In Love With A Good Man
Chapter 28: Call Me!
The next few days passed by without incident. Harley and Casey returned to their jobs with Casey working during the day and Harley working late afternoons and evenings. He would get off of work, drive her to the studio, and then pick her up when she was done.
But he didn't pick her up tonight. He wasn't answering his phone.
"Come on...come on, baby, pick up..." Harley muttered under her breath, calling him a third time now. It went to voicemail again.
"You alright, Harlene? You look tense." Rain, one of the other models, walked over to her and placed her hands on Harley's shoulders. She looked at Harley with concern.
"Huh? Y-Yeah, I'm okay, just...my boyfriend ain't picking up his phone. He's supposed to be my ride." She explained, playing off her inner worry with a fake laugh.
"Ah, typical. You need a ride? I can drive you back." Rain offered.
"Uh...yeah, looks like I'mma need it. Thanks, hun." Harley said appreciatively.
"No problem! Let me just gather my things and we'll be out in a couple minutes." Rain said, making her way towards their lockers.
"The faster the better, please!" Harley urged her.
On the drive back to the house, Harley tried to call Casey three more times. She still wasn't getting through. It would go to voicemail every time. With her anxiety increasing even more, she decided to give Ivy a call.
"Hello, Harley. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Ivy answered.
"Red. Please tell me you've heard from Casey." Harley said.
"Um...the last time we talked was this morning, but nothing since then. Why? Did something happen?" She asked.
"I'm starting to think so, hun. Casey isn't answering his phone. I-I'm on my way back to the house now, I got a ride from one of my friends at work, b-but what if-"
"Whoa whoa, slow down, Harley. We're not sure if anything happened yet, right?"
"N-No..."
"Once you get home, confirm first. We'll take it from there. Until then, I will try to reach him too." Ivy said.
"Okay...okay..." Harley nodded, rocking back and forth a little in her seat while trying to calm herself down with a few deep breaths.
"Harley? Are you feeling alright? You sound like you're gonna throw up." Rain observed, glancing over at her from the driver's seat.
"Y-Yes, I'm okay. Just...the sooner I can get home the better..." Harley said. She had to stop herself from revealing anymore details. She bit back the urge to say that she was starting to have a panic attack.
Finally, after what felt like forever, Rain pulled up in front of their house. Harley immediately opened up the door and hopped out before the car had fully stopped.
"Whoa whoa, careful!" Rain exclaimed, hitting the brakes suddenly.
"Sorry, hun, really! But I gotta go! Take care of yourself!" Harley said, grabbing her purse and shutting the door.
Harley hurried up to the front door of the house. She reached in her purse for her keys. She muttered to herself, stressing because she couldn't hold her keys steady with her shaky hands. As she stuck the key into the lock, she paused, noticing a piece of paper taped to the front door:
"Call me by midnight, darling – Mr. J" was handwritten on the paper in red marker, with 'Mr. J' being signed in green. Harley's eyes widened. She pulled the paper off the door and read it again.
"No...no no no no!" Harley unlocked the door and threw it open. It smacked against the wall as she hurried inside.
The living room showed clear signs of a struggle: the center table was broken, chairs had been knocked over, and the couch had been tipped onto its side. Harley fumbled with her purse again, pulling out her phone and calling Selina this time.
"Baby! Baby! Casey, are you in here?! Hello?!" Harley called out, holding the phone up to her ear with one hand while searching every room of the small house both downstairs and upstairs.
"Harley? Is that you?" Selina answered the phone.
"Cat! Casey's been kidnapped! Joker's got him! I need you to call Batman right now!" She shouted urgently.
"Hey, hold on. Say that again? Did you say Joker has Casey?" Selina asked.
"Yes! Yes! He's not here! I just searched everywhere! If he's not here, he's not dead yet! We have to find him!" Harley kept yelling through the phone.
"How do you know he's not dead, Harley?" Selina asked her.
"Because if he was dead, Mr. J would've left the body here for me to find it. I know it! I know him!" Harley explained frantically, "We're wasting time! I'm getting suited up and I'm going out to find him!" She decided.
"Harley! Hold on! I'm going to call Batman and get him to help, I promise. Do you have any idea where he could be? Did Joker leave any clues?" Selina asked.
"N-No, just a note. It says to call him by midnight. Wh-What time is it...9:42. We only have a couple hours!" Harley realized.
"Okay. Suit up. I'm calling Batman. Do you have the number to call him?" Selina asked.
"I-I-I...yes! He wrote it on the back!" Harley exclaimed, setting the paper down on her bed and putting Selina on speaker so that she could grab her costume and change.
"Read me the number. I'll write it down and pass it on to the Bat." Selina instructed.
"Yeah, yeah. It's 332-842-2739." Harley said, pulling her costume on and zipping it up.
"Got it. Okay. I'll call you back after I've spoken to Batman. What're you gonna do 'til then?"
"I'm gonna call Red and then I'm going out lookin' for Casey." Harley said before hanging up the phone. She grabbed her hammer and rushed back out the front door...
And so Harley Quinn's desperate search to try and save Casey began. She started by looking at Joker's hideouts, using her hammer as a coercion tool to try and get some of Joker's henchmen to tell her where he was – unfortunately, none of them knew.
So then Harley tried hitting different hiding places – spots where she knew you could go if you needed to disappear in a pinch. Some of them she knew from being with Joker, others she had found on her own, but she couldn't find anything in any of those either.
It was almost 11pm now. She was running out of time, becoming increasingly panicked and desperate. Just as she had exhausted her last idea, a young boy on a custom motorcycle pulled up beside her on the road.
"Hey, Harley! Still looking for your boyfriend?" He asked, looking over at her.
"Bird brain! Boy, for once, I'm glad to see you! Does this bean you and Batsy are helpin' me look for Casey after all?" She asked hopefully, approaching him and the motorcycle.
"Yeah, we've been looking for the last hour. Joker set the deadline for midnight, right?" Robin asked.
"Yeah. I have to call him in an hour or he'll kill Casey! Please, we gotta find him!" Harley begged.
"Alright, hop on. We still got a couple places to check out." Robin said. Harley quickly jumped on the back of the motorcycle.
"Thanks, kid! You're a lifesaver!" She said before they rode off.
11pm arrived. 15 minutes passed. Then another 15 minutes. Another still. Now the clock was reaching 11:50pm. Joker and Casey were still nowhere to be found. Harley's heart was beating so hard and so fast that it was about to explode out of her chest now.
"We're runnin' out of time! I don't think I have any other choice...I'm gonna have to call him. If I don't, he'll definitely kill Casey!" Harley exclaimed frantically.
"Alright, alright. Um...I'll patch Batman into the call. It shouldn't take him very long to figure out where the call is coming from. Just try to keep him talking as long as possible." Robin instructed. Harley stepped off of the motorcycle and pulled out her phone.
"That shouldn't be too hard. If there's one thing Mr. J likes to do, it's talk..." Harley took in a nervous breath. As high as her anxiety was now, it was being pushed past its limits now as she dialed the number Joker had left for her.
When she called, it changed to a video call. Harley held up the phone, and soon the smiling face of her ex-boyfriend was looking back at her.
"Harley, Harley, Harley! Good to see you, kiddo! It's been too long! I see you still have the old getup." He observed.
"Where's Casey?!" Harley shouted at him.
"Straight to the point, huh? Let me show you!" Joker moved the camera, showing Casey tied to a chair with tape over his mouth. Two of Joker's henchmen stood on either side of him. He had a few bruises on his face. They seemed to be standing on some kind of balcony or catwalk.
"Casey! Casey! No..." Harley's heart broke at seeing that he'd been hurt, "He did nothing wrong! Leave him alone! Touch him again and I'll kill ya!" She threatened, making Joker laugh.
"Hahaha! I haven't seen you so feisty in quite a long time! Look at us, sparking the old flame again as it were." Joker grinned.
"You doused that flame out a long time ago, Mr. J. I want my Casey back now!" Harley growled.
"Oh ho, your Casey? How interesting. Well I'd be happy to deliver him back for you. But you know how delivery is nowadays. He's not exactly being handled with care right now." Joker taunted, walking up to Casey and pulling his hair to tilt his head back, putting the camera in his face.
She could see the fear in his eyes.
"Please just hold on, Casey, I'm coming to save you. I promise...what do you want, Joker?! What do I have to do to get you to let him go?!" Harley asked desperately.
"Heheh, you? Oh, nothing, darling. You've already made your position very, very clear. Now it's my turn to have my fun with this little Casey boy you seem to like so much." Joker said with a grin, chuckling in his usual sadistic way.
"Ple-ease...please don't kill him. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me," Harley begged, starting to become overwhelmed with emotion. "Let me come take his place. Kill me instead." She tried.
"Careful what you wish for, sweetheart," Joker said. "But don't worry. I'm not going to kill him. What kind of a heartless monster do you take me for, dear?"
"Wh-What? You're not gonna...?" Harley's eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh no, that'd be too easy. Don't be silly. There's no fun in that. Let me show you something," Joker said with a strange level of excitement. He stepped behind Casey and aimed the camera down. Harley looked past Joker's feet to a vat of green acid a few stories below where he was standing.
"Is that...I can't...oh god...that's...you're at ACE Chemicals?!" Harley realized, doing her best to drag out her realization to give Batman and Robin time to see this and coordinate a response.
"Ahh, you cracked the code. See, I was thinking about killing your little boyfriend here, but then I had a revelation...you love him because he's nothing like me, isn't that right?" He said. Harley took in a deep breath through her nose.
"That's right, Mr. J. He is nothing like you! He's nice, he's sweet, he's kind...he loves me. He really loves me! He did more for me the night we met than you ever did!" She said, speaking both passionately and spitefully. This seemed to have no effect on Joker however.
"Well then, clearly the most logical thing to do is to see what happens when your Casey becomes my Casey. Won't it be interesting to see what happens to all that sweetness and kindness when he loses his mind?" Joker asked with a wide grin, leaning Casey's back towards the balcony.
"Mm! Mm!" Casey flinched and shook his head, looking even more terrified.
"No! No! Don't!" Harley screamed.
"Hahaha! Don't be scared, Casey! The water's fine! Take a dive! Don't forget to hold your nose!" Joker laughed before pushing him over the edge.
"Nooo!" Harley screamed louder.
"Joker!" Batman's voice yelled. She heard it over the phone. Gunshots rang out for a few seconds before Joker dropped the phone and the call abruptly ended.
"No! No. Noooo..." Harley whined, falling down to her knees. Robin's eyes widened. He quickly ran back to the motorcycle and cranked it on.
"We gotta go! ACE Chemicals isn't that far from here! We can make it in 10 minutes if we go now!" Robin exclaimed, urging for her to hurry and get on.
"Okay..." Harley sniffled, forcing herself to get up and hop on the back of the motorcycle. "Hold on, baby. I'm coming!" She said as they rode off again...