Intervention

"It's an intervention," says Diana. "It was Batman's idea."

Of course it's Batman's idea, but none of them say that to her face.

"This is a bad idea," says Huntress. "She's a villain."

"She's not just any villain," Shayera adds. "We're talking about Harley Quinn. She's tried to kill all of us at one time or another."

"Not very well," says Black Canary. "Anyway, I see his point. Joker's been a bad influence on her. If we get her away from him … "

Diana finishes for her: " … then maybe she'll stop her criminal activities."

Vixen says, "We didn't find her with Joker this time, remember. That's Poison Ivy in the next cell over from her."

Diana waves her hand. "Ivy hates Joker. She'll help. I've already talked to her."

Shayera jumps down from the edge of the console where she's been sitting. "Let's just get this over with."

The temporary lockdown facilities at the Metro Tower are spartan, but effective. The League updated them after the recapture of the remnants of the Legion of Doom. Now the cells can contain Sinestro as easily as they can the Riddler; a non-meta like Quinn has no chance of escape.

The women takes seats around the cell, putting their faces into careful smiles, as Harley gets to her feet.

"Whaddaya want?" she asks, little fists balled to her sides. In the next cell, Ivy rolls over on her cot and stares at the Leaguers gathered outside, but says nothing.

Diana starts. "Harley, we're here to talk to you."

"You'll never get the location of the diamonds outta me! I can take whatever you dish out!"

"We already found the diamonds," Shayera says. "They were in the laundry basket."

"Oh," says Quinn, and Ivy rolls her eyes.

"I told you we should've buried them," says Ivy, but she doesn't sound angry.

"Yeah," Quinn says quietly.

"It's about Joker," says Diana.

"Here we go," says Ivy, and rolls back over and closes her eyes. "Good luck with that."

"I ain't rattin' out Mistah Jay!"

Vixen says, "Our last intelligence on him says he threw you out again."

Black Canary gets close to the cell. "Harley, why do you keep going back to him? He's crazy, he's dangerous, and he hurts you. You could do … " Her eyes flicker, as she contemplates a large lie versus a small one. "You could probably do better."

"Hmph!" Quinn folds her arms and turns her back.

"Told you," says Ivy to the ceiling.

"He's a jerk," says Huntress.

Vixen says calmly, "He doesn't respect you."

"He loves me," says Quinn, turning back around and coming to the bars of her cell. Her eyes dart around, taking in the women gathered around her. "You should understand." She closes her eyes. "That makes everything worth it." She sits down on her bunk.

Diana says, "We can get you help."

"I don't need help! And neither does he! He's just misunderstood. Everyone just sees the crazy exterior, but I know Puddin' deep down. He's smart, and he's interesting. He's not like other men."

"That's for sure," says Shayera.

"Okay, so he's not always careful. Who is? He doesn't mean it when he hurts me. It hardly hurts at all, and anyway, he says it'll teach me how to fight better."

"That's a crock," Ivy says, but she says it quietly as if she doesn't think Harley will listen anyway, and she rolls over and takes a long look at the bruises all over Dinah's legs until Dinah gets uncomfortable from the staring. She's been sparring a lot with Ollie, sometimes at the Watchtower and sometimes as foreplay, and she loses as many bouts as she wins.

"Besides," Harley says, "he'll change. I know he will. Sure, I haveta follow him around a lot, but if I just spend enough time with him, he'll come around. He's a loner, but he doesn't have to be lonely anymore. He'll open up to me. It's bound ta happen one of these days. That's love, that is."

"More like stalking," says Huntress. "Harley, guys don't change. The loners don't stop being loners just because Little Miss Perky wants to put out. If you're lucky, they just use you until they're done with you, and if you're not, they jerk you along to make you think they want to change. But they don't. They just drag you behind them for years and they let you hope tomorrow will be better, and it never is, no matter what fairy tale you've cooked up in your head."

Vixen says, "Do you honestly think he's going to wake up one day and realize that he needs to change his life just because you're there?"

"Shows what you know. My Puddin' would give up his life of crime for me if I asked. Really!"

"Why are we here?" Shayera asks Diana, but Diana is thinking about something and someone else.

"Anyway," says Harley, "he's good to me. He takes me places, anywhere I want to go. When he can. And he's stopped lying, mostly. Sure, he doesn't tell me everything all the time. But he has good reasons! That's not really lying, anyway, not telling someone stuff."

Vixen has lost her expression of calm detachment, her pretty face drawn into a frown.

"It's not healthy," says Huntress. "If you can't trust him to tell you things you need to know, you can't trust him at all."

"I do trust him." Harley closes her eyes again, a sweet smile on her mad face. "I trust he's going to stick around. Mistah Jay says he wants a family some day, and he wants it with me. So I gotta stay with him until he decides when we're gonna have our little bundle of joy."

"That's a little pathetic," says Dinah. "Sticking with someone because he says he might want to have kids with you someday?" Shayera's eyes have gone hard, and her knuckles are white as she grips her mace but Dinah and Harley don't notice.

"Pathetic is a good word," says Ivy from her cot. Her lips are drawn into the faintest smile.

"Hey!" says Quinn to her friend. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I am on your side, honey. You know I'd poison Joker as soon as I'd look at him."

"You don't haveta keep bringing it up!"

Ivy says, "Didn't you tell me the reason he dropped you this time was because he thinks you're cheating on him?"

Quinn snorts. "My Puddin' gets a little jealous sometimes, is all. Just because the whole world is out to get him, sometimes he thinks I am, too. Anyway, he only put the tracking devices on me twice. He trusts me."

Huntress twitches, and as her fingers tap against her thigh, they slowly count out to the number four.

Ivy laughs. "He bugs you, he follows you, and he spins out these wild theories of where you've been when he can't find you. That's not trust, Harl. That's a short leash."

Quinn glowers at Ivy, and rolls over on her own bunk away from them, and refuses to speak or listen to anything else they say. After a few minutes, the rest walk out, leaving the pair alone. There are no smiles now, and each woman is lost in her own thoughts and they don't talk as they go their separate ways.

"Red?" asks Quinn after they were quite gone.

"Yeah, Harl?"

"Why did you ask me to say everything that way?"

Ivy smiles to herself. "You were the shrink, honey, but you have a lot to learn about psychological warfare. The last time I was stuck in here, the guards gossiped like old women. When Wonderpants told me Batman wanted her to talk to you, I figured she and the rest of the Bitch Squad could use getting taken down a couple of pegs. The truth hurts." Her smile grew wider. "The League always fights worse when they're not getting laid. Have you noticed?"

Harley nodded. "Red, sometimes you're a genius."

"I have my moments."

-fin-