I want to see you smile

The iridescent white light touched every corner of the already colorless office in Arkham. The air was cool, pumped in from the vent in the ceiling, and the ticking from the black wall clock was a constant pounding.

The chilly breeze from the vent was making Dr. Quinzel's skin feel prickly, she was sifting through Psychology today, her glasses neatly folded together on her desk, and her warm eyes scanning the pages not reading anything in particular. Her small nimble fingers changing the pages idly, the loud scratching of Joker's pencil against the clean white testing papers was all she could concentrate on.

Looking over the magazine covertly she watched him bubbling in the answers and scribbling responses, he had turned the paper several different times in diverse directions. His hand moved smooth and fast with the stubby 3 inch pencil, hardly sharp enough to write with.

He looked up with a big smile, and Dr. Quinzel quickly ducked behind the magazine.

"I'm done." He slid the paper over to her.

Harleen closed the magazine and slipped it into the desk drawer, then took the papers and put them into her black briefcase. "That was fast, you did put time into the answers, correct?"

"But of course." He was leaned back in the hard plastic chair, it titled on it's two back legs. Joker was grinning softly, the subtle lines around his mouth and eyes virtually unnoticeable. His green and gold flecked eyes looked dauntingly upon Harleen, who sorted through some papers nervously.

"Good." She looked up at the clock, 11:40, still a few more minutes left.

Joker sat motionless, smiling.

Harleen cleared her throat, "Okay, we still have some time left for today, and I was hoping we might talk about some of your goals."

"Goals?" He asked, his green eye brows crinkled at the question.

"Yes, for the future. What you plan to achieve? You know in terms of getting out."

Joker eyed her silently for a moment, which made her fiddle with the first two buttons on the top of her white blouse, that fit snugly on her shapely body. Then he leaned across the desk, the chair slamming down, making her jump.

"Ya see doc," Joker whispered, "I don't think I can really tell you that, even though you seem like a nice kid, it would really put a cramp in my plans, you know?"

"Oh-ah, well, what do you-" She felt a little warm and wondered if the air condition had stopped working, "What do you mean?"

He sat up and ran one lanky pale hand through his unbrushed green hair before locking his eyes on her big blue eyes and letting past his red-hot lips a melodic infernal laughter that bounced off the stark white walls and rang in Harleen's ears.

Then he stopped.

"How can I help you if you won't tell me things?" Harleen asked placing her delicate slender hands on the desk

"Yes," he sighed, "I do have goals, and you, your really helping me more than you know."

She smiled, "I'm glad, because I really do want to."

He giggled and stood up taking her small hand into his and brushing his lips against it, and give her a little wink, "I think time's up."

She stood up and slowly withdrew her hand, Harleen glanced at the clock, 11:50. A psychoanalyst sessions were never a full 60 minutes, an hour was 50, that give them ten minutes to collect their thoughts and make notes.

"Your right." The guards were already at the door, it opened and two large male guards came in grabbing Joker gruffly by the arms and jerked him towards the door, even though they were tall he stood several inches above them both.

"Here's lookin' at you kid." He cracked a twisted smile at Harleen, who stood demurely beside her desk, the short black skirt a little to short, and her blonde hair cascading down her shoulders.

She felt rather sad as the guards nodded to her and squeezed Joker's arms taking him down the hall. He nudged at one of them, "Hey, I bruise easy!"

Harleen ran after them in the hall saying, "Oh you, wait a minute please, you two, just a word."

The guards looked at her at the same time, the black haired one replied with, "Yes Dr. Quinzel?"

She motioned him to come over to her, and he left Joker with the slightly smaller guard, Jerry, while Mick went to see what the doctor wanted. Those doctors were as crazy and demanding as the patients most of the time, some of them were worse.

"Yes?" Mick asked with a hint of contempt, but not much, Harleen was by far the most attractive woman to ever work there, not to mention the youngest.

"Do you have to be so very," she paused a minute talking lowly, Joker kept looking over at her with a gentle smile and pleading green eyes, "so very mean?"

The guard looked surprised, "Mean?" He laughed, "Mean? Listen Dr. Quinzel, this is the Joker were escorting here, he's notorious for killing guards…or have you not seen the pictures from the last guard he-he-" Mick looked like he was going to be sick, "well lets put it this way, you should be glad if you didn't see those horrible pictures. I'm not going to take any chances."

"But your hurting him." She protested quietly.

He scoffed and shook his head, "He deserves so much more than I could ever do to him."

Harleen crossed her arms, she was about to get indignant with this bungling useless ogre of a guard, when she thought the better of it uncrossing her arms she smiled very sweetly, her pink lips pressed together kindly, "Please, could you be a little nicer, just for me?" Her thick black eye lashes brought all the focus to her sympathetic eyes.

Mick sighed, "Oh alright." He smiled at her, she was a looker all right, everyone talked about her and those mini skirts of hers.

"Thank you so much."

Joker smiled at her, and her velvety face flushed a crimson hue and she ran off down the stairs to meet Dr. Joan Leland for lunch.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The afternoon sun shorn in through the wide clean windows of the café, the powder blue tiles and peach stucco walls made it feel fresh and clean. Joan was drinking a tall iced tea and nibbling on a chicken salad. Her dark hair pulled back and held with a large black clip, she was wearing a loose fitting cream silk blouse and black trousers, she was older than Harleen by several years but still smooth skinned and attractive.

Harleen had unbuttoned a few buttons on her top and was finishing a B.L.T. and Dr. Pepper, her lively little fingers pulling the sandwich apart and eating small bites hungrily. She found her thoughts drifting from the café to Arkham asylum, always back to Arkham it seemed. She wanted to go over the tests Joker had taken but she had other patients to see before the day was over, the tests were nearly burning a hole in her briefcase she wanted to look them over so badly.

"You look distracted Harley, how did your session go today?" Joan asked. Joan was part friend, mentor and co-worker. None more than the other though.

"It went good, I had Joker take some more tests. MMPI, Rorschach, some sentence completion. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Joan quirked a brow, "But how did it go?"

Harleen smirked and took a drink of the Dr. Pepper, "Good as always, Joker's as timid as a kitten. I don't know why everyone over reacts so much, you know I think if everyone was as nice to him as I was no one would ever get killed. He's more polite than most people I meet."

Joan shock her head softly, "You have to watch out Harley, because if everyone was as nice to him as you were he'd run Arkham. The Joker isn't like other psychopaths, he can be anything he wants."

"I know how worried everyone is, but I just think it's silly. I've been handling myself wonderfully my whole life, I just understand Joker that's all. But enough of that. Enough of work."

Joan smiled, "Yeah, enough of that. What are you doing tonight?"

Harleen was looking out the window and playing with her straw, "Oh, going over the tests I guess."

"I was thinking of going to this lounge that was having a pretty good local band playing and I thought you might want to come, help me pick up guys." Joan laughed. Men flocked to Harleen.

Harleen laughed, "Yeah that sounds okay, what time?"

"Nine, I'll give you directions after work and we can meet up there."

"Okay, should be fun." Harleen grinned.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Pamela Lillian Isley was sitting across from Dr. Quinzel with a cross look on her delicate face, her red hair streaming down her shoulders and back, her head was turned to her side, and her wrists cuffed together.

"How are you doing miss Isley?" Harleen's eyes were diverted into Poison Ivy's file.

"As good as can be expected in this sunlight deprived hole in the ground." Pamela looked exceptionally unhappy today, her bright red lips pressed tightly together.

"You could always go into the day room, or be very good and get grounds privileges." Dr. Quinzel offered.

"Have you ever been in the day room?"

"Well no." Harleen admitted.

"Your lucky then. It's awful, everyone's jumping around, no one has any sense of decency, or sense for that matter, it's a mad house in there."

"I'm sorry." Harleen said gently, "I'm looking over your file here and as far as I can see you don't seem abundantly violent."

Pamela sat quiet, then said in a hushed but aggravated tone, "I've gone through this so many times with so many doctors, could we just skip ahead a little?"

"Alright I suppose, where should we start?"

"How about why I have to be punished with these other monsters while I'm doing good things when I'm free."

Harleen looked at Pamela, "I wouldn't say your doing good things, you've killed people after all miss Isley, not too mention all the slightly less offensive crimes you've committed."

Pamela gave a shrug, "Sorry for trying to save a rain forest from being murdered, I'm sorry for bettering the world be removing life forms I couldn't hardly consider pond scum."

Harleen wasn't sure what to say exactly, but Pamela didn't really seem any harm to anyone, and she was starting to question the way the system was handling things in Arkham.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Joan and Harley were giggling and talking loudly as they walked up to Harley's apartment and Harley struggled with the keys trying to put the right one in the right lock.

The door swung open inwards "Well here it is." Harley said falling back into a big teal armchair and kicking off her shoes.

Joan sat on the sofa and leaned back with a relaxed sigh, "That was fun."

"Oh yeah." Harley replied. Then she got up saying, "Oh my gosh I didn't get to those tests." Harley grabbed her briefcase and pulled all the tests out.

"They can wait a couple days really." Joan said feeling exhausted.

"I really want to see the results." Harley seemed to be sobering up amazingly fast, or just so obsessed. Harley traipsed into her bedroom and clicked her computer on.

Joan peeked in the door leaning on the frame, "I have to get going, don't get too caught up in that Harley, you have to leave all that at Arkham when go home."

"But I need to scan the tests." Harley replied messing with her computer and opening her scanner.

"I don't mean the tests." Joan said gravely, "Just be careful okay? I've seen too many doctors take Arkham home for so long it becomes home."

Harleen laughed, "I'll be fine Joan, you better get going. We have work tomorrow."

Joan turned and headed out calling to Harley as she left, "Night."

Her bedroom was fairly dark, just a small bedside lamp, the rumpled bedspread was on the unmade bed, it was nearing 4 a.m. and Harleen was still going over the tests, she had even gone over old ones and compared answers. The Joker was so complicated, she didn't know where to begin.

Clicking on the drop down box she scrolled through all his pictures, she had mostly news paper clippings and mug shots. Her fingers clicked away at the keys, she stopped and sat back in her black office chair. One news paper clipping stuck out in her mind, it seemed somehow familiar. The Joker's wide smile and unkept hair, he was being dragged into Arkham.

Batman captures Joker!

Batman. Ugh. She thought. What good could he possible do by beating up on other people? And if that wasn't the worst of it, he acted so much better than everyone, like he was some savior to Gotham. He was just some messed up guy dressed like a bat. What was so different about him and anyone in Arkham? She couldn't figure it out.

Harley remembered seeing Joker on the front page of every news paper in the supermarket as a child, she would read the headlines standing in line behind her mother who kept telling her not to touch things, or make noise. "Harley stop that! Harley what are you doing? Are you just trying to annoy me today? Put that down young lady! NO I am not getting you that."

The stories in the papers were so exciting, they were like things on TV. Sometimes when no one was looking Harley would tear out a few papers in the paper and put it in her coat pocket to read later, her mother would never buy her anything like that, she knew. And late at night under the covers with a little flash light she would read the story and look at the pictures.

There were never any pictures of Batman, but there were dark drawings where he looked like some kind of a shadow with wings and eyes. Batman had always seemed mean and scary. She liked the stories with Joker best, they were most exciting and went on for weeks. Then finally there would be a picture of Joker being taken into Arkham and it would say Batman had captured him once again. Batman, Joker, Arkham, they all seemed like people on TV that weren't real. When people died on TV momma would always assure Harley that they didn't really die, because it was just pretend, and none of them were real.

They looked real though, like Joker and Batman, but she wasn't sure they were for a long time.

She clicked on another picture, this she remembered from when she was 18. She'd seen the story on the news, the Joker had killed all these people, they were never people Harley actually knew of course. She saw Joker in color on the news at ten, it was security tape from inside where he had killed all the hostages. She sat on the edge of the living room sofa and watched the tape, they warned it was graphic and not for younger viewers. It was very disturbing, he'd slit one woman's throat from end to end, and blood gushed from the wound as she fell to the ground and made several twitching motions before she lay still.

They didn't show the whole video, but it was the first she'd ever actually seen a real person die. It didn't seem any different than anything else, but the Joker seemed different, who was he? He fascinated her to no end of things, there was a method to his madness, always a joke.

Harleen yawned in front of her computer, her body felt heavy and she could barely keep her eyes open. Without even shutting off the computer she climbed into her unmade bed and fell into a deep sleep.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was very cold and the pale moonlight was seeping in from the bell tower high above nothingness, all she could see was black obscurity, as if the whole world had died. Harley was bound with white tape that cling and covered her otherwise naked body, the tape concealed like a torn dress. She was only bound from the neck down.

"Hello?" She called out as if unalarmed but lost.

Joker stepped right through the blackness and on to the small platform of the bell tower, he was masked by the dimness, the shadows danced across his face which was as white as a corpse. He moved with the darkness, he gracefully took long and short strides, the shadows tangled around his finger tips and crawled along every inch of the bell tower like sparks of grease.

His smile very painfully bright, it gushed hot and red, it spilled out free of the night. He moved so slowly until he was right next to Harley, he stood magnificent and all powerful over Harley, who was nearly a foot shorter than he. He reached into the deep lavender suit jacket and withdraw a large thin knife to which he displayed with a smile.

He raised it carefully, Harley felt herself gasp and her muscles tighten. Joker sliced it so neatly into a part of her upper arm that was revealed by the tape, a warm rush of wet blood spilled from her arm. Joker grabbed her by the back of her head and kissed her. She felt a sudden blast of dizziness and heat as her eyes fluttered open to her dark bedroom.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Harleen in a black jacket that was tailed to her body, a red skirt and black blouse hurriedly left slamming her door and jumping into her car, it was 10 and she was an hour late for work! How could she sleep so late. She scolded herself all the way to work, she ran in and went straight to the front desk.

The clerk seemed totally unorganized this morning, her hair looked uncombed and she was yelling at someone on the phone, "Hang on." She told the person and sat the phone down. She looked at Harleen saying, "Dr. Quinzel where have you been?!?"

"Oh gosh I'm sorry Mira, I just sleep late is all."

"What a day to sleep late! Do you have any idea what's going?" Mira asked.

"What-"

Just as Mira was about to answer Joan ran over to Harleen, "Harley are you okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Harley felt very confused all of a sudden and just realized that cops were in there and that there was a taped off police section and two chalk outlines that she could just glimpse down the long concrete hall. "What's going on?" Harley asked, she could feel the heat rising up in her face.

"Don't you know?" Joan asked taking her aside.

"No, how could I?"

"It was all over the news, the Joker escaped…" Joan said it in a hushed voice.

Harley put her hand over her little red mouth, "Today?"

"Early this morning. Police want to question you, they questioned us all of course, they are hoping since you're his doctor you might know where he went. Do you want some coffee before you talk to them?"

Harley felt chocked, escaped? Joker escaped? How? Why? She paced back and forth and shock her head, "No, no thanks I'll talk to them. Who do I need to talk to?"

Joan gave an unhappy snide look, "Detective Bullock."

"Okay." Harley nodded and Joan brought him over to her.

He was taller than Harley and in a tan trench coat, he was very heavy and had a cup of coffee in one hand a chocolate doughnut in the other, he put the doughnut in his mouth and extended a chubby chocolate smeared hand muffling through the doughnut, "Detective Bullock."

Harleen shook his hand saying lowly, "Dr. Quinzel."

He shoved the doughnut down in two bites, took a big drink of the coffee from the white foam cup and said, "Dr. Quinzel follow me."

She nodded and followed the bear of a man up the steps and into her office, she shut the door behind herself. "How did he escape?" Flew out of her mouth before the detective could even sit down.

"He was complaining of terrible pains, finally someone went in to give him a shot, somehow he got the needle from them and stabbed them to death with it, strangled one guard and shot two others with the gun he got from the first one."

"Oh my." Was all she said. That was amazing! He took down all those people single handedly and he wasn't a built up guy.

"Yeah well," He said, "I need to ask you a few things, you were his shrink right?"

"I was his doctor, yes." Harleen corrected him.

"Yeah, thought so, did he mention anything about escaping to you, where he might go, if he even thought about? Someone he wanted to get revenge on, some joke he wanted to pull?"

Harley nodded solemnly, "No, nothing." He talked about things like that once and a while, but she couldn't remember any exact details to help this big doughnut eating oaf send Batman to beat him senseless. She shuddered at the thought.

He saw her shudder, "Don't worry, we'll get him."

She wanted him back here where she could watch over him and move a lock of green hair out of his face when he was cuffed and couldn't reach it, but she didn't want him dragged in black and blue.

"Now there is one other thing." The detective said.

"Yes?"

He moved his hand in sort of a circle trying to explain something difficult, "You don't think there would be anyway he'd go to you do you?"

"Oh no!" Hmmm, maybe. She thought. Probably not though. She frowned.

"Okay, well if you learn anything or hear anything unusual you give us a call okay?"

She nodded.

He stood up, "I mean it, you hear anything call me right away. He's as sick as they come."

Petty insults weren't very professional, Harley thought.

He left Harley alone in her office, Joan came in a few minutes later, pushing open the door as quietly as she could, "Everything alright?"

"Yeah.." Harley said in a tone that suggested otherwise. "I'm just worried." What if got killed?

"I understand." Joan walked over to Harley's desk, "I'm sure it'll be alright though, they'll catch him soon. You have no reason to be afraid he'll come after you, do you?"

Harley shock her head, "No."

"Then don't worry." Joan smiled reassuringly.

"What do you think he'll do?" Harley asked looking up at Joan.

"I don't know, it's hard to say with the Joker."

Harley ran her finger across the desk in a circular motion, "How long do you think he'll be gone."

Joan only shook her head, "Why don't you just take the day off?"

Harley sighed, "Yeah okay, I'm so tired anyway. Thanks Joan." Harley smiled for the first time that morning.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The morning sky in Gotham city actually looked rather attractive, it was a smoggy haze of very light blue and today it was warm and sunny. Harley took off her black jacket as she stepped up to her door, she leaned against it a she went through her pocket for her keys. It pushed open.

She lost her balance and fell into her apartment, she would have sworn she locked it. The apartment was dark, blinds drawn like she left it, she slowly shut the door. The bedroom door was cracked slightly and there were flickers of light from the TV. Her heart began to hammer quickly in her chest, she stepped lightly towards the bedroom door. An urgency rising up inside her, she was breathing heavily.

Slowly she pushed open the bedroom door and took one step inside.

Whew. No one was there. She laughed. Why was she being so nervous? She giggled to herself and took a big sigh of relief.

"Boo!" Two hands were over her eyes and a familiar voice, "Guess who?"

Okay, stay calm. She told herself, you're a doctor, his doctor, you're a psychoanalyst, you can react properly in this kind of situation. Don't make him edgy! She screamed at herself in her mind, making her breathing slow down.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

He removed his hands from her eyes and placed them firmly on her shoulders, she could feel his breath on her neck as he stood behind her.

"Just needed a place to crash for the night and I thought you might help me out." He spun her around quickly, she took in a startled breath as their eyes met, "Won't you Doc Quinn?" He grinned at her boyishly, his green and gold flecked eyes penetrating her with a stare.

"You know I can't do that." Harley said trying to regain composer, she crossed her arms.

"Can't, or won't?" Joker whispered closely to her ear.

She took a step back, "Your going to get caught anyway, why don't you just come back voluntarily with me?"

He laughed softly, "Don't I deserve some fun too Doc? Besides…" He moved a big step closer to her, "They wouldn't catch me unless I wanted them to."

"You can't stay here." Harleen said confidently.

He went past her and jumped on the bed, he landed with a bounce and leaned back crossing his legs, "Oh but I am. I wasn't expecting you so early though. You look a little sleepy, why don't you just take a nap?" He patted on the bed smiling at her.

She groaned, "I'm not playing these games with you Joker."

"Spoil sport." He pouted and crossed his arms tightly across his chest.

"Come with me back to Arkham, I don't want to call the police but I will if you won't come with me."

Joker dropped his arms and got up off the bed, he took big slow strides towards Harleen, his wine-colored mouth playing a wide smirk. "Harley, Harley, I don't think you understand." He chuckled. "You don't really have a choice here." He leapt at her, Harleen quickly jumped back but he caught her in his hands and pinned her down holding on to her wrists. She struggled a little then stopped and took a breath.

"What do you want Joker?" She asked.

"I just wanna see you smile." Joker winked at her and turned his head to the side leaning down, just a few centimeters from her chest listening to her heaving heartbeat. He imagined her flushed red heart fluttering quickly. Joker moved swiftly opening the buttons of her blouse with his teeth until he reached the last button, and her creamy smooth stomach was revealed.

He felt her body jump as he pressed his mouth to her stomach, she was quivering, then he pressed hard and blew giving her a raspberry. Before she could stop laughing from that he jumped up and began tickling her without mercy. Laughing hard she tried to scramble out the bedroom door.

He grabbed her by her ankles and dragged her back in, "Tsk tsk tsk. Time's not up yet Harley."

He pounced back on her tickling her until she began to cry while she was laughing, she was taking big gasps of breath and squirming and kicking. Joker let her go and threw his head back laughing loudly as she crawled a few feet away trying to catch her breath and stop giggling. For several minutes she kept letting out little spouts of laughter and trying to stop herself.

He watched her laughing, finally they both stopped. Harleen buttoned her blouse back up and pulled her heavy blonde hair out of her face. She leaned against the wall still breathing fast.

He got on the bed and laid back running one hand through his loose green hair and let out a little laugh saying, "Was it as good for you as it was for me?"

Harley laughed lightly, "I thought my heart would explode, I couldn't even breath. You can kill a person doing that you know."

"Oh I know." He said back with a grin.

Harley stood up, her clothes wrinkled and her blouse buttoned unevenly, "How long do you intend to stay here?"

"Just a day. I have things I have to get to."

"What are you planning to do?" She had a serious look on her face.

"Well first I want to get something to eat." He walked past her and into the kitchen, she trailed slowly behind him. He opened the refrigerator and bent down looking through it, "Ohhh!" He said delightfully as he pulled out some steaks wrapped in wax paper, he laid them down on the counter.

He looked at Harley and licked his lips. He saw her blush and he said slyly, "Steak."

He turned on the stove full blast and the blue flames were high. Harley came over, "Maybe I should do that."

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yes." She said with a smile.

"Okay dokey." He headed back into the bedroom.

She turned down the heat some and unwrapped the steaks. The Joker, the Joker was in her bedroom right now, watching cartoons. Okay, take a deep breath Harley, she told herself. Deep breath. What was she doing, making them both lunch, could she even cook stake?

Harley put her head down on the counter next to the steaks and took several deep breaths. Oh god, I'm falling in love with my psychopathic mass-murdering escapee patient! You're a doctor, you're a trained psychoanalyst, you do not fall in love with psychopaths. She scolded herself.

She was cooking the steaks and standing over the stove, but there was something so sweet about him, something so, so misunderstood. Joker was so playful and boyish, Harley couldn't even conceive that he would kill her, but why? He'd just killed several people that very day. Of course those were guards there, and maybe they had been real jerks that's why he killed them. There was something so tender about those deep green eyed, he just needed someone to love him. Harley sighed and smiled softly.

She took the stakes out on plates and laid them on the round kitchen table along with two Cokes. "It's ready." She called out sitting down and waiting.

He waltz into the room, he quirked his eye brows, "Mmm, something smells good."

He sat down and rubbed his hands together, it just occurred to Harley that he was still in his inmate inform. He picked up his fork, and looked at his plate, then he looked to Harley still holding up the fork, "No knife?"

She got up to get him one, then she stopped biting down gentle on her bottom lip, "I don't know." She said.

"Don't you trust me Harley? You know if I wanted to kill you I already would have, your so tiny it wouldn't be much at all without any weapon, hmm?"

She stood still.

"C'mon Harley, this steak looks really good and I'm really hungry." He batted his green lashes, "Pretty please? I promise to be good." A big innocent smile spread across his face.

She softened, "Okay." She grabbed a knife from a drawer and laid it down next to his plate.

"Thank you." He said starting to cut the steak.

They both took a small bite at the same time. It was hard, leathery, so much that Harley couldn't even chew it. She removed it from her mouth and placed it on her plate, then she groaned sadly, "I have to admit, I can't cook."

He managed to swallow the meat and took a big drink of the coke, he patted her on the back, "Oh it's not that bad."

"Yes it is." She whimpered.

"No, really." He cringed and took another bite, "Okay…it's bad." He laughed. "But we'll just find something else to eat."

Harley put her head on the table sadly, and turn away from him.

He poked her in the arm, "Hey?"

Harley looked at Joker, "Yes?"

He beckoned her with his hand, "Come 'er."

Harley shook her head no, but got up crawled into his lap, he stroked her hair, and carried her over to the sofa and laid her down. Then he pulled a chair from the table over and sat next to her, "You seem to have a lot on your mind right now, why don't you tell me?"

She rolled on her side playing with a piece of her hair, "Well, all of this is just kind of shocking I guess."

"Naturally. But there seems to be something else, am I right?" He sat with his hands folded on his lap.

"Yes…but I'm not even sure what it is." She looked him in the eyes, "Am I even helping you?"
He leaned towards her and extended a hand stroking her face softly, "Of course, if you weren't I wouldn't be here, right?"

She smiled, but it faded quickly as she said, "But why did you escape again then?"

"I have some important business to attend to. I won't be gone long, honest." Joker smirked at her.

Harley giggled, "Okay."

"Now Harley," he put one finger under her chin and titled it up, "I want to see you smile."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The sound of the ceiling fan woke Harley, she sat up on her bed with a yawn, then she jumped up when she didn't see Joker anywhere. She ran into the living room, he was on the phone, he gestured for her to go back in to the bed room.

Harley had fallen asleep while they were watching cartoons after they had Kraft Macaroni and cheese. She listened at the door.

"Tonight, uh huh. Yes, okay." He giggled, "Ohhh! Good good, okay." Then he slammed down the phone.

Harley looked at the clock, it was 8 p.m. The door opened and Joker came in, "Glad your up. I hope you don't mind but I had to barrow some things from you."

"That's okay." She said.

Joker smiled, "Now," he jumped towards Harley grabbing and spinning her around, "While you were sleeping I went through your things and I found something for you."

He grinned and went into her bathroom, he returned with a red mini-dress, it was slinky and had a tight bodice, but then went just a little looser, tiny arm straps and virtually no back. Harley hadn't even so much as seen that dress in ages.

Joker held it up, "Would you?" He asked.

Harley felt her face get warm and she knew she had to be blushing, there was a nervous flutter in her stomach as she took it from him saying, "Alright."

She went into the bathroom and closed the door, the big mirror loomed over the pale counter, she stripped off all her clothes and pulled on the dress. She looked at herself in the mirror, the dress snug against her body, she turned and put her hand on her hip. She smiled at herself, she was a knockout. She applied some red lipstick and mascara, then opened the door and stepped out.

Joker smiled brightly and made a low growl, "My my doctor Quinzel." She smiled shyly as he approached her. He took hold of her hand and spun her looking her over, "Delicious."

She giggled, and he pulled her close to him, put one hand on the small of her back and began to dance with her. She felt his body up against hers, she had to look up at him, his hand on her back sent a shiver through her. He took elegant strides holding on to her, she followed. Harley could hear his heartbeat and her own, she felt a sense of elation burning inside.

Joker spun her once more and then dipped her back in a quick violent movement, he held her with both his hands and leaned forward smiling. Harley let out a little breath, her mouth glossy and red. He pulled her back up and put both of his hands in her mess of golden hair and was so close to her his nose was touching hers. He was grinning wildly.

She went forward to kiss him, but he stopped her, just smiling, then he kissed her. His mouth full on hers, it was an aggressive relentlessly kiss that dissipated into his hot tongue rapidly licking her lips. Then he withdrew, Harley breathing steadily in big breaths.

Harley felt herself trembling gently, she steadied herself and let out a soft, "Mmm."

He walked over very close to her whispering in her ear, "Nighty night." Before she could even say anything he slammed her head into the wall in one fast movement, she saw a flash of color then blackness washed over her like a flood.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Harley sat up in bed and groaned, her head was aching dully and the room was totally black. She clumsily reached around for the lamp and turned it on, she rubbed her head and it all seemed to come back to her. She jumped out of bed nearly falling to the floor, she balanced her self then headed towards the bedroom door. There was a note stuck to it.

Be seeing you soon.- J

Harley took the note off the door and held it in her hand, she sat back down on her bed, and fell back with a happy smile across her face and she giggled. Harley smiled widely and let out a loving sigh.