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When Jason — turned Neal — was caught by special agent Peter Burke, he didn’t really think much about the resemblance.
He wasn’t exactly in the clearest headspace and everyone looked like him. He figured it was his mind playing its usual tricks.
But then he’s caught again and the green is gone and Peter Burke still looks like him and he realizes that this is much more complicated than he originally thought.
Neal makes a deal with Peter, playing it off as a bargain to not spend another four years in jail.
Jason makes a deal with him because he needs to know how the fuck the Joker became an FBI agent.
Joker, now Peter, seems like a pretty normal dude. Definitely not the kind of dude that kidnaps children, beats them near to death with a crowbar, and blows them up for fun.
He’s just… normal. A little strict (which just grinds every gear in Jason’s already thin patience) and a lot stubborn but just… normal.
When he works with Peter, he finds no notes of the man Neal knows he had been. It’s infuriating.
Somehow it was easier knowing that the bastard was batshit than seeing him get excited about a good cup of coffee and worry about his fucking wedding anniversary.
Joker is married? How? Who?
Well, Neal finds out soon enough.
Neal comes to Peter’s house with the excuse of a breakthrough in the case. Jason comes to his house to investigate.
He’s more surprised than he should be to see a brunette Harley Quinn answer the door.
They stare at each other for a long minute before Harley makes a high pitched “eep!” and slams the door in his face.
“Oh no you don’t.” Jason slams his fist on the door. “Harley! You open this fucking door right now or I will break it down!”
The door opens again slowly. Harley peeks her head out sheepishly. “Uh… how can I help you?”
Jason raises an eyebrow.
Harley gulps nervously. “Uh… I think this is the kind of conversation we need hot cocoa for.”
“I don’t want any fucking hot cocoa. I want answers.”
Harley looks up the stairs warily. Suddenly, she grabs his arm and pulls him into the house, dragging him to a secluded corner. “Look, kid. It’s more complicated than you think.”
“Try me,” Jason says, voice flat.
“So, uhm. You know that Mista J had his issues.”
“Issues,” Jason repeats. “Right.”
“Well, uh… he doesn’t have those issues anymore.”
“Well whoopedie-fucking-doo for him,” Jason retorts.
“Look, he’s… he’s different now,” Harley says slowly.
“I don’t give a shit that he’s turning over a new leaf. That doesn’t make up for what he did. What he did for years. He’s a terrorist. You can’t just move on from being a terrorist. I mean, Jesus, Harley. He killed me! You realize that I’m voluntarily subjecting myself to working for my murderer? I just… I don’t understand how this happened. How he’s pulling off the biggest con of a lifetime—”
“He doesn’t know!”
Jason stills. “What do you mean he doesn’t know?”
“I mean,” she wrings out her hands nervously, “that something unscrambled Mista J’s head and turned him back to the man he was before.”
Jason scoffs in disbelief. “So what? Something just… fixed him?”
She snaps her fingers, pointing a finger gun at him. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Jason runs a hand over his face, taking a long breath. “And, what, he went from being a somewhat mediocre stand up comedian to a fucking FBI agent?”
“Hey! His standup was good.”
“Harley. Not the point.”
She throws her hands up in exasperation. “He wanted change! Wanted to do good and all that.”
“Yeah, great. His roundabout way to atone for his years of being a maniacal mass murderer. You do realize he killed thousands, right? How the fuck did the FBI not realize he’s the fucking Joker?”
“He really does look different without the makeup.”
“Harley!” Jason huffs. “What if one day he snaps? And goes back to being the Joker again? You do realize the damage he can do with an FBI badge with access to a building filled with FBI agents, right?”
“It’s been years!” Harley says. “If it woulda happened, it woulda happened already.”
“Okay.” Jason nods slowly. “Okay. So he… he doesn’t remember anything?”
“Right.”
“Nothing from being the Joker?”
“Just went poof!” She makes an exaggerated motion to accompany her words.
“Okay,” Jason says again. “I can… I can work with that.”
“Kid. This… what happened? It’s the best thing that coulda happened to me since I got together with him. And you know I’ve always loved him, but I’m a simple gal. All I ever wanted was for him to love me. And… and now he does. And now he’s… he’s a good man. I know he wasn’t a good man and what he did was unforgivable but… this him? This him is different. He doesn’t got one bad bone in his body and I… I’d like to think that this is who he was supposed to be.”
“Harley. Just because he’s good now—”
“But that wasn’t this him! That was… that was the Joker him. This him is Peter Burke and he’s nice to me and he’s nice to everyone else and he’s, he’s, he’s doin’ good.” She looks at him with pleading eyes. “Don’t take him away from me.”
Jason pauses, just looking at the desperation she radiates. “He’s gonna get caught. One of these days, he’s gonna be held accountable for his actions.”
“I know,” she whispers. “But can I… can we burn that bridge when we get to it?”
Jason clenches his fist, jaw tight as he looks around the cute home filled with photos of the normal happy couple. “I’ll give him a chance. But if I see so much as a hint that the Joker is coming back, I won’t hesitate to break my no-kill streak and put a bullet in his brain.”
Harley gives him a shaky nod. “I understand.”
“You deserve something good,” Jason says softly. “Considering the hell he put you through? You… you deserve something good. Better than him. Even if he’s… reformed. You deserve to be happy.”
“I am happy,” she says. “He makes me happy.”
“He hurt you,” Jason says. “He made you do horrible, horrible things.”
“He was sick in the head,” she says. “And I think… I was a little sick in the head too. But I’m… I’m learning how to be good again.”
“If he ever hurts you again, you come to me, alright? You had no part in what he did to me. I know you never enjoyed it the way he did. I’ll take him down.”
“You’re a good kid,” Harley says. “And you’ll see. He’s good too.”
“Are you really happy?” Jason asks.
She smiles. “I am.”
“That’s all that matters, I guess,” Jason says.
“Hey, you wanna help me with something?” she asks. “I know you were a hoity toity rich boy for a few years. I’m looking over catering options for one of those fancy gala things you went to all the time.”
“Catering?”
“I’m a party planner now!” she says proudly.
Jason’s eyebrows shoot up. “Really?”
She nods. “You’d be surprised by the overlap between planning intricate death traps and party plannin’.” She grabs a binder and plops down on the couch. “Now, help me organize the charcuterie board.”
Peter comes downstairs in a frenzy and Jason searches his eyes for the manic glint and sickening smile and he finds nothing.
He doesn’t want to believe that he could ever become a good man, but maybe he is.
Doesn’t stop the way his index finger itches for a trigger.
Yeah. This’ll be a learning curve.