Enough For Me (batjokes)

Breaking Out

A week or so after the market incident, Joker decided to bring Bear to the hospital to see Oswald for the first time.
He had just turned into room 112 when he saw Ed literally petting Penguin while reading him Don't Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus, just stroking his forehead.

"Hey Ozzie." Joker grinned, pretending to not have seen Riddler stroking Oswald's head. "I brought something for you."
Edward stepped back, and Penguin slightly sat up.
"What is it?" He asked.

Hugo Strange was right. Oswald's voice was getting extremely raspy.
Joker held out the puppy from inside his t-shirt. Oswald covered his mouth and screamed.
"Don't do that!" Called Riddler. Penguin reached out his arms to try to grab the dog.

"Since when did you get a little angel?" Penguin exclaimed, as Joker handed him Bear, who was of course excited to meet a new person. Bear licked all over Penguin's face.

"Last week when we went out to get the groceries. I've been saving him as a surprise until you were better, and now that you can sit up, you can see him. Oh, and his name is Bear." Joker said.
"Bear??" Penguin kissed the top of the dog's head happily.

Edward moved to sit down, smiling at Oswald and Bear. Joker smirked too- he knew that Penguin would love the puppy.
"I love him so much." Penguin said, cuddling the dog. "Can I keep him?"

"We'll have to talk about that." Joker said. "He would be safer with you, but I mean.. I kind of want him too, Y'know."
"Okay." Penguin smiled as Bear curled up and laid down on his lap. "He's so adorable."

Edward dug his phone out from his pocket and stealthy took a picture of Bear and Penguin. Joker saw, but Oswald didn't.
"Let's make a group chat. Here, I have your phone." Riddler handed Oswald's phone to him.

Joker added Riddler to a group chat and titled it "epic villains ❓🃏🐧" .
"Okay, cool." Oswald said, and texted "hello".

"Now you can text us when you need something." Joker said, and out his phone away. "Where's the doctor?"
"In the next room." Penguin said. "He checked on me this morning and said I might be able to leave in a coup of days."

"That's great!" Ed exclaimed. "Are you going back to the Iceberg?"
"No, I'm going to stay at Joker's tent for a little longer." Oswald answered, and softly pet Bear on the  nose.
"Oh." Nygma looked a little dejected.
"Where are you staying, Nygma?" Penguin asked, and Joker sat down in a chair.

"At my apartment." He said.
"Oh yeah." Oswald mumbled. "I'll visit you every day."
"You know you can stay with Edward if you want to." Joker smiled, looking between the two.
"But you have the dog. And clothes that actually fit me. Ed is too tall." Said Penguin.

Joker didn't say anything.
"I should've brought a jacket." Ed said, covering his bare arms. "It's December in Gotham, I don't know what I'm thinking."
"Yeah, I should've brought one too. I heard it's supposed to snow tomorrow." Joker said.
"You don't really get cold though." Edward said.

"Snow?" Penguin asked. "Are you kidding me? I'm missing the snow?" He moved his leg off of the bed.
"Oswald, get back under the covers!" Joker told him.
"I'm not missing a snow day, J." Oswald said, seemingly very determined.
"You're going to hurt yourself more and then you really won't be able to go outside." Nygma said.

Penguin moved Bear to the end of the bed. He swung his other leg off of the edge, until he was sitting on the side.
"What the fu-" Joker started, and Penguin tore the IV out of his chest. The heart monitor shut off. Edward put a fist to his mouth, gagging.

"Penguin!" Riddler put his hands up. "What are you doing?"
"I'm leaving today!" Oswald said. Joker and Nygma stared at him as he slid off of the bed to land on his knees. "Pl-plus it's better to leave now before the cops come and arrest us all."

"Genius." Nygma said. "But are you sure that you can make it out of here? It's a long walk to the tent."
"Of course I can." Penguin said, grabbing onto the side of the cot to pull himself up to his feet.

He was standing.

"Damn." Was all Joker could say. Oswald grabbed Bear in his arms.
"You surprise me every time that I see you." Riddler said, clearly as shook as the Joker was. "But maybe we should get you some decent clothes to walk home in- not just a flimsy hospital gown."

"Here." Joker pulled the blankets off of the bed and wrapped them around his friend. "I burritoed him."
"Excellent. Let's leave before Strange comes back." Said Riddler, and opened the window.
"He's not jumping down, Nygma!" Joker said. "It's a far drop, are you crazy?"

"I have a better idea." Oswald said. "Roll me down there. The blankets are cushiony so I won't get hurt."
"You'll fall on the pavement." Cringed Joker. "I'll go first so I can catch you after Ed throws you down."

"Okay." Riddler said, and stepped aside. Joker laughed and jumped out of the window. It wasn't a very long drop, but it hurt when he landed.
"Throw 'em down!" Joker called after a second. Edward disappeared from Joker's sight and a second later, Oswald came tumbling out of the window.

The Joker cracked up and caught him, nearly bringing himself down again as well. Then Nygma jumped down with Bear in his arms.
"Let's go." Ed said once he had recovered from the fall.
He put Bear on the ground so that he could hold the blankets on Oswald.

A freezing gust of wind whipped past them.
Oswald's teeth chattered.
"Actually, no-now I'm not sure if that was a great i-idea." He stuttered, and Joker wrapped his arms around his shoulders while they walked, trying to keep him warm.

"It's fine. Now you won't miss out on the snow tomorrow, too. We can build a snowman or something." Joker told them.
Riddler looked up. "Gray clouds. It's not going to snow tomorrow, it's going to snow today. We have to get inside."
"Freaking weather forecasts." Hissed Joker and they picked up their pace. "It's funny that the only thing to get you out of that bed was a dog and the mention of snow."

He told Penguin, who shrugged.
"We just broke out of a hospital." Edward said. "It sounds like we're mentally ill."