Will You Be My Daddy? ~Joker Fanfiction~

Epilogue

Joker planted a rose bush in his backyard.

At first, it was a single rose, one stem, but year after year he watched it grow and blossom. It was a truly gorgeous thing to gaze upon, and he held such pride for the beautiful bush he'd planted. And of course, his hideout changed from time to time, but he always returned to check on his plant. Every now and then, he had to water it, encourage it behind the scenes; he had to trim it, guide its growth in the proper direction so it didn't overextend itself, but overall, the success of the bush was owed directly to nature itself.

Joker knew that he had to leave the plant's success up to the plant if he wanted it to reach its full potential. And he also knew that he couldn't become its personal gardener or caretaker. He couldn't touch it.

Roses have thorns.

This was what Joker had to remind himself of every time he wished to touch the plant, to admire its flowers up close. The plant wasn't meant to be touched by his toxic hands. Thank God for those prickly little reminders of his inadequacy, the sharp bites of pain that would put him back in his place.

He was to watch over the plant, not control it.

He could admire it, take pride in it, but he could never claim it as wholly his or move to hold its beauty close.

Roses have thorns.

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After a few months, Maddie was fully settled in to life with Andy and Tommy. They never did fully confirm who it was that brought Smiles back, but Maddie thought it probably had to do with a certain green-haired clown that had a habit of leaving windows open.

The adoption was finalized relatively quickly, all things considered. Andy and Tommy were pleasantly surprised by the efficiency with which it was carried out. Normally couples looking to adopt had to wait months, sometimes years to be approved and get lined up to take a child. They could only assume that the reason they'd been given Maddie so fast was due to the fact that they already had her waiting for a home and Bruce Wayne was aggressively pushing their papers through to higher ups above everyone else.

Christmas had come and gone, with one mysterious present left under the tree without a return label. It was a white tutu covered in diamond shaped patches of red glitter. Andy and Tommy never laid out any presents from Santa.

Soon after, school enrollment time came around as winter blossomed into spring and summer which decayed into fall. Learning gave Madeline great pleasure, and her teachers had only the best things to say about the young girl. Maddie accepted the teachers as capable, even though none of them wore a green bowler hat or carried a golden cane.

One day in September, Tommy pulled Maddie aside and asked for her help with something. He was having dinner with Andy that night, and he needed her to hold a little box for him and wait with it until he announced that he was getting champagne.

Confused, Madeline accepted the box, not bothering to open it, and after she'd been fed she waited at the top of the stairs and watched the couple have their dinner. Tommy had put out a little wax candle, whose flame flickered alluringly and cast light shadows about the room. Suddenly, Tommy declared that he was getting some champagne, and Maddie rushed quietly down the stairs to meet him.

To her surprise, he took her by the hand and went back to the kitchen, where he openly took the box from her hand and knelt down in front of Andy as he opened it.