When Eve opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that she was hanging in midair, tightly wrapped in vines. The second thing was that a long way below her was the gaping mouth of an enormous pitcher plant, except this one had long, sharp teeth and seemed to be regarding her with a hungry expression, despite not having eyes. Immediately, she screamed and started struggling.

A smooth, velvety voice emanated from somewhere behind Eve's head. "Don't do that. You're winding him up."

Eve tried to see what was going on behind her, and was suddenly lifted higher into the air and spun around so she could see her captor. Poison Ivy, enthroned on a bed of thorns and roses, glaring at her with a stony expression. For a moment, Eve couldn't speak – she was overcome by fear, shock, and the inherently dangerous beauty of the woman before her.

"What were you doing, spying on me?" Ivy demanded, her soft lips curled into an ugly sneer. "Tell me, or I'll feed you to the pitcher."

Eve was surprised to discover that her tongue wouldn't work; it felt stuck to the roof of her mouth. She swallowed and tried to stop shaking so much. "I..I..I wasn't spying on you," she said at last, in a voice so timid it was practically a whisper.

It was a blatant lie, and both of them knew it. Ivy narrowed her eyes and reached out one hand. Obligingly, the vines trapping Eve brought her closer until she and Ivy were barely a foot away from each other. Ivy wrapped her long, slender fingers around Eve's chin and held her head in place so she was fixed with the full ferocity of her glare. It was both stunningly beautiful and terrifyingly fierce to behold – for that moment, Ivy didn't look like there was an ounce of humanity left in her. She was cold, angry, and looked like one wrong word would cause her to drop Eve into the jaws of the waiting plant without a second thought.

"You were spying on me, meat," she said. The tone of her voice was what Eve imagined a lioness would sound like, speaking to her already doomed prey. "Now tell me why."

It didn't occur to Eve to mention the leaf she had found on her bedside table. Instead, she struggled to keep her voice steady as she tried to explain. "I don't…I don't want to hurt you," she began slowly. Ivy raised her eyebrows but didn't respond. Eve took this as a sign that the possibility of death-by-pitcher-plant might be lessening, and carried on before she completely lost her nerve. "I've researched you, I wanted to study you. I'm a…scientist."

She knew immediately that this was the wrong thing to say; Ivy's expression transformed into a vicious scowl, and she pulled Eve even closer to hiss her next words into her ear. "I hate scientists."

Before she could stammer another word, Eve had been released from her bonds and she was falling towards the hungry plant, which opened its trap wider like an eager puppy waiting for a treat. She screamed, long and loud, squeezing her eyes shut so she couldn't see what, in that moment, she believed to be the inevitable.

The fall was over as abruptly as it had begun. Yet another vine caught Eve around the waist, winding her; she hung in mid-air for a second or two, and then with a sudden lurch she was thrown to the ground. Her limbs were stiff and sore, and she slowly sat up and hugged her knees, shivering and still not wanting to open her eyes. There was a rustling noise somewhere nearby, followed by soft footsteps making their way towards her. She froze in fear.

"It's you." Ivy's voice was curious, and confused. "I remember you."

"Please…" Eve whispered, terrified. "Please, don't kill me…" She could feel herself shaking, feel the tears running down her cheeks, the goosebumps on her skin, the dirt and blood under her nails; she knew how desperate she must look. Her mind was racing with possibilities of what was going to happen to her, and admonishments to herself for even thinking about coming to the park in the first place. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I came here, I didn't want…"

"Stop."

The word was like a pinpoint of light in swirling darkness, direct and clear, and Eve focused on it, giving herself something to hold on to even if it might end up leading to a worse fate. She felt cool fingertips cupping her chin, and she stiffened as her head was raised to face something that she couldn't see.

"Open your eyes." Ivy's voice wasn't demanding, nor did it seem angry anymore; it wasn't a command, more of an instruction, as if she was talking to a child. Slowly, Eve steeled herself and opened her tearful eyes.

The world was blurred, seen through liquid, until she blinked and it all snapped into focus. It was dark on the edges of her vision, and everything was green. As she finally took a proper look around, Eve could see that she was inside a sort of dome made of intertwining branches, full of lush plantlife, tropical plants that shouldn't even have been able to grow in that part of the world, let alone flourish and thrive. The ground was carpeted with thick grass and tiny wildflowers, soft and springy to the touch. Ivy had made a rainforest in the middle of Gotham City, a hidden paradise where she could live peacefully and undisturbed, the environment of which was entirely hers to command. Eve was stunned into silence, now a mixture of terrified and awestruck.

Ivy herself was stood in front of the trembling woman on the ground, looking statuesque and beautiful, somehow still standing out against everything else despite being so similar. The expression on her face was serious, but at least she didn't look murderous anymore. She looked the same way Eve imagined herself to look when she was trying to understand the results of an experiment. Her lips parted and she spoke again, breaking the suffocating silence between them.

"So you're a scientist," she said slowly, as if she was working things out while she was speaking. "Why did you come here, to me? What do you want?"

Feeling small and dirty compared to the goddess before her, Eve nevertheless stood up on her shaky legs and tried to appear a bit more confident in her explanation. "I'm not from Gotham," she began. "I moved here from Chicago, to work at the GCSI. I'm a botanist."

Ivy didn't respond in any way, aggressive or otherwise, besides raising an eyebrow to encourage Eve to continue.

"Everyone thinks I moved here because Gotham has superior equipment to benefit my experiments, and they're kind of right…but mainly I came here for you. You fascinate me," Eve said fervently, daring to give Ivy a small smile. "I've had this dream of being able to study you, and – and find out about you, how your abilities work, what made you this way…I would never share it with anyone, or, like, expose you to the world, or anything," she added nervously. "I wouldn't hurt you either, I swear on my life. Anything we decided to do would be absolutely on your terms, I just…I just want to know more about you." She swallowed, wetting her lips with her tongue. "You're incredible."

There was a long moment where neither of them said anything, and Eve started to feel like something deadly was going to attack her again because of her impudence. Ivy was frowning at her.

"Scientific curiosity?" she said at last, and Eve let out a long breath that she hadn't realised she'd been holding in. "That's all this is?"

Eve nodded fervently, not daring to speak.

"You remind me of…well, me." The tiniest of smiles played around Ivy's mouth, and Eve dared to hope that she might have managed to talk her around. "Nothing happens unless I say it can."

"Absolutely," Eve burst out. "I…I would never do anything to hurt you or harm you in any way. I swear. Any experiments or – or tests, or anything, I carried out would be up to you."

"And nobody else would ever find out anything that you discovered?" There was a threat veiled beneath Ivy's words now, and her eyes had narrowed as she spoke.

"Nobody. On my life." Eve now had a rough idea of what Ivy was capable of, and she fully intended to never be on the receiving end of that again.

Ivy paused, as if she was afraid to say what was on her mind. "How do I know I can trust you?" she asked finally.

Eve frowned. The tone of her voice – it wasn't suspicious, like it had been, but more like she needed reassurance, like Ivy was afraid of what Eve might be planning to do and she needed to absolutely know that she could rely on her not to spread any discoveries around. It made Eve wonder about her words before – "I hate scientists". There was obviously something there, something that Ivy didn't want to explain, something that had perhaps made her untrustworthy of people who wanted to try and understand her.

"I would never betray you," she said, and in that moment she realised the absolute truth of that statement. She could finally admit to herself, right there, even after Ivy had tried to kill her, that her feelings for the incredible woman went far beyond professionalism; she genuinely cared for her. It was scary and ridiculous and probably the stupidest thing that Eve had ever done, but it was true. She knew she would never tell anybody anything about what she might discover.

There was another long, long moment of silence between the two of them. Green eyes stared deep into blue, and the tension grew between the two women. Eve raised her eyebrows in a hesitant question, as if to ask, "What happens now?"

Ivy's response was to raise her hand to her lips and slowly blow a kiss, and the next thing Eve knew she was waking up on the ground by the entrance to Robinson Park, with the sun starting to rise and chase away the darkness to the east.