Author's Note:
A warm thanks to Dr. Facer for being kind enough to review my every chapter thus far and show me there are some people that really are reading each one and putting some serious thought into them. Thanks Facer, it's readers like you who get me to stop and start putting a little more effort into what I write.

Further thanks goes to Anarchy from Eidos's Batman: Arkham Asylum board, for being a constant pest in a friendly way that shows me just how much some folks are enjoying this story. Thank you dear, for giving me the inspiration for how to proceed onward, I hope you find it worth the wait!

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Hazel was in the hospital for a full week. During that time Ivy was kept in her cell, checked up on by an intern Hazel signed off on, but other wise left mostly to herself to think about what had happened. On her first day back, Hazel opted to simply come visit Isley at her cell rather than have a one on one therapy session. Holly and Margaret had come back a few days earlier than Hazel, their cases not quite as severe as Hazel's had been. Both women were thrilled to see the doctor back on her feet, but not one gave her a welcome quite like Pamela's. The moment Pam saw Hazel come into view she lept from her bed and came to the glass of her cell, pressing her face up to it to see Hazel coming.

"Dr. Birch, you're all right!! Thank the earth... Hazel, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry for being that stupid, I just... I got scared. I thought you were losing faith in me, I thought I wouldn't get out of here.. you're the only one who ever thought I could do it. The only one who ever believed that there was a chance for me to reform, and when I thought you were losing faith in my I just... I felt like the walls were closing in."

"Hush, Pamela, hush; calm down. It's all right, I'm fine." Dr. birch soothed kindly, smiling brightly at hear Pamela's voice being kind and gentle again as it had been in their therapy sessions.

"You will forgive me... won't you?" Ivy asked.

"Of course I will, Pamela."

"Thank the goddess... And you will still help me prove I'm capable of rehabilitation?"

"I never reconsidered it, Pam. You just had a breakdown. It's natural under such stressful conditions. We'll keep working until you're able to handle them calmly."

"Oh good... One last thing, Doctor?"

"Sure, Pamela, what is it?"

"...Could you have someone get this damned jacket off me?"

Hazel gave a merry little laugh and nodded happily. "Sure, Pamela. I think I can have that arranged."

Ivy smiled gratefully and bowed her head toward her psychiatrist. "Thank you, Dr. Birch."

"My pleasure. I'll go see about getting that jacket off as soon as possible." She waved at her patient and then began to make her way back down the hallway.

Pamela moved back to her bed and sat down, smiling contentedly.

"Well, she certainly was accommodatin'!" Harley piped up chipperly.

Pamela gave a little laugh and nodded gently to herself. "She was, wasn't she Harl?"

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Hazel had immediately sought out the morning guard Captain, Terry Mortivici, and requested Pamela be removed from straight jacket confinement. After a little bawking and protesting the guard captain yielded to the doctor's persistence. Satisfied that her patient would be comfortable again, Hazel returned to her office and took a seat behind her desk. Once she was seated she retrieved a form she'd called for while she was on her sick leave; a psychological analysis file on Poison Ivy. Hazel cracked the file open and began reading, soon losing herself in page after page of assumption, suggestion and theory made by numerous psychiatrists over the years. As she looked over the notes and records she kept track of the name, most of these people had been killed at some point.. Many of them by Isley herself. Near the end of the file, Hazel found something that particularly grabbed her interest.

I have discovered something interesting regarding Isley, something I had not realized and had not come to appreciate before now. Isley has a religious conviction I had never before truly comprehended. She frequently refers to the mother goddess of neo-paganism as her divinity of choice, and has often seemed to view herself as a leaving incarnation of said being, but there is an underlying factor here I had not previously considered; that is to say that her belief is distinctly human.

I have seen to much in my time in Gotham to doubt the natures of magic and the supernatural. There is no reason, however, to assume magic and science cannot co-exist. With this in mind I have begun to ask Isley to explain herself, both from a scientific point of view as a botanist, but also from the earthly principles of her spiritual conviction.

I find myself fascinated by this aspect of Isley's personality. If she truly were becoming less and less human, she would not be so adamant about mother nature, and the spirit and 'lives' of plants. Yes, they are living entities, but they are not sentient in the way I or another person would be considered sentient; at least, not in a way science has yet come to understand. This aspect intrigues me. Could it be that Isley is even more than we have yet come to understand? There are numerous beings in the world now which seem to embody or represent a spiritual or mystical aspect of the nature of our existence.

The strange entity known as the Spectre is said to be a spirit of vengeance, endowed and empowered by god himself. The heroine Wonder Woman alleges that her own powers and capabilities were bestowed upon her by the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece. A stage performer named Zatanna, a frequent performing artist at the Gotham Performance Hall, is one of the few stage magicians I know of who performs true magic right there on the stage. As I consider these facts I find myself wondering, could Isley be becoming such a being? Certainly there was a time when she was just a normal human... But could it be that she is... Is... What? What is it she is becoming? I cannot say for sure. I dare to think that perhaps Pamela Isley is... evolving. Not on the slow scale that normal beings do, but an accelerated rate. She alleges to not just be able to control planets, but speak with them, commune with them. Feel what they feel, think what they think. She calls this 'The Green', she tells me it is a spiritual essence of mother nature herself.

Whether this is true, or whether it is just another aspect of Isley's psychosis I am not yes certain, but in either case it adds a new dimension to her character. Isley clearly believes this to be fact, regardless of whether it is or not, and this firm and unyielding conviction indicates that Isley is not just a psychotic. She is a religious zealot; this would help further explain her dedication, and why she cannot be reasoned with on a basic level. Like a outraged fundamentalist, or a narrow-minded southern-baptist; trying to reason with her is not just a challenge due to her psychotic mind, but it is an abrupt confrontation with her spiritual beliefs. This realization has added a whole new layer of difficulties to my therapy sessions with her, but by finally recognizing this difficulty consciously I hope to be able to finally meet Isley on even ground. If I can embrace her beliefs, perhaps she will be more accommodating to talking with me about her mental issues and challenges.

Dr. Belladonna Hayes

6 year Resident, Arkham Asylum
09.18.06

Dr. Birch reread this journal entry numerous times. Dr. Hayes had retired less than a month after making this journal entry. On September 22nd Jonathan Crane escaped Arkham, intent to be free and ready to attack as Halloween drew near. He'd befriended a guard, and eventually turned on him, breaking free and proving his mastery of fear by putting the entire Asylum into a panic without even needing his costume or his gases and toxins. He'd preyed purely upon the psychological fears of inmate and employee alike. Dr. Hayes had the raw strength of mind not to give in to his psychological attacks, and she even tried to reason with him over the PA system as he filtered his way through the security systems level by level. Hazel didn't know the whole story, but Hayes was one of the finest doctors the institution had ever had. Whatever she said to Crane, it was enough to grab his interest so keenly that he turned around, he made his way to Hayes office and confronted her.

No one knew what happened in the office. There had been no apparent physical confrontation. Hayes was completely unharmed when guards finally managed to get in. Crane had taken her key card and her car keys and then fled. Dr. Hayes was never the same. She was quiet, withdrawn and jumpy. Somehow the Scarecrow had found a chink in her psychological armor, he'd picked away at it while they stared each other down inside her office, and he'd eventually broken through. Whatever he found inside, it was enough to completely alter her behavioral patterns, her actions, everything. She retired two weeks after the incident and had been seeking therapy for herself ever since. Hazel Birch was one of 6 different doctors the Asylum ended up hiring to replace this one doctor they had lost.

"If it's good enough for Belladonna Hayes, it's good enough for me. Maybe I've finally found a way to really connect with you, Pamela..." Dr. Birch mused out loud, standing up and moving to her window, looking out over the asylum gardens. "Maybe we'll finally make some real progress... "

Hazel paused now, finally realizing she was talking out loud to the empty office. "Oh boy; easy, Hazel, you went through an ordeal... Try and keep it all in perspective." She reminded herself as she returned to her desk and took small sip from her water. Every liquid to enter her mouth reminded her of the nightshade juice, even it's bitter taste was still a vivid memory fresh at the forefront of her mind.

"I'm never going to be able to enjoy a glass of fruit punch again." she said, laughing softly, though it was a forced laugh. To her chagrin the statement actually seemed true. It had been a horrifying ordeal, feeling her tongue go limp in her mouth, feeling that bitter juice trickle down her throat while her lungs burned and her body ceased to respond. The mere thought of it made her cringe, and she had a fair share of bad dreams about it while she'd recovered in the hospital.

Shaken and perturbed by the wandering of her own mind, Hazel turned her attention to her computer. If she was going to take the observations of Dr. Hayes to heart she needed to do a little research on mythology and mysticism. She had to disagree with one observation made by Belladonna Hayes, she doubted that Isley followed any specific neo-pagan school of thought, she suspected it far more likely that Isley followed much older traditions of paganism. Typing the word Paganism into Google came back with 3,450,000 results... She needed to narrow her field of research. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her and she closed the web browser then brought up her login commands for the Arkham database. She knew exactly who to go to for the answers she needed. She had to speak with Dr. Belladonna Hayes.