A/N: I don't know why exactly, but this chapter was ridiculously hard to write. I'm quite sure it took more time per word than I've ever spent on a chapter before - even the really tough science filled ones! Anyway, many thanks to ZeroGain and Allyrien for their beta help, and many thanks to the people who have reviewed. I'm pretty sure that this story would be forever unfinished were it not for your kind words!

Happy thoughts

"I really thought you were looking for information about your grandfather." Dr. Fargo's words sounded casual, but to Ivy, following him out to the car, they hit with the punch of a personal attack.

"What?" She paused, one hand on the car door. She was already nervous, her heart racing. Guns were not her thing. And this plan – it wasn't her style. She liked subtle, discreet. The perfect crime, as far as she was concerned, was the one that no one ever even noticed.

She'd had a good deal going at the DoD. Oh, she'd hated the job when she'd first taken it. But after the first few months, when she realized how crazily incompetent the system was, she'd had a fine time quietly shuttling military money to, in her opinion, more worthwhile causes – UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, Childreach, the American Red Cross, the Acumen Fund, Kiva, charity: water. (Although she did regret the hefty donations to the Central Asia Institute.)*

Unfortunately, government losses in Iraq and Afghanistan had gotten a little too much publicity. Moving on had started to seem like a good idea. All she wanted was one last big score, and Eureka – an ultra-top secret facility with an insanely high-budget – had looked like a perfect target. $2.9 billion on a robot? They'd never notice a few missing millions.

"Your grandfather?" Dr. Fargo said, from the other side of the blue car. "Trevor Grant?"

Ivy scowled at him. "Why would you know anything about my grandfather?"

He looked puzzled. "Famous scientist? Founder of Eureka? I've lived here my whole life, you know. If you go to Tesla High, you learn about the founders."

"What are you talking about?" Ivy was truly confused. "I never met my grandfather. I don't know anything about him."

"How did you learn about Eureka, then?"

She shrugged. "I overheard a guy talking in the cafeteria." She smiled slightly at the memory. He'd been cute – and oh, so stupid. She hadn't even needed to hack his system. A little casual flirtation, a quick peek under his keyboard when his back was turned to find the sticky note with his password scrawled on it exactly where she'd expected it to be, and voila, access to a treasure trove of documents. He'd been an assistant to some general and the Eureka files had been fascinating.

A week later, she'd sent GD notification of her arrival, cut herself orders to get on a military plane, and shown up at the site. It had been almost too easy. But then the great thing about ultra-top secrets sites is that no one knows enough to be suspicious. If you act as if you know where you're going, people assume you are where you're supposed to be. She'd charmed her way into Fort Knox for fun once – by comparison, Eureka was Main Street, USA.

And the job should have been easy. She had a handy little program all ready to go. In a place this big, purchase orders flew in and out like bats from Bracken Cave in Austin. Her program added a minuscule service charge to each one: a fraction of a percentage point. The money would flow straight into the numbered bank account she'd opened in the Cayman Islands. If she hadn't panicked, she would have waited quietly in DC, tracking the balance until the number satisfied. Then she would have shut off the pipeline, using her rootkit** to access the system remotely and wiping all traces of it from the system. But when she realized that if the losses were detected, Fargo might suspect her, well, getting out of Dodge – or in her case, DC – had seemed like the better part of valor.

It was all the fault of those damn plants. They'd scared her. She'd had nightmares about being attacked by vines ever since. And there were times – well, she was almost embarrassed to admit this, even to herself, but sometimes lately she felt as if the plants around her were moving, growing and stretching toward her, as if they truly were predators and she their prey.

Of course that was ridiculous. It was just her imagination.

She'd always had a vivid imagination.

"Well, your grandfather was one of the founders of the town, back in the 1940's." Dr. Fargo was looking at something over her shoulder and Ivy frowned at him. She was not going to turn around to look. It was much too obvious a trick.

"How do you know who my grandfather was?"

Really, she shouldn't be blaming the plants. She should be blaming the man standing in front of her: he was too damn smart. It was annoying. He'd treated her like an equal from the start. He'd never underestimated her. And he'd turned her down flat when she threw herself at him. If only he'd been a little less perceptive, a little less observant, she might still be safely ensconced at the DoD.

Damn him.

Maybe she should have put bullets in the gun after all.

But guns just weren't her style.

Flirting. That was her style. And more than flirting? Well, only if it looked like fun.

This should have been so easy: Dr. Fargo had a sweet earnestness that Ivy rather liked. If he'd fallen for her, she would have spent her weeks here teaching him everything he'd ever wanted to know about female anatomy. Sure, it would have been manipulative on her part – she hadn't been lying when she said she was trying to play him. But they would have had a good time. And while she would have walked away a lot richer, he would have waved good-bye with a happy (if confused) look on his face.

Instead…this mess.

"We ran a background check on you. And honestly, I'm going to give Zane a hard time about missing the bank account in the Caymans: he should have caught that."

"What? You ran a background check on me?"

"Um, you need to calm down," Fargo said.

"What? No. No, I don't!" Bad enough that he'd screwed up her perfectly straightforward plan. Investigating her? "You invaded my privacy!"

"No, seriously," Fargo said. "I'm not sure whether technically you even have a right to privacy when you work for the DoD, or, you know, claim to work for the DoD. But we can argue about that later. Either way, right now, you need to be thinking happy thoughts."

Ivy stared at him. "Happy thoughts? Yeah, that's not going to happen. I am not happy. I am out millions of dollars and I'm pissed."

"Okay, but—" For the first time since they'd reached the car, his eyes moved to meet hers, "—you can be pissed later. Right now, you're upsetting the plants. And that's not a good idea."

"What?" Ivy looked behind her. The trees were moving as if a storm were hitting, branches tossing and leaves fluttering as if the wind were picking up. But she could feel no wind. She looked back at Fargo.

He nodded at her. "Happy thoughts," he suggested again.

"What is wrong with the plants in this town?" It wasn't just the trees. She could almost see the blades of grass nearer her growing, reaching out toward her feet. "Oh, God." She fumbled for the door handle.

"Where have you been, the Arctic?" Fargo asked as he got into the car.

"Right, living in the Fortress of Solitude. Because I'm Lex Luthor." Ivy buckled her seat-belt, still focused on the plant life outside the car and the way the greenery was moving.

"Um, actually that's Superman's base," Fargo corrected her as he started the car.

Ivy rolled her eyes and glared at him. "No, I haven't been in the Arctic. What the hell is wrong with the plants in this town?" Her last sentence was almost a scream. This was like one of her nightmares. Could she be asleep? She pinched herself. Hard. No, not sleeping.

"Well, most of the botanists think it's chemical," Fargo said. "I was wondering about quantum entanglement recently, though. Maybe I should talk to a physicist."

"Entanglement? When atoms are linked? And a change in one causes a change in another, even over a huge distance?"**

"Yeah, exactly." He looked pleased with her, and she glared at him.

"What the hell does that have to do with plants?"

He'd pulled out of the driveway and onto the curving, tree-lined road, but if anything, the trees were getting worse. Leaves and branches swayed, and Ivy could hear the creaking of bending trunks even from inside the car.

"This is bad," Fargo muttered, just as a tree branch came crashing down almost on top of them. "You really have to calm down."

"We're being attacked by plants. This is like a bad dream. A seriously bad dream!"

"Tabby, can you shut off the ventilation system in the car?" Fargo asked urgently.

Ivy's eyes widened as a female voice answered, "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean, Douglas. I can recirculate the air in the interior, but the structure of my body is not air-tight."

"Douglas? Your car calls you Douglas?" Even as scared as she was, the incongruity struck Ivy as almost funny.

"My name is Tabitha. And you are?" the female voice answered coolly.

"I'm – " Ivy looked at Fargo, a little desperately, but he was concentrating on the road, eyes focused and intent as the trees swayed. "I'm Ivy. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tabitha."

Tabitha's voice was warmer as she responded, "And it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Probably not for long," Fargo muttered, as he pulled the car hard to the left to avoid another branch hitting the road.

"Oh, my God," Ivy closed her eyes. "That scientist died, didn't he? These plants are going to kill us?"

"No! That's not what I meant! " Fargo took his eyes off the road for a quick glance at her, just as a huge tree came crashing down in front of them. He yanked the steering wheel hard to the side, throwing the car into a skid that sent them off the road, down into the muddy ditch and then back up to the road again. "Damn it, we're never going to make it to GD at this rate. You have to think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts!"

* All worthwhile causes (except, of course, for the Central Asia Institute) that, alas, to the best of my knowledge have received no stolen government funds. And given that the US government has misplaced about $23 billion (that's BILLION!) in Iraq, I wish Ivy actually had been the one keeping track of the money. http:/news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/ (take out the spaces to see the article, or just google government money lost in Iraq.)

** From Wikipedia: "A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence from administrators by subverting standard operating system functionality or other applications." Ah, geek-talk.

** You just know I didn't make that up, right? It's so cool. The Wikipedia entry is barely decipherable to the non-scientist, but if you're interested, google quantum entanglement, and you'll get the Discover blog which is way more readable.