Chapter 9: The Fundraiser
She wasn't sure at what point that night she had past out but when she woke it was morning and to her surprise, the Joker was still there. He smiled madly at her as she removed her stiff body from the sofa and stood her make-up was sticky and it made her slightly itchy.
"I sent our home video to the news station, in no time The real batman will come running or better yet he will show us who he really is," said The Joker and Scarlett smiled through her yawn.
She headed off towards the bathroom to scrub her face, as she heard him switch on the TV clearly waiting for them to show his tape.
"I can't wait for the police to find the clue I left them," said the Joker jumping up and down in his seat as he searched through the new channels on the TV.
"Clue" she queried.
"I may have had a little help acquiring the DNA of Commissioner Loeb, Judge Surrillo and Harvey Dent," said the Joker happily.
"Wow, impressive," said Scarlett her eyebrows raised slightly.
"I know, and all this time you thought I was just ignoring you. I've been busy, sweetheart. All three are gonna die tonight. I've got connections now, Mob bosses, crooked cops, Arkham inmates, I've got quite the team now. I know where the Judge and The commissioner are gonna be but Harvey is an unknown at the moment, but once the police work out my clue, they will send a cop to Harvey and I may just tag along. I think Harvey is gonna be the most fun, so I think I'll supervise that one myself. As for the judge and the commissioner, they are already taken care of all they need is a little push" said the Joker laughing madly and Scarlett only grinned.
The phone rang and The Joker shot it a disgusted look as Scarlett answered.
"Hello" she called into the phone and The Joker looked at her strangely and so she poked her tongue out and he simply copied her.
"Hello Miss Jesterson, this is Alfred," said the British accent at the other end of the phone.
"Oh hi Alfred how are you?" she said happily to the only other Englishman she knew in Gotham.
"I'm very good thank you for asking, I hope you are well, I'm just calling to invite you to Bruce's fund-raiser this evening for Harvey Dent. I did try to call last night but there was no answer" he said
"Oh yeah sorry, I was out last night, but a fund-raiser for Harvey Dent you say?" she said into the phone and The Joker was by her side in a second like a dog being called for dinner. He was nodding at her madly and looked as though he was about ready to snatch the phone from her hands.
"Urr yes, of course, I'll be there, I'm sure I can dig something out to wear, what time?" she said as The Joker continued to jump up and down slightly.
"It starts at 8, we will see you tonight?" said Alfred.
"Yep see you tonight, bye" she called before she hung up and the Joker burst into laughter.
"This is perfect! Now I know where Mr Dent will be" he cackled and she looked at him happily.
"And you can watch the show!"
"But you have to go as you, no Jester tonight," he said shaking his finger in front of her face and she nodded happily before she leaned forward and kissed his finger lightly, before skipping off towards the sofa, leaving him slightly bemused.
He explained his full plan to her as they sat for most of the rest of the day together. The Judge had a bomb planted in her car and the commissioner had a poisoned bottle of scotch as for Harvey the Joker felt that he needed the personal touch, and all this was to get Batman to come out and play. Scarlett wondered if The Batman knew just what he was in for.
Around 6 The Joker left to ready the boys and she began to ready herself, she felt like something was really going to happen tonight and the anticipation was killing her. As she dug through her wardrobe, for something to wear, she found the dress the Joker had got her from her birthday it felt like so long ago now.
She spent the full hour and a half she had getting ready, styling her hair, painting her nails and applying her make-up, when she was finished she was very pleased with the results and she called a cab. When it arrived she jumped in and headed for Bruce Wayne's penthouse. She thought over everything the Joker had told her and that's when it finally made sense. Why was the Joker going after Harvey more than the rest? Because Harvey was the icon of good in Gotham, he was Gotham's White Knight and if the Joker killed him then Batman was sure to show his true face. But maybe there was something to The Joker's plan, something more than just killing Harvey.
She thought about everything and that's when she finally understood, he wouldn't just kill Harvey. He would break him down, turn him against the Batman and show Gotham that deep down everyone is bad, no matter how good they seem, no one is incorruptible. That was The Joker's ultimate play.
When she arrived at Bruce's penthouse the room was already full of people chatting, causing the room to sound as though it were full of a thousand flies. The mutterings of the people were almost so distracting she didn't notice when Alfred Pennyworth approached a tray of drinks in his hand.
"Care for a drink?" he said smiling warmly at her, his rough accent not far off her own.
"Alfred how are you?" she said happily with a nod before she took a flute of champagne from the tray.
"I'm very good thank you, and yourself, we heard about your aunt," he said his face growing solemn, she had almost forgotten and so dropped her smile quickly.
"Well yes, I'm fine, we lost contact when I moved here so I hadn't seen her in a long time and she was very old. But I was rather fond of her growing up in England, she used to make the best cake" Scarlett said smiling sadly and Alfred returned the expression.
"I think I'm probably going to fly home next week sometime," she said and Alfred only nodded before a voice of a waiter called and he turned away.
"I'm being beckoned but make yourself comfortable there is food over there," he said motioning with his head with a smile before he was called again.
"Oh right bloody hell, I'm coming" he moaned before he turned his back and walked away.
Scarlett didn't know anyone there, though these people were not the type of people that Scarlett often hung around with, nor did she have any wish to associate with.
She mingled her way into a conversation and soon was laughing along with their grandiloquent jokes.
"So what is it that you do then, Scarlett?" said the woman to her right, in an overly friendly way.
"I'm a nurse at Gotham General Hospital" she replied smiling before she took a sip of her drink.
"Oh wow very impressive, but I don't think I could do it myself. I think if I got vomited on I would vomit too" said another overly pretentious woman and she laughed slightly.
"Well I work on the wards so there isn't so much of that now, but I used to work in the emergency department. There it wasn't so much the vomit as the blood and guts" Scarlett said with a laugh but the others didn't seem to get her joke and looked at her strangely. Scarlett sighed and grabbed another flute of drink as the waiter passed and excused herself from the group.
The elevator doors opened and out stepped Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent. Rachel spotted Scarlett almost instantly and headed over whispering a quick word in Dent's ear, before heading over to were Scarlett stood. Scarlett smiled happily at the brunette woman, though she had never really liked Rachel. It was just something about her, she didn't know what it was, she just didn't like her. But before she had to force pleasantries with Rachel, everyone's attention was pulled away as a helicopter began to land on the helipad outside the penthouse.
Scarlett watched as Bruce climbed out the helicopter, before helping out three tall beautiful women, he walked over to the door with one under each arm and the third following behind, Alfred held the door for him.
"I'm sorry that I'm late. I'm glad to see that you all got started without me." Bruce called as the door was shut behind him and the girls under his arms dispersed into the crowd.
"Now, where is Harvey?" Bruce began making his way through the crowd.
"Where-?" Bruce spotted Harvey and made a beeline for him.
"Harvey Dent, the man of the hour," Bruce said holding his hands out towards Harvey.
"Where's Rachel Dawes?" he said looking at the crowd again before he spotted Rachel and Scarlett stood together.
"She is my oldest friend. Come here," he said motioning for Rachel to go to him, Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and gave Scarlett a look before she headed off to meet Bruce.
"You know when Rachel first told me she was dating Harvey Dent, I had one thing to say: "The guy from those God-awful campaign commercials?" "I believe in Harvey Dent." Yeah, nice slogan, Harvey." Bruce said the crowd around Scarlett laughed in chorus.
"But it caught Rachel's attention. And then I started to pay attention to Harvey … and all that he's been doing as our new DA. And you know what? I believe in Harvey Dent. I believe that on his watch Gotham can feel a little safer, a little more optimistic. Look at this face. This is the face of Gotham's bright future. To Harvey Dent. Let's hear it for him." Said Bruce and in unison, everyone began to clap.
After that Bruce dispersed into the crowd and Scarlett moved away, not allowing Rachel to catch her in conversation again. Bruce's house was on the top of one of Gotham's highest building and she peered over the edge, through the enormous glass windows that surrounded three sides of Bruce's front room. For a moment she imagined throwing herself out the window. The wind flying through her hair, before the ground came up to meet her and then there was nothing. Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice though and Scarlett turned to the man stood leaning on the window beside her.
"I don't think we have met, I'm Marcus," said the man and Scarlett faked a smiled.
"Scarlett" she offered her name but not her hand.
"So how do you know Harvey then?" he said making small talk, inside her head she was imagining blowing his head off but her face told none of this as her sweet smile continued.
"I don't but I went to school with Bruce," she said and the man only nodded.
"Wow from your accent I wouldn't have known you were educated here," he said and she simply shrugged her shoulders.
"So Australia?" he asked trying to guess her accent, she resisted the urge to roll her eyes or even worse and smiled laughed slightly.
"Not quite, England," she said cheerily.
"Oh well they all sound the same to me," he said and Scarlett nearly pushed him through the window.
"You are stunning you know that," he said trying to change the subject, this time Scarlett did roll her eyes.
"What you don't believe me, I bet half the men in here agree and the other half are gay," he said with a chuckle and she didn't try to smile this time.
"Look, I'm not really here to be chatted up, in fact, I supposed to be meeting someone here a bit later on" she admitted to him, but Marcus didn't seem that broken down.
"So you are dating this guy?" he said
"No" she replied
"So what's the problem then we are only having fun," he said raising his eyebrows at her.
"Is that what you call it?" she asked sarcasm dripping from her words.
She couldn't wait for The Joker to get here, she knew she would have to keep up her act even then but at least then there would be some entertainment.
"So can I have your number," said Marcus bringing her out of her thoughts.
"Umm no," she said before she smiled kindly and wondered off past him
But she didn't get far when finally the night started getting good.
"We made it!" called an all to familiar voice.