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Harleen's fingers were slender, each tipped in nails pearl pink and had little crescent moons at the bottoms. They were currently clutching a cup of coffee, and unbeknownst to her they were chipping off tiny crumbs of Styrofoam.
The coffee in her cup was almost black with only a dash of milk. The steamy liquid was a dark brown. Oh they were so much like his eyes. His eyes looked black, a deep soulless ebony. But if you were close to his face; kissing distance, which not many people did and lived to tell the tale, you would see that his eyes were really just an earthy brown.
They didn't realize that the darkness came from inside, from the things he'd seen and done and felt...
"Margot?"
Harley's head snapped up to see the other residents gathered in a circle of chairs in front of her. One of the chairs she was sitting in. She inwardly groaned, forgetting that she had moved, that she had changed her name, that she had left Gotham, left him behind...
"Margot, it's your turn. Who's the special lad?" A lady with choclate skin kindly asked her.
Ah yes. The nurses were all gathered here sharing stories about their whirlwind romances. Not that you could call any of them that though. None of them compared to what she had with him. One of them had met through a dating site for goodness sake!
Yet... she couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy for them, because they were still together and they were happy.
"There was someone." She finally admitted. "From my old city."
Giggles and gasps were passed around the room. "And what was the lucky fella's name?" They asked.
Of course Harley couldn't tell them, anymore than she could tell them her own.
"Heath." She told them instead. "His name was Heath Ledger."
Sensing a good story the ladies leaned in a tad closer.
"We were electric from the start."
//
His name was Jack back then.
He had those aforementioned deep brown eyes, and slightly curled messy brown locks.
There was always something more though, something that couldn't be touched upon in afterthought, it was something that you had to experience yourself.
Harley met Jack for the first time at a party.
Well, it was really a nightclub, but one can't afford to be too particular on these things.
She was with her friends, champagne flutes in hand, when her saw her. And yes he saw her first, as it is always the same with the predator and prey. He saw Harley and her long blonde hair that glistened under the strobe lights, and the little black dress that danced around her slim curves like a daydream.
That's when Harley first saw him.
And the first time she saw him, he was smiling for a moment when he didn't realize she was looking.
His smile was something to behold. It made his eyes crinkle and the skin around his mouth crease. There was something so charming about it, about him, something so charismatic it could not be ignored.
Their eyes met over the heads of a crowd of people, and they both instantly knew that she was his. There was no contest. No other man would ever have her heart again.
Oh and when she had told him her name. "Har... leen Quin...zel." He had said, rolling each syllable around his tongue as if to see how they tasted. "Well you wouldn't mind if I called you Harley would'jya?" She bit her lip and smiled. "Ok Jack. But only you, only you can call me that."
He laughed.
"I wouldn't have it any other way little harlequin."
Of course she couldn't tell the other nurses that, like how she couldn't tell them how his name was Jack and she was his harlequin and nothing else, but she could tell them how they began to date, beginning with a few chaste dinners, growing so quickly into something more.
However she couldn't begin to explain the intimate moments when her hands would get caught in the tangles of his gorgeous brown hair, how he laid kisses on her shoulders when her back was turned, how they had these conversations about the world and humanity and he would play the role of the cynic and Harley the optimist. When ever she brought up a good deed that Jack had done he would laugh and he would smile at her like she was the only girl in the world.
Her love for psycholgy amused him but he never made fun, he would just laugh at her attempts to constantly show him that he was a good person. To cure him of his demons. It was funny, looking back on it now.
He basically moved in her with her at that point. He didn't exactly bring all of his belongings with him, but there wasn't like he had much to begin with. He rarely talked about his past, and sometimes it seemed like he had just popped out of nowhere, like she had simply wished him into being that night at the nightclub. Maybe he was an angel sent to change her life.
Well, she was half right so we'll give her that one.
That night she felt the empty space on the mattress he left in his stead immediately. She didn't worry at first, when she heard the shower running. But then the the hours began to tick by, and her fear increased.
She jolted when she heard the scream.
She threw off the covers and ran as fast as her legs could take her, slamming open the bathroom door. She found him there, behind the walls of glass, beating the tiles over head and yelling till the water choked his lungs. She ran in, never minding that she was fully clothed, and she bent over and held his angry, naked form. His fury soon subsided into sobs. His head cradled in her lap, sobs wracking his whole body, he clung to her as he shuddered.
They remained like that for hours more.
The next morning, dry and both wearing clothing, she asked him if he was upset.
"Upset?" He asked. "Not with you. You complete me. You make me the happiest man in the world. Look at this grin." He said with his trademark smirk. Harley laughed. "You promise me that even if I'm not here one day, you will always stay smiling."
He chuckled, "Of course." He frowned, "Why, are you going to leave me?"
The corner of her mouth crept up. "Never."
//
They began to fight. He would lie to her, on little things but they were still lies. She would scream at him, even slapped him once, before he would tackle her to the ground. She was always fearful of this, but then the rage that was there would disappear and he would laugh. His laugh, that wonderful sound that reverberated in her soul. "I knew..." He would say, trying to catch his breath, "I knew there was a reason why I loved ya, lil Harlequin!"
And that would be the end of their fights.
She still, on a constant basis, worried for Jack's safety, for his sanity. She felt that it was her duty to protect him. Because even though she had not told him, even though he already knew and the words hung unspoken between them, she loved Jack. She loved him more than anything in her life. She had known that since they had first laid eyes on each other at the club. She couldn't understand why she didn't just tell him.
She'd learn to regret that.
//
Jack vanished.
One day he was there, the next he wasn't.
She was in complete despair.
She spent the day searching for his things, and found nothing because when he had moved over he hadn't brought anything with him. She called his mobile phone, a digital voice on the other end told her that the number was disconnected. She went to email him, but realized that he didn't have one, and if he did he hadn't told her. It was like he was a ghost, a Mary Poppins of sorts, there for a while to make everything perfect and then has to leave. But this Mary Poppins left in the middle of the night and gave no warning to her absence.
She threw the computer at the wall.
All she had was the memories and the pillow that still smelled like him, coffee and gasoline and that vague undertone of something that she couldn't place, something unique to him. If not for that, she would have believed that she was going insane.
She wasn't quite sure she wasn't.
No one heard from Harleen Quinzel for about a year. She locked herself in her house, rarely ate or drank, and couldn't sleep because on the few nights she did he would be there in her dreams. It was a few moments of bliss, but then she would wake up and remember that it wasn't real, that he wasn't there, and she would weep till the tears no longer came.
She stayed there in hopes that he would come home to her, that he would walk in with that grin and ask if she had missed him, and she wouldn't even be mad she would just hold him and cry and never let go.
She emerged a while later, seemingly back to her old self. She resumed her studies and contacted her parents and friends, reassuring them that she was quite alright.
She went back to clubs and parties and found herself making connections to some very rich people. She thought that rich would be good, that the money would distract her from... him.
She found herself not talking about him. It was easier that way. No one asked about him, because when they started dating they had sort of receded to their own little world, where they would only see each other and no one else.
It was eaiser to forget.
She knew that she never could but she was going to try.
She didn't know that they would see each other again.
With different names, in different times.