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Laughter in the Dark	By : FlameWolf666 Category: DC Verse Movies > The Dark Knight Views: 9317 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Dark Knight or the Batman franchise. This story is just for fun and no profit will be made from it.

Chapter List
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Author’s Note: Thank you all for you kind words! They mean a lot to me! I tend to not have much confidence in myself so hearing that I’m doing things right really puts a smile on my face! Please continue to enjoy this odd journey!

Chapter Ten: Personal Hell
    A pounding headache was not a good way to start her day. In fact, she couldn’t even remember falling asleep the other night. Groaning, Marie slowly sat up; smacking her lips as she felt the dry, sticky texture of her mouth. Taking in a deep breath to stretch, she nearly vomited from a very strong, very familiar chemical smell. It was then that memories of yesterday came back in a flood as her head whipped around, causing a nauseating throbbing from inside her skull. Doing her best to ignore the spinning, tilting and pain caused from the hangover caused by the chloroform, the blonde immediately looked around her room. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest from what she saw.
    At first her gray eyes had merely skimmed over him but, as soon as it clicked in her mind what she had just seen, they moved back and locked on. There, leaning his back against the wall by the bathroom door and in a deep sleep, was Jonathan Crane. Panic filled her in seconds and her first instinct was to reach for her phone; only to find the object missing from her nightstand. Fear beginning to rise inside her, she looked around for either of her phones; her gaze eventually travelling back to Crane and seeing he had them in his lap. It was then that she actually started to think, causing some of her terror to recede ever so slightly.
    Although the man was dangerous and had knocked her out, he hadn’t laid a single hand on her while she had been out. In fact, he hadn’t even taken the opportunity to kidnap her when it would have been very easy. There was also the fact that his alter ego had more than likely shown up during the night and she was still whole as well as sane. To be honest, all of this had her feeling just a bit stunned. If she had been any other person or if her relationship with Dr. Crane wasn’t so good, she could have probably ended up injected with fear gas; just another of ‘Scarecrow’s’ test subjects.
    Shaking off the unpleasant thought, Marie found herself at a loss as to what to do. She couldn’t get her phones without waking up Jonathan and if she did manage to get ahold of Arkham, the former psychiatrist would know she had done it. Doing something like that could make her a very quick, very vitriolic enemy. From all her time working with Crane, she learned he didn’t give his trust or care easily. If she betrayed him after making him trust her enough not to tie her up while he slept, there was no telling the explosion she would inadvertently set off. Sighing, the nervous, confused female ran a shaking, purple nailed hand through her dirty blonde hair. What ended up making a decision for her was Jasper.
    The overweight, often aloof and timid feline stretched, yawned and hopped off her bed. He trotted over to Jonathan, rubbing his dual colored face against the murderer’s bare forearm. Then the cat was crawling into his lap, nestling in and going back to sleep. The unconscious killer only shifted slightly, placing a bony hand on Jasper’s black furred back and beginning to rub. Just seeing that melted her heart and she made up her mind that she simply couldn’t turn Crane in, not unless he became dangerous to her. In all honesty, that would probably be the only circumstance the former doctor would accept. Still, having him as a ‘roommate’ was going to be... interesting.
    Getting slowly out of her bed, the Psychologist gathered a blanket and a pillow before cautiously heading toward the sleeping criminal. As she draped the blanket over him and placed the pillow behind his head, she could help but muse to herself. If he woke up now, there was a distinct possibility that he would think she was trying to get her phones. Despite the trust they had built, he was still bound to be overly paranoid in this situation. Just as she placed the pillow between his head and the wall, the corded phone began to ring shrilly; startling her badly.
    Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one. Crane jolted awake, his blue eyes wide with disorientation and a bit of panic. As soon as he saw her and her proximity to him, time seemed to freeze. The ex-psychiatrist looked up at her curiously, his eyes fixing on the hand she still had on the pillow. Then all his tenseness left him in a flood and a curious look came over his gaunt face. “I have to take that. Feel free to listen on this end. I have another phone in the living room,” the blonde found herself offering before she pulled away to give the killer some space. Instead of heading for the door immediately, she waited for him to okay the plan.
    Jonathan tilted his head, an odd look on his pale face before he was nodding to her. “The phone line should be long enough to just reach the entrance of my room. If you stand there, you can watch to see when to pick up,” Marie suggested before she opened her wooden door and left the room. Once outside, she waited until Crane was in her doorway before picking up her ringing phone. “Hello?” she asked as the former doctor picked up the handle of the phone he held.
    “Morning Miss. Jovian. Just checking in with you after the events of last night,” Mr. Mickleson replied, his voice faintly tinged with worry.
    “I know how this is going to sound but nothing overtly dangerous happened. Joker stopped immediately when I showed up. I seems he just wanted a chance to give me a ‘proper goodbye’,” she replied, not really enjoying the memory of what happened. Crane only watched her neutrally, the phone pressed to an ear as he covered the mouthpiece.
    There was only silence on the other end, almost making the blonde fear that the call had been dropped until she heard a deep sigh. “I hate to do this to you after what you’ve been through with him, but I need to to come in for Joker today,” came a regretful, apologetic reply. Immediately Marie’s eyes went to Jonathan, giving him a questioning gaze as she continued.
    “I don’t know if I can. Just what’s going on Dave?” the young woman asked, her stormy orbs fixed on her former patient.
    “He’s been hard to handle this morning. He’s refused to go to hygiene time for the patients on lockdown. He’s refused to eat breakfast and, in fact, threw it at the guard that gave it to him. He’s fought the staff every step of the way with his make-up and he’s been threatening self-harm if he doesn’t see you,” her boss and ‘Uncle’ informed her.
    At that moment, Marie was extremely grateful for the fact that videophones hadn’t been invented yet as she was sure her face had gone an alarming shade of white. The last thing she wanted right now was to expose herself to Joker again so soon after last night. That whole event had made it very clear to her that he saw her as his next conquest, an idea that sent chills down her spine. Still, she couldn’t allow him to commit self-harm. Still looking at Jonathan, she waited to see what he would allow her to do. To her shock and dismay, Crane gave a small nod. “Okay Mr. Mickleson, I can be there in a half hour given the traffic around here,” she sighed before she hung up. It was at that moment that she realized she had still yet to do laundry and was stuck with wearing casual clothing to work and she began to question why the universe hated her.
    As soon as she got there, she knew something was wrong and it took everything within her not to turn her car around and drive back home. Just looking at the outside of the building set warning bells off inside her, as if her instincts were telling her that Hell was awaiting her inside. Gathering her courage and grimacing at her black t-shirt and blue jeans, the twenty-eight year old went into the looming asylum. There she was greeted with the very notable absence of the perky receptionist. Feeling her skin crawl on her arms, the cautious female slowly began to enter into the doctor’s area of the facility. Once again, she was greeted with the sight of absolutely no one.
    It was at that moment that Marie felt true and absolute terror. The silence was eerie, as if there wasn’t a single living soul here and she felt nausea began to bubble in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t even have to question what happened, somehow she just knew it had to do with Joker and she had to leave. The only problem was, fear had rooted her to the spot. As much as everything inside her was screaming at her to escape, her body simply wouldn’t budge. Not even when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching from the Level 5 and she found herself moaning softly as her heart danced a fandango in her chest. “My, my do we have another contestant?” came the insane titter of a very familiar voice.
    Her heart seemed to thud in time with the footsteps as Joker and a large group of patients slowly came into view. As soon as he saw her, the clown’s lips spread into a wide grin as he spread his purple clad arms in welcome. “Good morning Marie! Did you sleep well last night?” the criminal asked in a knowing tone as he and his mob began to approach her. Seeing that many patients heading towards her was enough to kick in her flight response and she was finally running, her heart racing in her ears as she heard the practical stampede behind her.
    To her shock, Joker ordered them to stop and they did. She very nearly stopped herself out of sheer surprise but managed to keep going. She had just about reached the doors that lead to freedom when she was grabbed from behind in a tight bearhug. “You can run surprisingly fast Doc,” came a breathless voice beside her ear. Then her world was spinning as she was spun to face a very amused, but winded looking Joker. For some reason, seeing the fact that she had caused him to get out of breath filled her with an odd pride. A feeling she would have to shove aside for now.
    “What did you do with the other doctors?” she found herself asking, just a touch of her fear fading when she saw the crowd of patients had listened to Joker and had stayed behind.
    “Let’s just say they’re, uh, walkin’ a mile in our shoes,” he replied before releasing one of his horrible peals of laughter. Just hearing it chilled her to the bone and she found herself thinking on what he had said when he first saw her. It had almost sounded like...
    “Did... did you know that Jonathan was going to be at my house?” she asked, just a bit of sadness beginning to fill her. To her dismay, she had found what happened last night oddly romantic. Now she had found out it had been a way to get her out of the house it felt more like a betrayal.
    “Yes but don’t ya start thinkin’ I lied to ya! I was just, uh, killin’ two birds with one stone,” the killer responded rapidly, a quick flash of worry coming over his painted face. It was so brief, Marie almost thought she had hallucinated it. Then he was shoving her out of the door and steering her to her waiting car.
    “We don’t have time to, uh, dawdle. I’m pretty sure that boss of yours hit a silent alarm,” Joker giggled, his tongue flicking out to lick his lips and scars as he opened the driver’s door for her.
    Blinking up at the green haired male, Marie turned her gaze back to Arkham to see the patients flooding out the doors and fleeing into the city. The thought of all the chaos this would cause made her shudder, especially when she saw very familiar super villains. A tapping on her head brought her attention back to Joker and she slid into the car. Yet, instead of driving off like a sane person, she sat and waited for the mass murderer to get into the passenger’s seat. “Seatbelt please,” her voice chided from far away as her body mechanically clicked her own into place and turned the key in the ignition. Then she was driving to her apartment, her brain screaming at her the entire way.
    To be honest, she had no idea why she hadn’t taken the opportunity to escape. Later she would convince herself it had been because Joker would come back to Arkham for her but right now she was drawing a blank. Even her passenger seemed a bit stunned and he hadn’t taken his eyes off her once since they had pulled out of the parking lot. Doing her best to ignore his attention, Marie allowed her mind to wander to all the questions she had. Had what had happened in the past few days been a part of a convoluted plan to break the patients out? Then why hadn’t Joker taken the opportunity to do it last night? Why had he lured her to Arkham to allow Jonathan access to her apartment?
    Only reaching her building broke her from her thoughts and she realized she couldn’t just bring Joker in the front. Someone like him would be far too conspicuous and... That was when she caught her train of thought and her world froze around her. Why was she treating this so normally? Why wasn’t she making plans for escape or turning these people in? More importantly, why the hell had she driven one of the most wanted men in Gotham to her apartment?! Knowing she had no good answers to any of these, the blonde began to pull into the parking garage; a place she had never parked in all her time living here. Something about the dark garage had always creeped her out but right now she really had no choice.
    As soon as she had parked and turned off the car, she turned to face the criminal beside her. Although she was outwardly calm, inside she was utterly terrified. Outside of the asylum, there would be no one to save her from their violent impulses. Yet, it wasn’t as if that wasn’t already the case with Roger. While Crane had tried to kill her in the past, he had stopped that at least a year ago. Then there was Joker. The decorated killer had also strangled her a couple times but had shown no honest intention to kill her. In some sick way, Marie sincerely preferred to die by their hands than her boyfriend’s. “Ya brought me home,” the current object of her thoughts murmured in a soft, vaguely confused voice and effectively drawing her focus back to him.
    “Well, why not. I already have one of you living here, might as well make it two,” she replied, a bit surprised at the words leaving her mouth. Yet, if she looked inside herself, she truly didn’t mind the thought of either of them living with her. In fact, the idea somehow made her feel more safe; an idea that was deeply unsettling.
    Joker seemed just as perplexed by her response, his painted brow crinkling as his gaze wandered to the still bruised left side of her face. “He must treat ya pretty bad if ya don’t mind a couple murderers livin’ with ya,” he whispered before he got out of her car. Marie could only stare after him, the truth of his words twisting in her heart like a knife. How fucked up was her life that she wasn’t fighting this more? Then he was opening her door and staring down at her expectantly, an oddly serious look on his made-up face. It was in that moment that she realized there was just nothing for her to lose.
    Without warning, she was throwing her arms around the taller man and giving him the most passionate kiss she had ever given. At first he stiffened, unsure if she was attacking him or not. Then he was relaxing into her and wrapping his arms tightly around her as he tilted his head to deepen the kiss. His tongue lapped at her lips for entrance and she yielded to meet his appendage with her own. The tips swirled around eachother slowly before Joker was breaking the kiss and offering her his jacket covered arm.
    As soon as they came into the apartment, they were greeted with the highly surreal vision of Crane wearing an apron while fixing some breakfast. Somehow, Marie wasn’t surprised that it was a meal fit for three. It was almost as if all of this had been planned by the man that was currently examining the room they were in. “You guys are a few minutes late,” the former Psychiatrist scolded, not looking up from the stove as he flipped over an omelette.
    “Do ya have any idea what traffic is like this time of morning?!” the blonde found herself retorting, almost as if he had always lived there. She was kinda stunned just how easily she had adapted to all of this and a bit scared as well.
    Joker let out a small chuckle, jumping slightly when Jasper began to weave between his legs. “Well hello, who are you?” he cooed in a uncharacteristic baby voice as he scooped the jiggly cat up in his purple clad arms.
    “His name is Jasper, I’ve had him since the seventh grade,” Marie replied, her head spinning slightly as Crane set the table and dished out the food. The killer only smiled down at the relaxed feline, rubbing his belly gently before putting him down and sitting at the table.
    Looking up at her, the decorated male patted the chair next to her while Jonathan took a seat. The whole scene seemed homey in a twisted way and she found herself sitting next to Joker like she belonged there. Soon they were all eating their food and chatting like three perfectly normal people. Marie could almost forget that she was eating with two murderers which only served to confuse her more. Surely something like this should be more uncomfortable. She was expecting to be tied up and carted around like a sack of grain, not treated like a trusted accomplice.
    When they were finished eating, the tux wearing male next to her got to his feet as he looked down at her apologetically. “Sorry for this Doc. Ya can’t know where we’re goin’,” Joker murmured before he was pressing a chloroform soaked rag to her nose and mouth. Instead of fighting, the Psychologist merely thought ‘Ugh, not again’ before her world went black. As soon as she was out, the green haired criminal was picking her up and setting her on the couch. Then he and Jonathan got busy, stopping every now and again to make sure the blonde was still breathing.
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Laughter in the Dark