Divination (Joker x Batman x OC)

Chapter 96

"Allow me to apologize for earlier," Bruce said to Adriana as she pulled the blankets down on his bed. "It was entirely foolish, and I was not thinking-"

"Let me stop you right there," she said, looking over to the couch in Bruce's enormous bedroom, where he had laid out blankets and a few pillows to sleep on. "It wasn't your fault. It's mine. I mean I agreed with the idea of lying and to eventually let my sister and family know we 'broke up'. I just didn't think that....I didn't think that it would be this story of...you thinking the baby was yours and then..."

Adriana felt overcome with senseless emotion.

"Realizing that it wasn't-" she said and started to cry.

"Are you alright?" he asked as she began to cry. They both could see that she was crying for no reason. Bruce would not be hurt by this, he knew all along it was impossible that the child was his.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she said as he came to wrap his arms around her. "I don't even know why the fuck I'm crying, it's like I'm so emotional and I can't even control myself...I'm so annoyed with myself right now, why the hell am I crying?"

"Well," Bruce said, thoughtfully. "Perhaps it's pregnancy...hormones...I'm just guessing."

"Yeah, that must be it," she said and wiped her eyes and proceeded to pulling the sheets down. "I'm just...a huge liar now...all I do is lie..."

"Adriana," Bruce said. "Don't beat yourself up about it-"

"Now I have to figure out how to fix this," she said and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Adriana, I don't mind your sister temporarily believing the child is mine," he said.  "When you eventually tell her that it's not my child, I will be fine. You sister-"

"She'll feel sorry for you," Adriana said sadly.

"In that case...maybe she would understand some version of the truth," Bruce said. "She seems like a smart and understanding woman."

"She's smart but she wouldn't understand," Adriana said. "I think I'd rather pretend we sleep in the same bed in here and feel all this guilt about you having to sleep on that couch than tell her. She will have so many questions. About my child's father. Once I tell her that it's not you."

"And you..." Bruce started to talk as he sat on the bed beside her. "Never talk about him. I mean...you made it sound like you hated him. You told me he died and you didn't exactly seem sad about it. This sounds like something you could vent to your sister about. She loves you."

"I don't-" Adriana said. "I mean...I didn't...hate him. I just thought that-"

"Thought what?" he asked.

I lied about him dying..because he is the Joker and I can never tell you that. The last thing I remembered after you shot me with his laughing gas poison was him aiming a gun at me and telling me that I was dead to him. Then I woke up hating him. Lately you've been telling me that he seemed remorseful...he saved my life by showing that remorse to you and not letting you leave me there to die. I can't hate him, because he didn't actually hate me. He was just angry.

The words of truth that Adriana was thinking was something that Bruce would never know.

"I guess, when I think back," she said. "We were...we were actually not terrible together. But it was never going to last. We could have never been parents together. He could have never been a father. It was inevitable that it would come to an end at some point ...but I never expected that there would be a baby."

"It sounds like you really cared about him," Bruce said with a bit of surprise. 

"Yeah..shocking since we were only together less than two months," she said. "I guess he just left an impression on me. He never lied to me, not once. He made me feel ways that I never even realized were possible. But he...he wasn't a good person. His lifestyle...the things he chose to do...are the reason he...why he's gone now."