Harley Quinn stood, shivering, a pathetic figure in red and black against a background of white. The jester costume she wore had been torn in several places, and the exposed skin underneath was turning blue with cold. "H-hiya, Red," she said awkwardly. She tried to smile but winced when the movement stretched a cut on her lip.

Ivy raised her eyebrows and bit her tongue, then stepped aside and gestured for Harley for enter the dome of trees. "Come in, Harley. And take that costume off."

Harley passed through the trees dejectedly, her head bowed like a puppy that knows it's done wrong. Ivy followed her in, silently cataloguing the extent of the cuts and bruises and working out what she would need to heal them. "Strip," she ordered again.

Off came the tattered costume, falling into a heap on the grass, leaving Harley standing in her underwear. By now she was starting to stop shivering, but she still looked wretched. Bruises were beginning to bloom in shades of purple and blue around her neck, on the tops of her arms, and across her chest. Her hair was matted, her makeup smeared. There was a dark crust of blood under her nose which had clearly dribbled down into her mouth before it had dried. Self-consciously, she tried to cover herself up, but one look at Ivy's narrowed eyes and pursed lips and her arms fell back to her sides. Feeling uncomfortable under the furious gaze of her friend, Harley tried to make a joke. "We gotta stop meeting like this, Pammy," she giggled. Her voice was hoarse, still not recovering from the obvious choking she'd had to deal with. The laughter in her tone died when she saw Ivy's jaw clench.

Ivy was having trouble not shouting at Harley. This wasn't the first time she'd come wandering to the park after being on the receiving end of an attack from her on-again/off-again psycho 'boyfriend', The Joker. Granted, it hadn't happened for a while, but that didn't lessen the raging anger in the pit of Ivy's stomach as she silently instructed Harley to sit down and clean the makeup and blood off her face. Her skilful hands made silent, graceful movements in the air, calling her plants to her, the ones she would need to mix the remedies for Harley's cuts and bruises. She worked without speaking, cutting and grinding and mixing special pastes and powders, while Harley sat curled up, her arms wrapped around her torso and her head bowed. Ivy cleaned the cuts and applied a thick salve that stung on contact, then dressed them tightly. The minutes passed in tense silence, until eventually all Harley's wounds were dealt with and Ivy was feeling a little bit calmer; but just a little bit.

She sat back on her heels and fixed Harley with a steely glare. "So what happened this time?" she asked, her tone deceptively calm.

Harley tried to laugh it off, but it only seemed more pathetic. "Oh, it was nothin', ya know," she said with a fake smile plastered on her bruised face. "Puddin' and I just had a bit of a fight 'cos he didn't like his Christmas present…"

"Did he tell you what he wanted?" Ivy asked, one eyebrow raised. She already knew the answer.

"Nah. He never tells me stuff like that." Harley was still smiling, but it was starting to slip.

"Of course he doesn't." Ivy shook her head. "That doesn't even…who am I talking about? Obviously it doesn't make any sense." She looked at Harley with eyes that blazed with anger, her lips pursed into a tight line. "And he beat you up because you didn't give him what he wanted, even though he didn't tell you what that was?"

Harley shrugged, like this was an everyday occurrence – which, Ivy hated to admit, it probably was – and it was barely worth discussing. "Hey, I've had worse. At least he didn't throw me out of a window this time, huh?"

"That doesn't make it any better! Dammit, Harley!" Ivy almost slapped her, but stopped herself and instead stood up and backing away slightly, in case she did something she would regret. "He shouldn't be treating you like this at all! He shouldn't be taking his anger out on you when it clearly has nothing to do with you! You're just a punching bag."

"Don't you say that!" Harley stood up, her tiny thin shoulders squared in a defiant stance. "My puddin' loves me!"

"Does he? Really?!" Ivy clenched her jaw as she rounded on her friend, trying so hard to stop herself from taking out her anger on Harley and doing exactly what she was condemning the Joker for doing. But really, she was…infuriating! If her time with Eve had taught her anything, it was that those who loved each other would never hurt each other! Loving someone made their pain into your own pain, even if you didn't cause it. "If he loved you, if he really loved you, he wouldn't even dream of thinking about hurting you."

"Yeah?! And what do you know about love?!" Harley screamed. She walked up to Ivy so they were standing nose-to-nose, her blue eyes flashing with fury. "You seduce people left, right and centre, just to get them to do what you want! That's not love! You don't know anything about love!"

"I know a hell of a lot more than you think," Ivy growled. "When you love someone, you hate to see them upset, and when they are upset? Then, you do everything in your power to make that better. The one you love should never be afraid to do anything around you. They should feel comfortable, confident, sure that you always want them to be happy. They should be able to tell you anything, and not be judged like everybody else might judge them. And most importantly? It should never even cross their mind that you would hurt them, because that's not what you do to the one you love." Her hands reached out and gripped Harley's shoulders, digging her nails in, shaking her to emphasise her point. "You are terrified of the Joker. You are always walking on eggshells around him, afraid that he'll lash out, even when you're not the one who's done anything wrong! You are in what might be the worst kind of abusive relationship in history, and every time it looks like you might be breaking away you go running right back, because you don't even seem to think there's a problem! Somehow in your stupid little head, you've convinced yourself that he does what he does out of love, out of affection. Ask yourself, deep down, do you actually, really and truly, believe that he cares about you?"

Ivy could feel her fingers digging into Harley's skin, probably leaving even more bruises to add to the already impressive collection, so she released her with a dismissive gesture and stared her down, waiting for a response. She was still waiting a few minutes later, but Harley wasn't even looking at her. Her bottom lip was quivering and she'd folded her arms around her body in a subconscious act of self-preservation. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it again with a muted snap. Ivy nodded grimly.

"And you actually have the nerve to tell me I know nothing about love, when what you're comparing it to is so twisted and abnormal. You might have a few doctorates under your belt, Harleen Quinzel, but you don't know anything about the real world."

Harley lifted her head at last and fixed Ivy with tearful gaze, her big blue eyes glistening. "I'm….I'm sorry, Red…"

Ivy sighed. The anger flooded out of her, tension leaving her shoulders as she took a few deep, calming breaths. A single plant tendril curled itself up her body and rubbed her cheek affectionately. "So am I. But, Harley, listen to me…" she gently guided her friend to sit down on the nearby log before continuing, "I hate seeing you like this. Do you realise, the last few times we've seen each other have only been because you've needed me to heal you? At least once a month, you come here, in tears, trying to smile through the pain of whatever new injuries he's given you. I hate it. I hate what's happened to you. And then…for you to try and justify it? To make excuses for him? It just…" She turned away and ran a hand through her hair, trying to collect her thoughts. Harley stayed silent.

"Do you remember when you left him for a few months?" Ivy said into the quiet.

Harley's mouth quirked up on one side, pulling at her split lip. "Yeah. Puddin' was real angry with me for that one!"

Ivy chose to ignore that last part. "My point is, Harley, when we were together, and you didn't think about what the Joker might do every second of every day, you were free. You were your own person, you did what you wanted to do. We did what we wanted to do."

"And nobody could stop us." Harley was smiling properly now, not a tentative pained smiled, or an awkward smile to cover up her inner pain, but an actual, genuine grin. "You've always looked out for me, Red. You're my best friend."

"And you're my friend too, Harley," Ivy said, "which is why I hate it when you come to me like this."

Harley hung her head. "I know…but it's so hard, you know? Mr J's always been there, right from the beginnin'; I don't know if I could just walk away forever. I'd be all on my own…"

Ivy shook her head and laid her hand across Harley's. "No, you wouldn't."

There was a pause. Harley looked up into Ivy's face, her blue eyes searching for something, Ivy didn't know what. The seconds ticked by and then Harley surprised both of them by leaning forward for an impulsive kiss.

It didn't last very long – Ivy pushed her away, shocked, gasping in surprise. Harley look confused, like she couldn't figure out the problem. She tried to take hold of Ivy's hand again but she snatched it away. "Pammy, what's wrong? I thought…"

"What did you think?"

"I thought…well, you were saying all that stuff about making the one you love better, if they're upset, and you always take care of me when I come here, and I figured that, well, that was meant you meant when you said you knew about loving someone." She trailed off towards the end of her speech, slowly coming to realise how wrong she must have been.

Ivy stared at her. "You thought I meant you? You think I love you?"

"Don't you?" The question hung in the air.

Slowly, deliberately, regretfully, Ivy shook her head. She had a horrible feeling that she knew exactly what would happen now, and despite all her power, she wouldn't be able to stop history from repeating itself yet again.

"Well, if it isn't me…" Harley swallowed. "Who is it?"

"I can't tell you, Harley." Ivy sighed deeply. "I can't anybody know about her, not even you. I have to protect her."

Harley recoiled like she'd been slapped. "I thought I was your friend!" she cried, her voice rising in pitch as the anger and betrayal hit her. "All that bull about you caring about me, and not wanting to see me hurt, and then you turn around and say you don't trust me?!"

"I don't trust anyone, Harley!" She hated saying it, knowing it wasn't true, knowing that there was one person in the world she really did trust, who was currently lying unconscious about twenty feet above their heads. "It's not personal, okay? Do you realise, the people we know, the people we associate with, what they would do to any of us if they found out we had a weakness? How they would use them to get to us? I can't let that happen to Eve! I have to protect her!"

A horrible, horrible silence sank over them, as both of them realised at the same time exactly what Ivy had said. Harley's mouth was set in a grimace that only vaguely resembled a smile. "Eve, huh? Figures. This is her Garden of Eden, right?"

"Oh God…" Ivy instinctively tried to stop Harley from moving, but she caught her by surprise by punching her in the jaw and sending her sprawling onto the grass, then kicking her a few times for good measure. When she raised her head, blearily, dots dancing in front of her eyes, Harley was already several feet away, standing in a tense position, ready to bolt. "Harley, please…please, I am begging you. Don't tell anyone. Please, I can't lose her, I can't, I can't…" She dragged herself up from the ground, but Harley was still moving away, her expression unreadable.

"I do know something about love," she hissed. Gone was her usual perky tone, replaced by something cold and hard. "It makes you soft. The old you would have probably killed me by now."

Then she turned and ran, faster than Ivy could react, faster even than she could get her plants to follow – she was hovering on the brink of unconsciousness, unable to focus on anything except the chilling pool of fear in her stomach. "Harley!" she called desperately, "Harley, please! Harley!"

But she was gone, and there was no reasoning with her. She was crazy.

And now she knew about Eve.