Gotham Girls Special #1 Summer Splash

The island resort was nothing less than paradise. A few short hours after leaving Gotham City, the tiny jet came in to land on the private airstrip. Four heads peered out their windows to see as much as they could - the towering main hotel, tennis courts, water slides, and most importantly, the beach.

“This was a brilliant idea,” said Renee, beaming. Her hand lay on the armrest over Ivy’s, as it had since the plane took off, and Ivy learned she didn’t like to fly.

Regaining her color now that they were on the ground, Ivy stretched her stiff fingers and nodded. “Sure. Brilliant. I”m sure this is going to be worth Bruce Wayne trying to give me a heart attack.”

“You’d rather have flown commercial?” Barbara asked from across the aisle. “‘Cause we can always send you back on a bigger plane….crushed in with a hundred other people, trapped in lines for hours, waiting for machines to see through your clothes…”

“Alright, I get it,” Ivy snapped, but it dissolved quickly into a laugh. “Thank you. For inviting us.”

A row ahead of Barbara, Harley hadn’t stopped looking out the window since they’d begun to land. “Oh man, you guys, they have jet skis! And parasailing! And hang gliding! This is gonna be the best weekend ever!”

The other three women shared a look that confirmed they all thought the same way. “Okay, ground rules,” Ivy voiced it. “No one’s going more than ten feet in the air or ten miles an hour until the flight home.”

“Agreed,” said Renee and Barbara in unison.

Harley pouted, then winked. “Aw, who cares. It’s still gonna be amazing!”

A stylish cart waited at the end of the runway for the four women to step in to the sunshine. Two strong men in snappy uniforms made quick work of their luggage, and Barbara leaned toward Renee to whisper, “I’m going to like this place…”

Harley was looking around so excitedly that she nearly crashed into the man as he offered to take her carry-on bag. “Oh, I’ve got this, it’s not heavy,” she tried to wave him off, but the attendant smiled.

“If you insist, Miss, but don’t feel bad about it. My job is to make your life easy. It’s not about how heavy things are here, it’s about the principle that our guests shouldn’t have to carry them.”

This time, when he held his arm out, Harley slipped her backpack from her shoulders, and stole a quick squeeze of the muscled arm as she transferred it. “Well, when you put it that way…”

The girls loaded into the cart and watched the palm trees pass them by on the way to their vacation.



The sun quickly warmed the morning air, but the sand was still cool when Ivy and Renee stepped barefoot onto the beach. By the time their towels, chairs, cooler and umbrella were set up, the heat began to tingle in their toes.

“I can’t believe you’ve never done this before,” said Renee. “Mom used to take my sister and me to the beach all the time.”

“I was a very pale child,” Ivy answered, and stretched herself out in the sun. “It was one thing to be out in the woods, in the shade. Direct sunlight, though…”

“It’s good for you now, though, right?” Renee opened a side pocket on her bag to dig out her suntan lotion. “Sunlight and water, that’s all a plant needs?”

Ivy shifted on her towel so that the sun baked more of her skin. “I’m not complaining, am I?” She watched Renee setting herself up with the bottle, and shook her head when it was offered to her. “You’re right. I don’t burn anymore. It’s one of the many upsides of being me.”

“Come on...is it really the beach if you don’t smell like coconut oil?” asked Renee, with an almost shy smile. “I’ll help you rub it in…?”

The look made Ivy laugh, and she moved enough from her spot to sit in front of Renee’s stretched legs. She lifted Ivy’s waterfall of hair and laid it over her shoulder. The one-piece suit that Ivy wore was delicately cut - her green skin shone through artistic slits and spaces in the royal blue fabric. Massaging her fingers over Ivy’s back and dipping them under the suit on her exposed hips was the beginning of Renee’s vacation. She felt good enough to steal a cheeky kiss from her girlfriend before they switched places. Renee’s black two-piece suit covered more than Ivy’s somehow, but there was no lack of skin that needed careful attention. This was truly something special, she thought...She and Ivy had the kind of relationship filled with adventure, drama, danger and passion. She never once wished for anything else. But the chance to spend a weekend away - not as heroes, not as fighters, just together - was invaluable.

A contented sigh escaped her lips, but Renee was still Batwoman. Her mind wandered as she leaned back into Ivy’s hands and the morning heated up around them. “Maybe if we can get some records from the Iceberg Lounge, we can track him down.”

Ivy didn’t need to ask. The white-collar crime boss had been driving them both crazy for weeks. “You know Cobblepot doesn’t keep names. He’d be broke in a day.”

“I know. But he keeps security cameras. There could have been someone with him who’d know -”

The press of Ivy’s lips halted any more planning. “Vacation, remember?” Ivy scolded her. “Now stop thinking and let’s go swimming.”

Renee nodded, and gave Ivy their look. She saw it returned in Ivy’s eyes and took her hand to help stand up.

They rarely said the L-word. But they knew what their look meant.



Harley had found the sauna. The sun and surf were one thing, sure, but the luxuries of a five-star resort were something else. She and her ladybug bikini - red with black polka-dots - had spent a long hour in the perfumed steam, stretched across an entire bench. The only problem was the rattle of ice at the bottom of her empty glass.

Harley hoisted herself up and a cloud of steam followed her out of the little room and into the lobby. She was greeted immediately by the pixie-haired girl behind the counter. “Are you all done, Miss?”

“Oh, you better believe I’m coming back,” Harley flashed her a smile and held up what was once her drink. “Just need a refill.”

The pixie girl, whose nametag read Tiffany, smiled and reached out to take the glass. “We’ll get that for you. You had a vodka lemonade, right?” Harley nodded. “Just a minute, then. Go on back, we’ll deliver it. And if you need anything else, there’s a call button on the right-hand wall.”

For a moment, Harley stood completely still. “Tiff, I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The man who delivered Harley’s drink was dressed in a sleeveless shirt printed with the resort logo, and a fantastically tight pair of trunks. He was back a quarter-hour later with a fresh, fluffy towel, and then again with a slice of chocolate cake. With the generous tips Harley slipped into his pocket, he would have hand-fed her the bowl of grapes if she’d asked.

Eventually, Harley looked down at her raisin fingers and knew she had to get up. She was coming to realize that the fun didn’t have to stop, though. “So Tad, what else do people do around here?”

Tad was a genius. By the end of the afternoon, Harley had indulged herself in a manicure, pedicure, facial, haircut, seaweed wrap and temporary tattoo. Tad had explained while she soaked in the spa’s therapeutic mud what an exceptional customer Harley was - she’d spent enough money and taken enough time that Tad’s manager had assigned him to her needs. Until she said otherwise, Harley had a personal servant.

It was enough to make a girl giddy.

“Phew!” Harley beamed as she stepped back out into the waning sunlight. “I’m exhausted from all this relaxing!”

Tad chuckled, and led her to a canvas tent set up at the edge of the sand. “If I can make a suggestion…?”

Stretched across the massage table, with Tad’s well-trained hands working into her back, Harley sank into a blissful stupor. “A girl can get really used to this.”



Barbara stretched against the soft beach chair and let out a sigh. She was three pina coladas into a perfect afternoon, and nothing could bring her down from this cloud. Her eyes had been closed against the sun for who knew how long, while her sunblock-scented skin soaked in the heat and turned it to color. “Perfect,” she murmured, half in a dream.

Above the soft sea green of her bikini, Barbara’s stomach growled. She pulled herself up from her sunken bliss. “Maybe not all perfect...but that’s easy to - hey!”

Where Barbara had left a plate of fruit and pastries, there was a mess of juicy footprints, and a shock-frozen seagull staring at her. The plate was overturned, danishes and strawberries scattered into the sand. The bird held in its beak the last remaining croissant. It had frozen in place when Barbara moved, watching her with vapid black eyes.

“Give that back!” Barbara leaned over the arm of her chair to snatch the bread, and in a ruffle of wings the seagull hopped backward. The pastry dangled from its yellow clutches, and it kept those unsettling eyes right on her face.

“Oh, come on...that’s mine!” On a more sober day, Barbara would likely have let the bird go. Today, she hefted herself onto her strong arms and into the wheelchair that waited patiently at the other side of her towel. The wheels protested as they dug through the fine sand, but she moved.

The gull waddled backward, a few steps at a time, until Barbara finally got herself going. Then, it turned to face forward and trotted over the beach, flapping its wings in case it needed to fly. It needn’t have worried. Barbara wheeled and shouted and swore but couldn’t catch it.

Finally, she came to a stop. “Okay bird...it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want my - “

The seagull turned its black eyes back to the human and opened its mouth. The croissant slipped down its gullet nearly too fast even to see. With that, it let out a squawk, and lifted into the air.

Barbara hung her head, and wheeled slowly back toward the hotel. “It was lunch time anyway…”



Renee’s dark head bobbed out of the water and she pulled in a fresh breath of salty air. The waves were perfect - enough highs and lows to sweep her feet from the sandy floor, but too gentle to crash over her when she floated on her back. One of the most incredible things about the resort was how alone it could make you feel - hundreds of tourists were packed into the hotel, but this part of the beach was all her own.

Shaking out her hair, Renee started the slow walk back to the dry sand. A little too much her own, really. Ivy had spent the whole day here with her, but hadn’t even gotten her hair wet. The redhead sat under the beach umbrella with a paperback, idly turning pages every so often. When she felt the drips from Renee standing at her side, Ivy put the book down and smiled up. “You ready to go back?”

“Nope.” Renee had only the courtesy to wait until the book was safe before she reached both arms down and pulled Ivy up. “I’m not letting you waste your first beach vacation! You’re coming with me.”

“What? Oh, please. I went swimming with you!” Ivy protested, but Renee had always been the stronger of them.

“You splashed your feet around, that doesn’t count,” Renee insisted. She dragged Ivy out into the first waves, and farther until the sea lapped at their knees.

Finally tugging her hands free, Ivy wrapped her arms together. “It’s freezing!”

“A, no it isn’t. Nowhere that grows palm trees has water that cold,” Renee laughed and gestured toward the land. “And B, it gets warmer as soon as you’re all the way in.”

“You mean you aren’t done?”

“Come on...can’t you just try it?” Renee stared at her girlfriend with a sickly-sweet smile and a flutter of her lashes. “For me?”

Instantly, Ivy’s nose wrinkled in disgust and she burst out laughing. “That looks so wrong on you.”

“What, this?” Batting her eyes, Renee waded closer and closer.

“Stop it before you get stuck that way!” When Renee didn’t stop, Ivy dipped her white hands down and came up with an impressive splash.

The battle was on. Renee’s return volley sailed through the air and chilled Ivy’s neck - she risked the advance to get close enough to bat the water at Renee’s face. The foam flew between them, until Ivy was nearly as soaking wet as Renee, and the cold had been forgotten.

In one final, desperate rush, Ivy leapt forward and dragged them both down below the surface. They emerged laughing and panting, arms wrapped around each other.

“I think once you give up on splashing and tackle, you’ve forfeited the splash fight.”

But Ivy was already claiming her victory, dipping Renee back and kissing the salt from her lips. “I never forfeit. I just win.”

“By cheating,” Renee accused, but she sank into the embrace anyway….bending her knees back, until Ivy overbalanced, and they tumbled into the waves again.



Sunset brought a cooler breeze and a cheesey luau. The staff may have been too enthusiastic, the dancers too eager to pull middle-aged tourists onto the stage, but the food was amazing, and the soft crackle of torches mingled with the rhythm of the waves. Ivy, Renee and Barbara were settled safely on a straw mat near the back of the crowd.

“You know,” Barbara started, leaning against a cushion with a drink inside a coconut in her hand, “It’s always right when I start wondering why I keep working with Bruce that he pulls something like this.”

Renee laughed and popped another bacon-wrapped scallop into her mouth. “The job sucks sometimes, but the vacations are worth it.”

“Oh, don’t kid yourselves. You two are both crazy enough to do this job anyway.”

“Like you can talk, Ivy, you only do it for me.” Renee reached for Ivy’s hand and squeezed it possessively.

As the three of them laughed together, a young man leaned forward from the blanket behind them. “You ladies must have a pretty interesting job, huh? Mind if I ask what it is?”

Ivy, Rebee and Barbara looked between one another and answered in unison. “Security.” Then they began to laugh again, the music and drink making their private joke funnier.

“Right…” The man stretched back into his own space without another question.

The music changed; a team of dancers flitted onto the stage. Waiters came around with slices of decadent tres leches cake. It was a long time into the evening before Ivy finally realized something. “Do any of us know where Harley ran off to?”

The question was answered with a wild whooping and a responding cheer from the audience. She rode on the shoulders of two different men, with a third behind her for balance. Harley’s hair was braided with flowers, and they’d dressed her in a long grass skirt and a floral-print bikini top. Her friends could only watch when she was dropped off on the stage, leading a small band of fellow guests in an ameteur, hastily-learned dance. Still, Harley laughed and twirled and none of the poor choreography could get her down.

She was still wearing the getup when she found them and flopped down at Ivy’s side. “Wow! I don’t know where you three have been,” she said, “but I have been having the best vacation ever!”

Renee and Ivy glanced at each other’s wet hair; Barbara sipped her drink as a late seagull swooped over the torch. “Cheers to that,” Barbara chuckled, and held out her coconut.

They toasted the beach, the resort, Tad and Bruce Wayne, and when they were out of sips they simply let the night close in around them.
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