his side facing her as she did the same to face him, smiling peacefully, sleepily at him, watching his features as he reached out, letting his fingers lightly trace the cool metal chain down from her neck, over her collarbones to the line of her tank top, where he paused, fighting himself on whether or not to make eye contact with her yet.
"I'm leaving tomorrow," he finally said, breaking that slightly romantic, peaceful silence, only to bring his eyes up when he felt her expression change from placid to show mild concern. That adorable crease formed between her eyebrows again as she frowned. Before she could ask, he went on, lowering his eyes once more to watch his finger travel back up along the chain. "I'm leaving Gotham tomorrow and…I don't think I'm comin' back," he finally explained, pausing again to see if Jayde would jump in. Surprisingly, she stayed quiet, obviously waiting for him to go on to say what she was hoping desperately he would. "If you want to come with me, you can…If not, I understand-…" At this, Jayde cut in, reaching up to wrap her small hand around his much larger one, ceasing it's movement so he was forced to look at her.
"Well…I kinda have to go with you…right?" she asked somewhat hopefully, failing miserably to disguise it as some different emotion. Joker saw right through this, but went on, shaking his head against the pillow.
"No, you don't have to. The tape I made of you pretty much clears your name. I talked to Linman yesterday. He-…" Joker paused, watching the way Jayde's eyes darted back and forth between his as she started to put the pieces together. "He told me that the cops think you've been drugged this whole time and that I've been forcing you along. So…you could probably go to them and give a few lines about-…"
"No, I'm coming with you," she immediately cut across him, scooting closer to him by only an inch or so, linking her fingers with his to bring his hand up and under her chin, where she kissed his knuckles lightly. "If you want me to." She paused before she smiled at him. "If not, I understand…"
If there was one thing Joker really liked about her, it was when she turned his own words against him, saying the exact same thing, but giving it a completely different meaning when used with her soft, sweet voice. He grinned, bringing up his other hand to push some of her hair away from her neck, to let his fingers rest there instead.
"I want you to."
Leaning forward, Jayde caught his lips gently, kissing him deeply as she turned slowly onto her back, reaching up to rest her hand on his broad, bare shoulder. Joker followed, rising onto his elbow just next to her as he returned the kiss, wondering why he had even put the offer out there for her to not come with him. She had said earlier that she didn't know what she would do without him; Joker realized now, as he kissed her, that he honestly, truly felt the same way.
His hand came up to the side of her face as he pulled away, smirking down at her from behind half-lidded eyes, gliding his thumb across her scar lightly. Jayde's eyes were still closed and he noticed her swallow hard, obviously fighting hard on whether or not to speak. So in an effort to help her just come out and say whatever it was, Joker leaned down again, placing his lips gently against her cheek, kissing her lightly several times as she shivered, sighing against him.
"Joker," she started, threading one of her hands up into the back of his hair gently. "I-…I think I love you."
"Jayde…" Joker started to reply, feeling a weight sink into the bottom of his stomach and his heart started to bang out of control as his nose and forehead rested against the side of her face lightly. "…Ithink you're crazy…"
The following morning passed surprisingly quickly as Jayde packed her clothes and belongings from her beautiful room. Joker had not said where they would be staying, but she was fairly confident it would neither be a five-star hotel nor a huge home of beauty and amenities like the one she was standing in, but either way, she was totally at peace with leaving Gotham and journeying on with her man and his two closest henchmen. She would definitely miss her comfortable bed, both her and Joker's, but honestly, she felt as though even sleeping on a couch would be totally fine as long as he was close and keeping her safe.
The garage door had been opening and closing all day, as Joker and Tre loaded boxes and bags into both the Escalade and truck but Jayde was somewhat surprised to find that Dotcom had not been out of his room at all since he had returned with the truck earlier. She found this a bit strange, being that he probably had more clothes and accessories than Joker, Tre and her combined but she figured he was so busy packing everything that he just hadn't even had time to step outside for a cigarette yet.
Finally, at around two o'clock, Jayde was just stepping out onto the landing with her last bag when Joker and Tre stepped back inside from the garage, laughing about who-knows-what. She smiled when Joker looked up and had to fight hard not to return the grin. Instead, he clapped his hands together, raising his eyebrows.
"You about ready to bounce, woman?" he asked as she approached, reaching out for her bag as she handed it to him, turning to glance up at the second story, where she was positive Dotcom would be appearing any moment.
"Yeah, but uh-…where is Dotcom?" she asked, looking from Joker to Tre and back a few times as they glanced at each other. Just then, the sound of a door opening upstairs caught her attention and she turned, only to spot her newest best friend trotting down toward them, smiling forcedly when he noticed her watching expectantly.
"Hey, where is your stuff?" she asked innocently, only to feel a huge weight sink into her stomach when he grew close enough for her to notice his watery eyes from behind his glasses. "You are coming with us, right?" she asked, her voice raised slightly as emotion began to work itself up in her. Dotcom's eyes flickered up to Joker and Tre's before he looked back down to her, his nose wrinkling as he shook his head.
"No, I'm gonna stay here for a few days and-…" he had just been about to explain when Jayde launched herself forward, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as tears sprang to her eyes and traveled down her cheeks, soaking into the shoulder of his shirt. Totally uncaring of what Joker or Tre thought, Dotcom and Jayde stood there for several long moments, hugging each other, trying to stop crying before they had to separate and pull back to look at each other.
"Where are you gonna go?" she asked with a slight whimper, finally stepping back to wipe her eyes with a nervous laugh at appearing so emotional and lady-like in front of the Joker and Tre. Amazingly, she exhaled quietly when she felt Joker place his hand on her back in a clueless sort of effort to comfort her. Dotcom moved his glasses to wipe his eyes.
"I'm gonna stay here for a few days, then go and stay in New York with a friend until I can get a job at a restaurant there," he explained, grinning at Jayde when she noticed an excited sparkle in his eyes. It was impossible to be upset that he was not coming along when it was obvious he was so thrilled to be going back to doing what he was truly passionate about. She sniffed heavily a few times before she laughed, nodding her head.
"Well, I'm really happy for you," she told him, although her nose wrinkled slightly as she melted into a few more tears. "I'm gonna miss you." At this, Joker broke the mood by interrupting with a loud, sarcastic, "Awwww!" Jayde and Dotcom both rolled their eyes at each other before going in for one last hug, before he turned to Joker and extended his hand.
"Boss, it's been a real pleasure," he said firmly, grinning up at him as he reached out, meeting him halfway for a solid handshake.
"Yes, I have," Joker answered, smirking.
As the Escalade pulled away from the house, following Tre's truck along the gravel driveway for the last time, Jayde tried hard to stifle her tears at leaving behind her best friend, and looked over when Joker's hand patted her knee.
"Don't worry, kiddo," he said bracingly. "I'm sure you'll end up seeing him again."
Jayde shook her head, resting her hand over his as it rested on her leg and she linked her fingers with his, not caring whether he wanted her to or not. "I know, I'm just going to miss having a friend around." She explained, reaching up with her free hand to wipe away the last of her tears, turning her head to watch those familiar fields pass by on the right for the last time. Beside her, Joker glanced over, frowning slightly before he looked back to the road.
"Well, ya still got your old pal Joker, baby," he offered comfortingly, resting back in the seat as Jayde leaned toward him, kissing him lightly on the shoulder through his shirt.
He was right. She did still have a best friend, a lover, a protector with her and even though he had not returned the words she had said to him the previous night, Jayde was positive he felt something that closely mimicked love toward her, even if it took days, weeks, months, or even years for him to admit it. It was only a matter of time…
A/N: ALRIGHT! THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE END! Unless of course, you're one of the amazing readers out there who is planning on participating in the contest! Again, a quick recap on the rules-
3 page minimum- no max (I wanna see your best!)
PLEASE check your grammar and spelling!
Use my characters and follow one of the two story lines from the endings. No adding of characters either, please, let's just stick to Tre*, Joker and Jayde for now.
Remember, you are writing either a prologue, OR a first chapter to a third part. No need to name it or anything like that.
And even if you have never written anything before in your life or feel like you aren't "good enough", write something and send it to me! I'm always open to read!
I need all contest entries by August 16th at midnight!
The winning piece will be used as the prologue to the third part and the author will receive a copy of the new chapters a day before they are posted each time.
My brain is a bit fried from writing all of this so if I forgot to mention something and you have a question, feel free to email me or send me a private message through FF. Email is queenofmean389 AT gmail .com
**Remember! FIVE entries AT LEAST or the contest is off! I look forward to reading you work!**
Love always, The Queen of Mean
OH AND LEAVE ME A REVIEW! = ]