Madness (Joker Love Story)

Clever Facade?

     "J...J!" Her worried voice echoed throughout the hell inside his head until he finally mustered enough strength to snap his eyes open. When he once again became fully emerged in the material world, he saw Allison's look of utter concern and confusion slowly begin to fade to one of relief. He raised his brows and closed his eyes, opening his mouth to question, though all that came out was a low, tired grunt.
        "What happened?" She asked his question for him, and was pleased when he nodded in agreement. "I'm not exactly sure... All I know is that you didn't respond when I snapped my fingers; only continued to thrash." He sat up quickly, much to is dismay, and held his head as he desperately tried to stop it from spinning. He opened his eyes again and looked around the room. Papers scattered, a nearby vase lying in pieces, and bits of stuffing that must have been ripped from the very sofa he was sitting on. 
        "Did I do that?" He asked, a strange combination of shock and amusement read across both his face and his tone. "Well it wasn't a pack of wild dogs." She said, the utterance dripping with sarcasm as she raised a brow at the confused man. "No, just one." He played along. She chuckled and turned away, looking at the rest of the room. The revelation of her profile caused the Joker to notice another thing; there were a few small markings of white face paint across her right cheek, which was glowing red. 
         He touched the same now chalky-white substance upon his own fingertips and it connected. "Did I do that too?" He asked, all amusement now gone from his voice as he realized what he had done. She shook her head quickly and brought her own hand up to her cheek. "It's fine..." There was a small silence in the air, only it wasn't the type they were used to experiencing with each other when words simply didn't matter. This was tense. 
        She broke it at the realization of the time. "You should clean up; our session is nearly over." He paused, as if about to say something, but apparently dismissed the thought and stood, walking slowly over to her bathroom. She heard the sink turn on and relaxed a bit, finally getting down on her hands and knees to clean up the mess. "So, did we find my name?" He called from the bathroom."Maybe next time." She called back. 
         He walked out of the restroom, patting his face dry with a towel. "Well what did we find?" He asked. "I don't know yet.." She thought aloud, scrunching her brows together for a moment. "Maybe something... Maybe nothing..." He smiled at her, as this was one of the only times he'd seen her confused; weak. And he was happy that she was showing him this side of her. 
         She simply stared at him. It was truly remarkable how different one could look with only simple face paint. She couldn't quite decide which face she liked better. Suddenly, the guards knocked on the door, and she wiped the remnants of white face paint off of her still stinging cheek as she stood up. The Joker then, escorted by the burly guards of course, walked out of her office without another word. 
         Allison laid back against the sofa which had just moments ago supported the being that had lashed out at her and thought. She thought about everything. She thought about the ear-shattering incoherent insults the man had screamed. All the way home, she considered every detail. She thought about the crazed look his eyes must have held behind his tightly clenched eyelids. Walking up to her door, she thought about how violently he had snapped. She thought about a quote he once said; "Give a man a mask and he'll become his true self." She had just reunited him with his mask. She wondered; could that be the real him. Was everything leading up to this point a clever facade?
         She thought about everything. Well.. Almost everything. Never did she even consider, nor barely comprehend what she saw next. Who she saw next. Standing directly in front of her door, a bouquet of white roses clenched tightly between his shaking hands.         
        "Jonathon?"