I stared at the ring in awe.
"Harley..."
"What is this?"
Jack took the ring from the box and slowly slid it onto my finger.
"This is us. I want us to be-"
"No, this isn't the answer Jack," I groaned, twisting the ring around my finger, "we don't need a ring and some papers to prove anything."
He tightened his jaw and frowned, his face creased from years of worrying looks.
"Don't you see?" I started, "we don't get a normal life. We're wanted criminals, we've made our decisions to get here and we can't take it back. Marriage...it's pointless. We don't get settle down and start a family living in a suburb house where you work until 5 and I have dinner ready for you when you get home. Marriage is making a statement that we don't need to."
He nodded solemnly, "I get it. I can't say I'd take any of it back, if I did, I wouldn't have met you. And as much as I hate to admit it, I need you."
I laughed, "you hate it that much?"
"I'm not used to depending on the strength of others," he confessed. I took the ring off my finger and held it between us.
"We'll give it to her, the baby, and she can keep it."
"Eh, I don't think it will fit," he joked. But his smile faded and he turned away.
"What? What's wrong?" I asked. He looked back at me, his eyes cold and serious.
"Who...who is...ah, nothing," he trailed off.
"Who is who?"
"Forget it," he smiled. But his face told me not to push for answers.
"Well, now that you're back, we told Falcone it's happening tonight."
"Hahaha, great! Oh how I've missed that bat!"
"If it turns out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, killing him will really tear this city apart."
Jack sighed, "The truth is Harls, I find myself in a very tri-cky situation here. I don't want Batman dead, where would the fun be in that? But we need Falcone on our side in this war, and we must honour what he wants. Do you see?"
"I get it."
Whenever he began to talk about Batman, he began to sound more and more like his old self.
"So we have so kill the bat. It's a sacrifice for me. A sacrifice of fun."
He rose to his feet and offered me a hand.
"Shall we?"
******************
After several debates on whether I was allowed to go with them, the group and I sat in the taxi cab - that Ivy had acquired - at the gates of the Falcone residence. We had weapons. Knives. Guns. The lot.
I still had the gun I'd stolen from batman, but I had no intention of returning it.
We looked remarkable under our black coats and disguises. Ivy wore close to nothing, her outfit fashioned from green cloth and ivy. Riddler kept his green suit and hat and had acquired a cane too. Crane wore a dusty looking black suit with his scarecrow mask hidden in a bag. Joker had his beautiful purple coat. He had painted his face for this night. His skin was chalk white, his hair green, his eyes dark and his lips tinted red with the smile to complete the look.
As for me, Ivy and Riddler had designed something for me without my knowledge. I had black leather boots, the sturdy kind, up to my calves. My pants were tight but stretchy and looked leather. One leg was red which blended into black on the other leg. These were held at my waist with a thick black belt. My top was corset like, black and red, with buckles. It was short and showed my stomach. My hair had been pulled up into a high ponytail with some loose strands let down. They'd painted my face too, pale white with red lips, and given me a black mask. But all of this was hidden under the long black coat.
