Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

Obviously The Joker's plan for Eleanor and The Batman was on hold, probably indefinitely. He had other, bigger things to think about now.



And so did she. For the first time in the last few months, The Joker was actually acknowledging his relationship with Eleanor, and treating her as someone who was in this mess with him. Which was exactly what she wanted now. The cops were suspicious about her involvement with him, and now all she wanted to do was help him stay the hell out of prison, and "be" with him.



He took her to the kitchen area where his henchmen were still paying their poker game. All eyes turned to The Joker and Eleanor, standing there together.



"NOW. Listen up, men." he said, rubbing his gloved hands together. "There's a liiiiittle problem here. Just, something little. The cops are closing in on my good self sooner than I expected. Aaaand they've started asking my lady here questions. SO! Tonight's plan with The Batman is now off, until further notice."



The Italian guy shook his head, clearly pissed. "Okay, so we've been sitting here all day, waiting for you to grace us with your presence, only for you to tell us that tonight's plan is off?"



The Joker didn't rise to that and looked unphased. "Do you have a problem with this, Mr Belluci?"



"You're fuckin' right I have a problem! I was expecting big bucks for tonight's work, you've ripped me off!" The Italian guy wasn't happy.



"Oh I seeeee. You think I foresaw this whole situation, hmm? You think I knew the cops would be harrassing my dear beautiful Ellie, and I set you men up just to piss you all off, hmm?" The Joker was getting agitated.



"Everyone knows what you do." The Italian hissed, standing up from the table. "Like I told your dear ladyfriend earlier, you ain't nothin' but a two bit wack-job in a cheap purple suit and make up. You think you're the most feared man in Gotham, but ya know what? You're just a nothing. A NOBODY."



The other henchmen at the table were clearly stunned to silence. No-one on The Joker's "team" dared to speak like that to his face. Eleanor stood stock still by The Joker's side, her blood running cold, knowing that The Joker was probably going to react in typical fashion, to such blatant disrespect.



The Joker tutted, and shook his head, calmly fixing the glove on his right hand.



"I'm touched, Mr Belluci. Oh, and the suit, it wasn't cheap. Unlike yours, which clearly came from a discount store. And your fake Gucci watch, ooooh, very poor taste."



The Italian's face contorted angrily, and he pulled out a revolver from his pocket, cocking the barrel, and aimed it in The Joker's direction. The henchmen at the table stayed quiet and didn't react. Eleanor gasped and bolted to the side of the room.



"Ah ta ta ta ta!" The Joker warned the Italian guy, raising an eyebrow and shaking his head. "Somebody here is blowing things out of proportion. Buuuut...two can play that little game now, can't they?"



Without any warning, The Chechen lept up from the table and punched the Italian man square in the face, knocking him to the floor and the gun out of his hand. The Joker was impressed by The Chechen's loyalty, and casually walked over to where the Italian laid on the floor, his nose bleeding from contact with the Chechen's fist. The Joker bent over him, and pulled him up by the collar of his jacket, then reached into his trenchcoat pocket and brought out his switchblade. He held it up to the Italian's face, prodding the guy's mouth with it.



"Of course, you're right. I'm a nobody. I'll remember that, the next time the cops come to my lady's door telling her how dangerous I am. Pretty good for a nobody, don't you think...Mr Bell-uci?"



The Italian didn't answer, starting to shake and clearly regretting he had ever started this stand-off with The Joker.



The Joker prodded the corner of his mouth a little harder with the knife. "SO. I'm sure the big question on your mind right now is, how did The Joker get those scars? Hmm? Well, I'll tell ya."



Eleanor, over by the wall, put her head in her hands and turned away. "Nooo..." she whispered quietly to herself, feeling the nausea start to rise in her stomach again. She hated seeing The Joker like this. She did not condone this.



The Joker nodded thoughtfully at the Italian, and carried on. "See, Mr Belluci, I waaas...seventeen years old. Aaand...my father, a man I despised, had killed my mother, a few years before. All through my teens, I was depressed. So. One day, I flipped. I couldn't take it any more. The only way, to ease the pain and suffering, was to make myself smile again. So, feeling desperate, I took a kitchen knife to my face. And did this to myself, to force a smile back on my face again. And it worked! I've been smiling for eleven years! No need for me to be all serious lookin' any more...so, back to you, Mr Belluci. Why...so...serious?"



The Italian felt the blood run cold in his veins. He knew he couldn't get away now. The Joker looked him deeply in the eye, and very quickly, very smoothly, swiped the cold blade clean through the man's bottom lip and across his left cheek. Blood poured down his face, and he passed out from the pain and the shock. The Joker let go of his collar and casually let him drop to the floor again. He stood up, wiped the blood from the knife on the sleeve of his coat, and nonchalantly stepped over the unconscious Italian, walking back across the floor again. He slipped the knife back into his coat pocket, and started humming randomly to himself, as if nothing had happened.



The henchmen were quiet, and Eleanor's back was still turned, she was still unable to look. The Chechen was rather impressed by The Joker's smooth action against the Italian, and smiled at his boss as he lit another cigar.



"Let that be a lesson to you all." The Joker announced, wagging his finger in the air. "There will be no back stabbing in my team. Now, my lady and I have things to discuss, so if you'll excuse us for a while..."



He grabbed Eleanor by the arm and roughly hauled her out of the room.



"You didn't have to do that to the Italian guy!" she whined, "The Chechen took him down and got the gun out of his hand, isn't that enough?"



The Joker looked like he couldn't give a damn. "No."



"What are you gonna do, just leave the guy on the floor to bleed to death?"



The Joker again looked like he could've have cared less. "Yeah."



Eleanor shook her head and started to walk away. "I fucking hate this, Jack."



He followed her and pulled her back to him by the arm. "You got yourself mixed up in all this, sweetheart. You know what I'm like. Don't come crying to me when you don't like what I do."



Eleanor wriggled her arm out of The Joker's grasp and without even thinking, kicked him hard in the shin of his left leg, where it really hurt, and ran to the door of the warehouse. The Joker laughed, rubbing his leg. "Oh good shot, Ells! I like it when you get all feisty on me!"



Eleanor opened the door, but The Joker caught up with her and blocked her way out. "Ah ta ta ta ta, I don't know where you think you're going, bunny. We haven't finished business here, as you well know."



Eleanor glared at him and shook her head. "I don't wanna talk to you right now, you bastard."



"Oh, I'm a bastard now, am I? What about, oh Jack...please don't leeeeave me, I can't live without you, I loooove you, smoochy smoochy? Hmm? What about that, hmm?" The Joker mocked her.



"Yeah well, y'know what Jack? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I'm too fucked up by you to think straight any more. You're not worth any of this shit I'm going through! Maybe I should turn you in!" she shouted back, her face full of pure anger.



The Joker howled with laughter. "I'm sensing an anger problem here, bunny. Hmm? I'm gonna forgive you because it's probably just the hor-mones."



"Oh yeah, that's another thing." she scowled at him. "If I'm pregnant, then if you think I'm keeping it, you can go screw yourself! I don't want any other kid to have to go through this living hell with you!"



The Joker sucked air through his teeth and shook his head. "Cutting words, my dear Ellie, cutting words. Buuut, you didn't go through with it the first time, and I have compleeete faith that you won't go through it a second time. Y'see, unlike me, you haven't got it in you, to kill!"



"Well maybe you're wrong about that!" she goaded him back, completely riled up.



"I know I'm no-t." he smugly shot back with a smile, and roughly grabbed her by the waist and forced her body right into his, holding her by the hips. Her demeanor changed immediately, and she became instantly submissive, putting her arms around his waist and holding on to him. She laid her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes, still feeling totally confused by everything that was happening around her.



"There...see? Isn't that better?" The Joker said, nodding his head almost sympathetically, and running his gloved hands through Eleanor's long hair. "I know when you don't mean the things you say, bunny. I know that you'll do anything for me. Love is strange, as they say."



And he was right. Every time Eleanor had tried to think straight and push him away, she would just come running back to him again. In her case, the saying "Love is strange" was never a truer word spoken.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------



Eleanor had decided. She would give up pretty much everything she had, for The Joker. She realised just how crazy the whole thing really was. But what was the alternative...stay where she was in Gotham, with her cosy little life, or lose the man she loved, for good? The Joker was very persuasive and manipulative, he knew what strings to pull to get Eleanor to do what he wanted. And the thought of him being caught and facing the death penalty had cut her right down, it was something she couldn't comprehend. They had to get away. Now it was "them", and not just "him". The three of them. Which also meant that the almost unimaginable had to happen much sooner than expected. Father and son had to meet.



Before letting Eleanor go to collect Elijah from school, The Joker assured her he would sort them out a new life in another state. He wasn't sure where, how or what yet, but he told her to leave it in his hands. He had contacts and people everywhere. He was owed favours by other fellow criminals all over Gotham. It wouldn't be too hard to sort something out. Although, The Joker did need more money, if he was to make another life for himself and his new family. He could feel one more bank robbery on the cards, before heading out of Gotham for good. Just one last time.



He didn't, however, tell Eleanor of the latest plan brewing in his head. No, she didn't need to know. His ironic logic was, what she didn't know, couldn't hurt her. If she was pregnant, he knew she didn't need any more stress. Never mind the fact that she was giving up her life in Gotham, to head off to live in another state with a psychopathic criminal mastermind. That was stressful enough as it was. In his own strangely twisted way, he felt that by not telling her of his newly planned bank heist, he was protecting her.



In an unlikely breaking of his character, he gave Eleanor his cell phone number. Not the one the police had traced, but a different number using a different phone. Things were getting serious between he and Eleanor, even he knew that.



Back home after school, Eleanor sat her son down at the table before dinner, and told him she needed to explain to him a few things. She was incredibly nervous about explaining the situation to him, but she knew there was no way around it. It had to be done.



"We're going to be um...moving away from here, sport." she said at the table, looking Elijah in the eye.



"Why?" he asked. "I like it here. What's wrong mommy? You've been kinda funny for a long time now. You've gone all kinda weird!"



Eleanor smiled. He wasn't wrong there.



"I know, honey, I know. You see...I've um...been with a guy for a couple of months now. It's...hard to explain, sport. I used to know this guy a long time ago. He wasn't a nice man to other people, but he was nice to me. So he's my boyfriend again."



"You've got a boyfriend, mom?"



"Yeah. I do. Thing is sport, he's also your...he's your daddy."



Elijah looked confused. "My daddy?" he repeated. "But I thought I didn't have a daddy, cos he was a bad man."



"Yeah." Eleanor sighed. "He is a bad man to other people. But you must remember, that he won't hurt me or be bad to me. And he won't do anything to hurt you or be bad to you. He really won't."



Elijah looked unsure. "Okay mommy, but I don't really want a bad man to be my daddy."



Eleanor didn't really know what to say to that. "I...well...I know, honey. I wish he wasn't bad to other people either. I really do. But he would never hurt you or me, sweetie. He really wouldn't."



Elijah folded his arms in front of him on the table. "Okay then. So what's his name?"



Eleanor put her head in her hands for a moment. She knew this moment would come up. She had to face it. She looked up again, and sighed. "His name is Jack. But nobody knows that's his real name. Everyone knows him as something else, not Jack. He doesn't like anyone calling him Jack, you see."



"So what do people call him then, mom?"



Eleanor shifted nervously in her seat. "Please don't be scared, Elijah."



"Why would I be scared, mom? I just wanna know his name."



"I know, sweetheart. Listen...you know the guy you sometimes see on the news on TV? And you've seen his picture in the newspapers? The guy who has funny kinda make up on his face, and kinda green hair?"



Elijah nodded. "Yeah, I know that guy on the TV! He's always in trouble with the police and he's so weird looking!"



"Yeah, him. That's the guy. He's called The Joker, sweetheart."



Elijah smiled. "Oh wow! The Joker! Yeah the guy on the news. So The Joker is my daddy?"



Eleanor nodded. "Yes, he is. But you can't tell anyone else, Elijah. Nobody else knows anything about this. This is our big secret, okay? You really have to promise me you won't tell anyone else. If you do, someone might come and take you away from me, sweetheart...and I don't want that. I really don't."



"I don't want to be away from you either, mommy. I promise, I won't tell anyone The Joker is my dad."



"PLEASE don't tell anyone, honey. We have to keep it a secret from everyone, just until we move away from Gotham. We're gonna have a new life soon, honey, and we're gonna be with your daddy."



Elijah obviously didn't realise how big or how serious the situation was, which was no surprise at five years old. He seemed excited.



"When do I meet my new daddy?"



Eleanor shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure, but it will be real soon."



The kid smiled. "Cool!" and without another word, obviously with a short attention span, he got down from the table, and ran off to his room to play again.



Eleanor sat there at the table for a moment, thinking. It had all been much much eaiser than she had expected. But the next big thing would be, Elijah actually meeting his father for the first time. That was something Eleanor was nervous about, and it was going to happen for real now. And soon.



Nervously and away from Elijah, she called The Joker's number on her cell phone.



"I've told him, Jack."



"Goooood! How did he uh, take it?"



"Really well, considering. I don't think he understands how big any of this is, Jack. He's only five. He doesn't realise. But...that's the first step over with. Now, well...I guess you have to meet each other face to face."



"And I'm lookin' forward to it, Ells. In all honesty! I'll take the make up off and everything, just for my mini bunny! What'cha think?"



"Um...yeah. It's a start I guess. I was thinking we could...well...meet up tonight?"



"Oh Ells, I'd love to, buuuuut uh...there's something I have to do first. Just something little."



"Jack! You're not doing something crazy, are you? Come on Jack, stay out of trouble, it's not gonna help us get away from here any easier!"



"I'm not causing any trouble, Ells. I just need some help with somethin', that's all. No need to worry your pretty little head, bunny. Tell ya what, you and the boy come see me here tomorrow. Might be too risky for me to come over to your house, what with all the neighbours and their twitchin' curtains. How 'bout it, Ells?"



"Okay. Okay. I'll be in touch tomorrow. I'll explain everything to Elijah and then I'll take him round. But Jack...please, no stupid stuff tomorrow. I want your henchmen out of the way when I take Elijah to see you. I don't want any shit. You got that?"



"Oh crystal clear, my dear, crystal clear. I'll look forward to it, bunny."



"Okay...Jack?"



"Yeessss?"



"I love you."



"Uh...yeah."



"You're not gonna say it back?"



"Why would I?"



"Because you love me?"



"If you say so, bunny. I gotta shoot now, places to go, people to meet, yadda yadda yadda."



He hung up on her before she had the chance to say goodbye, which she now expected anyway. She didn't even want to think about what he was doing tonight,and how illegal and highly dangerous it probably was. She just hoped he wouldn't get caught, tonight of all nights. Then the rest of their plans together would already be pointless anyway.



"Stay out of trouble just this once, Jack." she murmered to herself.