Laugh Lines

New Jobs All Around

A/N: This starts from Ace's POV, I hope y'all like it :)

~I said, love, you're all the hurt I need,

There's just something about you,

It feeds the addict in me,

I promised you that I'd hurt you...~

~In This Moment~

Joker trusted Ace to do his job. That was something that Ace prided himself on. He has survived working for The Joker the longest. He owed that to two things. One, He did what he was told without asking a lot of unnecessary questions. Two, picking up the phone when Joker called. It was really that simple.

He had been working with the man for an entire decade. Ten very long years. Truth be told, Joker had been locked away almost seven of those ten, but Ace had kept certain business running while he had been gone. He kept things safe and waiting for Joker's return, because, he always returned.

The only time in those ten years that Ace had wondered about Joker's sanity was when he had first brought home a kid. Ace hated to admit it but he thought Joker had actually lost it at that point. Everyone knew that the Joker was a bit... odd. But bringing a kid into this mess? Nuts.

Ace had prayed to whatever god would listen, that once Joker offed the kid, Ace wouldn't have to deal with the body. He knew he wouldn't have been able to handle it.

It never happened, Ace watched as Joker started training this child, this little girl. If he had to pinpoint the time that it had all changed, he would have to say, maybe when the girl had shot some crazy lady that had pulled a gun on the Joker, in his own place. After that strange night, Joker seemed to look at the girl differently.

The weird thing was the kid took to the training easily. She was a natural. She wasn't afraid of much, and was eager to hurt anyone. Joker enjoyed teaching the kid, that was easy enough to see. Ace laughed thinking about the Joker, normally catching subtle changes in people and situations, but being completely oblivious to the doe eyed looks the kid gave him.

Ace had noticed. The girl was Jokers shadow, she started to walk like him and even picked up on his mannerisms. It creeped out the lackeys. A miniature version of the boss always there to try to boss them around. The grown men too scared to tell the tiny terror no.

When the Boss got locked up, the poor kid lost it. She looked so helpless with Joker gone. Ace assumed that the Boss would want him to keep an eye on her. Help her when she needed it. Ace had kept her as safe as she would let him.

When she was almost grown she had finally asked for help. Ace helped her get a copy of her birth certificate, shocked when he learned her real age. She was just so tiny. The last help she had asked for was a few fake IDs she could use. He had made her promise not to cause too much trouble with them.

He watched her finish the schooling she wanted. Joker had taught her well enough how to get by on her own. When she had called Ace for lunch at the warehouse, he had been shocked to see the Boss there with her.

Joker had looked too thin, like he had been ill. But Ace knew better than to underestimate a man like Joker. There had been a few times Ace thought Joker might kill the girl then. She seemed to push him like no one else. Still looking at him with the doe eyes.

It hadn't been a big surprise when, months later, Joker had mentioned he had married the brat. Ace was happy for her, she had seemed to love the Boss for as long as she had known them all. But they had seemed happy, the carefree lifestyle fit them well. He chuckled as he thought about how much the Joker spoiled his wife.