Chapter 31

1 year later…

The recreational room at Arkham Asylum glistened with a white glow off the cinderblock walls as outside the fortified windows could be seen the calming descent of snowfall. The holiday season was approaching and many of the inmates bumbled with delirious excitement in the recreational privileges given to them while others plotted, with demented amusement, toward a bloody red holiday.

Few inmates were situated in the room; some watching a television mounted on the wall, others pacing or absently staring out the window. These inmates, free of their straight-jackets, were those that were on relatively "good behavior" in the Arkham populace. Guards however still flanked the doorway while the orderlies shuffled about, some passing medication to patients while others were decorating the walls with Christmas garlands and stockings.

One of the orderlies paused from her decorating once she noticed a Santa picture defaced with scratch-marks and a bloody red smile plastered across his face. Frowning, she turned and cast a glare at the center of the room where two inmates in orange jumpsuits sat across from each other at a table – one of them playing himself in a game of chess while the other did likewise in a game of cards.

The one playing poker hummed an operatic tune as he shuffled his cards loudly. The one playing chess - who once sat placidly as he focused on his game – glared up at his unwanted recreational partner over the rim of his glasses.

"Must you be a constant nuisance in the face of concentration, clown?" Crane scolded.

Joker, free of make-up and hair dye, rolled his eyes nonchalantly as he sucked his teeth then slammed his deck on the table causing the chess pieces to wobble on the board. "Ya gotta always be a stickler, doc? Even around this time of year? Where's your holiday cheer?" He grinned.

"Died the day I met my great-grandmother." Crane deadpanned then set about adjusting his chess-pieces. "Where's your sense of attentiveness?"

Joker giggled. "I don't think, Johnny-boy – I just do."

Crane shrugged, wondering whose bright idea it was to sit Joker at his table as a recreational partner. Whoever it was, Crane felt the impulsive idea to give them a psycho-evaluation, and a dose of fear gas soon after. As he moved his pawn across the board, he was again distracted by the tune Joker began to hum. This time he felt curious as he listened.

"Is that Pagliacci?" He furrowed his eyebrows in question.

Joker stopped his humming and raised his own brow in surprise. "You a fan?"

"No. I just find it curious why you - a man with so much unbridled enthusiasm - would hum a song to the play of a tragic clown." Crane gave a lopsided smirk. "Are you feeling a bit deflated these days? Fearful?"

"Nooooo," Joker drawled mockingly, shuffling his cards and skillfully laying out the deck in a row. "Spending six months in a body cast with a brace around your broken jaw does tend to make you laugh on the inside..." He rolled the deck back up then split it in half, shifting the bottom and the top. His thoughts turned to the night Batman refused to end his life. "But the sting of rejection does make you cry on the inside…"

He thought back to the first six months he'd spent in a body-cast when he was brought back, and the delightfully agonizing pain during that time in which he had to eat through a straw. No comfort, no laughs – only dull visits from Jimbo and his little ducks asking questions he couldn't answer; questions about his sweetness' body vanishing, about any contingencies they might've planned. All that, and no follow-up visits from his BFF Batsy, it was almost enough to make the clown cry on the inside one day when he heard that opera classic playing on a hospital television. It was a tune that seemed to stick in his head this long after physical recovery.

Crane held his knight in his fingers thoughtfully. "Haven't you tired of it by now? This futile mission to bring Gotham's Dark Knight down to your own level of insanity?"

"Says the man who's been dousing this town senseless with his cologne while wearing a potato sack all these years." Joker retorted, arching the top of the deck so that he may expose the inside of it.

"Fear comes in a variety of flavors, having no limit to its pleasure." Crane explained, moving his knight across the board. "It's absolute…and powerful."

"So is chaos; and the chaos I bring to this city – to the Bat's soft spots – it'll wear him down eventually. He'll crack. Sooner or later, we all do. All you need…" Joker reached into the middle of the deck and drew a card out. He turned it over revealing an Ace of Jacks. "…is an ace in the hole."

Crane raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips in a "not bad" expression.

"We're both the same – Bats and I. He's just too scared to admit he belongs here with us." Joker laughed.

"That's an interesting thought…" Crane mused with a sparkle in his bright blue eyes. "That what he truly fears is finding himself in the same boat as the rest of us…" A delicious smirk came over him. "I'll enjoy finding that out when I'm outside these walls."

Joker eyed Crane with a knowing mischievous look. "Got any plans for holidays, doc? Planning on spreading some holiday fear in town?"

Crane scoffed with a dry smile. "Like I would tell you. Besides, don't you have your own plans to make?"

"Like I said, doc: I don't plan – I do. And when the time feels right – who knows what I'll do?!" Joker laughed, rising from his seat. "But right now, what I feel like is stretching my legs." He arched his back with a groan and a small pop echoed. Joker whistled over towards the door to gain the guard's attention that he was ready to head back to his cell.

Joker regarded Crane once more. "Ya know, I do enjoy these little chats of ours, Johnny-boy. We should make this a thing." He grinned.

Crane rolled his eyes. "It'll be on your dollar, Joker."

"Or back in here," Joker supplied, giggling to himself. The guards marched over and grabbed Joker by the arm. "Until next time, doc." Joker smiled broadly while Crane merely shook his head to himself and continued playing his game.

Joker approached the doors where another guard began to shackle and cuff him so they could escort him back to his cell.

Stepping into the long illuminated corridor where the cells were lined up - shackled and restrained with guards on either side of him - Joker paused and took the moment to listen quietly to the reverberating screams and laughs bouncing off the walls surrounding him. He closed his eyes, smiling to himself as he relished the sounds that put him to sleep at night like a soothing lullaby. It was the one thing to cheer him up through his melancholy period when he was brought back here a year ago.

He opened his eyes and began to follow the guards as they led him down the corridor towards his cell.

Coming back to this place was like heading back to school and just waiting for your vacation to start. And just the same…it often felt like home. One that he would idle and recover in until things got dull.

He'd wait, he'd bide his time until things got too boring around here, or when the urge to have fun became just too irresistible. The only question was "when?" When would that joyous feeling return?

He was drawn from his musing as the guards stopped him in front of his cell and began to unlock it. Peering over the guard's shoulder, Joker could see one of the orderly's shoving mail into the slots of the other cells.

"All right, clown – in!" Joker was suddenly pushed forward towards his open cell door.

"Fellas, easy on the merchandise."

One of the guards held a taser ready while another quickly undid Joker's handcuffs and shackles. Joker regarded them with a mocking smile. "Missing something?"

The guards, in a panic, searched their persons for any missing items: keys, tasers, tranquilizers only to discover them all intact. Joker burst into a fit of laughter as he watched them. "Made ya look."

Sneering, the guard briskly slammed the door and locked it, leaving the Joker inside his solemn confinement.

Still giggling, the Joker moved to sit on his cot but paused once he noticed a letter on the floor – faced down. Surprise engulfed him as he stared at it. He never got any mail – ever, aside from the occasional death threats sent his way by loved ones of the poor saps he had fun with, which in the end always made him laugh till he was breathless.

Curious of who would be sending their displeasure to him this time, Joker reached down and lifted the letter of the floor; a simpering smile on his face as he turned it over. His smile disappeared in place of an astonished look as he read the single familiar word to address it.

Jack

Joker sat back on his cot, pursing his lips thoughtfully while his fingers deftly traced the familiar handwriting along the surface. He'd given only one person that name, and they had…quite a lot of fun together a year ago… Could it be?

Eager to find out, Joker ripped open the envelope at one side then pulled out not a letter…but a photograph… His brown eyes skimmed over the writing on the back of it.

Written in red – in Vedette's handwriting - was a single name:

Acelyn

"Well whaddya know." Joker grinned. His sweetness managed to make it out after all; pulling a Houdini on all of em' – Bats, Jimbo, Kitty-Cat and himself included.

Turning the photo over… Joker's brown eyes grew large in bafflement. Staring back at him was the image of a 5 - maybe 6 month old baby girl with brown eyes – his eyes - and small strands of light brown hair on her gorgeous head. For a long moment, the Clown Prince of Crime stared intently at the photo, studying every detail of it from the small pendent hanging around the baby's neck, to the stuffed clown toy in her hands…and the mirthful smile on her face.

It all occurred to him so suddenly… "She's mine." Joker threw his head back and a powerfully loud laugh erupted from his throat, echoing down the corridors of Arkham.

"Guess the joke is on her…" He giggled, staring at the picture of his daughter – Acelyn.

"Acelyn…" He smiled wide in thought. "Ace…" He giggled with manic delight as he felt himself filled with euphoria. The desire to celebrate - to have fun - never felt as powerful as it did now. That familiar spark that he'd been waiting a year to feel had worked its way back into him. All of Gotham would share his joy with a few laughs, screams and crimson smiles.

Tucking his daughter's photo into his pocket, Joker leaned back against his cell wall and drummed his fingers together, his cunning smile never leaving his face as he stared at his cell door, looking towards the future.

The End.

A/N: I can't believe this story is finally over. (I can't believe that I finally finished it!) First of all I want to thank everyone and all the Bat and Cat fans for reading this exciting and bewitching tale. Secondly I want to thank my amazing friend and editor for helping write this story. He is my Dark Knight when it comes to writing these stories. Thirdly I'm trying to figure out if there should be a second installment for this but I will leave that choice up to you. Just let me know with reviews. Don't be afraid to write down some ideas that you would love to see with another story involving the wonderful characters of the Nolanverse. Thank you and it's been a blast to share this world with you.