Chapter Text
“This is bad” Frost said to Ken. He looked at the security camera footage and nodded.
It was bad.
Although they couldn’t see a face they could distinctly make out the pattern on the baby blanket. Harley had drawn the pattern herself before finding someone to print it on the crisp pink sheet. It was covered in little diamond shapes and jester hats, with little ‘haha’s’ mixed in.
“Damn it” Rocco said over Ken’s shoulder when he saw the screen. “Yep, that’s her. I’m a dead man” He hung his head in defeat. “Maybe, maybe not. For now, let’s table this until after we talk to those two nurses.” Ken said memorizing their faces so he could scout the hospital for them.
“This is the first solid lead we’ve had. He’s gotta tell them. I was surprised I wasn’t dead already. Now with this I’m definitely a goner” Rocco said letting out an exasperated sigh.
He’d been here that night and his room was two doors down from the nursery. He guessed in their grief, the dead nanny was enough to pacify them but it had been a few weeks since the disappearance of their child. This new information would be the death of him. Someone had managed to sneak in that night and take their baby girl with him that close. The only thing that was keeping him alive was the assumption that it had been that morning when he was out with the boss. “The time on that tape is twelve thirty in the morning. We didn’t leave until seven to make the pick up. Harley called at ten. This one is on me.” This was one time Rocco was happy he had no family. No one would miss him. “Take a walk. I’ll tell him and we’ll see what happens” Frost said, standing. He could tell Rocco wasn’t pleased with his solution, but that wasn’t his problem.
*-*
It was late and the only light in the room was the moonlight coming through the window. The room felt like death personified. Harley sat in a corner rocking back and forth almost like she was in a trance. Every once in a while, she would giggle but the laughter would quickly die on her lips. Then the tears would start, she’d rock some more and the cycle would begin again. The Joker appeared just as miserable. He kept ripping up tissue paper and resembling it bit by bit piece by piece. Like a paper puzzle. He had carved smiles and ‘haha’s’ in to the walls and even the carpet. There was broken glass covering a large amount of the floor and the baby’s bassinet had been ripped to shreds.
Quietly Frost opened the door. Neither acknowledged his presence. He gently cleared his throat and two pairs of dead eyes looked at him intently. They had slowly dissolved to this state of insanity after Susie Q went missing. At first there had been a lot of anger. They had fought viciously with one another. Both were still sporting bruises and wounds that hadn’t healed yet. The Joker had eventually locked them both up here when the crying began and they hadn’t been out since.
That was a week ago.
Sometimes he would bring them food and check to be sure they were still alive. Bud and Lou laid at their door like guard dogs, daring anyone to enter. “We have a small lead I thought you’d want to know about” Frost said keeping his cool. He had never seen them like this. It was an all new terrifying low. The eyes on him didn’t even blink. “She was taken to the hospital and dropped off with two nurses. Ken is working on Id’ing them now. “
“Who took her?” The Joker asked finally speaking. He sat still as a statue, he barely looked as if he was breathing. “We’re still working on it.” Frost said quietly. Harley burst into tears at his words and Joker stared at her as if she were a stranger. He looked completely lost and confused. The two hyenas pushed past Frost to comfort their ‘mommy’. One licked at her tears and the other laid across her lap. She didn’t even spare them a glance as she quieted and began rocking again.
Frost slowly backed out of the room and closed the door. He’d omitted revealing the time frame because in all his years he’d learned one thing from his boss; a man with nothing to lose fought the hardest. With Rocco thinking he was already a dead man, Frost knew he would throw him self in to searching for the baby.
Once he was gone, Harley crawled over to the Joker. At first he was hesitant as she crawled on his lap. Even though for the past week they had been locked in this room together, the only touch that had been shared between them had been hate-filled. She nuzzled under his neck like a cat seeking warmth. He didn’t wrap his arms around her, but he didn’t push her off either. They sat like that for awhile. A long while.
He was not used to feeling this way. Love was inherently a foreign concept for him. He understood it to some extent. He knew how it worked. He’d used it as a weapon against others for years. He just wasn’t used to feeling anything akin to it until Harley entered his life. She was slowly, very slowly, reviving that part of him.
He hated her for it.
And now he hated that thing she called his daughter, but the only thing he wanted was to get her back. She was his after all.
And no one took what was his.
No one.
The fake smile he’d painted on his lips was slightly obscured by her uncoordinated fingers as Harley rubbed at his face. He had forcibly painted a matching one around hers as well, but her constant tears had quickly dissolved it.
His face was wet with quietly shed tears. Her voice broke as she spoke. “Puddin?” No response. “Mistah J?” she tried again.
He abruptly stood, dumping her on the floor. “Get dressed, Pumpkin. We’re going out” he said over his shoulder as he determinedly strode to the bathroom to shower. “Oh goodie!” Harley squealed in delight.
Her joy was underscored by sadness, but right now she’d take all the joy she could get.
This night was going to be one for the history books.