Fool Me Once…Fool Me Twice

Chapter 5: 9 to 5

I spent most of the evening upstairs in the Joker's office going through my papers and double checking the information I already had. The boys all stayed downstairs in the booth, which made me feel a little excluded. After about an hour of double checking, correcting, and adding information to the fact sheets, I felt so much better about doing this gig. In about another thirty minutes, I made copies for Frost, Mr. J, and the teenaged boy.

By ten o'clock, I had checked each bug I brought and made sure that they were picking up the information they were supposed to, even if it was just in the office. Once my backpack was packed up, I went downstairs with my papers in hand to find the men. They were still in the private booth, but with some half-dressed women dancing on the table. It was very awkward, just standing there and trying to get my job done. Mr. J shooed them away when I was finally noticed, the only girl staying was Harley. I passed around the papers, telling them they could ask any questions, but everything was updated to the hour.

When the clock struck midnight, Frost took me back to the penthouse after he told Joseph to leave. The Joker was insistent that I rest up for my 'exam' day.

It, unfortunately, was a sleepless night. The penthouse was just too quiet and I was left alone with my thoughts. I even threw up at one point because of how anxious I was. Even in the morning, my stomach was still queasy. There was no way I was eating anything, even if the cinnamon rolls smelled delicious. Instead of going down for breakfast, I packed up the bag with all of the bugs, my laptop, and a tablet to bring with.

I also worried about what I was going to wear to try and blend in. On the one hand, I didn't think I dressed to bring attention to myself, but my new clothes were nothing like I used to wear. It took some looking over and sorting on the floor, and finally I found something appropriate to wear. It was a large, sage colored sweater with denim overall dress and brown ankle boots. My hair was braided neatly down my back and I added a tiny white bow hair tie to hold it together.

The museum opened at ten o'clock and was about thirty minutes away, so I went down to the family room around nine-fifteen. There were a few goons down there along with Harley, the Joker, Frost and Joseph. The boy had on a casual outfit too: a dark wash jean jacket, a white t-shirt, khaki pants and brown dress shoes. I could see a gold necklace around his neck with the jacket being unbuttoned.

"Well look at you sugar!" Harley smiled, taking me by the hand and twirling me around so she could get a full look at my outfit. "With this cute look, you'll blend right in for sure!"

"And you need to keep it that way." The Joker added, looking me in the eye with a serious expression, "You're not ruining this because you can't blend in." he growled.

I nodded my head, "I understand Mr. J. Out of sight, out of mind."

He seemed to like that answer, patting my cheek a little roughly in response. That's when I noticed Frost pulled his brother away from the rest of us, standing near the door and talking quietly to him. I was pulled away from staring when a bag was shoved into my hands. It was a small, floral, cross body purse.

The bag seemed a little heavy, and when I unzipped it, there was about five wrapped up stacks of cash inside - had to have been about three hundred dollars. "Pay for your guys' tickets with that cash, and maybe buy yourself somethin' nice too." The platinum blonde instructed, "There's also some lipstick, mints, and a bottle of perfume in there too."

"What's all that stuff for?" I asked, raising my eyebrow in question.

She giggled, opening the tiny pocket and pulling out a bright red lipstick out. "What do you think lipstick's for Bernie?!" She said in a sing-song voice. I blushed, finally catching on. "You just can't be too prepared honey."

I saw that the Joker rolled his eyes at Harley's antics, and that assured me enough that it was only Harley thinking this way about the job. Joseph and Jonny joined us again, and I could see that the teenager looked kind of annoyed with his older brother. I shifted the backpack so that I could also put the purse on in a functional sense.

"Alright, listen up." The Joker rumbled, placing one hand on my shoulder and the other hand on Joseph's shoulder so that we were both looking that him while he gave us instructions. "Get this done quickly and correctly. I want to get these gems tonight, so don't dick around."

"Of course not, Mr. J." Joseph answered before I could say anything, "We'll be in and out."

The Joker grinned, showing his silver-plated teeth. "That'a boy!" he patted our shoulders before letting go.

After waving goodbye one last time, I followed the older boy to the door and we went down the elevator to the garage. It was a short and quiet ride, reminding me a lot of this brother in that way. Once we arrived, he walked off first and fished his keys from his pants pocket. There were the usual cars down there, but a new one seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. It was a two-door rusty-red truck all the way at the end. "Your chariot awaits." Joseph joked, unlocking the car with the key.

I had to jump up to get into the car, a little too short to climb in normally. The new purse went right on my lap and my backpack went on the ground between my feet. Once I was buckled, Joseph started up the engine and pulled out of the garage. The museum was uptown, and with the weekend traffic, I hoped we would get there right when the doors opened.

"So…" the older boy began, stopping at the red light, "do you go by Bernadette or Bernie?"

"Either."

He seemed okay with that answer, just nodding after I answered. It fell quiet again between us, but I didn't know what to do. I tried to think of something to ask him. My eyes watched him reach for the radio's power button to turn it on. An old-school rock band that I recognized filled the car. "Nirvana, huh?" I asked quietly, giving him a polite smile.

Joseph smiled too, a toothy grin. "Yeah, I kind of grew up with them."

"They're pretty good." I said with a shrug.

The song ended and the next one started, the driver humming along to the familiar tune. "Is this the first time you're working for the Joker, Joseph?" I asked, thinking of something else to say.

He turned the car to the left, taking Jefferson Street instead of Leon Road. "Yeah, for something this big." The teenager answered, turning a little too sharply, "And you can call me Joey." Joey added with a wink.

The rest of the ride was just filled with music, no talking at all. When we got to the parking garage, I pulled out the cash needed to pay for our ticket. Once the car was in park, I pulled out the notes I brought with us so that we could go over this one more time. "Alright, we need to place at least two bugs in every room in this place, just to be safe." I began, looking up to make sure that he was following, "This is going to take a little while."

"No worries boss." Joey answered, nodding seriously.

I nodded back, glad that he seemed good to follow along. "Then, if we can, I think we should get into the security room so that I can try and sync their cameras up to my hardware so we've got a direct feed too."

Joey looked over the papers again, nodding to himself every once and a while. "Everything looks good to me Bernie." He verified, handing the pages back.

He jumped out of the truck and I packed the bag back up before scooting myself out too so that I could follow him in. Wordlessly, the Frost brother took the backpack from my back and put it on his own. I smiled as a thank you, shifting the purse more comfortably. The parking garage was not full at all, which brought my stress levels down a lot. The less people, the less we would really need to hide too much.

Then, I jumped. Once we got outside of the garage, Joey reached for my hand. I held the hand up to my chest and gave him a crazy and questioning look. "We've gotta blend in, and acting like we're dating is the best way to do it." Joey said, giving me a weird look, "I promise that hand holding is all we gotta do, honey pie."

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. "Well, a little warning about your plan would've been nice, snookums." I rolled my eyes, offering my hand back to him.

Joey just laughed taking the hand and lacing our fingers together. We walked hand-in-hand up the stairs of the museum's main entrance. Thankfully, we were one of the first ones in the place, with a small family in line ahead of us. The little baby in the father's arms was looking at us and I couldn't help but coo at it, making it smile and laugh a little bit.

I paid for the all-inclusive tickets with the cash Harley gave me, thanking the woman behind the counter who handed me a map and leading my partner to an empty bench so that we could map out our plan. "Let's start in the geology hall and make our way down." I suggested quietly, pulling a pen out of the front pocket of the bag, "The security room is next to the butterfly conservatory." I pointed out, circling an unlabeled room.

"If you think it's the best plan." He reached for the map himself, "You're the expert."

That made me shake my head, rolling my eyes. It seemed like Joey was actually much more relaxed and laidback then his older brother, which also helped me to stay calm. After putting the map into the side pocket of the backpack, he stood up and offered his hand to me. We took the grand staircase hand in hand and I tried to look for good spots to put the bugs once we would come back down. "Alright, once we get in there, we need to make sure there's at least one bug per display." I explained slowly, looking for anyone who might be listening in. "I was going to put them under the benches."

He gave my hand a squeeze as a response, and I took that as a good sign.

When we got upstairs, the geology hall was right when we got up. It was a circular room with displays covering the walls and with what Mr. J was looking for right in the middle. "Do you want to split up or stick together?" Joey asked, getting in line to show the guard our tickets to let us into this exhibit.

"I think we should split up." I answered after a moment, "We'll cover more ground that way."

The guard took our tickets and punched a diamond shape in it to indicate we had been in here already. After thanking him, we were let into the dimly lit room, just the spotlights on the displays being the only light in the room. "We need to time it out so it doesn't look weird." I explained, "The security cameras will capture us being here, and it looks weird if we're playing musical chairs in here."

"Maybe like tie your shoes or look at your phone or something…" Joey mused, "We'll meet in the middle once we're done."

I let go of his hand, giving him a smile as I went to the left. Joey went to the left and immediately went to sit in front of a display. I took a more different approach and decided to stand and read the information board before taking a seat. It was a huge, uncut chunk of amethyst and the paragraph gave some information that I knew I wouldn't remember later on. When I took a seat, I pulled a bug out of my pocket and placed it under the bench when I crossed my legs.

This process was repeated about eight more times with all of the different displays. Each one, I used a different way to place the tiny bug underneath the bench, and I was comfortable with the amount that we were placing in the room. After the last one in the room, I walked over to where Joey was walking around the crown in its case. There was a velvet red rope around it, and I could see Joey trying to place a bug there.

Just as he was about to put the bug down, I heard jingling keys coming into the room. A bigger security guard walked in, the keys around in hip clacking on each other. Quickly, I came over to Joey and grabbed his hand with the bug in it, causing him to stop. "Oh, isn't this just beautiful, darling?" I gushed, laying it on thick by batting my eyes at him.

My eyes darted briefly to the guard and he understood what I was doing. "The emeralds are just like your eyes, angel." He cooed, and I had to cringe a little. "What? I thought we were going extreme?" Joey whispered, shrugging his shoulders.

He let go of my hand and wrapped his around my waist, while I placed mine around his shoulders. Joey pulled me closer, and I had to fold my arms a little at how close we were. "I'm gonna turn you around so I can put this here. Don' freak out." I nodded, squeaking a little when I was twirled around.

I giggled, trying to play it up and not be scared by the physical contact. "Aren't you just so sweet?!" Joey flattered, and I could feel the left hand leave and place the bug on the rope. "Full of those giggles today!"

"Oh, stop Joey!" I buried my head into his shoulder, relieved when his hand went back on my hip, "You're embarrassing me!"

Joey twirled me back around and relaxed our embrace a little. He sent a wink my way and I blushed, putting my head on his chest. Someone clearing their throat caused us to pull apart and look at the guard standing near us. "Okay lovebirds, let's move along and let other people see the pretty crown." He muttered, motioning for us to start walking.

The teen boy took my hand and sent the man an apologetic smile, "Sorry sir, I guess my own little gem is just as distracting at the crown…"

"We'll be going sir." I added, pulling Joey's hand so that he would start moving, "C'mon sweetheart."

We walked out of the geology hall and took a seat on the bench in front of the next exhibit. Joey put another bug underneath it while I took out the map and pen. I crossed off the geology hall and looked over what else was on this floor that needed to get done. "Little gem?" I laughed, folding up the paper and putting it back in the pocket.

Joey shrugged, "What? Don't ladies like being compared to precious jewels?" He asked.

I just shook my head, standing up and offering him my hand. "Not me." I answered, "But you're acting is top notch."

000

The rest of the exhibits went along in a similar way. Fossils, mummies, and the human body covered the rest of the second floor. We would take turns putting them in the hallways, getting creative on where we would put them like trash cans or under a staff member's chair. When we went downstairs, the same pattern repeated itself. Split up, meet in the center, grab hands, and continue on. Dinosaurs, airplanes, taxidermy mammals and space were quick to fly through.

Joey and I decided to stop at a vending machine to grab something quick to snack on. While Joey was picking out a sweet treat, I was sitting at a small table and looking at the tablet to see if the bugs were working.

"Want some?" Frost Junior asked, sitting across from me. He chose a bag of mini cookies.

I shook my head, stomach still a little uneasy from this morning. "No thank you." I smiled, moving my chair so that we could both look at the information together. He was munching away on the cookies while I tapped away on the device. After two or so minutes, I gave an thrilled chirp. "Yes, they're all working!" I whispered excitedly.

He was smiling too and held his hand out for a high-five. I gave him one in return and went to update the Joker and company on my phone. "Thank God!" Joey sighed, leaning back in his chair.

The message was short, but to the point. Simply saying that everything was working so far and we only had one more exhibit left to do. I wasn't expecting any responses, so the phone went back into my purse.

"All that's left is the butterfly conservatory." I announced, looking over his shoulder at the drawn-on map. When we finished an exhibit, we would cross it off in order to keep track of what we finished.

He looked at the map too, tracing his finger through the path that was printed there in the bug's room. It was not going to work the same way as the other rooms; it was a single path that guests had to follow to enter one room and leave out another. "What are we waiting for?" He asked, folding the map up and putting it away, then standing up from his chair.

I pulled him by the side of his jacket, a little to forcefully because he looked a little shocked. "Sorry, but I think we need a plan before we go in. I don't think the Joker is going to come near that room, but we still need it covered well." I stated calmly, "If there are benches, then we can do that still. But what if there aren't?"

"Then we'll roll with it." Joey answered with a grin. He looked so chill about all of this, even though I was pretty sure his life was depending on this going well too.

The teen boy stood up once more and took my hand to help me up too. He led me to the exhibit, tickets out for the employee punching them. We were given the rules and told to have a wonderful time before going through the doors.

It was absolutely the most beautiful place I had ever been. It was like a green house with all of the fauna and plant life in there. The room had glass ceilings, so the natural light was shining in. All around us, colorful butterflies were flying, taking to the sky and even landing on some guests who were in there as well.

Joey held onto my hand tightly, not crushing it but enough to know that he didn't want to let go. I turned to him and watched him slyly put a bug under an information plaque that we first stopped in front of. "Nice going." I whispered, giving his hand a squeeze.

We moved to the right side, making sure not to miss anything. "So, is it just you and Jonny?" I asked, 'reading' about the Black Swallowtail butterfly and putting the bug behind the white sign.

Joey shook his head, placing a hand on the sign to signal that he wasn't ready to move on yet. "I'm the youngest of four." He started in a quiet voice. "Jake and Jimmy were from pops' first marriage, Jonny was from his second, and I was from his third."

"Do you all…work in the same field?" I asked again, surprised he opened up to me in the first place.

Again, he shook his head. "Jake and Jimmy got out when they could, heading to Central City." He explained, letting go of the sign and moving to the next one. "Is it just you?"

My eyes turned up to the bugs flying around. "Yep, I'm an only child as far as I know." I answered casually.

I took a seat on a bench, looking at a small fountain. Joey sat next to me too, his hand a little close to mine that was resting on the seat. A small ping noise told me that he got the small bug attached to the bottom. At the same time, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check if anyone responded to my message. We were about to get up when an employee was heading over to us. "Oh, did you two want me to take your picture?" She asked, pointing to my periwinkle phone in my hand.

She must have assumed that I was going to try and take a selfie of us or something. Before I could answer, Joey was pulling me into his lap and I had to bite my lip to not squeal. "That'd be great!" He smiled, taking my phone and handing it to the woman.

He was getting himself seated more comfortably while I pretended to fix my hair, "What's with the lap?" I whispered with my teeth clenched, "I thought you just said hand holding?"

"Force of habit?" He answered with a shrug and a laugh.

I had to shake my head, putting on a big smile for the camera. The employee took a couple of pictures, then handed the phone back for me to see. We actually looked like a couple, heads leaned in close and everything. As soon as she was gone, I hopped off and started walking to the next sign.

Joey followed behind after picking up the backpack. When I put a bug on the sign, I decided to start asking questions to get to know him a little better. "Are you in school still?" I asked quietly, holding out my hand near an Orange Sulphur butterfly with the hopes that it would land on it, "I mean…like high school."

"I go most of the time." He answered. We watched the tiny butterfly land on my hand and he was quick to pull out his phone and snap a picture of the moment. "P.S. 146."

The beautiful bug flew off my hand and to a daisy. "I go to 148!" I turned to him with a small smile, "I think we're rivals."

Joey laughed, offering a hand for me to take as we got closer to the exit. We stopped at the life cycle station. "You got a boyfriend?" Frost Junior asked out of the blue, causing my eyes to widen in shock, "Or girlfriend? I don't judge!" He held his hands up defensively.

"No, I don't have a boyfriend." I shook my head, "I've never had a real boyfriend. There was a time in fifth grade when I thought I liked my friend Parker, but we broke it off after he wouldn't share his animal crackers with me at snack time."

I fished a bug out of my pocket and went to place it on the sign. "Um…do you have someone special?" I asked, moving us to the door.

"Yeah I do. Sofia Romano." Joey answered, not sounding too excited about her like I thought someone would be about their significant other. Surprisingly to me, I did feel a little disappointed at his answer, but I didn't know why. "Don't worry, if she knew about this little acting gig we're doing, she'd be cool with it."

Once we left, the final destination was the security room. The small, almost closet sized room was next to the bathrooms and the door was slightly open. From where we were standing, I could see that there were two guys in there, but they were paying more attention to the cards in their hands than the screens.

I turned to the older boy, not really sure how I was going to do this. "Any ideas?" I asked, grabbing the strap of the purse anxiously.

He looked to be in a bit of a deep thought for a minute, eyes closed. "We'll go in there and say that I heard some dude in the bathroom say something about stealing some of the chrysalis or something from the butterfly gardens. They'll go to the bathroom right there, I'll stand guard, and you'll do your thing."

Let's hope it works."

000

I had no idea how that plan actually worked. Joey went in, with me behind him. He told those guards his lie and both of them left the room and ran straight into the men's room. Quickly, I put in the flash-drive and prayed that it would do its magic while I was in there. Thankfully, I got to glance at it before the guards ushered us out, letting us know that they didn't see anything in the bathroom, but they would look over the footage.

During the walk back to his truck, Joey told me that the guards were saying something about the rookies working tonight because there was going to be a bachelor party that the others were going to. I told him he needed to remember to tell the Joker that as soon as we saw him.

We got back to the penthouse a little after four and saw that the Joker's goons were taking over the family room again. I was a little worried about that because I thought about using the huge screen, and maybe other screens, to watch the security cams instead of just on the laptop.

They watched my every movement, which was really just taking off my shoes and waiting for Joey to finish texting. "C'mon, Mr. J's probably up in his office." I said quietly, taking his hand and making him follow me up to the office.

He seemed a little flustered, but was fine once he was off his phone and it was back in his pocket. I let go once we were up the stairs and I knocked on the door, waiting to be called into his office. After a moment of nothing, I tried to see if the door was locked by turning the handle. It turned and I peeped my head in. The Joker was in there alone but on the phone with someone. He must have heard the door open because his head shot up and he made eye contact with me.

With a wave of his hand, he gestured us in and turned around in his swivel chair to face the window. I put a finger to my lips to tell Joey to be quiet before heading inside the office. We both sat down on the leather couch; Joey handed the backpack to me and I took the tablet and laptop out to show Mr. J that the bugs were working.

"And five hours later, they return." The Joker's voice drawled, turning back to us and setting his cell phone down on the desk.

I handed Joey the tablet, ready to move onto the laptop. "We've got a clear layout of where each bug was placed in the museum, sir." Joey said, handing over the tablet to our boss, "Every square inch is on here and every security system can be taken down with a touch of a button." I peered up from the laptop to see the Joker's reaction. It was an impressed one, eyebrow raised and smirk on his face, "Bernie even got into the security cameras Mr. J." He went on, nudging me in the side, "And I heard that the rookies are working tonight."

The Joker set down the tablet, looking at the both of us. "Wow, above and beyond, huh doll?" Mr. J chuckled. My response was a shrug and handing over the laptop to him. "Well then, this changes the plans a bit. I'll have you stay here and watch the cameras then while you give us direct information." That worked for me. I knew that the Joker could be violent if something went wrong, and I'd rather not be in the direct line of that. "Frost Junior here is gonna help you out. More eyes on the prize."

I raised my hand, wanting to ask something before he dismisses us. "Mr. J…it'd be easier to keep an eye on things if there were plenty of screens to use instead of just the laptop."

He leaned back in the chair, putting his arms behind his head. "Ask the boys down there to go out and get as many as you need then." The Joker said after a moment. That made me anxious; those guys wouldn't listen to me, even if it was an order coming straight from their boss. "How many do you need?"

"I think about seven or eight will work." I answered after thinking about it, "If we grab one from the game room and use the one in the family room, we only need five or six more. I-Is that alright?"

The Joker's face turned into a twisted kind of grin and he leaned forward in his chair, "What's the magic word?" He said in a mocking tone of voice. My face got warm and I felt like I was a kindergartener being reminded to use proper manners. "Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty…"

"Please." I said quietly, my ears getting warm too.

The clown laughed, throwing up his arms in a victory sort of way. "Ah, there it is! That's what I like to hear!" He cooed, still laughing. "Joey my boy, help Bernie bring down the TV she needs and set up her things. I want this done quickly."

Joey stood quickly, "Yes sir."

I collected both the tablet and the laptop from the desk and let Joey grab the backpack. We both left in a flash and I showed him where the game room was. He found the TV that I was talking about and I loaded up my backpack again.

Thankfully, Joey was pretty strong and didn't struggle carrying the TV down the stairs. "You can just put it on the coffee table Joey." I told him, standing close to him.

He set it down and went to find where he could plug it in. That's when I turned to the rest of the men in the room to ask them to get the monitors I needed. "Um…excuse me. But Mr. J told me to ask you guys if you could go out and grab some more TV's for me. I'd really appreciate it."

The remote guy and ringleader, who was wearing a rhino mask on top of his head, stood up from his spot on a reclining chair and walked right up to me. His face was only a couple of inches from mine and I could smell garlic on his breath. "Why am I gonna trust you?" He asked, crossing his arms across his chest, "I've got three people I take orders from, and you're not one of them cupcake."

Just like every encounter with the goons, they laughed at me once Rhino was done talking. The man had a smug look on his face and I was ready to give up. But, Joey moved me out of the way and got right into Rhino's face. "Listen up, the Joker wants this done and done fast. So, you can either listen to Bernadette or you can take it up with Mr. J."

There was a tense feeling in the air after that, with the two of them in a stare down. After what felt like hours, the goon turned to the rest of this partners and snapped his fingers, "Well, what are you all standing around for? Let's get this shit done fast." All of them jumped up quickly and were heading to the elevator fast.

Once they were all gone, Joey turned to me and seemed like he was checking me over. "Thanks Joey, you didn't have to do that." I thanked, a sincere smile on my face.

"I've had to do that so many times before it was nothing."

"When have you had to do that before?"

He laughed, flopping down on the couch. "I've got three older brothers. You learn quick to stand up for yourself Bernie."