The wrought iron doors creaked slightly as they swung wide, gaping to reveal a beautiful interior garden flourishing with flowers and planets. Frank was startled to enter such a lush, tropical atmosphere after traveling through what felt like miles of dark, imposing corridors inside the asylum. The world around him was peaceful, lively and welcoming. The air was warm and filled with fragrant aromas, nearby he could see an elegant koi pond with a little fountain bubbling at its center, and at the center of the garden he saw her.

She was sitting under a cherry blossom, she was smiling, and she looked like his little girl again. Rosy skin, soft, curly ginger hair, and a warm look in her vibrant green eyes.

"Daddy," she spoke the title quietly, as if concerned that just speaking to loud might cause him to run like a startled squirrel.

Hesitantly Frank looked at Dr. Birch. Hazel smiled at him and nodded gently, it was all the encouragement he needed; with caution forgotten he rushed forward suddenly embracing his daughter in the tightest hug he had ever given her. As his arms coiled around her he heard a desperate sigh of relief leave her lips then felt her hug him in return.

"I thought you hated me," she whispered mournfully.

"Hate you?" he said, his voice cracking in shock as he pulled back and held her at arm's length. "Pammy… Oh, darling, no; never… I thought you hated me! I mean… After what you did…"

"Oh daddy, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I was sick, I was sick and I was angry and I couldn't even control myself."

"It's okay! It's okay, darling, I forgive you… It doesn't matter what you did before. You're back to your old self," he beamed at her, his eyes brimming with tears. "My daughter's back. That's all I've ever wanted."

Ivy blinked rapidly to fight back her tears, moving in close and hugging him again. "I've missed you, Daddy… I've missed you so much. I really thought you'd stopped caring."

"Oh, Pammy," he crooned softly, stroking a hand through his daughter's hair. "Not a day went by when I didn't think of you."

"Really?"

"Of course!"

"What about Christmas?"

"Oh, darling, every Christmas morning," he replied with a sad smile.

"…Then why did you stop sending me Christmas cards?" she asked, her voice turning cold as the fresh-turned soil at an open grave.

"Boss," Oracle's voice snapped over the commline while the car's computer screen shifted from radar to a security feed, "I found something on the airport security feed."

The camera feed darkened while a highlighted figure stood out on screen, Francis Andrews AKA Franklin Pierce. The aging banker was agitated and nervous, making his way through the airport's thin redeye hour crowds. After retrieving his duffle he made his way towards the exit gates and was met by a man and a woman, both of them highlight on the screen.

"Freeze," the Batman commanded, the screen stopped in place.

"I've already confirmed the woman is Dr. Birch, but I'm not sure who the other man is—"

"It's not a man," he said, cutting off Oracle's report, "That's the pod plant Ivy used to replace Eric Walsh."

"Eugh! Do you think Birch knows it?"

"I doubt she would care even if she did; I should have seen it soon," he spun the wheel, pulling the car into an abrupt ninety degree turn before gunning the engine, "she's been under Ivy's sway from the beginning."

"The beginning? But you said when you spoke to her she was telling the truth—"

"She was, she honestly wants to help Ivy, she's just too infatuated to realize that her help was being abused, and now it's too late… Ivy's always enjoyed finding ways to annoy the Joker; I should have realized what she was up to!"

"Okay, you've lost me…" Oracle said, her voice perfectly reflecting the frown of confusion on her face as she tried to follow her mentor's logic.

"Harleen Quinzel."

Oracle gasped in sudden understanding. The Batmobile roared down the highway, thundering across the bridge out of town, toward Arkham Asylum.

"But I still don't get it, what's she trying to do? All this trouble just to kill her father?"

"No… Too simple, she'd never got to such measures just to kill him; which means I may have a chance to save him!"

"Pamela… I'm so sorry, dearest, but it was federal law; I had to join witness protection, people said you wanted me dead, I had to cut all ties to my old life, they wouldn't let me contact anyone, especially you!"

"Do you think mother would have done it?"

The question made her father squint his eyes and furrow his brow in confusion.

"Would she have done what, Pammy?"

"Abandon me," Ivy replied, her cold stare turning into a smoldering glare that made her father shrink back and glance toward Dr. Birch.

The doctor was gone, along with her boyfriend. He was alone in the Arkham Garden with his angry daughter, and yet, he felt as if every plant had a pair of eyes, watching him, judging him for his decisions.

"Answer me, father. Would she have done it?"

". . . No. No, she wouldn't."

"But you did—"

"Pamela I—"

"You could have lied! You could have said they got lost in the mail, or that the Marshall's caught you when you tried, hell, you could have said you'd joined the Go Green movement and were shunning wastes of paper; but no! No, the truth is you abandoned your only child, left to be cared for in a mental institution where they lock her in a dark room, refuse to allow her a glimpse of sunlight or a touch of fresh grass, drill her with questions day in and day out about whether she was ever sexually abused, bullied as a child, picked on in school, or suffered under an abusive lover!"

"Pamela, I didn't know! I'm so sorry, I didn't have any idea it was so miserable here, I thought you were getting help, I Thought this place could save you—"

"But you never checked did you, father? You left me here in this dark, dank, wretched excuse for a home; you abandoned me to the psychological pokes and prods of imbeciles in lab coats who dare to call me insane because I can feel the pain of a life force their self-centered minds can never hope to comprehend!"

Tears were welling in his eyes as Frank collapsed to his knees and clutched his daughter's legs.

"Forgive me, forgive me! Oh god, Pamela, forgive me; I was a fool, I'm sorry, darling, I wish I could undo it all!"

"Shhhh, shh, shh," Ivy hissed in a coddling whisper, kneeling down to gently embrace her father, "It's okay, Daddy, it's okay… I forgive you; I even know how you can make it up to me."

The old man looked up at his daughter, his grief replaced by sudden delight at her words, "Name it, Pammy, whatever you want!"

Poison Ivy's rose petal lips coiled into a smile as sly as a viper's and her green eyes danced with delight as she spoke her next words, soft as the spring breeze.

"Stay with me, here, so I'll never need be lonely when I'm trapped inside these walls…"

The intention of her words didn't sink in until the plants had begun to move. Her felt them slithering over the tops of his feet, causing him to scramble to his feet.

"Pamela! Pammy what are you doing!"

"Don't fight it daddy," she cooed gently, smiling benignly as more writhing roots broke through the grass and soil and snapped around his ankles, pinning him down. "It will be over so much faster if you relax…"