Of Broken Steel

Summary: When Batman finds the Joker bleeding and drugged up in an ally way he does the only things that seems natural to him, finds him help. When the Joker wakes Batman finds out that Arkham is no longer a safe place for the mentally insane criminals he's been dumping there.

Disclaimer: I don't own Batman or their charactors, I am not making any money with this it's just for everyone's enjoyment.

Batman/Joker (MUAHA!)

AN: I'm not completely sure which Batman/Joker this is, it's one of the cartoons, you can let your own imagination work from there. The Chapters will get longer. Sorry for the spelling, I am an accountant, not an English Major.

Sane (Not really) Joker

Of Broken Steel

Chapter One: I swear

All was quiet in Gotham, which was worrying at the least, Gotham should not have been so silent. People went about their busyness and traffic flowed evenly as Gotham's citizens called to one another from cell phones and hand gestures.

Batman stood above all the commotion on his perch on a tall business complex. He couldn't understand why it was so quiet usually the Joker would be up to his antics by now. Another worrying thought since the Joker had broken out of Arkham but hadn't played any of his usual pranks. No bombs, no dangling people, not even a sticky note trail that he had done last time. Nope, this time the Joker had broken out and for a week there had been no sign of him and Harley was still caged in her cell. The Dark Knight was about to head in for the night until he heard something stir in the ally below.

Batman went to investigate, carefully making his way down to the shadowed ally and sighed when he saw a couple of cats fighting over a scrap piece of trash. The vigilante sighed and turned away from the felines only to come across the man he had been looking for.

His blood froze and he looked down at Joker with something close to pity. The man was tangled in his Arkham uniform and his green hair was plastered against a feverishly flushed face. His eyes were half closed, the bright red orbs dead and lifeless, free of their crazed glee. This was not his psychotically homicidal maniac nemesis, this was a man in pain and, by the looks of things, very sick.

Batman strode over in a few long steps and knelt down to look at the flushed man who turned and looked back at him. The Joker's eyes widened and he blinked slowly before he burst into giggles and then happily passed out. Batman caught the man and almost dropped him from the heat radiating from his body. The Joker was not just a little ill, he was burning up. The Dark Knight didn't have a choice; he couldn't leave the Joker here to die on the street and soon called his Batmobile and hoped that Alfred wouldn't slit his throat for his one.

Joker was quickly placed in the vehicle and Batman jumped up in the front seat before revving the engine and letting the jets do their work. Joker groaned and clutched his stomach, rudely awakened by the sudden lurch.

"What's going on?" He muttered and he looked about weakly "Why Batsy, I didn't think I would ever be riding shotgun with you."

"What happened?" Batman asked, not knowing how long his counterpart would be conscious for. The Joker's face screwed up a little and he looked at Batman for a moment before he clutched his head, "Stay with me here Joker, tell me what happened."

"Why are you being so nice?" Joker hissed and he turned to his dark clad foe. Batman turned to look at him for a moment and reached out to touch the other's forehead and Joker almost purred, "Oh, you're so cool." The madman leaned into the hand and Bruce felt himself blush, that sounded way to much like a fan girl to be comfortable. "I don't feel so good Bats."

"Don't worry, I'll see what I can do for you, but you need to tell me what happened," Batman insisted and Joker groaned, "Do you even remember?" The green haired villain shook his head slowly, "Alright, just hang on a few more moments."

"Where are you taking me," Joker slurred, his vision getting fuzzy and all the bright lights making him dizzy and nauseated.

"Somewhere safe," Batman muttered and Joker didn't have a choice but to trust him on this and as everything went cloudy and darkness took over, Joker felt himself getting picked up in a strong pair of arms and a name being called.

"My word!" Alfred rushed from the lift and headed for Bruce and the creature he held in his arms, "why on earth did you bring him here…he's…oh my Lord he's burning up!" Alfred had reached forwards to grab the Joker and pull him from Bruce's arms until he felt the heat coming off him. "What the Devil happened?"

"I don't know, I'll run some tests, you call Barbra and Dick and get to work on him," Batman ordered and Alfred picked he Joker from his master, the green haired pest was incredibly light, and laid him on a medical table before he rushed back to the lift and vanished.

Joker shivered from where he lay, curling up about himself and muttering nonsense about kittens and butterflies. Batman paid little attention until Alfred returned and started his work on the man. The butler carefully undid the shirt and tugged the filthy thing off him and gasped, "Oh dear, Master Bruce…"

"What…Oh my god…" Bruce felt his heart sink at the sight. Joker was riddled with needle marks and bruises from restraints. He was thin enough to see his ribs and for the blue veins to pop up dramatically against white skin, it was evident that he was starved. Bruce looked down at the Joker, long wild hair haloed against a sharp face now hollow and smileless. "Fix him the best you can, we'll try and get some blood tests done."

"As you wish sir," Alfred said just as Dick came down in full costume.

"Alfred said the Joker was here!" He shouted in rage, "Why did….whoa…" He looked down at the clown prince of crime and swallowed, "Geez what happened to him?"

"We're about to figure that out but until then pass me those clean cloths and go fetch me a wash cloth and cool water, we need to bring his temperature down," Alfred ordered and Robin took off as Alfred concentrated on changing the Joker into something less disgusting and maybe a little more comfortable. Removing his pants showed more horror. The Joker's ankles were both bruised badly from more restraints, one was sprained, and his inner thighs were also abused with injection points. "I usually don't pity the likes of you Joker…but my lord, what did they do to you?"

"Drugged him up, I think," Bruce said as he came forwards with a needle to get some blood from the blessedly unconscious man, "I don't think he would let me do this otherwise."

"I'd say, poor chap looks like a science experiment," Alfred spoke as Bruce took the blood sample and then left the man to Alfred's care.

"I got everything, and I told Barbra not to have kittens when she comes down, but I think she's too scared," Robin piped up as he handed the pot of water and cloth along with a thick blanket to Alfred.

"I wouldn't blame her, would you?" Bruce asked as he waited for his computer to spit out the results of Joker's blood work. Robin shook his head and turned back to the Joker, now dressed in clean plain pajamas and covered in the thick blanket the man looked more like a child with a cold. This was a criminal with some serious problems though. "Jesus Christ!" Bruce's sudden exclamation got everyone's attention.

"What is it?" Robin asked and looked up at the computer and saw a long list of drugs and toxins in Joker's system, from simple pain killers to heavy antipsychotics to drugs that Dick was sure were illegal. "Were they trying to kill him?"

"That or drug him up enough to control him, some of these have serious side effects, a couple are illegal and all mixed together I'm shocked he is still breathing. His system must be so over loaded that it's either trying to burn it out or shut itself down," Bruce said as he looked at the unconscious man. Joker twitched as the cool cloth wiped across his forehead, collecting beaded sweat and dirt before being placed back in the pot, wrung out and placed gently back in place. "He's too stubborn to die like this."

"Well what do we do with him?" Robin asked "We can't send him back to Arkham, obviously, we can't call the police because that's exactly what they'll do and we can't keep him here."

"We might not have a choice," Bruce said as he looked down at Joker, his twitching stopping as he finally seemed to find peace and he fell away into a deeper sleep, "We need to keep an eye on him anyways, I'll keep the first watch."

"You'll call if you need anything sir?" Alfred asked, worried about leaving Brice down there with the Joker, even if the green haired felon couldn't lift his own weight, he was still worried. Bruce nodded and took a seat beside the green haired man. His face was flushed and his brow shown with sweat, black lips chapped and his breath came out in labored pants.

"Christ Joker," Bruce muttered as he lay the back of his hand against the man's forehead, feeling the heat against his flesh, but it was going down.

"Bats…" The slurred tone caused Bruce to quickly slip his cowl back in place, "Bats, my ears are ringing…"

"It's the fever," Batman said, "can you move?"

"No…" Joker slurred and an arm came up and covered his face and his body shivered and twitched and Batman's eyes almost came out of their sockets. Joker was crying, he was honest to goodness in tears and when the other arm came up to cry and muffle the sound of choked sobs Batman took his wrist and tugged it away. "St...stop…just…go away!"

"Joker, look, the only thing I want to do is help," Batman said and Joker struggled more, whimpering and crying, flailing his free arm and Batman had to grab the other wrist and Joker damn near screamed. "Joker, Joker, calm down, Joker." Batman tried to calm the man down but Joker was screaming louder now, pushing against his desperately and Batman took a moment to find out why, he was treating the man like he may have been treating in Arkham. Batman pulled the man into his chest, circling his arms around him in a desperate attempt to stop him from struggling and to comfort, if he could.

"Let me go, stop…" Joker clung to him and started to bawl, burying his nose into the grey shirt and didn't let go. "Did I deserve this?"

"No, you did some horrible things and deserved some horrible treatment, but this was beyond crossing the line," Batman spoke carefully and rubbed circles at his back with slow and careful comfort. This man was still a maniac and mentally unstable and still needed to be watched. "I need you to let go, I'll give you something for the fever and you can sleep."

"I don't want to sleep," Joker hushed "They always made me sleep and in my sleep they hurt me."

"They won't hurt you here, I'll be here, me and my team," Batman said calmly and the Joker gave a small sigh, his body relaxing against his chest, "I'll protect you."

"Do you promise," Joker asked, sounding the sanest he had been since Batman could remember.

"I swear."