Bringing Up the Past

I Missed You

 I drag my feet towards the back exit of my office building. My shoes scrape and scratch the tile floor. I adjust the cross-body strap of my heavy laptop bag and rub the side of my head. A migraine is gaining momentum behind my left eye. I've been trying to avoid looking at the aura, but its slowly been sweeping over my field of vision for the last hour. The wide swath of sparkling light makes me nauseous and robs me of nearly half of my visual range. I don't want to go to dinner anymore. I just want to go home. But Jay is outside and even I can't keep the Joker waiting for long.

I pause in the dark vestibule and kick off my shoes. I lean forward to scoop up the shiny orange pumps and instantly regret it. The migraine slams full-force into my brain and I can feel myself loosing my balance as I raise back to standing. Leaning into the glass and steel door of the back exit, I shove the door open with my shoulder and stagger out into the alley. I catch a glimpse of fuchsia and smile despite the pounding headache. I look up in time to see Jay stand up from leaning back against the driver door of his flashy car. He tugs down the bottom edge of his black blazer and saunters towards me. I give him a weak smile and he stops in his tracks, concern etched into his features.

"I know that look," he says warily, coming closer. The glow of a nearby neon sign throws harsh scarlet shadows across his face. "Come here." Jay reaches for me with both hands and draws me close. I let my head drop forward and rest my forehead against his shoulder as he wraps his arms around my back. One cool hand slips under my shirt and slides in wide circles across my lower back while the other brushes my hair away from the back of my neck. Jay presses the backs of his knuckles into the base of my skull and digs in firmly.

Instantly the migraine symptoms dissipate. The painful pressure behind my eye washes away and the nausea quickly fades. "How much sugar have you had this week?" Jay asks, with a slight hint of a smile in his voice. "Shut up," I grumble into his shoulder. He chuckles but doesn't tease me again. I slide my arms around him and hug him tightly. Jay hugs me back, keeping the pressure on the back of my head. "Let's go back to my place," he whispers.

I shake my head. "I just want to go to bed, Jay," I groan.

"Luckily I have a bed," Jay purrs, smirking. He releases me and places a soft kiss on my cheek. "Come on, Livvie," he grins. I scowl at him for a second then sigh in resignation. "Fine." Jay's grin widens. He lifts the strap of my laptop bag over my head and drapes it over his own shoulder. Then Jay curls an arm around my waist. My shoes dangle loosely from my fingers as I let him slowly lead me over to his magenta sports car. The Joker leans away from me and lifts the Lamborghini-style passenger door. The car is actually an Infiniti G-35 Vaydor, but most people think it's a Lamborghini because it looks a lot like one.

I sink into the brilliant white bucket seat as Jay lowers the door closed. The low-profile seat in the lowered car that was low to start with makes it feel like I'm almost sitting on the ground. I lean my head against the window's heavily-tinted glass and close my eyes.

It's not surprising that Jay still has the Infiniti. He got it when we first started dating and out of all the vehicles he has, the Vaydor is his favorite. The Joker might not love people, but he definitely loves his car. Everyone thinks it's purple, but it's actually hot pink. The custom-blended paint has royal blue micro metal flakes mixed into the pink which make the car look purple unless you're standing right beside it.

When Jay got the car, it was just a stock model Infiniti G-35, called a Skyline in Japan. But because the Joker can't have anything that's basic or stock, he had custom bodykit made for it. He promised I could pick out the color, but balked when I said I wanted it to be Barbie pink. The blue micro flakes were his compromise for letting me have the pink paint. I had the interior done in bright white and Jay added golden accents. We both put so much into designing the car that it was almost as much mine as his. Seeing it whizzing around town and on the news almost daily was one of the reasons I left Gotham. Now, settled back into one of the pristine white racing seats that I picked out so many years ago, it almost feels like I'm back home.