Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers apply.
Title: The End Of The Rope
Pairing: The Joker/Harley Quinn
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Joker finally cracks a joke that Harley doesn't get the punchline of. And it's not a very good joke either. (I warn you now, this is gonna be pretty angsty.)
Author's Notes: This is my first Joker/Harley fic. I would REALLY appreciate comments. Positive comments are good, of course, but concrit is very much appreciated. And I MEAN concrit. I also know that nothing I ever write will ever be at the level of![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
clownyprincess, who is just phenomenal, but hey, a girl can dream. :D
X-posted to:marcianafics, lady_tavington, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
jokerxharley
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The End Of The Rope
A Joker x Harley Quinn fanfic
by MARCIANA (lady_tavington)
Rated PG-13
O heavens, is 't possible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as [an old] man's life?
~ William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Act IV Sc. 05, lines 183-184
"You're crazy."
The mere mention of the word had sent her into a furious tizzy. Barely registering what her body had been doing at the time, she had jumped off her seat and flipped the table over. Startled and incredulous, Gordon had stood up from his seat as well, backing up as Harley raged forward.
"Crazy?! ME?!"
Her Harley voice had given way to her actual voice, the voice of a woman she had long wanted to sever ties with, but could never quite seem to get the job done.
"So I shot my mom and my dad straight in the head. So I burned down my sister's house. Big freakin' deal! The turkeys deserved it after everything they'd ever done to me! And now...now I rob myself a little jewelry store trying to get me some class, and you call me CRAZY?!"
But of course, that was NOT the reason Gordon, his voice barely above a whisper, had called her crazy. No. It was of course...
"Listen to me, Harleen--"
She had backhanded him, reminding herself of him, and had felt extremely good about it as well. The alarms in the room had gone off as the door opened a fraction, but she was there with a chair before anyone could get in.
"I told you, Commish. I don't answer to my slave name."
"We can help you--"
"I DON'T NEED ANY HELP! It's you! It's this whole stinkin' city! It's that self-righteous jerk prancing around in a ridiculous leather cape with rat ears! It's each and every single one of you 'civilized' people. YOU!"
She had ripped off her cowl, letting her unruly blond hair fall about her face. Gordon's cheek had an imprint of the back of her hand. Harley had found it a pleasing sight, and a smirk had crossed her face at the thought that she could inflict that much pain as to leave a mark on the old man's face. When she had begun to talk to him again, her voice had become a low, quiet register.
"I am not crazy. It's you. It's them. It's him. Me and Mister J...We know the truth. And the truth is...this life? This whole city? It's one big joke. A really bad joke. And nobody -NOBODY- gets the punchline. YOU don't get the punchline. Batman doesn't get the punchline. Which makes us smarter than you. And that's why you're calling me crazy - So you've got a good reason to throw me back into Arkham. Well, I tell you now, Mr Man, I ain't going back to that godforsaken hellhole. Not now, not ever."
That had been 3 days ago. She had gotten out of there with nary a scratch. Mister J had found her and had taken her to the warehouse. He demanded to know what she'd been asked, and what she'd told the police. She, of course, told him the truth - Since she knew nothing, she told them nothing.
In retrospect, Gordon had been right. It should've bothered her that Joker hadn't let her in on the plan. All she'd been told was what she had to do, and that was distract the police by pulling off a jewel heist. When Gordon had pointed this out, she'd passed it off with a simple, "Mister J once told me that the best jokes are the ones where you don't see the punchline coming."
And she hadn't. She hadn't seen this coming. Not at all.
To her left, Gordon is tied to a column, gagged with a pair of socks. Just beside him, Batman is hanging upside down, also tied. The building they are in isn't finished yet, just all open ends and steel posts and beams. And there, in front of her, staring out at the dark city with its deceptively cheerful twinkling lights, is the man she adores. The man she's willing to do anything for. The man she's already given up so much for. The man she loves to a fault.
He is unnervingly quiet, his hands clasped behind his back, his head slightly bowed. He's not moving, but Harley can practically see the wheels in his head turning. There's never a moment where Mister J isn't thinking about something. That's just the way geniuses really are, she guesses.
Harley would smile if only the situation wasn't so...serious.
"The city?" she finds herself asking him again, as if she hasn't already heard it twice. "The entire city?"
Joker doesn't even turn his head, doesn't relax his stance. "Yes, Harl. The entire city." His tone is low, almost sad. So very scarily unlike him.
Harley's feet take slow, uncertain steps towards him, her mouth slightly ajar, her heart pounding in her ears. Why? Why this? Why now? What is he thinking? "The babies? Me?...You?"
"...Yes, Harl."
The answer is so simple, and yet it confuses her. She thinks, for one wild moment, that she misheard him. She realizes she has stopped walking, and that her Mister J has turned from the ledge and started walking towards her.
"Everyone?" Her voice is just a squeak now.
"EVERYONE." A flash of anger in his eyes, and in his voice. Harley takes a step back, and Joker keeps on walking.
"But...wait...that's not..." There are no words. Suddenly, nothing is making sense. The world seems to have stopped moving. There is a ringing in her ears. What's happening? Why is it happening?
Joker stops, his head turning to his left. The big steel cylinder gleams menacingly in the beam of light coming from the open ledges. He punches in a few numbers, and the monstrous thing, bigger even than Batman himself, comes to life with an ominous ticking. 20 minutes, it announces to the room, 20 minutes to explosion.
20 minutes.
"NO!"
Joker is unmoved by her sudden cry. He just drops his head a little, sighs a bit, and that, Harley realizes somewhere in the back of her head, is probably the most real emotion he has ever shown anyone else other than herself. His hand is still resting on the shell of his stolen prize.
"No, you can't...After everything you've done...Everything you've worked for..."
Harley's knees are weak. This isn't funny! Not funny at all...
"You've come so far, Puddin'...The mayor's dead, all of Batman's blood is rushing to his head, Arkham is loose all over the city...You've come so far, you can't just...just blow it up..."
She just barely gets the last phrase out of her throat and past her lips. And then, without warning --
"That's crazy."
Now he turns to look at her, and when he does, his eyes are blank, empty. When he speaks, his voice is hollow.
"...No. No it's not...I'm not crazy..."
Harley is crying. It feels like she's been crying for hours, but has only realized it. She wipes her tears away, the white make-up on her face going with them.
"No...of course not...I guess...I just don't get the punchline anymore."
That voice again. She realizes exactly who is talking now, exactly whose hand it is pulling her cowl and her eyemask off. She can hear that same voice now in her head, begging her to try and keep it together, to reel everything in, to get ahold of herself...
"...Harley..."
Her name. He said her name. And it was soft, and quiet, and affectionate...
"No...No, you can't..."
"But I can, Harley-girl. I can. And I will. And you'll be with me when I do. It's what you want, isn't it?"
He's walking towards her, and then his hands are on her shoulders, but all Harley can do is stare at him.
"Fireworks, pooh, lots of 'em, shooting up into the sky. You've always liked fireworks..."
"...Can't...not you..."
"Give Daddy a hug, kiddo. Everything's going to be just fine..."
She pushes him away, horrified and yet relieved at the same time to be out of his embrace when he had so willingly pulled her into it.
"...Harley?"
Gordon's gun is lying on the floor. He'd never gotten a chance to shoot it at anyone, she had let him have it with her mallet as soon as he'd come through the doorway...
"...Harley Quinn, what are you thinking?"
Her hands are trembling in front of her, the cold of the steel penetrating through the leather gloves. Tears are spilling freely down her cheeks now. Joker puts his hands up in surrender slowly, confused.
"Mister J..." It's Harleen now who pleads with him, and Harley who is crying out for some semblance of sanity.
An eyebrow goes up on his pale face.
"You wouldn't dare."
She lets out a sob, the shaking of her hands more visible now.
"You're right...I w-wouldn't...I couldn't...I'm too scared..."
She turns the gun around so that now the handle is offered to him, the barrel pointing at her.
"Q-Quinn..." Batman's voice is weak from dizziness.
"I can't do it. You do it, Mister J. I'm too scared...I'll just mess it up...Please..."
His face still showing confusion, Joker slowly reaches out a hand and takes the gun by the handle, and Harley lets go.
"Joker, NO!" Batman manages to holler, struggling against his bonds.
"All these years...all these years I tried to protect you...I hated seeing you hurt...Hated it when Batman beat you up...I can't watch...I don't want to see you die, I can't..."
Joker closes the gap between them, and Harley puts a hand around the barrel of the gun and presses the mouth of it to her chest, over her heart, a heart that still beats defiantly and loudly despite her resolve. Her Mister J is quiet.
15 minutes.
"You don't have a lot of time, Puddin'."
In the vast silence of the room, the sound of the gun cocking echoes and bounces off the columns and walls.
"You were always so good to me, Harls..."
Harley gives him a faint smile through her tears. "I wanted you to be happy. I just wanted you to be happy."
There's a scuffling somewhere off to the side, but Harley doesn't hear it, not really. She can't really hear anything now but the sound of his voice. Can't see anything but the pale blue of his face. Can't feel anything but the closeness of his body to hers.
"I'm going to miss you, Harley Quinn."
"Not if I miss you first."
"...That doesn't make any sense."
Even at the very end, they still had it.
She smiles at him again.
"Say it, Harley."
"I love you, Mister J."
"I know. Now, say it."
"...Finish it."
The gun goes off with a sound like an explosion. Harley's body crumples to the ground, and Joker, gun still held aloft, ears ringing from the echo of the blast, stares down at it, not sure what it is he's feeling.
"...Harley."
For a moment, he half-expects her to turn her head, smile her silly little smile at him, and say, "Made ya look!" or "Yes, boss?" But Harley doesn't move, doesn't speak. He bends down and gently closes her unseeing eyes once and for all with his fingers.
A beeping alerts him to the fact that Batman has disabled the bomb, and he turns now, just in time to see Batman coming at him to tackle him. He sidesteps him, but only narrowly, and as he runs for the door, trying to escape, only a singular thought crosses his mind.
Even in death, Harley Quinn has managed to mess up his plan.
It will be weeks before Batman crosses paths with the Joker again. And when he does, he will find that while Joker is still deranged, still psychopathic, still dangerous, something about him has changed. He will realize that something is missing. He will realize that the small dark rim around the Joker's purple pupils is a sadness that the Joker himself either isn't aware about, or refuses to acknowledge.
As the dawn creeps up above the skylines of Gotham City, Batman returns to the hall. Joker has escaped him again.
Gordon has managed to cut himself loose with a knife Joker had dropped during an earlier scuffle. When Batman returns, Gordon is kneeling by Harley's body, turning her onto her back.
They bury her away from her family, in an unmarked grave.
"She deserves better," Batman says as Gordon begins to shovel dirt into the hole.
"Why do you say that?" Gordon asks him.
"She's been wronged enough."
"...We'll make sure the Joker knows where we've put her."
2 days later, a small vase with a singular rose is found half-buried into the soil.
"Hope you're still laughing with me. -J."
~ END. ~
========================================
Title: The End Of The Rope
Pairing: The Joker/Harley Quinn
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Joker finally cracks a joke that Harley doesn't get the punchline of. And it's not a very good joke either. (I warn you now, this is gonna be pretty angsty.)
Author's Notes: This is my first Joker/Harley fic. I would REALLY appreciate comments. Positive comments are good, of course, but concrit is very much appreciated. And I MEAN concrit. I also know that nothing I ever write will ever be at the level of
clownyprincess, who is just phenomenal, but hey, a girl can dream. :DX-posted to:
marcianafics, lady_tavington, jokerxharley========================================
A Joker x Harley Quinn fanfic
by MARCIANA (
lady_tavington)Rated PG-13
O heavens, is 't possible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as [an old] man's life?
~ William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Act IV Sc. 05, lines 183-184
"You're crazy."
The mere mention of the word had sent her into a furious tizzy. Barely registering what her body had been doing at the time, she had jumped off her seat and flipped the table over. Startled and incredulous, Gordon had stood up from his seat as well, backing up as Harley raged forward.
"Crazy?! ME?!"
Her Harley voice had given way to her actual voice, the voice of a woman she had long wanted to sever ties with, but could never quite seem to get the job done.
"So I shot my mom and my dad straight in the head. So I burned down my sister's house. Big freakin' deal! The turkeys deserved it after everything they'd ever done to me! And now...now I rob myself a little jewelry store trying to get me some class, and you call me CRAZY?!"
But of course, that was NOT the reason Gordon, his voice barely above a whisper, had called her crazy. No. It was of course...
"Listen to me, Harleen--"
She had backhanded him, reminding herself of him, and had felt extremely good about it as well. The alarms in the room had gone off as the door opened a fraction, but she was there with a chair before anyone could get in.
"I told you, Commish. I don't answer to my slave name."
"We can help you--"
"I DON'T NEED ANY HELP! It's you! It's this whole stinkin' city! It's that self-righteous jerk prancing around in a ridiculous leather cape with rat ears! It's each and every single one of you 'civilized' people. YOU!"
She had ripped off her cowl, letting her unruly blond hair fall about her face. Gordon's cheek had an imprint of the back of her hand. Harley had found it a pleasing sight, and a smirk had crossed her face at the thought that she could inflict that much pain as to leave a mark on the old man's face. When she had begun to talk to him again, her voice had become a low, quiet register.
"I am not crazy. It's you. It's them. It's him. Me and Mister J...We know the truth. And the truth is...this life? This whole city? It's one big joke. A really bad joke. And nobody -NOBODY- gets the punchline. YOU don't get the punchline. Batman doesn't get the punchline. Which makes us smarter than you. And that's why you're calling me crazy - So you've got a good reason to throw me back into Arkham. Well, I tell you now, Mr Man, I ain't going back to that godforsaken hellhole. Not now, not ever."
That had been 3 days ago. She had gotten out of there with nary a scratch. Mister J had found her and had taken her to the warehouse. He demanded to know what she'd been asked, and what she'd told the police. She, of course, told him the truth - Since she knew nothing, she told them nothing.
In retrospect, Gordon had been right. It should've bothered her that Joker hadn't let her in on the plan. All she'd been told was what she had to do, and that was distract the police by pulling off a jewel heist. When Gordon had pointed this out, she'd passed it off with a simple, "Mister J once told me that the best jokes are the ones where you don't see the punchline coming."
And she hadn't. She hadn't seen this coming. Not at all.
To her left, Gordon is tied to a column, gagged with a pair of socks. Just beside him, Batman is hanging upside down, also tied. The building they are in isn't finished yet, just all open ends and steel posts and beams. And there, in front of her, staring out at the dark city with its deceptively cheerful twinkling lights, is the man she adores. The man she's willing to do anything for. The man she's already given up so much for. The man she loves to a fault.
He is unnervingly quiet, his hands clasped behind his back, his head slightly bowed. He's not moving, but Harley can practically see the wheels in his head turning. There's never a moment where Mister J isn't thinking about something. That's just the way geniuses really are, she guesses.
Harley would smile if only the situation wasn't so...serious.
"The city?" she finds herself asking him again, as if she hasn't already heard it twice. "The entire city?"
Joker doesn't even turn his head, doesn't relax his stance. "Yes, Harl. The entire city." His tone is low, almost sad. So very scarily unlike him.
Harley's feet take slow, uncertain steps towards him, her mouth slightly ajar, her heart pounding in her ears. Why? Why this? Why now? What is he thinking? "The babies? Me?...You?"
"...Yes, Harl."
The answer is so simple, and yet it confuses her. She thinks, for one wild moment, that she misheard him. She realizes she has stopped walking, and that her Mister J has turned from the ledge and started walking towards her.
"Everyone?" Her voice is just a squeak now.
"EVERYONE." A flash of anger in his eyes, and in his voice. Harley takes a step back, and Joker keeps on walking.
"But...wait...that's not..." There are no words. Suddenly, nothing is making sense. The world seems to have stopped moving. There is a ringing in her ears. What's happening? Why is it happening?
Joker stops, his head turning to his left. The big steel cylinder gleams menacingly in the beam of light coming from the open ledges. He punches in a few numbers, and the monstrous thing, bigger even than Batman himself, comes to life with an ominous ticking. 20 minutes, it announces to the room, 20 minutes to explosion.
20 minutes.
"NO!"
Joker is unmoved by her sudden cry. He just drops his head a little, sighs a bit, and that, Harley realizes somewhere in the back of her head, is probably the most real emotion he has ever shown anyone else other than herself. His hand is still resting on the shell of his stolen prize.
"No, you can't...After everything you've done...Everything you've worked for..."
Harley's knees are weak. This isn't funny! Not funny at all...
"You've come so far, Puddin'...The mayor's dead, all of Batman's blood is rushing to his head, Arkham is loose all over the city...You've come so far, you can't just...just blow it up..."
She just barely gets the last phrase out of her throat and past her lips. And then, without warning --
"That's crazy."
Now he turns to look at her, and when he does, his eyes are blank, empty. When he speaks, his voice is hollow.
"...No. No it's not...I'm not crazy..."
Harley is crying. It feels like she's been crying for hours, but has only realized it. She wipes her tears away, the white make-up on her face going with them.
"No...of course not...I guess...I just don't get the punchline anymore."
That voice again. She realizes exactly who is talking now, exactly whose hand it is pulling her cowl and her eyemask off. She can hear that same voice now in her head, begging her to try and keep it together, to reel everything in, to get ahold of herself...
"...Harley..."
Her name. He said her name. And it was soft, and quiet, and affectionate...
"No...No, you can't..."
"But I can, Harley-girl. I can. And I will. And you'll be with me when I do. It's what you want, isn't it?"
He's walking towards her, and then his hands are on her shoulders, but all Harley can do is stare at him.
"Fireworks, pooh, lots of 'em, shooting up into the sky. You've always liked fireworks..."
"...Can't...not you..."
"Give Daddy a hug, kiddo. Everything's going to be just fine..."
She pushes him away, horrified and yet relieved at the same time to be out of his embrace when he had so willingly pulled her into it.
"...Harley?"
Gordon's gun is lying on the floor. He'd never gotten a chance to shoot it at anyone, she had let him have it with her mallet as soon as he'd come through the doorway...
"...Harley Quinn, what are you thinking?"
Her hands are trembling in front of her, the cold of the steel penetrating through the leather gloves. Tears are spilling freely down her cheeks now. Joker puts his hands up in surrender slowly, confused.
"Mister J..." It's Harleen now who pleads with him, and Harley who is crying out for some semblance of sanity.
An eyebrow goes up on his pale face.
"You wouldn't dare."
She lets out a sob, the shaking of her hands more visible now.
"You're right...I w-wouldn't...I couldn't...I'm too scared..."
She turns the gun around so that now the handle is offered to him, the barrel pointing at her.
"Q-Quinn..." Batman's voice is weak from dizziness.
"I can't do it. You do it, Mister J. I'm too scared...I'll just mess it up...Please..."
His face still showing confusion, Joker slowly reaches out a hand and takes the gun by the handle, and Harley lets go.
"Joker, NO!" Batman manages to holler, struggling against his bonds.
"All these years...all these years I tried to protect you...I hated seeing you hurt...Hated it when Batman beat you up...I can't watch...I don't want to see you die, I can't..."
Joker closes the gap between them, and Harley puts a hand around the barrel of the gun and presses the mouth of it to her chest, over her heart, a heart that still beats defiantly and loudly despite her resolve. Her Mister J is quiet.
15 minutes.
"You don't have a lot of time, Puddin'."
In the vast silence of the room, the sound of the gun cocking echoes and bounces off the columns and walls.
"You were always so good to me, Harls..."
Harley gives him a faint smile through her tears. "I wanted you to be happy. I just wanted you to be happy."
There's a scuffling somewhere off to the side, but Harley doesn't hear it, not really. She can't really hear anything now but the sound of his voice. Can't see anything but the pale blue of his face. Can't feel anything but the closeness of his body to hers.
"I'm going to miss you, Harley Quinn."
"Not if I miss you first."
"...That doesn't make any sense."
Even at the very end, they still had it.
She smiles at him again.
"Say it, Harley."
"I love you, Mister J."
"I know. Now, say it."
"...Finish it."
The gun goes off with a sound like an explosion. Harley's body crumples to the ground, and Joker, gun still held aloft, ears ringing from the echo of the blast, stares down at it, not sure what it is he's feeling.
"...Harley."
For a moment, he half-expects her to turn her head, smile her silly little smile at him, and say, "Made ya look!" or "Yes, boss?" But Harley doesn't move, doesn't speak. He bends down and gently closes her unseeing eyes once and for all with his fingers.
A beeping alerts him to the fact that Batman has disabled the bomb, and he turns now, just in time to see Batman coming at him to tackle him. He sidesteps him, but only narrowly, and as he runs for the door, trying to escape, only a singular thought crosses his mind.
Even in death, Harley Quinn has managed to mess up his plan.
It will be weeks before Batman crosses paths with the Joker again. And when he does, he will find that while Joker is still deranged, still psychopathic, still dangerous, something about him has changed. He will realize that something is missing. He will realize that the small dark rim around the Joker's purple pupils is a sadness that the Joker himself either isn't aware about, or refuses to acknowledge.
As the dawn creeps up above the skylines of Gotham City, Batman returns to the hall. Joker has escaped him again.
Gordon has managed to cut himself loose with a knife Joker had dropped during an earlier scuffle. When Batman returns, Gordon is kneeling by Harley's body, turning her onto her back.
They bury her away from her family, in an unmarked grave.
"She deserves better," Batman says as Gordon begins to shovel dirt into the hole.
"Why do you say that?" Gordon asks him.
"She's been wronged enough."
"...We'll make sure the Joker knows where we've put her."
2 days later, a small vase with a singular rose is found half-buried into the soil.
"Hope you're still laughing with me. -J."
~ END. ~
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