Chapter Text
Belle Reve is never a pleasant place. He tried to ignore the piece of paper tucked in his jacket pocket. It’s burning against his heart. Most of his former team, he knew, had gotten out and were serving their probation periods following the mission. It had been maybe two years since he’d seen them consistently all together.
“Visitation for Boomer,” he said.
“Name?” the guard asked.
“Flag, Rick.”
The familiar buzz of Belle Reve rang. The door opened and he walked to the visitors’ area. Then he was guided to the phone booths. Across from him was Boomer.
“Well look who dropped by,” the Aussie drawled.
“How you been Digger?” Rick asked.
“Could be better.”
“What’d you do this time?”
“The usual, got in a tussle with the Flash again.”
“So, you’re going around picking fights with Meta-Humans…”
“C’moff it. I was…”
“Doing another bank robbery?”
“…trying to rob Star Labs.”
Rick banged his head against the side of the booth wall. Somehow, Boomer was one of the closest people he could call a friend. A friend who evidently still remained a criminal. Wouldn’t his parents be proud of him.
“Look there was some money in for it—” Boomer said, trying to defend himself.
“Yeah, it’s fine, Digger,” he said.
Boomer put his forearm across the table.
“Now why are you really here?” he asked.
“We’re friends, that’s why I’m visiting,” Rick replied. He was really shit at this. Neither of them bought that excuse.
He pulled out the piece of paper. Unfolding it, there was a soft pink border around the white center that had college spaced lines. In bright pink gel pen was the message. Harley Quinn asking him to come to her roller derby tournament that was in two weeks. Short notice which she acknowledged. Her scrawl was bubbly and girly bordering on illegible. He thought he saw something about them being friends and the mission and then he had stopped trying to read it. He slapped the paper against the glass.
“Harley sent that to you?” Boomer asked surprised.
“Well Boom, I don’t think you’re gonna get out in time for it to really matter,” Rick said.
Boomer laughed.
“Did you come by to rub it in my face or are you having doubts about going to see one miss Quinzel?” Boomer asked.
“I mean c’mon it’s not like any of us are really friends,” Rick shrugged.
“You come to see me nearly once every two months if I’ve had a sentence. That sounds like friends.”
“Yeah, but that’s man to man.”
“You’re making up some pretty bad excuses to say you don’t like that you like Harley.”
Rick inhaled deeply.
“Look mate, you should go,” Boomer said. “Sure. Joker broke her out a while back. But she also needs friends. People that are there for her. Can you do that for me?”
Rick looked down at the piece of parchment. She’d written her name pretty obnoxiously. Really, he was surprised she would even think of him. He’d been hard on her during the mission.
“Fine, I’ll go,” Rick said.
“Atta boy!” Boomer hollered.
The rest of their session went between the two of them talking about what had transpired since their last visit. Rick had taken another black-ops mission. His civilian life wasn’t looking great. Boomer was just proud that he hadn’t been shanked this trip. Or attempted to be as it usually went.
The Derby wasn’t hard to find. He looked at the letter again. Harley had written seven and Rick knew he was late. It was hard to shuffle in between the crowd. He saw on the wall the scoreboard had The Apricots VS the Gotham Black Stars with the Apricots taking the lead. He got close to the fence and immediately saw Harley in her Black Stars uniform elbow the girl next to her in the face.
The round finished and there was a large upset among the crowd. He figured the Black Stars were likely the preferred team among them. He felt someone bump into him. Rick grimaced. But the longer he watched the longer he became amused. It was obvious that Harley was happy doing this. She was, perhaps, the most violent of the girls playing tonight. The Black Stars slowly started gaining.
Harley did an extra lap with her team as they won. He waved at her. She spotted him and beamed doing an extra twirl. Show off. He smirked. Slowly the crowd started to disperse. He walked towards the opening of the gate. Harley bounced out. He noticed a cut below her lip that was fresh.
“You came!” she smiled.
“Couldn’t miss it,” Rick said with a forced smile.
“Did you see how I got us to victory?!”
“Fantastic. Next black-ops mission, I’m getting you some skates for.”
Her white face turned pale pink. He dug around his pockets trying to find her gift. It had been Boomers idea. Really. It had been one of those Y2K looking Tiffany necklaces. He’d remember Harley had a sort of fondness for them. He sighed.
“What is it Flag?” she asked.
He’d been pick pocketed at the stupid game. Then he noticed the very large ornate necklace around her neck. There was a large gold J hanging at the end of it. It looked like a rope. And a blatant reminder of her relationship with the Joker.
“Nothing,” he said. He rubbed the side of his nose.
“Where’s June? I thought she’d come with you,” Harley asked.
“Harley it’s—”
“You know what, the girls invited me to have drinks with them after my game. They couldn’t make it because of their jobs, ya know? They’re good people. Like really normal less criminal than me. You’d like them. Hey, you should come with me!”
She was speaking at the rate of a chipmunk that found cocaine. He nodded and she grabbed his hand and led him out of the Derby. It seemed as if she’d completely forgotten her questions about him and June. He was fine with that.
They made their way to Margarita Paradiso. There was outdoor seating set up with string lights above. A group of girls were at one of the tables and Harley left him behind and hugged one of the girls. He shadowed. The moment Harley showed up they smiled at her with wide teeth. It looked more like a sharks’ den. Then she looked over at him and grabbed his arm.
“This is also my friend, Flag,” she introduced. “We met through work a while ago.”
The girls waved at him and were friendly in a less threatening manner. It didn’t escape him the way they sized him up. These were people Harley called friends?
“Harls, can you get us another round of mojitos?” one of the girls asked.
“Yeah sure,” Harley smiled.
Rick followed behind her. The crowd was becoming rowdier. She made the turn into the restaurant and he made the decision to stay at the intersection.
“She’s only using this guy as a rebound,” he overheard one of the girl’s giggle. “I mean c’mon a guy like that is way out of her league.”
“And sanity!”
“She’ll be leaving him for Joker in the week!”
He grimaced. Harley came out with drinks on a tray in her hand.
“Somethin’ the matter Flag?” she asked concerned. The bubbliness faded from her lips.
“Let’s get out of here Harley,” he said.
“But…”
Rick took the tray from her and put it on top of the trashcan next to them. Then he grabbed her hand and led her away.
Of course, he hadn’t thought about where they were going. And he was a stranger to Gotham. Briefly he’d travelled to Metropolis but it was an entirely different area. Then Harley started to struggle under his grip.
“Flag you don’t even know where you’re going,” she protested. She firmly planted her feet down.
“You’re right Harley, I don’t,” he relented. “I just, those weren’t friends back there and… I don’t know I just thought you deserved to have a good time after what you accomplished tonight.”
He let go of her hand. Now he felt guilty about the pressure he may have applied to her. But something was seriously deranged with Harley. She looked up at him with a half crooked smile and a sort of dreamy sigh.
“You really think I accomplished something tonight?” she asked.
“Well yeah, I think you really made the nearest dentist around here rich as hell,” he said.
She practically skipped up next to him and linked their arms together.
“You know there’s a really good shake you place down this street,” she said. “The chocolate ganache is to die for!”
“Lead the way.”
It wasn’t a very far walk at all. The interior had a retro aesthetic and there was a relatively small line at the front. There were eight shake flavors being offered. He saw the chocolate ganache Harley had mentioned. The family in front of them walked off and they took their place. Harley was rambling and he had to admit his ears were ringing.
“Know what you want Flag?” she asked eagerly.
The cashier looked between them. Clearly he had missed something.
“I’ll get the chocolate ganache,” he said.
“I love that one it’s our best!” the cashier beamed.
“I was just telling him that on our way here!” Harley agreed.
“Uh yeah, she was telling me that,” Rick added oddly.
A beep processed on the pad in front of the cashier.
“And I’ll take the oh can you do the amaretto at the bottom and then add espresso at the top?” Harley said. “Oooh and a lot of whipped cream on top.”
“That is exciting,” the cashier enabled.
Rick tried to make his sigh as discreet as possible. Harley was going to kill herself one of these days. But how different was that from them being on Task Force X? Harley had beat him to paying for their shakes and the cashiers eyes bulged from their sockets. Harley had left a thirty percent tip. In cash.
They sat at a booth near the window.
“So, have you been on more squad missions?” Harley asked.
“Here and there,” he shrugged. Practically every one that was issued.
In a retro uniform came a waiter with their drinks. Rick took a sip of the shake he’d ordered.
“Okay, that is really good,” he admitted with a small laugh.
“See! I told ya!” Harley smiled.
She took a sip of her own drink enthusiastically. Really, it looked like she thought the shake was oxygen and she was suffocating.
“Wow, okay, that was actually a pretty good combo,” she said.
There was a large amount of whipped cream sitting under her lip.
“Harley, you’ve gotta—” Rick said.
“I’ve gotta what?” her eyes darted around the room.
“No Harley you have…”
He tried to make a gesture to convey the whip. She still looked confused. With a sigh, he leaned over and brushed away the whipped cream with his finger. It’s still.
“You had whipped cream on your face,” he finally said bluntly.
Harley nodded, and resumed drinking her shake more carefully.
Rick fought the weird feeling in his chest as he looked at her.