“…and he actually says to me, ‘I thought redheads were supposed to be fun’, all huffy and offended. Like I personally killed his puppy or something because I didn’t want to dance. And he storms away before I can even get it through his thick skull that I’m sitting on wheels.”
“No. I don’t believe it. Even drunk, people can’t be that thick.”
“Look, you just be grateful you never got stuck dating a guy,” Barbara pointed a pretzel stick in Renee’s direction and faux-scolded her. “You have no idea.”
Renee shook her head and sipped at her can of soda. “Close on three years out on the streets, beating up muggers and psycho masterminds. And all this time, the real dregs of humanity were in the nightclubs.”
They both laughed over their lunches, nesting in Barbara’s clocktower with sandwiches from the deli across the street. Batgirl and Oracle had been in constant contact during the former’s patrols in the past weeks, but there had been very little time for the two to hang out as friends, and the few chances that had come up were set aside with “maybes” and “if I’m free”s, and never come to pass. Today, though, Renee had been determined to start bridging the gap, and Barbara had readily accepted the company.
“I’d go clubbing with you sometime, if you ever made it sound like something resembling fun,” Renee teased her friend.
“Okay, but come on. What do you ever do that’s fun? You fight crime, and you sleep.”
“Just the way I like it.”
Barbara took a moment to chew and think. “Okay, beach. Let’s get out of town, have a beach weekend. Steph and Bruce can handle things without us for a couple days. I’ll get a car for Friday, take us out to that little one with the good cupcake place.”
Renee cleared her throat and ground a potato chip between her fingers. “Actually, I had plans this weekend. But maybe another time?”
“Oh. Okay.” Barbara picked at her food, too obviously quiet. “Well, what were you gonna be up to? That’s not fighting and sleeping, I hope.”
“Ivy and I were going to – “
“Yeah. Alright. So no beach.”
“It’s this big vegetarian thing they’re trying to start in Little Italy –“
“Yeah, no, I get it.”
“And she never has things she looks forward to out in the city –“
“So good for her.”
“And would it kill you to let me finish a sentence?” Renee snapped.
The thick silence was only broken with a pretzel crunch, when Barbara turned her attention back to her lunch. Renee pushed her hair away from her face and sighed.
“Next weekend, then?” Barbara offered, and put a smile back on. “Assuming no new dire threats pop up in Gotham. It’ll work out better, even, give us some more time. You can go to that little wine shop, I can look around for a good beach chair.”
“Babs, this isn’t going to work.” Renee stood up, wrapping her half-eaten sandwich and taking it to the trash, conveniently giving her the chance to look away.
Barbara took longer to wheel herself away from the table and out into the rest of the room. “What? We’ve done this a bunch of times, what’s not to work?”
“I mean this,” Renee gestured between herself and her friend. “We’ve got to talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. You’re with Ivy. You made your choice, that’s it. What do you want me to say?” Barbara reached out to Renee’s arm and turned her around.
“I want you to say something.” Renee took another step back. “I want you to say you’re happy for me. Or at least that you’re happy I’m happy. Or that you can’t stand her, but we can’t just say nothing. Babs, you’re my best friend in the world. I can’t just not talk about my girlfriend.”
Barbara crossed her arms over her chest. “You know how I feel already. Come on, we were having a great time. It’s just you and me, up here. You can be with her when you’re with her.”
Renee nodded coldly. “But you can’t pretend to support me. I get it.”
“I do support you! I’m worried about you, Renee! But you don’t want to hear about your criminal girlfriend, and all the ways she deceives people, the power she has that controls people! You just want me to tell you I’m happy you’re letting some...some crazy, eco-zealous slut sweep you away?”
Renee’s jaw tightened, and she turned for the door. “I wanted a best friend who wasn’t going to be so selfish,” she said, and started down the stairs without looking back.
Agape, Barbara wheeled to the door and shouted down the staircase. “Me! Me, selfish? Listen to you!” When there was no answer, she added, “Fine, go running back to her, see if I care!” She slammed the door to the old stairwell and heard it echo through the whole clocktower, the length of the sound making it perfectly clear how far away Renee had already gone.
*****
Ivy took the steps from the parking lot into the botanical center of Wayne Labs with more hesitation today than she had at any other visit. She looked from side to side to make sure that no one was listening, and only then turned back to face Harley before they opened the smooth glass doors. “I mean it today. This is a very sensitive project. No bouncing around, no pressing buttons, no bothering the scientists.”
Harley laughed and squeezed Ivy’s shoulder with her arm. “Relax! I just want to meet her. Yeesh, god forbid anyone think starting a business watching kids makes a girl a little responsible!”
“You would hope that, wouldn’t you, but then look at you,” Ivy stifled her smile. Harley’s pigtails were as bright and peppy as ever, and her legs swished under a short, flouncy dress.
“Hey, I wanted to make a good impression,” Harley argued. “Really, I get it, Ivy. I was gonna be a psychologist, remember? I know a little something about science.”
“Social science,” Ivy muttered derisively, but by then Harley had already buzzed the doorbell and started inside.
A quick check through security, and Ivy and Harley were lead through the complex to Ferak’s lushly-decorated observation room. The summertime plants were bursting out of every corner of what had once been concrete and linoleum, and after a few weeks of requests, a skylight had been installed to let the sunshine fall right on Ferak’s bed. Harley “ooo”ed and “aaah”ed appropriately when they stepped inside, and Ferak perked her head up at the sound.
“Hello, Sissy!” She jumped forward and embraced Ivy, grinning brilliantly. Then her head turned toward the other smiling face, and tilted. “New Sissy?”
“No, no. You don’t have any other sisters,” Ivy explained. “This is Harley. Har-ley,” she emphasized the pronunciation. “She’s a friend.”
“Hello, Harley Friend,” Ferak smiled, and extended her enthusiastic hugging to Harley.
“Hello, Ferak Friend,” she returned with a laugh.
It was friendship at first sight. Even the laboratory staff, who had grown used to Ferak’s child-like nature, were shocked at how quickly she and Harley bonded. By the time they had filled Ivy in on the latest developments, Harley had come up with a piece of chalk and was teaching Ferak to play tic-tac-toe on one of the rocks scattered across the room.
“See, now you can put your X here…and you win! Yay, Ferak!” Harley clapped.
Ferak beamed and waved Ivy over. “Sissy, look, Ferak wins!”
“Very good.” One of the scientists, a plump Asian woman called Doctor Ogawa, walked over with Ivy. “Now, we had some news for you, Ferak, but we thought it would be best to tell you with Ms. Isley here.”
A flash of almost maternal worry crossed Ivy’s face. “Bad news?”
“No, very good,” Ogawa assured her. “It’s time to start thinking about Ferak’s future. She’s been learning very well, and we’ve finished our tests. There’s no reason that Ferak can’t live among the rest of us.”
“Well that’s great!” Harley bubbled, while Ivy only smiled and looked proudly at her ‘sister’.
Ferak didn’t seem to understand at first. “Doctor means leave home? Leave another home?”
“Yes. But you’ll see, it’s going to be worth it.” Ivy took Ferak’s hand. “You didn’t want to be cooped up in here for the rest of your life. No more studies, now. You can be free.”
Ferak was still quiet, but Ogawa continued running through the logistics, the last few things that needed to be checked off, that Ferak would need identification and a place in the government, that she would need to find some way of supporting herself, or enroll in assistance programs.
“Oh, that’s no problem. She can work with me,” Harley offered immediately.
“In the day-care?” Ivy sounded worried.
“Sure, I can look after her, too,” Harley insisted, and when she laid out her reasons, it didn’t sound half-bad. “I could use a few more hands for putting toys away and watching the kids a minute when I have to pee. And it’d be good for them, too, getting used to someone a little different. It’d be great!”
Ivy’s lips were tight as she listened to the reasoning. Even the parents who could handle someone a little different in their day-care could hardly be counted on to accept a mutant plant clone. Could Ferak handle the stress of caring for children, day in and day out? Would she be gentle, would she understand how vital it was not to do anything dangerous? But with the worries swirling in her mind, Ivy caught sight of Harley’s excited grin, and Ferak’s mirroring hers. “It might be a plan,” she admitted finally. “Ferak, what do you think?”
Ferak thought for a moment, and then started to nod. “Make more friends like Harley?”
“You bet, a whole room full of them,” Harley promised. The plans continued, the paperwork was sent off for, and very soon, Ferak’s new life would begin.
*****
“Seriously, the plant-girl is going to work in a day-care? Good luck getting any parents' okay with that.” Barbara ticked her fingers across the keyboard, and the security camera inside Ferak’s room in the lab zoomed closer in on Ivy’s face. “I can’t believe they just let her inside. If there’s one department in the whole lab she’s going to get ideas from it’s botany. But no, just waltz right in, Ivy, let’s fawn all over you and your weirdo clone, Ivy.”
Barbara huffed and changed her camera angles again. “I can’t believe her. I really just can’t. She can’t really love her. Renee isn’t that stupid, she can’t be this blind! Seriously, how am I being selfish by trying to look after her? How am I being a bad friend by making sure Renee doesn’t make the biggest mistake of her life? How isn’t she being childish and stubborn when she won’t even think about what Ivy’s done?”
“Barbara, I’m sure I don’t know.” The deep, measured voice in her ear almost made her jump; for a minute, she’d forgotten who she was talking to.
“I’m serious, though. Did you know she was sneaking Ivy into your company? Did she bother to ask if you minded helping out a notorious supervillain?”
“No, she didn’t. But if she had, I’d have let her,” Bruce said bluntly. “I’ve been watching the Ferak project closely. It’s about a new life form, and being sure that she has a home and purpose. I would never have thought you’d disagree that was important.”
Bruce’s disappointed voice always hit Barbara’s heartstrings and made her wince. “But how can you just let her…move on? You don’t just move on from a life of crime and terrorism. Ivy’s dangerous. Why haven’t any of us gone in and taken her back where she belongs?”
“We don’t have that power, Babs, and we don’t want it. She had a trial, and they couldn’t prove anything.”
“Only because she’s such a good criminal!” Barbara bit herself back from shouting. “Never serving her time didn’t mean she didn’t deserve to.”
“But it meant she got to go home, and after that trial, what has she done?” Bruce paused, and continued when there was no answer. “I don’t like her either, believe me. I certainly don’t trust her. But Ivy went off the grid. She kept to herself, and hurt no one. And we will always have more important things to do than hold grudges.”
Behind her computer screen and microphone, where Bruce couldn’t see her, Barbara stuck out her tongue and folded her arms. “Well maybe now she’s making her comeback. You can’t deny she’s moving into position. Ferak is going out into Gotham proper without anyone watching. Harley has this dumb day-care business funding her. And she has Renee. This is her chance to make her move.”
“It could be,” Bruce allowed. “Or it could be love.”
“Who are you, and what happened to Bruce Wayne?”
“I’m just raising a possibility. What if it is what it looks like? Couldn’t you be praising Renee for reforming a criminal? And if Renee is what it took to bring Ivy around from crime for good, I will do nothing but thank her for removing a threat forever.”
Barbara let the thought roll through her head for a minute before shaking her head. “It just doesn’t add up. They don’t work. Ivy’s how old, now? Old enough Renee’s the Younger Woman for her to…I don’t even want to think about it,” she grimaced. “We know how she operates, we know what she’s capable of. Did you forget what she did to Dick?”
The silence on the line was almost long enough to make Barbara think that her impeccable connection was finally failing. “No. And you shouldn’t, either. But you’re letting this cloud you. We need Oracle at her full force fighting crime. Don’t waste all your strength on Ivy.”
“Fine. But I’m not going to stop watching her. I’m not going to abandon Renee when any day now could be the day she – you’re already gone, aren’t you?” Barbara asked the dead telephone. She sighed and took off her headset, still watching the camera. Ivy and Harley were ready to leave, and she watched Ferak giving big hugs all around the room.
“I can’t trust her,” she reminded herself. “Not after what she did.”
*****
Seven Years Ago…Normally, Barbara loved going out on patrol. Batwoman was still new to her, and the leaps and bounds she got to take, high above her city, and outside her father’s knowledge, were enough to put a smile on her face. But there was no time for smiling tonight. Dick was missing.
He’d gone on patrol as Robin the other day, and without knowing why, Barbara had made sure to give him a hug before he left. He’d laughed, but returned it eagerly. “Why so sappy, Babs? Not that I mind, of course.”
“Nothing. Can’t a girl give her friend and side-kick a hug once in a while?” She winked and stuck her tongue out at him.
“Hey, Batwoman, I was here first. You’re the sidekick.” He returned the wink, and set off into the night, leaving Barbara to watch him leave with a small sigh.
“One of these days you’re gonna take the hint and kiss me, you idiot.”
They’d lost track of Robin by the next morning. Bruce hadn’t been too worried – Dick liked his space sometimes, and didn’t always report perfectly. But when the day passed by and a second night fell, they were searching. Batman took the East side of the city, and Batgirl the West; even Alfred went out in the car, determined to do something to help. It was in the early hours of the morning that Barbara finally caught a glimpse of the red, green and gold on Robin’s costume. “I think I found him!” She called into her communicator, and rushed forward. There wasn’t time to wait for Batman to get there.
When Batwoman landed on the rooftop, she was beaming with relief. “There you are, Stranger. Where’ve you been?”
Robin was standing there to greet her, but something was wrong in his face. He walked forward mechanically and put on a smile. “It took you long enough. While you’ve been ignoring me, Batwoman, I was getting a few lessons on what a
real woman is like.”
Barbara stopped in her tracks; it occurred to her to take out a batarang and put up a stance, but how could she, against Dick? “What?”
Another voice ambled into the conversation. “Boy, you talk too much.” Robin turned toward the side of the building, and this time Barbara put up her fists. Poison Ivy reclined in the cradle of a tree branch as her powers brought it up to meet them. When she saw Batwoman on the other side of the rooftop, Ivy scoffed. “Just you, then? Pity. I guess I have even more waiting until I find Batman.”
“I can do anything he can, and what I want most is to knock your face in,” Batwoman shouted and started to race forward. But before she could close the distance, Robin jumped in between the women, and grabbed Barbara’s fists in his hands. “Robin, what are you doing? You heard her, she’s after Batman, it’s time to stop her!”
“No, I think I like having a boy around to help out with the job,” said Ivy. She smiled, and her tree grew tall enough for her to step off onto the roof. “And you’re just the boy for it, aren’t you, Robin?”
“Oh yeah,” he answered, turning his head to give a little smile to Ivy.
Barbara thought she was going to throw up all over them both when a thought occurred to her. “You didn’t…”
“We’ve had a lovely night all to ourselves,” Ivy chuckled darkly, and Barbara’s eyes widened. “Or does Batwoman not know what men and women get up to when they’re alone together?”
“You sick freak!” Barbara pulled her arms out of Dick’s grasp, and her fancy footwork got her around his block and running toward Ivy. She was caught between the two of them before long, as Ivy called on the branches of her tree to whip down at her, and as Dick turned his own batarangs on Barbara. Leaping and dodging left Batwoman no time to get off any attacks of her own.
Ivy continued her taunts, she must have seen the effect that they were having. “It’s really cute of you to try and save him. I mean it, it’s like you don’t know why he ran off in the first place.” She brought down another lash, making Batwoman back-flip out of the way.
“He ran off? Or you captured him?” Barbara ducked a batarang and, with great reluctance, stretched her leg to sweep across Dick’s and knock him off balance.
“How can you know? But what you can know, is Robin here isn’t fighting you all that hard.” Ivy’s tree reached out another branch to pull Dick back to his feet.
Barbara’s face was bright with anger the next time she ran forward. “That’s because you drugged him, didn’t you? You hypnotized him, just to get to Batman? Just because you’re not good enough to find him on your own?”
That finally brought a scowl to Ivy’s lips. “What exactly do you think this is I’m doing, girl? Does this look like I’m not bringing Batman to me, on my terms with a hostage? Or maybe…with two.”
Ivy started forward, and Barbara charged. The first punch from Batwoman was fierce enough to knock Ivy off her balance, and Barbara took every second of advantage that she could get. Robin stood a few feet away, primed and ready but afraid to attack with the two women so close together. For her part, Ivy put up a decent hand-fight; Barbara did her best not to show that it wasn’t her specialty. But Ivy still had her tree – at the perfectly wrong moment, a branch came down over Barbara’s neck, and threw her forward into Ivy’s arms.
“Now do you want to know what I did with your precious little boyfriend?” Ivy asked low into Barbara’s ear, her arms holding Batwoman tight and pinning Barbara’s to her sides.
There was a soft tinkling on the ground, and before either of them had time to look down, the smoke bomb exploded in a blast of thick grey. Ivy dropped Batwoman in order to cover her own face and step back from the smoke; Barbara was stuck in a coughing fit, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She knew what the bomb meant.
Batman held an unconscious Robin up against one arm as his other arm had thrown the smoke bomb. As soon as she had her movement back, still coughing and with her eyes stinging, Barbara ran backward toward him and took Dick in her own arms.
From there, the fight was over in moments. Ivy’s pleas for Batman to understand her motivations, to stand with her against those she saw as the real criminals, fell on deaf ears. Batman punched once and kicked twice, and the weight of the blows weakened Ivy enough to catch her in handcuffs. Barbara wasn’t really watching. She was kneeling on the roof with Dick’s head in her lap, brushing back his hair over his mask.
*****
NowBarbara shook the memory out of her head. If she thought clearly about it, she knew that Renee had no reason to know that story. When Dick woke up, he had been humiliated to know that he’d fought for Ivy, although he promised Barbara that he hadn’t done anything with her past the kiss with Ivy’s poison lipstick. The drug had affected his mind, but not his memory. Renee had been at the police station back then, and only knew what the rest of the public knew about Ivy’s capture. And Barbara could tell her now, but only by breaking the promise both she and Bruce had made to Dick to leave it in the past, along with the Robin costume. Nightwing had long since been over the incident.
It would be worth it. But would Renee listen? She’d only trot out the same excuse and defense she was already using. That was a long time ago. Ivy had changed. She didn’t do that kind of thing anymore. It would just be another fight, and make the chances of helping Renee out of this even lower.
Barbara would have to do something on her own. And though the idea was risky, she thought she knew how.
*****
Renee tried to enjoy their dinner, but she more picked at her eggplant than ate it, and her eyes focused on the plate instead of her companion.
“What is it?”
She looked back up, still surprised to see the concern on Ivy’s face. Why should she be so surprised? Unless part of her did think Barbara was right about her… “Nothing, really. It’s great.”
“But…?” Ivy prodded. There was still an unspoken awkwardness in her visits, but Ivy had tried not to let that stop her from coming. Tonight had been quieter than usual though, and more tense.
“Nothing you can do,” said Renee. She made sure that the next bite of eggplant made it to her mouth.
Both of them knew that this wasn’t what they had expected, but neither knew exactly what it was they had. There was something surreal about the pair of them together, trying to behave like a normal couple despite everything that had happened between them.
Still, the instinct for normality kicked in, and Renee answered after a few minutes of silence. “I had a fight with Babs, that’s all.”
“Oh. Good, you had me worried.”
“Good?”
“You’re not trying to hide anything from me,” Ivy said. “I was starting to worry you were keeping back something important. I’m glad you’re not.”
Renee looked up from her place. “Barbara is important.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, actually, I don’t.” Renee started to stand up, leaning her forearms against the table. “What do you mean?”
“Look, relax. I just don’t want us to be in trouble.” Ivy opened her mouth again, but floundered for something else to say, and just stood as well. “Should I go?”
“Don’t, please.” Renee sat back down and slumped against the back of her chair.
Ivy walked around the table, and laid her cool white hands on either side of Renee’s neck. Her fingers started to work into the tense muscles, and she spoke softly. “I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to be here, with you, and forget anything….or anyone else.”
“What are we doing?” Renee turned around and broke off the massage. “Why did we think this could work?”
Ivy’s brow furrowed and she took her hands away. “What did she say to you?”
“No, not like that. Nothing like that,” Renee assured her. “But she doesn’t trust you. And I do. You know I do,” she said more urgently, and then sighed. “But this is ridiculous. Are we really trying to pretend we can just….just have dinner and go out and be together?”
“Yes, I am,” Ivy answered, so firmly and surely that it broke off anything else Renee was about to say. “Do you know how long it’s been since I got to feel normal? The last time I dated was before I even found that job at Darkwood.” Ivy’s eyes flared as she remembered, and she continued over Renee’s silence. “So maybe I’m out of practice. Maybe I can’t be the perfect girlfriend. Because when I used to be able to do this, I couldn’t be honest about myself. And because I’ve never, ever in my life found anybody else who could respect who I am. I don’t give a damn if Barbara Gordon doesn’t. But if you can’t…”
“Ivy, I had no idea. I didn’t think this was so important to you.”
“Isn’t it to you?” Ivy was standing very close now, after just a few angry steps forward when she was speaking. She watched Renee’s eyes closely, and she was relieved to see the surprise and compassion in them.
“It is.”
“Then just ignore her. Just be with me.” Ivy closed the distance and pulled Renee close, one hand on her back and the other in her hair.
Renee was the one to start the kiss, but also the one to break away first. “I can’t. I can’t ignore her. She’s my best friend.”
Ivy stepped back, but kept her hand on Renee’s. “Then I guess you’ve got some thinking to do.”
“I don’t want to make any choices. How can you ask me to chose between you and her?”
“I’m not asking you for anything. I’d love for things to just be working. But if you’re going to let her judging me get to you, and if I’m making you fight with her, then something’s gotta give.” Ivy took her hand back and crossed her arms. “So you’re going to have to figure out what.”
Renee’s anger flared up again at the two options she saw in front of her. “I just don’t want to have to separate myself. I can’t live two lives. I suck at living two lives already. When I’m not Batgirl, I’m nobody. I eat and sleep and wait until nightfall.” Barbara was more right than she knew. “I can’t be two people depending on who I’m with. I’d end up being nobody with someone.” She looked back up at Ivy. “I don’t want to be nobody. I just want us to figure this out.”
Ivy turned and started to walk toward the door, slowly, finding the small purse that she’d brought. “I can’t help you with this. This isn’t an ‘us’ thing. This is all on you.”
“So you’re just going to leave?” Renee followed her and grabbed her hand again.
“What do you want me to say? Do you want me to beg you to stay only with me? Because I won’t do that. You want me to tell you to run back to Barbara and leave, because I know neither of us want that.” With a breath just this side of becoming a deep sigh, Ivy squeezed Renee’s hand and took one more kiss off of her lips. “I can’t tell you who to be. When you figure it out, just let me know.”
After Ivy left, Renee waited to hear the click of the elevator door closing and leaving her standing alone in her front hall. A part of her wished she could just start crying into a beer and shut down for the night. But she was too disciplined; she knew it would only make things harder the longer she put off thinking about it. So Renee took a beer out of the fridge anyway, and sat with her thoughts.
*****
It hadn’t taken very long to find it in her storage, she was too organized for that. It had just taken a while for Barbara to resolve to take it out. Now that she had, she held it in her hands as she sat in her chair, and slowly traced her finger across the bright symbol over the costume’s chest.
Bruce had never told the others that the prototype existed. She’d had it sitting in her clocktower waiting for a better version, but the technology hadn’t gotten any better than the first model yet. They never knew whether or not she’d need to use it, but it was there just in case. And now, Barbara knew it was time.
Even in the privacy of her own home, locked in the bathroom, she felt vulnerable in just her underwear. The soft leather of her chair seat stuck to her back when she leaned forward, and shook the costume out to sit flat. The top piece she pulled easily over her head, and it felt good to see the Bat symbol sitting against her heart in the mirror again. The legs were harder. The costume was stiff and molded, and she had to work hard with her hands to move her own legs into the right places. She couldn’t feel the way the thick plastic and metal pressed against her skin, but she fastened the pieces of the costume together securely. When she clipped the circuitry in the top half to the machinery on the bottom, she felt a tingle of electricity from her head all the way down her back.
And Barbara Gordon stood.
The prototype had her walking stiffly at first, as the braces in the costume held her up, and the electrical signals from her mind began to bend and flex the fabric. Barbara breathed slowly, looking down in wonder at her own two feet. It would work. It would take practice, and her movements would never be as swift and effortless as they had in her prime. But it would work. She could do it.
Batgirl was in trouble, and Gotham couldn’t lose its protectors. She needed a rescuer, and there was only one person Barbara trusted. It was time for Batwoman to take to the streets one last time.
