Chapter Text
Harley awoke from her slumber suddenly due to a terrible, nauseating feeling deep in her stomach, she rolled over in the hope that maybe changing her position would ease her pain. She briefly opened her eyes to see the harsh red light of her digital alarm clock, displaying the early hour of four in the morning. She tried to return back to sleep but the pain, which was now getting increasingly worse started to make her want to wretch as saliva began to build up in her mouth. “Screw it” she mumbled to herself, as she then jumped out of the purple bed sheets and made a run for the bathroom on the other end of the landing, with one hand over her mouth and the other over her stomach. She didn’t even have time to turn on the light when she instantly vomited into the sink as it happened to be the closer than the toilet.
Ten minutes had passed and she was still in the bathroom, but now sitting on the floor in the darkness with her knees to her chest and resting her head against the bathtub. 'What could have caused this?' she thought with a grumble, 'I’ve been feeling sick for the past two weeks now, if it was food poisoning surly it would have passed by this point, and it’s always worse in the morning and never in the… evening.' Her eyes then widened at what next came to mind, and although she tried to dodge the possibility and think of other causes, her mind just kept jumping back to it. She quickly got to her feet and started to pace back and forth inside the small room, quietly rambling to herself. “I have been more tired than usual… and more easily triggered… oh crap, and I’m late for my monthly thing.” The more she thought about it, the more she started to panic. She ran both her hands through her messy blond hair as she continued to pace and over-think.
She was then knocked from her thoughts by the sound of deep groaning coming from the pitch black bedroom across the hall. “Harley?” came a tired voice, she jumped a little as she came too before quickly returning to the room. She found The Joker now sat up in bed looking at her in both anger and confusion, with his green hair sticking up in all directions from being asleep. “What the hell are you doing up at this hour?” he groaned sleepily, “sorry pud' I needed the bathroom” Harley replied as she climbed back into bed next to him and laid down as if nothing had happened, The Joker just groaned once more before laying back down as well.
When Harley next awoke to the sunlight coming through the gaps of the red ragged curtains of their bedroom, The Joker was gone. She rolled over to check the time once more as the clock sat on her nightstand, it was now ten. She slowly got up from the bed, and despite feeling a little dizzy and light-headed she went straight to the bathroom to shower. Afterwards, while she was staring at her reflection in the slightly cracked mirror with a white towel wrapped around her body, she then remembered what had happened earlier that morning and it made her panic return. “I’m sure it’s nothing, this isn’t the first time I’ve had this scare, hell I’m not even sure it’s possible due to the amount of times we haven’t been careful” She thought to herself, “although, this is the first time I’ve actually started to get symptoms.” She was suddenly hit with a wave of anxiety and found herself pacing again, but this time The Joker caught her doing so while he had heard her moving about.
She hadn’t noticed that her deranged partner was now standing in the doorway of the bathroom, looking very puzzled with one eyebrow raised, “Harl?” he finally spoke. She squealed in surprise with a jump and quickly grabbed her hairbrush from the wooden counter to use as a weapon in a reflex. Her towel then suddenly came lose due to the jump, causing it to fall to the floor revealing her naked body. She didn’t seem to have noticed or at least cared, as she just stood there wide eyed clutching the brush near her face. Her reaction to his presence had startled him as well, but that was soon distracted by her lack of clothing. His brows lifted as his eyes slowly travelled down her body then back up to meet her gaze. He was confused, yet he couldn’t help the huge cheeky grin making its way across his face.
“Um, Harl-?” he started, slowly lifting a finger,
“Don’t do that!” she shrieked, still clutching the brush and panting
“Harley” he began again, darting his eyes down then up while gesturing at her body.
“Eeep!” she shrieked again, realising what he meant before dropping the brush and pulling the towel back over her body once more, as The Joker chuckled at her now red face.
“Aww don’t blush darl, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before” he added while still chuckling, Harley only frowned in response.
“How far out of it were you to not notice me standing here?” he then asked with now a look of slight concern as he folded his arms. Harley thought for a moment and was about to speak but was then cut off, “anyway I came up here to talk about the plan for today’s job but I think you’re too out of it to join, not to mention your constant vomiting.” Harley then looked at
The Joker in shock, “Yes I know about that” he added before walking off back downstairs leaving her speechless.
When Harley came downstairs, she was casually dressed in black leggings and a red tank top, with her hair done up in her usual pigtails. Joker was getting ready to leave for the day, by packing up his weaponry into an old brown duffel bag in the living room on the coffee table. Harley knew not to argue with The Joker when it came to business so if he said she wasn’t joining, then she wasn’t joining so instead she just watched him.
“What time do you think you’ll be back?” Harley asked standing in the doorway while fiddling with her top,
“Probably around eightish” Joker responded simply, not taking his eyes of his packing. That suddenly gave Harley an idea; if The Joker is out all day, then that would give her the chance to find out if her accusations were true or not. She then turned and headed to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast.
When Harley returned from the shops, she carelessly dumped the shopping bags on the kitchen table which had a ragged blue table cloth atop it. She eagerly rummaged through the contents to grab all four of the tests because she wanted to be thorough, and then quickly made her way upstairs to the bathroom. After completing the first test she stared at it waiting for the answer while shaking with anxiety and biting her nails, it came out positive. She then repeated the actions three more times, downing multiple glasses of water in the process and getting more and more panicked after each one she did, but they all came out positive. She stood there for a minute, staring at the four little white sticks on the lid of the toilet, which had a little plus sign on each one. Her face was pale and her body was ridged, she wasn’t sure what to do. She had imagined this scenario many times, but now it was actually happening, she didn’t know what to make of it.
She got rid of all the evidence, by stuffing each one in empty food containers from the kitchen, and throwing them in the bin in the corner of the room. She heading to the living room and sat down on the black sofa with her legs crossed to contemplate her situation, while clutching one of the purple cushions as support. Harley had been waiting for this moment for a very long time; it had always been her dream to have a child with The Joker, but what they did for a living was always a setback. She tried to think back to the exact day that it must have happened but she couldn’t really tell. She then remembered that there was that one day a little while ago, just before she got sick, when they were out on a particularly difficult job. After they completed it, they wanted to celebrate and had gotten slightly carried away in the back of their van, forgetting to use protection in the process and by the time Harley noticed, it was too late.
She didn’t bother telling him this because she didn’t want to cause any panic and frustration, and it soon escaped her mind. This was due to the fact that it wasn’t the first time they weren’t careful and everything was fine, but of cause this wasn’t the case. Harley knew, and has always known that The Joker despises children, so she knew that he probably wasn’t going to take the news lightly. She tried to think of when she should tell him, and how she should tell him for that matter. She was especially nervous because last time she brought up the topic of wanting a child; he tried to push her out the window again. On other occasions it would cause fights and result in a lot of broken objects and tears, it was always a sensitive topic.
Harley spent the rest of the day sat on the sofa, she didn’t do anything around their home like usual, and she didn’t really feel like eating anything either. She just continued to be lost in her thoughts while staring at the purple coloured cracked wall, until she finally heard the front door open, ‘was it really eight already?’ She thought. She quickly got up and started to tidy the room to not cause any suspicion, by dusting the mantel piece above the fireplace, using an old rag. She was then interrupted by The Jokers purple-sleeved arms wrapping themselves around her waist from behind, “hello puddin” she said in a happy tone, while resting her head against his chest.
“Hey” he whispered seductively into her ear, making her giggle. He then proceeded to lift her off her feet, causing her to kick her legs playfully and sit down on the sofa with her in his lap. He instantly took notice that she was slightly tense and on edge, something was definitely off about her. He was aware that she had been out of sorts recently, but decided to wait for her to admit it. Seeing as she hadn't accomplished that yet, his patience was wearing thin. “how are you feeling?” he asked in a soft tone while looking deep into her eyes. Usually when someone asks you this kind of question when something was up; you breakdown and lose all self-control, so Harley was really struggling to keep her emotions together as he asked this question. The Joker could see the emotion in her eyes and the fact that she was clearly close to tears, yet much to his disappointment, she just smiled at him and said “I’m alright.” His concern quickly turned to anger as his expression dropped, he growled audibly before pushing her off of his lap to stand and face her.