Are You Insane? No I'm in Love!

Third Person POV

“Mmmmmm…” Jennifer Lee groaned as she finally awoke. “Ow… oh good Lord I feel like I got hit by a truck”
“I can imagine… you’ve been out cold for two days” Krist walked through the door and over to the girl’s bedside, turning on a lamp.
“Ah, the light! It burns!” Jennifer covered her eyes with mock agony. Krist just laughed, “Sorry, I forgot.”
“It’s okay, they’ll adjust in a little while” she smiled. “Um, here you go,” Krist handed her an ice pack, “I was gonna do it myself but since you’re up I guess you can do it yourself now” he chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Jennifer placed the ice pack on her head, feeling a little more relieved.

Then it hit her: this was Joker’s room, but there was no Joker. Why wasn’t he in here?

“He’s been sleeping in Clyde’s room since it’s the cleanest out of our rooms. I guess he figured you needed rest” Krist explained, leaving Jennifer Lee a tad shocked. Why would Joker give up his room for her? It just didn’t fit his characteristics.

“You know… while you were out, I’ve been the one taking care of you for the past two days” he scratched his head.
“You know, that actually doesn’t really surprise me. I kinda figured you would, you’re pretty much the only one that treats me with some respect around here.” Jen sat up while adjusting the ice pack.

Krist sat on the bed, “I really was concerned for you…” he said in all seriousness, his eyes staring straight into Jennifer’s. He moved closer “really concerned,” he started to lean in but was stopped.

“What… what the hell are you doing?” Jennifer put a hand to his chest. “Were… oh God, please tell me you weren’t gonna do what I think you were gonna do.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s not-”

“You were going to kiss me!” she jumped to a conclusion.
“Hello, Earth to Krist; you’ve got a girlfriend and a daughter! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Jennifer Lee stomped out of the room.
“I was just gonna hug you!” Krist called down the hall, but never got a response. In defeat, he rubbed the back of his neck, “Jeeze why do I always give off the wrong body language?”

“God, this is so fucked up” Jennifer said to herself as sat down on the worn couch. Soon, the seconds turned to minutes and the minutes turned to hours; she couldn’t help but rest her weary eyes for a while.

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Once again, Jennifer slowly awoke to the sound of purring. “Hee hee, stop iiiiiit…” she giggled.
Whatever was purring gave a “Meow” and then began to paw at her face. “Nedji, cut it out…” After a few minutes Jennifer then sat up, realizing what she just said.
“Nedji…? Wait a minute…” She looked down to see a black cat with white patches on all four of its paws and majority of its mouth. Its green eyes staring up at her. “Meow”

“Oh my God, Nedji! It really is you!” she pulled the feline up into arms, “I can’t believe it, I just can’t believe it! How did you find me?” In response Nedji just mewed and rubbed against Jennifer’s neck.

“Krist!” Jennifer ran over to his room, “Krist thank you so much!” she jumped onto his bed.

“So you’re not mad at me for trying to give you a dangerous hug anymore?” he raised an eyebrow hoping she’d forgotten. “Oh yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, thank you so much!” Jen beamed as she scratched Nedji’s head.

“Thanks? Thanks for what?” he raised his eyebrows.

“For Nedji, my cat? You went and got her for me, right?” she looked up at him, but he shook his head, “No, I didn’t. I didn’t even know you had a cat.” Jennifer was confused, “Then who brought her here? Catwoman?” she said sarcastically. Krist just shrugged and went back to sleep.

Being more confused than ever Jennifer walked out of the room, Nedji still in her arms.
“If Krist didn’t, and Bruiser and Clyde didn’t, then it was…” Jennifer looked down the hall as she saw a glimpse of a figure turning down the corner.

Her eyes grew wide with disbelief as she whispered to herself, “Oh no freaking way.”

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Jennifer Lee’s POV

Dinner that night wasn’t really even dinner at all. It was just me trying to scrounge up what we had left while a couple of the boys played cards.

The boys? Holy crap, I sound like I‘m getting used to them. Maybe it’s because I am. I had been a hostage for a little over two weeks now and to be honest, I didn’t really feel like a hostage. It felt like more of a restricted freedom if that makes any sense.

As I continued to cook, Nedji was constantly making a figure eight in between my legs, occasionally meowing for food.

Great, another mouth to feed.

All of a sudden the door opened with a bang. In stomped Bruiser and a new recruit. They were carrying a couple bags. Bruiser set the bags onto the table, “Here you go Missy, got some stuff for ya to cook with” As those weeks had passed on, even Bruiser managed to soften up around me. Probably because he enjoyed the food so much.

“Aw, thank you very much” I smiled as I started to put the food away.

Then in lingered Joker, his hair as greasy as ever, but he had a hint of cologne, which was a tad odd, seeing as he was going absolutely nowhere.

“So… what did our little June Cleaver make us tonight?” Joker leaned against the doorway, watching me.
“Nothing special, just chicken tacos” I replied, concentrating. I could hear the boys in the background becoming excited at the sound of dinner. I looked to the doorway, but Joker had disappeared again.

“That man just comes and goes, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, and I find it quite remarkable that you’ve lived this long. We all thought you’d be dead by the end of last week” Clyde remarked as he took a drag.
“Thanks a lot guys,” I rolled my eyes as I took a seat.

“So does anybody know anything about Joker’s past?”

Everyone went silent.

Bruiser whispered, “Not much is known really. What I can tell you though is that you’re not the first Blackwell he has crossed paths with before.”

My eyes grew wide, “Really?”

He continued, “Yeah. Now, what I’m about to tell you I have heard from the streets. I’ve heard many different versions of this rumor but all of them lead to the exact same thing. It started about five or six years ago. Before he came to be what he is now, Joker was a normal human being. Some people say he was a Gothamite while others said he was a drifter from way out of town. While here, he was looking for a job around here. Finding nothing, he bummed out on the streets for a little while. It wasn’t until then he met some doctor, named Arthur Blackwell…”

My father? The Joker? They’ve met each other?!

“So yeah, Dr. Blackwell ends up helping Joker out by getting him a job at the clinic where he works. I guess his job was basically to keep inventory of all the medical supplies and chemicals; but instead, Joker was slowly stealing chemicals. Toxic, deadly chemicals; probably selling them off to the mob for jacked up prices.
So one night Joker gets caught by Dr. Blackwell who was quite furious, but Joker had the balls to says he had done nothing wrong. Then somehow a struggle broke out between the two. By the time the cops got there, the lab was a complete, udder mess. Blackwell was fortunate enough to suffer a few bumps and bruises and Joker…” Krist trailed off.

“What, what about Joker?” I asked, desperately wanting to hear the conclusion.

“Joker… he somehow ended up with his face being seriously mangled as well as his mind completely twisted. Some say it was Blackwell who did it in self defense with a scalpel; others say Joker did it himself accidentally while in the struggle with the chemicals he was desperately trying to steal. Regardless, Joker escaped before officers were on the premises and he was never seen again… at least, now until now anyways.” Krist finished.

I sat there is shock. My heart was beating faster. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. “Do… do you think Joker knows that… that I’m his daughter? Also… if Joker does know, will he try and use me for revenge?”

“Honestly, no; but I’m telling you right here and now to be careful. I think I speak for everyone here when I say we don‘t want anything happening to you.” Krist placed his hand on mine while the other two nodded.

Ding

The food was finally ready. I got up quickly and began to set the table while everyone else went beck to doing there normal thing. What a nice way to start off the evening. Hearing that my dad has dealt with a psychotic maniac in the past who probably wants revenge and I happen to be his hostage.

Fantastic.