When she woke up he was gone, well not physically gone, he was working at his desk in the corner of the dimly lit room and was lost in his own mind. He muttered incoherently to himself as he drew erratically over schematics of something she couldn't recognize. This gave Harley time to think. The house was fairly quiet so the men were either still asleep or already out and about for the day.

She rolled over in bed to face the wall and chewed the inside of her scarred cheek as she thought about Amber. Amber was going to be the one to help J track down Jonny. Amber was going to be the one to give him what he wanted. It all didn't sit well. Harley never had a reason to be jealous of another woman. Any time she saw him make contact with another woman it was because she was a hostage and they typically were terrified of him. He wasn't attractive in a traditional sense, that she understood, but to her, his scars gave him more character. She had seen the picture of him from his first wedding where his face was flawless and he just didn't look right. However, Amber seemed to idolize him regardless and she wouldn't be surprised if Amber tried to get into his pants literally. Harley ground her teeth together. This was all too much. She needed an escape. With her long semi-separation from J, losing Hannah and her sister, and now this hussy in the house, Harley felt overwhelmed. She threw the covers off her body onto the floor as she rolled out of bed and stomped out of the bedroom. She was wearing only a pair of black panties and a matching tank top and what few men were hanging out in the living area froze when she walked in. Not sure where they should be looking, their gazes shot to all corners of the room.

With a heavy sigh and a cocked head she asked, "Any of you fine fellas got some blow?" A sickeningly sweet smile grew across her face as she twirled a ratty blonde pigtail around her fingers.

One of the nameless men that she hadn't had the pleasure of meeting yet nervously spoke after an awkward silence. He still wasn't looking quite at her, but rather at the space above her head. "I may have some, um, uh, Ms Quinn."

"Hand it over wouldya?", she said in a more demanding tone as she crossed her arms and shifted her hips.

He left for the shared bedroom and came back a moment later with a small clear baggie. "Do you want me to-" She cut him off and snatched the bag from his hands and sauntered off to her bathroom. He was left looking disappointed that she took his entire stash. She peeked into the bedroom and saw that The Joker was still preoccupied as he ran his hands through his tangled green curls and smoke from his cigarette was hovering in the space above him. The only word she understood that wasn't an expletive was Bane. She quietly let herself into the bathroom across the way.

She sat on the long tiled counter with her knees drawn up as she drew two lines on a small mirror in her palm. As she snorted up the white powder with a flimsy dollar bill that was scrunched in the bottom of her makeup bag, her head rolled back against the wall and she closed her eyes.

"Stupid Amber with her stupid meddling. Why did J need her anyway? What could she do that I couldn't? I could find Jonny in a minute. I'm a woman. I have charms.", Harley thought to herself just as her high was settling in. Just then Harley sat up with an epiphany. "Why can't I find Jonny? J doesn't need that whore to work for him. He has me and I have his best interests in mind. I'll find Jonny first. I'll prove to him that I'm capable of more than ironing his shirts."

As she started putting a plan together in her mind, Amber strolled in and looked a bit surprised to see Harley with eyes dilated, sitting on the counter surrounded by drug paraphernalia. She slowly walked to the mirror and started fixing her makeup. It dawned on Harley that this was no longer her own private bathroom now that another woman was in he house and she made a scoffing sound.

"The boss okay with you doing that stuff?", she asked Harley.

"Why don't you mind your own business, honey?", Harley quipped back.

Amber eyed Harley's maimed body and had a million questions, but thought better than to ask any of them. She turned back to the mirror to complete her flawless cat eye.

Harley leaned forward and wound a violet strand of Amber's hair around her finger. Amber glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. "Um-"

"Do you have any hair dye I could use?", Harley asked with great interest sweeping over her features.

"Oh, uh, sure, I think so." She pulled a toiletry bag out from under the sink that she stored her personal items in and found two sample boxes of black and red. "Looks like these are the only colors I have right now."

Harley snatched them from Amber's hands. "Perfect!" She grinned.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Harleeeey!" The Joker's voice echoed throughout the hideout. It wasn't an angry tone, but unless you knew his manner of speaking, you'd think it was.

Harley popped into the bedroom. "Hey, Mista J!", she rhymed. He swiveled in his chair. His mouth hung agape as his eyes fixated on her hair. "Don'tcha you love it?" She giggled and bounced on the balls of her feet.

Her hair was parted into her usual messy high pigtails, but one side of her head was dyed completely black and the other side red. She gave herself bangs that swooped across her forehead. It was all very choppy and maybe a little lopsided.

"What, uh, did you do, pumpkin?", he said through clenched teeth as his eyes narrowed angrily.

"I thought it was time for a change." She beamed innocently up to him and she shook her head side to side. He walked toward her, cane in hand.

His free hand lunged for her throat and she let out a choked gasp. "Who, uh, told you you could change your appearance?" He eyed the pigtails with disgust.

She switched from perky to annoyed as she replied, "Well, no one, Mista J. I thought you'd like it. Now I really look like your Harlequin.", she struggled to say through his tight grip.

His cane shot out and knocked her legs out from under her as he pushed her down on the floor. "You don't get to make decisions like that, lit-tle girl. You're forgetting whose property this is." With those words he gave her side a solid whack with the cane. She yelped and curled up on her side.

"Thought you changed you preferences, that's all. Why else would you go and hire whatshername? You're into dark haired chicks now.", she cried to him.

He didn't hesitate to pounce on her and after a backhand to the face and a threat for her to change it back, she shook her head in defiance.

"No? No?", he mocked. He grabbed her face and slammed her head against the floor making her vision go blurry and dark as she let out a breathy grunt. They attracted a small audience of goons including Amber who were watching from afar. Some had looks of pity and others shock. Amber went to step forward, but the man next to her grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

Harley spit a mouthful of blood onto The Joker's face. He grabbed her newly dyed pigtails and bared his yellow teeth to her face, "You should probably leave right now before I do something I should've done a long time ago. Get. Out. Of. My. Sight." His voice was low and measured. He struggled to get back to his feet with the help of his cane, but once he did he stepped over her beaten body and walked down the stairs to be alone.

The small audience disbanded, but Amber ran over to Harley to help her up. "Are you okay?", she asked frantically. "If I would've known this could happen, I would've never given you that hair dye!"

Harley's face went from a pained expression to a chuckle with her bloodstained teeth fully displayed. "Just a lovers quarrel.", she said dismissively. She spat the remaining blood from her mouth on the floor next to Amber's shoes. "I'm just going to spend a couple of days with my friend and my Puddin' will be beggin' me to come home. He always does." She got to her feet and shakily walked to their closet where she pulled out some clothing and shoved them in her overnight bag. Her nightstand had some cash that she hoarded for times like these. Her pistol was lovingly folded into some clothes and placed in the bag. Amber watched in confusion.

As Harley shimmied herself into some dark skinny jeans and an oversized navy sweater, Amber asked, "Does this happen often?"

"Ha! I'd be concerned if it didn't! J is very passionate. It just shows how much he loves me.", she said with her hands clasped over her heart. She turned back to her bag scowling and rolling her eyes. "It takes a very special kinda woman to be with The Joker. Remember that.", she said to Amber over her shoulder. With blood dried on her face and a threatening glare, Harley leaned in close so their noses were almost touching. "Now listen, Mommy is going to be gone for a few days and I'm going to trust that you keep your hands off of what doesn't belong to you. Got it?" Amber nodded. "Uh, uh, of course Harley. Who do you think I am?", Amber replied nervously as her eyes traced Harley's mutilated smile. Harley gave Amber a gentle slap on the cheek before she walked off with a wink and blew a kiss.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

Normally Harley would've taken the bus to see Ivy, but she had work to do over the next couple of days and that would require an actual car. She set out in the old white Grand Prix that sat lonely among the many stolen cars at their disposal. She tried to remember the last time she drove a car. It had to have been before she ran away with The Joker. If he wasn't around and she needed to go anywhere, one of his men took her or she took the bus. Her driver's license was long lost so she drove carefully to avoid any special attention from the cops. That was the last thing she needed. She arrived at Ivy's apartment complex and much to Harley's disappointment, parallel parking was not a skill one retained like riding a bike. The bumper of the vehicle kissed the fire hydrant in front of the building. "Lovely", she mumbled.

Before long she was sitting on Ivy's couch drinking a cup of hot tea as Ivy cleaned Harley's wounds and gave her an ice pack for her head.

"Harl, when are you going to see that he's insane? You never know what he's going to do! All of this over a temporary dye job? You could have internal bleeding! He could kill you!"

"Listen Red, I knew he would react his way. That's why I did it."

Ivy was taken aback. "Have you lost it? Why on earth would you want him to do this?" She began applying a homemade salve to Harley's wounds.

"Because I had to get outta the house for a couple of days without him knowing what I was up to.", she said matter of factly. "I knew he wouldn't let me just come stay with you for the fun of it, but if he kicked me out then he wouldn't care where I was."

"Oh, and what are you up to exactly?"

"Listen, J is lookin' for a new right hand. Felix was good, but he got himself killed apparently by a man called Jonny Frost. J knows Jonny from somewhere, he didn't say how, but he wants him to work for us. He's had his moronic henchmen looking for a couple of days and they came up with nothin'. So I know that J is workin' with Eddie to snoop out some info on the guy. Oh and get this, Red! He's hired a HENCHWOMAN!" Harley's expression changed to one of disgust with crinkled eyebrows and barred teeth. "This chick who is basically all over him and he's gonna use her to finally track down Jonny!" Harley took a deep breath and her expression became angry as she remembered that J would now be alone with Amber for a couple days.

"Okay, Harley-", Ivy let out a humorless chuckle. "This sounds ridiculous! Why are you getting involved in the clown's work anyway? Won't he be furious when he finds out what you've done?"

"I need to prove myself to him, Red! We were distant for so long I feel like I need to do something to show him how valuable I am. I need to do this!"

Ivy crossed her arms and shook her head. "I just can't understand your devotion to him. After everything he's done to you, you seem like you want him more and more."

Harley just blushed and rested her head against the side of the couch.

"Oh, I have something for you.", Ivy said, changing the subject. She grabbed an envelope from the bookshelf and sat down next to Harley on the couch. "So, I know you aren't supposed to have contact with Hope, but that doesn't mean that I can't. I met up with her yesterday."

"Really?", Harley perked up. It had only been over a week since she gave birth to Hannah, but it felt like the longest week of her life.

Ivy nodded. "I have pictures." She handed the envelope to Harley.

She ripped the envelope open to find about a dozen photos. Hannah already looked different than she did that first day, less blotchy, less swollen. She had cute bows around her head in just about every picture. One showed her getting a bath in a baby tub. Another showed her sound asleep in her crib. One was of Hope wearing a sling holding the baby. The last picture showed Hannah wearing what she recognized as a christening gown as Hope and Matthew held her.

"Wow." was all Harley could muster for a moment. "I guess a lot can change in a week, huh?"

"Are you okay, honey?", Ivy placed a hand on her shoulder.

Harley nodded as she flipped through the pictures again. For a moment she imagined that it was her in the pictures. An alternate universe where she never met The Joker, her skin remained flawless, she married someone like Matthew and was able to keep her beautiful baby girl, but thought of it all made just her feel sick.