Unsuspecting Hero (Batjokes)

Chapter 11

(Self-harm is in this chapter)

Joker didn't leave his room for five days.

On the first day, Bruce was concerned. When he had gotten that desperate call from Barbara, saying that Alfred was hurt and he needed medical attention, his mind had resulted to the worst. He imagined a stab wound from a weapon Joker had somehow managed to conceal. He imagined Alfred's skull being smashed in with one of Joker's violent rampages.

He felt overwhelming guilt at all of the assumptions he had came to when he realized it had all just been a misunderstanding, one that Joker wasn't even the cause of. Tim had explained through tears that the shot of the taser was meant for Joker, and not Alfred. Due to the awkward placement the tasers rods had landed on the butler, it had caused his pulse to skyrocket.

Alfred had been put on bedrest for at least three days.

Once Bruce knew his adoptive father would be okay, he went to check on Joker. He had walked towards the door of his room, feeling an eerie sense of dread at the absolute silence. Bruce had peeked up to look through the window, and glanced over the shambled ruins of the room with a grimace. It seemed that whatever Joker could lay his hands on, he had thrown. The newly painted walls were dented with objects and punches that had been angrily thrown.

"Jack" Bruce called lightly, knocking on the door softly. He didn't get a reply. Feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt pooling in his chest, he tried the door, finding it unlocked. He cautiously stepped inside, hearing laboured breathing from the personal bathroom connected to the bedroom. "Jack" Bruce called out again, only to run to the bathroom at hearing a sharp suck of breath through teeth, like Joker was in pain.

Bruce momentarily stopped at the doorway at the scene before him. Joker's arms had been ripped to shreds, blood gushing out of them at an alarming rate. By the blood all over Joker's fingertips, and with no sight of a weapon, he could only conclude that it was caused by his own fingernails. 

Joker hadn't seemed to of noticed him yet, stuck in his own sobbing and mania as he laughed at the blood covering the top half of his body. Bruce stepped slightly closer, watching as Joker's body wracked with a mix between gut wrenching weeping and high pitched giggling. 

"Jack" Joker's eyes snapped towards him, body going terrifyingly still as he turned to Bruce. 

Bruce watched wearily as those bloody hands reached up to touch his ghost-white face. Joker's fingers curled into the corners of his lips, before pulling his mouth into a grin, painting his lips and cheeks into his signature red lipstick smile.

That grin didn't fall as Bruce sat Joker down to stitch up and bandage his wounds. That grin didn't fall as he cleaned the blood off of Joker's hands. But that grin only faltered slightly when Bruce told him that this hadn't been his fault.

~~

On the second day, when Bruce had trimmed Joker's nails and cleaned up most of the damaged items, Joker didn't speak once. He only watched his movements from the bed, eyes barely alive and falling in and out of sleep. He hardly even registered Bruce setting up the cameras in his room.

~~

On the third day, as Bruce went to bring him back some food, his gut fell when he tried to twist the door knob and it wouldn't budge. Joker had locked the door. "Jack!" Bruce had yelled, knocking on the door desperately. He didn't see any movement in the room, nor did he get a verbal response. "Jack!!" Bruce banged on the door, panic seeping through him at whatever could be happening through that locked door. 

Rushing down to the Batcave, he brought up the new camera footage he had installed the day before. He couldn't help the small exhale of breath that left him when he saw nothing hinting at a cause for concern. He watched with a small pit in his stomach as Joker sat fully clothed at the bottom of the bath, shower on him. Bruce hardly saw him move, as he sat in the waters beam and hazily glared at the floor.

~~

On the fourth day, Alfred was out of bed. Bruce hadn't mentioned any of Joker's behaviour to the old man, wanting him to focus on getting better first. He should have expected that Alfred already knew something was wrong.

Bruce filled him in on everything. 

Alfred had gently knocked on the door. "Master Jack, I was hoping-"

Both Bruce and Alfred's eyes widened in surprise, as Joker's door swung open for the first time in days. Joker stared at Alfred with the most hurt look in his eyes that Bruce had ever seen. Alfred only smiled, gentle and soft and melting Joker from the inside out. "I'm okay now, Master Jack"

Bruce left shortly after he realized that Joker wasn't going to let go of the bone crushing hug he had pulled Alfred into anytime soon.

~~

"I want that therapist" Joker had said on the fifth day. He had been deadly silent during dinner, which he had finally decided to join. Bruce looked up from his food with surprise, looking at Joker for any signs of a...well, joke. 

Bruce had to bite his tongue from asking any of the impending questions on his mind. Joker looked as serious as he could be, leaving Bruce with an odd feeling of...hope. That Joker really did want to get better.

"I'll have you one by next week"

"...okay" 

Joker fell silent again, but Bruce couldn't ignore that small smile he saw that Joker had tried to hide.