Be like the flower that gives its fragrance even to the hand that crushes it.

-Imam Ali

It was a beautiful summer day in Amity ark. Birds were singing, most of the flowers in Pamela's priceless garden were in their full bloom filling the air around them with the heady scents, while still somehow managing to work in harmony and create a soothing atmosphere to those near them. In short, it was a perfect day for drinking an afternoon tea outside with your dear friend.

"I took the liberty to assume that you still like to drink your tea with cream." Pamela said to her guest with a teasing tone while placing a silver tray on the wooden garden table.

"Of course." Selina chuckled and took the white china cup from her long time friend's offering hand. "What kind of cat I would be if I didn't?"

"A fastidious one." The redhead answered simply before sitting in front of the former thief and took a small sip from her own cup. "But I have to ask, what brings you and your fiancé to Amity Park anyway? I'm not saying that I didn't love that you decided to come for a surprise visit, but you did make me quite curious."

"Business. As usual." Selina told her with a slightly bitter tone as if her man would never take her anywhere just for fun. "Bruce is trying to create a cooperation agreement between Wayne Enterprises and Fenton Works. Apparently, now that ghosts are proved to be real, there is a huge need for ghost proof security systems, which also means that there is now a completely new market hole that many companies are trying to fill."

"And since the Fentons are the current experts on this field, everyone is trying to buy them on their side." Pam finished. "Well that might explain why Daniel was complaining to Sam how all billionaires are creepy stalkers."

The other woman raised her eyebrow as an expression of her interest towards her friend's words and lowered her cup back on its plate. "I wonder who he meant with that."

"I'm not completely sure, but it fits too much with the rumour about Luthor being seen in Amity Park." She explained with a darkening expression. Not only was she still angry at Luthor from the last time he had asked her a favour (even though it had triggered the chain reaction that had led her back to her family) but neither she trusted the man who still, after all these years, managed to keep up his honest businessman act in the eyes of the public. "I assumed that he was only interested in buying Mr. Master's old company, but maybe he too was interested in buying the Fentons knowledge."

"Rumours, huh?" Catwoman gave her friend a teasing grin. "You didn't happen to hear those from your babies?"

The former villainess glared half-heartedly the dark haired beauty. "Don't underestimate the power of gossiping, darling. You will notice soon enough that some old hawks among the upper-class ladies have mastered those skills terrifyingly well."

"If you say so." Selina chuckled good naturedly and raised her cup to take another sip.

"But let's talk about some more interesting subjects." Pamela proposed, slyness clear in her eyes. "How are your dear Bruce's nightly hobbies going?"

Selina didn't even blink. "I'm not sure what you are talking about Pamela." Then she gave her friend a knowing look. "But if you meat his former playboy life, I can assure to you that I have made sure that he has no need to even look towards other women."

Pamela gave her a sweet smile. "Oh, I'm sure of that. I have just heard that your lovely white knight has this little… darker side in him that appears after sun falls down. If you know what I mean."

The cat themed heroine's eyes hardened as she studied her friend who continued to enjoy her drink, acting as if the two women weren't talking about anything more interesting than the day's weather. It didn't mean though that the meta-human wasn't aware of how dangerous a game she had just started, but Poison Ivy had always been the master of manipulation and just because she hardly used her skills purposely anymore, it didn't meant that she had lost them. Of course this all would have been much easier if the person in front of her had been a male, or if she could have used her plants or pheromones to bend Selina under her will, but the truth was that, for once, she needed her friend to come to her side willingly if she wanted to get what she wanted.

"How long have you known?" Selina finally asked, her voice heavy of suspiciousness.

"Not that long." The meta-human admitted as her cup was about to touch her lips. "To be honest, it was you who just me. Oh, and don't look at me like that Selly." The redhead requested with a hint of amusement in her voice when her friend narrowed her eyes dangerously. "It wasn't like I hadn't had any suspicious before this. I have known you a very long time, my friend, and I can still recognize that dreamy glint in your eyes you always had whenever you were talking about Batman. The exactly same one that you have when you talk about your Bruce. And then there are also those rumours about Catwoman working with Batman that started around the same time you got engaged with your lover boy." Pamela explained, leaving purposely away the fact that she would have never put two and two together if the reveal of her daughter's boyfriend's secret hadn't opened her eyes. Only a few villains cared much about keeping their real identities as secret. And those who really tried usually gave up all that nonsense after their first trip to the jail. The reason behind this was because, unlike heroes, criminals understood better the power behind names. Who would be afraid of a villain going around with names like Bob or Susan? No one… Names like Joker, Cheetah… Poison Ivy. Those were the ones that seeded the fear inside the hearts of the people. But to heroes their names were just one more mask, allowing them to disappear among the mass. That had been why she had been so blind, like some stupid civilian, never realising that the man who she hated more than anything in the world was hiding in plain sight, right under her nose.

But Daniel had changed it all…

"And what are you going to do with him now that you know?" Selina question snapped the redhead out of her thoughts. The former thief's words came out as coldly as the glare she was giving the woman across the table. The garden around them had completely lost its earlier warmth leaving only a heavily hostile atmosphere hanging over the two women, making even the birds around them lower their voices and hide behind the protecting leaves of the flora around them.

Pamela placed her tea on the table as she seriously looked at her friend right in the eyes. "Nothing." She finally said causing her companion to raise her eyebrow again, this time out of suspiciousness towards the former villainess word. "As long as he stays away from me and my family, I will not have any reason to hurt him nor his loved ones."

"So you are blackmailing him." The dark haired woman stated, understanding very well that the woman's threat included her too, and her face twisted out of disgust.

Rolling her eyes, the redhead picked a simple cookie, identical to a dozen others, from the tray between them with her gloved fingers. "Do you think I'm still crazy enough to do something that stupid?" She asked before offering the sweet to the woman across the table. "No Selina, as much as I hate him, I'm only wishing peace between our families."

Catwoman stared the cookie on the woman's hand. "How can I know that it isn't poisoned?"

"You can't" Pamela admitted, her face not showing any kind of emotions.

"Or maybe you already but poison in my tea."

"Maybe."

"And as far as I know, you might be already controlling me."

"That is true."

"But you aren't."

"You can't know that."

A tilt of the head "Then why are you doing this?"

Small smile "Isn't it obvious?"

"…." Selina took the cookie and studied it for a moment then looked at Pamela again. "I think it is." and with those words she took a bite and chewed the backed good, clearly studying its flavours carefully before giving the meta-woman an amused smile.

"Lemon peel?" She guessed as she took another bite, breaking the tension between the two friends, allowing the former eco-terrorist to relax again and a smile to return to her lips.

"And a little bit of vanilla too." Pamela chuckled picking another cookie for herself and gave her guest a questioning look. "No hard feelings?"

"For what?" Selina asked sarcastically as she glared her red haired friend. Though, to Pamela's relief, her eyes were lacking the sights of true anger or resentment. "For threatening my own, my fiancé's and our kittens' lives? Of course not."

Now it was Pamela's turn to give a questioning, and slightly amused, look to the cat heroine. "Your kittens, huh?" She asked, smile tugging the corner of her lips. "Don't say that your predator's heart has already softened towards that annoying flock of little birds."

"They all are sweet kids. A bit extreme sometimes, but nothing that a gentle touch of a good mother figure can fix." Catwoman hummed, her expression softening a bit as she twirled slowly the white cup on her hand, her eyes following the whirl that the remains of her tea created. "Though even I have to admit that some of the damage that Talia has caused to Damian's psyche might be too much even for all of us to undo."

Her friend nodded her head. Of course she was aware of the stories on how the newest Robin was the biological son of both Batman and Talia al Ghul and to tell the truth, Pamela pitied the boy. The child had been meant to become a perfect assassin, a worthy heir to his grandfather's tittle as the all too famous League of Assassins' leader, but luckily the fates had had other plans and the child had ended up into the care of his father. But the damage had been already done, and the world of the supers had stolen yet another childhood from an innocent child who deserved much better.

"To be honest. I never saw you as a motherly type." Pam chuckled and looked at the other woman with an amused glimmer in her eyes. "You always were the one who scowled at me whenever I put the well-being of my plants ahead of our missions."

Selina snorted. "Maybe because my kittens are living human beings who have feelings and are able to talk back to me unlike your table plants." The former thief rolled her eyes, the old fight from their younger years already reminding both of them why their little gang had broken in the first place.

"Oh please." The red head bristled at the comment and crossed her arms. "How many times I have to explain this to you. Plants are sensitive creatures who have their own feelings and need just as much care as human children do. I should know." She added with cold voice but her eyes didn't show any true anger. "I have been a loving mother for both of them."

"You are a crazy plant lady… Of course you would claim that your little flowers are alive." Her guest shot back while gesturing lazily towards one of the many well-kept flowerbeds. "And even that wasn't a good excuse for you to try to kill me just because some of them died on my watch."

"You should have watered them. You said you would water them." Pamela snarled to the woman, her gloved hands curling into fists against her pink skirt when she remembered the cruel fate, which one of her rarest and most precious orchids had faced. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath through her nose before looking at Selina again, now wearing the same happy smile that she had on her lips almost all the time nowadays. "But as you said yourself: I'm a lady, a proper lady. So I'm not going to continue this meaningless fight with you."

Selina stared at Pam, clearly asking if the woman was serious with her words. "You are kidding, right? Or was that again one of those hoax practices that your psychiatrist has kept feeding you"

Pamela's smile seemed to grow even happier as she poured more tea to the other woman's cup. "It's this nonsense or I will feed you to Sammy's Venus Flytrap." She told her sweetly. "Besides Mrs. Queen is an excellent psychiatrist. And also a civilized woman with good taste. But of course I can't a expect thief like you to understand."

"Ex-thief." Selina reminded her sourly as she raised her cup back to her lips. "I'm a hero now, as you know very well."

Amused redhead shook her head a little, while her smile lost its happiness, leaving only a soft sad curve on her lips. "What happened to us Selina?" She asked suddenly. "We used to be the Queens of Crime. We were a perfect team. We did what we wanted, took what we desired and no one could stop us. And look at us now… An upper-class house wife with anger management issues. A kleptomaniac hero…" She chuckled without any true humour. "And then there is our poor Harley whose life hasn't changed at all. Even though she is the one who deserves this the most."

"Life is a bitch." Catwoman admitted with a sad sigh. Then a teasing grin returned to her lips. "But to be honest: I never believed that you would ever stop trying to turn the whole planet to the one giant greenhouse. Don't you ever get bored without any good action in your life?"

"Oooh. But my there is plenty good action in my life." She said sweetly with suggestive smirk, which made Selina let out a knowing giggle. "And believe it or not, I actually have grown to enjoy this new peaceful life style. For once I'm a perfectly normal woman with a perfectly normal family." It wasn't exactly the truth, she had to admit it to herself, but compared to her villain years (and in Amity Park's standard), her family lived an almost completely average life.

For now... Pamela thought sourly as she mentally gritted her teeth as she thought about the blue stoned ring that never seemed to leave her daughter's finger.

But something in Pam's words made Selina's smile fall and she became weirdly interested in the tea cup on her hands, only answering the redheads words with an absent hum. Of course this only made Pamela suspicious, and now it was her turn to narrow her eyes.

"Selina… Is there something you need to tell me?" Catwoman was a fool if she even dared to think that she would let the subject drop before she had get a straight answer. In the most likely case she had only heard about Sam's ghost hunting hobby from her fiancé, or maybe they had managed to find out about the connection between Fenton and Phantom, which would explain why Wayne was suddenly so interested in starting a business with them, and Pamela had nothing to worry about.

Selina let out a frustrated sigh. "It's nothing, Pamela." She tried to convince her. "You will just start worrying about something that you would most likely never even notice."

The meta-woman only continued to glare at her friend. "Don't make me repeat my question Selina."

"Fine." She groaned and placed her cup back on the table. "Samantha has an active meta-gene."

"She has a what gene now?" That wasn't what she had been expecting. In the worst case maybe something in Sam that could have been seen as a side-effect from that plant ghost's possession or that her mother-in-law was a retired member of the Green Lantern Corps, which would actually explain a couple things, but this meta-gene that her friend had mentioned didn't sound anything like that.

"The meta-gene." Selina repeated "Is a special genetic marker that about 12% of humans have. In most cases it's inactive and the carrier of the gene will never even know if they have it or not. But sometimes when said person goes through some kind of huge physical trauma, the gene activates and helps the person survive to it."

"But?" Pamela voiced the word that her friend had left hanging in the air, asking the question she already knew the answer to while her mind tried desperately to figure out how and when her little Sammy-kins could have gone through something so painful that would have caused the gene to activate.

"It makes the carrier of the gene a meta-human." The dark haired beauty's quiet voice cut the silence between them like a knife.

"No…" Pamela said as she stared at her friend, half expecting the hero to start laughing and tell her she was just joking. "This has to be a mistake. Sam doesn't have any powers. Wh-where did you even get that idea."

Selina gave her an apologetic look. "Bruce took a DNA sample from the glass that Sam used in our party." Pamela groaned and buried her face in her hands. She should have known. Batman never trusted anyone so why would he have believed her when she had literally screamed on his face that she hadn't done the same to her daughter as Jason Woodrue had done to her.

"Pamela." The black haired woman said with understanding in her voice. "It's not as bad a thing as you think it is."

"Not as bad as I think?" she laughed out of disbelief. "My daughter is a meta-human. Do you really think that Batman is going to let her live with me now that he knows? Or if he in some miracle does, he will force my poor baby girl to become a part of the League's little junior camp and make her fight against all those insane villains and... and…" And now she was crying. Pamela had surely done it a lot ever since Sam had found out the truth. All this was just too much to her. Yes, she could live with the fact that her daughter fought ghosts with her friend, but as the girl herself had said: they had never dealt with "the real villains". The game she played was way simpler and fairer than the one Pamela had been part of. People lost themselves in that game. Pamela herself had just barely managed to save what was left of herself and escape from that life. And now her little angel would be forced to go through the exact same nightmare she had.

"Hey…" A soft voice muttered in Pam's ear and two gently but strong arms were tied around her. "Bruce isn't going to do anything like that. I won't let him." Selina promised to her sobbing friend. "Besides. Sam's gene is weak. She hasn't probably even noticed herself that there is anything unusual in her."

"What you mean?" Pam asked as she tried to make her tears to stop. Was a weak meta-gene a good or bad thing?

The dark haired cat hero took her hands and started to explain calmly. "The League has studied the meta-gene just a couple years but it seems that it can be separated to three different classes. Strong meta-genes are the ones that give people clear, powerful skills, like Black Canary's scream and Static's ability to shoot electricity from his hands. Then there is mutated meta-genes. They have reacted to whatever chemical or radiation that the carrier of the gene has been exposed to and changes the person's genetic code in a way that they can survive. All Flashes have this kind of gene and…"

"And me…" Pam finished darkly. It would actually explain why she had survived from Dr. Woodrue's experiment when she should have died. And now it seemed that Samantha had inherited the gene from her. The redhead shuddered when the realisation hit her. Oh, how clever Batman must have felt himself when he had seen the results of the DNA-test. Even though he had been mostly wrong, when he had come to blame Pamela from the plant ghost's attack, in the end, the former villainess had indeed been the guilty for her daughter's powers.

"Yeah. Just like yours." Selina admitted with a sad smile before continuing. "But there is also weak genes. They are the most common ones. All those hundreds of people who have little skills that normal humans don't have. Psychics, people who can sense auras, bend spoons with their minds, run or heal a little faster than regular people, you name it. All of them have an active meta-gene."

"And." Pam swallowed nervously "And Sammy has that kind of gene?"

Selina nodded and squeezed Pamela's hand. "Yes. But don't worry. Whatever powers her gene has given to her, they will never become strong enough to cause any true damage. What I mean is that if Sam turned out to be able to do telekinesis, she won't ever be able to do more than lift a single book from the table, even if she trained her whole life."

"That sounds… good." Pam said a bit unsurely and dried her tears with her napkin, leaving messy trails of black mascara on it.

"It could be worse." Her friend agreed with soft smirk, which only made the meta-woman roll her eyes.

"Do you really think that even Sam doesn't know about this?" Pamela asked finally and moved her hands out of Selina's gentle grip. The other woman understood her friend's sigh and got up from the ground and moved to sit back on her chair at the other side of the table.

"I can't be sure, but I do believe that she would have at least hinted something to you by now." She answered honestly. "And if I were you, I would keep it that way. After all, the easiest way to hide a secret is not to know that you have one at the first place."

Pamela thought over her friend's advice for a moment before shaking her head. "We promised each other that there would be no more secrets between us." She told her with a slightly melancholic voice. "And even though I do want to hide this from her, Sam deserves to know." Pam let out a dry chuckle. "And she surely is going to love having a superpower. No matter how weak it is."

"Are you going to tell her about Bruce too or…" Selina asked awkwardly. Pam knew her well enough to realise that the woman would like to forbid the redhead from telling Sam anything related to her fiancé's secret identity, but she also understood, and probably even respected, Pamela's decision to stay honest to her only daughter.

"Well, technically it's not my secret." She admitted, teasing glint in her eyes. "So in theory, I'm not breaking my promise to her if I left out who the Batman truly is." And it was only fair that Pamela bent the rules in the same way Samantha had. The girl had, after all, kept her ghost hunting in secret another half year after them making that promise, this way ensuring that no one would find out Daniel's secret until the boy wanted so.

Selina gave her friend a thankful nod. "I'm sure it will be better that way." She agreed "But what about Bruce? Do you want me to tell him that you know?"

The redhead bit her lower lip nervously and stared her empty cup. "It will be better if he knows too. Just make sure that he won't come after me or my family, okay?"

"Of course." She promised. "And he isn't as bad as you think, Red. Paranoid, yes, but even he has some sense in his head."

Pamela gave her a blank look. "He broke into my house and threatened my daughter without any good reason."

Selina struggled her shoulders innocently. "He had a bad month."

"Just a month?" Pam asked sarcastically and crossed her arms, which her friend only answered with a not so amused huff, but didn't say anything else so they let subject drop, this way most likely avoiding yet another bicker.

Both women managed to continue talking to each other almost another hour before Selina had to leave back to the hotel where she was staying with her fiancé. She thanked Pamela for the tea and pulled the redhead in for a warm hug.

"You are doing a great job Pammy." The heroine told her with an honest smile after she was already in black car, which she had rented from a local office. "Just… Try not to worry so much. Okay?"

"Okay." She promised, which Selina answered with an approving grin.

After her friend had drove off, Pamela returned to the garden to gather the tea set they had left behind. The day had been more eventful than she had expected, but at least now she knew that Batman would get her message and she still had her friend on her side. Now she only needed to figure out how to tell Sam about her meta-gene and what kind of ability it had even given to her. Not even mentioning what she should do with the Fentons if they actually ended up making a deal with Wayne.

But it all could wait, Pamela thought as she heard the voices of three teenagers and one younger girl, telling the woman that Sam and her friends had finally returned from the water park. The day was still young after all and it seemed that Pamela would finally get a chance to meet the newest member of the Fenton family. It had been a while since she had met a clone and Pam found herself wondering how different the female version from Daniel was compared to Superboy. Did the girl even know about the Cadmus clones? Maybe Pamela should share the little information that she had from them with her, so Danielle would at least be aware that she wasn't the only clone in the world.

Pamela smiled as she listened the girl's happy chatter that grew louder the closer the woman was to the backdoor. Maybe Selina had been right. Maybe she really needed to stop worrying so much.

And if these four managed to do it, the redhead thought as she got the first glimpse from laughing youths, maybe even she could do it every now and then.

"There are roughly 1.3 million metahumans on Earth, 99.5% of which are considered "nuisance-level" (such as kids who can bend spoons with their mind and the old lady "who keeps hitting at Powerball"). The other 0.5% are what Checkmate and the O.M.A.C.s consider Alpha- and Beta-level threats. For example, Superman and Wonder Woman were categorized as Alpha-level, while Metamorpho was considered a Beta." - DC wikia

Funny fact. I found this fact after finishing the chapter...

And what comes to Sam's meta-gene. Undergrowth's possession is not the reason why it's active. Well, at least not completely. It is more like a result of continous high emotional and physical stress and close death situations, not even mentioning how many times her body has been under some sort ghostly effect. (Ecto-acne, Dora's amulet, that Spectra's ghost sickness...) Undergrowth was just a last straw that broke the camel's back.
Or maybe it was the car crash that I mentioned a couple chapters ago that activated the gene.

But I'm curious. What do you think is Sam's power?

'Til next time

Kilppari