A/N: I really hoped you guys enjoyed the first chapter and, in fact, thanks for reading it. Also, big thank you to the person who put this on Story Alert :)! Just so you know...this chapter involves THE JOKER...and so will all chapters from now on ;)! Please tell me what you think, it would really help me improve and tell me if I'm doing things right!

Jay walked and walked for many minutes. It almost seemed like an eternity to her, though, and it would seem so to anyone who didn't know the place they were in.

Jay walked trembling like a child. She was afraid of her mother's reaction if she eventually returned and didn't find her there. In fact, many fears were spinning in Jay's head: her mom, the fact that she might get lost and, ultimately, this strange man she was looking for. Her brain couldn't fully justify the reason why she was doing this, but all that Jay knew was that she needed to.

After turning left at the end of the third corridor she had passed that night, Jay felt she finally came close to her target. She looked to her right and saw bars. Jay felt one more mixture of emotions. At the same time she felt glad and regretful…and scared. What was going on inside her head? No one could give an answer to that. Not even Jay herself.

She moved on and saw big spacious cells. Some of them had prisoners, some not. Being the late night hour that it was, all the men inside were lying around asleep. This discouraged Jay a bit, thinking that the one she was looking for might be asleep as well. But if she was there she wanted to at least catch a glimpse of the Joker. She walked on and noticed that near the end of this part of the unit, there were desks and offices as well. Jay looked at her left and noticed a chubby policeman sitting on a chair, in a deep sleep. He had a ring of keys hanging out of his left chest pocket. Jay took a long look at him and realized he was the guardian…or at least on of them. She poked him a little in the belly to figure out if he were waking up any early, but from the snore he let out when she did it Jay was sure that the coast was clear. Right next to the guardian, at his left, there was a big table. On it, Jay noticed there were different types of knives, of all shapes and lengths. Near the end of the table she saw a purple coat. Jay took a better look at it and noticed it had a few stains which might have been blood stains.

Jay then shot her head to her right and suddenly froze. Her mouth went dry and her knees began shaking of fear…or, maybe, excitement? There he was. The Joker was all alone in his cell, sitting on a small bench inside, his face looking down on the floor. His hands were cuffed, but Jay could tell by the drumming noise his fingers made against each other and by the way he was slightly moving his knees up and down that he was wide awake. Not to mention that she saw him blinking a couple of times.

Jay walked around his cell so she could face its front side and, ultimately, to be in front of the Joker. He didn't move a muscle. The Joker probably couldn't tell that she was there. Jay took a few steps forward and a bar with her right hand, resting her head on it. She just stood there and looked at him breathlessly, relentlessly. Jay could feel her heart beat like crazy and her palms get very sweaty, all because of fear, but she just couldn't take her eyes away from the man.

The Joker's head was bowed down, so all that Jay could see mostly his forehead. His make-up was smudged up and parts of the actual color of his skin were showing up near the edge of his forehead. He was wearing a bright blue shirt, a green vest with matching tie and dark blue pants. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up above his elbows. Jay contemplated him for a while, the shaking of her body and her fear not ceasing though.

"Are you just going to stay there for the rest of the night or say something?" the silence was broken by the Joker after a few minutes, the man not even looking up at her.

The girl instantly took a few steps back at the sound of his voice. She was surprised, though, because he had such a soft tone, which was very far away from what she ever imagined.

'Say something!' a little voice in her head told her 'Like what?!'. Jay knew she should at least try to say a thing or two, but her mind was just blank. Her head was spinning, her heart was racing, her stomach was turning…she had been wrong…seeing him wouldn't make things better in her mind, it just made them worse. His presence made everything in her head worse. Jay licked her lips, open her mouth to talk but nothing came out. She breathed in and tried to ignore her knees shaking so badly.

"I don't know what…" Jay finally said, looking at the floor.

"Then there's two of us" the Joker said raising his head for the first time and looking up at the girl. His eyebrows cocked for an instant.

Feeling his gaze upon her, Jay lifted her head to look him in the eyes. But she couldn't for more than two seconds; afterwards she simply looked at his knees, trying to avoid anymore eye contact.

The Joker licked his lips and said in a soft voice:

"Could you…If you're here and…do you think you could bring me a glass of water?"

"What?" she asked looking at his face, but sticking her gaze at any other part than his two piercing eyes.

"I'm thirsty…" he added matter-o-factly.

"Oh…ok" she said as if waking up from a dream and blinking a few times.

Jay turned around and looked. She saw many doors from offices and decided to go look for a water fountain or a sink or a bottle of water in one of them. The girl took a step forward then stopped suddenly in her tracks. 'Why am I doing what he's telling me to do?' she asked herself. Jay found it awkward that her body began obeying his command with her brain not even questioning it. But then she told herself that what she was about to do was harmless and she shouldn't worry about wanting to instinctively do it. It was just a good deed after all!

Jay went to open the door of the first office…locked. Then the second…locked as well. When she reached the third door she happily noticed that it was unlocked. She entered quickly, looked around and noticed a sort of a mini-bar. Jay quickly stepped in front of it and, to her huge surprise, she found more alcohol than should be allowed in a police unit. After taking a better look, she saw that there were a few bottles of sparkling water as well. Jay grabbed one and exited the room.

Once back to the cells area, she noticed that the Joker had, once again, his head bowed, facing the floor. After seeing him again, a few warning bells rang into her head. She thought that maybe he would try something funny in order to escape, so she decided to take a precaution. Jay walked closer to the table of knives, pretending to be looking and to be assuring herself that the guardian was asleep, and once she was close enough, she grabbed a knife from it. It was the smallest knife and the closest to her from the table. Jay took it with a quick, discreet move and stuck it in her right boot, behind her knee. She then approached the Joker's cell.

When he saw her coming closer, the Joker shot his head up and said:

"I can't hold the bottle because of the…" he lifted up his bound hands "Could you hold the bottle for me while I drink if I come right behind the bars?" he added standing up.

Jay froze in her tracks, looking at him.

"No…" she let out.

"No?" he asked surprised "Why?" the Joker asked this question in a very childish manner.

"Because…" Jay began "Because I don't trust you! You might try something, even if your hands are tied up!" she added, surprised of her own courage.

The Joker looked very surprised…in a very childish way. He blinked a few times looking at Jay, then looked down at the floor licking his lips a few times as if thinking. He then sat back down, moved his right leg in front of his connected hands, then the other. When the Joker stood up once again, his hands were now behind his back.

"There…" he said licking his lips and looking at the girl "Now I won't be able to try 'something'" he said in a rougher tone, as if mocking her "Anything else you want me to do before you can give me a drop of water? A back flip maybe?" he asked sarcastically.

Jay approached the bars of the cell and so did the Joker from his side. She was surprised to notice he was probably just a few inches taller than her. She unscrewed the cap and held it up close to his lips. As the Joker began drinking from the bottle as he hadn't seen water for days, Jay managed to take a better look at him, at his face, at his…scars. She had been told by his mother that he had a scarred face, but she couldn't image it could be that bad. They were so deep, so long, so thick…she felt torn and in pain only looking at them. That made Jay think that he may be a savage murderer, but he looked nothing more than a victim to her in that moment. With her left hand she held the bottle, but with her right one, all of the sudden and without realizing what she was doing, Jay began petting his greasy hair, trembling while doing it.

After a few moments, maybe after realizing what the girl was doing, the Joker stopped drinking and looked down at her. She immediately retreated both of her hands and looked frightful at the floor.

"Am I frightening you?" he asked, his eyes piercing her, though his voice was so soft.

Jay couldn't deny it but she knew she couldn't just nod her head as a 'yes'. She pressed her lips tightly, looked up at his face then quickly back to the floor. She simply couldn't bear the Joker's gaze.

"You seem nervous…is it the scars?" he asked.

The question almost made Jay jump.

"Wanna know how I got'em?"

She breathed in sharply and then began biting the nails from her right hand, looking a few times at him but not bearing to maintain eye contact for more than a second.

"Look at me…" he whispered. She shook her head scared. "LOOK AT ME!" the Joker yelled out all of the sudden.

Jay almost let out a yell of her own at the sound of that. Her heart began racing faster and she felt a lump in her throat. The girl looked at her right, afraid that the guardian might have woken up, but because he didn't, she turned to look at the Joker, though trying to fix her gaze at any part of his face except his black eyes.

"So…I was about 15 or 16…" the man began before licking his lips "and I had…these two good-good childhood friends…who were brothers" he licked his lips one more time "and one night we went to a bar…where…where they didn't ask us for anything like…like I.D. or age…and they allowed us to order as many drinks as wanted" Jay was almost dizzy at the number of times the man had licked his lips till then "and, as you can imagine…we got really drunk…and wasted that night" his tone then got a bit harsher "and…and on our way home…we had a little fight, from money, of course…and…one of them pulled out a pocket knife…the other…the other held me and…they did this" he then turned his chin from left to right so Jay could see his scars fully "and you know what happened next…hmm?" his tone became more and more dramatic "no one in high school ever talked to me again, they said I looked too…'joyful'…they all turned their back to me…I was left alone" he added breathing sharply "Alone…" he then turned his back to Jay and began angrily pacing around the cell, mouthing the same word.

All of the sudden, the Joker kicked the bench in his cell, yelling out even louder than before "ALONE!"

Jay jumped afraid one more time. His story pretty much left her heart broken, but still she was very disturbed by the way he manifested while saying it. She looked at the guardian one more time…it was almost like someone slipped him a sleeping pill.

"I'm sorry…" the girl whispered, almost crying, looking at the man who was now with his back turned at her.

The Joker turned his head to look at her, breathing heavily.

"What…" he whispered before licking his lips again "Whatever is something like you…doing here at this hour?"

"I…" she began, but nothing really came to her mind. She attempted to swallow the lump in her throat and continued: "I just wanted to see you…"

"See me?" the Joker asked fully turning to her and laughing a laugh that scared here more than the yell "To see me…like a defeated animal in the cage, right?" he asked continuing to laugh madly

"No, I didn't mean to…" she let out with a suppressed tone of voice "I meant…"

"Well, let me tell you, love, that it's not over…no" the Joker said looking down at her, with his head pushed between two of the bars "It's just the beginning…" he added before entering a hysterical fit of laughter, walking away from the bars.

"I just…" Jay tried to speak but was interrupted by the man's noisy laugh "I wanted to…I just wanted…I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU!" she yelled, covering him finally.

The Joker slowly began shutting down his laughs. He looked at the girl, still chuckling a bit, and said:

"Talk to me?" he asked with a giggle "Why would you want to talk to me?"

"I…" she couldn't find the right words to say "I feel like a I need to…it's almost as if…ever since I heard of you" she shook her head in thought and began stammering "either I need to understand you or…or…or I need to be understood…something like this…I don't know for sure…" she then closed her eyes and breathed in, as if relieved from a heavy weight.

The Joker's face slowly turned serious. He came closer to the bars and looked at the girl before him, blinking a little. The Joker then licked his lips and said in his smooth, calm voice from the beginning

"You sound nuts…" he licked his lips again, looked down at the floor a little then back at her "That's why…that's why I'll listen to you"

The Joker then rested his head against one of the cell's bars and looked with tired eyes down at Jay.

A/N: Next chapter will be up soon! Please review XOXO