What Love Is
By Semerket
Chapter 9: Strategic Alliances
Two weeks later…
Ivy flopped down in the seat directly across from Harvey Dent during lunch. He was the only one at the table, although considering his split personality that was probably a matter of perspective. "I've been thinking." She announced candidly.
He shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, if you were Quinn saying that then it would probably be a sign to get your meds upped."
Ignoring his crack on Harley, she lowered her voice so that only he could hear. "I'm proposing an escape plan, a mutual arrangement." Ivy had plenty of time to think during her boring sojourns with mop and pail, and she had come to the realization that her 'job' could be advantageous from a strategic standpoint. She now had access to new areas and people she wouldn't normally be able to get close too.
"Now you're speaking our language." Harvey was very interested, but made an effort to appear bored for the sake of the guards. He didn't need a coin to tell him this was the optimum solution.
"I'm sure you've heard about my arrangement with Gadlow."
He had a twinkle in his eye (the good one), "You mean your new janitorial duties?"
He laughed as she continued with a frown, "I've realized that I could use my new access to our benefit."
Ivy had never been known to work well with others. She was a loner. The only thing Poison Ivy cared about was herself, with plants coming in at a close second. He glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot, then he leaned forward, "Why in the hell would you help us escape?"
Ivy mirrored his actions, "Not just you… many of us."
The last thing he wanted was to be stabbed in the back or get caught holding the bag. He may like talking to her on occasion, but that didn't mean he liked her enough to actually trust her. "You never cared before, not that I blame you." He hadn't cared before either, escapes were typically 'every man for himself.' "But I've still got to know: why?"
"Because I've noticed new securities and more high tech equipment. There are also more guards in inconvenient locations since my last attempt. I realize the value of extending the proverbial olive branch, so to speak."
Harvey studied her thoughtfully. "This isn't about added security; you've managed to contaminate the entire facility with your pheromones before."
She rolled her eyes. One would think that people would be more interested in escaping than talking. "It's always easier to slip out during a prison riot or some other form of chaos."
He rubbed his chin, and then his eyes lit up with amusement. "Oh, I get it now." She could tell by his change in tone that she wasn't talking to Harvey anymore. This was Two-Face.
"What?" She didn't like his tone.
"This is about your sweet piece of tail." He shook his head and let out a low whistle, "And with an ass like that I can't say I blame you."
It would be easier to have them all escape, rather than escape with just Harley. The odds that one of them would be caught or injured during their getaway was higher than the redhead would like. Ivy glowered at him as she prayed her epic blush was invisible through her green complexion, "This is about leaving. You either want too or you don't."
He just laughed at her. "Aw, Pammy, are you in love with her?" She looked like she wanted to claw his eyes out. "You know she's Joker's girl, right? She'll drop you like a hot potato, no pun intended."
She hissed and crossed her arms indignantly, "I'd prefer if you didn't waste my time since you clearly enjoy sitting in your cell."
"Waste your time? Pammy, you sat down at my table." Ew, that nickname.
"And how pathetic that you even have to call it that. Well, you can enjoy your table, while I enjoy all of Gotham." She stood up and turned to walk away.
"Alright, alright, sit down." He relented. She slowly sat back down. His voice took on a business-like tone, "What do you need?" She could tell Harvey had taken control again.
"I'm going to need certain seeds from outside. It's nothing exotic. I know they can be found in the yard."
He shrugged, "They revoked my yard privileges after I socked the Hatter. I don't have access anymore, Ivy."
Ivy rolled her eyes, "Who does?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "You'd probably have to get that from Wesker."
"Damn it."
"Yep, the guy you tossed down the stairs."
She said defensively, "At your recommendation!" She sighed, "Don't worry I'll handle that little bugger."
"You might also want to talk to Crane, I hear he has a guy on the outside that can get things."
She nodded and made her way to the other side of the large cafeteria. Ivy purred seductively as she sauntered over to the table, "Arnold, dear. Is it my imagination or have you been avoiding me?" The others who were sitting at the table got up and moved away quickly. Her appearance usually signaled trouble.
He looked decidedly nervous as Ivy sat down across from him at the lunch table.
"I'm watchin' you, Isley!" She heard Taylor bark from across the room.
She turned to him and said loudly, "Of course you are, I'm very beautiful." He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Lips to yourself!" He shouted back.
She blew him a kiss to annoy him before turning back to the Ventriloquist. "So, where were we Arnold?"
"Um… I was just leaving actually…" He moved to get up.
"No, you weren't." She said authoritatively.
He shrank back down onto his seat and sighed. "What do you want from me?"
I want you to die. "Myself, and some of the others are tired of being here. We, well, I have need of a few items that would facilitate our mutual escape. I hear you have access to the yard..."
His look of terror morphed into a self-satisfied smirk. She needed him. "Ah, so you need me do you?"
Her false pleasantry was gone and in its place was the cold, calculating sociopath they all feared. She spoke in a harsh whisper, "Look, you little weasel. I don't need a fucking dance partner. You either want out of this shit hole or not. And if you want to make this personal Arnie, imagine what will happen when all those doors open and it's just a lot of dead guards, me, and you without your teddy bear to save you."
"Why do you hate me?"
The false politeness was back, "Oh, Arnold, dear. Don't you know? I hate everyone."
"Except Joker's tart." He sniped.
People froze as they heard a loud bang on the table and Ivy slammed her fists down.
"Isley, back off!" She heard Taylor bark from across the room.
She said quietly, "Remember what I said." She made a point to discreetly drop a tiny folded piece of paper on the table as she made a big show for security of getting up and leaving.
[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]
Another mopping extravaganza! Ivy was already in the mood to kill something and it had only been a half hour. This time she was cleaning the floor leading into the library. Hopefully she could make this useful. Edward Nygma was sitting behind the front desk; he was a part-time librarian. It was an excuse to read and be out of his cell.
Glancing at the guard to make sure he wasn't paying close attention, she moved closer to the front desk where Edward was sitting. The Riddler was pretending to ignore her as he casually flipped the pages of his book. There was a piece of paper on the counter with the words 'CANINE ARENA RID.'
Ivy rolled her eyes at the anagram and she hissed in a low whisper. "Edward, I don't have time for your silly games! Are you interested or not?"
He sulked. Turning the paper to face himself he quickly scrawled a sentence beneath the words and punctuated it with an annoyed huff as he underlined the sentence with his pencil and turned it back around for her. 'Crane and I are in,' was what it now read.
She smirked. "Of course you are." She glanced over at a nearby table. Jonathan Crane nodded discreetly and went back to his reading. Ivy made a point to take a balled up piece of paper out of her pocket and toss it into a nearby waste basket.
The guard was giving her the stink eye so she grabbed her mop and bucket and headed back out. As she was leaving she saw Nygma reach into the trash can out of the corner of her eye.
[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]
"Hello Harl." Ivy drawled as she pulled a chair up to Harley's bedside.
"Hi Red." She could tell the blond had more energy today. Unfortunately, she had lost a kidney, but at least now she would get better.
"Feeling better?"
"Yea, I am."
She smiled and stated calmly, "That's good to hear. Because if they weren't making you better then there would be death and destruction on a massive scale."
Harley giggled dreamily as she felt a burst of emotion, "Oh, Red, you say the sweetest things." She had never felt anything remotely similar to this with Mistah J. No, come to think of it she mostly felt sheer blinding terror and anxiety with him- especially in the last few months. How the hell had she misinterpreted those feelings? Was it just an adrenaline rush? Was she an adrenaline junkie? Harley always did have a thing for danger. Maybe she was crazy.
She smiled shyly at her girlfriend. "You look nice today."
"I'm beautiful, Harley. I always look nice." Ivy studied her finger nails.
Harley giggled. "Yea, I can see your ego is doin' real well."
Ivy shrugged, "Yes, well everyone's good at something." She realized how she must sound, "But, I… do enjoy hearing you say it all the same." She blushed. Ivy wasn't accustomed to accepting compliments, not the genuine kind anyway. "Anyway, there's something I've been meaning to discuss with you."
Ivy leaned in and whispered to Harley as the blond blushed and giggled. To anyone observing it seemed as though the redhead was whispering sweet nothings into the other woman's ear, but what she was really whispering were the details of their escape plan.
Ivy leaned back with a smug look on her face. "Think you can handle it, Harl?"
"Boy, can I. This is brilliant!" Harley chuckled. "You just leave it to me, Red. I'll have it by the time they lemme outta here. I won't letcha down."
Ivy heard the guard calling from the doorway. She gave the blond's hand a squeeze before getting up to leave.
[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]
A week later…
Harley and Ivy were seated in the cafeteria at their preferred table. Harley had been released with a clean bill of health and took her meals with Ivy. Two-Face happened to be sitting with them at the moment as they plotted. Today was important because their escape was on the horizon.
"Canister heel ivy pig!" Edward said conversationally as he walked past their table. He was known to occasionally blurt out riddles and other nonsense and it was largely ignored as part of his 'disease'.
He muttered to Riddler's retreating form, "Sorry Eddie, we don't speak retard."
Ivy rolled her eyes. It had been like that all week with Edward, and never mind poetry day in group therapy; Gaia, that had been painful. An entire thirty two stanza poem about the rodent had been a cleverly disguised anagram. Riddler was enjoying the 'secret communication' aspect a little too much. Fortunately, Harley was much smarter than she let on and could usually interpret his riddles and anagrams very quickly almost as though it was second nature. Ivy wasn't too sure what that said about the inner workings of Harley's brain though.
"I'm assuming he didn't just call me a canister of pig feet."
Harley giggled at their looks of confusion. She whispered across the table, "Everything is in place." Ivy and Harvey nodded.
So far everyone had come through; even Wesker had managed to acquire the seeds she needed. Of course, he'd also needed additional reassurance that she wasn't double crossing him or plotting his demise, which she wasn't. Not officially anyway. He wasn't worth that kind of effort.
Scarecrow and Two-Face had kept track of security patrols and schedules, while Edward had facilitated communication through handing out books with more of his silly riddles, no doubt. She just hoped his recipients were able to understand them. What started out as Ivy's simple and straightforward plan now had the makings of a bad spy thriller. It was so flashy, so overly complex, and oh so Edward.
Now he had them using Wizard of Oz alias'. Ivy was, of course, the 'wicked witch.' It wasn't the not-so-subtle insult that bothered her; it was the obviousness of who would be the wicked witch. Hello! She was the only green person in Gotham. She supposed it was better than the originally suggested 'Toto,' especially since Harley was 'Dorothy.' It was times like this when Ivy realized something very important: Edward Nygma's intellectual prowess was much exaggerated.
Ivy had used her privilege, if one could call performing janitorial duties without wages a 'privilege,' to send messages and acquire items from others that had agreed to the plan. She had also distributed her seeds this way. Two-Face had bribed certain guards and Harley had pilfered several syringes and drugs during her time in the medical wing before she was released. Her psychiatric medical expertise had come in handy in this instance, as well as her slightly-outdated insider knowledge of the facility's protocols and inner workings. Fortunately for them, Arkham rarely learned from its mistakes.
This was very delicate, especially with so many knowing about it. Ivy had never trusted the others and she still didn't, but if there was one thing they all had in common it was an intense desire to leave this wretched place. Everything was coming together. It was just a few more days now.