Broken Pieces

"You've clearly spared no expense on your home furnishings... or the home itself," J said sarcastically a few minutes later, perching on the edge of the dirty couch and motioning around the apartment. He wasn't wrong; the place was an absolute shit hole. It definitely wasn't J's mansion, that was for sure.

"Yeah, well, the money you gave me when I left didn't stretch forever," she whispered, still in awe that he was even there. "I didn't really even know you knew where I was," she said and he laughed.

"Of course I knew where you were. I also see that you've taken a liking to a certain type of makeup," he said, motioning to the makeup that she'd forgotten was still on her face. She was glad for it, though. It made it so that he couldn't see the deep blush that had risen to her cheeks.

"Well, I needed something and I never claimed to be overly creative," she told him, and he laughed.

"Come home with me, Adelaide," he told her matter-of-factly, his eyes boring into hers.

"I don't know, J..." she trailed off, looking up at him to see the smile on his lips.

"Come home with me," he repeated, moving closer to her and positioning his mouth right beside her ear. "Please," he whispered, the word sending shivers up her spine. "I miss you," he whispered, and she could feel him smile when she all but fell into his arms.

"I don't know if I'm ready," she whispered and he laughed lightly.

"Of course you are," he said quietly, trailing kisses up the side of her face.

"Okay. I'll come back," she said finally, giving in in the exact way she'd known she would. He laughed gently behind her and kissed her face once more.



When they got back to the mansion a while later, Adelaide was surprised by what she saw. Most of the furniture was either covered in thick sheets or gone altogether. She looked at J quizzically and he shrugged casually.

"I haven't really been staying here these past few months. I've mostly been out at the other house," he told her and she tried to brush it off. "We'll bring more furniture back if you'd like," he told her quietly. She didn't even hear him as she basked in the glory of the house itself. She'd never really taken the time before to appreciate the size of the house. Now that she'd been staying in such a tiny awful apartment, she was glad just to have a house that she could turn around in. She didn't really care that it was emptier than she remembered.

He led her up to her bedroom. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door for her. He told her he'd kept it locked so that none of the men touched it.

"Speaking of, where are the men?" she asked, looking around. Usually, there were at least a few of J's henchmen running around the house somewhere.

"Most of them are packing up my things at the other house, and some of them are taking care of your old job at the clubs," J told her smoothly, leading her into her room. Everything looked exactly the same. He always had kept her room waiting for her when she'd left for one reason or another.

"I'll be taking my job back, if you don't mind," Adelaide told him, and when she looked up at him he was smiling at her.

"Of course, my love. I wouldn't want anyone but you taking care of the clubs for me," he told her, wrapping his arms around her in a hug.



The next morning, Adelaide woke up to an empty bed. She searched the entire house and J was nowhere to be found. She stopped off in the kitchen to get something to eat and found a note on the counter.

"Good morning, kitten.

Unfortunately I had some work to take care of today so you'll be alone until this evening. If you'd like, you can go down and get back to work at the clubs.

All my love,

J"

She wasn't surprised. It wasn't rare for him to be up and out of the house way before she'd even woken up. She finished her breakfast and then headed downtown to J's flagship club, 'Ropes & Chains'.

She stepped off of her motorcycle and stared at the club when she reached it, surprised that J seemed to have painted it. It looked much fresher than it had the last time she'd seen it. She stepped inside and made her way to the office. As she pushed the door open, she became aware of the fact that there was someone in there already. She could hear them moving around. She raised a hand to one of the guns on her stomach as she pushed the door open all the way. She was surprised to see one of J's men, Rory, standing on the other side.

"Miss... A, is that you?" he questioned her, looking and sounding like he was very surprised to see her. He studied her face intently, and it was only then that she realized that she'd put on J's makeup just out of habit. No wonder Rory was looking at her like she was crazy.

"Rory?" she asked in an equally confused tone of voice.

"What are you doing here, ma'am?" he asked, and she cocked her head to the side.

"I... this is my job," she told him, and he started to shake his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the Joker stepped around Adelaide and brandished a pistol at Rory.

"Get out," J told Rory, his teeth gritted together. Rory wordlessly picked his things up off of the desk and left.

"What are you doing?" Adelaide turned and questioned the Joker, not understanding why he'd treated Rory that way.

"He's a bratty kid. This is your office and he needs to stay the hell out of it," J said, smiling at her and kissing her forehead. "I just dropped by because I was in the neighborhood. I have a meeting to get to down here," J told her, and she nodded and kissed him. "Get to work," he told her, winking and kissing her one more time before turning and walking right back out of the room.