"That's how far the rest of the world is from me. Just one bad day." —Joker

Gordon shook his head as he stared at the obvious joker killing of the once powerful mob boss. Then toward the basement door where an alleged ally of the joker had killed two other thugs. A woman with plenty of skill in torture.

He moved away from the joker kill toward the new killers torture room. The room was meant nothing less than a place of torture if you looked closely you could see the signs. He noted the severed genitals of one man. And the ghastly Glasgow smile splitting his face open.

Both the joker and this killer got the same result. This killer however didn't carve the smile into the cheeks like the joker. This new unknown killer used the victims screams against him. He sighed heavily at what this presented for the case.

Two possibilities lay before him. Then joker was in league with this new killer. Or this woman had gotten on gambols bad side and he had bitten off more than he could chew. So while she tortured them the joker killed gambol above and her presence went unknown to the joker.

He hoped it was the later option. The one similarity between the two murders was that neither wanted anything other than to deliver message. odd for criminals.  dangerous for everyone else.

The way this Glasgow smile looked tingled at the edges of his memory. He couldn't tell if it had been as a young cop or as a young man that he remembered this torture technique. He would set his mind to find out though. Until batman came through and delivered Lau. Then it was putting the mob behind bars that he had to focus on.

*************************************

She watched the sun ray move across her floor and wall. The pain ate away at her self control. Though as of yet no tears or cries came from her. She couldn't allow that. She lay on her undamaged shoulder and prayed Corky came soon. Little Alisa had done all she could to help.

The little girl was now watching TV and playing in the living room. She had helped her surrogate mother clean the cuts and punctures and splint the fractures. The dislocated shoulder would need more strength than the little one possessed to set it correctly. She had made it clear that the clown would remain out of the loop of information.

She didn't need him knowing she was down for the count. It had taken all her self control and determination not to show him last night. The adrenaline was gone now though and so was her determination. She still suffered in silence though.

The knock on the door as night settled made her rise stiffly and limp to the door. Opening it she smiled ready to see corky again after a long few day's. Only to find white black and red grease paint and garish red hair and sickly pale skin to greet her. Not the sweet Irish man she knew and loved.

"Ah seems we made it in time to play doctor. Wouldn't you say—ah" that ever changing in pitch voice.

The woman snorted. The smile on her face drained away like blood down a drain. Eli found herself glaring at the pair standing on her stoop and walking off toward the kitchen. Angry at corky for telling the one person she specified as to not tell. And for the joker bringing along his leeching little whore. Angry at herself for allowing them to see her bruised and weak.

She went into the kitchen hearing the masculine footsteps follow. She rammed her shoulder into the fridge with all her might. She heard it sickeningly pop back into place. Pulling off the old flannel top she wore and made a sling out of it.

"That looked like it hurt." he drawled from the doorway.

"Get out of my house." she dead panned.

"Why so serious?" he drawled.

"If I wanted your help I would ask. And if I needed your whores help I would go to a street corner in the narrows and find one. They are a dime a dozen." she growled moving to where she heard the woman speaking with Alisa.

"leave now." she ordered the girl. She obeyed instantly.

"What's the matter puddin' dont like my company?" the woman drawled.

"Not in the least" she said. "There's the door I'd suggest you hit it before your brain matter does "

She turned to go to her bedroom and made it to the door before being spun and harshly pushed back into it. The jokers body crowded her own his hand grasping her throat.

"I don't like your tone—ah" he growled anger snapping in his eyes depths.

The click of the gun she had drawn made him pause in his endeavors to show her his dominance. "Here's where I tell you I'm in no mood and you better be stepping before I make good on my promise. I'm not wanting company this evening. And I don't want your whore here. I respect you but right now not enough to play games with you and walk on egg shells. Your uninvited and stepping on my already frayed nerves." she gave him a hard glare that promised retribution.

"Is that the neck of a little girl I feel beneath my blade?" he queried teasingly.

She didn't relinquish or cease her resistance in the least. Her hold remained firm on the gun and her eyes never left his. She didn't fear him. His head tilted curiously as if figuring something hidden out.

The same look he had on his face the first night they met. The shifting and turning of the gears of his mind.

"Why do you really want me to uh leave?" he asked moving closer to soak in her expressions.

The heavy sigh left her heavily letting him know just how unwilling she was to tell him the straight and narrow of it. "I've had all I can take. I'm stretched thin. Pain on top of her being near Alisa and all this mess with the mob coupled with my job soon to come I've had too much."

"One day isn't so much to ask for to be without your ravishing personality. Is it." she teased smirking up at him.

"Not hardly" he stepped back and drew his knife away. "Harley let's go—ah we have places to go. Clearly we aren't welcome either " he yelled out to the woman.

She obeyed like a whore did. . . without question. The last long searching gaze that held her entrapped in those dark as death eyes made her glad the door shut. She slumped down happy that she was once more alone and her indignation at her uninvited guests had given her the guts to see to her last problem.

She found the will power to rise and check the house over in her nightly routine. She curled up behind Alisa thankful that she had the child to cuddle close and give comfort too.

She never had that. Funny thing about giving comfort was that you received it as well. She closed her eyes nuzzling into the girls hair knowing no dreams would come for her. To drag her through the nightmare of her memory.

*************************************

He didn't think she had it in her. He hadn't thought she would cross him as she did. She was proving more volatile and unpredictable than he had first thought. She was just so much fun.

Their arrival had sparked indignation within Eli. He could read that. Along with corky not wanting to spill the proverbial beans about her need for his medical help. He smirked into the darkness of his room. The warm body beside him offered nothing more than annoyance.

He wanted fire and defiance. He wanted a woman with a spine and no fear whatsoever. He could feed off that for years. Just like batman. He would never grow weary of someone he could consider an equal and defied him ad well. Plenty of fun to be had messing with such an intriguing mind.

His mind turned to what was to come with his rise to power in Gotham. She would join the game soon enough. He would leave her be for now. The darkness he saw inside her was something he could use to his benefit. His game that was played with Gotham was too tempting for her not to join in.

That inner darkness and will to let loose her demons was what would win her over. He wanted to see how she would affect his games to come. How she would handle going against her better instincts. He had learned there was no point in fighting against what you really were.

Your whole life tumbled down around you when that happened. His dark chuckles filled the silence of the room as his scars were stretched wide by his smile.

Soon she would see things his way.

************************************

A weeks worth of healing and she was back to the hustle and bustle of her life. Walking down the halls of Gotham general as if she hadn't forayed into the criminal world at all. She found several things different about herself since her waltz on the dark side. She couldn't shut off her innate watchfulness of people.

It was harder to ignore than before. She felt herself wanting to manipulate and bully to make her own plot in the work force easier. She needed to get her self back in order. It was tempting to go back to what she was before. She couldn't let herself get to that point.

She got through another work week with her head down and keeping a tight rein on her darker instincts. She realized as she sat down in her living room cleaning her collection of weapons she had to stay away from him. He was making it all to easy for her to let herself slip into her old shoes.

Her grandmother had once said something to her that she had found wisdom in since she had been in this dreary city. There were two roads set before you. One was smooth and easy to travel. That road was were lies darkness stealing cheating and killing lingered. The other road was rocky and steep where truth lightness fairness justice and mercy lay. The bad road was easy to travel and live by.

It was far easier to take a life than to spare one. It was easier to lie than to face the truth. It was easier to be cheated than to be justified. All of the darker things of human nature came easier. It just took one bad day one bad childhood to make a person turn down that bad road.

She and the joker had traversed that road since their childhood. She suspected that he himself had once tried to do what she did and travel the good road he had failed and was now motivated to do as he did. She was still trying to be better. And she knew it just took one moment in time for all of her efforts to be in vain. Just one bad day.

That was unacceptable.

Authors note: how was it? Please comment let me know. :) hope you enjoy.