Hello everyone! Long time no see.
Sorry about a long break. The past months have been a bit too full of everything to my taste and I simply haven't had time or energy to write...
Once again many thanks to my beta jaguarspot.
And also big thanks to both actresspdx and RedShirt047 for explaining me how Summer Break works in USA. It helped a lot.
Nature's far too subtle to repeat herself
-Paul Muni
After Danny had left the house, heavy silence fell in the Mansons' living room. Pamela had finally managed to get her breathing under control and was now sitting still on the sofa, staring the girl in front of her with huge, unbelieving eyes and hugging Jeremy's arm like her life depended on it. Said man wasn't in much better shape than his wife. He was looking at his daughter as if she was a stranger instead of the child who he had practically raised alone her first eight years of life, causing an unpleasant cold clump to grow inside Samantha's stomach. Was this situation really that bad thing in their eyes? Were they worried about their family's safety now that they knew that Danny was a hero? Or had the boy's sudden transformation just been a bit too much for them to take in at once? Well, Sam mentally smirked to Ida's still excited smirk, at least her grandma had taken Danny's secret well.
Sighing Sam teared her eyes off the ceiling, through which her boyfriend had just disappeared, and started to talk to her parents with as calm voice as possible, despite the nervousness she was feeling.
"Look, I know this looks bad and you are probably going to get a new restraining order on Danny after this, but please, let me at least explain first."
Her parents didn't react, still too deep in their shocked states, but her grandma leaned closer on her seat, clearly wanting to hear the whole story of how her granddaughter's friend had become a metahuman, and gave Sam an encouraging smile.
"Seriously, this all has a perfectly logical explanation." She promised them with a weak smile. The two adults' blank stares were starting to make her feel really uncomfortable. "You see, about three years ago, Danny had this liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle accident with his parents' Ghost Portal, you know the one in their basement, that gave him some really cool powers and made him look like… well like a ghost." She talked maybe a little too quickly and only paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "And well, since the ghosts started to come to Amity Park through his parents' portal, we all thought that with the help of Danny's new powers we had a much better chances than any other ghost hunters to catch the ghosts and return them to the Ghost Zone before they could cause any damage. Soooooo in short…." She swallowed nervously to moisturize her suddenly dry throat and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "We have kind of been hunting the rogue ghosts almost every night since the beginning of our freshman year."
After Sam had said the words "hunting" and "ghosts" something snapped inside the red haired woman's head knocking her out of her shocked state and she jumped off the couch, staring her teenage daughter with a furious look on her face.
"YOU HAVE BEEN DOING WHAT FOR HOW LONG?!"
The scream was immediately followed by a loud crash when every single plant pot inside the room (there were quite a lot of those actually) exploded in result of the plants' sudden growth to twice their previous size as they fed on the meta-woman's anger. Sam grimaced. She had never seen her mother this angry nor heard her shout so loudly, probably almost as loud as Black Canary's famous sonic screams, and she had to admit she was actually a little afraid of her right now. Maybe Danny's worries about her mother actually hurting her hadn't been as far-fetched as she had first thought.
"Calm down Pammy. There is no reason to turn green on our little Sammy." Ida chuckled, turning her daughter-in-law's rage purposely towards herself. No matter what anyone else said: Sam surely had the world best grandmother ever.
The former villainess, whose skin had indeed a green tint on it, turned to look at the old woman, her fingers curling like talons when she snarled at her. "You stay out of this!" She spat trough her teeth, only earing bored look from Ida, who, instead of curling up out of fear like most people would have done, just picked up her knitting, which she had been working on before Sam and Danny's arrival, and muttered irritably how her daughter-in-law really needed to lighten up.
Before Pamela had time to continue her rage, Jeremy put his hand on her shoulder in a calming motion. The one long look shared between the married couple seemed to be enough to calm the woman down enough that she was again able to control herself and lowered her hands showing that she wasn't going to attack anyone in the room. The ghost of a smile visited on the corner of the man's mouth as his wife relaxed under his hand. As the woman turned her gaze towards the floor, Jeremy moved his arms to give his wife an one armed hug while stroking her arm, before turning to glare at his daughter with stern eyes.
"What your mother means." He started in a low voice, trying to keep himself as calm as possible for Pamela's sake, but Sam was still able to hear the boiling anger behind his words. "Do you have any idea what kind of mess you have put yourself in, young lady? Playing vigilante isn't something anyone should do. You could have hurt yourself. Or worce, gotten yourself killed."
"Don't you think that I know that?" The annoyed goth girl snapped. "I'm not a child anymore, dad. I know the risks and I'm completely able to take care of myself." Then, after a deep breath, she looked at her parents with almost begging eyes. "You have always told me to do the right thing and help people in need. Is it so wrong if this is the way how I believe I can help them the best way possible?"
Next to Jeremy, her mother let out a watery laugh, finally looking again towards the young woman front of her with pity towards her naivety. "Oh Sam…" She sighed sadly. "If only everything was so simple." Hugging herself tightly, Pamela moved her gaze towards one of the destroyed flower pots, her eyes looking back at some unknown place and time.
"You know." She continued softly. "Once, I also believed that I was doing the right thing when I used my powers to protect the nature. At first I didn't even mean to harm people. I just talked to them, tried to make them understand how important plants were and show them the world in the way I saw it."
"But they never listened." She hummed with disappointment and disgust. "They continued to destroy those poor innocent plants, making me frustrated and filling my heart with anger towards them... Then one day, I finally understood that mankind would never see past their own selfish needs." At this point Sam's father was giving all his attention to the woman next to him, pulling her slightly closer to him, probably fearing that his wife would let the hatred of her past self control her. Pamela though barely noticed any of this as she continued to talk. "Their hearts were unable to feel any kind of sympathy towards anything but themselves. In my eyes, they were the monsters and I was the hero who had to stop them. But in the end… I was the only one who saw it like that…"
Sam looked at her mother. They had already talked many times about the reasons why she had become Poison Ivy and how she had honestly believed, and probably partly still believed, that she had been doing what was best to the living beings that had replaced Sam's role as the woman's children. Sam had accepted that and didn't even felt any kind of bitterness towards her mother because she had abandoned her, even though the woman insisted she had every right to feel like that.
"Mom, our situation isn't like yours was. Danny has already become a widely known hero. Even the League admits that. Besides we have only been dealing with ghosts who cause havoc in the human world, not with "real" villains." She tried to reaso with both of her parents, but mostly with her mother, a small plead in her voice. "Yes, I admit that we have made many mistakes and sometimes reached wrong conclusions because we were too blind and naïve to see past that stupid "all ghosts are evil" theory. But then we stopped for a moment to talk with some of them and now we have real friends among the ghosts and we can even visit in some parts of the Zone without any fear to be attacked, because we can trust our new allies to keep us safe."
Jeremy and Pamela stared at their daughter, their eyes widening out of new horror when they realised what Sam had just said.
"You have been in the Ghost Zone?!" They both shouted, their voices full of disbelief and dismay, making Sam grimace again. Maybe she shouldn't have said that last sentence.
"Oh, I knew we should have moved to Europe!" Pamela cried out and looked again almost like she was going to cry as she teared her hair. "I told you that this country is cursed, but did anyone listen to me? Of course not! And look now what happened!"
"How was I supposed to know that the Fentons would tear a hole between dimensions and make this city's urban legends become true?" Jeremy shot back, raising his hands up in a more frustrated than offended manner.
"But weren't those so called legends the primary reason why you wanted to move to this haunted city from the beginning, Jeremy? Weren't you the one who thought that those would work as a great cover story if I ever lost control?"
"Not all of us had the luxury to start a life with a clean slate! I had a work and responsibilities to take care of! Should I have given up all that just because Europe has less meta-humans?"
"Yes! That way this all could have been avoided!"
"HEY!" Sam finally shouted, interrupting her parents' shouting match. "Cut it out. Why are you making such a big deal of this?"
Pamela shot an angry glare towards her daughter. "The big deal, Samantha, is that this is the exact reason why we moved to Amity Park. To keep you out of all this craziness that hero-villain world keeps inside. It's already bad enough that you have been hanging around with a meta-human, but you have been hopping between two different dimensions too?!" The older woman covered her eyes with hand and exhaled trough her nose, trying to calm her nerves a bit. "I just don't want to even think about what will happen if, no, when, the League finds this out."
Sam just rolled her eyes. "They are not interested in the ghosts, mom. Seriously. Tucker and I once had to track down a ghost who was messing with the whole planet's weather all the way to Venice and we didn't see even a hint of any kind of heroes." Neither had they appeared during their last summer's little cross the country trip, but she had a hunch that it would be better not to let her parents to know about their adventure with the Reality Gauntlet just yet. Or it could also have been the the murderous look that both of her parents were once again giving her that made her keep her mouth shut.
"And how, if I may ask, you two managed to get to Italy?" Her father's eyes narrowed as he voiced the question.
"With the Fenton Jet Plane." She said calmly, which made the man raise his eyebrow.
"Are you trying to make us to believe that the Fenton's have their own plane?" He asked skeptically then paused for a moment to think. "No, don't answer that… It sounds so crazy that I wouldn't be surprised if they even built it on their own."
Pam shot an annoyed look towards her husband before turning her attention back to Sam. "It still doesn't change the fact that what you have been doing behind our backs has been utterly irresponsible and stupid. Not even mentioning dangerous!"
"I know, mom! I know!" She snapped back, slowly starting to lose her patience with her parents. "Can't you stop handling me like some kind of china doll? I already told you that I can defend myself, you know. And I'm completely able to make my own decisions."
"So you are just going to throw away all that hard work that your father and I have done so you could have a normal and safe childhood?!" The woman asked her voice higher than usual because of disbelief and anger. "Do you even realize how many big sacrifices we have made because of you? How much I fought so you could once again have a loving mother on your side? Doesn't it mean anything to you Samantha?"
"Maybe I never wanted to have a normal life!" The girl shouted back, angry tears trying their best to make their way into her eyes. "Why can't you finally understand it and accept me for who I am?! I love helping Danny defend my home from the ghosts! I love fighting ghosts and hearing my heart beating so hard that almost all sounds are buried under it! I love reading books about supernatural stuff and magic just as much as I love being goth and wearind black and spikes instead of pastel colours and frills!" Sam closed her now shaking hands and looked at her parents, who for once hadn't tried to stop her rant, with defiance. "This is the life I want. I do understand and respect everything you have done for me, but the girl you want me to be isn't me at all. Is it really too much to ask that you would trust me for once and support me on this? And don't you dare playing the "you have been lying to us"-card! You are the ones who have been lying to me almost my entire life!"
Immediately after her last words had left her lips, Sam grimaced and looked down at the floor with regret, not daring to look her parents in the eyes anymore. "… Okay, maybe that was a bit too harsh…"
"Maybe?!" Both adults asked once again at the same time, clearly hurt by their daughter's words. But then, after yet another moment of heavy silence, Pamela's shoulders slumped down and she walked slowly towards Sam and, to the young woman's great surprise, pulled her into a tight warm hug.
"Sam… You do know that we are only trying to make sure that you won't repeat the same mistakes that I did." She asked with a soft voice as she pressed her cheek against the girl's dark hair. "The justice the League loves to talk about so much is never as black and white as they make it sound. It is a dangerous game between madmen, where only one thin line separates heroes from villains. And there will always be people who will only see the bad things you have caused, no matter how pure your intentions may have been."
"I know mom…" Sam sighed and inhaled the familiar flowery scent that her mother seemed to always carry with her, remembering all those times when Danny had been called a villain even though he had just saved those very same people who cursed his name. "I know…"
"Well then…" The red head sniffed and brushed the tears off from the corner of her eyes before giving her daughter a serious look. "If you promise to be careful and to tell me immediately if any of you three ever meet a member of the League, villains, or any of their allies, I think we will let you continue your ghost hunting hobby."
"What?! No!" Jeremy protested before Sam had time to thank her mother. "Don't you remember what Batman threatened to do to both of you if he finds anything suspicious about your actions?"
Pam shrugged innocently. "We can always ask the Fentons to start again that ghost hunting club and make Sam join it as her cover story. I'm sure they will understand. This whole mess is their fault after all."
"But but but… Mother please. Talk some sense into them."
"Don't look at me, son." Ida told to him and winked towards her daughter-in-law "I'm just a silly old woman who doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut."
"But…." The man looked helplessly at all three women around him before he shot his hands up to show defeat. "Fine! I give up! You can continue playing hero with your friends. Just don't you ever say that I didn't warn you."
"Thank you dad." Sam smiled at him from her mother's arms, while said woman motioned her husband to join their hug.
"Just promise us that you will be careful." He demanded from the goth girl while embracing the women of his life.
"I will." Sam promised and buried her head on her father's chest.
"And you will tell us how that suitor of yours proposed to you!" Ida's voice called from the background.
Sam froze as she felt how her now confused parents' heads turned towards her grandmother and for the first time in very long time the girl found herself cursing the old woman's usually so perfect timing that had saved her from so many problems before.
"What do you mean proposed?" Pamela asked the old woman before her eyes caught the piece of jewelry in her daughter's left ring finger.
"Samantha." Her mother's cold voice made the girl swallow nervously. "Where did you get that ring?" Laughing nervously Sam looked up at her parents who were waiting for her answer with stoic expressions, the warmth in their eyes, which she had seen only a moment ago, long forgotten.
Something was telling her that this was going to be a very long night.
The main reason why I love Poison Ivy so much (and other villains with similar back stories) is that technically speaking she is not a villain at all. She is just trying to protect "her babies" from mean murderous humans. Heck, once she even "stopped being a villain" and moved to live to some dessert island that she turned to a second Eden. But of course some idiotic corporation decided to test their new weapons systems out on it and ruined Ivy's happy life, making the villainess hate humanity even more than she had before...
'Till the next time
Love
Kilppari