A/N : Bit of a late update this week, sorry about that hunting season kicked up down here and I've been swamped with IRL work _ I hope y'all Enjoy!
I didn't know what to expect when we got to the Iceberg Lounge. Da had pulled me out of the car, popped a fake plate onto it, and burned rubber out into the Narrows. Pamela and I were welcomed inside and pulled into the VIP area, more of a private room that they didn't let us leave until they confirmed something.
We were seated at a corner table, both of us nervous, especially when Uncle Oz showed up with a stern look on his face and a cigar on his lip. In the low light of the club with the pumping music of the main club muffled by the heavy steel doors and thick insulation. About forty minutes passed in near silence, just the idle clinking of glasses and the sound of smoldering cinders.
Pam was glaring at the assembled thugs that were mean mugging us, keeping us sat down. I did what I could to keep her calm, but she looked like she needed a drink... or to strangle someone.
The silence was broken by Da busting through the doors, giving Oz a firm nod, and quickly shifting over to the Bar and popping open a bottle of whiskey.
Oz moved with startling speed for one of his size, grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gave a shout.
"OUR BOY'S GOT HIS CHERRY POPPED!" He shouted, and the frowns and resting bitch face all turned to grins and shouted cheers.
I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding as Oz's laughter rang in my ear, a grin of my own growing on my face. Alright, I could relax a bit, I let a chuckle escape from my throat as Oz patted my shoulder and I was able to sit back down at the table next to Pam as Da brought over the whiskey.
"You took your first pinching like a man six months back, and today you settled a score, clean. You handled a duel with no blood, and you handled a slight against you properly. You roughed him up but good, and he's still breathin. He knows he fucked up, and he know's you're not to be fucked with." Da spoke, settling two glasses before Pam and I and pouring a toast. "And…you did it for a woman. Heh, honestly boy, are you trying to make this old man any more certain that you're my son?"
I chuckled a bit as Pam offered her hand to my Da.
"Doctor Pamela Isley, Mr. MacLeod. I've heard a lot about you." She speaks, earning a bark of a laugh as Da simply placed her whiskey glass into her hand in Lieu of shaking it.
"Oh now I know we'll never get along. I know all about you, Lassie. Damn shame when one can't get good help eh?" Da snarked, before Oz spoke up once more, reappearing with his cigar in one hand, and a glass of Scotch in the other.
"A toast! To settling scores!" He calls, hefting his glass. Another cheer rings out and the drink began to flow freely.
I drank my toast as did Pam and we settled in to the Table as Da and Uncle Oz took their own seats.
"Had us worried for a second there, Uncle." I spoke, earning a scoff.
"Henry, I thought you were smarter than that with that college education of yours." Cobblepot scoffs, taking a sip from his scotch.
"He's getting there, Mr. Cobblepot. I haven't had a better TA yet." Pam spoke, nursing her own glass of whiskey. It was the good stuff too, smoky, smooth, with a nutty aftertone.
"Doctor Isley, good to put a face to the threat, you've got some sand girly." Oz snarked, and Pam took it in stride.
"I'm possessive of my work. You can't blame me for that." She shoots back, leaning back in her seat and relaxing. I hadn't had a drink with Doc Isley outside of that one time I had snuck whiskey into the Lab, and this was the first time we essentially socialized. A little weird with my Da and the Crime Boss, but still, bit of a friendship milestone.
"So, what y'all had money on how long it'd take me to start cracking skulls?" I asked, earning a chuckle from my Da.
"Henry, you're my boy. You've got my temper, and you've got our way of thinking of things. When we heard tell of what happened to the good Doctor here…well we knew the call was going to come, Boy." Da leaned back in his seat whilst downing his glass in a single gulp. "All that was left to see how you handled things."
"Quick, clean, and ruthless. Felt like I was watching Pat here twenty years back." Oz chuckled,
"I still say he should've just shot the two of them." Pam grumbled with a pout,
"He's even got the bloodthirsty redhead in his Corner, Oz." Da barked out a laugh around his drink that Cobblepot mirrored with his own.
"Yes but Maggie wasn't as considerate as the good doctor here. I seem to remember her taking a shotgun to a few kneecaps." Oz shot back, causing me to nearly spit out my whiskey.
"Wait Ma kneecapped a motherfucker?!" I asked, earning a chuckle from Oz and a flick on my head from Da.
"Watch your language, Boy. There's a Lady present." He declares, earning a giggle from Pam, whose cheeks are showing a bit of…green? My attention is torn back to my dad as he lets out a nostalgic sigh. "But Aye…God I loved that woman."
"I knew Ma was crazy back when you two met but I wasn't expecting buckshot to kneecaps." I muttered, and was answered by a giggle from Pamela, who continued nursing her glass.
"A lesson to learn, Henry, even with how intense you think your parents are…they are ten times worse."
The rest of the celebration went along the same lines, it was a good night out.
The next few days were unusual. The university had secured a clean up crew for the Lab and they worked to clean things up after the fire suppression system had its way with the electronics inside.
We worked to try and recover what information and experiments we could but the water damage to the hard drives was extensive. Da and Uncle Oz were hands off, but Oz did mention he'd be in touch about the favor I owed him, but I wasn't too worried.
I figured I'd be able to handle whatever he asked, as long as it wasn't too insane.
Now Pam, on the other hand.
Pam had shifted hard into practical experimentation with the plants in the lab.
"Doc…That plant's not in the database." I spoke, adjusting my lab glasses and double checking the tablet in my hands.
"That's because it didn't exist this morning, Henry." Pam stated, matter-of-factly, typing out data onto a beefy laptop that looked more like a brick than a laptop.
"Aren't we trying to synthesize plant cells that can help out in fighting cancer cells?" I asked, earning a noncomittal hum.
"Technically yes, but anything that can be applied in medication manufacturing will be accepted by the board. This beauty here is nearly the perfect anti-toxin, in theory." Pam spoke, leaning back in her seat and closing the laptop.
"In theory?" I asked,
"According to the readings it's currently a recipe for instant death."
"Well that ain't ideal, huh?"
"No. No it is not." Pam let out a huff. "This is what I get for planting angry."
I raised an eyebrow at this, settling the tablet down on a table.
"It's a plant, Doc. How does your mood when planting the seeds affect it changing it's own biology?" I asked, and Pam turned towards me with this mysterious smirk on her face.
"Plants are like children, Henry. They take the information their parents give them and mimic them in an attempt to be more like their parents. I had spite and frustration in my mind when I planted this specimen, and here she is, spitting poison." She explains, resting her chin in her palm, looking out towards the specimen with a smile on her face.
"And you planted this, what, six weeks ago? It looks at that stage of maturity." I observed, only for my typing to seize at Pam's response.
"This morning."
"...Excuse me, what?" I asked, slowly turning to face Doctor Isley.
"I planted this sapling this morning. From a spliced seed." She responded, taking a sip from a bottle of water. "Remarkable germination rate, don't you think?"
"That's…an understatement, Doc. Jesus Pam if you can splice a strand of wheat or soy that can grow that fast you'd end world hunger in a second."
"Possibly. But that doesn't really hold my interest at the moment."
I took a moment to think before I stepped back a bit away from the grin that was surely becoming more and more sinister on Doc Isley's lips.
"Do I want to know what has you interested in making an instant death plant, Pam?" I asked, earning a sultry chuckle.
"No~."She purred.
I took a moment to gather myself before I stepped in front of her and fully gained her attention. She raised an eyebrow at me, but allowed me to speak.
"Look Doc…Pam. We got him. We messed him up real nice, but before we go plotting world domination we got to wait for the heat to die down, at least a little bit. There's a reason we haven't gotten word from my Da or Uncle Oz since the celebration, y'know." I don't know what she had going on in her head, but she'd been on a vengeful streak. Even with the pout she put on her face in response, I could see the hunger in her eyes for a good bit of old fashioned spite.
"You're no fun, Henry." She groaned, and I chuckled.
"Tell you what, drinks on me tonight?"
"You're forgiven~!"