Arkham Asylum. That next morning. Analiese's POV

I awoke a little later than usual, and so went through my morning routine just a bit faster than normal, mostly because I didn't want the guards to see me doing my morning routine. After I was done, I immediately remembered last night's events and felt for the carefully hidden blade. Jack scared me half to death last night, and at first I was angry with him, but his sincere apology and look of guilt and concern on his face quickly dissolved my anger. I was touched by the fact that he went to all the trouble for me to have some means of protecting myself, though having a knife made me a bit queasy. I had no idea what to do with it really, and I was terrified by the prospect of having to use it. But, Jack's reassurance that it was a last resort quelled many of those feelings.

As custom, I peeked out my window to say good morning to Jack.

"Good morning. Are you ready for today?" Ready for today? Oh, shoot, that's right! We're being moved to Blackgate.

"Good morning. And I don't know. Are you?"

"We'll see. Just watch yourself, alright?" His face was serious, and I knew that he was very concerned about something. So I nodded my head. All of a sudden I became unsure and terrified again about the prospects the day was bringing. Luckily, Jack sensed my change of mood and in usual Jack style tried to reassure and cheer me up.

"Don't worry! Besides, lucky for all of us, we're taking the scenic route." This did little to subdue the concern I felt, and I knew that when Jack was serious like he was right now, something was bothering him. And I hated that. It made me feel really unsure because right now, he was my rock. And despite the fact that he was trying, I could see straight through the act.

"Don't lie to me."

"Listen, I'm just hoping that everything works out the way I think it will, that's all. Don't worry about it." While I couldn't hear his tone, I knew by the way he tilted his head and looked me dead in the eyes that he meant business. He wasn't angry with me, in fact he seemed surprised that I knew he was covering something up. He was just, I don't know. I did know that he didn't want to have to worry about me on top of everything else. It was just something I could sense. So for his sake, I smiled and nodded. With that, he seemed to relax a bit.

Breakfast would be served in a few minutes, and I sat down on my bed to wait. I could tell that Jack wanted to think, and while we enjoyed our times conversing through the windows, today he needed to concentrate. I crinkled my nose at the grey porridge that they tried to pass off as food, but ate it nonetheless. I knew that when they took the trays away, we would be herded to some vehicle and whisked away. I just prayed that Jack would be next to me.

To my chagrin, Pines manhandled me to an armored bus looking vehicle and threw me down onto a seat. I scooted away from him as much as possible and pressed myself into the window next to me. Much to my relief, because there were other guards nearby, he didn't try anything, but merely winked. It sent a shudder down my spine and I felt as if I was going to cry. I put my head down and refused to look up when I felt a body sit next to me. I was too afraid to look up until he spoke.

"Aw come on, I went to all this trouble to sit next to you, and you can't even look up? I mean, I know I just started brushing my teeth, but they can't be that bad, can they?" He chuckled to himself quietly and I looked up with a mix of relief and happiness when I saw him. I smiled and he gave me a broad smile in return. However, we didn't speak, as was our usual pattern in situations where others could see us, because we didn't want to give them any reason to be suspicious, or for them to know the full extent of our friendship. Knowing people like Benson or Pines, they would exploit it.

Instead, we people watched. We observed all the different kinds of prisoners they put on the bus. There were the incessant chatterboxes who drove everyone crazy, there were the quiet brooding ones who never smiled, there were the creepy ones who talked to the voices in their heads. They put both men and women together, which created a whole different problem. The creepy men would try to seduce the crazy women, or sometimes vice versa. It was disgusting and often I would look over to see the two men across the isle leer at me. After the third time it happened, I looked up at Jack. He turned his head and gave those two the scariest look I have ever seen. Needless to say, they didn't even glance in this direction as far as I could tell after that.

While it seemed that there were many people, in reality there were only eight other prisoners and two guards. One driving, and the other well, guarding. I guess it was that nutcase sitting two rows ahead who wouldn't stop having a whole conversation in different voices, mimicking different people, on his own. We weren't even sitting there for more than a few minutes and he was already getting on my nerves. I looked out the window and sighed. This was going to be a long trip.

On the bus. A few hours later. Joker's POV

I wish you could've seen the look on Annie's face when she looked up at me. God it was so, I don't know. It made me feel proud almost, elated, to know that she was so relieved and happy to see me.

We had come to the level where not only could I read her face so well, but she could also read mine, something that I certainly wasn't used to by any means. I actually loved that she was the only one who could know what I was thinking and feeling, generally, by my face. So when she looked up at me with concern, I knew exactly what was going on. Nothing felt better than looking over at those two perverts and scaring the shit outta them. And good lord, if that chatterbox didn't shut up soon, I would go up there and permanently quiet him. I knew that he was also getting on Anne's nerves, so it was an even better reason to shut him up. But I didn't because soon enough the bus started moving, and I needed to stay focused.

So, for a few hours Anne and I didn't talk, but we would share glances. I sat between her and the window as a layer of protection. I was especially glad for this because neither of us realized that Pines was the officer who was guarding our cohort the second half of the trip. When he switched with the other guard because he was driving first, he did a walk through before we got moving again. Of course, he had to make a stop to leer at Anne, and I was about ready to kill him. He didn't say anything, but when he winked at her, she had to put her hand on my arm to keep me from stabbing him right then and there. I was glad she did, because it would have ruined my plan, not that she would've known.

It was getting dark outside and we still weren't at Blackgate. We at least should've been crossing the bridge by now, and I had a sneaking suspicion that there were other plans that we were not aware of. Annie caught on to this too, and she looked at me with fear written all over her face. What didn't help was that when we made a restroom stop for the driver, Pines came back to greet us.

"Hey doll, just wanted to say that I'll be seeing ya real soon. We might have to stop for the night cause we got a bit off track, and I'll be needin' some company tonight." He whispered. That was the last straw. I stood up and looked down on him (I was the taller one) and let the Joker take full control.

"I would th-ink by now, Swines, tha-t you would realize it's bes-t if you leave her alone. Try anything, and you. are. dead. I'm a man of my word." He was terrified, which was exactly what I wanted. I didn't sit down until he had reached the front of the bus. I looked down at her, and she looked like she was about to cry. So I sat down a took her hand in mine. She didn't cry, which I was thankful for.

An hour later and we still weren't there. It was late and we had been sitting here all day. I could no longer see the city lights from Gotham and I knew that we were pretty far from where we should have been. Either the idiots got us lost, or they had something else in mind. Anne was still tense as she sat next to me, and I noticed that she kept dozing off then waking herself back up. I knew that she was trying hard not to fall asleep because she was afraid.

"You should sleep. You need it. Don't worry about him. I'm here." I whispered as quietly as I could next to her ear. She looked up again at me and nodded. Instead of leaning against the window, as I would have expected, she snuggled up to my shoulder and almost immediately fell fast asleep. I leaned my head back and stared out the window, and for the first time in awhile I was perfectly content.

This didn't last long, as all the sudden the bus pulled into a shady gas station. I was immediately on alert and sat up, inadvertently waking Annie.

"Alright, we're gonna stop for a piss break and everyone goes in. We're gonna do this nice and easy." Pines shouted to get everyone awake.

They hauled us all outside and Annie stood close against me, shivering in the crisp night air. Pines escorted a few inmates in at a time and I noticed that the other guard was focusing on getting gas. I quietly unleashed my knife and took a few steps backwards until I reached the rear tire. I sliced it and immediately went back to where I was standing, sheathing my knife. This had worked out much better than planned. Luckily, Pines escorted us in with no issue, but we were in too public of a place for him to try anything.

We were herded back on the bus and immediately Anne scooted closer to me, put her hand in mine and fell asleep on my shoulder. I lightly squeezed her hand and rested my chin on the top of her head as I looked out the window. Before I did this, I made sure that everyone who could see was asleep. It wouldn't be long now before the cut I made to the tire would cause it to burst, so I took these few moments to relax a bit and enjoy the contact. She was a light and quiet sleeper, a nice contrast to the loud snores echoing through the bus.

It happened quickly; the tire burst and the bus went spinning out of control into a ditch on the road. Half the inmates screamed bloody murder and the back road we were on was pitch black. Pines got out immediately to look and the other guard was a bit dazed. Annie was awake and I motioned for her in all the commotion to follow me. We quickly dashed out the back door. I grabbed her hand and we ran into the forest as fast as we could. This was not ideal because I didn't know exactly how far we were from Gotham, nor if we were even heading in the right direction. At this point I didn't care. All we needed to do was get far enough away. By this point I was sure they would notice that we were gone, and that drove me to run as fast as I could with her. I felt bad pulling her along like I did, but I had to.

Eventually, we reached the back of a farmhouse. As quickly as I could, I unlocked hers and my cuffs and tossed them in the opposite direction in which we were about to head. She was practically panting, but we didn't have time to think about that now. There were some clothes on a clothesline and no lights on in the house. I put my hand over my lips to signal to her to be silent and to stay there. I quickly grabbed some clothes off the clothes line and ran back into the tree line.

"Here, put these on. Quickly." She nodded but looked unsure. "I won't peek. I promise." We both turned around and threw on the clothes. Her's were huge on her and I chuckled. But there was no time for that, I realized. I took our ugly Arkham uniforms and placed them in the same direction as I had thrown the cuffs. I grabbed her hand once again and headed in the direction of lights. We came upon a small town with a shady motel, a gas station, a few dark buildings, an old hardware store, things of that nature. I was glad that I remembered to sneak some cash as well as my knife from digging through my locker.

"Follow my lead." We walked hand in hand across the dead street to let her catch her breath. I casually walked into the shady motel and was greeted by a woman with dyed blonde hair, too much makeup and a cigarette in her hand.

"Hi, we need a room for the night." I used my normal voice with her so as not to arouse suspicion.

"Alright honey, we got one. But you gotta pay in advance." She didn't seem to care that we walked in at a late hour. That was the beauty of shady motels. No questions asked. I dug in my pocket and set down some cash.

"Room 17 is all yours. Have fun." I then realized that she probably thought Annie was some prostitute, but I didn't want to cause a scene so I let it slide. Hopefully we could have a few hours of rest before finding our way back to Gotham in the early morning. Analiese looked like she could really use it, and I know that I needed it.