Part 20: Serious Game
Title: Genesis
Author: Anoushkala
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: The Dark Knight
Genre: Pre-TDK, Drama
Pairing: Harley/Joker
Characters: Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Pamela Isley, and Wilhelm Knauer.
Disclaimer: The whole Batman universe belongs to lots of people who aren't me. I'm not making any money off of this. I write solely for my own pleasure and the reviews, so please comment :-D
Summary: Harley has questions answered.
Author Notes: Un-beta'd as usual. Coarse language.
She had spent yet another night away from home. Pamela woke earlier than usual and gave her a lift to the hospital.
“You be careful,” she said as Harley exited the vehicle.
“Sure, Red, always,” she smiled, but received a scowl for all her best efforts.
“I’m not joking, you blonde twit, keep an eye out. This is a serious game you’re playing. The quickest way to get hurt is to try and double cross the double crossers.”
She tossed a hand flippantly as she crossed in front of the vehicle.
“I know what I’m doing, Pamela, he doesn’t suspect a thing.”
“Don’t crow so loudly, Harl, you’d be surprised how fast fate will kick you in the ass.”
“I know what I’m doing,” she repeated, leaning through the driver’s side window and kissing her friend on the cheek. She continued to glower at her, however.
“Famous last words,” Pamela yelled as she drove away.
Harley shook her head. Perhaps she was being over-confident? But all men were the same really. It wasn’t hard to figure out the way to a man’s heart… You just had to figure out what he wanted, and most men wanted one thing, she’d discovered. The Colonel was not so different. Not like her Jack, ever unpredictable. What did the Colonel want? Power and obedience. As long as he continued to believe that she would obey him unconditionally, as long as it appeared that the balance of power was in his favor, she was safe. She was to give him no reason to doubt her. If she stayed beneath his radar, attracted no undue notice then she could carry out her plan in peace.
First things first, she must find a way to get him out of the hospital. From there, she must have reliable transportation: an escape route and destination, a safe harbor. They must go as far away from the city as possible. But where could they be safe from the government, where could they hide from the Army? Somewhere densely populated, somewhere they could disappear. Like Gotham City,she thought. She didn’t find the idea all together appealing, but she was willing to make sacrifices. True love always required sacrifices. She would be willing to do such a thing for him.
Her chest hurt, heart twisting upon itself, her stomach fluttering at just the thought of laying beside him in the dark, all alone and not a thread between them.. What a privilege that would be. Living on the streets, even, homeless fugitives, refugees from the law, whatever it took, she would do that thing just for the chance to stay by his side.
The clouds hung close to the morning horizon, dampening the red of the sun, but no, not her mood. All would end well, she felt sure of that. How could true love do anything but triumph?
But didn’t he love him truly?
“Shut up,” she muttered, jumped at the sound a moment later. Think of something better… and for God’s sake don’t start talking to yourself, you sound like a crazy person!
She listened to the steady tap of her heels upon the concrete, counting in her head as she went. She found it soothing, and soon… her fingertips tingled at the thought of his face, so handsome, those strong arms wrapped tight around her.
“I love you,” he would whisper, finally saying it. “You thought of all this yourself?” He would be ever so proud of her, scarcely able to believe what she had accomplished. Once they were rid of this place, rid of these trappings, then they would start their new life together.
Never alone again, oh, her heart leapt at the very thought. She pulled her compact from her purse, pausing in the humid morning to check her face and hair. Her clothing was just a little too tight, heels a little too high. If she was going to succeed in this, she had to give every impression of acting upon his intention. She must appear to be extracting information from the Captain without his knowing. If need be, she must… ‘seduce’ him!
She laughed out loud before she could stop herself. It echoed off the nearby cars and she jumped again. Dear god, why was she so nervous? Why was she so turned on!?
Her skin was perfect, lips a bit darker than usual. The tiny, superficial wounds he’d bestowed with the strange knife (it had a hollow in the center of the blade… she’d never seen the like before) were easy enough to hide beneath her lipstick. Her blouse collar was high enough to cover the wound on her chest (she’d taken ever so much care with the wound, terrified of marring his handiwork.) All other marks remained invisible beneath fabric and makeup.
She winked at her reflection and closed her compact with a snap, sliding it back into her bag.
“Here goes nothing, girls…”
~~
She passed Wilhelm in the hallway. He offered a courteous nod, but did not stop. He looked sleepy, yet vaguely triumphant. Another session like the night before and their work would be done. Once Jack was away from the hospital, she could return the pages to their rightful owner. From there… what? People would kill for the information she possessed. Perhaps she could sell it? Her chest clenched again, treason echoed in her mind, but her will was as steel: there was no going back now. Besides, how bad was the second betrayal in a string of lies, deceit, murders?
Nothing she did from this point forward would be as evil as the atrocities already committed. Everything that followed would be vengeance. He could not strike back now, but she could, and she vowed to make them pay for how he had been hurt.
Mr. J… My Mr. J… she thought, giggling quietly to herself. Even the sound of his name caused her pulse to quicken. She was glad no one was near to hear her moment of self-indulgence and quickly schooled her features to serious as she walked the last few feet to the end of her hallway.
“Now that’s how every man ought to start his morning, with a pretty lady,” she heard as she rounded the corner.
“Private,” she grinned, eyebrows arched.
“I swear, you just get finer every day.”
“You say that every time you see me,” she laughed, and he fell in beside her, arms keeping rhythm with her feet. “Aren’t you going to think of a new line?”
He laughed softly. “Oh, you wound me, mi dulce, my heart is bleeding.”
“Anymore melodramatic and you would be in a silent movie.”
She listened to the steady hiss of his wheels on the tile. He grinned at her sideways.
“You just want to burn me up today.”
“You set yourself up for it, Nunez.”
“Fair enough,” he grinned, and his eyebrows arched higher.
“Did you just wake up this morning and say, this seems like a good day to pester Dr. Quinzel?”
“I can’t have just woken up this morning wanting to talk to somebody?”
She frowned softly. “Are you serious, Private? You haven’t made an appointment…”
“Dead serious, doc, cross my heart and hope to die… I just need to talk to somebody.”
What is he playing at? she thought. She glanced at her watch, looking back to him.
“I have thirty minutes until my first appointment. If you really must talk to me.” She turned away from him, spun through her ring of keys, unlocked her office door, holding it open as he wheeled himself inside. She set her things upon her desk. He stopped before the bookcase, reached out and ran his finger down the spine of a book that read “Self Esteem in Psychoanalysis.” She waited in silence for sometime, but he began before she could speak herself.
“You ever lost any family, Doctor?” he asked, pulling the book free and tossing it from hand to hand.
“My mother, father, and brother are all dead.”
“I’m sorry,” he said honestly, and she nodded as she took a seat.
“I had a brother… twin brother…” he said, after a moment.
“Eduardo Nunez?” she asked softly.
He looked surprised for a moment.
“How’d you know?”
“The Captain has told me about him. He was a Demolitions specialist, wasn’t he?”
“Sure was,” he affirmed. “He made Captain, but they bumped him back again… fucked off too much. They busted me all the way back to Private, sent us both to Iraq to serve. Over there, I was an APC mechanic, took care of forty or fifty of the damn things all by myself. It was the first time in my life I’d ever been away from my brother. We slept in the same bed till we were ten, for God’s sake. Then, all of a sudden, the best I can hope for is a letter or two. We were real close, you know, Eddie and me, thick as thieves, right?
“So one day, we’re on the Uzem road… truck hits this IED… coffee can…bottom’s armored, you know, we get burnt, but we’re alive. Jordan, up front, he’s on fire, not too good at driving… He tries to bring it back on the road, but the tires are spinning, and he just can’t get it back under control. It flips, lands in a canal. I fall out the window, and it lands on me… I mean… the roof…it’s on my legs.” He went silent for a moment, staring at the casts as though he had never before seen them.
“Private? Are you alright?” she asked softly.
He shook his head, the first frown she had ever seen blooming upon his lips.
“The water’s so muddy,” he said with difficulty. “I can’t see anything, can’t breathe, and all I can think about is the pain, and I’m wondering if I’m crippled maybe, I’m wondering if I’m dying, and then I’m not thinking much at all cause everything starts to go black…” he trailed off again, stared pensively at the floor.
“It’s just dark for so long, dark and quiet, and I feel like there’s light out there and I just can’t find it… and then I breathe. I wake up in a hospital in Baghdad, and one day this guy comes, this MP with a letter and I think no, no, can’t be, not Eddie. He must have the wrong guy, cause there’s no way my brother can be dead when I’m alive. We said we were gonna live forever. And you know what he tells me? He looks at me, and he tells me that Eddie died the same day as my accident, but Hannaford…he drug me out of that carrier… Saved my life that day… that day Eddie died.
“Two weeks later they sent me here, and one day I hear about a guy who’s been all cut up, shrapnel maybe, torture, sure… Guy’s Spec-Ops after all, lost his whole team over there. I hear that things aren’t going well for him. They’ve got him on life support, so one day I go to visit. The nurses don’t want to let me in. I don’t know the guy, after all, don’t even know his name, don’t know a thing more than he was maybe the last person to see my brother alive.”
His hands shook, his breathing had picked up.
“Eddie talked about him in his letters, said he was a genius, best damn thing the Army could offer the world, yeah? So one day I visit him, sweet talk my way past the nurse, and I sit beside him, and I say ‘If you let those bastards win, then you’re not half the man my brother said you were. You can’t let them break you. You can’t,’ I say, and the nurses come to escort me out because all I can do is yell it over and over again. I can’t help him, he’s the last face my brother saw, and maybe if I can just save him, maybe it will make up for my brother, for how I couldn’t save him. Maybe I can go to sleep one night without the dreams. He doesn’t move, and they make me leave.
“The next day, this nurse comes to me and she goes ‘What did you do to him?’ and my heart sinks. I think he’s dead, I killed him, so I just stare at her. She just looks back at me and finally she goes ‘Come with me.’ I don’t think I’m in a position to argue, so I just do as she says and follow along. She takes me back to his room and points me to the monitor. ‘What looks different?’ she asks. His pulse looks stronger, I tell her. ‘He came out of the coma last night… so what did you do to him?’”
“That’s an amazing story, Private.”
“Not amazing. Just natural. Do you believe in serendipity, Doctor?”
“Do I believe in what?”
“Serendipity. It’s the nature of the universe, the little coincidences that make the world go round. My brother died so that I could save him. That’s what I mean by serendipity, Doctor. Some things are just meant to be.”
She nodded. His eyes, finally focusing on her face, softened, sure now that she understood.
“I got a present for you, Doc. From J-Boy.”
She raised her eyebrows carefully.
“A present?”
“Yeah… Here you go.”
The small package he tossed her had been wrapped in a large square of dressing, tied shut with a medical tape ‘ribbon’. She laughed, flipping the box in her hands, finally pulling a pair of scissors from her desk drawer and clipping the tape.
A small box lay in her hand as she pulled the gauze free. She looked back to Nunez.
“That right there is Jack’s favorite pack of cards.”
“His favorite?”
“He wanted you to have it.”
She opened the flaps slowly, pulled the cards free. The first card, the Jack of Hearts had been written upon.
Be careful… The walls have ears.
Nunez stared at her meaningfully.
“Thank you,” she said softly, and pressed the cards to her heart.
“He appreciates what you do for him,” he whispered. “He cares about you. He never says anything, but a guy’s got a way of knowing, you see. Just… maybe he’s not always the best at saying what he means, you know? Just keep that in mind, Doc.”
Author: Anoushkala
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: The Dark Knight
Genre: Pre-TDK, Drama
Pairing: Harley/Joker
Characters: Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Pamela Isley, and Wilhelm Knauer.
Disclaimer: The whole Batman universe belongs to lots of people who aren't me. I'm not making any money off of this. I write solely for my own pleasure and the reviews, so please comment :-D
Summary: Harley has questions answered.
Author Notes: Un-beta'd as usual. Coarse language.
She had spent yet another night away from home. Pamela woke earlier than usual and gave her a lift to the hospital.
“You be careful,” she said as Harley exited the vehicle.
“Sure, Red, always,” she smiled, but received a scowl for all her best efforts.
“I’m not joking, you blonde twit, keep an eye out. This is a serious game you’re playing. The quickest way to get hurt is to try and double cross the double crossers.”
She tossed a hand flippantly as she crossed in front of the vehicle.
“I know what I’m doing, Pamela, he doesn’t suspect a thing.”
“Don’t crow so loudly, Harl, you’d be surprised how fast fate will kick you in the ass.”
“I know what I’m doing,” she repeated, leaning through the driver’s side window and kissing her friend on the cheek. She continued to glower at her, however.
“Famous last words,” Pamela yelled as she drove away.
Harley shook her head. Perhaps she was being over-confident? But all men were the same really. It wasn’t hard to figure out the way to a man’s heart… You just had to figure out what he wanted, and most men wanted one thing, she’d discovered. The Colonel was not so different. Not like her Jack, ever unpredictable. What did the Colonel want? Power and obedience. As long as he continued to believe that she would obey him unconditionally, as long as it appeared that the balance of power was in his favor, she was safe. She was to give him no reason to doubt her. If she stayed beneath his radar, attracted no undue notice then she could carry out her plan in peace.
First things first, she must find a way to get him out of the hospital. From there, she must have reliable transportation: an escape route and destination, a safe harbor. They must go as far away from the city as possible. But where could they be safe from the government, where could they hide from the Army? Somewhere densely populated, somewhere they could disappear. Like Gotham City,she thought. She didn’t find the idea all together appealing, but she was willing to make sacrifices. True love always required sacrifices. She would be willing to do such a thing for him.
Her chest hurt, heart twisting upon itself, her stomach fluttering at just the thought of laying beside him in the dark, all alone and not a thread between them.. What a privilege that would be. Living on the streets, even, homeless fugitives, refugees from the law, whatever it took, she would do that thing just for the chance to stay by his side.
The clouds hung close to the morning horizon, dampening the red of the sun, but no, not her mood. All would end well, she felt sure of that. How could true love do anything but triumph?
But didn’t he love him truly?
“Shut up,” she muttered, jumped at the sound a moment later. Think of something better… and for God’s sake don’t start talking to yourself, you sound like a crazy person!
She listened to the steady tap of her heels upon the concrete, counting in her head as she went. She found it soothing, and soon… her fingertips tingled at the thought of his face, so handsome, those strong arms wrapped tight around her.
“I love you,” he would whisper, finally saying it. “You thought of all this yourself?” He would be ever so proud of her, scarcely able to believe what she had accomplished. Once they were rid of this place, rid of these trappings, then they would start their new life together.
Never alone again, oh, her heart leapt at the very thought. She pulled her compact from her purse, pausing in the humid morning to check her face and hair. Her clothing was just a little too tight, heels a little too high. If she was going to succeed in this, she had to give every impression of acting upon his intention. She must appear to be extracting information from the Captain without his knowing. If need be, she must… ‘seduce’ him!
She laughed out loud before she could stop herself. It echoed off the nearby cars and she jumped again. Dear god, why was she so nervous? Why was she so turned on!?
Her skin was perfect, lips a bit darker than usual. The tiny, superficial wounds he’d bestowed with the strange knife (it had a hollow in the center of the blade… she’d never seen the like before) were easy enough to hide beneath her lipstick. Her blouse collar was high enough to cover the wound on her chest (she’d taken ever so much care with the wound, terrified of marring his handiwork.) All other marks remained invisible beneath fabric and makeup.
She winked at her reflection and closed her compact with a snap, sliding it back into her bag.
“Here goes nothing, girls…”
~~
She passed Wilhelm in the hallway. He offered a courteous nod, but did not stop. He looked sleepy, yet vaguely triumphant. Another session like the night before and their work would be done. Once Jack was away from the hospital, she could return the pages to their rightful owner. From there… what? People would kill for the information she possessed. Perhaps she could sell it? Her chest clenched again, treason echoed in her mind, but her will was as steel: there was no going back now. Besides, how bad was the second betrayal in a string of lies, deceit, murders?
Nothing she did from this point forward would be as evil as the atrocities already committed. Everything that followed would be vengeance. He could not strike back now, but she could, and she vowed to make them pay for how he had been hurt.
Mr. J… My Mr. J… she thought, giggling quietly to herself. Even the sound of his name caused her pulse to quicken. She was glad no one was near to hear her moment of self-indulgence and quickly schooled her features to serious as she walked the last few feet to the end of her hallway.
“Now that’s how every man ought to start his morning, with a pretty lady,” she heard as she rounded the corner.
“Private,” she grinned, eyebrows arched.
“I swear, you just get finer every day.”
“You say that every time you see me,” she laughed, and he fell in beside her, arms keeping rhythm with her feet. “Aren’t you going to think of a new line?”
He laughed softly. “Oh, you wound me, mi dulce, my heart is bleeding.”
“Anymore melodramatic and you would be in a silent movie.”
She listened to the steady hiss of his wheels on the tile. He grinned at her sideways.
“You just want to burn me up today.”
“You set yourself up for it, Nunez.”
“Fair enough,” he grinned, and his eyebrows arched higher.
“Did you just wake up this morning and say, this seems like a good day to pester Dr. Quinzel?”
“I can’t have just woken up this morning wanting to talk to somebody?”
She frowned softly. “Are you serious, Private? You haven’t made an appointment…”
“Dead serious, doc, cross my heart and hope to die… I just need to talk to somebody.”
What is he playing at? she thought. She glanced at her watch, looking back to him.
“I have thirty minutes until my first appointment. If you really must talk to me.” She turned away from him, spun through her ring of keys, unlocked her office door, holding it open as he wheeled himself inside. She set her things upon her desk. He stopped before the bookcase, reached out and ran his finger down the spine of a book that read “Self Esteem in Psychoanalysis.” She waited in silence for sometime, but he began before she could speak herself.
“You ever lost any family, Doctor?” he asked, pulling the book free and tossing it from hand to hand.
“My mother, father, and brother are all dead.”
“I’m sorry,” he said honestly, and she nodded as she took a seat.
“I had a brother… twin brother…” he said, after a moment.
“Eduardo Nunez?” she asked softly.
He looked surprised for a moment.
“How’d you know?”
“The Captain has told me about him. He was a Demolitions specialist, wasn’t he?”
“Sure was,” he affirmed. “He made Captain, but they bumped him back again… fucked off too much. They busted me all the way back to Private, sent us both to Iraq to serve. Over there, I was an APC mechanic, took care of forty or fifty of the damn things all by myself. It was the first time in my life I’d ever been away from my brother. We slept in the same bed till we were ten, for God’s sake. Then, all of a sudden, the best I can hope for is a letter or two. We were real close, you know, Eddie and me, thick as thieves, right?
“So one day, we’re on the Uzem road… truck hits this IED… coffee can…bottom’s armored, you know, we get burnt, but we’re alive. Jordan, up front, he’s on fire, not too good at driving… He tries to bring it back on the road, but the tires are spinning, and he just can’t get it back under control. It flips, lands in a canal. I fall out the window, and it lands on me… I mean… the roof…it’s on my legs.” He went silent for a moment, staring at the casts as though he had never before seen them.
“Private? Are you alright?” she asked softly.
He shook his head, the first frown she had ever seen blooming upon his lips.
“The water’s so muddy,” he said with difficulty. “I can’t see anything, can’t breathe, and all I can think about is the pain, and I’m wondering if I’m crippled maybe, I’m wondering if I’m dying, and then I’m not thinking much at all cause everything starts to go black…” he trailed off again, stared pensively at the floor.
“It’s just dark for so long, dark and quiet, and I feel like there’s light out there and I just can’t find it… and then I breathe. I wake up in a hospital in Baghdad, and one day this guy comes, this MP with a letter and I think no, no, can’t be, not Eddie. He must have the wrong guy, cause there’s no way my brother can be dead when I’m alive. We said we were gonna live forever. And you know what he tells me? He looks at me, and he tells me that Eddie died the same day as my accident, but Hannaford…he drug me out of that carrier… Saved my life that day… that day Eddie died.
“Two weeks later they sent me here, and one day I hear about a guy who’s been all cut up, shrapnel maybe, torture, sure… Guy’s Spec-Ops after all, lost his whole team over there. I hear that things aren’t going well for him. They’ve got him on life support, so one day I go to visit. The nurses don’t want to let me in. I don’t know the guy, after all, don’t even know his name, don’t know a thing more than he was maybe the last person to see my brother alive.”
His hands shook, his breathing had picked up.
“Eddie talked about him in his letters, said he was a genius, best damn thing the Army could offer the world, yeah? So one day I visit him, sweet talk my way past the nurse, and I sit beside him, and I say ‘If you let those bastards win, then you’re not half the man my brother said you were. You can’t let them break you. You can’t,’ I say, and the nurses come to escort me out because all I can do is yell it over and over again. I can’t help him, he’s the last face my brother saw, and maybe if I can just save him, maybe it will make up for my brother, for how I couldn’t save him. Maybe I can go to sleep one night without the dreams. He doesn’t move, and they make me leave.
“The next day, this nurse comes to me and she goes ‘What did you do to him?’ and my heart sinks. I think he’s dead, I killed him, so I just stare at her. She just looks back at me and finally she goes ‘Come with me.’ I don’t think I’m in a position to argue, so I just do as she says and follow along. She takes me back to his room and points me to the monitor. ‘What looks different?’ she asks. His pulse looks stronger, I tell her. ‘He came out of the coma last night… so what did you do to him?’”
“That’s an amazing story, Private.”
“Not amazing. Just natural. Do you believe in serendipity, Doctor?”
“Do I believe in what?”
“Serendipity. It’s the nature of the universe, the little coincidences that make the world go round. My brother died so that I could save him. That’s what I mean by serendipity, Doctor. Some things are just meant to be.”
She nodded. His eyes, finally focusing on her face, softened, sure now that she understood.
“I got a present for you, Doc. From J-Boy.”
She raised her eyebrows carefully.
“A present?”
“Yeah… Here you go.”
The small package he tossed her had been wrapped in a large square of dressing, tied shut with a medical tape ‘ribbon’. She laughed, flipping the box in her hands, finally pulling a pair of scissors from her desk drawer and clipping the tape.
A small box lay in her hand as she pulled the gauze free. She looked back to Nunez.
“That right there is Jack’s favorite pack of cards.”
“His favorite?”
“He wanted you to have it.”
She opened the flaps slowly, pulled the cards free. The first card, the Jack of Hearts had been written upon.
Be careful… The walls have ears.
Nunez stared at her meaningfully.
“Thank you,” she said softly, and pressed the cards to her heart.
“He appreciates what you do for him,” he whispered. “He cares about you. He never says anything, but a guy’s got a way of knowing, you see. Just… maybe he’s not always the best at saying what he means, you know? Just keep that in mind, Doc.”