It all felt like a dream. A crazy, terrible, wonderful dream.
Over the next month or so, Eve spent her days in a state of barely contained anticipation, wanting, needing to know if she would be summoned to Robinson Park. That was how it went; she would return home after work promptly, no more overtime, and there would some sign of Ivy wanting to see her – a leaf, a flower, occasionally a note that simply read 'Come tonight'. It was always Ivy summoning her, never the other way around. Eve had long since stopped questioning how Ivy managed to find her way into her apartment without ever being detected – the excitement when she saw each summons was too great. She would leave for the park as soon as she found the sign, bringing with her pens, pencils, notebooks and a Dictaphone, and as soon as she arrived, Ivy's plants would knock her out and take her to the rainforest dome that Ivy had made her domain. She never found out how to get there directly, and she respected Ivy's desire for privacy. It was no problem, really, not when the things she was discovering about the remarkable woman were so rich and intriguing.
At first it had only been basic questions, but Ivy had been surprisingly compliant, telling her about her past, and more about what she was capable of. Eve had watched, open-mouthed, at every demonstration of Ivy's power, and listened in fascination as she spoke about the processes that had made her the way she was – those were the only times when Ivy started to show her dark side, but even so, Eve's love and admiration for her only increased. She couldn't believe that Ivy was letting her into her world, that she was being trusted with this knowledge; it was like her past whimsical daydreams were all coming true.
Everything felt that way, now, and people, especially Mortimer, were starting to comment on how she didn't seem herself. She rarely ate, she couldn't focus on her work…her mind was fixed on Ivy. She knew there was a wealth of untapped information about the woman she was in love with, and she fervently hoped that she would be allowed the opportunity to discover it.
Unfortunately, everything else that wasn't related to Poison Ivy in any way was falling by the wayside.
As an unwelcome result of her lack of focus, Mortimer was waiting for her in her lab that morning, and she could tell he had something to say about it all. He was perched on a stool – which only served to draw attention to the fact that he was rather short, given that his feet didn't touch the floor – wearing all the correct protective gear and an added disgruntled expression. When she opened the door and stepped into the artificially lit room, he scrambled to his feet and strode over with an air of self-importance.
"Good morning, Eve," he said briskly. "How are you today?"
He was never usually this formal when he spoke to her, so Eve knew straight away that she was probably going to get a stern talking-to. She attempted to smile at him, and only just stopped it from transforming into a yawn. "I'm fine, Mortimer, thanks. What's up?"
"What's up, Eve, is that you seem to have entirely lost your desire to see this work completed." He placed one pudgy hand on Eve's arm and gave her a small shake to emphasise his point. "This is groundbreaking research, Eve, and we both know that it couldn't be done by anybody but yourself –"
"I'm flattered," Eve interjected with a small smile.
"But, if you start letting things slide, where will we be then?" Mortimer was starting to get flustered, and he let go of Eve's arm and started pacing back and forth in front of her, gesticulating as he spoke. "We have a schedule to adhere to, Eve, and while I am willing to give you a bit more leniency than some others, purely because of your skills and…unique perspective, I can't be seen letting you get away with such slovenly behaviour as you've been exhibiting over the past few days."
Eve knew that Mortimer was her boss, and that she should have been nodding along with every single word he said. In fact, normally, she would have been. This time, though, she felt different, like he wasn't as important as he thought himself to be. He looked a bit silly, pacing before her, getting more and more exasperated, waving his hands around like a cartoon character. He looked stupid.
She blinked. Where had that come from? She had never thought that way about Mortimer before. He was a kind man, he'd helped her when she'd been new in town and unsure about everything, he'd helped her manifest her position at GCSI properly. Never before had any kind of malicious thought about him even crossed her mind.
Meat. Man. Idiot. Those words flashed through her thoughts next. She gave herself a little shake and made herself smile. "Phillip," she said conciliatorily, putting her hand on his shoulder, "don't worry. Trust me on this. I've got something...well, it's something big. I can't tell you about it, but it'll be worth it. I'll try not to let things slide anymore. I'm sorry I let that happen." She fixed him with her biggest winning smile and held her breath. Finally he smiled back, his cheeks turning pink.
Mortimer coughed and cleared his throat, and Eve kept her smile on her face, while silently willing him to leave; she needed to sit down and think. "Well, Eve, if that is the case, then I should probably leave you to it!" He smiled benignly again and waddled out of the lab.
Eve locked the door behind him and then sat down at her desk with a thump. "Thank God for that," she muttered to a potted cactus, the most recent addition to the ambience. "At least I got him off my back."
The cactus sat there silently, nonplussed. Eve raised an eyebrow at it, then rubbed her hands through her hair and sighed. She felt like she was going mad. Some of the thoughts that entered her head, when her mind wandered or when she was just drifting off to sleep, and just then, directed toward Mortimer, of all people…they were disturbing. She was starting to see the men and women around her as inferior, and she had a feeling it wasn't her mind in control of this opinion. What if Ivy had been messing with her head during their talks together? Eve knew something of her capacity for mind-control, with certain spores and pollens that she had developed over time – maybe it wasn't such a leap to make the connection between that knowledge and Eve's own experiences. Head in hands, Eve made the decision then and there to confront Ivy about it next time she saw her. She had agreed not to divulge any of Ivy's secrets, that was fine; she had not agreed to having her mind manipulated beyond her control.
"Evelyn."
Eve jumped and almost fell off her stool. The voice that had spoken her name, softly but still surprisingly loud in the otherwise silent room, was coming from the cactus, which had suddenly burst out of its pot, grown three times its normal size, and was bearing something resembling the face of Poison Ivy. Eve scrambled up and backed away in shock. "Ivy?! What the hell?! What if someone sees you?"
"They won't," Ivy's face said, as if it were absolute fact. Eve slowly crept closer – it was incredible, how an almost exact likeness of the woman's face had somehow been sculpted out of the surface of the cactus, except the eye sockets were hollow and the mouth only really consisting of a pair of full, spiky lips. She wanted to touch it, but she didn't want to hurt herself.
"How…how are you doing that?" she asked in wonder.
"It doesn't matter now. I'll tell you tonight," said the face.
"Tonight?" Eve couldn't hide the excitement in her voice.
The face blinked in acknowledgement, rather than nodding. "Yes, tonight. Come straight to the park after you finish work. You might want to bring some lab equipment this time."
Eve frowned. "Like…what?"
"Scalpels, tweezers, vials, slides, a microscope…whatever you think is necessary, I suppose. I think it's time that we move on to…physical examinations."
Eve's eye grew wide. "Are you sure?"
"I am. Come tonight." The lips of cactus-Ivy quirked up, ever so slightly, into a small smile, before the face seemed to melt away and the cactus returned to its former state, albeit now sitting in a broken pot. Dumbstruck, Eve sat back down on her chair, scarcely daring to believe what had just happened. A million new questions were racing through her head alongside the million questions that had been there already, and now she had the added prospect of perhaps getting some of them answered that very night. The anticipation was already starting to bubble inside her; it wasn't just about the element of scientific discovery anymore, she knew that. It was a combination of her desire for knowledge and her desire for Ivy herself. She knew it was dangerous, but she couldn't ever turn down an opportunity like this for anything.
Eve glanced up at the clock. It was still morning, and there were hours to go before she could feasibly clock off and not get yelled at for doing so. Somehow, she needed to occupy her head, heart, and hands until they were free to focus on Ivy that night.
That was going to take some doing.