Falling Apart

They got back to the mansion and J's doctor came. After almost an hour, he finally came out of J's bedroom to talk to Adelaide.

"He's in pretty bad shape. A lot of broken bones and a lot of blood loss. His right arm is in a cast and he's got six broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken nose and a pretty severe concussion. I cleaned the wounds as best I could but he's definitely going to need someone to help him take a good shower soon because there's so much dried blood caked all over him. Overall he's going to be alright though," the doctor told her and she sighed in relief. She thanked him and then headed in to see J.

He already looked worlds better when he looked up at her. He was still covered in blood and looked more tired than she'd ever seen anyone look but he was alive and he definitely looked it now. He smiled at her just slightly, wincing with the facial movement.

"Hello, Adelaide," he whispered, reaching his good arm out for her and patting the bed beside him. She moved across the room and perched on the edge of the bed. He stared at her with confused eyes for a moment and then seemed to have a realization. "You don't remember me, do you?" he asked in a hoarse voice and all she could do was shake her head slightly. "But you still saved me. Why?"

"Because I can feel that somewhere I do have feelings for you. I just can't seem to find them. Besides, no one deserves the things my sister was doing to you," she told him and he gave her a solemn look.

"She was... trying to cure me," he said quietly, his eyes darting away from her.

"Cure you?"

"She said that if she gave me enough shock therapy and enough beatings she was sure that it would cure my psyche of whatever is wrong with it," his entire body shivered with the words "Before you ask, I don't know if it worked. I feel... different, but I'm not sure how exactly."

"I wasn't going to ask."

"You were. It's okay. You don't need to be afraid of me, Addy. I love you. I'd never hurt you," he said, and when she looked into his eyes somehow she knew it was true. Suddenly, all she wanted to do was touch him. It felt as if her entire body was aching for him. She reached out a shaky hand and stroked his face gently, just like she'd been doing in the car as he'd leaned on her shoulder. He leaned into her touch and made a small noise in the back of his throat, his eyes closing slowly.

"I wish I could remember you," she whispered. His eyes opened and when they focused on her, they were filled with sadness.

"Me too, darlin'," he said, reaching up with his good hand and intertwining his fingers into hers.

"The doctor says you need a shower," she told him and his face instantly cracked into a smile.

"Are you offering your assistance, Miss Adelaide?" he asked her in a tone that made her blush. She nodded shyly and he laughed.

A while later, he was showered and looked even better. His entire body seemed to be bruised and he could still barely walk on his own, but once she got him back to his bed he fell asleep almost instantly.

Adelaide left his room quietly, looking back one last time at him slumbering peacefully. She made her way downstairs and to the basement. Her sister was tied to a chair down there, and as Adelaide approached her, she started screaming.

"No one's going to hear you, Adrianna. There's no one around for miles."

"Let me go, Adelaide. I'll leave him alone. Just let me go," her sister pleaded and Adelaide couldn't help but scoff. After all Adrianna had put her and J through, here she was acting like she was the only victim in all of this.

"You know I can't do that, Adrianna. There are some things I need answers for first," Adelaide told her, sitting on the floor across from her.

"And what makes you think I'm going to talk to you?"

"Probably the fact that your life is completely in my hands?"

"You wouldn't hurt me."

"Wouldn't I, though? All you keep talking about is how much the Joker has changed me. What if he changed me enough that I'd bash your brains in right here and now?" Adelaide asked, giving her a menacing look and Adrianna stared at her for a moment like she was trying to decide something.

"Fine."

"First of all, how do I get my memories back?"

"You can't," Adrianna said, a smug smile on her face. Adelaide nodded; she'd known that's what her sister would say. She reached behind her and pulled something from the waistband of her pants. Adrianna's eyes grew wide when she realized what it was; it was the modified cattle prod that she'd been using on the Joker.

"I know you like this thing so much, so I figured I'd give it back to you," Adelaide told her, digging it just gently into her sister's shoulder. Adrianna cried out in pain and Adelaide pulled it back.
"How do I get my memories back, Adrianna?"

"There's an antidote. It's the same antidote that you would have used before when you were shot with Chemical M. It's universal to all of our toys," Adrianna said in a quiet voice.

"That's more like it. Now, Mister J told me you were trying to 'cure him'. You're gonna need to tell me more about that," Adelaide told her, brandishing the cattle prod just to make sure it was clear what was going to happen to her if she didn't say anything.

"Basically. We found at the facility that if you give people like you shock therapy, you can essentially beat their abilities out of them. It sounds harsh, but we had people begging us to do it," Adrianna said and Adelaide didn't totally buy the last part.

"But Mister J isn't a 'mutant'," Adelaide said, using her sister's word.

"Technically he is. His insanity was caused by a chemical vat in a factory. As far as we can tell, before that he was completely normal."

"And what did you come up with? Did you 'cure him'?"

"Not really. It seemed to have toned down some of his tendencies. He wasn't so quick to snap and commit murder, but it still wasn't all too hard to get him there, either. All we had to do was mention killing you."

"What do you really do at your facility, Adrianna?"

"I told you. We cure the people like you who don't want their abilities. You'd be blown away by how many of you there are."

"There's no way that all of your patients are asking to be cured," Adelaide said, thinking back on what she could remember of her own life. As far as she was concerned, her abilities had been much more of a blessing than a curse.

"We also cure the ones who commit crimes with their abilities."

"Ah, there it is. So basically, you take people and torture them and beat them within an inch of death?"

"They deserve it if they're criminals."

"That doesn't make you any better than them, Adrianna," Adelaide said, taking the cattle prod and pushing into Adrianna's opposite shoulder. She cried out in pain once more and Adelaide had to force herself to leave the room before she accidentally hurt her more than she actually wanted to.