Who You Really Are - Batjokes

VI

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Light
Bruce felt warm rays of sunshine tickle him awake from what felt like a hundred years of sleep. Slowly, he opened his eyes and tried to scan his surroundings. As he realised he was inside his room, he tried sitting up but was stopped by a painful ache inside his chest. That was when he started remembering what happened or at least what he could remember, the last parts of it returned as his eyes fell onto the bandages covering his chest and arm, though he felt one wrapped around his head as well.
'Alfred!', he remembered Joker scream in despair and Bruce felt like the pain in his heart caused by the memory was even more painful than the pain in his chest was that night.
"Alfred?", he then asked and looked towards the door. As if he had stood behind it, only waiting for Bruce to wake up, the butler immediately walked in and approached his master's bed.
"Sir, you're awake. Oh thank goodness, I am so glad"
"Thank you for coming", Bruce smiled weakly and shifted slightly.
"How long was I out?"
Alfred looked to the side as if to hide his face in embarrassment.
"It's been four days, Master Bruce. Four long days that felt like weeks, your condition was already critical when you arrived but it almost worsened two nights after that."
"What happened?"
"That.. Bane seemed to have taken quite the toll of you, I'm afraid. You arrived with a broken arm, several broken ribs, major trauma to the head and worst of it all, a punctured lung. You almost would've suffocated if our patient hadn't saved you."
"Saved me?"
"He sat awake by your side the whole night when you were still being treated down in the Batcave. When your condition went critical, he immediately called for me and assisted me quite decently, I have to admit."
Bruce felt at loss for words, despite everything that's happened, he never would've expected something this.. kind from the clown. That's when he remembered him saying "I've changed and you need to know that, you can't go before you've seen it."
"He was right", Bruce coughed with a slight smile and Alfred gave him a confused look.
"If I may inquire Sir, who was right with what?"
"He told me he's changed. Those weren't just words, Alfred. He has changed and he's proven it, that means there's hope"

Finally, Bruce was able to sit up the next morning, though something more severe than his injuries was plaguing him ever since he's woken up: The future.
Alfred had enlightened him on what exactly has happened, that Joker somehow managed to escape his cell but instead of fleeing, he only meant to save Bruce and the security footage Bruce later on went through proved it. He even returned to his cell without a complaint once Bruce's condition was stabilised, though he insisted on getting to guard him.
During those days with Bruce unconscious, Joker wasn't his normal self, he didn't sing nor dance or even tell any jokes. He sat within his cell, infecting the whole Batcave with a feeling of melancholy and emptiness, barely moving, not eating, just guarding Batman's body like it was the most precious, last beautiful thing on earth.
It made Bruce realise how much of Joker's being was influenced by Batman alone, he has always known the two of them needed each other but now it became cristal clear.
"Without you, crime has no punchline", Joker's told him many nights ago but the words only came to hit him just now, God knows what would've happened if Bruce had died there and God forbid what would've happened if he had died when Joker was still a maniac at large.
Still, it never came to that and Bruce was thankful, perhaps if it had been any other way, he wouldn't know what he knows now: Those feelings couldn't be faked, the feelings he claimed to feel were real.

That night, he decided to pay Joker a much needed visit. With great hardship he had only managed to squeeze himself into the tight suit and unwillingly loaded Alfred's back more than it should have had to endure.
"I'm sorry for causing you this misery", Bruce apologised shameful as the elevator took the two of them to the Batcave.
"Oh Sir, worrying for you to never come back for the past ten years has probably done my health more harm than this little bit of weight lifting"
This made Bruce smile a little, though he understood he has put his cherished butler through way too much ever since he started his crusade.
The door of the elevator opened and Joker didn't even look up when he asked with a tired voice "Bringing me more soup I won't eat, Alfie?"
"I'm afraid not", Batman answered in his usual tone but despite the lack of emotion in it, it was enough to make Joker's eyes almost pop out his skull as his head shot up and he stared at the Vigilante in shock.
"Bats?", he breathed into the thick air and Bruce had to smile a tad.
"In the flesh"
"You're back! You're alive and you're back and- you look awful", Joker giggled mischievously.
Bruce rolled his eyes in response.
"Thanks"
Alfred let go off supporting Batman's side and left to check on his gear. The Vigilante  staggered still a little weak over to the cell, trying to refrain from holding his aching chest as he did so.
"Easy there, Bats. You've just woken up I suppose, no need to squeeze yourself into that heavy thing right away!"
"I needed to thank you in person so I came as soon as I could gather the strength to."
"But you didn't need to suit all up for me!"
"It wasn't just for you", Batman tried to argue, failing the attempt to hide the fact he truly didn't have the city's safety as his first priority in mind this time.
"Gotham needs me, the city-"
"Bruce, drop the act, I know who you really are", Joker interrupted him before a warm smile graced his lips. Bruce froze and the whole cave suddenly went quiet. Not even a single bat screeched from above them, it was dead silent.
"You- you do?"
Joker nodded.
"What do you think, silly? That I buy that shit of Bruce Wayne letting Gotham's most dangerous villain live within his basement just because he's being a philanthrope again?
I mean, come on!"
Bruce suddenly felt quite embarrassed for not having come up with a better story, it was the only one he could think of at that time, though.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"And when would you think the best time would've been? 'Oh hey Bats I know you're kinda dying here but I know you're Bruce Wayne!'?"