Brightly colored, mismatched socks shuffled quietly along white carpet from beneath the overly long legs of gray pajama pants as a tousle-haired Joker made his way out of his bedroom, his eyes shut against the early morning sunlight. The house was still quiet, which left him to wonder foggily if perhaps he was the only one home. It certainly seemed that way since upon turning over in bed just moments ago, he had noticed that the place where his 'domestic hostage' usually slept was empty, which was rather odd in itself, seeing how he almost always got up before she did...At least, this had been the case up until about a week ag-

WHAM

A loud groan of surprise and pain escaped Joker as the full front half of his body collided heavily with the apparently closed and locked bathroom door. Forcing his eyes open and cringing sourly, he brought up a hand to rub his twinging forehead, scowling heavily at the perceptibly solid door before him.

"Seriously?" he called raspily to the inside of the bathroom, using the bottom of one socked foot to massage his opposite, now aching big toe. "Again?" There was a pause from the other side of the door, before a shaky, familiar female voice answered.

"Can you go get Dotcom?" Jayde called, her voice trembling slightly with what Joker recognized unmistakably as tears. Without another word, he turned from the door to trudge out into the living room, rolling his eyes as he went. Five days ago, when Jayde had first gone dashing from the bedroom at seven o'clock in the morning, Joker's curiosity had gotten the better of him and caused him to rise from the bed to follow her, only to watch blankly from the door as she vomited spectacularly into the shower. At the time, it had been all too tempting to just walk away, go crawl back into the bed and double his pillow over his head to block out the sounds of retching. But instead, he had sat in the bathroom with her, making smartass remarks but generally being as helpful as he knew how to be. However, a week later, after this same event had occurred not just once but five times, he found his patience running a bit dry; there was only so many times a guy could wake up to the sound of puking before it got old.

Joker's first connected with the bedroom door in a series of loud bangs that echoed through the rest of the house, just moments before a groggy male voice answered, "Is it Jayde?"

Crossing his arms over his bare chest, Joker leaned sideways against the outside frame of Tre's old bedroom, rolling his itchy eyes upward to the ceiling as he replied.

"Yeah, she's puking her guts out again and asked me to get you," he explained, turning his head as the bedroom door finally opened with such force that some of his wavy, messy green hair blew onto his face. Dotcom was hastily pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and pulling a jacket on over a t-shirt, meanwhile casting Joker a very dark and disdainful look as he passed.

"You should be the one doing this," he grumbled as he walked away, leaving Joker to scowl heavily at his retreating back.

"You should be the one doing this," Joker then mocked him under his breath in a high-pitched voice as he turned into the 'guest' bedroom to use the vomit-free bathroom.

Jayde looked up from her place sitting on the floor in front of the toilet when a softer, gentler knock sounded against the other side of the bathroom door, and a sigh of relief escaped her when she realized it must have been Dotcom; Joker would never knock on the door that way. Pushing herself onto her knees, she shimmied awkwardly across the tile floor to reach out and turn the knob, allowing her best friend into the bathroom with her. He let out a soft tsk-ing sound as he immediately knelt down to hold the back of his hand against her forehead.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry," he crooned sympathetically, shaking his head as he turned to sit lightly on the edge of the tub. With a quiet, weary laugh, Jayde shrugged.

"No, I'm sorry," she answered, folding her arms across her middle as she leaned back against the counter beneath the sink to sit opposite him and look up at his sleepy eyes. "I invited you out here so we could hang out, and then I get sick!"

Dotcom's red curls bounced slightly as he shook his head fervently. "Oh, don't be sorry, you can't control that," he answered dismissively with a wave of his hand. "I wanted to come out here anyway, I was just dying to see your...husband..."

Jayde rolled her eyes. Ever since Dotcom's arrival two days prior, he had been relentless about the recent addition of her ring tattoo, and the simple silver band Joker had given her to cover it in public. Over a month had passed since Joker had swallowed his pride and 'proposed' to her in what could have been considered the most blatant deviation from his true nature possible, but Dotcom had only just made it out to visit; to him, it might have only just happened. Of course, he had spared a squeal on the phone when Jayde had called to tell him about the unexpected twist in Jayde and Joker's relationship, however, seeing the tattoo and ring in person seemed to have finally made it real in his mind. At the moment, he was focused on the situation at hand.

"But, what confuses me is that you don't feel like you're running fever," he went on, his eyebrows furrowing behind his black rectangular-framed glasses. "Your throat doesn't hurt, you can eat fine...I dunno, I still think you should go see a doctor, Jayde."

At this, Jayde shook her head adamantly, taking a deep, shaky breath as another wave of nausea overwhelmed her.

"No...no, I can't...What if-...they see who I am and...I don't have insur-" Jayde's words came tumbling out at random, spurted intervals as she struggled to make it quickly toward the toilet, just before she gagged loudly.

From the carved, kitchen table, Joker's jaw paused mid-chew as the loud, echoing sound of sickness reached his ears from beyond his newspaper and his eyes followed the path of the noise, over toward the hallway, where he could just see the back half of his 'wife', hunched over the toilet. His eyes rolled as he pushed his half-eaten slice of toast away from him.

"Tryin' to EAT out here!"

Dotcom groaned in annoyance as Joker's loud voice carried into the bathroom, causing him to rise from his place rubbing Jayde's back, to the door to shut it, before taking a washcloth from the rack to run it under the water. Over at the toilet, Jayde let out a weak laugh as she sat back, reaching out to take the damp towel from Dotcom.

"He's been such a sweetheart about this whole thing," she grumbled sarcastically, shaking her head as Dotcom's lips pursed. It was quite apparent from his silence that he felt very strongly about Joker's lack of helpfulness, but was too kind to Jayde to say what he truly thought. Instead, he went back to their previous discussion.

"I still think you ought to go to a doctor," he repeated, but when Jayde opened her mouth with every intention of protesting, Dotcom went on hastily. "Ask Joker if he knows somewhere you could go, like a walk-in clinic or something! Somewhere they don't ask too many questions," he offered, reaching out to flush the toilet as Jayde stood up slowly. When her eyes moved to meet his, he smiled sweetly, reaching out to pat her arm. "He may not want to hold your hair while you barf, but you can bet money he doesn't want to see you arrested either. He'll find you a good place to go."

Despite the fact that Jayde had to agree with Dotcom, the idea of going to the doctor still unnerved her slightly. It just seemed so likely that if she gave them her real name when asked for it, they would somehow figure out that she was wanted by not only the police, but by the FBI, as a suspect in the murder of a Gotham City detective. But she also figured Joker was just as ready for her to stop throwing up every morning as she was, so the odds were good that he would be willing to help find her a good, nondescript doctor's office.

Once she had changed into fresh clothes and brushed her teeth, Jayde met Dotcom in the kitchen, where Joker had just finished his breakfast and was now leaned back comfortably in his favorite chair, lazily reading the paper as though nothing even slightly beyond the ordinary had occurred that morning. He seemed perfectly relaxed and at ease as she approached him, and he looked up, glancing her up and down as she stepped over to press a light kiss on his cheek.

"Morning, barf breath," he greeted her just as her lips brushed his skin, in a gentle voice that suggested he had just addressed her by the most romantic pet name possible. Jayde breathed a heavy sigh of annoyance as she rose to walk away, but paused as Joker reached out suddenly and wrapped his arm around her waist gently, pulling her back toward him. Confused, she glanced down, though only for her face to morph into a frown when Joker lifted one finger and gingerly poked the front of her tummy. He shook his head with a low whistle once he was satisfied that Jayde was not going to be sick on him once he pulled her down onto his lap. "I'm surprised you're not completely hollow by now," he commented in a clowny growl, glancing up at the side of her face as Jayde finally broke a grin and turned sideways on his lap at the table.

"I am too," she answered. "Though I have to say, it was really sweet of you to offer to help me this morning, dear..." she then added sarcastically, that small grin fading into a very flat, annoyed expression, to which Joker appeared to take offense. His eyebrows arched sharply as he scowled up at her, though just as he opened his mouth to give what was likely a very rude reply, Dotcom spoke from where he had just poured himself a cup of black coffee and Jayde a glass of ice water.

"Boss, I'm thinking Jayde should go see a doctor today, what do you think?" he asked, walking over to set the water down in front of Jayde. "I mean, that's just my opinion...she's your wife..."

At this last word, both Jayde and Joker looked quickly over at Dotcom, who was now hiding a smile poorly; it could not have been plainer that he had been simply dying to use this word to Joker in reference to Jayde. However, to everyone's surprise, Joker seemed to either take this comment in stride or otherwise ignored it, and instead, he turned his head to look up at Jayde with a furrowed brow.

"Do you feel like you need to go see a doctor, woman?" he asked, tightening his arm's grip around her hips slightly and lacing his voice with more care and concern than Jayde knew he truly felt. Staring back down at his chocolate brown eyes, Jayde watched as his gaze bounced back and forth between hers several times, awaiting her answer. Eventually, she shrugged, tearing her eyes away to glance over at Dotcom.

"I honestly don't want to, but I also really don't want to keep throwing up every day so...I'm guessing I probably should..." she finally conceded, sighing as she turned her gaze back to Joker, who nodded once with finality.

"I agree," he stated, just before rising from the table from beneath Jayde so abruptly that she stumbled slightly upon landing on her feet. Frowning, she turned to Joker and was about to cuss at him, but instead jumped slightly as he placed two hands on either side of her face and squeezed, puckering her lips to ridiculous proportions. "'Cause Lord knows I don't want my sugar titties feeling all sick and yucky everyday, right?" he asked in a highly contradictory, gravely and deep 'baby voice', giving her head a small shake before he let go and walked away toward his bedroom. "I got a place you can go," he then added over his shoulder, just before he disappeared around the corner. Jayde glanced over at Dotcom, who raised his eyebrows with a shrug of his shoulders.

"See?"

Within a few moments, Joker returned, holding a very familiar, small black notebook, which he held clamped between his teeth while he pulled a plain white t-shirt on over his head.

"If they haven't closed it, you should go to the free-clinic on Aimes street," he said once he had slid his arms into the sleeves of his shirt and removed the notebook from his teeth to flip it open and begin scrolling through it. From where she sat on a chair at the table, Jayde watched Joker's face as his eyes scanned each page with dizzying rapidity. "-Had to take Tre there once when he had food poisoning...dumbass thought he was dying......Alright, here, this is the place," he finally stopped on a certain page, tapping his pointer finger over a few scribbled words and numbers. "They'll ask you for a name but you can give a fake one and they wont know any different." Joker explained, but paused and let out a short snort of laughter. "I told 'em my name was Jack Meoff."

From across the kitchen, Dotcom gave a loud scoff of indignation but Jayde had barely heard what Joker said. Looking straight up at him, she reached out, threading her fingers between his larger ones, attempting to put a slightly pathetic, hopeful expression on her face as Joker turned his head to meet her eyes.

"Will you come with me?" she asked, purposely making her voice a bit more pleading than it normally would have sounded. She really did not like doctor's offices, and although Joker was not known for his stellar behavior in quiet, public places, she felt that having him with her might act as either a source of comfort or a distraction. However, as Joker hissed a deep breath in through his teeth with a highly false, remorseful expression on his face, Jayde released his hand and turned her gaze solemnly to the notebook on the table before her.

"You knowI'd love to go, but I've got a few things to take care of today downtown," he answered, poking out his scarred bottom lip slightly. "Buuuut...I should be here when you get back, so you'll be able to tell me all about it!" he added enthusiastically a moment later, raising his eyebrows and grinning down at Jayde as though this would put an end to her disappointment.

An hour later, Jayde was dressed for her doctor appointment, and was now sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed, watching idly as Joker stood over by his tall chest of drawers, pulling out a white, Oxford business shirt to go with the black, pinstriped pants he had already applied. He had thus far been unable to find a hexagon-patterned blue shirt to replace the one he had abandoned in Gotham and was still upset about it. He let out a low hissing sound as he slid his long arms into the sleeves, shaking his head gravely.

"I still can't believe I sacrificed my purple suit on that dead guy," he commented to seemingly no one in particular, now facing the long body mirror as he buttoned the shirt. "Talk about a waste..." A heavy silence fell over the room as Jayde stared blankly at a random portion of the white shirt, and from her lack of response, Joker glanced over at her, arching an eyebrow. A moment later, a shrill whistle escaped through his teeth and he snapped his fingers a few times in front of her face, causing Jayde to jump and blink heavily, having been caught in the middle of a staring contest with nothing. "Earth to Jayde? Do you copy?" he asked rather loudly, bending slightly to the side so he could put himself into her line of vision. With a quiet laugh, Jayde nodded, readjusting her arms to fold them more tightly across her stomach.

"Yeah, I was listening, I just-..." Here, she paused, shrugging vaguely as she once again allowed her eyes to drift off, away from where Joker was now focused on tying a plain black tie about his neck. "Joker, what if something is seriously wrong with me?" Finally, she allowed this question to spill forth unhindered, and although she had been struggling hard not to voice her concern to him, she felt as though the uncertainty was eating her alive. And as was typically the case, she felt better once she had allowed herself to actually ask this aloud. However, when she finally brought her eyes back up to meet the side of Joker's face, where he stood before the mirror, she noticed his eyebrows had furrowed and the deep scars on either side of his mouth had tightened slightly in his frown. The newly tied knot of his tie had just reached it's usual loosened position just below his neck when he finally turned to face her, that scowl of slight confusion still evident among his features.

"Just what do you think you're gonna hear at the doctors?" he asked, tilting his head to the side slightly, cocking one eyebrow sharply. "That you have some horrible, rare, painful disease to which there's no known cure?" his question continued, before he paused, though just as Jayde opened her mouth to reply that yes, that was exactly what she was afraid of, Joker suddenly took a step toward her, leaning down to place both hands on the edge of the bed on either side of her legs. With his face now inches from her own, Jayde watched in slight apprehension as his dark gaze once again bounced back and forth between her eyes. "'Cause I hate to tell you this, but you've already got an incurable disease...and it's called me," he went on, his perfectly scarred lips tightening slightly across his teeth when he smirked. "The doc can't give you no worse news than that." And with that, he left her with one quick kiss before he stalked from the bedroom, leaving Jayde smiling, but a little less than reassured.

Once Joker had promised that he would be home either before or shortly after they returned, and once he had supplied Jayde with enough money to cover the office visit plus any tests that needed to be run, he disappeared out into the garage, then into the large black Escalade, leaving Jayde and Dotcom alone with the keys to Tre's old truck.

Pulling away from the corner of Lincoln and Platt, Joker reluctantly glanced into the rear view mirror of the huge SUV to where the house was now gradually growing smaller, and against his wishes, his mind took him back just a few minutes to his bedroom where Jayde had been sitting on the bed, looking up at him with clear dread in her eyes. While at the time, it seemed perfectly in her nature to be so concerned about nothing more than a simple doctor's visit, now that Joker was alone and able to let his mind wander freely, he wondered if maybe her fears were justified. Of course, he had been infinitely careful not to make this evident in any way, shape or form, but if he admitted it fairly to himself, he was perhaps feeling just as uneasy about it as she was. Her symptoms just seemed to appear so suddenly and so sporadically that it begged the thought that a mere diagnosis of the flu was a bit out of the question. Since meeting her two years prior, Jayde had been as healthy as possible, always ready to help, always able to perform whatever task had been asked of her, and up until a week ago, she had seemed perfectly normal. But now, she was sick daily and while Joker tried to make light of the situation by calling her rude names like 'barf breath', he could not help but feel rather unnerved.

Just for the sake of argument, Joker allowed his mind to wander into the realm of hypothetical thought, wondering what his real reaction would be to hearing the news that Jayde had actually been diagnosed with an incurable, terminal disease. Losing Tre had been immeasurably difficult for him to deal with, but he had not known that death was coming. The explosion and ultimately, the demise of his best friend had been completely unplanned and totally unpredicted. How much worse or easier would it be for him if both he and Jayde knew that her death was coming? How much more difficult would it be to watch her slowly diminish until her illness took her away from him, to where he could not see or touch her anymore?

"Holy shit," Joker actually swore aloud to the emptiness of the vehicle as he swallowed hard on the lump that had formed in his throat at just the thought of such a fate. A very small part of him felt the urge to turn the Escalade around right then and head back to the house, hopefully catch Dotcom and Jayde before they left so he could take her to the clinic himself. But the larger, more rational portion of Joker's being finally kicked back in. No, Jayde was going to be just fine. She probably only had a strong, intermittent bout of the flu or something equally as innocuous. So Joker kept his eyes on the road and his hands on the steering wheel, though that very small part of him managed to squeeze in one last thought. But what if she's not ok?

Just as Jayde had verbally predicted in the car on the ride to Aimes street, the slightly dingy waiting room of the walk-in clinic was absolutely packed to capacity with sick or injured people, seemingly all without insurance and seemingly all waiting to be seen. As she and Dotcom stepped into the reception area, she hesitated, reaching out to hook her hand around his arm, holding him back as her eyes scanned the room uncertainly.

"No, look..." she began, her voice lowered as she watched an elderly man blow his nose loudly into a very small, tattered bit of tissue. "It's so busy, we'll probably end up waiting for hours. Let's just come back tomor-"

"What so we can have you spend another whole morning miserable?" Dotcom asked, his voice equally low as he glanced about them. "No, we're already here. Let's just check in and ask what the wait time is." When Jayde did not move, but continued to stare up at him anxiously, he rolled his eyes from behind his glasses. "If the wait is over two hours, we'll leave and come back tomorrow, deal?"

Since Jayde felt this was perfectly fair, she finally nodded and allowed him to lead her toward the front of the crowded room, to where a harried-looking young woman was seated behind a desk and a large pane of glass. Upon reaching the counter, the woman looked up at Dotcom and Jayde, forcing onto her face what was clearly a very strained smile.

"Hi, can I help you?" she asked politely as she slid the glass window to the side, glancing from Jayde, to Dotcom and back again. Jayde tried not to notice the way her eyes lingered an extra moment on the thin scar along her left cheek. Dotcom answered, motioning to Jayde beside him.

"Yeah, she's been sick and...we don't have insurance so we were hoping to-..." His voice broke off, obviously in an effort to prevent himself from saying too much, but it seemed the young receptionist had either heard this story many times, or was just too overworked to care.

"Oh, ok, not a problem," she replied lightly, glancing down at her desk to where a white clipboard was sitting, holding a few sheets of paper. "Just fill this out and bring it back up here. It should only be about a half hour before you can be seen." At this, both Jayde and Dotcom gave clear looks of surprise at the somewhat minimal wait time, which left the receptionist to lean forward slightly toward them and motion with her eyes to the remainder of the waiting room.

"They all have insurance and wont be paying out of pocket today," she informed them quietly. "Dr. Marcelli likes to see the co-pay patients directly."

Feeling marginally more comfortable with the fact that she would not have to wait until after dark to see the doctor, Jayde followed Dotcom over to the only two remaining empty chairs, where she sat down, uncapped the pen and let her eyes fall to the first line.

'Name, please print.

Last:

First:

Middle Initial:'

Leaning to the side slightly, Jayde glanced over at Dotcom, who had just picked up the latest copy of People magazine, where a shirtless picture of Channing Tatum had made its debut.

"Dotcom, what's my name?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper. Beside her, he shrugged.

"Just pick a random first name and use my last," he answered nonchalantly. However, when Jayde continued to stare at him blankly, he glanced up, before rolling his eyes heavily. "Your name is Sarah M. Flannery."

Several minutes later, once all of the paperwork had been completed and Jayde had included details on her sickness, noting specifically how the vomiting and nausea had literally been her only symptoms and how they seemed to only appear when she woke up, she walked back to the front desk, where she handed the clipboard to the receptionist. She was then told to have a seat again and that her name would be called soon, so she returned to the chair beside Dotcom, who was now flicking his way through a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. She leaned toward him, rubbing her now sweating palms heavily on the legs of her jeans.

"I really feel fine now," she whispered, glancing over at the back door, where she would be seeing the doctor any minute. "I mean, I think this morning might have been the last of it. I'm probably over it now, so we should just-"

"No," Dotcom cut in, using both hands to shut the magazine abruptly. "You said that last night too and you were sick all morning again. We are not leaving until you see the doctor and find out what's wrong...Besides-" Here, Jayde frowned as Dotcom cast her a quick sideways glance that read plainly of uncertainty. "I don't think you'll be getting over this for a while." The unmistakable note in his voice of knowing something she didn't was not at all helpful to Jayde's state of open anxiety. Her eyebrows furrowed as she leaned even closer to him.

"What's that supposed to mean? Dotcom, what do you mean?" she asked in a voice of poorly suppressed panic, but just as he closed his eyes to shake his head adamantly, both glanced up when the back door to the waiting room opened and...

'Sarah Flannery?'

Several minutes later, after being led through a somewhat dimly lit, brick-walled hallway and after Jayde's baseline vitals had been taken, such as blood pressure and temperature, both she and Dotcom found themselves in yet another waiting room, though this one was much smaller and completely white, containing one straight-backed wooden chair and one cushioned exam table. Jayde sat down on the exam table, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable as a nurse stepped into the room with them, and to her horror, pulled a plastic cup from the pocket of her lab coat.

"Well, your vitals seem fine and you aren't running any fever, so we'd like to just get a small urine sample from you, just to run a few routine tests, to rule out a few possibilities before the doctor comes in," the woman explained, handing Jayde the cup and lid. "Just leave the cup in the bathroom once you're done and I'll come get it."

As the door closed behind the stout nurse, Jayde turned to Dotcom, who was now struggling not to grin. He shook his head, folding his arms across his chest as he crossed one leg over his knee daintily.

"Oh, stop being a baby," he scolded once he had seen the panicked look on Jayde's face. "It's not like they're going to run your pee for DNA. Just go piss in the cup and we'll get to leave soon." With a heavy sigh, Jayde left the small exam room, to venture down the hall, where she found a bathroom and slipped inside.

If peeing into a plastic cup was not awkward enough as it was, screwing the lid on, then leaving the entire cup on the edge of the sink for some stranger to pick it up was just about as unusual as it got. But Jayde figured that if doing this would help them figure out just what it was that was making her so sick every day, she was more than willing to do it, and before long, she was right back in that tiny exam room, studying her fingernails and trying not to faint under the weight of her brain flying through all the possibilities.

"You have leukemia..."

"You have cancer..."

"You have Lou Gehrig's disease..."

Jayde supposed it was a little paranoid for her to assume that any of these terminal illnesses could be diagnosed from just a simple urine test, but just the thought of the doctor coming into the room and telling her that he could not figure out the problem and that she needed to see a specialist was enough to make her cry right where she sat. What would Joker say? Would he just make a smartass comment like usual and pretend nothing had changed? Would he just up and leave her to fend for herse-

Just then, as Jayde's brain finally pushed itself into overdrive, a gentle knock preceded the sound of the exam door opening, just before a tall, gray haired man wearing a white lab coat and stethoscope stepped into the room. A palpable sense of anxiety and nerves accompanied him as both Jayde and Dotcom sat up straighter on their seats. The doctor glanced from one to the other and back again as he smiled and introduced himself.

"I'm Dr. Marcelli, and..." he paused, glancing back down at the file and slip of paper in his hand. "Well, it seems I've got some interesting news for you."

As Joker stepped into a completely empty house, he sighed, dropping his keys onto the carved wooden table before shrugging out of his gray vest. The time had already reached four o'clock in the afternoon, which left him surprised that he had not only managed to take that much time 'running errands' but also that Jayde and Dotcom had seemingly spent that much time at the doctor's office. That annoying knot of anxiety gave a small twinge in the pit of his stomach but Joker ignored it and instead walked over to the fridge, where a glass of orange juice was calling his name. Vaguely, he wondered how much longer Jayde would be and whether he would have enough time to shower-

The sound of the garage door sliding up on it's tracks caused Joker to turn from the cabinet of glasses, where he had just been about to pull one down. That knot in the pit of his stomach intensified slightly but this time, he really swallowed hard, knowing it would not do him any good to appear too eager or anxious over hearing the outcome of Jayde's visit to the doctor. However, just a moment later, the garage door opened into the kitchen, revealing Dotcom first, followed closely by a slightly red-eyed, seemingly weary Jayde, who was clutching two pieces of paper in her hand. At first, Joker foolishly wondered if perhaps she had once again gotten sick on the ride home, but then with a jolt, he suddenly recognized that expression and appearance as the one she adopted when she had recently been crying. That knot expanded into full blown fistfuls of nerves; his expression did not indicate this as he smiled.

"So you're still alive, I see," he commented somewhat snidely, smirking as Dotcom cast him a subtle dark look, from where he was pulling out a chair for Jayde at the table. Neither of them replied at first, but after a few moments, Dotcom spoke.

"I'm gonna go for a ride downtown," he said quietly to Jayde, causing Joker's smirk to fade slightly. Why did his voice sound as though he were speaking to a dying person? "I'll be back in a bit."

As Joker watched the garage door close once again behind Dotcom, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before he shook his head with a shrug of his shoulders, turning once again to the counter, to continue pouring himself that momentarily abandoned glass of orange juice. The silence in the kitchen was absolute, punctuated only momentarily by the sound of Jayde moving her hand to place those two pieces of paper next to her on the table. Gritting his teeth and unable to take her silence any longer, Joker steeled himself for speech by taking a long sip of his drink, before he turned to face her. He hesitated when he noticed her staring dazedly down at the carvings in the wood table before her.

"So...did they find out what's wrong with ya?" he asked in a somewhat nonchalant sort of voice, giving it everything in his power to appear like he hadn't been thinking about her situation all day. Across from him at the table, Jayde gave a small jump as though she had forgotten that he was even in the room and Joker's light expression dissolved slightly. A moment later, without nodding or shaking her head, nor giving any indication that he had asked her a question, she reached out one hand to pat the place at the table just next to her.

"Will you come sit down?" she asked quietly, her voice vaguely shaky with what Joker figured was the last remnants of her previous tears. With another confused arch of his eyebrows, he stepped toward the table, kicking out the chair next to her, to drop down into it and scoot forward once again. Resting his forearms on the table, he shrugged, leaning toward her.

"So...let me guess..." he began, smirking as Jayde's previously blank face became rapt with something that looked extremely like apprehension. "-you have cancer." he then finished, his smirk expanding wickedly.

Whatever small amount of expression had appeared on Jayde's face fell away rapidly into a very familiar look of flat annoyance, while Joker let out a laugh, leaning back in his chair. With her eyes now locked fully on his, Joker felt that fist of nerves in his stomach relax ever so slightly, just before she spoke.

"Joker, I'm pregnant."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A/N: Please review and let me know what you thought! I have had more requests for this one-shot than anything else, so I finally decided to give it a shot. If you hate it now, fine. Just keep reading and trust me. If you love it, GREAT! Just keep reading and trust me- things are about to get a little rocky. Oh, and if you leave a review, please be discrete so nothing will be given away to those who read the reviews before the actual story! So with that being said...

LEAVE ME YOUR LOVE/HATE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT CHAPTER!