Broken Pieces

Cackles echoed through the tunnel. The man on one end screamed in fear as he was approached by his attacker.

"Who are you?" the man asked frantically, shaking quietly.

"I'm your worst nightmare, honey," Adelaide Karson told him, reaching for him and raising him off the ground with the hand she'd wrapped around his neck. He stared at her, fear evident on his face.

"Please, ma'am. Please," he begged her, gasping.

"Don't call me ma'am," she said, throwing him hard at the opposite wall of the tunnel.

She picked the handbag he'd been running with off the ground, getting back on her motorcycle and heading back to the woman he'd taken it from. She found the woman in a moment, parking and going to give it to her where she stood frantic on the side of the street.

"Thank you so much," the woman said, tears in her grateful eyes.

"No problem, ma'am," Adelaide said, getting back on her motorcycle.

"You know, you look like..." the woman began speaking, but Adelaide was gone before she could finish.

She rode back to her small apartment, her long dark hair flowing freely behind her as she went. As she pushed through the door, she couldn't help but look in the mirror on the wall across from her. She did look like him, she'd admit. Strangely enough, that particular makeup was all she'd been able to think of when she'd started her little 'good deed' thing. Admittedly, she'd even started sounding like him without even really thinking about it.

Adelaide hadn't talked to the Joker in six months. Her heart ached for him every day, and that's probably why she adorned the same makeup he did when she went out and didn't want people to recognize her. It had started as a way to hide from any of his enemies that might have been looking for her, but then she'd realized how badly thought-out that had been. Of course they'd know it was her if she looked just like him. She didn't stop doing it, though, for whatever reason.

He called every day and left a message on her cell phone. She listened to them but never called him back. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him, because she did more than anything. Mostly she didn't want to hear his voice because she knew that as soon as she did, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from falling right back into his arms, and she wasn't sure she was ready for that.

She'd had a lot of shit to work through when she'd left his house that day. It had nothing to do with her feelings for him, because she was sure about those more than she'd ever been sure of anything. She loved him with all of her heart and had no doubts at all about it. It was more about whether or not she loved herself. When she'd walked out of his house, she hadn't, not even a little bit. Six months later, she was working on it. Her little good deed system had helped tremendously. She wasn't a crime-fighting bat or anything, but when she saw something or someone wronged in public, she righted it. She hadn't even really meant to start doing it, but was glad she did.

One of the main things she still had to forgive herself for was her sister, Adrianna. She'd shot her dead six months before to the day. It had been self-defense. Adrianna was rife with grief for her Joker-killed fiancee and desperate for revenge. She would have killed Adelaide if Addy hadn't acted first. None of that made it better for Adelaide, of course. She hated herself for what she'd done.

So much so that the first place she'd gone when she'd left the Joker's was her mother's house. She hadn't seen her mother for years and had no idea how she would react. It wasn't good. Apparently Adrianna had told her about Adelaide's involvement with the Joker. She'd thought her mom had written her off long before then, but she definitely had that night when she showed up on her doorstep. It had involved a lot of screaming and name-calling and ended in her mother telling her she never wanted to see her again before Adelaide had even been able to mutter a word. She wasn't sure what she would've said, but she would've liked to have been able to say something.

Shaking her head to clear it, Adelaide dropped her motorcycle helmet by the door and made her way into the kitchen for some food. She whipped something up and sat on a dirty old lounge chair in front of the TV. She watched mindlessly for a while as they cycled through all the usual Gotham news stories: crime was up, the government was no help, Batsy saved some kids from death. Stuff like that. Then, one came on that made her almost drop her food.

"In a new development tonight, we've got news on Gotham's self-proclaimed 'Clown Prince of Crime'. Yes, that's right, the Joker himself was found dead this morning in a dumpster behind a medical facility downtown that claimed to help people like one Adelaide Karson, who used to be associated with the Joker and had mutant-like abilities. The cause of Joker's death is unclear at this time, but we've been told that the body was covered in bruises and what looked to be burn marks. We've also been told that the county coroner was only able to identify the body by old dental and DNA records kept by the one and only long-closed Arkham Asylum, because Gotham PD had never been able to get those samples from the maniacal clown. More updates will be available as soon as we have them," Adelaide listened to the words in awe, her heart breaking in her chest the more the newscaster said. Her eyes filled with tears and she felt like she was going to have a panic attack.

All of a sudden as she slammed the TV remote to make the noise stop, she heard a light chuckle behind her, almost scaring her enough to fall out of her chair. She pulled one of her guns off of her stomach and pointed it behind her, whipping around.

"Calm down, kitten. You know they'd never be able to keep me down for real," the Joker told her, an amused look in his eye.

"J..?" she whispered, and he smiled at her.

"I'm here. Some circumstances came up and I had to make some people think I was no longer around. That's why I'm here. I just wanted to make sure you knew it wasn't true," he told her. Without even thinking about it, she ran up to him and threw her arms around him, squeezing him as tightly as she could.

"You fuckin' scared me," she whispered in between sobs.

"I'm sorry, doll. I'm here," he told her, hugging her back and burying his face in her hair.