Gotham's Unknown 3 Predator and Prey

Chapter 15: High Stakes

They spent a few days pumping Joker's corpse full of the strongest blood thinners on the market but thinning out his blood didn't seem to do the trick. "What are we missing?!" Daniel shouted as he paced the operating theatre. Sarah stared at her father then as she saw a small spark emanate from Daniel she realized what was wrong.
"Daniel take off one of your gloves!" She demanded as he looked at her.
"Ok?" He said as he did as he was told but was utterly lost. Sarah then took his hand and placed it on Joker's chest shocking him. Suddenly they could slowly see Joker's body repairing itself.
"It's working!!" She squealed as she hugged Daniel.
"Yeah it is..." Said Daniel as he started to second guess this whole bringing Joker back not for Sarah but just in general and he only started thinking this way because he didn't want to be present when Joker woke up. "Look you stay here, I'll be back." Said Daniel as he put back on his glove and walked off.
"Daniel where are you going?" Asked Sarah as she looked at him softly. Daniel couldn't even answer the question before she knew the answer. "You're still scared of him aren't you?" Asked Sarah as Daniel sighed.
"Sarah you're Dad actually said he was proud of me the day he died and I just don't know how he would feel if he knew I was the one orchestrating all this so I'd rather not stick around to have him try and kill me again or worse." Said Daniel as she held his hand.
"It's ok, I understand." Said Sarah as she smiled softly and Daniel walked closer and kissed her.
"I love you, Sarah." Said Daniel as she put her hand on his chest.
"I love you too." Said Sarah as they kissed once more but as their lips touched the heart monitor beeped its first beep to show Joker was actually alive. Daniel jumped at the sound and hurried off.

Sarah returned to her seat and stared at her Dad. "Three years without you and he's still scared of you..." Said Sarah with a smile as she sighed a happy sort of sigh. "I don't know if you can hear me but these past few years have been agony without you, even the rest of the city thinks so but that's probably because they don't know what happened to you, I made sure of that. This city wouldn't have understood and they would've hated the mere idea that you could actually save someone's life let alone mine. They probably would've called me a liar so the rest of the family and I kept it to ourselves." Said Sarah as she sighed. "I think Bruce will be happy to see you, he hasn't been the same since you died." Said Sarah she shook her head. "He actually retired from being Batman so no more having to sneak around, you can see him anytime you want now because he doesn't really run his company either." Said Sarah as she held her Dad's cold hand. "I think Adam is gonna love to see you again, your death was really hard on him. Honestly I think he blames himself and Lorraine would love to meet you, I think she idolizes you." Said Sarah as she started to tear up. Suddenly her father's fingers twitched and she leaned closer gently putting her hand on the side of his face. "Dad?" She asked softly as the wound he had sustained so very long ago was finally healed. She placed her other hand on his chest and stared at him as his eyes carefully blinked open. "Dad!" She said gleefully as he looked confused.
"Dad?" He questioned as he sat up. "Trust me sweet heart I ain't anybody's Dad especially not you." He said as he looked around. "Would you be a dear and tell me where I am and what exactly is going on here?" Asked Joker with a kind smile as Sarah backed away and sat down looking defeated. Joker stood but noticed the large hole in his vest and shirt which made him scoff. "And this was my favorite suit!" He said with a scowl as he looked down at Sarah. "From the look of you, you're quite a fan." Said Joker as he lifted her gaze by her chin. "Now why don't you answer some questions for me?" Asked Joker softly in a way that made Sarah's stomach turn because it was the same tone he used when seducing Harley into doing something she did not want to do.
"Fine but don't talk to me like that, like you're flirting with me it's absolutely disgusting!" Said Sarah she turned away. Joker grinned widely and got a good laugh out of her attitude.
"I like you sweetheart! Haha!" He laughed once more and slapped his thighs loudly.
"What do you wanna know?" Asked Sarah in a depressed kind of tone.
"Well first off why you look so much like a sad clown." Said Joker as he bent down to her level. "It's certainly not a good look on you, come on you'd look so much prettier if you gave me a smile!" Said Joker as Sarah shook her head.
"I don't feel like smiling..." Said Sarah in a depressed tone.
"Why not?" Asked Joker as he straightened up.
"Because you're the Joker!" Said Sarah as she stood.
"You say that like it's a bad thing!" Said Joker as he grinned widely but Sarah just had tears in her eyes that made his smile slowly fade.
"It's the worst thing in the world! The Joker was a monster! A monster that had a heart of gold he didn't even know about! The Joker denied that any part of him could care for anyone but himself! Then he found something else to care about not just someone he loved but someone that loved him unconditionally! That kind of love changes even the worst of people. Without that love you mean nothing to me!" Said Sarah as Joker just stood there.
"Huh... That's odd, not only did I just listen to every word you said but I actually care about everything you said... Odd..." Said Joker as he started to giggle a bit. "This reminds me of a joke I heard once, this little girl gets locked up in a Looney bin and turns out that the lunatics take her in treat her like one of their own then when she grows up she ends up running the place! Haha! How ridiculous right? It's absolutely mind boggling how she doesn't end up becoming exactly like the lunatics instead she devoted her life to helping them!" Joker then continued to chuckle to himself but Sarah realized that he had just rehashed her entire life so her Dad wasn't gone just locked away in a prison inside his own mind.
"Here let me answer those questions for you." Said Sarah as she sat him down and they talked.
"I really only have one, what happened to me?" Asked Joker as Sarah sighed a deep sigh.
"That's quite a long story." Said Sarah as she looked at him with this tender kind of look like it hurt just looking at him and remembering the story of her life and how she was now expected to be able to explain this story to the man who was at the center of it all.
"Well I got nothing but time." Said Joker as she nodded.
"I know, so I guess I should just start at the beginning." Sarah went on to explain the lush history of her father's life. How he fell in love with his greatest enemy and even had a child together. She explained that that child became the most important thing in Joker's life, so important that he had to make the toughest decision to give her up so that she could have a better life. She told him about how they met years later in Arkham when he saved her life. Ever since that day he devoted his life to making certain she would never have to suffer alone ever again. She told him about when she was sick and how it drove him mad feeling so useless but in the end it was his actions that saved her. She told him about her teenage years and how even if he disagreed with some of her decisions he was still incredibly supportive in his own ways. She told him about everything that mattered to their relationship and then finished it off with the day he died. "Abigail Dupont wanted to use you and I'm still not certain why, she always said you were important to her plans but what those plans were I can't say. All I know for certain is that I outlived my usefulness and so she was going to kill me but you refused to let that happen so you took a very special bullet for me. A bullet I knew you wouldn't survive, no one was meant to survive it. Surprisingly you were at peace with the thought of dying honestly I think it's because the last thing you did was a good thing." Said Sarah as she sighed. "Well that's it, that's everything you don't remember." Said Sarah as Joker just sat there silently.
"Huh..." He said as he thought about it deeply for a while. "I mean it all sounds familiar but it's still all foggy though my mind has been shot for as long as I can remember." Said Joker as Sarah nodded.
"I know." Said Sarah as she sighed. "But hopefully with a little help from your psychiatrist daughter, I can fix that mind of yours." Said Sarah with a smile.
"Stop me if I've asked this before but why do you have so much hope for me?" Asked Joker as Sarah lost her smile.
"No you've never asked me that before." Said Sarah as she smiled again but in a softer way. "I guess it's because you had so much hope in me." Said Sarah as he sighed happily. "You were the first person to ever save me. First person to ever see me as I truly was and not as you." Said Sarah as she looked at her father and had a soft smile on his face.
"Damn I wish I could remember having such a heroic spark." Said Joker as he did a sort of heroic pose and Sarah giggled which gave Joker this sort of warm feeling in his chest and he had no idea what it was but he knew it felt familiar and it felt nice. As Joker touched his chest he touched his skin and scoffed. "Right!" He growled as he looked down.
"I can go get you the other one." Said Sarah as Joker looked up and blinked.
"The other what?" Asked Joker as Sarah smiled and laughed a little.
"I guess you don't remember, a little over 20 years ago I think I was about 10 and I was trying to figure out a nice Christmas gift for you so I found Bruce's tailor and had him make an exact replica of your suit so if this one ever got battered beyond repair you had extra. It's completely untouched, I keep it at home in the back of my closet. I can go get it for you." Said Sarah as she smiled.
"That would be fabulous, sweetheart." Said Joker with a smile.

Sarah stepped out of the building and saw Daniel by his car smoking a joint. "So is he?" Asked Daniel as Sarah nodded.
"Mhm, I need your keys." Said Sarah as Daniel clutched his keys.
"Why?" Asked Daniel as he long drag off his joint.
"I need to go collect that suit I have for him and as you know my car is in the shop so I need to take yours." Said Sarah as Daniel held his breath for a moment. "So I need you to go keep an eye on him." Said Sarah as Daniel started coughing up smoke.
"What!?" He said as he coughed a bit more.
"Oh come on Daniel, it'll be fine! I promise." Said Sarah as Daniel shook his head as he finished coughing.
"Absolutely not! He'll cut my throat out for a laugh!" Said Daniel as he bent down and tapped out the butt of his joint.
"No he won't! He doesn't even remember you!" Said Sarah as Daniel stood up. "His mind isn't all there, I just spent the last hour reminding him of my entire life I highly doubt anything will go wrong if you go and sit with him for the 30 minutes it'll take me to get the suit and come back." Said Sarah as Daniel looked down at the ground.
"Did you tell him anything about me?" Asked Daniel as Sarah sighed.
"Only the good things, like how much I love you for bringing him back for me and how much I adore you and that you gave him a wonderful granddaughter who just adores him." Said Sarah as she rubbed his satin lapel with her thumb and talked in a sweet kind of voice.
"Fiiine!" Said Daniel as he threw his head back. "I'll go sit with your Dad." Said Daniel as he huffed.