"This is the way that I remember you
The colors all blend into blue"

Blend Into Blue, Carloman

Harleen Quinzel was not normally interested in watching the news, in fact she actively avoided it even though a small part of her felt guilty for not keeping up with current events. Tonight she would have moved past it for something more light hearted if she hadn't heard the words "Arkham Asylum" when she flipped though the channels. As a recent doctoral graduate in Psychology she was preparing her resumes and considering working at various mental health facilities. Arkham Asylum was not one on her list because as far as she knew it no longer housed patients. In fact that is what caught her attention, she was almost sure that the facility had been closed years ago. She looked down at her remote to increase the volume and when she looked back up what she saw shocked her. It was him, it was Jack. They were calling him the Joker and there was something about explosives and ferries. She couldn't follow it, her mind was still trying to process seeing his face again. It was covered in clown make up but it looked so much like him. That was impossible though, Jack was dead. He'd been dead for five years. By now her brain had shaken off the shock a bit and was trying to understand what was going on but the picture was gone. Instead there was some related story involving a vigilante dressed as a bat. What the hell was happening in Gotham? Metropolis had its share of weird but nothing compared to this. It was clear that they weren't going to show the picture of the Joker again and she knew of course that it couldn't possibly be Jack but she had to see his face again and find the little differences that would prove it to her heart.

She quickly pulled her laptop over from the other side of the sofa and searched for the Joker, eventually finding a large clear photo. The eyes, they were Jack's eyes. They were obscured by layers of black grease paint but she'd know them anywhere, she'd looked into them thousands of times. Maybe it was a coincidence. This man looked older than Jack, even more than the five years that had passed since he died. His features were generally the same but Jack had a good natured and happy countenance and this person looked, well, evil was the only word she could find to describe it. Then she looked closer and realized that she had to be staring into the face of her long dead husband because while she could imagine someone else having eyes just like Jack's there was no way that someone with Jack's eyes could also have those. The scars. When she thought of them she reached up and touched the sides of her mouth where her own scars were. Oh hers were nothing like his. Maybe they would have been if she had stitched hers up herself and left them to heal like that but Harleen had spent thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgery and now hers were fine white lines that you could only really see if you looked very closely or if she spent too much time in the sun and tanned her face. It was Jack. He was alive. And he was obviously very sick. Still. Staring into his mad face she couldn't help but remember the day he lost his mind, she was after all right there to see it happen.

It had been seven years ago but it felt like a lifetime. The day before it happened Harleen was leaving her first obstetrical visit and she was experiencing pure joy. She was six weeks pregnant. The timing was perfect. She was nearing her last semester of her undergraduate work. The baby was due a month after graduation and that would give her two months maternity leave before she started her graduate work in her first choice program. School was great, her marriage to Jack was wonderful and now to top it all off a baby. They hadn't been trying exactly, more like hoping nature would take advantage of this window of opportunity and their natural passion for one another. Jack and Harleen had a sickeningly sweet love story up until this point. They met when they were seventeen and it was love at first sight. Since then they were inseparable. They were each other's first loves and even though people thought they were crazy they got married right after high school. Other couples they knew who got together so young had long since broken up but every day for them was sweeter than the one before. They didn't have much money but they were happy. After high school they couldn't really afford to both go to college so they made a plan. Jack was brilliant but unfocused, he didn't really know what he wanted to do or study. Harleen had wanted to be a psychologist since she was fourteen years old and realized her dreams of being an Olympic gymnast were never going to happen. So Harleen would go to college while Jack worked and then after she was done with school it was Jack's turn to pursue whatever it was he had decided he wanted to do.

When they suspected Harleen was pregnant they were happy and when the over the counter test confirmed it they were overjoyed. Jack had even been given a promotion at his job so he said they'd soon have more money coming in. The timing couldn't be better. He'd be thrilled to hear how her appointment went, she'd call him as soon as she got in the car. With her thoughts consumed by Jack and the baby, Harleen wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings as she floated towards her car. Suddenly rough hands were grabbing her and pulling her into a dark corner of the parking garage. She only managed a small scream before her mouth was covered.

"Keep your mouth shut and you might just live through this. Now I'm gonna take my hand away and you're not gonna scream are you?" A large angry looking man said to her while someone she couldn't see held her arms behind her back. She nodded immediately when she saw he had a knife. There was also something hard sticking into her side that she suspected might be a gun. Oh god, were these men going to rape her?

"Good, you're a smart lady. Now we're gonna hurt you but how cooperative you are determines how bad we hurt you. You see your husband's been doing some things we don't like too well and we need to leave him a little message"

"M-m-my husband? I think you've made a mistake, Jack wouldn't have done anything wrong!" Harleen stammered out, she was frightened but she was sure this was all a mistake and hoped that she was actually going to get out of this unharmed.

"We know exactly who your husband is Ms. Quinzel. Didn't tell you what he did to move up at work did he? He took some things that don't belong to him and he crossed the wrong people so now he needs to learn a little lesson about who runs this town."

"Jack wouldn't take anything, he works in security."

"Yeah, security for the Morello gang but after his job the other day he's moving up into management."

"What? No, that can't be right. Jack wouldn't do anything illegal, he's not a gangster!" She insisted.

"Sorry you gotta find out this way sister but it's the truth. Now you been a good girl so I'm just gonna hurt you a little but it's gonna be something that will make sure old Jackie boy never forgets not to fuck with the Mannheims again. I'm gonna give you a nice big smile that's gonna drive the message home real good." And with that he came at her with the knife and sliced both sides of her mouth out into an exaggerated bloody smile. His knife was so sharp that she didn't even start screaming with pain until he was done.

"That's alright lady, we're done, scream all you want now" The one behind her said into her ear as he tossed her to the ground and they ran off before anyone could come along.

That's how she was found, screaming and bleeding alone in a parking garage. Fortunately the medical plaza her doctor's appointment had been in was attached to a hospital and within half an hour she was numb and stitched up and talking with a police officer. She didn't know if anything they said about Jack was true or not but she couldn't take the chance that he would get in trouble somehow so she left all mention of him out of it, in fact she told the police that the men never said anything at all to her. As the police were leaving that's when the cramping started. The pain in her abdomen was subtle at first, like a menstrual cramp but it quickly escalated and before she could even get a nurse's attention she felt a gush of warm liquid between her legs; she knew without looking it would be blood. She was losing the baby. The stress on her body, the emotional shock so early in the pregnancy, they said, was too much. She couldn't help but blame Jack for the baby. Oddly she didn't really care about her face, she hadn't looked in the mirror yet but she knew there was no way it looked as damaged as her heart felt right now. Funny how just an hour ago she'd been so happy and now it seemed like things couldn't get worse. She was so very wrong about that.

When Jack arrived at the hospital they had her sedated, she had been crying so hysterically that she was pulling out her stitches so they did what they could to calm her down. She wasn't asleep but she was floating in and out of awareness.

"Oh god, Harley, what have they done to you!" Jack exclaimed when he saw her. The nurse quickly started speaking to Jack in such a low tone Harleen couldn't make out what she was saying. Probably telling him about the baby because immediately after the nurse stopped speaking Harleen heard Jack sob loudly. He didn't say anything else to her just leaned against the wall with his face hidden under his hands sobbing. The nurse left the room so they could be alone in their misery.

"They said it was a message for you Jack, do you understand what they meant by that? Because I didn't really, I told them they were making a mistake but they wouldn't listen to me. And they scared the baby away, away, away. Back to heaven or a cabbage patch or wherever babies go to when they aren't here with their mommies and daddies." Harleen drifted off briefly after she said that. When she was aware of being back in the room Jack was gripping her arms and saying something to her. Apologizing. Why was Jack sorry? Oh right, he made the bad men come and the bad men took away their baby. After that she finally went to sleep. Vague memories of waking up in their car and then in her own bed floated around in her mind but for the most part she slept and felt nothing in her medicated limbo.