Title: Vigil
Author: jordannamorgan
Fandom: Joker (2019)
Characters: Arthur Fleck
Rating: Mild PG for angst.
Length: 200 words.
Summary: Arthur sits with his mother.
Note: Also for the prompt “Words Unsaid” at genprompt_bingo.



The steady beep of the medical monitors was deafening in the silence of the hospital room. It should have at least provided a comforting reassurance that Arthur’s mother was alive; that she was still with him, and could still get better again. However, the sound only jangled his nerves as he sat by her bedside, his eyes never leaving her face.

What ate at him the most was that he’d never had a chance to apologize for being upset when he confronted her with the letter.

Surely she had done her best by him all these years. If anyone was to blame, it was Thomas Wayne: the father who disowned him. Of course she could never have said no to a man who wielded so much power. Had she tried, perhaps he would have done something even worse to her than leave her alone in the gutter with his child.

Arthur should have said he was sorry.

Tomorrow, he told himself firmly. Tomorrow she would wake up and be alright. Tomorrow he could tell her that he believed her, and he knew she had made all her choices with the best intentions.

Tomorrow he could still make everything be different.

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End Note: Of course, after a friendly chat with Thomas Wayne and a bit of light reading at Arkham, his different kind of goes off the rails…

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2019 Jordanna Morgan