"You want to know how Bruce went back into time," Adriana said to Jack. "Why?"
"You ask a question with a very obvious answer," he said in response. "To erase everything I did. To erase the Joker. Save some lives if I can."
Adriana looked at him quietly. He meant what he was saying.
"Did you talk to Dr. Kapoor about this?" Adriana asked.
"'Course not," he said, almost laughing. "Not entirely sure he even believes Bruce's tales of traveling to the past."
Adriana was silent again.
"So," he said. "Will you tell me?"
"Jack," she said, finding it difficult to look directly into his eyes. They softened her heart enough to tell him whatever he wanted to know. "Can...you get me something to drink?"
He looked disappointed. She wasn't going to tell him. He sighed.
"What do you want to drink?" he asked.
"Umm...anything you have would be great," she said, just needing a moment alone.
He stood up and left the living room. Adriana closed her eyes and tried to imagine what things would be like if he had never been the Joker. Everything would be completely different. Her entire life and everything in it. She couldn't tell him.
He came back with a glass of iced tea and handed it to her.
"Thanks," she said and began to sip it.
He pushed the papers on the couch aside and sat some of them on the table before sitting down again.
"You won't be telling me a thing, will you?" he asked after she finished drinking some the tea and was moving to sit the glass down.
"Jack," Adriana said. "I know you want to do this because of Arsenio. So that he won't find out what you did one day-"
"Yes," he said. "But also because it was wrong. If I can fix it, why shouldn't I?"
"This...may be a selfish answer," she said. "But I don't want to lose my baby. Even if it means saving lives."
"Why would you lose him?" he asked.
"Because if you were never the Joker we never would have met," she said. "I never wanted kids, Jack. Never. I was always so careful. Always took the pill, until I left Damien. I was taking so many meds for so long...what was one more? But when I met you I just...let down my guard in a way I never had before. I forgot about everything...all the risk. And I'm glad I did."
He considered everything that she was saying.
"Okay then," he said. "What if I go back to after you fell pregnant? I could save at least a dozen lives."
"Jack...first of all we don't even know exactly when that happened-" she said.
"I'm pretty sure I have a good idea of when," he said.
Adriana looked down at her hands.
"I'm sorry Jack," she said. "I can't help you. This isn't a good idea at all."
She didn't want to look up. She almost expected that he would be glaring at her or looking at her with even more disappointment. But when she finally looked up, he looked concerned.
"I won't ask you to help me with this again," he said. It was not a threat, but a promise. "Clearly...there is something more to this that is making you...not at your most comfortable."
"I'm sorry Jack," she said. "It's just..."
She took a deep breath.
"The way the Bruce went back into time," Adriana said. "He told me that someone helped him. This really...terrible woman. She's really the worst kind of person. She send Bruce back into time, charged him half of his net worth. Then she...I guess gave him all types of potions and.."
Adriana blinked and shook her head.
"She's the one he had an affair with," Adriana said. "I can't help but believe that she planned it. It was like she was setting him up. Giving him awful potions to show him things in my past he never should have seen. I hate her. And if I ever see Twyla again I can't guarantee that I won't kill her."
"Twyla," he said the name. It was vaguely familiar. "We called her."
"Oh..." Adriana said, remembering that night. She told them how to save themselves after taking in an extremely high dose of one of her potions. It had changed everything. "Yes...we did."
After a pause Adriana spoke again.
"I'm sorry.." Adriana said. "You said that you loved me and I told you that I was going to leave Bruce and-"
"Don't," he said, raising a hand. "Don't apologize for that."
"I don't want to hurt you-" she said and he cut her off again.
"Bruce is in love with you," he said. "I am in love with you. Only one of us can have you. He is your husband after all."
.
.
.
"It's possible," Bruce said to Adriana after she told him Jack's theory. Someone had paid off his lawyer and wanted to recruit him. There was no evidence, there was no contact, there was nothing. Only the theory. And since Bruce had abducted the Joker immediately after the trial, no one had been able to make contact with him. Everyone believed he was dead.
"It's...something we won't ever be able to prove," Adriana said. "Unless the Catwoman knows something about it. I could ask her if we cross paths again."
"No," Bruce said. "I don't want you to speak to her again. Stay away from her."
Adriana raised her eyebrows.
"Please," he said changing his order into a polite request.
"Well, sometimes she just shows up out of nowhere," Adriana explained. "I can't always avoid her."
"If she shows up, then leave," he said.
"She's not dangerous," Adriana said. "And even if she was...I can take her. She's skinny."
"As are you," he said.
Adriana rolled her eyes and smiled.
"Jack also had another...theory," Adriana said.
"What was that?" Bruce asked.
"He thinks you already know who the 'League' is," she said. "And you just don't want to tell me. Is that true?"
"No," Bruce said firmly. "It is not."
Adriana didn't believe him at all.
"Okay," Adriana said. "Well, I'm going to sleep now."
She was already in bed with the covers over her legs. Bruce was in their room collecting his clothing to sleep in. They had been sleeping apart for several nights. But now, his blood tests had come back. He was had agreed to complete rehab. Their problems seemed to be behind them. And Adriana did not care much about the League, as long as they stayed away from her son and husband, which they seemed to be doing. And if they were going to approach, she had a feeling the Catwoman would warn her.
Adriana reached over to Bruce's side of the bed and flung back the covers, indicating to him that he was to sleep in their bed tonight. He smiled, gave her a kiss, and walked around the bed to his side. Once he was in bed he reached turn off the bedside lamp. The bedroom was dark and quiet, and Adriana immediately felt drowsy and ready for sleep. But same time she was incredibly aroused. It had been well over a month since she and Bruce had sex last. But, just his presence in the bed made her feel more relaxed and sleepy than ever. She drifted off quickly.
His lips were warm and familiar. She adored them and felt herself smiling in the kiss. He pushed her hair back so that he could see and he was smiling too. He lifted his upper body so that he was sitting and then flipped her over onto her back. She giggled as she pushed her hair back off her eyes, and she heard herself whisper I love you, Bruce.
He smiled, leaned down and kissed her and she heard the reply. I love you too.
She heard herself gasp, his voice had changed completely. Because he wasn't himself, he was now Jack. She was stunned. She told herself it wasn't real. It was a dream. It was clearly a dream..one that she did not want to wake from. He looked down on her with the slightest smile on her face. A scarred smile. She reached up and touched the scar on the right side of his cheek. He was wearing a green vest and a dark blue shirt, she could see green dye at the ends of his hair. Undoubtedly, she was dreaming. She did not care, but she wanted a better look at him. She used all of her strength to then flip him onto his back, before straddling him. Again, he had turned back into Bruce and they were both entirely nude.
Bruce... she heard herself say. What a dream. Without hesitation she kissed him. But then she felt his hands around her waist, but it was strange. His arms were around her but his palms were flat on her stomach. But she could still feel them on the sides of her thighs. And then she felt lips on the side of her neck. Bruce smiled up at her calmly. She turned her head and saw him, Jack was behind her. Bruce was in front of her. She looked back and forth at the both, knowing she had to make a choice.
I...I don't know, she started to say, but Bruce lifted himself up taking one of her nipples into her mouth and Jack reached for her chin turning her lips towards his, pulling her into a kiss. Her eyes closed in the kiss and she felt herself being penetrated.
She found herself awake, sitting upright in the bed gasping for air.
"Having a good dream?" she heard Bruce say and she turned to see him laying on his side looking at her. "You were talking."
"What..." she said breathlessly. "What did I say?"
"You said...I love you Bruce," he said and smiled. "I love you too, Adriana. You said my name a couple of times.
"Oh.." Adriana said, with relief. She flopped back onto the pillows.
"It's been a while for both of us," Bruce said. "It's only natural you'd have a sex dream."
"Right...right," Adriana said and noticed Bruce looking at her expectantly. He wanted to have sex, but she felt like she needed to bathe away her dream of two men at once.
"I'm...so tired...I'm just going to try to get back to sleep," Adriana said.
Bruce smiled and kissed her forehead and then her lips.
"Sweet dreams," he said.