Christmas - Lost and Found | By : witeiris Category: DC Verse Comics > Batman Views: 10325 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own the Batman series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Title: Christmas - Lost and Found (Part I)
Rating: PG-13, language and violence
Disclaimer: Harley Quinn, The Joker, Batman and the City of Gotham created and owned by DC Comics and I am only borrowing them for a short while with all intentions of returning them in (almost) perfect condition. Honest! Also some references from the Mad Love comic (you'll know them when you see them) accredited to Paul Dini.
Copyright: Copyrighted December 2004 by Sarah Pettis. If you would like to post this story on your website, please ask me for permission first. My e-mail is WiteIris@yahoo.com, don't be shy, I won't bite yah! ^^
Author's Note: So this is my debut into the Harley Quinn fan fiction business, even though I've been a fan since I was just a wee girlie. Eventually this story will contain some sexual situations, but not till part II, yes I made a small attempt at a plotline here. The Joker may seem slightly OOC (out of character) at times but that is mostly just me trying to create a nice, semi-angst-less story. I appreciate helpful comments and criticism, no flames please else I will sic Harley's hyena babies on you. =P
Hope you guys enjoy!
-Sa
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Part I - Lost
Fade, made to fade
Passion's overrated anyway
Say, say my name
I need a little love to ease the pain
I need a little love to ease the pain
It's easy to remember when it came
- Massive Attack "Dissolved Girl
The cold wind whipped around Harley Quinn's bedraggled, spandex clad body and she cringed, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. Snow fell heavily around her as she walked, her gait having an obvious limp, down the sidewalk, the frozen crystals stinging as they landed on the open wound across her left cheek.
"Oh hells bells...” she groaned, leaning against a brick wall, taking weight off of her twisted ankle, "Of all the nights for a heist to go wrong." She sniffled wiping at her steaming eyes, smudging her already tear streaked make up. "Mistah J was so mad," she shuddered, "and it wasn’t all that bad..."
It wasn't that bad though. It was only the Gotham Toy Company Vault. Located in the biggest toy store in the city. On Christmas Eve when it would be pack full of cash from all the holiday purchases, not to mention several charities. Harley groaned again. She hadn’t meant to mess things up of course. She hadn't meant to knock over the laser tag display. And she certainly hadn’t expected the toys to make that kind of racket when they clattered across the floor, emitting all kinds of electronic beeps and sirens.
But of course that had tripped the store's sound activated alarm. Which had summoned the police, as well as Batman. Harley scowled; didn’t that overgrown flying rat-man ever take a night off? It was Christmas for gosh sakes! But things had gone to hell from there. Bennie and Pete, two of the Joker's best henchmen had been gunned down on the spot, the Joker himself nearly took a bullet; luckily it merely grazed his shoulder.
She could still here his enraged screaming ringing in her ears, "HARLEY YOU LEFT-FOOTED BOBBLE-HEADED MORON!!!"
They had fled from the store dodging bullets, and the different gadget assaults from the Bat, Harley was struggling to keep up with her pallid skinned boss, but to no avail as when he reached the purple Cadillac parked in the nearby ally he simply revved the engine and tore off into the night, leaving his stunned girl-friday behind and virtually stranded.
It was all a blur from there on, some how she had managed to escape the police, the Bat of course had gone in pursuit of the clown prince, obviously considering Harley far less of a threat, leaving the GCPD to tend to her. Chumps, they couldn't hit a brick wall if their guns were glued to it. And now she was here, wandering the cold, snow drifted sidewalks of downtown Gotham on Christmas eve. She drew a labored breath, the chattering in her teeth becoming painful now, she was going to freeze if she didn't find shelter soon.
Harley was already starting to feel numb, outside as well as in. She looked around desperately and noticed the brick wall she leaned against belonged to a run down apartment building. She ducked into the alley beside it and found a door that lead into the lower level of the building. She easily picked the lock and hurried on in finding herself standing in what looked like a storage room. It was dimly lit and hardly much warmer.
Harley shivered again, sighing hopelessly but she blinked as a thought came to her and she smiled slightly. "It's Christmas Eve..."she said slowly to herself, "someone oughtta be away for the holidays!" She giggled softly leaping to her feet in this new light of hope, wincing only slightly as she was reminded of her injuries, she hurried to find stairs that would lead her to the upper levels. Luckily for her the building was just as rundown on the inside as it was out and had virtually no security except for the locks on the doors, which Harley picked just as easily as she had the first.
And she found what she was looking for. On the third floor she found a door with a note taped under the peep-hole that read:
Gone for the Holidays. Please slip and mail that will fit under door. -R
"Well Mistah R, thank you, who ever yah might be, for you're hospitality," Harley grinned to herself as she slipped into the apartment, relocking the door behind her. It was a dull, sparsely furnished place. The room she walked into was both kitchen and living room and what looked to be the bedroom behind the door at the back of the room. Harley sighed, dropping her duffle bag full of artillery and gags on the floor. The room was still slightly chilly but a lot better then before and she quickly found the thermometer, jacking the heat up to eighty.
"Sorry bout the heating bill Mistah R," she muttered as she made her way through the second door, finding her guess was correct; beyond it lay the small, equally dull bedroom, with a tiny adjoined bathroom. Seeing the shower stall Harley sighed longingly and rushed into the bathroom and got the hot water running as she stripped out of her wet, stained and torn harlequin costume. She pulled her headdress and mask off as well. her sweaty blonde hair was plastered to her head and slightly cow-licked.
She cringed at her reflection. "Belch! Talk about scary!"
Quickly she jumped into the shower; steam had already begun to billow out from the stall, fogging up the mirror. She sighed as the hot water streamed over her frozen body, finally taking the edge off of the deep chill. Harley bowed her head, letting the water pour over her, watching as it ran down the drain, tinted grey as her make-up was washed down along with it.
Slowly as the numbness in her body began to ebb away, the numbness in her mind did as well and she moaned, leaning against the wall of the shower stall, sliding down despairingly till she was sitting beneath the downpour of heat water, drawing her knees up as she pressed her forehead against them and began sobbing. "I messed up s-so baad this t-time," she hiccupped, the tears running down her face were quickly swept away by the water, "Mistah J's n-nevah gonna take me back this time. An' I d-don't blame him neither!" she whimpered.
She sat like that for quite awhile until the hot water began to run out and her back ached from being pressed against the hard wall for so long. She picked herself up and turned the water off, quickly drying herself off with a nearby towel, she wrapped her self in it and ventured back into the bedroom in search of clothing. She found a large dress shirt that would do for her to sleep in, as well as a role of ace bandage to wrap her ankle in. She leaned in close to the mirror that stood over the dresser to closely inspect the cut that ran across her cheek. Now that the blood had been cleaned off it didn’t look so bad. At least she didn’t think it would need stitches.
"Last thing I want is an excuse for people to start calling me Miss Scarface,"she said absently poking at the cut and cringing as it still stung a little. She turned away from the mirror then to take a better look at the room. It was cramped, the full sized bed taking up most of the space, the dresser sat across from it, an old model TV the only thing that accompanied it besides the mirror. And next to the bed, beside the drawn, colorless curtains sat a simple desk with a typewriter sitting on it. A few crumpled pieces of paper lay next to it and the wall above it had several newspaper clippings tacked to it.
'Looks like Mistah R's a writer," Harley mused as she took a closer look at the clippings and squealed slightly recognizing her own face in one of the faded black and white photographs. Underneath it were the head lines that read "Joker Escapes Batman Again, Aided By New Harlequin Accomplish."
Harley giggle, clapping her hands, that had been several months ago, not long after she had sprung the Joker from Arkham Asylum, thus giving up her life as Dr. Harleen Quinzel. That heist had been so much fun...and so much more successful. Harley sighed sadly, shaking her head. But a smile tugged at her lips as she picked up a red pen that lay next to the type writer and leaning over the desk, she wrote "Hey Mistah R! Thanks for letting me use your place!" then signed her name under the photograph along with several X's and O's.
"That oughtta be good for a laugh or three," she grinned, before yawning widely as she felt exhaustion beginning to set into her body. Flopping over onto the bed and burrowing her way under the covers, she yawned again and stretched leisurely. Harley was warm and comfortable now, but the silence was starting to set in uncomfortable. She spotted a remote control on the bed stand beside her and snatched it up, turning the TV on. The reception was fuzzy, and the picture would occasionally switch from color to black and white and back, but it was better then nothing.
Harley flipped through several channels before stopping when she was delighted to find that the old cartoon version of Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas was on. She grinned and settled back to watch it.
"And then he got an idea," the narrator was saying, "An awful idea! The Grinch got a wonderful AWFUL idea!" Harley squealed in delight at the Grinch's grin, lips curled into a twisted evil smile. "Awwww... he looks just like Puddin'..." she sighed, turning on her side and snuggling up against the pillow, wishing her Puddin' really was there to hold her, and comfort her, and tell her she wasn’t a complete screw up. That would be the one and only thing she wanted for Christmas.
The movie played on and Harley slowly drifted off, humming softly as sleep took her.
"Fah who for-aze... Dah who dor-aze... Welcome Christmas, Christmas Day..."
*****
Harley groaned and rolled around in her sleep. She was dreaming that Diane Lewis, the Gotham Local news anchorwoman was chasing her, wielding a frying-pan full of sizzling bacon while shouting the weekly weather forecast. "Tomorrow will be cloudy with a chance of snow, high's reaching 28 degrees with a windshield of 15!!" she hollered as she flicked her spatula, sending half cooked bacon flying at Harley.
"AACK!" Harley yelped sitting straight up in the bed. it took her a minute to gather herself, and remember why she was waking up in a strange bedroom. The TV was still on, at a soft volume and sure enough there was Diane just finished up with the weather forecast.
Harley laughed at herself, funny how dreams can be affected by things like that. She stopped laughing suddenly noticing another element from her dream was also present. the unmistakable smell of bacon wafted through the air. 'What the hell...?" she whispered in confusion. where could that smell possibly be coming from..."Oh shit!" she hissed, throwing back the covers of the bed. Had Mistah R. come back suddenly? What would he do if he found her here? She looked around in panic, the window crossing her view as she saw the new blanket of snow covering the nearby rooftops and the last thing she wanted was to go for another scantily clad run through the icy streets of Gotham.
"Hmmm" she thought through her situation, looking down at herself, clothed only in the large dress shirt, with only a few buttons buttoned to conceal her small but curvedly formed body. "Maybe I can flaunt my way outta this one?" She nodded to herself, thinking that would be the best idea, "I just hope he's not fat...or old...or ugly,” she groaned softly, creeping up to the door and opening it slightly, peeking out.
There was defiantly the smell of bacon, assaulting her senses, making her mouth water as her stomach rudely reminded her she hadn’t eaten since breakfast the day before. She shook her head, reminding herself she had to keep her wits about her and not be led around by her stomach. She tried to peer into the kitchen, but her view of the stove was blocked by the refrigerator. But she could defiantly hear someone moving around in there as well as a voice singing what sounded like jingle bells. As Harley crept closer, the words became clearer.
"Jingle bells, Batman smells, Bird-Boy laid and egg, Bat-Mobile lost a wheel, and yours truly got awaaay!"
Harley gasped not quite able to believe here ears, but sure enough from around the corner came her beloved clown prince, the Joker himself, wearing a white apron with the words "Kiss the Kook!" stitched across it, and carrying a big plate of pancakes in one hand and a plate of bacon in the other.
"Morning there Harley-Babe! Bout time you got up, I was worried you'd spend Christmas day drooling all over some stranger’s pillows," he said cheerfully, his usual carefree, overly-wide smile in place upon his crimson lips, all the malice from the night before seeming to have disappeared completely. He had hardly set the plates down on the card table before Harley had leapt gleefully into his arms.
"Oh Puddin'!! I can't believe you found me!" she squealed wrapping her arms around her neck adoringly," I mean I had no idea where I was and after all the bad stuff that happened..." she trailed off suddenly, once again recalling the events of last night. She pulled away from him then, crossing her arms. "You left me!" she stated staring at him accusingly.
The Joker who had at first looked relieved at being released from her strangle-hold of a hug, raised and eye brow and averted his eyes as he coughed and fidgeted with his tie, "Yes well, I wasn’t exactly in the best of moods, I’m sure you would agree, and of course I figured that Bat-moron would go after me so you were probably better off..."he stopped seeing her darkening pout, signaling she wasn’t buying his story.
"Well I'm sorry Harl! But I'm here now aren't I? And look! I even brought you presents! I'm a regular jolly saint Nick!" he gave her a cheesy grin, pointing over to the living room where Harley was surprised to find had been rearranged to accommodate a short but very fat Christmas tree, adorned with overly large ornaments and a fancy looking star that was bigger then Harley's head. Sure enough piled beneath it was a generous pile of packages wrapped in purple and green paper and ribbons.
"Ooooh Mistah J!" She gasped, all disdain she had previously held for him melting away as she looked over the presents hopping from one foot to another in excitement, "Are they all for me!?"
"Mmmhmmm," the joker nodded grinning, "all of them of course, except for the ones that are for me which I wrapped to make the pile look bigger. But you can open those too."
Laughing giddily Harley plopped herself down in front of the tree. She paused in her glee for a moment look back at him over her shoulder, "How did you know where to find me Mistah J?" she asked looking at him curiously.
The clown shrugged his shoulders, sticking his pale hands into the pockets of his apron, "Bruno was in the car when I took off, I kick him out and told him to go after you, and to tell me where you ended up." he shrugged again, "I had figured I would be picking you up from the police station, and of course when I say 'picking you up' I do mean busting you out. I was actually quite pleased to find that wasn’t the case."
Harley felt her heart swell in her chest, 'He really does care about me!' she thought dreamily. She sighed softly then, looking up at him. "I'm really sorry about last night, Mistah J," she said sulkily, "I really messed up back there. I mean, Bennie and Pete, and all that money..."
"Oh don't worry about it, "Joker waved a hand nonchalantly, which struck Harley as quite odd that he was so easily letting the incident go, "I was about ready to off those two anyway, they were planning to leave the gang after they got their cut and 'go straight' "Joker made quotation signs with his fingers.”And besides, "he grin took on a darker, more sadistic tone, "I got something much better then money..."
"Whazzat?" Harley asked, her interest certainly peeked at the prospect of something better then money.
"Oh nothing..."the Joker grinned even wider, "just the site of old Batsy's batty-mobile careening over the bridge into the icy east river is all." he finished, his smile spreading so wide his lips almost touched his ears.
"Oh Mistah J!!! You think he's..." Harley tailed off.
"Here's hopping!" the Joker laughed, pulling a cigar from his pocket and biting the tip off of it before lighting it and taking a long breath, blowing the cloud of smoke over his head.
Harley sighed adoringly, reveling in the happiness of her clown prince, until a loud snarling sound startled her out of her daze. The package nearest to her, a big purple one with holes punched into the lid quivered menacingly, emitting more low growls and yips.
The Joker raised and eyebrow and grinned, "better get that one first before it eats its way out," he waved his cigar as she pulled the acid green bow that fastened to lid down loose and removed the lid.
"Oh no..." the Joker remarked half-heartedly as he reached into the box and pulled out a stuffed likeness of everyone's favorite Bat in black. Only the one of the legs had been completely ripped off and the head was dangling by a few threads, "sorry Harl, guess it's ruined." he grinned shrugging as Harley squealed with delight as two of the most adorable balls of fur (as adorable as hyena pups get that is) poked their heads out from the box, both adorned with big red ribbons around their neck, and one had the bat-dolls missing arm sticking out from between its tiny pointed teeth.
"Oh Mistah J!" Harley gasped scooping the pups into her arms and cuddling them close, “They are just the most precious, most adorable-"
"Now Harley, you better take proper care of those beasties," Joker said in a fatherly tone, "I don’t want them running wild around the lair, gnawing on chairs, tables, henchmen's legs...that is of course I specify otherwise, "he added.
"Oh Puddin' I promise I’ll take the bestest care of them evah! I'll walk them every day, and play with 'em and train 'em to be good little attack hyenas, and feed them yummy little bat-bits whenever they become available!" she giggling as she nuzzled noses with one of the pups who rewarded her with a lick and a toothy grin.
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