*Disclaimer!*

I don't own anything Batman-related except any OCs I create! This is story is based solely during the animated universe timeline (The New Batman Adventures and onward/Justice League Wild Cards)

Thank you all for reading and reviewing, I LOVE reading reviews, it really, really warms my heart.
Thank you, Loves! :)

The quiet, calm, and peaceful Gotham City night was instantly shattered by Harley Quinn's shrieking, maniacal laugh splitting through the air as she drove recklessly down the road, weaving in and out of traffic with ease. The Joker sat in the backseat with his feet casually propped up, just as if he were a passenger during a quiet, Sunday drive down the California coast. Laying on the seat next to him were random clipboards holding papers with scribbled writings on them, but he paid them no attention as he casually closed his eyes and allowed his girl to drive them along. Such was a scenario Harley was all too familiar with: after all, the Joker always said that Harley drove him...crazy, that is. Not that she meant to, exactly. Most of the time, she couldn't help how insanely furious she made him, but she was quite skilled with it, as everyone knew. As they sped down the winding road, she glanced into the rearview mirror just to make sure their two other henchmen were still in sight. Harley knew that in case their men lost track of them, her puddin' would have found some way to blame it on her...most likely punishing her with an angry fist to her face. It was something she never much enjoyed, but given the huge amount of time she had been with him, it was something she was also familiar with. As she took a second glance in the mirror, she was greatly relieved to see their men's tattered brown car still following closely behind their own.

As it was prone to do, Harley's mind trailed off in thought even as she controlled their vehicle. She wondered how her darling and equally-insane best friend Ivy was doing. The last Harley had heard, Ivy had been recently caught by the police and had taken up residence in Arkham Asylum once again, a place Harley knew very well. She herself had been caught, released, rescued, and escaped Arkham Asylum more times than she could count on her fingers, which made it feel almost like a second home in a weird, twisted sort of way. Namely, Harley had the asylum to thank for introducing her to the love of her life, but she knew she had to be extra careful as to not end up there again anytime soon. She was having loads of fun with her puddin', and intended to stay a free woman for as long as she possibly could.

"Still," Harley thought to herself sadly, a tiny frown forming on her face. "It does get lonesome sometimes without another girl around to talk to." At least with Ivy out and about, it calmed Harley, at least somewhat, to know there was always a girl, a close friend nearby she could seek out any time she needed. There was no doubt that she loved the Joker and her two precious hyena babies, Bud and Lou to death, but it just wasn't the same to be surrounded by men all the time, and she admittedly felt overwhelmed at being stuck around all the macho testosterone that oozed from their hideout. She just felt a strange emptiness inside her that she couldn't explain, no matter how often she tried to decipher it. Often times, Harley even wanted to suggest having a tryout for an expansion of their team, namely a girl Harley could potentially befriend...although one not busty or smart, and certainly one who wasn't as attractive as she was...after all, there were limits. Despite her want of extra companionship, though, Harley was well aware that the Joker was already fed up with her alone, so he'd probably never let another female into the gang - no way, no how. Other, braver times, she even thought of the idea of asking the Joker for a baby to fill the strange void she felt, but she knew the idea of having kids anywhere near them was more off-limits than anything, so she simply kept her mouth shut and endured the pain of loneliness that had slowly begun creeping into her life.

"Harley girl, for the love of Pete, will you watch where you're going?" the Joker's shrill voice rattled in her ear, snapping her wandering mind back to reality as the car suddenly started wobbling in her absentmindedness. "We're still in the city! Are you trying to kill somebody, or what?"

Harley giggled in response. "Not yet, Mister J!"

The Joker rolled his eyes and sighed, grabbing a clipboard and smacking her in the back of her head. "There's only room for one comedian here, Harl, and it sure isn't you. Now, shut your mouth and pay attention to what you're doing, or I'll put a bullet in your head!"

Harley frowned, dejected, but did as she was told. Even if she knew...or hoped she knew the Joker wouldn't actually shoot her, she certainly didn't want to take any chances. Suddenly, she brightened as she looked around them. "Hey, look! We're almost there!"

Indeed, they had driven well into the Southside of Gotham, away from prying eyes and pedestrians...which was exactly where they needed to be.

The Joker suddenly burst into hearty, joker-like laughs. He let out an excited "Whoop!" which caused Harley to laugh loudly as well. Not a second later, he hit her with the clipboard again, making Harley flinch in pain. "Shut up, you!" he grumbled to her.

A few seconds later, they turned off the main road and headed down a secluded dirt path, pulled up to the docks, and parked their cars. Harley gulped as she looked around at their dreary surroundings. The darkness and smelly sea-air just made the scene all the eerier, and Harley shivered in her costume. To take her mind off her slight nervousness, she tried for the umpteenth time to close the trunk of their ratty old car. It had the knack for opening at its own will, never seeming to want to stay closed no matter how often they cursed at it. When she didn't succeed in closing it that time, she angrily kicked the bumper with her foot out of frustration. The impact was much more than Harley had expected, and she yelped in pain as her foot throbbed from the force of her kick. The Joker and his henchmen just shook their heads in annoyance. Even the two henchmen, Rock and Hev, who, incidentally, weren't the brightest bulbs in the tanning beds were often embarrassed by Harley's idiotic behavior.

"Geez, Mister J," Harley groaned as she looked around and rubbed her foot, trying to get her mind off her current physical pain. "What a horribly stinky place this is! Ugh, I hate the smell of fish!" She gagged to emphasize her hatred of fish and fish-smells. "Are you sure we're in the right place? Who in their right mind would wanna come here, anyway?"

The Joker shoved Harley to the ground as he made his way towards the old, rundown building. "We're in the right place, you moron. Now, shut up and let me talk business. If you so much as open your mouth an inch without permission, I'll throw you into the bay. You got that?"

Harley trembled as the coldness of the ground shot through her body like a bolt of lightning. She closed her mouth, "zipped" it, and vigorously nodded.

Rock and Hev opened the doors for the Joker, who sauntered inside without a second thought. Harley bounced up and followed close behind, taking a quick glance behind her before she carefully shut the noisy, creaking door. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness around her, Harley noticed a small table in the middle of the room with a dark, sinister being already waiting at it.

Scarecrow sat in his rickety wooden chair, his soulless eyes glistening with impatience after having to wait longer than he had originally intended. Harley chuckled when she saw her "friend," and attempted to greet him in her usually happy manor, but with one stern look from the Joker, she wisely clamped her mouth shut and didn't breathe a single word.

"It's so lovely to see you again, old friend," said the Joker as he hastily sat down at the table, his eyes hungrily glancing over the pile of blue papers that were strewn across it. "It's been way too long."

"You know, Joker," answered the masked fiend sternly, his voice sharp with annoyance. "I do expect my business partners to arrive at the agreed time." Scarecrow's glowing eyes narrowed. "Otherwise," he continued darkly, "what's the point of arranging a specific time...if both parties are not willing to follow through?"

The Joker sighed, heavily. He wanted to talk business, not be scolded about his tardiness. "Come on now, Crane." The Joker tipped back in his chair and put his hands behind his oily green head. "We have all the time in the world out here! We're in such a secluded place, we even managed to hideout from ol' Batsy and his clan of do-gooders. Not a soul in Gotham knows we're here, so quit your bellyaching!"

Unbeknownst to the Joker, there was a Gothamite who knew they were there, but probably not one they would have been expecting.

A young, petite, cherub-faced girl crouched behind a couple of boxes, cheekily peeking inside the warehouse through a foggy window. She was almost too cute for the dim surroundings, with her huge, sapphire-colored eyes and the sprinkling of freckles across her rosy cheeks and nose. Part of her light-blonde hair had been pulled into two tiny half-pigtails on either side of the top of her head, and they both blew in the wind as she inhaled a deep breath, taking in the entire scene in front of her. She shivered a little out of fear, anxiety, curiosity, and anticipation. She was clad in bright, multi-colored horizontal striped tights, a long-sleeved light-pink Peter Pan-collared dress splattered with white polka dots, two mismatched socks, and light blue ankle boots, but her clothes did nothing to shield her from the damp and chilly air around her. She had no idea what she was doing there. She would never, ever have come to this area under any other circumstances, with her having a fear of dark, creepy places and all. As she had been out wandering the streets that night, the girl had heard the screeching of car tires, followed by a loud, happy laugh, and she had immediately perked up. As she had watched two cars go crazily speeding down the street and turn onto a dark, secluded road, giddy curiosity had gotten the better of her and she just had to investigate all the commotion. To her, it looked like something fun was about to happen, and she didn't want to miss out on it...or miss out on seeing who it was.

Unfortunately, the girl had trailed them too slowly and had missed seeing who had been driving, which only fueled her curiosity fire and willed her to get closer, still. She could barely see them through the murky windows as it was, but she knew whoever they were, they just had to be up to no good, and she was outrageously excited at the idea of watching "bad guys" do bad things for a while. She smiled to herself, feeling proud of what she had done before running after them. She had sneakily swiped a few lose coins from an outside restaurant table, and had used a payphone to call the cops, alerting them of some "freaky stuff" happening down by the docks. She thought it would be loads of fun to watch the police come to crash their party, and she almost burst into giggles at the thought of the mischief she would cause for the goons she was following. The girl had then decided to have a little more fun by staking out the place until the police arrived to break up the party, and she trembled with joy. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as she glanced around nervously, her senses on high alert. So far, luck had been on her side and no one had spotted her, but she didn't want to take any huge risks that might end badly for her. One thing she knew for sure, the docks gave her the creeps, and she knew it was completely crazy of her to be there in the first place. She knew she should leave and let the police handle the situation. She knew it was careless, and she knew it was dangerous. She knew all of that, but in the end, her overwhelming childhood curiosity got the better of her, and she dashed across to the other side of the building, just hoping for a chance to see a little more and get a little closer to the action. Mainly, though, she wanted to see who was up to what. After angrily realizing the other windows were just as opaque and cloudy as the first ones, she took a quick glance above her, and a small, mischievous smile crept upon her face.

With a light-hearted, bubbly giggle, she gasped in happiness. "Now, that's more like it!"

The girl quickly started climbing up the side of the warehouse, using pipes, nitches, nooks, crannies, and anything she could get her little hands on. She felt almost like a spider with the way she was able to easily grip onto small places and make her way to the roof with incredible ease, only clumsily faltering and slipping a few times. Once at the top of the rickety warehouse, she made sure to step carefully and softly as to not alert the current inhabitants below. She maneuvered her way across the roof like a pro, little chuckles escaping her lips every so often. She moved with such flexibility, almost like a gymnast. Almost as if she'd been trained under Harley Quinn. She flipped her way towards the huge skylight window which was situated right in the middle of the roof. Although, she almost screamed in frustration once she saw the state of the window...her last remaining attempt at seeing who was down below. It was in just as bad a shape as the ones on the ground level where she had started from, and she was lucky she had enough self-control not to just break the window out of frustration. Even with some intense wiping with the bottom of her dress, the window was still covered in grimy, sticky filth that she almost did break it.

After realizing the window would never be clean, the girl sighed and shook her head, then looked out across the streets for signs of police sirens. "At least if I wait around long enough, I can see who they are once the cops finally show up and take 'em to County." When she didn't see a single flashing light in the distance, she sighed again and rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Yeah, well. I bet they'd already be here if I told them a donut shop was being robbed," she mumbled to herself, then brought her attention back to the scene under her. "Aw, this sucks! I wish I could see who's down there! All I can see is a big fat pile of nothing!"

She pushed her face against the window in a last-ditch attempt, hoping for a better peek, somehow. As she pressed her nose against the top of the glass, her hot breath started fogging the area where she exhaled. Even still, she could see nothing more than blurry blobs of color, and she groaned in annoyance and she frustratingly wiped the glass. "Of course, still nothing!" she grumbled, pursing her pink-lipgloss covered lips in annoyance.

Harley, on the other hand, had been able to catch a glimpse of something the roof out of the corner of her eye. She'd been so easily distracted from the all-work-no-play business talk her puddin' was engaged in, that she had aimlessly wandered away from the men and had begun curiously exploring the place. When Harley noticed an ever-so-slight disturbance on the roof, she had let her own curiosity get the better of her. Quick as a flash, she carefully shoved huge boxes and crates around so she could climb up and get a better look at the mysterious movement on the roof through a random window she had seen.

The sneaky little spy up top continued to try and wipe the fog that had appeared on the window, and she was suddenly quite surprised to find that her breath actually had helped clear up the glass a little. The moment she noticed it, her heart leaped with joy. With a happy giggle, she breathed more hot breath on the same spot and wiped it away with her hands, clearing up a nice space on the glass, like a little window-within-a-window.

"Bingo!" the girl said with a huge grin, giving off a tiny giggle. "Oh, now I'll be able to see everything!"

As she excitedly pressed her face back to the now-clean glass, she was shocked to find a pair of pale, icy-blue eyes staring back at her from behind a jet-black mask. Their noses both touched from their respective sides of the window, and both Harley and the girl gasped out in surprise. Harley was so shocked that she lost her footing on one of the box towers she had been standing on and it came tumbling down to the ground in a noisy heap.

The girl felt all the color drain from her face in an instant and she thought her heart would jump out of her chest. She jumped up as fast as lightning. "Oh, shii-take mushrooms!" she squeaked. "Th-that was Harley Quinn!" The girl began running back towards the edge of the building as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, gasping for breath. "And if that was Harley Quinn, then that means-"

"Har-leeeeey!" The Joker's loud, booming voice shook the very roof she was running on, causing the girl to stumble and fall as she ran. To her horror, the fall sent her crashing to her knees, creating a deafeningly loud metallic clang that echoed down into the warehouse where the villains stood.

They all looked up at the ceiling with interest upon hearing the noise.

"Hey, is there something up on the roof?" cried Rock.

"There is! I saw some little sneak up there with my own two eyes!" Harley shrieked, angrily. "We've been compromised!"

The girl's heart pounded with fear as she scrambled back to her feet and quickly began climbing down off the roof as fast as she could manage. She knew Harley Quinn had seen her, and she knew she had to get out of there, fast. Unless they lived under a rock, everyone in Gotham City knew how dangerous the Joker was. The girl was certain that if she was caught, she might not see the light of day again, and she shivered with fear as she climbed down as fast as she could go. Suddenly, to her horror, she felt her foot slip out from under her, and with a panicked shriek, she slid down the side of the building and fell smack-dab into the open trunk of Harley and Joker's car. Before she had time to crawl out again, she heard the sounds of the warehouse door creaking open. The girl carefully pulled the lid of the trunk down to help hide as best she could, taking a deep, trembling breath.

"Oh, now I know I heard someone out here," said Rock, with a deep growl.

"It sounded like a scream or something," added Hev.

"I told ya I saw someone!" Harley smirked as she walked towards the car that held the frightened girl. "I knew I wasn't crazy!"

As she watched Harley come closer, the girl didn't dare breathe out of fear she would make a sound. She thanked her lucky stars that she was hidden within the shadows, and no one could see her even if they stood next to her. Her only concern was getting out of the trunk before they did.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Harley sang out in a sweet, sing-song voice, waving the pistol she held in her hand. "We're not gonna hurtcha...we're just gonna feed teeny-weeny little pieces of you to the fishies!" Not a moment after Harley spoke, they heard police sirens approaching. "Rats!" Harley groaned, slamming the handle of the pistol down on top of the car. The girl flinched and shut her eyes in fear. "Somebody snitched on us!" Harley tossed the pistol into the backseat of their car with a huff and cupped her hands over her mouth. "Hey Mister J, hurry it up, will ya? We gotta go, now! The coppers are coming!"

Rock and Hev made a mad dash to their car, followed by a sour-faced Joker soon after, livid that his business party was crashed before having actually discussed anything worthwhile. The Joker angrily slammed his fists down on the half-opened trunk door as he rushed past it. The force of his infuriated blow caused the trunk to close and latch shut, leaving the girl petrified as she lay trapped in the dark trunk of the most psychotic villain in Gotham City. There was no escape for her, now, and as she heard the engine rev up and felt the insane, crazy movement of the car as they sped away, she gulped, her eyes filling with nervous tears. There was only one terrifying thought going through her mind at that time: What was going to happen to her once the Joker and Harley Quinn found her?