Descent

Chapter 12

He was completely triggered. Gone was the soft spoken man who had greeted her on her arrival. Even the gregarious Joker was no more. All that was left was Mr. J and he was beyond his breaking point. Harleen needed to tread carefully.

"Edward is my patient. Same as Pam."

Harleen wanted to know what set him off most. Sharing her in general or just that he had to do so with Edward. She just couldn't wrap her head around why he would even care what other patients she treated. None of it cut into her time with him.

We will not share her with Riddles. The Weed is fine, but not Riddles.

Joker took deep, ragged breaths trying to contain the beast that was Mr. J. But the longer he looked at Harleen, standing there looking innocent, the more he himself wanted to claim her.

Not Mr. J, not the Joker. Him, Jason, the man he once was, wanted her more than anything. He could almost feel her beneath him, begging for her release. Looking at him and seeing a man and not the disfigured freak the Bat had turned him into.

That was all it took, the memory of his fall from grace and the self loathing kicked in. It gave Mr. J all the power he needed to subdue the weaker personality for the moment. He wasn't happy, since Harley had come on the scene J was rising more than his other two personalities would like.

"The Weed isn't the issue." He hissed through his clenched silver grill.

She saw the effort it was taking for J to control his dominant side. The rigid way he was holding himself. Harleen now understood just what triggered her patient. What brought out the dominant alpha in him.

Mr. J in fact did not like to share. He saw her as a possession, one of the many things he hoarded jealously. Harleen had never wanted to be owned by anyone, but when the Joker looked at her with hunger burning in his gray-green eyes she didn't feel owned. Desired. Wanted. But not owned.

His attitude towards her was nothing like that scumbag Jimmy's had been. No, Mr. J enjoyed the fire in her. Though Harleen wasn't fool enough to think he would tolerate her getting out of line often. She knew that any outburst from her would earn her a punishment. Though caged as he was Mr. J couldn't make good, so she was safe.

Though the blaze she saw in his eyes when she stood up to him, set her on fire. If she was being honest she had never seen anything more exciting in her life. Not even Bruce Wayne with all he could offer her was able to compare to the sight before her.

"Ok." Harleen cooed. "Then what is?"

"Tell Arkham to assign Riddles to someone else, doll." He was giving her that smile of his that screamed victory.

Batting her lashes, she began to run soothing circles over his chest. Harleen wanted to see what pushed him over the edge but she didn't want to push him too hard. She only wanted to stoke his fire enough to keep Mr. J in the fore.

She also wanted to see if she could in fact coax J back from the brink. If there was a way to help him keep hold of the passive side of his nature. Some way to help him balance the darkness and light that lay hidden inside his mind. But to do that she needed to know just what it would take to flip his switch from one to the other.

"You and I both know I can't do that J."

"Can't?" He was seething and Harleen thought he looked magnificent, like a wild lion.

"I'm sorry..."

Before Harleen could finish the Joker grabbed her by the throat. His grip wasn't as bruising as it could have been. The shackles prevented him from squeezing.