Jigsaw Puzzle || The Joker x Reader

➟ Chapter Sixteen

"There's blood on my car," you complained as you tried to wipe it off the seat. "This stain better come out."

"You're the one who's bleeding," Joker replied, disregarding every law in the book to get back to the warehouse.

You coughed. "Yeah, but it still sucks."

Joker ignored you and was breathing deeply. His leg vibrated up and down and his fingers were twitching on the steering wheel.

"Hey," you muttered, reaching your free hand over to rest on his arm. "I'm not going to die. The bullet didn't hit any major arteries."

Joker glanced at you from the corner of his eye and managed to stop fidgeting from your words. He trusted you as a person and as a doctor and understood you knew what you were talking about.

Joker parked in the warehouse's garage and rushed out of the car to get to your side and scoop you up in his arms. He scaled the steps like an Olympic athlete and it made you grin slightly at how worried for you he actually was but didn't appear.

"Just toss me in a chair and get my medical bag from upstairs," you said.

Joker entered the main floor and hurriedly placed you on one of the dining room's chairs and made his way to your bedroom. You took your shirt off so you were in a bra in this time and examined the gash that had stopped bleeding. The pain from it numbed since you had enough time to get used to the throbbing and aches.

Joker marched in with the black bag in his hand and dropped it on the table beside you. He pulled up a chair across from you and didn't seem to notice your lack of clothing, which you appreciated. You opened the bag and took out a pair of silver tweezers.

"Aren't you unqualified for this since you're a psychologist, not a medical doctor?" Joker questioned and you knew it was to distract you from the inevitable pain.

You cleared your throat and put the tweezers to the laceration. "I have basic training in other areas as well," you answered.

You took a breath and dug the tweezers into your abdomen without making any other sounds besides the one of slippery flesh parting as you searched for the bullet. The tweezers hit something you knew wasn't bone and you quickly clipped it between the prongs and pulled it out, then dropped both the bullet and tweezers on the table, ignoring the pain you felt once again.

"That looked like it hurt," Joker observed as he rested his elbows on his knees.

You snorted at that. "No shit, because it did." That made Joker smile.

You grabbed a tiny plastic box and took from it a long thread and needle. Carefully tying it, you then pinched your skin together and began stitching it for almost ten minutes before finishing and cutting the remaining string.

"Shouldn't you have cleaned it?"

You stood up. "I'm taking a shower anyway, so it won't make a difference," you responded, reaching to discard the items and pack your supplies back but Joker stopped you.

"I'll do it. Go ahead," he said.

"Okay," you replied and walked to the door without argument.

Taking it slow, you made it up the stairs and let yourself process the events that happened. For a while, you believed you would have died. You didn't think Joker would save you, but he did, and he was scared for a time. It hit you hard to know there was someone like him who looked at you like you were a warrior and also something too rare and precious to hurt. And you hadn't even realized it until you got shot.

You walked into the bathroom in your own room and gingerly showered away the remnants of the day and strayed carefully around your wound but cleaned it thoroughly. You stepped out of the shower and saw your face in the mirror. There was a light purple bruise on the bottom of your jaw but it was hardly noticeable. Walking back into your room, you dried your body, then threw on your undergarments before sliding open the top drawer of your dresser.

Your hands paused for a second on the clothing you were going to choose, but moved over to a dark green dress shirt--one you had stolen from The Joker for undisclosed reasons. Without a second thought, you pulled it over your head and it flowed around you as it was a larger size than what you wore. You also slipped on a pair of shorts to go with them and some socks.

You swallowed a couple painkillers and it was then that you saw your black bag on the floor where Joker must have left it while you were in the shower. You headed back to the main room but you soon heard shouting coming from the inside, so you sped up to see what was happening.

You sighed loudly as your eyes landed on Charlie and Todd cowering on their knees under Joker's scrutiny as the other top guys watched from the couches like a twisted show, except no one was enjoying it.

"I'm going to cut each of you into tiny pieces and send them to your families," Joker seethed in a fake jolly voice and waved a knife around. "Then, I'm going to burn your families slowly and--"

"Joker," you interrupted. He whirled around along with everyone else. "It wasn't their fault."

"Yes--it--was," he growled but he couldn't help noticing you in his shirt. He liked it.

"I accidentally shot a steel panel when Batman showed up and it ricocheted and hit me. That's it," you explained. You weren't exactly sure if it was the truth, but that also didn't make it a lie.

Joker grounded his teeth together before stuffing his knife in his pocket and striding over to you, taking your hand, and leading you out without looking back. You saw Charlie and Todd's expressions of thankfulness and nodded as you followed behind Joker. You got to his office and detached your hand from his to sit in his chair while he leaned against the desk on your right.

"You're sitting out the next phase and you're not going to fight me on it," Joker said, crossing his arms.

You turned the chair toward him. "No need to. By that time, I'll be partially healed if not completely, but perhaps it would be better either way for me to take a back seat since I'll be handling the other phase."

"I'm glad you see it my way."

"I don't see it your way, I made this decision myself."

Joker rolled his eyes and reached his hand out to brush his gloved finger over your jaw where a bruise resided.

"I'm going to torture Batman one day and revel in his cries of anguish," he muttered absently.

"One day, but we have to focus on Lau right now. I want my revenge and to show the mobs that this is our town," you responded, gazing up at him.

Joker bent down to kiss your forehead before whispering, "Yes, it is."