"That sting of remembrance in the back of your heart- it will come and go until you learn to differentiate between closure and disguised denial."

Is it considered moving on, if Alex has thought of her fathers death every single passing day for the last couple of months? Gut wrenching guilt had settled in her bones the night her father died and it had not dissipated, maybe only grew larger.

But she has somehow came to terms with the fact that her fathers death was her fault, practically her own doing. She had somehow become okay with the fact actually. Despite what Bruce told her day in and day out that it wasn't her fault, she just lied to his face and agreed then quickly changed conversation topics. She couldn't help but be stubborn and unforgiving to herself.

She somehow got by.

It's been months since Arthur Fleck went underground. It made Alex mad to no god damn end. Was killing her father all he had wanted? She assumed he would come for her next. But no letters, no random killings, no joker cards left at any street corners.

"Are you sure you want to go? It might be a bit boring." Bruce calls from his bedroom, now their shared bedroom. He tied his tie under the collar of his button up, struggling but slowly getting there. 

Alex faced the bathroom mirror, her eyes narrowed at her reflection. Her dress was a reasonable length, with quarter length sleeves. She replaced her regular studs in her lobes with dangly ones, her wavy hair was half up.

"I want to go Bruce. And I don't think it'll be boring." She rips her gaze from the mirror and walks into the bedroom, seeing him playing with his tie. She sighs and approaches him, taking it from his clumsy fingers and ties it properly for him. "I want to be there to support you." Alex replies quietly. "From a distance." She then adds.

There hasn't been any publicity about the two, thankfully. Alex has been living here for the last little while, eventually bringing over her belongings, staying in the guest room, which eventually turned back into a guest room when she began sleeping in Bruce's bed every night with him. They had to tread lightly though.

Today was the ceremony regarding the reopening of the Orphanage on the Wayne Estate. Turns out having money can get things running fairly quickly. The building, still standing, was redone and refurbished. Talk had gotten around, thanks to speeches from Mayor Reál. A lot of scrutiny came with that, but that's just how the world worked. That's how Gotham worked; nothing was ever good or right, even when it was supposed to be.

...

The building had a good group of people gathered, but nothing excessive thankfully. Seems not every citizen of Gotham cared about the reopening of the Orphanage. Of course it hadn't gone well the first round. But they hoped for some difference. Bruce hoped to god for a massive difference. He had be nervous ever since he agreed to the reopening to begin with, anxiety about everything falling apart like it previously had.

He was near the front of the massive foyer, accompanied by Bella Reál and her campaigning team. There were others around, those who would be working administratively and front line in the orphanage. It was set to get in motion a week from today. All the late meetings, the chatty planning committee, he sure hopes it will be worth it in the end.

Alex felt wrong. The minute she got into the car on the way over, her mind felt terribly misplaced. She wasn't sure why. Maybe her brain was trying to tell her something, and her heart telling her something else. Conflict was within her. Of course she didn't want to make this about her; but she had this weird feeling that she was now orphaned herself, and in some weird way she convinced Bruce to go through with this plan. She didn't want to call herself an orphan, she was a grown woman, not some parentless child. It felt wrong to be called that. Maybe it wasn't this train of though at all making her feel so wrong.

She grabs a seat in the second row from the back, nearest to the door and simply waiting for the ceremony to begin. Her eyes lingered at the crowd, well dressed and well mannered citizens who cared for community development. It was good there was a handful that still cared. She knew a majority no longer did.

Within 10 minutes of her arrival, The Mayor was speaking about renewal, change, a rendition of the same speech she gave at every event. Alex tried her best to remained focused but she just couldn't. She was very happy for Bruce, and for the children this place will inevitably house. She had a feeling deep down it would be different this time.

She glanced forward and saw Bruce sitting a few feet behind the podium, his eyes already on her, or well, her general direction. He was far, and she couldn't see the expression he held, she also couldn't tell he wasn't actually staring at her. She just forced a smile, not wanting to make anything obvious to those around.

Behind her, a chair creaked and someone sat in the row behind her. Not minding it, Alex continued staring forward. She glanced around and noticed eyes on her, and on the individual behind her. For a brief second, she didn't think much of it, but then she noticed their lips curls into devious smiles. The person behind leaned forward, and spoke devilishly close to her ear; "You know it's funny, how even after the orphan has moved on, they always find their way back into one of these places. We got Bruce Wayne here, and now you, Alexandra." Before she turns she sees Bruce standing from his seat, even thought it isn't even his time to speak. Eyes of attendees have followed his gaze to where she's sat, the crowd trickling after one another one by one.

She glanced over her shoulder and was face to face with Arthur Fleck himself. White and red up was smeared over his face, covering his ugly scarred skin. His hair was greasy and had a swampy green tinge to it. When their eyes meet, a sinister grin spreads across his face.

Alex roses immediately and Joker quickly mimicked her actions. "It's good to see you again, although I'm unsure if you saw me the first time we locked eyes." The clown trailed off, dragging on the ends of words, raising his brows.

By now the mayors speech was paused, and some commotion was starting to ensue. "NOW!" He yells, obviously not to her but to his men. That was when the chaos ensued.

The suspicious looking men who eyed her earlier slid on their clown masks; similar to the ones scattered all over Gotham. They reach in their pockets and pull out small objects. Obviously, it looked like live ammunition and that's when the fear hit; were they going to bomb the place? But when they were thrown, thick green smoke plumed throughout the air. Suddenly there was gunfire heard.

Panic arose, the guests were screaming and running in all directions- some dodging the shots but some unfortunately getting hit. Alex's eyes landed back on Arthur, who pounced forward to grab her. She dodged him and started moving backward away from him, bumping into people and shoving chairs out of her way. It was getting hard to see through the green air that was filling the space rapidly.

He's resurfaced, she's literally face to face with her fathers killer, the guy she's been chasing only months ago. She didn't have her gun, she was wearing a dress for crying out loud. She didn't have her badge, she had absolutely nothing.

Alex spins and runs forward away from him, able to be quicker than backing away from him, but now her eyes weren't on him. She didn't know where she could run to or where she would go, but she ran so fast her chest felt tight.

But then, she's grabbed by a huge man, a cheap plastic clown mask covering his face. "Gotcha." He enthuses. She begins struggling to get out of his grip but she couldn't, he had maybe a foot of height on her. Suddenly, she's yanked backwards from the man's grip, by Arthur himself.

"You thought I wouldn't finally get to you, hmmmm Alexandra? You thought I would just leave forever, and not come back for you." He spins her around and throws her onto the tile floors. Her head hits the hard surface and a pain starts throbbing through her skull. Joker gets on top of her, pinning her arms down. He lets out a long, animated laugh. "I had to come back for you, obviously. With all that hard work you were doing to find me, I had to find you back. And you made it so much easier. I was planning to foil this ceremony, and when I saw you're pretty face enter, god I just had to take this opportunity. Didn't I?" He leans down, his face inches from her own. She felt nauseated. The sight of his mangled features being this close, not just on a printed pictures made her stomach churn. His breath fanned over her face, making her skin crawl.

"I was doing my job, trying to rid this city of people like you." She musters out, surprisingly herself she was able to get words out. She was in a state of shock and disbelief

"And look where you are now." The clown followed who grabbed her earlier returns and replaced Arthur's hands that were pinning her arms down. Joker reaches into his pocket and pulls out a blade that was covered in dry blood. He waves it around in her line of vision, then ever so gently pressed it against the skin on her cheek, though not enough to break the skin. The smell of dried blood fills her nostrils. He drags the blade down her jawline, ghosting it over her soft neck then finally downwards onto her chest. "I've been thinking about this for months, what I would do when I finally got my hands on you." He snidely remarks.

Alex still struggling in the grip, was losing her mind. She can't believe she didn't think he would come here to sabotage Bruce. She should have brought her gun, probably shouldn't have even come here in the first god damn place. Or maybe they should have gotten increased security or police presence. Anything that could have prevented this from happening.

But how were they to know?

"You won't get away with this." She mumbles, then spits into his face. The man's grip on her arms tightens, parts of her arms begin to feel numb, her circulation being cut off for a bit too long.

"My dear, I already have-"

In a blur, the man holding her arms is pulled backwards, his grip coming off her. Arthur glanced up and his eyes blow wide open. Alex's eyes follow his stare and see Batman hurriedly making his way around and grabbing Joker by the collar of his shirt, yanking him off Alex. She scrambled to her feet as quick as a flash, watching Joker tumble from Bat's grip. He seized the opportunity and runs away fast. She expects batman to follow but he turns to face her. Her mind starts racing, wondering how quickly he suited up, thankful he brought it along. They hadn't arrived together or even come in separate cars, so she didn't expect him to be prepared. She should have though, it was Bruce Wayne for god sakes.

"Thank you." She breathes out.

"Are you-"

"H-he's getting away." She stammers, and in a moment, Bat's running after him.

Alex turns around and faces the cluster around her; Joker's men are either fighting security guards or harassing guests. People are screaming and crying, on the phone calling hopefully the police but probably their loved ones. The green smoke which had thankfully faded a bit, similar to fog. There was more visibility to see the utter chaos that had went on. She rushes into the crowd, ushering some of the innocents towards the exit, her police instincts shining through; save those who you can, get the innocent people away from the chaos.

At the doorway by Alex's feet is a security guard, on the ground bleeding from his head. Alex crouches beside him and pressed two fingers to his throat, unable to find a pulse. Her eyes trail down his body and noticed a holstered pistol on his belt. She grabs it and stands upright.

Her eyes lead up a rounded staircase to the second floor, which was a simple walkway, full of doors leading to bedrooms that was soon supposed to be occupied. She wondered where joker and Bat went. She runs over to the steps, almost tumbling over in her heels. She makes her way on the tile floor, holding her gun in front of her with her two hands. Suddenly, her ears pick up a struggle happening nearby. Thankfully the air was clear up here, so she could breathe and no longer see only green.

Alex hurriedly rounds a corner and sees Batman on the ground, with Joker kneeling on top with his back turned to her. She saw farther down a few of his men were running in the opposite direction, most likely going back to terrorizing the people below.

Faces of the victims flashes through her head, her dads lingering the longest. All those tiresome nights, the leads, the night patrols had led her here to this very moment. She was wrecked, a ghost of herself that she no longer recognized. Alex didn't even need to think, didn't even need to weigh options before she undoes the safety, and firing towards Jokers direction. The bullet blows through his shoulder, causing him to fall from the ground. She makes a break towards the two men and sees Batman get up fast. His eyes land on her then back to the crumpled Joker on the ground, blood pouring out of his wound like a river.

Batman reached forward and roughly grabbed his wrists, placing them behind his back and pulling the defeated clown to his feet. A groan of pain leaves his lips. Alex locks onto his crazy gleaming eyes, staring into them as if it were a void. His mouth turns upright into a sickly grin. "Why the long face." He takes a brief pause. "Smile, Alex. Smile because it confuses people. Smile because it's easier than explaining what is killing you inside."

She doesn't react, just glares more into his eyes. He's waiting for her to do something, anything really. "Smile from your jail cell you disgusting fuck."

-THE END!