The moon shone brightly through a slit in the curtains to Harley's room. Machines beeped and hummed faintly, blending in with the hushed bustle of the hospital just outside the door. Harley lay sound asleep, Ivy wrapped gently around her. Green eyes suddenly snapped open, the blonde's body convulsing harshly against the woman. Ivy shot to her knees and knelt over Harley, trying to shake the woman into consciousness. Machines beeped erratically around her, only adding to the quickly growing tension in the room.
Doctors and nurses suddenly appeared around the harlequin, one of them gently pushing Ivy off the bed and out of the way. She stood in shock in the corner and watched the doctors try and calm down her friend. In an instant, Harley was screaming and awake, her blue eyes frantically scanning the almost horrific staff surrounding her.
Her eyes watered, her vision black around the edges. Everything she saw was reminiscent of the Joker. The doctor looming over her had a white face and bright red lips cracked into a sadistic smile. Quickly jumping from face to face, Harley realized the entire room was filled with Joker faces. In her haze, she screamed once more.
"NO, Mistah J, please!"
She drew herself into a tight ball. Her eyes flashed quickly around the room as her body shook in fear of the Joker's wrath. The staff around her was baffled and tried to coax the woman out of her hysterics. Seeing the situation spinning out of control, Ivy pushed away a nurse and took hold of Harley.
"Harley! Harley, it's Ivy. Listen to me, you're safe, the Joker isn't here. You're in a hospital. Harley, please listen to me." Her hands rested on the shoulders of the frightened woman.
Harley, feeling the hands on her, looked at the face mere inches from her own. The Joker had his hands on her and his smile seemed almost carnal in the darkness, his malicious face a glowing beacon in the abyss around them. The lips moved, though she heard no sound. She watched his face spread even wider and his gloved hand produce a knife as he moved to strike. Harley cried out in fear.
"Don't, Mistah J! I'm sorry! Don't hurt me no more, please!"
Ivy grabbed Harley's face to shake her and made her look her in the eyes. "Harley, LOOK at me! It's Ivy!" Her emerald eyes brimmed with tears. Slowly she saw the blue eyes begin to focus and she blinked rapidly.
"Red?" Her voice was shaky and hoarse and gave way to a deep fear rooted within her.
"Yes, honey. It's me, I promise it's me."
Harley launched herself so quickly and forcefully at Ivy, she was momentarily stunned. The harlequin had snapped and popped wires in her ditch effort to seek the comfort in Ivy. The nursing staff stood in shocked silence at the sobbing woman and Ivy's look of concern.
Carefully, and mindful of the many injuries, Ivy wrapped her arms around Harley.
"It's okay, Harl, you're safe now. It was a nightmare. It wasn't real."
Ivy held Harley to her, but gently put the woman back further into her bed. Ivy felt the warm feel of blood on her hands, probably broken stitches at the sudden movement. Harley's sobbing slowly receded and Ivy placed her further into the bed. Harley unfurled from Ivy's frame and sat down in her bed, her blue eyes looking at the ground. Ivy pushed the messy bangs from Harley's face and lifted her head to look at her. Harley's eyes were diverted and her eyebrows drawn. Ivy smoothed away the wrinkles at the blonde's forehead, momentarily forgetting the people in the room around her.
"Baby, they have to take care of you now. You popped out of your IVs, and broke some stitches. Okay? Can you do that for me?"
The blonde nodded and Ivy released her face. She saw the face then go blank and her blue eyes distant as the doctors fixed up what needed to. Harley then numbly slid back in her bed, after switching her hospital gown, and laid down. Ivy watched her with worried eyes, noticing Harley's sparkle had somehow vanished. Within moments, the woman was asleep.
As the staff cleared the room, with the doctor requesting any information on her condition, Ivy was again left in the silence of the room, the malice echoing around her. She glanced at Harley, noticing how she seemed disturbed, her body painfully tense. Anger welled in the pit of Ivy's stomach when her mind wandered to the Joker. Would he haunt her forever? And what was that episode? She had seen with her own eyes that Harley was wide awake, but in a fantasy.
And then it hit her.
Crane.
Ivy felt a new surge of her fury and she struggled to control it. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply a few times. She opened her eyes and looked again at Harley. She slowly approached the chair she had taken recent refuge in and sat down. She ran the backs of her fingers down Harley's tense forearm and sighed. Her eyes glanced at the clock.
3 o'clock in the fucking morning.
Out of reflex, Ivy's hands wrapped around Harley's before she willed herself to relax and attempt sleep once more.
It was 4 hours later that the sun coming through the curtains woke Ivy. She lifted her head and rubbed at the spot where her hand had been. Harley was awake in bed, her body sitting stiffly in the center, her eyes a vacant stare. Ivy stood and moved to stand in the way of Harley's vision. The form did not shift. Worried, Ivy approached Harley and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Harley?"
With exaggerated slowness, the empty blue eyes locked onto worried green. Ivy almost cried out at the look in the woman's eyes. There was nothing behind them. Her Harley was buried under pain and torment, a psychological spell that caused her to see the Joker everywhere she looked. Transfixed, Ivy did not hear the door open and a man enter.
"I gave her a shot to try and combat the fear gas."
Ivy jumped at the sudden noise and looked at the man. He offered a humorless smile.
"The medication does not take away the gas, that is in her system. It only deters it for an amount of time. In about 3 hours, the fear will return. She will be monitored to be sure the fear does not resurface in the time it takes for her to heal." Absently, he adjusted his glasses.
Ivy's eye twitched. She slowly approached the man and looked up at him. "If you find Batman, you find the antidote."
The man was undeterred by the obvious danger in her voice. "Pardon me, I lost his number."
Ivy, at her wits end and under a great deal of stress barely contained the punch her wanted to throw in his face. Instead she turned back to look at Harley.
"So keeping her in this numb stupor is better for her health?"
"Wouldn't you agree?"
Ivy's nerves grated at the detached way in which he spoke about her friend. "I'd prefer some form of Harley behind those eyes, not a simple lump of flesh with no memories. Does she even know who I am?"
The doctor again smiled an empty smile. "What does it matter if she does. She can do as she sees fit when her body heals. Our main concern right now is her physical health."
"What good is her physical health if her psyche is beyond repair? She'll be doomed to walk this world a broken woman. This isn't the way to help Harley, doctor." Her teeth ground together.
His eyes narrowed. "Are you suggesting you allow her to see that maniac in everyone to approach her? That she should be in such a state of progressed fear, that her body suffers from the strain of it? That kind of stress could kill her even faster than if we simply shut her down."
Ivy took a step forward. "That was not your decision to make."
"She's right, it wasn't. Doctor Roberts, would you excuse us?"
The doctor looked once more at Ivy, adjusted his glasses, and left the room. Ivy looked at the doctor and recognized her as the woman who helped that first night.
"Martha."
Pleased, the woman smiled, though it was sad. "I'd like to apologize about him. This procedure was simply a trial basis. But seeing the results, I've decided not to go forward with treatment."
Ivy nodded. "Good. I don't like it. You have ties with Batman, can't--"
Martha put her hand up and her smiled widened slightly. "Wrong, Ms. Isley. He has connections to me, not the other way around."
Ivy sighed angrily and ran a hand through her hair. She glanced again at Harley, then back at the doctor. "I'd like to claim responsibility for Harley."
She smiled. "I figured you would. I'd like to ask you if you would be against us putting her in a medically induced coma in order for her body to heal. Her brain would be in working order, but she wouldn't be in conscious thought and be affected by Dr. Crane's gas."
Ivy grimly nodded. "That will work for now. If you'll excuse me, I have something to take care of. Watch over her for me, doctor." And Ivy exited the room. Martha looked after her after she had left. Her brown eyes looked to Harley.
"What a mess."
After leaving the hospital, Ivy went back to her hideout. Walking in, she noticed the tattered suit that lay in pieces on the floor. The table still had a dark stain in the center and bloodied rags littered the floor around it. Ivy again couldn't bear to look at the scene and angrily dismantled it. She threw Harley's suit away in the garbage, and threw the table to a large, carnivorous plant in the center of her greenhouse. The bloodied rags and things were gathered and thrown away as well. Ivy opened a few windows to let in a breeze to try and clear the room of the claustrophobia she was suddenly feeling. Putting her hands in her hair and sighing, Ivy approached the closet. Quickly donning her costume, she got into her car and went in the direction of the Iceberg Lounge and Gotham's resident source for underground information.
Ivy strolled casually into the lounge, her inner turmoil masterfully concealed behind an icy mask. Penguin appeared in front of her and looked up into her stony countenance.
"Ah, Ivy dear. What brings you to my lovely establishment? Business? Pleasure?" His teeth glistened eerily in the low light.
"Business. I know you're neck deep in rogue gossip, Penguin, and I'd like to know anything there is to know about Jonathan Crane and where I can find him. Word is he's out."
His beady eyes glimmered with the guilty pleasure of a thick piece of gossip. "I'll trade you. Information on Crane if you tell me what I want to know about your Har--"
Half of the name managed to sneak out before Ivy had him by his bow tie. "I'm not here to play."
Glaring at her and slapping her hand away with an umbrella, he bristled. "I run a business here, Ivy. Why should I just give you information when I receive nothing in return."
Ivy glowered and stepped forward. Her voice was low and controlled. "Consider living your trade off."
He smirked. "You don't frighten me, girl. But I do have some respect for you." His eyes glowed. "Crane's in with the Joker, I take it. Or you wouldn't be standing here in my place."
Ivy nodded tightly.
He smirked. "Please, take a seat. I have Selina waiting for me with a trade, and then I will see to you."
Without waiting for her to reply, he turned and walked back to a table. Ivy's green eyes made out the seductress form of Selina Kyle and her eyes trained piercingly on her. Holding the gaze for a moment, Ivy then turned and sat quietly at a table off to the side. A waiter came around inquiring her order, but she sent him away.
A short time later, Penguin came to her table, an angry look on his face. "Lousy money grinder, that woman." He looked at the pure fury across from him and quickly shut his mouth on the subject.
"Scarecrow, Penguin." she leaned forward.
He nodded. "News from Eddie that the last time Joker was in Arkham, he and Crow made a... business deal, if you will. No one knew what it was at the time. But now it seems to have been about your Harley." he stopped for a moment. "Is it true she's dead?"
Impatient, Ivy responded. "No. Quit stalling. Either you know or you don't."
Again offended by the plant mistress, he lit a cigarette and blew a ring away from Ivy. "Jervis was the only one with a slight inkling, but he's in Arkham. And we're not." He smirked at his own mocking tone.
Ivy blew out a frustrated breath. "I know you communicate with the imprisoned rogues, Penguin. What are you trying to hide? Don't tell me you're in cahoots with that maniac."
Penguin almost squawked at the accusation. "Certainly not. He's no friend of mine, you and I both know that." he said indignantly.
"Then why the secrecy? No one in Arkham likes Joker, what could he have to offer Crane?" her fingers drummed idly on the table top. Squeezing him in a vine hold might get him to talk faster.
Penguin smiled. "What, indeed."
Her eyes cut to him sharply, catching the light dangerously in the restaurant. "I won't hesitate to strangle you."
He took a drag on his cigarette. "I told you, Ivy. I run a business. And right now, I garner no profit from this exchange."
Ivy, having to throw all her inhibitions out the window already, ground her teeth. She hefted a small bag onto the table and glared at the grating man in font of her. "Here."
His smiled turned impish and he grabbed greedily at the bag. He opened it and out tumbled the Gotham Diamond. His eyes lit up. "Oh, this had disappeared some time ago, yes indeed."
Ivy waved her hand dismissively. "Harley stole it. We never needed it. Kept it for show, I guess. Now talk."
He pocketed the rock and smiled a malicious smile. "In a cove off of the docks, there's an entrance. It leads under to the asylum. Few people know about it, the Bat included. The network of tunnels under that place are all connected, except one. Find it, and you find Crane."
Ivy smiled. "Good. Thanks."
Ivy walked back to her car parked a block from the Iceberg Lounge. As she reached for the handle, she heard a rustle behind her. Not in a Bat-friendly mood, she sighed and turned to regard him seriously.
"Batman."
"What were you doing at Iceberg, Ivy? Shouldn't you be with Quinn?"
She exhaled and kept a sharp look on the caped crusader. "I was finding out information. All in regards to Harley."
"I know that Quinn's feeling the effects of fear gas. But it's a different strand than what you're used to."
She was skeptical for a moment. But then again, this was Batman. "How is it different?"
"It's laced with laughing gas."
Ivy's eyes flared at the statement. "You mean to tell me she'll be made mad, after she's been petrified to death? That's an awful idea."
"That's the point."
"Crane will suffer for this. Just as soon as I get to him."
"Going into those tunnels wouldn't do you any good, Ivy. You wouldn't know where to look."
She growled and turned on him. "What would you have me do, then? Let this mad man control Harley until there's nothing left to save?"
"Take care of Quinn." He turned his back. "Let me worry about Crane, Ivy." And with that he was gone.
In her aggravation, she kicked a tire and let out a scream into the hollow street around her.
"So help me, Joker. When I find you. You're mine."