Title: Ladies of the Evening
Fandom: Batman
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Harley/Ivy, Catwoman, OCs
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: Harley's starting a party... or is it a revolution?
Word Count: 1,994
Written For: Ficlet Zone 56: The Golden Girls - Ladies of the Evening
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.







Every head turned at the loud, thumping beat that preceded the hot pink convertible. The driver was jumping even louder than her music, smacking her gum in between singing along in a tone that made Selina hiss even though she then smiled. It was nice to see Harley having fun, nice to know the girl had finally beaten the man who had held her back for so many years. She'd heard the rumors: She knew Harls had quite the brain on her, but the Joker had nearly destroyed everything the other woman had ever been before they met.

Her cats' tails started swishing as the convertible drew closer, but she wasn't waiting. She wasn't looking for Sel, or the Catwoman figured, for anybody she actually knew. She followed along the rooftops of the buildings, her curiosity getting the better of her. Harley looked so happy, so alive, as though she was enjoying every single moment of her life. Finally! Selina purred.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure following behind her. He thought he was being discreet, or maybe he actually did want her attention tonight. Either way, Selina didn't want his. She saw how happy the single woman down below her was, a happiness she knew she never had when he was in her life, and swept down into an alley. Her cats huddled around her. One started to meow, but Selina pressed a finger to her nose and he instantly quieted. She waited until the Bat swept on and then followed behind Harley again.

She spied Pamela across the street and, keeping to the shadows, made her way to her. "What do you think she's up to?" she asked, gently scratching the nearest furry head to her.

Pamela shrugged. "Being happy," she spoke wistfully as her vines curled around her, "I hope."

"I don't think we have to hope. She's screaming happy."

"She hides behind that sometimes, you know," Ivy commented.

"We all hide sometimes," Selina agreed and looked back to the bouncing convertible and its bouncing driver. "She just robbed another bank, didn't she?"

"That was last night. Wherever she's going, she intends to spend that money."

"That's Pink she's listening to, right?" It wasn't Selina's normal genre, but she thought she recognized the boisterous singer.

"Yes. Get The Party Started, one of her favorites."

"She's looking to start a parrrty, all rrright. Let's go have some fun!" She snaked her whip out, caught a precipice on a building between them and the convertible, and swung along behind it. And maybe keep the kid from being hurt again. She had rescued Harley and Ivy several times over the years, but they had both, Ivy especially, taken turns being there for her when she'd had no other human. Cats could only help so much, though she still preferred their companionship to any human's.

"My thoughts exactly," Ivy agreed, following behind her on her vines.

They both saw the batlike figure following along over the rooftops of the buildings. Selina jerked her head toward the figure, but upon realizing that it was Batgirl, not that dratted Batman whom she could never seem to shake as thoroughly as she knew she needed to if she was ever going to succeed in her life, she wasn't nearly as worried. Batgirl was easily defeated, no matter which one it might be.

"I'll be damned," Ivy muttered suddenly.

Selina's head snapped up as she rounded the corner, following Ivy and the party car. She hissed in surprise, but then she smiled. "Well, you know, most of them didn't set out for that life."

"I know, and I know this group has been having problems lately. One of their, huh, older companions died recently from AIDS."

"Besides that, they've having trouble with their pimps and the bats too." Not that Bruce ever seemed to mind so much about the prostitution, she admitted silently. He'd throw her in jail every time over just a tiny diamond, but she rarely saw him hauling away the "ladies of the evening". She snorted. As if selling one's body was any higher than stealing trinkets from rich people who didn't really need them! "I know she almost ended up being one herself," she spoke quietly.

"We all did."

"Speak for yourself!"

"Sel," Ivy looked up at her slowly, her green eyes full of thought, "if I didn't have my plants... and you didn't have your cats and thieving abilities... Do you really think we wouldn't have ended up here on the streets?"

Selina was watching Harley slam her bat into a couple of pimps' faces as the hookers scrambled after the green bills she'd just tossed into the air. She mewed in thought to Ivy's questions. Everything in her wanted to scream in denial, but she knew how close they'd all three come to lives like the women before them. It was hard, almost impossible, to keep a 9 to 5 job when you couldn't eat or keep your body cleaned. She knew that from personal experience. It was hard, even when you could, to survive in a man's world.

One of the other women cried out suddenly as her pimp grabbed her hand. Selina could hear her bones breaking in his fist despite the distance that still separated them. Snarling, she ran forward, wrapped her whip around the pimp's arm, and snatched him away from what he'd thought was his property though she was flesh and blood. She yanked him to her and tore through with his face with her claws.

Her cats leapt into the fray around her. Some grabbed bills in their furry mouths to keep for their mistress while others, yowling, slammed twenty claws each into pimps' ugly faces.

Harley bounced back onto the hood of her convertible, watching the mayhem. The pimps were falling easily as their women finally stood up to them, and Selina and her cats were only helping matters. She bounced her baseball bat on top of her tennis shoes until she saw Ivy watching from the shadows. Their eyes had locked for just a moment before Ivy suddenly sprang into action. Her vines just right pass Harley's face and wrapped tightly around Batgirl. She snatched her to the ground, and Harley kicked the Bat for good measure.

"We're all women here, sister," she said. "Can't you just sit this one out?"

Barbara looked around her at the dirty women whose bones she could see right through their skimpy clothes. She looked at Catwoman, who was tearing a pimp's face off. She looked at the pimps, at all those who had already been rendered unconscious and all who were still trying to fight a losing battle. "I'll take them in," she said at length.

"And you'll stay tied up until we're done," Harley remarked and kicked her. Her booted foot sent her rolling across the wet, slick concrete. "Good job, Pam-a-lamb!" she exclaimed joyously, turning back to the woman she truly did love.

Ivy was eyeing her cautiously. "Are you done with him, Harley? For good this time?"

"What does this tell ya, Red?" She spat her gum out onto the sidewalk then stepped up and planted her lips firmly on her woman's. "I know where my buns are buttered, sugar," she said after their kiss with a wink.

Ivy was still trying to catch her breath after how fast and hard Harley's tongue had delved into her mouth. Nonetheless, as much as she wanted to, she couldn't quite trust Harley. She'd gone back to him far too many times to believe she was actually finally over the clown and would never let her impact her, her life, or their relationship ever again. Still, she'd take what she could get and gladly embraced her girl. Holding her, she looked around as the hookers began to flee the scene.

They were chatting enthusiastically, and she listened to a few of their conversations as she awaited whatever would end up coming next.

"He's actually going to get his operation! My boy's gonna be saved!"

"I'm going home!"

"Fuck this place! I'm outta here!"

"I'm going back to school!"

"I will get to see my parents again before my Daddy dies!"

"Momma, I'm coming home!"

"I don't know what I'm going to do, but I don't want to do this anymore!"

"Go home, kid."

The girl in blonde pigtails not unlike Harley's and the ragged remains of a Catholic skirt looked questioningly at Selina. "I don't have a home."

"However bad your parents were, you got a house where they are, right?"

"My parents died when I was ten." She looked down at the money she clutched. "But there is a house."

"Get clean. Start again. Find a job."

"I don't know where to start -- " another said.

"I know a doctor who needs a laboratory assistant," Pamela spoke up, her arms still around Harley's. "Go find you a safe place. We'll find you and give you the address." She shook her head slowly as the girl ran away and gave Harley a long, thoughtful look. "What have you gotten us into?"

"I got the party started," Harley answered, grinning cheekily. She popped new bubblegum and looked at Selina. "What about you, Catwoman? What're you going to do with your stash?"

Selina looked around at the pimps. She looked at her grinning, happy kitties. She had plenty of food for them and herself back at her apartment, and could always steal more. She glanced at Batgirl, who, surprisingly, wasn't even trying to figure Ivy's vines. She looked after the last of the fleeing whores, the girls who hadn't gotten the breaks they had and had had to fight for any food or clothing they had gotten until they'd found ways to use their bodies to gain money, stability, and some slim form of power over their circumstances. At long last, she looked back at Harley, stepped forward, and placed the money in her hands.

Out of the corner of her green eyes, Selina saw one of her slim, black cats turn tail and start to lope away. She mewed to her. "Come here, Binx!"

The cat walked obediently up to them. "Binx," Catwoman spoke warningly. The feline opened her mouth and dropped a hundred-dollar bill onto Harley's tennis shoe.

"I'll make sure your cats get the next party," Harley said with a wink, picking up the money and scratching Binx's head until she purred.

"What's next on the party train?" Ivy asked quietly.

Harley threw her arms open wide. "I was thinking drinks for all! And potato chips and steak and whatever the Hell we want! Veggie steak I know for you, Pam-a-lamb. And catnip and milk too!"

Binx meowed with approval, swished her tail, and rubbed up and down on Harley's legs. "We're all sisters after all!" Harley exclaimed.

Selina looked back after the last girl still scrambling after checking one pimp's pockets. She didn't know the story between her and the pimp, didn't want to know. She remained her too much of herself, and of another lost girl she'd helped long ago. We're all sisters, Harley's words echoed in her head. She looked back to Batgirl, who she realized was not fighting because she was actually letting the prostitutes go and waiting for them to leave, as well, before she arrested the pimps. They were all, she realized, ladies of the evening in one way or another.

"You coming, Sel?"

Blinking, Selina realized that Harley and Ivy had already climbed back into the convertible and were waiting for her. She meowed, long, loud, and throatily, and hopped into the back seat. No less than fifty cats bounced in after her.

"You might want to drive a little more slowly this time," Ivy murmured to Harley, but Harls grinned and shook her head.

"Nah!" She turned her thumping music back up, even louder this time, and slammed down on the adrenaline pedal.




The End