Chapter 6 No Regrets

Jacqueline opted to stay in her office and sleep on her couch instead of going back to her apartment. The dinner with Jack and Harleen had made her uncomfortable and she didn't want to be at a place he could easily access her. She wasn't afraid of him, he would never hurt her on purpose. Use her for his benefit, sure, but never hurt her. She just didn't want to deal with his groveling.

For a thug and murderer Jack Napier really cared what people thought of him. He wanted some people to fear him and he gave them good reason too, but others he wanted to love him for who he really was and Jacqueline was one of those people. She could see past the clown that he portrayed as The Joker and recognize the big brother he was at heart. If people knew he was her brother they would probably say she was an enabler that couldn't see him for the manipulative bastard that the rest of Gotham City knew him to be.

The alarm on her phone woke her at just after seven o'clock. She had been dreaming about Jack walking her down the aisle to Bruce. Everything had been lovely until Jack pulled a baseball bat from behind his back and smashed the minister over the head. She silenced the alarm and stretched trying to shake the dream away. Jack was crazy, that was for sure and he was a criminal. She tried to convince herself that he was just misunderstood and more of a Robin Hood than Sheriff of Nottingham, but with each passing day that was becoming harder and harder. She got up off the couch and drifted towards her private bathroom to get ready for the day. Her calendar was pretty clear so she was going to spend the day catching up on paperwork. Her phone dinged with a reminder that she was having drinks with a couple of friends from law school at seven tonight and she sighed.

If her friends knew Jack Napier was her brother they would probably ask if she regretted not turning him into the cops or that Batman character after the crimes she knew he had committed. Of course, if they knew he was her brother they probably wouldn't speak to her anymore and turn her over to the cops themselves. She had worked hard to hide her background once she started college and while Jack had not been happy about her changing her name and sealing her records he understood why she had done it. No reputable law firm would hire the sister of a notorious criminal.

She had no regrets with her choices regarding Jack or hiding her true identity. She was moving up in the world based on hard work and she felt like her existence and faith that Jack could be a good person kept him from becoming the true psychopath she knew he was capable of being. She kept him grounded and Harleen kept him grounded. Why on earth Harleen had let him throw her into the same chemical batch that had changed him she would never know. Of course, Harleen might not have let him do it, but then again there wasn't much she wouldn't do for Jack.

The elevator dinged and she heard Nelda talking on the phone to her husband. "I made it honey, I'll be home around six o'clock tonight Jacqueline has drinks scheduled and I'll have to rush her out the door to make sure she makes it on time. Be careful today."

Nelda opened the door to the office intending to open the blinds and turn the lights on but was shocked to see all of that already done. "Jacqueline?" she asked warily.

"Bathroom," Jacqueline replied.

"Why are you here so early? Do we have an early meeting I forgot about?"

"Yeah right, you don't forget anything. I slept here last night."

Nelda didn't pry into Jacqueline's private life too much. It was not an easy topic for Jacqueline to discuss. "Everything ok?"

"No," was the curt reply.

Jacqueline stepped out of the bathroom dressed in a pair of gray twill pants and a red button down shirt. She was barefooted Nelda noticed and her toenails were painted the same red as her blouse. "Rough night?"

"Yeah," she said softly slipping on a gray blazer to match her pants and rummaging around in her desk drawers for a pair of shoes. "You can't pick your family you know. You are stuck with them. Sometimes that just sucks."

"That's eloquent. It should be on a greeting card or something."

Nelda walked over to her and framed Jacqueline's face with her hands. "If you need to talk I'm here. I'll keep everything confidential because I know you don't like to talk about your family."

Jacqueline smiled at the woman who was trying to act as motherly as possible, but deep down inside she knew Nelda was screaming for some gossip to spread to the masses. She couldn't trust anyone with her secrets and she knew that to be certain.

"Is any of this about Bruce Wayne?" Nelda asked.

"You just want to talk about Bruce," Jacqueline said rolling her eyes.

"Can you blame me?"

"Let's get some coffee made and get started on those files that have been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks. If we have accomplished a lot by lunch then we can order in and I'll talk about Bruce, deal?"

Nelda was already dashing out of the office to get the coffee pot going.