Now we're finally bringing Harley and Ivy in as supporting but otherwise important. :) The late Brittany Murphy (who died not long after Heath Ledger) was common in fanartdom as Harley, so it should be obvious who plays the adorable harlequin. Pamela Isley is portrayed by Irish actress/singer Lisa Lambe, a member of my favorite group, Celtic Woman.

I forgot to mention in the last chapter, in "The Boundaries of Friendship", Edward lost his mind when he found out Jonathan was in LOVE with Bruce and tried to kill him because of him being Batman and taking Jon's life away, even had the guts to tell Bruce how the Scarecrow felt for him. Idiotic move, if you ask me, even for a supposed genius like Ed. Tried not to make him and Iris too much like that, too.

Chapter Eight

Love, Losses, and Lessons

"Oh, God noooooo!" Harley wailed three days later during rec time that night. Her howls and cries roused the attention of not only Jonathan but also Edward, Pamela, and some of the others who crowded around her and one of them picked up the newspaper as the Plant Vixen herself wrapped her arms around the sobbing harlequin.

The one to pick up the paper was Arnold Vesker, Scarface hooting in spite of Harley's tears. "Well, would ya look at this, ya'll? Looks like your puddin' wasn't so lucky this time!" Ivy turned around and glared at him to shut his mouth, and the blonde only cried harder.

Jonathan found himself reading the main headline: CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME REIGN ENDS

"'The Joker dies at the hands of the Batman'," he read aloud below the bold printed title, then frowned. How could this happen? The Batman did not kill, and he certainly could not kill the Clown Prince of Crime. Reading further, he found himself wanting to read more aloud when he looked up to see Pamela eyeing him venomously and warning him that the story would make it worse for Harley than it already was. He nodded and went to read it himself, taking the paper from Arnold.

It appears that the reign of the fearsome Joker, also known as the Clown Prince of Crime, is at an end. Last night, the notorious clown was killed in what appeared to be an accident as the Batman tried to apprehend him, but the grappling hook from the wanted Bat was severed by a gunshot from GCPD as police arrived at the scene, and the Joker fell to his death from ten stories high and the Batman disappeared into the night. The body was recovered and displayed from the public eye, verbally described as "roadkill" to avoid photographic imagery being taken.

Jonathan lowered the newspapers from his eyes and looked ahead, his mind numb; he barely noticed Edward taking the paper from him and reading himself. "Looks like the Bat and the cops both did what Harley could never do," he whispered to him. He had to agree. She deserved better than that clown. Look at her and Red.

Seeing those two together was evident enough to tell him that it was more than friendship if you asked him. It was always Ivy she ran to when her abusive boyfriend laid his hand on her or tossed her aside for any mistake she made. It might as well be embarrassing for anyone else to see two women in a...relationship, but Jonathan was used to such things. Edward, however, not so. "Jon...two girls? That's just me, but I don't know about same-sex..."

"Edward," he hissed. "Show some respect. That's two people who care for each other, regardless of the sex."

~o~

Her neck was to the point of bruised almost deep purple from his intense suctions and nibbles, her hips similar to the work of his hands, and her breasts were patterned erotically with faint red marks of teeth from his love bites. Her mouth watered as she beheld the sight of him in return as he drew back to admire his work on her: his lean, toned chest with the slight inner curving of his stomach and barely-there six-pack - the pattern of scars over that stomach and going over his back - the jutting hips and the fusing of the dark nest between them against her own as he molded himself with her. Thinking of that last bit made her clamp down on him harder, letting him know she wanted him. He moaned prettily and manly. "Tell me how badly you want me…"

She had never experienced passion like this - the rough and burning kind, but somehow she enjoyed it because it was just as enjoyable as the soft and tender that had begun between them, progressed into something more. Some people said roughly was not romantic, but this was beyond the romance that her sister had dreamily spoken about and got Jervis in the end. "Touch me more, Jonathan. Touch me now; stop keeping me waiting!"

That was all it took as he leaned down and bit her neck, marking her as his, and she howled in pain and pleasure, bringing her hands - one to his head and wove through his luxuriant hair and the other to his back to scratch her nails and add yet more scars there - up and grasp for dear life as he began to pump her so hard she would have a hard time walking for a week while adding a vigorous, mellow rhythm to the energy that bloomed more than the red rose or the blue iris…

~o~

She'd fallen asleep at her desk.

Or rather, waking up at her desk and soaking hot underneath, which made her very angry and embarrassed.

Iris' body snapped backward, the leather chair protecting her and helping her regain her balance. She blamed Edward for this. He woke her in the middle of the night to tell her Jonathan loved her when it could have waited during the day. Or did he want to give her a more...dramatic means of giving the news to her? Thought he could come between them because he was Jonathan's friend?

Today hadn't been well for her because of the lack of sleep, and now she'd fallen asleep. She looked up to see that the day was nearing its end, and Alice could phone her any minute now and ask her if she still felt like going shopping for more wedding stuff. She and Jervis had been engaged for a month now, and the wedding was in less than two months, ready to be held at their Grandmother Sylvia's mansion. The preparations had been made with haste, the theme already obvious from the start and from Jervis' favorite childhood classic.

How come she had to have a raw sexual dream in the middle of the day of all days?

And most of all, how could she talk to Jonathan about his feelings for her? It wasn't that she doubted him, but she wanted to hear it from HIM, not Edward. She wanted to say she loved him, too, but how could they when he was still a patient?

~o~

For a long time before Alice Pleasance discovered she was the half-blood-sister of Iris, before she found employment under Jervis at Wayne Enterprises and before she became engaged to him, she had been raised by a single mother who lusted for wealth and position and therefore sought relations with Marcus DeLaine long before his loss over HIV. Since then, after Iris had been established as the sole heir to the family corporation, Sophia Pleasance had been pressuring her only daughter to find a potential suitor who could ensure their survival.

High school was brutal for finding a boyfriend, but the perfect man was always hard to find, and college got worse. But then she met Billy then, near the end of her school years while she was still just Jervis' assistant; she thought Billy was the one, but they had a cycle of issues that had been based on his parents saying she was "too poor" as well as sneering at her being the daughter of a dead rich man's mistress. They said she was worthless, which Sophia blamed her daughter for, too.

But, according to Iris, it wasn't Alice's fault her mother was a gold-digging whore.

Then Jervis came along when she first got her job as a secretary in college. He was older than her by a decade, but he was so genuine and sweet to her, treating her differently than Billy treated her. He had been her best friend during the ordeal with Billy - but she could have sworn she saw his eyes darken at one point when Billy proposed marriage to her, and something held her back from saying yes until Jervis came to her house one night and professed his feelings for her. He said he had loved her ever since the beginning but respected her decision, though insisted Billy wasn't the right man for her. That she should follow her heart and not have him because he was the man her mother wanted for her. She remembered feeling overwhelmed and speechless because she never thought he would ever admit he felt that way about her.

Never did she think she would end up feeling her heart thump a thousand times faster than it did after he left her afterward, respecting whatever her wish was.

In the end, she knew where her heart truly belonged. After Iris inherited everything and managed to persuade DeLaine Towers to give Alice her rightful share as she WAS Marcus DeLaine's other daughter, Alice went back to school and quit her job; she and Jervis were officially together after she broke up with Billy for the final time. And now she was getting married to him.

Around her finger was a ring she'd never seen before that Jervis could not have picked anything better. It was a delicate filigree in a marquis shape, centered with a square sapphire which was sided on either end with two yellow diamonds. It was more than anything that Billy would have given her, more than even the two rings she wore on her right hand that had been left to her from her father before he died, to only make up for the "lost times" they never had as father and daughter. On her forefinger was a captivating three rows of yellow gold and nine glittering diamonds; the third finger boasted an ethereal moonstone on an enchanting yellow band that could belong to a fairy.

Today she needed to shop for more wedding materials - the dress was already done, and now she was picking up her reception dress as well as the bridesmaids' dresses. Iris was her maid of honor and helped her out.

However, her sister wasn't exactly entirely present despite wanting to be there. Iris seemed...distracted more than normal, answering shortly or giving an answer in an almost dead tone. She had been like this when she returned home, not bothering to change out of her teal silk blouse and black pants, keeping her painful-to-wear-after-all-day heels on for the ordeal, and leaving her hair in its chignon style. She was troubled, indeed.

They had quite the journey looking for wedding dresses when Jervis had not even proposed yet at the time. Iris always somehow knew Jervis would, as she knew what men like him were like when they knew they found the one for them. It had taken two months in the making, beginning with blue dresses in a single day. The first had been a strapless aqua blue ballgown, the bodice an all-over dramatic floral design in which a dahlia dominated the entire surface, and the skirt was sparkling tulle - however, Alice felt like she was going to prom again. The next one was too conservative for her; it was a beaded halter to add modernism to the class. The third and final did it for her in the blue gown department; the bodice might have had exposed boning and tones of sparkle, the skirt multi-textured with rosettes, but all these blue gowns weren't working out. She'd wanted something that was all her, unique and original enough to do Alice in Wonderland justice.

Next, they tried all white, returning to traditional. The first white was a fabulous A-line, the bodice fitted and sparkling on the bust, the rest of the organza skirt swirling softly, though it made the bride herself feel like she'd seen it before. Another white was extremely sweet and completely unique; its skirt was still ballgown tulle, dreamy, and like she was floating on the clouds, though the bodice itself had a pattern like it was made out of candy. It made her feel like she was twelve again. And then the third and final white made her gear towards a direction of white and blue together, though not this one despite its elegant blossoms and crystals over the bodice.

Blue and white together it was, and her choice was the determination of when Jervis finally got down on his knees and asked her to marry him a couple of days after she brought the dress home after a few more months in the making.

The dresses she picked for the maid of honor and the bridesmaids were all the same: asymmetrical ruching to flatter the figure, and the fabric was satin and a waterfall shade of blue that took her breath away. It didn't take away from her, the bride, as Iris constantly reminded her not to do it, so she asked one more time. "What do you think?"

"It's perfect, not too lavish and not too simple. The maids shouldn't outshine the bride on her day."

She couldn't take it anymore. "Iris, what in heaven's name is wrong with you today? Didn't you even get any sleep, if that's it?"

Since they were in a little more private part of this section, Iris kept her tone down so it was between the sisters. "Alice, last night Edward Nygma came to visit me, and he told me that Jonathan..." She stopped herself there, lowering her eyes. It wasn't like her sister to be so timid either, but whatever the Riddler said, it really had Iris bothered.

"Iris, what did he say?"

"He said Jonathan had...feelings for me. Like you and Jervis."

Alice's fingers found their way to her eyes. Somehow she'd known something like this would happen, but Iris was not as romantic as she was. She was both surprised and not surprised at the same time, but how could she say the same for her sister? "I think," she said finally, "we should take this in the car instead of here."

So they bought her reception dress and the bridesmaids' and went for the SUV. Alice knew the whole story of how they met and the downhill events when he got fired for helping her against the bullies who assaulted her, how Iris always felt that forbidden attraction for him and somehow knew it from him, and how stronger it got while she worked for and alongside him at Arkham, and then the end of everything he had built for the two of them when the Batman came along. Then Edward Nygma came to the manor in the middle of the night and told her that the Scarecrow was in love with her all this time but was "afraid" to tell her himself.

"Honestly, how can you not think any time of the day about someone who protected you when you were a child?" Iris asked as she leaned back and looked at Alice who was behind the wheel, keeping them both in the parking lot until her story was finished. "I worship Jonathan as he worships me, and we have no secrets between us..." She trailed off. "Except for the man in his dream. He's the last key to getting Jonathan out of Arkham. A part of me feels like he..."

Alice turned her body around and faced her full front. She and Iris had their ups and downs, and the former got the man of her dreams in the end - Iris needed that opportunity herself before it was lost. Jonathan needed it, too.

"He told me about his mother and grandmother, about the abandonment, abuse, and a church full of crows as punishment. And he never talks about his…psychology professor at Gotham State before he, too, became a professor at the same university, which is also where we met. He's hiding something from me, but I don't want to force him to talk any more than I already got him to tell me about his dream."

She nodded half to herself and the raven-haired woman. Jonathan needed to tell his greatest secret to help them both, even though she herself was not a psychiatrist. The longer you kept it in, the worse it got. Not to be cruel, but it was no wonder he remained in Arkham - because he kept it all bottled up beside the other information about his life.

~o~

Jonathan remembered gaping when Edward first brought in the book two days ago. He wouldn't even tell him how he got it, only that it would fix the little "issue you have with Iris and your fantasies", despite Jonathan's objections. The book had a warm honey-brown hardcover with the title in gold and below an equal engraved image of a lotus flower.

Kama Sutra.

"Edward, what is this supposed to be?!"

"Well, obviously, it's not just any book for me to give to you. And this happened to be in Joan's collection, which surprised me when I first saw it, and never thought she'd own anything like it. It is an ancient Indian text on human sexual behavior, especially helping people to get…better lovers so that they can find fulfillment in love. And yes, I'm quoting on research perspective."

You spent how long researching and immediately understanding human physical intimacy? The question was forgotten altogether when he opened the book. He was aghast - and slightly turned on - by what he had discovered in it. Of course, he had heard of the Kama Sutra, now that he remembered; it overpowered every existing book on sexual acts, but he never considered even looking into it. Sex was never on his list - until he began having intimate thoughts about Iris. He was a man after all, and men had needs. Edward had said he'd looked at it for his times with Joan - no surprise there - and learned that Harley and Ivy had used it, but also her and Joker - now that was beyond more than his poor imagination could bear. He discovered at least a hundred and twenty different positions that aroused him while others disgusted him, and some he wasn't the least bit interested in. The illustrations in the one-hundred-and-seventy-six-page edition, bound in Japanese silk were of the traditional Indian art and beholding the various positions in graphic imagery and the details written clearly and vividly. Jonathan could feel his cheeks flushing at all this new stuff he saw for the first time in his life without any more peril.

Okay, so he'd read the whole thing, his mind taking in every detail, and by the time he was done, he put it down and looked away in shame, turning away to bury his face in the pillows. And then Eddie ruined the moment by laughing.

"You're embarrassed," he noted. "Well, I understand where this is coming from, but you gotta admit it, this is a good tool for you and Iris."

Jonathan lifted his head from the pillow and scowled. "No offense, but I really don't want to talk about this. And I've especially heard enough of your sex life with Dr. Leland, and quite frankly, hearing about the two next door has been more than I could bear."

Edward just laughed again and walked over to sit at the foot of the bed and picked up the now-closed book. "Well, you know Joan favored not only up against the wall, but she also favors top position on the floor, and a couple other things. One is the frog position, where I squat my legs for her to get on my lap, her legs also over mine, and she holds onto my shoulders," he added with a wink. "Luckily, I get the opportunity to put my tongue to use on her breasts. But because of this position, instead of thrusting, I prefer to rock in and out gently to make it easier, and Joan squeezes her muscles, and when my thigh muscles can't take anymore, I lay back and let her bounce on top.

"Another is the ballerina - also known as 'yawning' when she lies on her back and her legs are lifted and spread as wide as they can go. Do the math and the penetration is profound. This is my favorite because it makes me the dominant male." Eddie sniggered evilly. "I would recommend this for yourself because this makes us in charge -"

"Okay, okay!" Jonathan held up a hand for him to stop. "This is more than I need to know from you."

Eddie held both his hands up placatingly. "Hey, at least you're not hearing this from the poor little widowed harlequin who just loved to talk about the various ones with her late puddin' - now with Pamela, which gives me nightmares. The point is, Jon, if you're gonna have a great sex life, at least learn the dos and all the don'ts. But there are certain things that us guys may or may not like doing."

That was the important thing Jonathan knew about from experience. "Well, you and I both know us straight guys don't like anything like a vibrator shoved up our -"

"Ah, ah, ah, that is where you are only half true. Before Iris woke up and saw me doing my business, I had cut my ass hair for Joan to bring what you mentioned to do just that, and I love the feel of the sharp vibrations up my a -"

"Okay, that is another thing more than I need to know. What do girls hate, first of all?"

Eddie put a finger under his chin as if in deep thought. "Well, Joan told me double and triple penetration, but that is only if there is another guy involved. And some women don't like rough sex. Some, not all."

He turned to a page and pointed to an illustration where a guy took control over his lady partner, the explicit details of both anatomies and all. "Constant clitoral contact means a very happy lady!" he declared with a flourish of his hand. "This is one perfect way to make your girl happy, alright. Back arched, legs spread, and the bottom part always lifted now and then. Great for making eye contact during the orgasm," Eddie said happily. "Not only YOU enjoying being inside of her, but she enjoys it more than you."

The actual Kama Sutra is described as having "illustrations in the one-hundred-and-seventy-six-page edition, bound in Japanese silk were of the traditional Indian art and beholding the various positions in graphic imagery and the details written clearly and vividly" is very hard to find anywhere else, but other books have the positions and keeping up its tradition.

Unlike other incarnations and stories, Jervis is a good guy and does NOT become Mad Hatter. :) I have no idea if anyone else has done this, too.

The latest Kama Sutra position Edward mentioned at the end - I don't remember the name of it, to be honest. XD