A/N: Hoo boy, I have some explaining to do. The short version is I really meant to keep working on this but never got around to it, and then years later...here we are. The slightly more detailed version is that I really meant to keep working on this, but I didn't know where to go with the story and kept putting it off and putting it off. I knew where I wanted to end it, and that's what I have here, but I had nothing to fill the gap with. Time went by and, while I still like the characters, Harley and Ivy no longer were my favorite couple, so then I didn't even have much motivation to keep going with this.
But I never completely wrote this off, and I felt bad for abandoning the handful of you that had followed this story. For my own peace of mind, I need to do something with this and close it for good. So, this is the ending that I was going to go with, and I'll give a very brief rundown of events between chapter 2 and this.
At the end of chapter 2, Harley and Ivy became lovers, and things went really well between them for a while. They pulled a lot of jobs together and worked better than they ever had before. But as the thrill of their new romance started to settle down, Harley started to pine for the Joker. She thought about him more and more and became distant from Ivy. This caused their teamwork to weaken, which put further strain on their relationship. For her part, Ivy could guess what was wrong with Harley, but refused to acknowledge that there was actually a problem. They started to argue more often, and finally Harley told Ivy that the Joker needed her and that she couldn't abandon him. Just like that, she walked out on Ivy.
This scene takes place not too much longer after that.
Ivy gingerly felt her split lip and bruised cheekbone. The Batgirl had been neither gentle nor shy in taking her down. Ivy was positive that if she'd had backup with her then Batgirl's ruined carcass would currently be feeding her babies, and her heart twinged with regret. She scowled and wrenched her mind away from the subject. The sooner she trained herself to stop thinking about her, the sooner she'd move on.
Cash banged his hideous metal arm on the cell door. "On your feet, Isley. Over to the corner—now! You've got a new cellmate coming in."
Ivy spared a look of deepest contempt for him before complying. Cash was too strong willed to fall for her charms and had no qualms about hitting a female inmate; in Arkham, chivalry wasn't just dead, it would make its adherents dead, too.
The thick plastic door slid aside and two more guards led a slender figure by the arms into the cell. Pamela Isley's heart stopped completely.
Harley straightened, rubbed her arms where the guards had gripped them and promptly flipped them the bird as they left. She turned to grin at Pam as if everything was normal.
"You and me roomies, Red? Heck, I woulda been caught sooner if I'd known!"
Ivy was across the room in two strides. Harley raised her arms, but the wariness in her eyes was justified when Ivy's palm cracked roughly across her cheek. Harley cringed, rubbing her cheek, as Ivy towered over her, chest heaving. "I'm sorry, Red…" she murmured.
Conflicting emotions stormed through her. She wanted to hit her, kiss her, hold her strangle her fuck her—!
She didn't know what to do or say. Harley sniffed, and a not-insignificant part of Ivy's heart went out to her (berating Ivy for daring to hit her, as the hated clown would have done), but her anger and pride were too strong to merely be discarded. "You left me," she said coldly. "You left me!"
Harley flinched at the sound of her voice, but finally looked her in the eye. "Yeah, I did."
Ivy didn't respond.
"But I told ya why I had to go, Pammie! Mr. J needed—"
"DON'T talk to me about that clown!" Ivy shrieked, anger exploding so suddenly that Harley took a step back. "I've always been there for you, I've taken care of you! And at the first opportunity you're running back to HIM!"
"That ain't fair, Pam!" Harley snapped, and Ivy was taken aback that Harley had both the spine and the audacity to defend herself. "Mr. J showed me the way the world really works, he took me on as - as his partner, as his student, when my life was a hollow shell!"
"I took you in all the times he kicked you out! All the times he hurt you, I was there for you! And you chose him over—!"
"This isn't about favorites, Pam, or - or who's better! Don'tcha get it? I love you both! And I'm not letting either of you go. I can't!"
Ivy was stunned into silence. She wanted to scream at Harley, wanted to vent all her anger and pain at this convenient target, but she couldn't. She wanted to get over her and couldn't. She wanted to hate her and couldn't.
'God help me…I'm in love.'
And Harley loved her, too. But she also loved the Joker. Ivy turned away from Harley and walked to the other side of the cell to give herself time to think. To her credit, Harley remained silent and still.
As long as Harley loved both of them, she'd always be wavering back and forth between them. She would never be Ivy's as long as she loved him. Turning her away from him was impossible—she was eternally loyal. There was only one thing to be done.
It was time to kill the clown.
And Harley could never be allowed to find out, or even suspect, or she'd lose her forever.
But that couldn't be done from in here, and for now she had Harley all to herself. She turned and shifted her weight onto one foot, looking dominant in the cell. "Harley?"
The blonde jester tensed. "Yeah, Pammie?"
"You're sleeping on the goddamn floor."
The ward was dark, but never silent. The screams and gibbering of the mad echoed down the hall. Magpie giggled to herself as she examined the few shinies she'd managed to acquire. The silence of Jane Doe's maximum security cell was broken only infrequently by a murmur as she practiced her impersonation of her next victim.
In one cell, the only sounds were the slow, rhythmic breathing of the inhabitants, the slight rustle of cloth, and the smooth sound of skin rubbing against skin as two sets of fingers closed around each other.
THE END