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Ivy felt an odd longing within her. She’s been alone for a while. Harley had gone back to Joker once again. It felt like an endless cycle. Harley would leave for a while, before the lies that spewed from the mad man’s mouth brought her back into his arms. Ivy was losing some hope that her friend and crush could break free from that abusive relationship. The leaves and small branches that grew from sections of her body drooped due to her mood. Some even fell off.
Whenever that happened, she would try to put them in soil, to let them have a second chance at life.
It was often futile.
They died within a few weeks, despite all of her efforts.
Still, she tried.
What else could she do?
Sometimes it felt like it was all futile. Despite her crusade, company after company, corporation after corporation were still clearing forests, dumping chemicals into rivers and lakes, poisoning the area around them, fracking, and more. Surely, she was some sort of deterrent, wasn’t she?
Ivy glanced at the three pots that held the leaves that had fallen from her body during her latest pity party. The most recent one was still green, the other two were various shades of yellow as they slowly died, neither one having increased in size. She’d even made sure to place growth hormone on these, yet it had not helped.
Sighing, Ivy returned to watering her plants, doing her best to ignore the three that refused to go. She had other things to worry about, like the fact that Daggett Industries were going to build on land that endangered the Wild Thorny Rose called home. If she didn’t gather some specimens, there was a very real danger that the plant would become extinct.
***
Things were better now, Harley seemed to have finally, finally, gotten away from the Joker. She was developing her own crew now. Ivy tried to support her, providing support and advice where she could, though it was honestly a touch hard. Ivy often didn’t bother with subordinates. She didn’t need them. Ivy was fine doing her thing, fighting corporate polluters.
While there had been good times, there were also bad. It wasn’t as often as before, likely due to her mood and life improving in general, but her leaves would still fall off every once in a while. She would still put them in soil, but it had stopped hurting as much when they slowly died. She had accepted that they couldn’t live without her. No growth hormone or enzymes helped them grow. Ivy had analyzed them, they were unique to her, they had human DNA in them, which was likely part of the reason they couldn’t grow.
Harley, the loveable idiot that she was, tried her best to help Ivy with her plants, buying fertilizer, nice pruning shears, self watering pots, and more. She would bring home rescued plants. It was sweet of her. Their apartment had so many rescued orchids. Hospitals often didn’t know how to take care of them, so Harley would collect them. African violets too.
Ivy generally despised the company of other people, but Harley… Harley was an exception. The psychologist turned insane gymnastic crime queen turned chaotic rogue had captured her heart long ago.
Yes, overall, Ivy was happy.
***
“Ives! Ives! I got somethin’ for ya!” Harley called excitedly, entering the apartment.
They’d been arguing recently, as Harley became closer to the Bats and less and less of a villain and more of an… anti hero. Or whatever Red Hood was. Harls seemed to be included in whatever special category that was. Kinda. It was hard to describe.
“It’s some special Miracle Grown type thing! I took it from Batsy! Should help those little saplings you’re always tryin’ ta grow!” She held up a vial of green glowing liquid, then handed it to Ivy who looked at it skeptically. It was sweet of Harley to think of her though.
“Thanks Harls. I’m not sure if it will help, but it’s sweet of you to bring it.”
“What are those plants anyway? They some rare plant or somethin’? You’re always tryin’ to grow one or two, but they always die,” Harley asked, looking at the small brittle branch with two yellowing leaves that had been gently set in a pot with moist soil.
“Something like that. Well, we can try it. Nothing I’ve ever done has ever helped them grow,” Ivy muttered quietly, trying to hide the twinge of sadness.
She took the vial over to the little green and yellow leaves that were in the pot. She carefully poured the vial into the pot, the green liquid slowly seeping into the dirt. Harley was pressed close to her, a gleeful and excited expression on her face.
Nothing happened.
“Ah, sorry Ives. I thought it’d help,” Harley said, her entire body showing her disappointment. Ivy wrapped her arm around her girlfriend.
“It’s okay. Thank you for trying. I appreciate it, love. They’ve never grown. These leaves… they’re special. They’re the ones that fall from my body every once in a while. The leaves have human DNA in them, which is probably why they can’t grow. Still. I want to give them a chance. The scientist in me wants to see what would grow. I might need to give up after this one. It’s been years,” Ivy mused, watching the pot.
“Maybe it’s a meat eater! Here!” Harley hopped up, grabbing a nearby pair of pruning shears to make a small cut on her finger, squeezing the digit to let the blood bead and fall onto the damp, green tinged soil.
One drop.
Two.
Then three.
Four.
After the fifth, Ivy stood up, pulling Harley’s hand close to her so she could look at the wound.
“You didn’t need to do that Harls,” she whispered, having a vine hand her a bandage.
“I had ta try Ives. Wanna go play docta elsewhere?” Harley asked, a mischievous grin on her face. Ivy kissed the bandaged hand softly.
“I’d love to Harles. I should show you my thanks for your gift.”
With that, the two headed for the bedroom, hand in hand.
***
As per usual, Ivy got up with the sun, putting on her robe, stepping into the living room. Immediately, she saw brilliant, purple leaves. The veins of the leaves were a dark green, so dark it was almost black, but the rest of it was purple. It reminded her of a Persian Shield plant, but it wasn’t. Whatever plant this was clearly was a climbing plant, having grown towards the glass ceiling, using the plants, wires, and lighting to make its way upward.
Where had this plant come from? And for it to grow so much overnight, had she accidentally spilled some growth hormone? Or perhaps caused some of the growth in her sleep?
Tracing the path of the plant, she found its pot.
It was the one that had previously held the small branch that had fallen from her body. It was no longer thin and brittle looking, the base of the vines was thick, the roots having escaped, growing out over the edges of the plant and through the bottom of the pot. The strength of the roots had cracked the pot, however, the roots held the shard in place.
It was clear that something they had done yesterday had worked… either the strange green water that Harls called a magical Miracle Grow or her girlfriend’s blood. This proved it though. It could grow.
She would do everything in her power to make sure it didn’t die.
Afterall, this one had grown due to help from her precious Harls.
***
The plant became Ivy’s baby. So much so that Harley named it Pamela 2.0, nicknamed Pam. The vines grew voraciously. It ended up taking over one of the walls, covering it with its vibrant purple leaves. Harley started treating it like a Christmas tree, tying little bows to the thick vines, hanging little Diamonds, Clubs, Spades, and Hearts off of them, and finally she hung up pictures of the two of them.
They still fought and argued, but they learned to communicate better. Harley got better about cleaning and letting Ivy know when her friends were coming over. Ivy got better at voicing when she just needed space, and couldn’t handle company. Was it always easy? No. Was it worth it? Fuck yes.
One year on the anniversary of Pam’s growth, Harley threw a surprise birthday party, giving Ivy a handmade ‘Plant Mom’ shirt with a picture of Pam on the front. She also gave Ivy a few green onesies and a pacifier. Harley dressed Pam up by hanging tinsel from the leaves and vines. She also bought a stuffed hyena and one of those terracotta bulbs you could put in soil to self water a plant. An Olla.
It was dumb, it was sweet.
It was Harley.
Weirdly enough, the day after the party, Pam produced their first flower. It was gorgeous, a bright neonesque green, with thin, dark purple veins. In a sense, the flower was the opposite of the leaves. The flower resembled that of a hibiscus flower. Pam was such a strange and lovely amalgamation of different plants. Ivy loved her plant baby. It was her baby, hers and Harleys.
***
The flower eventually faded, and then began to grow a pod. Pam was putting all of its energy into the pod, the peripheral leaves turning yellow, then brown and crumbling to dust. The pod or fruit was about the size of her fist and still growing. Harley had taken to talking to the fruit/pod thing, poking it and teasing Ivy that they could eat it when Pam finished making the fruit. Afterall, Harley already found Ivy delicious, fruit from the plant that came from Ivy? Probably just as good. Ivy had half heartedly smacked her with a pillow, her cheeks heating in a blush at the teasing.
The fruit didn’t stop growing, and it continued to kill the plant. When it reached the size of a watermelon, the bottom of the fruit touching the soil of the large pot Ivy had transplanted the vines into, that’s when they had to admit that the fruit was killing the plant. Which left them with a conundrum.
Should Ivy cut off the fruit? There was no guarantee that Pam would recover. It was a fact of life that some plants grew for one season, spread their seeds, and then died, their offspring growing the next season. Other plants had what could be called ‘big bang’ evolution, where after a good rainy season, the plant would expend all of its energy into flowering and creating seeds, dying shortly after. It was mainly succulents that did that, but Pam was no ordinary plant.
Ivy had asked Harley if she could steal more of the glowing ‘Miracle Grow’ that she’d gotten from Batman, but the Bat had scolded Harley and changed where he was hiding the strange glowing water. He’d been rather furious when Harley had admitted that she’d poured it on one of Ivy’s plants.
Either way, Pam was dying.
The fruit got bigger and bigger. That could be the only sort of thing it could be, some sort of strange melon. The fruit had a thick green shell, similar to that of a watermelon. When Ivy and Harley gently knocked on it, they could tell that it was hollow. The rind was marbled green, purple, and black. Pam continued to wither and die. By the time the fruit was the size of a small child, there was just one, brittle vine left. The vine was brown, except for the green veins, which continued to pour all of its energy into the fruit. Just two more months and Pam would have been two.
Ivy somberly drank some wine, watching and feeling as the life slowly drained from the vine and into the pod. Harley was snuggled up against her side, drinking some beer. Ivy felt a surge of affection for her crazy clown. She knew that Ivy didn’t want to hear anything, just…. Wanted company. Wanted someone by her as she struggled with her feelings.
Ivy’s throat was tight, her lips tight as she held back tears as she felt Pam die.
She could still feel that the fruit was alive, it was just different than how a living plant felt. It was because it was a seed, which would -
Both Ivy and Harley jerked in surprise upon hearing a crack. It came… from the fruit?
There was another cracking sound, and this time, they could see them forming on the fruit. Ivy scrambled to stand up, spilling her wine in the process. Harley got up too, grabbing her bat. There was a thud, the fruit beginning to crack open. Harley shrieked in surprise as a small hand shot out from the fruit, sending small pieces of the rind across the floor.
That…. That was a human hand.
A human hand with green skin.
It finally starting to sink in, Ivy rushed forward, frantically ripping and breaking the rind to get to the child. With each piece, she saw more and more of the child encased in light green sticky goo. The child had inky black hair and green skin. It was small, likely still a toddler. Maybe 3? Or 4?
“Holy shit,” Harley breathed beside her, staring at the kid inside the fruit as she knelt down next to Ivy.
The hole in the fruit finally big enough, Ivy reached in, pulling out the small naked child. A quick glance told her the child was female, a girl. Ivy could feel the little girl’s heart beating, but she didn’t seem to be breathing. Laying the girl down in her lap, Ivy floundered, how did she make the kid breathe?!? What did she need to do???
“Hey Ives, what’s wrong? What do ya need?”
“She’s - she’s not breathing. She needs to breathe,” Ivy managed to get out, panicking.
“Fuck. Uh, I did a stint with the pregnant ladies back in the day, let’s see if I remember…” Harley said, reaching forward to remove all of the gunk and liquid off of the girl’s face, before picking the child up and flipping her over to then thump on her back. There was a cough, then a gasp, and then the child started to cry.
Turning her back over, Harley gave her back to Ivy.
The little girl had bright purple eyes that looked lovely against her green skin and black hair. She had a few small vines that were growing among her hair, along with a few along her arms and legs. She was sniffing slightly, as large tears ran down her cheeks. She seemed tired at the moment, likely due to her efforts to get out of the fruit.
She was beautiful.
And she was Ivy’s.
“Whatcha gonna name her, Ives? Can’t name her Pammy 3.0…”
“I - no, not Pamela. I think… something similar though. Something close.”
“How about…. Sammy?”
“Sam… Sam is good. Short for Samantha,” Ivy whispered, gently brushing one of the vines off of the child, no, her daughter’s face.
“Hi there Sam. Welcome to the world. We’re your moms, Ivy and Harley.”