(Batfic) Sing, chapter 28
Previous chapters & Speak: speak_sing
This is the last uber-angsty chapter; I promise! It gets better after this.
Oh, and I'm sorry it took so long.
“I’m really starting to get pissed!” the Joker screamed. “You’re not as much fun as you used to be, Batsy!” He dodged a batarang (batarang! who came up with these stupid names?! Bats and his damned obsession with bats!) and shot that stupid Robin boy in the kneecap, groaning as Jack flailed around in his mind. “Get a life, already! What do you freaks want with me?!” He hit his detonator and ducked, but wasn’t quite quick enough and went sprawling as Batman flew (like a bat!) into the air, landing heavily a few feet away from the Joker.
“You know why we’re here, Joker,” the man snarled.
“Come the fuck on, Bats,” the Joker panted. “I am not going back with you. Don’t give me that crap about Rachel and Ava needing me,” he whined, “because I don’t care. And pretty soon, Jack won’t be around to care, either! Anyone ever tell you ya suffer from a severe case of OCD?” He grunted as Batgirl stomped on his stomach, then curled on his side and coughed. “Fuck. What’d I ever do to you?”
“Shut up, Jack.”
“Not me!” he sang as she tried to wrestle his arms behind his back. “Not me! No one here by that name!” He reared back and felt her nose crunch, giggling.
“Where’re Rachel and the girls?” Bats demanded.
“Aw, shit, was that all you wanted to know? You don’t love me any more, do you?” The Joker stood up shakily and brought a knife down into his opponent’s arm, laughing. “Gallucci’s got ‘em holed up in the Weston building, top floor. Oh, don’t tell me you don’t wanna play any more!” he called out as Batgirl picked Robin up and started limping off with him. “I’m just getting started!”
He went sprawling as something heavy and solid hit the back of his head and brought stars to his vision, then managed to flop over onto his back, gasping for air as someone in tight leather (or something like it) straddled his hips.
“Bitch hit me with a brick!” he wailed.
“I’ll claw your eyes out in a second if you don’t shut up,” the woman hissed at him.
“Rrrrowl,” the Joker purred at her. “Cat on a hot tin roof! What’s up, pussycat? Thought you were one of the bad guys. Jack lets me kill the bad guys.” He was grinning manically at the woman-cat sitting on him, then picked her up by the waist and tossed her to the side. She crashed into Batman as he was coming over to help and they both tumbled backward. “Oh! Oh, I remember! You three have a little love triangle going on, don’t you?” the Joker called down the incline the two had slid down. “You two and Batgirl! Wow, how’s that working for ya?” He lay on his stomach and propped his chin on his palms, grinning at the two prone figures while he kicked his feet in the snow-filled air.
“Just fine,” Batgirl snarled as she brought another brick down toward his head.
The Joker slithered out of the way and scrambled to his feet, his breath obvious in the winter night air. He howled with laughter. “Nice. Love to chat, but I gotta run; work to do!” He turned away and the grin on his face faded into a snarl. “Old friend to see,” he growled as he dropped onto the fire escape.
Charles slid down to pull Catwoman off of Bruce, tossing her to the side before leaning over the man. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” he coughed. “Just bruised. Is she ---”
“Bitch is fine,” Charles grumbled. “The Weston building’s got some tight security. It’ll take at least two weeks to ---”
“I can get us inside in a week,” Catwoman interrupted as she pushed herself up. She hissed at Charles when the woman stood.
“Why are you so keen on helping all of a sudden?”
She got a sneer. “Gallucci’s got some art I’ve had my eye on for a while. I figure you might let me walk off with it if I help get your friends back.”
Charles looked at Bruce as he stood, leaning on her heavily. “A week?”
“I’ve been casing it for a while,” the woman told them. She smoothed her outfit, not that it needed it, and rested one hand on her hip. “I get you in, you get your friends, I get the art, I go free. What do you say?”
Bruce looked down at Charles and she nodded. “Fine,” he said. “What do you need?”
~
“--- and I think I have a concussion,” the Joker was whining to Rachel. He was holding a bag of ice to the back of his head, making a face. “Help me out, here. Have some pity!”
“Give me my husband,” she demanded. She was sitting up in the bed, propped up against pillows with a tray of soup across her lap.
“No can do, toots. Not until I know I can come back without a fight. He’s got some plan to stomp me out for good, but it’s not gonna work.” The Joker turned his head to glare at Sanchez. “Doc, she’s not being very nice to me. I’ve been injured.”
“Hurting people I care about!” Rachel cried softly. “That doesn’t endear you to me!”
“But I could have died,” he told her with a conspiratorial grin. “And if I die, Jack dies, too. So don’t you want to help keep me healthy?” Then he sneezed, huge and undignified, and Rachel’s hand was automatically on his forehead.
“You’re fevered,” she said with pursed lips. “You go out in the middle of a rainstorm, then go prancing around Gotham in the middle of the night, during a snowstorm. Are you a complete idiot?”
The Joker crawled over her lap to stretch out beside her, still grinning. “Aw, you’re worried about me! Good. I’ve got pneumonia and a concussion. I deserve to be pampered.”
“I should think Gallucci can buy you all the women you wanted,” Rachel sniffed. “Besides, you’re not the one who’s in danger of going into premature labour any moment.”
“I don’t want them,” the Joker told her seriously. His voice was lower, now, not normal but close. “Jack doesn’t want them. We want you, to pamper us.”
“And I want you,” Rachel snapped, “to give my husband back and burn in Hell!”
The man pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows as he rolled his eyes, settling back on the bed. Susie had tried to crawl up with him the first time he’d laid down, but he’d easily shoved her over the side. Now she hid whenever he came around.
“Frigid bitch,” he muttered without bite.
Rachel sighed. He wouldn’t leave until she’d given him however much attention he wanted. Truth be told, she wanted him with her. If he was in the suite, he wasn’t out killing and causing havoc, getting in the line of fire. So she rested her hand on his forehead gently and he smiled to himself.
“What do you want?” she asked softly. Maybe her presence would keep Jack alive.
“Me? Not much. Jack’s got this idea that we need a bath, though. He thinks we’re dirty.” The Joker raised one arm to sniff under it, then wiggled his nose. “All right, so we’ve got the au naturel scent going.”
“If I take a bath with you, will you shut up about your head?”
He shrugged. “The one on my shoulders, yeah. Hey, Doc!” Sanchez leaned in with a tired look on his face. “I got a cold; a hot shower’d help, right?”
“Yes,” the man muttered. “I’ll have them bring more soup, too. And medicine.”
“That’s the spirit! Doc’s got great bedside manners, huh?” the Joker asked Rachel, leaning up on his elbows and tilting his head back so her hand fell onto his face, laughing. “But I hope they’re not that good.” He narrowed his eyes at Rachel, then grinned and shook his head. “Naw, you’re not like that, are you? You’re too devoted to Jack to let another man dick you. You’re not like Jack.”
“Jack was trying to keep me safe while you were trying to ruin our lives,” Rachel told him as he helped her to stand. She had to lean against him to get to the bathroom. “It’s your fault. I don’t blame him.”
“Love really does conquer all, doesn’t it?” the Joker asked absently. “Oh, wait, didn’t do Harvey much good, did it? He knew you wanted him to live and be strong and he flipped anyway.”
“That doesn’t hurt me anymore.” Rachel rested her hands on his shoulders as he undressed her; Sanchez had started the shower already. “I’m over that.”
“Yeah, well, a guy can try.” The Joker stripped himself easily, then stepped into the shower and pulled her in after him. He looked down at her as the hot water melted his greasepaint off, and Rachel’s eyes watered as Jack’s face was slowly revealed. “Don’t look at me like that,” he muttered. His hands were on her hips, firm yet gentle, keeping her upright.
“Brandon . . .”
The Joker’s eyes widened and he pushed away from her, slipping on the shower floor and landing heavily on his rear. Rachel leaned against the wall to avoid falling herself, staring down at him in shock. She hadn’t expected that reaction.
Neither, apparently, had the Joker. He gaped like a fish out of water, spluttering as he scrambled into a crouch. “Where the fuck did you hear that name?!” he demanded.
“A little bird,” Rachel murmured. The heat was making her dizzy. “She told me . . . everything . . .”
“Don’t you pass out,” the Joker ordered as he stood up, turning her around and kneeling slowly, shutting the shower off and turning the tap on before plugging the tub. “I don’t know who told you what, but they lied.”
“You were such a beautiful boy,” Rachel whispered as she rested her head against his shoulder. “He told her he’d kill you if she didn’t leave, Brandon. She never got married again, never had more children. She wanted to save you.”
“Shut up,” the Joker growled. “Shut the fuck up.” He bit her shoulder firmly and spoke around her skin. “Shut up.”
“Get us out of here,” she begged him. She raised her hands to his hair and pulled gently. “Please, I need to be in the hospital. Doctor Sanchez is giving me steroids to help Ava grow and drugs to keep me from going into labour, but they’re not going to work for much longer. I can’t have her here, Jack. Please. Your daughter can’t be born here.”
“Shut up!” he shrieked at her, standing and almost falling out of the bath. He scrambled for his clothes and didn’t bother putting them on as he pushed out into the main room of the suite, where Janet and Susie both yelled in protest. “Stop it! All of you!”
Rachel slipped lower into the water with a disappointed sigh. It had been a stretch, she knew, but she’d hoped something positive would happen if she called him by his real name. She flinched when the door slammed shut and then Janet appeared in the doorway.
“Are you all right, Rachel?”
“I’m fine,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”
The girl stood there looking awkward. “It’s . . . it’s not your fault.” None of them had talked much past comforting Susie in the week they’d been held captive. Rachel didn’t know what to say. Neither, apparently, did Janet.
“I should have let Jack come with us.”
“They would have just gotten all of us at once,” Janet reasoned.
“I’m sorry I got you girls into this.”
Janet pursed her lips and sighed. “. . . I . . .”
She turned after a moment and went back to her sister.
~
“How is he?” Bruce asked as Alfred came out of Dick’s room.
His friend shrugged. “He’ll survive, Master Wayne. And your deal with Catwoman? How’s that coming along?”
“We’re almost ready. Hideki’s back. Won’t tell anyone where he was.”
“I suppose he’s got his reasons. Still, it’ll do Gotham good to have a D.A. that sticks with them when they need him.” The older man looked at his ward. “How are you holding up, Master Wayne?”
Bruce glanced at him. “I shouldn’t have gone along with that stupid plan of Jack’s. I shouldn’t have let him persuade me that it was for the best.”
“You’ll take comfort, then, that the Joker hasn’t actually killed anyone of consequence yet.”
“Anyone of consequence? Alfred, the last building he blew up had fifty men in it!”
That brought a smile to the older man’s lips. “And they were hardened criminals to the last man, Master Bruce. How many innocent people have died in the last two weeks?” He didn’t get an answer and nodded. “Now, Her Majesty is in your sitting room, Master Wayne. Do mind the whips.”
Bruce smiled at the raven-haired woman waiting for him as he walked into the room. “Diana. How are you?”
“I dented my plane earlier,” she said with a smile of her own as she stood.
He kissed her hand. “Really? How can you tell?”
“I just can, Bruce.” She hugged him, laughing when he started. “Come on, Bruce, I can tell when a man needs a hug. How’s Dick?”
“Livid, but alive. The Joker got just above his knee. He’ll walk again.”
“Your friend sounds like he’s trying to stay out of trouble.”
Bruce sat and rubbed his eyes. “I hope it works, at least until we can get to him. Jack’s an idiot, have I mentioned?”
“Many times,” she answered with another smile. “When are we moving in?”
“Tomorrow night, if Catwoman keeps her end of the bargain.” He rubbed his chin. “Thank you. For your help.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” she said airily. “We even help each other out at times. Superman’s still hung up with Livewire, then?”
“Last time I checked. I hate that woman.”
Diana reached out to brush some hair from his face. Her eyes were gentle. “I think you hate everyone who’s getting in your way right now, Bruce.”
“You could be right,” he murmured. “Are you staying here tonight?”
“Only if you need me to. It might look a little suspicious if I stay over, then we all suddenly show up together. The Joker knows your identity.”
“But he hasn’t told anyone,” Bruce sighed as he cracked his neck, “and that gives me some hope. He’s really just . . .” The man flapped his hands as he tried to find the words.
“Making noise?” Alfred asked from the doorway. Bruce turned and nodded. “He’s being very flashy, but he hasn’t caused much actual damage. Oh, yes, he’s murdered people, but they’re men who’ve slipped out of the law’s hands many times before. This isn’t like fourteen years ago. I wouldn’t go reminding the public of that, because the Joker might well decide to be contrary, but I believe Jack has more of a hold over him that he wants to admit.”
The princess clapped the billionaire on the shoulder. “And there’s your hope right there.”
~
“Where is girl?”
“Don’t, you can’t be in here! Gallucci said ---” There was a thud as Rachel jerked awake. Susie was trembling beside her, and on the other side of the bed, Janet was sitting up.
“Shut up or we kill you, doctor. Where is girl? This room? That room?”
There was male laughter, loud and drunken as Sanchez pleaded with them. “If you hurt them, Gallucci will kill you!”
“Signor Gallucci only say to not hurt the Signora. He says nothing about sweet girl with her. Move, spic-man.” A brief struggle as Janet got out of the bed, and then the door was thrown open. Several of Gallucci’s men stood there with bottles of beer in their hands. The leader looked Janet up and down with a leer. “Ah, there is girl. You are lonely, yes? Need men to keep you company.”
“Piss off,” Janet snapped as the men laughed. “Get the hell out of here.”
“Oh, she has spirit. Might need to be broken in a bit, yes?” He’d started walking toward her with an easy gait, sure of himself. Susie had started crying and hiding her head under the pillows, clinging to Rachel’s side. “You come with us, or maybe we are not so nice to you little sister.”
“Gallucci doesn’t want any of us hurt,” Rachel managed to force out. “Ask the Joker; he’ll kill you if you hurt us.”
She could barely focus on what one of the men held up. “Ah, but we do not plan on hurting pretty girl,” the leader said. “We will make her happy, give her special medicine to take away all cares.” The needle glinted in the light from the main room. “You come easy, girl, or you come bruised.” Janet had been edging around the room, but she was trapped and she knew it. The man was getting impatient. “You come with us now! Or do we hurt the bambina?” Susie whimpered and Rachel held her tightly, unable to move as she glared at the men. Sanchez was in the background, a gun to his head and equally helpless. “Well?”
Janet was sobbing and shaking her head. “No . . . please don’t . . .”
“Don’t what? Don’t hurt you sister? You come to me now, girl, and you sister is fine. You don’t come to me now, I take off her toes.”
Rachel had thought she’d felt despair four years ago in the park, watching Jack be overshadowed by the Joker. She’d thought she’d felt despair ten years before that, as she sat tied to the chair in that warehouse, surrounded by oil drums and knowing she was going to die. What she’d felt those times didn’t come close to the aching chasm in her soul right now, watching Janet slowly shuffle toward the waiting group of thugs, toward the drugs they were going to fill her with.
“Don’t take her,” she tried one last time. She cursed the sedatives that wouldn’t let her speak above a whisper. “I’ll go with you.”
The leader threw his head back with a howl of laughter as he grabbed Janet’s arm and yanked her into the group. “Oh, Signora, I am no fool. You are weak, and Signor Gallucci, he says he kill us if we touch you. He says nothing about girl, so, we are here for girl. Lock him in room.”
The men were taunting Sanchez as they threw him into the room and closed the door. The man banged on it for a while, drowning out the sounds of Janet crying in the next room, then groped his way to the bed in the dark. The mattress dented as he sat on it and leaned over Rachel, covering her ears as he begged for forgiveness, as Rachel covered Susie’s ears and sobbed.
~
Rachel didn’t know what time it was when Susie’s sudden shrieks woke her up, but she started in the dark room and then shook the little girl, murmuring reassurances when the shrieks turned to sobs.
“Susie, it was a dream. It was a dream, Susie, I’m right here, it’s okay . . . Shh, sweety, shh . . . just a dream . . .”
The light turned on and Rachel winced, but it helped calm the girl down. Sanchez came into view. “They left, maybe an hour ago. The door is blocked. I’m so sorry, Mrs. Dawes, I couldn’t . . . I didn’t . . .”
“Shut up,” Rachel moaned as she held Susie tightly against her. She didn’t want to hear that he’d been as helpless to save Janet as she’d been. For all her worrying about Jack, now she wished he’d been out, had come in to beg for attention and caught the men, killed them all for what they’d done. Susie was still trembling in her arms when the door to the suite opened an hour or so later.
“What the hell . . .? Marco, check that room. Move that table!” The door opened and Raoul stood there, a gun in his hand. He gestured with it. “Into the corner.” Sanchez did as he was told. “Where’s Janet?”
“Your friends raped her,” Rachel snarled at him. He’d been emotionless during all of her previous taunts, but this time his face filled with rage. “Guess Gallucci forgot that none of us were supposed to be hurt, and those bastards came in, drugged her, and raped her. Is this what you signed up for, Raoul? Did you know what sort of man you were working for?”
“I work for a good man,” he said quietly. His voice shook. “Marco, what did they give her?”
“Probably heroine,” another man answered. “Not enough to overdose on. I can’t do anything to help her.”
The gun moved again. “Get to work, doctor.”
“I’m an obstetrician,” Sanchez was saying as he scurried to the door and past Raoul. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
“Marco, find out who it was.” He was still staring at Rachel. “Tell the Joker when you see him.”
He hesitated a bit, then turned and walked out. Rachel hoped he died. She hoped he hurt as much as Janet was hurting, and died a slow death. She struggled to sit up and then puked in her own lap, sobbing with rage and shame. She hurt. She hurt and she couldn’t protect the people she cared about, and Jack wasn’t there anymore because the Joker was in charge, now, and the Joker didn’t care, Jack may have thought he was strong enough to come back but he hadn’t been, had he? They were all going to die in this suite of rooms, die and there was nothing she could do to stop it . . .
A wet, warm rag to her mouth woke Rachel up and she struggled blindly for a moment, gasping for air. The Joker stared down at her as he wiped her face off, his expression blank. He looked like he was wiping a spot off the counter, no emotional investment in his gestures at all.
“They raped Janet,” she coughed.
“I heard,” he replied quietly. He was being gentle, careful, and Rachel quivered in his arms.
“Don’t you care?” she whimpered. She couldn’t even hold her head up straight. “Raoul’s with them. Don’t you care?”
He opened his mouth and then closed it, settling her back down and pulling the soiled covers off of her. Susie screamed in fear.
“Shut up, Susie,” he muttered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The girl continued screaming, trying to crawl under Rachel, until he’d thrown a clean blanket over them. Once she was out of sight, the child started sobbing. Rachel held the shaking bundle close and rubbed Susie’s back as the Joker crouched on the floor and held his fists, one of them clutching a knife, to his head. He was rocking back and forth a bit before loosening his tie and undoing the first few buttons of his shirt. His eyes were blank as he started drawing the knife across his exposed flesh in short nicks. Rachel was too weak to do anything but cry silently as she watched him.
After less than a minute he blinked firmly and shook his head, fixing his clothes as he stood up. “You look like shit.”
“I can’t feel Ava moving,” Rachel whispered. A muscle in his cheek twitched. “I haven’t felt her since yesterday.” She was going to lose her baby. The only link she had to Jack. His baby girl that he was so ridiculously proud of, but so determined to pretend he wasn’t concerned about. Their baby.
“Hope you know a good rehab centre,” was all the Joker said as he walked out of the room. Rachel dissolved into tears again.
This is the last uber-angsty chapter; I promise! It gets better after this.
Oh, and I'm sorry it took so long.
“I’m really starting to get pissed!” the Joker screamed. “You’re not as much fun as you used to be, Batsy!” He dodged a batarang (batarang! who came up with these stupid names?! Bats and his damned obsession with bats!) and shot that stupid Robin boy in the kneecap, groaning as Jack flailed around in his mind. “Get a life, already! What do you freaks want with me?!” He hit his detonator and ducked, but wasn’t quite quick enough and went sprawling as Batman flew (like a bat!) into the air, landing heavily a few feet away from the Joker.
“You know why we’re here, Joker,” the man snarled.
“Come the fuck on, Bats,” the Joker panted. “I am not going back with you. Don’t give me that crap about Rachel and Ava needing me,” he whined, “because I don’t care. And pretty soon, Jack won’t be around to care, either! Anyone ever tell you ya suffer from a severe case of OCD?” He grunted as Batgirl stomped on his stomach, then curled on his side and coughed. “Fuck. What’d I ever do to you?”
“Shut up, Jack.”
“Not me!” he sang as she tried to wrestle his arms behind his back. “Not me! No one here by that name!” He reared back and felt her nose crunch, giggling.
“Where’re Rachel and the girls?” Bats demanded.
“Aw, shit, was that all you wanted to know? You don’t love me any more, do you?” The Joker stood up shakily and brought a knife down into his opponent’s arm, laughing. “Gallucci’s got ‘em holed up in the Weston building, top floor. Oh, don’t tell me you don’t wanna play any more!” he called out as Batgirl picked Robin up and started limping off with him. “I’m just getting started!”
He went sprawling as something heavy and solid hit the back of his head and brought stars to his vision, then managed to flop over onto his back, gasping for air as someone in tight leather (or something like it) straddled his hips.
“Bitch hit me with a brick!” he wailed.
“I’ll claw your eyes out in a second if you don’t shut up,” the woman hissed at him.
“Rrrrowl,” the Joker purred at her. “Cat on a hot tin roof! What’s up, pussycat? Thought you were one of the bad guys. Jack lets me kill the bad guys.” He was grinning manically at the woman-cat sitting on him, then picked her up by the waist and tossed her to the side. She crashed into Batman as he was coming over to help and they both tumbled backward. “Oh! Oh, I remember! You three have a little love triangle going on, don’t you?” the Joker called down the incline the two had slid down. “You two and Batgirl! Wow, how’s that working for ya?” He lay on his stomach and propped his chin on his palms, grinning at the two prone figures while he kicked his feet in the snow-filled air.
“Just fine,” Batgirl snarled as she brought another brick down toward his head.
The Joker slithered out of the way and scrambled to his feet, his breath obvious in the winter night air. He howled with laughter. “Nice. Love to chat, but I gotta run; work to do!” He turned away and the grin on his face faded into a snarl. “Old friend to see,” he growled as he dropped onto the fire escape.
Charles slid down to pull Catwoman off of Bruce, tossing her to the side before leaning over the man. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” he coughed. “Just bruised. Is she ---”
“Bitch is fine,” Charles grumbled. “The Weston building’s got some tight security. It’ll take at least two weeks to ---”
“I can get us inside in a week,” Catwoman interrupted as she pushed herself up. She hissed at Charles when the woman stood.
“Why are you so keen on helping all of a sudden?”
She got a sneer. “Gallucci’s got some art I’ve had my eye on for a while. I figure you might let me walk off with it if I help get your friends back.”
Charles looked at Bruce as he stood, leaning on her heavily. “A week?”
“I’ve been casing it for a while,” the woman told them. She smoothed her outfit, not that it needed it, and rested one hand on her hip. “I get you in, you get your friends, I get the art, I go free. What do you say?”
Bruce looked down at Charles and she nodded. “Fine,” he said. “What do you need?”
~
“--- and I think I have a concussion,” the Joker was whining to Rachel. He was holding a bag of ice to the back of his head, making a face. “Help me out, here. Have some pity!”
“Give me my husband,” she demanded. She was sitting up in the bed, propped up against pillows with a tray of soup across her lap.
“No can do, toots. Not until I know I can come back without a fight. He’s got some plan to stomp me out for good, but it’s not gonna work.” The Joker turned his head to glare at Sanchez. “Doc, she’s not being very nice to me. I’ve been injured.”
“Hurting people I care about!” Rachel cried softly. “That doesn’t endear you to me!”
“But I could have died,” he told her with a conspiratorial grin. “And if I die, Jack dies, too. So don’t you want to help keep me healthy?” Then he sneezed, huge and undignified, and Rachel’s hand was automatically on his forehead.
“You’re fevered,” she said with pursed lips. “You go out in the middle of a rainstorm, then go prancing around Gotham in the middle of the night, during a snowstorm. Are you a complete idiot?”
The Joker crawled over her lap to stretch out beside her, still grinning. “Aw, you’re worried about me! Good. I’ve got pneumonia and a concussion. I deserve to be pampered.”
“I should think Gallucci can buy you all the women you wanted,” Rachel sniffed. “Besides, you’re not the one who’s in danger of going into premature labour any moment.”
“I don’t want them,” the Joker told her seriously. His voice was lower, now, not normal but close. “Jack doesn’t want them. We want you, to pamper us.”
“And I want you,” Rachel snapped, “to give my husband back and burn in Hell!”
The man pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows as he rolled his eyes, settling back on the bed. Susie had tried to crawl up with him the first time he’d laid down, but he’d easily shoved her over the side. Now she hid whenever he came around.
“Frigid bitch,” he muttered without bite.
Rachel sighed. He wouldn’t leave until she’d given him however much attention he wanted. Truth be told, she wanted him with her. If he was in the suite, he wasn’t out killing and causing havoc, getting in the line of fire. So she rested her hand on his forehead gently and he smiled to himself.
“What do you want?” she asked softly. Maybe her presence would keep Jack alive.
“Me? Not much. Jack’s got this idea that we need a bath, though. He thinks we’re dirty.” The Joker raised one arm to sniff under it, then wiggled his nose. “All right, so we’ve got the au naturel scent going.”
“If I take a bath with you, will you shut up about your head?”
He shrugged. “The one on my shoulders, yeah. Hey, Doc!” Sanchez leaned in with a tired look on his face. “I got a cold; a hot shower’d help, right?”
“Yes,” the man muttered. “I’ll have them bring more soup, too. And medicine.”
“That’s the spirit! Doc’s got great bedside manners, huh?” the Joker asked Rachel, leaning up on his elbows and tilting his head back so her hand fell onto his face, laughing. “But I hope they’re not that good.” He narrowed his eyes at Rachel, then grinned and shook his head. “Naw, you’re not like that, are you? You’re too devoted to Jack to let another man dick you. You’re not like Jack.”
“Jack was trying to keep me safe while you were trying to ruin our lives,” Rachel told him as he helped her to stand. She had to lean against him to get to the bathroom. “It’s your fault. I don’t blame him.”
“Love really does conquer all, doesn’t it?” the Joker asked absently. “Oh, wait, didn’t do Harvey much good, did it? He knew you wanted him to live and be strong and he flipped anyway.”
“That doesn’t hurt me anymore.” Rachel rested her hands on his shoulders as he undressed her; Sanchez had started the shower already. “I’m over that.”
“Yeah, well, a guy can try.” The Joker stripped himself easily, then stepped into the shower and pulled her in after him. He looked down at her as the hot water melted his greasepaint off, and Rachel’s eyes watered as Jack’s face was slowly revealed. “Don’t look at me like that,” he muttered. His hands were on her hips, firm yet gentle, keeping her upright.
“Brandon . . .”
The Joker’s eyes widened and he pushed away from her, slipping on the shower floor and landing heavily on his rear. Rachel leaned against the wall to avoid falling herself, staring down at him in shock. She hadn’t expected that reaction.
Neither, apparently, had the Joker. He gaped like a fish out of water, spluttering as he scrambled into a crouch. “Where the fuck did you hear that name?!” he demanded.
“A little bird,” Rachel murmured. The heat was making her dizzy. “She told me . . . everything . . .”
“Don’t you pass out,” the Joker ordered as he stood up, turning her around and kneeling slowly, shutting the shower off and turning the tap on before plugging the tub. “I don’t know who told you what, but they lied.”
“You were such a beautiful boy,” Rachel whispered as she rested her head against his shoulder. “He told her he’d kill you if she didn’t leave, Brandon. She never got married again, never had more children. She wanted to save you.”
“Shut up,” the Joker growled. “Shut the fuck up.” He bit her shoulder firmly and spoke around her skin. “Shut up.”
“Get us out of here,” she begged him. She raised her hands to his hair and pulled gently. “Please, I need to be in the hospital. Doctor Sanchez is giving me steroids to help Ava grow and drugs to keep me from going into labour, but they’re not going to work for much longer. I can’t have her here, Jack. Please. Your daughter can’t be born here.”
“Shut up!” he shrieked at her, standing and almost falling out of the bath. He scrambled for his clothes and didn’t bother putting them on as he pushed out into the main room of the suite, where Janet and Susie both yelled in protest. “Stop it! All of you!”
Rachel slipped lower into the water with a disappointed sigh. It had been a stretch, she knew, but she’d hoped something positive would happen if she called him by his real name. She flinched when the door slammed shut and then Janet appeared in the doorway.
“Are you all right, Rachel?”
“I’m fine,” she murmured. “I’m sorry.”
The girl stood there looking awkward. “It’s . . . it’s not your fault.” None of them had talked much past comforting Susie in the week they’d been held captive. Rachel didn’t know what to say. Neither, apparently, did Janet.
“I should have let Jack come with us.”
“They would have just gotten all of us at once,” Janet reasoned.
“I’m sorry I got you girls into this.”
Janet pursed her lips and sighed. “. . . I . . .”
She turned after a moment and went back to her sister.
~
“How is he?” Bruce asked as Alfred came out of Dick’s room.
His friend shrugged. “He’ll survive, Master Wayne. And your deal with Catwoman? How’s that coming along?”
“We’re almost ready. Hideki’s back. Won’t tell anyone where he was.”
“I suppose he’s got his reasons. Still, it’ll do Gotham good to have a D.A. that sticks with them when they need him.” The older man looked at his ward. “How are you holding up, Master Wayne?”
Bruce glanced at him. “I shouldn’t have gone along with that stupid plan of Jack’s. I shouldn’t have let him persuade me that it was for the best.”
“You’ll take comfort, then, that the Joker hasn’t actually killed anyone of consequence yet.”
“Anyone of consequence? Alfred, the last building he blew up had fifty men in it!”
That brought a smile to the older man’s lips. “And they were hardened criminals to the last man, Master Bruce. How many innocent people have died in the last two weeks?” He didn’t get an answer and nodded. “Now, Her Majesty is in your sitting room, Master Wayne. Do mind the whips.”
Bruce smiled at the raven-haired woman waiting for him as he walked into the room. “Diana. How are you?”
“I dented my plane earlier,” she said with a smile of her own as she stood.
He kissed her hand. “Really? How can you tell?”
“I just can, Bruce.” She hugged him, laughing when he started. “Come on, Bruce, I can tell when a man needs a hug. How’s Dick?”
“Livid, but alive. The Joker got just above his knee. He’ll walk again.”
“Your friend sounds like he’s trying to stay out of trouble.”
Bruce sat and rubbed his eyes. “I hope it works, at least until we can get to him. Jack’s an idiot, have I mentioned?”
“Many times,” she answered with another smile. “When are we moving in?”
“Tomorrow night, if Catwoman keeps her end of the bargain.” He rubbed his chin. “Thank you. For your help.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” she said airily. “We even help each other out at times. Superman’s still hung up with Livewire, then?”
“Last time I checked. I hate that woman.”
Diana reached out to brush some hair from his face. Her eyes were gentle. “I think you hate everyone who’s getting in your way right now, Bruce.”
“You could be right,” he murmured. “Are you staying here tonight?”
“Only if you need me to. It might look a little suspicious if I stay over, then we all suddenly show up together. The Joker knows your identity.”
“But he hasn’t told anyone,” Bruce sighed as he cracked his neck, “and that gives me some hope. He’s really just . . .” The man flapped his hands as he tried to find the words.
“Making noise?” Alfred asked from the doorway. Bruce turned and nodded. “He’s being very flashy, but he hasn’t caused much actual damage. Oh, yes, he’s murdered people, but they’re men who’ve slipped out of the law’s hands many times before. This isn’t like fourteen years ago. I wouldn’t go reminding the public of that, because the Joker might well decide to be contrary, but I believe Jack has more of a hold over him that he wants to admit.”
The princess clapped the billionaire on the shoulder. “And there’s your hope right there.”
~
“Where is girl?”
“Don’t, you can’t be in here! Gallucci said ---” There was a thud as Rachel jerked awake. Susie was trembling beside her, and on the other side of the bed, Janet was sitting up.
“Shut up or we kill you, doctor. Where is girl? This room? That room?”
There was male laughter, loud and drunken as Sanchez pleaded with them. “If you hurt them, Gallucci will kill you!”
“Signor Gallucci only say to not hurt the Signora. He says nothing about sweet girl with her. Move, spic-man.” A brief struggle as Janet got out of the bed, and then the door was thrown open. Several of Gallucci’s men stood there with bottles of beer in their hands. The leader looked Janet up and down with a leer. “Ah, there is girl. You are lonely, yes? Need men to keep you company.”
“Piss off,” Janet snapped as the men laughed. “Get the hell out of here.”
“Oh, she has spirit. Might need to be broken in a bit, yes?” He’d started walking toward her with an easy gait, sure of himself. Susie had started crying and hiding her head under the pillows, clinging to Rachel’s side. “You come with us, or maybe we are not so nice to you little sister.”
“Gallucci doesn’t want any of us hurt,” Rachel managed to force out. “Ask the Joker; he’ll kill you if you hurt us.”
She could barely focus on what one of the men held up. “Ah, but we do not plan on hurting pretty girl,” the leader said. “We will make her happy, give her special medicine to take away all cares.” The needle glinted in the light from the main room. “You come easy, girl, or you come bruised.” Janet had been edging around the room, but she was trapped and she knew it. The man was getting impatient. “You come with us now! Or do we hurt the bambina?” Susie whimpered and Rachel held her tightly, unable to move as she glared at the men. Sanchez was in the background, a gun to his head and equally helpless. “Well?”
Janet was sobbing and shaking her head. “No . . . please don’t . . .”
“Don’t what? Don’t hurt you sister? You come to me now, girl, and you sister is fine. You don’t come to me now, I take off her toes.”
Rachel had thought she’d felt despair four years ago in the park, watching Jack be overshadowed by the Joker. She’d thought she’d felt despair ten years before that, as she sat tied to the chair in that warehouse, surrounded by oil drums and knowing she was going to die. What she’d felt those times didn’t come close to the aching chasm in her soul right now, watching Janet slowly shuffle toward the waiting group of thugs, toward the drugs they were going to fill her with.
“Don’t take her,” she tried one last time. She cursed the sedatives that wouldn’t let her speak above a whisper. “I’ll go with you.”
The leader threw his head back with a howl of laughter as he grabbed Janet’s arm and yanked her into the group. “Oh, Signora, I am no fool. You are weak, and Signor Gallucci, he says he kill us if we touch you. He says nothing about girl, so, we are here for girl. Lock him in room.”
The men were taunting Sanchez as they threw him into the room and closed the door. The man banged on it for a while, drowning out the sounds of Janet crying in the next room, then groped his way to the bed in the dark. The mattress dented as he sat on it and leaned over Rachel, covering her ears as he begged for forgiveness, as Rachel covered Susie’s ears and sobbed.
~
Rachel didn’t know what time it was when Susie’s sudden shrieks woke her up, but she started in the dark room and then shook the little girl, murmuring reassurances when the shrieks turned to sobs.
“Susie, it was a dream. It was a dream, Susie, I’m right here, it’s okay . . . Shh, sweety, shh . . . just a dream . . .”
The light turned on and Rachel winced, but it helped calm the girl down. Sanchez came into view. “They left, maybe an hour ago. The door is blocked. I’m so sorry, Mrs. Dawes, I couldn’t . . . I didn’t . . .”
“Shut up,” Rachel moaned as she held Susie tightly against her. She didn’t want to hear that he’d been as helpless to save Janet as she’d been. For all her worrying about Jack, now she wished he’d been out, had come in to beg for attention and caught the men, killed them all for what they’d done. Susie was still trembling in her arms when the door to the suite opened an hour or so later.
“What the hell . . .? Marco, check that room. Move that table!” The door opened and Raoul stood there, a gun in his hand. He gestured with it. “Into the corner.” Sanchez did as he was told. “Where’s Janet?”
“Your friends raped her,” Rachel snarled at him. He’d been emotionless during all of her previous taunts, but this time his face filled with rage. “Guess Gallucci forgot that none of us were supposed to be hurt, and those bastards came in, drugged her, and raped her. Is this what you signed up for, Raoul? Did you know what sort of man you were working for?”
“I work for a good man,” he said quietly. His voice shook. “Marco, what did they give her?”
“Probably heroine,” another man answered. “Not enough to overdose on. I can’t do anything to help her.”
The gun moved again. “Get to work, doctor.”
“I’m an obstetrician,” Sanchez was saying as he scurried to the door and past Raoul. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
“Marco, find out who it was.” He was still staring at Rachel. “Tell the Joker when you see him.”
He hesitated a bit, then turned and walked out. Rachel hoped he died. She hoped he hurt as much as Janet was hurting, and died a slow death. She struggled to sit up and then puked in her own lap, sobbing with rage and shame. She hurt. She hurt and she couldn’t protect the people she cared about, and Jack wasn’t there anymore because the Joker was in charge, now, and the Joker didn’t care, Jack may have thought he was strong enough to come back but he hadn’t been, had he? They were all going to die in this suite of rooms, die and there was nothing she could do to stop it . . .
A wet, warm rag to her mouth woke Rachel up and she struggled blindly for a moment, gasping for air. The Joker stared down at her as he wiped her face off, his expression blank. He looked like he was wiping a spot off the counter, no emotional investment in his gestures at all.
“They raped Janet,” she coughed.
“I heard,” he replied quietly. He was being gentle, careful, and Rachel quivered in his arms.
“Don’t you care?” she whimpered. She couldn’t even hold her head up straight. “Raoul’s with them. Don’t you care?”
He opened his mouth and then closed it, settling her back down and pulling the soiled covers off of her. Susie screamed in fear.
“Shut up, Susie,” he muttered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The girl continued screaming, trying to crawl under Rachel, until he’d thrown a clean blanket over them. Once she was out of sight, the child started sobbing. Rachel held the shaking bundle close and rubbed Susie’s back as the Joker crouched on the floor and held his fists, one of them clutching a knife, to his head. He was rocking back and forth a bit before loosening his tie and undoing the first few buttons of his shirt. His eyes were blank as he started drawing the knife across his exposed flesh in short nicks. Rachel was too weak to do anything but cry silently as she watched him.
After less than a minute he blinked firmly and shook his head, fixing his clothes as he stood up. “You look like shit.”
“I can’t feel Ava moving,” Rachel whispered. A muscle in his cheek twitched. “I haven’t felt her since yesterday.” She was going to lose her baby. The only link she had to Jack. His baby girl that he was so ridiculously proud of, but so determined to pretend he wasn’t concerned about. Their baby.
“Hope you know a good rehab centre,” was all the Joker said as he walked out of the room. Rachel dissolved into tears again.