Chapter Text
Snow fell softly outside in the streets of Gotham. Dancing in the light cast by the streetlamps, the flakes cast their spell over the buildings. Grime covered sidewalks gained a pristine coat, and walls sparkled where icicles clung to their surfaces. The drifts building upon the gargoyles softened their edges until one could have almost sworn they looked downright friendly. The citizens of Gotham seemed as changed as the city around them, bustling about their business with smiles on their faces, and even a nod or too for the people they passed along the way. Music rang in the chill air from the carolers who found the courage the brave both the cold and the city’s nightlife. And from the smallest apartment to the most lavish mansion, all was decked out in holiday cheer, as for once, Gotham showed the world that it's gentler side.
In a penthouse located in one of the most foreboding of Gotham’s districts, two of the city’s more famous citizens were enjoying a quiet night in. A fire crackled merrily in the hearth, keeping the room cozy even as the snow continued to drift down upon the skylights. Plants of all kinds lined the walls, many overreaching their pots to curl around irrigation pipes built into the ceiling. From the rug before the fire, one of the hyenas snorted in his sleep causing all of the nearby plants to flinch. He rolled over atop his companion, and as he resumed snoring, the foliage relaxed.
“I think your babies have been chewing on my plants again.” Ivy raised an eyebrow at Harley, who looked up from the tub of popcorn and gumdrops she’d been shoving in her face with feigned innocence.
“What makes ya think that?” She reached into the tub and offered Ivy a handful. “Want some? It’s salty sweet goodness!”
Ivy regarded the tub with distaste. “Uh, I’m good. And no changing the subject here!” She pointed to the fireplace where one of her plants was currently doing its level best to drag its pot up from the hearth to the mantlepiece. “They’re stressing out the Clematis so much so that the flowers have worry lines. While I am concerned about how this may affect growth, I am more worried for the hyenas’ safety. Some of my creations are not exactly edible, unless you want it to be the last thing you eat. I told you that if Bud and Lou were going to live here with us, then you were going to have to housebreak them, and that includes teaching them not to poison themselves!”
“I know, I know, and I have made progress with that.” Harley grinned, “They don’t go after tha moving plants anymore, not since your rose bush slapped them, so all we have to do is train ‘em out of attacking the quiet ones. I was thinking something along the lines of a squirt bottle filled with peppermint? They hate the smell for some reason, won’t go near it.”
“Well as long as you are working on it, that’s all I ask.” Ivy settled deeper into the couch, pulling the red and black checked blanket they were cuddled under across her shoulders. “Ready to get this movie night started?”
“You betcha! I’ve got movies for days!” Harley held up a fistfull of DVDs. Choosing one at random, she dashed over to the tv and popped on in. “Let’s see how long you can last. I’ll bet you don’t start fadin’ till the fifth one.”
“I tend to get up with the sun as you well know, so I’ll bet I start falling asleep by number three.”
“Naw. Five. I threw in a couple of nature documentaries this time.” Harley slipped back under the blanket and put her arm around Ivy. “You’ll never beat my four day streak, but we can get close.”
Three buckets of Harley’s candy/popcorn concoction, an entire takeout pizza, two orders of chicken wings (mostly eaten by the hyenas) and six movies later, Harley was still going strong. Ivy had given up around the second half of the fourth movie, and was lightly dozing against Harley’s shoulder when something wet dropped onto her cheek.
“What the?” Ivy jolted awake. “Is the roof leaking agai…?” She stopped what she was about to say as she looked up to find Harley silently sobbing, eyes glued to the tv screen. “Peanut, what’s wrong?”
“They died. His parents died and then he had to live with relatives who hated him! They made him live in a closet, clean up after their fat son, and shamed him at every possible turn!” Harley pointed at the screen, finger shaking. “How dare they? They were supposed to love him, treat him like their own, charish him when his real parents couldn’t. Is that what the world is really like for orphans? We have to do something Ivy!”
Ivy glanced over at Harry Potter, currently grabbing for letters in the Dursley’s home, and put her arm around Harley. “Alright, I think that this evening has gone on for long enough. Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Harley jerked out of her hug, and clamped her hands on Ivy’s shoulder’s instead. “But Ivy, you don’t understand! What if that’s what life’s like for my daughter? What if she’s locked ina closet somewhere? What if she’s forced to live with a bully who beats her up, and parents who treat her worse than dirt!?”
Ivy’s world froze for a second as her brain tried and failed to process what she’d just heard. “Your what?”
Harley blinked, taking in the incredulous look on Ivy’s face. Biting her lip, Harley seemed to sink into herself. “Nothing, it’s nothing. Just ignore me, all tha sugar has got me rambling.” She wiped the tears quickly off her face with her sleeve, and put on a shaky smile. You want me to toss the comforter in tha dryer so it’ll be all tosty when we go to bed?” Harley moved to get up, but stopped as Ivy grabbed her hand.
“Harley, why did you never mention that you had a daughter? How come you never told me?”
Ivy watched as Harley’s back tensed, like she was bracing for a blow. “Mr. J didn’t like kids, so I never really talked about it. An’ with you, we’re always so busy avoiding Bats, it just never came up. I’m sorry Pam. Don’ worry, I won’t mention her again.”
Ivy sighed. “Come here, Sweet pea.” She patted the couch beside her.
Harley sat, and Ivy wrapped her arm around her. With her free hand, she gently turned Harley’s face to her and kissed her. “I’m not mad at you, just surprised. After all the time we’d spent together, I thought I knew your past, but it turns out that I still have much to learn.”
She snuggled up to Harley’s side, “If you’re ready to tell me, I want to listen, but I’m not going to force you to do anything you’re not ready to. Just know that I’m here for you, and that nothing on earth could ever stop me from loving you.”
Harley sniffed, “Awe, Pam, you’re gonna make me cry again!” Wiping her eyes again, Harley grimaced at the smears left by her makeup. “My eyeliner is never going to recover from this. Remind me to buy waterproof stuff next time we’re out.”
“Noted and logged.” Ivy yawned. Taking a quick look at Harley, she decided to offer an out if she needed one. “We could go to bed if you want. I know a great place that serves all-you-can-eat breakfast right next to a makeup store that we could visit tomorrow.”
“Really? All I can eat?” Harley bounced a little in place, then visibly checked herself. “If it’s all the same to you, Red, I think we might as well get this conversation over with. You may not want to get breakfast with me after you’ve heard it.” Ivy moved to protest, and Harley put a finger on her lips. “Just let me finish it in one swoop okay? I gotta get it off my chest.”
Untangling herself from Ivy, Harley crossed the room and plopped next to her hyenas. Burying her hands in Lou’s fur, she stared into the flames flickering in the grate. “It was actually around this time of year that it happened ya know. All the holiday cheer outside, the carols, the presents, the decorations, everything just reminds me of her.”
A log popped, and Lou grunted in his sleep as Harley dug her fingers in deeper. “I hadn’t known Joker that long. We’d been goin’ steady for about a year or so, causing chaos, giving Batman the slip, and playing pranks on innocent bystanders. It was all fun and games with him, except when it wasn’t. Even back then I knew something was off. The mood swings, the violence, it always ended in an apology, but the problems never really stopped. I was young and in love, and it blinded me to what was going on.” She bit her lip and fell silent for a moment lost in the memories. “Hindsight really is twenty/twenty.”
Wrenching herself out of her revere, Harley plunged on ahead. “Anyway, I’d been feeling off for a few weeks that spring. Had nausea, dizziness, an’ just felt kinda icky overall. At first I’d chalked it up to some of the things we’d done. Joker liked to play with chemicals, an’ I’d occasionally be his test subject as you know, so I’d felt worse. But it stuck with me like molasses. One evening I waited until the boys were out robbing, and I booked myself a doctor’s appointment. Being pregnant hadn’t even occurred to me. With the whole skin bleaching thing, Joker’s mood swings, and our seriously unhealthy lifestyle, I didn’t really think it was even possible.”
Harley glanced sidelong at Ivy, “I was shocked when I heard the news. Then I was terrified. Mr. J had always hated kids, too little, too fragile, an’ too easy to scare for him. He’d ranted to me on several occasions about how the human race was better off without them, and there I was, about to have his child. So I did what I had to to keep the kid safe. I called my family, begged them to let me stay until the baby was born, an’ I left the Joker a note explainin’ that I’d be gone for a time. An’ do you know what? He didn’t even call. Not once, an’ I was gone for nearly a year. To this day, I will never really understand why I went back to him after that.” Her eyes glazed over for a moment with some emotion Ivy couldn’t place. Thinking about all of the stories Harley had told her about the Joker over the years, Ivy bit her tongue and waited for Harley to continue at her own pace. Inside she was seething.
If that Meatbag ever gets out of Arkham, I will personally throw him a farewell party. Ivy promised to herself as Harley worked up the courage to continue. It’ll be to die for.
Giving the hyena another pat, Harley plowed ahead, still looking anywhere but Ivy. “It was almost Christmas time when my Lucy was born. She was perfect. Soft skin, blond hair like mine, and a wail that could deafen a banshee. Holding her there on my lap, it was like I’d finally found a missing piece of my world. We had ten minutes, and forty-three seconds together before the social worker came to take her. Letting her go was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Tears slid down her cheeks and Harley buried her face in Lou’s belly fluff.
“Every time I spend another one of her birthdays without her, my heart breaks a little more. Maybe, if I just knew what happened to her, if she was happy, ya know? I could move on. But between Arkham, therapy, and getting my life back together I haven’t found the time. And if I’m honest with myself, I’m afraid what she’ll think even if I do visit her. Who’d want Harley Quinn as their mom?”
Ivy plopped down beside Harley on the floor, and snagged a box of tissues with a nearby vine. Offering one to Harley, she waited until Harley finished blowing her nose before speaking. “I don’t know about that last bit Peanut, I think a ton of kids would love to have you as their mom. What other parent would let you eat candy for breakfast, help you play pranks on your teachers, and teach you the ABC’s of weaponry instead of yelling at you for running with scissors?” Ivy paused, “Maybe we’d need to have a talk about that last part. But more than anything, children just want to know that they’re loved, and you are one of the most loving people I know. I think you’d make a mom anyone would be proud to have.”
“Ya really think so?”
“I know so.”
Harley sniffed, and launched herself at Ivy, knocking her down in her enthusiasm. “Oooff, maybe some warning next time?” Ivy exhaled as Harley did her best to smother her with affection.
“No promises.” Harley looked down at Ivy beneath her and shook her head. “How did I ever get lucky enough ta end up with you?”
“I wonder the same thing every day.” Ivy grinned, and playfully shoved Harley’s shoulder. “Now get off, we were having a serious conversation here.”
Harley tickled her instead. The hyenas grumbled, and gave up their rug by the fire as the tickle war raged. Leaving the room, they found a nice quiet spot on the bed, away from all of the flailing limbs. Moments later, the two women lay side-by-side on the floor giggling and breathless. Staring up at the snowflakes still gently sifting down onto the skylights above, Ivy broke the silence first.
“Since we’re sharing rather deep and highly personal stories, I have a confession to make.” Waving a hand at the roses trailing along the ceiling pipes, Ivy began to weave them together. “You know how I became like this, yes?”
“Yeah, some professor named Wood who was a good-for-nothing waste of air used your affection for him like his personal favors bank.” Harley glared at the pipes. “If he wasn’t already dead, I’d like ta lock him in a room with Mr. J an’ see what happened.”
Ivy smiled ruefully at that mental picture. “With our luck, they’d have gotten along.”
Coaxing one of the vines into bloom, she told her tale as the flowers opened one by one above them. “You are mostly correct. His name was Jason Woodrue, and he was a brilliant man. If I had been older when we met, perhaps I would have been able to see beyond that to the rotten core within, but I was young, and I was head-over-heels. Where I saw love, he saw opportunity. Woodrue used me as his guinea pig until that final poisonous experiment nearly left me dead, and then he tossed me aside like I was nothing. When I woke up in the lab with poison in my veins and the all of the plants in the lab clamoring for my attention, he was gone. I later found out he took his research results and left the country when I’d crashed, only to perform the same experiment on himself soon after with rather worse results.”
She smiled at that, but the expression quickly died as her own painful memories came flooding back. “The betrayal broke me apart, and it took me years to relearn how to trust again. During that time the plants were my only friends. I learned how to use my new powers, but I soon realized that they came at a cost. A cost I’m not certain I would have willingly paid.” A pained look flickered across Ivy’s face. “My blood is so toxic that mere contact with it is fatal. And while I have learned how to control the toxicity of my skin, if I become too distracted my touch becomes deadly as well.”
“But ya came up with a vaccine for that.” Harley flexed her right arm. “And i’m up to date with my shots. You haven’t poisoned anyone on accident in years.”
“I can’t have children Harley. All the poisons in my blood make it impossible.” Ivy released the roses she’d been playing with. “Growing up, I’d always thought I’d have kids at some point. Finding out that that dream had been stolen away with my humanity was a blow that I still haven’t fully recovered from. Hearing about your daughter tonight brought all of the rushing back. For the first time since my transformation, I actually started dreaming about being a parent again.”
Ivy rolled over and faced Harley, “I know this is sudden, and this is a really serious conversation to be having at…” Ivy checked her watch, “Goddess, four am? We really need to go to bed. But, how would you feel about adoption?”
“Adoption? You mean you want to find Lucy? You’d really be ok with that?”
“More than ok with it.” Ivy smiled at Harley, “Just think, we could send her off the school with homemade lunches, brag about her to the other moms at PTA meetings, and cheer her on when she competed in science fairs!”
“Or sports, I was always good at sports.” Harley grinned back. “If another kid dared bully her, we’d teach him that our girl is not to be messed with! She’d know that we’d always have her back.”
“And that we’d support her no matter what she wanted to do in life, even if it was something unexpected, like becoming a police officer.” Ivy chuckled, “That would be a fun one to explain to her fellow officers, “Hi, my parents were supervillains, what did your parents do?”
“Any boyfriend or girlfriend she brought home we’d do our best not to kill. But I’d definitely keep my big guns handy.” Harley mimed holding a bazooka. “Get your paws off my girl or taste fire ya fiend!”
They both imagined that scene for a moment with smiles on their faces. This time it was Harley who broke the silence first. “Ivy, I can’t tell ya how happy I am right now, and how much I want this dream ta come true. But what if she’s already been adopted? It’s been six years since I gave her up. What if she already has a family?”
“Then,” Ivy said, “We find them and ask to be a part of her life. If they are any good, they will understand the changes you’ve been making, how you’ve been working hard to be a better person these past few years. If we do figure out that she’s already happy and cared for, then there are hundreds of other children less fortunate in Gotham that could use a home. We’d visit her often, and our kid would be like her little brother or sister.”
Ivy stretched and stood up. Offering a hand to Harley, she used the other to turn off the tv. “But that all remains to be seen. How about we get some sleep for now, and begin the hunt in the morning? I know a person who can get us interviews with several adoption agencies in the area, did them a couple of favors and they owes me one. What do you say?”
“Kittens covered in cotton candy couldn't drag me away!” Harley kissed Ivy as they made their way to bed. “Did I tell you how much I love ya recently? ‘Cause you’re the apple a my eye.”
“Oh stop it!” Ivy shoved Harley onto the bed, and the two of them didn’t get to sleep until much later.