The Clown and The Bird. (Tim Drake and Harley Quinn.)

Harley crouched in the alley, tears were streaking down her face. Her sobs echoed through the empty, darkness of the Gotham city alley...

Four hours ago, she had been her normal, happy self. Joker and her had just pulled off one of the biggest heists of their careers. And they'd done it without anyone noticing. The pair had managed to steel forty million dollars worth of phones, tvs, game consoles and computers. When they returned to their base, Joker sent Harley to rally the troops, to gather them all for the next move. When she returned with the men, she found Joker, in his private 'office' balls deep inside an Asian woman Harley had never seen before. "M-Mista J?" She asked quietly. "Fuck off Harley, can't you see I'm grooming your replacement!" Joker shouted waving her away, slamming into his new girl friends, tight cunt. "Re-replacement? B-but Mista J... I... Loved you..." Harley said tears forming in her eyes. "Well my dear..." Joker said pulling on the Asian woman's ponytail as he orgasmed inside her fertile pussy. "...That's life."

Harley had just turned and ran, she ran with no aim, she'd just bolted as far and as fast as she could. The words she had shrugged off or mocked before, words from Red, from B-man, Birdboy, any shrink who'd ever talked to her about Joker... All of it came flooding through her, drowning her in a tidal wave of understanding... Joker never loved her, he never even cared about her. Now she was huddled next to a garbage bin in Crime Alley at night time, just waiting to die...

Elsewhere in the city:

Tim Drake, The Red Robin, crouched on a rooftop. He was breathing heavily, and his fists were clenched. Batman and Nightwing had just spent the past half hour lecturing him on going into the field alone...

"You can't just rush in without thinking Tim!" Dick shouted, his hands on his hips, his voice had a slight echo to it in the vastness of the Batcave. "Why not? You always do?" Tim retorted.

"Do as I say, not as I do."

"bullshit!"

"Robin!" Batman scolded, with one word he was able to convey more than most with a whole speech. "I'm not Robin anymore, remember?" Tim said with a gesture to the balcony above where Damian Wayne sat, perched, listening with interest. "You'll always be Robin..." "Dick and Jason..." Tim tried to interrupt but Batman kept going "... Are mature enough to make the calls. You are not." Batman's voice was calm, but he might as well of been shouting. "You're actions tonight nearly killed four people, including yourself." "C'mon, it was only Clayface!" Nightwing facepalmed. "Karlo is a threat." Bruce scolded, Tim snorted in response. "Is he?" Batman took a deep breath, his patience running thin. "Look, kid...er... Tim..." Dick began. "the point is, is you messed up, you tried to move too far too fast, you fumbled the ball and people got hurt." Tim piped up. "NO. No one got hurt." Batman stood from his chair and moved into Tim's face. "No one got hurt because Dick tracked you down and stopped you before you could get people hurt. You're not Dick, you're not Jason, and you're not ME. Stand down, you're not ready." Batman turned, as if this settled the argument. "If I'm not as good as you guys... Why was I the only one who could find him?" Silence. Nightwing froze, he remembered being Tim, remembered calling Batman out... Remembered it didn't go well then for him. "I think we could all use a breather!" Dick interjected before Bruce or Tim said anything else they'd regret later. "Tim, why don't you go on patrol. Cool your head." Tim shot Dick a look. "I thought I wasn't respon--" "GO!" Dick interrupted.

Now The Red Robin stared out over the city. He wanted to hit something, he wanted to hit something hard. He was angry and needed to take out his anger on something. But then he saw something that caught his eye. From his position on the rooftop, he couldn't be sure, but he would have sworn he saw Harley Quinn running through the empty streets of Gotham, sobbing.

Deciding to investigate he lowered himself to a lower building, the one attached to the alley he had seen her enter, and sure enough... There she was. Harley Quinn, crouched beside a garbage bin, crying her eyes out. There was something about the scene that touched Tim in a way he couldn't understand... He felt he could relate to her, sort of glad he wasn't the only one having a shit filled night. He decided to see what was going on.

Tim dropped down into the alley way, startling Harley. Harley jumped to her feet, tears still pouring down her face. "What d-do you w-want Bird-Bird Brain!?!?" She asked, her voice quivering, grabbing a small knife from her pocket. The sight of her like this was doing something strange to Tim. Part of him wanted, for some reason, nothing more than to grab hold of her and hug her... "I... Erm..." Tim suddenly realized he'd done it again, he marched headlong into danger without a plan. "I was... Was, wonder what was wrong...?" He said, truthfully, and slightly baffled at himself. Harley froze. She hadn't expected that. "Wha?" She asked the sadness in her voice replaced with confusion. "Well..." Tim said, now blushing. "Y-you were crying, and... Well... I've never seen you cry." Harley nodded. "Well, whadda you care?" She asked, now on the defensive. "I... I.." Tim had no answer to this, he didn't know why he cared. "I don't know... It's just... I thought... I don't know. I thought you could use a shoulder to cry on... Or... Something." Harley slowly lowered the blade. "R-really?" Tim nodded. "No tricks?" She asked. "No tricks." Red Robin promised.

The pair spent the next hour and a half talking, telling each other their stories, Tim felt his paled in comparison to Harley's, loosing the illusion of her love with Joker so suddenly and viciously... Harley Looked at Red Robin in a whole new light. They'd been sitting together for over an hour, he'd made jokes, she'd laughed, then cried and he'd held her, tightly to him, comforting her, telling her everything would be okay, that she'd make it through.

"Y'know something Bird Brain?" Harley asked suddenly. "Hmm?" Tim responded "You ain't half as bad as everyone says." Robin and Harley chuckled for a bit when suddenly Robin sat upright, "What's wrong?" Harley asked but Robin shushed her. "Here Nightwing." Robin said to no-one. "Who ya' talkin' to? It's just us here." Again Robin shushed her. "No, no everything quite..." Harley then caught on to what was happening. "Nah, I'll stay out a little longer... Not sure I've cooled off enough to come talk to Bats.... Alright.... Tell Al I said goodnight." Robin then looked down at Harley, who was sitting next to him. "Who's Al?" She asked to which he shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Look, where are you staying tonight?" Harley shook her head. "I'll find somewhere." She said with a brave smile. "Yes you have. Come on." Tim said, standing and holding his hand out to help her up. "What?" Harley asked. "C'mon, I have a place for you." Harley slowly took Robin's hand and stood. Robin grabbed her around the waist and hugged her closely. "Oh! Hello." Harley said with a wink. Tim Blushed, retrieved his grapple from his utility belt and fired it onto a building above.

The pair ran from one rooftop, to another, until they ended on the Monarch Theater roof. "this way." Tim said opening a trapdoor that lead into the building. "I think this place is condemned Bird Brain." Harley said, unsure. "Nope, this is where I've set up shop." Tim half told the truth. He had set up shop here about two years ago, when Batman was presumed dead, but since Bat's return, he hadn't used it very much. It was safe though, he knew that. Harley followed him down. "Wow." She said whistling. "It sure is dusty in here... Ya' sure this is the right buildin'?" Tim nodded "Yes..." He flipped a switch and the lights turned on, along with three different high tech looking computers. "... I am." Tim said and pointed to a cot. "It isn't much, but there's that." He said quickly moving to the computer and signing out of every Bat related system he had running. "Deleting your internet history? It's alright, I'm the one who posted those nude of myself anyway..." Harley giggled. Tim turned and looked at her. "Nudes?" He asked. "Go on, look 'em up." she said sitting down on the cot. Tim shook his head. "What? Afraid you'll like what you see? Or is the guy in bright red tights, not all that interested in a woman's body?" Tim rolled his eyes at this and opened his web browser. Opening the 'incognito mode.' "Pussy." Harley mocked and laughed. Tim typed in 'Harley Quinn nudes real.' into his browser and clicked the first link that popped up. The following picture made him gasp. It wasn't that the picture had anything incredibly risque in it, hell her pussy wasn't even showing, it was that he knew instantly it was real.

"Yup, that's the one. There's a couple other ones, but those got taken down from most of the sites I put 'em on." Tim turned and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Do I want to know why?" She shook her head. "Not if you wanna like me ya' don't. HEY!" Harley shouted, getting up and rushing over to him, putting her arm on his shoulder. "I have an idea Birdy." She said twisting him around in his swivel chair to face her. "What?" Tim asked, slightly alarmed at the suddenness of this. "Well how about we..."