Straying out of Sanity

"So pretty much, we're the only people you're allowed to see in this place?"

"I guess so," I answered Candi, who was seated on the bathroom counter. We all, and by we I mean: Mitch, Jay, Laurel, Jared, Stacia, Candi, and myself, were situated in The Joker's huge bathroom. Jay had stated earlier that it almost fit us all comfortably. Jared was standing with me in front of the mirror in which I was doing my makeup, Candi was on the counter, Jay and Laurel were on the floor by the shower, Mitch was sitting on top of the closed toilet, and Stacia was sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

I was in my gold swirly dress and polka-dotted wedge heels, getting ready for Harvey Dent's fundraiser party Rachel had invited me to. Jared, like before, was curling my hair for me while I tried to figure out what kind and how much makeup I should wear. I was all for plain gold eyeshadow with some mascara but Candi fought with me about it not being proper "evening" makeup, backed up by Stacia and Jared. As for what I should do with my makeup, all three of them had different ideas. I stood there and listened to the arguing for five to ten minutes before deciding to carry on with my original plan, only adding black copper and dark green to the plain gold eyeshadow, without any notice from them.

"Or that works too," Jared said, when I was halfway done with my makeup as he finally looked back to me from arguing. Candi pouted, looking disappointed but Stacia looked indifferent.

My hair, instead of being curly like before, was more wavy but had ten times more volume than my normal flat hair, which I loved. The next thing for them to argue about what kind of up-do I should wear my hair in.

"I really don't care, guys, it's gonna be a bunch of rich old people," I tried reasoning as Jared and Candi fought over my hair, Stacia was smart enough to keep out of it.

"Bruce Wayne isn't old, he's fucking hot!" Candi exclaimed, pinning my hair up in a very unusual fashion before Jared undid and fixed it in a much more plain and normal manner. I left alone the fact that I used to know Bruce way back when because Rachel's parents were always fond of his parents and Bruce himself. I'd be taken to the Wayne mansion almost monthly when I lived with Rachel and her parents.

I looked to Jay and my sister for help with the small war going on over my hair and Laurel stuck her tongue out at me, a gesture I quickly returned.

Jay wasn't much help either, saying,"I liked it the other way before," just to spite me.

The only help I found came in the form of a surprise; all conversation in the bathroom stopped as we heard the door to the master bedroom open. Silently, we all listened to somebody walk in, close the door, walk to the bed, sit down, and start to toss keys into the air. The Joker was barely in my field of vision through the mirror and the slightly ajar door.

Jared, in the silence, continued to fix my hair the way he had wanted it as Candi was distracted. Once she had noticed, she forgot all about The Joker and shouted, "No!" with a gasp. "That's too old lady for Emma!"

The key tossing stopped briefly at the sudden loudness before continuing.

"Why can't I just... have my hair down like this?" I asked, shaking out my hair while pulling out pins and clips.

"Well if you want to go with sex hair," Candi stated blandly as Jared pouted at his ruined work on my hair. I checked out my reflection in the mirror and indeed Candi was right, I had given myself sex hair. I laughed and attempted to flatten it a bit, despite it's volume.

"I think you're gonna have to go with sex hair," Jared laughed at me, "'Cause I'm not fixing it again. Plus I think Boss' been waiting to take you."

"You think?" I asked, "He sounds patient." I attempted to fix my hair a little more, though I was as ready as I could get for this party. I just didn't feel like being alone with The Joker, not now that I've got my friends back.

"You really think its a good idea to keep," Candi argued, but paused to nod her head at the bathroom door to avoid mentioning The Joker himself, "waiting like that?"

I didn't reply to her but instead heard Mitch say, "She's right." Obviously what happened to Fletcher yesterday scared everyone worse than I had thought, even him.

Again I didn't reply but instead walked to the door, realizing nobody was following me. "You guys aren't coming?" I asked everyone.

"Not 'til he's gone," Laurel whispered to me. I looked around to watch everyone nod in agreement with my eleven year old sister.

"Fine," I sighed and left the bathroom alone, greeted by The Joker who was lounging on his bed, tossing his keys into the air only to catch them again. Once I was in front of him, The Joker caught his keys one last time and sat up, observing my appearance.

"Well?" I asked him, placing a hand on my waist.

"I find it astounding how street trash can clean up so nicely," he smiled, standing from his bed. I rolled my eyes in displeasure and headed for his bedroom door. "I thought you couldn't walk in heels?" he asked, grabbing my arm and pulling me back a few steps from the door, almost making me fall backwards.

"They're wedges, it's a difference," I told him, staring at the door instead of turning around.

He didn't reply to me as far as I could tell but said, "Get out of my bathroom," loud enough so the occupants could hear his demand. All of them filed out as quickly as possible, unsure of what to do with themselves. The Joker pulled me out of the path of the door, continuing with, "Get out."

Everyone then rushed out through the door and disappearing down the hallway. "Close the door, sweetheart," he then told my sister before she could make it fully through the threshold of the doorway. She stopped and turned around to look at him before staring at me. It was obvious that she was terrified of closing me in with The Joker but I gave her a curt nod, silently telling her to listen to him before he had to repeat himself.

She glanced back and forth between the two of us for another second before slowly retreating into the hallway, closing the door with a quiet click.

"That was my way of saying..." The Joker began, speaking quietly into my ear before forcefully spinning my body around so I was facing him, "That you look nice."

"I didn't realize you were expecting a thank you," I replied sarcastically, trying to walk backwards to get out the door and have the two of us be on our way but he grabbed me, spinning me around himself this time so our positions were switched.

"I wouldn't put it past your manners for you not to," he replied and I rolled my eyes before looking away from him. I should have learned by now that he hated when I did that, as if I couldn't tell by the way he painfully gripped my jaw and forcefully turned my hear back, making me stare him in the eyes. He didn't tell me anything but made me stare into his dark, cold eyes while he returned the favor. It was obvious he wanted some kind of submission but I didn't know what to do.

I sighed shakily, trying to let him know I was uncomfortable and blinked once or twice to try and rid myself of his inhuman eyes, only to be met with them a fraction of a second later. He held me like this for nearly a minute before he let go of me completely and turned around to open the door, mockingly bowing slightly and signaling for me to walk through.

He followed after me and I led him through the mansion to the garage, since he had car keys and that's the most reasonable place for a car.

We stopped at the entrance because I was unsure of which vehicle to walk to and I watched him beep the car with his keys. As far as I knew, the car would be a surprise to the both of us. They ended up belonging to an older model Cadillac, which obviously belonged to Croc.

The Joker walked me to the passenger door and opened it for me to get in. "Thank you," I muttered as he closed the door and made his way around to the other side of the vehicle. He got in and immediately started the engine with a satisfying growl. We remained in silence as he backed out of the garage, drove up the long drive of the mansion and down the road leading past the other mansions and other fancy houses in the palisades towards Gotham City.

To my dismay, before we reached Gotham, The Joker stopped at one of the neighborhood guard stations at the entrance to the Palisades. I stared at him wide-eyed, wondering what the hell he was doing as he pulled out a huge wad of cash and handed it to the guard in the little station, then pulled away silently like nothing had ever happened.

"What the hell was that?" I asked him.

The Joker smiled at my question. "You expect us to live in a mansion full of criminals and have people magically not know about it?" the Joker replied, producing a cellphone from one of his many coat pockets and handing it to me.

"What?" I asked him, taking the phone.

"Call your cousin and tell her you're going to be late to her boyfriend's party."

"I don't have-"

The Joker cut me off, rambling off a phone number to me.

"You know my cousin's phone number," I stated unenthusiastically.

"Yes," he told me, "Call her."

I repeated the phone number to him to clarify that I heard right as I dialed and with his approval I hit call and brought the phone to my ear.

After ringing a few times I heard my cousin's voice ask, "Hello?" and somehow I was surprised and looked back at The Joker to see him quietly chuckling at my lack of trust.

"Hello?" I heard Rachel's voice ask again.

"Uh... h-hey Rach, it's... uh... it's Emma," I answered quickly.

"Emmalee? Who's phone are you on?" She asked but I ignored her and changed the subject.

"Uh... re-remember when we bumped into each other the other day?"

"Yeah, Downtown? I remember, why?"

"Uh..." I began, continuing to struggle with this conversation. I glanced back over to The Joker, silently begging for help.

He laughed at me again, quiet enough so Rachel couldn't hear him on the other end.

"...Am... I... invited... to..." I began repeating what The Joker was mouthing to me, like I was a child. "Oh! can I still go to that party thing you wanted me to go to?"

"That party thing...? Oh, yeah. Of course you can. I'd love for you to come but I forgot to mention it's formal-"

"Well I figured that much, I'm dressed already," I told her.

"You have formal clothes?" Rachel asked, skeptically.

"Um yeah, I got the dress, the shoes, the makeup and... kind of the hair, but yeah it's formal," I informed.

"...Okay, I'll believe it when I see it. And the other problem is that the party started about twenty minutes ago."

"...Oh," I said, looking back to The Joker again, who seemed to be driving aimlessly around the central part of Gotham.

"But," Rachel added, sounding annoyed, "Bruce isn't even here yet so you have all the time in the world to get here. You need directions?"

"Do I need directions?" I repeated her question so that The Joker could hear but before I, or he, could do anything more Rachel started speaking again, changing her plan.

"Actually, let me call Bruce. Since he's late also he can surely go out of his way to pick you up, okay?" she asked.

"I-I uh, u-uh, I-" I looked frantically to The Joker for help.

"Okay good, I'll call you back in a second," Rachel told me, taking my stammering as a yes and hung up.

"What?" The Joker asked.

"I... um... I don't really know what just happened," I said quietly and pulled the cellphone from my ear.

"You don't really know what just happened?" The Joker repeated.

"Um... yeah. She said she wanted Bruce to pick me up and then kinda just... hung up," I said as we completed about our third circle around a random block.

"You didn't think to tell her you were on your way already?"

"Well... no."

"Why not?" The Joker seemed to be getting less and less patient with each answer. And so was I.

"Fine, let me just call her back and say, 'hey I actually already have a ride so don't bother,' and when she asks I can just tell her all about you. Is that better?" I asked him sarcastically.

"Ha. Ha. Ha," he laughed fakely, "You're funny," the sarcasm was very present with his words.

I ignored him as the phone he handed me started to ring. "Hello?" I answered.

"He wants you to go to a hospital," Rachel's voice responded.

"What?"

"Bruce. I called him and he said to be at Gotham General in about twenty minutes."

"What for?" I asked, very confused.

"I have no clue but he wants to take you here, I know that for sure. Can you get there by twenty minutes?"

"Um... hang on," I stated, then turned to The Joker once more, covering the mouth piece of the phone while doing so, and said, "I need to go to the hospital."

"Why?" The Joker asked quickly, turning to me.

"Um... that's where Bruce Wayne is supposed to pick me up," I replied hesitantly.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I dunno," I replied and returned to speaking with my cousin on the phone. "What's wrong with Bruce?"

"Nothing, as far as I know. He sounded fine, a lot of background noise, but he was fine. I don't know why he wants you to go to the hospital. You can get there right?"

"In twenty minutes? Yeah probably, I'm not to far from Gotham General," I said, looking back to The Joker for a silent confirmation from him. He glanced at me before suddenly switching lanes, causing a car or two to honk at us, and then right onto a street I knew would eventually lead us to the hospital. "Maybe even before then," I added.

"Okay, good. I'm so glad you've decided to come, Emma."

"Yeah... well... I'll see you soon?"

"Okay."

With that we both hung up and I sighed, setting the cellphone in my lap. "So why the hospital?" The Joker asked me and I looked over.

"I dunno, neither does Rachel," I answered. He was intently watching the road and didn't seem to bother to pay me any attention. "Why are you insisting I go to this thing?"

The Joker was silent for a while, but as I was deciding that he was just going to ignore me he answered with, "Figured you were going a bit stir crazy. That place can do that to people, you know," smacking his lips together matter of factly immediately afterwords.

"And your way of keeping Mitch occupied is having him do your bidding?" I asked, not fully believing his answer.

"Something like that," The Joker smiled.

"What about Jay? Or my little sister?" I continued to question him.

"You know, Jill," The Joker began, looking over to me as he pulled into the hospital parking lot, "I like to play favorites."

"Favorites?" I asked, for clarification.

"Yeah... favorites."

"So who's your favorite then?"

"Favorite for what?" The Joker asked slyly.

"Favorite for... I don't know, you tell me."

"Well, the obvious answer," he began, pulling into the hospital drop off area and stopped the car, "Would be you."

"And... That's a good thing, right?" I asked him.

"For you, right now it is," he answered vaguely.

"What do you mean?" I asked him hastily but he didn't answer.

"Keep that phone with you."

"I don't have pockets, and what do you mean when you say-"

The Joker magically pulled out a small gold glittery clutch purse, that easily matched my dress, and handed it to me, saying, "Get out, I don't want any more attention drawn to us."

I stared at him before grabbing the clutch from him and stepping out of the Cadillac, slamming the door behind me. The Joker drove off quickly after as I noticed the few people outside the hospital staring at my formal wear. I did my best to ignore them as I walked into the hospital, unsure of what to do or who to talk to. Bruce was nowhere to be seen in the general waiting area so I hesitantly waked up to one of the receptionists behind the front desk. He eyed me up and down in my swirly dress, an eyebrow raised questioningly the whole time.

"May I help you?" he asked me.

"Um... I really don't have any idea why I'm here," I said truthfully.

"You're a bit young for Alzheimer's, aren't you?" he asked.

I didn't take too well to the sarcasm and blandly asked, "Is Bruce Wayne here?"

"Oh. I should have guessed," he told me, rolling his eyes, "sit down and we'll have someone come get you when he arrives," he continued before silently continuing what he was before, rudely dismissing me. I turned around and scouted the Waiting area, sitting in one of the more remote seats and waited, unsure of what was going to happen.

Around ten minutes later I noticed what looked like a janitor being pointed in my direction by the same receptionist I had spoken with. The janitor walked over and greeted me with, "You're Miss Carson, correct? Looking for Mr. Wayne?"

"Yes," I answered hesitantly, wondering how he knew my name.

"Follow me," he said, turning around and walking away. I quickly stood and followed the janitor, not knowing what else to do. He led me down a few hall ways and into a staff elevator. He silently took me to the top level and then down another hall and to a small flight of stairs that no doubt led to the roof. He stopped there and motioned me forward.
"Here ya go, miss, Mr. Wayne should be up top by now," he told me. I didn't understand the situation but walked myself up the stairs and onto the roof of the hospital.