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Part Eighteen: Chapter 132: Circumstances

The Joker ignored the headache that grew more intense by the hour. He would like nothing more than a big fat rail of cocaine. However, he has refrained in the week since his return home. He knew drugs and alcohol would effect his sperm count. Studies have shown that drugs could cause several sperm to be deformed. Deformed sperm couldn't fertilize eggs. So he's been sober for an entire week. It had been extremely difficult for him, but he allowed himself to be driven by his need for an heir.

The day before the Joker had harvested his own sperm. For you that don't know, that means he jacked off in a cup. He managed to isolate several healthy sperm and introduced them into a Petri dish with one of Harley's eggs. The egg harvesting was what had been the hard part so far. This sort of science went far beyond the Joker's normal use of his PHD's. But where there's a will, there is usually a way.

It's been a full twenty four hours and the Joker moved around in his lab, tending to last minute details. His eyes watched his steady hands under a microscope's window. He slowly moved the Petri dish. Finally he finds what he's been searching for. What had appeared as a single round shape yesterday, an unfertalized egg, was now two identical round shapes. It had worked. The Joker's lips part. He actually thought he would experience a few failures, since he's never done this sort of thing before. He feels the urge to smile but refrains.

Harley stands near him. He's explained everything that he's done. Harley knows that he's checking to see if any new developments have happened in the Petri dish. She watched the Joker's expression intently, waiting for him to maybe exhibit something she could read, but as usual he was using his best poker face. She's curious if his efforts have been a success, but she's afraid to ask. As if merely asking was a jinx in itself. But eventually the temptation is too great.

"Did it work?" She softly asks him.

The Joker stands up straight and glances over at her with his unreadable expression. He steps away from the microscope and motions at it, telling her to have a look. Harley stands over the microscope and looks down into it. She sees the two round shapes that the Joker had just been looking at. She feels the Joker's hands gently rest on her waist.

"Tell me what you see?" He asks softly.

"I dunno, it looks like a ball cut open an the two halves mirrorin each othah," she says. Unfortunately, what she had learned in junior high about reproduction, the scientific names and the stages, no longer existed in her memory.

"The two mirrored images that you see, that is the first stage of a fertilized egg," he tells her.

Harley turns to look at him, "A fertilized egg?" She slightly smiles. She wanted to clap, but the Joker remained so indifferent. She's not really sure why. This was, after all, what he had wanted.

The Joker nods, still holding his poker face. "Your egg and my sperm. It's our child." Despite his best poker face, Harley could still see the twinkle of happiness in his blue eyes. "It's time we get the little guy back in your oven," he tells her.

"Now?" She smiles.

The Joker nods and takes her hand. He tugs her over to a gurney. Both his hands go to her waist and he lifts her up and sits her on the table. His eyes fall on her red lips. His lips find hers and he kisses her softly before turning back to the microscope.