A few more chapters to go, and I can't believe how I'm happy with this. :D Someone begged for a happy ending, and I won't disappoint in the end.
Chapter Twelve
A New Threat
She exited the bathroom wearing her favorite island-themed robe, skin glittering with faint pink - her favorite lotion - with a grin. "Missed me like this?" she teased.
He took her in intensely, from the long hair wet and wild around her shoulders, lips a darker, more passionate pink than originally, body covered in "ivy vines". The green veins on her neck stood out starkly against her ivory-and-aqua skin. "I certainly did, but you do not disgust me, if that is what you feared," he assured her when she came to lie down beside him. "I loathe him for doing this to you, but it also..." He breathed hotly against her ear. "...turns me on."
She had spent the last hour giving him every detail of Bolton and her awakening to her new look, and the last three months of her training with Talia al Ghul. So it WAS her, he said to Scarecrow. But Rachel isn't joining her in the League, as I never did.
Because she knows Rachel will never be the same as them, yet honed her into one hell of a fighter. Imagine how her Daddy would have been if he saw this.
"Jon..." He hadn't heard her call him by his nickname in a long time, and it made him sigh. "...right now we should start thinking about a new place for you to live. I don't want anyone else finding you here; we should at least be separated for now until I can get us both out of Gotham."
She was referring to separating them again, but not like before. Last time they talked about this was when she was on the phone with Dr. Quinzelle, however she was doing now. They would have gone through with it if Bolton hadn't interrupted. And did she even decide a place yet? "Have you found a site yet?" he asked.
"Not really, but there is one for sure that no one will bother again - and no one has patched it up but myself with some help from Harleen. But you won't like it."
~o~
"Unacceptable," Janet hissed, throwing the newspaper down on her desk. Rachel smirked, her back facing her "boss" as she leaned over the latest case, this one having to do with the defendant charged with murdering his wife after finding out she'd cheated on him. But she knew what the newspaper headline said:
MURDER-KIDNAPPING AT ABANDONED SIONIS HOSPITAL
"Unacceptable," she heard Janet mutter again, and lifted her head from the file only a tad bit. "Now, this is exactly what this city needs. A new costume-clad psychopath, if that's what it is. Who by all accounts has murdered four people at the same place where the Batman," she spat, "rescued Summer Gleeson and the commissioner."
"If I may say, Janet," Rachel said, finally turning around in her chair, "wasn't one of the four dead none other than Lyle Bolton, the former head of security at Arkham? The one who abused and raped most of the inmates?"
"If he did all that, then they deserved it." Janet's poisonous blue eyes raised to meet Rachel's. "They are responsible for screwing their own lives up. Even the ones who go on bad behavior."
Rachel felt her anger rise. "What if they weren't misbehaving, and he did all that because he felt like it?" she asked, keeping her cool.
The DA scoffed. "Well, then that would be a sign that he's keeping the scum in line."
Rachel gasped. How dare that bitch say such a thing! It sounded like…like she didn't care about them. In fact, she didn't care about anyone at all.
She stopped herself. Why was she having these thoughts? It was no surprise that Janet Van Dorn hated almost everyone. All she cared about was her job. "In line?" she repeated. "You call rape, a longtime severe crime, a way of keeping someone in line?"
"Oh please, Rachel, for all you know, they could have been making that up."
"Oh, bullshit!" Rachel snapped in spite of herself. She flung down the papers she held on the table in a fit. "There was proof! We have previously hidden surveillance and rape signs on the inmates who had been subjected to it. How can you call that lies?" She shook her head.
"Why are you like this, Janet? You talk to and about people like this as though they are nothing. Admit it, you hate everyone. I know you hate me. You are completely resentful. You grew up in a family of lawyers where you barely had a life, just lived it under your family's wing. You obeyed their every word, did exactly what they told you to do. You're only working law because your family did that, knowing they would be proud of you. You were scared of what they thought of you."
She paused, not realizing she'd been speaking all in one breath. She inhaled, then exhaled to relieve the burning in her lungs. But she didn't get the chance to continue when the Queen Bitch started talking.
"Don't condescend me, Miss Dawes," she snarled, leaning forward over her desk. "You don't get to judge me just because you gave your maidenhead to a madman who used to run Arkham."
In a flash, Rachel was in front of Van Dorn. "Shut up about Jonathan!" she shouted. "My relationship with him, as I keep telling you, is none of your goddamn business!"
The other woman's face inched closer so that their noses were almost touched. "Watch your tongue, missy, or I'll relieve you of your pension. As your employer, I have authority to do that. And I do happen to know the type of criminals like your Scarecrow. I gave myself to a man once. He was my college sweetheart. A brilliant man. I lost my girlhood to him one night at a party, after a long day of my studies. I had always been the good girl until that night I got drunk with him. I'd figured since we'd known each other for a few months, and in my drunken mind then, I thought it was time. But it turned out that I was so out of my mind I had no idea what happened. When I was losing consciousness because of my state, he took me in the room we were given." Her eyes glittered.
"Betrayed, I left him, but it wasn't so easy. He broke into my dorm room with a knife and tried to kill me. He had me pinned on my own bed, holding the knife over my head, but I managed to keep it from reaching me, the target. I grabbed the knife and I killed him myself."
She smirked at Rachel's shocked expression. "You see my point, Rachel? The man you gave yourself to after he drugged you and took you home is as much a monster as mine was."
"He's no monster, Janet," Rachel growled.
Janet smirked again. "Keep saying that. You'll realize I'm right sooner or later. Perhaps if he ever appears again in the future and I have him back up with the rest of the crazies." She straightened up and picked up the newspaper. "Much like I'll do to our newcomer here. They say it's a she, so I can safely say that I'll have her answer to her crimes."
"Was it a crime really, killing a man who kidnapped our police commissioner and an innocent woman?" Rachel asked, careful not to let her cover blow.
Van Dorn glared at her as she sat down. "Don't test me again. Wouldn't want things to get uglier than they were before, now would we? And in answer, she ought to receive something of a comeuppance. Just like the Batman. Except she's more violent than the Batman."
~o~
You know, I think I can do this, Jonathan thought to Scarecrow as he took in the sight of his daughter in his arms. Her eyes were closed, and she rested her little head against his chest, tiny little rosebud mouth opened lightly as she breathed in her sleep. She was precious. She made him feel some way he couldn't quite place.
You think, Jonny? You don't know much about babies.
Well, I know I have to change the nappies whenever she needs it, and I know to feed regularly. Good thing Rachel had made sure to get the stuff needed before we got back.
Except the crib.
Doubt she had enough notice to get one, Jonathan said, but he was certain that his Verity would be fine with the dresser drawer until they got a better place.
And that place turned out to be none other than his father's house.
Ever since Gerald Crane was killed, Jonathan had used the money - whatever much it was - left and abandoned the house for Gotham State University, not bothering to return to the home of his birth again. But Rachel had known all along he never wanted to go back there, so WHY did she pick that house?
A wet nose butted against his bare ankle, and Jonathan jumped slightly, looking down to see that it was Lupa, the gray wolf with piercing blue eyes like his own. She looked up at him with a tender curiosity that made him chuckle. He wondered where Rachel could've gotten such a remarkable creature to be her "bodyguard". Well, duh, how about Talia of all people?
He smiled as the wolf rested her head on his lap while Verity gave out a little sigh as she opened her eyes and looked up at her father. Jonathan's heart lifted. They were blue. Crystalline, icy blue. Like his own.
~o~
Rachel was exhausted by the time she got home. All she wanted to do was lie down and close her eyes, but there were Jonathan and the baby to handle first. She walked up the stairs to her floor, unlocked the door intent on seeing her lover and his new daughter, and was about to open the door when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She barely had time to scream before she was turned around, and a hand was clamped over her mouth.
"Sssh, darling. No need to let the neighbors hear."
"Talia," Rachel said once she was free to breathe and talk. "What are you doing at my house at this time?"
"To let you know that I'm impressed with your handiwork," the black-clad woman replied with a twitch of the mouth before it faded. "But it's not all good news. I had some of my own digging to come to the conclusion about another new face coming soon."
Rachel sighed in exasperation. "Who is it this time?" I just finished off Lock-Up. His demise should've ended all this. Who could it be this time?
"I don't know who, but Bolton was just a pawn. Working for someone who shares personal hatred for people like your doctor and others like him. This one is going to show her face soon, so you'll might as well be ready."
She left Rachel standing there, stunned at what she'd just heard. Someone else...Bolton was just a pawn...who is it?
It took Rachel a moment to gather herself and go on inside her home, where Jonathan was relaxing against the sofa, with a familiar little head of dark hair and peachy skin resting against his chest. "You two look used to each other now," she noted with a smile as she set her purse down on the counter and walked to the fridge. "Has she eaten yet today?"
"Fed her this morning, then earlier this afternoon," Jonathan answered, the baby grunting with him. He chuckled. "I think maybe she could use something in her right now."
"Coming right up." Rachel retrieved the bottle of formula and joined him. "Jonathan, I never took you one for knowing how to raise children."
"I don't," he admitted, taking the bottle from her and putting it to the child's little mouth. She took it like a man craving for a drink. Jonathan and Rachel chuckled. "Babies must have appetites like she does," he said. "So, who was that woman you were talking to?"
Rachel stiffened, wondering if she should tell him now. But she couldn't wait, because everything Talia said was urgent and no doubt no less worse than Lock-Up. So, decision made, I suppose. He deserves to know.
"I was visited by Talia again. She came to warn me about someone who may be an even bigger threat than Bolton. Someone who hates people like you, Joker, and the others."
His dazzling eyes searched her face warily. "Who is it?" he asked, holding the baby closer to him.
"We don't know yet. But Jonathan…" She moved closer and leaned forward to rest her head against his shoulder. "…I'm afraid for you. For the baby. For the others. I fear this unknown villain has something bigger planned. I'm told they know I killed Bolton."
She felt his lips on her forehead. "Well, then, my Rachel, I think now maybe we can be married as soon as possible. If you are ready, I mean."
Rachel's heart melted at spending the rest of her life with him like they should have finished the first time around. Her in her white dress and flowers, him in a suit, the vows and rings exchanged, the night together…
But there were catches that needed to be considered. Even if she disappeared just like that with him, everyone would go after her and find her with Jonathan again. Love wasn't that simple, but it was what they both wanted and no one was going to take that from them no matter what they did. She regarded everything around her with the same contempt as he did, especially Van Dorn.
"I am ready, Jonathan," she whispered, running a hand through his luxuriant raven hair. "I want to marry you now and soon. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to take us both out of Gotham and start fresh someplace where no one can follow and find us. I want to help raise the child. I want us to be mated like two wolves, even two ever blooming roses every year. I'll even kill those who try to separate us in the future."
He sounded out of breath when he said "My little flower" and took her lips with his, with baby Verity cooing at the sight above her.
~o~
Ten years ago...our senior prom.
That night had been the first time he felt like a "normal" man, beholding the sight of him and his date just before his father died. Jonathan's tuxedo felt like it belonged at Sunday Mass, but Rachel had no issue with it. Still, he felt like he was out of place beside her in her soft blush-colored dress with the ivory floral overlay, her hair loose and accented with a swirling circlet set with a blue gemstone, that droplet of a diamond charm around her neck. She was beautiful; she kept this even after their divorce. He still possessed his own copy, until his arrest. "Look," he cooed to Verity as he showed her the picture. "This is Daddy with...Mommy when we were younger." Since Rachel would be the active mother in her life, might as well use mother as the title. She didn't mind.
The sound of the door knocking made Jonathan jump in fright. Rachel obviously couldn't be home at this time, so he had no idea who it could be. Holding his daughter close to him, he silently crept towards the door. Lupa arched back, growling protectively, but Jonathan silenced her with a look before putting his eye to the peephole in the front door. Dr. Quinzelle, he thought to Scarecrow. Wonder why she's here.
One way to find out then. Let her in.
He would, but there was Lupa to deal with. He turned and nodded for the wolf to step back. She scrambled away further, giving him his cue to open the door just a little bit. "Harleen, what a surprise."
"It's been a hell of awhile, Jonny," she said cheerily. "Rachel told me everything, and I was afraid for the both of you!"
"Yes, and so is this little one." He held up Verity who was looking at the strange woman with wonder, and Harleen grinned at her. "And please come in, I suppose." He quickly shut the door right behind him so no one saw that it wasn't anyone other than the owner of this place.
"Look, Rachel called and said to get you out of here and fast."
"Why? Is she kicking me out now?" Jonathan questioned, wondering what was going on now. The baby stared up first at him, then to Quinzelle, and back.
"Said that Van Dorn suspects you're here, so we need to get you and your daughter to safety." Vivid blue eyes looked down at the little one in Jonathan's arms. "She's so beautiful," she cooed. "It's so wonderful to know you do love her in spite of..."
"Don't finish, Harleen," he said sharply, holding her closer. "I may hate the man who put her in me, but she's everything to me as much as Rachel is. This wasn't her fault."
"I'm sorry."
He saw Lupa come up beside him and sniff at the woman's suit dress curiously. Harleen laughed. "Well, what have we got here?" she asked, kneeling down to pet the dog's head. She growled, not menacingly, and accepted the caress.
"Rachel said that she adopted her herself. Said that Lupa found her first," Jonathan lied, not wanting to reveal that the wolf was a present from the long-dead Ra's al Ghul's daughter. "She's family."
"Well, she's coming, too, because we need to leave now and fast. We'll take my car."
~o~
Less than an hour earlier...
"City of Gotham versus White."
"Miss White, you were arrested for prostitution," the judge said coldly, watching the young blonde with piercing eyes that could penetrate your soul easily. But she didn't do that to Rachel. Jill White was a young woman in her mid-twenties, homeless and living on the streets as a prostitute. She'd been arrested recently. In the past, Rachel would think that it was filthy selling your body to random sweaty strangers, though many times it was for a reason, and one reason only: desperation. Miss White had no home and no money, but in the eyes of the law, that did not change what she did. If Rachel could - if this could be part of being Poison Ivy - she would find a way to help the poor girl get a better life.
"Yes she was, Your Honor." Rachel mentally sighed when Janet stood to make the case. "She was arrested several times before, so the people request no bail."
Rachel wanted to scream out that the girl was homeless and needed some way to survive, but she had to remind herself that she was a professional, so she begrudgingly kept her mouth shut and watched as the ambitious woman stood before the girl. "Miss White, do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"I do," she replied, so quietly that Rachel almost didn't hear her. "You know the reason I do what I do. I'm desperate and I needed to survive. No one else would take me in, and I can't get a job because of the goddamn economy."
"Language, young lady." Van Dorn stood her full height. "You Honor, the people request no bail." Don't you mean you request no bail?
"I'm afraid I have to decline that, Miss Van Dorn," the judge said wearily, waving a hand. "Bail is set at $1,500 in cash or bonds until trial date."
Though Rachel was shocked at the unbearably large amount that the girl couldn't even afford, she was elated at the shocked expression on her boss' face. "$1,500?" she repeated as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Yes, $1,500. Now, Miss White, if you manage to make bail, you'd better be back here for your trial. Do you understand?"
"Yeah," was the defendant's simple, almost bored answer.
"If you're not here, you will regret it," the judge warned before waving her off. "Go see the clerk for your trial date now."
As Jill White was led away by her lawyer, Rachel smiled only a little, which didn't go unnoticed by Janet, who pulled her over as soon as everyone filed out of the courtroom. "Miss Dawes, did you even see what happened in there?"
"Of course I did, Janet. I saw a hooker get off on bail -"
Janet interrupted her with a hiss and a tighter grip on the forearm. "How will she even manage? The judge is every as bit of a wimp as everyone else around here."
"It's due process," Rachel replied smoothly, amused despite the pressure on her arm.
Van Dorn looked like she was on the verge of slapping her in the face right in front of everyone in the courthouse. "You little -"
"Miss Van Dorn, you wouldn't think about laying a hand on her with everyone watching, now would you?" Jim Gordon had made his appearance, eyeing the DA intensely.
"Jim." Janet gritted her teeth. "I don't see how this is any of your business."
"It's my business to know and my job to have you charged with assault even if you are the District Attorney," Gordon answered, unrattled. "I just came to break it up."
Rachel quickly wrestled herself out of Van Dorn's grasp and brushed past them, ready to get out of this place and go home to Jonathan and Verity. But Van Dorn wasn't ready to give up that easily. She quickly caught up to Rachel.
"You listen to me," she growled viciously under her breath. "I'll be keeping an eye on you. I'm beginning to think that there's more to you than meets the eye. Defending almost everyone against us, even your Scarecrow. Who by all accounts hasn't been found for nearly a year. I'm wondering if…"
"I am not hiding him out," Rachel hissed. "You are mistaken."
"But if I find it out…who knows what I can do. I can do worse than what you claim Bolton did to the inmates. I'll might as well let some hired guards of my own to have a little fun with him. After all, men do have needs…."
Rachel nearly puked at the image of her lover and secret fiancée being subjected to treatment similar to what he'd gone through in Arkham. No, that won't happen, she silently promised. I won't let it happen.
Oh, God. I need to get him out of here and fast. Time to call Harleen.
Under half an hour later, she had the deed done and had just contacted Harleen again for the results.
"Is he safe?" Rachel asked on her mobile later that day when she fled the office in a rush. She was in dire of a hurry to leave the scrutinizing eyes of Janet Van Dorn. A theory had been wriggling in her mind ever since that woman threatened Jonathan; the new face who had yet to reveal herself was a female, but the name was unknown. If Talia knew this upcoming villain was a woman, then how could she not know who it was?
I think it's Janet. It has to be, because she hates all the criminals with the upmost passion. Why else would she threaten me, Jonathan, and the others?
"He's safe, Rachel," Harleen answered, and she could just picture the blonde smiling. "He's at the house, waiting for you. I have to go now, but I'll keep in touch."
"Thanks, Harleen," Rachel said gratefully. "Don't know what I'd do without you." She quickly hung up as soon as she stepped on the bus, prepared to head for Joker's place. The clown didn't always stop for the same place, but he'd left her the message saying that he was staying at the shutdown haunted house in the state fair. She laughed to herself, thinking that the haunted house was someplace Scarecrow would hide out. She needed him and him only to give her the lift to the location Harleen gave her; her car was broken in the engine for a second time, and it wasn't her fault.
First Jonathan and the baby. Then prep for a very small, private wedding ceremony witnessed only by their few friends.
The trial with Jill White was from "Madea Goes to Jail", if anyone is familiar with that movie.
Now there is MORE trouble, as I promised. Staying at Jonathan's father's home was close enough to a place outside of Gotham was the best option, and there's a certain happy moment coming up soon. :D After that is when the real danger begins.
Read and review. :)
