SEL Chapter 8

“Set me up with the disruptor,” Stephanie tells Alfred. “I have to get changed. I’m meeting some girls from the gym. Then we’ll go set an ambush for Roxy.”

“Very good, Ms. Stephanie.”

SEL

“There are like four hundred milligrams of caffeine in that,” Stephanie says as Mel and Pol join her at her table at a cozy downtown café. It’s getting late by Bat standards. She’ll have to go do this ambush soon.

“We work nights,” Mel says.

“Right. Right.” Stephane tries not to blush; she might have misread things a little. She honestly isn’t sure what’s going on. Are the bodybuilders together? They were flirting at the gym, right? Well, Mel and Pol aren’t really put together for a date. They wear nice, sensible, warm athletic outerwear. They look good, but they aren’t even wearing makeup.

Meanwhile, Stephanie is over here in a dress with the coat that she used to wear when she had to go with Tim to fancy Bruce stuff. These two haven’t commented. If anything, they seem as nervous as Stephanie.

“So the first time it happened to me,” Pol says without preamble, and Mel jostles her with her elbow.

“Don’t just take it there,” she chides, blushing.

“What? She’s new,” Pol says, gesturing at Stephanie with her coffee. “She needs to know it’s normal. First time it happened to me, I was in total denial. I was just pretending that it wasn’t there. I didn’t look at it. I didn’t touch it. I tried not to think about it. Like I was going outside in sweats and stuff so nobody would see, but I finally went back to the gym, our old gym, and she was there,” she says, giving Mel a look.

“I know who you mean,” Mel says, then gives Stephanie an apologetic look. “I apologize for her.”

“It’s OK,” Stephanie says; she’s curious.

“I had literally never paid attention before Seed. I did not care at all. But this girl. She was wearing the most blatant butt-lifting leggings. And it was obvious. And I was just staring. And bam! It was huge. It was obvious.”

“Now we’re bragging?” Mel raises an eyebrow.

“She noticed. Everyone noticed. You noticed. You were there. It’s actually how we started hanging out,” Pol tells Stephanie. “She like comforted me after I freaked out.”

“It wasn’t that noticeable,” Mel grumbles.

Stephanie realizes that these two are very clumsily… trying to impress her. They’re just bad at it because they have no experience. It’s so cute. Stephanie almost melts with relief. She’s also flattered. She’s used to boys drooling over her, but this is different. And these two are so sweet. She’s overwhelmed.

“Oh, shit.” Mel looks past her. “It’s her. The DA.”

Stephanie turns to look at the TV behind the counter.

SEL

Viti Saxena is breathtakingly gorgeous. Her tailor and her makeup artist don’t have to go nearly so hard, but they do anyway. And her serious look with her furrowed brow doesn’t look performative. It’s real. She’s so genuine. Her background for this press announcement is the fancy version of the Gotham seal, the one with an owl.

She stands at the podium, face grave.

“Gotham, this isn’t where I expected my campaign to be so soon after I announced, but here we are. My ads should already be airing, so I hope everyone has seen them and knows that I’m not out to attack Barbara Gordon. Half the reason I dropped out before is because our platforms aren’t so different. You won’t see a single attack ad from my campaign. At least, not targeting her. But we have to talk about Barbara Gordon. My office signed off on Dr. Pamela Isley’s furlough. Wayne Enterprises, and it’s well known that this was Ms. Gordon’s initiative although she was only an intern at the time if we’re being technical, was perfectly legal. And I believe, perfectly admirable. We have to believe that people can change. If we don’t believe that, why do we fight? I don’t doubt Ms. Gordon’s intentions in turning to Dr. Isley. We know that she isn’t motivated by money. If she were, why wait until now to make her move? Why not use her father’s connections long ago? I don’t believe that Barbara Gordon has sinister intentions. But I’m worried about her. I’m afraid that she might be a victim. In fact, we already know that she’s a survivor of the Seed attack. But is that all she’s survived from Dr. Isley? I was profoundly disturbed today when I heard from credible sources inside Wayne Enterprises that Barbara Gordon and Dr. Pamela Isley have an intimate relationship. I’m not worried about professional boundaries, Gotham. Nobody’s perfect. But Dr. Isley, or Poison Ivy as so many call her, has made an entire brand of seducing and controlling people to achieve her objectives. Barbara Gordon could be in a relationship with literally anyone else and we wouldn’t bat an eyelid. But Dr. Isley is the one person in Gotham for whom that has profoundly disturbing implications. I don’t want to attack Ms. Gordon over her personal relationships, but I have questions. And I believe that the people of Gotham have questions—”

Lucius turns off the TV.

Barbara is with him in his office. The sun is setting, bathing the room in pink. Barbara rubs her thumb along the arm of her chair.

Ivy’s quarters have a lot of surveillance for security purposes. She gets a modicum of privacy, but even if Barbara had been more careful, it’s not as though Wayne security forces couldn’t have figured it out pretty easily. And then it figures that Aki would have gone digging for dirt.

“There’s irony,” Barbara says, resting her chin on her hand. “She thinks Ivy’s running my campaign. I’m wondering if Aki’s running hers.”

“You can’t ignore this. There’s no high road. You’ll have to respond.”

Barbara sighs. Lucius is right. This is by no means a **** blow to her campaign, but no matter how she plays it, there will be a cost.

“Well, there’s nothing in your bloodstream to suggest that Ivy’s controlling you, but any proof to that effect is going to come from Wayne Enterprises. Your biggest weakness—at least until five minutes ago—was being the face of big business. It won’t convince anyone,” Lucius warns. “But that doesn’t even begin to consider the optics of being cozy with a notorious criminal.”

“I know. She got this information from Aki. If Wayne Enterprises is a double-edged sword for me, it is for Viti too. She’s got almost as much of a connection to the company as I do. We attack her on Aki feeding her information and distance ourselves from the company. We would’ve had to anyway.”

“That also means distancing yourself from Ivy.”

“She’ll understand.”

Lucius looks dubious.

“Or we own it,” Barbara goes on, folding her hands in her lap.

“You have a real problem with thrill-seeking, you know that?”

“Remind you of anyone?”

Should Barbara publicly lean away from Ivy?

Or publicly lean in?