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For as wonderful as Pamela's work could be, and the work she had done to help revitalize several of the parks in the city, Tim couldn't help but grow increasingly frustrated when she did go off the deep end. She didn't need to do it, and this was entirely unreasonable. Just because he had accidentally caused a ship to sink and cause a minor oil spill, didn't mean that she needed to go off on another rampage. He had ensured that it was cleaned up within days, and he had even worked to ensure that there were another few grants given out to try and continue working towards the viable alternatives to fossil fuels in the shipping industry.
Of course, the clean-up efforts weren't exactly Red Robin's doing, but still! It had been taken care of.
"Pam!"
He ducked under a particularly nasty vine with thorns as long as his fingers, and he sighed, wishing not for the first time that Pamela would be moderately susceptible to some sort of sedative. They had been trying for years to figure something out to take her in more quickly and without as much chance for collateral damage or being attacked by her pollen.
"Dr. Isley, you really don't need to be doing this," Tim shouted again, continuing to try and run deeper into the park where he knew that Pamela was hiding and controlling things. He didn't want to chop his way through the plants, so he kept ducking past the vines and trying to keep an eye out for the flowers and various other mosses that he knew could spray pollen into his face.
"You set back months of recovery, if not years!"
"And it's been taken care of, Pam!" Tim shouted back, glad to know that he was getting close enough to hear her arguments. "Wayne Enterprises funded the cleanup, I even helped as much as I could, and I've assessed what went wrong so it won't happen again! I even talked to WE about increasing the funding into green alternatives for the shipping industry."
"Sure, sure. Just green-wash everything you do," Pam said, her voice dark and frustrated, and Tim frowned as he finally stumbled into her clearing.
"I'm not saying what I did was right, alright? I'm doing my best, just like you are. I can talk to them at WE, help with your funding again. I know you were doing—"
"They cut it!"
Tim froze as he looked at her. "What?"
Pam laughed, rolling her eyes as she shook her head. "You don't even know what's happening in that ivory tower of filth and animal rot. They cut my funding."
Tim knew for a fact that he hadn't approved any sort of cut to Pamela's research funding. Sure, he knew that she was a touch unhinged, but the best way to help make sure that she wouldn't hurt people was to help support her research into creating lower-impact…well, lower-impact everything. She had recently been working on helping support the urban farm projects and getting those off the ground so that the footprint of farmland could be reduced, as well as the emissions in getting the produce into the city. Her funding shouldn't have been cut for something like that at all.
"The…funding for the farms?" Tim asked, his voice hesitant as he took a step towards her, hands open and up so that she would know he just wanted to talk. "That shouldn't have been cut."
"Oh, no, that's just fine, now that I'm not needed on the project. They've decided to push me out of that project now that I've provided them with the necessary tools and research in making sure that they would be productive and safe."
That…wasn't good. Someone was undermining Tim, and he always hated it when that happened. He and Lucius were the only ones who were supposed to be managing Pamela's projects, precisely for this sort of reasoning. It was technically a work-release program with Arkham, too. It shouldn't have been cut at all, and she should have been leading the project from start until finish.
"We can talk to WE. Figure this out. I'm sure there's someone we could talk to."
"I'm starting on another project. There's no point in bothering with that mess. They're simply going to ruin it."
Tim didn't like the thought of a new project. They were always so much worse in cases like this, and Tim had a bad feeling it would end up with him needing some sort of medical attention shortly.
"Pam, they won't ruin it if we can get—"
A sudden grip on his ankle pulled Tim over, though he didn't entirely lose his balance. A thin vine had taken advantage of his distraction, and Tim couldn't help but growl in frustration. He kicked at the vine, but it simply grew stronger, wrapping tighter around his ankle and up his leg.
"Unfortunately, I'm at the point with my project that I need a test subject."
Tim's eyes widened as he looked up at Pam before twisting his bo staff to reveal the thin blade at the end. It wouldn't be much in the face of some of her vines, but at least it cut through the one around his ankle. "Pam, you know you're better—"
"I'm not, though, am I?" Pam almost laughed, and her voice had a hint of despair in it, even as Tim started paying more attention to the plants converging around him than her. "I'm always going to be a monster to them. I'm never going to be any good at all."
"Let's take a deep breath, okay? You know you're going to be upset with this once everything settles."
Pam huffed and rolled her eyes before settling down against a vine that curled behind her. "And if I'm not? If I'm not upset with this? You don't even know what my project is." She looked entirely too comfortable on the vine supporting her like a chair. "You might be the one thanking me, rather than upset."
"Dr. Isley." Tim didn't even know what to do at this point. He hated hurting her. She was delusional, sure, but usually, she could be guided towards more productive projects and ends. She didn't really want to hurt people. She just wanted a safer place for plants of all kinds. "Can you please call off your plants? Just go back to Harley, and I'll make sure Drake-Wayne calls you in the morning to sort out the project. If not him, Lucius or someone else. We'll fix this."
"I don't think so," she said, offering Tim a small smile. "You've always tried to treat me right. I hope you realize that I do, genuinely, hope this doesn't kill you."
Tim didn't get a chance to respond before he heard something behind him. He managed to knock a thorn aside before it hit him, instead watching as it lodged into his bo staff. There wasn't a chance to say anything else to convince Pamela to stop the attack as another handful of vines came up to attack him as well. Thorns kept shooting at him, and he couldn't help the annoyed growl as he kept trying to avoid the thorns or cut the vines away. He needed to get out of here, or else it would be humiliating to admit that he had been taken out without even pollen to blame it on.
Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to leave.
Pam had gotten better, it seemed, as the vines and briars attacking him were the distraction.
He hadn't even noticed the vine behind him until he felt the needle-like thorn pierce his neck. Almost immediately, his body went limp and he dropped to the ground as he couldn't feel anything below where the spine stabbed him. What had she done to him? His uniform should have protected his neck, but—
"It's just an anesthetic. Think of it like…an herbal epidural," Pam said, standing up as she walked over to him.
Tim grimaced, trying to shift and move, but he couldn't even manage to feel his fingers, let alone his legs to try and get up. He could only lay here, watching as the vines rippled over the ground like demonic snakes. At least he could breathe, he supposed, but that was about the only blessing of all of this. If she was giving him this strong of a painkiller, without some sort of sedative to match…Tim didn't want to figure out what her plan was. He needed to be able to shift his hand enough to get to the panic button on his hip.
His wrist was stopped by a dull pressure. Tim couldn't feel it well, but he could see the vine that had finally caught his wrist, taking a hold of it and pulling it away from the panic button.
Well, there went that idea.
Tim shifted, trying to concentrate as he pulled at his hands and legs, trying to control them enough past the anesthetic to get away, but it was a lost cause. He barely managed a twitch of his foot, and his hands might have curled closed, but they certainly weren't strong enough to pull away from the vines.
"Pamela, please. You don't have to do this. It won't be an approved scientific study, at the very least. If it helps, then—"
"You can't possibly think I care about your scientists at this point, do you? They have never accepted me. I know you see the potential in my world, but no one else cares." Pamela sighed softly, leaning down to tug at a glove. "It's good, that you were the one to find me. You might see the potential in the gift I'll be giving you."
"My uniform's trapped—"
"My darlings have already dealt with that," Pam replied, a small smile on her face as she pulled the glove off easily. Even if the electric traps failed, there were physical latches on them that kept them from moving. Tim frowned, but he sighed softly as he saw the diminutive curls of fresh vines that had grown between the latches and the gloves. That, certainly, would have been enough to break the circuit. They were small enough, too, that Tim couldn't feel them in his numbed state, even as he watched as they curled around his fingers and small leaves blossomed with morning glory flowers in deep purple.
"Pamela, please…"
"Just relax. I won't take too much advantage of you," she said, gently petting through Tim's hair a moment before tugging off his other glove, and his boots.
At least she seemed to respect the mask, and the rest of the uniform, but Tim still didn't like what this meant. He couldn't move, the numbness growing more complete until he could barely even feel anything past the awkward and painful needle in his neck. He'd have to go back to the cowl. He might prefer the simpler domino, but he didn't want this happening again. He couldn't let this happen again.
"Pam—"
"I think you need to accept that you're not going anywhere until I decide you are." Pam's words were sharper this time, and Tim finally forced himself to shut up.
No panic button, no backup, apparently, and he had to trust that Pamela wasn't going to kill him.
Tim's head dropped back against the dirt as he waited for this mess to be over with.
Pam quietly praised him, but Tim didn't dare respond. He needed to get out of his head. Let everything float away like leaves in a river. It was easy enough, once he realized there wasn't a way to get out of it. Thoughts could slide past his brain like in the meditation he had learned years ago, and he could focus on the gentle rustle of wind and shifting plants, rather than the discomfort in his body.
It didn't entirely work, as much as he wished it would. He could still faintly feel the plants shifting around his wrist, and he could feel dull pressure at his wrists and ankles. It wasn't much, though, particularly as every time he made a face at the sensation, the vine at his throat with the thorn in his neck would pulse and a new wave of numbness would flow over him.
The mindlessness helped, though. Pam was talking, but Tim didn't need to pay attention to it. He could hear a crackle in his ear, but there wasn't a reason to respond to something as silly as that. Paying attention to any of it would simply make everything hurt. He'd be forced to think about the ache and the strange sensation in his limbs and the vines that were continuing to wrap tighter around him. He'd have to think about the sensation of stems and leaves as they pushed closer to him, and the way the plants would attempt to probe between the seams of his uniform until they found enough room to grow further under the garments and armor.
Thinking made Tim realize that whatever was happening to him was likely horrifying and irreversible.
Slipping into a green-tinged haze of floating nothingness was far better.
Tim didn't even bother to slip back to awareness when he felt the pain in his neck ease and the numbness start to fade into aches and pains in his limbs. He still wanted everything to disappear, wanted to ignore Pamela's betrayal, and so he let himself remain as limp as possible, even as he felt someone pick him up and walk him out of the park. He wasn't sure who exactly was carrying him, but it didn't matter. They smelled nice, though. Almost woody in their sweat, and it mostly smelled like home.
That was nice.
They were warm, and Tim finally felt the world properly slide into unconscious blackness. His body was hurting more with every moment passing, long streaks of pain that traveled up his arms and legs, and a heavy ache in the pit of his stomach, and his neck hurt where the thorn had been wedged between his vertebrae for so long.
Unconsciousness was far preferable.
Unfortunately, waking up was something that still happened at some point. He couldn't sleep forever, and waking up meant that he was finally more aware of everything around him.
At least he was alone, and at least he was in his room back at Wayne Manor, where the wide windows helped to wake him up with the sunrise. Alfred had probably helped to change him into proper sleep clothes, too, which was nice. Tim hated sleeping in his uniform if he didn't have to, so waking up in soft pajamas was nice.
Tim laid in the bed, enjoying the warmth of the sun and trying to puzzle over just where everything went wrong with Pamela. She hadn't been this bad in a long time, and he was still hurting from whatever she did to him. His wrists burned like her vines had some sort of pollen he was allergic to on them, and the aches had grown deeper and more painful. A shower, then, to try and make sure he didn't have any lingering pollen on him.
He shifted, sitting up, before frowning as he saw his hand. Odd, still having some sort of grass stain on his hand. He would have thought that Alfred would have washed it off, earlier.
Tim lifted his hand, rubbing the stain away before frowning as he saw the flash of darker green under his wrist.
That was…less of a stain.
Tim slowly turned his wrist, frowning at the deep green streak under his skin. It looked like a tattoo, healed under the skin, but it spread from what looked like an irritated cut on his wrist. Tim took a shaking breath, rubbing at the green marks, before frowning as he looked higher up his arm and over his other arm.
The green had spread along his veins.
Stripping his shirt revealed much the same.
Deep green curling lines, almost a cross between his veins and the vines he had felt crawling over him the previous night.
Tim took a shuddering breath, rubbing at the marks. They didn't shift, didn't move at all.
They seemed permanent, at least for the moment.
The vines hadn't been growing over him, the night before. They must have been growing inside him, spreading and making a home of his body for whatever plan Pamela had.
Tim couldn't help the vaguely hysteric laugh.
No wonder the sun felt so good on his skin.