The Tears of a Clown (an Arthur Fleck/Joker love story)

Fourteen

By the time Alice received a call from Arthur she had already seen reports on the news about the grisly shootings at Gotham National Bank with the perpetrator unsurprisingly being named as Joker.

At first her heart had sank and she'd felt sickened to her stomach, but deep down she wasn't able to accept that Arthur could be capable of such atrocities.
She had questioned herself initially, wondering if the feelings she had for him might be clouding her judgement. She couldn't be certain of anything, so the possibility of denial was scarily real.

But then Arthur had called and explained everything, alleviating her fears, though the thought of a copycat 'killer clown' savagely gunning down people in the hopes of framing Arthur, making him look like a vindictive psychopath with no conscience, struck terror into the very depths of her soul.

Arthur was not going to sit idly by and let that happen, he made that crystal clear during their telephone conversation, which worried her even more.

"Arthur please, please be careful." She had pleaded with him. "Promise me that you won't do anything drastic until you have all the facts. You could end up making things worse for yourself."

"Oh I'll have all the facts I need, Alice. Trust me. As soon as I have his name and address I'll be paying him a call and he'll give me answers."

"Arthur it might not be safe! If anything happened to you I...well, I don't know what I'd do. I don't even want to think about it."

Touched, Arthur reassured her that everything would be fine. His naive optimism gave her great cause for concern, but he was beyond reasoning.
His mind was already made up.

The imposter would pay with his life.

"Now just as everyone has noticed me this scumbag thinks he can steal my identity?" He had ranted to various members of his gang on more than one occasion. "I don't think so. I've waited my whole life to be somebody and he's trying to take that away from me."

"Really darling, you should let me take care of it." Queen had offered, during one of her rare visits to the Headquarters. "I'll be in and out without anyone noticing. A quick, clean job. Nobody has to know you were even remotely involved."

Lounging back in his chair smoking a cigarette, Arthur shook his head. "No, that's the whole point. I want everyone to know. I'll clear my name and he'll get exactly what he deserves."

"Since when did you become a vigilante antihero?" Ace had remarked.

"Since that bastard thought he could imitate me and stain my name." He replied, then added sorrowfully."Since he shot Jack."

Jack was still in a coma and what made it even worse for Arthur was not being able to visit him. To just sit by his bedside and talk to him, to tell him he was sorry, would've helped alleviate the burden of his guilt. Just because he was in a coma didn't mean Jack wasn't still able to hear. Perhaps, Arthur thought, if he told him he was needed and missed it could make a difference. Perhaps he would wake up.

For Alice the days seemed to be dragging by like years. Two days passed, then another and another.

Each day Arthur called her up on the phone and exchanged pleasantries. He asked her how she was doing and told her how much he missed her.
She missed him too, but had to accept that he was committed to formulating a plan to vindicate himself and avenge those who had been needlessly murdered.
There was something bizarrely noble about his dedication which Alice couldn't help admiring. Besides she had to respect his choices and his decisions. It was his life after all, no matter how irrational his logic could be at times.