Out of the Belfry, into the Fire

False Spring

The race through Gotham felt more surreal than being fear gassed.

Maybe because this actually was real.

With teeth clenched and nearly falling over once or twice, Harley continued to be pulled along by the strong grip of the one person she once had considered her best friend. The suddenness of her appearance still overwhelmed her, and Poison Ivy moved with stealth and finesse that could have rivaled Catwoman's.

When they finally stopped at their destination, Harley found herself seated still in a daze on a chair an indoor garden beneath a skylight looking straight up into the smoggy sky. Her eyes were as round as baseballs and about as large too. Her teeth were still clenched when her mind finally gathered enough competence to think, So how did I start running from the Joker and wind up in Red's possession like a stray cat running from Pr. Milo?

She squinted up at Poison Ivy who threw off her coat and hat and stood a moment relieved to be in the warmth and humidity of the penthouse. She basked like a lizard on sunny-scorched blacktop after a chilly night. Harley already found it too warm for her, but she did not quite feel comfortable enough to throw off her boots and coat and make herself at home in the jungle oasis hidden in the desert of snow, metal, and car exhaust outside.

Ivy handed her a cup of herbal tea. Absently, Harley took it and began to sip from it. Then she pouted up at Ivy.

"Red, I can't stay!" said Harley standing back up again.

"No, you can't," Ivy agreed so quickly that Harley made an "ulp" of surprise. "That's why it's a good thing I caught you when I did."

"But the Joker—"

"He's been watching your place for a while now," Ivy said with a nod.

Harley frowned as she studied Ivy a moment. She sat back down with a huff.

If Ivy knew that, that meant she had been watching Harley's place too.

"You should have known better than to dress up like a Bat if you wanted to steer clear of him," Ivy remarked crossing her arms.

With a roll of her eyes, Harley muttered over the top of her tea, "Does everyone know about that now?"

"Well, you know," Ivy pointed out, not without some sympathy, "you do just look like a harlequin clown with a darker color scheme and a Batman symbol, which I still can't for the life of me figure out why. I mean, you have enough of your own thing without having to rely on people who don't care a thing for you. Not to mention getting in the middle of your ex's bromance."

Harley clicked the roof of her mouth. "Well, when you put it that way..." she said dryly before taking another sip of tea.

As she looked at Ivy again, she noticed what she had almost noticed the first time she studied her. Something about her eyes... they were not normal. Greener. More vivid. Even a pair of rings around them seemed to have a pale elfin green pallor, and as she looked at them this time, somehow it just did not look like eye shadow.

"Say, Red, you wearin' some kind of shiny contacts or somethin'?"

Ivy closed her eyes smoothly, and turned nonchalantly into the greenery a few steps before returning her vision to Harley with a fairy-like cock of her head. She looked a little annoyed. Though, whether it was because she wanted to have her serious grownup girl-talk with Harley or because she wanted to avoid speaking of a complicated and perhaps unpleasant subject more personal to her, was unclear.

"You're not safe in Gotham right now," said Ivy ominously.

Maybe it was the glow of the plant life around her, or how the warm lighting bounced off her bright green outfit, but she seemed to nearly have a green pallor on her whole face and her bare arms and neck.