You're My Medication

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and tried to relax my breathing. Bruce finally agreed to meeting J face to face and now I was driving J to his penthouse where we would meet.

“Would you just tell me who he is already? You know I don’t like guessing games,” J grumbled and started tapping his fingers restlessly on his thighs.

“J, you love games,” I joked as I drove.

“Only when I’m in charge,” he whined and looked out the window. I smiled a little but still didn’t answer his question. I pulled into the underground parking garage and turned the car off.

“Ready?” I asked and looked at J. He was dressed in a pair of dark wash jeans, a white v-neck and had a baseball cap pulled on over his head. He actually wasn’t wearing his makeup, but that was only because he didn’t want Batman to outdo him by not wearing his mask in front of J. If Batman was going naked, so would he...

“Yup,” he said popping his p.

“And you’re sure you don’t want to put on the makeup? I mean, he’ll see your face…”

“Is there something wrong with my face?” J snapped and slammed the car door shut. I rushed over to his side and placed my hands on his chest to keep him from walking away.

“Nothing is wrong with your face, but Batman will know what you look like and he’ll be able to get your information off his computer,” I whispered caressing his scarred cheeks. J closed his eyes briefly and shook his head.

“He’s not hiding so neither will I,” he explained.

“There’s the Jack I love,” I said quietly and pecked him on the lips before grabbing his hand. We walked to the elevator and went up to the 12th floor.

“This looks familiar,” J mumbled as we stepped out of the compact space.

“Well you did crash a party here,” I clued him in. Realization washed over his face and I knocked on the door.

“Nikki, Batman is—“

“You’re here,” Bruce said as he opened the door with a grim smile.

“…Bruce Wayne.” J finished. Bruce looked past me and at him. A look of shock crossed his face when he saw J without any costume on.

“Joker…”

“Don’t think I’m going soft. I’m just uh leveling the playing field,” he giggled sinking into his role as the Joker. I rolled my eyes and smiled at Bruce.

“Can we come in?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure.” Bruce stepped out of the way and let us walk inside. I noticed that Alfred was nowhere in sight.

“I gave him the day off,” Bruce answered my unasked question. I nodded and let Bruce lead us into the living room that I was already accustomed to seeing. J sat down next to me and leaned back so he could rest his tanned arm on the back of the couch.

“So…” Bruce said twiddling his thumbs. His eyes never left J’s form. He watched him like a hawk would his prey. J simply looked around the room and with giggle every now and then.

“Well, Damien stabbed J yesterday,” I said and nudged J’s sore side. He jerked slightly and glared at me.

“Nikki, that wasn’t nice.” He then cackled lowly and used his hand that was already behind me to run his fingers through my short hair. He didn’t like it so short, but he was getting used to it.

“That just means that Damien isn’t afraid to hurt J which is scary in itself. We thought Damien just wanted me out of the picture so he could have J again, but now it looks like he doesn’t care who lives…” I trailed off.

“When I ran into him yesterday, I was able to find out that he got into Maroni’s car. I also found out that he’s been staying at one of Maroni’s mob affiliated hotels, but not which one specifically,” Bruce said.

“Knowing Damien, he’ll end up turning against Maroni and siding with Two-Face. That’s just how he is,” J threw in as he examined a portion of my hair. It didn’t seem like he was paying much attention, but I guess he was.

“Enough of this talk. I came here today for one reason,” J said pulling away from me and leaning forward to stare at Bruce. He pointed a finger at him and mouthed “you”.

“I’m flattered,” Bruce grumbled. J laughed loudly and stood up so he could pace back and forth, never looking away from Bruce. I leaned back and watched knowing that J wouldn’t do anything stupid.

“How did you do it? You’re Gotham’s most eligible bachelor,” J said thinking aloud.

“With my billions of dollars. I got bored with all the money so I put it to use,” Bruce said not speaking the whole truth.

“Don’t take me for a naïve child. I can tell when someone is lying. I don’t like liars, Brucey, but I promised Nikki that I would “get along” with you for her sake,” J grumbled the last part. Bruce seemed to breathe a little easier when J said that.

“Uh guys—“

“No no no no… It couldn’t just be the money alone. Something needs to fuel motivation like that…” J lightly tapped his fingers against his chin as he paced back in forth in Bruce’s living room.

“J—“

“You have it against any kind of criminal. Someone must have hurt you… Or you family considering you’re all alone…” Bruce’s face was turning red and I knew that it wasn’t from embarrassment. He was getting mad…

“J, shut it!” I snapped. J stopped pacing and looked at me like a lost puppy.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“We came here to make friends, not piss them off. Whatever happened to Bruce is irrelevant at the moment. Once we have this problem taken care of, maybe you and Bruce can swap stories,” I said forcefully.

“That’s right. I still need to know about your motivation after you got your scars and how that happened,” Bruce smirked using some of J’s own words. J’s lips curled back in a snarl, but he held back and sat down next to me on the couch again.

His fingers began beating quickly on his thighs. The soft noise and movement began to bug me so I rested one of my hands on his to stop them. J relaxed under my touch and leaned into the couch. Bruce watched our interaction carefully before continuing.

“Back to Damien, I’ve been using my computer to do some more research on Maroni. I’ve narrowed the list of hotels down to 2. We’d be able to split up and search them both to weed out Damien,” Bruce added.

“We’d have to get the goons ready,” I said and looked at J. It threw me off a little to see his naturally tanned skin instead of the white paint. And his scars aren’t that bad, they make him look rugged in an attractive way.

“Ruff won’t be happy with me… Damien probably won’t be there. He’s smarter than you think; we were friends.” J basically just complimented himself.

“Okay smarty pants, what do you suppose we do then?” I asked looking him in the eye. There was a certain gleam of mischief in them.

“I say we find Two-Face. Wherever he is, Damien will be…”