"If you love something, set it free."
So, after roughly seven pots of coffee beginning at midnight last night and ending ten minutes ago, I have more or less come to terms with my current situation--being, of course, the absence of my beloved. But, as the old phrase goes, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was." She didn't just leave me--she left Gotham. So I'm letting her go.
I do hope she'll come back to me. But in the end, as long as she's happy...I suppose that's all that matters. Knowing Ivy, the fact that her note indicated she'd come back means nothing--it might mean that she'll be back sometime between now and the end of her natural life. So I can't get my hopes up too much. I must be patient. That doesn't stop me from continuing my research--I made her a promise, and I will follow through with it.
In other news, somebody else misses her very much. So just in case she has the Internet, wherever she is:
...Is that my thumb?
Son of a bitch.