Candy's Sweet Tooth

Just Like Her Father

Once they entered Candy's room, the girl still hadn't woken, but the air had become increasingly cold. As Ivy gently covered her with a blanket, Sweet Tooth stood defeated in the doorway. Candy's lifeless body was so pale, the usual flush in her cheeks completely gone. She was in her pyjamas, but even then she knew to always wear her lipstick to bed.

'Wait. Where's the kid? Harleen's little brat?' he cried suddenly, peeking under the bed.

Ivy narrowed her eyes at him. 'Lucy is not a brat, and I took her to her aunt's house. She needed to be somewhere stable.'

Sweet Tooth muttered angrily, his voice rising louder every syllable. 'You idiot! I'll give you a Nosebleed for that!'

'ENOUGH WITH THE PUNS! Candy, someone we both care about, is lying there dying! What exactly is your cause for giving me a bloody nose?' Poison Ivy was as riled up as Sweet Tooth, but that didn't mean she was going to give in.

'That child of Harley Quinn's is your fault. You just let her go?' Ivy was confused and enraged, but nodded. Sweet Tooth ran a hand through his powder blue wig. 'You couldn't find any lipstick, you would've used that before coming to ask me for help. Which means that demonic child took all that was left. I left the candy so that they would both go to sleep for just a while and wake up without me being their problem, and I told Candy to give the girl the anti-serum so she didn't die.'

Poison Ivy swallowed heavily. 'What are you saying? That Lucy used or took it all, and there was none left for Candy?'

Sweet Tooth grabbed the closest thing to him and smashed it to the floor, then busted his foot through the door. 'Candy... Candy would have trusted that I'd realise something was wrong when she didn't wake up, and that I'd go looking for her. She trusted that I'd save her.'

'She didn't know that you'd planned on being dead when she woke up,' Poison Ivy frowned, and knew she was right.

Sweet Tooth hadn't yet gone close to Candy, but he ambled over pathetically and held her hand. 'Dove? I know you're in there, and I know you're hurting. I'm sorry that I didn't come back for you. I only wanted to give you your best chance, and I didn't think that involved me. Please forgive me. I might be a Flake... but I'm Forever Yours.'

Ivy scratched awkwardly at her arm as she waited by the door. 'I'll take you to Lucy. She might still have some. Will it help?'

Sweet Tooth nodded as he rose from his knees. 'Yes, if there's any left. That hideous monster probably destroyed what she had left, and just so you know, Lucy is worse than her parents combined- trust me.' He almost snarled Lucy's name, and Poison Ivy started to recognise the signs in Lucy she'd been warned about- the ones that meant she too, was insane.

When helping raise Lucy, Harley was concerned that she'd have some kind of mental illness like the Joker, so she and Ivy had done extensive research to be able to spot if anything was wrong. Ivy had become oblivious, often spoiling the girl and ignoring what signs she could see.

Poison Ivy went to leave, glancing over her shoulder at Sweet Tooth. He was pushing the hair out of Candy's face with a delicate touch, one that she'd never seen. And although it sickened her, she had to admit there was a certain sweetness when he gave her a last goodbye kiss, just in case they couldn't help or return in time. The unlikely companions drove across Gotham towards Lucy, the car totally silent.

Inside her aunt's home, Lucy was already making herself at home. She'd been fed practically every hour, and anything she wanted was done. Truly the daughter of the Joker, poisoned by the treatment of the Arkham Asylum doctors and guards, Lucy had nothing in front of her except darkness.