Madness (Joker Love Story)

Too Late...

      When Jonathon spotted Allison, it was as though time itself had stopped. Certainly a few conversations stopped at least. It would appear that not only his eyes were on her. She looked down and quickly ruffled her hair before anyone could see the pigment in her cheeks shift. She chuckled simply for the sake of breaking the silence she had created in the room and stomped over to Jonathon, keeping her head down the entire time. He cleared his throat and shook his head to clear his clouded thoughts when she finally reached him, looking down himself.
         "You look beautiful." He finally found his words. She laughed again out of embarrassment and shook her head. "Thank you." He shook his head as to clear his thoughts and caressed her back, bringing her to their table. She flinched at his touch on her warm back, causing him to look back at the placement of his hands, worrying he may have hurt her. Before she could turn around, he caught glimpse of the large scars all over her back. He was about to comment but Allison caught on to the obvious fact that he had seen, and instead quickly voiced her own topic.
         "This is a very nice restaurant... And this is a very nice table.." She continued when he only smiled at her. "I don't imagine a dog walker's salary affords us Dom Perignon as well?" She joked, though she was genuinely confused. "Yeah, well... About that; I have some rather large news." She raised an eyebrow, motioning for him to continue. He only chuckled in response as their wine was brought to them. Jesus, she thought, it is expensive wine. 
         Her smile fell as the wine did into Jonathon's glass. When the waiter left, Jonathon poured her some himself. She regained a bit of her former smirk and refrained from questioning the alcohol. She always drank, despite being under age. It was a release, she felt. "If anyone asks, it's grape juice." She laughed, but then continued pushing. "What's the news? I hope there's an explanation other than you got too desperate and robbed a bank." "Now Allison, I didn't rob the bank for the money." He stated and she immediately tensed.
         "I'm joking.." He clarified and they both let out breathy laughs. "Well... I'm no longer a dog walker. Due to my recent mental stability," he paused, "Arkham has decided to take me on as part of their staff again. After all, I was their leading doctor before..." He trailed off when he noticed her solemn expression. Her eyes struggled to avoid his piercing blue gaze. He reached out and grabbed her loose hand. "I thought you'd be happy for me.." She leapt. "No, no! I am! I am. It's just.. Are you sure it's right for you?" "What, you don't want to see me every day?" He showed a bit of the offence he was taking to her reaction.         
         She hesitated and searched her mind for the proper words to explain. "This isn't about me. This is about you, and your mental health." She added. "Are you certain you want to return to a place where the only memories you have are bad ones?" He smiled and rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand. "The memories I have with you aren't bad ones. So if you're asking me if I'd like to remember those ones and create even more, then my answer is absolutely." She withheld the sudden strong urge to roll her eyes.         
         "Those aren't the only memories that will come back, Jon. You're going to be working with the people that drugged you, imprisoned you, abused you! No one should have to go back to that." She lowered her voice when she remembered they were in public. He opened his mouth to speak but decided to make it a long sigh instead before taking a rather large gulp of his wine.
         "You know, I can't help but direct the attention to you, as after all, you did bring up the subject of tormentors." She swallowed the wine, but not even the rich alcohol came close to being able to push down the lump in her throat. "I don't know what you--" "The scars on your back, Allison." He said factually. He had a certain sass to him she hadn't seen before; narcissistic almost.  She couldn't entirely focus on his attitude change though, as she was trying to process what exactly he was bringing up.
         "Now I knew you were abused a child but--" "Jonathon!" She interrupted, feeling entirely uncomfortable with the whole situation. Her eyes darted around the room, studying faces to see if they were in fact studying her. "Oh don't worry, Allison. It's not like they don't all know. After all, you are wearing quite a revealing outfit. Was it your mother's?" He spoke furiously. "Listen, Jonathon, just because I--" he cut her off.
         "Because you what? What haven't you done? I'm done talking about me; let's talk about you." He leaned in closer to her face, bringing her watery eyes to meet his. He spoke softly, but it hit Allison like a bomb. "Let's talk about how your daddy fucked you 'till you bled." He proceeded when a tear dropped from her eye. "Stop it." She whispered. If she could voice it any louder she would have. But he had taken that away from her.
         "Then, when he was finished with you.. He sold you to those men... What were their names again?" "Stop it." She begged once again, squeezing his hand desperately. "I suppose it doesn't really matter, does it. They cut you. They whipped you.. They locked you away." She brought her hand up to her quivering lip as she twisted her face in desperation at the man she had once entrusted with all of this information. "But they took something even worse from you, didn't they? They took away your sanity.. You've been fighting to get it back ever since, "helping" people find theirs, but you know.. 
         Everybody knows,"  He said, the smallest hint of a smile forming on his face as he kissed away one of her tears. "It's too late.."