* J *

Part Twenty-Two: Chapter 160: When The Cat's Away

Harley walks into the Joker's lab to find Ivy hard at work. She was in a white labcoat and safety goggles. Harley was grateful to Ivy's efforts to help save her puddin. However, nobody does something like this for free. What exactly was Ivy getting out of all this? A huge sum of cash? Somebody knocked off for her? Or was she doing it because she was in love with the Joker?

"Hey Red," Harley cheerfully greets her.

Ivy never takes her eyes from what she's doing, but responds. "How can you be so cheerful all the time?" Ivy wonders aloud.

Harley loses her smile and shrugs, "Mistah J always says that tha easiest way ta hide yer true feelings is behind a smile."

Ivy looks up at Harley, "Harls, don't you know you don't have to hide anything from me? What's on your mind?"

"I'm just worried 'bout him in Arkham. Ya know tha way they operatrate 'round there."

Ivy crosses over to her and stands behind her. She brings her hands up and rests them at Harley's shoulders. She starts to massage her. "J can handle himself in that place. Their drugs do very little to him. He smarter than any of the scumbags that work there."

Ivy rolls her neck with her eyes closed, enjoying the massage. "But tha shocks do work on him," Harley tells her. "I've had shocks too ya know? They're awful. They make everythang so fuzzy. Ya evah had em Red?"

Ivy places kisses up Harley's neck, "Of course, but they didn't do anything to me really."

"Well they sure do ta Mistah J. They make him really weak. He just lays there fur hours with his eyes rollin' 'round in his head. It makes forget things. Sometimes it brings out regressed memories. Mistah J's lost lotsa memories. Many of 'em he's glad 'bout losin', like his wife and childhood."

"I didn't realize that they were so hard for him," Ivy says softly, hands still massaging away at Harley's neck and shoulders. "How about we don't talk about J?"

Harley doesn't even hear her words. So Ivy moves away with a sigh. "Tha tumor makes everythang worse fur him. I don't like not knowin' how long he's got left. Say Red, can I ask you something personal?"

"Of course," Ivy says.

"Do ya still love him? Harley uneasily asks as she peers out the window. "Or did ya evah love him?"

Ivy stop moving her hands. "I thought I did, but he was just using me."

"Then why are ya here? Why ya tryin' to help him?" Harley enquired. "It's ok if ya still love him, I won't be mad at ya." Harley assures and turns to face Ivy.

Ivy nerviously goes back to what she was working on. "It was years ago. He was just using me to help him take out the last few of the five families, so he'd be in charge of Gotham. But he had kind moments I guess."

"How wuz tha sex?" Harley looks at everything surrounding Ivy.

"Come on Harls, do we have to do this right now?" Ivy shakes her head, "I'm not actually comfortable talking about that sort of thing with you."

"Yer that one who said there wuz nothin' I can't tell ya. It's only fair if ya do tha same," Harley tells her.

Ivy sighs and rests her hands on the counter top. "The sex is why I stayed with him as long as I did. For a long time it was just about being fuck buddies. He seduced me with his lifestyle. I had private shoppers. He had a chef and a maid. I'm pretty sure he wasn't faithful. But all that aside, we got each other, we thought a lot a like. I think being freaks is what bonded us. It gave us something in common. When J first became as he is, it bothered him. I lived with him for only a short time. He was always out doing what he does. When he was home he'd stay up with cocaine for days plotting his next plan."