Protect Me From What I Want

The thought of leaving the bath was almost painful, knowing how contrasting the freezing cold air was compared to the warmth of the soothing water. I braced myself and hopped out of the bath immediately feeling the tight pinch of the bitterness. Hurriedly, I pulled on the clean underwear and The Joker’s shirt but it still did little to warm me up. I bounced into bed and wrapped the blanket tightly around me, making my body go into a fetal position. It took me awhile to warm up, but when I did, I realised how much I had missed this comfortable bed. For a once in a long time, I thought I had found my perfect comfort zone. I smiled when I began to fall into a relaxed slumber...

Until it was disturbed by three loud knocks at the door. All the time I had stayed at The Joker manor, not once had I heard anyone knock at the door. I wondered who was at the door and then I wondered if The Joker even knew or was expecting anyone to visit. I doubted it. I heard fast, uneven footsteps approaching the bedroom and before I knew it the door was being swung open. The Joker rushed over to the bedside and shook me awake, thinking I was asleep. “Come on, toots,” he ordered urgently as he grasped my arm firmly, but not enough to hurt. He heaved me into a sitting position on the bed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked a little sleepily.

“I’ll explain when we get downstairs.” He continued pulling me up off the bed so that I was now standing and he was pulling me towards the door. I attempted to pull back, but being sleepy and weak, I’d hardly any strength to try too hard.

“I can’t go downstairs! I’m not wearing anything!” I protested as he continued to pull.

“Yes you are. Don’t lie,” he said and then picked me up off the floor around the waist, becoming sick of me struggling. In defeat, I helplessly let him carry me out of the bedroom and down the hall. There were another three knocks at the door as we reached the top of the stairs, louder this time however.

“Who’s at the door?”

“That’s what you’re going to find out,” he replied placing me on the floor when we had reached the bottom. “Go answer the door for me. See what they want. If things take a turn for the worst, me and my men will be ready,” he assured, yet I was still a little scared and upset that he was using me as the bait. Before I had a chance to argue, he was already scampering away to hide somewhere. I’m guessing that he hadn’t had a lot of people visiting the house.

“Why don’t you just get one of your men to answer it?” I whisper shouted. There was no reply, so I was assuming that he was ignoring me. “Coward.” Turning around moodily, I started towards the door. I was a bit wary as I leaned over for the door handle and for a second I hesitated.

I was more than a little surprised when I opened the door. When I opened it I was met with a burst of red, green and white.

“Ivy!” I exclaimed as I took a step forward and wrapped my arms around her neck. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?” I questioned frantically with excitement. Without permission, she stepped inside the house and shook all of the snow away from her body, resembling one of those hair product commercials. She had managed to escape the out of the dreadful Arkham scrubs and she was now wearing a long, pea green coat with black tights and knee high boots underneath. I closed the door after she had entered to stop the cold draft from entering.

“I followed you. I saw you being forced into the van, so I followed. On foot may I add? But the tire marks in the snow and that disgusting thick smell of exhaust fumes is pretty hard to miss,” she explained and I could clearly see that it pained her to know that the fumes were damaging the earth. She glanced down at my attire with a questioning look, but decided not to ask about it. “So, where is the clown anyway? I would have thought he’d be holding me at gunpoint by now.” A second later The Joker appeared at the doorway of the dining room with a hand gun aimed at the red head, soon followed by the rest of the gang. As soon as their eyes came across the new female all of their guns immediately lowered in awe. It was kind of hysterical; the way their jaws hung open widely like that in a cartoon. Ivy looked a little shocked at first but smirked at all of their reactions. “Oh. What a lovely welcome.”

The Joker cleared his throat awkwardly before asking, “Uh, Harley. Care to explain?”

“Oh, this is Poison Ivy. The one I was telling you about. She’s my friend from Arkham.” As I explained, he began circling her looking her up and down as if she was his prey. Even though I wasn’t the one being encircled, it still intimidated me. Ivy, however, maintained her composure and merely shrugged the idea of him circling her off.

“What’s she here for?” He asked as he stopped in front of her and took a closer look at her facial features.

Ivy leaned back, being too close for comfort before saying, “She can talk. And she is here to see if Harley is okay.”

“Harley’s just fine and she doesn’t need you checking up on her,” he stated firmly.

“I beg to differ,” she argued as she turned away from him and started towards me. She began taking off her coat, revealing a short, casual green dress.

“Tommy,” The Joker hollered as he clicked his fingers and pointed towards Ivy. “Take her coat away.” Boy, I wish I had that special treatment. I envied Ivy sometimes; not negatively. It was more admiring that anything. Even if she wasn’t beautiful, she’d still have this unknown, imposing elegance about her. Everything she did, she did with grace which caused the men to soften around her being able to manipulate them easily. Tommy hastily ran to Ivy’s side and willingly took the coat from her. “Come,” The Joker ordered both me and Ivy as he started towards the living area. I followed with Ivy by my side; her heels clicking in the process.

“I must admit, Joker, this place is looking amazing. I’m assuming that it isn’t rightfully yours.” She glanced around the room as she sat down on the couch with one leg crossing over the other. Other men began entering the room, still not taking their eyes off Ivy.

“You assumed correctly,” he admitted as he pulled me down to sit next to him. His arm snaked around my waist as he pulled me closer to him in a vicelike grip, making sure that I knew that he cared for me and that I wasn’t going anywhere.

There was silence in the room before, I broke it. “So, Ivy, how long do you plan on staying?”

“Not long. I know a place I can go. Crane’s waiting for me there.”

“Really? So you and Crane are together now?!”

“Oh please. He basically followed me around as soon as he found me outside of Arkham. He’s like a growth, seriously. Anyway, I think I’ll be just fine, thanks. I basically just came around to talk to you and see how you are. I’m assuming that everything’s alright, considering that there aren’t any new bruises on your body that I can see.” I could tell The Joker didn’t like the comment when I felt his grip tighten on my hip slightly. “I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to say such things. Seeing as it’s clear that I’m obviously not wanted around here, I think I’ll be on my way.” She was glaring at The Joker rather than me and it was easy to tell that they both didn’t particularly like each other.

“Maybe you should. I’ll show you the way out,” The Joker offered sarcastically as he stood up and placed a hand on the small of Ivy’s back. He began ushering her out of the room a little too aggressively and I wanted to protest, but I was afraid he may turn on me and that was the last thing I wanted.

“Hey! I need my coat!” Ivy exclaimed as The Joker attempted to push her out of the door without the coat. Grumbling profanities, The Joker stormed off to another room. I took this as my chance to give Ivy a quick goodbye hug. “I’ll come back sometime, okay?” Ivy clarified with a smile. I nodded in return. A moment later, The Joker returned still muttering under his breath and forced the coat into Ivy’s arms.

“Need help putting it on?” He asked cynically, venom in his eyes.

“No, thank you. You’ve already done so much for me tonight. Can’t possibly ask for you to help me further.”

“Well then. I guess that’ll be all. Farewell, Miss Ivy.”

“Goodbye, Mr Joker.” And with that, Ivy stormed off down the pathway in a fury, yet her strut still maintained its classiness. I knew they weren’t going to get along. They were like chalk and cheese and even before they’d met, Ivy had already expressed her dislike for him even if she hadn’t actually admitted it in words.

The Joker slammed the door shut, equally furious while I stood still, a little awkward being the one in the middle of all the ranting. The Joker’s fists began clenching together, but I was only happy that it wasn’t me that he was angry with. I still feared that I’d be the one he’d take his anger out on. “I don’t like her,” he growled as he started towards the stairs. I couldn’t help but smile at how worked up he was getting over this. I followed him up the stairs with his continuous rant. “That girl’s trouble! Who does she think she is?! Coming in here as if she owns the place and then using her stupid, sarcastic wit with me.” His ranting continued as he aggressively pulled garments of clothing off of him and threw them to the floor.

“Will you calm down? She’s gone now, you don’t have to worry about her,” I stated soothingly, wanting him to stop fussing. He stopped his rant and let out a loud, agitated sigh as he collapsed onto the bed beside me. I scooted closer and wrapped an arm over him, forgetting how much I’d missed it. “Why are you letting her get to you this bad? You hardly spoke to her for two minutes and already you can’t stand her.”

“She’s a schemer. She’s planning something against me and I know she doesn’t like me back, so I have no reason to like her. She’s one of those ‘don’t call me a chick’ chicks. The ones who like and can stand up for themselves against men. The ones where every male is a chauvinist pig. There’s...just something about her I really don’t like.” He nailed her pretty well for only meeting her for five minutes at the most. “But let’s just forget about her for tonight, hmm?”

“Okay. I love you, puddin’.”

“Goodnight, Harley.” He said a little unsure of what to say. It was then that I’d realised that I hardly ever fell to sleep with him like this. He was always the one to trudge into bed hours later after I had crawled in, so it was a little comforting to fall asleep this way. I smiled, easily falling into a deep sleep.