A/N: This chapter was incredibly easy to write and yet it is so charged. Here begins Pam's trial. Enjoy.

Chapter 10: This Beautiful Delusion

But this isn't the place and it isn't the time

For this beautiful delusion

That is robbing me blind

I want to know, I want to know

Will it make a difference when I go?

"When I Go", Over the Rhine

The day had come for Pam's court date. All of us were dressed up, ready to go, even little Edward was looking his most dapper in a sweater vest and khaki pants and little shoes. It was kind of adorable except I had to be serious because my best friend was kind of on trial for murder, among other things. I sat in the back of the courtroom wearing a big hat and my glasses in the hopes that I would remain anonymous. I didn't want to testify and nor could I be under witness protection and with my new identity. I mean, it wasn't like they could put me in prison but I was still an accomplice to murder and that could complicate things for me. Pam understood. Sort of. I think she would have preferred I corroborate her story but I wasn't about to risk my freedom and my new identity for one night of her wrath. I was only there to make sure that she didn't go completely nuts on good old Jason Woodrue. That bastard.

Selina, Bruce and the Isley's went to the front row of the courtroom, sitting behind Pam and Justin and his legal associates that were there to assist with the trial. Pam was at least dressed up nicely, in a dark green dress and blazer, her hair done and curled and make-up perfected. She looked at least a little more like herself than I had seen her previously. She stole a glance at Selina, and Selina gave her a half-smile in return.

The judge entered and the bailiff said, "All rise for the honorable Judge Callahan."

The judge was a middle-aged man (probably in his 50's) with graying temples, average height. Kind of typical white guy, to be honest. I hoped he was objective and not too conservative.

"Prosecution, you may make your opening statement." The judge announced.

The prosecuting lawyer stood up. A short, curvier woman in her 40's, her name was Gina Alton. I had seen her around the prison. She was representing the city of Gotham, one of the district attorneys. She had been somewhat decent friends with Harvey Dent before he went all destroy-the-city-and-everyone-you-love or whatever. Since he was gone, she had been promoted and hadn't been making too much of a difference at this point. She was not quite as charismatic or as forceful as Dent had been, but she did her best with the circumstances.

She stood up, "Yes, hello. This woman – Pamela Isley – is a menace to this city. Working under the alias Poison Ivy, she has committed many vicious crimes against this city and deserves a good, long stay in a maximum security prison." She went on about how evil Pam was and all the other bullshit trying to make people go to her side but obviously I wasn't listening. Pam was my best friend and we weren't going to let her slander our friend.

"Defense, you can make your opening statement." The judge gestured to Justin.

Justin stood up in turn, "Ladies and gentlemen of the court, I am here today to represent Pamela Isley. Yes, Pamela has done some things that are out of the ordinary and perhaps not quite legal, but Pamela has done many of these things under a state of extreme duress, and that is what I am here to prove to you today. We have assembled an excellent team of witnesses and we will talk with Pamela herself in order to get to the bottom of this. I assure you, not everything is as it seems on the surface. I ask you to listen to her today and be objective, wait until you hear everything until you form an opinion. I think you will be surprised."

The judge nodded, "Thank you. Prosecution, you may call your first witness for the trial."

Gina declared, "I would like to call Mrs. Angela Isley to the stand, please."

Angela stood up. She was looking lovely as always in her absolute best Chanel suit and her hair coiffed to perfection. Her heels clacked as she walked up and swore in. She sat down at the stand.

"Let me verify a few facts first. You are Angela Isley, born in Tacoma, Washington and currently reside in Seattle, Washington. May I call you Angela?" Gina inquired as she approached Angela.

"If you must." Angela sniffed airily, "And yes, all of those facts are true."

I loved that sassy woman.

"Yes, Angela, Pamela Isley is your daughter, correct?"

"Yes, she is my daughter."

"And you are married to Michael Isley, born in Sacramento, California and also currently resides with you in Seattle, Washington?"

"Yes, that is true."

"How long have you and Michael been married, Angela?"

"35 years this year."

"A long time, a long time." She nodded, "So, please tell me, what was Pamela like as a child?"

"She was a very precocious child, in fact. Always way above everyone else in terms of intelligence and charm. She is our only child and we loved - love (she corrected herself) her dearly. We put her in the finest schools we could manage and she always excelled. She was a quiet child, though, kept to herself. I imagine it's because she didn't have any siblings. But we gave her everything she could have wanted."

"Ah, so a spoiled girl."

"That's not what I meant." Angela said harshly, "Parents spoil their children all the time if they have the means to do so. Michael and I had the means, so we took care of her, made sure she got the best. Every parent wants that for their child."

"There is no need to get defensive, Mrs. Isley, I just was making a statement."

"A rude statement." Angela shot back, "Please get to your point."

"What I was implying was that Pamela had a normal childhood, if not obviously above average."

"Yes, she had a perfectly normal childhood."

"Thank you. Were you informed of her relationship with Dr. Jason Woodrue?"

"No, I was not."

"You didn't know anything about it whatsoever?" Gina raised an eyebrow slightly.

"I heard his name once on the phone when she told me she received the internship. After that, I heard nothing more about it." She answered.

"Is this normal for the two of you, to not be communicative?"

"Yes, it was normal. We were never very close. We only communicated when necessary." Angela said, "And I have to admit I am a little ashamed of that. We were never close and I regret it. I think she maybe would have turned out a bit different if we cared more about what she was doing, kept her closer, but I can't change that now."

I couldn't help but basically face-palm. God, Angela, you couldn't get all 'it's my fault' on the stand. They're going to eat her alive now. I looked at the back of Pam's head, but obviously couldn't see her expression. I'm sure it was rather stoic, knowing her.

"Hmm, yes, I see." Gina said, pacing a bit, "Well, then, did you know about the rest of her illicit activities, i.e. selling marijuana, cocaine, the like?"

"I did not." Angela shook her head, "You can check the records but I honestly did not have much contact with my daughter for the last 5 years. We had stopped speaking."

"Why had you stopped speaking?" The previous statement obviously begged that question.

"It started with her telling us that she didn't want us to come to her graduation, which I found out she didn't even graduate recently by the way, and then that she had moved to Boston and wouldn't give us an address."

"Didn't that make you suspicious in any way?"

"Yes, a little, but we trusted her. She was a good kid, never lied to us. I figured she just wanted her space. Eventually, it became months without speaking. Yes, I should have been suspicious but I figured she was an adult with a life and a job and we were never too close to begin with. She would send me occasional emails with updates, but nothing much more than that."

"So, then you were surprised when you found out about the charges made against her?" Gina said.

"Of course we were." Angela snapped, "This is our daughter. She was the valedictorian of her high school and went to Harvard for God's sake! I never imagined that this would be her life."

"I apologize for upsetting you. I just wanted to clarify." Gina was infuriatingly calm; that's how I knew I never could be a lawyer. She continued, "Did Pamela urge you to come to her aid?"

Angela ever-so-subtly glanced at me. I told her not to mention me at any point in this trial.

"Yes." She answered, "And we came because we love our daughter. The point is that it's very difficult to believe that she would change herself so quickly. Something had to have happened to her to make her become this way, and I know what it is."

Gina looked puzzled. Clearly she wasn't expecting this, "What do you mean by that, Mrs. Isley?"

"I mean that her actual physical and mental make-up was changed. Don't you check your sources?" Angela retorted, "Don't you have somewhere in your files that Dr. Woodrue was experimenting on her illegally with biochemical ingredients? That her skin turned green for years and she didn't know why? That she grew plants from her arms and her hands and it wouldn't stop? Or, did they not tell you that?"

Some people in the room gasped, hands flew to mouths. It was super cool, I felt like I was on Law and Order or something.

Gina looked frantically through her notes, "That's…all I know is that she did murder Dr. Jason Woodrue."

"Yes, I imagine that's all you would know. Obviously Dr. Woodrue is not here himself to make a case but he was no innocent party in this. He gave our daughter an internship and then SLEPT with her and did experiments on her. He exploited her."

"Yes, yes, we do have it on record that he had consensual relations with Pamela, but nowhere in here does it say that he did experiments on her." Gina said curtly.

Pamela whispered something to Justin, and Justin stood up, "Your honor, I have an addendum."

"I'll allow it." The judge said.

"Pamela Isley can provide photographic evidence of when he did experiments on her. She has photos of the condition of her skin after the experiment."

The judge nodded, "Yes, let's see if we can get those, please, as soon as possible and bring them to evidence."

I knew then that that was going to be my job, but I waited in silence.

"Thank you, Mrs. Isley, I think we have said enough for now."

"You may cross-examine the witness." The judge said to Justin, who stood up and walked over to Angela.

"Alright, Mrs. Isley, we have established that you knew nothing of your daughter's criminal activity." Justin said, "And we know now that there was definitely some reasoning behind the murder of Dr. Woodrue, which happened last year. Let's move on to her relationship with the known criminal and sidekick of the Joker, Harleen Quinzel alias Harley Quinn."

I stiffened slightly.

"Did you know anything of this relationship?" Justin asked.

"No, I did not. I never knew anything about her until I saw Pamela again a month and a half ago." Angela replied, "All I know is that they are – or were – very close and that Harley took refuge in her apartment for a few months."

"Alright. Obviously, the Joker and Harley Quinn are still wanted felons and no one knows their whereabouts so that is a bit of a dead end for this case. What about her subsequent relationship with the known jewel thief Selina Kyle, alias Catwoman, who is in this courtroom today? Did you know anything of this relationship?"

"No, I also did not know anything about it. I know this makes me sound like a terrible mother, but again I have not had any contact with my daughter in years. It's difficult for me to say who she kept company with because I have no evidence of it." Angela sighed, "I understand now why she didn't talk to me. She had a lot going on. A marriage, hiding out somewhere in the boonies…I feel a little hurt that I knew nothing about it, but I assure you that I am not by any means accomplice to what she has done. I want the best for her, but she has admitted to her crimes."

"Thank you, Angela, that will be all for now." Justin helped her down from the stand, and she went to sit down, visibly shaken. Pam remained silent and barely even looked at her mother. That didn't look very good to a jury.

"Prosecution, please call your next witness."

"We call Erin Woodrue to the stand."

FUCK.

A woman, who was definitely Jason Woodrue's wife who definitely saw me that day, stood up and approached the stand. I lowered the brim of my big hat to cover up my face more. I could not let her see me or I would be royally fucked.

"Erin Woodrue, you have been called here today to corroborate as witness to the death of your husband, Dr. Jason Woodrue." Gina said, "Can you inform us of what went on that night?"

"Yes." She said a bit quietly, "Jason had come home after school, had a glass of bourbon as always, nothing out of the ordinary. We went to bed around 11. We were watching the neighbor's kids, they were sleeping upstairs. Around 1 in the morning, Pamela comes bursting in, basically screaming and holding a gun. That Harley girl was with her."

"Ah, I see. What happened next?"

"Harley left the room to check on the kids. She must have brought them home safely because they were in bed when the neighbors got home, thank God. I didn't see her after that. Pam was screaming at Jason about what he had done to her, how angry she was at him. Then, she shot him right there. Right in front of me. He bled out on our bed." Erin dabbed at her eyes, "I'm sorry for being emotional. It's just very traumatic, you understand."

"Yes, yes, of course." Gina nodded sympathetically, "What did Pamela do after she shot him?"

"She looked at me for a moment, and then she ran. She must have driven away with the other girl. I called the police and he was already dead when they got there." She shook her head, "I didn't even know who she was; she just came in and shot my husband of 15 years in front of me. Cold-blooded killed him."

Yikes. This was bad. There was no denying this story.

"So at that point, you were unaware of your husband's affair with Ms. Isley?"

"Pretty much. He had mentioned a student that was obsessed with him, a biology major, but no, he never confessed to an affair with her. I had my suspicions of course, but I never thought he would be the type to cheat. But, there was proof."

"What kind of proof?"

She sighed audibly, "A videotape."

I saw Pamela put her hands over her face. Even I hadn't heard this part of the story, so I leaned forward expectantly, interested in seeing how this would play out.

"And where did you find this videotape?" Gina asked.

"In his office when we cleaned it out. He had labeled it 'experiment 1' or something along those lines, and I watched it. It was them, having sex in his lab at Harvard. Undeniably her. You can't mistake that red hair." She said bitterly.

"I see, I see." Gina pressed her hands together, "Were you angry then, at your husband?"

"It was hard to be angry when I was grieving already. Yes, I was still very upset but what could I do? The police couldn't find her. I just had to wait it out. I had gotten used to the idea that maybe they would never find her, but I'm certainly glad they did." She glared pointedly at Pam, "I know what my husband did was wrong, but you didn't have the right to kill him. You could have worked it out some other way. That's all I have to say on that matter. I hope you rot."

Justin jumped up, "Objection, your Honor, she cannot talk to my defendant that way!"

"Overruled. This is not a soap opera." The judge rolled his eyes, "Justin, you may question the witness."

"Thank you, Judge Callahan." He turned back to Erin, "Mrs. Woodrue, you must have been unaware of the experiments he was performing on Ms. Isley."

"Of course." Erin snorted, "I would never have stood for that."

"So, then how does it make you feel, learning about that today? That he did experiments on my client that turned her skin green? That she couldn't even go out in public because people thought she was diseased? That he betrayed you and your marital vows with her?"

Erin was silent for a moment. She took a measured breath, "Look, like I said, I am not saying what my husband did was right. If I had known about all of this, I would have put a stop to it. I'm truly sorry that he took advantage of her but I also imagine she knew he was married at the time the affair was going on."

"My client is not denying the affair nor the fact that he was married, and knew about it. That is not the point here, Mrs. Woodrue. The point is that your late husband took advantage of a 19-year-old student and never suffered any consequences for his actions."

"Can you really blame him?" Erin snapped, "If Harvard had found out, he would have been fired and put in prison!"

"Yes, and he never was. He lived for years without any repercussions. Dr. Woodrue should have been brought to justice, and he never was. This left Pamela without any options other than to drop out of school and do the best she could do with her circumstances. This was partly your late husband's doing." Justin pressed, "This woman had to live for years under duress, under conditions of poverty and her only choice was to work and eventually resort to illicit actions to make her way in the world. You cannot sit here and tell me that that wasn't your husband's fault. Pamela was upset, angry, and wanted revenge for what had happened to her. No one is saying that the murder was necessary or right, but you can understand her reasoning behind it, can't you?"

"Yes." Erin admitted, "Yes, I can."

"I have no further questions." Justin announced, and Erin made her way off the stand.

This was going slightly better than I thought it was going to; Justin was smart and quick. He had basically disproven Erin's testimony by having her admit that there was cause for Jason's death. We could have a shot at the duress argument. I am not saying we could win this or anything because there was no reason she wasn't going to prison, but if we could at least get her admitted to Arkham, there was an almost certain possibility of breaking her out.

The next to approach the stand was a weasel-y looking man with thinning dark hair, dressed in what was once an expensive suit probably 3 or 4 years ago. I didn't recognize him at all; I looked around to get a reaction and maybe to see Pam's face but she was still sitting very quietly at the table. Justin probably told her to remain demure as much as possible, which was smart, but frustrating for me.

He swore in and sat on the stand and Gina walked up, gathering her notes neatly in her hand.

"Would you state your name for the court, please?" she asked.

"William Bergdorf III." He said into the small microphone. Not a name I had heard before, unless he was related to the people who founded Bergdorf Goodman which I doubted was the case considering his state of being.

"William, what is your relationship to the defendant?"

"Former classmate at Harvard University." He replied.

My face screwed up in thought. Former classmate…? OH. The guy who helped her sell drugs. I never knew his name or even really anything about him. It was pre-Harley era.

"Please explain your relationship after Harvard with Pamela."

"Yes, well, Pam contacted me a while after I had graduated, maybe a year, a year and a half after if I remember correctly. She was desperate, she needed money. I was working for my father then as a junior executive; initially I turned her down."

"How did you become acquainted with Pamela?" Gina inquired.

"We were in a couple gen ed classes together in college, went to a couple parties with mutual friends. I wasn't best friends with her or anything, just knew her on the fringe; she helped me study for my anatomy class one semester. Never made much of an impression on me. I never really even thought about her until she called me that day." He said, inspecting his fingernails in that annoying nonchalant way that people do.

"Why did she contact you that day, Mr. Bergdorf?"

"She was interested in selling marijuana, heard I was involved partially with some people. I'm not sure how she heard that; I imagine it was one of our old college friends from the yacht club. Pamela hung around sometimes with the same snobby types I did, all of us that came from money."

I could see Pamela shaking her head in embarrassment. She wasn't exactly forthcoming about her rich girl status and I couldn't exactly picture her being the yacht type, caviar or whatever like those Harvard guys. This guy was so full of shit.

"Right. And so you helped her become involved in the drug ring?"

"Inadvertently, yes. I gave her a number to contact someone and told her never to call me again. I didn't want to get any more involved than I needed to be."

"And how were you involved in the drug ring exactly, Mr. Bergdorf?" Gina raised an eyebrow.

"Partially in distribution. I was a middleman, got a cut of some of the money. I was never directly involved in selling it to anyone. God, this was years ago. Pamela stayed in it a lot longer, got herself pretty high up in the ranks from what I heard." William sighed, "She was such a nice girl in college, kind of dorky and book smart. I never understood why she got involved with all of that."

"You never spoke to Pamela about her situation?"

"No, she called and said that she was almost broke, needed money, and that she wanted help. So, I helped her. It's as simple as that. I wasn't in the business of asking questions."

He was trying to find a way out of looking like a complete shit-head but it wasn't really working. I imagined he must have gotten some kind of immunity for testifying about this like Selina was, but he was still beating around the bush so that he didn't look like a terrible person. I mean, he wasn't even as bad as I was, but I still didn't like the way his eyes darted around when he talked. It made him look shady.

"I lost contact with Pamela after a few months," he continued, "As I said, I heard she was doing pretty well with the drug circuit and I soon after got myself extricated from that crap. I had a business to run and I haven't touched any of that since. You can check my records."

"We believe you, Mr. Bergdorf, I do have your sworn statements." Gina nodded curtly, "Did you have any other contact with Pamela after the first phone call?"

"Only barely in the years after that. Before now, I think it's been like 7, 8 years since I had heard anything about her. When I saw she got arrested, I made sure to make myself available for questioning, as you know. I just didn't realize how bad things got for her." He looked for Pam, "I'm sorry that you turned out like this. I never thought it would escalate that quickly."

What a fucking jack-off. I was fuming for Pam. All these people thinking that they needed to feel sorry for her. She was a strong, independent woman who took care of herself when nobody else would and here they were making her into a victim. I know that's what they had to do, but it was pissing me off to no end. What a joke. I couldn't believe Pam hadn't reacted at all yet. She was keeping it together and I was proud of her.

"Defense, would you care to cross-examine this witness?" the judge asked.

Justin shook his head, "No, I would not like to do that at this time. He answered all the pertinent questions."

"Very well." The judge looked down at his notes, "Ms. Alton, anything to add?"

"I would like to add that Mr. Bergdorf III has willingly testified and will not be charged for anything admitted here today in court."

"That has been noted." The judge affirmed.

"I believe that so far, Pamela's defense attorney has done an admirable job of trying to make her look like a helpless girl, someone who was thrust into her situation by her circumstances, but I really do not think that this is the case here, Judge Callahan. I think that this woman got power-hungry and her crimes escalated because it felt good for her to have that power. She is not helpless by any means, and I think that our next witness will prove to be a very interesting addition to this story. Obviously, we have not located Harleen Quinzel, but we do have the next best thing." She glanced over at Selina, who stiffened in her seat.

"Who would you like to call to the stand, then, Ms. Alton?"

"I would like to call Selina Kyle."