As I was cooking in the kitchen I glanced over my shoulder to see that Harley was finally stirring up.
"Good Afternoon Goldilocks."
I say as she sniffs the air.
"Mmmmm, something smells yummy!"
She smiled as she skipped over to the counter to grab her plate.
"As you can see I also made cheesey scrambled eggs with pepper jack cheese, country style hash browns, and crispy apple wood smoked bacon, enjoy."
Harley then looked at me in disbelief before immediately tearing into her food like a wild animal.
"Mmm sho gurd."
She said with her mouth full before swallowing.
"Your gonna make whoeva ya wifey is going be a happy woman!"
I couldn't help but be a bit dramatic as I placed my hand over my heart and gave her a fake British accent.
"You flatter me Madam Quinn."
I replied as I dished up my own plate.
"So I'm guessing that you have a plan right?"
"What are ya talkin about?"
Harley asked.
"On how to deal with him I mean. Maybe not at this very moment but at some point down the road. But what about what's going on in the present?"
Harley made an "Oh" face as she glanced upward towards the ceiling with her finger on the corner of her chin.
"Well, my gal pal red is gonna be gettin outta Arkham on a release program in the next couple of days and she already has a placed lined up so I'm gonna see if I cant stay with her for the time being."
It had taken me a moment to connect the dots but then I figured out who she was talking about.
"And by red you mean Poison Ivy right?"
I asked as Harley nodded happily in reply.
"Uh-huh, she's always been good to me and been there when things had gotten bad so yeah, that's the plan."
She said as I took a bite of my bacon.
"Well like I already said, swing on by whenever you want. My door is open from 3:30 to 6:00."
I hadn't expected it, but when I said this she genuinely laughed like I had said the funniest shit she had ever heard.
"Maybe I'll take you up on that some time."
She then had a sense of lust about her as she pinned me to the wall and came ever so close to my lips.
"If I eva need an itch that needs scratched."
"Eh heh heh heh, uhhhh... I was just thinking we could hang out or you know...uhhh, maybe when I get some money coming in we could go somewhere."
Harley looked like she was surprised to hear this.
"Ya mean like a date?"
She asked as she continued to smile.
"I mean hang out..."
She continued to tease the fuck out of me by slowly running her hands up my abs and the rest of my chest before she pushed herself off of me while pretending to contemplate.
"Hmmm, I'll think about it."
She then went on to happily scarf down the rest of her breakfast as she watched cartoons.
We ended up spending the rest of the day just chillin like villains. Watching My Little Pony, Star Gate SG-1 cause Atlantis was complete shit. And listening to some of the best 90's and 2000's pop and Alt Rock of all time.
"Saaay it ain't soooo!"
We yelled out in each other's faces as we continued to sing the rest of the song.
But by the end of it we both heard someone knocking on my door.
"Hey open up!"
I heard Saul's voice coming from the other side.
Harley went and hid around the corner her bat at the ready as I waved my hand at her.
"Just my landlord."
I whispered before opening the door.
"Hey, is something wrong?"
I asked him as he pulled up his pants.
"I gotta noise complaint from the tenant downstairs and she said that you were being to loud."
I gave him a squinted look that said really as I tilted my head.
"Really? I wasn't even being that loud."
I argued.
"She also said that your music is offensive."
I couldn't help but sigh as I dragged my hand across my face.
"Karen downstairs doesn't know how to enjoy life nor does she have any taste."
I muttered.
"Alright then, I'll keep it down then. Sorry for the trouble Saul."
After he walked away I shut and locked the door behind him before turning back to Harley who just mouthed the words "the fuck" as I shrugged.
"Fuckin beats me."
From there we ended up playing Smash Bros for awhile. However during the whole time that we were playing, you could from the look on Harley's face that her mind was off in a different universe. I didn't want to upset her and figured it would be best for her to talk to me about it whenever she was ready to do so. But at the same time she was shifting where she sat in a way that made it seem like she was uneasy about something else entirely. The way she did so brought back a few memories that I shouldn't still soon forget. For the first of the later hours in the evening everything was mostly silent and it wasn't because of Karen downstairs.
Lightning arched across the sky off in the distance as rain pattered against the windows while thunder boomed overhead and shook the night sky.
"I can't stay much longa."
Harley finally spoke as she silently turned her head to me.
"We can't ever speak again."
"What are you talking about, what's going on Harley?"
I asked as she shook her head.
"I can't..."
She squeaked as tears started falling down her face.
"Ya to nice to me Damien... And I don't even know ya's. Never in my life had I just met a random stranger that I wasn't supposed to hurt and they be nice to me instead..."
"Technically you broke in and knocked me out."
I replied as I sat on the couch across from her as she sat in the window.
"But all jokes aside that's just because well, people are assholes. I know the feeling because I..."
"No you don't!!!"
She screamed at the top of her lungs.
"You don't know what it was like for me because you didn't have to live through what I have!! Every damn day I spent with him was like a day in actual hell!! I kept lying to myself and saying that "he's just havin a bad day" or "it'll get betta" but it didn't!!"
She then kicked over the coffee table and shattered the glass when it hit the floor.
"And now I can't ever stop running from him, he won't stop looking for me and when he does work for me he always finds me!! I don't need a stranger's death on my conscience on top of everything else!!"
That last part where she called me a stranger strangely stung in a way that I had never felt before. But at the same time I couldn't really argue with her.
"You're right."
I whispered.
"I never saw your life through your eyes and felt it the way that you felt it. Even when siblings are born, tigers don't always have the same pattern of stripes. But I do understand.."
I said as I stood up and walked over to her.
"Again I haven't lived your life so I don't know, but I understand Harley because my father he..."
My brain caught my own words on the tip of my tongue and I was unable to utter a single one of them for a moment.
"He hurt my mother in a way that Joker hurt you... He made her scared and made her feel like she wasn't doing good enough no matter how hard she tried to win his approval or his love. She eventually just rolled with the punches and said it is what it is or that God wanted this to happen because it's a part of his plan.... It made her not give a single fuck when he would turn his attention on me. When I told her what he did do you want to know what she said?"
Harley stood shocked as she took a half step forward.
"What?"
She asked softly.
"He was only trying to help you..."
I said in monotone as I made a jerking motion with my hand.
"So yeah, I left when I was 16.. couldn't stop looking back no matter how far and forward I went because it would always follow me. When I was in college I finally got the call that he killed my mom before shooting himself just as the cops pulled up. But even then that still didn't help.. So I thought what could have happened to make them as they were? And then wanted to become a psychologist and help people."
"What brought you back here then?"
She continued.
"Because my personal past isn't the only thing that followed me, it was Gotham itself."
I said to her as I looked out the window to watch the lightning flash.
"No other place that I had been ever felt the same because it didn't have the same pull. Despite everything that happened to me Gotham is my home. I can feel it in my bones or like a winter's chill carried by the wind off the bay."
We stood in silence for a moment until we could hear gunshots all the way downstairs followed by what sounded like laughter.
"He's here..."
I immediately ran for my keys and started throwing a couple of things in my backpack.
"Get your shit let's go!!"
She stood their paralyzed for a moment.
"Harley!!"
When I shattered her name I snapped her out of her translate state as she grabbed her bat and her red and black Hello Kitty bag.
I wrenched the door open and let her down the whole way to the emergency exit as I took her by the hand. But when we looked down we saw at the first several flights of stairs, nearly a dozen goons all dressed up in a mix match between green and purple camo with their faces painted like clowns. She then went into her bag and pulled out a John Wick style pistol and handed it off to me.
"You probably gonna need this."
"I hate to bring this up now but I've never shot a gun before in my life."
Harley groaned as she snatched her gun back and handed me her bat instead.
"This I can work with."
Just as the first couple of goons made it to the second landing she blasted one of them in the shoulder before giving one of them a Leonidas kick to the chest. I followed up by slamming the bat into the other guys chest before punching him several times in the face. When I looked down Harley had already taken down four more goons as I hurried after her. One of them had slammed Harley into the wall and tried to choke her out but instead she pulled a Black Widow, wrapped her legs around his face which for a moment made me pause before she threw herself backwards and flipped the fucker over her. She landed on top of him and started bashing his face in with a pair of golden brass knuckles that said "BITCH" with encrusted diamonds circling the letters.
The next guy who tried to come up from behind her I sent to the dentist as I smashed him in the face with her bat.
"Batter up asshole!"
I ended up speaking too soon and got tackled through someone else's front door as Harley was grabbed by three goons.
"Damien!!"
She called out to me as the guy and I wrestled around for a moment.
But instead of letting him punch me in the face I pulled him closer and wrapped my arm around his neck. We then rolled around as he continued to punch me where I had been stabbed which caused me to grind my teeth together. I kept hearing her call out my name, and from there I didn't take me long to get my feet back up underneath me before returning the favor and tackling the guy to the ground.
"Raaaaaaaaagh!!!"
I picked the dude up and body slammed him into the ground as I stomped on his chest a good few times. Harley had taken some licks and had a small gash in the side of her face. Her lip had also been split open as well. She was covered in cuts from broken glass and being thrown around like a ragdoll.
"Your face..."
It was her this time that took me by the hand as I swiped our bags as we continued running out to my car. Once we had made it outside I heard but a single gunshot and from there my body went limp. After that I heard nothing else other than my own ear ringing, Harley's muffled screams, and that laugh. The laugh that made even my blood boil. Everything went dark for a moment but when I woke up I was met by fluorescent lights that blinded me.
As I looked around the room I noticed two things. The first being that I was handcuffed to a gurney, and two being that I was in the presence of a couple of detectives and Police Commissioner James Gordon.
"What, not even a safe word?"
I asked as jangled the cuffs.
"Not until you tell us what you were doing with Harley Quinn."
The big guy wearing a trench coat and a fedora glared.
"What are her and Joker planning?"
The woman asked.
"First of all fuck every last one of you.."
I grunted as I pushed myself up.
"Second of all this is only my third day back in Gotham. Harley broke in to my apartment because she was looking to get away from that motherfucking clown!"
"And then she took you as a hostage is that right?"
Trench coat jotted down some notes.
"Bullock that's enough."
Gordon says as Detective Bullock huffed in reply.
"That's the first I've heard of it."
The woman said.
"Yeah? Well that's because no one stopped to actually talk to her as they already saw only what they wanted to see or imagine to be whatever it was that was going on."
I said as I looked at the three of them.
"Montoya, the cuffs if you please."
Gordon nodded to her as she immediately removed the cuffs restraining me to my bed.
"Sorry about all this, we already ran your record and came back with nothing. We just found it hard to believe anyone that clean would have aligned themselves with anyone like Quinn."
"How about you stop referring to her by her last name. Also if cops like bacon, does that not make you three cannibals?"
Bullock rolled his eyes in a huff as I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my side.
Montoya then held up an evidence bag with a bloody bullet inside.
"You should be proud of yourself, not many can say they've been shot by the Joker and lived to tell the tale. Modified 45 Magnum, fired from his personal side arm."
Gordon then went into his pocket and handed me a card.
"Here, call us if Qui...Harley tried to get a hold of you or if you find out anything else."
And with that the left me there as I stared blankly at the card. All I could think about was what happened last night. How scared she was even though she didn't actually say it. The look on her face as my mind instantly jumped to the sound of him laughing made me clench my fists so hard that I almost drew my own blood. From there I had a lengthy argument with the staff at the hospital about releasing me. They said it was in my best interest to stay and recover but I continued to argue with and said that if I can stand them I'm walking out.
Ultimately they agreed and had me sign my release papers before handing my things off to me. As I went through my bag to see if everything was there, I found a wadded up piece of paper that had an unknown address written on it.
"Harley..."
I said to myself as I began my trip to wherever this place was.
I used the last of the cash I had on had to haul a cab which drove me about three quarters of the way before I hoofed it to my destination. When I had arrived at the address the place looked like it had been abandoned for sometime. A house which had a green house attached to it. Graffiti on the walls, broken glass, and dead plants everywhere when I made my way inside.
But in an instant I was swatted through the living room like a fly before I was ensnared in countless vines. The dead plants began to regain the life they once had as I was then whipped into the green house. Only to be met by none other than the lady with the biggest green thumb ever, Poison Ivy.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?!"
She hissed as her vines wrapped themselves more tightly around me.
"Harley!! She gave me this address, Joker took her, that's why I'm here!"
A single vine held up my bag as another wrapped itself around my throat.
Ivy went through my bag and pulled out the paper with her address on it. A small smile spread across her face.
"This is definitely her hand writing, if you could even call it that."
She kept me restrained as she continued to walk around the place, tending to her plants and bringing life into them.
"How do you know her?"
"She broke in to my place, knocked me out, had me tied up, and from there we just talked and hung out until Joker came with his goon squad. The fucker shot me and I just woke up in the hospital less than an hour ago."
Ivy seemed a bit surprised when I said this as she loosened my restraints.
"You seem to be pretty forward."
She said as she gave me a skeptical look.
"What's your angle?"
"I'm an open book, you can ask me anything. Unless your a piece of shit that doesn't deserve honesty to begin with."
I replied.
"We need to find Harley, so let me go and we can..."
Ivy instantly tightened her vines and held me up in the air.
"I need to find Harley, you can wait here with my babies and I'll figure out what to do with you later."
I struggled and fought against her vines even as I knew it was pointless.
"Your wasting your time, you won't be able to break free."
I ignored her and kept struggling to break free as I looked to her with pleading eyes. She walked up to me and came so close that our noses almost touched. It was like she was trying to look into my soul.
"I can't tell if you'll hurt her or not. Harley hasn't exactly always been the best judge of character. She's been giddy, childish at heart, but also my only friend. The only one I truly care about. Even if your intentions are true I can't take that chance, not with her."
I then decided to try and bite through her vines but was met with a slap to the face.
She left looking like I had kicked her puppy or something. But then I had started to think that if she was connected to her plants in a way that allowed her to control them the way that she does she must have been able to hear me.
"You have every right to not trust me. But I'm nothing like anyone you've dealt with that's made you so skeptical of other people. I haven't even known her for a few days nows, but I know that she's in pain and that she needs help. It's obvious that you care about her and aren't willing to abandon her, but neither am I. Not when everyone else in my life has left me to be the black sheep. Even though I'm not much of a fighter, I don't have super strength, super speed, fuck I'm not even the kind a person to go scampering around on rooftops dressed as a rodent that battles all manner of criminals and monsters in the dead of night, I don't even know any martial arts. But it's for that reason and the fact that I understand what she's gone through that I can't sit this out. So please let me help."
For a moment the room was silent as I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavy. But it was then that Ivy had walked back in with a completely different look on her face. One that wasn't skeptical, but genuinely surprised.
"The spores that I created release a natural chemical that has the same effects as sodium pentathol."
She then released me from her vines and let me down slowly.
"Your not like most of the humans that I've dealt with."
She said as I cracked my neck.
"Like I said I'm an open book, you can ask me anything and I'll give you an honest answer."
Ivy smiled as she let out a small chuckle.
"Looks like I stand corrected. Turns out Harley broke into the right house for once."
She used one of her vines to hand me my bag as well as a crow bar.
"Let's go get her back then cowboy."
"Yippee ki-yay mother fucker."
I grinned as I twirled the crow bar around in my fingers.
"Die Hard, really?"
Ivy notched an eyebrow as I shrugged.
"If the glove fits."
I replied as we were then met with a batarang finding it's way into the wall just a few feet from us.
"Not so fast Ivy, we need to talk."
A deep raspy but menacing voice came from the shadows. As he came out of the darkness the first thing that I saw was the emblem on his chest.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed part 2 as we finally end this Arc in part 3. Stay tuned if you want to see the variation of Batman that I've chosen for this story as well as to see how the rest of the story itself progresses.
Please don't forget to like, comment, follow, and share with your friends and followers as well as on any no social media!!