Asylum Romance (A Joker Story [Sequel to Turquoise punchline])

17: Stitches

When I woke up, I shot up from where I lay and let out a loud scream. I had forgotten about my injury, and it probably opened up from my stupid movement.

“Dammit, darling,” I heard a murmur, and turned to my left, in shock to find Jack was completely well and at my side almost immediately. “You’re going to rip your stitches.”

“What happened?” I spoke, stunned. “After Batman’s friend healed me?”

“You passed out, Gadget and a few other henchmen got a distress call from me, and they came as fast as they could. You’ve been unconscious for a week.”

“A week? Fuck! Whose been watching Kellen?”

He was hesitant. “I have been.”

I couldn’t speak. I was utterly stunned and speechless. 

He scoffed, rolling his eyes, shifting in a tense fashion. “You have little faith in my parenting skills.”

“Yes,” I said clearly without hesitation. “I do. I do indeed.”

“Well, he’s fine. And he’s grown more blue hair.”

“OH REALLY!” I squealed in delight, clapping my hands. “It’s a sign of beauty.”

He rolled his eyes. “For a woman, it’s quite beautiful.”

“Okay, our son is going to be badass, now hush, okay? He’s going to pull off the blue hair like you pull off the green hair. And if not, he can go get his hair dyed.” I shrugged, he nodded in agreement, finally calming down about Kellen.

“Yeah, my green hair is pretty awesome, so maybe he can pull off different color as well,”

“You’re so vain,”

“Yup, that’s true,”

I laughed and stood up, rubbing the top of his head, playing with his hair. “You silly, silly man,” I spoke lightly, then headed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To the room.”

“Why?”

“To see my son? Duh.”

He followed silently.

When we got to the room, I looked into the crib and smiled. There he was, sleeping soundly.

Jack’s hand rested on my lower back, and I turned to look at him, a small smile had appeared on his face. 

“How easy was it for you to care for him?”

He laughed as if the word ‘easy’ was a joke. “You’re not seriously implying it could have been easy, are you?”

“It’s easy to care for a baby,” I shrugged. “Feed him, change him, play with him, lull him to sleep. Not rocket science, my love.”

I was totally joking, though. It wasn’t that easy to care for a baby, but I loved the look of pure astonishment on his face.

“Get back to work,” I spoke softly, patting his face. “I gotta clean this house.” 

“You? Clean?”

“Yes, unlike some people.”

“. . . .I will have you know I am great at cleaning!”

I rolled my eyes, letting out the loudest chuckle I could possibly release. “You, my dear, never stop amusing me.”

“Good,” he spoke softly as I walked away.