The Bargain

Author's Note: Some time has passed since I wrote last time, so I bring you another fic: Poison Ivy and Scarecrow come to deal in which they ensure that they have a successor that can follow in their footsteps. This plot is my own, and I hope that this is an original idea. None of the characters belong to be, but to Warner Bros and DC Comics. Only the child is my creation. Enjoy!

'Icabod Silvanus Isley-Crane!' Pamela's voice thundered throughout the greenhouse,' What on earth are you doing?'

A thirteen-year-old boy got up and looked up at her. By the build, facial features and height he looked almost exactly like Jonathan Crane, except that his skin colouring was even paler with a strange greenish tinge to it. His eyes were large, shaped like his father's, but had their mother's chlorophyll green colour.

'Nothing, mother,' he said calmly, 'I'm just watering the begonias.'

'If you pour water at such a height the water's going to splash out the earth and you'll more likely be harming it than doing it good!' Pamela sighed,' And stop calling me mother- it's so old-fashioned. It's mum.'

'Alright, mum, I will not do it again,' he crouched back down and poured the water out more slowly and carefully.

Pamela walked away to tend to the roses, muttering,' That father of yours is really teaching you 18-century English….'

Icabod finished watering and then stood up, stretching his back. He had just finished tending the garden plants, so one of his daily routines was finished. The last routine is to help his father with the Psychology courses that he's preparing…..

It is almost as if fate had given Jonathan Crane and Pamela Isley another chance. Pamela had found a job working for one of the finest science centers in Gotham. There, she works on cross-breeding of plants to make them finer, better quality and greater immunity against diseases. The employers weren't even a bit uneasy on employing a retired criminal- quite contrarily, they thought that she will revolutionize plant breeding in being able to reduce the production of harmful genetically modified plants.

Jonathan Crane was now employed in a new University in Gotham. It was the Riverside State University, which had been created eight years ago. It still didn't get the fame and quality of the official Gotham State University, but with professors like Jonathan Crane in the staff, it was quickly gaining lead. They had been particularly reluctant on employing him also because of his past crimes, but they realized soon enough that if they didn't employ better tutors they will never gain such advantage. So, he was employed as a Professor of Psychology, but under strict supervision.

However, he never got to be a leading Professor again as he had been in the other university. That is one of the penalties he has to carry as a burden for associating with crime.

Icabod took off his gloves and lingered a bit more under the sunlight. The bright beams highlighted his reddish hair even more and he enjoyed the sunlight. That is perhaps one of the things he had gained on having a plant to be his umbilical cord in his mother's womb. The other thing was that he loved drinking water.

'Finished, mum.' He stated.

Pamela lowered the vase with the small gardenias growing in it and came forward. She took a closer look at his watering.

'Hmmm……. The hibiscuses are fine….. so is the ficus benjamin….. but I'm still not happy with the begonias.' She snatched the pail from his hand and watered it a bit more,' There, that settles it.'

'Mum, when can I handle the larger plants?' he asked hopefully.

'Until you learn how to water ordinary garden flowers more carefully,' she replied, and he didn't like her humor.

The phone rang from the inside of the house. Pamela went to get it, and Icabod walked back into the living room. Automatically, he walked up the stairs and came to a landing where there were four doors. He walked straight ahead and knocked on one.

'Enter.' Came the reply from the inside.

Icabod opened the door, which lead to the library where his father worked. As soon as he came in, Jonathan Crane looked up from the open book he was handling, which was one of the few piled on his desk ahead of him.

'Tell me only one, just one way how to determine a schizophrenic if you read his writing?' Jonathan promptly asked.

That wasn't so hard. 'The person's handwriting should travel from large, rounded letters going across the page into tiny, scrawny letters at the end. Also, the person doesn't write in a straight line, but more likely to write a bit tilted on the side,' Icabod answered.

Jonathan nodded,' Correct. This fool here cannot even tell me that.' He pulled out a paper from a drawer, which was part of one of his student's project.

As Icabod examined the paper, the door burst open. His mother came in and seemed to carry some news that she was going to tell them.

'Guess what? Harley's back in town,' Pamela said immediately.

'Back here? After such a long time?' Jonathan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Pamela nodded energetically,' And she's making a small get-together tonoight at her house.'

'What do you mean by "get-together"? She can't seriously be thinking of having us go back to that life of crime, does she?' Jonathan asked suspiciously.

'No, no, of course not! You know almost everyone of past crime have settled down and aren't about to leave this life so easily,' Pamela said.

'So what really happened with all of you?' Icabod asked, sitting down on a chair, wondering why he hadn't asked this before.

Pamela smiled,' Well, that was quite a turn-around. Almost everybody in Arkham is now living a normal life.'

'Except the Joker,' chipped in Crane.

'I'll never forgive that bastard for leaving Harley,' she said bitterly.

'The Joker left Harley Quinn?' asked Icabod, making sure he heard correctly.

'After a week when you were born, Harley and Joker were going to be married. There was an entire wedding planned: all of us were invited, so everybody tried to make it to the wedding, either by running away from Arkham or coming normally, like Jonathan and I,' Pamela remembered,' it was a beautful wedding.

'Everyone had contributed to Harley's wedding dress. It was black and red: black was her corset, red her gown draperies and black the skirt underneath. I had especially bred a red rose tinted black at the edges to put on her dress. You know how to do it Icabod: you just plant some iron in the soil next to the rose and it will acquire the colour,' when Icabod nodded, she continued,' the wedding was done in Penguin's Iceberg Lounge, which had many ice sculptures cut out to serve as decoration. Harvey Dent was put to serve as the priest (I think was another one of Joker's humors) and I was to be put to sign as one of the witnesses and chief bridesmaid.'

'Our wedding was modest,' Jonathan Crane explained,' but your mother here wore the most beautiful dress made of velvet rose leaves and some white and red rose petals.'

'It cost my flowers a lot, though,' said Pamela worriedly.

'But how did Joker leave Harley?' asked Icabod.

'Ah,' said Pamela darkly,' it was three days after the wedding. Harley told the Joker that she got pregnant, and he left her- after beating her up and yelling at her for this.' She clenched her fists in anger.

'So did she have a child?' Icabod inquired carefully.

'As a matter of fact, she did. She had named him Jack, after his father- Joker's real name is Jack Napier- and as a sign of thanks, he divorced her and left her alone with the child,' Pamela said bitterly.

'He was a very cruel man….. and they thought that I wasn't normal when I enjoyed people in fear,' Jonathan added thoughtfully,' though fear is quite interesting…..'

'It isn't normal to enjoy fear,' Pamela said coolly.

'And it isn't normal to kill for plants,' Jonathan answered back.

'They are murdering living creatures!' she cried.

'Mum! Father! Please!' Icabod tried to halt them,' What happened after?'

'That's where Jervis Tetch comes in,' said Jonathan.

'What about him?' Icabod wondered what was one of his father's closer rogue friends had to do with this.

'A year after Harley was throw out, she had nowhere to go. She had no friend and was completely helpless raising a child alone. She was ready for any help. So, as a sign of sympathy for her, Jervis Tetch married her,' Jonathan said.

'What!' now it was Icabod's turn to be in shock.

'Yes, he married her as a form of help…… and also perhaps because she looked like Alice,' Jonathan smirked.

'With that blonde hair and blue eyes she sure looks like one,' Pamela shared his expression.

'And only a year after that, Harley had another child, and it was Jervis'. They named her most obviously Alice,' Jonathan said.

'So who else is well off?' their son pressed on.

'I know that Edward Nygma found someone and had a daughter with her. The daughter's name is Pandora. Harvey Dent is still alone, and Victor Fries is now working in a research center trying to cure his wife- a more loving husband I have never seen,' Jonathan tried to remember, 'Arnold Wesker and his Scarface doll are dead- died of old age. There are two more…..'

'Did you know the Oswald Cobblepot had gotten married?' asked Pamela.

'Really? With whom?'

'With,' Pamela gave an enigmatic smile,' Catwoman.'

'Now you really must be joking!' Icabod smiled.

'Not at all. You know that Catwoman was in love with Batman,' Said Pamela,' however, Batman had somehow disappointed her…… either because he betrayed her or it was something personal….. anyway, it is her secret.

'In her fury, she tried to make him jealous by getting married for one of the wealthiest men in town, which was the Penguin. She had a lot of money, had a child with him, but wasn't happy. So one morning she had disappeared. The last time anyone heard of her is that she was committing crime in New York, but she is scarcely ever heard of since.'

'Well….. that was interesting,' Icabod breathed. So many strange things had happened these last thirteen years. Who ever though they would turn out that way?

'Any more questions?' asked Jonathan.

'Forget the questions. We have to get ready for the party,' said Pamela getting up and leaving the room.

Author's Note: So I have filled you in with a weird history of what happened these last years. I have tried to get more information about plants and psychology and this was all I could currently remember. Please leave a review (or a flame, in this matter)!