Chapter 5

The music echoed in the Joker's head. He slowly regained consciousness for the fifth time in the past few hours. His head ached so badly, he could barely see as the door was flung open and people walked in. Someone was thrown onto the floor and he turned his head slightly to look.

A body curled up in a foetal position on the floor, the face turned away from Jack. Bright red hair, arms and legs that looked pale and painfully thin in the harsh florescent lights of the room. The whole body shook with violent sobs while blood pooled on the floor, soaking the hair and grey tank top.

A man in a grey suit stood over her, an expression of disappointment on his face. He glanced at another man in a white lab coat and nodded.

"The other side now, huh? So you two can be matching." Max looked between Casey and Jack.

The white lab coat stepped forward, the bloody knife still in his hand and pulled Casey up by her tank top. Suddenly, screams echoed around the room and the knife was wrestled from the man's hands. He was pushed against the wall and the knife forced against his neck. The screaming only died away when the man's head hit the floor. Casey sank to the ground in front of the body, her hands in her damp hair, hysterical tears falling down her cheeks.

"Now why did you have to go and do that? He was our best doctor!" Max pulled Casey to her feet and shook her shoulders. He looked disgusted at the blood in her hair and on her clothes. "My god, you've gone feral. After all the training, you were showing signs of real promise, real sophistication and skill... Now he's been a bad influence on you." He gestured to the Joker. "I always told you, violence and death can be beautiful but only if it's done with discipline. You're a weapon. My weapon. Not some mad dog like him. You're different, sweetie. You're not like him, so stop pretending to be."

Max clicked his fingers and men advanced on Casey and Jack and soon they both blacked out.

"And the weather outside is delightful this fine Friday morning, sun with slight chances of clouds later on this evening..."

The radio prattled on and Jack groaned, reaching across and turning it off. He rolled over and was met by the smooth bare back of Casey. He gently touched the groves in her spine and she shivered and turned over to face him.

Shock passed across his face as much as he tried to hide it. A large cut extended on the left side of her mouth, one half of the Glasgow smile, like his.

"Your face..."

Casey nodded slightly. "Yeah... 'At 'as my, uh, my punishment."

"Does it hurt?"

She nodded again, trying not move her mouth and disturb the dark stitches.

"I got mine when I was a kid so... Jeez, I'm so sorry sugar, this is all my fault." He sat up, leaning on one hand.

"No! No it's not. It's my fault!" She said, wincing when she stretched her mouth too far. She forced herself to sit up too, but fell back down, weak from the blood loss.

"We should get you to the hospital. Gotham General isn't far-"

"No! I can't go to the hospital." Casey was reduced to mumbling. "They know me there. I-I can't go back."

He touched her face gently. "Please, Case. You've lost so much blood, it can't be good-"

"No." She said stubbornly, folding her arms and looking down.

Jack sighed wearily, running his hands through his partially green hair, his face free from makeup except for some darkness around his eyes.

"Who was that guy who was talking to you?"

She looked up. "You saw that?"

"Some of it. He was talking to you so weird, like he was in charge of you..."

"Well, he is my boss. Sort of."

"Sort of?" He raised an eyebrow.

"It's a very long story."

Jack recognised something in her face and stood up, a range of emotions coming quickly at once.

"Oh my god... I can't believe this..." He walked around, his hands behind his head. "How could I have been this stupid?!"

"What is it?" Casey said as best she could, propping herself up on pillows.

"You're in love with him!" The frustration in his voice was clear.

"What? No I'm not!"

"Yes, you are. It's so damn obvious."

"You're not- you've got it all wrong." She stammered.

"Have I? Tell me, if he has cameras on you and watches you day and night and controls everything you do, why don't you just leave, hmm? Running around with me, you could just say, let's not go back to my place!"

He sat down on the bed, seething silently.

Instead of providing a proper answer, Casey grabbed him and kissed him. He responded forcefully, forgetting how much pain she was and pushing her away hard.

She sat back heavily on the cushions, clutching her face and wincing. After a minute she moved over to the side of the bed and picked up the hotel stationery.

She wrote on the notepad:

He would come after me if I ran away with you. I didn't want you to get hurt.

She held the note up for Jack.

"Is it too sore to talk?" He asked.

She nodded.

"Sorry..." He said, still sounding a bit reluctant.

Casey wrote:

He worked at Arkham when I was there as a kid. I left when I was 17.

"He was your shrink?"

She took care writing, her small spiky handwriting beginning to take up the whole page.

Not exactly. He was just an intern at first. He watched me a lot from the observation room above my bedroom. He eventually got to have a couple of sessions with me, which he spent seducing me. I was about 15 or 16. No one found out, he was very clever about covering it up.

Jack said nothing, only looked sympathetically at her.

When I turned 17, my father came to visit me. I thought he'd died. I knew that he'd abused my mother so I slit his throat. Max saw the whole thing and said he'd protect me but I had to leave Arkham and come with him. He helped me escape but I ran away from him and lived on the streets for a while, slept around to get some money, ended up getting picked up by Tony Vincenzo and the Mob. Then two years ago I come back to my apartment and Max is there. He takes me to the hotel, says I live there now forever. He trains me on killing with discipline, less brute force than the Mob taught me, more speed and agility. He tells me who to kill and what to take and I do it. I never question it. Until I met you.

Jack finished reading and touched her face gently, sighing.

He noticed her eyelids drooping, "You should sleep, sugar."

"Mmm-hmm." Casey said sleepily, turning onto her side.

The Joker bit his lip as she drifted off to sleep. "That's it, Casey... sleep..."

"Sugar... Honey, wake up!"

Casey jerked awake.

"Huh... Where...?" She mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"We are in Aberdeen, Washington." Jack said.

"Okay... As opposed to Scotland... wait, what?!"

"You heard right, babe. I stole a car and drove us here."

"How long did that take?"

"About forty-four hours, eighteen minutes, twenty-two seconds."

"...You drove three thousand miles in two days?"

"Yeah, I guess I did." He grinned widely.

He seemed on edge, manic and hyperactive, pacing up and down in front of her, jumping at any tiny sound. His hair was freshly green and his makeup was hurriedly applied. Casey suddenly noticed he had a butcher's knife in his hands and a shotgun slung over his shoulder, a handgun in his back pocket and another in his blazer.

"Why are you so heavily armed?" She asked slowly, sitting up and looking around

.

They were in a building which seemed to be an old abandoned elementary school.

The room they were in was an old nurse's room and Casey was lying on the examining table in her black underwear. The only light was coming from a flickering florescent bulb in the corner of the room.

"You said he'd follow you, right? Well, I'm gonna be ready for 'im."

He turned to look at her and hesitated with his pacing, glancing down her body for a few seconds. Then he quickly flung open the door and walked out.

Casey pulled on her pair of shorts and a shirt from a bag in the corner and followed him, limping in her bare feet.

"Jack..." She called, squinting through the darkness.

Her feet rubbed against pieces of paper and patches of carpet as she tiptoed along the corridor, the only light to guide her coming from inside the nurse's office.

"Jack?" Casey called again.

"Yes?" He appeared out of nowhere, moving so she spun around and ended up inches away from her face.

She bit her lip. "Do you have any food?"

Casey sat cross legged on the examining table. Jack stood opposite in the doorway, shotgun in hand.

She unwrapped the pop tart and took a small bite. Strawberry Sensation was her favourite flavour, she wondered if he knew that or if it was just a lucky coincidence.

She had to break the pop tart up into tiny pieces to eat with the least amount of pain possible, so it took quite a long time for her to finish.

"Are you gonna stand there all night?" Casey asked quietly.

"Probably."

"Come here a second."

"Why?"

"Just come here."

Jack walked over and Casey tugged feebly on the cuff of his blazer until he sat down beside her.

"It's okay, Jack."

He sighed and she saw the tiredness in his face. She lay down and he looked at her, made a disgruntled face and lay beside her.

They both stared up at the mould on the ceiling and Jack listened to Casey's breathing begin to slow as she fell asleep.

Her head slumped to the side so she was facing him, a tiny smile on her face.

"Good night Casey." He whispered.

"Night Jack." She replied in a sleepy mumble.