Poison Ivy has saved Harley Quinn.
While Harley Quinn deals with healing from her fall, both from the building, and for Dick Grayson, Ivy is there to nurse her back to health. Harley can't believe the choices she made then, and can't go back on them.
Poison Ivy, free now from Arkham Asylum, has taken a liking to the Clown's jester sidekick. And upon hearing of Harley's newfound hatred for the Joker, Ivy begins to see: enemy of her enemy… must be a friend.
Jason and Ivy were leaned in close to each other. Heads inclined and knees almost touching. They were talking barely over a whisper and both immediately stopped when Harley groggily turned over in the bed across the room.
"Ivy?" she called weakly.
Ivy and Jason both stood. Jason leaned down to whisper one more thing. With a nod, Ivy left him and moved over to Harley while Jason silently exited. "Yes?" Ivy asked.
"What were you talking about?" Harley asked curiously, watching Jason leave. She put an elbow down as if to sit up but thought better of it.
Ivy instinctively put and hand on Harley's shoulder to hold her down. "Mostly about how insufferable he is," she said simply. "He seems to think he's less annoying than Edward Nigma, but I think his senseless killing makes Jason more obnoxious." With a shrug she added, "We never really reached a consensus."
"Oh," Harley groaned. She scrunched her eyebrows, frustrated with herself. "You know who they are. I promised I wouldn't tell!" Ivy rolled her eyes. "And you're lying," Harley suddenly said, glaring at her. "Nice deflection, but you are lying."
Ivy smiled. "I think that's a very reasonable conversation," she defended. "There are so many aspects of his personality to consider for how annoying he is. Like being a spoiled rich Wayne brat." She looked pointedly at Harley who groaned.
"No! We made a bargain," she cried. "What will he say?" Harley rethought her question. "What does he think of me?!"
Ivy sat back and pretended to think. "I don't know," she whispered. Putting a finger to her lips she added, "I'd have to think he's more upset about the murder attempt on his father." Harley burst into tears, burying her face into her pillow.
"You should have just let me die!" she wailed into the pillow.
"Relax," Ivy droned, standing up to pour Harley a glass of water. "I don't deal in information. I have other people for that. And even if I did, do you really think anyone could afford to pay for this kind of information?" She stuck the glass in Harley's hand. "Just knowing what the Joker doesn't gives me this warm happy feeling." She looked down at Harley with a huge grin. "This must be what Christmas feels like."
"No, this must be what hell feels like." Harley winced as she took a drink of the water.
"Aw, come on," Ivy said with a gentle nudge. "You're alive. I mean, sure, the love of your life hates you because you chose a crazy man over him, and then that crazy man shoved you out of a window, but it could be worse!" Ivy took a drink from her own glass of her water. "And I'm just speculating here, but you do talk in your sleep." Harley stared at her in horror.
"How? How in the world could this be worse?" she demanded, sniffling.
Ivy shrugged. "You could not have me." Harley's lower lip trembled.
"Thank you." She nodded vigorously before breaking down into sobs again.
Ivy jumped up. "Oh God, you're still crying. How do I shut it off? If you really don't like me that much I can leave. Just stop leaking; the plants hate salt water."
"No, no, don't leave!" Harley begged, her arms flailing unthinkingly toward Ivy. "I'm just happy is all. Well, not happy, but thank you."
Ivy crossed her arms and lowered her eyebrows at Harley. "Humans are so confusing. If you're happy-ish aren't you supposed to smile, not," she waved a hand at Harley's face, "cry?" Harley wiped away the tears.
"Do you always smile when you're happy?" she asked, calming down.
"I-" Ivy began, and thought. "I don't know. I'm not happy that often. I think I always smile."
"Well do you always smile when you're with Jason?" Harley asked slyly.
"That's absurd," Ivy said quickly. "He's absurd, and that whole idea is just-"
"-Absurd?" Harley asked sweetly.
Ivy glared. "You're right, I shouldn't have saved you."
"But then you wouldn't have gotten to spend more time with Jason." Harley grinned widely.
"Aren't you supposed to be crying?" Ivy snapped.
"I could if you like," Harley offered; she knew it wouldn't be hard. She had calmed down but was still on the verge.
"No, no," Ivy said firmly. She stood up and paced a bit. She looked back at Harley. "You look all…" she waved at Harley, "normal and stuff… and blonde." Harley nervously reached a hand up to her face then touched her hair.
"Um, yes… I…"
"I won't say anything," Ivy assured her still studying her closely. "You're just so young."
"You don't look so old yourself," Harley countered.
"I don't age like a human." Ivy brushed the matter off.
"Really?" Harley perked up with curiosity. "So you could be like a hundred?"
"I'm not a hundred," Ivy sighed.
"Well are you stuck at an age?"
"Why are you so curious?" Ivy snapped.
"I'm sorry," Harley muttered immediately, laying back down. Ivy regretted her outburst; she liked having Harley talking. She walked over to a pillar in the center of the room wrapped in vines and Kudzu. Reaching out, a flower bloomed from the vines at her touch.
"How about this: if I tell you something about me, you tell me something about you," Ivy offered. Harley lifted her head off the pillow looking unsure. "It's that or sit here in bored silence."
"Okay, but can I sit up?" Ivy helped her and adjusted her pillows. Once Harley was adjusted, Ivy sat back in her chair.
"Late twenties or early thirties," Ivy answered the earlier question. "I guess you could say that I ruined the human ticking clock inside of me. How old are you?"
"Well," Harley muttered. "Twenty six."
"So you're just out of college then?" Ivy guessed.
"No." Harley smiled. "I graduated high school at sixteen and college at twenty. Genius," she said the word as if it had explained away a lot of things. It usually did. Getting her her early job at Arkham, her big break in advancing her career, not stopping her disastrous downfall.
"So what do you do?"
"No fair. My turn." Ivy turned up her nose but didn't argue. "I don't mean to offend you, but why are you green?" Harley asked.
Ivy laughed. "It's chlorophyll."
"Chlorophyll?"
"The thing that makes leaves green-"
"-I know what it is," Harley objected. "So you're full on plant then?"
"For the most part, yes. Chlorophyll, photosynthesis, the Calvin Cycle, and other fun things."
"So do you have a plant brain? Is that why you're crazy?"
"I'm not crazy," Ivy hissed. "Men kill plants. Destroy Mother Nature. They should be punished for what they put my babies through." Harley swore the plants in the room swayed with Ivy's anger.
"Okay," she muttered. "Not crazy at all."
"You're one to talk. Why do you love the clown?"
"Loved. Loved," Harley tried to assure both of them. She shrugged. "If I had to guess, I'd say Dependent Personality Disorder. Delusional love attachment formed by the need of approval and attention by someone important," she explained. "Along with the need to feel accepted and unique to someone. Reaching someone unaffected by someone else. You know," she sighed. "Your basic crazy."
"That's ridiculous," Ivy snorted.
"You're one to talk," Harled defended herself. "At least I haven't been in Arkham." Ivy glared at her. "Hey," Harley got suddenly excited. "How did you escape?"
"A specially engineered plant that I snuck in with me. It took a few years to grow and gain enough strength to break me free."
"That's kinda wicked."
"It was mostly destroyed. Only a little piece survived."
"I'm so sorry." Harley couldn't understand why Ivy was so devoted to her plants, but she could see how upset she was. And that Harley did understand. "Does it have a name?" She looked around at the plants she could see, as if she could spot it.
"I just call it my baby," Ivy told her, wondering why it mattered.
"You should give it a name. It's important." Ivy watched her for a moment.
"Why do you say you loved the Joker? What exactly changed?"
"Can't you guess?" Harley murmured, looking at her hands. "I fell in love with someone else."
"With Dick? Nightwing?" Harley looked up into Ivy's eyes. "How?"
"How like endorphins and-"
"-No." Ivy glared at her, not put off from the question. "How did the Joker's right hand girl fall in love with the Bat's first sidekick?"
"I don't even know," Harley admitted. "I don't even know why I started dating him. There isn't a good enough reason I can give myself despite… despite the one awful reason I gave Dick. He didn't know I was Harley Quinn or anything," she explained. "And I didn't know he was Nightwing. We just found each other and it was right and… it doesn't matter." Harley wrung the blanket in her hands. "He hates me now."
"But you still love him?" Harley's hands froze on the blanket before they resumed twisting even tighter.
"Without a doubt." She cleared her throat. "You better have something good to reveal after that emotional tirade." Ivy sat for a moment, her hands folded in her lap.
"You know the thing about chlorophyll?" she asked suddenly. "The leaves turn in the Autumn. You see, I have my own version of that." Ivy held out her hand. Her fingers started turning tan. Harley gasped as the color worked its way up to her elbow. "Handy for when I need to go continue my day job."
"But you're… you're telling me…" Harley's eyes were wide. "Your secret identity?" It wasn't on file at Arkham. She was a green plant with non human DNA, they'd had no way to tell.
"Don't get all mushy on me," Ivy sighed. "I don't need anymore tears."
"It's just… that's what a friend would do," Harley whispered.
Ivy looked at her before smiling gently. "I know."